CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority under 35 USC § 119 from U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/422,971, entitled “DM-RS ANTENNA PORT INDICATION FOR SU AND MU-MIMO WITH ENHANCED DM-RS CAPACITY”, filed on November 5, 2022, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments herein relate to wireless communications, and more particularly, to antenna port indication for multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communications.

BACKGROUND

The rapid growth of wireless communication technologies and the increasing demand for high-quality and efficient data transmission have led to the development of advanced communication systems. One aspect of communication in cellular systems such as the fifth generation (5G) cellular system involves the spatial layer, which is one of different streams generated by spatial multiplexing. A layer can be described as a mapping of symbols onto the transmit antenna ports. Each layer is identified by a precoding vector of size equal to the number of transmit antenna ports and can be associated with a radiation pattern. The rank of the transmission is the number of layers transmitted.

A reference signal (RS) is transmitted from an antenna port (or port) at the base station. A port may be transmitted either as a single physical transmit antenna, or as a combination of multiple physical antenna elements. In either case, the signal transmitted from each antenna port is not designed to be further deconstructed by the user equipment (UE) receiver. The RS corresponding to a given antenna port defines the antenna port from the point of view of the UE and enables the UE to derive a channel estimate for all data transmitted on that antenna port, regardless of whether it represents a single radio channel from one physical antenna or a composite channel from a multiplicity of physical antenna elements together comprising the antenna port.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts an embodiment of a system including base stations, user equipment, and cloud-based computing and data services interconnected via a communication network; FIG. 2 illustrates another embodiment of a network in accordance with various embodiments such as the network in FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 3 illustrates another embodiment of a network in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 4A illustrates an embodiment of legacy CDM groups for a DM-RS Type 1 ;

FIG. 4B illustrates an embodiment of legacy CDM groups for a DM-RS Type 2;

FIG. 4C illustrates an embodiment of port configuration tables for legacy ports for DM-

RS Type 1 and DM-RS Type 2;

FIG. 4D illustrates an embodiment of two optional new FD-OCC encodings for new ports in the front-load symbols of the DM-RS Type 1 and DM-RS Type 2;

FIG. 4E illustrates an embodiment of new port configurations for DM-RS Type 1 ports for PUSCH and PDSCH;

FIG. 4F illustrates another embodiment of new port configurations for DM-RS Type 2 ports for PUSCH and PDSCH;

FIG. 4G illustrates an embodiment of a DM-RS configurations table;

FIG. 4H illustrates another embodiment of a DM-RS configuration table;

FIG. 41 illustrates another embodiment of a DM-RS configuration table;

FIGs. 4J1-4J2 illustrates another embodiment of a DM-RS configuration table;

FIG. 5 is an embodiment of a simplified block diagram of a base station and a user equipment (UE) such as the base stations or RANs, the UEs, and communication networks shown in FIGs. 1-4;

FIG. 6 depicts a flowchart of an embodiment for a base station such as the embodiments described in conjunction with FIGs. 1-5;

FIG. 7 depicts a flowchart of an embodiment for a user equipment such as the embodiments described in conjunction with FIGs. 1-5;

FIG. 8 depicts an embodiment of protocol entities that may be implemented in wireless communication devices;

FIG. 9 illustrates embodiments of the formats of PHY data units (PDUs) that may be transmitted by the PHY device via one or more antennas and be encoded and decoded by a MAC entity such as the processors in FIG. 5, the baseband circuitry in FIGs. 5, 13, and 14 according to some aspects;

FIGs. 10A-B depicts embodiments of communication circuitry such as the components and modules shown in the user equipment and base station shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 11 depicts an embodiment of a storage medium described herein; FIG. 12 illustrates an architecture of a system of a network in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 13 illustrates example components of a device in accordance with some embodiments such as the base stations and UEs shown in FIGs. 1- 12;

FIG. 14 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry in accordance with some embodiments such as the baseband circuitry shown and/or discussed in conjunction with FIGs. 1-13; and

FIG. 15 depicts an embodiment of a block diagram of components to perform functionality described.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The following is a detailed description of embodiments depicted in the drawings. The detailed description covers all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the appended claims.

To support operation, demodulation reference signals (DMRS) are used for the purpose of channel estimation and have a uniform structure for both uplink and downlink with cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CPOFDM) waveform. Embodiments involve front-loaded (at the beginning of the data channel) DMRS port mapping, additional DM-RS if configured, and related signaling aspects including a Downlink Control Information (DCI). The DCI may schedule the DM-RS for uplink (UL) or downlink (DL) and may comprise an antenna port field to signal a DM-RS configuration.

A Demodulation-Reference Signal (DM-RS) is a user specific reference signal which can be used for channel estimation for physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) data demodulation and for physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) data demodulation. There at least two different DM-RS configurations including a DM-RS Type 1 and a DM-RS Type 2. Each DM-RS configuration may have the flexibility of using a front- load 1-symbol DM-RS, a front-load 2-symbol DM-RS, and one or more additional DM-RS, if configured.

Front-loaded reference signals are allocated to the first data symbol adjacent to the signaling section (the signaling section consisting of, e.g., two symbols) of a transmission time interval (TTI) if one-symbol DM-RS is used, i.e., and to the first two data symbols adjacent to the signaling section if two-symbol DM-RS is used. A UE may be configured by higher layers with DM-RS pattern or configuration either from the front-loaded DM-RS Type 1 configuration or from the front- loaded DM-RS Type 2 configuration for DL and/or UL. A base station may transmit the DCI to signal the DM-RS on the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), may schedule a DM-RS, and may dynamically switch between the single symbol and double symbol DM-RS configurations for DL and/or UL. In many embodiments, the antenna port field of the DCI may include an index value to identify the number of CDM groups without data to identify the ports than may contain data for a UE, the DMRS port or ports associated with the UE for channel estimation, and the number of front-load symbols.

For legacy user equipment, such as user equipment based on 3GPP 38.211, 38.212, and 38.213, the first front-loaded DM-RS configuration corresponding to configuration type 1 may have 2 code-division-multiplexed (CDM) port groups with each group occupying 6 orthogonal frequency resource elements (REs) within a physical resource block (PRB) on a single OFDM symbol and may support for up to eight orthogonal ports (as shown in FIG. 4A) for Single- User Multiple Input Multiple Output (SU-MIMO) or Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO). Type 1 single-symbol legacy DM-RS can support a maximum of legacy 4 orthogonal DMRS ports with 2 legacy DM-RS ports multiplexed within each CDM-group using frequency domain orthogonal cover codes (FD-OCC).

If two symbol legacy DM-RS is used, as shown in FIG. 4A, the two combs and two cyclic shifts may further be combined with two time division Orthogonal Cover Codes (TD-OCC) in particular Walsh-Hadamard TD-OCCs, ({ 1,1 } and { 1,-1 }), and up to eight orthogonal ports may be supported. However, in the two-symbol legacy DMRS case, it should also be possible to schedule up to 4 ports without using both { 1, 1 } and { 1, -1 }.

The second front-loaded DM-RS configuration corresponding to configuration type 2 may have 3 legacy CDM port groups with each group occupying 4 orthogonal REs within a PRB on a single OFDM symbol and support for up to twelve legacy orthogonal ports for SU-MIMO or MU-MIMO. In particular, two (Walsh-Hadamard) frequency division Orthogonal Cover Codes (FD-OCC) respectively applied across adjacent REs (resource elements) in the frequency domain yield six component sets. Pairs of adjacent REs are grouped into three CDM groups. Accordingly, the six component sets result from two FD-OCCs (both {1,1 } and { 1,- I }) applied respectively to the three legacy CDM groups. In the case of one symbol DMRS, the resulting six respective component sets can be assigned to up to six orthogonal ports with pairs of ports in each CDM group. In the case of two-symbol DMRS, these six component sets may further be combined with two TD-OCCs resulting in a capability to support up to twelve orthogonal ports with 4 ports in each of the CDM groups.

Combs, cyclic shifts, FD-OCCs, CDMs, and TD-OCCs constitute resource components for reference signals, in a front-loaded DM-RS. These resource components are combined in accordance with the first or the second front-loaded DM-RS configuration, and the resulting component sets are respectively assigned to orthogonal ports.

From user equipment (UE) perspective, DMRS ports multiplexed by frequency domain code division multiplexing (FDM) are quasi co-located. The number of front-load DM-RS symbols can be 1 or 2 when the number of DMRS ports allocated to UE is equal or less than N, N being 4 for configuration 1, and N being 6 for configuration 2.

Embodiments herein provide new multiplexing techniques such as two new length-4 FD- OCCs to increase the capacity of both Type 1 and Type 2 DM-RS. In such embodiments, a Type 1 DM-RS can support 8 ports for a single symbol and 16 ports for a 2-symbol case, which are sometimes referred to as new ports (or Rel- 18 ports) or ports having new port configurations (or Rel- 18 port configurations) herein. Furthermore, a Type 2 DM-RS can support 12 ports for a single symbol and 24 ports for a double symbol case. New orthogonal cover codes and frequency domain multiplexing techniques are provided to enhance the multiplexing capacity of DM-RS.

With the implementation of the new multiplexing techniques to increase the capacity of both Type 1 and Type 2 DM-RS, it may be desirable to set restrictions on port pairings to support legacy UEs. A legacy UE may be based on Rel-15 of 3GPP 38.211, 38.212, and 38.213 comprise the length-2 Hadamard matrix to demultiplex the encoded signals from ports of the DM-RS for channel estimation and receiving data. The new multiplexing techniques are expected to be incorporated in Rel-18 of 3GPP 38.211, 38.212, and 38.213.

Many embodiments may restrict port pairing for CDM groups to ports pairs that are sublength orthogonal for backwards compatibility with legacy UEs. The DM-RS configuration tables shown in FIGs. 4G-4J2 include pairing for ports encoded with the new multiplexing techniques. Some of the port pairings in the tables advantageously include port pairings of new ports with legacy ports for legacy UE compatibility. Note that some of or all the DM-RS configurations in the DM-RS configuration tables shown in FIGs. 4G-4J2 may be stored in memory of base stations and UEs (or at least the applicable portions of the DM-RS configuration tables) for determination, generation, decoding, demodulation, and/or the like of an UL or DL DM-RS.

In some embodiments, for instance, for DM-RS port multiplexing for DM-RS Type 1, for MU-MIMO PDSCH reception, a UE with Rel-15 DM-RS port 0 or 1 in CDM group 0 may be paired with any UE with Rel-18 DM-RS port 1 or 0, respectively, since the FD-OCC code in ports 0, 1 of Rel-18 DM-RS are sub-length orthogonal to the FD-OCC codes in Rel-15 DMRS ports 0, 1. Similarly any UE with Rel-15 DM-RS ports 4 or 5 may be co-scheduled with any UE with Rel-18 ports 5 or 4 in CDM group 0. In CDM group 1, any UE with Rel-15 ports 0, 1, 4, and 5 can be paired with UEs in Rel-18 ports 1, 0, 5, and 4, respectively. In many embodiments, Rel-18 DM-RS ports 8-15 cannot be paired with any Rel-15 DM-RS ports.

In some embodiments, for instance, for DM-RS port multiplexing for DM-RS Type 2, for MU-MIMO PDSCH reception, Rel-15 DMRS ports 0, 1, 6, and 7 in CDM Group 0 may be paired with Rel-18 DM-RS ports 1, 0, 7, and 6, respectively. Rel-15 DMRS ports 2, 3, 8, and 9 in CDM Group 1 may be paired with Rel-18 DMRS ports 3, 2, 9, and 8, respectively and Rel- 15 DMRS ports 4, 5, 10, and 11 may be paired with Rel-18 DM-RS ports 5, 4, 11, and 10, respectively. In many embodiments, Rel-18 DM-RS ports 12-23 cannot be paired with any Rel- 15 DM-RS ports.

In some embodiments, if Option 1-1 Walsh matrix (shown in FIG. 4D) is used as FD-OCC for MU-MIMO PUSCH transmission, there is no restriction on port pairing between Rel-15 and Rel-18 UEs. In other embodiments, the same port pairing restrictions apply to the DM-RS in PUSCH transmission as are discussed herein for the PDSCH reception.

Some embodiments, as discussed in more depth herein, may increase the size (number of bits) or resources assigned to the antenna port field of the DCI for different DM-RS configurations to accommodate additional port pairings described in FIGs. 4G-4J2. In some embodiments, the resources assigned to the antenna port field may depend on the particular DM-RS configuration.

Various embodiments may be designed to address different technical problems associated a lack of support for new multiplexing encodings and new port configurations for DM-RS; lack or port pairings of new ports and legacy ports for CDM groups; lack of new multiplexing encodings FD-OCCs for new port configuration; lack of adequate signaling for additional port pairings for new port configurations; and/or the like.

