WO2017160350A1

WO2017160350A1 - User equipment (ue), evolved node-b (enb) and hybrid automatic repeat request (harq) methods for carrier aggregation arrangements

Info

Publication number: WO2017160350A1
Application number: PCT/US2016/062042
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hwan-Joon Kwon; Hong He; Alexei V. Davydov; Gang Xiong
Original assignee: Intel IP Corp
Current assignee: Intel IP Corp
Priority date: 2016-03-17
Filing date: 2016-11-15
Publication date: 2017-09-21
Anticipated expiration: 2018-09-17
Also published as: EP3430754A4; EP3430754A1

Abstract

Embodiments of a User Equipment (UE), Evolved Node-B (eNB) and methods for communication in accordance with hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) operation are generally described herein. In a sub-frame, the UE may receive, from an eNB on multiple component carriers (CCs) of a carrier aggregation (CA), one or more physical downlink control channels (PDCCHs) and one or more physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmissions scheduled by the PDCCHs. The UE may receive a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH transmission scheduled in the sub-frame by an SPS schedule configured prior to the sub-frame. HARQ-ACK bits for the PDSCH transmissions may be mapped to bit positions of a HARQ-ACK bit sequence indicated by the PDCCHs. A HARQ-ACK bit for the SPS PDSCH transmission may be mapped to a predetermined bit position of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence reserved for the SPS PDSCH transmission.

Description

USER EQUIPMENT (UE), EVOLVED NODE-B (ENB) AND HYBRID AUTOMATIC REPEAT REQUEST (HARQ) METHODS FOR CARRIER

AGGREGATION ARRANGEMENTS

PRIORITY CLAIM

[0001] This application claims priority to United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 62/309,819, filed March 17, 2016, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] Embodiments pertain to wireless communications. Some embodiments relate to wireless networks including 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) networks, including 3 GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks and 3GPP LTE-A (LTE Advanced) networks. Some embodiments relate to hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ). Some embodiments relate to mapping of acknowledgement (ACK) bits to HARQ-ACK bit sequences. Some embodiments relate to carrier aggregation (CA) arrangements.

BACKGROUND

[0003] A mobile network may support communication with mobile devices. In some cases, an increased data rate and/or demand for services may provide various challenges. As an example, an increased bandwidth may be used to increase an available data rate. For instance, multiple channels may be aggregated for downlink data transmission by a base station to a mobile device in accordance with a carrier aggregation (CA) arrangement. Some operations, such as exchanging of control information between the base station and the mobile device may be challenging in various scenarios, such as CA scenarios and others. Accordingly, there is a general need for methods and systems to enable communication in these and other scenarios.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0004] FIG. 1 is a functional diagram of a 3GPP network in accordance with some embodiments;

[0005] FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an example machine in accordance with some embodiments;

[0006] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an Evolved Node-B (eNB) in accordance with some embodiments;

[0007] FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a User Equipment (UE) in accordance with some embodiments;

[0008] FIG. 5 illustrates example carrier aggregation (CA) arrangements in accordance with some embodiments;

[0009] FIG. 6 illustrates the operation of a method of communication in accordance with some embodiments;

[0010] FIG. 7 illustrates examples of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement in accordance with some embodiments;

[0011] FIG. 8 illustrates additional examples of HARQ

acknowledgement in accordance with some embodiments;

[0012] FIG. 9 illustrates additional examples of HARQ

acknowledgement in accordance with some embodiments;

[0013] FIG. 10 illustrates the operation of another method of communication in accordance with some embodiments;

[0014] FIG. 1 1 illustrates additional examples of HARQ

acknowledgement in accordance with some embodiments;

[0015] FIGs. 12A-B illustrate additional examples of HARQ acknowledgement in accordance with some embodiments;

[0016] FIG. 13 illustrates additional examples of HARQ

acknowledgement in accordance with some embodiments; and [0017] FIG. 14 illustrates the operation of another method of communication in accordance with some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0018] The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustrate specific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practice them. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical, process, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in, or substituted for, those of other embodiments. Embodiments set forth in the claims encompass all available equivalents of those claims.

[0019] FIG. 1 is a functional diagram of a 3GPP network in accordance with some embodiments. It should be noted that embodiments are not limited to the example 3GPP network shown in FIG. 1, as other cellular networks and/or other networks may be used in some embodiments. As an example, a Fifth Generation (5G) network may be used in some cases. As another example, a wireless local area network (WLAN) may be used in some cases. Embodiments are not limited to these example networks, however, as other networks may be used in some embodiments. In addition, in some embodiments, one or more networks, including these example networks and/or other networks, may be used in combination. As another example, the UE 102 may be configured to communicate with two networks (such as a 3 GPP LTE network and a 5G network), in some embodiments. In addition, handovers between the two networks may be performed, in some cases. It should be noted that the networks of these embodiments and/or other embodiments may include one or more of the components shown in FIG. 1, and may include additional components and/or alternative components in some cases.

[0020] In some embodiments, the eNB 104 and the UE 102 may be configured to operate in accordance with a carrier aggregation (CA) arrangement. As an example, the eNB 104 may transmit downlink data to the UE 102 on multiple component carriers (CCs). These embodiments will be described in more detail below. [0021] The network shown in FIG. 1 may comprise a radio access network (RAN) (e.g., as depicted, the E-UTRAN (evolved universal terrestrial radio access network)) 100 and the core network 120 (e.g., shown as an evolved packet core (EPC)) coupled together through an S I interface 115. It should be noted that the S 1 interface 115 may be a link between an eNB 104 and the MME 122 or S-GW 124. In addition, although multiple eNBs 104 are illustrated in the example of FIG. 1, a separate SI interface 115 may be used for each eNB 104 to provide a link between the eNB 104 and the MME 122 and/or S-GW 124, in some embodiments. For convenience and brevity sake, only a portion of the core network 120, as well as the RAN 100, is shown.

[0022] The core network 120 includes a mobility management entity

(MME) 122, a serving gateway (serving GW) 124, and packet data network gateway (PDN GW) 126. The RAN 100 may include one or more Evolved Node-B's (eNBs) 104 (which may operate as base stations) for communicating with User Equipment (UE) 102. The eNBs 104 may include macro eNBs and low power (LP) eNBs also known as micro-, pico-, femto- or small-cell eNBs.

[0023] In some embodiments, the UE 102 may receive downlink medium access control (MAC) protocol data units (PDUs) from the eNB 104. The MAC PDUs may be transmitted by the eNB 104 and received by the UE 102 in accordance with a 3 GPP protocol and/or other protocol. These embodiments will be described in more detail below.

[0024] The MME 122 is similar in function to the control plane of legacy

Serving GPRS Support Nodes (SGSN). The MME 122 manages mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. The serving GW 124 terminates the interface toward the RAN 100, and routes data packets between the RAN 100 and the core network 120. In addition, it may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-eNB handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement. The serving GW 124 and the MME 122 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes. The PDN GW 126 terminates an SGi interface toward the packet data network (PDN). The PDN GW 126 routes data packets between the EPC 120 and the external PDN, and may be a key node for policy enforcement and charging data collection. It may also provide an anchor point for mobility with non-LTE accesses. The external PDN can be any kind of IP network, as well as an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) domain. The PDN GW 126 and the serving GW 124 may be implemented in one physical node or separated physical nodes.

[0025] The eNBs 104 (macro and micro) terminate the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for a UE 102. In some

embodiments, an eNB 104 may fulfill various logical functions for the RAN 100 including but not limited to RNC (radio network controller functions) such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management. In accordance with embodiments, UEs 102 may be configured to communicate Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals with an eNB 104 over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance with an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) communication technique. The OFDM signals may comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

[0026] The S 1 interface 1 15 is the interface that separates the RAN 100 and the EPC 120. It is split into two parts: the S l-U, which carries traffic data between the eNBs 104 and the serving GW 124, and the S I -MME, which is a signaling interface between the eNBs 104 and the MME 122. The X2 interface is the interface between eNBs 104. The X2 interface comprises two parts, the X2-C and X2-U. The X2-C is the control plane interface between the eNBs 104, while the X2-U is the user plane interface between the eNBs 104.

[0027] With cellular networks, LP cells are typically used to extend coverage to indoor areas where outdoor signals do not reach well, or to add network capacity in areas with very dense phone usage, such as train stations. As used herein, the term low power (LP) eNB refers to any suitable relatively low power eNB for implementing a narrower cell (narrower than a macro cell) such as a femtocell, a picocell, or a micro cell. Femtocell eNBs are typically provided by a mobile network operator to its residential or enterprise customers. A femtocell is typically the size of a residential gateway or smaller and generally connects to the user's broadband line. Once plugged in, the femtocell connects to the mobile operator's mobile network and provides extra coverage in a range of typically 30 to 50 meters for residential femtocells. Thus, a LP eNB might be a femtocell eNB since it is coupled through the PDN GW 126. Similarly, a picocell is a wireless communication system typically covering a small area, such as in-building (offices, shopping malls, train stations, etc.), or more recently in-aircraft. A picocell eNB can generally connect through the X2 link to another eNB such as a macro eNB through its base station controller (BSC)

functionality. Thus, LP eNB may be implemented with a picocell eNB since it is coupled to a macro eNB via an X2 interface. Picocell eNBs or other LP eNBs may incorporate some or all functionality of a macro eNB. In some cases, this may be referred to as an access point base station or enterprise femtocell.

[0028] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from an eNB 104 to a UE 102, while uplink transmission from the UE 102 to the eNB 104 may utilize similar techniques. The grid may be a time-frequency grid, called a resource grid or time -frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. Such a time -frequency plane representation is a common practice for OFDM systems, which makes it intuitive for radio resource allocation. Each column and each row of the resource grid correspond to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted as a resource element (RE). Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks (RBs), which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements in the frequency domain and may represent the smallest quanta of resources that currently can be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks. With particular relevance to this disclosure, two of these physical downlink channels are the physical downlink shared channel and the physical down link control channel.

[0029] The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) carries user data and higher-layer signaling to a UE 102 (FIG. 1). The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries information about the transport format and resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things. It also informs the UE 102 about the transport format, resource allocation, and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information related to the uplink shared channel.

Typically, downlink scheduling (e.g., assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to UEs 102 within a cell) may be performed at the eNB 104 based on channel quality information fed back from the UEs 102 to the eNB 104, and then the downlink resource assignment information may be sent to a UE 102 on the control channel (PDCCH) used for (assigned to) the UE 102.

[0030] The PDCCH uses CCEs (control channel elements) to convey the control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols are first organized into quadruplets, which are then permuted using a sub-block inter-leaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH is transmitted using one or more of these control channel elements (CCEs), where each CCE corresponds to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as resource element groups (REGs). Four QPSK symbols are mapped to each REG. The PDCCH can be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of DCI and the channel condition. There may be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation level, L=l, 2, 4, or 8).

