WO2020190930A1 - User equipment configuration for operating in an unlicensed spectrum - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed are methods, systems, apparatus, and computer programs for configuring a UE to operate within an unlicensed spectrum. In one aspect, a method includes receiving from a radio access network (RAN) a first uplink scheduling grant; determining, based on the first uplink scheduling grant, that an uplink communications grant has not been received for a first uplink subframe of an uplink burst, wherein the uplink burst comprises an ordered plurality of uplink subframes; determining that the first uplink scheduling grant schedules communication in a second uplink subframe of the uplink burst; and performing, in response to the determination, a mitigating action to avoid a communication error with the RAN.

Description

USER EQUIPMENT CONFIGURATION FOR OPERATING IN AN

UNLICENSED SPECTRUM:

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

[0001] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/821,588 filed March 21, 2019, entitled“UE Behavior and Restrictions for Global Mode in MF Lite System,” the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

[0002] User equipment (UE) can wirelessly communicate data using wireless communication networks. To wirelessly communicate data, the UE connects to a node of a radio access networks (RAN) and synchronizes with the network.

SUMMARY

[0003] The present disclosure is directed towards methods, systems, apparatus, computer programs, or combinations thereof, for configuring a user equipment (UE) to operate within an unlicensed spectrum (e.g., the unlicensed 5 Gigahertz (GHz) frequency band).

[0004] In accordance with one aspect of the present disclosure, a method for configuring a UE that is served by a radio access network (RAN) that is operating on an unlicensed spectrum is disclosed. The method involves receiving from the RAN a first uplink scheduling grant, determining, based on the first uplink scheduling grant, that an uplink communications grant has not been received for a first uplink subframe of an uplink burst, where the uplink burst includes an ordered plurality of uplink subframes, determining that the first uplink scheduling grant schedules communication in a second uplink subframe of the uplink burst, and performing, in response to the determination, a mitigating action to avoid a communication error with the RAN.

[0005] Other versions include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs to perform the actions of methods defined by instructions encoded on computer readable storage devices. These and other versions may optionally include one or more of the following features

[0006] In some implementations, the first uplink subframe is scheduled soonest in time after a downlink pilot time signal (DwPTS) of a special subframe that precedes the uplink burst. [0007] In some implementations, the first uplink scheduling grant includes an indication of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) scheduling configuration.

[0008] In some implementations, the PUSCH scheduling configuration includes information indicative of at least one of: a frequency resource, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), or a demodulation reference signal (DMRS)

[0009] In some implementations, the mitigating action includes: determining not to transmit a PUSCH message in the second uplink subframe.

[0010] In some implementations, the mitigating action includes: transmitting a PUSCH message in the first uplink subframe using the PUSCH scheduling configuration.

[0011] In some implementations, the method further includes: applying the PUSCH scheduling configuration to PUSCH messages for transmission in the plurality of subframes of the uplink burst.

[0012] In some implementations, the mitigating action includes: transmitting a reservation signal in the first uplink subframe.

[0013] In some implementations, the reservation signal indicates that the UE will transmit a PUSCH message in an uplink subframe after the first uplink subframe.

[0014] In some implementations, the RAN uses a time-division duplex (TDD) frame structure.

[0015] In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, another method for configuring a UE that is served by a radio access network (RAN) that is operating on an unlicensed spectrum is disclosed. The method includes receiving an uplink scheduling grant scheduling communication in an uplink subframe of an uplink burst, where the uplink burst comprises a plurality of ordered uplink subframes: determining that there is no data for transmission on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH); determining whether the uplink subframe is a first uplink subframe of the uplink burst; and transmitting, in response to determining that the uplink subframe is the first uplink subframe, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback in the uplink subframe.

[0016] Other versions include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs to perform the actions of methods defined by instructions encoded on computer readable storage devices. These and other versions may optionally include one or more of the following features.

[0017] In some implementations, determining that the uplink subframe is the first uplink subframe occurs in a first iteration of the method, and in a second iteration the method further includes: determining that the uplink subframe is not the first uplink subframe of the uplink burst, and responsively ignoring the uplink scheduling grant

[0018] In some implementations, the HARQ feedback includes a bitmap.

[0019] In some implementations, the HARQ feedback is transmitted in uplink control information (UCI) over the PUSCH.

[0020] In some implementations, the PUSCH message does not include uplink data, and the method further includes padding the PUSCH with zeros.

[0021 ] In some implementations, the HARQ feedback is downlink HARQ feedback.

[0022] In some implementations, the method further includes: receiving an indicator indicating whether to use spatial bundling for the HARQ feedback.

[0023] In some implementations, the indicator is included in a tdd- AckNackFeedbackMode field.

[0024] In some implementations, the tdd-AckNackFeedbackMode field is included in a PUSCH-Config information element (IE).

[0025] In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, another method for configuring a UE that is served by a radio access network (RAN) that is operating on an unlicensed spectrum is disclosed. The method includes receiving an uplink scheduling grant scheduling communication in an uplink subframe of an uplink burst, where the uplink burst includes a plurality of ordered uplink subframes, determining whether a downlink physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission was received; buffering, in response to the determination that a PDSCH transmission was received, HARQ feedback that corresponds to the PDSCH transmission; and transmitting the buffered HARQ feedback in the uplink subframe.

[0026] Other versions include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs to perform the actions of methods defined by instructions encoded on computer readable storage devices. These and other versions may optionally include one or more of the following features.

[0027] In some implementations, the HARQ-ACK feedback is reserved for transmission within a first available UL subframe after a DwPTS of special subframe preceding the uplink burst.

[0028] In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, another method is disclosed. The method includes transmitting, to a first UE of the plurality, an uplink scheduling grant for communications in a first uplink subframe of an uplink burst, the uplink scheduling grant including a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) scheduling configuration; receiving, from the UE, a PUSCH message in a second uplink subframe of the uplink burst according to the PUSCH scheduling configuration.

[0029] In some implementations, the PUSCH message is a first PUSCH message, and the method further includes: receiving, from the UE, a second PUSCH message in the first uplink subframe according to the PUSCH scheduling configuration.

[0030] In some implementations, the PUSCH scheduling configuration is to be applied by the UE for all PUSCH transmissions in the uplink burst.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0031] Figure 1 is a contextual diagram of an example of a system, according to some implementations of the present disclosure.

[0032] Figure 2 illustrates an example TDD frame structure, according to some implementations of the present disclosure.

[0033] Figures 3A and 3B illustrate example frames of communication between a radio access network (RAN) operating in an unlicensed network and a user equipment (UE), according to some implementations of the present disclosure.

[0034] Figures 4A and 4B illustrate other example frames of communication between a radio access network (RAN) operating in an unlicensed network and a user equipment (UE), according to some implementations of the present disclosure.

[0035] Figures 5 A, 5B, 5C, and 5D each illustrate a flowchart of an example process, according to some implementations of the present disclosure

[0036] Figure 6 illustrates an example architecture of a system of a network, according to some implementations of the present disclosure.

[0037] Figure 7 is a block diagram of an example of infrastructure equipment, according to some implementations of the present disclosure

[0038] Figure 8 is a block diagram of an example of platform, according to some implementations of the present disclosure.

[0039] Figure 9 is a block diagram of an example of components of baseband circuitry and radio front end modules (RFEM), according to some implementations of the present disclosure.

[0040] Figure 10 is a block diagram of various protocol functions that may be implemented in a wireless communication device, according to some implementations of the present disclosure.

[0041] Figure 1 1 is a block diagram of illustrating components able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non- transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies described herein, according to some implementations of the present disclosure

[0042] Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0043] The present disclosure is directed to methods, systems, apparatus, computer programs, or combinations thereof, for configuring a UE to operate within an unlicensed spectrum (e.g., the unlicensed 5 Gigahertz (GHz) frequency band). Specifically, the UE may be configured to operate within a cellular network that is configured to operate in the unlicensed spectrum. This cellular network may generally be referred to as an unlicensed network. The unlicensed spectrum may include radio frequencies that are not exclusively designated for the cellular network. As such, other wireless communication systems, which may operate under different standards than the cellular network, may also operate in the unlicensed spectrum. Examples of such wireless communication systems include Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (e.g.,“Wi-Fi”) and the third generation partnership (3GPP) standard.

[0044] Many unlicensed networks are based on existing cellular networks such as Long-Term Evolution Time-Division Duplex (LTE), 5G New Radio (NR), and the like. Example unlicensed networks include LTE-Unli censed (LTE-U), which is based on Releases 10/1 1/12 of the 3GPP standard, license assisted access (LAA), which is based on Release 13 of the 3GPP standard, and Multefire (MF) 1.0, which is based on Releases 13/14 of the 3GPP standard. Generally, LTE-U and LAA use carrier aggregation or dual connectivity (DC) to operate using both the licensed and the unlicensed spectrum. Multefire 1.0, on the other hand, may operate as a standalone system that operates solely in the unlicensed spectrum. Thus, Multefire 1.0 does not require an anchor in the licensed spectrum. More recently, a new generation of Multefire is being developed, and is generally referred to as Multefire 1.1 or MF-Lite. Although this disclosure generally describes embodiments in the context of Multefire and/or Mi -! . he. the disclosed embodiments are not limited to Multefire and may be applicable to other technologies.

[0045] For the sake of simplifying their implementation, some unlicensed networks (e.g., Multefire) use a frame based equipment (FBE) framework, which uses a Time- Division Duplex-LTE (TDD-LTE) frame structure. While this framework generally simplifies design requirements, networks must still comply with essential requirements provided with the Radio Equipment Directive (RED) and/or with harmonized standard requirements (e.g , European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)). For example, harmonized standard requirements specify that a UE must use listen-before talk (LBT) functionality if there is a gap longer than 16 microseconds between the end of downlink (DL) transmission and the start of a new uplink (UL) transmission

[0046] In order to further simplify their implementation, some networks aim for a UE to operate without the use of LBT functionality. However, in order to do so while complying with regulatory requirements (e.g., the LBT requirement described above), there should not be a gap between the ending of a DL burst and the start of a subsequent UL burst. Accordingly, the UE should start its transmission in the first UL subframe after a DL burst. Otherwise, a gap will exist and LBT will be mandated by regulatory requirements.

[0047] Disclosed are methods and systems for configuring an unlicensed network and/or a UE operating within an unlicensed network to satisfy the described requirements (e.g., a UE operating without the use of LBT functionality while satisfying regulatory restrictions). Specifically, this disclosure describes scheduling and configuration (e.g., common timing advance (TA) configuration) in an unlicensed network. Additionally, this disclosure describes configurations for Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PLISCH) transmission and Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) procedures in unlicensed networks.

[0048] Figure 1 is a contextual diagram of an example of a system 100, according to some embodiments. The system 100 includes UE 105, a first RAN 1 10 including one or more access nodes 110-1, 110-2, 1 10-x, where x is any non-zero integer, a core network 130 including one or more core network elements 132, a second RAN 120 including one or more access nodes 120-1, 120-2, 120-n, where n is any non-zero integer, and an IP network 140 such as the Internet. [0049] The first RAN 1 10 may use a frequency in licensed spectrum. By way of example, licensed spectrum can include spectrum used by Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks such as 700 MHz to 2.3 GHz, licensed spectrum used by 5G networks such as 28 GHz to 39 GHz, or the like. Each of the access nodes 110-1, 110-2, 1 10-x can include a base station such as a E-UTRAN Node B (eNB) that functions as a point of access for packet switched data being communicated to the core network 130. Likewise, the eNB can functi on as a point of access for packet switched data being communicated to the IP network 140. The first RAN can have a coverage area 112.

[0050] The second RAN 120 may use a frequency in the unlicensed spectrum. By way of example, the unlicensed spectrum can include spectrum used by a MulteFire network, a MulteFire Lite network, a Wi-Fi network, or the like. The unlicensed spectrum can include, for example, spectrum in the 2,4 GHz band or the 5 GHz band. Each of the access nodes 120-1, 120-2, 120-n can include an access point (AP) for the unlicensed spectrum. The AP can play the role of an eNB for the unlicensed spectrum and generally functions like an eNB. Thus, each AP can be a point of access for packet switched data being communicated to the core network 130, a different core network (not shown), or IP network 140. By way of example, in some embodiments, each AP in the second RAN 120 can include a MulteFire AP. The second RAN 120 may have a coverage area 122 that fails within the coverage area of the first RAN 1 10. As previously stated, unlicensed networks that operate within an unlicensed band, may reuse, for example, legacy Time Division Duplex (TDD) scheduling procedures

[0051] Figure 2 illustrates an example TDD frame structure 200, according to some implementations. As shown in Figure 2, the TDD frame structure 200 includes downlink subframes 202 (“D”), uplink subframes 204 (“U”), and special subframes 206 (“S”). Special subframes are used to switch transmission from downlink to uplink. As also shown in Figure 2, a special subframe includes three slots: a Downlink Pilot Time Slot 208 (DwPTS), a Guard Period 210 (GP), and an Uplink Pilot Time Slot 212 (UpPTS). TDD-LTE can support asymmetric UL-DL allocations by providing seven different semi-statically configured uplink-downlink configurations. Table 1 illustrates the seven UL-DL configurations used in LTE. In some examples, the special subframe can operate or be treated as a downlink subframe. Similar information to Table 1 is shown in 3 GPP LTE TS 36.21 1 Table 4.2-2. Table 1

Scheduling and Configuration in an Unlicensed Network

[0052] In an embodiment, the second RAN 120 may configure a resource block (RB) allocation for a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). In an example, the resource block allocation for PUSCH is at least 12RBs. This allocation includes RBs for UL data transmission and Channel-State Information (CSI) reporting (e.g., aperiodic CSI reporting). The second RAN 120 may also determine a sound reference signal (SRS) configuration. The sound reference signal (SRS) is a reference signal that may be transmitted by the UE 105 in the uplink direction and may be used by the second RAN 120 to estimate the uplink channel quality.

