JP7209048B2 - TERMINAL DEVICE, COMMUNICATION METHOD, AND INTEGRATED CIRCUIT - Google Patents

Description

The present disclosure relates to terminal devices, communication methods, and integrated circuits.

Machine-Type Communication (MTC) is an important source of revenue for operators and has great potential from an operator's point of view. Based on market and operator requirements, one of the key requirements of MTC is to improve the coverage of MTC UEs.

Extending MTC coverage requires extending almost all physical channels. Repetition in the time domain is the primary method for improving channel coverage. At the receiver side, the receiver combines all repetitions of the channel and decodes the information.

Another requirement for MTC is reduced power consumption on the UE side. One efficient way to reduce power consumption is to reduce the active time of the UE, in other words reduce unnecessary blind detection, reception and transmission by the UE.

A first aspect of the present disclosure comprises a control circuit that allocates one or more repetitions of a downlink control channel to one or more subregions, and a transmitter that transmits the downlink control channel, wherein the one or more can be identified using a maximum number of repetitions and information about the one or more sub-regions signaled by physical layer signaling, the one or more sub-regions at each repetition number less than or equal to the maximum number of repetitions A base station is provided starting from the same subframe.

In a second aspect of the present disclosure, one or more repetitions of a downlink control channel are assigned to one or more subregions, the downlink control channel is transmitted, and the one or more subregions are the maximum number of repetitions and physical Identifiable using information about the one or more sub-regions signaled by layer signaling, wherein the one or more sub-regions start from the same subframe at each repetition number less than or equal to the maximum repetition number. A method is provided.

In a third aspect of the present disclosure, a process of allocating one or more repetitions of a downlink control channel to one or more subregions and a process of transmitting the downlink control channel are controlled, and the one or more subregions A region can be identified using a maximum number of repetitions and information about the one or more sub-regions signaled by physical layer signaling, wherein the one or more sub-regions are identical at each repetition number less than or equal to the maximum number of repetitions. An integrated circuit is provided starting from a subframe.

According to the present disclosure, it is possible to reduce the power consumption of the UE, reduce the number of blind decodings, and reduce the buffer size.

Because the above description is a summary, simplifications, generalizations, and omissions of detail are included where appropriate. Other aspects, features, and advantages relating to the devices and/or processes and/or other subject matter described herein will become apparent in the teachings provided herein. The above summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described in the Detailed Description section below. This Summary is not intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, but is intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter. not.

The foregoing and other features of the present disclosure will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The description of the disclosure may be further elaborated, bearing in mind that such drawings are intended to depict only some of the embodiments according to the disclosure and are therefore not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure. and to give particularity, each of the attached drawings below are used.

Schematic diagram showing an exemplary control region, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure Schematic diagram illustrating a flowchart of a wireless communication method performed by an eNB, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure Schematic diagram illustrating a flow chart of a wireless communication method performed by a UE according to an embodiment of the present disclosure Schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary allocation of UEs to sub-regions, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure Schematic diagram showing an exemplary control region and an exemplary data channel in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure 1 is a block diagram that schematically illustrates an eNB, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure; FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a UE, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure; FIG.

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings, each of which forms a part thereof. Similar symbols in the drawings identify similar components, unless context dictates otherwise. Aspects of the present disclosure can be adapted, permuted, combined, and designed in a wide variety of configurations, all of which are expressly contemplated and readily made part of the present disclosure. be understood by

As described in the Background section, for MTC, an efficient way to reduce power consumption on the UE side is to reduce unnecessary blind detection, reception and transmission by the UE. To this end, it is possible to define a control region for MTC to transmit control channels, such as the example of FIG. be. The control region can be transmitted periodically. Therefore, MTC UEs only need to be awake in the control region to monitor their own control channels and need not be active in all subframes. A control region may be mapped onto multiple subframes, and there may be multiple subregions (which may overlap) within the control region. Each sub-region can be used to transmit repetitions of one control channel, such as the PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel). In the example of FIG. 1, there are seven sub-regions within the control region. Note that the division of sub-regions in FIG. 1 is exemplary only, and sub-regions may be divided in different manners. Additionally, although the illustrated sub-regions are mapped onto logical indices of consecutive subframes, the mapping of logical indices to physical indices of subframes may be localized or distributed.

