WO2020191653A1

WO2020191653A1 - Method, device and computer readable medium for multi-trp transmission

Info

Publication number: WO2020191653A1
Application number: PCT/CN2019/079854
Authority: WO
Inventors: Fang Yuan; Gang Wang
Original assignee: Nec Corporation
Priority date: 2019-03-27
Filing date: 2019-03-27
Publication date: 2020-10-01
Also published as: CN113906801A

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods, devices and computer readable media for multi-Transmission and Reception Point (TRP) transmission. In example embodiments, a comrnunication method includes determining, at a network device, a first configuration of a first set of resources for a first TRP coupled with the network device and a second configuration of a second set of resources for a second TRP coupled with the network device, the first set of resources and the second set of resources being used for downlink shared channel transmission, and the first set of resources and the second set of resources being non-overlapped in frequency domain. The method further includes transmitting the first configuration to the first TRP and the second configuration to the second TRP.

Description

METHOD, DEVICE AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM FOR MULTI-TRP TRANSMISSION

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of communication, and in particular, to methods, devices and computer readable media for multi-Transmission and Reception Point (TRP) transmission.

BACKGROUND

Communication technologies have been developed in various communication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and even global level. An example of an emerging communication standard is new radio (NR) , for example, 5G radio access. NR is a set of enhancements to the Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile standard promulgated by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) . It is designed to better support mobile broadband Internet access by improving spectral efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum, and better integrating with other open standards using OFDMA with a cyclic prefix (CP) on the downlink (DL) and on the uplink (UL) as well as support beamforming, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, and carrier aggregation.

In NR, a network device (e.g., gNodeB) may be equipped with multiple TRPs or antenna panels. That is, the network device can communicate with a terminal device (e.g., user equipment, UE) via one or more of the multiple TRPs. Various indications may be transmitted to the terminal device via different TRPs to indicate the terminal device of resources configured for scheduled transmissions. Therefore, there is a need to specify the issues regarding resource confliction caused by indications from different TRPs.

SUMMARY

In general, example embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods, devices and computer readable media for multi-TRP transmission.

In a first aspect, there is provided a communication method. The method comprises determining, at a network device, a first configuration of a first set of resources for a first Transmission and Reception Point (TRP) coupled with the network device and a second configuration of a second set of resources for a second TRP coupled with the network device, the first set of resources and the second set of resources being used for downlink shared channel transmission, and the first set of resources and the second set of resources being non-overlapped in frequency domain; and transmitting the first configuration to the first TRP and the second configuration to the second TRP.

In a second aspect, there is provided a communication method. The method comprises receiving, at a Transmission and Reception Point (TRP) , a first configuration of a first set of resources from a network device couple with the TRP, the first set of resources being non-overlapped in frequency domain with a second set of resources determined by the network device for a further TRP coupled with the network device, the first set of resources and the second set of resources being used for downlink shared channel transmission; and performing the downlink shared channel transmission based on the first set of resources.

In a third aspect, there is provided a communication method. The method comprises in response to receiving, at a Transmission and Reception Point (TRP) , a random access preamble from a terminal device, determining a set of resources for a downlink shared channel transmission with the terminal device; and transmitting, to a further TRP in communication with the terminal device, an indication of the determined set of resources, such that the further TRP communicates with the terminal device using resources other than the determined set of resources.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a communication method. The method comprises determining, at a terminal device, a first set of resources for a first transmission based on a first indication received via a first Transmission and Reception Point (TRP) coupled with a network device, the first transmission being to be performed between the terminal device and the network device via the first TRP; determining a second set of resources for a second transmission based on a second indication received via a second TRP coupled with the network device, the second transmission being to be performed between the terminal device and the network device via the second TRP; and in response to the first set of resources and the second set of resources being overlapped in at least one of time domain and frequency domain, performing at least one of the first transmission and the second transmission to reduce interference between the first transmission and the second transmission.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a communication method. The method comprises transmitting, at a terminal device, a scheduling request for allocation of uplink resource to a network device; receiving from the network device a response indicating an uplink resource allocated to the terminal device; and transmitting cell-specific information to the network device by using the uplink resource, the cell-specific information including a cell index of a serving cell provided by the network device to the terminal device and transmission control information for the serving cell.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a communication method. The method comprises receiving, at a network device, a scheduling request for allocation of uplink resource from a terminal device; transmitting to the terminal device a response indicating an uplink resource allocated to the terminal device; and receiving cell-specific information from the network device by using the uplink resource, the cell-specific information including a cell index of a serving cell provided by the network device to the terminal device and transmission control information for the serving cell.

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a device. The device includes a processor; and a memory coupled to the processing unit and storing instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by the processing unit, causing the device to perform the method according to the first aspect.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a device. The device includes a processor; and a memory coupled to the processing unit and storing instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by the processing unit, causing the device to perform the method according to the second aspect.

In a ninth aspect, there is provided a device. The device includes a processor; and a memory coupled to the processing unit and storing instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by the processing unit, causing the device to perform the method according to the third aspect.

In a tenth aspect, there is provided a device. The device includes a processor; and a memory coupled to the processing unit and storing instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by the processing unit, causing the device to perform the method according to the fourth aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a device. The device includes a processor; and a memory coupled to the processing unit and storing instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by the processing unit, causing the device to perform the method according to the fifth aspect.

In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a device. The device includes a processor; and a memory coupled to the processing unit and storing instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by the processing unit, causing the device to perform the method according to the sixth aspect.

In a thirteenth aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to carry out the method according to the first aspect.

In a fourteenth aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to carry out the method according to the second aspect.

In a fifteenth aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to carry out the method according to the third aspect.

In a sixteenth aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to carry out the method according to the fourth aspect.

In a seventeenth aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to carry out the method according to the fifth aspect.

In an eighteenth aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to carry out the method according to the sixth aspect.

Other features of the present disclosure will become easily comprehensible through the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Through the more detailed description of some embodiments of the present disclosure in the accompanying drawings, the above and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication environment in which embodiments according to some aspects of the present disclosure can be implemented;

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a process for multi-TRP transmission;

Fig. 3 shows a flowchart of an example method in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 4 shows a schematic diagram illustrating resources for different TRPs according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 5 shows a flowchart of an example method in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 6 shows a flowchart of an example method in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 7 shows a schematic diagram illustrating resources for different TRPs according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 8 shows a flowchart of an example method in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 9A shows a schematic diagram illustrating handling of transmission collision according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 9B shows a schematic diagram illustrating handling of transmission collision according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 9C shows a schematic diagram illustrating handling of transmission collision according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 9D shows a schematic diagram illustrating handling of transmission collision according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 9E shows a schematic diagram illustrating handling of transmission collision according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of a communication environment in which embodiments according to some aspects of the present disclosure can be implemented;

Fig. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating a process for cell-specific information transmission according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 12 shows a flowchart of an example method in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 13 shows a flowchart of an example method in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure; and

Fig. 14 is a simplified block diagram of a device that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure.

Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar element.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Principle of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some example embodiments. It is to be understood that these embodiments are described only for the purpose of illustration and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitations as to the scope of the disclosure. The disclosure described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

As used herein, the term “network device” or “base station” (BS) refers to a device which is capable of providing or hosting a cell or coverage where terminal devices can communicate. Examples of a network device include, but not limited to, a Node B (NodeB or NB) , an Evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) , a NodeB in new radio access (gNB) a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) , a radio head (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , a low power node such as a femto node, a pico node, and the like. For the purpose of discussion, in the following, some embodiments will be described with reference to gNB as examples of the network device.

