Narrowband component carrier for low power user equipment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12490192-B2
Application number	US-202217746788-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 17, 2022
Priority date	May 17, 2022
Publication date	Dec 2, 2025
Grant date	Dec 2, 2025

Abstract

Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. A user equipment (UE) may transmit an indication of a capability for the UE to support narrowband control signaling over a narrowband component carrier that is separate from data channel signaling over one or more wideband component carriers. The UE may receive control signaling indicating a configuration for the narrowband component carrier based on the capability and monitor for the narrowband control signaling on the narrowband component carrier based on the configuration. The UE may perform signal processing on narrowband signaling using a dedicated narrowband receive chain, which may include lower power components than a receive chain for wideband signaling.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An apparatus for wireless communications at a user equipment (UE), comprising:
one or more processors; memory coupled with the one or more processors; and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to cause the UE to:
transmit an indication of a capability for the UE to support narrowband control signaling over a narrowband primary component carrier of a carrier aggregation that is separate from data channel signaling over one or more wideband secondary component carriers of the carrier aggregation;
receive control signaling indicating a configuration for the narrowband primary component carrier of the carrier aggregation and the one or more wideband secondary component carriers of the carrier aggregation based at least in part on the capability; and
monitor for the narrowband control signaling on the narrowband primary component carrier based at least in part on the configuration.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the UE to:
receive, based at least in part on monitoring for the narrowband control signaling on the narrowband primary component carrier, a downlink grant on the narrowband primary component carrier, wherein the downlink grant on the narrowband primary component carrier allocates a downlink shared channel resource on a wideband secondary component carrier of the one or more wideband secondary component carriers; and receive, based at least in part on the downlink grant on the narrowband primary component carrier, a downlink shared channel transmission on the downlink shared channel resource on the wideband secondary component carrier.

3 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein
the configuration indicates a duration associated with a time gap between reception of the downlink grant on the narrowband primary component carrier and reception of the downlink shared channel transmission on the downlink shared channel resource on the wideband secondary component carrier.

4 . The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the UE to:
perform beam management to select a beam of a plurality of available beams during the time gap between receiving the downlink grant on the narrowband primary component carrier and receiving the downlink shared channel transmission via the downlink shared channel resource of the wideband secondary component carrier.

5 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the UE to:
trigger demodulation, using a wideband receive chain, of the downlink shared channel transmission via the downlink shared channel resource of the wideband secondary component carrier based at least in part on receiving the downlink grant on the narrowband primary component carrier.

6 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions to monitor for the narrowband control signaling on the narrowband primary component carrier are executable by the one or more processors to cause the UE to:
monitor, based at least in part on the control signaling indicating the configuration for the narrowband primary component carrier, for the narrowband control signaling in a first search space set of the narrowband primary component carrier that includes more symbols than a second search space set of a wideband secondary component carrier of the one or more wideband secondary component carriers, wherein the configuration indicates the first search space set.

7 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the UE to:
receive, based at least in part on monitoring for the narrowband control signaling on the narrowband primary component carrier, the narrowband control signaling on the narrowband primary component carrier; process the narrowband control signaling using a narrowband receive chain; receive the data channel signaling, based at least in part on receiving the narrowband control signaling on the narrowband primary component carrier, on a wideband secondary component carrier of the one or more wideband secondary component carriers; and process the data channel signaling using a wideband receive chain that is separate from the narrowband receive chain.

8 . The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the wideband receive chain associated with the one or more wideband secondary component carriers is inactive while processing the narrowband control signaling using the narrowband receive chain.

9 . The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the narrowband receive chain includes an analog front-end, an analog-to-digital converter, a digital front-end, a demodulator, or any combination thereof, unique to the narrowband receive chain.

10 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions to monitor for the narrowband control signaling are executable by the one or more processors to cause the UE to:
receive synchronization signal block signaling, initial access signaling, scheduling signaling, reference signal allocation signaling, on the narrowband primary component carrier.

11 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions to transmit the indication of the capability are executable by the one or more processors to cause the UE to:
transmit an indication of a first error vector magnitude associated with the narrowband primary component carrier, wherein the first error vector magnitude associated with the narrowband primary component carrier is higher than a second error vector magnitude associated with the one or more wideband secondary component carriers.

12 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the UE to:
receive a downlink grant on the narrowband primary component carrier based at least in part on monitoring for the narrowband control signaling, wherein the downlink grant allocates a downlink shared channel resource on the narrowband primary component carrier; and receive a downlink shared channel transmission on the downlink shared channel resource in accordance with a modulation and coding scheme associated with the narrowband primary component carrier based at least in part on the downlink grant.

13 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions to receive the control signaling are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the UE to:
receive the control signaling indicating the configuration that comprises a frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) field that identifies the narrowband primary component carrier, wherein the narrowband primary component carrier is monitored based at least in part on the FDRA field.

14 . An apparatus for wireless communications at a network entity, comprising:
one or more processors; memory coupled with the one or more processors; and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to cause the network entity to:
receive an indication of a capability for a user equipment (UE) to support narrowband control signaling over a narrowband primary component carrier of a carrier aggregation that is separate from data channel signaling over one or more wideband secondary component carriers of the carrier aggregation;
transmit control signaling indicating a configuration for the narrowband primary component carrier of the carrier aggregation and the one or more wideband secondary component carriers of the carrier aggregation based at least in part on the capability; and
transmit the narrowband control

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Paz Daniel
• Levitsky Michael
• Touboul Assaf

Classifications

• H04L5/0051

  of dedicated pilots, i.e. pilots destined for a single user or terminal · CPC title

• H04L5/0023

  Time-frequency-space · CPC title

• H04W52/0212 Primary

  managed by the network, e.g. network or access point is leader and terminal is follower · CPC title

• H04L5/0053

  Allocation of signalling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals · CPC title

• H04L5/001

  the frequencies being arranged in component carriers · CPC title