WO2023115304A1

WO2023115304A1 - Frame based equipment configuration adjustment

Info

Publication number: WO2023115304A1
Application number: PCT/CN2021/139937
Authority: WO
Inventors: Claudio Rosa; Timo Erkki Lunttila; Ping-Heng Kuo; Tao Tao; Chunli Wu
Original assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd; Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Current assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd; Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Priority date: 2021-12-21
Filing date: 2021-12-21
Publication date: 2023-06-29
Anticipated expiration: 2024-06-21
Also published as: CN118525585A

Abstract

Example embodiments of the present disclosure relate to FBE configuration adjustment. A terminal device adjusts a FBE configuration in accordance with a determination based on at least one condition. The at least one condition may comprise occurrence of a number of LBT failures or reception of an instruction from a network device. This solution enables the terminal device to autonomously adjust the FBE configuration. By doing so, consistent LBT failures will be avoided, which can thus improve the transmission performance of the terminal device.

Description

FRAME BASED EQUIPMENT CONFIGURATION ADJUSTMENT

FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of telecommunication and in particular, to methods, devices, apparatus and computer readable storage medium for frame based equipment (FBE) configuration adjustment.

BACKGROUND

In a communication system, devices such as terminal devices and network devices may operate in different frequency bands. For example, devices can perform transmissions in a shared unlicensed frequency band. It has been proposed to use a channel access procedure by the devices to get access to resources in a shared frequency band such as an unlicensed frequency band. For example, a frame based equipment (FBE) configuration with a fixed frame period (FFP) may be applied to get access to the resources. FBE configuration adjustment such as adaption of the FFP may be needed to improve transmission performance in the shared frequency band.

SUMMARY

In general, example embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods, devices, apparatus and computer readable storage medium for FBE configuration adjustment.

In a first aspect, there is provided a terminal device. The terminal device comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; where the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the terminal device to determine, based on at least one condition, whether a frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted. The terminal device is further caused to adjust the frame based equipment configuration in accordance with a determination that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted.

In a second aspect, there is provided a network device. The network device comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; where the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the network device to transmit, to a terminal device, an instruction indicating to adjust a frame based equipment configuration.

In a third aspect, there is provided a method. In the method, a terminal device determines, based on at least one condition, whether a frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted. The terminal device further adjusts the frame based equipment configuration in accordance with a determination that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a method. In the method, a network device transmits, to a terminal device, an instruction indicating to adjust a frame based equipment configuration.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided an apparatus. The apparatus comprises means for performing the method according to the third aspect or the fourth aspect.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium comprises program instructions for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method according to the third aspect or the fourth aspect.

It is to be understood that the Summary section is not intended to identify key or essential features of embodiments of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become easily comprehensible through the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, where:

Fig. 1 illustrates an example communication environment in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented;

Fig. 2 illustrates example architecture of transmissions with a frame based equipment according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 3 illustrates example architecture of consistent listen before talk failures due to a nearby device;

Fig. 4 illustrates a signaling flow for communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 5 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a terminal device according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 6 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a network device according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 7 illustrates a simplified block diagram of an apparatus that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure; and

Fig. 8 illustrates a block diagram of an example computer readable medium in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar element. Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar element.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Principle of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some example embodiments. It is to be understood that these embodiments are described only for the purpose of illustration and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitation as to the scope of the disclosure. Embodiments described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

References in the present disclosure to “one embodiment, ” “an embodiment, ” “an example embodiment, ” and the like indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

It shall be understood that although the terms “first, ” “second” and the like may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the listed terms.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a” , “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” , “comprising” , “has” , “having” , “includes” and/or “including” , when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, elements, and/or components etc., but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components and/or combinations thereof.

As used in this application, the term “circuitry” may refer to one or more or all of the following:

(a) hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and/or digital circuitry) and

(b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as (as applicable) :

(i) a combination of analog and/or digital hardware circuit (s) with software/firmware and

(ii) any portions of hardware processor (s) with software (including digital signal processor (s) ) , software, and memory (ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions) and

(c) hardware circuit (s) and or processor (s) , such as a microprocessor (s) or a portion of a microprocessor (s) , that requires software (e.g., firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation.

This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of this term in this application, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware. The term circuitry also covers, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

As used herein, the term “communication network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards, such as New Radio (NR) , Long Term Evolution (LTE) , LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) , Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) , High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) , Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and so on. Furthermore, the communications between a terminal device and a network device in the communication network may be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G) communication protocols, and/or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied in various communication systems. Given the rapid development in communications, there will of course also be future type communication technologies and systems with which the present disclosure may be embodied. It should not be seen as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to only the aforementioned system.