This disclosure proposes a solution to the search space for MTC UEs based on the concept of control region. With the proposed solution, the UE active time and blind decoding time will be significantly reduced. In the present disclosure, MTC may be taken up as an example for explaining the principle of the present disclosure. Instead, it can be applied to different wireless communications such as other communications conforming to the LTE specifications. Therefore, the UE is not limited to MTC UE, but may be any other UE capable of performing the communication methods described in this disclosure.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, a wireless communication method 200 performed by an eNB is provided, illustrated in FIG. 2, which schematically depicts a flow chart of a wireless communication method 200, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. The wireless communication method 200 includes the step of transmitting 201 repetitions of a control channel in a control region towards a first UE at a certain coverage enhancement (CE) level. At step 201, one or more control channels may be repeatedly transmitted on a control channel, such as the control channel shown in FIG. The control region contains multiple sub-regions, each of which can be used to transmit repetitions of one control channel. In the exemplary control area shown in FIG. 1, there are seven sub-areas. Some subregions may overlap each other. For example, in FIG. 1, subregion 1, subregion 5, and subregion 7 overlap each other. As used herein, "coverage enhancement level" refers to the maximum number of transmission repetitions for a particular channel. Depending on application scenarios such as channel conditions, there may be several coverage enhancement levels available to the eNB for transmitting control channels. Fewer subframes may be reserved for repeated transmissions if the eNB selects a lower coverage enhancement level for repeated transmissions of the control channel. In other words, for lower coverage enhancement levels, smaller sub-regions can be reserved. From the system point of view (i.e. from the point of view of the eNB or for all possible receiving UEs), the eNB has a number of sub-regions belonging to a control region for each coverage enhancement level, or It is possible to transmit the control channel in one sub-region selected from the set of available sub-regions consisting of all. Taking the control channel shown in FIG. If transmission is possible and coverage enhancement level 2, the control channel can be transmitted in sub-regions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, coverage enhancement level 3 ( here the highest level), the control channel can be transmitted in sub-regions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7. Table 1 lists the above examples of available sub-region allocations.

In wireless communication method 200, from the perspective of the UE (i.e., for a particular UE), it is possible to transmit one control channel towards a particular UE at a particular coverage enhancement level. The sub-region will be selected from the set of available sub-regions at a particular coverage enhancement level from the eNB's point of view, all of these possible sub-regions starting from the same subframe. The term "sub-region" as used herein means that the number of possible sub-regions can be one or more, and if the number of possible sub-regions is more than one, the possible sub-regions are the same sub-region. Note that it means to start with a frame. In other words, the possible sub-areas for a particular UE at a particular coverage enhancement level are the sub-areas available at the particular coverage enhancement level for all possible receiving UEs. Construct a subset of the set. In summary, in the wireless communication method 200, possible sub-regions assigned from multiple sub-regions to transmit one control channel to a first UE within a coverage enhancement level are sent from the same sub-frame. Beginning, the possible sub-areas for the first UE and a particular coverage enhancement level constitute a subset of the set of sub-areas available at the coverage enhancement level from the perspective of the eNB; That is, the set of available sub-regions consists of some or all of the multiple sub-regions belonging to the control region, and from the eNB's point of view, every sub-region derived from the set of available sub-regions is at the coverage enhancement level ( available by the eNB to transmit one control channel within the coverage enhancement level).

In the exemplary control region shown in FIG. 1, for example, for a UE with coverage enhancement level 1, a possible sub-region can contain only one sub-region (eg, sub-region 1, or sub-regions 2, 3, or 4), for a coverage enhancement level 2 UE, the possible sub-regions may include two sub-regions (e.g., sub-region 1 and sub-region Region 5, or sub-regions 3 and 6), for coverage enhancement level 3 UEs, the possible sub-regions may include three sub-regions (e.g., sub-region 1, sub-region area 5, and sub-area 7). From FIG. 1 it can be seen that for each coverage enhancement level the possible sub-regions start from the same sub-frame. For example, at coverage enhancement level 2, sub-region 1 and sub-region 5 start from the same subframe, and at coverage enhancement level 3, sub-region 1, sub-region Region 5 and subregion 7 start from the same subframe. In other words, for each coverage enhancement level, from the eNB's point of view, there are different alternatives for subsets of sub-regions for transmitting control channels, and for a given coverage enhancement level, Each given UE monitors one of the alternative subsets listed in Table 2 for the exemplary control region of FIG.