Different technical problems such as those discussed above may be addressed by one or more different embodiments. Embodiments may address one or more of these problems associated with support for new multiplexing encodings and new port configurations for DMRS. For instance, some embodiments that address problems associated with support for new multiplexing encodings and new port configurations for DM-RS may do so by one or more different technical means, such as, determining or generating a communication comprising a downlink control information (DCI) to schedule a demodulation-reference signal (DM-RS), the DCI comprising an antenna port field, the antenna port field comprising an index value to identify a set of one or more ports in a first code-division modulation (CDM) group of the DMRS, the DM-RS to comprise up to three CDM groups in up to two codewords in up to two symbols, the first CDM group to comprise a signal of the DM-RS for a first port multiplexed with a signal of the DM-RS for a second port based on a new frequency division-orthogonal cover code (FD-OCC), the signal of the second port sub-length orthogonal to signal of the first port, wherein the first CDM group is compatible with demultiplexing via a legacy FD-OCC; determining or detecting, via the interface, a communication comprising a downlink control information (DCI) to schedule a demodulation-reference signal (DM-RS), the DCI comprising an antenna port field, the antenna port field comprising an index value to identify a set of one or more ports in a first code-division modulation (CDM) group of the DM-RS, the DM-RS to comprise up to three CDM groups in up to two codewords in up to two symbols, the first CDM group to comprise a signal of the DM-RS for a first port multiplexed with a signal of the DM- RS for a second port based on a new frequency division-orthogonal cover code (FD-OCC), the signal of the second port sub-length orthogonal to signal of the first port, wherein the first CDM group is compatible with demultiplexing via a legacy FD-OCC; causing transmission of the DCI and/or the DM-RS; receiving, demodulating, and decoding the DCI and/or the DM-RS; and/or the like.

Several embodiments comprise systems with multiple processor cores such as central servers, access points, and/or stations (STAs) such as modems, routers, switches, servers, workstations, netbooks, mobile devices (Laptop, Smart Phone, Tablet, and the like), sensors, meters, controls, instruments, monitors, home or office appliances, Internet of Things (loT) gear (watches, glasses, headphones, cameras, and the like), and the like. Some embodiments may provide, e.g., indoor and/or outdoor “smart” grid and sensor services. In various embodiments, these devices relate to specific applications such as healthcare, home, commercial office and retail, security, and industrial automation and monitoring applications, as well as vehicle applications (automobiles, self-driving vehicles, airplanes, drones, and the like), and the like.

The techniques disclosed herein may involve transmission of data over one or more wireless connections using one or more wireless mobile broadband technologies. For example, various embodiments may involve transmissions over one or more wireless connections according to one or more 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), 3GPP LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), 4G LTE, 5G New Radio (NR) and/or 6G, technologies and/or standards, including their revisions, progeny and variants. Various embodiments may additionally or alternatively involve transmissions according to one or more Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)/Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)/High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), and/or GSM with General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) system (GSM/GPRS) technologies and/or standards, including their revisions, progeny and variants.

Examples of wireless mobile broadband technologies and/or standards may also include, without limitation, any of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 wireless broadband standards such as IEEE 802.16m and/or 802.16p, International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced (IMT-ADV), Worldwide Interoperability for Micro wave Access (WiMAX) and/or WiMAX II, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 (e.g., CDMA2000 IxRTT, CDMA2000 EV-DO, CDMA EV-DV, and so forth), High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network (HIPERMAN), Wireless Broadband (WiBro), High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), High Speed Orthogonal Frequency -Division Multiplexing (OFDM) Packet Access (HSOPA), High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) technologies and/or standards, including their revisions, progeny and variants.

Some embodiments may additionally perform wireless communications according to other wireless communications technologies and/or standards. Examples of other wireless communications technologies and/or standards that may be used in various embodiments may include, without limitation, other IEEE wireless communication standards such as the IEEE 802.11-5220, IEEE 802.1 lax-5221, IEEE 802.11 ay-5221, IEEE 802.1 lba-5221, and/or other specifications and standards, such as specifications developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) Neighbor Awareness Networking (NAN) Task Group, machine-type communications (MTC) standards such as those embodied in 3GPP Technical Report (TR) 23.887, 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 22.368, 3GPP TS 23.682, 3GPP TS 36.133, 3GPP TS 36.306, 3GPP TS 36.321, 3GPP TS.331, 3GPP TS 38.133, 3GPP TS 38.306, 3GPP TS 38.321, 38.214, and/or 3GPP TS 38.331, and/or near-field communication (NFC) standards such as standards developed by the NFC Forum, including any revisions, progeny, and/or variants of any of the above. The embodiments are not limited to these examples.

FIG. 1 illustrates a communication network 100 to determine, generate, or detect a DCI with an antenna port field having an index value for a DM-RS configuration such as the DM- RS configurations shown in FIGs. 4G-4J2. The communication network 100 is an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) network comprising a primary base station 101, a secondary base station 102, a cloud-based service 103, a first user equipment UE-1, a second user equipment UE-2, and a third user equipment UE-3. In a 3GPP system based on an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) downlink, the radio resource is partitioned into subframes in time domain and each subframe comprises of two slots. Each OFDMA symbol further consists of a count of OFDMA subcarriers in frequency domain depending on the system (or carrier) bandwidth. The basic unit of the resource grid is called Resource Element (RE), which spans an OFDMA subcarrier over one OFDMA symbol. Resource blocks (RBs) comprise a group of REs, where each RB may comprise, e.g., 12 consecutive subcarriers in one slot.

Several physical downlink channels and reference signals use a set of resource elements carrying information originating from higher layers of code. For downlink channels, the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) is the main data-bearing downlink channel, while the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) may carry downlink control information (DCI). The control information may include scheduling decision, information related to reference signal information, rules forming the corresponding transport block (TB) to be carried by PDSCH, and power control command. UEs may use cell-specific reference signals (CRS) for the demodulation of control/data channels in non-precoded or codebookbased precoded transmission modes, radio link monitoring and measurements of channel state information (CSI) feedback. UEs may use UE-specific reference signals (DM-RS) for the demodulation of control/data channels in non-codebook-based precoded transmission modes.

The communication network 100 may comprise a cell such as a micro-cell or a macro-cell and the base station 101 may provide wireless service to UEs within the cell. The base station 102 may provide wireless service to UEs within another cell located adjacent to or overlapping the cell. In other embodiments, the communication network 100 may comprise a macro-cell and the base station 102 may operate a smaller cell within the macro-cell such as a micro-cell or a picocell. Other examples of a small cell may include, without limitation, a micro-cell, a femto-cell, or another type of smaller-sized cell.

In various embodiments, the base station 101 and the base station 102 may communicate over a backhaul. In some embodiments, the backhaul may comprise a wired backhaul. In various other embodiments, backhaul may comprise a wireless backhaul. In some embodiments, the backhaul may comprise an Xn interface or a Fl interface, which are interfaces defined between two RAN nodes or base stations such as the backhaul between the base station 101 and the base station 102. The Xn interface is an interface for gNBs and the Fl interface is an interface for gNB- Distributed units (DUs) if the architecture of the communication network 100 is a central unit I distributed unit (CU/DU) architecture. For instance, the base station 101 may comprise a CU and the base station 102 may comprise a DU in some embodiments. In other embodiments, both the base stations 101 and 102 may comprise eNBs or gNBs. The base stations 101 and 102 may communicate protocol data units (PDUs) via the backhaul. As an example, for the Xn interface, the base station 101 may transmit or share control plane PDUs via an Xn-C interface and may transmit or share data PDUs via a Xn-U interface. For the Fl interface, the base station 101 may transmit or share control plane PDUs via an Fl-C interface and may transmit or share data PDUs via a Fl-U interface. Note that discussions herein about signaling, sharing, receiving, or transmitting via a Xn interface may refer to signaling, sharing, receiving, or transmitting via the Xn-C interface, the Xn-U interface, or a combination thereof. Similarly, discussions herein about signaling, sharing, receiving, or transmitting via a Fl interface may refer to signaling, sharing, receiving, or transmitting via the Fl-C interface, the Fl-U interface, or a combination thereof.

In some embodiments, the base stations 101 and 102 may comprise port logic circuitry to determine, generate, and cause transmission of a DCI with an antenna port field having an index value to indicate a DM-RS configuration. For instance, the port logic circuitry of the base stations 101 and 102 may dynamically determine DM-RS configurations and communicate the DM-RS configurations in DCIs prior to causing transmission of a DM-RS or receiving a DM-RS from one or more UEs.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a network 100B in accordance with various embodiments, such as the network 100 in FIG. 1. The network 100B may operate in a manner consistent with 3GPP technical specifications for LTE or 5G/NR systems as well as O-RAN specifications such as O-RAN "Near- Real-time RAN Intelligent Controller, E2 Service Model (E2SM), RAN Control". 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 3GPP systems, or the like.

The network 100B may include a UE 102B, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with a RAN 104 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 102B may be communicatively coupled with the RAN 104 by a Uu interface. The UE 102B may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, tablet computer, wearable computer device, desktop computer, laptop computer, in-vehicle infotainment, in-car entertainment device, instrument cluster, head-up display device, onboard diagnostic device, dashtop mobile equipment, mobile data terminal, electronic engine management system, electronic/engine control unit, electronic/engine control module, embedded system, sensor, microcontroller, control module, engine management system, networked appliance, machine-type communication device, M2M or D2D device, loT device, etc. In some embodiments, the network 100B may include a plurality of UEs coupled directly with one another via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M/D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, etc.

In some embodiments, the UE 102B may additionally communicate with an AP 106 via an over-the-air connection. The AP 106 may manage a WLAN connection, which may serve to offload some/all network traffic from the RAN 104. The connection between the UE 102B and the AP 106 may be consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 106 could be a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi®) router. In some embodiments, the UE 102B, RAN 104, and AP 106 may utilize cellular- WLAN aggregation (for example, LWA/LWIP). Cellular- WLAN aggregation may involve the UE 102B being configured by the RAN 104 to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

The RAN 104 may include one or more access nodes, for example, AN 108. AN 108 may terminate air-interface protocols for the UE 102B by providing access stratum protocols including RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and LI protocols. In this manner, the AN 108 may enable data/voice connectivity between CN 120 and the UE 102B. In some embodiments, the AN 108 may be implemented in a discrete device or as one or more software entities running on server computers as part of, for example, a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN or virtual baseband unit pool. The AN 108 be referred to as a BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, TRP, etc. The AN 108 may be a macrocell base station or a low power base station for providing femtocells, picocells or other like cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells.

In embodiments in which the RAN 104 includes a plurality of ANs, they may be coupled with one another via an X2 interface (if the RAN 104 is an LTE RAN) or an Xn interface (if the RAN 104 is a 5G RAN). The X2/Xn interfaces, which may be separated into control/user plane interfaces in some embodiments, may allow the ANs to communicate information related to handovers, data/context transfers, mobility, load management, interference coordination, etc.

The ANs of the RAN 104 may each manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, etc. to provide the UE 102B with an air interface for network access. The UE 102B may be simultaneously connected with a plurality of cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 104. For example, the UE 102B and RAN 104 may use carrier aggregation to allow the UE 102B to connect with a plurality of component carriers, each corresponding to a Pcell or Scell. In dual connectivity scenarios, a first AN may be a master node that provides an MCG and a second AN may be secondary node that provides an SCG. The first/second ANs may be any combination of eNB, gNB, ng-eNB, etc.

The RAN 104 may provide the air interface over a licensed spectrum or an unlicensed spectrum. To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may use LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAA mechanisms based on CA technology with PCells/Scells. Prior to accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may perform medium/carrier-sensing operations based on, for example, a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

In V2X scenarios the UE 102B or AN 108 may be or act as an RSU, which may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. An RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable AN or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE. An RSU implemented in or by: a UE may be referred to as a “UE-type RSU”; an eNB may be referred to as an “eNB-type RSU”; 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. 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 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 provide other cellular/WLAN communications services. The components 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 or a backhaul network.

In some embodiments, the RAN 104 may be an LTE RAN 110 with eNBs, for example, eNB 112. The LTE RAN 110 may provide an LTE air interface with the following characteristics: SCS of 15 kHz; CP-OFDM waveform for DL and SC-FDMA waveform for UL; turbo codes for data and TBCC for control; etc. The LTE air interface may rely on CSL RS for CSI acquisition and beam management; PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS for PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation; and CRS for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurements, and channel estimation for coherent demodulation/detection at the UE. The LTE air interface may operate on sub-6 GHz bands.

In some embodiments, the RAN 104 may be an NG-RAN 114 with gNBs, for example, gNB 116, or ng-eNBs, for example, ng-eNB 118. The gNB 116 may connect with 5G-enabled UEs using a 5G NR interface. The gNB 116 may connect with a 5G core through an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. The ng-eNB 118 may also connect with the 5G core through an NG interface, but may connect with a UE via an LTE air interface. The gNB 116 and the ng-eNB 118 may connect with each other over an Xn interface.

In some embodiments, the NG interface may be split into two parts, an NG user plane (NG- U) interface, which carries traffic data between the nodes of the NG-RAN 114 and a UPF 148 (e.g., N3 interface), and an NG control plane (NG-C) interface, which is a signaling interface between the nodes of the NG-RAN114 and an AMF 144 (e.g., N2 interface).

The NG-RAN 114 may provide a 5G-NR air interface with the following characteristics: variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM for UL; polar, repetition, simplex, and Reed-Muller codes for control and LDPC for data. The 5G-NR air interface may rely on CSI-RS, PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS similar to the LTE air interface. The 5G-NR air interface may not use a CRS, but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation; PTRS for phase tracking for PDSCH; and tracking reference signal for time tracking. The 5G-NR air interface may operate on FR1 bands that include sub-6 GHz bands or FR2 bands that include bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. The 5G-NR air interface may include an SSB that is an area of a downlink resource grid that includes PSS/SSS/PBCH.

In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface may utilize BWPs for various purposes. For example, BWP can be used for dynamic adaptation of the SCS. For example, the UE 102B can be configured with multiple BWPs where each BWP configuration has a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE 102B, the SCS of the transmission is changed as well. Another use case example of BWP is related to power saving. In particular, multiple BWPs can be configured for the UE 102B with different amount of frequency resources (for example, PRBs) to support data transmission under different traffic loading scenarios. A BWP containing a smaller number of PRBs can be used for data transmission with small traffic load while allowing power saving at the UE 102B and in some cases at the gNB 116. A BWP containing a larger number of PRBs can be used for scenarios with higher traffic load.