As used herein, the term “terminal device” refers to any device having wireless or wired communication capabilities. Examples of the terminal device include, but not limited to, user equipment (UE) , personal computers, desktops, mobile phones, cellular phones, smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) , portable computers, image capture devices such as digital cameras, gaming devices, music storage and playback appliances, or Internet appliances enabling wireless or wired Internet access and browsing and the like.

As used herein, the singular forms “a” , “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. The term “includes” and its variants are to be read as open terms that mean “includes, but is not limited to. ” The term “based on” is to be read as “based at least in part on. ” The term “one embodiment” and “an embodiment” are to be read as “at least one embodiment. ” The term “another embodiment” is to be read as “at least one other embodiment. ” The terms “first, ” “second, ” and the like may refer to different or same objects. Other definitions, explicit and implicit, may be included below.

In some examples, values, procedures, or apparatus are referred to as “best, ” “lowest, ” “highest, ” “minimum, ” “maximum, ” or the like. It will be appreciated that such descriptions are intended to indicate that a selection among many used functional alternatives can be made, and such selections need not be better, smaller, higher, or otherwise preferable to other selections.

Regarding multiple-physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) based multi-TRP/panel transmission, several enhancements need to be studied. It has been agreed that for a UE supporting multiple-PDCCH based multi-TRP/panel transmission and each PDCCH schedules one physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) , at least for enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) with non-ideal backhaul, support several restrictions. One of restrictions is that the UE may be scheduled with fully/partially/non-overlapped PDSCHs at time and frequency domain by multiple PDCCHs with restrictions including: the UE is not expected to assume different demodulation reference signal (DMRS) configuration with respect to actual number of front loaded DMRS symbol (s) , the actual number of additional DMRS, the actual DMRS symbol location and DMRS configuration type if the UE may be scheduled with full/partially overlapping PDSCHs by multiple PDCCHs. Other restrictions, such as PDSCH mapping type from two co-scheduled PDSCHs and alignment of PRG-level grid from multiple TRPs, need further study.

As mentioned above, the UE may receive different indications from multiple TRPs coupled with a same gNodeB. Based on the indication from one of the multiple TRPs, the UE may determine a resource configured for transmission between the UE and the gNodeB; whereas based on indication from another one of the multiple TRPs, the UE may determine another resource configured for transmission between the UE and the gNodeB. If the two resources are overlapped in time domain and/or in frequency domain, transmission collision occurs for the UE.

Embodiments of some aspects of the present disclosure provide a solution for multi-TRP transmission, in order to solve the above problems of transmission collision and one or more of other potential problems. The transmission collision may be handled on the side of the gNodeB and TRPs. Additionally, or alternatively, the transmission collision may be handled on the side of the UE. Principle and implementations of these aspects of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to Figs. 1-9.

Fig. 1 shows an example communication network 100 in which embodiments of some aspects of the present disclosure can be implemented. The network 100 includes a network device 110 and a terminal device 120 served by the network device 110. The serving area of the network device 110 is called as a cell 102. It is to be understood that the number of network devices and terminal devices is only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitations. The network 100 may include any suitable number of network devices and terminal devices adapted for implementing embodiments of this aspect of the present disclosure. Although not shown, it is to be understood that one or more terminal devices may be located in the cell 102 and served by the network device 110.

In the communication network 100, the network device 110 can communicate data and control information to the terminal device 120 and the terminal device 120 can also communication data and control information to the network device 110. A link from the network device 110 to the terminal device 120 is referred to as a downlink (DL) or a forward link, while a link from the terminal device 120 to the network device 110 is referred to as an uplink (UL) or a reverse link.

Depending on the communication technologies, the network 100 may be a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network, a Time Division Multiple Address (TDMA) network, a Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) network, an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) network, a Single Carrier-Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) network or any others. Communications discussed in the network 100 may use conform to any suitable standards including, but not limited to, New Radio Access (NR) , Long Term Evolution (LTE) , LTE-Evolution, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) , Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) , Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) , cdma2000, and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and the like. Furthermore, the communications may be performed according to any generation communication protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Examples of the communication protocols include, but not limited to, the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G) communication protocols. The techniques described herein may be used for the wireless networks and radio technologies mentioned above as well as other wireless networks and radio technologies. For clarity, certain aspects of the techniques are described below for LTE, and LTE terminology is used in much of the description below.

As shown in Fig. 1, the network device 110 is couple with two

TRPs

131 and 132 and may communicate with the terminal device 120 via the two

TRPs

131 and 132. In the following, the TRP 131 may be also referred to as the first TRP, while the TRP 132 may be also referred to as the second TRP. The first and

second TRPs

131 and 132 may be included in a same serving cell (such as, the cell 102 as shown in Fig. 1) or different serving cells provided by the network device 110. Although some embodiments of the present disclosure are described with reference to the first and

second TRPs

131 and 132 within a same serving cell provided by the network device 110, these embodiments are only for the purpose of illustration and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitations on the scope of the present disclosure. It is to be understood that the present disclosure described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

In embodiments, the terminal device 120 may receive different indications about configured resources from the network device 110 via the two

TRPs

131 and 132. For example, the terminal device 120 may receive different downlink control information (DCI) from the network device 110 via the two

TRPs

131 and 132.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a process 200 for multi-TRP transmission. The network device 110 transmits 205 a first indication to the terminal device 120 via the first TRP 131. The terminal device 120 may determine 210 a first set of resources for a first transmission based on the first indication. The network device 110 transmits 215 a second indication to the terminal device 120 via the second TRP 131. The terminal device 120 may determine 220 a second set of resources for a second transmission based on the second indication. In some embodiments, the network device 110 may coordinate between the two

TRPs

131 and 132 and transmission collision may not occur at the terminal device 120. These embodiments will be described with reference to Figs. 3-7. In some embodiments, if transmission collision occurs, the terminal device 120 may determine 225 a target transmission and perform 230 at least the target transmission. Such embodiments will be described with reference to Figs. 8-9.

Fig. 3 illustrates a flowchart of an example method 300 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 300 can be implemented at the network device 110 shown in Fig. 1. It is to be understood that the method 300 may include additional blocks not shown and/or may omit some blocks as shown, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this regard. For the purpose of discussion, the method 300 will be described with reference to Fig. 1.

At block 310, the network device 110 determines a first configuration of a first set of resources for a first TRP 131 coupled with the network device 110 and a second configuration of a second set of resources for a second TRP 132 coupled with the network device 110. The first set of resources and the second set of resources are used for downlink shared channel transmission, and the first set of resources and the second set of resources are non-overlapped in frequency domain.

The resources configured for the first TRP 131 and the second TRP 132 may occupy different positions in frequency domain, such as different resource blocks (RBs) . Referring to Fig. 4, which shows a schematic diagram 400 illustrating resource configuration for different TRPs according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In the example shown in Fig. 4, the height (in frequency domain) of the resource 421 may correspond to the RBs configured for the first TRP 131 and the height of the resource 422 may correspond to the RBs configured for the second TRP 132. The RBs configured for the

TRPs

131 and 132 are non-overlapped with each other.

At block 320, the network device 110 transmits the first configuration to the first TRP 131 and the second configuration to the second TRP 132. For example, the first and second configuration may be included in Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling.

Fig. 5 illustrates a flowchart of an example method 500 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 500 can be implemented at any of the first and

second TRPs

131 and 132 as shown in Fig. 1. It is to be understood that the method 500 may include additional blocks not shown and/or may omit some blocks as shown, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this regard. For the purpose of discussion, the method 500 will be described with reference to Figs. 1 and 4 with respect to the first TRP 131.