As used herein, the term “network device” refers to a node in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. The network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP) , for example, a node B (NodeB or NB) , an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) , a NR NB (also referred to as a gNB) , a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) , a radio header (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , a relay, an Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) node, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, a non-terrestrial network (NTN) or non-ground network device such as a satellite network device, a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite and a geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellite, an aircraft network device, and so forth, depending on the applied terminology and technology. In some example embodiments, radio access network (RAN) split architecture comprises a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) at an IAB donor node. An IAB node comprises a Mobile Terminal (IAB-MT) part that behaves like a UE toward the parent node, and a DU part of an IAB node behaves like a base station toward the next-hop IAB node.

The term “terminal device” refers to any end device that may be capable of wireless communication. By way of example rather than limitation, a terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, user equipment (UE) , a Subscriber Station (SS) , a Portable Subscriber Station, a Mobile Station (MS) , or an Access Terminal (AT) . The terminal device may include, but not limited to, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, a tablet, a wearable terminal device, a personal digital assistant (PDA) , portable computers, desktop computer, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, gaming terminal devices, music storage and playback appliances, vehicle-mounted wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE) , laptop-mounted equipment (LME) , USB dongles, smart devices, wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE) , an Internet of Things (loT) device, a watch or other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD) , a vehicle, a drone, a medical device and applications (e.g., remote surgery) , an industrial device and applications (e.g., a robot and/or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and/or an automated processing chain contexts) , a consumer electronics device, a device operating on commercial and/or industrial wireless networks, and the like. The terminal device may also correspond to a Mobile Termination (MT) part of an IAB node (e.g., a relay node) . In the following description, the terms “terminal device” , “communication device” , “terminal” , “user equipment” and “UE” may be used interchangeably.

As used herein, the term “resource, ” “transmission resource, ” “resource block, ” “physical resource block” (PRB) , “uplink resource, ” or “downlink resource” may refer to any resource for performing a communication, for example, a communication between a terminal device and a network device, such as a resource in time domain, a resource in frequency domain, a resource in space domain, a resource in code domain, or any other resource enabling a communication, and the like. In the following, a resource in both frequency domain and time domain will be used as an example of a transmission resource for describing some example embodiments of the present disclosure. It is noted that example embodiments of the present disclosure are equally applicable to other resources in other domains.

Principle and implementations of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to Figs. 1-8.

Example communication environment

Fig. 1 shows an example communication environment 100 in which embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. In the communication environment 100, a network device 120 has a certain coverage range, which may be called as a serving area or a cell 102. One or more terminal devices may be located within or outside the cell 102. As illustrated, terminal devices 110-1 and 110-2 are located within the cell 102 and thus can communicate with the network device 120. A terminal device 110-3 is located outside the cell 102 and thus is not able to obtain service from the network device 120. In the communication environment, a link from the device 120 to the device 110-1 or 110-2 may be referred to as a downlink (DL) , while a link from the device 110-1 or 110-2 to the device 120 may be referred to as an uplink (UL) . For ease of discussion, the terminal devices 110-1, 110-2, and 110-3 may be collectively referred to as “devices 110” or individually referred to as a “device 110” .

In the communication environment 100, different terminal devices 110 may establish communication connections with each other. For example, the terminal devices 110-1 and 110-2 within the cell 102 (in coverage) may establish communication connections with each other. In addition, the terminal device 110-3 outside the cell 102 (out of coverage) may also establish communication connections with the terminal device 110-2 and/or the terminal device 110-2 within the cell 102. In some example embodiments, a terminal device 110 may establish communication connections with a plurality of other terminal devices 110. The communications between the terminal devices 110, which are the terminal devices, may be referred to as sidelink (SL) communications.

It is to be understood that the number of devices and their connections as shown in Fig. 1 is only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitations. The communication environment 100 may include any suitable number of devices adapted for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. Although not shown, it would be appreciated that one or more additional devices may be located in the cell 102, and one or more additional cells may be deployed in the environment 100.

Communications in the communication environment 100 may be implemented according to any proper communication protocol (s) , comprising, but not limited to, cellular communication protocols of the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) and the fifth generation (5G) and on the like, wireless local network communication protocols such as Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 and the like, and/or any other protocols currently known or to be developed in the future. Moreover, the communication may utilize any proper wireless communication technology, comprising but not limited to: Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) , Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) , Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) , Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) , Time Division Duplex (TDD) , Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) , Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple (OFDM) , Discrete Fourier Transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) and/or any other technologies currently known or to be developed in the future.

In the communication environment 100, the device 110 and the device 120 may operate in different frequency bands, including a shared frequency band such as an unlicensed frequency band. For example, the device 110 and the device 120 may operate in 5 GHz and 6 GHz unlicensed bands. The UL and DL transmissions between the device 110 and the device 120 may be performed in such shared frequency band. The SL transmissions between the devices 110 may also be performed in the shared frequency band.

