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US-12628180-B2 - Methods and apparatus for signaling sounding reference signals and control signals

US12628180B2US 12628180 B2US12628180 B2US 12628180B2US-12628180-B2

Abstract

A method implemented by an access node includes including transmitting, by the access node to a user equipment (UE), a control information message comprising an association indicator indicating an association between a reference signal and a channel between the access node and the UE; and communicating, by the access node with the UE, the reference signal in accordance with at least one channel parameter associated with the channel between the access node and the UE.

Inventors

  • Jialing Liu
  • Weimin Xiao
  • Qian Cheng

Assignees

  • HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20230221

Claims (20)

  1. 1 . A method implemented by an access node, the method comprising: transmitting, by the access node to a user equipment (UE), a control information message comprising a downlink control information (DCI) message and an association indicator indicating an association between a reference signal and a channel between the access node and the UE; communicating, by the access node with the UE, the reference signal in accordance with at least one channel parameter to communicate the channel between the access node and the UE; transmitting, by the access node to the UE, a second control information message comprising a second DCI message and a second association indicator, the second association indicator indicating a non-association between the reference signal and the channel; and communicating, by the access node with the UE, the reference signal in accordance with parameters specifically configured for the reference signal that are separate from the at least one channel parameter to communicate the channel.
  2. 2 . The method of claim 1 , the channel being a Physical Data Shared Channel (PDSCH) scheduled by the DCI or configured as a semi-persistent scheduled (SPS) PDSCH.
  3. 3 . The method of claim 1 , the channel being a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) scheduled by the DCI or configured as a grant.
  4. 4 . The method of claim 1 , the channel being a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), and the at least one channel parameter comprising at least one PDSCH parameter comprising a frequency domain resource assignment (FDRA) or an antenna port assignment comprising at least one of an antenna port number, an antenna port, and a number of layers.
  5. 5 . The method of claim 1 , the association indicator indicating the association between the reference signal and the channel conveying a channel state information (CSI) request.
  6. 6 . The method of claim 1 , the channel being a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), the at least one channel parameter comprising at least one PUSCH parameter comprising at least one of a carrier indicator, an uplink (UL) indicator, a supplementary UL (SUL) indicator, a bandwidth part (BWP) indicator, a FDRA, a time domain resource assignment (TDRA), a frequency hopping flag, a transmit power control (TPC) command, a SRS resource indicator, precoding information and number of layers information (TPMI), antenna ports, a SRS request, or a CSI request.
  7. 7 . The method of claim 1 , the communicating the reference signal in accordance with the at least one channel parameter comprising at least one of: receiving, from the UE, the reference signal in accordance with the at least one channel parameter associated with the channel between the access node and the UE, or transmitting, to the UE, the reference signal in accordance with the at least one channel parameter associated with the channel between the access node and the UE.
  8. 8 . The method of claim 1 , the reference signal comprising a sounding reference signal (SRS), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), or a CSI for interference measurement (CSI-IM).
  9. 9 . A method implemented by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: receiving, by the UE from an access node, a control information message comprising a downlink control information (DCI) message and an association indicator indicating an association between a reference signal and a channel between the access node and the UE, the channel being a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) scheduled by the DCI and configured as a semi-persistent scheduled (SPS) PDSCH, a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) scheduled by the DCI, or the channel being configured as a grant; communicating, by the UE with the access node, the reference signal in accordance with at least one channel parameter to communicate the channel between the access node and the UE; receiving, by the UE from the access node, a second control information message comprising a second DCI message and a second association indicator, the second association indicator indicating a non-association between the reference signal and the channel; and communicating, by the UE with the access node, the reference signal in accordance with parameters specifically configured for the reference signal that are separate from the at least one channel parameter to communicate the channel.
  10. 10 . The method of claim 9 , the channel being the PDSCH, the at least one channel parameter comprising at least one PDSCH parameter comprising a frequency domain resource assignment (FDRA) or an antenna port assignment comprising at least one of an antenna port number, an antenna port, and a number of layers.
  11. 11 . The method of claim 9 , the channel being the PUSCH, the at least one channel parameter comprising at least one PUSCH parameter comprising at least one of a carrier indicator, an uplink (UL) indicator, a supplementary UL (SUL) indicator, a bandwidth part (BWP) indicator, a time domain resource assignment (TDRA), a frequency hopping flag, a transmit power control (TPC) command, a SRS resource indicator, precoding information and number of layers information (TPMI), antenna ports, a SRS request, or a CSI request.
  12. 12 . The method of claim 9 , the communicating the reference signal in accordance with the at least one channel parameter comprising at least one of: receiving, from the access node, the reference signal in accordance with the at least one channel parameter associated with the channel between the access node and the UE, or transmitting, to the access node, the reference signal in accordance with the at least one channel parameter associated with the channel between the access node and the UE.
  13. 13 . The method of claim 9 , the channel being the PUSCH and the control information message further comprising at least one of a SRS TDRA or a SRS TPC command.
