WO2019145834A1

WO2019145834A1 - Systems and methods for resource mapping for assigning dci message over multiple component carriers

Info

Publication number: WO2019145834A1
Application number: PCT/IB2019/050439
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ali Behravan; Jianwei Zhang
Original assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (Publ)
Priority date: 2018-01-24
Filing date: 2019-01-18
Publication date: 2019-08-01

Abstract

Systems and methods for adapting preemption indications comprised in Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmitted by a base station and received by a wireless device in a wireless network are disclosed. In some embodiments, a method performed by a wireless device comprises receiving DCI comprising one or more preemption indications. The one or more preemption indications are adapted based on a number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or a number of Bandwidth Parts (BWPs) that the one or more preemption indications are addressing. The method further comprises utilizing the one or more preemption indications at the wireless device. In this manner, a size of the DCI can remain less than some predefined or preconfigured maximum size regardless of the number of preemption indications comprised in the DCI.

Description

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR RESOURCE MAPPING FOR ASSIGNING DCI MESSAGE OVER MULTIPLE COMPONENT CARRIERS

Related Applications

[0001 ] This application claims the benefit of provisional patent application serial number 62/621 ,545, filed January 24, 2018, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Technical Field

[0002] The present disclosure relates to a cellular wireless system and, in particular, to resource mapping for a preemption indication(s) included in Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmitted by a base station and received by a wireless device.

Background

Resource Allocation in New Radio (NR)

[0003] In cellular wireless systems, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and NR standards in Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), Downlink Control Information (DCI) is used for downlink resource assignment, uplink scheduling grant, as well as other signaling from the network node (e.g., the enhanced Node B (eNB) in LTE or the NR base station (gNB) in NR) to the User Equipment (UE). There are different DCI messages to carry each of the above information, and they are carried in Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH). DCI format 0 carries the uplink grant which specifies resources for uplink transmission along with other parameters such as modulation and coding schemes, power control parameters, etc. DCI format 1 carries the downlink assignment for the UE including the time and frequency resources as well as modulation and coding schemes, etc.

[0004] In NR, DCI format 2_1 is used for notifying the Physical Resource Block(s) (PRB(s)) and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol(s) where the UE may assume no transmission is intended for the UE. The following information is transmitted by means of the DCI format 2_1 :

• Identifier for DCI formats - [1 ] bits

• Preemption indication 1 , Preemption indication 2, ..., Preemption indication N. [0005] The size of DCI format 2_1 is configurable by higher layers, according to subclause 1 1 .2 of 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 38.213 V15.0.0. Each preemption indication is 14 bits. Furthermore, the UE can be configured to monitor preemption indication for a Secondary Cell (SCell) on a different serving cell, and one DCI can contain one or more preemption indication field(s) corresponding to one or more serving cells, where each field is a 14-bit bitmap. Configuration of UE monitoring of preemption indication is per downlink Bandwidth Part (BWP), and the UE is not expected to take into account a preemption indication detected in a BWP for a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) scheduled in a different BWP of the same serving cell. A reference downlink resource for preemption indication is configured by Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling. The reference downlink resource for preemption indication within the monitoring periodicity consists of the active downlink BWP as the frequency region. The monitoring periodicity is the time duration. The reference downlink resource starts at the first OFDM symbol of the previous Common Control Resource Set (CORESET) for preemption indication monitoring and ends right before the current CORESET at which the preemption indication is detected. In Time Division Duplexing (TDD), the time region only includes the downlink or unknown symbols given by semi-static configuration within the time duration.

[0006] The bitmap indication meaning of the reference downlink resource is configured via {M, N} = (14, 1} or (7, 2}. The reference downlink resource is partitioned with M time domain parts and N frequency domain parts. The bitmap is indexed in a frequency first manner. Figure 1 shows an example for {M, N } = (14, 1} where the preemption indication (PI) is PI = 00001 1 1000000. Figure 2 shows an example for {M, N } = (7, 2} where PI = 0000101000000.

[0007] Systems and methods for adapting preemption indications comprised in downlink control information transmitted by a base station and received by a wireless device in a wireless network are disclosed. In some embodiments, a method performed by a wireless device comprises receiving downlink control information comprising one or more

preemption indications. The one or more preemption indications are adapted based on a number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or a number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing. The method further comprises utilizing the one or more preemption indications at the wireless device. In this manner, a size of the downlink control information can remain less than some predefined or preconfigured maximum size regardless of the number of preemption indications comprised in the downlink control information.

[0008] In some embodiments, utilizing the one or more preemption indications comprises determining time-frequency resources where the wireless device may assume that no transmission is intended for the wireless device based on the one or more preemption indications.

[0009] In some embodiments, the one or more preemption indications are adapted based on the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that at least one preemption indication from among the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources using a first granularity and at least one other preemption indication from among the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources using a second granularity that is different than the first granularity.

[0010] In some embodiments, the one or more preemption indications are based on the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that at least one preemption indication from among the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a first granularity and at least one other preemption indication from among the one or more preemption indications addresses time- frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a second granularity that is different than the first granularity.

[0011 ] In some embodiments, the one or more preemption indications comprise N preemption indications for N component carriers addressed by the N preemption

indications, respectively, or N preemption indications for N bandwidth parts addressed by the N preemption indications, respectively. N is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and each of the N preemption indications is an M-bit bitmap. Further, a combined maximum size, X, of the M-bit bitmaps for all of the N preemption indications is configurable. In some embodiments, the one or more preemption indications are adapted based on the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that, if N <= Floor(X/M), all of the N preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within the respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a first granularity. Further, if N > Floor(X/M), at least one preemption indication from among the N preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a first granularity and at least one other preemption indication from among the N preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a second granularity that is more coarse than the first granularity. In some other

embodiments, the one or more preemption indications are adapted based on the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that, if N <= Floor(X/M), all of the N preemption indications address time-frequency resources within the respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a first granularity. If N > Floor(X/M), all of the N preemption indications address time-frequency resources within the respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a second granularity that is more coarse than the first granularity. In some embodiments, M = 14.

[0012] Embodiments of a wireless device are also disclosed. In some embodiments, a wireless device is adapted to receive downlink control information comprising one or more preemption indications, the one or more preemption indications being adapted based on a number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or a number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing. The wireless device is further adapted to utilize the one or more preemption indications at the wireless device.

[0013] In some other embodiments, a wireless device comprises an interface

comprising radio front end circuitry and processing circuitry associated with the interface. The processing circuitry is configured to cause the wireless device to receive, via the interface, downlink control information comprising one or more preemption indications, the one or more preemption indications being adapted based on a number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or a number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing. The processing circuitry is further configured to cause the wireless device to utilize the one or more preemption indications at the wireless device.

[0014] In some embodiments, in order to utilize the one or more preemption indications, the processing circuitry is further configured to cause the wireless device to determine time- frequency resources where the wireless device may assume that no transmission is intended for the wireless device based on the one or more preemption indications.

[0015] In some embodiments, the one or more preemption indications are adapted based on the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that at least one preemption indication from among the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a first granularity and at least one other preemption indication from among the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a second granularity that is different than the first granularity.

[0016] Embodiments of a method performed by a base station are also disclosed. In some embodiments, a method performed by a base station comprises transmitting downlink control information comprising one or more preemption indications, the one or more preemption indications being adapted based on a number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or a number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing.

[0017] In some embodiments, the one or more preemption indications are adapted to the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that at least one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources using a first granularity and at least another one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources using a second granularity that is different than the first granularity.

[0018] In some embodiments, the one or more preemption indications are adapted to the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that at least one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a first granularity and at least another one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a second granularity that is different than the first granularity.

[0019] In some embodiments, the one or more preemption indications comprise N preemption indications for N component carriers addressed by the N preemption

indications, respectively, or N preemption indications for N bandwidth parts addressed by the N preemption indications, respectively. N is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and each of the N preemption indications is an M-bit bitmap. Further, a combined maximum size, X, of the M-bit bitmaps for all of the N preemption indications is configurable. In some embodiments, the one or more preemption indications are adapted based on the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that, if N <= Floor(X/M), all of the N preemption indications address time-frequency resources within the respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a first granularity. If N > Floor(X/M), at least one preemption indication from among the N preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a first granularity and at least one other preemption indication from among the N preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a second granularity that is more coarse than the first granularity. In some other

embodiments, the one or more preemption indications are adapted based on the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that, if N <= Floor(X/M), all of the N preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within the respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a first granularity. If N > Floor(X/M), all of the N preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within the respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a second granularity that is more coarse than the first granularity. In some embodiments, M = 14. [0020] Embodiments of a base station are also disclosed. In some embodiments, a base station is adapted to transmit downlink control information comprising one or more preemption indications, the one or more preemption indications being adapted based on a number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or a number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing.

[0021 ] In some other embodiments, a base station comprises an interface and processing circuitry associated with the interface. The processing circuitry is configured to cause the base station to transmit, via the interface, downlink control information comprising one or more preemption indications, the one or more preemption indications being adapted based on a number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or a number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing.

[0022] In some embodiments, the one or more preemption indications are adapted to the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that at least one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a first granularity and at least another one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a second granularity that is different than the first granularity.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0023] The accompanying drawing figures incorporated in and forming a part of this specification illustrate several aspects of the disclosure, and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.