[0053] In an embodiment, the second RAN 120 may configure the UE 105 to transmit an SRS jointly with or separately from PUSCH. If the UE 105 is configured to transmit the SRS separately from PUSCH, then the SRS may have a configured bandwidth of at least 12RBs. And if the UE 105 is configured to transmit the SRS with PUSCH, but there is no PUSCH transmission, then the UE 105 may drop the SRS. In an example, periodic SRS may not be supported by the second RAN 120. In this example, an aperiodic SRS transmission may be triggered by the UE 105 receiving an UL Downlink Control Indicator (DO) grant (e.g., DO format 0 in LTE).

[0054] Furthermore, the second RAN 120 may adopt SRS configurations based on Tables 5 5.3.2-1 to 5.5.3 2-4 in 3GPP TS 36.211, which define cell-specific and UE- specific parameters. Table 2 illustrates an SRS configuration table used in a network with 20 MHz bandwidth. In an embodiment, if the second RAN 120 is a 20 MHz system, then a bandwidth SRS (BSRS) setting 3 (shown in Table 2) may be invalid, and therefore, may not be used. Additionally and/or alternatively, for BSRS setting 2, CSRS settings 5 and 7 may be invalid, and therefore, may not be used. Table 2

[0055] Additionally, the second RAN 120 may also determine allowable special subframe configurations. In an example, for TDD DL/UL configurations 0, 1, 2, 6, the special subframe may be one or more of subframes 0, 1, 5, 9, and other special subframe configurations may be invalid. For TDD DL/UL configurations 3, 4, 5, the special subframe may be one or more of subframes 0, 5, and other special subframe configurations may be invalid.

Common TA

[0056] In an embodiment, the second RAN 120 may also configure common timing advance (TA) of Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH). In an example, the second RAN 120 may configure the common TA based on a predefined value, such as 0.5 milliseconds or 7 OFDM symbols. In another example, the second RAN 120 may configure the common TA based on the determined TDD DL/UL configuration. For instance, for TDD DL/UL configurations 0, 1, 2, 6, which include two special subframes per frame, the common TA may be 0.25 milliseconds or 4 OFDM! symbols. And for TDD DL/UL configurations 3, 4, 5, which include one special subframe per frame, the common TA may be 0.5 milliseconds or 7 OFDM! symbols. Note that the second RAN 120 may similarly determine the common TA for PUSCH (e.g., either based on a pre defined value or on TDD DL/UL configuration).

[0057] The second RAN 120 may also configure TA for reservation SRS. In an example, the second RAN 120 may configure the common TA based on a predefined value, such as 0.5 milliseconds or 7 OFDM symbols. In another example, the second RAN 120 may configure the common TA based on the determined TDD DL/UL configuration. For instance, for TDD DL/UL configurations 0, 1 , 2, 6, which include two special subframes per frame, the common TA may be 0.25 milliseconds or 4 OFDM symbols. And for TDD DL/UL configurations 3, 4, 5, which include one special subframe per frame, the common TA may be 0 5 milliseconds or 7 OFDM symbols.

HARQ-ACK Reporting

[0058] In an embodiment, the second RAN 120 may also configure HARQ-ACK reporting. In an example, the second RAN 120 may configure HARQ-ACK reporting (called“HARQ feedback” or“HARQ response”) to be transmitted by the UE 105 during the first available first available subframe after DvvPTS Additionally and/or alternatively, the second RAN 120 may configure HARQ-ACK reporting to be carried in Uplink Control Information (UCi)-over~PUSCH Additionally and/or alternatively, the second RAN 120 may configure the HARQ feedback to be downlink HARQ feedback.

[0059] The second RAN 120 may configure HARQ-ACK reporting to include a HARQ-ACK bitmap. A HARQ-ACK bitmap may associate a HARQ process ID of a DL transmission with an ACK/NACK message. Specifically, the bitmap may associate an index (e.g., a position in the bitmap) with an ACK/NACK message and an associated HARQ process ID. The bitmap may include an ordered plurality of such indices

[0060] Additionally, the second RAN 120 may configure spatial bundling. In an example, the second RAN 120 may configure spatial bundling based on a predefined configuration. For instance, spatial bundling may be predefined either as always enabled or always disabled. In another example, the second RAN 120 may use one or more bits in a DL transmission to indicate whether or not spatial bundling is enabled. For instance, the second RAN 120 may use a first value (e.g.,“0”) to indicate spatial bundling and a second value (e.g ,“1”) to indicate no spatial bundling. The second RAN 120 may repurpose a legacy field to include the one or more bits indicative of spatial bundling configuration. For example, the second RAN 120 may reuse the legacy field tdd- AckNackFeedbackMode and/or the legacy field spatialBundlingPUSCH-r 13 to enable or disable bundling. The legacy field can be added to the PUSCH-Config informational element (IE) configuration.

[0061] In an embodiment, the second RAN 120 may include a bit in the DO UL grant to request and/or trigger HARQ-ACK bitmap transmission on UCI-over-PUSCH. The value of the bit, e.g.,“1,” may indicate HARQ-ACK bitmap transmission on UCI- over-PUSCH. In an example, the second RAN 120 may add an additional bit to the DO to trigger HARQ-ACK feedback transmission. In another example, the second RAN 120 may reinterpret one of the fields within legacy DC I to trigger HARQ-ACK feedback transmission. For instance, the second RAN 120 may reinterpret the downlink assignment index (DAI) field

[0062] On the UE end, if the UE 105 receives a scheduling grant, then the LIE may transmit the HARQ-ACK response (e.g., the HARQ-ACK bitmap) at a first UL subframe after DwPTS. If the UE 105 does not receive a scheduling grant or if the UE 105 is otherwise unable to transmit the HARQ-ACK response during the first UL subframe, then the UE 105 may wait for the next available subframe to transmit the HARQ-ACK response. In examples where spatial bundling is configured, the UE 105 may report the HARQ-ACK response with spatial bundling. Otherwise, the UE 105 may report the UE HARQ-ACK response (e.g., the full HARQ-ACK bitmap) without spatial bundling by default. In some scenarios, the second RAN 120 may schedule a UL grant, but the UE 105 may have no UL data to transmit. In such scenarios, a CSI request may be triggered. The UE 105 may report the HARQ-ACK if the UL grant is received in connection with the first UL subframe after DwPTS. Otherwise, the UE 105 may ignore the UL grant. Note that the UE 105 can transmit the UCI on PUSCH with or without UL data. If there is no data transmission, the UE 105 will pad the PUSCH with zeros to fill the PUSCH resource elements (REs)

PUSCH Transmission

[0063] Generally, the second RAN 120 may schedule a PUSCH transmission using an UL grant DCI (e.g., DO format 0 in LTE). As stated above, in order to satisfy regulatory requirements and to avoid any time gaps that may cause the UE 105 to perform LBT, the second RAN 120 may schedule PUSCH transmission starting from the first UL subframe of an UL burst (that is, after each Downlink Pilot Time Slot (DwPTS) within each radio frame or fixed frame period). However, an error may arise if the UL grant DCI is missed by the UE 105. Specifically, if the UE 105 misses the UL grant DCI, the UL transmission may begin from a subframe other than the first subframe within the UL burst. In this scenario, because the UE 105 cannot perform LBT, regulatory requirements, such as the previously described LBT requirement, may not be satisfied.

[0064] Figures 3 A and 3B illustrate example frames of communication the second RAN 120 and the UE 105, according to some implementations. In particular, Figure 3 A illustrates an example scenario 300 of a successful communication between the second RAN 120 and the UE 105. And Figure 3B illustrates an example scenario of an unsuccessful communication between the second RAN 120 and the UE 105.

[0065] As shown in Figures 3A and 3B, the second RAN 120 may use the TDD frame configuration 2 from Table 1. In Figures 3 A and 3B, the RAN 120 may transmit a first UL grant DO to the UE 105 during subframes 304A, 304B, respectively. In scenario 300, the UE 105 may receive the first UL grant DO during a first UL subframe 306 A of a UL burst 314A. As shown in Figure 3 A, the first UL subframe 306A occurs immediately after special subframe 312 A, and therefore, the first UL subframe 306 A is the first UL subframe after the DwPTS of special subframe 310A. The first UL grant DO may schedule a PUSCH transmission during the first UL subframe 306 A. Because the LIE 105 successfully receives the first UL grant DO, the UE 105 may transmit a PUSCH communication during the first UL subframe 306A. Additionally, the second RAN 120 may transmit during a DL subframe 310A a second UL grant DO that schedules PUSCH transmission during a second UL subframe 308A. Because the second UL grant DO is also successfully received, the UE 105 may transmit a PUSCH communication during the second UL subframe 308 A.

[0066] On the other hand, in scenario 302, the UE 105 may miss the first UL grant DO that is sent by the second RAN 120 during the subframe 304B. However, in scenario 302, the UE 105 may receive the second UL grant DO that is sent during the subframe 310B. As a result, the LL transmission may begin from a subframe other than the first subframe 306B within the UL burst 314B. In this scenario, because the UE 105 cannot perfomi LBT, regulatory requirements may not be satisfied.

[0067] In an embodiment, in order to avoid the described error, the UE 105 may drop a PLTSCH transmission. In this embodiment, from the UE 105's perspective, if the LIE 105 does not receive the first UL grant DO for a first UL subframe (e.g., subframe 306B) of an UL burst, it will not transmit the PUSCH in later UL subframes of that UL burst. To illustrate, consider scenario 302. In scenario 302, the second RAN 120 may transmit, during subframe 304B, a first DO UL grant that schedules an UL transmission during the 8th subframe 306B, which is the first subframe available for LL transmission after the DwPTS that occurs in the 7th subframe 312B. If the UE 105 misses the first UL grant DO, the LL 105 may drop the PUSCH transmission even if it receives the second UL grant DO for the PUSCH transmission starting from the 9th subframe 308B.

[0068] However, one concern with dropping PUSCH is that the LL 105 not detecting the UL grant DCI may cause significant performance loss, particularly in the scenario where several subframes allocated for PUSCH transmission may be wasted.

[0069] Accordingly, in another embodiment, from the RAN 120's perspective, the RAN 120 may schedule all the PUSCH transmissions within one fixed frame using the same PUSCH scheduling configuration. The scheduling configuration may include identical frequency resources, modulation coding scheme (MCS), and Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) configuration. In this embodiment, from the UE 105's perspective, after receipt of DwPTS, the UL subframes within one fixed frame period will receive the same PUSCH configuration. Accordingly, in this embodiment, if the UE misses the DCI UL grant of the first PUSCH subframe after a DwPTS, but still receives the DCI grant for the remaining PUSCH subframes for an UL burst (e.g. the second UL subframe after a DwPTS), then the UE can transmit the UL in the first UL subframe after the DwPTS as well. In this case, the PUSCH in the first UL subframe of that UL burst will utilize the same configuration parameters (e.g., frequency resources, MCS, DMRS, etc.) as the remaining subframes within the rest of the UL burst.

[0070] To illustrate, consider scenario 302. In this scenario, the UE 105 may receive the second UL grant DCI and may use the UL grant DCI to determine the scheduling configuration. The UE 105 may use the determined configuration for a PUSCH transmission during the first subframe 306B even though the UE 105 did not receive the first UL grant DCI that was transmitted during subframe 304B.

[0071] In another embodiment, the UE 105 may avoid the described error by transmitting a reservation signal within a gap that is created between the end of the downlink burst and the start of the uplink burst. The reservation signal may indicate to the RAN 120 that the UE 105 will transmit a PUSCH in an uplink subframe after the first uplink subframe in the same uplink burst as the first uplink subframe. For example, if the UE 105 is scheduled to transmit the UL on the second UL subframe after the DwPTS, then the UE will include the reservation signal in the UpPTS and/or the first UL subframe.

HARQ-ACK Mapping

[0072] As stated above, in an embodiment, the second RAN 120 may configure HARQ-ACK reporting to be carried in UCI-over-PUSCH and/or to be transmitted during the first available opportunity after DwPTS. However, like in PUSCH transmissions, confusion may arise between the RAN 120 and the UE 105 if the UE 105 misses a DL Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) reception

[0073] Figures 4 A and 4B illustrate example frames of communication between the second RAN 120 and the UE 105, according to some implementations. In particular. Figure 4A illustrates an example scenario 400 of a successful communication between the second RAN 120 and the UE 105 And Figure 4B illustrates an example scenario of an unsuccessful communication between the second RAN 120 and the UE 105.