At block 510, the first TRP 131 receives a first configuration of a first set of resources from the network device 110 couple with the first TRP 131. The first set of resources are non-overlapped in frequency domain with a second set of resources determined by the network device 110 for the second TRP 132 coupled with the network device 110. The first set of resources and the second set of resources are used for downlink shared channel transmission.

At block 520, the first TRP 131 performs the downlink shared channel transmission based on the first set of resources. In the example shown in Fig. 4, a first DCI 401, which is scrambled with Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) , is transmitted via the first TRP 131 to the terminal device 120. The terminal device 120 may determine the resources 421 configured for a PDSCH based on the first DCI 401.

Similar actions may be taken by the second TRP 132. A second DCI 401, which is scrambled with Random Access Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RA-RNTI) or Paging Radio Network Temporary Identifier (P-RNTI) , is transmitted via the second TRP 132 to the terminal device 120. The terminal device 120 may determine the resources 422 configured for another PDSCH based on the second DCI 402.

For purpose of discussion, PDSCH corresponding to a specific DCI will be referred to according to the type of RNTI associated with the specific DCI. As shown in Fig. 4, the PDSCH corresponding to the DCI which is scrambled with C-RNTI is referred to as C-RNTI PDSCH. The DCI associated with C-RNTI PDSCH may be non-fallback DCI, which is typically used after the RRC configuration for the UE. The DMRS configuration for transmission and reception of C-RNTI PDSCH can be configured by RRC signaling. The fallback DCI is similar to the DCI format 1_0 and 0_0 in 3GPPP NR, where the corresponding DMRS configuration may be used before the configuration of RRC signaling, for example, based on default configuration. Similarly, the PDSCH corresponding to the DCI which is scrambled with RA-RNTI/P-RNTI/System Information (SI) -RNTI/Modulation-Coding-Scheme (MCS) -C-RNTI is referred to as RA-RNTI PDSCH/P-RNTI PDSCH/SI-RNTI PDSCH/MCS-C-RNTI PDSCH. The DMRS configuration for transmission and reception of RA-RNTI PDSCH/ P-RNTI PDSCH/SI-RNTI PDSCH/MCS-C-RNTI PDSCH and fallback DCI indicated C-RNTI PDSCH can be different from that of C-RNTI PDSCH. As used herein, the term “C-RNTI PDSCH” without prefix may refer to the PDSCH indicated by a non-fallback DCI which is scrambled with C-RNTI; the term “fallback DCI indicated C-RNTI PDSCH” may refer to the PDSCH indicated by a fallback DCI which is scrambled with C-RNTI.

Since the first set of resources and the second set of resources configured by the network device 120 are non-overlapped in the frequency domain, the resources 421 for the C-RNTI PDSCH via the first TRP 131 is not overlapped with the resources 422 for the RA-RNTI/P-RNTI PDSCH via the second TRP 132. As such, both the C-RNTI PDSCH and the RA-RNTI/P-RNTI PDSCH transmission can be performed by the terminal device 120 via the first TRP 131 and the second TRP 132, respectively. Other types of PDSCH transmission, such as SI-RNTI/MCS-C-RNTI PDSCH transmission and fallback DCI indicated C-RNTI PDSCH, are similar with the RA-RNTI/P-RNTI PDSCH transmission. In this way, C-RNTI PDSCH transmission via one TRP and other PDSCH transmission via anther TRP are supported. The non-overlapping resources 421 and resources 422 can ensure that the rate matching of

resources

421 and 422 can be performed independently, without impact of different DMRS configurations on different resources.

In the cases above, the coordination between TRPs is implemented by the network device 110. In some cases, the coordination between TRPs may be implemented by the TRPs. Fig. 6 illustrates a flowchart of an example method 600 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 600 can be implemented at any of the first and

second TRPs

131 and 132 as shown in Fig. 1. It is to be understood that the method 600 may include additional blocks not shown and/or may omit some blocks as shown, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this regard. For the purpose of discussion, the method 600 will be described with reference to Figs. 1 and 7 with respect to the second TRP 132. Fig. 7 shows a schematic diagram 700 illustrating resources for different TRPs according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

If the second TRP 132 at block 610 receives a random access preamble from a terminal device 120, the process proceeds to block 620. For example, the second TRP 132 receives a physical random access channel (PRACH) preamble on a PRACH. The term “PRACH preamble” and “random access preamble” may be used exchangeably herein. At block 620, the second TRP 132 determines a set of resources for a downlink shared channel transmission with the terminal device 120. For example, the second TRP 132 may determine the set of resources 722 and the indication of the set of resources 722 may be included in the DCI 702 to be transmitted to the terminal device 120.

At block 630, the second TRP 132 transmits, to a further TRP in communication with the terminal device 120, an indication of the determined set of resources. For example, the second TRP 132 may transmit the information on the set of resources 722 to the first TRP 131 so as to indicate the first TRP 131 that the set of resources 722 is to be occupied by the second TRP 132 to transmit RA-RNTI PDSCH. As such, the first TRP 131 may communicate with the terminal device 120 using resources other than the determined set of resources 722. For example, the first TRP 131 may determine the resources 721 for C-RNTI PDSCH transmission with the terminal device 120.

In some embodiments, the second TRP 132 determines a time duration between a current time instant and a receiving time instant when the random access preamble is received for example at block 610. If the time duration exceedes a threshold duration, the second TRP 132 may transmit a random access response to the terminal device 120. The threshold duration may be greater than for example four slots. The threshold duration should be greater than or equal to the latency for the second TRP 132 to communicate with the first TRP131. In this way, the second TRP 132 is expected to transmit the random access response to the terminal device 120 after a predefined delay (e.g. exceeding four slots) , in order to ensure the communication between the first TRP 131 and the second TRP 132 about the determined set of resources for RA-RNTI transmission.

In such cases, the terminal device 120 may determine the resources 721 based on the DCI 701 received via the first TRP 131 and the resources 722 based on the DCI 702 received via the second TRP 132. The resources 721 for C-RNTI PDSCH and the resources 722 for RA-RNTI PDSCH are non-overlapped with each other. Both the C-RNTI PDSCH and RA-RNTI PDSCH can be received by the terminal device 120.

In the above cases, the transmission collision is handled on the side of the gNodeB and/or the TRPs. In some cases, or when the backhaul is nonideal, the transmission collision may be handled on the side of the UE. Fig. 8 illustrates a flowchart of an example method 800 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 800 can be implemented at the terminal device 120 shown in Fig. 1. It is to be understood that the method 800 may include additional blocks not shown and/or may omit some blocks as shown, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this regard. For the purpose of discussion, the method 800 will be described with reference to Figs. 1 and 9A-9E.

At block 810, the terminal device 120 determines a first set of resources for a first transmission based on a first indication received via a first TRP 131 coupled with a network device 110. The first transmission is to be performed between the terminal device 110 and the network device 120 via the first TRP 131. The first indication may be included in for example DCI 901 shown in Fig. 9A, DCI 903 shown in Fig. 9B, DCI 905 shown in Fig. 9C, DCI 907 shown in Fig. 9D and DCI 951 shown in Fig. 9E, as described below in detail. The first set of resources may be for example the resources 921 shown in Fig. 9A, the resources 923 shown in Fig. 9B, the resources 925 shown in Fig. 9C, the resources 927 shown in Fig. 9D and the resources 977 shown in Fig. 9E, as described below in detail.