The RAN 104 is communicatively coupled to CN 120 that includes network elements to provide various functions to support data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (for example, users of UE 102B). The components of the CN 120 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes. In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the functions provided by the network elements of the CN 120 onto physical compute/storage resources in servers, switches, etc. A logical instantiation of the CN 120 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 120 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. In some embodiments, the CN 120 may be an LTE CN 122, which may also be referred to as an EPC. The LTE CN 122 may include MME 124, SGW 126, SGSN 128, HSS 130, PGW 132, and PCRF 134 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the LTE CN 122 may be briefly introduced as follows.

The MME 124 may implement mobility management functions to track a current location of the UE 102B to facilitate paging, bearer activation/deactivation, handovers, gateway selection, authentication, etc.

The SGW 126 may terminate an SI interface toward the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 122. The SGW 126 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement.

The SGSN 128 may track a location of the UE 102B and perform security functions and access control. In addition, the SGSN 128 may perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by MME 124; MME selection for handovers; etc. The S3 reference point between the MME 124 and the SGSN 128 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPP access network mobility in idle/active states.

The HSS 130 may include a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions. The HSS 130 can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS 130 and the MME 124 may enable transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating/authorizing user access to the LTE CN 120.

The PGW 132 may terminate an SGi interface toward a data network (DN) 136 that may include an application/content server 138. The PGW 132 may route data packets between the LTE CN 122 and the data network 136. The PGW 132 may be coupled with the SGW 126 by an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. The PGW 132 may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (for example, PCEF). Additionally, the SGi reference point between the PGW 132 and the data network 136 may be an operator external public, a private PDN, or an intra-operator packet data network, for example, for provision of IMS services. The PGW 132 may be coupled with a PCRF 134 via a Gx reference point.

The PCRF 134 is the policy and charging control element of the LTE CN 122. The PCRF 134 may be communicatively coupled to the app/content server 138 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for service flows. The PCRF 132 may provision associated rules into a PCEF (via Gx reference point) with appropriate TFT and QCI.

In some embodiments, the CN 120 may be a 5GC 140. The 5GC 140 may include an AUSF 142, AMF 144, SMF 146, UPF 148, NSSF 150, NEF 152, NRF 154, PCF 156, UDM 158, and AF 160 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the 5GC 140 may be briefly introduced as follows.

The AUSF 142 may store data for authentication of UE 102B and handle authentication- related functionality. The AUSF 142 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC 140 over reference points as shown, the AUSF 142 may exhibit an Nausf service-based interface.

The AMF 144 may allow other functions of the 5GC 140 to communicate with the UE 102B and the RAN 104 and to subscribe to notifications about mobility events with respect to the UE 102B. The AMF 144 may be responsible for registration management (for example, for registering UE 102B), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 144 may provide transport for SM messages between the UE 102B and the SMF 146, and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF 144 may also provide transport for SMS messages between UE 102B and an SMSF. AMF 144 may interact with the AUSF 142 and the UE 102B to perform various security anchor and context management functions. Furthermore, AMF 144 may be a termination point of a RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the RAN 104 and the AMF 144; and the AMF 144 may be a termination point of NAS (Nl) signaling, and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. AMF 144 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 102B over an N3 IWF interface.

The SMF 146 may be responsible for SM (for example, session establishment, tunnel management between UPF 148 and AN 108); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP function; configuring traffic steering at UPF 148 to route traffic to proper destination; termination of interfaces toward policy control functions; controlling part of policy enforcement, charging, and QoS; lawful intercept (for SM events and interface to LI system); termination of SM parts of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN specific SM information, sent via AMF 144 over N2 to AN 108; and determining SSC mode of a session. SM may refer to management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or “session” may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE 102B and the data network 136. The UPF 148 may act as an anchor point for intra- RAT and inter- RAT mobility, an external PDU session point of interconnect to data network 136, and a branching point to support multihomed PDU session. The UPF 148 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, enforce the user plane part of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling for a user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF-to- QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF 148 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to a data network.

The NSSF 150 may select a set of network slice instances serving the UE 102B. The NSSF 150 may also determine allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAIs, if needed. The NSSF 150 may also determine the AMF set to be used to serve the UE 102B, or a list of candidate AMFs based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 154. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 102B may be triggered by the AMF 144 with which the UE 102B is registered by interacting with the NSSF 150, which may lead to a change of AMF. The NSSF 150 may interact with the AMF 144 via an N22 reference point; and may communicate with another NSSF in a visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown). Additionally, the NSSF 150 may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface.

The NEF 152 may securely expose services and capabilities provided by 3 GPP network functions for third party, internal exposure/re-exposure, AFs (e.g., AF 160), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, the NEF 152 may authenticate, authorize, or throttle the AFs. NEF 152 may also translate information exchanged with the AF 160 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 152 may translate between an AF-Service-Identifier and an internal 5GC information. NEF 152 may also receive information from other NFs based on exposed capabilities of other NFs. This information may be stored at the NEF 152 as structured data, or at a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The stored information can then be re-exposed by the NEF 152 to other NFs and AFs, or used for other purposes such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF 152 may exhibit an Nnef service -based interface.

The NRF 154 may support service discovery functions, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide the information of the discovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF 154 also maintains information of available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, the terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and an “instance” may refer to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 154 may exhibit the Nnrf service-based interface.

The PCF 156 may provide policy rules to control plane functions to enforce them, and may also support unified policy framework to govern network behavior. The PCF 156 may also implement a front end to access subscription information relevant for policy decisions in a UDR of the UDM 158. In addition to communicating with functions over reference points as shown, the PCF 156 exhibit an Npcf service-based interface.

The UDM 158 may handle subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions, and may store subscription data of UE 102B. For example, subscription data may be communicated via an N8 reference point between the UDM 158 and the AMF 144. The UDM 158 may include two parts, an application front end and a UDR. The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 158 and the PCF 156, and/or structured data for exposure and application data (including PFDs for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs 102B) for the NEF 152. The Nudr service-based interface may be exhibited by the UDR 546 to allow the UDM 158, PCF 156, and NEF 152 to access a particular set of the stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notification of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM-FE, which is in charge of processing credentials, location management, subscription management and so on. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification handling, access authorization, registration/mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs over reference points as shown, the UDM 158 may exhibit the Nudm service-based interface.

The AF 160 may provide application influence on traffic routing, provide access to NEF, and interact with the policy framework for policy control.

In some embodiments, the 5GC 140 may enable edge computing by selecting operator/3rd party services to be geographically close to a point that the UE 102B is attached to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide edge-computing implementations, the 5GC 140 may select a UPF 148 close to the UE 102B and execute traffic steering from the UPF 148 to data network 136 via the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF 160. In this way, the AF 160 may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 160 is considered to be a trusted entity, the network operator may permit AF 160 to interact directly with relevant NFs. Additionally, the AF 160 may exhibit a Naf service-based interface.

The data network 136 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third-party services that may be provided by one or more servers including, for example, application/content server 138.

In some embodiments, the RAN 104 or one or more AN 108 may comprise port logic circuitry to define, determine, and generate a DC1 comprising an antenna port field with an index value to indicate a DM-RS configuration. In many embodiments, the UE 102B may also comprise port logic circuitry to define, determine, detect and receive the DCI and to receive a DM-RS in a downlink on the PDSCH from the RAN 104 or generate a DM-RS in an uplink on the PUSCH based on the one or more DM-RS configurations stored in the memory of the UE 102B associated with the index value provided in the antenna port of the DCI. For instance, the UE 102B may locate the index value in a set of index values associated with the DM-RS configurations stored in the memory to identify or determine the DM-RS configuration for a DM-RS.

In many embodiments, the DM-RS configurations stored in the memory of the UE and the RAN 104 may include port combinations for multiplexing new ports that are backwards compatible with legacy UEs such that the legacy UEs may advantageously decode and demultiplex the port combinations. In many embodiments, the backwards compatible port combinations may be shown in the tables 430-447 in FIGs. 4G-4J2

The backwards compatible port combinations may include for DM-RS Type 1, pairing legacy (Rel-15) DM-RS port 0 or 1 in CDM group 0 with Rel-18 DM-RS port 1 or 0, respectively, since the FD-OCC code in ports 0,1 of Rel-18 DM-RS are sub-length orthogonal to the FD-OCC codes in Rel-15 DMRS ports 0,1. Similarly, backwards compatible port combinations may include for DM-RS Type 1, pairing Rel-15 DM-RS ports 4 or 5 with Rel- 18 ports 5 or 4 in CDM group 0, and , in CDM group 1, pairing Rel-15 ports 0, 1, 4, and 5 with Rel-18 ports 1, 0, 5, and 4 respectively.

In some embodiments, the backwards compatible port combinations may include for DM-RS Type 2, pairing legacy (Rel-15) DMRS ports 0, 1, 6, 7 in CDM group 0 with Rel-18 DMRS ports 1, 0 , 7, and 6, respectively, because the FD-OCC code in ports 0, 1, 6, and 7 of Rel-18 DM-RS are sub-length orthogonal to the FD-OCC codes in Rel-15 DMRS ports 1, 0 , 7, and 6. Similarly, backwards compatible port combinations may include for DM-RS Type 2, pairing Rel-15 DM-RS ports 2, 3, 8, 9 with Rel-18 ports 3, 2, 9, 8 in CDM group 1, and pairing Rel-15 ports 4, 5, 10, and 11 with Rel-18 ports 5, 4, 11, and 10 respectively. For uplink of a MU-MIMO PUSCH transmission, port combinations may not be restricted in some embodiments, and may have the same restrictions in other embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of a network 3000 such as the communication network 100 shown in FIG. 1, in accordance with various embodiments. The network 3000 may operate in a matter consistent with 3GPP technical specifications or technical reports for 6G systems. In some embodiments, the network 3000 may operate concurrently with network 100B. For example, in some embodiments, the network 3000 may share one or more frequency or bandwidth resources with network 100B. As one specific example, a UE (e.g., UE 3002) may be configured to operate in both network 3000 and network 100B. Such configuration may be based on a UE including circuitry configured for communication with frequency and bandwidth resources of both networks 100B and 3000. In general, several elements of network 3000 may share one or more characteristics with elements of network 100B. For the sake of brevity and clarity, such elements may not be repeated in the description of network 3000.

The network 3000 may include a UE 3002, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with a RAN 3008 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 3002 may be similar to, for example, UE 102B . The UE 3002 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, tablet computer, wearable computer device, desktop computer, laptop computer, in-vehicle infotainment, in-car entertainment device, instrument cluster, head-up display device, onboard diagnostic device, dashtop mobile equipment, mobile data terminal, electronic engine management system, electronic/engine control unit, electronic/engine control module, embedded system, sensor, microcontroller, control module, engine management system, networked appliance, machine-type communication device, M2M or D2D device, loT device, etc.

Although not specifically shown in FIG. 3, in some embodiments the network 3000 may include a plurality of UEs coupled directly with one another via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M/D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, etc. Similarly, although not specifically shown in FIG. 3, the UE 3002 may be communicatively coupled with an AP such as AP 106 as described with respect to FIG. IB. Additionally, although not specifically shown in FIG. 3, in some embodiments the RAN 3008 may include one or more ANs such as AN 108 as described with respect to FIG. IB. The RAN 3008 and/or the AN of the RAN 3008 may be referred to as a base station (BS), a RAN node, or using some other term or name.

The UE 3002 and the RAN 3008 may be configured to communicate via an air interface that may be referred to as a sixth generation (6G) air interface. The 6G air interface may include one or more features such as communication in a terahertz (THz) or sub-THz bandwidth, or joint communication and sensing. As used herein, the term “joint communication and sensing” may refer to a system that allows for wireless communication as well as radar-based sensing via various types of multiplexing. As used herein, THz or sub-THz bandwidths may refer to communication in the 80 GHz and above frequency ranges. Such frequency ranges may additionally or alternatively be referred to as “millimeter wave” or “mmWave” frequency ranges.

The RAN 3008 may allow for communication between the UE 3002 and a 6G core network (CN) 3010. Specifically, the RAN 3008 may facilitate the transmission and reception of data between the UE 3002 and the 6G CN 3010. The 6G CN 3010 may include various functions such as NSSF 150, NEF 152, NRF 154, PCF 156, UDM 158, AF 160, SMF 146, and AUSF 142. The 6G CN 3010 may additional include UPF 148 and DN 136 as shown in FIG. 3.

Additionally, the RAN 3008 may include various additional functions that are in addition to, or alternative to, functions of a legacy cellular network such as a 4G or 5G network. Two such functions may include a Compute Control Function (Comp CF) 3024 and a Compute Service Function (Comp SF) 3036. The Comp CF 3024 and the Comp SF 3036 may be parts or functions of the Computing Service Plane. Comp CF 3024 may be a control plane function that provides functionalities such as management of the Comp SF 3036, computing task context generation and management (e.g., create, read, modify, delete), interaction with the underlaying computing infrastructure for computing resource management, etc. Comp SF 3036 may be a user plane function that serves as the gateway to interface computing service users (such as UE 3002) and computing nodes behind a Comp SF instance. Some functionalities of the Comp SF 3036 may include: parse computing service data received from users to compute tasks executable by computing nodes; hold service mesh ingress gateway or service API gateway; service and charging policies enforcement; performance monitoring and telemetry collection, etc. In some embodiments, a Comp SF 3036 instance may serve as the user plane gateway for a cluster of computing nodes. A Comp CF 3024 instance may control one or more Comp SF 3036 instances.