On the UE side, UEs within the coverage enhancement level monitor the control channel, since the possible sub-regions that the eNB uses to send repetitions of the control channel to a particular UE start from the same subframe. The possible subregions needed to do so also start from the same subframe. In other words, the UE does not need to monitor all control regions for control channels, but only certain sub-regions starting from the same subframe. Accordingly, one embodiment of the present disclosure provides a wireless communication method 300 performed by a UE (first UE), shown in FIG. 3, which schematically illustrates a flow chart of a wireless communication method 300, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. The wireless communication method 300 includes a step 301 of receiving repetitions of a control channel sent from an eNB in a control region to UEs of a coverage enhancement level. Then, the control region includes multiple sub-regions, each of which can be used to transmit repetitions of one control channel, and UEs within a coverage enhancement level can communicate within one control region. The possible sub-regions needed to monitor one control channel start from the same subframe and the possible sub-regions for a UE at a particular coverage enhancement level are the coverage enhancement levels ( construct a subset of the set of sub-regions available at the coverage enhancement level. Note that the above description of method 200 also applies to method 300 and will not be described in detail.

The above wireless communication method provided by embodiments of the present disclosure provides several advantages. 1stly, it becomes possible to suppress the power consumption of UE. A UE does not need to monitor all control regions for its own control channel and is only active during repetitive transmission times. Therefore, there is no unnecessary active time with energization. Second, it is possible to reduce the number of times of blind decoding. Taking the control region shown in FIG. 1 and Table 1 as an example, according to the present disclosure, up to three blind decodings are sufficient. However, if one UE monitors all subframes in Table 1, the maximum number of blind decoding is seven. Third, since all possible subframes that one UE needs for monitoring start from the same subframe, no extra buffer is needed and only one buffer is sufficient. Conversely, for example, if the UE needs to monitor sub-regions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, the UE has to buffer sub-regions 2 and 5 simultaneously, doubling the A buffer of size is required.

In optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the possible sub-regions may be configured by signaling such as physical layer signaling and RRC (Radio Resource Control) signaling. In other words, which alternative subset of subframes to use for the UE can be configured by signaling, after which the UE has information about which subframes to monitor.

Alternatively, the possible sub-regions may be implicitly indicated by the UE index of the receiving UE (first UE). The UE index may be a Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) or any other index that identifies the UE. For example, for coverage enhancement level L, the UE may monitor an alternate subset with index mod (n _idx , n _L )+1, where n _idx is the UE index, nL is the number of alternate subsets for coverage enhancement level _L ; For example, a UE with index #30 monitors an alternative subset (Alt.3 in Table 2, i.e., sub-region 3) with an index of mod (30,4)+1 for coverage enhancement level 1. be able to. Similarly, for coverage enhancement level 2, the UE with index #30 uses Alt. 1 (ie, sub-regions 1 and 5), and for coverage enhancement level 3, the UE with index #30 can monitor Alt. 1 (ie, sub-regions 1, 5, and 7) can be monitored. According to the same embodiment, no additional signaling is required.

Further, in one embodiment of the present disclosure, the first UE is configured to detect the UE index of at least one second UE in addition to the UE index of the first UE in possible sub-regions of the first UE within one control region. the UE index can be monitored, the UE index of the first UE and the UE index of the at least one second UE can be used to indicate information about the control channel sent to the first UE; A possible sub-region monitored by at least one second UE has a different starting sub-frame than a possible sub-region monitored by the first UE. According to the same embodiment, an alternate subset (first alternate subset) for one UE (e.g., first UE) is an alternate subset (second alternate subset) for another UE (second UE) ), then both the UE indices of these at least two UEs contain information about the control channel transmitted to the first UE within the possible sub-region for the first UE (e.g., control Can be used by the eNB to indicate the type of information (such as DCI). where the first UE has its own UE index (first UE index) and the UEs of the second UE within the first alternative subset of sub-regions assigned to the first UE within the CE level Monitor the index (second UE index). If the first UE detects control information in a sub-region considered to be scrambled by the first UE index, then the control information is for the first UE. This is type 1 control information. If the first UE has detected control information in a sub-region considered to be itself scrambled with the second UE index, then the control information is for the first UE. , is type 2 control information, which is different from type 1. In conventional schemes, the control information scrambled with the second UE index is not intended for the first UE and the first UE does not decode it. However, in the example of this disclosure, the starting subframe of the first alternate subset is different than the starting subframe of the second alternate subset, so the control channel transmitted in the first alternate subset is the second and the second UE will not monitor the control channel within the first alternate subset of sub-regions. As such, the second UE index can be reused within the first alternate subset for the first UE to indicate information regarding the control channel being sent to the first UE. The same embodiment allows the UE to monitor multiple types of control information without adding a new index (eg, RNTI). This can be a means of saving RNTI resources.

