Communications device, infrastructure equipment and methods
A communications device operates to receive data from a wireless communications network. The communications device receives one or more downlink control messages providing indicating a first downlink communications resource of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network from which the communications device can receive first downlink data, and indicating a second downlink communications resource of the wireless access interface from which the communications device can receive second downlink data, and indicating one or more uplink communications resources of the wireless access interface for the communications device to transmit one or more Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request-type (HARQ) feedback messages for indicating whether or not the first and second downlink data is received.
1. A method of receiving data by a communications device in a wireless communications network, the method comprising:
receiving one or more downlink control messages providing a grant of a first downlink communications resource of a wireless access interface from which the communications device can receive first downlink data, a grant of a second downlink communications resource of the wireless access interface from which the communications device can receive second downlink data, and information of a one or more allocations of an uplink communications resource of the wireless access interface for the communications device to transmit a first hybrid automatic repeat request-type (HARQ) feedback message for indicating whether or not the first downlink data is correctly received, and information of a one or more allocations of an uplink communications resource of the wireless access interface for the communications device to transmit a second hybrid automatic repeat request-type (HARQ) feedback message, separate from the first HARQ feedback message, for indicating whether or not the second downlink data is correctly received,
detecting that the first downlink communications resource and the second downlink communications resource of the wireless access interface overlap in time, and
applying one or more predetermined criteria to determine whether the communications device can transmit one or both of the first HARQ feedback message on the allocated uplink communications resource and the second HARQ feedback message on the allocated uplink communications resource, and
in response to receiving one or both of the first downlink data from the first downlink communications resources and the second downlink data from the second downlink communications resources, transmitting the determined HARQ feedback message for one or both of the received first and second downlink data.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the allocated uplink communications resource comprises a first uplink communications resource for transmitting the first HARQ message and a second uplink communications resource for transmitting the second HARQ message, and the one or more predetermined criteria include a requirement that the first uplink communications resource is different from the second uplink communications resource for the communications device to transmit both of the first HARQ feedback message and the second HARQ feedback message and the applying the one or more predetermined criteria comprises selecting of the first and the second HARQ feedback message to transmit in a case that the first and the second uplink communications resources are not different.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the one or more predetermined criteria include a restriction on a minimum temporal proximity of the first uplink communications resource for transmitting the first HARQ feedback message with respect to the second uplink communications resource for transmitting the second HARQ feedback message, and the applying the one or more predetermined criteria to determine that the communications device can transmit the first HARQ feedback or the second HARQ feedback includes determining that a temporal location of the first uplink communications resource and a temporal location of the second uplink communications resource are less than or equal the minimum temporal proximity restriction, and selecting to transmit one of the first HARQ feedback or the second HARQ feedback.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the wireless access interface comprises a time divided structure providing communications resources in time divided units and in frequency for the uplink and the downlink, and the restriction on the minimum temporal proximity of the first uplink communications resource for transmitting the first HARQ feedback message with respect to the second uplink communications resource for transmitting the second HARQ feedback message comprises whether the first uplink resources are in the same time divided unit of the uplink wireless access interface.
5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the wireless access interface comprises a time divided structure providing communications resources in time divided units and in frequency for the uplink and the downlink, and first HARQ feedback message and the second HARQ feedback message are generated by the communications device according to a first codebook or a second codebook, and the one or more predetermined criteria include a restriction on the first uplink resources being in the same time divided unit of the uplink wireless access interface and being generated by the same codebook, and the applying the one or more predetermined criteria to determine that the communications device can transmit the first HARQ feedback or the second HARQ feedback includes determining that the first uplink communications resource and the second uplink communications resource are generated using the same codebook, and selecting to transmit one of the first HARQ feedback or the second HARQ feedback.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the time divided structure of the wireless access interface includes sub-units, and the one or more predetermined criteria include a restriction on the first uplink resources not being in the same sub-unit of the same time divided unit, the applying the one or more predetermined criteria to determine that the communications device can transmit the first HARQ feedback or the HARQ feedback includes detecting that the first uplink resources are in the same sub-unit as the second uplink resources.
7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the one or more predetermined criteria include the first uplink communications resource for transmitting the first HARQ feedback message not overlapping in time with the second uplink communications resource for transmitting the second HARQ feedback message.
8. The method of claim 2 , comprising multiplexing the first and second HARQ feedback message and transmitting both of the first and the second HARQ feedback messages using the first uplink communications resources or the second uplink communications resources.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining whether the communications device can transmit a HARQ feedback message for one or both of the first downlink data from the first communications resource and the second downlink data from the second communications resource comprises:
determining in accordance with the predetermined criteria that a HARQ feedback message can be transmitted on either of the first downlink data from the first communications resource or the second downlink data from the second communications resource, and
determining a relative priority of the first downlink data and the second downlink data, and
selecting to transmit HARQ feedback on the first uplink communications resources or the second uplink communications resources in accordance with which of the first downlink data and the second downlink data has the higher priority.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein in a case that the first HARQ feedback message is transmitted, the transmitting the first HARQ feedback message includes adapting the first HARQ feedback message to indicate that the second downlink data was not received, and in a case that the second HARQ feedback message is transmitted, the transmitting the second HARQ feedback message includes adapting the second HARQ feedback message to indicate that the first downlink data was not received.
11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the adapting the first HARQ feedback message or the second HARQ feedback message comprises using a different scrambling code when transmitting the HARQ feedback message to that expected by the wireless communications network.
