Method, user equipment, processing device, and storage medium for transmitting HARQ-ACK information, and method and base station for receiving HARQ-ACK information

1 . A method performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:

performing a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) reception;

determining a first slot and a first cell, in which the UE would perform a hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) transmission for the PDSCH reception for a first time; and

based on a resource for the HARQ-ACK transmission overlapping with a downlink symbol in the first slot on the first cell, determining a second slot and a second cell, to which the HARQ-ACK transmission is to be deferred,

wherein the first cell and the second cell are determined, from a plurality of cells for physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) cell switching, based on a predetermined rule for the PUCCH cell switching, and

wherein the UE determines an earliest slot and a corresponding cell, which are available for the HARQ-ACK transmission to be deferred based on the predetermined rule for the PUCCH cell switching, as the second slot and the second cell.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the first slot and the first cell comprises:

based on i) a slot n, to which the HARQ-ACK transmission for the PDSCH reception is scheduled, and ii) the predetermined rule for the PUCCH cell switching, determining the first cell for the slot n among the plurality of cells.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the second slot and the second cell comprises:

determining a PUCCH cell for a slot n+k among the plurality of cells based on the predetermined rule for the PUCCH cell switching, where k is a positive integer; and

based on a resource for the HARQ-ACK transmission overlapping with no downlink symbol in a PUCCH cell slot related to the slot n+k among slots of the PUCCH cell for the slot n+k, determining the PUCCH cell slot and the PUCCH cell as the second slot and the second cell, respectively.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the PDSCH reception is semi-persistently scheduled PDSCH reception.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined rule for the PUCCH cell switching is a PUCCH cell switching pattern.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the PUCCH cell switching pattern is configured by higher layer signaling, and

wherein the PUCCH cell switching pattern informs the UE of a cell for PUCCH transmission for each of a plurality of slots for a reference subcarrier spacing used for the PUCCH cell switching pattern.

7 . The method of claim 5 , wherein a time difference, with reference to subcarrier spacing of a primary cell among the plurality of cells, between the second slot and a slot of the PDSCH reception is not larger than a maximum HARQ-ACK deferral range.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the second slot is later in time than the first slot.

9 . A user equipment (UE) comprising:

at least one transceiver;

at least one processor; and

at least one computer memory operably connected to the at least one processor and configured to store instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:

performing a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) reception;

determining a first slot and a first cell, in which the UE would perform a hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) transmission for the PDSCH reception for a first time; and

based on a resource for the HARQ-ACK transmission overlapping with a downlink symbol in the first slot on the first cell, determining a second slot and a second cell, to which the HARQ-ACK transmission is to be deferred,

wherein the first cell and the second cell are determined, from a plurality of cells for physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) cell switching, based on a predetermined rule for the PUCCH cell switching, and

wherein the UE determines an earliest slot and a corresponding cell, which are available for the HARQ-ACK transmission to be deferred based on the predetermined rule for the PUCCH cell switching, as the second slot and the second cell.

10 . The UE of claim 9 , wherein the predetermined rule for the PUCCH cell switching is a PUCCH cell switching pattern.

11 . The UE of claim 10 , wherein the PUCCH cell switching pattern is configured by higher layer signaling, and

wherein the PUCCH cell switching pattern informs the UE of a cell for PUCCH transmission for each of a plurality of slots for a reference subcarrier spacing used for the PUCCH cell switching pattern.

12 . The UE of claim 10 , wherein a time difference, with reference to subcarrier spacing of a primary cell among the plurality of cells, between the second slot and a slot of the PDSCH reception is not larger than a maximum HARQ-ACK deferral range.

13 . A base station (BS) comprising:

at least one transceiver;

at least one processor; and

at least one computer memory operably connected to the at least one processor and configured to store instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:

performing a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission;

determining a first slot and a first cell, in which the BS would perform a hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) reception for the PDSCH transmission for a first time; and

based on a resource for the HARQ-ACK reception overlapping with a downlink symbol in the first slot on the first cell, determining a second slot and a second cell, to which the HARQ-ACK reception is to be deferred,

wherein the first cell and the second cell are determined, from a plurality of cells for physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) cell switching, based on a predetermined rule for the PUCCH cell switching, and

wherein an earliest slot and a corresponding cell, which are available for the HARQ-ACK reception to be deferred based on the predetermined rule for the PUCCH cell switching, are determined as the second slot and the second cell.

14 . The BS of claim 13 , wherein determining the first slot and the first cell comprises:

based on i) a slot n, to which the HARQ-ACK reception for the PDSCH transmission is scheduled, and ii) the predetermined rule for the PUCCH cell switching, determining the first cell for the slot n among the plurality of cells.

15 . The BS of claim 13 , wherein determining the second slot and the second cell comprises:

determining a PUCCH cell for a slot n+k among the plurality of cells based on the predetermined rule for the PUCCH cell switching, where k is a positive integer; and

based on a resource for the HARQ-ACK reception overlapping with no downlink symbol in a PUCCH cell slot related to the slot n+k among slots of the PUCCH cell for the slot n+k, determining the PUCCH cell slot and the PUCCH cell as the second slot and the second cell, respectively.

16 . The BS of claim 13 , wherein the PDSCH transmission is semi-persistently scheduled PDSCH transmission.

17 . The BS of claim 13 , wherein the predetermined rule for the PUCCH cell switching is a PUCCH cell switching pattern.

18 . The BS of claim 17 , wherein the PUCCH cell switching pattern is configured by higher layer signaling, and

wherein the PUCCH cell switching pattern informs a user equipment of a cell for PUCCH transmission for each of a plurality of slots for a reference subcarrier spacing used for the PUCCH cell switching pattern.

19 . The BS of claim 17 , wherein a time difference, with reference to subcarrier spacing of a primary cell among the plurality of cells, between the second slot and a slot of the PDSCH transmission is not larger than a maximum HARQ-ACK deferral range.

20 . The BS of claim 13 , wherein the second slot is later in time than the first slot.