As a specific example of the above embodiment, for a particular coverage enhancement level L (eg, level 1 in the example of FIG. 1 and Table 2), the UEs have M non-overlapping (eg, 4) are assigned to subregions of FIG. 4 schematically illustrates two examples of how UEs are allocated to sub-regions. In this example, a UE only monitors a certain sub-region, but the UE may not only monitor its own RNTI but also other M- It also monitors some of the RNTIs of other UEs assigned to one sub-region. Different RNTIs indicate different control information type indices. Table 3 shows an example of control information type indication by RNTI for different monitoring sub-areas, taking as an example allocation 2 shown in FIG.

As can be seen from Table 3, for example, a UE in RNTI#0 will monitor RNTI#0, #1, #2 and #3 in sub-region 1. If the control channel is successfully decoded by RNTI#0, then the control channel is type 1 DCI, if the control channel is successfully decoded by RNTI#1, then the control channel is type 2 DCI, and so on. It is the same. Thus, the UE can monitor multiple types of control information without adding new RNTIs, which saves RNTI resources.

Additionally, in another embodiment of the present disclosure, the above method 200 may further include transmitting repetitions of data channels within a sub-region of a data region to the first UE, the above method 300 may further include receiving repetitions of data channels transmitted from eNBs within a sub-region of a data region. Either the sub-regions for the data channel are associated with the sub-regions for the control channel scheduling the data channel, or the information about the sub-regions for the data channel is signaled in the control channel scheduling the data channel. you can Data channels are scheduled by control channels.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a control area and a data area, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. Although the division of sub-regions in the control and data channels is the same in FIG. 5, the disclosure is not so limited. The division of sub-regions in the data channel may be different than in the control channel. Some specific examples of the same embodiment are described below.

In a first example, sub-regions of a transmitted control channel (eg, PDCCH) and sub-regions of transmitted data channels scheduled by that control channel are mapped one-to-one. One specific example is illustratively shown in Table 4 below.

From Table 4, when the UE successfully decodes its own control channel in sub-region 1 of the control region, the UE's scheduled repetition of the data channel is transmitted in sub-region 1 within the data region, and the UE It can be seen that when it has successfully decoded its own control channel in sub-region 2 of the control region, iterations of the UE's scheduled data channel are transmitted in sub-region 2 within the data region, and so on.

Alternatively, in the second example, there is a correspondence between the possible monitored sub-regions of the control channel and the possible monitored sub-regions of the data channels scheduled by that control channel. One specific example is shown in Table 5 below.

From Table 5, if a CE level 1 UE is configured to monitor sub-region 1 within the control region, the UE's scheduled data channels will be transmitted in sub-region 1 within the data region. , if a CE level 2 UE is configured to monitor sub-region 1 and sub-region 5 (Alt. 5, it can be seen that blind detection is possible as to which sub-region is actually used.

Alternatively, in a third example, information about sub-regions for data channels may be signaled in the control channel that schedules the data channels. For example, in the exemplary control and data regions shown in FIG. 5, the UE uses the control channel to signal information of specific sub-regions for the data channel, i.e. It is possible to signal which sub-regions are used to transmit data channels. Alternatively, the correspondences shown in Table 5 can be used in conjunction with signaling to indicate which sub-regions are used for data channels. Specifically, if a CE level 1 UE is configured to monitor sub-regions 1, 2, 3, or 4 in the control region, the UE's scheduled data channels are in the data region, respectively. will be transmitted in sub-regions 1, 2, 3, or 4 of . If a CE level 2 UE is configured to monitor sub-region 1 and sub-region 5 (Alt. 5, and which sub-region of sub-regions 1 and 5 is actually used is signaled in the scheduling control channel. For CE level 3 UEs, which sub-region among sub-regions 1, 5 and 7 is actually used is signaled in the scheduling control channel. Table 6 shows the above examples.

