Granted Patent B2

US 12,369,164 · App. 17/966,160 · Granted Jul 22, 2025

Inventors: Hsin-Hsi Tsai (Taipei, TW); Heng-Li Chin (Taipei, TW); Yung-Lan Tseng (Taipei, TW); Hai-Han Wang (Taipei, TW)

Assignee: SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA

H04W72/23H04L1/1812H04W76/20H04W76/38

Abstract

Claims (47)

1. A method performed by a user equipment (UE) for small data transmission (SDT), the method comprising:

receiving, from a base station (BS), a common time alignment (TA) timer configured via system information;

receiving, from the BS, a configured grant (CG)-SDT-specific TA timer configured via a CG-SDT-specific configuration; and

determining whether to maintain or release a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) based on expirations of the common TA timer and the CG-SDT-specific TA timer, wherein:

the PUCCH is maintained if the UE determines that the CG-SDT-specific TA timer has expired, and

the PUCCH is released if the UE determines that the common TA timer has expired.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

notifying, by a medium access control (MAC) layer of the UE, a radio resource control (RRC) layer of the UE to release the PUCCH in a case the UE determines that the common TA timer has expired.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

flushing all hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) buffers in a case the UE determines that either of the common TA timer or the CG-SDT-specific TA timer has expired.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining whether to generate an acknowledgement of data based on the common TA timer and the CG-SDT-specific TA timer;

generating the acknowledgement of the data in a case the UE determines that either of the common TA timer or the CG-SDT-specific TA timer is running; and

forgoing generating the acknowledgement of the data in a case the UE determines that none of the common TA timer and the CG-SDT-specific TA timer is running.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:

instructing, by a medium access control (MAC) layer of the UE, a physical layer of the UE to generate the acknowledgement of the data in the case the UE determines that either of the common TA timer or the CG-SDT-specific TA timer is running.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

transitioning to a radio resource control (RRC)_IDLE state in a case the UE determines that the CG-SDT-specific TA timer has expired.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the system information is configured via an information element (IE) UplinkConfigCommonSIB.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the CG-SDT-specific configuration is included in an SDT configuration.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the SDT configuration is included in a suspend configuration.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the suspend configuration is included in a radio resource control (RRC) release message.

11. A user equipment (UE) for performing small data transmission (SDT), the UE comprising:

one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions; and

at least one processor coupled to the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media, the at least one processor configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

receive, from a base station (BS), a common time alignment (TA) timer configured via system information;

receive, from the BS, a configured grant (CG)-SDT-specific TA timer configured via a CG-SDT-specific configuration; and

determine whether to maintain or release a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) based on expirations of the common TA timer and

the CG-SDT-specific TA timer, wherein:

the PUCCH is maintained if the UE determines that the CG-SDT-specific TA timer has expired, and

the PUCCH is released if the UE determines that the common TA timer has expired.

12. The UE of claim 11 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

notify, by a medium access control (MAC) layer of the UE, a radio resource control (RRC) layer of the UE to release the PUCCH in a case the UE determines that the common TA timer has expired.

13. The UE of claim 11 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

flush all hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) buffers in a case the UE determines that either of the common TA timer or the CG-SDT-specific TA timer has expired.

14. The UE of claim 11 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

determine whether to generate an acknowledgement of data based on the common TA timer and the CG-SDT-specific TA timer,

generate the acknowledgement of the data in a case the UE determines that either of the common TA timer or the CG-SDT-specific TA timer is running, and

forgo generating the acknowledgement of the data in a case the UE determines that none of the common TA timer and the CG-SDT-specific TA timer is running.

15. The UE of claim 14 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

instruct, by a medium access control (MAC) layer of the UE, a physical layer of the UE to generate the acknowledgement of the data in the case the UE determines that either of the common TA timer or the CG-SDT-specific TA timer is running.

16. The UE of claim 11 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

transition to a radio resource control (RRC)_IDLE state in a case the UE determines that the CG-SDT-specific TA timer has expired.

17. The UE of claim 11 , wherein the system information is configured via an information element (IE) UplinkConfigCommonSIB.

18. The UE of claim 11 , wherein the CG-SDT-specific configuration is included in an SDT configuration.

19. The UE of claim 18 , wherein the SDT configuration is included in a suspend configuration.

20. The UE of claim 19 , wherein the suspend configuration is included in a radio resource control (RRC) release message.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (18)