Systems and methods for initializing HARQ-ACK procedure by a specific DCI for beam indication

1 . A method comprising:

receiving, by a wireless communication device from a wireless communication node, a downlink control information (DCI) comprising an indication of a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state, wherein the DCI foregoes scheduling of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission;

determining, by the wireless communication device, one or more signals to which the TCI state is applied, according to a TCI field in the DCI, and according to a radio resource control (RRC) signaling from the wireless communication node;

according to an absence of scheduling the PDSCH transmission in the DCI:

determining, by the wireless communication device, that the DCI is scrambled by a configured scheduling radio network temporary identifier (CS-RNTI), that a redundancy value (RV) field in the DCI is set to bit values each being ‘1’, and that a new data indicator (NDI) field in the DCI is set to a value of ‘0’;

determining, by the wireless communication device, hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information according to the DCI; and

transmitting, by the wireless communication device to the wireless communication node, an uplink channel that carries the HARQ-ACK information corresponding to the DCI.

2 . The method of claim 1 , comprising determining, by the wireless communication device, that a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) field in the DCI is set to bit values each being ‘1’.

3 . The method of claim 1 , comprising determining, by the wireless communication device, that a frequency domain resource assignment (FDRA) field in the DCI is set to a specific value.

4 . A method comprising:

transmitting, by a wireless communication node to a wireless communication device, a downlink control information (DCI) comprising an indication of a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state, wherein the DCI foregoes scheduling of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission, wherein the DCI is scrambled by a configured scheduling radio network temporary identifier (CS-RNTI), wherein, according to an absence of scheduling the PDSCH transmission, a redundancy value (RV) field in the DCI is set to bit values each being ‘1’, and a new data indicator (NDI) field in the DCI is set to a value of ‘0’;

transmitting, by the wireless communication node to the wireless communication device, a radio resource control (RRC) signaling, the RRC indicating one or more signals to which the TCI state is applied according to the TCI field in the DCI; and

receiving, by the wireless communication node from the wireless communication device, an uplink channel that carries hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information corresponding to the DCI, wherein the HARQ-ACK information is determined according to the DCI, and wherein the uplink channel carrying the HARQ-ACK information corresponding to the DCI is received according to the absence of scheduling the PDSCH transmission in the DCI.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) field in the DCI is set to bit values each being ‘1’.

6 . The method of claim 4 , wherein a frequency domain resource assignment (FDRA) field in the DCI is set to a specific value.

7 . A wireless communication device, comprising:

at least one processor configured to:

receive, via a transceiver from a wireless communication node, a downlink control information (DCI) comprising an indication of a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state, wherein the DCI foregoes scheduling of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission;

determine one or more signals to which the TCI state is applied, according to a TCI field in the DCI, and according to a radio resource control (RRC) signaling from the wireless communication node;

according to an absence of scheduling the PDSCH transmission in the DCI:

determine, according to an absence of scheduling the PDSCH transmission, that the DCI is scrambled by a configured scheduling radio network temporary identifier (CS-RNTI), that a redundancy value (RV) field in the DCI is set to bit values each being ‘1’, and that a new data indicator (NDI) field in the DCI is set to a value of ‘0’;

determine hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information according to the DCI; and

transmit, via the transceiver to the wireless communication node, an uplink channel that carries the HARQ-ACK information corresponding to the DCI.

8 . The wireless communication device of claim 7 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine that a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) field in the DCI is set to bit values each being ‘1’.

9 . The wireless communication device of claim 7 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine that a frequency domain resource assignment (FDRA) field in the DCI is set to a specific value.

10 . A wireless communication node, comprising:

at least one processor configured to:

transmit, via a transceiver to a wireless communication device, a downlink control information (DCI) comprising an indication of a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state, wherein the DCI foregoes scheduling of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission, wherein the DCI is scrambled by a configured scheduling radio network temporary identifier (CS-RNTI), wherein, according to an absence of scheduling the PDSCH transmission, a redundancy value (RV) field in the DCI is set to bit values each being ‘1’, and a new data indicator (NDI) field in the DCI is set to a value of ‘0’;

transmit, via the transceiver to the wireless communication device, a radio resource control (RRC) signaling, the RRC indicating one or more signals to which the TCI state is applied according to the TCI field in the DCI; and

receive, via the transceiver from the wireless communication device, an uplink channel that carries hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information corresponding to the DCI, wherein the HARQ-ACK information is determined according to the DCI, and wherein the uplink channel carrying the HARQ-ACK information corresponding to the DCI is received according to the absence of scheduling the PDSCH transmission in the DCI.

11 . The wireless communication node of claim 10 , wherein a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) field in the DCI is set to bit values each being ‘1’.

12 . The wireless communication node of claim 10 , wherein a frequency domain resource assignment (FDRA) field in the DCI is set to a specific value.