[0031] As used herein, the term "circuitry" may refer to, be part of, or include an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group), and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that execute one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may be implemented in, or functions associated with the circuitry may be implemented by, one or more software or firmware modules. In some embodiments, circuitry may include logic, at least partially operable in hardware. Embodiments described herein may be implemented into a system using any suitably configured hardware and/or software.

[0032] FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an example machine in accordance with some embodiments. The machine 200 is an example machine upon which any one or more of the techniques and/or methodologies discussed herein may be performed. In alternative embodiments, the machine 200 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine 200 may operate in the capacity of a server machine, a client machine, or both in server-client network environments. In an example, the machine 200 may act as a peer machine in peer-to-peer (P2P) (or other distributed) network environment. The machine 200 may be a UE 102, eNB 104, access point (AP), station (STA), mobile device, base station, personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a smart phone, a web appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. Further, while only a single machine is illustrated, the term "machine" shall also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, such as cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS), other computer cluster configurations.

[0033] Examples as described herein, may include, or may operate on, logic or a number of components, modules, or mechanisms. Modules are tangible entities (e.g., hardware) capable of performing specified operations and may be configured or arranged in a certain manner. In an example, circuits may be arranged (e.g., internally or with respect to external entities such as other circuits) in a specified manner as a module. In an example, the whole or part of one or more computer systems (e.g., a standalone, client or server computer system) or one or more hardware processors may be configured by firmware or software (e.g., instructions, an application portion, or an application) as a module that operates to perform specified operations. In an example, the software may reside on a machine readable medium. In an example, the software, when executed by the underlying hardware of the module, causes the hardware to perform the specified operations.

[0034] Accordingly, the term "module" is understood to encompass a tangible entity, be that an entity that is physically constructed, specifically configured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarily (e.g., transitorily) configured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a specified manner or to perform part or all of any operation described herein. Considering examples in which modules are temporarily configured, each of the modules need not be instantiated at any one moment in time. For example, where the modules comprise a general -purpose hardware processor configured using software, the general-purpose hardware processor may be configured as respective different modules at different times. Software may accordingly configure a hardware processor, for example, to constitute a particular module at one instance of time and to constitute a different module at a different instance of time.

[0035] The machine (e.g., computer system) 200 may include a hardware processor 202 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a main memory 204 and a static memory 206, some or all of which may communicate with each other via an interlink (e.g., bus) 208. The machine 200 may further include a display unit 210, an alphanumeric input device 212 (e.g., a keyboard), and a user interface (UI) navigation device 214 (e.g., a mouse). In an example, the display unit 210, input device 212 and UI navigation device 214 may be a touch screen display. The machine 200 may additionally include a storage device (e.g., drive unit) 216, a signal generation device 218 (e.g., a speaker), a network interface device 220, and one or more sensors 221, such as a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, compass, accelerometer, or other sensor. The machine 200 may include an output controller 228, such as a serial (e.g., universal serial bus (USB), parallel, or other wired or wireless (e.g., infrared (IR), near field communication (NFC), etc.) connection to communicate or control one or more peripheral devices (e.g., a printer, card reader, etc.).

[0036] The storage device 216 may include a machine readable medium 222 on which is stored one or more sets of data structures or instructions 224 (e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of the techniques or functions described herein. The instructions 224 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 204, within static memory 206, or within the hardware processor 202 during execution thereof by the machine 200. In an example, one or any combination of the hardware processor 202, the main memory 204, the static memory 206, or the storage device 216 may constitute machine readable media. In some embodiments, the machine readable medium may be or may include a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. In some embodiments, the machine readable medium may be or may include a computer-readable storage medium.

[0037] While the machine readable medium 222 is illustrated as a single medium, the term "machine readable medium" may include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) configured to store the one or more instructions 224. The term "machine readable medium" may include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the machine 200 and that cause the machine 200 to perform any one or more of the techniques of the present disclosure, or that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying data structures used by or associated with such instructions. Non-limiting machine readable medium examples may include solid-state memories, and optical and magnetic media. Specific examples of machine readable media may include: non-volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., Electrically Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), Electrically Erasable

Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; Random Access Memory (RAM); and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. In some examples, machine readable media may include non-transitory machine readable media. In some examples, machine readable media may include machine readable media that is not a transitory propagating signal.

[0038] The instructions 224 may further be transmitted or received over a communications network 226 using a transmission medium via the network interface device 220 utilizing any one of a number of transfer protocols (e.g., frame relay, internet protocol (IP), transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), etc.). Example communication networks may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a packet data network (e.g., the Internet), mobile telephone networks (e.g., cellular networks), Plain Old Telephone (POTS) networks, and wireless data networks (e.g., Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

(IEEE) 802.1 1 family of standards known as Wi-Fi®, IEEE 802.16 family of standards known as WiMax®), IEEE 802.15.4 family of standards, a Long Term

Evolution (LTE) family of standards, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) family of standards, peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, among others. In an example, the network interface device 220 may include one or more physical jacks (e.g., Ethernet, coaxial, or phone jacks) or one or more antennas to connect to the communications network 226. In an example, the network interface device 220 may include a plurality of antennas to wirelessly communicate using at least one of single-input multiple-output (SIMO), multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), or multiple-input single-output (MISO) techniques. In some examples, the network interface device 220 may wirelessly communicate using Multiple User MIMO techniques. The term "transmission medium" shall be taken to include any intangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying instructions for execution by the machine 200, and includes digital or analog communications signals or other intangible medium to facilitate communication of such software.

[0039] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an Evolved Node-B (eNB) in accordance with some embodiments. It should be noted that in some embodiments, the eNB 300 may be a stationary non-mobile device. The eNB 300 may be suitable for use as an eNB 104 as depicted in FIG. 1, in some embodiments. It should be noted that the eNB 300 may be a legacy eNB 104, a 3 GPP LTE eNB (such as 104), a fourth generation (4G) eNB, a 5G eNB and/or other type of eNB or base station.

[0040] The eNB 300 may include physical layer circuitry 302 and a transceiver 305, one or both of which may enable transmission and reception of signals to and from the UE 102, other eNBs, other UEs or other devices using one or more antennas 301. As an example, the physical layer circuitry 302 may perform various encoding and decoding functions that may include formation of baseband signals for transmission and decoding of received signals. As another example, the transceiver 305 may perform various transmission and reception functions such as conversion of signals between a baseband range and a Radio Frequency (RF) range. Accordingly, the physical layer circuitry 302 and the transceiver 305 may be separate components or may be part of a combined component. In addition, some of the described functionality related to transmission and reception of signals may be performed by a combination that may include one, any or all of the physical layer circuitry 302, the transceiver 305, and other components or layers. The eNB 300 may also include medium access control layer (MAC) circuitry 304 for controlling access to the wireless medium. The eNB 300 may also include processing circuitry 306 and memory 308 arranged to perform the operations described herein. The eNB 300 may also include one or more interfaces 310, which may enable communication with other components, including other eNBs 104 (FIG. 1), components in the EPC 120 (FIG. 1) or other network components. In addition, the interfaces 310 may enable communication with other components that may not be shown in FIG. 1, including components external to the network. As an example, the interfaces 310 may enable communication between the eNB 300 and an access point (AP) and/or other component of a WLAN. The interfaces 310 may be wired or wireless or a combination thereof. It should be noted that in some embodiments, an eNB or other base station may include some or all of the components shown in either FIG. 2 or FIG. 3 or both.

[0041] FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a User Equipment (UE) in accordance with some embodiments. The UE 400 may be suitable for use as a UE 102 as depicted in FIG. 1. In some embodiments, the UE 400 may include application circuitry 402, baseband circuitry 404, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 406, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 408 and one or more antennas 410, coupled together at least as shown. In some embodiments, other circuitry or arrangements may include one or more elements and/or components of the application circuitry 402, the baseband circuitry 404, the RF circuitry 406 and/or the FEM circuitry 408, and may also include other elements and/or components in some cases. As an example, "processing circuitry" may include one or more elements and/or components, some or all of which may be included in the application circuitry 402 and/or the baseband circuitry 404. As another example, a "transceiver" or "transceiver circuitry" may include one or more elements and/or components, some or all of which may be included in the RF circuitry 406 and/or the FEM circuitry 408. These examples are not limiting, however, as the processing circuitry, the transceiver and/or the transceiver circuitry may also include other elements and/or components in some cases. It should be noted that in some embodiments, a UE or other mobile device may include some or all of the components shown in either FIG. 2 or FIG. 4 or both. [0042] The application circuitry 402 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 402 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphics processors,

application processors, etc.). The processors may be coupled with and/or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications and/or operating systems to run on the system.

[0043] The baseband circuitry 404 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 404 may include one or more baseband processors and/or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 406 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 406. Baseband processing circuitry 404 may interface with the application circuitry 402 for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry 406. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 404 may include a second generation (2G) baseband processor 404a, third generation (3G) baseband processor 404b, fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 404c, and/or other baseband processor(s) 404d for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., fifth generation (5G), 6G, etc.). The baseband circuitry 404 (e.g., one or more of baseband processors 404a-d) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 406. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation,

encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 404 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, and/or constellation

mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 404 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, and/or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functionality are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functionality in other embodiments.

[0044] In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 404 may include elements of a protocol stack such as, for example, elements of an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) protocol including, for example, physical (PHY), media access control (MAC), radio link control (RLC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), and/or radio resource control (RRC) elements. A central processing unit (CPU) 404e of the baseband circuitry 404 may be configured to run elements of the protocol stack for signaling of the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP and/or RRC layers. In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry may include one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 404f. The audio DSP(s) 404f may be include elements for

compression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. Components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board in some embodiments. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 404 and the application circuitry 402 may be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

[0045] In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 404 may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 404 may support communication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) and/or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network

(WPAN). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 404 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

[0046] RF circuitry 406 may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 406 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network.

RF circuitry 406 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 408 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 404. RF circuitry 406 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 404 and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 408 for transmission.

[0047] In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 406 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the RF circuitry 406 may include mixer circuitry 406a, amplifier circuitry 406b and filter circuitry 406c. The transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 406 may include filter circuitry 406c and mixer circuitry 406a. RF circuitry 406 may also include synthesizer circuitry 406d for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 406a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 406a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 408 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 406d. The amplifier circuitry 406b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 406c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals. Output baseband signals may be provided to the baseband circuitry 404 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 406a of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 406a of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 406d to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 408. The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 404 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 406c. The filter circuitry 406c may include a low-pass filter (LPF), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0048] In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 406a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 406a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and/or upconversion respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 406a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 406a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 406a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 406a may be arranged for direct downconversion and/or direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 406a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 406a of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.

[0049] In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternate embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RF circuitry 406 may include analog -to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry 404 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 406. In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0050] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 406d may be a fractional -N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuitry 406d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider. The synthesizer circuitry 406d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 406a of the RF circuitry 406 based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 406d may be a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer. In some embodiments, frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 404 or the applications processor 402 depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a lookup table based on a channel indicated by the applications processor 402.

