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: 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: 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: 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 and systems for managing access of a communication resource in a licensed assisted access (LAA) network. Each transmission point (TP) of a plurality of TPs provides a first set of information indicative of expected usage of a first communication resource by each TP. Information is transmitted to the TPs to cause each TP to align usage or reservation of the first communication resource with any other TP belonging to a first radio access cluster (RAC) to which the given TP belongs, the first RAC being one in a first set of one or more RACs, wherein each of the plurality of TPs belongs to a respective RAC in the first set of RACs and each RAC in the first set of RACs contains one or more TPs.

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: A method for operating a cooperating user equipment (CUE) includes receiving a plurality of video packets that are hierarchically modulated (HM), with each video packet corresponding to a separately encoded video layer that is encoded with a rateless code, and decoding the plurality of video packets. The method also includes generating one or more supplemental packets to assist in the decoding of the plurality of video packets, and transmitting the one or more supplemental packets.

Abstract: Multi-spectrum relays may improve the throughput and resource utilization of networks by relaying data from a transmit point to a receive point using both licensed and unlicensed spectrum. A multi-spectrum relay may receive data from the transmit point on one band, and relay the data to the receive point on another band. The multi-spectrum relay may cache data for re-transmission. Various frequency allocation schemes may be used to leverage the capabilities of multi-spectrum relays. When the complementary band includes higher frequencies than the primary band, access links between a base station and cell-edge users may carry wireless transmissions over the primary band, while access links between relays and cell-edge users may carry wireless transmissions over the complementary band.

Abstract: A method for operating an interference coordinating entity (ICE) includes partitioning, by the ICE, a cloud radio access network (CRAN) cluster by grouping transmission points (TPs) serving user equipments (UEs) in accordance with a partitioning criterion into at least one virtual transmission point (V-TP) to produce a V-TP set. The UEs to be served are preferably offset from a V-TP boundary. The method also includes saving, by the ICE, V-TP information to a memory.