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EP-4740327-A1 - TIMING INFORMATION FOR NETWORK CONTROLLED REPEATERS

EP4740327A1EP 4740327 A1EP4740327 A1EP 4740327A1EP-4740327-A1

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a 5G or 6G communication system for supporting a higher data transmission rate. A method for an NCR includes identifying, by an NCR mobile termination (NCR-MT) entity, first information for a first downlink (DL) frame timing associated with first DL receptions on an NCR control link (C-link) and second information for a second DL frame timing associated with second DL receptions on an NCR backhaul link (BH-link). The method further includes receiving, by the NCR-MT entity on the NCR C-link, a DL signal or channel using the first DL frame timing and receiving, by an NCR forwarding (NCR-Fwd) entity on the NCR BH-link, a first radio frequency signal using the second DL frame timing.

Inventors

  • JAZI, Ebrahim Molavian
  • PAPASAKELLARIOU, ARISTIDES
  • RUDOLF, MARIAN

Assignees

  • Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20240926

Claims (15)

  1. A method performed by a network-controlled repeater (NCR), the method comprising: identifying, by an NCR mobile termination (NCR-MT) entity: first information for a first downlink (DL) frame timing associated with first DL receptions on an NCR control link (C-link), and second information for a second DL frame timing associated with second DL receptions on an NCR backhaul link (BH-link); receiving, by the NCR-MT entity on the NCR C-link, a DL signal or channel using the first DL frame timing; and receiving, by an NCR forwarding (NCR-Fwd) entity on the NCR BH-link, a first radio frequency (RF) signal using the second DL frame timing, wherein: the NCR C-link is associated with a first cell on a first carrier frequency, the NCR BH-link is associated with a second cell on a second carrier frequency, and the first carrier frequency is different from the second carrier frequency.
  2. The method of Claim 1, wherein: the second DL frame timing is an offset relative to the first DL frame timing, the offset is included in the second information, the second information is provided by: operation and management (OAM), radio resource configuration (RRC) signaling, or medium access control control-element (MAC CE) signaling, and the offset is a number of symbols or slots relative to: a sub-carrier spacing (SCS) associated with an active bandwidth part (BWP) of the first cell, an SCS associated with the second cell, or an SCS indicated by the second information.
  3. The method of Claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the NCR-MT entity or by the NCR-Fwd entity, a synchronization signal and physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) or a system information block index 1 (SIB1) corresponding to the second cell, wherein identifying the second information is based on the reception of the SS/PBCH or the SIB1.
  4. The method of Claim 1, further comprising: identifying, by the NCR-MT entity: third information for a first timing advance (TA) value associated with first uplink (UL) transmissions on the first cell associated with the NCR C-link, and fourth information for a second TA value associated with second UL transmissions on the second cell associated with the NCR BH-link; transmitting, by the NCR-MT entity on the NCR C-link, an UL signal or channel on the first cell based on the first TA value; and transmitting, by the NCR-Fwd entity on the NCR BH-link, a second RF signal on the second cell based on the second TA value.
  5. The method of Claim 4, further comprising: receiving, by the NCR-MT entity, fifth information for a sounding reference signal (SRS) on the second cell; and transmitting, by the NCR-Fwd entity, the SRS on the second cell, wherein identifying the fourth information comprises receiving, by the NCR-MT entity, the fourth information for the second TA value in response to the SRS transmission.
  6. The method of Claim 4, further comprising: receiving, by the NCR-MT entity, fifth information for a physical random access channel (PRACH) on the second cell; and transmitting, by the NCR-Fwd entity, the PRACH on the second cell, wherein identifying the fourth information comprises receiving, by the NCR-MT entity, the fourth information for the second TA value in a random access response (RAR) or in a BH-link-TA medium access control control-element (MAC CE), without any RAR reception, in response to the PRACH transmission.
  7. The method of Claim 6, further comprising: receiving, by the NCR-MT entity, a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order that provides a downlink control information (DCI) format, wherein the DCI format provided by the PDCCH order: indicates an NCR entity index or an NCR cell index, and when the NCR entity index indicates NCR-Fwd entity or when the NCR cell index indicates the second cell, triggers the PRACH transmission.