As briefly mentioned above, to perform transmissions in the shared frequency band, a channel access procedure needs to be performed to ensure that the shared frequency band is not occupied by other devices. For example, a FBE with a FFP within a time length of 1 ms to 10 ms has been proposed. As used herein, the FBE may also be referred to as semi-static channel occupancy mode.

Example FBE

Fig. 2 illustrates example architecture 200 of transmission with the FBE according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. In the example of Fig. 2, an initiating device intends to perform a transmission to a responding device using resources on a shared radio frequency band such as a new radio unlicensed (NR-U) band. As used herein, the term “initiating device” may refer to a device that initiates a transmission to one or more other devices. As used herein, the term “responding device” may refer to a device to which the initiating device performs the transmission.

As shown in Fig. 2, there are a plurality of FFPs for the initiating device, such as a FFP 210-1 and a FFP 210-2. For ease of discussion, the FFPs 210-1 and 210-2 may be collectively referred to as “FFPs 210” or individually referred to as a “FFP 210” . It is to be understood that the number of FFPs in Fig. 2 are only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitations. The FFP 210 may be within a time length of 1 ms to 10 ms. The FFP may be adjusted by the initiating device at most once every 200 ms. Accordingly, timing of the FFP is practically semi-static. The FBE may also be referred to as a semi-static channel occupancy mode or a semi-static channel access mode.

As illustrated in Fig. 2, the FFP 220-1 comprises a COT 220-1 and an idle period 230-1, while the FFP 210-2 comprises a COT 220-2 and an idle period 230-2. For ease of discussion, the COTs 220-1 and 220-2 may be collectively referred to as “COTs 220” or individually referred to as a “COT 220” , and the idle periods 230-1 and 230-2 may be collectively referred to as “idle periods 230” or individually referred to as an “idle period 230” .

Before starting transmissions on an operating channel at the beginning of the FFP 210-1 (i.e., at the beginning if the COT 220-1) , the initiating device may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) 240-1 for example during a single observation slot (for example, 9 μs) . The CCA may also be referred to as a listen before talk (LBT) . For example, if a measured power (i.e., a collected energy during the CCA slot) is below a predetermined threshold, then the initiating device may determine that the operating channel as available in this CCA slot. If the initiating device determines that the operating channel is available, then the initiating device may perform transmissions during the COT 220-1. Otherwise, if the measured power exceeds the predetermined threshold, the initiating device may determine that the operating channel is occupied, and the initiating device may not perform transmissions.

As shown in Fig. 2, the idle period 230-1 begins after the end of the COT 220-1. The initiating device may perform another CCA 240-2 during an observation slot at the end of the idle period 230-1. Likewise, after the CCA 240-2, the initiating device may determine whether to perform transmissions during the COT 220-2 based on the CCA 240-2. During an observation slot at the end of the idle period 230-2, the initiating device may perform a CCA 240-3 for a following FFP not shown.

Conventionally, a network device may indicate a FBE configuration or also referred to as a FFP configuration of the network device to a terminal device through system information block type 1 (SIB1) or dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling. The terminal device may only transmit in uplink (UL) after detecting a downlink (DL) transmission from the network device. That is, the terminal device may only be allowed to transmit within a COT initiated by the network device. In other words, the terminal device may only operate as a responding device.

It has been proposed to use a terminal device-initiated COT for FBE to overcome such limitation. For example, the network device may transmit FFP configuration for terminal device-initiated COT via explicit RRC signaling. The terminal device may use the received FFP configuration to determine a COT for transmission. Such COT may also be referred to as a terminal device-initiated COT or a UE-initiated COT. However, other system interference particularly in the unlicensed frequency band will lead to consistent LBT failures for such FBE performed by the terminal device.

Fig. 3 illustrates example architecture 300 of consistent listen before talk failures due to a nearby device. As shown in Fig. 3, a device 310 and a nearby device 320 operate on a same unlicensed frequency band. FFPs of the device 310 and FFPs of the device 320 are not aligned with each other. The device 310 may perform LBT 330-1 during an observation slot within the COT 340-1 of the device 320. Thus, the LBT 330-1 will fail due to a transmission in the COT 340-1 performed by the device 320. Likewise, the device 310 may perform LBT 330-2 within a COT 340-2 of the device 320. Similarly, the LBT 330-2 will also fail. It is to be understood that although only two LBT failures have been illustrated in Fig. 2, there may be more LBT failures of the device 310 due to the COT of the device 320. That is, transmission by the device 320 may lead to consistent LBT failures of the device 310. Such consistent LBT failures will block the device 310 from being able to communicate using the corresponding unlicensed frequency band.