At block 820, the terminal device 120 determines a second set of resources for a second transmission based on a second indication received via a second TRP 132 coupled with the network device 110. The second transmission is to be performed between the terminal device 120 and the network device 110 via the second TRP 132. The second indication may be included in for example DCI 902 shown in Fig. 9A, DCI 904 shown in Fig. 9B, DCI 906 shown in Fig. 9C, DCI 908 shown in Fig. 9D and DCI 952 shown in Fig. 9E, as described below in detail. The second set of resources may be for example the resources 922 shown in Fig. 9A, the resources 924 shown in Fig. 9B, the resources 926 shown in Fig. 9C, the resources 928 shown in Fig. 9D and the resources 978 shown in Fig. 9E, as described below in detail.

At block 830, the terminal device 120 determines whether the first set of resources and the second set of resources are overlapped in at least one of time domain and frequency domain. If the terminal device 120 determines that the first set of resources and the second set of resources are overlapped in time domain and/or frequency domain, the process proceeds to block 840. At block 840, the terminal device 120 performs at least one of the first transmission and the second transmission to reduce interference between the first transmission and the second transmission.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 120 may perform the at least one of the first transmission and the second transmission based on at least one of: types of RNTI associated with the first indication and the second indication, service types of the first transmission and the second transmission, link directions of the first transmission and the second transmission, information types related to the first transmission and the second transmission, and types of carriers configured for the first transmission and the second transmission. Such embodiments are described in detail below.

In some embodiments, if both the first transmission and the second transmission are downlink shared channel transmission, the terminal device 120 may determine a first type of RNTI associated with the first indication and a second type of RNTI associated with the second indication. The terminal device 120 may then perform at least one of the first and second transmissions based on the determined types of RNTI. For example, if the first type of RNTI indicates that the first indication is scrambled with a C-RNTI and the first type of RNTI is different from the second type of RNTI, the terminal device 120 may perform the second transmission.

Fig. 9A shows a schematic diagram 910 illustrating handling of transmission collision according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 9A, DCI 901 received via the first TRP 131 indicates the resources 921 for C-RNTI PDSCH transmission between the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 via the first TRP 131, and DCI 902 received via the second TRP 132 indicates the resources 922 for RA/P/SI/MCS-C-RNTI PDSCH transmission between the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 via the second TRP 132. The

resources

921 and 922 are overlapped in both time domain and frequency domain, i.e., physical resource block (PRB) overlapping. Since the C-RNTI PDSCH and the RA/P/SI/MCS-C-RNTI PDSCH are from different TRPs and with different Quasi Co-Located (QCL) assumptions, the terminal device 120 needs to handle the transmission collision.

In such embodiments, the RA/P/SI/MCS-C-RNTI PDSCH from the second TRP 132 is prioritized to C-RNTI PDSCH from the first TRP 131 in case of PRB overlapping. That is, the terminal device 120 will receive the RA/P/SI/MCS-C-RNTI PDSCH via the second TRP 132. In the case where the RA/P/SI/MCS-C-RNTI PDSCH is received by the terminal device 120 and the C-RNTI PDSCH is dropped, the terminal device 120 may further feedback NACK for the deprioritized C-RNTI PDSCH to the first TRP 131, for example.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 120 may prioritize one of the first and second transmissions based on the DL/UL service type for example in case of slot format indication (SFI) collision. If the first transmission is downlink shared channel transmission and the second transmission is uplink transmission, the terminal device 120 may determine a first priority based on a first service type of the first transmission and a second priority based on a second service type of the second transmission. If the first priority is higher than the second priority, the terminal device 120 may perform the first transmission. If the first priority is same as the second priority, the terminal device 120 may perform the second transmission, that is, the terminal device 120 may perform the uplink transmission.

Fig. 9B shows a schematic diagram 920 illustrating handling of transmission collision according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 9B, DCI 903 received via the first TRP 131 indicates the resources 923 for PDSCH transmission between the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 via the first TRP 131, and DCI 904 received via the second TRP 132 indicates the resources 924 for PUSCH/Physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission between the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 via the second TRP 132. The

resources

923 and 924 are overlapped in both time domain and frequency domain, i.e. PRB overlapping. Link direction collision, which is SFI collision, occurs for the

symbols

913 and 914. The resources 923 may be configured for RA/P/SI/MCS-C-RNTI PDSCH.

In one embodiment, PDSCH transmission for certain service type may have a higher priority. As an example, if the resources 923 are configured for MCS-C-RNTI PDSCH, which is related to Ultrahigh Reliability Low Latency Communication (URLLC) and the resources 924 are configured for PUCCH or PUSCH which is related to eMBB, then the terminal device 120 may receive the MCS-C-RNTI PDSCH using the resources 923 and the PUCCH/PUSCH transmission may be dropped. As another example, in the case where the resources 923 are configured for MCS-C-RNTI PDSCH, i.e. for URLLC, the terminal device 120 may receive the MCS-C-RNTI PDSCH using the resources 923 and drop the PUCCH/PUSCH transmission, regardless of the service type related to the PUCCH/PUSCH transmission. Additionally, RA/P/SI-RNTI PDSCH transmission may also have a higher priority than PUCCH/PUSCH transmission. As such, in this embodiment, RA/P/SI/MCS-C-RNTI PDSCH transmission is prioritized to PUSCH/PUCCH transmission.

In anther embodiment, PUCCH transmission may have a higher priority, regardless of the service type of the PUCCH transmission. For example, PUCCH transmission is prioritized to RA/P/SI/MCS-C-RNTI PDSCH transmission, which in turn is prioritized to PUSCH transmission other than the PUSCH transmission carrying uplink control information. The PUSCH transmission carrying uplink control inform ation can have a higher priority than the PUCCH transmission. In this embodiment, if the resources 924 are configured for PUCCH or PUSCH transmission carrying uplink control information, the terminal device 120 will instead transmit the PUCCH or PUSCH using the resources 924 and the PDSCH may be dropped.

Fig. 9C shows a schematic diagram 930 illustrating handling of transmission collision according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 9C, DCI 905 received via the first TRP 131 indicates the resources 925 for PDSCH transmission between the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 via the first TRP 131, and DCI 906 received via the second TRP 132 indicates the resources 926 for PUSCH/PUCCH transmission between the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 via the second TRP 132. The

resources

925 and 926 are overlapped in both time domain and frequency domain. The resources 925 may be configured for C-RNTI PDSCH.

In the example shown in Fig. 9C, PUCCH or PUSCH transmission is prioritized to PDSCH transmission. For example, if the resources 925 are configured for C-RNTI PDSCH, which is related to one service type (e.g., eMBB) and the resources 926 are configured for PUCCH or PUSCH which is related to the same service type (e.g., eMBB) , then the terminal device 120 may perform the PUCCH/PUSCH transmission and the C-RNTI PDSCH transmission may be dropped by the terminal device 120. In the case where the PDSCH transmission is dropped, the terminal device 120 may feedback NACK in PUCCH transmission using the resource 931, which is indicated in the DCI 905.

In some embodiments, when the first transmission is PDSCH transmission, even if the PDSCH transmission is deprioritized to another transmission (the examples shown in Figs. 9A and 9C) , the terminal device 120 may also receive the PDSCH. In such embodiments, the terminal device 120 may determine a metric for the first transmission (for example, PDSCH transmission shown in Fig. 9C) based on the first set of resources and the second set of resources. The metric can be the actual coding rate, the ratio of overlapped resources to the allocated resources, and the like. If the determined metric is below a threshold, the terminal device 120 may also perform the first transmission. For example, if the actual coding rate is below a threshold (e.g. 0.95) , then the terminal device 120 may also perform the first transmission in addition to the second transmission.

