IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,317,092
Granted Patent B2
US 12,317,092 · App. 18/619,213 · Granted May 27, 2025

Method, apparatus, and system for physical channel transmission in unlicensed band

Inventors: Minseok Noh (Gyeonggi-do, KR); Jinsam Kwak (Gyeonggi-do, KR); Juhyung Son (Gyeonggi-do, KR)
Assignee: WILUS INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY INC.
H04W16/14H04W72/0446H04W72/23H04W74/0808
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,317,092
App. No.
18/619,213
Granted
May 27, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

A user equipment of a wireless communication system is disclosed. The user equipment includes a communication module, and a processor. The processor is configured to transmit a radio frame divided into a plurality of subframes through the communication module, and perform a UL transmission in a partial subframe having a duration shorter than one subframe duration to the base station based on at least one of an indication of a base station and a result of a channel access of the wireless communication system.

Claims (37)

1. A user equipment configured to operate in a wireless communication system, the user equipment comprising:

a communication module; and

a processor,

wherein the processor is configured to:

perform, in an unlicensed band, a first transmission on a single or a plurality of subframes by using the communication module,

wherein the processor is further configured to:

perform, in the unlicensed band, the first transmission in a partial subframe having a duration shorter than a duration of one subframe according to at least one of an indication of a mode of the first transmission and a result of a channel access of the user equipment,

when the user equipment accesses a channel in the unlicensed band using a random backoff based channel access, adjust a size of a contention window used in the random backoff based channel access based on whether a transmission of a reference subframe previously transmitted by the user equipment using the random backoff based channel access is successful or not, and

perform, in the unlicensed band, a second transmission by accessing the channel based on the size of the contention window,

wherein the reference subframe comprises the partial subframe,

wherein a backoff time in a procedure of the random backoff based channel access is determined based on a random number uniformly distributed within 0 and the size of the contention window.

2. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to:

when an earliest subframe among a plurality of subframes that are continuously transmitted, by the user equipment in the unlicensed band, without a gap before a recently transmitted subframe is the partial subframe, determine, as the reference subframe, the earliest subframe and a subframe transmitted by the user equipment immediately after the earliest subframe among the plurality of subframes,

wherein the recently transmitted subframe is a subframe that is transmitted most recently by the user equipment among subframes that are transmitted by the user equipment before a time point obtained by subtracting a predetermined time interval from a starting time point of a subframe including a first grant,

wherein the first grant indicates the second transmission.

3. The user equipment of claim 2 , wherein when the plurality of subframes include no subframe, the processor is configured to determine only the recently transmitted subframe in the unlicensed band as the reference subframe.

4. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein when a new data indicator (NDI) for at least one hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process associated with at least one reference HARQ process identifier (ID) is toggled, the processor is configured to set a size of a contention window of all channel access priority classes to a minimum size of a size of a contention window corresponding to each channel access priority classes,

wherein the reference HARQ process ID is an identifier for identifying an HARQ process of a data channel of the user equipment in the reference subframe.

5. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein when a new data indicator (NDI) for at least one hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process associated with at least one reference HARQ process identifier (ID) is not toggled, the processor is configured to increase a size of a contention window of all channel access priority classes to a next greater size than a current size of a contention window among sizes allowed in a corresponding channel access priority class.

6. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein when a second grant indicates a third transmission, and the user equipment fails to access the channel to start the third transmission, in the unlicensed band, until an initial starting time point of the third transmission, the processor is configured to attempt a channel access for the third transmission, in the unlicensed band, before remaining starting time points of the third transmission other than the initial starting time point of the third transmission.

7. The user equipment of claim 6 , wherein when the user equipment fails to access the channel to start the third transmission until the initial starting time point of the third transmission, the processor is configured to determine a channel access type used in the channel access for the third transmission after the initial starting time point of the third transmission based on whether the user equipment performs the third transmission, in the unlicensed band, within a maximum channel occupancy time (MCOT) configured by a station which receives the third transmission.