It has been proposed to deal with the consistent LBT failures by using a LBT failure detection and recovery procedure. For example, a medium access control (MAC) entity comprising a consistent LBT failure recovery procedure may be configured by RRC. The terminal device may detect the consistent LBT failures per UL bandwidth part (BWP) by counting LBT failure indications for all UL transmissions from the lower layers to the MAC entity. Particularly, the (UL) LBT failure detection is based on a timer and a counter. The counter may be reset when the timer expires. The timer may be incremented when UL LBT failure is indicated by the physical layer when the timer is running. When the counter reaches a threshold value, the terminal device may detect the consistent LBT failures on the corresponding BWP.

When the consistent LBT failures are detected on a BWP of a special cell (SpCell) , the terminal device tries to switch to another BWP to perform random access channel (RACH) . If the consistent LBT failures are detected on all the BWPs of the SpCell, the terminal device will trigger secondary cell group (SCG) radio link failure (RLF) if the SpCell is a primary secondary cell (PSCell) , and the terminal device will indicate the consistent LBT failures to higher layer and trigger RLF to trigger a reestablishment procedure if the SpCell is a primary cell (PCell) . If the consistent LBT failures are detected by a secondary cell (SCell) , the terminal device triggers transmission of a LBT failure MAC control element (CE) on one of the other serving cells.

However, such approach has some drawbacks. For example, the consistent UL LBT failures can be detected at a receiver side (such as a network device) only upon reception of either the LBT failure MAC CE or the RLF report. Particularly, in cases where the consistent UL LBT failures are detected on the PCell and the terminal device may not have additional cells available where to transmit the LBT failure MAC CE. In such cases, it may cause significant delay to transmissions of data packets in UL.

As discussed above, it is challenging to improve the FBE to enhance transmissions on a shared frequency band. According to some example embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a scheme for FBE configuration adjustment. In this solution, a terminal device determines to adjust a FBE configuration based on at least one condition. This scheme enables the terminal device to autonomously adjust the FBE configuration based on occurrence of certain conditions. In this way, the terminal device may dynamic adapt the FBE configuration or the FFP configuration, which will avoid consistent blocking caused by other devices or other systems operating in the same shared frequency band. In addition, transmission performance by different devices in the shared frequency band especially in an unlicensed band will be enhanced.

Example transmission with FBE configuration adjustment

Fig. 4 illustrates a signaling flow 400 for communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 4, the signaling flow 400 involves a terminal device 401, a network device 202 and an optional further device 404. In some example embodiments, the terminal device 401 and the further device 404 may be example implementations of the terminal devices 110 as illustrated in Fig. 1. The network device 402 may be an example implementation of the network device 120 in Fig. 1. For the purpose of discussion, there are three devices illustrated in Fig. 4.

In operation, the terminal device 401 determines (440) whether to adjust a FBE configuration based on at least one condition. In some example embodiments, the at least one condition may comprise receiving (410) an instruction from the network device 402. For example, the network device 402 may transmit (405) an instruction to the terminal device 401. The instruction may indicate to adjust a FBE configuration. For example, the network device 402 may transmit (405) the instruction in at least one of: physical layer signaling, MAC layer signaling, or RRC signaling. The physical layer may also be referred to as layer one (L1) .. The MAC layer may also be referred to as layer two (L2) . In some example embodiments, in response to the reception (410) of the instruction, the terminal device 401 determines (440) that the FBE configuration is to be adjusted.

In some example embodiments, the network device 402 may determine that the UL FBE configuration needs to be adjusted. Thus, the network device 402 may transmit the L1 signaling such as a configured grant physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) by physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) activation or deactivation command to the terminal device 401. This command may comprise the instruction to adjust the FBE configuration. For example, if the terminal device 401 receives (410) a PDCCH, for example downlink control information (DCI) , for Type-2 configured grant (CG) activation, reactivation or deactivation, the terminal device 401 may adjust to the CG targeted by the received (410) PDCCH. In addition, the terminal device 401 also determines (440) that the FBE configuration is to be adjusted based on the Type-2 configured grant activation, reactivation or deactivation. If the terminal device 401 determines that the FBE configuration is to be adjusted, the terminal device 401 adjusts (450) the FBE configuration.

In some example embodiment, the terminal device 401 may determine at least one adjusted FBE configuration parameter based on at least one parameter indicated in the received DCI for Type-2 CG activation, reactivation or deactivation command. For example, a periodicity of the FFP of the FBE may be determined based on a CG periodicity indicated in the DCI. Details regarding how to adjust the FBE configuration parameter will be described below.

In some example embodiment, the terminal device 401 may be allocated with different FBE configurations corresponding to different UL CG configurations. Upon receiving (410) an activation or reactivation or deactivation command for the associated UL CG configuration, the terminal device 401 may activate, deactivate or adjust (450) the corresponding FBE configurations.