[0074] In Figures 4A and 4B, given a fixed frame period, the second RAN 120 transmits DL communications in first DL subframes 404A, 404B, respectively. In scenario 400, the UE 105 successfully receives the DL communication. The UE 105 then transmits a HARQ-ACK during subframe 406A, which is expected by the second RAN 120 (e.g., based on LTE timing). Thus, the second RAN 120 will attempt to detect the HARQ-ACK transmission and demodulate the PUSCH transmission on the remaining REs. On the other hand, in scenario 402, the LIE 105 does not detect a DCI and the corresponding PDSCH that are transmitted by the second RAN 120 during the subframe 404B. Since the second RAN 120 is not aware of whether the UE has missed the DCI or not, the second RAN 120 will expect the corresponding HARQ-ACK feedback to be received during a particular subframe (e.g., subframe 406B). Thus, the second RAN 120 will attempt to detect the HARQ-ACK transmission and demodulate the PUSCH transmission on the remaining REs. However, since the UE 105 missed the DCI and the corresponding PDSCH, the UE will only transmit PUSCH over all configured REs. Because the second RAN 120 attempts to decode a HARQ-ACK transmission and no HARQ-ACK transmission was sent, the decoding of the PUSCH fails

[0075] In one approach, to avoid this mi scommuni cation, the second RAN 120 may blindly attempt to detect the PUSCH. Initially, the second RAN 120 may attempt to decode the PUSCH with HARQ-ACK bits (that is, the second RAN 120 assumes that the UE 105 correctly received the DL transmi ssion). If the UE 105 had received the DL transmission, then the decoding will be successful. However, if the second RAN 120 determines that the PUSCH cannot be decoded, then the second RAN 120 can, in response to the determination, attempt to decode the PUSCH without the HARQ-ACK bits (that is, the second RAN 120 assumes that the UE 105 did not receive the DL transmission).

[0076] In another approach, the HARQ-ACK response may be reserved for transmission within a first available UL subframe after the DwPTS. In this approach, when there is DL reception of PDSCH, the corresponding HARQ-ACK response is buffered. The UE 105 then determines if the received DL transmission carries a UL grant DCI to schedule the first available PLISCH. If so, the UE 105 provides the buffered HARQ-ACK feedback within a bitmap, which can, for example, be carried on UCI- over-PUSCH. However, if the UE 105 does not receive the PDSCH, but a UL grant DCI has scheduled UL transmission on the first available PUSCH, the UE 105 may nevertheless transmit the HARQ-ACK response on UCI-over-PUSCH. In this case, the HAR-ACK bitmap will indicate all NACKs.

[0077] In another approach, when operating in certain TDD configurations, the UE 105 can determine, based on the download assignment index, whether or not it missed a DCI transmission. Specifically, for TDD configurations, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, the UE can detect, based on the download assignment index, whether or not it missed a DCI transmission. If the UE determines that it has missed a DCI transmission, then the UE can transmit the corresponding HARQ-ACK bitmap through UCI-on-PUSCH within the first valid UL subframe after the DwPTS In this case, the PDSCH misdetection may be considered as a NACK. For TDD configuration 0, however, the UE cannot use the download assignment index to determine whether the UE has missed a DCI transmission. Thus, for this TDD configuration, the HARQ-ACK bitmap is always transmited within the first valid UL subframe after the DwPTS.

[0078] In an embodiment, the bit field for DAI may be included in the DCI grant, but it may be designated as invalid. Alternatively, the bit field for DAI can be deleted from the DCI grant. The DAI bit can be removed because the transmission of the bitmap may be performed independently of the missed detection of the DCI

[0079] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as set forth in the example section below. For example, the baseband circuitry as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below. For another example, circuitry associated with a UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below in the example section. [0080] In some embodiments, the electronic device(s), network(s), system (s), chip(s) or component(s), or portions or embodiments thereof, of Figures 6-1 1, or some other figures herein, can be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, or methods as described above with respect to Figure 1.

[0081] Figures 5 A, 5B, 5C, and 5D each illustrate a flowchart of an example process, according to some implementations of the present disclosure. For clarity of presentation, the description that follows generally describes the processes in the context of the other figures in this description. For example, processes 500, 510, and 520 can be performed by UE shown in Figure 1, and a process 530 can be performed by a RAN shown in Figure 1 (or an access node thereof). However, it will be understood that the processes may be performed, for example, by any suitable system, environment, software, and hardware, or a combination of systems, environments, software, and hardware, as appropriate. In some implementations, various steps of the processes can be run in parallel, in combination, in loops, or in any order.

[0082] Figure 5A is a flowchart of an example of a process 500 for configuring a UE that is served by a radio access network (RAN) that is operating on an unlicensed spectrum. At step 502, the process involves receiving, by a user equipment (UE) and from a radio access network (RAN), a first uplink scheduling grant. At step 504, the process involves determining, by the UE and based on the first uplink scheduling grant, that an uplink communications grant has not been received for a first uplink subframe of an uplink burst, where the uplink burst comprises an ordered plurality of uplink subframes. At step 506, the process involves determining, by the UE, that the first uplink scheduling grant schedules communication in a second uplink subframe of the uplink burst. At step 508, the process involves determining, by the UE, that the first uplink scheduling grant schedules communication in a second uplink subframe of the uplink burst.

[0083] In some implementations, the first uplink subframe is scheduled soonest in time after a downlink pilot time signal (DwPTS) of a special subframe that precedes the uplink burst. In some implementations, the first uplink scheduling grant includes an indication of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) scheduling configuration. In some implementations, the PUSCH scheduling configuration includes information indicative of at least one of: a frequency resource, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), or a demodulation reference signal (DMRS). In some implementations, the mitigating action includes: determining not to transmit a PUSCH message in the second uplink subframe. In some implementations, the mitigating action includes: transmitting a PUSCH message in the first uplink subframe using the PUSCH scheduling configuration. In some implementations, the process further includes: applying the PUSCH scheduling configuration to PUSCH messages for transmission in the plurality of subframes of the uplink burst. In some implementations, the mitigating action includes: transmitting a reservation signal in the first uplink subframe. In some implementations, the reservation signal indicates that the UE will transmit a PUSCH message in an uplink subfram e after the first uplink subframe. In some implementations, the RAN uses a time-division duplex (TDD) frame structure.

[0084] Figure 5B is a flowchart of an example of a process 510 for configuring a UE that is served by a radio access network (RAN) that is operating on an unlicensed spectrum. At step 512, the process includes receiving, by a user equipment (UE) and from a radio access network (RAN), an uplink scheduling grant scheduling communication in an uplink subframe of an uplink burst, where the uplink burst comprises a plurality of ordered uplink subframes. At step 514, the process includes determining, by the UE, that there is no data for transmission on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). At step 516, the process includes determining, by the UE, whether the uplink subframe is a first uplink subframe of the uplink burst. At step 518, the process includes transmitting, by the UE and in response to determining that the uplink subframe is the first uplink subframe, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback in the uplink subframe.

[0085] In some implementations, determining that the uplink subframe is the first uplink subframe occurs in a first iteration of the process, and in a second iteration the process further includes: determining that the uplink subframe is not the first uplink subframe of the uplink burst; and responsively ignoring the uplink scheduling grant. In some implementations, the HARQ feedback includes a bitmap. In some implementations, the HARQ feedback is transmitted in uplink control information (UCI) over the PUSCH. In some implementations, the PUSCH message does not include uplink data, and where the process further includes padding the PUSCH with zeros. In some implementations, the HARQ feedback is downlink HARQ feedback. In some implementations, the process further includes: receiving an indicator indicating whether to use spatial bundling for the HARQ feedback. In some implementations, the indicator is included in a tdd-AckNackFeedbackMode field. In some implementations, the tdd- AckNackFeedbackMode field is included in aPUSCH-Config information element (IE).

[0086] Figure 5C is a flowchart of an example of a process 520 for configuring a UE that is served by a radio access network (RAN) that is operating on an unlicensed spectrum. At step 522, the process includes receiving, by a user equipment (UE) and from a radio access network (RAN), an uplink scheduling grant scheduling communication in an uplink subframe of an uplink burst, where the uplink burst comprises a plurality of ordered uplink subframes. At step 524, the process includes determining, by the UE, whether a downlink physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission was received. At step 526, the process includes buffering, by the UE and in response to the determination that a PDSCH transmission was received, HARQ feedback that corresponds to the PDSCH transmission. At step 528, the process includes transmitting, by the UE, the buffered HARQ feedback in the uplink subframe.

[0087] In some implementations, the HARQ-ACK feedback is reserved for transmission within a first available UL subframe after a DwPTS of special subframe preceding the uplink burst.

[0088] Figure 5D is a flowchart of an example of a process 530 for configuring a UE that is served by a radio access network (RAN) that is operating on an unlicensed spectrum. At step 532, the process includes transmitting, by a radio access network (RAN) and to a user equipment (UE), an uplink scheduling grant for communications in a first uplink subframe of an uplink burst, the uplink scheduling grant including a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) scheduling configuration. At step 534, the process includes receiving, by the RAN and from the UE, a PUSCH message in a second uplink subframe of the uplink burst according to the PUSCH scheduling configuration.

[0089] In some implementations, the PUSCH message is a first PUSCH message, and the process further includes: receiving, from the UE, a second PUSCH message in the first uplink subframe according to the PUSCH scheduling configuration. In some implementations, the PUSCH scheduling configuration is to be applied by the UE for all PUSCH transmissions in the uplink burst.

[0090] The example processes shown in Figures 5A-5D can be modified or reconfigured to include additional, fewer, or different steps (not shown in Figures 5A- 5D), which can be performed in the order shown or in a different order

[0091] Figure 6 illustrates an example architecture of a system 600 of a network, in accordance with various embodiments. The following description is provided for an example system 600 that operates in conjunction with the LTE system standards and 5G or NR system standards as provided by 3GPP technical specifications. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this regard and the described embodiments may apply to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3 GPP systems (e.g., Sixth Generation (6G)) systems, IEEE 802.16 protocols (e.g., WMAN, WiMAX, etc.), or the like.

[0092] As shown by Figure 6, the system 600 includes UE 601a and UE 601b (collectively referred to as“UEs 601” or“UE 601”). In this example, UEs 601 are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks), but may also comprise any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as consumer electronics devices, cellular phones, smartphones, feature phones, tablet computers, wearable computer devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handsets, desktop computers, laptop computers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-car entertainment (ICE) devices, an Instrument Cluster (IC), head-up display (HUD) devices, onboard diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashtop mobile equipment (DME), mobile data terminals (MDTs), Electronic Engine Management System (EEMS), electronic/engine control units (ECUs), electronic/engine control modules (ECMs), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems (EMS), networked or“smart” appliances, MTC devices, M2M, IoT devices, and/or the like.

[0093] In some embodiments, any of the UEs 601 may be loT UEs, which may comprise a network access layer designed for low-power loT applications utilizing short-lived LIE connections. An loT UE can utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC for exchanging data with an MTC server or device via a PLAIN, ProSe or D2D communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange of data. An IoT network describes interconnecting IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure), with short-lived connections. The IoT UEs may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate the connections of the IoT network.

[0094] The UEs 601 may be configured to connect, for example, communicatively couple, with a RAN 610. In embodiments, the RAN 610 may be an NG RAN or a 5G RAN, an E-UTRAN, or a legacy RAN, such as a UTRAN or GERAN. As used herein, the term“NG RAN” or the like may refer to a RAN 610 that operates in an NR or 5G system 600, and the term“E-UTRAN” or the like may refer to a RAN 610 that operates in an LTE or 4G system 600. The UEs 601 utilize connections (or channels) 603 and 604, respectively, each of which comprises a physical communications interface or layer (discussed in further detail below).

[0095] In this example, the connecti ons 603 and 604 are illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols, such as a GSM protocol, a CDMA network protocol, a PTT protocol, a POC protocol, a UMTS protocol, a 3 GPP LTE protocol, a 5G protocol, a NR protocol, and/or any of the other communications protocols discussed herein. In embodiments, the UEs 601 may directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 605. The ProSe interface 605 may alternatively be referred to as a SL interface 605 and may comprise one or more logical channels, including but not limited to a PSCCH, a PSSCH, a PSDCH, and a PSBCH.

[0096] The UE 601b is shown to be configured to access an AP 606 (also referred to as“WLAN node 606,”“ WLAN 606,”“WLAN Termination 606,”“WT 606” or the like) via connection 607. The connection 607 can comprise a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 606 would comprise a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi®) router. In this example, the AP 606 is shown to be connected to the Internet without connecting to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below/). In various embodiments, the UE 601 b, RAN 610, and AP 606 may be configured to utilize LWA operation and/or LWIP operation. The LWA operation may involve the UE 601b in RRC CONNECTED being confi gured by a RAN node 61 la-b to utilize radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operation may involve the LIE 601b using WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 607) via IPsec protocol tunneling to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent over the connection 607. IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entirety of original IP packets and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packets.

[0097] The RAN 610 can include one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes 611a and 61 1 b (collectively referred to as“HAN nodes 611” or“RAN node 61 1”) that enable the connections 603 and 604. As used herein, the terms“access node,”“access point,” or the like may describe equipment that provides the radio baseband functions for data and/or voice connectivity between a network and one or more users. These access nodes can be referred to as BS, gNBs, RAN nodes, eNBs, NodeBs, RSUs, TRxPs or TRPs, and so forth, and can comprise ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, the term“NG RAN node” or the like may refer to a RAN node 611 that operates in an NR or 5G system 600 (for example, a gNB), and the term“E-UTRAN node” or the like may refer to a RAN node 61 1 that operates in an LTE or 4G system 600 (e.g., an eNB). According to various embodiments, the RAN nodes 611 may be implemented as one or more of a dedicated physical device such as a macrocell base station, and/or a low power (LP) base station for providing femtocelis, picocells or other like cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells.