Two other such functions may include a Communication Control Function (Comm CF) 3028 and a Communication Service Function (Comm SF) 3038, which may be parts of the Communication Service Plane. The Comm CF 3028 may be the control plane function for managing the Comm SF 3038, communication sessions creation/configuration/releasing, and managing communication session context. The Comm SF 3038 may be a user plane function for data transport. Comm CF 3028 and Comm SF 3038 may be considered as upgrades of SMF 146 and UPF 148, which were described with respect to a 5G system in FIG. IB. The upgrades provided by the Comm CF 3028 and the Comm SF 3038 may enable service-aware transport. For legacy (e.g., 4G or 5G) data transport, SMF 146 and UPF 148 may still be used.

Two other such functions may include a Data Control Function (Data CF) 3022 and Data Service Function (Data SF) 3032 may be parts of the Data Service Plane. Data CF 3022 may be a control plane function and provides functionalities such as Data SF 3032 management, Data service creation/configuration/releasing, Data service context management, etc. Data SF 3032 may be a user plane function and serve as the gateway between data service users (such as UE 3002 and the various functions of the 6G CN 3010) and data service endpoints behind the gateway. Specific functionalities may include parse data service user data and forward to corresponding data service endpoints, generate charging data, and report data service status.

Another such function may be the Service Orchestration and Chaining Function (SOCF) 3020, which may discover, orchestrate and chain up communication/computing/data services provided by functions in the network. Upon receiving service requests from users, SOCF 3020 may interact with one or more of Comp CF 3024, Comm CF 3028, and Data CF 3022 to identify Comp SF 3036, Comm SF 3038, and Data SF 3032 instances, configure service resources, and generate the service chain, which could contain multiple Comp SF 3036, Comm SF 3038, and Data SF 3032 instances and their associated computing endpoints. Workload processing and data movement may then be conducted within the generated service chain. The SOCF 3020 may also be responsible for maintaining, updating, and releasing a created service chain.

Another such function may be the service registration function (SRF) 3014, which may act as a registry for system services provided in the user plane such as services provided by service endpoints behind Comp SF 3036 and Data SF 3032 gateways and services provided by the UE 3002. The SRF 3014 may be considered a counterpart of NRF 154, which may act as the registry for network functions.

Other such functions may include an evolved service communication proxy (eSCP) and service infrastructure control function (SICF) 3026, which may provide service communication infrastructure for control plane services and user plane services. The eSCP may be related to the service communication proxy (SCP) of 5G with user plane service communication proxy capabilities being added. The eSCP is therefore expressed in two parts: eCSP-C 3012 and eSCP-U 3034, for control plane service communication proxy and user plane service communication proxy, respectively. The SICF 3026 may control and configure eCSP instances in terms of service traffic routing policies, access rules, load balancing configurations, performance monitoring, etc. Another such function is the AMF 3044. The AMF 3044 may be similar to 144, but with additional functionality. Specifically, the AMF 3044 may include potential functional repartition, such as move the message forwarding functionality from the AMF 3044 to the RAN 3008.

Another such function is the service orchestration exposure function (SOEF) 3018. The SOEF may be configured to expose service orchestration and chaining services to external users such as applications.

The UE 3002 may include an additional function that is referred to as a computing client service function (comp CSF) 3004. The comp CSF 3004 may have both the control plane functionalities and user plane functionalities, and may interact with corresponding network side functions such as SOCF 3020, Comp CF 3024, Comp SF 3036, Data CF 3022, and/or Data SF 3032 for service discovery, request/response, compute task workload exchange, etc. The Comp CSF 3004 may also work with network side functions to decide on whether a computing task should be run on the UE 3002, the RAN 3008, and/or an element of the 6G CN 3010.

The UE 3002 and/or the Comp CSF 3004 may include a service mesh proxy 3006. The service mesh proxy 3006 may act as a proxy for service-to-service communication in the user plane. Capabilities of the service mesh proxy 3006 may include one or more of addressing, security, load balancing, etc.

FIG. 4A illustrates an embodiment 400 of legacy CDM groups for a DM-RS Type 1 with a single symbol denoted symbol zero for encodings of legacy ports and, alternatively for a double symbol with symbols denoted as symbol zero and symbol one for encodings of legacy ports. For the single symbol DMRS Type 1, a first set of two legacy ports are encoded with the FD-OCC (Hadamard matrix) on every other resource element (RE) of the symbol zero such as the odd (or even) indexed REs, and a second set of two legacy ports are encoded on every other resource element (RE) of the symbol zero such as the even (or odd) indexed REs, as shown in table 410 of FIG. 4C.

For the single symbol case, Type 1 DMRS uses a comb-2 structure with 2 CDM-Groups and length-2 FD-OCC per pair of alternating REs in each CDM-Group. The length-2 OCC is given by the columns of the length-2 Hadamard matrix:

H = Pi il

1 - 1

For the case of 2 symbol DM-RS the same length 2 OCC is used across the two timedomain symbols to multiplex 2 additional ports in each CDM group such that a total of 8 ports are supported. The following table shows the mapping of time domain OCC and frequency domain OCC ^f ^ to the supported DM-RS ports. Note that the legacy ports are encoded on a single codeword. The new DM-RS ports described in tables 425 and 430 of FIGs. 4E and 4F, respectively, are encoded in a similar manner across up to two codewords to double the number of ports in the DM-RS Type 1 and DM-RS Type 2 for a single symbol or a double symbol front load of the DM-RS.

FIG. 4B illustrates an embodiment 405 of legacy CDM groups for a DM-RS Type 2 with a single symbol denoted symbol zero for encodings of legacy ports and, alternatively for a double symbol with symbols denoted as symbol zero and symbol one for encodings of legacy ports. Type 2 DMRS uses a comb-3 structure with 3 CDM groups and length-2 FD-OCC encoding per pair of adjacent REs in each CDM group as shown in FIG. 4B. The FD-OCC is given by the columns of the same length-2 Hadamard matrix as the legacy DM-RS Type 1. And similar time domain multiplexing as in the case of legacy 2-symbol DM-RS Type 1 is used as shown in the table 415 of FIG. 4C.

FIG. 4C illustrates an embodiment of table 410 and table 415. Table 410 and table 415 show port configurations for legacy ports for DM-RS Type 1 and DM-RS Type 2, respectively. The ports configurations for the legacy ports may be port configurations for Rel-15 of 3GPP TS 38.211, 38.212, and 38.213. The port configurations for the legacy ports of the front-load symbols for the legacy DM-RS Type 1 in table 410 includes 8 ports having indices numbered from 1000 to 1007. Each port index is associated with a CDM group, a delta, and encodings from a length-2 Hadamard matrix. The CDM group and the delta indicate a relative set of frequency resources for the encoded ports (or encoded signals transmitted via the ports) as shown in FIG. 4A.

Similarly, the port configurations for the legacy ports of the front-load symbols for the legacy DM-RS Type 2 in table 415 includes 12 ports having indices numbered from 1000 to 1011. Each port index is associated with a CDM group, a delta, and encodings from a length- 2 Hadamard matrix. The CDM group and the delta indicate a relative set of frequency resources for the encoded ports (or encoded signals transmitted via the ports) as shown in FIG. 4B.

FIG. 4D illustrates an embodiment of a table 420 including two optional new FD-OCC encodings for ports in the front-load symbols of the DM-RS Type 1 and DM-RS Type 2. The two optional new FD-OCC encodings include option (Opt.) 1-1 Walsh matrix and Opt. 1-2 Cyclic shift matrix, which is based on cyclic shifts 0, n, n/2, and 3 TI/2. The FD-OCC index relates to the FD-OCC index in the new port configurations shown in FIGs. 4E and 4F. FIG. 4E illustrates an embodiment of a table 425 for new port configurations for DM-RS Type 1 ports for PUSCH. New port configurations are needed for the added ports based on the new FD-OCC and TD-OCC encodings for signals transmitted via the new ports in Rel-18 of the 3GPP TS 38.211, 38.212, and 38.213. Table 425 includes 16 ports numbered 0-15. Each port in the table 425 identifies a CDM group index, a FD-OCC index, and a TD-OCC index. The CDM group index may identify the CDM group that includes the port. The FD-OCC index includes a value is an index for the FD-OCC encoding for the port, which is shown in FIG. 4D in the Opt. 1-1 Walsh matrix or the Opt. 1-2 cyclic shift matrix. The TD-OCC index is an index for the TD-OCC encoding for the port. Note that the TD-OCC encoding may encode time division coding between the first and second front-load symbols of the one or two codewords of the DM-RS. Note also that the DMRS port index for PDSCH is determined by the value of p +1000 in Table 425 in FIG. 4E and Table 430 in FIG. 4F.

FIG. 4F illustrates another embodiment of a table 430 for new port configurations for DM- RS Type 2 ports for PUSCH. New port configurations may be needed for the added ports based on the new FD-OCC and TD-OCC encodings for signals transmitted via the new ports in Rel- 18 of the 3GPP TS 38.211, 38.212, and 38.213. Table 430 includes 24 ports numbered 0-23. Each port in the table 430 identifies a CDM group index, a FD-OCC index, and a TD-OCC index. The CDM group index may identify the CDM group that includes the port. The FD- OCC index includes a value that is an index for the FD-OCC encoding for the port, which is shown in FIG. 4D in the Opt. 1-1 Walsh matrix or in the Opt. 1-2 cyclic shift matrix. The TD- OCC index is an index for the TD-OCC encoding for the port. Note that the TD-OCC encoding may encode time division coding between the first and second front-load symbols of the one or two codewords of the DM-RS. Note also that the DMRS port index for PDSCH is determined by the value of p +1000 in Table 425 in FIG. 4E and Table 430 in FIG. 4F.

FIG. 4G illustrates an embodiment of a DM-RS configuration table 430. The table 430 shows entries to add to tables Table 7.3.1.2.2-1/Table 7.3.1.2.2-1A of 3GPP TS 38.312 Rel-15. Table 7.3.1.2.2-1 includes one codeword entries and table 7.3.1.2.2-1A includes two codeword entries. Note that the new entries 0-18 that describe one codeword DM-RS configurations for dmrs-Type=l and maxLength=l, may be added or appended to the Table 7.3.1.2.2-1. Note that the order of the new entries and/or the index values associated with the new entries may change when combined with the Table 7.3.1.2.2- 1.

Similarly, the new entries 0-3 that describe two codeword DM-RS configurations for dmrs- Type=l and maxLength=l, may be added or appended to the Table 7.3.1.2.2-1A. Note that the order of the new entries and/or the index values associated with the new entries may change when combined with the Table 7.3.1.2.2- 1 A.

In some embodiments, the actual index value assigned to the entries can be Value + 12 for Table 7.3.1.2.2-1 and value + 13 for Table 7.3.1.2.2-1A. Additionally, in some embodiments, the index value 18 may only be used for Table 7.3.1.2.2-1A. The antenna port indication field in DCI for these tables may be increased by 1 bit from 4 to 5 bits and unused values are assumed to be reserved for future use.

FIG. 4H illustrates another embodiment of a DM-RS configuration table 435. The table 435 shows entries to add to tables Table 7.3.1.2.2-2/Table 7.3.1.2.2-2A of 3GPP TS 38.312 Rel-15. Table 7.3.1.2.2-2 includes one codeword entries and table 7.3.1.2.2-2A includes two codeword entries. Note that the new entries 0-44 that describe one codeword DM-RS configurations for dmrs-Type=l and maxLength=2, may be added or appended to the Table

7.3.1.2.2-1. Note that the order of the new entries and/or the index values associated with the new entries may change when combined with the Table 7.3.1.2.2-2.

Similarly, the new entries 0-14 that describe two codeword DM-RS configurations for dmrs-Type=l and maxLength=2, may be added or appended to the Table 7.3.1.2.2-2A. Note that the order of the new entries and/or the index values associated with the new entries may change when combined with the Table 7.3.1.2.2-2A.

In some embodiments, the antenna port field for DMRS Type 1 with maxLength=2 is increased by N bits to N+5 bits total, where N =1 or 2. In alternative embodiments, the value of N may be configured to the UE by RRC layer code and the values supported in the table 435 when N=1 may be a subset of the values supported when N=2. The unused values are assumed to be reserved for future use.

FIG. 41 illustrates another embodiment of a DM-RS configuration table 440. The table 435 shows entries to add to tables Table 7.3.1.2.2-3/Table 7.3.1.2.2-3A of 3GPP TS 38.312 Rel-15. Table 7.3.1.2.2-3 includes one codeword entries and table 7.3.1.2.2-3A includes two codeword entries. Note that the new entries 0-36 that describe one codeword DM-RS configurations for dmrs-Type=2 and maxLength=l, may be added or appended to the Table

7.3.1.2.2-3. Note that the order of the new entries and/or the index values associated with the new entries may change when combined with the Table 7.3.1.2.2-3.

Similarly, the new entries 0-7 that describe two codeword DM-RS configurations for dmrs- Type=2 and maxLength=l, may be added or appended to the Table 7.3.1.2.2-3A. Note that the order of the new entries and/or the index values associated with the new entries may change when combined with the Table 7.3.1.2.2-3 A. In some embodiments, the antenna port field for DMRS Type 2 with maxLength=l is increased by N bits to N+5 bits total, where N =1 or 2. In alternative embodiments, the value of N may be configured to the UE by RRC layer code and the values supported in the table 440 when N=1 may be a subset of the values supported when N=2. The unused values are assumed to be reserved for future use.