[0051] Synthesizer circuitry 406d of the RF circuitry 406 may include a divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DP A). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+l (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Nd equal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

[0052] In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 406d may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and divider circuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases with respect to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLo). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 406 may include an IQ/polar converter.

[0053] FEM circuitry 408 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 410, amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 406 for further processing. FEM circuitry

408 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 406 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 410.

[0054] In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 408 may include a

TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation.

The FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry may include a low-noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 406). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 408 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 406), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 410. In some embodiments, the UE 400 may include additional elements such as, for example, memory /storage, display, camera, sensor, and/or input/output (I/O) interface.

[0055] The antennas 230, 301, 410 may comprise one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, the antennas 230, 301 , 410 may be effectively separated to take advantage of spatial diversity and the different channel characteristics that may result.

[0056] In some embodiments, the UE 400 and/or the eNB 300 may be a mobile device and may be a portable wireless communication device, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a laptop or portable computer with wireless communication capability, a web tablet, a wireless telephone, a smartphone, a wireless headset, a pager, an instant messaging device, a digital camera, an access point, a television, a wearable device such as a medical device (e.g., a heart rate monitor, a blood pressure monitor, etc.), or other device that may receive and/or transmit information wirelessly. In some embodiments, the UE 400 or eNB 300 may be configured to operate in accordance with 3GPP standards, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. Mobile devices or other devices in some embodiments may be configured to operate according to other protocols or standards, including IEEE 802.11 or other IEEE standards. In some embodiments, the UE 400, eNB 300 or other device may include one or more of a keyboard, a display, a non-volatile memory port, multiple antennas, a graphics processor, an application processor, speakers, and other mobile device elements. The display may be an LCD screen including a touch screen. [0057] Although the UE 400 and the eNB 300 are each illustrated as having several separate functional elements, one or more of the functional elements may be combined and may be implemented by combinations of software-configured elements, such as processing elements including digital signal processors (DSPs), and/or other hardware elements. For example, some elements may comprise one or more microprocessors, DSPs, field- programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) and combinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing at least the functions described herein. In some embodiments, the functional elements may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

[0058] Embodiments may be implemented in one or a combination of hardware, firmware and software. Embodiments may also be implemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device, which may be read and executed by at least one processor to perform the operations described herein. A computer-readable storage device may include any non-transitory mechanism for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a computer-readable storage device may include readonly memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash-memory devices, and other storage devices and media. Some embodiments may include one or more processors and may be configured with instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device.

[0059] It should be noted that in some embodiments, an apparatus for a

UE may include various components of the UE 400 and/or the machine 200 as shown in FIGs. 2 and 4. Accordingly, techniques and operations described herein that refer to the UE 400 (or 102) may be applicable to an apparatus for a UE, in some embodiments. In addition, an apparatus for an eNB may include various components of the eNB 300 and/or the machine 200 as shown in FIGs. 3 and 4. Accordingly, techniques and operations described herein that refer to the eNB 300 (or 104) may be applicable to an apparatus for an eNB, in some embodiments.

[0060] In accordance with some embodiments, in a sub-frame, the UE

102 may receive, from an eNB 104 on multiple component carriers (CCs) of a carrier aggregation (CA), one or more physical downlink control channels (PDCCHs) and one or more physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmissions scheduled by the PDCCHs. The UE 102 may also receive, from the eNB, a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH transmission that is scheduled in the sub-frame by an SPS schedule configured prior to the sub- frame. HARQ-ACK bits for the PDSCH transmissions may be mapped to bit positions of a HARQ-ACK bit sequence that are indicated by the PDCCHs. A HARQ-ACK bit for the SPS PDSCH transmission may be mapped to a predetermined bit position of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence that is reserved for the SPS PDSCH transmission. The UE 102 may transmit the HARQ-ACK bit sequence to the eNB 104. These embodiments are described in more detail below.

[0061] FIG. 5 illustrates example carrier aggregation (CA) arrangements in accordance with some embodiments. It should be noted that embodiments are not limited by the example CA arrangements 500, 550 in terms of number, type or arrangement of the channel resources or component carriers (CCs) shown in FIG. 5. In the example CA arrangements 500, 550, multiple CCs 515, 555 indexed as CC(0), CC( 1), ... CC(M- l), may be used for communication (uplink or downlink). In the example CA arrangement 500, contiguous CCs 515 may be used, as indicated by 510. In the example CA arrangement 550, non-contiguous CCs 555 may be used. Any suitable number of CCs may be used in contiguous or non-contiguous CA arrangements. As a non-limiting example, up to 5 CCs may be used. As another non-limiting example, up to 32 CCs may be used. In some cases, although a certain number of CCs may be available for usage, it may be possible that a portion of the CCs are configured for usage as part of a particular communication. For instance, a fraction of 32 available CCs may be used for a downlink communication between the eNB 104 and the UE 102.

[0062] FIG. 6 illustrates the operation of a method of communication in accordance with some embodiments. It is important to note that embodiments of the method 600 may include additional or even fewer operations or processes in comparison to what is illustrated in FIG. 6. In addition, embodiments of the method 600 are not necessarily limited to the chronological order that is shown in FIG. 6. In describing the method 600, reference may be made to FIGs. 1-5 and 7- 14, although it is understood that the method 600 may be practiced with any other suitable systems, interfaces and components.

[0063] In addition, while the method 600 and other methods described herein may refer to eNBs 104 and/or UEs 102 operating in accordance with 3GPP standards, embodiments of those methods are not limited to just those devices. In some embodiments, the methods may be practiced by other devices, such as a Wi-Fi access point (AP) or user station (STA) or a 5G device. In some embodiments, the UE 102 and/or other device may be arranged to operate in accordance with multiple protocols, such as a 3GPP protocol and a 5G protocol. In addition, the method 600 and other methods described herein may be practiced by wireless devices configured to operate in other suitable types of wireless communication systems, including systems configured to operate according to various IEEE standards such as IEEE 802.1 1. The method 600 may also refer to an apparatus for a UE 102, eNB 104, 5G device and/or other device.

[0064] In some embodiments, one or more operations of the method 600 may be performed in accordance with carrier aggregation (CA) techniques, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0065] It should be noted that operations of the methods 600, 1000, 1400 and/or others may be described in terms of downlink data communication, but the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0066] It should also be noted that embodiments are not limited by references herein (such as in descriptions of the methods 600, 1000, 1400 and/or other descriptions herein) to transmission, reception and/or exchanging of elements such as frames, messages, requests, indicators, signals or other elements. In some embodiments, such an element may be generated, encoded or otherwise processed by processing circuitry (such as by a baseband processor included in the processing circuitry) for transmission. The transmission may be performed by a transceiver or other component, in some cases. In some embodiments, such an element may be decoded, detected or otherwise processed by the processing circuitry (such as by the baseband processor). The element may be received by a transceiver or other component, in some cases. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry and the transceiver may be included in a same apparatus. The scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect, however, as the transceiver may be separate from the apparatus that comprises the processing circuitry, in some embodiments.

[0067] At operation 605, the UE 102 may configure one or more semi- persistent scheduling (SPS) arrangements. In some embodiments, the UE 102 and the eNB 104 may exchange one or more control messages to establish the one or more SPS arrangements. As part of an SPS arrangement, an SPS schedule may be established in which the eNB 104 may transmit a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission to the UE 102 in predetermined time resources and/or channel resources during a subsequent time period. Such PDSCH transmissions may be referred to herein, for purpose of clarity, as SPS PDSCH transmissions. In some cases, a periodicity of the SPS PDSCH transmissions may be established, although embodiments are not limited to periodic SPS PDSCH transmissions. For instance, in accordance with an SPS schedule and a periodicity of N sub-frames, the eNB 104 may transmit an SPS PDSCH transmission in same resource blocks (RBs) during a same group of one or more OFDM symbol periods of every Nth sub-frame. As the time resources and channel resources of the SPS PDSCHs may be established, a transmission of a physical downlink shared channel (PDCCH) by the eNB 104 to schedule the SPS PDSCH may not be necessary. Accordingly, the SPS PDSCH transmission may be performed without a PDCCH, in some cases. In contrast, a PDSCH transmission that is not an SPS PDSCH transmission may be scheduled by a PDCCH in a same sub-frame. The PDCCH may include scheduling information for the PDSCH transmission, in some cases.

[0068] At operation 610, the UE 102 may receive one or more PDCCHs during a sub-frame. In some embodiments, the UE 102 may receive the one or more PDCCHs from the eNB 104 during the sub-frame, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect. The sub-frame may be referred to, for purpose of clarity, as a current sub-frame. In some embodiments, the UE 102 may receive one or more data blocks, control blocks, data messages, control messages and/or other elements in accordance with time resources and/or channel resources that may be allocated for PDCCH transmission of such elements by the eNB 104 to one or more UEs 102. Reception of the one or more

PDCCHs may refer to reception of one or more such elements by the UE 102, in some embodiments. In an example, the UE 102 may receive one or more PDCCH blocks, PDCCH control blocks and/or other elements.

[0069] In some embodiments, the PDCCHs may be formatted in accordance with one or more downlink control information (DCI) formats. In some cases, the PDCCHs may be formatted in accordance with different DCI formats, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some cases, a common DCI format may be used for multiple PDCCHs received by the UE 102 in the sub-frame. Example DCI formats may include, but are not limited to, types

[0070] At operation 615, the UE 102 may receive one or more PDSCH transmissions during the current sub-frame. In some embodiments, the UE 102 may receive the one or more PDSCH transmissions from the eNB 104 during the current sub-frame, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some embodiments, the UE 102 may receive one or more data blocks, control blocks, data messages, control messages and/or other elements in accordance with time resources and/or channel resources that may be allocated for PDSCH transmission of such elements by the eNB 104 to one or more UEs 102. Reception of the one or more PDSCH transmissions may refer to reception of one or more such elements by the UE 102, in some embodiments. In an example, the UE 102 may receive one or more PDSCH blocks, PDSCH data blocks and/or other elements.

[0071] In some embodiments, the PDCCHs may include scheduling information, such as RB(s), OFDM symbol period(s) and/or other information, to be used by the UE 102 to receive the PDSCH transmissions. Accordingly, the PDCCHs may schedule the PDSCH transmissions, in some cases. In some embodiments, each PDSCH transmission may be scheduled by one of the PDCCHs, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0072] At operation 620, the UE 102 may receive one or more SPS

PDSCH transmissions in the sub-frame. In some embodiments, the UE 102 may receive the one or more SPS PDSCH transmissions from the eNB 104 in the sub- frame, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect. It should be noted that one or more SPS schedules may be established prior to the current sub-frame. Accordingly, an SPS PDSCH transmission may or may not be scheduled during the current sub-frame. This may be determined by the UE 102, in some cases, by a comparison of a sub-frame index of the current sub- frame with a pattern of sub-frame indexes of the SPS schedule (such as the indexes of sub-frames in which the SPS PDSCH transmissions are to be performed). When it is determined that an SPS PDSCH transmission is scheduled in the sub-frame, the UE 102 may decode (or attempt to decode) the SPS PDSCH transmission.