For the example shown in Fig. 9C, the terminal device 120 may determ ine the metric for the PDSCH transmission based on the overlapping between the

resources

925 and 926. For example, the terminal device 120 may determine the actual coding rate based on the total number of PRBs of the resources 925, the number of PRBs of the resources 925 that are overlapped with the resources 926 and a preconfigured coding rate. If the determined coding rate is below a predefined threshold (e.g., 0.95) , which means that the degree of overlap between the

resources

925 and 926 is relatively low, transmission collision may have limited impact on the decoding of PDSCH. In this case, in addition to the PUCCH or PUSCH transmission, the terminal device 120 may receive the PDSCH using the resources 925. As a result, the terminal device 120 will not feedback NACK. Additionally, if the buffer size of the terminal device 120 is sufficient, the PDSCH transmission may not be dropped neither.

For the example shown in Fig. 9A, the terminal device 120 may determine the coding rate for the C-RNTI PDSCH transmission. If the coding rate is below the predefined threshold, the terminal device 120 may also receive the C-RNTI PDSCH.

In some embodiments, if both the first and second transmissions are uplink transmissions, the terminal device 120 may determine whether data or control information is to be transmitted in the first transmission and the second transmission. If control information is to be transmitted in the first transmission and data is to be transmitted in the second transmission, the terminal device 120 may perform the first transmission.

Fig. 9D shows a schematic diagram 940 illustrating handling of transmission collision according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 9D, DCI 907 received via the first TRP 131 indicates the resources 927 for PUCCH transmission between the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 via the first TRP 131, and DCI 908 received via the second TRP 132 indicates the resources 928 for PUSCH transmission between the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 via the second TRP 132.

In the example shown in Fig. 9D, PUCCH transmission is prioritized to PUSCH transmission other than the PUSCH transmission carrying uplink control information, and the PUSCH transmission carrying uplink control information is prioritized to PUCCH transmission. As such, the terminal device 120 may transmit the PUCCH using the resources 927 and the PUSCH transmission may be dropped (as shown in Fig. 9D) . Alternatively, the terminal device 120 may transmit the PUSCH carrying uplink control information using the resources 928 and the PUCCH transmission may be dropped. It is to be understood that although the

resources

927 and 928 are illustrated in Fig. 9D to be overlapped in both time domain and frequency domain, for PUCCH transmission and PUSCH transmission, the overlap of resources only in time domain may cause transmission collision.

In some embodiments, if both the first and second transmissions are uplink shared channel transmissions, the terminal device 120 may determine a first type of carrier for the first transmission and a second type of carrier for the second transmission. The types of carrier may be determined based on indications for the first and second transmissions, for example DCIs. The terminal device 120 may then perform one of the first and second transmissions based on the priorities of the types of carrier. For example, if the first type of carrier is indicated as a normal uplink carrier (NUL) and the second type of carrier is indicated as a supplementary uplink carrier (SUL) , the terminal device 120 may perform the transmission based on the priorities of NUL and SUL. For example, if SUL is prioritized, the terminal device 120 may perform the second transmission.

Fig. 9E shows a schematic diagram 950 illustrating handling of transmission collision according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 9E, DCI 951 received via the first TRP 131 indicates the resources 977 for a first PUSCH transmission between the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 via the first TRP 131, and DCI 952 received via the second TRP 132 indicates the resources 978 for a second PUSCH transmission between the network device 110 and the terminal device 120 via the second TRP 132.

The terminal device 120 may prioritize the above two PUSCH transmissions based on the types of carriers indicated for the PUSCH transmissions. As shown in Fig. 9E, the terminal device 120 may determine that the first PUSCH with the resources 977 is indicated with NUL and the second PUSCH with the resources 978 is indicated with SUL. The terminal device 120 may determine the types of carrier from the DCI 951 and DCI 952, in which at least one field is used to indicate the types of carrier configured for uplink transmission. In the example shown in Fig. 9E, the PUSCH transmission configured with SUL is prioritized to the PUSCH transmission configured with NUL. The terminal device 120 may transmit the second PUSCH using the resources 978 and the first PUSCH may be dropped.

In some other embodiments, the terminal device 120 may prioritize the above two PUSCH transmissions based on TRP IDs or control resource set (CORESET) IDs associated with the TRPs. The terminal device 120 may prioritize the PUSCH transmission indicated via the reference TRP, for example, the first TRP 131. The terminal device 120 may prioritize the PUSCH transmission indicated via a TRP with a lower TRP ID value. As an example, if the TRP ID of the first TRP 131 is 0 and the TRP ID of the second TRP 132 is 1, the terminal device 120 may transmit the first PUSCH using the resources 977 and the second PUSCH may be dropped.

Alternatively, or additionally, the terminal device 120 may prioritize the above two PUSCH transmissions based on CORESET IDs of the CORESETs in which the corresponding DCIs have been transmitted. For example, the terminal device 120 may prioritize the PUSCH transmission indicated in a DCI which is transmitted in a CORESET with a lower value of COREST ID. As example, if DCI 951 is transmitted in a COREST with a CORESET ID of 2 and DCI 952 is transmitted in a COREST with a CORESET ID of 5, the terminal device 120 may transmit the first PUSCH using the resources 977 and the second PUSCH may be dropped. It is to be noted that CORESET with a specific CORESET ID may be allocated to a specific TRP. Each CORESET ID can be explicitly assigned with a TRP ID value, which indicates the associated TRP. For example, the TRP ID can be of one bit, where a bit value of 0 means the first TRP, and a bit value of 1 means the second TRP. Each CORESET ID can be also implicitly assigned with a TRP without assigning a TRP ID, where a CORESET itself is used to identify a TRP and the COREST ID is identical to the TRP ID.

The handling of transmission collision between two PDSCHs, one PDSCH and one PUCCH/PUSCH and two PUSCHs are described above. For two PUCCHs, of which the resources are overlapped in time domain, the terminal device 120 may transmit the two PUCCHs by Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) . The terminal device 120 may further control transmission power of one or both of the two PUCCHs. For example, the terminal device 120 may determine the PUCCH transmission power P _{PUCCH, b, f, c} (i, q _u, q _d, l) in PUCCH transmission occasion i as

where the parameter “a” represents a power scaling ratio for one or both of the two PUCCHs. The power scaling ratio “a” can be preconfigured for the terminal device 120, or indicated by the DCI. The power scaling ratio “a” is used to split the transmission power of the terminal device 120 to two PUCCHs, where each PUCCH may have a different power scaling ratio. When the sum of the indicated transmission power exceeds the maximum transmission power limit supported by the terminal device 120, the power scaling ratio is used to reduce the actual transmission power for each PUCCH.

Aspects regarding transmission collision have been described above. It is to be understood that two or more of the aspects described above with reference to Figs. 3-9 can be combined appropriately to handle transmission collision issues.

Other aspects regarding cell-specific information transmission will be described below with reference to Figs. 10-13. Fig. 10 shows an example communication network 1000 in which embodiments of some aspects of the present disclosure can be implemented. The network 1000 includes a network device 1010 and a terminal device 1020 served by the network device 1010. The network 1000 may provide one or

more serving cells

1001, 1002 to serve the terminal device 1020, with each serving cell corresponding to a component carrier (CC) . It is to be understood that the number of network devices, terminal devices and serving cells is only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitations. The network 1000 may include any suitable number of network devices, terminal devices and serving cells adapted for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure.

In the communication network 1000, the network device 1010 can communicate data and control information to the terminal device 1020 and the terminal device 1020 can also communication data and control information to the network device 1010. A link from the network device 1010 to the terminal device 1020 is referred to as a downlink (DL) or a forward link, while a link from the terminal device 1020 to the network device 1010 is referred to as an uplink (UL) or a reverse link.