FIG. 4J1-4J2 illustrates another embodiment of a DM-RS configuration table 445. Table 447 shown in FIG. 4J2 is a continuation of the table 445 in FIG. 4J 1. The tables 445 and 447 show entries to add to tables Table 7.3.1.2.2-4/Table 7.3.1.2.2-4A of 3GPP TS 38.312 Rel-15. Table 7.3.1.2.2-4 includes one codeword entries and table 7.3.1.2.2-4A includes two codeword entries. Note that the new entries 0-78 that describe one codeword DM-RS configurations for dmrs-Type=2 and maxLength=2, may be added or appended to the Table 7.3.1.2.2-4. Note that the order of the new entries and/or the index values associated with the new entries may change when combined with the Table 7.3.1.2.2-4.

Similarly, the new entries 0-37 that describe two codeword DM-RS configurations for dmrs-Type=2 and maxLength=2, may be added or appended to the Table 7.3.1.2.2-4A. Note that the order of the new entries and/or the index values associated with the new entries may change when combined with the Table 7.3.1.2.2-4A.

In some embodiments, the antenna port field for DMRS Type 2 with maxLength=2 is increased by N bits to N+6 bits total, where N =1. In alternative embodiments, the value of N 611,21 may be configured to the UE by RRC layer code and the values supported in the table when N=1 may be a subset of the values supported when N=2. The unused values are assumed to be reserved for future use.

FIG. 5 is an embodiment of a simplified block diagram 500 of a base station 501 and a user equipment (UE) 511 that may carry out certain embodiments in a communication network such as the base stations or RANs, the UEs, and communication networks shown in FIGs. 1 -4. For the base station 510, the antenna 546 transmits and receives radio signals. The RF circuitry 544 coupled with the antenna 546, which is the physical layer of the base station 510, receives RF signals from the antenna 546 and performs operations on the signals such as amplifying signals, and splitting the signals into quadrature phase and in-phase signals. The receiver circuitry 590 may convert the signals to digital baseband signals, or uplink data, and pass the digital in-phase and quadrature phase signals to the processor 520 of the baseband circuitry 514, also referred to as the processing circuitry or baseband processing circuitry, via an interface 525 (e.g., RF interface 1416 shown in FIG. 14) of the baseband circuitry 514 for communications such as an interface for network communications with UEs, an interface for network communications with a core cellular network such as a 5G core, an interface for network communications with other base stations, or an interface for other related network communications. In other embodiments, analog to digital converters of the processor 520 may convert the in-phase and quadrature phase signals to digital baseband signals.

The transmitter circuitry 592 may convert received, digital baseband signals, or downlink data, from the processor 520 to analog signals. The RF circuitry 544 processes and amplifies the analog signals and converts the analog signals to RF signals and passes the amplified, analog RF signals out to antenna 546.

The processor 520 decodes and processes the digital baseband signals, or uplink data, and invokes different functional modules to perform features in the base station 510. The memory 522 stores program instructions or code and data 524 to control the operations of the base station 510. The host circuitry 512 may execute code such as RRC layer code from the code and data 524 to implement RRC layer functionality and code. Note that code executed above the medium access control (MAC) layer and physical layer (PHY) is often referred to as higher layer code.

A similar configuration exists in UE 560 where the antenna 596 transmits and receives RF signals. The RF circuitry 594, coupled with the antenna 596, receives RF signals from the antenna 596, amplifies the RF signals, and processes the signals to generate analog in-phase and quadrature phase signals. The receiver circuitry 590 processes and converts the analog in- phase and quadrature phase signals to digital baseband signals via an analog to digital converter, or downlink data, and passes the in-phase and quadrature phase signals to processor 570 of the baseband circuitry 564 via an interface 575 (e.g., RF interface 1416 shown in FIG. 14) of the baseband circuitry 564 for communications such as an interface for network communications with other UEs, an interface for network communications with base stations, or an interface for other related network communications. In other embodiments, the processor 570 may comprise analog to digital converters to convert the analog in-phase and quadrature phase signals to digital in-phase and quadrature phase signals.

The transmitter circuitry 592 may convert received, digital baseband signals, or downlink data, from the processor 570 to analog signals. The RF circuitry 594 processes and amplifies the analog signals and converts the analog signals to RF signals and passes the amplified, analog RF signals out to antenna 596.

The RF circuitry 594 illustrates multiple RF chains. While the RF circuitry 594 illustrates five RF chains, each UE may have a different number of RF chains and each of the RF chains in the illustration may represent multiple, time domain, receive (RX) chains and transmit (TX) chains. The RX chains and TX chains include circuitry that may operate on or modify the time domain signals transmitted through the time domain chains such as circuitry to insert guard intervals in the TX chains and circuitry to remove guard intervals in the RX chains. For instance, the RF circuitry 594 may include transmitter circuitry and receiver circuitry, which is often called transceiver circuitry. The transmitter circuitry may prepare digital data from the processor 570 for transmission through the antenna 596. In preparation for transmission, the transmitter may encode the data, and modulate the encoded data, and form the modulated, encoded data into Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) and/or Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) symbols. Thereafter, the transmitter may convert the symbols from the frequency domain into the time domain for input into the TX chains. The TX chains may include a chain per subcarrier of the bandwidth of the RF chain and may operate on the time domain signals in the TX chains to prepare them for transmission on the component subcarrier of the RF chain. For wide bandwidth communications, more than one of the RF chains may process the symbols representing the data from the baseband processor(s) simultaneously.

The processor 570 decodes and processes the digital baseband signals, or downlink data, and invokes different functional modules to perform features in the UE 560. The memory 572 stores program instructions or code and data 574 to control the operations of the UE 560. The processor 570 may also execute medium access control (MAC) layer code of the code and data 574 for the UE 560. For instance, the MAC layer code may execute on the processor 570 to cause UL communications to transmit to the base station 510 via one or more of the RF chains of the physical layer (PHY). The PHY is the RF circuitry 594 and associated logic such as some or all the functional modules.

The host circuitry 562 may execute code such as RRC layer code to implement RRC layer functionality and code. In some embodiments, the RRC layer code may be the higher layer code that provides DM-RS configuration information to the port logic circuitry 535 and 580 of the base station 510 and the UE 560, respectively. The DM-RS configuration information provided by the higher layer may comprise parameters such as the dmrs-Type, maxLength, and the number of codewords. In some embodiments, the number of codewords is provided by the port logic circuitry 535 of the base station 510 in a DCI preceding transmission of the DM-RS.

The base station 510 and the UE 560 may include several functional modules and circuits to carry out some embodiments. The different functional modules may include circuits or circuitry that code, hardware, or any combination thereof, can configure and implement. Each functional module that can implement functionality as code and processing circuitry or as circuitry configured to perform functionality, may also be referred to as a functional block. For example, the processor 520 (e.g., via executing program code 524) is a functional block to configure and implement the circuitry of the functional modules to allow the base station 510 to schedule (via scheduler 526), encode or decode (via codec 528), modulate or demodulate (via modulator 530), and transmit data to or receive data from the UE 560 via the RF circuitry 544 and the antenna 546.

The processor 570 (e.g., via executing program code in the code and data 574) may be a functional block to configure and implement the circuitry of the functional modules to allow the UE 560 to receive or transmit, de-modulate or modulate (via de-modulator 578), and decode or encode (via codec 576) data accordingly via the RF circuitry 594 and the antenna 596.

The base station 510 may also include a functional module, port logic circuitry 535. The port logic circuitry 535 of the base station 510 may cause the processor 520 and/or the host circuitry 512 to perform actions to generate a communication comprising a downlink control information (DCI) to schedule a demodulation-reference signal (DM-RS). The DCI may comprise an antenna port field that comprises an index value to identify a set of one or more ports in a first code-division modulation (CDM) group of the DM-RS based on the tables shown in FIGs. 4G-4J2. In many embodiments, the memory 522 and/or memory of the host circuitry 512 may store and maintain the information from the tables shown in FIGs. 4G-4J2 to associate the index value in the antenna port field with configurations of the DM-RS so the port logic circuitry 535 may generate a DM-RS having the identified configuration in a downlink transmission on the PDSCH to one or more UEs such as the UE 560 or locate the DM-RS configurations associated with the index value for demodulation, decoding, and parsing the DM-RS in an uplink transmission on the PUSCH from a UE such as the UE 560.

The UE 560 may also include a functional module, port logic circuitry 580. The port logic circuitry 580 of the UE 560 may cause the processor 570 and/or the host circuitry 562 to perform actions to determine or detect a communication comprising a DCI to schedule a DM- RS. The DCI may comprise an antenna port field that comprises an index value to identify a set of one or more ports in a first CDM group of the DM-RS based on the tables shown in FIGs. 4G-4J2. In many embodiments, the memory 572 and/or memory of the host circuitry 562 may store and maintain the information from the tables shown in FIGs. 4G-4J2 to associate the index value in the antenna port field with configurations of the DM-RS so the port logic circuitry 580 may locate the DM-RS configurations associated with the index value for demodulation, decoding, and parsing the DM-RS or for generating a DM-RS having the identified configuration in an uplink transmission on the PUSCH to a base station such as the base station 510.

FIG. 6 depicts a flowchart 6000 of an embodiment for a base station such as the embodiments described in conjunction with FIGs. 1-5. The flowchart 6000 begins with port logic circuitry of the base station (e.g., a gNB) of a cellular network generating a communication comprising a downlink control information (DCI) to schedule a demodulationreference signal (DM-RS), the DCI comprising an antenna port field, the antenna port field comprising an index value to identify a set of one or more ports in a first code-division modulation (CDM) group of the DM-RS (element 6005). The DM-RS may comprise up to three CDM groups in up to two codewords in up to two symbols to comprise up to 24 ports. The first CDM group may comprise a signal of the DM-RS for a first port multiplexed with a signal of the DM-RS for a second port based on a new length-4 frequency division-orthogonal cover code (FD-OCC). The signal of the second port may be sub-length orthogonal signal of the first port so that the first CDM group is compatible with demultiplexing via a legacy FD- OCC.

In many embodiments, changes since Rel-15 of the DM-RS has increased the number of ports that can be transmitted in the DM-RS from up to 4 port for DM-RS Type 1 , to up to 8 ports by increasing the number of codewords from one to up to two codewords and by changing the FD-OCC from a length-2 FD-OCC to a length-4 FD-OCC to accommodate multiplexing the additional ports. In Rel-15, the FD-OCC included a length-2 Hadamard matrix. The new FD-OCC has at least two optional codes including (1) a Walsh matrix and (2) a cyclic shift matrix with cyclic shifts of 0, 7i, n/2, and 3TI/2. In general, the new port encodings based on one or both of the new FD-OCCs is generally not compatible with legacy user equipment. However, based on similarities in the matrices of the new length-4 FD-OCC and the length-2 Hadamard matrix, there are certain combinations of ports (shown in FIGs. 4G-4J2) wherein the encoded signals are sub-length orthogonal. Note that the index values may vary from those in the FIGs. because the FIGs. 4G-4J2 illustrate new entries that may be appended to similar tables from Rel-15.

New tables (shown in FIGs. 4G-4J2) for DM-RS Type 1 and DM-RS Type 2 are stored in the memory of the base station and the UE to facilitate pairing a restricted number of ports that are backwards compatible for Rel-15 UEs. Each item in the tables indicate the port or ports being used for channel estimation for the UE as well as the number of codewords enabled and the number of CDM groups without data. For DM-RS Type 1 and DM-RS Type 2 with a maxlength of 1, there is only one front loaded symbol so the new table for DM-RS Type 1 and DM-RS Type 2 with a maxlength of 1, the table need not include an indication of the number of frontloaded symbols. For DM-RS Type 1 and DM-RS Type 2 with a maxlength of 2, the new tables include the number of frontloaded symbols associated with the index value so that the base station may dynamically determine whether to use one or two front-load symbols. Note the front-load symbols are encoded with TD-OCC and FD-OCC to double the number of ports that can be encoded per codeword.

After generating the DC1, the port logic circuitry of the base station may cause transmission of the DCI on the PDCCH to one or more UEs (element 6010). In some embodiments, the DCI schedules the DM-RS for transmission by the base station to one or more UEs and, after transmitting the DCI, the port logic circuitry of the base station may transmit the DM-RS with the configuration indicated by the index value in the antenna port field of the DCI. In such embodiments, the port logic circuitry of the base station may transmit the DM-RS on the PDSCH to the one or more UEs as a single user (SU) MIMO transmission or a multi-user (MU) MIMO transmission.

In some embodiments, the new FD-OCC comprises an Opt. 1-1 Walsh matrix or an Opt. 1- 2 cyclic shift matrix with cyclic shifts of 0, n, n/2, and 3n/2, as show in FIG. 4D, and the legacy FD-OCC comprises a length-2 Hadamard matrix. In some embodiments, legacy user equipment may demultiplex the CDM group with the length-2 Hadamard matrix to determine the signal of the first port, the signal of the second port, or both in the DM-RS based on the index value in the antenna port field of the DCI. For instance, if the antenna port field of the DCI indicates an index value such as 0 in FIG. 4G, the and the UE received a configuration from a higher layer such as the RRC layer indicating that the dmrs-Type=l, the maxLength=l, the one codeword is enabled, the UE may determine that the number of DMRS CDM groups without data is 1 and the DMRS port with the channel estimation signal is port 8 (as shown in FIG. 4G). Since two ports are multiplexed together in a CDM group, the UE may buffer and decode the information received in the signal multiplexed with the channel estimation signal in port 8 in addition to performing the channel estimation with the signal from port 8. Note that index values in the tables shown in FIGs. 4D-4J2 may differ in the adopted version of Rel- 18 of TS 38.211, 38.212, and 38.213, and the port combinations may be incorporated in a different order, the port combinations shown in the table will be the same.

