Method, user equipment, and an access network node
A method is disclosed in which a UE communicates with a RAN node in a set of cells. The UE receives, from the RAN node, control information for scheduling resources for a respective shared channel in each of at least two cells of the set of cells. The respective control information for each of the at least two cells of the set of cells is received in a single scheduling downlink control information (DCI) transmission. The UE respectively communicates with the RAN node in each of the at least two cells of the set of cells using the corresponding shared channel resources scheduled via the single scheduling DCI transmission. The scheduling DCI includes a DCI field, and the DCI field carries information for identifying each cell, of the at least two cells of the set of cells, for which resources for a respective shared channel have been scheduled.
1 . A method performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:
receiving, in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, first information indicating a mapping between a plurality of numeric values and a plurality of schedulable cell combinations, wherein the plurality of schedulable cell combinations is a subset of a set of possible cell combinations;
receiving, in a single scheduling downlink control information (DCI) transmission from an access network (AN) node, control information comprising:
scheduling information identifying respective resources of a shared channel for each cell of a scheduled cell combination, and
one of the plurality of numeric values;
determining the scheduled cell combination based on the one of the plurality of numeric values and the first information;
communicating with the AN node in the each cell of the scheduled cell combination using the respective resources of the shared channel; and
transmitting, to the AN node, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback for the shared channel for the each cell of the scheduled cell combination,
wherein the HARQ feedback comprises a first HARQ feedback corresponding to a first cell concatenated with a second HARQ feedback corresponding to a second cell in an order corresponding to one of indices and numeric identifiers respectively associated:
with the each cell of the scheduled cell combination; or
with each of a first component carrier on which a first cell of the scheduled cell combination is provided, and a second component carrier on which a second cell of the scheduled cell combination is provided.
2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one of the plurality of numeric values includes an indication of whether the scheduling information is for single-cell scheduling or multi-cell scheduling.
3 . The method according to claim 2 ,
wherein the control information further comprises at least one of: a HARQ feedback timing indicator field, a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource indicator field, and a Transmission Power Control (TPC) command field, and
wherein the transmitting the HARQ feedback comprises commonly using the at least one of the HARQ feedback timing indicator field, the PUCCH resource indicator field, and the TPC command field for both the first HARQ feedback and the second HARQ feedback.
4 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein the control information further comprises downlink assignment index (DAI) information comprising:
a counter DAI (C-DAI) that indicates an accumulated number of DCIs that have been transmitted to the UE in a monitoring occasion for the shared channel, and
a total DAI (T-DAI) that indicates a total number of the cells scheduled by the DCIs that have been transmitted to the UE in the monitoring occasion.
5 . The method according to claim 2 ,
wherein the control information further comprises an indication of a timing at which hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback should be provided to the AN node for the shared channel, the indication identifying the timing relative to a time of an earliest received of the shared channel, and
wherein the method further comprises providing the HARQ feedback to the AN node in accordance with the timing.
6 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein, for at least one cell of the scheduled cell combination, the respective resources of the shared channel are provided on a dynamic shared spectrum (DSS) component carrier.
7 . The method according to claim 1 ,
wherein the scheduled cell combination comprises a primary cell and a secondary cell, and
wherein the receiving the control information comprises receiving the control information in the secondary cell.
8 . A method performed by an access network (AN) node, the method comprising:
transmitting, in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message to a user equipment (UE), first information indicating a mapping between a plurality of numeric values and a plurality of schedulable cell combinations, wherein the plurality of schedulable cell combinations is a subset of a set of possible cell combinations;
transmitting, in a single scheduling downlink control information (DCI) transmission to the UE, control information comprising:
scheduling information identifying respective resources of a shared channel for each cell of a scheduled cell combination, and
one of the plurality of numeric values;
wherein the scheduled cell combination is determined by the UE based on the one of the plurality of numeric values and the first information;
communicating with the UE in the each cell of the scheduled cell combination using the respective resources of the shared channel; and
receiving, from the UE, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback for the shared channel for the each cell of the scheduled cell combination,
wherein the HARQ feedback comprises a first HARQ feedback corresponding to a first cell concatenated with a second HARQ feedback corresponding to a second cell in an order corresponding to one of indices and numeric identifiers respectively associated:
with the each cell of the scheduled cell combination; or
with each of a first component carrier on which a first cell of the scheduled cell combination is provided, and a second component carrier on which a second cell of the scheduled cell combination is provided.
9 . A user equipment (UE) comprising:
a memory storing instructions; and
at least one processor configured to process the instructions to:
receive, in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, first information indicating a mapping between a plurality of numeric values and a plurality of schedulable cell combinations, wherein the plurality of schedulable cell combinations is a subset of a set of possible cell combinations;
receive, in a single scheduling downlink control information (DCI) transmission from an access network (AN) node, control information comprising:
scheduling information comprising respective resources of a shared channel for each cell of a scheduled cell combination, and
one of the plurality of numeric values,
determine the scheduled cell combination based on the one of the plurality of numeric values and the first information;
communicate with the AN node in each cell of the scheduled cell combination using the respective resources of the corresponding shared channel; and
transmit, to the AN node, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback for the shared channel for the each cell of the scheduled cell combination,
wherein the HARQ feedback comprises a first HARQ feedback corresponding to a first cell concatenated with a second HARQ feedback corresponding to a second cell in an order corresponding to one of indices and numeric identifiers respectively associated:
with the each cell of the scheduled cell combination; or
with each of a first component carrier on which a first cell of the scheduled cell combination is provided, and a second component carrier on which a second cell of the scheduled cell combination is provided.
10 . An access network (AN) node comprising:
a memory storing instructions; and
at least one processor configured to process the instructions to:
transmit, in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message to a user equipment (UE), first information indicating a mapping between a plurality of numeric values and a plurality of schedulable cell combinations, wherein the plurality of schedulable cell combinations is a subset of a set of possible cell combinations;
transmit, in a single scheduling downlink control information (DCI) transmission to the UE, control information comprising:
scheduling information identifying respective resources of a shared channel for each cell of a scheduled cell combination, and
one of the plurality of numeric values;
wherein the scheduled cell combination is determined by the UE based on the one of the plurality of numeric values and the first information;
communicate with the UE in the each cell of the scheduled cell combination using the respective resources of the shared channel; and
receive, from the UE, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback for the shared channel for the each cell of the scheduled cell combination,
wherein the HARQ feedback comprises a first HARQ feedback corresponding to a first cell concatenated with a second HARQ feedback corresponding to a second cell in an order corresponding to one of indices and numeric identifiers respectively associated:
with the each cell of the scheduled cell combination; or
with each of a first component carrier on which a first cell of the scheduled cell combination is provided, and a second component carrier on which a second cell of the scheduled cell combination is provided.