Method and apparatus for link budget enhancements in communication systems

1. A user equipment (UE) comprising:

a transceiver configured to communicate via a wireless communication medium with a base station; and

a processor operably coupled to the transceiver, wherein the processor is configured to:

obtain configuration information for one or more repetitions for a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), wherein the configuration information comprises an enable/disable indicator and a parameter to indicate a maximum number of repetitions for the one or more channels, the enable/disable indicator configured to indicate whether to enable or disable a repetition operation, and

control the transceiver to transmit or receive the one or more repetitions according to the configuration information,

wherein the configuration information comprises a redundancy version (RV) cycling pattern, and

wherein in the RV cycling pattern, each RV is repeated over N repetitions, wherein N indicated by a downlink control information (DCI).

2. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of:

a predefined mapping that defines the max number of repetitions associated with a configured mode, and the mode is indicated via a master information block (MIB) or a first system information block (SIB1), or another system information block (SIB); or

a configuration for a target code rate for a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) index n is R n /M, and wherein R n is the code rate for the MCS index n, and

wherein M is predefined or configured.

3. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the configuration information comprises a repetition pattern,

wherein the processor is configured to control the transceiver according to the repetition pattern to include a gap every L repetitions, and

wherein a gap duration or L is one of:

configurable via UE-specific signaling; or

predefined.

4. The UE of claim 3 , wherein the DCI is configured to dynamically indicate one or more of:

a number of repetitions for PUSCH;

the RV cycling pattern to be used; or

the repetition pattern, and

wherein the DCI comprises: a Time domain resource allocation (TDRA) field configured to indicate a number of repetitions R, and an additional field configured to indicate a value of X, wherein the number of repetitions are indicated by R+X or R*X.

5. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to obtain a sub-physical resource block (PRB) configuration for sub-PRB allocation for the PUSCH or PUCCH, wherein the sub-PRB configuration is:

cell-specific;

UE-specific; or

based on a predefined mapping between supported sub-PRB allocations and configured system scenario or mode, and wherein the system scenario or mode is indicated via a master information block (MIB) or a first system information block (SIB1), or another system information block (SIB).

6. The UE of claim 5 , wherein a PRB to be allocated for sub-PRB allocation within a bandwidth part (BWP) can be predefined, or configured by higher layer signaling,

wherein, for the PUCCH, the sub-PRB allocation is configured for at least one of a number of long PUCCH formats, and

wherein a symbol allocation for UL control information (UCI) and demodulation reference signal (DMRS) within a slot follows a new radio (NR) design, while a PUCCH transmission is spread over N slots, where N depends on number of sub-carriers allocated for PUCCH transmission.

7. The UE of claim 1 , wherein a frequency hopping patter is aligned with the RV cycling pattern.

8. A base station (BS) comprising:

a transceiver configured to communicate via a wireless communication medium with a user equipment (UE); and

a processor operably coupled to the transceiver, wherein the processor is configured to:

transmit, via the transceiver, configuration information for a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), wherein the configuration information comprises an enable/disable indicator and a parameter to indicate a maximum number of repetitions for the one or more channels, the enable/disable indicator configured to indicate whether to enable or disable a repetition operation, and

transmit or receive, via the transceiver, the one or more repetitions according to the configuration information,

wherein the configuration information comprises a redundancy version (RV) cycling pattern, and

wherein in the RV cycling pattern, each RV is repeated over N repetitions, wherein N indicated by a downlink control indicator (DCI).

9. The BS of claim 8 , wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of:

a predefined mapping that defines the max number of repetitions associated with a configured mode, and the mode is indicated via a master information block (MIB) or a first system information block (SIB1), or another system information block (SIB); or

a configuration for a target code rate for a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) index n is R n /M, and wherein R n is the code rate for MCS index n, and

wherein M is predefined or configured.

10. The BS of claim 8 , wherein the configuration information comprises a repetition pattern,

wherein the processor is configured to control the transceiver according to the repetition pattern to include a gap every L repetitions, and

wherein a gap duration or L is one of:

configurable via a cell-specific signaling or UE-specific signaling;

predefined; or

indicated by a downlink control information (DCI).