Carrier aggregation (CA) can be supported in the network 1000, in which two or more CCs are aggregated in order to support a broader bandwidth. In CA, the network device 1010 may provide to the terminal device 1020 a plurality of serving cells including one Pcell 1001 and at least one Scell 1002. The terminal device 1020 can establish Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection with the network device 1010 on the Pcell 1001. The Scell 1002 can provide additional radio resources once the RRC connection between the network device 1010 and the terminal device 1020 is established and the Scell 1002 is activated via higher layer signaling.

It is to be understood that the configuration of Pcell 1001 and Scell 1002 shown in FIG. 1 is only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitations. Pcell 1001 and Scell 1002 may be in other configuration than that shown in Fig. 10.

In some embodiments, the network device 1010 is configured to implement beamforming technique and transmit signals to the terminal device 1020 via a plurality of beams. The terminal device 1020 is configured to receive the signals transmitted by the network device 1010 via the plurality of beams. There may be different beams associated with the Pcell 1001 and the Scell 1002. As shown in FIG. 1,

DL beams

1011 and 1012 are associated with the Pcell 1001 and Scell 1002, respectively. It is to be understood that the Pcell 1001 and Scell 1002 may have more beams associated therewith.

As mentioned above, a beam failure may occur on the Pcell 1001 or Scell 1002. For example, the terminal device 1020 may detect a beam failure of a beam previously configured for communication with the network device 110. Then, a beam failure recovery procedure may be initiated. Specifically, the terminal device 120 may identify a new beam for recovery from the beam failure. For example, the terminal device 120 may select a beam 1012 from available beams on the Scell 1002 as a new candidate beam, for example, based on the qualities of the available beams. For ease of discussion, the new beam identified by the terminal device 120 is hereinafter referred to as the selected beam 1012. Similarly, if a beam failure occurs on the Pcell 1001, the terminal device 1020 may select a new beam (for example, the beam 1011) for recovery from the beam failure.

The beam failure recovery (BFR) request, which is cell-specific, may be transmitted to the network device 110 to indicate on which cell the BFR occurs and the selected beam. Additionally, in the scenario of CA, channel state information (CSI) report is also cell-specific. Embodiments of some aspects of the present disclosure are now described in detail with reference to Figs. 11-13 to illustrate transmission of such cell-specific information.

Fig. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating a process 1100 for cell-specific information transmission according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the process 1100 will be described with reference to Fig. 1.

The terminal device 1020 transmit 1105 a scheduling request for allocation of uplink resource to the network device 1010. The scheduling request may be a normal PRACH transmission on PRACH. In such cases, the PRACH transmission may be based on contention-based random access (CBRA) . Alternatively, the scheduling request may be a dedicated scheduling request (SR) transmitted on PUCCH or PRACH. This dedicated scheduling request may be identified by a specific sequence or be transmitted in specific time and/or frequency resources.

After receiving the scheduling request from the terminal device 1020, the network device 1010 allocates an uplink resource to the terminal device 1020. Then the network device 1010 transmits 1110 to the terminal device 1020 a response indicating the uplink resource allocated to the terminal device 1020. The response may be transmitted on physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and may comprise downlink control information (DCI) indicating a UL grant on PUSCH. In the case where the scheduling request is a dedicated scheduling request for BFR or CSI reporting for example, the response may further comprise an resource indication of physical uplink control channel, for example, a PUCCH resource indicator (PRI) .

The terminal device 1020 transmits 1115 cell-specific information to the network device 1010 by using the uplink resource. The cell-specific inform ation includes a cell index of a serving cell provided by the network device 1010 to the terminal device 1020 and transmission control information for the serving cell. For example, in the case of BFR on the Pcell 1001, the cell-specific information may include cell index of the Pcell 1001 and the selected beam 1011. In the case of CSI reporting of the Scell 1002, the cell-specific information may include cell index of the Scell 1002 and CSI on the Scell 1002. If the scheduling request is normal PRACH transmission, the cell-specific information may be transmitted in media access control (MAC) control element (CE) . If the scheduling request is a dedicated scheduling request for BFR or CSI reporting, the cell-specific information may be carried by uplink control indication (UCI) .

In some embodiments, the network device 1010 may transmits 1120 a further response to the terminal device 1020. In the case of BFR, this response may be a BFR response.

Now example embodiments are described in detail to illustrate transmission of BFR request or CSI based on the process 1100. In some example embodiments, the process 1100 may be a normal CBRA procedure for BFR of Pcell 1001 or Scell 1002. In such embodiments, the scheduling request may be a PRACH transmission and the BFR request may be included in MAC CE.

The beam failure recovery request may comprise the beam index of the selected beam and the cell index of the serving cell with beam failure. Accordingly, the structure of MAC CE can be designed as shown in Table 1. The field “LCID” indicates that the MAC CE is for beam failure recovery or a normal CBRA. For example, field “LCID” with a predefined value (e.g., 33) may indicate that the MAC CE is used for BFR and field “LCID” field with values other than the predefined value may indicate that the MAC CE is used for normal CBRA. The field “Serving Cell ID” indicates the cell index with beam failure and the field “RS ID” indicates the beam index of the new beam. For example, “Serving Cell ID” is defined in 3GPP NR, where 5 bits are used to indicate one specific cell from a maximum of 32 Cells in the carrier aggregation. In the case of BFR on the Pcell 1001, the field “Serving Cell ID” may be the cell ID of the Pcell 1001 and the field “RS ID”may be the beam index of the beam 1011 which is selected by the terminal device 1020. In the case of BFR on the Scell 1002, the field “Serving Cell ID” may be the cell ID of the Scell 1002 and the field “RS ID” may be the beam index of the beam 1011. Although not shown, there may be reserved bits in the MAC-CE structure to align the length of MAC-CE information to an integer number of bytes.

Table 1 MAC CE field options for BFR

Field 1: LCID	Field 2: Serving Cell ID	Field 3: RS ID
Predefined Value	Cell ID of Pcell	Pcell New Beam ID
Predefined Value	Cell ID of Scell	Scell New Beam ID
Other Value

In some example embodiments, the MAC-CE field “RS ID” can be ignored or set as a special state value, if the value of the field “Serving Cell ID” indicates the cell ID of Pcell 1001 and the transmission 1105 of the scheduling request is associated with a beam ID in the Pcell 1001. In this case, the beam ID associated with the transmission 1105 of the scheduling request is treated as the new beam ID for the Pcell 1001. Further, in this case, there may be no need for the network device 1010 to transmit a response to the MAC-CE based beam failure request for the event of BFR in Pcell 1001. The terminal device 1020 may consider that the BFR request is successfully received by the network device 1010, and the corresponding settings such as the timer for retransmission of the BFR is either stopped or reset.

In some example embodiments, the process 1100 may be a dedicated procedure for BFR of Pcell 1001 or Scell 1002. In such embodiments, as mentioned above, the dedicated scheduling request may be transmitted on PUCCH or PRACH and the network device 1010 may allocate PUCCH resources to the terminal device 1020 for transmitting the BFR request. The terminal device 1020 may transmit UCI on the PUCCH based on the PRI indicated by the network device 1010. The BFR request may be included in the UCI.

Accordingly, the structure of UCI can be designed as shown in Table 2. Similar with Table 1, the field “Serving Cell ID” indicates the cell index with beam failure and the field “RS ID” indicates the beam index of the new beam. In the case of BFR on the Pcell 1001, the field “Serving Cell ID” may be the cell ID of the Pcell 1001 and the field “RS ID”may be the beam index of the beam 1011 which is selected by the terminal device 1020. In the case of BFR on the Scell 1002, the field “Serving Cell ID” may be the cell ID of the Scell 1002 and the field “RS ID” may be the beam index of the beam 1011. Since the BFR request is transmitted in a dedicated procedure, a field similar with the field “LCID” as shown in Table 1 may be omitted.