  14. 14 . The method of claim 9 , the reference signal comprising a sounding reference signal (SRS), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), or a CSI for interference measurement (CSI-IM).
  15. 15 . An access node, comprising: one or more processors; and a non-transitory memory storage storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the access node to perform operations including: transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), a control information message comprising a downlink control information (DCI) message and an association indicator indicating an association between a reference signal and a channel between the access node and the UE; communicating, with the UE, the reference signal in accordance with at least one channel parameter to communicate the channel between the access node and the UE; transmitting, to the UE, a second control information message comprising a second DCI message and a second association indicator, the second association indicator indicating a non-association between the reference signal and the channel; and communicating, with the UE, the reference signal in accordance with parameters specifically configured for the reference signal that are separate from the at least one channel parameter to communicate the channel.
  16. 16 . A user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more processors; and a non-transitory memory storage storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the UE to perform operations including: receiving, from an access node, a control information message comprising a downlink control information (DCI) message and an association indicator indicating an association between a reference signal and a channel between the access node and the UE, the channel being a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) scheduled by the DCI and configured as a semi-persistent scheduled (SPS) PDSCH, a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) scheduled by the DCI, or the channel being configured as a grant; communicating, with the access node, the reference signal in accordance with at least one channel parameter to communicate the channel between the access node and the UE; receiving, from the access node, a second control information message comprising a second DCI message and a second association indicator, the second association indicator indicating a non-association between the reference signal and the channel; and communicating, with the access node, the reference signal in accordance with parameters specifically configured for the reference signal that are separate from the at least one channel parameter to communicate the channel.
  17. 17 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the reference signal is communicated from the UE to the access node, and the channel is from the access node to the UE, or wherein the reference signal is communicated from the access node to the UE, and the channel is from the UE to the access node.
  18. 18 . The access node of claim 15 , the channel being a Physical Data Shared Channel (PDSCH) scheduled by the DCI or configured as a semi-persistent scheduled (SPS) PDSCH.
  19. 19 . The UE of claim 16 , the channel being the PDSCH, the at least one channel parameter comprising at least one PDSCH parameter comprising a frequency domain resource assignment (FDRA) or an antenna port assignment comprising at least one of an antenna port number, an antenna port, and a number of layers.
  20. 20 . The UE of claim 16 , the channel being the PUSCH, the at least one channel parameter comprising at least one PUSCH parameter comprising at least one of a carrier indicator, an uplink (UL) indicator, a supplementary UL (SUL) indicator, a bandwidth part (BWP) indicator, a time domain resource assignment (TDRA), a frequency hopping flag, a transmit power control (TPC) command, a SRS resource indicator, precoding information and number of layers information (TPMI), antenna ports, a SRS request, or a CSI request.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of International Patent Application No. PCT/US2021/040279, filed on Jul. 2, 2021, entitled “Methods and Apparatus for Signaling Sounding Reference Signals and Control Signals,” which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/068,855, filed on Aug. 21, 2020, entitled “Methods and Apparatus for Sounding and Control Signaling Enhancements,” applications of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. This application is related to Application No. PCT/US2021/040273, filed on Jul. 2, 2021, entitled “Methods and Apparatus for Configuration of Sounding Reference Signals,” application of which is incorporated by reference in entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates generally to methods and apparatus for digital communications, and, in particular embodiments, to methods and apparatus for signaling sounding reference signals and control signals. 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 (RRC) 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, the association between the downlink reference signals, such as Channel State Information Reference Signals (CSI-RS) or demodulation reference signals (DMRS), and the uplink SRS must be conveyed to the UE to accurately reflect the interference situation and perform optimal beamforming. Thus, there is a need for apparatus and methods for configuration of sounding reference signals, including 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 the 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 media access control (MAC) control element (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 According to a first aspect, a method implemented by an access node is provided. The method comprising: transmitting, by the access node to a user equipment (UE), a control information message, the control information message comprising an association indicator indicating an association between a reference signal and a channel between the access node and the UE; and communicating, by the access node with the UE, the reference signal in accordance with at least one channel parameter associated with the channel between the access node and the UE. In a first implementation form of the method according to the first aspect, the control information message comprising a downlink control information (DCI) message. In a second implementation form of the method according to the first aspect or any preceding implementation form of the first aspect, the channel being a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), and the at least one channel parameter comprising at least one PDSCH parameter. In a third implementation form of the method according to the first aspect or any preceding implementation form of the first asp