[0024] Figure 1 illustrates one example of a resource mapping for a preemption indication bitmap;

[0025] Figure 2 illustrates one example of another resource mapping for a preemption indication bitmap; [0026] Figure 3 illustrates one example of a wireless network in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;

[0027] Figure 4 illustrates one embodiment of a User Equipment (UE) in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure;

[0028] Figure 5 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized;

[0029] Figure 6 illustrates one example of a communication system in which

embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;

[0030] Figure 7 illustrates an example implementation of a host computer, base station, and UE in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0031 ] Figure 8 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0032] Figure 9 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0033] Figure 10 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0034] Figure 1 1 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0035] Figure 12 depicts a method in accordance with particular embodiments of the present disclosure; and

[0036] Figure 13 illustrates a schematic block diagram of an apparatus in a wireless network.

Detailed Description

[0037] The embodiments set forth below represent information to enable those skilled in the art to practice the embodiments and illustrate the best mode of practicing the embodiments. Upon reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawing figures, those skilled in the art will understand the concepts of the disclosure and will recognize applications of these concepts not particularly addressed herein. It should be understood that these concepts and applications fall within the scope of the disclosure.

[0038] Generally, all terms used herein are to be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning in the relevant technical field, unless a different meaning is clearly given and/or is implied from the context in which it is used. All references to a/an/the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc. are to be interpreted openly as referring to at least one instance of the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc., unless explicitly stated otherwise. The steps of any methods disclosed herein do not have to be performed in the exact order disclosed, unless a step is explicitly described as following or preceding another step and/or where it is implicit that a step must follow or precede another step. Any feature of any of the embodiments disclosed herein may be applied to any other

embodiment, wherever appropriate. Likewise, any advantage of any of the embodiments may apply to any other embodiments, and vice versa. Other objectives, features, and advantages of the enclosed embodiments will be apparent from the following description.

[0039] There currently exist certain challenge(s). In Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) New Radio (NR), up to 16 carriers can be configured to a User Equipment (UE). With 14 bits for preemption indication per serving cell/carrier, the number of bits in the Downlink Control Information (DCI) format 2_1 (DCI 2 _ 1 ) payload (i.e., the size of the

DCI 2_1 payload) for a UE with N carriers configured is 14^*N. For 16 serving cells (i.e., for N = 16), the DCI 2_1 payload size reaches 228 bits. There are two concerns with this design of DCI 2_1 . First, the large DCI size (up to 228 bits) might be difficult to fit in into the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCFI) area. Second, there is a large variety of DCI payload sizes for DCI 2_1 , which will add difficulties for the UE to detect PDCCH.

[0040] Certain aspects of the present disclosure and their embodiments may provide solutions to these or other challenges. In the present disclosure, methods for mapping the preemption indication bitmap for several component carriers into DCI 2_1 are proposed. According to the proposed design, the DCI size is limited, using different methods of bundling symbols in the preemption indication. The idea is to keep the size of the bitmap to align with a limited range but try to cover all component carriers with a simple

formula/method and maximize the usage of the available DCI bits. Determining time domain allocation downlink and uplink is determined based on other existing configurations.

[0041 ] Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantage(s). The advantage of the proposed solution is that the size of the DCI that carries preemption indication is limited and does not grow with the number of component carriers. [0042] Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Other embodiments, however, are contained within the scope of the subject matter disclosed herein, the disclosed subject matter should not be construed as limited to only the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art.

[0043] The core idea of the present disclosure is to adapt the preemption indication to the number of carriers that the preemption indication is addressing. A certain size of X is assumed as the maximum length of the bitmap for mapping the preempted resource to N component carriers that need to receive preemption indication for one UE. The value to use for X can be decided either by UE capability, configured by the gNB, or by another condition/limitation such as aiming to have the same DCI format length as other DCI formats to reduce the UE effort when detecting PDCCH.

[0044] Alternatively, N can be the total number of active Bandwidth Parts (BWPs) in the total number of component carriers if there’s more than one active BWP per component carrier supported. Currently each component carrier has only one active BWP in NR Release 15.

[0045] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the bitmap that indicates the preempted resources has different granularities depending on the total number of component carriers that are addressed. One such rule can be as follows:

- If N <= Floor(X/14), keep mapping of preemption indication the same as in 3GPP NR Release 15;

- If N > Floor(X/14), the bitmap should get scaled down within the size of X, either on some of the carriers or all carriers in order to cover a mapping method on N component carriers or BWPs.

[0046] As an example, assume that the maximum payload size is X = 80, then

Floor(X/14) = 5. Now if the number of component carriers is N = 6, then one example of scaling down is to use the legacy mapping (14 bits indication per carrier) for four out of six carriers where the mapping granularity is the same as legacy. The remaining two component carriers/BWPs are mapped using seven bits and a coarser granularity. The number of bits for bit mapping is 4 ^* 14 + 2 ^* 7 = 70 bits. Another example is to use the legacy mapping (14 bit indication per carrier) for five out of six carriers where the mapping granularity is the same as legacy and use a mapping having a coarser granularity for the remaining component carrier/BWP using seven bits. In this case, the number of bits for bit mapping is then 5 ^* 14 + 7 = 77 bits.

[0047] In the example above if N = 7, then we can use 3 ^* 14 for a legacy granularity mapping and 4 ^* 7 bits for a scaled granularity mapping, i.e. 3 ^* 14 + 4 ^* 7 = 70 bits, or 4 ^*

14 for a legacy granularity mapping and 3 ^* 7 bits for a scaled granularity mapping, i.e. 4 ^* 14 + 3 ^* 7 = 77 bits. In other words, if N = 7, one option is to use the legacy mapping (14 bit indication per carrier) for three out of the seven carriers where the mapping granularity is the same as legacy and use a mapping having a coarser granularity for the remaining four component carriers/BWPs using seven bits. In this case, the number of bits for bit mapping is then 3 ^* 14 + 4 ^* 7 = 70 bits. If N = 7, another option is to use the legacy mapping (14 bit indication per carrier) for four out of the eight carriers where the mapping granularity is the same as legacy and use a mapping having a coarser granularity for the remaining three component carriers/BWPs using seven bits. In this case, the number of bits for bit mapping is then 4 ^* 14 + 3 ^* 7 = 77 bits.

[0048] If N = 8 in the example above, 2 ^* 14 + 6 ^* 7 = 70 bits or 3 ^* 14 + 5 ^* 7 = 77 bits.

In other words, if N = 8, one option is to use the legacy mapping (14 bit indication per carrier) for two out of the eight carriers where the mapping granularity is the same as legacy and use a mapping having a coarser granularity for the remaining six component carriers/BWPs using seven bits. In this case, the number of bits for bit mapping is then 2 ^* 14 + 6 ^* 7 = 70 bits. If N = 8, another option is to use the legacy mapping (14 bit indication per carrier) for three out of the eight carriers where the mapping granularity is the same as legacy and use a mapping having a coarser granularity for the remaining five component carriers/BWPs using seven bits. In this case, the number of bits for bit mapping is then 3 ^* 14 + 5 ^* 7 = 77 bits.

[0049] To summarize the above examples with a formula, assume we have two granularity levels (14 bits per preemption indication periodicity and seven bits per preemption indication periodicity), and the number of component carriers assigned with two granularity levels (referred to as level 1 and 2) are denoted as A_1 and B_1 , respectively. Then, A_1 and B_1 can be determined as follows:

• Step 1 :

A_1 = floor(X/14); B_1 = 0; • Step 2: Loop recursively until the condition (A_1 + B_1 >= N) is fulfilled:

If A_1 + B_1 < N,

A_1 = A_1 - 1 , B_1 = B_1 + 1 ^* 2

(2 is the scaling factor of different granularity levels, in the example is 14/7) else if (A_1 + B_1 >= N)

End;

[0050] Alternatively, the granularity of the preemption indication can be the same across the number of component carriers, i.e. if N ^* 14 > X then a higher granularity for preemption indication can be used. One example is for N = 8, the granularity of preemption indication can be two, which is the total payload size for eight subcarriers is 8 ^* 7 which is within the limit of maximum size of X = 80.

[0051 ] The idea is to keep the size of the bitmap to align with a limited range but try to cover all component carriers with a simple formula/method and maximize the usage of the available DCI bits.

[0052] Note that currently only the granularity of 14 for one preemption indication periodicity is decided, but the granularity for a different preemption indication periodicity could be changed and the methods remain to be valid.

[0053] Although the subject matter described herein may be implemented in any appropriate type of system using any suitable components, the embodiments disclosed herein are described in relation to a wireless network, such as the example wireless network illustrated in Figure 3. For simplicity, the wireless network of Figure 3 only depicts a network 306, network nodes 360 and 360B, and Wireless Devices (WDs) 310, 310B, and 310C. In practice, a wireless network may further include any additional elements suitable to support communication between wireless devices or between a wireless device and another communication device, such as a landline telephone, a service provider, or any other network node or end device. Of the illustrated components, the network node 360 and the WD 310 are depicted with additional detail. The wireless network may provide communication and other types of services to one or more wireless devices to facilitate the wireless devices’ access to and/or use of the services provided by, or via, the wireless network.