[0073] In some embodiments, an over-ride of a scheduled SPS PDSCH transmission may be sent from the eNB 104 to the UE 102. As an example, a PDCCH (which may be referred to herein as an SPS over-ride PDCCH for purposes of clarity) may indicate such an over-ride.

[0074] In some embodiments, channel resources used for downlink data transmission may comprise multiple component carriers (CCs) in a carrier aggregation (CA). The UE may be configured to simultaneously receive, on each CC of a sub-group of the CCs in the sub-frame: one of the PDCCHs, one of the PDSCH transmissions, one of the SPS PDSCH transmissions, or another PDCCH (such as an SPS over-ride PDCCH) that indicates an over-ride of one of the SPS PDSCH transmissions scheduled for the CC in the sub-frame. In some embodiments, the UE 102 may receive one of the above elements on each CC, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0075] In some embodiments, scheduling of the PDSCH transmissions by the PDCCHs may be configurable for a self-scheduling arrangement or a cross-carrier scheduling arrangement. When the PDSCH transmissions are scheduled by the PDCCHs in accordance with the self-scheduling arrangement, each PDSCH transmission may be scheduled by a corresponding PDCCH that is received on a same CC as the PDSCH transmission. When the PDSCH transmissions are scheduled by the PDCCHs in accordance with a cross-carrier scheduling arrangement, the PDCCHs may be received on one or more CCs. The CCs may be configured by the eNB 104, in some cases. In an example of cross-carrier scheduling, the PDCCHs may be received on a same CC and may schedule the PDSCH transmissions on the multiple CCs (which may include the CC on which the PDCCHs are received, in some cases). In another example of cross-carrier scheduling, the PDCCHs may be received on multiple CCs, but one or more of the PDCCHs may schedule PDSCH transmissions on other CCs.

[0076] At operation 625, the UE 102 may determine HARQ-ACK bits for the PDSCH transmissions and/or SPS PDSCH transmission(s). The UE 102 may determine the HARQ-ACK bits for the decoded PDSCH transmissions based on whether the PDSCH transmissions are successfully decoded. The UE 102 may determine a HARQ-ACK bit for the decoded SPS PDSCH transmission based on whether the SPS PDSCH transmission is successfully decoded.

[0077] At operation 630, the UE 102 may map the HARQ-ACK bits to bit positions of a HARQ-ACK bit sequence. At operation 635, the UE 102 may transmit the HARQ-ACK bit sequence. In some embodiments, the UE 102 may transmit the HARQ-ACK bit sequence to the eNB 104, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0078] Various techniques may be used to map the HARQ-ACK bits to the HARQ-ACK bit sequence. Some or all of those techniques may be performed to enable a common understanding between the UE 102 and the eNB 104 about a size of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence and/or ordering of bits within the HARQ-ACK bit sequence. In some scenarios, a misalignment of the size and/or ordering of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence may occur between what is encoded by the UE 102 and what is interpreted by the eNB 104. In some cases, techniques described herein may mitigate, prevent or reduce such occurrences. Example scenarios of misalignment will be presented below.

[0079] In some embodiments, HARQ-ACK bits for the PDSCH transmissions may be mapped to bit positions of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence that are indicated by the PDCCHs. In some embodiments, when at least one of the SPS PDSCH transmissions is received in the sub-frame, a HARQ-ACK bit for the received SPS PDSCH transmission may be mapped to the HARQ-ACK bit sequence in a predetermined bit position reserved for the SPS PDSCH transmissions. As a non-limiting example, the bit position for the SPS PDSCH transmission may be a least significant bit (LSB) of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence. As another non-limiting example, the bit position for the SPS PDSCH transmission may be a most significant bit (MSB) of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence. Embodiments are not limited to the LSB or MSB, however, as any suitable bit position(s) may be reserved.

[0080] In addition, embodiments are not limited to a single SPS PDSCH transmission or to a single bit of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence. In some embodiments, multiple HARQ-ACK bits for multiple SPS PDSCH

transmissions may be mapped to multiple predetermined bit positions of the HARQ-ACK sequence. For instance, a top portion of bit indexes (such as MSBs) or a bottom portion of bit indexes (such as LSBs) may be reserved for HARQ-ACK bits for SPS PDSCH transmissions.

[0081] In some embodiments, a DCI format of at least one of the

PDCCHs may include a total downlink assignment indicator (DAI) field and a DAI counter field. In some embodiments, the total DAI field may be based on a count for the sub-frame that includes PDSCH transmissions, SPS PDSCH transmissions, and PDCCHs that over-ride SPS PDSCH transmissions. For instance, PDSCH transmissions scheduled for the sub-frame, SPS PDSCH transmissions scheduled for the sub-frame, and PDCCHs to be transmitted in the sub-frame that over-ride SPS PDSCH transmissions may be included in the count. The DAI counter field may be based on a count for the sub-frame that includes the PDSCH transmissions and the PDCCHs that over-ride SPS PDSCH transmissions and excludes the SPS PDSCH transmissions.

[0082] In a non-limiting example, downlink channel resources used by the eNB 104 may comprise multiple CCs in a CA arrangement. The UE 102 may be configured to simultaneously receive, on each CC of a sub-group of the CCs in the sub-frame: one of the PDCCHs, one of the PDSCH transmissions, one of the SPS PDSCH transmissions, or another PDCCH that indicates an override of one of the SPS PDSCH transmissions scheduled for the CC in the sub- frame. The total DAI field may be based on a summation of: a number of the CCs of the sub-group on which one of the PDSCH transmissions is scheduled in the sub-frame by one of the PDCCHs, a number of the CCs of the sub-group on which one of the SPS PDSCH transmissions is scheduled for the sub-frame, and a number of the CCs of the sub-group on which an SPS over-ride PDCCH is to be received in the sub-frame. The SPS over-ride PDCCH may indicate an over- ride of a previously scheduled SPS PDSCH transmission previously scheduled for the sub-frame.

[0083] Continuing the example, the CCs of the downlink channel resources may be mapped to an ordered sequence of CC indexes. For a particular PDCCH that schedules a particular PDSCH transmission on a particular CC of a particular CC index, the DAI counter may include the CCs of the sub-group on which one of the PDSCH transmissions is scheduled by one of the PDCCHs in the sub-frame. The DAI counter may exclude the CCs of the sub-group on which one of the SPS PDSCH transmissions is scheduled in the sub-frame. The DAI counter may include the CCs of the sub-group on which an over-ride PDCCH is to be received in the sub-frame.

[0084] In some embodiments, including but not limited to the previous example, HARQ-ACK bits for PDSCH transmissions scheduled by PDCCHs may be mapped to bit positions of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence based on values of DAI counter fields of the PDCCHs that schedule the PDSCH transmissions. In some embodiments, total DAI fields of the PDCCHs may indicate a size of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence and the DAI counter fields may indicate bit positions of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence to be used.

[0085] In a non-limiting example, a particular PDCCH may schedule a particular PDSCH transmission. The particular PDCCH may be formatted in accordance with a DCI format that comprises a total DAI field that indicates a size of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence. The total DAI may be based on a summation that includes a count of the SPS PDSCH transmissions scheduled in the sub-frame and further includes a count of the PDSCH transmissions scheduled in the sub-frame by the PDCCHs. The DCI format may further comprise a DAI counter field that indicates an index of the particular PDSCH transmission in a range between one and the total DAI. Accordingly, a bit position to which the HARQ-ACK bit for the particular PDSCH is to be mapped may be indicated by the DAI counter field.

[0086] In another non-limiting example, the PDSCH transmissions may be received in multiple CCs in accordance with a CA arrangement. The CCs of the CA may be mapped to an ordered sequence of CC indexes. The PDCCHs may indicate the CCs on which the PDSCH transmissions are to be received in the sub-frame. The CC on which the particular PDSCH is received may be mapped to a particular CC index. The DAI counter of the particular PDCCH may be based on a count of the PDSCH transmissions received in the sub-frame for which CC indexes are lower than the particular CC index. The DAI counter of the particular PDCCH may be exclusive to a count of the SPS PDSCH transmissions received in the sub-frame.

[0087] In another non-limiting example, PDCCHs may be included in either a UE specific search space (USS) or a common search space (CSS) accessible to the UE 102 and to other UEs 102. For the PDCCHs that are included in the USS, each PDCCH may be scrambled by a UE-specific radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) of the UE 102. Each PDCCH included in the USS may include a total DAI field that is based on a count of CCs on which one of the PDSCH transmissions is scheduled by one of the PDCCHs included in either the USS or the CSS. Each PDCCH of the USS may further include a DAI counter. The DAI counter may include a count of CCs on which one of the PDSCH transmissions is scheduled by one of the PDCCHs included in the USS. The DAI counter may exclude a count of CCs on which one of the PDSCH transmissions is scheduled by one of the PDCCHs included in the CSS. In addition, for the PDCCHs that are included in the CSS, each PDCCH may be scrambled by a common RNTI, and each PDCCH may exclude the total DAI and the DAI counter fields.

[0088] Continuing the example, HARQ-ACK bits for the PDSCH transmissions scheduled by the PDCCHs included in the USS may be mapped to the HARQ-ACK bit sequence in bit positions that are based on values of the DAI counter fields of the PDCCHs. In addition, HARQ-ACK bits for the

PDSCH transmissions scheduled by the PDCCHs included in the CSS may be mapped to the HARQ-ACK bit sequence in bit positions that are reserved for PDSCH transmissions scheduled by the PDCCHs included in the CSS. For instance, one or more LSBs, one or more MSBs or other suitable bit(s) may be reserved.

[0089] In another example, the UE 102 may decode a plurality of

PDSCH transmissions received in a sub-frame from the eNB 104 on a plurality of component carriers (CCs) of a carrier aggregation (CA). The PDSCH transmissions may be scheduled by a plurality of PDCCHs received in the sub- frame from the eNB 104. The UE 102 may decode a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH transmission received in the sub-frame from the eNB 104 on one of the CCs. The SPS PDSCH transmission may be scheduled prior to the sub- frame and exclusively to the PDCCHs. The UE 102 may encode, for transmission to the eNB 104, a HARQ-ACK bit sequence of HARQ-ACK bits. HARQ-ACK bits for the PDSCH transmissions may be mapped to bit positions of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence in accordance with information included in the PDCCHs. A HARQ-ACK bit of the SPS PDSCH transmission may be mapped to a fixed position of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence reserved for the HARQ- ACK bit of the SPS PDSCH transmission.

[0090] FIGs. 7-9 and 1 1-13 illustrate examples of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement in accordance with some

embodiments. FIG. 10 illustrates the operation of another method of communication in accordance with some embodiments. It should be noted that the examples of FIGs. 7-13 may illustrate some or all of the concepts, operations and/or techniques described herein, although the scope of embodiments is not limited by the examples. It should be noted that embodiments are not limited by the examples in terms of arrangement, ordering, type, size, number and/or other aspects of the elements of the examples shown in FIGs. 7- 13.