[0098] In some embodiments, all or parts of the RAN nodes 61 1 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on server computers as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN and/or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBLJP). In these embodiments, the CRAN or vBBUP may implement a RAN function split, such as a PDCP split wherein RRC and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP and other L2 protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes 61 1 ; a MAC/PHY split wherein RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP and the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 61 1 ; or a“lower PHY” split wherein RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers and upper portions of the PHY layer are operated by the CRAN/VBBUP and lower portions of the PHY layer are operated by individual RAN nodes 61 1 . This virtualized framework allows the freed-up processor cores of the RAN nodes 611 to perform other virtualized applications. In some implementations, an individual RAN node 61 1 may represent individual gNB-DUs that are connected to a gNB-CU via individual FI interfaces (not shown by Figure 6). In these implementations, the gNB-DUs may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs (see, e.g., Figure 7), and the gNB-CU may be operated by a server that is located in the RAN 610 (not shown) or by a server pool in a similar manner as the CRAN/vBBUP. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 611 may be next generation eNBs (ng-eNBs), which are RAN nodes that provide E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminations toward the UEs 601, and are connected to a 5GC (e.g., CN) via an NG interface (discussed infra). [0099] In V2X scenarios one or more of the RAN nodes 61 1 may be or act as RSUs. The term“Road Side Unit” or“RSU” may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. An RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE, where an RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a“UE-type RSU,” an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an“eNB-type RSU,” an RSU implemented in or by a gNB may be referred to as a“gNB-type RSU,” and the like. In one example, an RSU is a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located on a roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs 601 (vUEs 601). The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry to store intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, as well as applications/software to sense and control ongoing vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate on the 5.9 GHz Direct Short Range Communications (DSRC) band to provide very low latency communications required for high speed events, such as crash avoidance, traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate on the cellular V2X hand to provide the aforementioned low' latency communications, as well as other cellular communications services. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a Wi Fi hotspot (2 4 GHz band) and/or provide connectivity to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communications. The computing device(s) and some or all of the radiofrequency circuitry of the RSU may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller and/or a backhaul network.

[00100] Any of the RAN nodes 611 can terminate the air interface protocol and can be the first point of contact for the UEs 601. In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 611 can fulfill various logical functions for the RAN 610 including, but not limited to, radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[00101] In embodiments, the UEs 601 can be configured to communicate using OFDM communication signals with each other or with any of the RAN nodes 611 over a multi carrier communication channel in accordance with various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, an OFDMA communication technique (e.g., for downlink communications) or a SC-FDMA communication technique (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signals can comprise a plurality of orthogonal sub carriers.

[00102] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 61 1 to the UEs 601, while uplink transmissions can utilize similar techniques. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, called a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practice for OFDM systems, which makes it intuitive for radio resource allocation. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the smallest quantity of resources that currently can be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks.

[00103] According to various embodiments, the UEs 601 and the RAN nodes 61 1 communicate data (for example, transmit and receive) data over a licensed medium (also referred to as the“licensed spectrum” and/or the“licensed band”) and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as the“unlicensed spectrum” and/or the“unlicensed band”). The licensed spectrum may include channels that operate in the frequency range of approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GFIz, whereas the unlicensed spectrum may include the 5 GHz band.

[00104] To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UEs 601 and the RAN nodes 61 1 may operate using LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAA mechanisms. In these implementations, the UEs 601 and the RAN nodes 61 1 may perform one or more known medium-sensing operations and/or carrier-sensing operations in order to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum is unavailable or otherwise occupied prior to transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium/carrier sensing operations may be performed according to a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol. [00105] LBT is a mechanism whereby equipment (for example, UEs 601 RAN nodes 611, etc.) senses a medium (for example, a channel or carrier frequency) and transmits when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a specific channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include CCA, which utilizes at least ED to determine the presence or absence of other signals on a channel in order to determine if a channel is occupied or clear. This LBT mechanism allows cellular/LAA networks to coexist with incumbent systems in the unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED may include sensing RF energy across an intended transmission band for a period of time and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold.

[00106] Typically, the incumbent systems in the 5 GHz band are WLANs based on IEEE 802.1 1 technologies. WLAN employs a contention-based channel access mechanism, called CSMA/CA. Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS) such as UE 601, AP 606, or the like) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmission. Additionally, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid collisions in situations where more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits at the same time. The backoff mechanism may be a counter that is drawn randomly within the CWS, which is increased exponentially upon the occurrence of collision and reset to a minimum value when the transmission succeeds. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to the CSMA/CA of WLAN. In some implementations, the LBT procedure for DL or UL transmission bursts including PDSCH or PLISCH transmissions, respectively, may have an LAA contention window that is variable in length between X and Y ECCA slots, where X and Y are minimum and maximum values for the CWSs for LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for an LAA transmission may be 9 microseconds, however, the size of the CWS and a MCGT (for example, a transmission burst) may be based on governmental regulatory requirements.

[00107] The LAA mechanisms are built upon CA technologies of LTE -Advanced systems. In CA, each aggregated carrier is referred to as a CC. A CC may have a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 or 20 MHz and a maximum of five CCs can be aggregated, and therefore, a maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100 MHz. In FDD systems, the number of aggregated carriers can be different for DL and UL, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or lower than the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, individual CCs can have a different bandwidth than other CCs. In TDD systems, the number of CCs as well as the bandwidths of each CC is usually the same for DL and

UL.

[00108] CA also comprises individual serving cells to provide individual CCs. The coverage of the serving cells may differ, for example, because CCs on different frequency bands will experience different pathloss. A primary service cell or PCeli may provide a PCC for both UL and DL, and may handle RRC and NAS related activities. The other serving cells are referred to as SCells, and each SCell may provide an individual SCC for both UL and DL. The SCCs may be added and removed as required, while changing the PCC may require the UE 601 to undergo a handover. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in the unlicensed spectrum (referred to as“LAA SCells”), and the LAA SCells are assisted by a PCeli operating in the licensed spectrum. When a UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants on the configured LAA SCells indicating different PUSCH starting positions within a same subframe.

[00109] The PDSCH carries user data and higher-layer signaling to the UEs 601. The PDCCH carries information about the transport format and resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things. It may also inform the UEs 601 about the transport format, resource allocation, and HARQ information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE 601b within a cell) may be performed at any of the RAN nodes 611 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 601. The downlink resource assignment information may be sent on the PDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) each of the UEs 601.

[00110] The PDCCH uses CCEs to convey the control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets, which may then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as REGs. Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH can be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of the DCI and the channel condition. There can be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation level, L=i, 2, 4, or 8).

[00111] Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for control channel information that are an extension of the above-described concepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize an EPDCCH that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more ECCEs. Similar to above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as an EREGs. An ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some situations.

[001 12] The RAN nodes 611 may be configured to communicate with one another via interface 612. In embodiments where the system 600 is an LTE system (e.g., when CN 620 is an EPC), the interface 612 may be an X2 interface 612. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 61 1 (e.g., two or more eNBs and the like) that connect to EPC 620, and/or between two eNBs connecting to EPC 620. In some implementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide flow control mechanisms for user data packets transferred over the X2 interface, and may be used to communicate information about the deliver}_' of user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U may provide specific sequence number information for user data transferred from a MeNB to an SeNB; information about successful in sequence delivery of PDCP PDUs to a HE 601 from an SeNB for user data, information of PDCP PDEJs that were not delivered to a LIE 601 , information about a current minimum desired buffer size at the SeNB for transmitting to the UE user data: and the like. The X2-C may provide intra-LTE access mobility functionality, including context transfers from source to target eNBs, user plane transport control, etc.; load management functionality; as well as inter-cell interference coordinati on f uncti onai ity .

[001 13] In embodiments where the system 600 is a 5G or NR system (e.g., when CN 620 is an 5GC), the interface 612 may be an Xn interface 612. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 611 (e.g., two or more gNBs and the like) that connect to 5GC 620, between a RAN node 611 (e.g., a gNB) connecting to 5GC 620 and an eNB, and/or between two eNBs connecting to 5GC 620. In some implementations, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support/provide data forwarding and flow' control functionality. The Xn-C may provide management and error handling functionality, functionality to manage the Xn-C interface; mobility support for UE 601 in a connected mode (e.g., CM- CONNECTED) including functionality to manage the UE mobility for connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 611. The mobility support may include context transfer from an old (source) serving RAN node 61 1 to new (target) serving RAN node 611; and control of user plane tunnels between old (source) serving RAN node 611 to new (target) serving RAN node 61 1. A protocol stack of the Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer on top of a UDP and/or IP layer(s) to carry user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer that is built on SCTP. The SCTP may be on top of an IP layer, and may provide the guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer, point-to-point transmission is used to deliver the signaling PDUs. In other implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and/or the Xn-C protocol stack may be same or similar to the user plane and/or control plane protocol stack(s) shown and described herein.

[001 14] The RAN 610 is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network-in this embodiment, core network (CN) 620. The CN 620 may comprise a plurality of network elements 622, which are configured to offer various data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (e.g., users of UEs 601) who are connected to the CN 620 via the RAN 610. The components of the CN 620 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes including components to read and execute instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the above-described network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage mediums (described in further detail below). A logical instantiation of the CN 620 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 620 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. NFV architectures and infrastructures may be used to virtualize one or more network functions, alternatively performed by proprietary hardware, onto physical resources comprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches. In other words, NFV systems can be used to execute virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPC com ponents/ functi on s .

[00115] Generally, the application server 630 may be an element offering applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). The application server 630 can also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UEs 601 via the EPC 620

[00116] In embodiments, the CN 620 may be a 5GC (referred to as“5GC 620” or the like), and the RAN 610 may be connected with the CN 620 via an NG interface 613. In embodiments, the NG interface 613 may be split into two parts, an NG user plane (NG- U) interface 614, which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes 611 and a UPF, and the SI control plane (NG-C) interface 615, which is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes 61 1 and AMFs.

[00117] In embodiments, the CN 620 may be a 5G CN (referred to as“5GC 620” or the like), while in other embodiments, the CN 620 may be an EPC). Where CN 620 is an EPC (referred to as“EPC 620” or the like), the RAN 610 may be connected with the CN 620 via an SI interface 613. In embodiments, the SI interface 613 may be split into two parts, an S I user plane (SI -U) interface 614, which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes 611 and the S-GW, and the Sl-MME interface 615, which is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes 611 and MMEs.

[001 18] Figure 7 illustrates an example of infrastructure equipment 700 in accordance with various embodiments. The infrastructure equipment 700 (or“system 700”) may be implemented as a base station, radio head, RAN node such as the RAN nodes 611 and/or AP 606 shown and described previously, application server(s) 630, and/or any other element/device discussed herein. In other examples, the system 700 could be implemented in or by a UE.

[001 19] The system 700 includes application circuitry 705, baseband circuitry 710, one or more radio front end modules (RFEMs) 715, memory circuitry 720, power management integrated circuitry (PMIC) 725, power tee circuitry 730, network controller circuitry 735, network interface connector 740, satellite positioning circuitry 745, and user interface 750. In some embodiments, the device 700 may include additional elements such as, for example, mem ory/ storage, display, camera, sensor, or input/output (I/O) interface. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device. For example, said circuitries may be separately included in more than one device for CRAN, vBBU, or other like implementations.

[00120] Application circuitry 705 includes circuitry such as, but not limited to one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more of low drop-out voltage regulators (LDOs), interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, I2C or universal programmable serial interface module, real time clock (RTC), timer-counters including interval and watchdog timers, general purpose input/output (I/O or 10), memory card controllers such as Secure Digital (SD) MultiMediaCard (MMC) or similar, Universal Serial Bus (USB) interfaces, Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) interfaces and Joint Test Access Group (JTAG) test access ports. The processors (or cores) of the application circuitry 705 may be coupled with or may include memory/storage elements and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 700. In some implementations, the memory/storage elements may be on-chip memory circuitry, which may include any suitable volatile and/or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, Flash memory, solid-state memory, and/or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

[00121] The processor(s) of application circuitry 705 may include, for example, one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors, one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISC Machine (ARM) processors, one or more complex instruction set computing (CISC) processors, one or more digital signal processors (DSP), one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, or any suitable combination thereof In some embodiments, the application circuitry 705 may comprise, or may be, a special-purpose processor/controller to operate according to the various embodiments herein. As examples, the processor(s) of application circuitry 705 may include one or more Intel Pentium®, Core®, or Xeon® processors); Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processor( s), Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), or Epye® processors; ARM-based processor( s) licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd. such as the ARM Cortex-A family of processors and the ThunderX2® provided by Cavium(TM), Inc., a MIPS-based design from MIPS Technologies, Inc. such as MIPS Warrior P-class processors; and/or the like. In some embodiments, the system 700 may not utilize application circuitry 705, and instead may include a special-purpose processor/controller to process IP data received from an EPC or 5GC, for example.

[00122] In some implementations, the application circuitry' 705 may include one or more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, or the like. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and/or deep learning (DL) accelerators. As examples, the programmable processing devices may be one or more a field-programmable devices (FPDs) such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and the like; programmable logic devices (PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), and the like; ASICs such as structured ASICs and the like; programmable SoCs (PSoCs): and the like. In such implementations, the circuitry of application circuitry 705 may comprise logic blocks or logic fabric, and other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions, such as the procedures, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry 705 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read only memory_' (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g , static random access memory' (SRAM), anti-fuses, etc.)) used to store logic blocks, logic fabric, data, etc. in look-up-tables (LUTs) and the like.

