Communications devices and methods
A communications device comprising transceiver circuitry and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry to receive one or more first control signals each comprising an indication of one of one or more first sets of radio resources in each of which one of one or more first downlink signals is to be received, to determine that the communications device should transmit a feedback signal indicating whether each of the first downlink signals were successfully received, transmit the feedback signal in a second set of radio resources of the wireless access interface indicated by at least one of the first control signals, to determine that the communications device should transmit an uplink signal in a third set of radio resources, and to determine whether the communications device should form a multiplexed signal by multiplexing at least a part of the feedback signal into the uplink signal.
1. A communications device configured to transmit data or receive data, the communications device comprising:
transceiver circuitry configured to transmit signals and receive signals via a wireless access interface, and
controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry:
to receive one or more first control signals each comprising an indication of one of one or more first sets of radio resources of the wireless access interface in each of which the communications device is to receive one of one or more first downlink signals,
to decode the one or more first downlink signals,
to determine that the communications device should transmit a feedback signal indicating, for each of the first downlink signals, whether or not the each of the first downlink signals were successfully received, wherein the communications device is configured to transmit the feedback signal in a second set of radio resources of the wireless access interface indicated by at least one of the first control signals,
to determine that the communications device should transmit an uplink signal in a third set of radio resources of the wireless access interface, the third set of radio resources at least partially overlapping in time with or sharing a same time-divided slot of the wireless access interface with the second set of radio resources,
to determine, in accordance with whether at least one communications criterion is met, whether the communications device should form a multiplexed signal by multiplexing at least a part of the feedback signal into the uplink signal and transmit the multiplexed signal in the third set of radio resources of the wireless access interface, and
to adjust at least one of the uplink signal and the third set of resources such that the at least one communications criterion is met, when the at least one communications criterion is not met.
2. The communications device according to claim 1 , wherein each of the uplink signal and the first downlink signals are associated with a different priority level, the feedback signal being associated with the same priority level as the first downlink signals, and if the communications device determines that the multiplexed signal should not be formed, the communications device is configured:
to drop the one of the uplink signal and the feedback signal depending on which of the uplink signal and the feedback signal has the lowest priority level, and
to transmit only the one of the uplink signal and the feedback signal having the highest priority level.
3. The communications device according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one communications criterion comprises whether a length of time between one of the one or more first control signals and the start of the third set of radio resources is greater than a minimum amount of time required by the communications device to form the multiplexed signal which meets at least one reliability requirement.
4. The communications device according to claim 3 , wherein the at least one reliability requirement is dependent on a number of bits in the feedback signal.
5. The communications device according to claim 3 , wherein the at least one reliability requirement comprises a coding rate of the multiplexed signal being below a threshold coding rate.
6. The communications device according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one communications criterion comprises whether a length of time between reception of a first signal and the start of the third set of radio resources is greater than a threshold length of time.
7. The communications device according to claim 6 , wherein the first signal is one of the first control signals.
8. The communications device according to claim 7 , wherein the one of the first control signals is a temporally last one of the first control signals.
9. The communications device according to claim 6 , wherein the feedback signal is a first feedback signal, and the communications device is configured;
to receive at least one second control signal comprising an indication of a fourth set of radio resources of the wireless access interface in which the communications device is to receive a second downlink signal,
to decode the second downlink signal, and
to determine that the communications device should transmit a second feedback signal, indicating whether or not the second downlink signal was successfully received, in a fifth set of radio resources, the fifth set of radio resources at least partially overlapping in time with the third set of radio resources,
wherein the first signal is the second control signal.
10. The communications device according to claim 1 , wherein the communications device is configured:
to receive a third control signal before at least one of the first control signals, the third control signal providing an indication of the third set of radio resources in which the communications device is to transmit the uplink signal,
wherein the at least one communications criterion comprises whether a length of time between reception of the third control signal and reception of a first signal is greater than a threshold length of time.
11. The communications device according to claim 10 , wherein the first signal is one of the at least one first control signals that is received after the third control signal.