[0091] In some embodiments, carrier aggregation (CA) may be used. As a non-limiting example, in some standards, such as a 3GPP standard, a CA feature may enable aggregation of up to five carriers of the same frame structure. In some cases, deployments may become capacity limited due to interference and the volume of data delivered. As another non-limiting example, a standard such as 3GPP may use a CA feature in which up to 32 component carriers (CCs) may be used. For instance, a frequency band such as the C-band (3.4-4.2 GHz) licensed band, a 5 GHz band (which may include about 500 MHz of unlicensed spectrum in some cases) may be used. Accordingly, an increased amount of resources may be provided for data capabilities and to better manage interference, in some cases.

[0092] In some embodiments, extending DL carrier aggregation for up to

32 DL carriers may increase significantly the amount of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (ACK) bits to be fed back from the UE 102 to the eNB 104. For instance, a single UL sub-frame may be used, in some cases. In some scenarios, the UE 102 may not necessarily be scheduled on all cells that are configured in the CA arrangement. For instance, some secondary cells (SCells) may even be deactivated, in some cases. If the HARQ-ACK feedback size is semi-statistically determined according to the number of configured serving cells, the UE 102 may, in some cases, transmit a considerable number of HARQ-ACK feedback bits associated with non-scheduled serving cells. As a result, PUCCH overhead may be increased unnecessarily.

[0093] In some embodiments, a HARQ-ACK codebook size may be adapted dynamically to enable the UE 102 to provide the HARQ-ACK feedback to the UE 102. For instance, the HARQ-ACK codebook size may be adapted dynamically in accordance with a number of scheduled serving cells and/or sub- frames, in some cases.

[0094] In some embodiments, a downlink control information (DCI) message may include one or more fields related to communication of the HARQ-ACK feedback. For instance, a Counter Downlink Assignment Index (DAI) field of two bits (or any suitable size), a total DAI field of two bits (or any suitable size) and/or other parameter(s) may be used.

[0095] In some embodiments, one or more rules, behaviors, guidelines and/or operations of a standard, such as a 3 GPP standard and/or other standard, may be used. As a non-limiting example, if a UE 102 is configured with a higher layer parameter "codebooksizeDetermination-rl3" (and/or similar parameter) of a particular value (such as 0 or other suitable value) for a frequency division duplex (FDD) arrangement and a sub-frame "n," the value of the counter Downlink Assignment Indicator (DAI) in DCI format

1/1A/1B/1D/2/2A/2B/2C/2D may denote the accumulative number of serving cell(s) with PDSCH transmission(s) associated with PDCCH/EPDCCH and serving cell with PDCCH/EPDCCH indicating downlink SPS release, up to the present serving cell in increasing order of serving cell index; the value of the total DAI in DCI format 1/1A/1B/1D/2/2A/2B/2C/2D may denote the total number of serving cell(s) with PDSCH transmission(s) associated with

PDCCH/EPDCCH(s) and serving cell with PDCCH/EPDCCH indicating downlink SPS release. Although the example behavior described above may be part of a 3GPP standard, it is understood that the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0096] In some embodiments, the total DAI field may count a number of PDCCH / EPDCCH(s) transmitted, but may refrain from counting PDSCHs that are transmitted without a corresponding PDCCH. More specifically, the total DAI field as described above may cause a different understanding between the eNB 104 and the UE 102, in some cases, on HARQ-ACK codebook size as well as on the order of reported HARQ-ACK bits when semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH (such as on the primary cell (PCell) and/or otherwise) is activated.

[0097] Referring to FIG.7, the UE 102 configured with DL SPS may monitor PDCCH using C-RNTI in each non-DRX subframe for dynamic allocation and the PDCCH allocation using C-RNTI may overrides an existing SPS allocation for that TTI. FIG.7 illustrates a potential error case that may occur for some designs of counter DAI and total DAI. In the example, the UE 102 is configured with 16 activated CCs and SPS PDSCH may be configured on the PCell. In the example, the eNB 104 transmits PDCCH using C-RNTI with <Counter DAI=1, Total DAI=6> to override the existing SPS resource allocation in a SPS subframe. If there is no missing of DCI grants, both eNB 104 and UE 102 will assume 6 CCs are scheduled and correspondingly generate 6 HARQ- ACK bits (here assume 1 HARQ-ACK bit per CC) ordered by counter DAI value as illustrated in the middle of FIG.7. However, in case the dynamic DL grant of PCell is missed, the UE 102 may generate 7 HARQ-ACK bits assuming one DL grant on either CC1 or CC2 was missed. However, eNB still assume 6 HARQ-ACK bits due to lack of information about the PDCCH detection result at the UE 102.

[0098] Referring to FIG. 8, another potential issue of dynamic HARQ-

ACK codebook size adaptation method is how to map the HARQ-ACK bits associated with PDSCH scheduled by PDCCH on Common Search Space (CSS). In some designs, inclusion of counter DAI and total DAI fields may be limited to DCI formats in UE specific Search Space (USS) and may not necessarily be present for DCI formats in CSS. This design may also result in the HARQ-ACK codebook misalignment between eNB 104 and UE 102 as illustrated in FIG. 8. If the total DAI onllly counts the PDCCH in CSS only, misalignment between eNB 104 and UE 102 in terms of HARQ-ACK bits ordering would happen when PDCCH in CSS was missed by UE 102.

[0099] In some embodiments, dynamic HARQ-ACK codebook size adaptation may be supported with activated SPS PDSCH on PCell. The value of a total DAI field may count the total number of serving cell(s) with following PDSCH transmissions: PDSCH associated with PDCCH/EPDCCH(s), including dynamic DL grant and SPS overridden by dynamic grant; serving cell with PDCCH/EPDCCH indicating downlink SPS release; and SPS PDSCH transmission without a corresponding PDCCH. In some cases, PDSCH transmission in a SPS sub-frame may not be counted for a counter DAI value accumulation operation, regardless of SPS PDSCH transmission or PDSCH transmission that is scheduled by PDCCH. The value of counter DAI field may include (or be restricted to) an accumulative number of <serving cells, non-SPS sub-frame> pairs in which PDSCH transmission(s) associated with PDCCH/ EPDCCH and serving cell with PDCCH/EPDCCH indicating downlink SPS release up to the present serving cell and present sub-frame, first in increasing order of serving cell index and then in increasing order of sub-frame index within HARQ-ACK bundling window. The value of counter DAI and total DAI of PDCCH using C-RNTI in a SPS DL sub-frame may be set to a predefined value and then ignored by UE 102. In addition, HARQ-ACK associated with a PDSCH transmission in SPS sub-frame may be mapped to a fix or pre-known position within a HARQ-ACK bits sequence to ensure a same understanding between UE 102 and eNB 104 on HARQ-ACK bit ordering. In one design aspect, the HARQ-ACK bit associated with PDSCH in a SPS sub-frame may be mapped to the least significant bit (LSB) or most significant bit (MSB) of the HARQ-ACK bits sequence.

[00100] FIG. 9 illustrates the details of setting counter DAI and total DAI disclosed as described herein, which can address the problem in FIG. 7. As described previously, the error case happens when a dynamic DL grant is transmitted in a SPS sub-frame on CC0 to override the SPS PDSCH

configuration but it is missed by the UE 102. This problem may be solved by setting the value of counter DAI and total DAI field as described herein. For example, the value of counter DAI field in PDCCH on

CC3/CC4/CC5/CC14/CC15 does NOT count the dynamic DL grant transmitted in SPS sub-frame in CCO, while the value of total DAI field counts the SPS sub- frame. The UE 102 may map the HARQ-ACK bit associated with SPS sub- frame to the MSB of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence, which is followed by the HARQ-ACK bits for non-SPS sub-frame(s) on SCells. Consequently, the problem of misalignment on the HARQ-ACK codebook size and ordering may be eliminated, in some cases.

[00101] Referring to FIG. 10, another exemplary design 1000 for sending

HARQ-ACK information performed by the UE 102 is shown. The value of counter DAI in DCI formats denotes the accumulative number of assigned PDSCH transmission with corresponding PDCCH(s) and serving cell with PDCCH/EPDCCH indicating downlink SPS release up to the <serving cells, subframe> pairs. In other words, SPS PDSCH without PDCCH is not counted for counter DAI accumulation operations. Denote which can be zero or one, as the number of PDSCH transmissions without a corresponding PDCCH (i.e. SPS PDSCH) within the HARQ-ACK bundling window. The UE 102 may determine the number of HARQ-ACK codebook size Q&^Q according to the value of total DAI field and the HARQ-ACK feedback ordering

Q$^CM _sn— ¾lj ,„ · ϋ^Α:: - based on the counter DAI value regardless of SPS or non-SPS subframe (block 1020). More specifically, the HARQ-ACK for a PDSCH transmission with a corresponding counter DAI value CJ Alfyn* k) in PDCCH in subframe k on CC m may be associated with HARQ-ACK bits of < eH JiM<mJ0-iV ¾¾C¾I -1 > ^{if the hi}§^{her la}y^er P^arameter

spatialBundlingPUCCH is set to FALSE and the UE 102 is configured with a transmission mode supporting two transport blocks in at least one configured serving cell or associated with <?e¾itm ¾:)-I' otherwise. For the case with Ngps_. £- the HARQ-ACK associated with a PDSCH transmission without a corresponding PDSCH is mapped to Q^^_._L (block 1040).

[00102] Referring to FIG. 11, in another example, the value of total DAI IEs and counter DAI IEs are shown for configured DL CCs in which the eNB 104 transmits a PDCCH to a UE 102, including non-SPS sub-frame as well as SPS sub-frame. The total DAI is set as "6" with counting the dynamic PDCCH on PCell (i.e. CCO) although it has been configured as an SPS sub-frame. More specifically, the counter DAI IE values in this example starts from CCO in a SPS sub-frame, where a dynamic PDCCH using C-R TI is used to override an existing SPS allocation. As the UE 102 does not detect SPS allocation (i.e. Nsps

= 0), so no HAPvQ-ACK for SPS allocation may be mapped to the bit.

[00103] Referring to FIG. 12, the HARQ-ACK bit associated with PDSCH scheduled by PDCCH in CSS may be mapped to a fixed or known position within a HARQ-ACK bits sequence. To ensure same understanding on HARQ-ACK codebook size and ordering between the eNB 104 and the UE 102, the value of total DAI field on USS on other CCs may count the PDSCH associated with PDCCH in CSS. The counter DAI may be designed in different manners for FDD and TDD system. In a first example design of counter DAI for FDD system as illustrated in FIG. 12a, the PDSCH scheduled by CSS on PCell may be NOT counted for counter DAI accumulation operation. The HARQ- ACK bit associated with PDSCH scheduled by PDCCH in CSS may be mapped to the LSB or MSB of the HARQ-ACK bits sequence if it is detected by UE. In FIG. 12a, the UE receives the PDSCH 1210 in CCO and correspondingly maps the associated HARQ-ACK bit 1220 to the fixed position (i.e. MSB or LSB) of HARQ-ACK bits sequence.