[00123] The baseband circuitry 710 may be implemented, for example, as a solder- down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. The various hardware electronic elements of baseband circuitry' 710 are discussed infra with regard to Figure 9.

[00124] User interface circuitry 750 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the system 700 or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interaction with the system 700. User interfaces may include, but are not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, speakers or other audio emitting devices, microphones, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, etc. Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, a nonvolatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power supply interface, etc.

[00125] The radio front end modules (RFEMs) 715 may compri se a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-mmWave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-mmWave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFICs may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see e.g., antenna array 911 1 of Figure 9 infra), and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both mmWave and sub-mmWave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical RFEM 715, which incorporates both mmWave antennas and sub-mmWave.

[00126] The memory circuitry 720 may include one or more of volatile memory including dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and/or synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) including high speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as Flash memory), phase change random access memoiy (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc., and may incorporate the three-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memories from Intel® and Micron®. Memory circuitry 720 may be implemented as one or more of solder down packaged integrated circuits, socketed memory modules and plug-in memory cards.

[00127] The PMIC 725 may include voltage regulators, surge protectors, power alarm detection circuitry, and one or more backup power sources such as a battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuitry may detect one or more of brown out (under-voltage) and surge (over-voltage) conditions. The power tee circuitry 730 may provide for electrical power drawn from a network cable to provide both power supply and data connectivity to the infrastructure equipment 700 using a single cable.

[00128] The network controller circuitry 735 may provide connectivity to a network using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet, Ethernet over GRE Tunnels, Ethernet over Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may be provided to/from the infrastructure equipment 700 via network interface connector 740 using a physical connection, which may be electrical (commonly referred to as a“copper interconnect”), optical, or wireless. The network controller circuitry 735 may include one or more dedicated processors and/or FPGAs to communicate using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some implementations, the network controller circuitry 735 may include multiple controllers to provide connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

[00129] The positioning circuitry 745 includes circuitry to receive and decode signal s transmitted/broadcasted by a positioning network of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include United States^* Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia's Global Navigation System (GLONASS), the European Union’s Galileo system, China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, a regional navigation system or GNSS augmentation system (e.g., Navigation with Indian Constellation (NAVIC), Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), France's Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS), etc.), or the like. The positioning circuitry 745 comprises various hardware elements (e.g , including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, and the like to facilitate OTA communications) to communicate with components of a positioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuitry 745 may include a Micro-Technology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (Micro-PNT) IC that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking/estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuitry 745 may also be part of, or interact with, the baseband circuitry 710 and/or RFEMs 715 to communicate with the nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuitry 745 may also provide position data and/or time data to the application circuitry 705, which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., RAN nodes 611, etc.), or the like.

[00130] The components shown by Figure 7 may communicate with one another using interface circuitry, which may include any number of bus and/or interconnect (IX) technologies such as industry standard architecture (ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheral component interconnect (PCI), peripheral component interconnect extended (PCIx), PCI express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. The bus/IX may be a proprietary bus, for example, used in a SoC based system. Other bus/IX systems may be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, point to point interfaces, and a power bus, among others.

[00131] Figure 8 illustrates an example of a platform 800 (or“device 800”) in accordance with various embodiments. In embodiments, the computer platform 800 may be suitable for use as UEs 601, application servers 630, and/or any other element/device discussed herein. The platform 800 may include any combinations of the components shown in the example. The components of platform 800 may be implemented as integrated circuits ( It^'s), portions thereof, discrete electronic devices, or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof adapted in the computer platform 800, or as components otherwise incorporated within a chassis of a larger system. The block diagram of Figure 8 is intended to show a high level view of components of the computer platform 800. However, some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components may be present, and different arrangement of the components shown may occur in other implementations.

[00132] Application circuitry 805 includes circuitry such as, but not limited to one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory', and one or more of LDOs, interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, I2C or universal programmable serial interface module, RTC, timer-counters including interval and watchdog timers, general purpose 170, memory card controllers such as SD MMC or similar, USB interfaces, MIPI interfaces, and JT AG test access ports. The processors (or cores) of the application circuitry 805 may be coupled with or may include memory/storage elements and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 800. In some implementations, the memory/storage elements may be on-chip memory circuitry, which may include any suitable volatile and/or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, Flash memory, solid-state memory, and/or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

[00133] The processor(s) of application circuitry 705 may include, for example, one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one or more GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, one or more CISC processors, one or more DSP, one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, a multithreaded processor, an ultra-low voltage processor, an embedded processor, some other known processing element, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuitry 705 may comprise, or may be, a special-purpose processor/controller to operate according to the various embodiments herein.

[00134] As examples, the processor(s) of application circuitry 805 may include an Intel® Architecture Core™ based processor, such as a Quark™, an Atom™, an i3, an i5, an 17, or an MCU-class processor, or another such processor available from Intel® Corporation, Santa Clara, CA. The processors of the application circuitry 805 may also be one or more of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processor(s) or Accel erated Processing Units (APUs); A5-A9 processor(s) from Apple® Inc., Snapdragon™ processor(s) from Qualcomm® Technologies, Inc., Texas Instruments, Inc.® Open Multimedia Applications Platform (OMAP)™ processor(s); a MIPS-based design from MIPS Technologies, Inc such as MIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors; an ARM-based design licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A, Cortex -R, and Cortex -M family of processors, or the like. In some implementations, the application circuitry 805 may be a part of a system on a chip (SoC) in which the application circuitry 805 and other components are formed into a single integrated circuit, or a single package, such as the Edison™ or Galileo™ SoC boards from Intel® Corporation.

[00135] Additionally or alternatively, application circuitry' 805 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more a field-programmable devices (FPDs) such as FPGAs and the like; programmable logic devices (PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), and the like; ASICs such as structured ASICs and the like, programmable SoCs (PSoCs), and the like. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry' 805 may comprise logic blocks or logic fabric, and other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions, such as the procedures, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry 805 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory' (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory' (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory' (e.g , static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuses, etc )) used to store logic blocks, logic fabric, data, etc. in look-up tables (LUTs) and the like.

[00136] The baseband circuitry 810 may be implemented, for example, as a solder- down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board or a multi -chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. The various hardware electronic elements of baseband circuitry' 810 are discussed infra with regard to Figure 9.

[00137] The RFEMs 815 may comprise a millimeter wave (mm Wave) RFEM and one or more sub-mmWave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-mmWave RFICs may be physically separated from the mm Wave RFEM. The RFICs may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see e.g., antenna array 91 1 1 of Figure 9 infra), and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both mmWave and sub- mmWave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical RFEM 815, which incorporates both mmWave antennas and sub-mmW ave.

[00138] The memory circuitry 820 may include any number and type of memory devices used to provide for a given amount of system memory. As examples, the memory circuitry 820 may include one or more of volatile memory including random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM) and/or synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) including high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as Flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc. The memory circuitry 820 may be developed in accordance with a Joint Electron Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC) low power double data rate (LPDDR)-based design, such as LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, or the like. Memory circuitry 820 may be implemented as one or more of solder down packaged integrated circuits, single die package (SDP), dual die package (DDP) or quad die package (Q17P), socketed memory modules, dual inline memory modules (DIMMs) including microDIMMs or MiniDIMMs, and/or soldered onto a motherboard via a ball grid array (BGA). In low power implementations, the memory circuitry 820 may be on-die memory or registers associated with the application circuitry 805. To provide for persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems and so forth, memory circuitry 820 may include one or more mass storage devices, which may include, inter alia, a solid state disk drive (SSDD), hard disk drive (HDD), a micro HDD, resistance change memories, phase change memories, holographic memories, or chemical memories, among others. For example, the computer platform 800 may incorporate the three-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memories from Intel® and Micron®.

[00139] The memory circuitry 823 may include devices, circuitry, enclosures/housings, ports or receptacles, etc. used to couple portable data storage devices with the platform 800. These portable data storage devices may be used for mass storage purposes, and may include, for example, flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, microSD cards, xD picture cards, and the like), and USB flash drives, optical discs, external HDDs, and the like.

[00140] The platform 800 may also include interface circuitry (not shown) that is used to connect external devices with the platform 800. The external devices connected to the platform 800 via the interface circuitry include sensor circuitry 821 and electro mechanical components (EMCs) 822, as well as removable memory devices coupled to removable memory circuitry 823.

[00141] The sensor circuitry 821 include devices, modules, or subsystems whose purpose is to detect events or changes in its environment and send the information (sensor data) about the detected events to some other a device, module, subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors include, inter alia, inertia measurement units (IMUs) comprising accelerometers, gyroscopes, and/or magnetometers: microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) or nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) comprising 3 -axis accelerometers, 3 -axis gyroscopes, and/or magnetometers; level sensors; flow sensors; temperature sensors (e.g , thermistors), pressure sensors, barometric pressure sensors; gravimeters; altimeters; image capture devices (e.g., cameras or lensless apertures); light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors; proximity sensors (e.g., infrared radiation detector and the like), depth sensors, ambient light sensors, ultrasonic transceivers; microphones or other like audio capture devices; etc.

[00142] EMCs 822 include devices, modules, or subsystems whose purpose is to enable platform 800 to change its state, position, and/or orientation, or move or control a mechanism or (sub)system. Additionally, EMCs 822 may be configured to generate and send messages/signalling to other components of the platform 800 to indicate a current state of the EMCs 822 Examples of the EMCs 822 include one or more power switches, relays including electromechanical relays (EMRs) and/or solid state relays (SSRs), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), an audible sound generator, a visual warning device, motors (e.g., DC motors, stepper motors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks, and/or other like electro-mechanical components. In embodiments, platform 800 is configured to operate one or more EMCs 822 based on one or more captured events and/or instructions or control signals received from a service provider and/or various clients.

[00143] In some implementations, the interface circuitry may connect the platform 800 with positioning circuitry 845. The positioning circuitry 845 includes circuitry to receive and decode signals transmitted/broadcasted by a positioning network of a GNSS. Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include United States' GPS, Russia's GLONASS, the European Union's Galileo system, China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, a regional navigation system or GNSS augmentation system (e.g., NAVIC), Japan's QZSS, France's DORIS, etc.), or the like. The positioning circuitry' 845 comprises various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, and the like to facilitate OTA communications) to communicate with components of a positioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuitry 845 may include a Micro-PNT IC that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking/estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuitry_' 845 may also be part of, or interact with, the baseband circuitry' 710 and/or RFEMs 815 to communicate with the nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuitry' 845 may also provide position data and/or time data to the application circuitry' 805, which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g , radio base stations), for turn-by-turn navigation applications, or the like

[00144] In some implementations, the interface circuitry may connect the platform 800 with Near-Field Communication (NFC) circuitry 840. NFC circuitry 840 is configured to provide contactless, short-range communications based on radio frequency identification (RFID) standards, wherein magnetic field induction is used to enable communication between NFC circuitry 840 and NFC-enabled devices external to the platform 800 (e.g., an“NFC touchpoint”). NFC circuitry 840 comprises an NFC controller coupled with an antenna element and a processor coupled with the NFC controller. The NFC controller may be a chip/IC providing NFC functionalities to the NFC circuitry' 840 by executing NFC controller firmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack may be executed by the processor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmware may be executed by the NFC controller to control the antenna element to emit short-range RF signals. The RF signals may power a passive NFC tag (e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transmit stored data to the NFC circuitry 840, or initiate data transfer between the NFC circuitry'· 840 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smartphone or an NFC-enabled POS terminal) that is proximate to the platform 800.

[00145] The driver circuitry 846 may include software and hardware elements that operate to control particular devices that are embedded in the platform 800, attached to the platform 800, or otherwise communicatively coupled with the platform 800. The driver circuitry 846 may include individual drivers allowing other components of the platform 800 to interact with or control various input/output (I/O) devices that may be present within, or connected to, the platform 800. For example, driver circuitry 846 may include a display driver to control and allow access to a display device, a touchscreen driver to control and allow access to a touchscreen interface of the platform 800, sensor drivers to obtain sensor readings of sensor circuitry 821 and control and allow access to sensor circuitry 821, EMC drivers to obtain actuator positions of the EMCs 822 and/or control and allow access to the EMCs 822, a camera driver to control and allow' access to an embedded image capture device, audio drivers to control and allow access to one or more audio devices.

[00146] The management integrated circuitry (PMIC) 825 (also referred to as“power management circuitry 825”) may manage power provided to various components of the platform 800 In particular, with respect to the baseband circuitry 810, the PMIC 825 may control power-source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DC conversion. The PMIC 825 may often be included when the platform 800 is capable of being powered by a battery 830, for example, when the device is included in a UE 601.

[00147] In some embodiments, the PMIC 825 may control, or otherwise be part of, various power saving mechanisms of the platform 800. For example, if the platform 800 is in an RRC Connected state, where it is still connected to the RAN node as it expects to receive traffic shortly, then it may enter a state known as Discontinuous Reception Mode (DRX) after a period of inactivity. During this state, the platform 800 may pow'er down for brief intervals of time and thus save power. If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, then the platform 800 may transition off to an RRC Idle state, where it disconnects from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The platform 800 goes into a very low' power state and it performs paging where again it periodically wakes up to listen to the network and then powers down again. The platform 800 may not receive data in this state; in order to receive data, it must transition back to RRC Connected state. An additional power saving mode may allow' a device to be unavailable to the network for periods longer than a paging interval (ranging from seconds to a few hours). During this time, the device is totally unreachable to the network and may power down completely. Any data sent during this time incurs a large delay and it is assumed the delay is acceptable. [00148] A battery 830 may power the platform 800, although in some examples the platform 800 may be mounted deployed in a fixed location, and may have a power supply coupled to an electrical grid. The batery 830 may be a lithium ion battery, a metal-air battery, such as a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air batery, and the like. In some implementations, such as in V2X applications, the battery 830 may be a typical lead-acid automotive battery.

