Abstract: Methods and devices for grant-free uplink transmission in unlicensed spectrum are provided. A base station (BS) transmits grant-free resource configuration information to one or more electronic devices (EDs). The grant-free resource configuration information is used to configure the ED for GF uplink transmission in unlicensed spectrum. The GF resource configuration information includes GF ED group-specific resource configuration information indicating GF ED group-specific time-frequency (T/F) resources of the unlicensed spectrum for GF uplink transmission. The ED(s) transmit grant-free uplink transmissions over the unlicensed spectrum in accordance with the GF resource configuration information.

Abstract: A method for dynamically dividing or consolidating sub-bands in-between Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) status measurements upon detection of a CCA bandwidth adjustment condition is provided. The method includes determining at least a single CCA status for at least a single sub-band during a first period, and detecting a CCA bandwidth adjustment condition for dividing the single sub-band into two or more separate sub-bands, where a combination of the two or more separate sub-bands occupies the same frequency band as the single sub-band. The method also includes determining a separate CCA status for each of the two or more separate sub-bands during a second period. An apparatus for performing this method is also provided.

Abstract: A method for dynamically dividing or consolidating sub-bands in-between Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) status measurements upon detection of a CCA bandwidth adjustment condition is provided. The method includes determining at least a single CCA status for at least a single sub-band during a first period, and detecting a CCA bandwidth adjustment condition for dividing the single sub-band into two or more separate sub-bands, where a combination of the two or more separate sub-bands occupies the same frequency band as the single sub-band. The method also includes determining a separate CCA status for each of the two or more separate sub-bands during a second period. An apparatus for performing this method is also provided.

Abstract: A user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system may be configured to use particular resources to send one or more uplink transmissions. However, sometimes during operation the particular resources the UE is configured to use are not well suited to the channel conditions at that time or result in interference or collision with other uplink transmissions. Systems and method are disclosed in which downlink control information (DCI) may be used to reconfigure one or more resources used by the UE for an uplink transmission. In some embodiments, resource reconfiguration instructions are sent by the base station along with hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback. In some embodiments, a unified downlink signaling format is disclosed that may be used for UEs having different capabilities, with the bits of the unified downlink signaling relaying different instructions to different UEs depending upon the capability of the UE.

Abstract: Operational and environmental efficiency in virtual radio access networks (VRANs) can be improved by offloading data traffic and/or control signaling between physical transmit points (TPs) of a virtual TP. This may allow one or more physical TPs of the virtual TP to be muted in the downlink or uplink direction, thereby reducing energy consumption. The offloading may be performed during relatively short time-intervals such that physical TP are muted for one or more transmission time intervals (TTIs) before being re-activated. The offloading may also be implemented over longer time-intervals in accordance with a traffic engineering (TE) policy. Further it is possible to re-activate a de-activated downlink transmitter of physical TP by monitoring wireless signals via an activated receiver of the physical TP.

Abstract: A method for dynamically dividing or consolidating sub-bands in-between Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) status measurements upon detection of a CCA bandwidth adjustment condition is provided. The method includes determining at least a single CCA status for at least a single sub-band during a first period, and detecting a CCA bandwidth adjustment condition for dividing the single sub-band into two or more separate sub-bands, where a combination of the two or more separate sub-bands occupies the same frequency band as the single sub-band. The method also includes determining a separate CCA status for each of the two or more separate sub-bands during a second period. An apparatus for performing this method is also provided.

Abstract: Methods and devices for enhancing the spectral efficiency and/or reliability of uplink transmission without grant are provided. Uplink transmissions without grant are transmitted by UEs or received by base stations in accordance with resource groups that map initial uplink transmissions without grant and non-zero numbers of re-transmissions without grant to sub-regions of a grant-free region of a time-frequency resource.

Abstract: Current HARQ procedures for grant-based uplink transmissions may not be suitable for implementations in which a UE can simultaneously transmit multiple transport blocks (TBs) to a base station. However, in some scenarios, such as in some grant-free uplink transmission schemes, a UE may simultaneously transmit multiple TBs. Systems and methods are disclosed herein for performing HARQ for situations in which a UE simultaneously transmits multiple TBs to a base station. By using the systems and methods described herein, HARQ may therefore be performed in such situations.

Abstract: Operational and environmental efficiency in virtual radio access networks (VRANs) can be improved by offloading data traffic and/or control signaling between physical transmit points (TPs) of a virtual TP. This may allow one or more physical TPs of the virtual TP to be muted in the downlink or uplink direction, thereby reducing energy consumption. The offloading may be performed during relatively short time-intervals such that physical TP are muted for one or more transmission time intervals (TTIs) before being re-activated. The offloading may also be implemented over longer time-intervals in accordance with a traffic engineering (TE) policy. Further it is possible to re-activate a de-activated downlink transmitter of physical TP by monitoring wireless signals via an activated receiver of the physical TP.

Abstract: Methods and devices are provided to enable a cooperating group of user equipments (UEs) to receive a group-specific common-parameters configuration (CPC) message over a first spectrum band and access a second spectrum band synchronously for device-to-device (D2D) sidelink transmission within the group. In an embodiment, a UE operating in a cooperation mode in a cooperating group of UEs receives a group-specific common-parameters configuration (CPC) message from a transmit point (TP) over a first spectrum band, the group-specific CPC message comprising information to configure cooperating UEs in the group for synchronous clear channel assessment (CCA) and aligned sidelink transmission starting times in a second spectrum band. The UE performs a synchronous CCA in the second spectrum band in accordance with a common contention window generated based on the information in the group-specific CPC message.