[00104] In a second example design of counter DAI for FDD system (as shown in FIG. 12b), the PDSCH scheduling by CSS on PCell may be also counted for counter DAI accumulation, same as PDSCH scheduled by PDCCH in USS. The UE 102 may become aware of two missed DL grants associated with counter DAI value "1" and "5" but may not be able to determine the respective cells (e.g. for Counter DAI =1, where it is transmitted (such as CCO or CC1 or in CSS on CCO or in USS on CC1). The UE 102 may determine the total HARQ-ACK bits number based on total DAI field value (i.e. 6 bits) and order the generated HARQ-ACK bits based on counter DAI value as illustrated in FIG. 12b. In this example, the UE 102 missed the PDCCH 630 in CSS. But, it still map a "NACK" state 1240 for the missed DL grant 1230 with <counter DAI, total DAI> = <1,6>. After obtaining this HARQ-ACK information, the eNB 104 may correctly retransmit the missed PDSCH scheduled by PDCCH in CSS.

[00105] Referring to FIG. 13, in a TDD system, 2-bits DAI IE is included in each DL DCI formats in CSS, in some cases. This makes DAI design for CSS in TDD different than FDD system. In one design, the 2-bits DAI IE can be reused as a counter DAI IE if dynamic HARQ-ACK codebook determination is configured by higher layers for HARQ-ACK feedback. Further, PDSCH scheduled by PDCCH in CSS may be counted for total DAI value accumulation. UE determines HARQ-ACK codebook size based on the value of total DAI field of PDCCH in USS and orders HARQ-ACK bits based on counter DAI value of PDCCH in USS as well as CSS. Alternatively, the 2-bit DAI field of Rel-8 may be reused as total DAI field if the dynamic HARQ-ACK codebook determination is configured by higher layers for HARQ-ACK feedback. Then, HARQ-ACK for PDCCH in CSS can map to LSB (or MSB) in UCI payload in accordance with the corresponding sub-frame index. The HARQ-ACK for SPS PDSCH without PDCCH, if present, is mapped to MSB (or LSB) in UCI payload on

PUCCH/PUSCH. FIG. 13 illustrates the usage of 2-bits DAI field as the counter DAI of PDCCH in CSS for TDD system. Referring to FIG. 13, 2-bit counter DAI field of PDCCH in CSS is set value to 4 in sub-frame 1 on CC0 1310. In sub-frame 0, the UE 102 can identify that it received 3 DL SAs and generates 3 HARQ-ACK bits 1350 assuming it has been configured with a TM enabling the reception of 1 TB. In sub-frame 1, UE can identify that it received a DL grant with counter DAI = 4 and generate 3 HARQ-ACK bits 1360 with mapping the HARQ-ACK bit for PDCCH in CSS to b3 followed by additional two bits b4 and b5. In sub-frame 2, the UE receives SPS PDSCH 1330 without PDCCH on Cell 0 and maps a HARQ-ACK bit to a fixed position 1340 (e.g. MSB bl 1) of a HARQ-ACK bits sequence.

[00106] FIG. 14 illustrates the operation of another method of communication in accordance with some embodiments. As mentioned previously regarding the method 600, embodiments of the method 1400 may include additional or even fewer operations or processes in comparison to what is illustrated in FIG. 14. Embodiments of the methods 1400 are not necessarily limited to the chronological order that is shown in FIG. 14. In describing the method 1400, reference may be made to any of FIGs. 1-13, although it is understood that the method 1400 may be practiced with any other suitable systems, interfaces and components. In addition, embodiments of the method 1400 may be applicable to UEs 102, eNBs 104, STAs, APs and/or other wireless or mobile devices. The method 1400 may be applicable to an apparatus for a UE 102, eNB 104, STA, AP and/or other wireless or mobile device, in some embodiments.

[00107] In some embodiments, the method 1400 may be practiced by an eNB 104 or other base station. In some embodiments, the method 600 may be practiced by a UE 102 or other mobile device. It should be noted that one or more operations of one of the methods 600 and/or 1400 may be reciprocal to, similar to and/or related to one or more operations included in the other method.

As an example, an operation of the method 1400 may include transmission of an element (such as a PDCCH, a PDSCH transmission or other element) and an operation of the method 600 may include reception of the same element or similar element by the UE 102.

[00108] In addition, previous discussion of various techniques and concepts may be applicable to the method 1400 in some cases, including but not limited to PDCCH, PDSCH, PDSCH transmissions, SPS, SPS PDSCH transmissions, SPS over-ride, SPS over-ride PDCCHs, HARQ-ACK, HARQ- ACK bits, HARQ-ACK bit sequences, techniques for mapping of HARQ-ACK bits to the HARQ-ACK bit sequence and/or other.

[00109] At operation 1405 of the method 1400, the eNB 104 may configure one or more SPS arrangements. In some embodiments, the UE 102 and the eNB 104 may exchange one or more control messages to establish the one or more SPS arrangements. Previously described techniques may be used, in some embodiments, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect. The eNB 104 may

[00110] At operation 1410, the eNB 104 may transmit one or more

PDCCHs. In some embodiments, the eNB 104 may transmit the one or more PDCCHs to the UE 102, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect. At operation 1415, the eNB 104 may transmit one or more PDSCH transmissions. In some embodiments, the eNB 104 may transmit the one or more PDSCH transmissions to the UE 102, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect. At operation 1420, the eNB 104 may transmit one or more SPS PDSCH transmissions. In some embodiments, the eNB 104 may transmit the one or more SPS PDSCH transmissions to the UE 102, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect. At operation 1425, the eNB 104 may receive a HARQ-ACK bit sequence. In some embodiments, the eNB 104 may receive the HARQ-ACK bit sequence from the UE 102, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect. The transmissions may be performed by the eNB 104 on one or more component carriers (CCs) of a carrier aggregation (CA) in some embodiments.

[00111] The HARQ-ACK bit sequence may include one or more HARQ-

ACK bits mapped to bit positions in accordance with a technique, including but not limited to those described previously. In some embodiments, the HARQ- ACK bits for the PDSCH transmissions may be mapped to bit positions indicated by the PDCCHs and a HARQ-ACK bit for the SPS-PDSCH transmission may be mapped to a predetermined bit position reserved for the HARQ-ACK bit of the SPS PDSCH transmission.

[00112] In a non-limiting example, downlink channel resources used by the eNB 104 may comprise multiple component carriers (CCs) for usage in a carrier aggregation (CA). The eNB 104 may be configured to transmit, on each CC of a sub-group of the CCs in the sub-frame: one of the PDSCH

transmissions, one of the PDCCHs or the SPS PDSCH transmission. A downlink control information (DCI) format used for at least one of the PDCCHs may includes a total downlink assignment indicator (DAI) field and a DAI counter field.

[00113] In some embodiments, the total DAI field may be based on a summation of: a number of the CCs of the sub-group on which one of the

PDSCH transmissions is scheduled by one of the PDCCHs in the sub-frame, a number of the CCs of the sub-group on which an SPS PDSCH transmission is scheduled for the sub-frame, and a number of the CCs of the sub-group on which an SPS over-ride PDCCH is to be transmitted to indicate an over-ride of an SPS

PDSCH transmission previously scheduled in the sub-frame. [00114] Continuing the example, the CCs of the downlink channel resources may be mapped to an ordered sequence of CC indexes. For a particular PDCCH that schedules a particular PDSCH transmission on a particular CC of a particular CC index, the DAI counter field of the particular PDCCH may be based on a count that includes the CCs of the sub-group on which one of the PDSCH transmissions is scheduled in the sub-frame by one of the PDCCHs. The count may exclude the CCs of the sub-group on which an SPS PDSCH transmission is scheduled in the sub-frame. The count may also include the CCs of the sub-group on which an SPS over-ride PDCCH is transmitted.

[00115] It should be noted that embodiments may be described herein in terms of downlink communication, but embodiments are not limited to downlink communication. In some embodiments, some or all concepts, techniques, operations and/or methods described herein for the downlink communication may be applicable to uplink communication. As an example, one or more transmit operations described herein may be performed by an eNB 104 as part of downlink communication with a UE 102. In some cases, the UE 102 may perform one or more of those transmit operations and/or similar operations as part of an uplink communication. In addition, one or more receive operations described herein may be performed by the UE 102 as part of the downlink communication with the eNB 104. In some cases, the eNB 104 may perform one or more of those operations and/or similar operations as part of the uplink communication.

[00116] In Example 1, an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) may comprise memory. The apparatus may further comprise processing circuitry.

The processing circuitry may be configured to decode one or more physical downlink control channels (PDCCHs) received in a sub-frame. The processing circuitry may be further configured to decode one or more physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmissions received in the sub-frame, wherein the PDSCH transmissions are scheduled by the PDCCHs. The processing circuitry may be further configured to map hybrid automatic repeat request

acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) bits for the PDSCH transmissions to bit positions of a HARQ-ACK bit sequence, the bit positions indicated by the PDCCHs. The processing circuitry may be further configured to determine whether one or more semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH transmissions are scheduled in the sub-frame by SPS schedules that are configured prior to the sub-frame and are exclusive to the PDCCHs. The processing circuitry may be further configured to, when at least one of the SPS PDSCH transmissions is received in the sub-frame, decode the received SPS PDSCH transmission and map a HARQ-ACK bit for the received SPS PDSCH transmission to the HARQ- ACK bit sequence in a predetermined bit position reserved for the SPS PDSCH transmissions.

[00117] In Example 2, the subject matter of Example 1, wherein the

PDCCHs may be formatted in accordance with one or more candidate Downlink Control Information (DCI) formats. A DCI format of at least a particular PDCCH that schedules a particular PDSCH may include: a total downlink assignment indicator (DAI) field to indicate a size of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence, and a DAI counter field to indicate the bit position of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence to which the HARQ-ACK bit of the particular PDSCH is mapped.

[00118] In Example 3, the subject matter of one or any combination of

Examples 1-2, wherein the total DAI field may be based on a count that includes PDSCH transmissions, SPS PDSCH transmissions, and PDCCHs that over-ride SPS PDSCH transmissions. The DAI counter field may be based on a count that includes the PDSCH transmissions and the PDCCHs that over-ride SPS PDSCH transmissions and excludes the SPS PDSCH transmissions.