[00149] In some implementations, the battery 830 may be a“smart battery,” which includes or is coupled with a Battery Management System (BMS) or batery monitoring integrated circuitry. The BMS may be included in the platform 800 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 830. The BMS may be used to monitor other parameters of the battery^· 830 to provide failure predictions, such as the state of health (SoH) and the state of function (SoF) of the battery 830 The BMS may communicate the information of the battery 830 to the application circuitry 805 or other components of the platform 800. The BMS may also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) convertor that allows the application circuitry 805 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 830 or the current flow from the battery 830. The battery parameters may be used to determine actions that the platform 800 may perform, such as transmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, and the like.

[00150] A power block, or other power supply coupled to an electrical grid may be coupled with the BMS to charge the battery 830. In some examples, the power block XS30 may be replaced with a wireless power receiver to obtain the power wirelessly, for example, through a loop antenna in the computer platform 800. In these examples, a wireless battery charging circuit may be included in the BMS. The specific charging circuits chosen may depend on the size of the battery 830, and thus, the current required. The charging may be performed using the Airfuel standard promulgated by the Airfuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standard promulgated by the Wireless Power Consortium, or the Rezence charging standard promulgated by the Alliance for Wireless Power, among others.

[00151] User interface circuitry 850 includes various input/output (I/O) devices present within, or connected to, the platform 800, and includes one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the platform 800 and/or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interaction with the platform 800. The user interface circuitry 850 includes input device circuitry and output device circuitry. Input device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for accepting an input including, inter alia, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, keypad, mouse, touchpad, touchscreen, microphones, scanner, headset, and/or the like. The output device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for showing information or otherwise conveying information, such as sensor readings, actuator position(s), or other like information. Output device circuitry may include any number and/or combinati ons of audio or visual display, including, inter alia, one or more simple visual outputs/indicators (e.g., binary status indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-character visual outputs, or more complex outputs such as display devices or touchscreens (e.g., Liquid Chrystal Displays (LCD), LED displays, quantum dot displays, projectors, etc.), with the output of characters, graphics, multimedia objects, and the like being generated or produced from the operation of the platform 800. The output device circuitry may also include speakers or other audio emitting devices, printer(s), and/or the like. In some embodiments, the sensor circuitry 821 may be used as the input device circuitry (e.g., an image capture device, motion capture device, or the like) and one or more EMCs may be used as the output device circuitry (e.g., an actuator to provide haptic feedback or the like). In another example, NEC circuitry comprising an NFC controller coupled with an antenna element and a processing device may be included to read electronic tags and/or connect with another NFC-enabled device. Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, a non-volatile memory' port, a USB port, an audio jack, a power supply interface, etc.

[00152] Although not shown, the components of platform 800 may communicate with one another using a suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technology, which may include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCIx, PCIe, a Time- Trigger Protocol (TTP) system, a FlexRay system, or any number of other technologies. The bus/IX may be a proprietary bus/IX, for example, used in a SoC based system. Other bus/IX systems may be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, point-to- point interfaces, and a power bus, among others.

[00153] Figure 9 illustrates example components of baseband circuitry 9110 and radio front end modules (RFEM) 9115 in accordance with various embodiments. The baseband circuitry 91 10 corresponds to the baseband circuitry 710 and 810 of Figures 7 and 8, respectively. The RFEM 9115 corresponds to the RFEM 715 and 815 of Figures 7 and 8, respectively. As shown, the RFEMs 9115 may include Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 9106, front-end module (FEM) circuitry' 9108, antenna array 91 11 coupled together at least as shown.

[00154] The baseband circuitry 9110 includes circuitry' and/or control logic configured to carry out various radio/network protocol and radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 9106. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry' 91 10 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 91 10 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functionality are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functionality in other embodiments. The baseband circuitry 91 10 is configured to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry' 9106 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 9106. The baseband circuitry 9110 is configured to interface with application circuitry 705/805 (see Figures 7 and 8) for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry' 9106. The baseband circuitry 9110 may handle various radio control functions.

[00155] The aforementioned circuitry' and/or control logic of the baseband circuitry 91 10 may include one or more single or multi-core processors. For example, the one or more processors may include a 3G baseband processor 9104A, a 4G/LTE baseband processor 9104B, a 5G/NR baseband processor 9104C, or some other baseband processor(s) 9104D for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., si9h generation (6G), etc.). In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 9104A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory 9104G and executed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 9104E. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 9104A- D may be provided as hardware accelerators (e.g., FPGAs, ASICs, etc.) loaded with the appropriate bit streams or logic blocks stored in respective memory cells. In various embodiments, the memory' 9104G may store program code of a real-time OS (RTOS), which when executed by the CPU 9104E (or other baseband processor), is to cause the CPU 9104E (or other baseband processor) to manage resources of the baseband circuitry 9110, schedule tasks, etc. Examples of the RTOS may include Operating System Embedded (OSE)™ provided by Enea®, Nucleus RTOS™ provided by Mentor Graphics®, Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX) provided by Mentor Graphics®, ThreadX™ provided by Express Logic®, FreeRTOS, REX OS provided by Qualcomm®, OKL4 provided by Open Kernel (OK) Labs®, or any other suitable RTOS, such as those discussed herein. In addition, the baseband circuitry 9110 includes one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 9104F. The audio DSP(s) 9104F include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments.

[00156] In some embodiments, each of the processors 9104A-9104E include respective memory interfaces to send/receive data to/from the memory 9104G. The baseband circuitry 91 10 may further include one or more interfaces to communicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as an interface to send/receive data to/from memory xternal to the baseband circuitry 9110; an application circuitry interface to send/receive data to/from the application circuitry 705/805 of FIGS. 7-9); an RF circuitry interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry 9106 of Figure 9; a wireless hardware connectivity interface to send/receive data to/from one or more wireless hardware elements (e.g., Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth®/ Bluetooth® Low Energy components, Wi-Fi® components, and/or the like); and a power management interface to send/receive power or control signals to/from the PMIC 825.

[00157] In alternate embodiments (which may be combined with the above described embodiments), baseband circuitry 91 10 comprises one or more digital baseband systems, which are coupled with one another via an interconnect subsystem and to a CPU subsystem, an audio subsystem, and an interface subsystem. The digital baseband subsystems may also be coupled to a digital baseband interface and a mixed-signal baseband subsystem via another interconnect subsystem. Each of the interconnect subsystems may include a bus system, point-to-point connections, network-on-chip (NOC) structures, and/or some other suitable bus or interconnect technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include DSP circuitry, buffer memory, program memory, speech processing accelerator circuitry, data converter circuitry such as analog-to-digital and digital -to-analog converter circuitry, analog circuitry including one or more of amplifiers and filters, and/or other like components. In an aspect of the present disclosure, baseband circuitry 91 10 may include protocol processing circuitry with one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the digital baseband circuitry and/or radio frequency circuitry (e.g., the radio front end modules 9115).

[00158] Although not shown by Figure 9, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 9110 includes individual processing device(s) to operate one or more wireless communication protocols (e.g., a“multi -protocol baseband processor” or“protocol processing circuitry”) and individual processing device(s) to implement PHY layer functions. In these embodiments, the PHY layer functions include the aforementioned radio control functions. In these embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry' operates or implements various protocol layers/entities of one or more wireless communication protocols. In a first example, the protocol processing circuitry may operate LTE protocol entities and/or 5G/NR protocol entities when the baseband circuitry 9110 and/or RF circuitry 9106 are part of mmWave communication circuitry or some other suitable cellular communication circuitry. In the first example, the protocol processing circuitry would operate MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC, and NAS functions. In a second example, the protocol processing circuitry may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols when the baseband circuitry 91 10 and/or RF circuitry' 9106 are part of a Wi Fi communication system. In the second example, the protocol processing circuitry would operate Wi-Fi MAC and logical link control ( LLC) functions. The protocol processing circuitry' may include one or more memory' structures (e.g., 9104G) to store program code and data for operating the protocol functions, as well as one or more processing cores to execute the program code and perform various operations using the data. The baseband circuitry' 9110 may also support radio communications for more than one wireless protocol.

[00159] The various hardware elements of the baseband circuitry 91 10 discussed herein may be implemented, for example, as a solder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single packaged IC soldered to a main circuit board or a multi-chip module containing two or more ICs. In one example, the components of the baseband circuitry 91 10 may be suitably combined in a single chip or chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board. In another example, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 91 10 and RF circuitry 9106 may be implemented together such as, for example, a system on a chip (SoC) or System-in-Package (SiP). In another example, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 9110 may be implemented as a separate SoC that is communicatively coupled with and RF circuitry 9106 (or multiple instances of RF circuitry 9106). In yet another example, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 9110 and the application circuitry 705/805 may be implemented together as individual SoCs mounted to a same circuit board (e.g., a“multi-chip package”).

[00160] In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 91 10 may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 9110 may support communication with an E- UTRAN or other WMAN, a WLAN, a WPAN. Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 9110 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

[00161] RF circuitry 9106 may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 9106 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 9106 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 9108 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 9110. RF circuitry 9106 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 9110 and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 9108 for transmission.

[00162] In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 9106 may include mixer circuitry 9106a, amplifier circuitry 9106b and filter circuitry 9106c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 9106 may include filter circuitry 9106c and mixer circuitry 9106a. RF circuitry 9106 may also include synthesizer circuitry 9106d for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 9106a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 9106a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 9108 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 9106d. The amplifier circuitry 9106b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 9106c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals. Output baseband signals may be provided to the baseband circuitry 91 10 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 9106a of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[00163] In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 9106a of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 9106d to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry' 9108. The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 91 10 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 9106c.

[00164] In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 9106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 9106a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down conversion and upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 9106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 9106a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry' 9106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 9106a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct downconversion and direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 9106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 9106a of the transmit signal path may be configured for super- heterodyne operation

[00165] In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternate embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RF circuitry 9106 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital -to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry 9110 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 9106.

[00166] In some dual -mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect [00167] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 9106d may be a fractional - N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuitry 9106d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider

[00168] The synthesizer circuitry 9106d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 9106a of the RF circuitry 9106 based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 9106d may be a fractional N/N+l synthesizer.

[00169] In some embodiments, frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 9110 or the application circuitry 705/805 depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g , N) may be determined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by the application circuitry 705/805.

[00170] Synthesizer circuitry 9106d of the RF circuitry 9106 may include a divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DP A). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Nd equal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

[00171] In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 9106d may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the earner frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and divider circuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases with respect to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 9106 may include an IQ/polar converter.

[00172] FEM circuitry 9108 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from antenna array 911 1 , amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 9106 for further processing. FEM circuitry 9108 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 9106 for transmission by one or more of antenna elements of antenna array 91 11. In various embodiments, the amplification through the transmit or receive signal paths may be done solely in the RF circuitry 9106, solely in the FEM circuitry 9108, or in both the RF circuitry 9106 and the FEM circuitry 9108.

[00173] In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry' 9108 may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry 9108 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 9108 may include an LNA to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 9106). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry' 9108 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 9106), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 9111.

[00174] The antenna array 91 1 1 comprises one or more antenna elements, each of which is configured convert electrical signals into radio waves to travel through the air and to convert received radio waves into electrical signals. For example, digital baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 9110 is converted into analog RF signals (e.g., modulated waveform) that will be amplified and transmitted via the antenna elements of the antenna array 91 1 1 including one or more antenna elements (not shown). The antenna elements may be omnidirectional, direction, or a combination thereof The antenna elements may be formed in a multitude of arranges as are known and/or discussed herein. The antenna array 91 1 1 may comprise microstrip antennas or printed antennas that are fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards. The antenna array 9111 may be formed in as a patch of metal foil (e.g., a patch antenna) in a variety of shapes, and may be coupled with the RF circuitry 9106 and/or FEM circuitry 9108 using metal transmission lines or the like.

[00175] Processors of the application circuitry 705/805 and processors of the baseband circuitry 9110 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the baseband circuitry' 9110, alone or in combination, may be used execute Layer 3, Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the application circuitry' 705/805 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (e.g., TCP and UDP layers). As referred to herein, Layer 3 may comprise a RRC layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 2 may comprise a MAC layer, an RLC layer, and a PDCP layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1 may comprise a PHY layer of a UE/RAN node, described in further detail below.

[00176] Figure 10 illustrates various protocol functions that may be implemented in a wireless communication device according to various embodiments. In particular, Figure 10 includes an arrangement 1000 showing interconnections between various protocol layers/entities. The following description of Figure 10 is provided for various protocol layers/entities that operate in conjunction with the 5G/NR system standards and LTE system standards, but some or all of the aspects of Figure 10 may be applicable to other wireless communication network systems as well.

[00177] The protocol layers of arrangement 1000 may include one or more of PHY 1010, MAC 1020, RLC 1030, PDCP 1040, SDAP 1047, RRC 1055, and NAS layer 1057, in addition to other higher layer functions not illustrated. The protocol layers may include one or more service access points (e.g., items 1059, 1056, 1050, 1049, 1045, 1035, 1025, and 1015 in Figure 10) that may provide communication between two or more protocol layers.