Abstract: Methods, devices and systems are disclosed to enable the use of unlicensed wireless channels by nodes and devices in a network, such as a mobile or cellular communications network, which primarily operates over licensed wireless channels. A selected channel, or selected channel and node pair for serving a user device are determined based on a combined metric of a signal quality level and a target time share parameter. The time share parameter represents the estimated data rate available for each potential channel, or channel and node pair, in light of the requirement to share the unlicensed wireless channel resources with other equipment. The signal quality level represents an estimated signal quality at the user device for each channel and node based on factors including residual interference from other communications signals transmitted over the unlicensed channels.

Abstract: Methods and systems for access to unlicensed spectrum are described. Each of one or more transmit points (TPs), transmit over an unlicensed spectrum a downlink transmission starting at a downlink transmission starting time after a successful clear channel assessment (CCA) process of each of the one or more TPs. For each of the one or more TPs, the successful CCA process has a CCA process starting time enabling the successful CCA process to be completed at the downlink transmission starting time. The one or more TPs may be licensed assisted access (LAA) TPs, and the starting time corresponds to a starting time of a licensed spectrum subframe.

Abstract: Systems and methods of transmitting using different cyclic prefix types are provided. In some embodiments, the cyclic prefix type used changes on a per time interval based on characteristics of the traffic. In some embodiments, different cyclic prefix types are used simultaneously during a time interval for different traffic types.

Abstract: Some user equipments (UEs) served by a base station may need to receive data from the base station and/or transmit data to the base station with lower latency than other UEs. It is desired to accommodate the presence of both low latency and latency tolerant communications in shared time-frequency resources to try to improve resource utilization. Embodiments are disclosed in which low latency and latency tolerant communications coexist in the same time-frequency resources. In some embodiments, a latency tolerant transmission is postponed to free resources to send a low latency transmission.

Abstract: Operational and environmental efficiency in virtual radio access networks (VRANs) can be improved by offloading data traffic and/or control signaling between physical transmit points (TPs) of a virtual TP. This may allow one or more physical TPs of the virtual TP to be muted in the downlink or uplink direction, thereby reducing energy consumption. The offloading may be performed during relatively short time-intervals such that physical TP are muted for one or more transmission time intervals (TTIs) before being re-activated. The offloading may also be implemented over longer time-intervals in accordance with a traffic engineering (TE) policy. Further it is possible to re-activate a de-activated downlink transmitter of physical TP by monitoring wireless signals via an activated receiver of the physical TP.

Abstract: A system and method for wireless communications using resources allocated for different types of traffic that co-exist in the same transmission interval. In one embodiment, first data of a first type of traffic is scheduled in resources that are pre-reserved for a second type of traffic. Control signaling may be used to indicate whether the first type of traffic is scheduled in the resources pre-reserved for the second type of traffic.

Abstract: Operational and environmental efficiency in virtual radio access networks (VRANs) can be improved by offloading data traffic and/or control signaling between physical transmit points (TPs) of a virtual TP. This may allow one or more physical TPs of the virtual TP to be muted in the downlink or uplink direction, thereby reducing energy consumption. The offloading may be performed during relatively short time-intervals such that physical TP are muted for one or more transmission time intervals (TTIs) before being re-activated. The offloading may also be implemented over longer time-intervals in accordance with a traffic engineering (TE) policy. Further it is possible to re-activate a de-activated downlink transmitter of physical TP by monitoring wireless signals via an activated receiver of the physical TP.

Abstract: Operational and environmental efficiency in virtual radio access networks (VRANs) can be improved by offloading data traffic and/or control signaling between physical transmit points (TPs) of a virtual TP. This may allow one or more physical TPs of the virtual TP to be muted in the downlink or uplink direction, thereby reducing energy consumption. The offloading may be performed during relatively short time-intervals such that physical TP are muted for one or more transmission time intervals (TTIs) before being re-activated. The offloading may also be implemented over longer time-intervals in accordance with a traffic engineering (TE) policy. Further it is possible to re-activate a de-activated downlink transmitter of physical TP by monitoring wireless signals via an activated receiver of the physical TP.

Abstract: System and methods are disclosed in which an uplink frame is configured to accommodate each, some, or all of the following types of access: (1) demand assigned access in which a UE requests resources and is then granted a partition of resources of the uplink frame; (2) free assigned access in which one or more UEs are granted a partition of resources of the uplink frame without UEs requesting the grant of the resources; and (3) random access in which a partition of resources of the frame are used by UEs for random access communication. The frame may be configurable on a semi-static or dynamic basis. In this way, the base station may be able to better accommodate UEs having different traffic characteristics and/or different latency requirements.

Abstract: Methods, devices and systems are disclosed to enable the use of unlicensed wireless channels by nodes and devices in a network, such as a mobile or cellular communications network, which primarily operates over licensed wireless channels. A selected channel, or selected channel and node pair for serving a user device are determined based on a combined metric of a signal quality level and a target time share parameter. The time share parameter represents the estimated data rate available for each potential channel, or channel and node pair, in light of the requirement to share the unlicensed wireless channel resources with other equipment. The signal quality level represents an estimated signal quality at the user device for each channel and node based on factors including residual interference from other communications signals transmitted over the unlicensed channels.