FIG. 7 depicts a flowchart 7000 of an embodiment for a UE such as the embodiments described in conjunction with FIGs. 1-6. The flowchart 7000 begins with port logic circuitry of a UE of a cellular network determining or detecting, via the interface, a communication comprising a DCI to schedule a DM-RS, the DCI comprising an antenna port field, the antenna port field comprising an index value to identify a set of one or more ports in a first CDM group of the DM-RS (element 7005). The DM-RS may be a Type 1 with up to two CDM groups in up to two codewords and up to 2 symbols to comprise up to 16 ports, or may be a Type 2 with up to three CDM groups in up to two codewords in up to two symbols to comprise up to 24 ports. The first CDM group may comprise a signal of the DM-RS for a first port multiplexed with a signal of the DM-RS for a second port based on a new FD-OCC. The signal of the second port may be sub-length orthogonal to signal of the first port and the first CDM group may be compatible with demultiplexing via a legacy FD-OCC.

After detection of the DCI, port logic circuitry of the UE may decode, parse, and interpret the DCI to determine the index value in the antenna port field (element 7010). With the index value, the port logic circuitry of the UE may determine, find, or look up the configuration of the DM-RS in memory. For example, the port logic circuitry of the UE may have access to and/or comprise one or more tables or lists that associate the index value from the antenna port field of the DCI with a configuration of the DM-RS including the DMRS port(s), the number of CDG groups, and, for DM-RS maxLength=2, the number of front-load symbols.

In some embodiments, for the new FD-OCC Option 1-1 or 1-2 (shown in FIG. 4D), for DM-RS Type 1 and MU-MIMO PDSCH reception, the port logic circuitry of the UE with Rel- 15 DM-RS port 0 or 1 in CDM group 0 can be paired with any UE with Rel-18 DM-RS port 1 or 0, respectively, since the new FD-OCC code in ports 0,1 for Rel-18 DM-RS are sub-length orthogonal to the FD-OCC codes in Rel-15 DMRS ports 1,0 respectively. Similarly, a UE with Rel-15 DM-RS ports 4 or 5 may be co-scheduled with any UE with Rel-18 ports 5 or 4 in CDM group 0. In CDM group 1, any UE with Rel-15 ports 0, 1, 4, 5 may be paired with UEs in Rel- 18 ports 1, 0, 5, 4 respectively. Furthermore, Rel-18 DM-RS ports 8-15 cannot be paired with any Rel-15 DM-RS ports.

In some embodiments, for the new FD-OCC Option 1-1 or 1-2 (shown in FIG. 4D), for DM-RS Type 1 and MU-MIMO PDSCH reception, the port logic circuitry of the UE with Rel- 15 DMRS ports 0, 1, 6, and 7 in CDM Group 0 may be paired with Rel-18 DM-RS ports 1, 0, 7, and 6, respectively. Similarly, Rel-15 DMRS ports 2, 3, 8, and 9 in CDM Group 1 may be paired with Rel-18 DMRS ports 3, 2, 9, and 8, respectively and Rel-15 DMRS ports 4, 5, 10, and 11 may be paired with Rel-18 DM-RS ports 5, 4, 11, and 10, respectively. Furthermore, Rel-18 DMRS ports 12-23 cannot be paired with any Rel-15 DM-RS ports.

In some embodiments, for the new FD-OCC Option 1-1 (shown in FIG. 4D), for MU- MIMO PUSCH transmission, there may be no restriction on port pairing between Rel-15 and Rel-18 UEs. In other embodiments, for the new FD-OCC Option 1-1 (shown in FIG. 4D), for MU-MIMO PUSCH transmission, the same restrictions may be imposed on port pairings as the PDSCH reception port pairings.

FIG. 8 depicts an embodiment of protocol entities 8000 that may be implemented in wireless communication devices discussed in conjunction with other FIGs. herein, including one or more of a user equipment (UE) 8060, a base station, which may be termed an evolved node B (eNB), or a new radio, next generation node B (gNB) 8080, and a network function, which may be termed a mobility management entity (MME), or an access and mobility management function (AMF) 8094, according to some aspects. In further embodiments, the NodeB may comprise an xNodeB for a 6 ^th generation or later NodeB.

According to some aspects, gNB 8080 may be implemented as one or more of a dedicated physical device such as a macro-cell, a femto-cell or other suitable device, or in an alternative aspect, may be implemented as one or more software entities running on server computers as part of a virtual network termed a cloud radio access network (CRAN).

According to some aspects, one or more protocol entities that may be implemented in one or more of UE 8060, gNB 8080 and AMF 8094, may be described as implementing all or part of a protocol stack in which the layers are considered to be ordered from lowest to highest in the order physical layer (PHY), medium access control (MAC), radio link control (RLC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), radio resource control (RRC) and non-access stratum (NAS). According to some aspects, one or more protocol entities that may be implemented in one or more of UE 8060, gNB 8080 and AMF 8094, may communicate with a respective peer protocol entity that may be implemented on another device, using the services of respective lower layer protocol entities to perform such communication.

According to some aspects, UE PHY layer 8072 and peer entity gNB PHY layer 8090 may communicate using signals transmitted and received via a wireless medium. According to some aspects, UE MAC layer 8070 and peer entity gNB MAC layer 8088 may communicate using the services provided respectively by UE PHY layer 872 and gNB PHY layer 8090. According to some aspects, UE RLC layer 8068 and peer entity gNB RLC layer 8086 may communicate using the services provided respectively by UE MAC layer 8070 and gNB MAC layer 8088. According to some aspects, UE PDCP layer 8066 and peer entity gNB PDCP layer 8084 may communicate using the services provided respectively by UE RLC layer 8068 and 5GNB RLC layer 8086. According to some aspects, UE RRC layer 8064 and gNB RRC layer 8082 may communicate using the services provided respectively by UE PDCP layer 8066 and gNB PDCP layer 8084. According to some aspects, UE NAS 8062 and AMF NAS 8092 may communicate using the services provided respectively by UE RRC layer 8064 and gNB RRC layer 8082. The PHY layer 8072 and 8090 may transmit or receive information used by the MAC layer 8070 and 8088 over one or more air interfaces. The PHY layer 8072 and 8090 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 layer 8064 and 8082. The PHY layer 8072 and 8090 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 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna processing.

The MAC layer 8070 and 8088 may perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC service data units (SDUs) from one or more logical channels onto transport blocks (TB) to be delivered to PHY via transport channels, demultiplexing MAC SDUs to one or more logical channels from transport blocks (TB) delivered from the PHY via transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), and logical channel prioritization.

The RLC layer 8068 and 8086 may operate in a plurality of modes of operation, including: Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and Acknowledged Mode (AM). The RLC layer 8068 and 8086 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 layer 8068 and 8086 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.

The PDCP layer 8066 and 8084 may execute header compression and decompression of Internet Protocol (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.).

The main services and functions of the RRC layer 8064 and 8082 may include broadcast of system information (e.g., included in Master Information Blocks (MIBs) or System Information Blocks (SIBs) related to the non-access stratum (NAS)), broadcast of system information related to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC connection between the UE and E-UTRAN (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 radio access technology (RAT) mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. Said MIBs and SIBs may comprise one or more information elements (lEs), which may each comprise individual data fields or data structures.

The UE 8060 and the RAN node, gNB 8080 may utilize a Uu interface (e.g., an LTE-Uu interface) to exchange control plane data via a protocol stack comprising the PHY layer 8072 and 8090, the MAC layer 8070 and 8088, the RLC layer 8068 and 8086, the PDCP layer 8066 and 8084, and the RRC layer 8064 and 8082.

The non-access stratum (NAS) protocols 8092 form the highest stratum of the control plane between the UE 8060 and the AMF 8005. The NAS protocols 8092 support the mobility of the UE 8060 and the session management procedures to establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE 8060 and the Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW).

FIG. 9 illustrates embodiments of the formats of PHY data units (PDUs) that may be transmitted by the PHY device via one or more antennas and be encoded and decoded by a MAC entity such as the processors 520 and 570 discussed in conjunction with FIG. 5, the baseband circuitry 1304 discussed in conjunction with FIGs. 13 and 14, and/or discussed in conjunction with other FIGs. herein. In several embodiments, higher layer frames such as a frame comprising an RRC layer information element may transmit from the base station to the UE or vice versa as one or more MAC Service Data Units (MSDUs) in a payload of one or more PDUs in one or more subframes of a radio frame.

According to some aspects, a MAC PDU 9100 may consist of a MAC header 9105 and a MAC payload 9110, the MAC payload consisting of zero or more MAC control elements 9130, zero or more MAC service data unit (SDU) portions 9135 and zero or one padding portion 9140. According to some aspects, MAC header 8105 may consist of one or more MAC subheaders, each of which may correspond to a MAC payload portion and appear in corresponding order. According to some aspects, each of the zero or more MAC control elements 9130 contained in MAC payload 9110 may correspond to a fixed length sub-header 9115 contained in MAC header 9105. According to some aspects, each of the zero or more MAC SDU portions 9135 contained in MAC payload 9110 may correspond to a variable length sub-header 9120 contained in MAC header 8105. According to some aspects, padding portion 9140 contained in MAC payload 9110 may correspond to a padding sub-header 9125 contained in MAC header 9105.

FIG. 10A illustrates an embodiment of communication circuitry 1000 such as the circuitry in the base station 510 and the user equipment 560 shown and discussed in conjunction with FIG. 5 or other FIGs. herein. The communication circuitry 1000 is alternatively grouped according to functions. Components as shown in the communication circuitry 1000 are shown here for illustrative purposes and may include other components not shown here in Fig. 10A.

The communication circuitry 1000 may include protocol processing circuitry 1005, which may implement one or more of medium access control (MAC), radio link control (RLC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), radio resource control (RRC) and non-access stratum (NAS) functions. The protocol processing circuitry 1005 may include one or more processing cores (not shown) to execute instructions and one or more memory structures (not shown) to store program (code) and data information.

The communication circuitry 1000 may further include digital baseband circuitry 1010, which may implement physical layer (PHY) functions including one or more of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) functions, scrambling and/or descrambling, coding and/or decoding, layer mapping and/or de-mapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol and/or bit metric determination, multi-antenna port pre-coding and/or decoding which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency or spatial coding, reference signal generation and/or detection, preamble sequence generation and/or decoding, synchronization sequence generation and/or detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions.

The communication circuitry 1000 may further include transmit circuitry 1015, receive circuitry 1020 and/or antenna array 1030 circuitry.

The communication circuitry 1000 may further include radio frequency (RF) circuitry 1025 such as the RF circuitry 544 and 594 in FIG. 2. In an aspect of an embodiment, RF circuitry 1025 may include multiple parallel RF chains for one or more of transmit or receive functions, each connected to one or more antennas of the antenna array 1030.

In an aspect of the disclosure, the protocol processing circuitry 1005 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for one or more of digital baseband circuitry 1010, transmit circuitry 1015, receive circuitry 1020, and/or radio frequency circuitry 1025. FIG. 10B illustrates an embodiment of radio frequency circuitry 1025 in FIG. 10A according to some aspects such as a RF circuitry 544 and 594 illustrated and discussed in conjunction with FIG. 5 or other FIGs. herein. The radio frequency circuitry 1025 may include one or more instances of radio chain circuitry 1072, which in some aspects may include one or more filters, power amplifiers, low noise amplifiers, programmable phase shifters and power supplies (not shown).

The radio frequency circuitry 1025 may include power combining and dividing circuitry 1074. In some aspects, power combining and dividing circuitry 1074 may operate bidirectionally, such that the same physical circuitry may be configured to operate as a power divider when the device is transmitting, and as a power combiner when the device is receiving. In some aspects, power combining and dividing circuitry 1074 may one or more include wholly or partially separate circuitries to perform power dividing when the device is transmitting and power combining when the device is receiving. In some aspects, power combining and dividing circuitry 1074 may include passive circuitry comprising one or more two-way power divider/combiners arranged in a tree. In some aspects, power combining and dividing circuitry 1074 may include active circuitry comprising amplifier circuits.

In some aspects, the radio frequency circuitry 1025 may connect to transmit circuitry 1015 and receive circuitry 1020 in FIG. 10A via one or more radio chain interfaces 1076 or a combined radio chain interface 1078. The combined radio chain interface 1078 may form a wide or very wide bandwidth.

In some aspects, one or more radio chain interfaces 1076 may provide one or more interfaces to one or more receive or transmit signals, each associated with a single antenna structure which may comprise one or more antennas.

In some aspects, the combined radio chain interface 1078 may provide a single interface to one or more receive or transmit signals, each associated with a group of antenna structures comprising one or more antennas.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a storage medium 1100 to store code and data for execution by any one or more of the processors and/or processing circuitry to perform the functionality of the logic circuitry described herein in conjunction with FIGs. 1-10 and 12-15. Storage medium 1100 may comprise an article of manufacture. In some examples, storage medium 1100 may include any non-transitory computer readable medium or machine-readable medium, such as an optical, magnetic or semiconductor storage. Storage medium 1100 may store diverse types of computer executable instructions, such as instructions to implement logic flows and/or techniques described herein. Examples of a computer readable or machine - readable storage medium may include any tangible media capable of storing electronic data, including volatile memory or non-volatile memory, removable or non-removable memory, erasable or non-erasable memory, writeable or re-writeable memory, and so forth. Examples of computer executable instructions may include any suitable type of code, such as source code, compiled code, interpreted code, executable code, static code, dynamic code, object-oriented code, visual code, and the like.