As yet another example, if a CE level 1 UE is configured to monitor any of sub-regions 1, 2, 3, and 4 within the control region, the UE's scheduled data It may be transmitted in any of sub-regions 1, 2, 3, and 4 within the region, and which sub-region among sub-regions 1, 2, 3, and 4 is actually used depends on the scheduling control channel. is signaled in

In the above embodiment of repeated transmission of the data channel in conjunction with the control channel, sub-regions of the data channel can be at least partially indicated, thus reducing power consumption of the UE and blind decoding being used. You can reduce the number of times and use a smaller buffer size. In addition, these embodiments include sub-regions for data channels that can be associated with sub-regions for control channels that schedule data channels, thus reducing signaling overhead and reducing data channel It also has the advantage of making scheduling easier.

The present disclosure also provides eNBs and UEs for performing the above methods. An embodiment of the present disclosure provides an eNB 600 for wireless communication, shown in FIG. 6, which is a block diagram that schematically illustrates an eNB 600, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. The eNB 600 may comprise a transmitting unit 601 configured to transmit repetitions of control channels within the control region to a first UE at a coverage enhancement level. The control region then includes a plurality of sub-regions, each of which can be used to transmit repetitions of one control channel, and one control channel to the first within a coverage enhancement level. The possible sub-regions allocated from multiple sub-regions to transmit to the UE start from the same subframe, and for the first UE at a particular coverage enhancement level, the possible sub-regions from the eNB Construct a subset of the set of available sub-regions at a coverage enhancement level. Note that the above descriptions and specific embodiments of method 200 are also applicable to eNB 600 . For example, the transmitting unit 601 may be further configured to transmit repetitions of data channels within sub-regions of the data region to the first UE.

The eNB 600 according to the present disclosure includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 610 for processing various data and executing related programs that control the operation of each unit in the eNB 600, various processing and control by the CPU 610 A ROM (Read Only Memory) 613 for storing various programs necessary for executing the CPU 610, for storing intermediate data temporarily generated in procedures related to various processing and control by the CPU 610. A random access memory (RAM) 615 and/or a storage unit 617 for storing various programs, data, etc. may optionally be included. The transmitting unit 601, CPU 610, ROM 613, RAM 615, and/or storage unit 617, etc., described above, are interconnected via a data and/or command bus 620 and are capable of transferring signals between each other.

Each unit described above is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. According to one implementation of the present disclosure, the functionality of the sending unit 601 may be implemented by hardware, and the CPU 610, ROM 613, RAM 615, and/or storage unit 617 may not be required. Alternatively, the functionality of the transmission unit 601 may be implemented by functional software in conjunction with the CPU 610, ROM 613, RAM 615, and/or storage unit 617, etc. described above.

An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a UE 700 for wireless communication, shown in FIG. 7, which is a block diagram that schematically illustrates a UE 700, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. UE 700 may comprise a receiving unit 701 configured to receive repetitions of control channels transmitted from eNBs in a control region to UEs of a certain coverage enhancement level. Then, the control region includes multiple sub-regions, each of which can be used to transmit repetitions of one control channel, and UEs within a coverage enhancement level can transmit one repetition of the control channel. The possible sub-regions needed to monitor the control channel start from the same sub-frame and the possible sub-regions for a UE at a particular coverage enhancement level are equal to the coverage enhancement level seen from the eNB. level) constitute a subset of the set of sub-regions available. Note that the above descriptions and specific embodiments of method 300 are also applicable to UE 700 . For example, the receiving unit 701 may be further configured to receive repetitions of data channels transmitted from eNBs within sub-regions of the data region.

The UE 700 according to the present disclosure includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 710 for processing various data and executing related programs that control the operation of each unit in the UE 700, various processing and control by the CPU 710 A ROM (Read Only Memory) 713 for storing various programs necessary for executing the , and a RAM ( A Random Access Memory 715 and/or a storage unit 717 for storing various programs, data, etc. may optionally be included. The receiving unit 701, CPU 710, ROM 713, RAM 715, and/or storage unit 717, etc., described above, are interconnected via a data and/or command bus 720 and are capable of transferring signals therebetween.

