Downlink frequency hopping communication for reduced capability user equipment

1 . An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

one or more processors;

a transceiver communicatively coupled to the processor; and

a memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors,

wherein the one or more processors are configured to:

receive, via the transceiver in a first narrowband of a plurality of narrowbands (NBs), frequency hopping (FH) control information for a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), wherein a PDSCH scheduling delay of the PDSCH is based on whether or not the PDSCH starts in the first narrowband; and

receive, via the transceiver, the PDSCH using frequency hopping starting in a second narrowband among the plurality of NBs, based on the FH control information,

wherein the FH control information comprises frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) information that includes:

an index configured to indicate the second narrowband selected for starting the reception of the PDSCH using frequency hopping among the plurality of NBs; and

resource assignment of resource blocks allocated to the PDSCH within the selected second narrowband,

wherein the FH control information further comprises a hopping time interval and a hopping frequency offset, and

wherein a bandwidth of each of the plurality of NBs is not larger than a maximum wireless communication bandwidth of the apparatus.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of NBs are included in a bandwidth part that has a bandwidth larger than the maximum wireless communication bandwidth of the apparatus.

3 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to determine a configuration of the plurality of NBs based on at least one of a radio resource control (RRC) configuration or a predetermined rule; and

wherein the RRC configuration or the predetermined rule indicates a plurality of contiguous resource blocks, allocated to each of the plurality of NBs, wherein the size of the plurality of contiguous resource blocks is configurable based at least on a bandwidth of the bandwidth part.

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the FH control information comprises the hopping time interval, the hopping frequency offset, and a maximum number of hops.

5 . An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors,

wherein the one or more processors are configured to:

transmit, in a first narrowband of a plurality of narrowbands (NBs), to a user equipment (UE) frequency hopping (FH) control information for a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), wherein a PDSCH scheduling delay of the PDSCH is based on whether or not the PDSCH starts in the first narrowband; and

transmit to the UE the PDSCH using frequency hopping starting in a second narrowband among the plurality of NBs, based on the FH control information,

wherein the FH control information comprises frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) information that includes:

an index configured to indicate the second narrowband selected for starting the reception of the PDSCH using frequency hopping among the plurality of NBs; and

resource assignment of frequency resources allocated to the PDSCH within the selected second narrowband,

wherein the FH control information further comprises a hopping time interval and a hopping frequency offset, and

wherein a bandwidth of each of the plurality of NBs is not larger than a maximum wireless communication bandwidth of the UE.

6 . The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the plurality of NBs are included in a bandwidth part that has a bandwidth larger than the maximum wireless communication bandwidth of the UE.

7 . The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

transmit downlink control information (DCI) mapped to a common search space,

wherein the FH control information comprises a FDRA field included in the DCI,

wherein the FDRA field comprises a first plurality of bits based on a size of a bandwidth part that has a bandwidth larger than the maximum wireless communication bandwidth of the UE, and

wherein least significant bits of the first plurality of bits are configured to indicate the second narrowband selected for starting the reception of the PDSCH and the resource assignment within the selected second narrowband.

8 . The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the FH control information comprises the hopping time interval, the hopping frequency offset, and a maximum number of hops.

9 . A method for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising:

receiving, in a first narrowband of a plurality of narrowbands (NBs), frequency hopping (FH) control information for a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), wherein a PDSCH scheduling delay of the PDSCH is based on whether or not the PDSCH starts in the first narrowband; and

receiving the PDSCH using frequency hopping starting in a second narrowband among a plurality of NBs, based on the FH control information,

wherein the FH control information comprises frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) information that includes:

an index configured to indicate the second narrowband selected for starting the reception of the PDSCH using frequency hopping among the plurality of NBs; and

resource assignment of resource blocks allocated to the PDSCH within the selected second narrowband,

wherein the FH control information further comprises a hopping time interval and a hopping frequency offset, and

wherein a bandwidth of each of the plurality of NBs is not larger than a maximum wireless communication bandwidth of the UE.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of NBs are included in a bandwidth part that has a bandwidth larger than the maximum wireless communication bandwidth of the UE.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

determining a configuration of the plurality of NBs based on at least one of a radio resource control (RRC) configuration or a predetermined rule.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the RRC configuration or the predetermined rule defines a plurality of continuous subbands allocated to each of the plurality of NBs and a bandwidth of the bandwidth part.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the RRC configuration or the predetermined rule defines a plurality of continuous resource block groups allocated to each of the plurality of NBs and a bandwidth of the bandwidth part.

14 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the FH control information comprises a FDRA field including a plurality of bits based on a size of the narrowband and a number of the plurality of NBs in a bandwidth part.

15 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

receiving downlink control information (DCI) mapped to a common search space,

wherein the FH control information comprises a FDRA field included in the DCI,

wherein the FDRA field comprises a first plurality of bits based on a size of a bandwidth part that has a bandwidth larger than the maximum wireless communication bandwidth of the UE, and

wherein least significant bits of the first plurality of bits are configured to indicate the second narrowband selected for starting the reception of the PDSCH and the resource assignment of resource blocks allocated to the PDSCH within the selected second narrowband.