In some example embodiments, the instruction received from the network device 402 may further comprise instruction regarding whether to transmit a FBE configuration adjustment report to the network device 402 after the adjustment.

In some example embodiments, the network device 402 may transmit (405) an aperiodic sounding reference signal (SRS) activation command comprising the instruction to the terminal device 401. For example, the network device 402 may configure the terminal device 401 to adjust (450) the FBE configuration when transmitting SRS for positioning purposes. In such cases, the terminal device 401 may also modify the starting offset of the FFP of the FBE based on a starting time of the SRS transmitted by the terminal device 401. Details regarding the modification of the starting offset of the FFP will be described below.

In some example embodiments, the network device 402 may transmit (405) the L2 signaling such as a serving cell activation or deactivation MAC CE to the terminal device. This MAC CE may comprise the instruction to adjust the FBE configuration. If the terminal device 401 receives (410) the MAC CE for serving cell activation or deactivation, the terminal device 401 may activate or deactivate serving cells according to the MAC CE. In addition, the terminal device 401 may adjust (450) the FBE configuration based on the instruction comprised in the MAC CE.

By transmitting (405) the instruction to the terminal device 401, the network device 402 can instruct the terminal device 401 to adjust the FBE configuration or FFP configuration in an implicit manner. In this way, the terminal device 401 may adjust the FBE configuration to avoid the consistent LBT failures.

Examples regarding determination of the FBE configuration adjustment based on the instruction received from the network device have been described above. In some example embodiments, the terminal device 401 determines that the FBE configuration is to be adjusted based on a further condition other than the instruction. For example, the at least one condition may comprise occurrence of a number of LBT failures within a predetermined time window. The predetermined time window may be preconfigured by the network device 402 or determined by the terminal device 401.

In some example embodiments, the terminal device 401 may perform LBT and determine (435) the number of LBT failures within the predetermined time window. For example, the terminal device 401 may determine (435) the number of consistent UL LBT failures for a serving cell. The terminal device 401 may determine (440) whether the FBE configuration is to be adjusted based on the number of LBT failures. For example, if the terminal device 401 determines that the number of LBT failures exceeds a first threshold number, the terminal device 401 may determine (440) that the FBE configuration is to be adjusted.

In some example embodiments, the network device 402 may transmit (415) an indication of the first threshold number to the terminal device 401. For example, the network device 402 may transmit (415) the indication via RRC. The first threshold number may also be referred to as a first counter value.

Alternatively, or in addition, the indication received (420) from the network device 402 may also comprise a second threshold number or also referred to as a second counter value. It is to be understood that the second threshold number may also be comprised in a separate indication received from the network device 402. The second threshold number may be greater than the first threshold number. In some example embodiments, if the terminal device 401 determines that the number of LBT failures is between the first threshold number and the second threshold number, the terminal device 401 may determine (440) that the FBE configuration is to be adjusted.

Alternatively, or in addition, if the terminal device 401 determines that the number of LBT failures exceeds the second threshold number, the terminal device 401 may perform a LBT failure recovery. For example, the terminal device 401 may report the UL LBT failure for the BWP and switch to another BWP.

By using the first threshold number less than the second threshold number, the terminal device may autonomously adjust the FBE configuration before the terminal device performing the LBT failure recovery. In this way, the consistent LBT failures may possibly be avoided without switching the terminal device to another BWP.

In some example embodiments, the first threshold number or the first counter value may be configured as lbt-FailureInstanceMaxCountFBE in the RRC received from the network device 402. In addition, the second threshold number or the second counter value may be configured as lbt-FailureInstanceMaxCount which is greater than the first threshold number.

In some example embodiments, the terminal device 401 may use the LBT_COUNTER configured by the network device 402 for the consistent LBT failures detection to determine whether the number of LBT failures exceeds the lbt-FailureInstanceMaxCountFBE. In such cases, the LBT_COUNTER may be reset at certain predetermined times, such that only LBT failures that have occurred relatively recently (e.g., during the last few seconds) will be taken into consideration. This may be achieved by configuration of lbt-FailureDetectionTimer if autonomous FBE configuration adjustment is based on the LBT_COUNTER.

Alternatively, the terminal device 401 may use a separate counter other than the LBT_COUNTER to determine the number of LBT failures for the FBE configuration adjustment. In addition, a separate timer other than the lbt-FailureDetectionTimer may also be configured for the counter for the FBE configuration adjustment. In the cases where a separate timer and a separate counter are used by the terminal device 401, the terminal device 401 may only increase this counter when UL LBT failure is experienced in correspondence of specific UL transmissions, signals and/or channels.