[0054] The wireless network may comprise and/or interface with any type of

communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, and/or radio network or other similar type of system. In some embodiments, the wireless network may be configured to operate according to specific standards or other types of predefined rules or procedures. Thus, particular embodiments of the wireless network may implement communication standards, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Universal Mobile

Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution (LTE), and/or other suitable Second, Third, Fourth, or Fifth Generation (2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G) standards; Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) standards, such as the IEEE 802.1 1 standards; and/or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, and/or ZigBee standards.

[0055] The network 306 may comprise one or more backhaul networks, core networks, Internet Protocol (IP) networks, Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTNs), packet data networks, optical networks, Wide Area Networks (WANs), Local Area Networks (LANs), WLANs, wired networks, wireless networks, metropolitan area networks, and other networks to enable communication between devices.

[0056] The network node 360 and the WD 310 comprise various components described in more detail below. These components work together in order to provide network node and/or wireless device functionality, such as providing wireless connections in a wireless network. In different embodiments, the wireless network may comprise any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, base stations, controllers, wireless devices, relay stations, and/or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and/or signals whether via wired or wireless connections.

[0057] As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged, and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a wireless device and/or with other network nodes or equipment in the wireless network to enable and/or provide wireless access to the wireless device and/or to perform other functions (e.g.,

administration) in the wireless network. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, Access Points (APs) (e.g., radio APs), Base Stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs), and NR Node Bs (gNBs)). Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and may then also be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units and/or Remote Radio Units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such RRUs may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a Distributed Antenna System (DAS). Yet further examples of network nodes include Multi-Standard Radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as Radio Network

Controllers (RNCs) or BS Controllers (BSCs), Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, Multi-Cell/Multicast Coordination Entities (MCEs), core network nodes (e.g., Mobile Switching Centers (MSCs), Mobility Management Entities (MMEs)), Operation and Maintenance (O&M) nodes, Operations Support System (OSS) nodes, Self-Organizing Network (SON) nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Center (E-SMLCs)), and/or Minimization of Drive Tests (MDTs). As another example, a network node may be a virtual network node as described in more detail below. More generally, however, network nodes may represent any suitable device (or group of devices) capable, configured, arranged, and/or operable to enable and/or provide a wireless device with access to the wireless network or to provide some service to a wireless device that has accessed the wireless network.

[0058] In Figure 3, the network node 360 includes processing circuitry 370, a device readable medium 380, an interface 390, auxiliary equipment 384, a power source 386, power circuitry 387, and an antenna 362. Although the network node 360 illustrated in the example wireless network of Figure 3 may represent a device that includes the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise network nodes with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that a network node comprises any suitable combination of hardware and/or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions, and methods disclosed herein. Moreover, while the components of the network node 360 are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multiple boxes, in practice, a network node may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component (e.g., the device readable medium 380 may comprise multiple separate hard drives as well as multiple Random Access Memory (RAM) modules).

[0059] Similarly, the network node 360 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a Node B component and a RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their own respective components. In certain scenarios in which the network node 360 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple Node Bs. In such a scenario, each unique Node B and RNC pair may in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, the network node 360 may be configured to support multiple Radio Access Technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., a separate device readable medium 380 for the different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., the same antenna 362 may be shared by the RATs). The network node 360 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into the network node 360, such as, for example, GSM, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), LTE, NR, WiFi, or Bluetooth wireless

technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or a different chip or set of chips and other components within the network node 360.

[0060] The processing circuitry 370 is configured to perform any determining, calculating, or similar operations (e.g., certain obtaining operations) described herein as being provided by a network node. These operations performed by the processing circuitry 370 may include processing information obtained by the processing circuitry 370 by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination.

[0061 ] The processing circuitry 370 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, a controller, a microcontroller, a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field

Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software, and/or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 360 components, such as the device readable medium 380, network node 360 functionality. For example, the processing circuitry 370 may execute instructions stored in the device readable medium 380 or in memory within the processing circuitry 370. Such functionality may include providing any of the various wireless features, functions, or benefits discussed herein. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 370 may include a System on a Chip (SOC).

[0062] In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 370 may include one or more of Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 372 and baseband processing circuitry 374. In some embodiments, the RF transceiver circuitry 372 and the baseband processing circuitry 374 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of the RF transceiver circuitry 372 and the baseband processing circuitry 374 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.

[0063] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein as being provided by a network node, base station, eNB, or other such network device may be performed by the processing circuitry 370 executing instructions stored on the device readable medium 380 or memory within the processing circuitry 370. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry 370 without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device readable medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a device readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry 370 can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry 370 alone or to other

components of the network node 360, but are enjoyed by the network node 360 as a whole, and/or by end users and the wireless network generally.

[0064] The device readable medium 380 may comprise any form of volatile or non volatile computer readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, RAM, Read Only Memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device readable and/or computer- executable memory devices that store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry 370. The device readable medium 380 may store any suitable instructions; data or information, including a computer program; software; an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, etc.; and/or other instructions capable of being executed by the processing circuitry 370 and utilized by the network node 360. The device readable medium 380 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 370 and/or any data received via the interface 390. In some

embodiments, the processing circuitry 370 and the device readable medium 380 may be considered to be integrated.

[0065] The interface 390 is used in the wired or wireless communication of signaling and/or data between the network node 360, a network 306, and/or WDs 310. As illustrated, the interface 390 comprises port(s)/terminal(s) 394 to send and receive data, for example to and from the network 306 over a wired connection. The interface 390 also includes radio front end circuitry 392 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna 362. The radio front end circuitry 392 comprises filters 398 and amplifiers 396.

The radio front end circuitry 392 may be connected to the antenna 362 and the processing circuitry 370. The radio front end circuitry 392 may be configured to condition signals communicated between the antenna 362 and the processing circuitry 370. The radio front end circuitry 392 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or WDs via a wireless connection. The radio front end circuitry 392 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of the filters 398 and/or the amplifiers 396. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 362. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 362 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front end circuitry 392. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 370. In other embodiments, the interface 390 may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.

[0066] In certain alternative embodiments, the network node 360 may not include separate radio front end circuitry 392; instead, the processing circuitry 370 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may be connected to the antenna 362 without separate radio front end circuitry 392. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 372 may be considered a part of the interface 390. In still other embodiments, the interface 390 may include the one or more ports or terminals 394, the radio front end circuitry 392, and the RF transceiver circuitry 372 as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the interface 390 may communicate with the baseband processing circuitry 374, which is part of a digital unit (not shown). [0067] The antenna 362 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and/or receive wireless signals. The antenna 362 may be coupled to the radio front end circuitry 392 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and/or signals wirelessly. In some embodiments, the antenna 362 may comprise one or more omni-directional, sector, or panel antennas operable to

transmit/receive radio signals between, for example, 2 gigahertz (GHz) and 66 GHz. An omni-directional antenna may be used to transmit/receive radio signals in any direction, a sector antenna may be used to transmit/receive radio signals from devices within a particular area, and a panel antenna may be a line of sight antenna used to

transmit/receive radio signals in a relatively straight line. In some instances, the use of more than one antenna may be referred to as Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO). In certain embodiments, the antenna 362 may be separate from the network node 360 and may be connectable to the network node 360 through an interface or port.

[0068] The antenna 362, the interface 390, and/or the processing circuitry 370 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and/or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by a network node. Any information, data, and/or signals may be received from a WD, another network node, and/or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna 362, the interface 390, and/or the processing circuitry 370 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by a network node. Any information, data, and/or signals may be transmitted to a WD, another network node, and/or any other network equipment.

[0069] The power circuitry 387 may comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry and is configured to supply the components of the network node 360 with power for performing the functionality described herein. The power circuitry 387 may receive power from the power source 386. The power source 386 and/or the power circuitry 387 may be configured to provide power to the various components of the network node 360 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source 386 may either be included in, or be external to, the power circuitry 387 and/or the network node 360. For example, the network node 360 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to the power circuitry 387. As a further example, the power source 386 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, the power circuitry 387. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail. Other types of power sources, such as photovoltaic devices, may also be used.

[0070] Alternative embodiments of the network node 360 may include additional components beyond those shown in Figure 3 that may be responsible for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and/or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, the network node 360 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 360 and to allow output of information from the network node 360. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 360.

[0071 ] As used herein, WD refers to a device capable, configured, arranged, and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and/or other WDs. Unless otherwise noted, the term WD may be used interchangeably herein with UE.

Communicating wirelessly may involve transmitting and/or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and/or other types of signals suitable for conveying information through air. In some embodiments, a WD may be configured to transmit and/or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a WD may be designed to transmit information to a network on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the network. Examples of a WD include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, a mobile phone, a cell phone, a Voice over IP (VoIP) phone, a wireless local loop phone, a desktop computer, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a wireless camera, a gaming console or device, a music storage device, a playback appliance, a wearable terminal device, a wireless endpoint, a mobile station, a tablet, a laptop, Laptop Embedded Equipment (LEE), Laptop Mounted Equipment (LME), a smart device, a wireless Customer Premise Equipment (CPE), a vehicle mounted wireless terminal device, etc.. A WD may support Device-to-Device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3GPP standard for sidelink communication, Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle-to-lnfrastructure (V2I), Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X), and may in this case be referred to as a D2D communication device. As yet another specific example, in an Internet of Things (loT) scenario, a WD may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and/or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and/or measurements to another WD and/or a network node. The WD may in this case be a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as a Machine Type Communication (MTC) device. As one particular example, the WD may be a UE implementing the 3GPP Narrowband loT (NB-loT) standard.

