Indication of PUCCH repetitions via DCI CRC scrambling for wireless networks

1 . A method comprising:

receiving, by a user device from a network node, a message including a first set of bits of a cyclic redundancy check that is scrambled based on a sequence of bits, wherein the sequence of bits indicates or is associated with a number of physical uplink control channel, PUCCH, transmissions within a random access procedure;

descrambling, by the user device, the cyclic redundancy check to obtain the sequence of bits;

determining, by the user device based on the sequence of bits, the number of physical uplink control channel transmissions within the random access procedure; and

performing, by the user device within the random access procedure, a transmission of a physical uplink control channel the determined number of times,

wherein the first set of bits of the cyclic redundancy check is scrambled based on the sequence of bits that indicates or is associated with the number of physical uplink control channel transmissions within the random access procedure, and

wherein a second set of bits of the cyclic redundancy check is scrambled based on a temporary cell-radio network temporary identifier, TC-RNTI, assigned to the user device, wherein the second set of bits is different than the first set of bits.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving comprises:

receiving, by the user device from the network node, the message including downlink control information, DCI, the downlink control information including at least the first set of bits of the cyclic redundancy check that is scrambled based on the sequence of bits, wherein the sequence of bits indicates or is associated with the number of physical uplink control channel, PUCCH, transmissions within the random access procedure.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the downlink control information, DCI, includes a downlink grant or scheduling information for a message 4 of the random access procedure.

4 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:

determining, by the user device, a mapping of different values of the sequence of bits to different numbers of physical uplink control channel, PUCCH, transmissions within the random access procedure.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the number of physical uplink control channel transmissions is based on a mapping of the sequence of bits to a number of physical uplink control channel, PUCCH, transmissions within a random access procedure.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the number of PUCCH transmissions is based on at least one of the following:

determining a decimal representation of the sequence of bits, wherein the decimal representation of the sequence of bits indicates the number of physical uplink control channel, PUCCH, transmissions within the random access procedure; or

performing a lookup into a table of numbers of physical uplink control channel, PUCCH, transmission based on the sequence of bits to obtain the number of physical uplink control channel transmissions.

7 . The method claim 1 , wherein the performing comprises:

performing, by the user device within the random access procedure, the transmission of the physical uplink control channel including hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ, feedback for a message 4 of the random access procedure, the determined number of times.

8 . The method of claim 4 wherein the determining the mapping of different values of the sequence of bits to different number of the physical uplink control channel, PUCCH, transmissions comprises performing at least one of the following:

determining, by the user device as a known or a predetermined mapping, the mapping of different values of the sequence of bits to different number of the physical uplink control channel, PUCCH, transmissions; or

determining, by the user device based on a transmission or indication by the network node, the mapping of different values of the sequence of bits to different number of the physical uplink control channel, PUCCH, transmissions.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the transmission or indication by the network node is included in either a system information block or in the message of the random access procedure.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a location and/or a number of bits of the first set of bits of the cyclic redundancy check that is scrambled based on the sequence of bits, is determined based on at least one of the following:

the location and/or number of bits of the first set of bits of the cyclic redundancy check is known or determined by the user device, and/or is based on a standard or specification;

the location and/or number of bits of the first set of bits of the cyclic redundancy check is determined by the user device based on system information broadcast by the network node; or

the location and/or number of bits of the first set of bits of the cyclic redundancy check is determined by the user device based on information previously received by the user device from the network node as part of the random access procedure.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein there is a mapping between one or more temporary cell-radio network temporary identifiers, TC-RNTIs, and one or more numbers of transmissions of the physical uplink control channel.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

determining, by the user device, the number of transmissions of the physical uplink control channel based on a temporary cell-radio network temporary identifiers, TC-RNTI, assigned to the user device via a message 2 of the random access procedure.