FIG. 12 illustrates an architecture of a system 1200 of a network in accordance with some embodiments. The system 1200 is shown to include a user equipment (UE) 1510 and a UE 1522 such as the UEs discussed in conjunction with FIGs. 1-11. The UEs 1510 and 1522 are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touch screen mobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks) but may also comprise any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), pagers, laptop computers, desktop computers, wireless handsets, or any computing device including a wireless communications interface.

In some embodiments, any of the UEs 1510 and 1522 can comprise an Internet of Things (loT) UE, which can comprise a network access layer designed for low-power loT applications utilizing short-lived UE connections. An loT UE can utilize technologies such as machine-to- machine (M2M) or machine-type communications (MTC) for exchanging data with an MTC server or device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), Proximity-Based Service (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communication, sensor networks, or loT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange of data. An loT network describes interconnecting loT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure), with short-lived connections. The loT UEs may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate the connections of the loT network.

The UEs 1510 and 1522 may to connect, e.g., communicatively couple, with a radio access network (RAN) - in this embodiment, an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) 1210 such as the base stations shown in FIGs. 1-11. The UEs 1510 and 1522 utilize connections 1520 and 1204, respectively, each of which comprises a physical communications interface or layer (discussed in further detail below); in this example, the connections 1520 and 1204 are illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols, such as a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol, a codedivision multiple access (CDMA) network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, a PTT over Cellular (POC) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocol, a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, a fifth generation (5G) protocol, a New Radio (NR) protocol, and the like.

In this embodiment, the UEs 1510 and 1522 may further directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 1205. The ProSe interface 1205 may alternatively be referred to as a sidelink interface comprising one or more logical channels, including but not limited to a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH), a Physical Sidelink Discovery Channel (PSDCH), and a Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH).

The UE 1522 is shown to be configured to access an access point (AP) 1206 via connection 1207. The connection 1207 can comprise a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 1206 would comprise a wireless fidelity (WiFi®) router. In this example, the AP 1206 is shown to be connected to the Internet without connecting to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). The E-UTRAN 1210 can include one or more access nodes that enable the connections 1520 and 1204. These access nodes (ANs) can be referred to as base stations (BSs), NodeBs, evolved NodeBs (eNBs), next Generation NodeBs (gNB), RAN nodes, 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). The E-UTRAN 1210 may include one or more RAN nodes for providing macro-cells, e.g., macro-RAN node 1560, and one or more RAN nodes for providing femto-cells or picocells (e.g., cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macro-cells), e.g., low power (LP) RAN node 1572.

Any of the RAN nodes 1560 and 1572 can terminate the air interface protocol and can be the first point of contact for the UEs 1510 and 1522. In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 1560 and 1572 can fulfill various logical functions for the E-UTRAN 1210 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.

In accordance with some embodiments, the UEs 1510 and 1522 can be configured to communicate using Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals with each other or with any of the RAN nodes 1560 and 1572 over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) communication technique (e.g., for downlink communications) or a Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (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 subcarriers.

In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 1560 and 1572 to the UEs 1510 and 1522, 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 (DL) channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks.

The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) may carry user data and higher-layer signaling to the UEs 1510 and 1522. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) may carry information about the transport format and resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things. It may also inform the UEs 1510 and 1522 about the transport format, resource allocation, and HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE 102 within a cell) may be performed at any of the RAN nodes 1560 and 1572 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 1510 and 1522. The downlink resource assignment information may be sent on the PDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) each of the UEs 1510 and 1522.

The PDCCH may use control channel elements (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 resource element groups (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 downlink control information (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=l, 2, 4, or 8).

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 enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more enhanced the control channel elements (ECCEs). Similar to above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as an enhanced resource element groups (EREGs). An ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some situations.

The RAN nodes 1560 and 1572 may communicate with one another and/or with other access nodes in the E-UTRAN 1210 and/or in another RAN via an X2 interface, which is a signaling interface for communicating data packets between ANs. Some other suitable interface for communicating data packets directly between ANs may be used.

The E-UTRAN 1210 is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network - in this embodiment, an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network 1220 via an SI interface 1570. In this embodiment the SI interface 1570 is split into two parts: the SI-U interface 1214, which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes 1560 and 1572 and the serving gateway (S-GW) 1222, and the Si-mobility management entity (MME) interface 1215, which is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes 1560 and 1572 and MMEs 1546.

In this embodiment, the EPC network 1220 comprises the MMEs 1546, the S-GW 1222, the Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) 1223, and a home subscriber server (HSS) 1224. The MMEs 1546 may be similar in function to the control plane of legacy Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Nodes (SGSN). The MMEs 1546 may manage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. The HSS 1224 may comprise a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities' handling of communication sessions. The EPC network 1220 may comprise one or several HSSs 1224, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, on the capacity of the equipment, on the organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS 1224 can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc.

The S-GW 1222 may terminate the SI interface 1570 towards the E-UTRAN 1210, and routes data packets between the E-UTRAN 1210 and the EPC network 1220. In addition, the S-GW 1222 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement.

The P-GW 1223 may terminate an SGi interface toward a PDN. The P-GW 1223 may route data packets between the EPC network 1220 and external networks such as a network including the application server 1230 (alternatively referred to as application function (AF)) via an Internet Protocol (IP) interface 1225. Generally, the application server 1230 may be an element offering applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS Packet Services (PS) domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). In this embodiment, the P-GW 1223 is shown to be communicatively coupled to an application server 1230 via an IP interface 1225. The application server 1230 can also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., Voice-over-Intemet Protocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UEs 1510 and 1522 via the EPC network 1220.

The P-GW 1223 may further be a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection. Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCRF) 1226 is the policy and charging control element of the EPC network 1220. In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF in the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with a UE's Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with local breakout of traffic, there may be two PCRFs associated with a UE’s IP-CAN session: a Home PCRF (H- PCRF) within a HPLMN and a Visited PCRF (V-PCRF) within a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). The PCRF 1226 may be communicatively coupled to the application server 1230 via the P-GW 1223. The application server 1230 may signal the PCRF 1226 to indicate a new service flow and select the appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) and charging parameters. The PCRF 1226 may provision this rule into a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) (not shown) with the appropriate traffic flow template (TFT) and QoS class of identifier (QCI), which commences the QoS and charging as specified by the application server 1230.

FIG. 13 illustrates example components of a device 1300 in accordance with some embodiments such as the base stations and UEs discussed in conjunction with FIGs. 1- 12. In some embodiments, the device 1300 may include application circuitry 1302, baseband circuitry 1304, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 1306, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 1308, one or more antennas 1310, and power management circuitry (PMC) 1312 coupled together at least as shown. The components of the illustrated device 1300 may be included in a UE or a RAN node such as a base station or gNB. In some embodiments, the device 1300 may include less elements (e.g., a RAN node may not utilize application circuitry 1302, and instead include a processor/controller to process IP data received from an EPC). In some embodiments, the device 1300 may include additional elements such as, for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, or input/output (VO) interface. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., said circuitries may be separately included in more than one device for Cloud- RAN (C-RAN) implementations).

The application circuitry 1302 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 1302 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processors may be coupled with or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the device 1300. In some embodiments, processors of application circuitry 1302 may process IP data packets received from an EPC.

The baseband circuitry 1304 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 1304 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1306 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1306. The baseband circuity 1304 may interface with the application circuitry 1302 for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry 1306. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1304 may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor 1304A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 1304B, a fifth generation (5G) baseband processor 1304C, or other baseband processor(s) 1304D for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., second generation (2G), sixth generation (6G), etc.). In many embodiments, the fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 1304B may include capabilities for generation and processing of the baseband signals for LTE radios and the fifth generation (5G) baseband processor 1304C may capabilities for generation and processing of the baseband signals for NRs.

The baseband circuitry 1304 (e.g., one or more of baseband processors 1304A-D) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 1306. In other embodiments, some of or all the functionality of baseband processors 1304A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory 1304G and executed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 1304E. 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 1304 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 1304 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.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1304 may include one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 1304F. The audio DSP(s) 1304F may be include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. Components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board in some embodiments. In some embodiments, some of or all the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 1304 and the application circuitry 1302 may be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1304 may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1304 may support communication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 1304 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

The RF circuitry 1306 may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 1306 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. The RF circuitry 1306 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 1308 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 1304. The RF circuitry 1306 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 1304 and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 1308 for transmission. In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1306 may include mixer circuitry 1306a, amplifier circuitry 1306b and filter circuitry 1306c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1306 may include filter circuitry 1306c and mixer circuitry 1306a. The RF circuitry 1306 may also include synthesizer circuitry 1306d for synthesizing a frequency, or component carrier, for use by the mixer circuitry 1306a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1306a of the receive signal path may to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 1308 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 1306d. The amplifier circuitry 1306b may amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 1306c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals. Output baseband signals may be provided to the baseband circuitry 1304 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 1306a of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1306a of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 1306d to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 1308. The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 1304 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 1306c.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1306a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1306a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1306a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1306a 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 1306a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1306a may be arranged for direct downconversion and direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1306a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1306a of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.

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 1306 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry 1304 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 1306.

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.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1306d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional NIN+ I 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 1306d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

The synthesizer circuitry 1306d may synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 1306a of the RF circuitry 1306 based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1306d may be a fractional NIN+ I synthesizer.

In some embodiments, frequency input may be an output of a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Divider control input may be an output of either the baseband circuitry 1304 or an application processor of the applications circuitry 1302 depending on the desired output frequency. Some embodiments may determine a divider control input (e.g., N) from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by the applications circuitry 1302.

The synthesizer circuitry 1306d of the RF circuitry 1306 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 (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+l (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 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.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1306d may generate a carrier frequency (or component carrier) as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier 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 local oscillator (LO) frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 1306 may include an IQ/polar converter.

The FEM circuitry 1308 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 1310, amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 1306 for further processing. FEM circuitry 1308 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 1306 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 1310. In various embodiments, the amplification through the transmit or receive signal paths may be done solely in the RF circuitry 1306, solely in the FEM circuitry 1308, or in both the RF circuitry 1306 and the FEM circuitry 1308.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 1308 may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry may include a low-noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 1306). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 1308 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 1306), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 1310).

In the present embodiment, the radio refers to a combination of the RF circuitry 130 and the FEM circuitry 1308. The radio refers to the portion of the circuitry that generates and transmits or receives and processes the radio signals. The RF circuitry 1306 includes a transmitter to generate the time domain radio signals with the data from the baseband signals and apply the radio signals to subcarriers of the carrier frequency that form the bandwidth of the channel. The PA in the FEM circuitry 1308 amplifies the tones for transmission and amplifies tones received from the one or more antennas 1310 via the LNA to increase the signal-to-noise ratio

(SNR) for interpretation. In wireless communications, the FEM circuitry 1308 may also search for a detectable pattern that appears to be a wireless communication. Thereafter, a receiver in the RF circuitry 1306 converts the time domain radio signals to baseband signals via one or more functional modules such as the functional modules shown in the base station 510 and the user equipment 560 illustrated in FIG. 2.

In some embodiments, the PMC 1312 may manage power provided to the baseband circuitry 1304. In particular, the PMC 1312 may control power-source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DC conversion. The PMC 1312 may often be included when the device 1300 is capable of being powered by a battery, for example, when the device is included in a UE. The PMC 1312 may increase the power conversion efficiency while providing desirable implementation size and heat dissipation characteristics.

While FIG. 13 shows the PMC 1312 coupled only with the baseband circuitry 1304. However, in other embodiments, the PMC 1312 may be additionally or alternatively coupled with, and perform similar power management operations for, other components such as, but not limited to, application circuitry 1302, RF circuitry 1306, or FEM circuitry 1308.

In some embodiments, the PMC 1312 may control, or otherwise be part of, various power saving mechanisms of the device 1300. For example, if the device 1300 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 device 1300 may power 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 device 1300 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 device 1300 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 device 1300 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.

The processors of the application circuitry 1302 and the processors of the baseband circuitry 1304 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the baseband circuitry 1304, alone or in combination, may be used execute Layer 3, Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the application circuitry 1302 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (e.g., transmission communication protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP) layers). As referred to herein, Layer 3 may comprise a radio resource control (RRC) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 2 may comprise a medium access control (MAC) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1 may comprise a physical (PHY) layer of a UE/RAN node, described in further detail below.

FIG. 14 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry in accordance with some embodiments such as the baseband circuitry shown and/or discussed in conjunction with FIGs. 1-13. As discussed above, the baseband circuitry 1304 of FIG. 13 may comprise processors 1304A-1304E and a memory 1304G utilized by said processors. Each of the processors 1304A- 1304E may include a memory interface, 1404A-1404E, respectively, to send/receive data to/from the memory 1304G.

The baseband circuitry 1304 may further include one or more interfaces to communicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as a memory interface 1412 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from memory external to the baseband circuitry 1304), an application circuitry interface 1414 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from the application circuitry 1302 of FIG. 13), an RF circuitry interface 1416 (e.g., interfaces 525 and 575 shown in FIG. 5 for communications or network communications or other interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry 1306 of FIG. 13), a wireless hardware connectivity interface 1418 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components), and a power management interface 1420 (e.g., an interface to send/receive power or control signals to/from the PMC 1312.

FIG. 15 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 in conjunction with FIGs. 1-14. Specifically, FIG. 15 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 1500 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1510, one or more memory/storage devices 1520, and one or more communication resources 1530, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1540. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1502 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub- slices to utilize the hardware resources 1500.