Table 2 UCI field options for BFR

Field 1: Serving Cell ID	Field 2: RS ID
Cell ID of Pcell	Pcell New Beam ID
Cell ID of Scell	Scell New Beam ID

In some example embodiments, the process 1100 may be a dedicated procedure for CSI reporting of Pcell 1001 or Scell 1002. In such embodiments, as mentioned above, the dedicated scheduling request may be transmitted on PUCCH or PRACH and the network device 1010 may allocate PUCCH resources to the terminal device 1020 for transmitting CSI report. The terminal device 1020 may transmit UCI on the PUCCH based on the PRI from the network device 1010. The CSI report may be included in the UCI. CSI reporting implemented in such a procedure may be used for beam reporting or CSI acquisition.

Accordingly, the structure of UCI can be designed as shown in Table 3. The field “Serving Cell ID” indicates the cell index of a serving cell and the field “Property” indicates the property of the corresponding serving cell, such as CQI/PMI/RI. In the case of CSI reporting of the Pcell 1001, the field “Serving Cell ID” may be the cell ID of the Pcell 1001. In the case of CSI reporting of the Scell 1002, the field “Serving Cell ID” may be the cell ID of the Scell 1002. Since the CSI report is transmitted in a dedicated procedure in such embodiments, a field similar with the field “LCID” as shown in Table 1 may be omitted.

Table 3 UCI Fields for CSI Reporting

Field 1:Serving Cell ID	Field 2:Property
Cell ID of Pcell	Property for Pcell
Cell ID of Scell	Property for Scell

Fig. 12 shows a flowchart of an example method 1200 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 1200 can be implemented at the terminal device 1020 shown in Fig. 10. It is to be understood that the method 1200 may include additional blocks not shown and/or may omit some blocks as shown, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this regard. For the purpose of discussion, the method 1200 will be described with reference to Fig. 10.

At block 1210, the terminal device 1020 transmits a scheduling request for allocation of uplink resource to a network device 1010. At block 1220, the terminal device 1020 receives from the network device 1010 a response indicating an uplink resource allocated to the terminal device 1020.

At block 1230, the terminal device 1020 transmits cell-specific information to the network device 1010 by using the uplink resource. The cell-specific information includes a cell index of a serving cell provided by the network device 1010 to the terminal device 1020 and transmission control information for the serving cell.

In some embodiments, transmitting the scheduling request comprises transmitting a random access preamble, receiving the response comprises receiving downlink control information with an uplink grant, and transmitting the cell-specific information comprises transmitting a beam failure recovery request in MAC CE. The beam failure recovery request comprises the cell index and a beam index of a beam available on the serving cell.

In some embodiments, transmitting the scheduling request comprises transmitting a dedicated scheduling request, receiving the response comprises receiving an resource indication of physical uplink control channel, and transmitting the cell-specific information comprises transmitting a beam failure recovery request in an uplink control indication. The beam failure recovery request comprises the cell index and a beam index of a beam available on the serving cell.

In some embodiments, transmitting the scheduling request comprises transmitting a dedicated scheduling request, receiving the response comprises receiving an resource indication of physical uplink control channel, and transmitting the cell-specific information comprises transmitting channel state information in an uplink control indication. The channel state information comprises the cell index.

Fig. 13 shows a flowchart of an example method 1300 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 1300 can be implemented at the network device 1010 shown in Fig. 10. It is to be understood that the method 1300 may include additional blocks not shown and/or may omit some blocks as shown, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this regard. For the purpose of discussion, the method 1300 will be described with reference to Fig. 10.

At block 1310, the network device 1010 receives a scheduling request for allocation of uplink resource from a terminal device 1020. At block 1320, the network device 1010 transmits to the terminal device 1020 a response indicating an uplink resource allocated to the terminal device 1020.

At block 1330, the network device 1010 receives cell-specific information from the network device 1020 by using the uplink resource. The cell-specific information includes a cell index of a serving cell provided by the network device 1010 to the terminal device 1020 and transmission control information for the serving cell.

In some embodiments, receiving the scheduling request comprises receiving a random access preamble, transmitting the response comprises transmitting downlink control inform ation with an uplink grant, and receiving the cell-specific infor mation comprises receiving a beam failure recovery request in MAC CE. The beam failure recovery request comprises the cell index and a beam index of a beam available on the serving cell.

In some embodiments, receiving the scheduling request comprises receiving a dedicated scheduling request, transmitting the response comprises transmitting an resource indication of physical uplink control channel, and receiving the cell-specific information comprises receiving a beam failure recovery request in an uplink control indication. The beam failure recovery request comprises the cell index and a beam index of a beam available on the serving cell.

In some embodiments, receiving the scheduling request comprises receiving a dedicated scheduling request, transmitting the response comprises transmitting an resource indication of physical uplink control channel, and receiving the cell-specific information comprises receiving channel state information in an uplink control indication. The channel state information comprising the cell index.

Fig. 14 is a simplified block diagram of a device 1400 that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 1400 can be considered as a further example implementation of the network device 110 or the terminal device 120 as shown in Fig. 1 and the network device 1010 or the terminal device 1020 as shown in Fig. 10. Accordingly, the device 1400 can be implemented at or as at least a part of the network device 110 or the terminal device 120 or the network device 1010 or the terminal device 1020.

As shown, the device 1400 includes a processor 1410, a memory 1420 coupled to the processor 1410, a suitable transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) 1440 coupled to the processor 1410, and a communication interface coupled to the TX/RX 1440. The memory 1410 stores at least a part of a program 1430. The TX/RX 1440 is for bidirectional communications. The TX/RX 1440 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication, though in practice an Access Node mentioned in this application may have several ones. The communication interface may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements, such as X2 interface for bidirectional communications between eNBs, S1 interface for communication between a Mobility Management Entity (MME) /Serving Gateway (S-GW) and the eNB, Un interface for communication between the eNB and a relay node (RN) , or Uu interface for communication between the eNB and a terminal device.

The program 1430 is assumed to include program instructions that, when executed by the associated processor 1410, enable the device 1400 to operate in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure, as discussed herein with reference to Figs. 3, 5, 6, 8, 12 and 13. The embodiments herein may be implemented by computer software executable by the processor 1410 of the device 1400, or by hardware, or by a combination of software and hardware. The processor 1410 may be configured to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure. Furthermore, a combination of the processor 1410 and memory 1410 may form processing means 1450 adapted to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure.

The memory 1410 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, semiconductor-based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory, as non-limiting examples. While only one memory 1410 is shown in the device 1400, there may be several physically distinct memory modules in the device 1400. The processor 1410 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 1400 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. While various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representation, it will be appreciated that the blocks, apparatus, systems, techniques or methods described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target real or virtual processor, to carry out the process or method as described above with reference to any of Figs. 3, 5, 6, 8, 12 and 13. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

Program code for carrying out methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. These program codes may be provided to a processor or controller of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program codes, when executed by the processor or controller, cause the functions/operations specified in the flowcharts and/or block diagrams to be implemented. The program code may execute entirely on a machine, partly on the machine, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the machine and partly on a remote machine or entirely on the remote machine or server.