12. The method of claim 1 , comprising receiving the first downlink data from the first downlink communications resources, receiving the second downlink data from the second downlink communications resources and not transmitting the first HARQ feedback message in the granted uplink resources in a case that according to the predetermined criteria the first HARQ feedback message is not selected or not transmitting the second HARQ feedback message in the granted uplink resources in a case that according to the predetermined criteria the second HARQ feedback message is not selected.
13. The method of claim 1 , comprising delaying transmitting the first HARQ feedback message in the uplink resources in a case that according to the predetermined criteria the first HARQ feedback message is not selected to be transmitted or not transmitting the second HARQ feedback message in the granted uplink resources in a case that according to the predetermined criteria the second HARQ feedback message is not selected to be transmitted.
14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more allocations of an uplink communications resource comprises the same uplink communications resource.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the first and second downlink control messages are part of a plurality of downlink control messages which grant a plurality of downlink communications resources of a shared channel of the wireless access interface for the communications device to receive a corresponding plurality of the downlink data including the first and the second downlink data, the method comprising:
using predetermined rules to divide the plurality of downlink communications resources into a plurality of downlink shared channel occasions, the first downlink communications resources for receiving the first downlink data being in the same downlink shared channel occasion as the second downlink communications resource for receiving the second downlink data, and the applying one or more predetermined criteria to select whether to transmit the first HARQ feedback or the second HARQ feedback comprises:
determining a relative priority between the first downlink data and the second downlink data, and
selecting to transmit the first or the second HARQ feedback corresponding to the downlink data with the higher priority.
16. The method of claim 14 , comprising multiplexing the first and second HARQ feedback messages and transmitting both of the first and the second HARQ feedback messages in the uplink communications resource.
17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the adapting the first HARQ feedback message or the second HARQ feedback message comprises using a different scrambling code when transmitting the HARQ feedback message to that expected by the wireless communications network.
18. The method of claim 14 , wherein in a case that the first downlink data is received, the transmitting the first HARQ feedback message includes adapting the first HARQ feedback message to indicate that the second downlink data was not received, and in a case that the second downlink data is received, the transmitting the second HARQ feedback message includes adapting the second HARQ feedback message to indicate that the first downlink data was not received.
19. A communications device for receiving data from a wireless communications network, the communications device comprising:
receiver circuitry configured to receive signals transmitted via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network,
transmitter circuitry configured to transmit signals via the wireless access interface, and
controller circuitry configured to control the receiver circuitry
to receive one or more downlink control messages providing a grant of a first downlink communications resource of the wireless access interface from which the communications device can receive first downlink data, a grant of a second downlink communications resource of the wireless access interface from which the communications device can receive second downlink data, and a grant of a one or more allocations of an uplink communications resource of the wireless access interface for the communications device to transmit a first automatic repeat request-type (HARQ) feedback message for indicating whether or not the first downlink data is received and to transmit a second automatic repeat request-type (HARQ) feedback message, separate from the first HARQ feedback message, for indicating whether or not the second downlink data is received, the controller circuitry being configured
to detect that the first downlink communications resource and the second downlink communications resource of the wireless access interface overlap in time,
to apply one or more predetermined criteria to determine whether the communications device can transmit one or both of the first HARQ feedback message on the allocated uplink communications resource and the second HARQ feedback message on the allocated uplink communications resource, and
to control the receiver circuitry in accordance with the applied predetermined criteria to receive one or both of the first downlink data and the second downlink data, and to control the transmitter circuitry
to transmit the determined HARQ feedback message for one or both of the received first and second downlink data.
20. A communications device for receiving data from a wireless communications network, the communications device comprising:
receiver circuitry configured to receive signals transmitted via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network,
transmitter circuitry configured to transmit signals via the wireless access interface, and
controller circuitry configured to control the receiver circuitry
to receive one or more downlink control messages providing a grant of a first downlink communications resource of a wireless access interface from which the communications device can receive first downlink data, a grant of a second downlink communications resource of the wireless access interface from which the communications device can receive second downlink data, and information of a one or more allocations of an uplink communications resource of the wireless access interface for the communications device to transmit a first hybrid automatic repeat request-type (HARQ) feedback message for indicating whether or not the first downlink data is correctly received, and information of a one or more allocations of an uplink communications resource of the wireless access interface for the communications device to transmit a second HARQ feedback message, separate from the first HARQ feedback message, for indicating whether or not the second downlink data is correctly received, the controller circuitry being configured
to detect that the first downlink communications resource and the second downlink communications resource of the wireless access interface overlap in time, and
to apply one or more predetermined criteria to determine whether the communications device can transmit HARQ feedback message for one or both of the first HARQ feedback message for transmission on the first uplink communications resources or the second HARQ feedback message for transmission on the second uplink communications resources, and to control the receiver circuitry
to receive one or both of the first downlink data from the first downlink communications resources and the second downlink data from the second downlink communications resources, and
in accordance with the determined conditions in a case that it has been determined to transmit the first HARQ feedback message via the first uplink communications resources, to adapt the first HARQ feedback message transmitted on the first uplink communications resources to provide an indication of the second HARQ feedback for the second downlink data, or in a case that it has been determined to transmit the second HARQ feedback message via the second uplink communications resources, to adapt the second HARQ feedback message transmitted on the second uplink communications resources to provide an indication of the first HARQ feedback for the first downlink data.