Particular examples of such machines or devices are sensors, metering devices such as power meters, industrial machinery, home or personal appliances (e.g., refrigerators, televisions, etc.), or personal wearables (e.g., watches, fitness trackers, etc.). In other scenarios, a WD may represent a vehicle or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and/or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation. A WD as described above may represent the endpoint of a wireless connection, in which case the device may be referred to as a wireless terminal. Furthermore, a WD as described above may be mobile, in which case it may also be referred to as a mobile device or a mobile terminal.

[0072] As illustrated in Figure 3, a WD 310 includes an antenna 31 1 , an interface 314, processing circuitry 320, a device readable medium 330, user interface equipment 332, auxiliary equipment 334, a power source 336, and power circuitry 337. The WD 310 may include multiple sets of one or more of the illustrated components for different wireless technologies supported by the WD 310, such as, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, WiMAX, or Bluetooth wireless technologies, just to mention a few. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chips or set of chips as other components within the WD 310.

[0073] The antenna 31 1 may include one or more antennas or antenna arrays configured to send and/or receive wireless signals and is connected to the interface 314. In certain alternative embodiments, the antenna 31 1 may be separate from the WD 310 and be connectable to the WD 310 through an interface or port. The antenna 31 1 , the interface 314, and/or the processing circuitry 320 may be configured to perform any receiving or transmitting operations described herein as being performed by a WD. Any information, data, and/or signals may be received from a network node and/or another WD. In some embodiments, radio front end circuitry and/or the antenna 31 1 may be considered an interface. [0074] As illustrated, the interface 314 comprises radio front end circuitry 312 and the antenna 31 1 . The radio front end circuitry 312 comprises one or more filters 318 and amplifiers 316. The radio front end circuitry 312 is connected to the antenna 31 1 and the processing circuitry 320 and is configured to condition signals communicated between the antenna 31 1 and the processing circuitry 320. The radio front end circuitry 312 may be coupled to or be a part of the antenna 31 1 . In some embodiments, the WD 310 may not include separate radio front end circuitry 312; rather, the processing circuitry 320 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may be connected to the antenna 31 1 . Similarly, in some embodiments, some or all of RF transceiver circuitry 322 may be considered a part of the interface 314. The radio front end circuitry 312 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or WDs via a wireless connection. The radio front end circuitry 312 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of the filters 318 and/or the amplifiers 316. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 31 1 . Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 31 1 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front end circuitry 312. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 320. In other embodiments, the interface 314 may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.

[0075] The processing circuitry 320 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, a controller, a microcontroller, a CPU, a DSP, an ASIC, a FPGA, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software, and/or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other WD 310 components, such as the device readable medium 330, WD 310 functionality. Such functionality may include providing any of the various wireless features or benefits discussed herein. For example, the processing circuitry 320 may execute instructions stored in the device readable medium 330 or in memory within the processing circuitry 320 to provide the functionality disclosed herein.

[0076] As illustrated, the processing circuitry 320 includes one or more of the RF transceiver circuitry 322, baseband processing circuitry 324, and application processing circuitry 326. In other embodiments, the processing circuitry 320 may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components. In certain embodiments, the processing circuitry 320 of the WD 310 may comprise a SOC. In some embodiments, the RF transceiver circuitry 322, the baseband processing circuitry 324, and the application processing circuitry 326 may be on separate chips or sets of chips. In alternative

embodiments, part or all of the baseband processing circuitry 324 and the application processing circuitry 326 may be combined into one chip or set of chips, and the RF transceiver circuitry 322 may be on a separate chip or set of chips. In still alternative embodiments, part or all of the RF transceiver circuitry 322 and the baseband processing circuitry 324 may be on the same chip or set of chips, and the application processing circuitry 326 may be on a separate chip or set of chips. In yet other alternative

embodiments, part or all of the RF transceiver circuitry 322, the baseband processing circuitry 324, and the application processing circuitry 326 may be combined in the same chip or set of chips. In some embodiments, the RF transceiver circuitry 322 may be a part of the interface 314. The RF transceiver circuitry 322 may condition RF signals for the processing circuitry 320.

[0077] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein as being performed by a WD may be provided by the processing circuitry 320 executing instructions stored on the device readable medium 330, which in certain embodiments may be a computer-readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry 320 without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a device readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry 320 can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry 320 alone or to other components of the WD 310, but are enjoyed by the WD 310 as a whole, and/or by end users and the wireless network generally.

[0078] The processing circuitry 320 may be configured to perform any determining, calculating, or similar operations (e.g., certain obtaining operations) described herein as being performed by a WD. These operations, as performed by the processing circuitry 320, may include processing information obtained by the processing circuitry 320 by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored by the WD 310, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination.

[0079] The device readable medium 330 may be operable to store a computer program; software; an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, etc.; and/or other instructions capable of being executed by the processing circuitry 320. The device readable medium 330 may include computer memory (e.g., RAM or ROM), mass storage media (e.g., a hard disk), removable storage media (e.g., a CD or a DVD), and/or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device readable and/or computer executable memory devices that store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry 320. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 320 and the device readable medium 330 may be considered to be integrated.

[0080] The user interface equipment 332 may provide components that allow for a human user to interact with the WD 310. Such interaction may be of many forms, such as visual, audial, tactile, etc. The user interface equipment 332 may be operable to produce output to the user and to allow the user to provide input to the WD 310. The type of interaction may vary depending on the type of user interface equipment 332 installed in the WD 310. For example, if the WD 310 is a smart phone, the interaction may be via a touch screen; if the WD 310 is a smart meter, the interaction may be through a screen that provides usage (e.g., the number of gallons used) or a speaker that provides an audible alert (e.g., if smoke is detected). The user interface equipment 332 may include input interfaces, devices and circuits, and output interfaces, devices and circuits. The user interface equipment 332 is configured to allow input of information into the WD 310, and is connected to the processing circuitry 320 to allow the processing circuitry 320 to process the input information. The user interface equipment 332 may include, for example, a microphone, a proximity or other sensor, keys/buttons, a touch display, one or more cameras, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, or other input circuitry. The user interface equipment 332 is also configured to allow output of information from the WD 310 and to allow the processing circuitry 320 to output information from the WD 310. The user interface equipment 332 may include, for example, a speaker, a display, vibrating circuitry, a USB port, a headphone interface, or other output circuitry. Using one or more input and output interfaces, devices, and circuits of the user interface equipment 332, the WD 310 may communicate with end users and/or the wireless network, and allow them to benefit from the functionality described herein.

[0081 ] The auxiliary equipment 334 is operable to provide more specific functionality which may not be generally performed by WDs. This may comprise specialized sensors for doing measurements for various purposes, interfaces for additional types of communication such as wired communications, etc. The inclusion and type of components of the auxiliary equipment 334 may vary depending on the embodiment and/or scenario.

[0082] The power source 336 may, in some embodiments, be in the form of a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic devices, or power cells may also be used. The WD 310 may further comprise the power circuitry 337 for delivering power from the power source 336 to the various parts of the WD 310 which need power from the power source 336 to carry out any functionality described or indicated herein. The power circuitry 337 may in certain embodiments comprise power management circuitry. The power circuitry 337 may additionally or alternatively be operable to receive power from an external power source, in which case the WD 310 may be connectable to the external power source (such as an electricity outlet) via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. The power circuitry 337 may also in certain embodiments be operable to deliver power from an external power source to the power source 336. This may be, for example, for the charging of the power source 336. The power circuitry 337 may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from the power source 336 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the WD 310 to which power is supplied.

[0083] Figure 4 illustrates one embodiment of a UE in accordance with various aspects described herein. As used herein, a user equipment or UE may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and/or operates the relevant device. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE may represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter). A UE 400 may be any UE identified by 3GPP, including a NB-loT UE, a MTC UE, and/or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE. The UE 400, as illustrated in Figure 4, is one example of a WD configured for communication in accordance with one or more communication standards promulgated by 3GPP, such as 3GPP’s GSM, UMTS, LTE, and/or 5G standards. As mentioned previously, the term WD and UE may be used interchangeable. Accordingly, although Figure 4 is a UE, the components discussed herein are equally applicable to a WD, and vice-versa.

[0084] In Figure 4, the UE 400 includes processing circuitry 401 that is operatively coupled to an input/output interface 405, an RF interface 409, a network connection interface 41 1 , memory 415 including RAM 417, ROM 419, and a storage medium 421 or the like, a communication subsystem 431 , a power source 413, and/or any other component, or any combination thereof. The storage medium 421 includes an operating system 423, an application program 425, and data 427. In other embodiments, the storage medium 421 may include other similar types of information. Certain UEs may utilize all of the components shown in Figure 4, or only a subset of the components. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

[0085] In Figure 4, the processing circuitry 401 may be configured to process computer instructions and data. The processing circuitry 401 may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute machine instructions stored as machine- readable computer programs in the memory, such as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, FPGA, ASIC, etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored programs, general purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or DSP, together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry 401 may include two CPUs. Data may be information in a form suitable for use by a computer.

