Methods, communications devices, and infrastructure equipment
A method including receiving an indication of a first pattern for one of a plurality of time-divided portions of a wireless radio interface from a wireless communications network, the first pattern defining one or more uplink resource units for transmitting uplink data to the wireless communications network and/or one or more downlink resource units for receiving downlink data from the wireless communications network, receiving an overwrite indicator from the wireless communications network indicating that the communications device is able to use at least one of the downlink resource units for transmitting uplink data to the wireless communications network and/or at least one of the uplink resource units for receiving downlink data from the wireless communications network, and determining a second pattern for the time-divided portion of the wireless radio interface to replace the first pattern by overwriting at least a portion of the first pattern based on the overwrite indicator.
1 . A method of operating a communications device configured to transmit signals to and/or to receive signals from a wireless communications network via a wireless radio interface provided by the wireless communications network, the method comprising
receiving an indication of a first pattern for one of a plurality of time-divided portions of the wireless radio interface from the wireless communications network, the first pattern defining one or more uplink resource units for transmitting uplink data to the wireless communications network and/or one or more downlink resource units for receiving downlink data from the wireless communications network,
receiving an overwrite indicator from the wireless communications network indicating that the communications device is able to use at least one of the downlink resource units for transmitting uplink data to the wireless communications network and/or at least one of the uplink resource units for receiving downlink data from the wireless communications network, and
determining a second pattern for the time-divided portion of the wireless radio interface to replace the first pattern by overwriting at least a portion of the first pattern based on the overwrite indicator.
2 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the overwrite indicator is received via downlink control information, DCI.
3 . A method according to claim 2 , wherein the overwrite indicator is indicated by a dedicated bit carried by the DCI, the dedicated bit indicating whether or not the communications device should determine the second pattern by overwriting at least the portion of the first pattern.
4 . A method according to claim 2 , wherein the overwrite indicator is indicated by two dedicated bits carried by the DCI, wherein a first of the dedicated bits indicates whether the communications device is able to use the at least one of the downlink resource units for transmitting uplink data to the wireless communications network, and wherein a second of the dedicated bits indicates whether the communications device is able to use the at least one of the uplink resource units for receiving downlink data from the wireless communications network.
5 . A method according to claim 2 , wherein the overwrite indicator is indicated by a radio network temporary identifier, RNTI, associated with the DCI.
6 . A method according to claim 2 , wherein the DCI provides an indication of resources of the wireless radio interface within which the communications device is to transmit uplink data to the wireless communications network or receive downlink data from the wireless communications network, wherein the indicated resources comprise the time-divided portion of the wireless radio interface.
7 . A method according to claim 2 , wherein the DCI is an activation DCI which indicates that at least one preconfigured resource instance of the wireless radio interface are activated and therefore are to be used by the communications device for transmitting uplink signals to the wireless communications network and/or receiving downlink signals from the wireless communications network, wherein the pre-configured resource instance comprises the time-divided portion of the wireless radio interface.
8 . A method according to claim 2 , wherein the DCI is a group-common DCI, GC-DCI, which is common between the communications device and one or more other communications devices.
9 . A method according to claim 8 , wherein the overwrite indicator is indicated by a slot format indicator, SFI, the SFI being carried by the GC-DCI.
10 . A method according to claim 9 , wherein the SFI indicates one or more of a plurality of indices, and wherein the overwrite indicator is indicated by the SFI indicating one or more of a predefined subset of the plurality of indices.
11 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the overwrite indicator is received via radio resource control, RRC, signalling.
12 . A method according to claim 11 , wherein the overwrite indicator indicates that the determining of the second pattern for the time-divided portion by the communications device is to be based on one of a GC-DCI or a DCI received from the wireless communications network.
13 . A method according to claim 11 , wherein the overwrite indicator indicates for which of the plurality of time-divided portions of the wireless radio interface a pattern is allowed to be overwritten.
14 . A method according to claim 11 , wherein the overwrite indicator indicates which of the one or more uplink resource units and the one or more downlink resource units of the time-divided portion of the wireless radio interface are allowed to be overwritten.
15 . A method according to claim 1 , comprising
determining whether the overwrite indicator is received via RRC signalling, and
if the overwrite indicator is received via RRC signalling, determining the second pattern by overwriting at least the portion of the first pattern, or
if the overwrite indicator is not received via RRC signalling, determining that the first pattern should be not be replaced by the second pattern.
16 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the overwrite indicator is received via a medium access control, MAC, control element.
17 . A method according to claim 1 , comprising
transmitting, to the wireless communications network, an indication of a preferred configuration of the second pattern for the time-divided portion of the wireless radio interface.
18 . A method according to claim 1 , comprising
transmitting, to the wireless communications network, a buffer status report,
wherein the overwrite indicator is received in response to transmitting the buffer status report.
19 . Circuitry for a communications device comprising
transceiver circuitry configured to transmit signals to and/or to receive signals from a wireless communications network via a wireless radio interface provided by the wireless communications network, and
controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry
to receive an indication of a first pattern for one of a plurality of time-divided portions of the wireless radio interface from the wireless communications network, the first pattern defining one or more uplink resource units for transmitting uplink data to the wireless communications network and/or one or more downlink resource units for receiving downlink data from the wireless communications network,
to receive an overwrite indicator from the wireless communications network indicating that the communications device is able to use at least one of the downlink resource units for transmitting uplink data to the wireless communications network and/or at least one of the uplink resource units for receiving downlink data from the wireless communications network, and
to determine a second pattern for the time-divided portion of the wireless radio interface to replace the first pattern by overwriting at least a portion of the first pattern based on the overwrite indicator.
20 . Circuitry for an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network comprising
transceiver circuitry configured to transmit signals to and/or to receive signals from a communications device via a wireless radio interface provided by the infrastructure equipment, and
controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry
to transmit an indication of a first pattern for one of a plurality of time-divided portions of the wireless radio interface to the communications device, the first pattern defining one or more uplink resource units for the communications device to transmit uplink data to the wireless communications network and/or one or more downlink resource units for the communications device to receive downlink data from the wireless communications network,
to transmit an overwrite indicator to the communications device indicating that the communications device is able to use at least one of the downlink resource units for transmitting uplink data to the wireless communications network and/or at least one of the uplink resource units for receiving downlink data from the wireless communications network, and
to determine that the communications device will replace the first pattern with a second pattern for the time-divided portion of the wireless radio interface by overwriting at least a portion of the first pattern based on the overwrite indicator.