Systems and methods for supporting coherent transmissions in a non-terrestrial network
Systems and methods are disclosed herein for supporting coherent transmissions in a wireless network such as a Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN). In one embodiment, a method performed by a wireless communication device comprises starting an uplink transmission and performing one or more actions comprising creating a time gap within the uplink transmission and/or muting a portion of the uplink transmission to support a timing advance of the continued uplink transmission. The method further comprises performing time-frequency compensation during a time period created by performing the one or more actions and continuing the uplink transmission after performing the time-frequency compensation. In this manner, a low-complexity method for achieving a compensation for a time variant Doppler shift is provided. This offers a predictability that can be used in a wireless network such as, for example, an NTN for supporting coherent demodulation and optimized receiver implementations.
1 . A method performed by a wireless communication device, the method comprising:
receiving a configuration of one or more parameters from a network node of a non-terrestrial network, NTN, the one or more parameters defining a location of a time gap to be created in an uplink transmission or one or more values to be used by the wireless communication device to derive the location of the time gap to be created in the uplink transmission;
starting the uplink transmission;
creating the time gap within the uplink transmission;
performing an action during the time gap; and
continuing the uplink transmission after performing the action;
wherein performing the action comprises adjusting a transmit frequency of the continued uplink transmission and/or adjusting an uplink transmit timing of the wireless communication device.
2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the uplink transmission comprises a plurality of consecutive repetitions of a base transmission.
3 . The method of claim 2 wherein the base transmission is a Narrowband Physical Uplink Shared Channel, NPUSCH.
4 . The method of claim 1 wherein the uplink transmission is a Narrowband Internet of Things, NB-IoT, or Long Term Evolution, LTE, for Machine Type Communication, MTC, LTE-M, uplink transmission that comprises a plurality of consecutive repetitions of a base transmission.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein creating the time gap within the uplink transmission comprises creating the time gap within a Transmission Time Interval, TTI, of the uplink transmission, wherein the TTI has a length of greater than 1 subframe, greater than 1 radio frame, greater than 1 millisecond, greater than 10 milliseconds, or greater than 1 second.
6 . The method of claim 1 wherein performing the action comprises
adjusting the transmit frequency of the continued uplink transmissions to compensate for an estimated Doppler shift caused by motion of a satellite of a satellite-based radio access network which is to receive the uplink transmission.
7 . The method of claim 1 wherein performing the action comprises adjusting the uplink transmit timing of the wireless communication device to compensate for an estimated time dilation caused by motion of a satellite of a satellite-based radio access network which is to receive the uplink transmission.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein creating the time gap comprises:
delaying a portion of the uplink transmission; and/or
muting a portion of the uplink transmission; and/or
puncturing a portion of the uplink transmission; and/or
dropping one or more symbols of the uplink transmission; and/or
not using one or more symbols of the uplink transmission; and/or
leaving one or more symbols of the uplink transmission blank.
9 . The method of claim 1 wherein the location of the time gap is based on satellite ephemeris and/or a cyclic prefix duration.
10 . A wireless communication device comprising:
one or more transmitters;
one or more receivers; and
processing circuitry associated with the one or more transmitters and the one or more receivers, the processing circuitry configured to cause the wireless communication device to:
receive a configuration of one or more parameters from a network node of a non-terrestrial network, NTN, the one or more parameters defining a location of a time gap to be created in an uplink transmission or one or more values to be used by the wireless communication device to derive the location of the time gap to be created in the uplink transmission;
start the uplink transmission;
create the time gap within the uplink transmission;
perform an action during the time gap; and
continue the uplink transmission after performing the action;
wherein performing the action comprises adjusting a transmit frequency of the continued uplink transmission and/or adjusting an uplink transmit timing of the wireless communication device.
11 . The wireless communication device of claim 10 wherein the uplink transmission comprises a plurality of consecutive repetitions of a base transmission.
12 . The wireless communication device of claim 11 wherein the base transmission is a Narrowband Physical Uplink Shared Channel, NPUSCH.
13 . The wireless communication device of claim 10 wherein the uplink transmission is a Narrowband Internet of Things, NB-IoT, or Long Term Evolution, LTE, for Machine Type Communication, MTC, LTE-M, uplink transmission that comprises a plurality of consecutive repetitions of a base transmission.
14 . The wireless communication device of claim 10 , wherein creating the time gap within the uplink transmission comprises creating the time gap within a Transmission Time Interval, TTI, of the uplink transmission, wherein the TTI has a length of greater than 1 subframe, greater than 1 radio frame, greater than 1 millisecond, greater than 10 milliseconds, or greater than 1 second.
15 . The wireless communication device of claim 10 wherein performing the action comprises:-adjusting the transmit frequency of the continued uplink transmissions to compensate for an estimated Doppler shift caused by motion of a satellite of a satellite-based radio access network which is to receive the uplink transmission.
16 . The wireless communication device of claim 10 wherein performing the action comprises adjusting the uplink transmit timing of the wireless communication device to compensate for an estimated time dilation caused by motion of a satellite of a satellite-based radio access network which is to receive the uplink transmission.
17 . The wireless communication device of claim 10 , wherein creating the time gap comprises:
delaying a portion of the uplink transmission; and/or
muting a portion of the uplink transmission; and/or
puncturing a portion of the uplink transmission; and/or
dropping one or more symbols of the uplink transmission; and/or
not using one or more symbols of the uplink transmission; and/or
leaving one or more symbols of the uplink transmission blank.
18 . The wireless communication device of claim 10 wherein the location of the time gap is based on satellite ephemeris and/or a cyclic prefix duration.