8. The user equipment of claim 7 , wherein when the user equipment fails to access the channel to start the third transmission until the initial starting time point of the third transmission and the user equipment performs the third transmission within the MCOT configured by the station which receives the third transmission, the processor is configured to attempt to access the channel for the third transmission based on whether the channel is idle for a predetermined single time interval, in the unlicensed band, after the initial starting time point of the third transmission.

9. The user equipment of claim 7 , wherein when the user equipment fails to access the channel to start the third transmission, in the unlicensed band, until the initial starting time point of the third transmission, the processor is configured to determine the channel access type used in the channel access for the third transmission after the initial starting time point of the third transmission based on whether the user equipment performs the third transmission in the MCOT configured by the station which receives the third transmission, regardless of an indication of the channel access type.

10. The user equipment of claim 7 , wherein the channel access type comprises a first type indicating a random backoff based channel access and a second type indicating channel access in which channel access is performed based on whether the channel is idle for a predetermined single time interval.

11. The user equipment of claim 6 , wherein when the user equipment fails to access the channel to start the third transmission until the initial starting time point of the third transmission, the processor is configured to access the channel for the third transmission after the initial starting time point of the third transmission regardless of an indication of a channel access type.

12. The user equipment of claim 1 , wherein when the user equipment transmits a last subframe of a fourth transmission, in the unlicensed band, as the partial subframe, the processor is configured to configure the partial subframe composed of the number of SC-FDMA symbols starting from a Single Carrier (SC)-Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) symbol index 0 to an SC-FDMA symbol index of 3, 6, or 10, and ends the fourth transmission by transmitting the configured partial subframe.

13. The user equipment of claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to transmit a Demodulation-Reference Signal (DM-RS) at an SC-FDMA symbol position having an SC-FDMA symbol index of 3 or 10 in a subframe.

14. An operation method of a user equipment configured to operate in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:

performing, in an unlicensed band, a first transmission on a single or a plurality of subframes,

wherein the performing the first transmission comprises performing the first transmission in a partial subframe having a duration shorter than a duration of one subframe according to at least one of an indication of a mode of the first transmission and a result of a channel access of the user equipment,

when the user equipment accesses a channel in the unlicensed band using a random backoff based channel access, adjusting a size of a contention window used in the random backoff based channel access based on whether a transmission of a reference subframe previously transmitted by the user equipment using the random backoff based channel access is successful or not, and

performing, in the unlicensed band, a second transmission by accessing the channel based on the size of the contention window,

wherein the reference subframe comprises the partial subframe,

wherein a backoff time in a procedure of the random backoff based channel access is determined based on a random number uniformly distributed within 0 and the size of the contention window.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the adjusting the size of the contention window comprises, when an earliest subframe among a plurality of subframes that are continuously transmitted, by the user equipment in the unlicensed band, without a gap before a recently transmitted subframe is the partial subframe, determining, as the reference subframe, the earliest subframe and a subframe transmitted by the user equipment immediately after the earliest subframe among the plurality of subframes, wherein the recently transmitted subframe is a subframe that is transmitted most recently by the user equipment among subframes that are transmitted by the user equipment before a time point obtained by subtracting a predetermined time interval from a starting time point of a subframe including a grant,

wherein the grant indicates the second transmission.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the adjusting the size of the contention window further comprises, when the plurality of subframes only include the most recently transmitted subframe, determining only the most recently transmitted subframe in the unlicensed band as the reference subframe.

Priority Claims (3)
KR 10-2017-0038005 · Mar 25, 2017 · national
KR 10-2017-0102374 · Aug 11, 2017 · national
KR 10-2017-0151749 · Nov 14, 2017 · national
Continuity (5)
Continuation 18095619 · Jan 11, 2023
Continuation 17361313 · Jun 28, 2021
Continuation 16578246 · Sep 20, 2019
Continuation PCTKR2018003562 · Mar 26, 2018
Related Publication 20240298187A1 · Sep 5, 2024
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