Each unit described above is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. According to one implementation of the present disclosure, the functionality of the receiving unit 701 may be implemented by hardware, and the CPU 710, ROM 713, RAM 715, and/or storage unit 717 may not be required. Alternatively, the functions of the receiving unit 701 may be implemented by functional software in cooperation with the CPU 710, ROM 713, RAM 715, and/or storage unit 717, etc. described above.

The present invention can be implemented in software, hardware, or software cooperating with hardware. Each of the functional blocks used in the description of each embodiment above can be realized by an LSI, which is an integrated circuit. Each functional block may be individually formed as a chip, or one chip may be formed so as to include part or all of the functional blocks. LSI here can refer to IC, system LSI, super LSI, or ultra LSI, depending on the degree of integration. However, the integrated circuit implementation technique is not limited to LSI, and implementation using a dedicated circuit or a general-purpose processor is also possible. In addition, it is also possible to use a field programmable gate array (FPGA) that can be programmed after the LSI is manufactured, or a reconfigurable processor that can reconfigure the connections and settings of circuit cells arranged inside the LSI. can. Also, the calculation of each functional block can be executed using calculation means such as a DSP or CPU, and the processing steps of each function can be recorded on a recording medium as an execution program. Furthermore, if a technology for implementing an integrated circuit to replace LSI appears due to the development of semiconductor technology or other derivative technology, it is obvious that such technology may be used to integrate the functional blocks.

The present invention, based on the description presented herein and the known art, is intended for various changes or modifications by those skilled in the art without departing from the content and scope of the invention, and such It should be noted that modifications and applications are within the protection scope of the claims. Furthermore, the constituent elements of the above embodiments may be combined arbitrarily without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Claims (11)

a control circuit that identifies one or more sub-regions to which one or more repetitions of a downlink control channel are assigned;
a receiver that receives the downlink control channel in the one or more sub-regions;
The one or more sub-regions are notified from a base station by a maximum number of repetitions and physical layer signaling, wherein the maximum number of repetitions and the physical layer signaling select the one or more sub-regions among a plurality of sub-region candidates. information that indicates
the one or more sub-regions start from the same subframe at each iteration number less than or equal to the maximum number of iterations;
Terminal equipment. The number of repetitions of one or more of the downlink control channels is equal to or less than the maximum number of repetitions.
The terminal device according to claim 1. The number of repetitions of the data channel is different from the number of repetitions of one or more of the downlink control channels,
The terminal device according to claim 1. The same subframe is determined using a UE index, which is an identifier of a communication device,
The terminal device according to claim 1. wherein the maximum number of iterations is selected from a plurality of maximum number of iterations;
The terminal device according to claim 1. the terminal device
Identify one or more sub-regions to which one or more repetitions of the downlink control channel are assigned;
receiving the downlink control channel in the one or more sub-regions;
The one or more sub-regions are notified from a base station by a maximum number of repetitions and physical layer signaling, wherein the maximum number of repetitions and the physical layer signaling select the one or more sub-regions among a plurality of sub-region candidates. information that indicates
the one or more sub-regions start from the same subframe at each iteration number less than or equal to the maximum number of iterations;
Communication method. The number of repetitions of one or more of the downlink control channels is equal to or less than the maximum number of repetitions.
The communication method according to claim 6. The number of repetitions of the data channel is different from the number of repetitions of one or more of the downlink control channels,
The communication method according to claim 6. The same subframe is determined using a UE index, which is an identifier of a communication device,
The communication method according to claim 6. wherein the maximum number of iterations is selected from a plurality of maximum number of iterations;
The communication method according to claim 6. A process of identifying one or more sub-regions to which one or more repetitions of the downlink control channel are allocated;
a process of transmitting the downlink control channel in the one or more sub-regions;
The one or more sub-regions are notified from a base station by a maximum number of repetitions and physical layer signaling, wherein the maximum number of repetitions and the physical layer signaling select the one or more sub-regions among a plurality of sub-region candidates. information that indicates
the one or more sub-regions start from the same subframe at each iteration number less than or equal to the maximum number of iterations;
integrated circuit.

Images