The processors 1510 (e.g., 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 digital signal processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, a processor 1512 and a processor 1514.

The memory/storage devices 1520 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 1520 may include, but are not limited to any type of volatile or non-volatile 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.

The communication resources 1530 may include interconnection or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1504 or one or more databases 1506 via a network 1508. For example, the communication resources 1530 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via a Universal Serial Bus (USB)), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.

Instructions 1550 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 1510 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 1550 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 1510 (e.g., within the processor's cache memory), the memory/storage devices 1520, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 1550 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1500 from any combination of the peripheral devices 1504 or the databases 1506. Accordingly, the memory of processors 1510, the memory/storage devices 1520, the peripheral devices 1504, and the databases 1506 are examples of computer- readable and machine-readable media.

In embodiments, one or more elements of FIGs. 12, 13, 14, and/or 15 may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, or methods as described herein, or portions thereof. In embodiments, one or more elements of FIGs. 12, 13, 14, and/or 15 may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, or methods, or portions thereof, as described in the following examples.

As used herein, the term "circuitry" may refer to, be part of, or include an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group), and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that execute one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality.

Various examples may be implemented using hardware elements, software elements, or a combination of both. In some examples, hardware elements may include devices, components, processors, microprocessors, circuits, circuit elements (e.g., transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, and so forth), integrated circuits, application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), programmable logic devices (PLD), digital signal processors (DSP), field programmable gate array (FPGA), memory units, logic gates, registers, semiconductor device, chips, microchips, chip sets, and so forth. In some examples, software elements may include software components, programs, applications, computer programs, application programs, system programs, machine programs, operating system software, middleware, firmware, software modules, routines, subroutines, functions, methods, procedures, software interfaces, application program interfaces (API), instruction sets, computing code, computer code, code segments, computer code segments, words, values, symbols, or any combination thereof. Determining whether an example is implemented using hardware elements and/or software elements may vary in accordance with any number of factors, such as desired computational rate, power levels, heat tolerances, processing cycle budget, input data rates, output data rates, memory resources, data bus speeds and other design or performance constraints, as desired for a given implementation.

Some examples may be described using the expression “in one example” or “an example” along with their derivatives. These terms mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the example is included in at least one example. The appearances of the phrase “in one example” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same example.

Some examples may be described using the expression "coupled" and "connected" along with their derivatives. These terms are not necessarily intended as synonyms for each other. For example, descriptions using the terms “connected” and/or “coupled” may indicate that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other. The term "coupled,” however, may also mean that two or more elements are not in direct contact with each other, but yet still co-operate or interact with each other.

In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in a single example for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed examples require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed example. Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate example. In the appended claims, the terms "including" and "in which" are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms "comprising" and "wherein," respectively. Moreover, the terms "first," "second," "third," and so forth, are used merely as labels, and are not intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter 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.

A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing program code will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can include local memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some program code to reduce the number of times code must be retrieved from bulk storage during execution. The term “code” covers a broad range of software components and constructs, including applications, drivers, processes, routines, methods, modules, firmware, microcode, and subprograms. Thus, the term “code” may be used to refer to any collection of instructions which, when executed by a processing system, perform a desired operation or operations.

Processing circuitry, logic circuitry, devices, and interfaces herein described may perform functions implemented in hardware and also implemented with code executed on one or more processors. Processing circuitry, or logic circuitry, refers to the hardware or the hardware and code that implements one or more logical functions. Circuitry is hardware and may refer to one or more circuits. Each circuit may perform a particular function. A circuit of the circuitry may comprise discrete electrical components interconnected with one or more conductors, an integrated circuit, a chip package, a chip set, memory, or the like. Integrated circuits include circuits created on a substrate such as a silicon wafer and may comprise components. And integrated circuits, processor packages, chip packages, and chipsets may comprise one or more processors.

Processors may receive signals such as instructions and/or data at the input(s) and process the signals to generate the at least one output. While executing code, the code changes the physical states and characteristics of transistors that make up a processor pipeline. The physical states of the transistors translate into logical bits of ones and zeros stored in registers within the processor. The processor can transfer the physical states of the transistors into registers and transfer the physical states of the transistors to another storage medium.

A processor may comprise circuits or circuitry to perform one or more sub-functions implemented to perform the overall function of “a processor”. Note that “a processor” may comprise one or more processors and each processor may comprise one or more processor cores that independently or interdependently process code and/or data. Each of the processor cores are also “processors” and are only distinguishable from processors for the purpose of describing a physical arrangement or architecture of a processor with multiple processor cores on one or more dies and/or within one or more chip packages. Processor cores may comprise general processing cores or may comprise processor cores configured to perform specific tasks, depending on the design of the processor. Processor cores may be processors with one or more processor cores. As discussed and claimed herein, when discussing functionality performed by a processor, processing circuitry, or the like; the processor, processing circuitry, or the like may comprise one or more processors, each processor having one or more processor cores, and any one or more of the processors and/or processor cores may reside on one or more dies, within one or more chip packages, and may perform part of or all the processing required to perform the functionality.

One example of a processor is a state machine or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) that includes at least one input and at least one output. A state machine may manipulate the at least one input to generate the at least one output by performing a predetermined series of serial and/or parallel manipulations or transformations on the at least one input.

SOME ADVANTAGE EFFECTS OF EMBODIMENTS

While not an exhaustive list, several embodiments have one or more potentially advantages effects. The enhancements advantageously support port pairing of ports having sub-length orthogonal signals within different frontloaded DMRS configurations while allowing for a reasonable signaling overhead. The enhancements advantageously support an increase in the number of available ports for the DM-RS that is double that of the release 15 (Rel-15) of the 3GPP TS 38.211, 38.212, and 38.213. The enhancements advantageously support a DM-RS comprising up to three CDM groups in up to two codewords in up to two symbols to comprise up to 24 ports. The enhancements advantageously support a DM-RS type 1 with up to two CDM groups in up to two codewords in up to two symbols. The enhancements advantageously support a DM-RS type 2 with up to three CDM groups in up to two codewords in up to two symbols. The enhancements advantageously support a DM-RS type 1 with up 16 ports. The enhancements advantageously support a DM-RS type 2 with up 24 ports. The enhancements advantageously support an antenna port field in a DCI having 1 or 2 additional bits to support an increase in the number of port configurations over the antenna port field in Rel-15.

EXAMPLES OF FURTHER EMBODIMENTS

The following examples pertain to further embodiments. Specifics in the examples may be used anywhere in one or more embodiments.

Example 1 is an apparatus of a base station to support channel estimation, comprising an interface for communications; processing circuitry coupled with the interface to perform operations to generate a communication comprising a downlink control information (DCI) to schedule a demodulation-reference signal (DM-RS), the DCI comprising an antenna port field, the antenna port field comprising an index value to identify a set of one or more ports in a first code-division modulation (CDM) group of the DM-RS, the DM-RS to comprise up to three CDM groups in up to two codewords in up to two symbols, the first CDM group to comprise a signal of the DM-RS for a first port multiplexed with a signal of the DM-RS for a second port based on a new frequency division-orthogonal cover code (FD-OCC), the signal of the second port sub-length orthogonal to signal of the first port, wherein the first CDM group is compatible with demultiplexing via a legacy FD-OCC; and cause transmission of the DCI via the interface. In Example 2, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry comprises a processor and a memory coupled with the processor, the apparatus further comprising radio frequency circuitry coupled with the processing circuitry, and one or more antennas coupled with the radio frequency circuitry. In Example 3, the apparatus of claim 2, wherein the memory comprises a set of index values including the index value, wherein the set of index values are associated with port pairings that are compatible with demultiplexing via the legacy FD-OCC. In Example 4, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the new FD-OCC comprises a Walsh matrix or cyclic shift matrix with cyclic shifts of 0, n, TI/2, and 3ir/2, and the legacy FD-OCC comprises a length-2 Hadamard matrix. In Example 5, the apparatus of claim 4, legacy user equipment to demultiplex the CDM group with the length-2 Hadamard matrix to determine the signal of the first port, the signal of the second port, or both in the DM-RS based on the index value in the antenna port field of the DCI. In Example 6, the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the DM-RS comprises a DM-RS type 1 or a DM-RS type 2, the DM-RS defined in an information element from a higher layer, wherein the maximum number of the up to two symbols is defined by the higher layer and, if the maximum number of symbols is set to two, an actual number of DM- RS symbols is dynamically selected via the index value in the antenna port field of the DCI. In Example 7, the apparatus of claim 1, the operations to further cause transmission of the DM- RS to a legacy user equipment. In Example 8, the apparatus of any claim 1-7, wherein selection of the first port and the second port is based on a restricted combination of ports for backwards compatibility in downlink transmissions of the DM-RS, wherein the restricted combination of ports is not applicable to uplink transmissions of the DM-RS.

Example 9 is a machine-readable medium containing instructions, which when executed by a processor of a base station, cause the processor to perform operations, the operations to generate a communication comprising a downlink control information (DC1) to schedule a demodulation-reference signal (DM-RS), the DCI comprising an antenna port field, the antenna port field comprising an index value to identify a set of one or more ports in a first code-division modulation (CDM) group of the DM-RS, the DM-RS to comprise up to three CDM groups in up to two codewords in up to two symbols, the first CDM group to comprise a signal of the DM-RS for a first port multiplexed with a signal of the DM-RS for a second port based on a new frequency division-orthogonal cover code (FD-OCC), the signal of the second port sublength orthogonal to signal of the first port, wherein the first CDM group is compatible with demultiplexing via a legacy FD-OCC; and cause transmission of the DCI via an interface. In Example 10, the machine-readable medium of claim 9, the operations to further store, in a memory, a set of index values including the index value, wherein the set of index values are associated with port pairings that are compatible with demultiplexing via the legacy FD-OCC. In Example 11 , the machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the new FD-OCC comprises a Walsh matrix or cyclic shift matrix with cyclic shifts of 0, 7i, n/2, and 3n/2, and the legacy FD-OCC comprises a length-2 Hadamard matrix. In Example 12, the machine-readable medium of claim 11 , legacy user equipment to demultiplex the CDM group with the length-2 Hadamard matrix to determine the signal of the first port, the signal of the second port, or both in the DM-RS based on the index value in the antenna port field of the DCI. In Example 13, the machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the DM-RS comprises a DM-RS type 1 or a DM-RS type 2, the DM-RS defined in an information element from a higher layer, wherein the maximum number of the up to two symbols is defined by the higher layer and, if the maximum number of symbols is set to two, an actual number of DM-RS symbols is dynamically selected via the index value in the antenna port field of the DCI. In Example 14, the machine-readable medium of any claim 9-13, the operations to further cause transmission of the DM-RS to a legacy user equipment, wherein selection of the first port and the second port is based on a restricted combination of ports for backwards compatibility in downlink transmissions of the DM-RS, wherein the restricted combination of ports is applicable to uplink transmissions of the DM-RS. Example 15 is an apparatus of a user equipment to support a channel estimation, comprising an interface for network communications; processing circuitry coupled with the interface to perform operations to detect, via the interface, a communication comprising a downlink control information (DCI) to schedule a demodulation-reference signal (DM-RS), the DCI comprising an antenna port field, the antenna port field comprising an index value to identify a set of one or more ports in a first code-division modulation (CDM) group of the DM-RS, the DM-RS to comprise up to three CDM groups in up to two codewords in up to two symbols, the first CDM group to comprise a signal of the DM-RS for a first port multiplexed with a signal of the DM-RS for a second port based on a new frequency division-orthogonal cover code (FD-OCC), the signal of the second port sub-length orthogonal to signal of the first port, wherein the first CDM group is compatible with demultiplexing via a legacy FD-OCC; and decode the DCI. In Example 16, the apparatus of claim 15, wherein the processing circuitry comprises a processor and a memory coupled with the processor, the apparatus further comprising radio frequency circuitry coupled with the processing circuitry, and one or more antennas coupled with the radio frequency circuitry. In Example 17, the apparatus of claim 16, wherein the memory comprises a set of index values including the index value, wherein the set of index values are associated with port pairings that are compatible with demultiplexing via the legacy FD-OCC. In Example 18, the apparatus of claim 15, wherein the new FD-OCC comprises a Walsh matrix or cyclic shift matrix with cyclic shifts of 0, n, 7t/2, and 3n/2, and the legacy FD-OCC comprises a length-2 Hadamard matrix. In Example 19, the apparatus of claim 18, the operations further to demultiplex the CDM group of the DM-RS received from a base station, with the length-2 Hadamard matrix to determine the signal of the first port, the signal of the second port, or both in the DM-RS based on the index value in the antenna port field of the DCI. In Example 20, the apparatus of any of claims 15-19, wherein the DM-RS comprises a DM-RS type 1 or a DM-RS type 2, the DM-RS defined in an information element from a higher layer, wherein the maximum number of the up to two symbols is defined by the higher layer and, if the maximum number of symbols is set to two, an actual number of DM-RS symbols is dynamically selected via the index value in the antenna port field of the DCI, wherein selection of the first port and the second port is based on a restricted combination of ports for backwards compatibility in downlink transmissions of the DM-RS, wherein the restricted combination of ports is not applicable to uplink transmissions of the DM-RS.

Example 21 is a method comprising any action described in any one of Examples 1-20.

Example 22 is an apparatus comprising a means for any method in Example 21. Example 23 is a system comprising a means for any method in Example 21 such as the system described in Example 2 and the system described in Example 16.

Example 24 is a machine-readable medium containing instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations, the operations including any method in Example 21.