In some example embodiments, the indication received (420) from the network device 402 may further comprise a second time duration for adjusting the FBE configuration. The terminal device 401 will adjust the FBE configuration during the second time duration. For example, the terminal device 401 may adjust the FBE configuration without performing the LBT failure recovery during the second time duration. Alternatively, or in addition, the indication received (420) from the network device 402 may comprise the number of times for the FBE configuration adjustment. The terminal device 401 may adjust (450) the FBE configuration for no more than the number of times before performing the LBT failure recovery.

In some example embodiments, if the terminal device 401 determines (440) that the FBE configuration is to be adjusted, the terminal device 401 may determine (445) whether a first time duration since a previous FBE configuration adjustment exceeds a threshold time duration. For example, the threshold time duration may be predetermined as 200 ms or other suitable time duration. If the terminal device 401 determines (445) that the first time duration exceeds the threshold time period, the terminal device 401 adjusts (450) the FBE configuration. Otherwise, the FBE configuration adjustment will not be performed.

Example embodiments regarding how to determining whether the FBE configuration is to be adjusted based on at least one condition (for example, one condition comprises the instruction from the network device, another condition comprise the occurrence of a number of LBT failures) have been described above. Details regarding how to adjusting (450) the FBE configuration will be described below.

In some example embodiments, the network device 402 may transmit (425) a configuration message indicating one or more candidate configurations to the terminal device 401. For example, each candidate configuration may comprise at least one of: a time length of the FFP, a starting point of the FFP, or a starting offset of the FFP relative to a boundary of a frame. The terminal device 401 may receive (430) the one or more candidate configurations and select one candidate configuration randomly. The terminal device 401 may adjust the FBE configuration to be the selected candidate configuration. Alternatively, or in addition, the network device 402 may preconfigure the order of the one or more candidate configurations, for example by one or more increasing configuration indexes. The terminal device 401 may select the candidate configuration based on the order or the index of each candidate configurations. Although Fig. 4 shows that the candidate configurations and the indication of the first threshold number are transmitted (425/415) by the network device 402 separately, it is to be understood that the candidate configurations may also be transmitted (425/415) by the network device 402 in combination with the indication of the first threshold.

In some example embodiments, the terminal device 401 may adjust (450) the FBE configuration based on predetermined rules. For example, the terminal device 401 may adjust (450) the FBE configuration by modifying a starting offset of the FFP of the FBE configuration. For example, the terminal device 401 may determine a COT for transmission using the FBE in a frame. The starting offset may be relative to a boundary of the frame. In some example embodiments, the terminal device 401 may modify the starting offset by incrementing it by a predetermined number of symbols, for example N symbols. It is to be understood that a module operation may handle the wrap-around in case of max offset is exceeded. The value of the predetermined number of symbols may be preconfigured by the network device 402 or the terminal device 401.

Alternatively, or in addition, in some example embodiments, the terminal device 401 may receive (430) a plurality of candidate configurations from the network device 402. Each candidate configuration may comprise a candidate starting offset. The terminal device 401 may select a candidate configuration or a candidate starting offset. The terminal device may modify the starting offset to be the selected candidate starting offset.

Alternatively, or in addition, the starting offset of the FFP of the FBE may be modified based on a starting time of at least one of the following signals transmitted by the terminal device 401: a SRS, a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) signal, a physical random access channel (PRACH) signal or a configured grant physical uplink shared channel (CG-PUSCH) signal.

For example, as described above, in some example embodiments, the network device 402 may transmit (405) an aperiodic SRS activation command comprising the instruction indicating the FBE configuration adjustment to the terminal device 401. The network device 402 may configure the terminal device 401 to adjust (450) the FBE configuration when transmitting SRS for positioning purposes. In such cases, the terminal device 401 may modify the starting offset of the FFP of the FBE based on a starting time of the SRS transmitted by the terminal device 401.

For example, the network device 402 may configure the terminal device 401 with a time length of the FFP of 1 ms, such as by the configuration received (430) from the network device 402. In addition, the network device 402 may also configure the terminal device 401 with a periodicity of 250 μs for the SRS resources by the same configuration or another separate configuration. In such example, the timing of the SRS resources may have 4 different offsets (0 μs, 250 μs, 500 μs and 750 μs) as compared to the starting point of the FFP of the terminal device 401. In such cases, the terminal device 401 may modify the starting offset of the FFP based on the starting time of the SRS. For example, the terminal device 401 may modify the starting offset of the FFP by 250 μs, 500 μs or 750 μs. In addition, the terminal device 401 may also attempt the transmission on SRS on resources with the time offset 250 μs, 500 μs or 750 μs accordingly.

Conventionally, due to latency requirements related to positioning, occurrence of consistent UL LBT failures when transmitting SRS in UL may cause a significant degradation of the accuracy of positioning techniques that rely on the transmission of SRS from the terminal device towards the network device. By modifying the starting offset of the FFP based on the time offset of the SRS, it may avoid the consistent UL LBT failures. In this way, the transmission of SRS will be ensured, thus the accuracy of positioning techniques will be ensured.