[00178] The PHY 1010 may transmit and receive physical layer signals 1005 that may be received from or transmitted to one or more other communication devices. The physical layer signals 1005 may comprise one or more physical channels, such as those discussed herein. The PHY 1010 may further perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and handover purposes), and other measurements used by higher layers, such as the RRC 1055. The PHY 1010 may still further perform error detection on the transport channels, forward error correction (FEC) coding/decoding of the transport channels, modulation/demodulation of physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping onto physical channels, and MIMO antenna processing. In embodiments, an instance of PHY 1010 may process requests from and provide indications to an instance of MAC 1020 via one or more PHY-SAP 1015. According to some embodiments, requests and indications communicated via PHY-SAP 1015 may comprise one or more transport channels.

[00179] Instance(s) of MAC 1020 may process requests from, and provide indications to, an instance of RLC 1030 via one or more MAC-SAPs 1025. These requests and indications communicated via the MAC-SAP 1025 may comprise one or more logical channels. The MAC 1020 may perform mapping between the logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs from one or more logical channels onto TBs to be delivered to PHY 1010 via the transport channels, de multiplexing MAC SDUs to one or more logical channels from TBs delivered from the PHY 1010 via transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through HARQ, and logical channel prioritization.

[00180] Instance(s) of RLC 1030 may process requests from and provide indications to an instance of PDCP 1040 via one or more radio link control service access points (RLC-SAP) 1035. These requests and indications communicated via RLC-SAP 1035 may comprise one or more RLC channels. The RLC 1030 may operate in a plurality of modes of operation, including: Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and Acknowledged Mode (AM). The RLC 1030 may execute transfer of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ) for AM data transfers, and concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfers. The RLC 1030 may also execute re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transfers, reorder RLC data PDUs for UM^ and AM data transfers, detect duplicate data for UM and AM data transfers, discard RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfers, detect protocol errors for AM data transfers, and perform RLC re-establishment.

[00181] Instance(s) of PDCP 1040 may process requests from and provide indications to instance(s) of RRC 1055 and/or instance(s) of SDAP 1047 via one or more packet data convergence protocol sendee access points (PDCP-SAP) 1045. These requests and indications communicated via PDCP-SAP 1045 may comprise one or more radio bearers. The PDCP 1040 may execute header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP Sequence Numbers (SNs), perform in-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs at re-establishment of lower layers, eliminate duplicates of lower layer SDUs at re-establishment of lower layers for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM, cipher and decipher control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification of control plane data, control timer-based discard of data, and perform security operations (e.g., ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.).

[00182] Instance(s) of SDAP 1047 may process requests from and provide indications to one or more higher layer protocol entities via one or more SDAP -SAP 1049. These requests and indications communicated via SDAP-SAP 1049 may compri se one or more QoS flows. The SDAP 1047 may map QoS flow's to DRBs, and vice versa, and may also mark QFIs in DL and UL packets. A single SDAP entity 1047 may be configured for an individual PDU session. In the UL direction, the NG-RAN 610 may control the mapping of QoS Flow's to DRB(s) in two different ways, reflective mapping or explicit mapping. For reflective mapping, the SDAP 1047 of a LIE 601 may monitor the QFIs of the DL packets for each DRB, and may apply the same mapping for packets flowing in the UL direction. For a DRB, the SDAP 1047 of the UE 601 may map the UL packets belonging to the QoS flows(s) corresponding to the QoS flow' ID(s) and PDU session observed in the DL packets for that DRB. To enable reflective mapping, the NG-RAN may mark DL packets over the Uu interface with a QoS flow ID. The explicit mapping may involve the RRC 1055 configuring the SDAP 1047 with an explicit QoS flow' to DRB mapping rule, which may be stored and followed by the SDAP 1047. In embodiments, the SDAP 1047 may only be used in NR implementations and may not be used in LTE implementations

[00183] The RRC 1055 may configure, via one or more management service access points (M-SAP), aspects of one or more protocol layers, which may include one or more instances of PHY 1010, MAC 1020, RLC 1030, PDCP 1040 and SDAP 1047. hi embodiments, an instance of RRC 1055 may process requests from and provide indications to one or more NAS entities 1057 via one or more RRC-SAPs 1056. The main sendees and functions of the RRC 1055 may include broadcast of system information (e.g., included in MIBs or SIBs related to the NAS), broadcast of system information related to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC connection between the UE 601 and RAN 610 (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance and release of point to point Radio Bearers, security functions including key management, inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. The M IBs and SIBs may comprise one or more IBs, which may each comprise individual data fields or data structures

[00184] The NAS 1057 may form the highest stratum of the control plane between the UE 601 and the AMF. The NAS 1057 may support the mobility of the UEs 601 and the session management procedures to establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE 601 and a P-GW in LTE systems.

[00185] According to various embodiments, one or more protocol entities of arrangement 1000 may be implemented in UEs 601, RAN nodes 611, AMF in NR. implementations or MME in LTE implementations, UPF in NR implementations or S- GW and P-GW in LTE implementations, or the like to be used for control plane or user plane communications protocol stack between the aforementioned devices. In such embodiments, one or more protocol entities that may be implemented in one or more of UE 601 , gNB 61 1, AMF, etc. may communicate with a. respective peer protocol entity that may be implemented in or on another device using the services of respective lower layer protocol entities to perform such communication. In some embodiments, a gNB- CU of the gNB 611 may host the RRC 1055, SDAP 1047, and PDCP 1040 of the gNB that controls the operation of one or more gNB -DU s, and the gNB-DUs of the gNB 61 1 may each host the RLC 1030, MAC 1020, and PHY 1010 of the gNB 61 1.

[00186] In a first example, a control plane protocol stack may compri se, in order from highest layer to lowest layer, NAS 1057, RRC 1055, PDCP 1040, RLC 1030, MAC 1020, and PHY 1010. In this example, upper layers 1060 may be built on top of the NAS 1057, which includes an IP layer 1061, an SCTP 1062, and an application layer signaling protocol (AP) 1063.

[00187] In NR implementations, the AP 1063 may be an NG application protocol layer (NGAP or NG-AP) 1063 for the NG interface 613 defined between the NG-RAN node 611 and the AMF, or the AP 1063 may be an Xn application protocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP) 1063 for the Xn interface 612 that is defined between two or more RAN nodes 611.

[00188] The NG-AP 1063 may support the functions of the NG interface 613 and may comprise Elementary Procedures (EPs). An NG-AP EP may be a unit of interaction between the NG-RAN node 61 1 and the AMF. The NG-AP 1063 services may comprise two groups: UE-associated services (e.g., services related to a UE 601) and non-UE- associated services (e.g., services related to the whole NG interface instance between the NG-RAN node 61 1 and AMF). These services may include functions including, but not limited to: a paging function for the sending of paging requests to NG-RAN nodes 611 involved in a particular paging area; a UE context management function for allowing the AMF to establish, modify, and/or release a UE context in the AMF and the NG-RAN node 611; a mobility function for UEs 601 in ECM-CONNECTED mode for intra-system HOs to support mobility within NG-RAN and inter-system HOs to support mobility from/to EPS systems; a NAS Signaling Transport function for transporting or rerouting NAS messages between UE 601 and AMF; a NAS node selection function for determining an association between the AMF and the UE 601; NG interface management function(s) for setting up the NG interface and monitoring for errors over the NG interface, a warning message transmission function for providing means to transfer warning messages via NG interface or cancel ongoing broadcast of warning messages; a Configuration Transfer function for requesting and transferring of RAN configuration information (e.g., SON information, performance measurement (PM) data, etc.) between two RAN nodes 611 via CN 620; and/or other like functions

[00189] The XnAP 1063 may support the functions of the Xn interface 612 and may comprise XnAP basic mobility procedures and XnAP global procedures. The XnAP basic mobility procedures may comprise procedures used to handle UE mobility within the NG RAN 611 (or E-UTRAN), such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN Status Transfer procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, dual connectivity related procedures, and the like. The XnAP global procedures may comprise procedures that are not related to a specific UE 601, such as Xn interface setup and reset procedures, NG-RAN update procedures, cell activation procedures, and the like.

[00190] In LIE implementations, the AP 1063 may be an S I Application Protocol layer (Sl-AP) 1063 for the Si interface 613 defined between an E-UTRAN node 61 1 and an MME, or the AP 1063 may be an X2 application protocol layer (X2AP or X2- AP) 1063 for the X2 interface 612 that is defined between two or more E-UTRAN nodes 611.

[00191] The S 1 Application Protocol layer (Sl-AP) 1063 may support the functions of the SI interface, and similar to the NG-AP discussed previously, the Sl-AP may comprise S 1 -AP EPs. An S 1 -AP EP may be a unit of interaction between the E-UTRAN node 611 and an MME within an LTE CN 620. The Sl-AP 1063 services may comprise two groups: UE-associated services and non UE-associated sendees. These services perform functions including, but not limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E- RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transport, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transfer.

[00192] The X2AP 1063 may support the functions of the X2 interface 612 and may comprise X2AP basic mobility procedures and X2AP global procedures. The X2AP basic mobility procedures may comprise procedures used to handle UE mobility within the E-UTRAN 620, such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN Status Transfer procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, dual connectivity related procedures, and the like. The X2AP global procedures may comprise procedures that are not related to a specific UE 601, such as X2 interface setup and reset procedures, load indication procedures, error indication procedures, cell activation procedures, and the like.

[00193] The SCTP layer (alternatively referred to as the SC TP/IP layer) 1062 may provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages (e.g., NGAP or XnAP messages in NR implementations, or Sl-AP or X2AP messages in LTE implementations). The SCTP 1062 may ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node 611 and the AMT^' /MME based, in part, on the IP protocol, supported by the IP 1061. The Internet Protocol layer (IP) 1061 may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functionality. In some implementations the IP layer 1061 may use point-to-point transmission to deliver and convey PDUs. In this regard, the RAN node 61 1 may comprise L2 and LI layer communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the MME/AMF to exchange information.

[00194] In a second example, a user plane protocol stack may comprise, in order from highest layer to lowest layer, SDAP 1047, PDCP 1040, RLC 1030, MAC 1020, and PHY 1010. The user plane protocol stack may be used for communication between the UE 601, the RAN node 611, and UPF in NR implementations or an S-GW and P-GW in LTE implementations. In this example, upper layers 1051 may be built on top of the SDAP 1047, and may include a user datagram protocol (UDP) and IP security layer (UDP/TP) 1052, a General Packet Radio Sendee (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol for the user plane layer (GTP-U) 1053, and a User Plane PDU layer (UP PDU) 1063

[00195] The transport network layer 1054 (also referred to as a“transport layer”) may be built on IP transport, and the GTP-U 1053 may be used on top of the UDP/IP layer 1052 (comprising a UDP layer and IP layer) to carry user plane PDUs (UP-PDUs). The IP layer (also referred to as the“Internet layer”) may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functionality. The IP layer may assign IP addresses to user data packets in any of IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats, for exampl e.

[00196] The GTP-U 1053 may be used for carrying user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. The user data transported can be packets in any of IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats, for example. The UDP/IP 1052 may provide checksums for data integrity, port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication on the selected data flows. The RAN node 611 and the S-GW may utilize an S1-U interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack comprising an LI layer (e.g., PHY 1010), an L2 layer (e.g., MAC 1020, RLC 1030, PDCP 1040, and/or SDAP 1047), the UDP/IP layer 1052, and the GTP-U 1053. The S-GW and the P-GW may utilize an S5/S8a interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack comprising an LI layer, an L2 layer, the UDP/IP layer 1052, and the GTP-U 1053. As discussed previously, NAS protocols may support the mobility of the UE 601 and the session management procedures to establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE 601 and the P-GW.

[00197] Moreover, although not shown by Figure 10, an application layer may be present above the AP 1063 and/or the transport network layer 1054. The application layer may be a layer in which a user of the UE 601 , RAN node 611, or other network element interacts with software applications being executed, for example, by application circuitry 705 or application circuitry 805, respectively. The application layer may also provide one or more interfaces for software applications to interact with communications systems of the UE 601 or RAN node 611, such as the baseband circuitry 9110. In some implementations the IP layer and/or the application layer may provide the same or similar functionality as layers 5-7, or portions thereof, of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model (e.g., OSI Layer 7 - the application layer, OSI Layer 6 - the presentation layer, and OSI Layer 5 - the session layer)

[00198] Figure 1 1 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer- readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, Figure 1 1 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 1 100 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1110, one or more memory/storage devices 1120, and one or more communication resources 1 130, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1 140. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1102 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1 100.

[00199] The processors 1 1 10 may include, for example, a processor 1 1 12 and a processor 1 114. The processor(s) 1 110 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio -frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[00200] The memory/storage devices 1120 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 1 120 may include, but are not limited to, any type of volatile or nonvolatile memory^, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

[00201] The communication resources 1 130 may include interconnection or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1104 or one or more databases 1106 via a network 1108. For example, the communication resources 1130 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth© (or Bluetooth® Low Energy) components, Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.