The above program code may be embodied on a machine readable medium, which may be any tangible medium that may contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The machine readable medium may be a machine readable signal medium or a machine readable storage medium. A machine readable medium may include but not limited to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the machine readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM) , a read-only memory (ROM) , an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory) , an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) , an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Further, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, while several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

Although the present disclosure has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the present disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

A communication method, comprising:

determining, at a network device, a first configuration of a first set of resources for a first Transmission and Reception Point (TRP) coupled with the network device and a second configuration of a second set of resources for a second TRP coupled with the network device, the first set of resources and the second set of resources being used for downlink shared channel transmission, and the first set of resources and the second set of resources being non-overlapped in frequency domain; and

transmitting the first configuration to the first TRP and the second configuration to the second TRP.
A communication method, comprising:

receiving, at a Transmission and Reception Point (TRP) , a first configuration of a first set of resources from a network device couple with the TRP, the first set of resources being non-overlapped in frequency domain with a second set of resources determined by the network device for a further TRP coupled with the network device, the first set of resources and the second set of resources being used for downlink shared channel transmission; and

performing the downlink shared channel transmission based on the first set of resources.
A communication method, comprising:

in response to receiving, at a Transmission and Reception Point (TRP) , a random access preamble from a terminal device, determining a set of resources for a downlink shared channel transmission with the terminal device; and

transmitting, to a further TRP in communication with the terminal device, an indication of the determined set of resources, such that the further TRP communicates with the terminal device using resources other than the determined set of resources.
The method according to claim 3, further comprising:

determining a time duration between a current time instant and a receiving time instant when the random access preamble is received; and

in response to the time duration exceeding a threshold duration, transmitting a random access response to the terminal device.
A communication method, comprising:

determining, at a terminal device, a first set of resources for a first transmission based on a first indication received via a first Transmission and Reception Point (TRP) coupled with a network device, the first transmission being to be performed between the terminal device and the network device via the first TRP;

determining a second set of resources for a second transmission based on a second indication received via a second TRP coupled with the network device, the second transmission being to be performed between the terminal device and the network device via the second TRP; and

in response to the first set of resources and the second set of resources being overlapped in at least one of time domain and frequency domain, performing at least one of the first transmission and the second transmission to reduce interference between the first transmission and the second transmission.
The method according to claim 5, wherein performing the at least one of the first transmission and the second transmission comprises:

performing the at least one of the first transmission and the second transmission based on at least one of:

types of RNTI associated with the first indication and the second indication,

service types of the first transmission and the second transmission,

link directions of the first transmission and the second transmission,

information types related to the first transmission and the second transmission, and

types of carriers configured for the first transmission and the second transmission.
The method according to claim 5, wherein performing the at least one of the first transmission and the second transmission comprises:

in response to both the first transmission and the second transmission being downlink shared channel transmission, determining a first type of RNTI associated with the first indication and a second type of RNTI associated with the second indication; and

in response to the first type of RNTI indicating that the first indication is scrambled with a Cell-RNTI (C-RNTI) and the first type of RNTI being different from the second type of RNTI, performing the second transmission.
The method according to claim 5, wherein performing the at least one of the first transmission and the second transmission comprises:

in response to the first transmission being downlink shared channel transmission and the second transmission being uplink transmission, determining a first priority based on a first service type of the first transmission and a second priority based on a second service type of the second transmission; and

in response to the first priority being higher than the second priority, performing the first transmission.
The method according to claim 5, further comprising:

in response to the first priority being same as the second priority, performing the second transmission.
The method according to claim 7 or 9, further comprising:

determining a coding rate for the first transmission based on the first set of resources and the second set of resources; and

in response to the coding rate being below a threshold, performing the first transmission.
The method according to claim 5, wherein performing the at least one of the first transmission and the second transmission comprises:

in response to both the first and second transmissions being uplink transmissions, determining whether data or control information is to be transmitted in the first transmission and the second transmission; and

in response to control information being to be transmitted in the first transmission and data being to be transmitted in the second transmission, performing the first transmission.
The method according to claim 5, wherein performing the at least one of the first transmission and the second transmission comprises:

in response to both the first and second transmissions being uplink shared channel transmissions, determining a first type of carrier for the first transmission and a second type of carrier for the second transmission; and

in response to the first type of carrier being indicated as a normal uplink carrier and the second type of carrier being indicated as a supplementary uplink carrier, performing the second transmission.
A communication method, comprising:

transmitting, at a terminal device, a scheduling request for allocation of uplink resource to a network device;

receiving from the network device a response indicating an uplink resource allocated to the terminal device; and

transmitting cell-specific information to the network device by using the uplink resource, the cell-specific information including a cell index of a serving cell provided by the network device to the terminal device and transmission control information for the serving cell.
The method of claim 13, wherein transmitting the scheduling request comprises transmitting a random access preamble,

wherein receiving the response comprises receiving downlink control information with an uplink grant, and

wherein transmitting the cell-specific information comprises transmitting a beam failure recovery request in media access control (MAC) control element (CE) , the beam failure recovery request comprising the cell index and a beam index of a beam available on the serving cell.
The method of claim 13, wherein transmitting the scheduling request comprises transmitting a dedicated scheduling request,

wherein receiving the response comprises receiving an resource indication of physical uplink control channel, and

wherein transmitting the cell-specific information comprises transmitting a beam failure recovery request in an uplink control indication, the beam failure recovery request comprising the cell index and a beam index of a beam available on the serving cell.
The method of claim 13, wherein transmitting the scheduling request comprises transmitting a dedicated scheduling request,

wherein receiving the response comprises receiving an resource indication of physical uplink control channel, and

wherein transmitting the cell-specific information comprises transmitting channel state information in an uplink control indication, the channel state information comprising the cell index.
A communication method, comprising:

receiving, at a network device, a scheduling request for allocation of uplink resource from a terminal device;

transmitting to the terminal device a response indicating an uplink resource allocated to the terminal device; and

receiving cell-specific information from the network device by using the uplink resource, the cell-specific information including a cell index of a serving cell provided by the network device to the terminal device and transmission control information for the serving cell.
The method of claim 17, wherein receiving the scheduling request comprises receiving a random access preamble,

wherein transmitting the response comprises transmitting downlink control information with an uplink grant, and

wherein receiving the cell-specific information comprises receiving a beam failure recovery request in media access control (MAC) control element (CE) , the beam failure recovery request comprising the cell index and a beam index of a beam available on the serving cell.
The method of claim 17, wherein receiving the scheduling request comprises receiving a dedicated scheduling request,

wherein transmitting the response comprises transmitting an resource indication of physical uplink control channel, and

wherein receiving the cell-specific information comprises receiving a beam failure recovery request in an uplink control indication, the beam failure recovery request comprising the cell index and a beam index of a beam available on the serving cell.
The method of claim 17, wherein receiving the scheduling request comprises receiving a dedicated scheduling request,

wherein transmitting the response comprises transmitting an resource indication of physical uplink control channel, and

wherein receiving the cell-specific information comprises receiving channel state information in an uplink control indication, the channel state information comprising the cell index.
A device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processing unit and storing instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by the processing unit, causing the device to perform the method according to claim 1.
A device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processing unit and storing instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by the processing unit, causing the device to perform the method according to claim 2.
A device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processing unit and storing instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by the processing unit, causing the device to perform the method according to any of claims 3-4.
A device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processing unit and storing instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by the processing unit, causing the device to perform the method according to any of claims 5-12.
A device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processing unit and storing instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by the processing unit, causing the device to perform the method according to any of claims 13-16.
A device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processing unit and storing instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by the processing unit, causing the device to perform the method according to any of claims 17-20.
A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to carry out the method according to claim 1.
A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to carry out the method according to claim 2.
A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to carry out the method according to any of claims 3-4.
A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to carry out the method according to any of claims 5-12.
A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to carry out the method according to any of claims 13-16.
A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to carry out the method according to any of claims 17-20.