US-12628135-B2 - Methods and apparatus for sounding and control signaling enhancements

US12628135B2US 12628135 B2US12628135 B2US 12628135B2US-12628135-B2

Abstract

In an embodiment, a user equipment (UE) receives, from an access node (AN), downlink control information (DCI) triggering a transmission of a sounding reference signal (SRS) of a SRS resource set. The DCI indicates a time-domain resource in available time-domain resources for transmitting the SRS resource set. The UE determines a position of the time-domain resource in the available time-domain resources based on the DCI, and transmits the SRS in accordance with the position of the time-domain resource. In another embodiment, a UE receives control information indicating a frequency resource in a carrier for transmission of one or more SRSs. The UE determines, based thereon, to segment the frequency resource into segments that each includes contiguous physical resource blocks (PRBs), and transmits a SRS in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol on a first segment and not on a second segment.

Inventors

Jialing Liu
Weimin Xiao
Qian Cheng

Assignees

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20230328

Claims (20)

1 . A method comprising: receiving, by a user equipment (UE) from an access node (AN), higher layer signaling including a configuration; receiving, by the UE from the AN, downlink control information (DCI) in a first slot, the DCI triggering a transmission of a sounding reference signal (SRS) of an aperiodic SRS resource set, the DCI comprising first information indicating a first time-domain resource in a pool of available time-domain resources for transmitting the SRS, the pool of available time-domain resources being based on the configuration and the first slot in which the DCI is received; determining, by the UE, the first time-domain resource in the pool of available time-domain resources based on the first information of the DCI; and transmitting, by the UE to the AN, the SRS in accordance with the first time-domain resource.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein: the configuration includes a higher layer parameter slotoffset, and the determining the first time-domain resource comprises: determining, by the UE, the pool of available time-domain resources according to the first slot of the DCI and the higher layer parameter slotoffset.
3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising: determining, by the UE, a reference slot for the pool of available time-domain resources based on the first slot and the higher layer parameter slotoffset, wherein the reference slot is at a position that is k slots after the first slot, k is configured by the higher layer parameter slotoffset, and k is greater than or equal to zero (0).
4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the pool of available time-domain resources comprises time-domain resources that are in or after, in a time domain, the reference slot, and that are configured as uplink (UL) or flexible, and wherein the time-domain resources are in a unit of a slot, a mini-slot, or an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the pool of available time-domain resources comprises time-domain resources that are in or after, in a time domain, the first slot, and that are configured as uplink (UL) or flexible, and the time-domain resources are in a unit of a slot, a mini-slot, or an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the DCI comprises a slot index of the first time-domain resource in the pool of available time-domain resources.
7 . A method comprising: transmitting, by an access node (AN) to a user equipment (UE), higher layer signaling including a configuration; transmitting, by the AN to the UE, downlink control information (DCI) in a first slot, the DCI triggering a transmission of a sounding reference signal (SRS) of an aperiodic SRS resource set, wherein: the DCI comprises information indicating a first time-domain resource from a pool of available time-domain resources for transmitting the SRS, and the pool of available time-domain resources corresponds to the configuration and the first slot in which the DCI is transmitted; and receiving, by the AN from the UE, the SRS based on the first time-domain resource.
8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the pool of available time-domain resources corresponds to a position of the first slot of the DCI and a higher layer parameter slotoffset, and the configuration includes the higher layer parameter slotoffset.
9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the pool of available time-domain resources corresponds to a reference slot, the reference slot is at a position that is k slots after the first slot, and k is specified by the higher layer parameter slotoffset that is configured for the UE, and k is greater than or equal to zero (0).
10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the pool of available time-domain resources comprises time-domain resources that are in or after, in a time domain, the reference slot, and that are configured as uplink (UL) or flexible, and wherein the time-domain resources are in a unit of a slot, a mini-slot, or an OFDM symbol.
11 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the pool of available time-domain resources comprises time-domain resources that are in or after, in a time domain, the first slot, and that are configured as uplink (UL) or flexible, and the time-domain resources are in a unit of a slot, a mini-slot, or an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol.
12 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the DCI comprises a slot index of the first time-domain resource in the pool of available time-domain resources.
13 . An apparatus comprising: a non-transitory memory storage comprising instructions; and one or more processors in communication with the non-transitory memory storage, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to perform: receiving, from an access node (AN), higher layer signaling including a configuration; receiving, from the AN, downlink control information (DCI) in a first slot, the DCI triggering a transmission of a sounding reference signal (SRS) of an aperiodic SRS resource set, the DCI comprising first information indicating a first time-domain resource in a pool of available time-domain resources for transmitting the SRS, the pool of available time-domain resources being based on the configuration and the first slot in which the DCI is received; determining the first time-domain resource in the pool of available time-domain resources based on the first information of the DCI; and transmitting, to the AN, the SRS in accordance with the first time-domain resource.
14 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the configuration includes a higher layer parameter slotoffset; and the determining the first time-domain resource comprises: determining the pool of available time-domain resources according to the first slot of the DCI and the higher layer parameter slotoffset.