12. The communications device according to claim 11 , wherein the one of the first control signals is a temporally last one of the first control signals.
13. The communications device according to claim 10 , wherein the feedback signal is a first feedback signal, and the communications device is configured:
to receive at least one second control signal comprising an indication of a fourth set of radio resources of the wireless access interface in which the communications device is to receive a second downlink signal,
to decode the second downlink signal, and
to determine that the communications device should transmit a second feedback signal, indicating whether or not the second downlink signal was successfully received, in a fifth set of radio resources, the fifth set of radio resources at least partially overlapping in time with the third set of radio resources,
wherein the first signal is the second control signal.
14. The communications device according to claim 1 , wherein the communications device is configured;
to receive a third control signal providing an indication of the third set of radio resources in which the communications device is to transmit the uplink signal,
wherein the at least one communications criterion comprises whether the third control signal is received after all of the one or more first control signals.
15. The communications device according to claim 14 , wherein each of the uplink signal and the first downlink signals are associated with a different priority level, the feedback signal being associated with the same priority level as the first downlink signals, and if the at least one communications criterion is not met, the communications device is configured:
to drop the one of the uplink signal and the feedback signal depending on which of the uplink signal and the feedback signal has the lowest priority level, and
to transmit only the one of the uplink signal and the feedback signal having the highest priority level.
16. The communications device according to claim 15 , wherein the communications device is configured to drop the one of the uplink signal and the feedback signal having the lowest priority level if a number of the one or more first control signals that are received after the third control signal is greater than a threshold number.
17. The communications device according to claim 1 , wherein the communications device is configured:
to determine the third set of radio resources based on a received Radio Resource Control (RRC) signalling message, the RRC signalling message indicating that the third set of radio resources are for use by the communications device as a configured grant,
wherein the at least one communications criterion comprises whether a temporally last one of the first control signals is received before the communications device determines that the uplink signal should be transmitted in the third set of radio resources.
18. The communications device according to claim 1 , wherein the communications device is configured:
to determine the third set of radio resources based on a received Radio Resource Control (RRC) signalling message, the RRC signalling message indicating that the third set of radio resources are for use by the communications device as a configured grant,
wherein the at least one communications criterion comprises whether a temporally last one of the first control signals is received before an earliest time at which the communications device is able to determine that the uplink signal should be transmitted in the third set of radio resources.
19. The communications device according to claim 1 , wherein the communications device is configured:
to receive a third control signal providing an indication of the third set of radio resources in which the communications device is to transmit the uplink signal,
wherein the at least one communications criterion comprises whether one or more of the first control signals are received before the third control signal, and wherein the communications device is configured to form the multiplexed signal by multiplexing the at least part of the feedback signal comprising an indication of whether or not each of the one or more first downlink signals that were received before the third control signal were successfully received into the uplink signal.
20. A method of operating a communications device configured to transmit data to or receive data from an infrastructure equipment of a wireless communications network, the method comprising:
receiving one or more first control signals each comprising an indication of one of one or more first sets of radio resources of the wireless access interface in each of which the communications device is to receive one of one or more first downlink signals,
decoding the one or more first downlink signals,
determining that the communications device should transmit a feedback signal indicating, for each of the first downlink signals, whether or not the each of the first downlink signals were successfully received, wherein the communications device is configured to transmit the feedback signal in a second set of radio resources of the wireless access interface indicated by at least one of the first control signals,
determining that the communications device should transmit an uplink signal in a third set of radio resources of the wireless access interface, the third set of radio resources at least partially overlapping in time with or sharing a same time-divided slot of the wireless access interface with the second set of radio resources,
determining, in accordance with whether at least one communications criterion is met, whether the communications device should form a multiplexed signal by multiplexing at least a part of the feedback signal into the uplink signal and transmit the multiplexed signal in the third set of radio resources of the wireless access interface, and
adjusting at least one of the uplink signal and the third set of resources such that the at least one communications criterion is met, when the at least one communications criterion is not met.