Likewise, the starting offset of the FFP of the FBE may be modified based on a starting time of at least one other signal transmitted by the terminal device 401, such as a PUCCH signal, a PRACH signal or a CG-PUSCH signal. It is to be understood that the above mentioned UL signals are only for the purpose of illustration, without suggesting any limitations.

In some example embodiments, the terminal device 401 may adjust (450) the FBE configuration by modifying a time length of the FFP of the FBE. The time length may also be referred to as the periodicity of the FFP. For example, the terminal device 401 may modify the time length of the FFP by shortening by a predetermined amount. The value of the predetermined amount may be preconfigured by the network device 402 or determined by the terminal device 401. For example, in the cases where the terminal device 401 receives (410) the DCI for Type-2 CG activation, reactivation or deactivation command, the time length of the FFP of the FBE may be determined based on a CG periodicity indicated in the DCI.

In some example embodiments, the terminal device 401 may adjust (450) the FBE configuration by adjusting a starting point of the FFP to a further starting point of a further FFP for the terminal device 402. For example, the terminal device 401 may aligning at least some of the starting points of the FFPs for the terminal device 401 and the FFPs for the network device 402. In this way, the LBT for both the terminal device 401 and the network device 402 may be done at the same time.

In some example embodiments, the terminal device 401 may adjust (450) the FBE configuration by switching from the FBE configuration to a load based equipment (LBE) configuration. For example, the terminal device 401 may perform the LBE instead of the FBE after the adjustment.

It is to be understood that the above described adjustments of the FBE configuration are only for the purpose of illustration, without suggesting any limitations. Those above adjustments of the FBE configuration can be applied separately or in combination.

In some example embodiments, in response to adjusting the FBE configuration, the terminal device 401 may transmit (455) a FBE configuration adjustment report to the network device 402. The FBE configuration adjustment report may contain information about how the FBE configuration has been adjusted. For example, in the cases where the network device 402 preconfigures a set of candidate configurations with corresponding index, the FBE configuration adjustment report may comprise information regarding the index of the selected candidate configuration.

In some example embodiments, the terminal device 401 may transmit (455) L2 signaling such as a new MAC CE for the FBE configuration adjustment report. For another example, the terminal device 401 may transmit (455) the FBE configuration adjustment report via L1 signaling such as uplink control information (UCI) . The network device 402 may receive (460) the MAC CE or the UCI and identify the new FBE configuration and/or the offset of FFPs selected by the terminal device 401.

Alternatively, or in addition, in some example embodiments, the terminal device 401 may transmit an indication of LBT failure such as a LBT failure MAC CE, or the new MAC CE for FBE configuration adjustment to the network device 402 when the terminal device 401 determines that a FBE configuration can be used after the adjustment.

Alternatively, or in addition, in some example embodiments, the terminal device 401 may not transmit a separate indication to the network device 402 for the FBE configuration adjustment report. For example, in the situation where the determination (440) of the FBE configuration adjustment is based on the condition of instruction from the network device 402 and the instruction indicating not to transmit the FBE configuration adjustment report, the terminal device 401 may not transmit such report. In such cases, the network device 402 may identify the new FBE configuration such as the FFP offset by determining the timing of transmissions.

In some example embodiments, the terminal device 401 may perform (465) a transmission using FBE to the network device 402. For example, if the LBT associated with the FBE according to the adjusted FBE configuration is successful, the terminal device 401 may initiate COT using the adjusted FBE configuration, for example an adjusted starting offset of the FFP. The terminal device 401 then may perform (465) the transmission to the network device 402 during the COT. The network device 402 may receive (470) the transmission from the terminal device 401 during the COT and also use the COT initiated by the terminal device 401 to perform transmission.

In some example embodiments, if the LBT still fails when applying the adjusted starting offset of FFP, the terminal device 401 may immediately switch to a new starting offset of the FFP without waiting additional first time duration (e.g., 200 ms) .

Alternatively, or in addition, in some example embodiments, if the terminal device 401 successfully performs an UL LBT using the adjusted FBE configuration, the terminal device 401 may restart the counter and the timer for the FBE configuration adjustment. For example, the terminal device 401 may set lbt-FailureDetectionTimer and LBT_COUNTER to 0 on the corresponding BWP. Alternatively, in the cases where the terminal device 401 uses the separate timer and separate counter for FBE configuration adjustment, the terminal device 401 will set this separate timer and this separate counter to 0.

