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US-12621089-B2 - Methods, communications devices, and infrastructure equipment

US12621089B2US 12621089 B2US12621089 B2US 12621089B2US-12621089-B2

Abstract

A method includes operating in accordance with a configured grant, CG, mode of operation, the CG mode of operation comprising determining a sequence of instances of uplink communications resources of the wireless access interface and transmitting signals to the wireless communications network in at least one instance of the sequence of instances of uplink communications resources of the wireless access interface, transmitting uplink data to the wireless communications network in two or more instances of the sequence of instances of uplink communications resources of the wireless access interface as a plurality of repetitions of the uplink data, and transmitting one or more of a plurality of versions of uplink control information, CG-UCI, to the wireless communications network, each version of CG-UCI being associated with a plurality of instances of the sequence of instances of uplink communications resources of the wireless access interface.

Inventors

  • Martin Warwick Beale
  • Shin Horng Wong
  • Naoki Kusashima
  • Yassin Aden Awad

Assignees

  • Sony Group Corporation

Dates

Publication Date
20260505
Application Date
20211005
Priority Date
20201016

Claims (19)

  1. 1 . A method of operating a communications device configured to transmit data to a wireless communications network via a wireless access interface, the method comprising: operating in accordance with a configured grant (CG) mode of operation, the CG mode of operation comprising determining a sequence of instances of uplink communications resources of the wireless access interface and transmitting signals to the wireless communications network in at least one instance of the sequence of instances of uplink communications resources of the wireless access interface, transmitting uplink data to the wireless communications network in two or more instances of the sequence of instances of uplink communications resources of the wireless access interface as a plurality of repetitions of the uplink data, and transmitting one or more of a plurality of versions of uplink control information (CG-UCI) to the wireless communications network, each version of CG-UCI being associated with a plurality of instances of the sequence of instances of uplink communications resources of the wireless access interface, wherein the one or more transmitted versions of CG-UCI are each repeated a plurality of times during the transmission of the uplink data, and wherein all CG-UCI repetitions of one or more of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI are included in an earliest of the two or more instances, and all CG-UCI repetitions of the others of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI are included in at least one later instance of the two or more instances.
  2. 2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of versions of CG-UCI indicate different control information, and wherein each of the plurality of instances of the sequence of instances of uplink communications resources of the wireless access interface associated with a version of the CG-UCI are associated with the same control information indicated by that version of the CG-UCI.
  3. 3 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein the control information indicates one of a plurality of redundancy versions.
  4. 4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more transmitted versions of CG-UCI are each repeated one or more times within a plurality of time-divided slots of the wireless access interface, wherein each of the time-divided slots contains one of the two or more instances carrying the repetitions of the uplink data.
  5. 5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more transmitted versions of CG-UCI are each repeated one or more times within a plurality of time-divided sub-slots of the wireless access interface, wherein each of the time-divided sub-slots contains one of the two or more instances carrying the repetitions of the uplink data.
  6. 6 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more transmitted versions of CG-UCI are each repeated one or more times within one or more of the sequence of instances of uplink communications resources of the wireless access interface.
  7. 7 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein at least one CG-UCI repetition of at least one of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI is included earlier in time during the transmission of the uplink data than an earliest of the two or more instances associated with the at least one of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI.
  8. 8 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein all CG-UCI repetitions of at least one of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI are included in an earliest one of the two or more instances associated with the at least one of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI.
  9. 9 . The method according to claim 8 , wherein all CG-UCI repetitions of the at least one of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI are located substantially in the middle of the earliest one of the two or more instances associated with the at least one of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI.
  10. 10 . The method according to claim 8 , wherein all CG-UCI repetitions of the at least one of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI are located substantially in at least one end of the earliest one of the two or more instances associated with the at least one of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI.
  11. 11 . The method according to claim 8 , wherein a first CG-UCI repetition of the at least one of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI is located within the earliest one of the two or more instances associated with the at least one of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI, and a second CG-UCI repetition of the at least one of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI is located subsequently in time to the earliest one of the two or more instances associated with the at least one of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI.
  12. 12 . The method according to claim 8 , wherein a first CG-UCI repetition of the at least one of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI is located within the earliest one of the two or more instances associated with the at least one of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI, and a second CG-UCI repetition of the at least one of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI is located earlier in time than the earliest one of the two or more instances associated with the at least one of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI.
  13. 13 . The method according to claim 8 , wherein all CG-UCI repetitions of all of the one or more transmitted versions of CG-UCI are located in a position of the earliest one of the two or more instances associated with the at least one of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI known to the wireless communications network.
  14. 14 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein all CG-UCI repetitions of all of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI are included in an earliest of the two or more instances.
  15. 15 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more transmitted versions of CG-UCI are each repeated one or more times within at least one of the two or more instances, the at least one of the two or more instances being known to the wireless communications network.
  16. 16 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more transmitted versions of CG-UCI are each repeated one or more times within at least one of the two or more instances in accordance with a predefined pattern, the predefined pattern being known to the wireless communications network.
  17. 17 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more transmitted versions of CG-UCI are each transmitted as two or more separate portions, each of the two or more portions being transmitted within different instances of the two or more instances during the transmission of the uplink data.