[00202] Instructions 1 150 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 1110 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 1150 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 1 1 10 (e.g., within the processor's cache memory), the memory/storage devices 1120, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 1150 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1 100 from any combination of the peripheral devices 1104 or the databases 1106. Accordingly, the memory of processors 1110, the memory/storage devices 1120, the peripheral devices 1104, and the databases 1 106 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1. In a communication system comprising a radio access network (RAN) operating in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum hand, a method for operating a user equipment (UE) served by the RAN, the method comprising:

receiving from the RAN a first uplink scheduling grant;

determining, based on the first uplink scheduling grant, that an uplink communications grant has not been received for a first uplink subframe of an uplink burst, wherein the uplink burst comprises an ordered plurality of uplink subframes; determining that the first uplink scheduling grant schedules communication in a second uplink subframe of the uplink burst, and

performing, in response to the determination, a mitigating action to avoid a communication error with the RAN.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first uplink subframe is scheduled soonest in time after a downlink pilot time signal (DwPTS) of a special subframe that precedes the uplink burst.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first uplink scheduling grant includes an indication of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) scheduling configuration.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the PUSCH scheduling configuration includes information indicative of at least one of: a frequency resource, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), or a demodulation reference signal (DMRS).

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the mitigating action comprises:

determining not to transmit a PUSCH message in the second uplink subframe.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the mitigating action comprises:

transmitting a PUSCH message in the first uplink subframe using the PUSCH scheduling configuration.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

applying the PI St 1 1 scheduling configuration to PUSCH messages for transmission in the plurality of subframes of the uplink burst.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the mitigating action comprises:

transmitting a reservation signal in the first uplink subframe.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the reservation signal indicates that the UE will transmit a PUSCH message in an uplink subframe after the first uplink subframe.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the RAN uses a time-division duplex (TDD) frame structure.

11. In a communication system comprising a radio access network (RAN) operating in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band, a method for operating a user equipment (UE) served by the RAN, the method comprising:

receiving an uplink scheduling grant scheduling communication in an uplink subframe of an uplink burst, wherein the uplink burst comprises a plurality of ordered uplink subframes;

determining that there is no data for transmission on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH);

determining whether the uplink subframe is a first uplink subframe of the uplink burst; and

transmitting, in response to determining that the uplink subframe is the first uplink subframe, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback in the uplink subframe.

12. The method of claim 1 1, wherein determining that the uplink subframe is the first uplink subframe occurs in a first iteration, and wherein in a second iteration the method further comprises:

determining that the uplink subframe is not the first uplink subframe of the uplink burst; and responsively ignoring the uplink scheduling grant.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the HARQ feedback includes a bitmap.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the HARQ feedback is transmitted in uplink control information (UCI) over the PUSCH.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the PUSCH message does not include uplink data, and wherein the method further comprises padding the PUSCH with zeros.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the HARQ feedback is downlink HARQ feedback.

17. The method of claim 1 1, further comprising:

receiving an indicator indicating whether to use spatial bundling for the HARQ feedback.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the indicator is included in a tdd- A ckNackFeedhackMode fi el d .

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the idd-AckNackFeedbackMode field is included in a PUSCH-Config information element (IE).

20. In a communication system comprising a radio access network (RAN) operating in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band, a method for operating a user equipment (UE) served by the RAN, the method comprising:

receiving an uplink scheduling grant scheduling communication in an uplink subframe of an uplink burst, wherein the uplink burst comprises a plurality of ordered uplink subframes;

determining whether a downlink physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission was received;

buffering, in response to the determination that a PDSCH transmission was received, HARQ feedback that corresponds to the PDSCH transmission; and transmitting the buffered HARQ feedback in the uplink subframe.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the HARQ-ACK feedback is reserved for transmission within a first available UL subframe after a DwPTS of special subframe preceding the uplink burst.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the HARQ-ACK feedback includes a bitmap.

23. In a communication system comprising a radio access network (RAN) operating in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band, the RAN configured to serve a plurality of LIEs, a method comprising:

transmitting, to a first UE of the plurality, an uplink scheduling grant for communications in a first uplink subframe of an uplink burst, the uplink scheduling grant including a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) scheduling configuration,

receiving, from the UE, a PUSCH message in a second uplink subframe of the uplink burst according to the PUSCH scheduling configuration

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the PUSCH message is a first PUSCH message, and wherein the method further comprises:

receiving, from the UE, a second PUSCH message in the first uplink subframe according to the PUSCH scheduling configuration.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the PUSCH scheduling configuration is to be applied by the UE for all PUSCH transmissions in the uplink burst.

26. In a communication system comprising a radio access network (RAN) operating in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band and serving a user equipment (UE), a non-transitory computer-readable storage device having stored thereon instructions, which, when executed by a data processing apparatus, cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving from the RAN a first uplink scheduling grant; determining, based on the first uplink scheduling grant, that an uplink communications grant has not been received for a first uplink subframe of an uplink burst, wherein the uplink burst comprises an ordered plurality of uplink subframes; determining that the first uplink scheduling grant schedules communication in a second uplink subframe of the uplink burst, and

performing, in response to the determination, a mitigating action to avoid a communication error with the RAN.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 26, wherein the first uplink subframe is scheduled soonest in time after a downlink pilot time signal (DwPTS) of a special subframe that precedes the uplink burst.

28. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 26, wherein the first uplink scheduling grant includes an indication of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) scheduling configuration.

29. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 28, wherein the PUSCH scheduling configuration includes information indicative of at least one of: a frequency resource, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), or a demodulation reference signal (DMRS).

30. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 28, wherein the mitigating action comprises:

determining not to transmit a PUSCH message in the second uplink subframe.

31. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 28, wherein the mitigating action comprises:

transmitting a PUSCH message in the first uplink subframe using the PUSCH sch ed uling confi gurati on .

32. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 31, the operations further comprising: applying the PUSCH scheduling configuration to PUSCH messages for transmission in the plurality of subframes of the uplink burst.

33. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 26, wherein the mitigating action comprises:

transmitting a reservation signal in the first uplink subframe.

34. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 33, wherein the reservation signal indicates that the UE will transmit a PUSCH message in an uplink subframe after the first uplink subframe.

35. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 26, wherein the RAN uses a time-division duplex (TDD) frame structure.

36. In a communication system comprising a radio access network (RAN) operating in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band and serving a user equipment (UE), a non-transitory computer-readable storage device having stored thereon instructions, which, when executed by a data processing apparatus, cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving an uplink scheduling grant scheduling communication in an uplink subframe of an uplink burst, wherein the uplink burst comprises a plurality of ordered uplink subframes;

determining that there is no data for transmission on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH);

determining whether the uplink subframe is a fi rst uplink subframe of the uplink burst; and

transmitting, in response to determining that the uplink subframe is the first uplink subframe, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback in the uplink subframe.

37. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 36, wherein determining that the uplink subframe is the first uplink subframe occurs in a first iteration of the operations, and wherein in a second iteration of the operations further comprises:

determining that the uplink subframe is not the first uplink subframe of the uplink burst; and

responsively ignoring the uplink scheduling grant.

38. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 36, wherein the HARQ feedback includes a bitmap.

39. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 36, wherein the HARQ feedback is transmitted in uplink control information (UCI) over the PUSCH.

40. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 36, wherein the PUSCH message does not include uplink data, and wherein the operations further comprise padding the PUSCH with zeros.

41. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 36, wherein the HARQ feedback is downlink HARQ feedback.

42. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 36, the operations further comprising:

receiving an indicator indicating whether to use spatial bundling for the HARQ feedback.

43. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 42, wherein the indicator is included in a Idd-AckNackFeedbackMode field.

44. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 43, wherein the tdd-AckNackF eedbackMode field is included in a PUSCH-Config information element (IE).

45. In a communication system comprising a radio access network (RAN) operating in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band and serving a user equipment (UE), a non-transitory computer-readable storage device having stored thereon instructions, which, when executed by a data processing apparatus, cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving an uplink scheduling grant scheduling communication in an uplink subframe of an uplink burst, wherein the uplink burst comprises a plurality of ordered uplink subframes;

determining whether a downlink physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission was received;

buffering, in response to the determination that a PDSCH transmission was received, HARQ feedback that corresponds to the PDSCH transmission; and

transmitting the buffered HARQ feedback in the uplink subframe.

46. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 45, wherein the HARQ-ACK feedback is reserved for transmission within a first available UL subframe after a DwPTS of special subframe preceding the uplink burst.

47. In a communication system comprising a radio access network (RAN) operating in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band, the RAN configured to serve a plurality of UEs, a non-transitory computer-readable storage device having stored thereon instructions, which, when executed by a data processing apparatus, cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

transmitting, to a first UE of the plurality, an uplink scheduling grant for communications in a first uplink subframe of an uplink burst, the uplink scheduling grant including a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) scheduling configuration;

receiving, from the UE, a PUSCH message in a second uplink subframe of the uplink burst according to the PUSCH scheduling configuration.

48. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 47, wherein the PUSCH message is a first PUSCH message, and wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, from the UE, a second PUSCH message in the first uplink subframe according to the PUSCH scheduling configuration.

49. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 47, wherein the PUSCH scheduling configuration is to be applied by the UE for all PUSCH transmissions in the uplink burst.

50. A system comprising:

one or more processors and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more processors, to cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a radio access network (RAN) operating in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band, a first uplink scheduling grant;

determining, based on the first uplink scheduling grant, that an uplink communications grant has not been received for a first uplink subframe of an uplink burst, wherein the uplink burst comprises an ordered plurality of uplink subframes;

determining that the first uplink scheduling grant schedules communication in a second uplink subframe of the uplink burst; and

performing, in response to the determination, a mitigating action to avoid a communication error with the RAN.

51. The system of claim 50, wherein the first uplink subframe is scheduled soonest in time after a downlink pilot time signal (DwPTS) of a special subframe that precedes the uplink burst.

52. The system of claim 50, wherein the first uplink scheduling grant includes an indication of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) scheduling configuration.

53. The system of claim 52, wherein the PUSCH scheduling configuration includes information indicative of at least one of: a frequency resource, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), or a demodulation reference signal (DMRS).

54. The system of claim 52, wherein the mitigating action comprises:

determining not to transmit a PUSCH message in the second uplink subframe.

55. The system of claim 52, wherein the mitigating action comprises:

transmitting a PUSCH message in the first uplink subframe using the PUSCH scheduling configuration.

56. The system of claim 55, the operations further comprising:

applying the PUSCH scheduling configuration to PUSCH messages for transmission in the plurality of subframes of the uplink burst.

57. The system of claim 50, wherein the mitigating action comprises:

transmitting a reservation signal in the first uplink subframe.

58. The system of claim 57, wherein the reservation signal indicates that the UE wi 11 transmit a PUSCH message in an uplink subframe after the first uplink subframe.

59. The system of claim 50, wherein the RAN uses a time-division duplex (TDD) frame structure.

60. A system comprising:

one or more processors and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more processors, to cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a radio access network (RAN) operating in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band, an uplink scheduling grant scheduling communication in an uplink subframe of an uplink burst, wherein the uplink burst comprises a plurality of ordered uplink subframes;

determining that there is no data for transmission on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH);

determining whether the uplink subframe is a first uplink subframe of the uplink burst, and

transmitting, in response to determining that the uplink subframe is the first uplink subframe, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback in the uplink subframe.

61. The system of claim 60, wherein determining that the uplink subframe is the first uplink subframe occurs in a first iteration of the operations, and wherein in a second iteration of the operations further comprises:

determining that the uplink subframe is not the first uplink subframe of the uplink burst; and

responsively ignoring the uplink scheduling grant.

62. The system of claim 60, wherein the HARQ feedback includes a bitmap.

63. The system of claim 60, wherein the HARQ feedback is transmitted in uplink control information (UCI) over the PUSCH.

64. The system of claim 60, wherein the PUSCH message does not include uplink data, and wherein the operations further comprise padding the PUSCH with zeros

65. The system of claim 60, wherein the HARQ feedback is downlink HARQ feedback.

66. The system of claim 60, the operations further comprising:

receiving an indicator indicating whether to use spatial bundling for the HARQ feedback.

67. The system of claim 62, wherein the indicator is included in a tdd- A ckNackFeedbackMode fi el d .

68. The system of claim 63, wherein the tdd-AckNackFeedbackMode field is included in a PUSCH-Config information element (IE).

69. A system comprising:

one or more processors and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more processors, to cause the one or more processors to perforin operations comprising: receiving, from a radio access network (RAN) operating in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band, an uplink scheduling grant scheduling communication in an uplink subframe of an uplink burst, wherein the uplink burst comprises a plurality of ordered uplink subframes;

determining whether a downlink physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission was received;

buffering, in response to the determination that a PDSCH transmission tvas received, HARQ feedback that corresponds to the PDSCH transmission; and transmitting the buffered HARQ feedback in the uplink subframe

70. The system of claim 69, wherein the HARQ-ACK feedback is reserved for transmission within a first available UL subframe after a DwPTS of special subframe preceding the uplink burst.

71. A communication system comprising:

a radio access network (RAN) operating in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band, the RAN configured to serve a plurality of UEs; and

one or more processors and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more processors, to cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

transmitting, to a first LIE of the plurality, an uplink scheduling grant for communications in a first uplink subframe of an uplink burst, the uplink scheduling grant including a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) scheduling configuration;

receiving, from the UE, a PUSCH message in a second uplink subframe of the uplink burst according to the PUSCH scheduling configuration.

72. The system of claim 71, wherein the PUSCH message is a first PUSCH message, and wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, from the UE, a second PUSCH message in the first uplink subframe according to the PUSCH scheduling configuration.

73. The system of claim 71 , wherein the PUSCH scheduling configuration is to be applied by the UE for all PUSCH transmissions in the uplink burst.