15 . The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the determining the pool of available time-domain resources according to the first slot and the higher layer parameter slotoffset comprises: determining a reference slot for the pool of available time-domain resources based on the first slot and the higher layer parameter slotoffset, wherein the reference slot is at a position that is k slots after the first slot, k is configured by the higher layer parameter slotoffset, and k is greater than or equal to zero (0).
16 . The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the pool of available time-domain resources comprises time-domain resources that are in or after, in a time domain, the reference slot, and that are configured as uplink (UL) or flexible, and wherein the time-domain resources are in a unit of a slot, a mini-slot, or an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol.
17 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the pool of available time-domain resources comprises time-domain resources that are in or after, in a time domain, the first slot, and that are configured as uplink (UL) or flexible, and the time-domain resources are in a unit of a slot, a mini-slot, or an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol.
18 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the DCI comprises a slot index of the first time-domain resource in the pool of available time-domain resources.
19 . An apparatus comprising: a non-transitory memory storage comprising instructions; and one or more processors in communication with the non-transitory memory storage, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to perform: transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), higher layer signaling including a configuration; transmitting, to the UE, downlink control information (DCI) in a first slot, the DCI triggering a transmission of a sounding reference signal (SRS) of an aperiodic SRS resource set, wherein: the DCI comprises information indicating a first time-domain resource from a pool of available time-domain resources for transmitting the SRS resource set, and the pool of available time-domain resources corresponds to the configuration and the first slot in which the DCI is transmitted; and receiving, from the UE, the SRS based on the first time-domain resource.
20 . The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the pool of available time-domain resources corresponds to a position of the first slot of the DCI and a higher layer parameter slotoffset, and the configuration includes the higher layer parameter slotoffset.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of International Application No. PCT/US2021/056114, filed on Oct. 21, 2021 and entitled “Methods and Apparatus for Sounding and Control Signaling Enhancements,” which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/104,374, filed on Oct. 22, 2020 and entitled “Methods and Apparatus for Sounding and Control Signaling Enhancements,” and to U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/138,220, filed on Jan. 15, 2021 and entitled “Methods and Apparatus for Sounding and Control Signaling Enhancements”. The aforementioned applications are hereby incorporated by reference herein as if reproduced in their entireties. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications, and, in particular embodiments, to methods and apparatus for sounding and control signaling enhancements. BACKGROUND Sounding reference signals (SRSs) are reference signals transmitted by user equipments (UEs) in the uplink for the purpose of enabling uplink channel estimation over a wide bandwidth. As such, the network may be able to perform communication with the UEs based on the uplink channel estimation. Moreover, due to channel reciprocity between the uplink and the downlink present in a time division duplex (TDD) communication system, the network may utilize the SRSs to perform dynamic scheduling. That is, the network may exploit channel-dependent scheduling. In this case, the time-frequency resources are dynamically scheduled, taking into account the different traffic priorities and quality of services requirements. Typically, the UEs monitor several Physical Downlink Control Channels (PDCCHs) to acquire the scheduling decisions, which are signaled to the UEs by the network. Upon the detection of a valid PDCCH, the UE follows the scheduling decision and receives (or transmits) data. The configuration of SRS related parameters of a SRS to be transmitted in the uplink (such as SRS transmission ports, SRS transmission bandwidth, SRS resources sets, transmission comb and cyclic shift, etc.) are semi-static in nature and may be provided through higher layer signaling, such as radio resource control signaling. A more dynamic technique to signal the configuration is needed to better associate the SRS parameters (such as the SRS transmission bandwidth and/or ports) with the Physical Data Shared Channel (PDSCH) parameters. Moreover, it is desirable that the association between downlink reference signals, such as Channel State Information Reference Signals (CSI-RS) or demodulation reference signals (DMRS), and an uplink SRS be conveyed to the UE to accurately reflect the interference situation and perform optimal beamforming. Thus, there is a need for an apparatus and methods for signaling control information that accurately indicates a more dynamic configuration (not semi-static) of the aforementioned parameters, such as, for example, a portion of the transmission bandwidth required to transmit a subset of a SRS resource set (thereby implicitly indicating a transmission comb and cyclic shift) using a subset of the transmission ports associated with a particular set of downlink reference signals. The signaling of the control information may be closely tied to an actual data transmission. The transmission of the SRS may be periodic (i.e., periodic SRS, P-SRS or P SRS) as configured by Layer 3 RRC configuration signaling, semi-persistence (i.e., semi-persistent SRS, SP-SRS or SP SRS) activated/deactivated via Layer 2 MAC CE, or aperiodic (i.e., aperiodic SRS, A-SRS or AP-SRS or A SRS or AP SRS) indicated by Layer 1 downlink control information (DCI) in PDCCH. SUMMARY Technical advantages are generally achieved, by embodiments of this disclosure which describe a method and apparatus for sounding and control signaling enhancements. According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method is provided that includes: receiving, by a user equipment (UE) from an access node (AN), downlink control information (DCI) triggering a transmission of a sounding reference signal (SRS) of a SRS resource set, the DCI comprising first information indicating a first time-domain resource in available time-domain resources for transmitting the SRS resource set; determining, by the UE, the available time-domain resources for transmitting the SRS resource set based on a first slot in which the DCI is received; determining, by the UE, a position of the first time-domain resource in the available time-domain resources based on the first information of the DCI; and transmitting, by the UE to the AN, the SRS in accordance with the position of the first time-domain resource. Optionally, in any of the preceding aspects, determining the available time-domain resources comprises: determining, by the UE, a reference slot of the available time-domain resources according to a position of the first slot of the DCI and a higher layer parameter slotoffset; and determining, by the UE,