[0086] In the depicted embodiment, the input/output interface 405 may be configured to provide a communication interface to an input device, output device, or input and output device. The UE 400 may be configured to use an output device via the input/output interface 405. An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a USB port may be used to provide input to and output from the UE 400. The output device may be a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. The UE 400 may be configured to use an input device via the input/output interface 405 to allow a user to capture information into the UE 400. The input device may include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, another like sensor, or any combination thereof. For example, the input device may be an

accelerometer, a magnetometer, a digital camera, a microphone, and an optical sensor.

[0087] In Figure 4, the RF interface 409 may be configured to provide a communication interface to RF components such as a transmitter, a receiver, and an antenna. The network connection interface 41 1 may be configured to provide a communication interface to a network 443A. The network 443A may encompass wired and/or wireless networks such as a LAN, a WAN, a computer network, a wireless network, a telecommunications network, another like network or any combination thereof. For example, the network 443A may comprise a WiFi network. The network connection interface 41 1 may be configured to include a receiver and a transmitter interface used to communicate with one or more other devices over a communication network according to one or more communication protocols, such as Ethernet, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) / IP, Synchronous Optical

Networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), or the like. The network connection interface 41 1 may implement receiver and transmitter functionality appropriate to the communication network links (e.g., optical, electrical, and the like). The transmitter and receiver functions may share circuit components, software, or firmware, or alternatively may be implemented separately.

[0088] The RAM 417 may be configured to interface via a bus 402 to the processing circuitry 401 to provide storage or caching of data or computer instructions during the execution of software programs such as the operating system, application programs, and device drivers. The ROM 419 may be configured to provide computer instructions or data to the processing circuitry 401 . For example, the ROM 419 may be configured to store invariant low-level system code or data for basic system functions such as basic Input and Output (I/O), startup, or reception of keystrokes from a keyboard that are stored in a non volatile memory. The storage medium 421 may be configured to include memory such as RAM, ROM, Programmable ROM (PROM), Erasable PROM (EPROM), Electrically EPROM (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, floppy disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, or flash drives. In one example, the storage medium 421 may be configured to include the operating system 423, the application program 425 such as a web browser application, a widget or gadget engine, or another application, and the data file 427. The storage medium 421 may store, for use by the UE 400, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

[0089] The storage medium 421 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID), a floppy disk drive, flash memory, a USB flash drive, an external hard disk drive, a thumb drive, a pen drive, a key drive, a High-Density Digital Versatile Disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, an internal hard disk drive, a Blu-Ray optical disc drive, a Holographic Digital Data Storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, an external mini-Dual In-Line Memory Module (DIMM), Synchronous Dynamic RAM (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) or a Removable User Identity Module (RUIM), other memory, or any combination thereof. The storage medium 421 may allow the UE 400 to access computer-executable instructions, application programs, or the like, stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data or to upload data. An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system, may be tangibly embodied in the storage medium 421 , which may comprise a device readable medium.

[0090] In Figure 4, the processing circuitry 401 may be configured to communicate with a network 443B using the communication subsystem 431 . The network 443A and the network 443B may be the same network or networks or different network or networks. The communication subsystem 431 may be configured to include one or more transceivers used to communicate with the network 443B. For example, the communication subsystem 431 may be configured to include one or more transceivers used to communicate with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication such as another WD, UE, or base station of a Radio Access Network (RAN) according to one or more communication protocols, such as IEEE 802.4, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), WCDMA, GSM, LTE, Universal Terrestrial RAN (UTRAN), WiMax, or the like.

Each transceiver may include a transmitter 433 and/or a receiver 435 to implement transmitter or receiver functionality, respectively, appropriate to the RAN links (e.g., frequency allocations and the like). Further, the transmitter 433 and the receiver 435 of each transceiver may share circuit components, software, or firmware, or alternatively may be implemented separately.

[0091 ] In the illustrated embodiment, the communication functions of the communication subsystem 431 may include data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short-range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof. For example, the communication subsystem 431 may include cellular communication, WiFi communication, Bluetooth communication, and GPS communication. The network 443B may encompass wired and/or wireless networks such as a LAN, a WAN, a computer network, a wireless network, a telecommunications network, another like network, or any combination thereof. For example, the network 443B may be a cellular network, a WiFi network, and/or a near-field network. A power source 413 may be configured to provide Alternating Current (AC) or Direct Current (DC) power to components of the UE 400.

[0092] The features, benefits, and/or functions described herein may be implemented in one of the components of the UE 400 or partitioned across multiple components of the UE 400. Further, the features, benefits, and/or functions described herein may be

implemented in any combination of hardware, software, or firmware. In one example, the communication subsystem 431 may be configured to include any of the components described herein. Further, the processing circuitry 401 may be configured to communicate with any of such components over the bus 402. In another example, any of such components may be represented by program instructions stored in memory that, when executed by the processing circuitry 401 , perform the corresponding functions described herein. In another example, the functionality of any of such components may be partitioned between the processing circuitry 401 and the communication subsystem 431 . In another example, the non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and the computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.

[0093] Figure 5 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 500 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices, and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to a node (e.g., a virtualized base station or a virtualized radio access node) or to a device (e.g., a UE, a WD, or any other type of communication device) or components thereof and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components (e.g., via one or more applications, components, functions, virtual machines, or containers executing on one or more physical processing nodes in one or more networks).

[0094] In some embodiments, some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines

implemented in one or more virtual environments 500 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes 530. Further, in embodiments in which the virtual node is not a radio access node or does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node), then the network node may be entirely virtualized.

[0095] The functions may be implemented by one or more applications 520 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) operative to implement some of the features, functions, and/or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein. The applications 520 are run in the virtualization environment 500 which provides hardware 530 comprising processing circuitry 560 and memory 590. The memory 590 contains instructions 595 executable by the processing circuitry 560 whereby the application 520 is operative to provide one or more of the features, benefits, and/or functions disclosed herein.

[0096] The virtualization environment 500 comprises general-purpose or special- purpose network hardware devices 530 comprising a set of one or more processors or processing circuitry 560, which may be Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) processors, dedicated ASICs, or any other type of processing circuitry including digital or analog hardware components or special purpose processors. Each hardware device 530 may comprise memory 590-1 which may be non-persistent memory for temporarily storing instructions 595 or software executed by the processing circuitry 560. Each hardware device 530 may comprise one or more Network Interface Controllers (NICs) 570, also known as network interface cards, which include a physical network interface 580. Each hardware device 530 may also include non-transitory, persistent, machine-readable storage media 590-2 having stored therein software 595 and/or instructions executable by the processing circuitry 560. The software 595 may include any type of software including software for instantiating one or more virtualization layers 550 (also referred to as hypervisors), software to execute virtual machines 540, as well as software allowing it to execute functions, features, and/or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein.

[0097] The virtual machines 540, comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface, and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding

virtualization layer 550 or hypervisor. Different embodiments of the instance of virtual appliance 520 may be implemented on one or more of the virtual machines 540, and the implementations may be made in different ways.

[0098] During operation, the processing circuitry 560 executes the software 595 to instantiate the hypervisor or virtualization layer 550, which may sometimes be referred to as a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM). The virtualization layer 550 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the virtual machine 540.

[0099] As shown in Figure 5, the hardware 530 may be a standalone network node with generic or specific components. The hardware 530 may comprise an antenna 5225 and may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, the hardware 530 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g., such as in a data center or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via a Management and Orchestration (MANO) 5100, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of the applications 520.

[0100] Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as Network

Function Virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers and CPE.

[0101 ] In the context of NFV, the virtual machine 540 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non- virtualized machine. Each of the virtual machines 540, and that part of the hardware 530 that executes that virtual machine 540, be it hardware dedicated to that virtual machine 540 and/or hardware shared by that virtual machine 540 with others of the virtual machines 540, forms a separate Virtual Network Element (VNE). [0102] Still in the context of NFV, Virtual Network Function (VNF) is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more virtual machines 540 on top of the hardware networking infrastructure 530 and corresponds to the application 520 in Figure 5.

[0103] In some embodiments, one or more radio units 5200 that each include one or more transmitters 5220 and one or more receivers 5210 may be coupled to the one or more antennas 5225. The radio units 5200 may communicate directly with the hardware nodes 530 via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station.

[0104] In some embodiments, some signaling can be effected with the use of a control system 5230, which may alternatively be used for communication between the hardware nodes 530 and the radio unit 5200.

[0105] With reference to Figure 6, in accordance with an embodiment, a communication system includes a telecommunication network 610, such as a 3GPP-type cellular network, which comprises an access network 61 1 , such as a RAN, and a core network 614. The access network 61 1 comprises a plurality of base stations 612A, 612B, 612C, such as Node Bs, eNBs, gNBs, or other types of wireless APs, each defining a corresponding coverage area 613A, 613B, 613C. Each base station 612A, 612B, 612C is connectable to the core network 614 over a wired or wireless connection 615. A first UE 691 located in coverage area 613C is configured to wirelessly connect to, or be paged by, the

corresponding base station 612C. A second UE 692 in coverage area 613A is wirelessly connectable to the corresponding base station 612A. While a plurality of UEs 691 , 692 are illustrated in this example, the disclosed embodiments are equally applicable to a situation where a sole UE is in the coverage area or where a sole UE is connecting to the corresponding base station 612.

