Physical downlink control channel (pdcch) blind decoding in fifth generation (5g) new radio (nr) systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019223164-A1
Application number	US-201916361981-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 22, 2019
Priority date	Mar 22, 2018
Publication date	Jul 18, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

A network device (e.g., a user equipment (UE), or a new radio NB (gNB)) can process or generate a configuration of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring in different search spaces sets independently from one another in order to manage different services optimally. A processor of the network device can be configured to receive physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates of a PDCCH in a slot for channel estimation across search spaces of the slot. Different priorities can be determined among the PDCCH candidates in the slot based on a priority rule. Then a number of PDCCH candidates can be skipped/dropped from monitoring based on the different priorities of the PDCCH candidates to ensure that a threshold level of blind decoding operations across a plurality of slots of the PDCCH is being satisfied. The UE can monitor a portion of the PDCCH candidates while concurrently skipping another.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An apparatus configured to be employed in a User Equipment (UE) for new radio (NR) communications comprising:
one or more processors configured to:
receive physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates of a PDCCH in a slot to perform channel estimation across search spaces of the slot;
determine different priorities among the PDCCH candidates in the slot based on a priority rule;
selectively determine a number of PDCCH candidates to be skipped from monitoring based on the different priorities of the PDCCH candidates to ensure that a threshold level of blind decoding operations across a plurality of slots of the PDCCH is being satisfied; and
monitor a portion of the PDCCH candidates while concurrently skipping another portion of the PDCCH candidates comprising the number of PDCCH candidates in the slot;
a radio frequency (RF) interface, configured to provide, to RF circuitry, data for processing the PDCCH candidates.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
generate a determination of whether a total number of PDCCH candidates or a total number of control channel elements (CCEs) in the slot exceeds a predefined value for the threshold level of blind decoding operations; and based on the determination, select the number of PDCCH candidates to be skipped to satisfy the predefined value.

3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the priority rule comprises a set of criteria comprising one or more of: a search space type from among the search spaces comprising a common search space (CSS) and a UE-specific search space (USS), an aggregation level (AL), a predefined priority order, a PDCCH candidate index, a search space index, a component carrier (CC) index, or a bandwidth part index, for determining the priorities of the PDCCH candidates.

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the priority rule indicates that CSSs of the search spaces comprise a higher priority than USSs of the search spaces in the slot.

5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
prioritize the search spaces according to a search space index configured for the search spaces by a higher layer signaling in response to the priorities comprising a plurality of CSSs or a plurality of USSs with a same priority.

6 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
determine the priorities of the PDCCH candidates in the slot based on a higher layer signaling providing that a lower AL, or a higher AL, for PDCCH candidates are dropped from monitoring first in a priority order.

7 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
selectively determine the number of PDCCH candidates to be skipped from monitoring by a two-step mechanism comprising:
starting with the PDCCH candidates at a lowest AL, or a highest AL, from among the ALs of the search spaces in the slot to reduce the blind decoding operations; and
in response to a blind decoding budget or the threshold level of blind decoding operations being satisfied, skipping a PDCCH candidate at a highest AL, or a lowest AL, from among the ALs of the search spaces to satisfy a CCE budget.

8 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
compute a priority factor for the PDCCH candidates in a USS of the search spaces; skip from monitoring a subset of the PDCCH candidates in a plurality of control CORESETS and UE-specific search spaces of the search spaces that is selected based on priority values of a priority order of a set of criteria; and iterate with re-calculating priority factors to select the PDCCH candidates to skip from monitoring until a total number of PDCCH candidates and a number of CCEs in the slot for channel estimation fit within a predefined value for the threshold level of blind decoding operations.

9 . The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the priority factor is based on a control resource set index, a search space index, an aggregation level from a defined aggregation level set and the PDCCH candidates for the aggregation level within the search space index of the control resource set.

10 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
skip the number of PDCCH candidates from monitoring that are within a lower priority value range across the search spaces in the slot than other PDDCH candidates, wherein the lower priority value range is based on an inverse of a total number of PDCCH candidates for an aggregation level within a search space index of a control resource set.

11 . An apparatus configured to be employed in a next generation NodeB (gNB) for new radio (NR) communications comprising:
one or more processors configured to:
configure physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in different search spaces independently from one another in a slot for monitoring;
reduce a number of blind decoding attempts and control channel elements (CCEs) for channel estimation in the slot to satisfy a threshold level of blind decoding attempts across a plurality of slots;
a radio frequency (RF) interface, configured to provide, to RF circuitry, data for a transmission of the PDCCH.

12 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
reduce the number of blind decoding attempts and the CCEs in the slot by dropping a number of PDCCH candidates of the PDCCH based on at least one of: a type of search space, an aggregation level, or a data control information (DCI) format in the search space, in response to a total number of blind decoding attempts or CCEs across one or more search spaces in a slot exceeding the threshold level.

13 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
generate an indication of a priority order for dropping PDCCH candidates within a search space of the slot in response to a total number of blind decoding attempts or CCEs across one or more search spaces in a slot exceeding the threshold level.

14 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the indication indicates that the priority order starts from a highest AL to a lowest AL, or from the lowest AL to the highest AL, for determining which of the PDCCH candidates to drop first.

15 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the priority order is based on an order of types of radio network temporary identifiers for common search spaces in the slot.

16 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the priority order is based on an order of a search space type in the slot, the search space types comprising a common search spaces (CCSs) and a UE-specific search (USS) space.

17 . A computer readable storage device storing executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause one or more processors of a user equipment (UE) to perform operations, the operations comprising:
processing physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates of a PDCCH in a slot to perform channel estimation across search spaces in the slot; selectively determining a number of PDCCH candidates to be dropped from monitoring based on a priority rule and different priorities of the PDCCH candidates; and satisfying a threshold level of blind decoding operations across a plurality of slots of the PDCCH by monitoring at least a portion of the PDCCH candidates while concurrently skipping another portion of the PDCCH candidates comprising the number of PDCCH candidates in the slot.

18 .

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• He Hong
• Chatterjee Debdeep
• Xiong Gang

Classifications

• H04W72/23 Primary

  in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal · CPC title

• H04L5/0053

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

• H04W48/16

  Discovering, processing access restriction or access information · CPC title

• H04L5/001

  the frequencies being arranged in component carriers · CPC title

• H04W76/11

  Allocation or use of connection identifiers · CPC title