IP Library › Granted Patent US 11,812,431
Granted Patent B2
US 11,812,431 · App. 17/373,399 · Granted Nov 7, 2023

Methods and apparatus for monitoring DL communication with timing offsets

Inventors: Ayan Sengupta (San Diego, CA); Alberto Rico Alvarino (San Diego, CA); Xiao Feng Wang (San Diego, CA); Liangping Ma (San Diego, CA); Le Liu (Fremont, CA); Bharat Shrestha (San Diego, CA); Peter Gaal (San Diego, CA); Jun Ma (San Diego, CA); Umesh Phuyal (San Diego, CA)
Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
H04W72/1273H04L1/1819H04L1/1896H04W72/0446H04W72/21H04W84/06
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,812,431
App. No.
17/373,399
Granted
Nov 7, 2023
Kind
B2
Abstract

The apparatus wireless communication may include a UE. The UE may receive a DL communication triggering a UL communication starting in a first UL slot/subframe from an NTN BS over at least one DL slot/subframe ending in a first DL slot/subframe. The UE may monitor for DL communications from the NTN BS in at least a subset of DL slots/subframes between the first DL slot/subframe and a second DL slot/subframe that is time-aligned with the first UL slot/subframe. The DL communication may trigger a second DL communication starting at a third DL slot/subframe and ending at a fourth DL slot/subframe, and the UL communication is based at least in part on receiving the second DL communication, and the UE may monitor the at least the subset of slots/subframes between the fourth DL slot/subframe and the second DL slot/subframe.

Claims (60)

1. An apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising:

memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory, the at least one processor and the memory configured to:

receive, from a non-terrestrial network (NTN) base station (BS) in a first downlink (DL) slot or subframe, a DL communication configured to trigger an uplink (UL) communication starting in a first UL slot or subframe; and

monitor for other DL communications from the NTN BS in at least a subset of DL slots or subframes between the first DL slot or subframe and a second DL slot or subframe that is time-aligned with the first UL slot or subframe based on the DL communication being from the NTN base station.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a transceiver coupled to the at least one processor, wherein the DL communication configured to trigger the UL communication comprises at least one of:

a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) configured to trigger a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH),

a random access response (RAR) configured to trigger the PUSCH,

a PDCCH comprising a PDCCH order, configured to trigger a physical random access channel (PRACH), or

a PDCCH configured to trigger uplink control information (UCI) over a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or over the PUSCH.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the wireless communication is a narrowband internet-of-things (NB-IoT) communication, the PDCCH is a narrowband PDCCH (NPDCCH), the PUSCH is a narrowband PUSCH (NPUSCH), and the PRACH is a narrowband PRACH (NPRACH).

4. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the wireless communication is machine-type communication (MTC), and the PDCCH is an MTC PDCCH (MPDCCH).

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the DL communication is configured to trigger a second DL communication starting at a third DL slot or subframe and ending at a fourth DL slot or subframe, and the UL communication is based at least in part on a reception of the second DL communication, wherein the at least one processor and the memory are configured to monitor the at least a subset of DL slots or subframes between the fourth DL slot or subframe and the second DL slot or subframe,

wherein an index of the third DL slot or subframe is greater than an index of the first DL slot or subframe, and an index of the fourth DL slot or subframe is smaller than an index of the second DL slot or subframe.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the DL communication comprises a DL communication over a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), the second DL communication comprises a DL communication over a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), and the UL communication comprises UL communication through a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the PDCCH comprises downlink control information (DCI), the PDSCH comprises data, and the PUCCH or PUSCH comprises a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) Acknowledgment (ACK) (HARQ-ACK) based on the data.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the wireless communication is a narrowband internet-of-things (NB-IoT) communication, the PDCCH is a narrowband PDCCH (NPDCCH), and the PUSCH is a narrowband PUSCH (NPUSCH).

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein an index of the first UL slot or subframe is larger than the index of the first DL slot or subframe by a quantity of slots or subframes based at least in part on a scheduling offset associated with the NTN BS.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein an index of the second DL slot or subframe is smaller than the index of the first UL slot or subframe by a quantity of slots or subframes based at least in part on a timing advance parameter.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the triggered UL communication is associated with a first hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process, and the monitored other DL communications is associated with a same first HARQ process.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein to monitor for the other DL communications, the at least one processor and the memory are configured to monitor for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH).

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the wireless communication is a narrowband internet-of-things (NB-IoT) communication, and the PDCCH is a narrowband PDCCH (NPDCCH).

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor and the memory are further configured to:

determine a first configuration for the monitoring of the other DL communications from the NTN BS, the first configuration indicating at least the subset of the DL slots or subframes for the monitoring; and

determine a second configuration for the monitoring of the other DL communications from a terrestrial network (TN),

wherein the first configuration and the second configuration are different from each other.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the second configuration indicates a different subset of the DL slots or subframes for the monitoring.