[0106] The telecommunication network 610 is itself connected to a host computer 630, which may be embodied in the hardware and/or software of a standalone server, a cloud- implemented server, a distributed server, or as processing resources in a server farm. The host computer 630 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider, or may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. Connections 621 and 622 between telecommunication network 610 and the host computer 630 may extend directly from the core network 614 to the host computer 630 or may go via an optional intermediate network 620. The intermediate network 620 may be one of, or a combination of more than one of, a public, private, or hosted network; the intermediate network 620, if any, may be a backbone network or the Internet; in particular, the intermediate network 620 may comprise two or more sub-networks (not shown).

[0107] The communication system of Figure 6 as a whole enables connectivity between the connected UEs 691 , 692 and the host computer 630. The connectivity may be described as an Over-the-Top (OTT) connection 650. The host computer 630 and the connected UEs 691 , 692 are configured to communicate data and/or signaling via the OTT connection 650, using the access network 61 1 , the core network 614, any intermediate network 620, and possible further infrastructure (not shown) as intermediaries. The OTT connection 650 may be transparent in the sense that the participating communication devices through which the OTT connection 650 passes are unaware of routing of uplink and downlink communications. For example, the base station 612 may not or need not be informed about the past routing of an incoming downlink communication with data originating from the host computer 630 to be forwarded (e.g., handed over) to a connected UE 691 . Similarly, the base station 612 need not be aware of the future routing of an outgoing uplink communication originating from the UE 691 towards the host computer 630.

[0108] Example implementations, in accordance with an embodiment, of the UE, base station, and host computer discussed in the preceding paragraphs will now be described with reference to Figure 7. In a communication system 700, a host computer 710 comprises hardware 715 including a communication interface 716 configured to set up and maintain a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of the communication system 700. The host computer 710 further comprises processing circuitry 718, which may have storage and/or processing capabilities. In particular, the processing circuitry 718 may comprise one or more programmable

processors, ASICs, FPGAs, or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. The host computer 710 further comprises software 71 1 , which is stored in or accessible by the host computer 710 and executable by the processing circuitry 718. The software 71 1 includes a host application 712. The host application 712 may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as a UE 730 connecting via an OTT connection 750 terminating at the UE 730 and the host computer 710. In providing the service to the remote user, the host application 712 may provide user data which is transmitted using the OTT connection 750.

[0109] The communication system 700 further includes a base station 720 provided in a telecommunication system and comprising hardware 725 enabling it to communicate with the host computer 710 and with the UE 730. The hardware 725 may include a

communication interface 726 for setting up and maintaining a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of the communication system 700, as well as a radio interface 727 for setting up and maintaining at least a wireless connection 770 with the UE 730 located in a coverage area (not shown in Figure 7) served by the base station 720. The communication interface 726 may be configured to facilitate a connection 760 to the host computer 710. The connection 760 may be direct or it may pass through a core network (not shown in Figure 7) of the telecommunication system and/or through one or more intermediate networks outside the telecommunication system. In the embodiment shown, the hardware 725 of the base station 720 further includes processing circuitry 728, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, ASICs, FPGAs, or

combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. The base station 720 further has software 721 stored internally or accessible via an external connection.

[0110] The communication system 700 further includes the UE 730 already referred to. The UE’s 730 hardware 735 may include a radio interface 737 configured to set up and maintain a wireless connection 770 with a base station serving a coverage area in which the UE 730 is currently located. The hardware 735 of the UE 730 further includes processing circuitry 738, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, ASICs, FPGAs, or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. The UE 730 further comprises software 731 , which is stored in or accessible by the UE 730 and executable by the processing circuitry 738. The software 731 includes a client application 732. The client application 732 may be operable to provide a service to a human or non human user via the UE 730, with the support of the host computer 710. In the host computer 710, the executing host application 712 may communicate with the executing client application 732 via the OTT connection 750 terminating at the UE 730 and the host computer 710. In providing the service to the user, the client application 732 may receive request data from the host application 712 and provide user data in response to the request data. The OTT connection 750 may transfer both the request data and the user data. The client application 732 may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides.

[0111 ] It is noted that the host computer 710, the base station 720, and the UE 730 illustrated in Figure 7 may be similar or identical to the host computer 630, one of the base stations 612A, 612B, 612C, and one of the UEs 691 , 692 of Figure 6, respectively. This is to say, the inner workings of these entities may be as shown in Figure 7 and independently, the surrounding network topology may be that of Figure 6.

[0112] In Figure 7, the OTT connection 750 has been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between the host computer 710 and the UE 730 via the base station 720 without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices. The network infrastructure may determine the routing, which may be configured to hide from the UE 730 or from the service provider operating the host computer 710, or both. While the OTT connection 750 is active, the network infrastructure may further take decisions by which it dynamically changes the routing (e.g., on the basis of load balancing consideration or reconfiguration of the network).

[0113] The wireless connection 770 between the UE 730 and the base station 720 is in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. One or more of the various embodiments improve the performance of OTT services provided to the UE 730 using the OTT connection 750, in which the wireless connection 770 forms the last segment. More precisely, the teachings of these embodiments may improve the, e.g., data rate, latency, and/or power consumption and thereby provide benefits such as, e.g., reduced user waiting time, relaxed restriction on file size, better responsiveness, and/or extended battery lifetime.

[0114] A measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rate, latency, and other factors on which the one or more embodiments improve. There may further be an optional network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 750 between the host computer 710 and the UE 730, in response to variations in the

measurement results. The measurement procedure and/or the network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 750 may be implemented in the software 71 1 and the hardware 715 of the host computer 710 or in the software 731 and the hardware 735 of the UE 730, or both. In some embodiments, sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with communication devices through which the OTT connection 750 passes; the sensors may participate in the measurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantities exemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities from which the software 71 1 , 731 may compute or estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguring of the OTT connection 750 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing, etc.; the reconfiguring need not affect the base station 720, and it may be unknown or imperceptible to the base station 720. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments,

measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling facilitating the host computer 710’s measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency, and the like. The measurements may be implemented in that the software 71 1 and 731 causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or‘dummy’ messages, using the OTT connection 750 while it monitors propagation times, errors, etc.

[0115] Figure 8 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE which may be those described with reference to Figures 6 and 7. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure

8 will be included in this section. In step 810, the host computer provides user data. In sub-step 81 1 (which may be optional) of step 810, the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application. In step 820, the host computer initiates a

transmission carrying the user data to the UE. In step 830 (which may be optional), the base station transmits to the UE the user data which was carried in the transmission that the host computer initiated, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step 840 (which may also be optional), the UE executes a client application associated with the host application executed by the host computer.

[0116] Figure 9 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE which may be those described with reference to Figures 6 and 7. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure

9 will be included in this section. In step 910 of the method, the host computer provides user data. In an optional sub-step (not shown) the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application. In step 920, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE. The transmission may pass via the base station, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step 930 (which may be optional), the UE receives the user data carried in the

transmission.

[0117] Figure 10 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE which may be those described with reference to Figures 6 and 7. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 10 will be included in this section. In step 1010 (which may be optional), the UE receives input data provided by the host computer. Additionally or alternatively, in step 1020, the UE provides user data. In sub-step 1021 (which may be optional) of step 1020, the UE provides the user data by executing a client application. In sub-step 101 1 (which may be optional) of step 1010, the UE executes a client application which provides the user data in reaction to the received input data provided by the host computer. In providing the user data, the executed client application may further consider user input received from the user. Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided, the UE initiates, in sub-step 1030 (which may be optional), transmission of the user data to the host computer. In step 1040 of the method, the host computer receives the user data transmitted from the UE, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure.

[0118] Figure 1 1 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE which may be those described with reference to Figures 6 and 7. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 1 1 will be included in this section. In step 1 1 10 (which may be optional), in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure, the base station receives user data from the UE. In step 1 120 (which may be optional), the base station initiates transmission of the received user data to the host computer. In step 1 130 (which may be optional), the host computer receives the user data carried in the

transmission initiated by the base station.

[0119] Any appropriate steps, methods, features, functions, or benefits disclosed herein may be performed through one or more functional units or modules of one or more virtual apparatuses. Each virtual apparatus may comprise a number of these functional units. These functional units may be implemented via processing circuitry, which may include one or more microprocessor or microcontrollers, as well as other digital hardware, which may include DSPs, special-purpose digital logic, and the like. The processing circuitry may be configured to execute program code stored in memory, which may include one or several types of memory such as ROM, RAM, cache memory, flash memory devices, optical storage devices, etc. Program code stored in memory includes program instructions for executing one or more telecommunications and/or data communications protocols as well as instructions for carrying out one or more of the techniques described herein. In some implementations, the processing circuitry may be used to cause the respective functional unit to perform corresponding functions according one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0120] Figure 12 depicts a method in accordance with particular embodiments, the method begins at step 1200 where the network node (e.g., network node 360) transmits downlink control information (also referred to herein as DCI or DCI message) that includes one or more preemption indications, where the one or more preemption indications are adapted based on the number of (component) carriers and/or the number of BWPs that the preemption indications are addressing, as described above. In some embodiments, the one or more preemption indications are adapted to the number of component carriers and/or the number of BWPs that the one or more preemption indications are addressing such that at least one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources using a first granularity and at least another one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources using a second granularity that is different than the first granularity, as described above. In some embodiments, the one or more preemption indications are adapted to the number of component carriers and/or the number of BWPs that the one or more preemption indications are addressing such that at least one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or BWP using a first granularity and at least another one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or BWP using a second granularity that is different than the first granularity, as described above.