  18. 18 . A communications device configured to transmit data to a wireless communications network via a wireless access interface, the communications device comprising: transceiver circuitry configured to transmit signals and receive signals via a wireless access interface, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry to operate in accordance with a configured grant (CG) mode of operation, the CG mode of operation comprising the communications device being configured to determine a sequence of instances of uplink communications resources of the wireless access interface and to transmit signals to the wireless communications network in at least one instance of the sequence of instances of uplink communications resources of the wireless access interface, to transmit uplink data to the wireless communications network in two or more instances of the sequence of instances of uplink communications resources of the wireless access interface as a plurality of repetitions of the uplink data, and to transmit one or more of a plurality of versions of uplink control information (CG-UCI) to the wireless communications network, each version of CG-UCI being associated with a plurality of instances of the sequence of instances of uplink communications resources of the wireless access interface, wherein the one or more transmitted versions of CG-UCI are each repeated a plurality of times during the transmission of the uplink data, and wherein all CG-UCI repetitions of one or more of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI are included in an earliest of the two or more instances, and all CG-UCI repetitions of the others of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI are included in at least one later instance of the two or more instances.
  19. 19 . An infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network configured to receive data from a communications device via a wireless access interface, the infrastructure equipment comprising: transceiver circuitry configured to transmit signals and receive signals via a wireless access interface provided by the infrastructure equipment, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry to transmit, to the communications device, an indication that the communications device is configured to operate in accordance with a configured grant (CG) mode of operation, the CG mode of operation comprising, at the communications device, determining a sequence of instances of uplink communications resources of the wireless access interface and transmitting signals to the infrastructure equipment in at least one instance of the sequence of instances of uplink communications resources of the wireless access interface, to receive uplink data from the communications device in two or more instances of the sequence of instances of uplink communications resources of the wireless access interface as a plurality of repetitions of the uplink data, and to receive one or more of a plurality of versions of uplink control information (CG-UCI) from the communications device, each version of CG-UCI being associated with a plurality of instances of the sequence of instances of uplink communications resources of the wireless access interface, wherein the one or more received versions of CG-UCI are each repeated a plurality of times during transmission of the uplink data, and wherein all CG-UCI repetitions of one or more of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI are included in an earliest of the two or more instances, and all CG-UCI repetitions of the others of the transmitted versions of CG-UCI are included in at least one later instance of the two or more instances.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The present application is based on PCT filing PCT/EP2021/077441, filed Oct. 5, 2021, which claims priority to European patent application 20202427.9, filed Oct. 16, 2020, the contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference. BACKGROUND Field of Disclosure The present disclosure relates to communications devices, infrastructure equipment and methods for the transmission of data by a communications device in a wireless communications network. Description of Related Art The “background” description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description which may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly or impliedly admitted as prior art against the present invention. Latest generation mobile telecommunication systems, such as those based on the 3GPP defined UMTS and Long Term Evolution (LTE) architecture, are able to support a wider range of services than simple voice and messaging services offered by previous generations of mobile telecommunication systems. For example, with the improved radio interface and enhanced data rates provided by LTE systems, a user is able to enjoy high data rate applications such as mobile video streaming and mobile video conferencing that would previously only have been available via a fixed line data connection. The demand to deploy such networks is therefore strong and the coverage area of these networks, i.e. geographic locations where access to the networks is possible, is expected to continue to increase rapidly. Future wireless communications networks will be expected to routinely and efficiently support communications with an ever increasing range of devices associated with a wider range of data traffic profiles and types than existing systems are optimised to support. For example it is expected future wireless communications networks will be expected to efficiently support communications with devices including reduced complexity devices, machine type communication (MTC) devices, high resolution video displays, virtual reality headsets and so on. Some of these different types of devices may be deployed in very large numbers, for example low complexity devices for supporting the “The Internet of Things”, and may typically be associated with the transmissions of relatively small amounts of data with relatively high latency tolerance. Other types of device, for example supporting high-definition video streaming, may be associated with transmissions of relatively large amounts of data with relatively low latency tolerance. Other types of device, for example used for autonomous vehicle communications and for other critical applications, may be characterised by data that should be transmitted through the network with low latency and high reliability. A single device type might also be associated with different traffic profiles/characteristics depending on the application(s) it is running. For example, different consideration may apply for efficiently supporting data exchange with a smartphone when it is running a video streaming application (high downlink data) as compared to when it is running an Internet browsing application (sporadic uplink and downlink data) or being used for voice communications by an emergency responder in an emergency scenario (data subject to stringent reliability and latency requirements). In view of this there is expected to be a desire for future wireless communications networks, for example those which may be referred to as 5G or new radio (NR) systems/new radio access technology (RAT) systems, as well as future iterations/releases of existing systems, to efficiently support connectivity for a wide range of devices associated with different applications and different characteristic data traffic profiles and requirements. One example of a new service is referred to as Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) services which, as its name suggests, requires that a data unit or packet be communicated with a high reliability and with a low communications delay. Another example of a new service is Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services, which are characterised by a high capacity with a requirement to support up to 20 Gb/s. URLLC and eMBB type services therefore represent challenging examples for both LTE type communications systems and 5G/NR communications systems. The increasing use of different types of network infrastructure equipment and terminal devices associated with different traffic profiles give rise to new challenges for efficiently handling communications in wireless communications systems that need to be addressed. SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE The present disclosure can help address or mitigate at least some of the issues discussed above. Embodiments of the present technique ca