Enhancement for uplink data transmission

1 . A method at a terminal device, the method comprising:

receiving, from a network node, a first message indicating at least one parameter for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission; and

transmitting, to the network node, the PUSCH transmission at least partially based on the first message;

wherein the first message indicates a number of repetitions for the PUSCH transmission;

wherein before the step of transmitting, to the network node, the PUSCH transmission at least partially based on the first message, the method further comprises:

measuring downlink channel quality; and

determining whether the terminal device is in good or poor coverage at least partially based on the measured downlink channel quality;

wherein the method further comprises: receiving, from the network node, a threshold;

wherein the step of determining whether the terminal device is in good or poor coverage at least partially based on the measured downlink channel quality comprises:

determining whether the terminal device is in good or poor coverage by comparing the measured downlink channel quality with the threshold; and

transmitting, to the network node, an indication indicating whether the terminal device is in good or poor coverage.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first message indicates a parameter of the PUSCH transmission in time domain.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the number is greater than 16.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the number is different from any of 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 12, and 16.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the parameter has more than 8 candidate values and no more than 16 candidate values.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein during the step of transmitting, to the network node, the PUSCH transmission at least partially based on the first message, the method further comprises:

receiving, from the network node, a second message indicating that the PUSCH transmission is successfully decoded at the network node before the transmission of all the repetitions for the PUSCH transmission is completed; and

prohibiting or skipping the transmission of the remaining repetitions.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first message is a first Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) message carrying Downlink Control Information (DCI) with a format for uplink (UL) grant, the second message is a second PDCCH message carrying DCI.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the second message further indicates at least one of:

the number of repetitions of the PUSCH transmission which has been received by the network node; and

the number of repetitions of the PUSCH transmission which can be omitted.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of transmitting, to the network node, the PUSCH transmission at least partially based on the first message comprises:

transmitting, to the network node, a repetition of the PUSCH transmission which is segmented around one or more invalid symbols which are scheduled to be transmitted or received simultaneously with the repetition.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein when the repetitions of the PUSCH transmission are type A repetitions, the invalid symbols comprise at least one of:

a downlink (DL) symbol;

a symbol of Uplink Control Information (UCI) which fails timeline check and cannot be multiplexed with the repetition;

a symbol of another PUCCH or PUSCH transmission with a higher PHY priority than that of the repetition; and

a symbol for which its corresponding higher layer parameter InvalidSymbolPattern has a value of 1.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein before the step of transmitting, to the network node, the PUSCH transmission at least partially based on the first message, the method further comprises:

determining uplink transmit power; and

determining whether the terminal device is in good or poor coverage at least partially further based on the determined uplink transmit power.

12 . The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the step of determining whether the terminal device is in good or poor coverage at least partially further based on the determined uplink transmit power comprises: determining whether the terminal device is in good or poor coverage by comparing the determined uplink transmit power with the threshold.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein when the transmission of the third message occurs before the reception of the first message, the first message configures a parameter indicating a number of repetitions for the PUSCH transmission, and the first message is determined at least partially based on the third message.

14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein before the step of transmitting, to the network node, the PUSCH transmission at least partially based on the first message, the method further comprises:

measuring downlink channel quality; and

determining a number of repetitions for the PUSCH transmission at least partially based on the measured downlink channel quality.

15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first message indicates a frequency hopping configuration.

16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the frequency hopping configuration further comprises at least one of:

at least a number of hops, the number being greater than 2;

frequency hopping offsets or frequency hopping offset list; and

duration of a hop.

17 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first message further indicates whether transmit diversity is to be used for the PUSCH transmission.

18 . A terminal device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform:

receiving, from a network node, a first message indicating at least one parameter for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission; and

transmitting, to the network node, the PUSCH transmission at least partially based on the first message;

wherein the first message indicates a number of repetitions for the PUSCH transmission;

wherein before the step of transmitting, to the network node, the PUSCH transmission at least partially based on the first message, the method further comprises:

measuring downlink channel quality;

determining whether the terminal device is in good or poor coverage at least partially based on the measured downlink channel quality;

wherein the method further comprises: receiving, from the network node, a threshold; and

wherein the step of determining whether the terminal device is in good or poor coverage at least partially based on the measured downlink channel quality comprises: determining whether the terminal device is in good or poor coverage by comparing the measured downlink channel quality with the threshold; and

transmitting, to the network node, an indication indicating whether the terminal device is in good or poor coverage.

19 . A method at a network node, the method comprising:

transmitting, to a terminal device, a first message indicating at least one parameter for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission;

receiving, from the terminal device, the PUSCH transmission at least partially based on the first message;

transmitting, to the terminal device, a threshold for determining whether the terminal device is in good or poor coverage,

wherein the first message indicates a first number of repetitions for the PUSCH transmission;

wherein the threshold is used for determining whether the terminal device is in good or poor coverage by comparing a measured downlink channel quality with the threshold; and

receiving, to from the network node, an indication indicating whether the terminal device is in good or poor coverage.