[0121 ] At step 1202, a wireless device (e.g., the WD 310) receives the downlink control information including the one or more preemption indications. At step 1204, the wireless device utilizes at least one and possible all of the preemption indications. For example, the wireless device determines time-frequency resources (e.g., Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols in particular component carriers and/or BWPs) on which the wireless device can assume that no transmission is intended for the wireless device based on the one or more preemption indication. When doing so, the manner in which the wireless device maps the preemption indication(s) to time-frequency resources is adapted based on the number of component carriers and/or the number of BWPs, as described herein. Then, as an example, the wireless device refrains from attempting to receive a transmission intended for the wireless device in preempted resources.

[0122] Figure 13 illustrates a schematic block diagram of an apparatus 1300 in a wireless network (for example, the wireless network shown in Figure 3). The apparatus may be implemented in a wireless device or network node (e.g., the WD 310 or the network node 360 shown in Figure 3). The apparatus 1300 is operable to carry out the example method described with reference to Figure 12 and possibly any other processes or methods disclosed herein. It is also to be understood that the method of Figure 12 is not necessarily carried out solely by the apparatus 1300. At least some operations of the method can be performed by one or more other entities.

[0123] The virtual apparatus 1300 may comprise processing circuitry, which may include one or more microprocessor or microcontrollers, as well as other digital hardware, which may include DSPs, special-purpose digital logic, and the like. The processing circuitry may be configured to execute program code stored in memory, which may include one or several types of memory such as ROM, RAM, cache memory, flash memory devices, optical storage devices, etc. Program code stored in memory includes program instructions for executing one or more telecommunications and/or data communications protocols as well as instructions for carrying out one or more of the techniques described herein, in several embodiments. In some implementations, the processing circuitry may be used to cause unit(s) 1302, and any other suitable units of the apparatus 1300 to perform corresponding functions of a network node according one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. In some other implementations, the processing circuitry may be used to cause unit(s) 1302, and any other suitable units of the apparatus 1300 to perform corresponding functions of a wireless device according one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. [0124] The term unit may have conventional meaning in the field of electronics, electrical devices, and/or electronic devices and may include, for example, electrical and/or electronic circuitry, devices, modules, processors, memories, logic solid state and/or discrete devices, computer programs or instructions for carrying out respective tasks, procedures, computations, outputs, and/or displaying functions, and so on, as such as those that are described herein.

[0125] Some example embodiments are as follows:

Group A Embodiments

[0126] Embodiment 1 : A method performed by a wireless device, the method

comprising: receiving downlink control information comprising one or more preemption indications, the one or more preemption indications being adapted to a number of component carriers and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing.

[0127] Embodiment 2: The method of embodiment 1 further comprising determining time-frequency resources where the wireless device may assume that no transmission is intended for the wireless device based on the one or more preemption indications.

[0128] Embodiment 3: The method of embodiment 1 or 2 wherein the one or more preemption indications are adapted to the number of component carriers and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing such that: at least one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources using a first granularity; and at least another one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources using a second granularity that is different than the first granularity.

[0129] Embodiment 4: The method of embodiment 1 or 2 wherein the one or more preemption indications are adapted to the number of component carriers and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing such that: at least one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a first granularity; and at least another one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a second granularity that is different than the first granularity. [0130] Embodiment 5: The method of any of the previous embodiments, further comprising: providing user data; and forwarding the user data to a host computer via the transmission to the base station. Group B Embodiments

[0131 ] Embodiment 6: A method performed by a base station, the method comprising: transmitting downlink control information comprising one or more preemption indications, the one or more preemption indications being adapted to a number of component carriers and/or a number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing.

[0132] Embodiment ?: The method of embodiment 6 wherein the one or more preemption indications are adapted to the number of component carriers and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing such that: at least one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources using a first granularity; and at least another one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources using a second granularity that is different than the first granularity.

[0133] Embodiment s: The method of embodiment 6 wherein the one or more preemption indications are adapted to the number of component carriers and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing such that: at least one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a first granularity; and at least another one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a second granularity that is different than the first granularity.

[0134] Embodiment 9: The method of any of the previous embodiments, further comprising: obtaining user data; and forwarding the user data to a host computer or a wireless device. Group C Embodiments

[0135] Embodiment 10: A wireless device, the wireless device comprising: processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments; and power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the wireless device.

[0136] Embodiment 1 1 : A base station, the base station comprising: processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group B embodiments; power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the wireless device.

[0137] Embodiment 12: A User Equipment (UE), the UE comprising: an antenna configured to send and receive wireless signals; radio front-end circuitry connected to the antenna and to processing circuitry, and configured to condition signals communicated between the antenna and the processing circuitry; the processing circuitry being configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments; an input interface connected to the processing circuitry and configured to allow input of information into the UE to be processed by the processing circuitry; an output interface connected to the processing circuitry and configured to output information from the UE that has been processed by the processing circuitry; and a battery connected to the processing circuitry and configured to supply power to the UE.

[0138] Embodiment 13: A communication system including a host computer

comprising: processing circuitry configured to provide user data; and a communication interface configured to forward the user data to a cellular network for transmission to a User Equipment (UE), wherein the cellular network comprises a base station having a radio interface and processing circuitry, the base station’s processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group B embodiments.

[0139] Embodiment 14: The communication system of the previous embodiment further including the base station.

[0140] Embodiment 15: The communication system of the previous 2 embodiments, further including the UE, wherein the UE is configured to communicate with the base station.

[0141 ] Embodiment 16: The communication system of the previous 3 embodiments, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing the user data; and the UE comprises processing circuitry configured to execute a client application associated with the host application. [0142] Embodiment 17: A method implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station, and a User Equipment (UE), the method comprising: at the host computer, providing user data; and at the host computer, initiating a transmission carrying the user data to the UE via a cellular network comprising the base station, wherein the base station performs any of the steps of any of the Group B embodiments.

[0143] Embodiment 18: The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising, at the base station, transmitting the user data.

[0144] Embodiment 19: The method of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein the user data is provided at the host computer by executing a host application, the method further comprising, at the UE, executing a client application associated with the host application.

[0145] Embodiment 20: A User Equipment (UE) configured to communicate with a base station, the UE comprising a radio interface and processing circuitry configured to perform the method of the previous 3 embodiments.

[0146] Embodiment 21 : A communication system including a host computer

comprising: processing circuitry configured to provide user data; and a communication interface configured to forward user data to a cellular network for transmission to a User Equipment (UE), wherein the UE comprises a radio interface and processing circuitry, the UE’s components configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group A

embodiments.

[0147] Embodiment 22: The communication system of the previous embodiment, wherein the cellular network further includes a base station configured to communicate with the UE.

[0148] Embodiment 23: The communication system of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing the user data; and the UE’s processing circuitry is configured to execute a client application associated with the host application.

[0149] Embodiment 24: A method implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a User Equipment (UE), the method comprising: at the host computer, providing user data; and at the host computer, initiating a transmission carrying the user data to the UE via a cellular network comprising the base station, wherein the UE performs any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments. [0150] Embodiment 25: The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising at the UE, receiving the user data from the base station.

[0151 ] Embodiment 26: A communication system including a host computer

comprising: communication interface configured to receive user data originating from a transmission from a User Equipment (UE) to a base station, wherein the UE comprises a radio interface and processing circuitry, the UE’s processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments.

[0152] Embodiment 27: The communication system of the previous embodiment, further including the UE.

[0153] Embodiment 28: The communication system of the previous 2 embodiments, further including the base station, wherein the base station comprises a radio interface configured to communicate with the UE and a communication interface configured to forward to the host computer the user data carried by a transmission from the UE to the base station.

[0154] Embodiment 29: The communication system of the previous 3 embodiments, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured to execute a host application; and the UE’s processing circuitry is configured to execute a client application associated with the host application, thereby providing the user data.

[0155] Embodiment 30: The communication system of the previous 4 embodiments, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing request data; and the UE’s processing circuitry is configured to execute a client application associated with the host application, thereby providing the user data in response to the request data.

[0156] Embodiment 31 : A method implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a User Equipment (UE), the method comprising: at the host computer, receiving user data transmitted to the base station from the UE, wherein the UE performs any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments.

[0157] Embodiment 32: The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising, at the UE, providing the user data to the base station.

[0158] Embodiment 33: The method of the previous 2 embodiments, further comprising: at the UE, executing a client application, thereby providing the user data to be transmitted; and at the host computer, executing a host application associated with the client application.

[0159] Embodiment 34: The method of the previous 3 embodiments, further comprising: at the UE, executing a client application; and at the UE, receiving input data to the client application, the input data being provided at the host computer by executing a host application associated with the client application, wherein the user data to be transmitted is provided by the client application in response to the input data.

[0160] Embodiment 35: A communication system including a host computer comprising a communication interface configured to receive user data originating from a transmission from a User Equipment (UE) to a base station, wherein the base station comprises a radio interface and processing circuitry, the base station’s processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group B embodiments.