[00119] In Example 4, the subject matter of one or any combination of

Examples 1-3, wherein the PDSCH transmissions may be received in multiple component carriers (CCs) in accordance with a carrier aggregation (CA). The CCs of the CA may be mapped to an ordered sequence of CC indexes. The PDCCHs may indicate the CCs on which the PDSCH transmissions are to be received in the sub-frame. The CC on which the particular PDSCH is received may be mapped to a particular CC index. The DAI counter of the particular PDCCH may be based on a count of the PDSCH transmissions received in the sub-frame for which CC indexes are lower than the particular CC index. The DAI counter of the particular PDCCH may be exclusive to a count of the SPS PDSCH transmissions received in the sub-frame. [00120] In Example 5, the subject matter of one or any combination of

Examples 1-4, wherein downlink channel resources may comprise multiple component carriers (CCs) in a carrier aggregation (CA). The UE may be configured to simultaneously receive, on each CC of a sub-group of the CCs in the sub-frame: one of the PDCCHs, one of the PDSCH transmissions, one of the SPS PDSCH transmissions, or another PDCCH that indicates an over-ride of one of the SPS PDSCH transmissions scheduled for the CC in the sub-frame.

[00121] In Example 6, the subject matter of one or any combination of

Examples 1-5, wherein the PDCCHs may be formatted in accordance with one or more candidate Downlink Control Information (DO) formats. A DCI format of at least one of the PDCCHs may include a total downlink assignment indicator (DAI) field that is based on a summation of: a number of the CCs of the sub-group on which one of the PDSCH transmissions is scheduled in the sub-frame by one of the PDCCHs, a number of the CCs of the sub-group on which one of the SPS PDSCH transmissions is scheduled for the sub-frame, and a number of the CCs of the sub-group on which an SPS over-ride PDCCH is to be received in the sub-frame, wherein the SPS over-ride PDCCH indicates an over-ride of a previously scheduled SPS PDSCH transmission previously scheduled for the sub-frame.

[00122] In Example 7, the subject matter of one or any combination of

Examples 1-6, wherein the CCs of the downlink channel resources may be mapped to an ordered sequence of CC indexes. The DCI format may further include, for a particular PDCCH that schedules a particular PDSCH transmission on a particular CC of a particular CC index, a DAI counter, wherein: the DAI counter includes the CCs of the sub-group on which one of the PDSCH transmissions is scheduled by one of the PDCCHs in the sub-frame, the DAI counter excludes the CCs of the sub-group on which one of the SPS PDSCH transmissions is scheduled in the sub-frame, and the DAI counter includes the CCs of the sub-group on which an over-ride PDCCH is to be received in the sub- frame.

[00123] In Example 8, the subject matter of one or any combination of

Examples 1-7, wherein the processing circuitry may be further configured to encode the HARQ-ACK bit sequence for transmission. The HARQ-ACK bits for the PDSCH transmissions may be mapped to bit positions of the HARQ- ACK bit sequence based on values of DAI counter fields of the PDCCHs.

[00124] In Example 9, the subject matter of one or any combination of

Examples 1-8, wherein the scheduling of the PDSCH transmissions by the PDCCHs may be configurable for a self-scheduling arrangement or a cross- carrier scheduling arrangement. When the PDSCH transmissions are scheduled by the PDCCHs in accordance with the self-scheduling arrangement, each PDSCH transmission may be scheduled by a corresponding PDCCH that is received on a same CC as the PDSCH transmission. When the PDSCH transmissions are scheduled by the PDCCHs in accordance with a cross-carrier scheduling arrangement, the PDCCHs may be received on one or more CCs.

[00125] In Example 10, the subject matter of one or any combination of

Examples 1-9, wherein the PDCCHs may be included in either a UE specific search space (USS) or a common search space (CSS) accessible to the UE and to other UEs. For the PDCCHs that are included in the USS: each PDCCH may be scrambled by a UE-specific radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) of the UE, each PDCCH may include a total downlink assignment index (DAI) field that is based on a count of CCs on which one of the PDSCH transmissions is scheduled by one of the PDCCHs included in either the USS or the CSS, and each PDCCH may further include a DAI counter that includes a count of CCs on which one of the PDSCH transmissions is scheduled by one of the PDCCHs included in the USS and excludes a count of CCs on which one of the PDSCH transmissions is scheduled by one of the PDCCHs included in the CSS. For the PDCCHs that are included in the CSS: each PDCCH may be scrambled by a common RNTI, and each PDCCH may exclude the total DAI and the DAI counter fields.

[00126] In Example 11, the subject matter of one or any combination of

Examples 1-10, wherein HARQ-ACK bits for the PDSCH transmissions scheduled by the PDCCHs included in the USS may be mapped to the HARQ- ACK bit sequence in bit positions that are based on values of the DAI counter fields of the PDCCHs. HARQ-ACK bits for the PDSCH transmissions scheduled by the PDCCHs included in the CSS may be mapped to the HARQ- ACK bit sequence in bit positions that are reserved for PDSCH transmissions scheduled by the PDCCHs included in the CSS.

[00127] In Example 12, the subject matter of one or any combination of

Examples 1- 11, wherein the predetermined bit position reserved for the SPS PDSCH transmissions may be a least significant bit (LSB) or most significant bit (MSB) of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence.

[00128] In Example 13, the subject matter of one or any combination of

Examples 1-12, wherein the SPS schedules may be pre-established schedules of periodic reception, by the UE, of SPS PDSCH transmissions without corresponding PDCCHs. The determination of whether the SPS PDSCH transmissions are to be received in the sub-frame may be based on one or more comparisons between a time index of the sub-frame and time indexes of the SPS schedules.

[00129] In Example 14, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples 1-13, wherein the UE may be arranged to operate in accordance with a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol to receive the PDCCHs, PDSCH transmissions, and SPS PDSCH transmission from an Evolved Node-B (eNB).

[00130] In Example 15, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples 1-14, wherein the apparatus may further include a transceiver to receive the PDCCHs, the PDSCH transmissions, and the SPS PDSCH transmission from an Evolved Node-B (eNB).

[00131] In Example 16, the subject matter of one or any combination of

Examples 1-15, wherein the processing circuitry may include a baseband processor to decode the PDCCHs, the PDSCH transmissions, and the SPS PDSCH transmission.

[00132] In Example 17, a computer-readable storage medium may store instructions for execution by one or more processors to perform operations for communication by a User Equipment (UE). The operations may configure the one or more processors to decode a plurality of physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmissions received in a sub-frame on a plurality of component carriers (CCs) of a carrier aggregation (CA). The PDSCH transmissions may be scheduled by a plurality of physical downlink control channels (PDCCHs) received in the sub-frame. The operations may further configure the one or more processors to decode a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH transmission received in the sub-frame on one of the CCs. The SPS PDSCH transmission may be scheduled prior to the sub-frame and exclusively to the PDCCHs. The operations may further configure the one or more processors to encode, for transmission, a hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) bit sequence of HARQ-ACK bits. HARQ- ACK bits for the PDSCH transmissions may be mapped to bit positions of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence in accordance with information included in the PDCCHs. A HARQ-ACK bit of the SPS PDSCH transmission may be mapped to a fixed position of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence reserved for the HARQ- ACK bit of the SPS PDSCH transmission.

[00133] In Example 18, the subject matter of Example 17, wherein the operations may further configure the one or more processors to determine the HARQ-ACK bits for the decoded PDSCH transmissions based on whether the PDSCH transmissions are successfully decoded. The operations may further configure the one or more processors to determine the HARQ-ACK bit for the decoded SPS PDSCH transmission based on whether the SPS PDSCH transmission is successfully decoded.

[00134] In Example 19, an apparatus of an Evolved Node-B (eNB) may comprise memory. The apparatus may further comprise processing circuitry. The processing circuitry may be configured to encode, for transmission in a sub- frame: one or more physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmissions, one or more physical downlink control channels (PDCCHs) that include scheduling information for the PDSCH transmissions, and a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH transmission that is scheduled by an SPS schedule configured prior to the sub-frame. The processing circuitry may be further configured to decode a hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) bit sequence of HARQ-ACK bits. The HARQ-ACK bits for the PDSCH transmissions may be mapped to bit positions indicated by the PDCCHs and a HARQ-ACK bit for the SPS-PDSCH transmission may be mapped to a predetermined bit position reserved for the HARQ-ACK bit of the SPS PDSCH transmission. [00135] In Example 20, the subject matter of Example 19, wherein downlink channel resources may comprise multiple component carriers (CCs) for usage in a carrier aggregation (CA). The eNB may be configured to transmit, on each CC of a sub-group of the CCs in the sub-frame: one of the PDSCH transmissions, one of the PDCCHs or the SPS PDSCH transmission. A downlink control information (DCI) format used for at least one of the PDCCHs may include a total downlink assignment indicator (DAI) that is based on a summation of: a number of the CCs of the sub-group on which one of the PDSCH transmissions is scheduled by one of the PDCCHs in the sub-frame, a number of the CCs of the sub-group on which an SPS PDSCH transmission is scheduled for the sub-frame, and a number of the CCs of the sub-group on which an SPS over-ride PDCCH is to be transmitted to indicate an over-ride of an SPS PDSCH transmission previously scheduled in the sub-frame.

[00136] In Example 21, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples 19-20, wherein the CCs of the downlink channel resources may be mapped to an ordered sequence of CC indexes. The DCI format may further include, for a particular PDCCH that schedules a particular PDSCH transmission on a particular CC of a particular CC index, a DAI counter. The DAI counter may include the CCs of the sub-group on which one of the PDSCH

transmissions is scheduled in the sub-frame by one of the PDCCHs. The DAI counter may exclude the CCs of the sub-group on which an SPS PDSCH transmission is scheduled in the sub-frame. The DAI counter may include the CCs of the sub-group on which an SPS over-ride PDCCH is transmitted.

[00137] In Example 22, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples 19-21, wherein the apparatus may further include a transceiver to transmit the PDCCHs, the PDSCH transmissions, and the SPS PDSCH transmission.

[00138] In Example 23, the subject matter of one or any combination of

Examples 19-22, wherein the processing circuitry may include a baseband processor to encode the PDCCHs, the PDSCH transmissions, and the SPS PDSCH transmission.

[00139] In Example 24, an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) may comprise means for decoding a plurality of physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmissions received in a sub-frame on a plurality of component carriers (CCs) of a carrier aggregation (CA), the PDSCH transmissions scheduled by a plurality of physical downlink control channels (PDCCHs) received in the sub-frame. The apparatus may further comprise means for decoding a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH transmission received in the sub-frame on one of the CCs, the SPS PDSCH transmission scheduled prior to the sub-frame and exclusively to the PDCCHs. The apparatus may further comprise means for encoding, for transmission, a hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) bit sequence of HARQ-ACK bits. HARQ-ACK bits for the PDSCH transmissions may be mapped to bit positions of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence in accordance with information included in the PDCCHs. A HARQ-ACK bit of the SPS PDSCH transmission may be mapped to a fixed position of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence reserved for the HARQ- ACK bit of the SPS PDSCH transmission.

[00140] In Example 25, the subject matter of Example 24, wherein the apparatus may further comprise means for determining the HARQ-ACK bits for the decoded PDSCH transmissions based on whether the PDSCH transmissions are successfully decoded. The apparatus may further comprise means for determining the HARQ-ACK bit for the decoded SPS PDSCH transmission based on whether the SPS PDSCH transmission is successfully decoded.