16. A method of wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising:

receiving, from a non-terrestrial network (NTN) base station (BS) in a first downlink (DL) slot or subframe, a downlink (DL) communication triggering an uplink (UL) communication starting in a first UL slot or subframe; and

monitoring for other DL communications from the NTN BS in at least a subset of DL slots or subframes between the first DL slot or subframe and a second DL slot or subframe that is time-aligned with the first UL slot or subframe based on the DL communication being based on NTN.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:

determining a first configuration for the monitoring of the other DL communications from the NTN BS, the first configuration indicating at least the subset of the DL slots or subframes for the monitoring; and

determining a second configuration for the monitoring of the other DL communications from a terrestrial network (TN) BS,

wherein the first configuration and the second configuration are different from each other.

18. An apparatus for wireless communication at a non-terrestrial network (NTN) base station (BS), comprising:

memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory, the at least one processor and the memory configured to:

schedule a downlink (DL) communication configured to trigger an uplink (UL) communication starting in a first UL slot or subframe; and

transmit, to a user equipment (UE) in a first downlink (DL) slot or subframe, the DL communication configured to trigger the UL communication starting in the first UL slot or subframe,

wherein the at least one processor and the memory is configured to transmit other DL communications in at least a subset of DL slots or subframes between the first DL slot or subframe and a second DL slot or subframe that is time-aligned with the first UL slot or subframe at the UE based on the DL communication being from the NTN base station.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , further comprising a transceiver coupled to the at least one processor, wherein the DL communication configured to trigger the UL communication comprises at least one of:

a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) configured to trigger a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH),

a random access response (RAR) configured to trigger the PUSCH,

a PDCCH comprising a PDCCH order, configured to trigger a physical random access channel (PRACH), or

a PDCCH configured to trigger uplink control information (UCI) over a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or over the PUSCH.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the wireless communication is a narrowband internet-of-things (NB-IoT) communication, the PDCCH is a narrowband PDCCH (NPDCCH), the PUSCH is a narrowband PUSCH (NPUSCH), and the PRACH is a narrowband PRACH (NPRACH).

21. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the wireless communication is machine-type communication (MTC), and the PDCCH is an MTC PDCCH (MPDCCH).

22. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the wireless communication is a narrowband internet-of-things (NB-IoT) communication, and the PDCCH is a narrowband PDCCH (NPDCCH).

23. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the DL communication is configured to trigger a second DL communication starting at a third DL slot or subframe and ending at a fourth DL slot or subframe, and the UL communication is based at least in part on a reception of the second DL communication, wherein the at least one processor and the memory are configured to transmit the at least the subset of DL slots or subframes between the fourth DL slot or subframe and the second DL slot or subframe,

wherein an index of the third DL slot or subframe is greater than an index of the first DL slot or subframe, and an index of the fourth DL slot or subframe is smaller than an index of the second DL slot or subframe.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 , wherein the DL communication comprises a DL communication over a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), the second DL communication comprises a DL communication over a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), and the UL communication comprises UL communication through a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).

25. The apparatus of claim 24 , wherein the PDCCH comprises downlink control information (DCI), the PDSCH comprises data, and the PUCCH or PUSCH comprises a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) Acknowledgment (ACK) (HARQ-ACK) based on the data.

26. The apparatus of claim 25 , wherein the wireless communication is a narrowband internet-of-things (NB-IoT) communication, the PDCCH is a narrowband PDCCH (NPDCCH), and the PUSCH is a narrowband PUSCH (NPUSCH).

27. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein an index of the first UL slot or subframe is larger than an index of the first DL slot or subframe by a quantity of slots or subframes based at least in part on a scheduling offset associated with a non-terrestrial network (NTN) BS.

28. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein an index of the second DL slot or subframe is smaller than an index of the first UL slot or subframe by a quantity of slots or subframes based at least in part on a timing advance parameter.

29. A method of wireless communication at a non-terrestrial network (NTN) base station (BS), comprising:

scheduling a downlink (DL) communication triggering an uplink (UL) communication starting in a first UL slot or subframe; and

transmitting, to a user equipment (UE) in a first downlink (DL) slot or subframe, the downlink (DL) communication triggering the UL communication starting in the first UL slot or subframe,

wherein other DL communications are transmitted in at least a subset of DL slots or subframes between the first DL slot or subframe and a second DL slot or subframe that is time-aligned with the first UL slot or subframe at the UE based on the DL communication being from the NTN base station.

30. The method of claim 29 , further comprising receiving the UL communication starting in the first UL slot or subframe, the UL communication triggered by the DL communication.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jul 30, 2021
From: SENGUPTA, AYAN; RICO ALVARINO, ALBERTO; WANG, XIAO FENG; MA, LIANGPING; LIU, LE; SHRESTHA, BHARAT; GAAL, PETER; MA, JUN; PHUYAL, UMESH
To: QUALCOMM INCORPORATED
Reel/Frame 057042/0885 →
Continuity (2)
Provisional Application 63064410 · Aug 12, 2020
Related Publication 20220053531A1 · Feb 17, 2022
Cited By (1)
US 12,609,759