[0161 ] Embodiment 36: The communication system of the previous embodiment further including the base station.

[0162] Embodiment 37: The communication system of the previous 2 embodiments, further including the UE, wherein the UE is configured to communicate with the base station.

[0163] Embodiment 38: The communication system of the previous 3 embodiments, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured to execute a host application; the UE is configured to execute a client application associated with the host application, thereby providing the user data to be received by the host computer.

[0164] Embodiment 39: A method implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a User Equipment (UE), the method comprising: at the host computer, receiving, from the base station, user data originating from a transmission which the base station has received from the UE, wherein the UE performs any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments.

[0165] Embodiment 40: The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising at the base station, receiving the user data from the UE.

[0166] Embodiment 41 : The method of the previous 2 embodiments, further comprising at the base station, initiating a transmission of the received user data to the host computer. [0167] At least some of the following abbreviations may be used in this disclosure. If there is an inconsistency between abbreviations, preference should be given to how it is used above. If listed multiple times below, the first listing should be preferred over any subsequent listing(s).

• 2G Second Generation

• 3G Third Generation

• 3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project

• 4G Fourth Generation

• 5G Fifth Generation

• AC Alternating Current

• AP Access Point

• ASIC Application Specific Integrated Circuit

• ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode

• BS Base Station

• BSC Base Station Controller

• BTS Base Transceiver Station

• BWP Bandwidth Part

• CD Compact Disk

• CDMA Code Division Multiple Access

• CORESET Common Control Resource Set

• COTS Commercial Off-the-Shelf

• CPE Customer Premise Equipment

• CPU Central Processing Unit

• D2D Device-to-Device

• DAS Distributed Antenna System

• DC Direct Current

• DCI Downlink Control Information

• DIMM Dual In-Line Memory Module

• DSP Digital Signal Processor

• DVD Digital Video Disk

• EEPROM Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory • eMTC Enhanced Machine Type Communication

• eNB Enhanced or Evolved Node B

• EPROM Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory

• E-SMLC Evolved Serving Mobile Location Center

• FPGA Field Programmable Gate Array

• GHz Gigahertz

• gNB New Radio Base Station

• GPS Global Positioning System

• GSM Global System for Mobile Communications

• HDDS Holographic Digital Data Storage

• HD-DVD High-Density Digital Versatile Disc

• I/O Input and Output

• loT Internet of Things

• IP Internet Protocol

• LAN Local Area Network

• LEE Laptop Embedded Equipment

• LME Laptop Mounted Equipment

• LTE Long Term Evolution

• M2M Machine-to-Machine

• MANO Management and Orchestration

• MCE Multi-Cell/Multicast Coordination Entity

• MDT Minimization of Drive Tests

• MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output

• MME Mobility Management Entity

• MSC Mobile Switching Center

• MSR Multi-Standard Radio

• MTC Machine Type Communication

• NB-loT Narrowband Internet of Things

• NFV Network Function Virtualization

• NIC Network Interface Controller

• NR New Radio • O&M Operation and Maintenance

• OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

• OSS Operations Support System

• OTT Over-the-Top

• PDA Personal Digital Assistant

• PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel

• PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel

• PRB Physical Resource Block

• PROM Programmable Read Only Memory

• PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network

• RAID Redundant Array of Independent Disks

• RAM Random Access Memory

• RAN Radio Access Network

• RAT Radio Access Technology

• RF Radio Frequency

• RNC Radio Network Controller

• ROM Read Only Memory

• RRC Radio Resource Control

• RRH Remote Radio Flead

• RRU Remote Radio Unit

• RUIM Removable User Identity Module

• SCell Secondary Cell

• SDRAM Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory

• SIM Subscriber Identity Module

• SOC System on a Chip

• SON Self-Organizing Network

• SONET Synchronous Optical Networking

• TCP Transmission Control Protocol

• TDD Time Division Duplexing

• TS Technical Specification

• UE User Equipment UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

USB Universal Serial Bus

UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network

V2I Vehicle-to-lnfrastructure

V2V Vehicle-to-Vehicle

V2X Vehicle-to-Everything

VMM Virtual Machine Monitor

VNE Virtual Network Element

VNF Virtual Network Function

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol

WAN Wide Area Network

WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access

WD Wireless Device

WiMax Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access

WLAN Wireless Local Area Network

[0168] Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modifications to the embodiments of the present disclosure. All such improvements and modifications are considered within the scope of the concepts disclosed herein.

Claims

Claims What is claimed is:

1 . A method performed by a wireless device (310), the method comprising:

receiving (1202) downlink control information comprising one or more preemption indications, the one or more preemption indications being adapted based on a number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or a number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing; and

utilizing (1204) the one or more preemption indications at the wireless device (310).

2. The method of claim 1 wherein utilizing (1204) the one or more preemption indications comprises determining time-frequency resources where the wireless device (310) may assume that no transmission is intended for the wireless device (310) based on the one or more preemption indications.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2 wherein the one or more preemption indications are adapted based on the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that:

at least one preemption indication from among the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources using a first granularity; and

at least one other preemption indication from among the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources using a second granularity that is different than the first granularity.

4. The method of claim 1 or 2 wherein the one or more preemption indications are adapted based on the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that: at least one preemption indication from among the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a first granularity; and

at least one other preemption indication from among the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a second granularity that is different than the first granularity.

5. The method of claim 1 or 2 wherein:

the one or more preemption indications comprise N preemption indications for N component carriers addressed by the N preemption indications, respectively, or N preemption indications for N bandwidth parts addressed by the N preemption indications, respectively, wherein N is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and each of the N preemption indications is an M-bit bitmap; and

a combined maximum size, X, of the M-bit bitmaps for all of the N preemption indications is configurable.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the one or more preemption indications are adapted based on the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that:

if N <= Floor(X/M), all of the N preemption indications address time-frequency resources within the respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a first granularity; and

if N > Floor(X/M):

at least one preemption indication from among the N preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a first granularity; and

at least one other preemption indication from among the N preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a second granularity that is more coarse than the first granularity.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the one or more preemption indications are adapted based on the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that:

if N > Floor(X/M), all of the N preemption indications address time-frequency resources within the respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a second granularity that is more coarse than the first granularity.

8. The method of any one of claims 5 to 7 wherein M = 14.

9. A wireless device (310), the wireless device (310) adapted to:

receive downlink control information comprising one or more preemption indications, the one or more preemption indications being adapted based on a number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or a number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing.

10. The wireless device (310) of claim 9 wherein the wireless device (310) is further adapted to perform the method of any one of claims 2 to 8.

1 1 . A wireless device (310), the wireless device (310) comprising:

an interface (314) comprising radio front end circuitry (312); and

processing circuitry (320) associated with the interface (314), the processing circuitry (320) configured to cause the wireless device (310) to:

receive, via the interface (314), downlink control information comprising one or more preemption indications, the one or more preemption indications being adapted based on a number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or a number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing; and utilize the one or more preemption indications at the wireless device (310).

12. The wireless device (310) of claim 1 1 wherein, in order to utilize the one or more preemption indications, the processing circuitry (320) is further configured to cause the wireless device (310) to determine time-frequency resources where the wireless device (310) may assume that no transmission is intended for the wireless device (310) based on the one or more preemption indications.

13. The wireless device (310) of claim 1 1 or 12 wherein the one or more preemption indications are adapted based on the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that:

at least one preemption indication from among the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a first granularity; and

14. A method performed by a base station (360), the method comprising:

transmitting (1200) downlink control information comprising one or more preemption indications, the one or more preemption indications being adapted based on a number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or a number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the one or more preemption indications are adapted to the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that:

at least one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources using a first granularity; and at least another one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time- frequency resources using a second granularity that is different than the first granularity.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the one or more preemption indications are adapted to the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that:

at least one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a first granularity; and

at least another one of the one or more preemption indications addresses time- frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a second granularity that is different than the first granularity.

17. The method of any one of claims 14 to 16 wherein:

the one or more preemption indications comprise N preemption indications for N component carriers addressed by the N preemption indications, respectively, or N preemption indications for N bandwidth parts addressed by the N preemption indications, respectively, wherein N is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and each of the N

preemption indications is an M-bit bitmap; and

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the one or more preemption indications are adapted based on the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that:

if N > Floor(X/M): at least one preemption indication from among the N preemption indications addresses time-frequency resources within at least one respective component carrier and/or bandwidth part using a first granularity; and

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the one or more preemption indications are adapted based on the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that:

20. The method of any one of claims 17 to 19 wherein M = 14.

21 . A base station (360), the base station (360) adapted to:

transmit downlink control information comprising one or more preemption

indications, the one or more preemption indications being adapted based on a number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or a number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing.

22. The base station (360) of claim 21 wherein the base station (360) is further adapted to perform the method of any one of claims 15 to 20.

23. A base station (360), the base station (360) comprising:

an interface (390); and processing circuitry (370) associated with the interface (390), the processing circuitry (370) configured to cause the base station (360) to:

transmit, via the interface (390), downlink control information comprising one or more preemption indications, the one or more preemption indications being adapted based on a number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or a number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing.

24. The base station (360) of claim 23 wherein the one or more preemption indications are adapted to the number of component carriers that the one or more preemption indications are addressing and/or the number of bandwidth parts that the one or more preemption indications are addressing, such that: