Link monitoring repetition level feedback for communication systems

1. An apparatus for a base station, comprising baseband circuitry having:

a radio frequency (RF) interface; and

one or more processors configured to:

determine repetition level (RL) thresholds;

allocate downlink (DL) resources, wherein the downlink resources include an indication of a repetition level (RL) and an indication of the RL thresholds;

send downlink data to the RF interface for transmission to a user equipment (UE) according to the RL;

receive repetition feedback from the RF interface based on the transmission to the UE

wherein repetition feedback indicates that a tracked number of repetitions used to correctly decode the downlink data is greater than an RL increment threshold of the RL thresholds, or

wherein repetition feedback indicates that a tracked number of repetitions used to correctly decode the downlink data is less than an RL decrement threshold of the RL thresholds; and

update the allocation of downlink resources based on the repetition feedback.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the repetition feedback is part of an excess number of repetitions report (ENRR).

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the DL resources include a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and subcarrier spacing.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to adjust the RL based on the repetition feedback.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to compare the repetition feedback with one or more prior repetition feedback and to update the RL at least partially based on the comparison.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine an RL increase amount or an RL decrease amount based on one or more of the repetition feedback, the downlink resources, and utilization of the downlink resources.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to receive an RL increase amount and an RL decrease amount from a network via the RF interface.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein an RL increase for the RL is based on propagation conditions.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the base station is an evolved Node B (eNB).

10. An apparatus for a user equipment (UE) device, comprising baseband circuitry having:

a radio frequency (RF) interface; and

one or more processors configured to:

obtain repeated downlink transmissions from the RF interface from a base station;

track a number of repetitions to correctly decode downlink data from the repeated downlink transmissions; and

generate repetition feedback based on the tracked number of repetitions tracked at the UE compared to a received RL threshold value, and on a received repetition level (RL) value,

wherein the repetition feedback indicates that the tracked number of repetitions used to correctly decode the downlink data is greater than an RL increment threshold that comprises the received RL threshold value, or

wherein the repetition feedback indicates that the tracked number of repetitions used to correctly decode the downlink data is less than an RL decrement threshold that comprises the received the RL threshold value.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to generate an excess number of repetitions report (ENRR) that includes the repetition feedback and provide the ENRR to the RF interface for transmission to a base station.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to average the tracked repetitions with one or more previous tracked repetitions.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to receive allocated downlink resources via the RF interface, wherein the allocated downlink resources include the RL.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to receive updated downlink resources via the RF interface, wherein the updated downlink resources are at least partially based on the repetition feedback.

15. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions that, when executed, cause a base station to:

allocate downlink resources, wherein the downlink resources include an indication of a repetition level (RL) and an indication of one or more RL thresholds;

send downlink data to an RF interface for transmission to a user equipment (UE) according to the RL;

receive repetition feedback comprising a number of repetitions needed to correctly decode downlink data from the repeated downlink transmissions from the RF interface, wherein the repetition feedback is based on the transmission to the UE,

wherein repetition feedback indicates that the number of repetitions used to correctly decode the downlink data is greater than an RL increment threshold of one or more RL thresholds, or

wherein repetition feedback indicates that the number of repetitions used to correctly decode the downlink data is less than an RL decrement threshold of the one or more RL thresholds; and

update the RL based on the repetition feedback.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15 , comprising instructions that, when executed, further cause the base station to update the RL based on the repetition feedback and one or more previous RLs.