  8. A network-controlled repeater (NCR) comprising: a processor of an NCR mobile termination (NCR-MT) entity, the processor configured to identify: first information for a first downlink (DL) frame timing associated with first DL receptions on an NCR control link (C-link), and second information for a second DL frame timing associated with second DL receptions on an NCR backhaul link (BH-link); a transceiver of the NCR-MT entity operably coupled to the processor of the NCR-MT entity, the transceiver of the NCR-MT entity configured to receive, on the NCR C-link, a DL signal or channel using the first DL frame timing; and a transceiver of an NCR forwarding (NCR-Fwd) entity operably coupled to the processor of the NCR-MT entity, the transceiver of the NCR-Fwd entity configured to receive, on the NCR BH-link, a first radio frequency (RF) signal using the second DL frame timing, wherein: the NCR C-link is associated with a first cell on a first carrier frequency, the NCR BH-link is associated with a second cell on a second carrier frequency, and the first carrier frequency is different from the second carrier frequency.
  9. The NCR of Claim 8, wherein: the second DL frame timing is an offset relative to the first DL frame timing, the offset is included in the second information, the second information is provided by: operation and management (OAM), radio resource configuration (RRC) signaling, or medium access control control-element (MAC CE) signaling, and the offset is a number of symbols or slots relative to: a sub-carrier spacing (SCS) associated with an active bandwidth part (BWP) of the first cell, an SCS associated with the second cell, or an SCS indicated by the second information.
  10. The NCR of Claim 8, wherein: the transceiver of the NCR-MT entity or the transceiver of the NCR-Fwd entity is further configured to receive a synchronization signal and physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) or a system information block index 1 (SIB1) corresponding to the second cell, and identification of the second information is based on the reception of the SS/PBCH or the SIB1.
  11. The NCR of Claim 8, wherein: the processor of the NCR-MT entity is further configured to identify: third information for a first timing advance (TA) value associated with first uplink (UL) transmissions on the first cell associated with the NCR C-link, and fourth information for a second TA value associated with second UL transmissions on the second cell associated with the NCR BH-link; the transceiver of the NCR-MT entity is further configured to transmit, on the NCR C-link, an UL signal or channel on the first cell based on the first TA value; and the transceiver of the NCR-Fwd entity is further configured to transmit, on the NCR BH-link, a second RF signal on the second cell based on the second TA value.
  12. The NCR of Claim 11, wherein: the transceiver of the NCR-MT entity is further configured to receive fifth information for a sounding reference signal (SRS) on the second cell, the transceiver of the NCR-Fwd entity is further configured to transmit the SRS on the second cell, and identification of the fourth information is based on the reception, by the transceiver of the NCR-MT entity, of the fourth information for the second TA value in response to the SRS transmission.
  13. The NCR of Claim 11, wherein: the transceiver of the NCR-MT entity is further configured to receive fifth information for a physical random access channel (PRACH) on the second cell, the transceiver of the NCR-Fwd entity is further configured to transmit the PRACH on the second cell, and identification of the fourth information is based on reception, by the transceiver of the NCR-MT entity, of the fourth information for the second TA value in a random access response (RAR) or in a BH-link-TA medium access control control-element (MAC CE), without any RAR reception, in response to the PRACH transmission.
  14. A base station comprising: a processor configured to identify: first information for a first downlink (DL) frame timing associated with first DL receptions on a network-controlled repeater (NCR) control link (C-link), and second information for a second DL frame timing associated with second DL receptions on an NCR backhaul link (BH-link); and a transceiver operably coupled to the transceiver, the transceiver configured to: transmit, to an NCR mobile termination (NCR-MT) entity, on the NCR C-link, a DL signal or channel using the first DL frame timing, and transmit to an NCR forwarding (NCR-Fwd) entity, on the NCR BH-link, a first radio frequency (RF) signal using the second DL frame timing, wherein: the NCR C-link is associated with a first cell on a first carrier frequency, the NCR BH-link is associated with a second cell on a second carrier frequency, and the first carrier frequency is different from the second carrier frequency.
  15. A method performed by a base station, the method comprising: identifying: first information for a first downlink (DL) frame timing associated with first DL receptions on a network-controlled repeater (NCR) control link (C-link), and second information for a second DL frame timing associated with second DL receptions on an NCR backhaul link (BH-link); and transmitting, to an NCR mobile termination (NCR-MT) entity, on the NCR C-link, a DL signal or channel using the first DL frame timing; transmitting to an NCR forwarding (NCR-Fwd) entity, on the NCR BH-link, a first radio frequency (RF) signal using the second DL frame timing, wherein: the NCR C-link is associated with a first cell on a first carrier frequency, the NCR BH-link is associated with a second cell on a second carrier frequency, and the first carrier frequency is different from the second carrier frequency.

