IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,556,434
Granted Patent B2
US 12,556,434 · App. 17/502,608 · Granted Feb 17, 2026

Uplink sounding reference signal (SRS) transmission in carrier aggregation system

Inventors: Hong He (Sunnyvale, CA); Gang Xiong (Portland, OR); Seunghee Han (San Jose, CA); Hwan-Joon Kwon (Portland, OR); Alexei Davydov (Nizhny Novgorod, RU)
Assignee: Apple Inc.
H04L25/0226H04L1/1819H04L5/0051H04L5/0055H04L5/1469H04L27/2607H04W4/06H04W72/0446H04W72/23H04W72/569H04W76/27H04L5/001
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,556,434
App. No.
17/502,608
Granted
Feb 17, 2026
Kind
B2
Abstract

An apparatus can receive or transmit parameters for a sounding reference signal (SRS) transmission configuration as an uplink (UL)/downlink (DL) configuration of a serving cell. A time division duplex (TDD) operation with a plurality of component carriers (CCs) can be enabled/generated based on the parameters and at least one component carriers being reserved for the UL transmission or having a higher priority than a physical channel transmission such as a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission.

Claims (33)

1 . A baseband processor for a user equipment (UE) configured to:

receive a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) configuration parameter comprising an uplink (UL)/downlink (DL) configuration that indicates a first component carrier (CC) for sounding reference signal (SRS) transmission and a second CC for a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission, wherein the first CC is without a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission and without a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission; and

prioritize the SRS transmission when one or more resource elements in an SRS transmission on the first CC overlap with a PUCCH transmission on the second CC.

2 . The baseband processor of claim 1 , configured to, in response to the one or more resource elements in the SRS transmission on the first CC overlapping with the PUCCH transmission or the PUSCH transmission on the second CC, configure one or more resource elements of the second CC to be counted in a PUSCH mapping, but not used for transmission of the PUSCH transmission in the second CC.

3 . The baseband processor of claim 1 , wherein SRS transmission configuration parameters assign a higher priority to the SRS transmission than a HARQ transmission.

4 . The baseband processor of claim 1 , wherein the one or more resource elements comprise a first orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol or a last OFDM symbol.

5 . The baseband processor of claim 1 , further configured to configure a periodic SRS transmission or an aperiodic SRS transmission based on a radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

6 . The baseband processor of claim 1 , further configured to:

determine a HARQ timing for at least one of the first CC or the second CC, based on a received DL reference configuration;

configure a part of one or more subframes as dedicated SRS (D-SRS) subframes for the SRS transmission; and

transmit the SRS transmission using the at least one of the first CC or the second CC by performing a SRS carrier switching operation based on the HARQ timing and a predefined hopping pattern.

7 . A method for a user equipment (UE), comprising:

receiving a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) configuration parameter comprising an uplink (UL)/downlink (DL) configuration that indicates a first component carrier (CC) for sounding reference signal (SRS) transmission and a second CC for a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission, wherein the first CC is without a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission and without a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission; and

prioritizing the SRS transmission when one or more resource elements in an SRS transmission on the first CC overlap with a PUCCH transmission on the second CC.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising, in response to the one or more resource elements in the SRS transmission on the first CC overlapping with the PUCCH transmission or the PUSCH transmission on the second CC, configuring one or more resource elements of the second CC to be counted in a PUSCH mapping, but not used for transmission of the PUSCH transmission in the second CC.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein SRS transmission configuration parameters assign a higher priority to the SRS transmission than a HARQ transmission.

10 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the one or more resource elements comprise a first orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol or a last OFDM symbol.

11 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising configuring a periodic SRS transmission or an aperiodic SRS transmission based on a radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

12 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

determining a HARQ timing for at least one of the first CC or the second CC, based on a received DL reference configuration;

configuring a part of one or more subframes as dedicated SRS (D-SRS) subframes for the SRS transmission; and

transmitting the SRS transmission using the at least one of the first CC or the second CC by performing a SRS carrier switching operation based on the HARQ timing and a predefined hopping pattern.

13 . A user equipment (UE), comprising:

means for receiving a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) configuration parameter comprising an uplink (UL)/downlink (DL) configuration that indicates a first component carrier (CC) for sounding reference signal (SRS) transmission and a second CC for a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission, wherein the first CC is configured without a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission and without a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission; and

means for prioritizing the SRS transmission when one or more resource elements in an SRS transmission on the first CC overlap with a PUCCH transmission or a PUSCH transmission on the second CC.

14 . The UE of claim 13 , further comprising means for, in response to the one or more resource elements in the SRS transmission on the first CC overlapping with the PUCCH transmission or the PUSCH transmission on the second CC, configuring one or more resource elements of the second CC to be counted in a PUSCH mapping, but not used for transmission of the PUSCH transmission in the second CC.

15 . The UE of claim 13 , wherein SRS transmission configuration parameters assign a higher priority to the SRS transmission than a HARQ transmission.

16 . The UE of claim 13 , wherein the one or more resource elements comprise a first orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol or a last OFDM symbol.

17 . The UE of claim 13 , further comprising means for configuring a periodic SRS transmission or an aperiodic SRS transmission based on a radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

18 . The UE of claim 13 , further comprising:

means for determining a HARQ timing for at least one of the first CC or the second CC, based on a received DL reference configuration;

means for configuring a part of one or more subframes as dedicated SRS (D-SRS) subframes for the SRS transmission; and

means for transmitting the SRS transmission using the at least one of the first CC or the second CC by performing a SRS carrier switching operation based on the HARQ timing and a predefined hopping pattern.

Continuity (3)
Continuation 16303759
Provisional Application 62353375 · Jun 22, 2016
Related Publication 20220109590A1 · Apr 7, 2022
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