11. The BS of claim 10 , wherein the DCI is configured to dynamically indicate one or more of:

a number of repetitions for PUSCH;

the RV cycling pattern to be used; or

the repetition pattern, and

wherein the DCI comprises: a Time domain resource allocation (TDRA) field configured to indicate a number of repetitions R, and an additional field configured to indicate a value of X, wherein the number of repetitions are indicated by R+X or R*X.

12. The BS of claim 8 , wherein the processor is further configured to transmit, via the transceiver, a sub-physical resource block (PRB) configuration for sub-PRB allocation for the PUSCH or PUCCH, wherein the sub-PRB configuration is:

cell-specific;

UE-specific; or

based on a predefined mapping between supported sub-PRB allocations and configured system scenario or mode, and

wherein the system scenario or mode is indicated via a master information block (MIB) or a first system information block (SIB1), or another system information block (SIB).

13. The BS of claim 12 , wherein a PRB to be allocated for sub-PRB allocation within a bandwidth part (BWP) can be predefined, or configured by higher layer signaling,

wherein, for the PUCCH, the sub-PRB allocation is configured for at least one of a number of long PUCCH formats, and

wherein a symbol allocation for UCI and DMRS within a slot follows a new radio (NR) design, while a PUCCH transmission is spread over N slots, where N depends on number of sub-carriers allocated for PUCCH transmission.

14. The BS of claim 8 , wherein a frequency hopping patter is aligned with the RV cycling pattern.

15. A method comprising:

obtaining configuration information for one or more repetitions for a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), wherein the configuration information comprises an enable/disable indicator and a parameter to indicate a maximum number of repetitions for the one or more channels, the enable/disable indicator configured to indicate whether to enable or disable a repetition operation; and

transmitting or receiving the one or more repetitions according to the configuration information,

wherein the configuration information comprises a redundancy version (RV) cycling pattern, and

wherein in the RV cycling pattern, each RV is repeated over N repetitions, wherein N indicated by a downlink control information (DCI).

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of:

a predefined mapping that defines the max number of repetitions associated with a configured mode, and the mode is indicated via a master information block (MIB) or a first system information block (SIB1), or another system information block (SIB); or

a configuration for a target code rate (R n ) for a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) index n is R n /M, and wherein R n is the code rate for MCS index n, and

wherein M is predefined or configured.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the configuration information comprises a repetition pattern,

wherein transmitting the one or more repetitions comprises including a gap every M repetitions,

wherein a gap duration or M is one of:

configurable UE-specific signaling, or

predefined

wherein the DCI is configured to dynamically indicate one or more of:

a number of repetitions for PUSCH;

the RV cycling pattern to be used; or

the repetition pattern, and

wherein the DCI comprises: a Time domain resource allocation (TDRA) field configured to indicate a number of repetitions R, and an additional field configured to indicate a value of X, wherein the number of repetitions are indicated by R+X or R*X.

18. The method of claim 15 , further comprising obtaining a sub-physical resource block (PRB) configuration for sub-PRB allocation for the PUSCH or PUCCH, wherein the sub-PRB configuration is:

cell-specific;

UE-specific; or

based on a predefined mapping between supported sub-PRB allocations and configured system scenario or mode, and wherein the system scenario or mode is indicated via a master information block (MIB) or a first system information block (SIB1), or another system information block (SIB).

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein a PRB to be allocated for sub-PRB allocation within a bandwidth part (BWP) can be predefined, or configured by higher layer signaling,

wherein, for the PUCCH, the sub-PRB allocation is configured for at least one of a number of long PUCCH formats, and

wherein a symbol allocation for UL control information (UCI) and demodulation reference signal (DMRS) within a slot follows a new radio (NR) design, while a PUCCH transmission is spread over N slots, where N depends on number of sub-carriers allocated for PUCCH transmission.

20. The method of claim 15 , wherein a frequency hopping patter is aligned with the RV cycling pattern.