Granted Patent B2

US 12,356,201 · App. 17/429,598 · Granted Jul 8, 2025

Inventors: Lili Wei (Portland, OR); Qian Li (Beaverton, OR); Dawei Ying (Hillsboro, OR); Gang Xiong (Portland, OR); Geng Wu (Portland, OR)

Assignee: APPLE INC.

H04W16/10H04W72/0446

Abstract

Claims (50)

1. A method for allocating resources of an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node supporting space division multiplexing/spatial multiplexing (SDM), comprising:

receiving a radio resource control (RRC) signal for a cell-specific semi-static configuration of a mobile terminal (MT)/user equipment (UE) of the IAB node and a distributed unit (DU) of the LAB node, wherein the RRC signal comprises a TDD-UL-DL-ConfigCommon signal that includes 4 patterns for cell-specific assignment, wherein the 4 patterns comprise 2 cell-specific uplink (UL)-Flexible (F)-downlink (DL) patterns, wherein the TDD-UL-DL-ConfigCommon signal comprises a TDD-UL-DL-Pattern2 that defines a cell-specific UL-F-DL pattern of the 2 cell-specific UL-F-DL patterns;

allocating, for the MT/UE of the IAB node, a first pattern of the 4 patterns;

allocating, for the DU of the IAB node, the cell-specific UL-F-DL pattern that is a reverse pattern of the first pattern; and

communicating with a child IAB node, using the cell-specific UL-F-DL pattern.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, from a parent DU, a dynamic slot format indication comprising at least the first cell-specific pattern; and

transmitting, to the child IAB node, a dynamic SFI comprising the second cell-specific pattern.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a configuration of the second cell-specific pattern is based on an F1 Application Protocol (F1AP).

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the allocating the second cell-specific pattern of the DL-F-UL availability comprises transmitting a GNB-DU RESOURCE COORDINATION REQUEST message, a GNB-CU CONFIGURATION UPDATE F1AP message, or a dedicated F1AP message.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving one or more dynamic slot format indications (SFIs) from a parent DU associated with the IAB node; and

transmitting the one or more dynamic SFIs to a mobile termination (MT).

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitting signals for UL parent backhaul (BH) and DL child BH access; and

while transmitting, receiving signals from DL parent BH and UL child BH access.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a DL slot/symbol time resource of the first cell-specific pattern allocated for the MT of the IAB node corresponds to an UL slot/symbol time resource of the second cell-specific pattern allocated for the DU of the IAB node.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, receiving a second RRC signal for UE-specific semi-static configuration, wherein the second RRC signal comprises a TDD-UL-DL-SlotConfig2 that defines a UE-specific UL-F-DL pattern.

9. An integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node supporting space division multiplexing/spatial multiplexing (SDM), comprising:

a memory; and

a processor, coupled to the memory, configured to:

receive a radio resource control (RRC) signal for a cell-specific semi-static configuration of a mobile terminal (MT)/user equipment (UE) of the IAB node and a distributed unit (DU) of the IAB node, wherein the RRC signal comprises a TDD-UL-DL-ConfigCommon signal that includes 4 patterns for cell-specific assignment, wherein the 4 patterns comprise 2 cell-specific uplink (UL)-Flexible (F)-downlink (DL) patterns, wherein the TDD-UL-DL-ConfigCommon signal comprises a TDD-UL-DL-Pattern2 that defines a cell-specific UL-F-DL pattern of the 2 cell-specific UL-F-DL patterns;

specify UL-DL availability in a first pattern of the 4 patterns for the MT of the IAB node, and the cell-specific UF-F-DL pattern for the DU of the IAB node,

wherein the cell-specific UF-F-DL pattern is a reverse pattern of the first pattern;

transmit a first signal based on one of the first pattern; and

while transmitting, receive a second signal based on the cell-specific UL-F-DL pattern.

10. The IAB node of claim 9 , wherein the processor is configured to:

receive, from parent DU, a dynamic slot format indication (SFI) comprising the first cell-specific pattern; and

transmit, to a child IAB node, a dynamic SFI comprising the second cell-specific pattern.

11. The IAB node of claim 9 , wherein the second cell-specific pattern is configured based on a semi-static F1 Application Protocol (F1AP) downlink-uplink configuration.

12. The IAB node of claim 9 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive one or more dynamic slot format indications (SFIs) from a parent DU associated with the IAB node; and

transmit the one or more dynamic SFIs to a mobile termination (MT).

13. The IAB node of claim 9 , wherein the processor is further configured to receive a second RRC signal for UE-specific semi-static configuration, wherein the second RRC signal comprises a TDD-UL-DL-SlotConfig2 that defines a UE-specific UL-F-DL pattern.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors cause an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node to perform operations, the operations comprising:

receiving a radio resource control (RRC) signal for a cell-specific semi-static configuration of a mobile terminal (MT)/user equipment (UE) of the IAB node and a distributed unit (DU) of the IAB node, wherein the RRC signal comprises a TDD-UL-DL-ConfigCommon signal that includes 4 patterns for cell-specific assignment, wherein the 4 patterns comprise 2 cell-specific uplink (UL)-Flexible (F)-downlink (DL) patterns, wherein the TDD-UL-DL-ConfigCommon signal comprises a TDD-UL-DL-Pattern2 that defines a cell-specific UL-F-DL pattern of the 2 cell-specific UL-F-DL patterns;

specifying, for the MT of the IAB node, availability in a first pattern of the 4 patterns, and for the DU of the IAB node, the cell-specific UL-F-DL pattern; and

communicating with a child IAB node using the cell-specific UL-F-DL pattern that is a reverse pattern of the first pattern.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, from a parent DU, a dynamic slot format indication (SFI), comprising the first cell-specific pattern; and

transmitting, to the child IAB node, a dynamic SFI comprising the second cell-specific pattern.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein a configuration of the second cell-specific pattern is based on a semi-static F1 Application Protocol (F1AP) downlink-uplink (DL-UL) configuration.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving one or more dynamic slot format indications (SFIs) from a parent DU associated with the IAB node; and

transmitting the one or more dynamic SFIs to a mobile termination (MT).

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the operations further comprise:

transmitting signals for UL parent backhaul (BH) and DL child BH access; and

while transmitting, receiving signals from DL parent BH and UL child BH access.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein a DL slot/symbol time resource of the first cell-specific pattern allocated for the MT of the IAB node corresponds to an UL slot/symbol time resource of the second cell-specific pattern allocated for the DU of the IAB node.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the operations further comprise receiving a second RRC signal for UE-specific semi-static configuration, wherein the second RRC signal comprises a TDD-UL-DL-SlotConfig2 that defines a UE-specific UL-F-DL pattern.

Continuity (2)

References Cited (20)

Cited By (4)

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