[00141] The Abstract is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. Section

1.72(b) requiring an abstract that will allow the reader to ascertain the nature and gist of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to limit or interpret the scope or meaning of the claims. The following claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.

Claims

What is claimed is: 1. An apparatus of a User Equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: memory; and processing circuitry, configured to:

decode one or more physical downlink control channels (PDCCHs) received in a sub-frame;

decode one or more physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmissions received in the sub-frame, wherein the PDSCH transmissions are scheduled by the PDCCHs;

map hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) bits for the PDSCH transmissions to bit positions of a HARQ-ACK bit sequence, the bit positions indicated by the PDCCHs;

determine whether one or more semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH transmissions are scheduled in the sub-frame by SPS schedules that are configured prior to the sub-frame and are exclusive to the PDCCHs; and

when at least one of the SPS PDSCH transmissions is received in the sub-frame, decode the received SPS PDSCH transmission and map a HARQ- ACK bit for the received SPS PDSCH transmission to the HARQ-ACK bit sequence in a predetermined bit position reserved for the SPS PDSCH transmissions.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the PDCCHs are formatted in accordance with one or more candidate

Downlink Control Information (DO) formats,

a DCI format of at least a particular PDCCH that schedules a particular PDSCH includes:

a total downlink assignment indicator (DAI) field to indicate a size of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence, and

a DAI counter field to indicate the bit position of the HARQ- ACK bit sequence to which the HARQ-ACK bit of the particular PDSCH is mapped.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein:

the total DAI field is based on a count that includes PDSCH

transmissions, SPS PDSCH transmissions, and PDCCHs that over-ride SPS PDSCH transmissions, and

the DAI counter field is based on a count that includes the PDSCH transmissions and the PDCCHs that over-ride SPS PDSCH transmissions and excludes the SPS PDSCH transmissions.

4. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein:

the PDSCH transmissions are received in multiple component carriers (CCs) in accordance with a carrier aggregation (CA),

the CCs of the CA are mapped to an ordered sequence of CC indexes, the PDCCHs indicate the CCs on which the PDSCH transmissions are to be received in the sub-frame,

the CC on which the particular PDSCH is received is mapped to a particular CC index,

the DAI counter of the particular PDCCH is based on a count of the PDSCH transmissions received in the sub-frame for which CC indexes are lower than the particular CC index, and

the DAI counter of the particular PDCCH is exclusive to a count of the SPS PDSCH transmissions received in the sub-frame.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

downlink channel resources comprise multiple component carriers (CCs) in a carrier aggregation (CA),

the UE is configured to simultaneously receive, on each CC of a subgroup of the CCs in the sub-frame:

one of the PDCCHs,

one of the PDSCH transmissions,

one of the SPS PDSCH transmissions, or

another PDCCH that indicates an over-ride of one of the SPS

PDSCH transmissions scheduled for the CC in the sub-frame.

6. The apparatus according to claim 4 or 5, wherein:

the PDCCHs are formatted in accordance with one or more candidate Downlink Control Information (DO) formats,

a DCI format of at least one of the PDCCHs includes a total downlink assignment indicator (DAI) field that is based on a summation of:

a number of the CCs of the sub-group on which one of the PDSCH transmissions is scheduled in the sub-frame by one of the PDCCHs, a number of the CCs of the sub-group on which one of the SPS PDSCH transmissions is scheduled for the sub-frame, and

a number of the CCs of the sub-group on which an SPS over-ride PDCCH is to be received in the sub-frame, wherein the SPS over-ride PDCCH indicates an over-ride of a previously scheduled SPS PDSCH transmission previously scheduled for the sub-frame.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein:

the CCs of the downlink channel resources are mapped to an ordered sequence of CC indexes,

the DCI format further includes, for a particular PDCCH that schedules a particular PDSCH transmission on a particular CC of a particular CC index, a DAI counter, wherein:

the DAI counter includes the CCs of the sub-group on which one of the PDSCH transmissions is scheduled by one of the PDCCHs in the sub- frame,

the DAI counter excludes the CCs of the sub-group on which one of the SPS PDSCH transmissions is scheduled in the sub-frame, and

the DAI counter includes the CCs of the sub-group on which an over-ride PDCCH is to be received in the sub-frame.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, the processing circuitry further configured to:

encode the HARQ-ACK bit sequence for transmission, wherein the HARQ-ACK bits for the PDSCH transmissions are mapped to bit positions of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence based on values of DAI counter fields of the PDCCHs.

9. The apparatus according to claim 4 or 5, wherein:

the scheduling of the PDSCH transmissions by the PDCCHs is configurable for a self-scheduling arrangement or a cross-carrier scheduling arrangement,

when the PDSCH transmissions are scheduled by the PDCCHs in accordance with the self-scheduling arrangement, each PDSCH transmission is scheduled by a corresponding PDCCH that is received on a same CC as the PDSCH transmission, and

when the PDSCH transmissions are scheduled by the PDCCHs in accordance with a cross-carrier scheduling arrangement, the PDCCHs are received on one or more CCs.

10. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein:

the PDCCHs are included in either a UE specific search space (USS) or a common search space (CSS) accessible to the UE and to other UEs,

for the PDCCHs that are included in the US S :

each PDCCH is scrambled by a UE-specific radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) of the UE,

each PDCCH includes a total downlink assignment index (DAI) field that is based on a count of CCs on which one of the PDSCH transmissions is scheduled by one of the PDCCHs included in either the USS or the CSS, and each PDCCH further includes a DAI counter that includes a count of CCs on which one of the PDSCH transmissions is scheduled by one of the PDCCHs included in the USS and excludes a count of CCs on which one of the PDSCH transmissions is scheduled by one of the PDCCHs included in the CSS, and

for the PDCCHs that are included in the CSS:

each PDCCH is scrambled by a common RNTI, and each PDCCH excludes the total DAI and the DAI counter fields.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein:

HARQ-ACK bits for the PDSCH transmissions scheduled by the

PDCCHs included in the USS are mapped to the HARQ-ACK bit sequence in bit positions that are based on values of the DAI counter fields of the PDCCHs, and HARQ-ACK bits for the PDSCH transmissions scheduled by the PDCCHs included in the CSS are mapped to the HARQ-ACK bit sequence in bit positions that are reserved for PDSCH transmissions scheduled by the PDCCHs included in the CSS.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined bit position reserved for the SPS PDSCH transmissions is a least significant bit (LSB) or most significant bit (MSB) of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence.

13. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the SPS schedules are pre-established schedules of periodic reception, by the UE, of SPS PDSCH transmissions without corresponding PDCCHs, and the determination of whether the SPS PDSCH transmissions are to be received in the sub-frame is based on one or more comparisons between a time index of the sub-frame and time indexes of the SPS schedules.

14. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the UE is arranged to operate in accordance with a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol to receive the PDCCHs, PDSCH transmissions, and SPS PDSCH transmission from an Evolved Node-B (eNB).

15. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus further includes a transceiver to receive the PDCCHs, the PDSCH transmissions, and the SPS PDSCH transmission from an Evolved Node-B (eNB).

16. The apparatus according to any of claim 1 or claims 12-15, wherein the processing circuitry includes a baseband processor to decode the PDCCHs, the PDSCH transmissions, and the SPS PDSCH transmission.

17. A computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors to perform operations for communication by a User Equipment (UE), the operations to configure the one or more processors to:

decode a plurality of physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmissions received in a sub-frame on a plurality of component carriers (CCs) of a carrier aggregation (CA), the PDSCH transmissions scheduled by a plurality of physical downlink control channels (PDCCHs) received in the sub-frame; decode a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH transmission received in the sub-frame on one of the CCs, the SPS PDSCH transmission scheduled prior to the sub-frame and exclusively to the PDCCHs;

encode, for transmission, a hybrid automatic repeat request

acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) bit sequence of HARQ-ACK bits,

wherein HARQ-ACK bits for the PDSCH transmissions are mapped to bit positions of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence in accordance with information included in the PDCCHs, and a HARQ-ACK bit of the SPS PDSCH

transmission is mapped to a fixed position of the HARQ-ACK bit sequence reserved for the HARQ-ACK bit of the SPS PDSCH transmission.

18. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 17, the operations to further configure the one or more processors to:

determine the HARQ-ACK bits for the decoded PDSCH transmissions based on whether the PDSCH transmissions are successfully decoded; and

determine the HARQ-ACK bit for the decoded SPS PDSCH transmission based on whether the SPS PDSCH transmission is successfully decoded.

19. An apparatus of an Evolved Node-B (eNB), the apparatus comprising: memory; and processing circuitry, configured to:

encode, for transmission in a sub-frame:

one or more physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmissions, one or more physical downlink control channels (PDCCHs) that include scheduling information for the PDSCH transmissions, and

a semi -persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH transmission that is scheduled by an SPS schedule configured prior to the sub-frame; and

decode a hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ- ACK) bit sequence of HARQ-ACK bits,

wherein the HARQ-ACK bits for the PDSCH transmissions are mapped to bit positions indicated by the PDCCHs and a HARQ-ACK bit for the SPS- PDSCH transmission is mapped to a predetermined bit position reserved for the HARQ-ACK bit of the SPS PDSCH transmission.

20. The apparatus according to claim 19, wherein:

downlink channel resources comprise multiple component carriers (CCs) for usage in a carrier aggregation (CA),

the eNB is configured to transmit, on each CC of a sub-group of the CCs in the sub-frame: one of the PDSCH transmissions, one of the PDCCHs or the SPS PDSCH transmission,

a downlink control information (DCI) format used for at least one of the PDCCHs includes a total downlink assignment indicator (DAI) that is based on a summation of:

a number of the CCs of the sub-group on which one of the PDSCH transmissions is scheduled by one of the PDCCHs in the sub-frame, a number of the CCs of the sub-group on which an SPS PDSCH transmission is scheduled for the sub-frame, and

a number of the CCs of the sub-group on which an SPS over-ride PDCCH is to be transmitted to indicate an over-ride of an SPS PDSCH transmission previously scheduled in the sub-frame.

21. The apparatus according to claim 20, wherein:

the CCs of the downlink channel resources are mapped to an ordered sequence of CC indexes, the DCI format further includes, for a particular PDCCH that schedules a particular PDSCH transmission on a particular CC of a particular CC index, a DAI counter, wherein:

the DAI counter includes the CCs of the sub-group on which one of the PDSCH transmissions is scheduled in the sub-frame by one of the PDCCHs,

the DAI counter excludes the CCs of the sub-group on which an SPS PDSCH transmission is scheduled in the sub-frame, and

the DAI counter includes the CCs of the sub-group on which an SPS over-ride PDCCH is transmitted.

22. The apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the apparatus further includes a transceiver to transmit the PDCCHs, the PDSCH transmissions, and the SPS PDSCH transmission.

23. The apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the processing circuitry includes a baseband processor to encode the PDCCHs, the PDSCH

transmissions, and the SPS PDSCH transmission.