16 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

receiving the PDSCH using frequency hopping between the first narrowband of the plurality of NBs in a first slot and the second narrowband among the plurality of NBs in a second slot.

17 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

selecting a narrowband among the plurality of NBs, based on the hopping time interval, the hopping frequency offset, and the maximum number of hops.

18 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

receiving downlink control information (DCI) in the first narrowband of the plurality of NBs, the DCI configured to indicate a PDSCH scheduling delay and the second narrowband of the plurality of NBs for starting the reception of the PDSCH; and

receiving the PDSCH starting in the second narrowband of the plurality of NBs, wherein a starting time of the PDSCH depends on at least one of a radio frequency (RF) returning time of the UE or the PDSCH scheduling delay indicated in the DCI,

wherein the PDSCH scheduling delay indicated in the DCI is smaller than the RF returning time, the starting of the PDSCH in the second narrowband is postponed by an additional delay.

19 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

receiving downlink control information (DCI) in the first narrowband of the plurality of NBs, the DCI configured to indicate a PDSCH scheduling delay and a narrowband index for starting the reception of the PDSCH,

receiving the PDSCH starting in the first narrowband according to the PDSCH scheduling delay and overriding the narrowband index, when the PDSCH scheduling delay is smaller than a radio frequency returning time of the UE.

20 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

receiving the PDSCH using frequency hopping between the first narrowband that is an edge narrowband and the second narrowband among the plurality of NBs, wherein one or more resource blocks of the first narrowband that are not aligned with a subband are punctured with respect to the PDSCH, the punctured resource blocks located outside of a bandwidth part including the plurality of NBs.

21 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

prioritizing reception of a broadcast PDSCH without frequency hopping over the PDSCH using frequency hopping that has at least one symbol overlapping with the reception of the broadcast PDSCH without frequency hopping, wherein the broadcast PDSCH comprises an on-demand system information.

22 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the FH control information comprises the hopping time interval, the hopping frequency offset, and a maximum number of hops.

23 . A method for wireless communication at a scheduling entity, comprising:

transmitting, in a first narrowband of a plurality of narrowbands (NBs), to a user equipment (UE), frequency hopping (FH) control information for a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), wherein a PDSCH scheduling delay of the PDSCH is based on whether or not the PDSCH starts in the first narrowband; and

transmitting, to the UE, the PDSCH using frequency hopping starting in a second narrowband among the plurality of NBs, based on the FH control information,

wherein the FH control information comprises frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) information that includes:

an index configured to indicate the second narrowband selected for starting the reception of the PDSCH using frequency hopping among the plurality of NBs; and

resource assignment of resource blocks allocated to the PDSCH within the selected second narrowband,

wherein the FH control information further comprises a hopping time interval and a hopping frequency offset, and

wherein a bandwidth of each of the plurality of NBs is not larger than a maximum wireless communication bandwidth of the UE.

24 . The method of claim 23 , wherein the plurality of NBs are included in a bandwidth part that has a bandwidth larger than the maximum wireless communication bandwidth of the UE.

25 . The method of claim 23 , further comprising:

transmitting downlink control information (DCI) mapped to a common search space,

wherein the FH control information comprises a FDRA field included in the DCI,

wherein the FDRA field comprises a first plurality of bits based on a size of a bandwidth part that has a bandwidth larger than the maximum wireless communication bandwidth of the UE, and

wherein least significant bits of the first plurality of bits are configured to indicate the second narrowband selected for starting the reception of the PDSCH and the resource assignment of resource blocks allocated to the PDSCH within the selected second narrowband.

26 . The method of claim 23 , further comprising:

transmitting the PDSCH using frequency hopping between the first narrowband and the second narrowband among the plurality of NBs, the first narrowband and the second narrowband not adjacent to each other in a frequency domain.

27 . The method of claim 23 , further comprising:

selecting the second narrowband among the plurality of NBs, based on the hopping time interval, the hopping frequency offset, and the maximum number of hops.

28 . The method of claim 23 , further comprising:

transmitting downlink control information (DCI) in the first narrowband of the plurality of NBs, the DCI configured to control the PDSCH; and

transmitting the PDSCH starting in the second narrowband of the plurality of NBs, wherein a starting time of the PDSCH depends on at least one of a radio frequency (RF) returning time of the UE or a PDSCH scheduling delay indicated in the DCI,

wherein the PDSCH scheduling delay indicated in the DCI is smaller than the RF returning time, the starting of the PDSCH in the second narrowband is postponed by an additional delay of a plurality of symbols.

29 . The method of claim 23 , further comprising:

transmitting downlink control information (DCI) in the first narrowband of the plurality of NBs, the DCI configured to indicate a PDSCH scheduling delay and a narrowband index for starting the reception of the PDSCH,

transmitting the PDSCH starting in the first narrowband according to the PDSCH scheduling delay and overriding the narrowband index, when the PDSCH scheduling delay is smaller than a radio frequency returning time of the UE.

30 . The method of claim 23 , further comprising:

transmitting the PDSCH using frequency hopping between the first narrowband that is an edge narrowband and the second narrowband among the plurality of NBs,

wherein one or more resource blocks of the first narrowband that are not aligned with a subband are punctured with respect to the PDSCH, the punctured resource blocks located outside of a bandwidth part including the plurality of NBs.