Description

TIMING INFORMATION FOR NETWORK CONTROLLED REPEATERS The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communication systems and, more specifically, the present disclosure is related to apparatuses and methods for timing information for network-controlled repeaters (NCRs). 5G mobile communication technologies define broad frequency bands such that high transmission rates and new services are possible, and can be implemented not only in "Sub 6GHz" bands such as 3.5GHz, but also in "Above 6GHz" bands referred to as mmWave including 28GHz and 39GHz. In addition, it has been considered to implement 6G mobile communication technologies (referred to as Beyond 5G systems) in terahertz bands (for example, 95GHz to 3THz bands) in order to accomplish transmission rates fifty times faster than 5G mobile communication technologies and ultra-low latencies one-tenth of 5G mobile communication technologies. At the beginning of the development of 5G mobile communication technologies, in order to support services and to satisfy performance requirements in connection with enhanced Mobile BroadBand (eMBB), Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC), and massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC), there has been ongoing standardization regarding beamforming and massive MIMO for mitigating radio-wave path loss and increasing radio-wave transmission distances in mmWave, supporting numerologies (for example, operating multiple subcarrier spacings) for efficiently utilizing mmWave resources and dynamic operation of slot formats, initial access technologies for supporting multi-beam transmission and broadbands, definition and operation of BWP (BandWidth Part), new channel coding methods such as a LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) code for large amount of data transmission and a polar code for highly reliable transmission of control information, L2 pre-processing, and network slicing for providing a dedicated network specialized to a specific service. Currently, there are ongoing discussions regarding improvement and performance enhancement of initial 5G mobile communication technologies in view of services to be supported by 5G mobile communication technologies, and there has been physical layer standardization regarding technologies such as V2X (Vehicle-to-everything) for aiding driving determination by autonomous vehicles based on information regarding positions and states of vehicles transmitted by the vehicles and for enhancing user convenience, NR-U (New Radio Unlicensed) aimed at system operations conforming to various regulation-related requirements in unlicensed bands, NR UE Power Saving, Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) which is UE-satellite direct communication for providing coverage in an area in which communication with terrestrial networks is unavailable, and positioning. Moreover, there has been ongoing standardization in air interface architecture/protocol regarding technologies such as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) for supporting new services through interworking and convergence with other industries, IAB (Integrated Access and Backhaul) for providing a node for network service area expansion by supporting a wireless backhaul link and an access link in an integrated manner, mobility enhancement including conditional handover and DAPS (Dual Active Protocol Stack) handover, and two-step random access for simplifying random access procedures (2-step RACH for NR). There also has been ongoing standardization in system architecture/service regarding a 5G baseline architecture (for example, service based architecture or service based interface) for combining Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technologies, and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) for receiving services based on UE positions. As 5G mobile communication systems are commercialized, connected devices that have been exponentially increasing will be connected to communication networks, and it is accordingly expected that enhanced functions and performances of 5G mobile communication systems and integrated operations of connected devices will be necessary. To this end, new research is scheduled in connection with eXtended Reality (XR) for efficiently supporting AR (Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality), MR (Mixed Reality) and the like, 5G performance improvement and complexity reduction by utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), AI service support, metaverse service support, and drone communication. Furthermore, such development of 5G mobile communication systems will serve as a basis for developing not only new waveforms for providing coverage in terahertz bands of 6G mobile communication technologies, multi-antenna transmission technologies such as Full Dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antennas and large-scale antennas, metamaterial-based lenses and antennas for improving coverage of terahertz band signals, high-dimensional space multiplexing technology using OAM (Orbital Angular Moment