In some example embodiment, if the terminal device 401 fails to access the channel using one or more adjusted FBE configuration, the terminal device 401 may perform the consistent LBT failure recovery. In addition, if the timer for the FBE configuration adjustment has expired before the terminal device 401 is able to successfully perform the UL LBT using the adjusted FBE configuration, the terminal device 401 may also perform the consistent LBT failure recovery. For example, the terminal device 401 may switch to another BWP and/or report the consistent LBT failures to higher layers.

Alternatively, or in addition, the terminal device 401 may perform (475) a transmission using FBE to a further device 404 for example a further terminal device. For example, if the clear channel access procedure according to the adjusted FBE configuration passes, the terminal device 401 may perform a SL transmission to the further device 404. In some example embodiments, the terminal device 401 may use SL resource allocation mode 1 to perform (475) the transmission using FBE to the further device 404. In such cases, the terminal device 401 may be configured by the network device 402 to perform the UL LBT detection and/or the FBE configuration adjustment over the SL unlicensed channel or BWP. In addition, the terminal device 402 may also use SL resource allocation mode 2 to perform (475) the transmission using FBE to the further device 404. In such situation, the terminal device 401 may autonomously determine (440) to adjust the FBE configuration over the SL unlicensed channel or BWP. When the clear channel access procedure according to the adjusted FBE configuration passes, the further device 404 may receive (480) the transmission from the terminal device 401. In addition, the further device 404 may also use the COT initiated by the terminal device 401 to perform a transmission.

By using the FBE configuration adjustment in SL transmission, the consistent LBT failures will be avoided. In this way, it may improve the performance of the SL transmission.

Examples regarding the FBE configuration adjustment have been described with respect to Fig. 4. By using the proposed FBE configuration adjustment, the terminal device can autonomously adjust the FBE configuration based on occurrence of certain conditions. In this way, the terminal device may dynamic adapt the FBE configuration or the FFP configuration, which will avoid consistent blocking caused by other devices or other systems operating in the same shared frequency band. In addition, transmission performance by different devices in the shared frequency band especially in an unlicensed band will be enhanced.

Example methods and apparatuses

Fig. 5 shows a flowchart of an example method 500 implemented at a terminal device in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 500 will be described from the perspective of a terminal device 110 in Fig. 1.

At block 510, the terminal device 110 determines, based on at least one condition, a frame based equipment (FBE) configuration is to be adjusted. At block 520, the terminal device 110 adjusts the FBE configuration in accordance with the determination that the FBE configuration is to be adjusted.

In some example embodiments, the at least one condition comprises occurrence of a number of listen before talk failures within a predetermined time window. If it is determined that the number of listen before talk failures exceeds a first threshold number, the terminal device 110 determines that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted.

In some example embodiments, the terminal device 110 is further caused to receive, from a network device 120, an indication of the first threshold number. In some example embodiments, if the number of listen before talk failures is between the first threshold number and a second threshold number larger than the first threshold number, the terminal device 110 determines that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted.

In some example embodiments, if the number of listen before talk failures exceeds the second threshold number, the terminal device 110 performs a listen before talk failure recovery.

In some example embodiments, the at least one condition comprises reception of an instruction from a network device 120 to adjust the frame based equipment configuration. In response to the reception of the instruction, the terminal device 110 determines that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted. In some example embodiments, the terminal device 110 receives, from the network device 120, the instruction in at least one of: physical layer signaling, medium access control layer signaling, or radio resource control signaling.

In some example embodiments, the terminal device 110 adjusts the frame based equipment configuration by at least one of: modifying a starting offset of a fixed frame period of the frame based equipment configuration; modifying a time length of the fixed frame period; aligning a starting point of the fixed frame period to a further starting point of a further fixed frame period for a network device; or switching from the frame based equipment configuration to a load based equipment configuration.

In some example embodiments, the terminal device 110 modifies the starting offset of the fixed frame period by: modifying the starting offset of the fixed time period of the frame based equipment based on a starting time of at least one of the following signals transmitted by the terminal device 110: a sounding reference signal, a physical uplink control channel signal, a physical random access channel signal or a configured grant physical uplink shared channel.

In some example embodiments, the terminal device 110 adjusts the frame based equipment configuration by: receiving, from the network device 120, a configuration message indicating a plurality of candidate configurations for the frame based equipment configuration. Each of the plurality of candidate configurations comprises at least one of: a candidate starting offset of the fixed frame period, a candidate time length of the fixed frame period, or a candidate starting point of the fixed frame period. The terminal device 110 selects a target configuration from the plurality of candidate configurations; and modifies the frame based equipment configuration to be the target configuration.

In some example embodiments, in response to adjusting the frame based equipment configuration, the terminal device 110 transmits, to a network device 120, at least one of: an indication of a listen before talk failure, or a frame based equipment configuration adjustment report.

In some example embodiments, the terminal device 110 adjusts the frame based equipment configuration by: determining whether a first time duration since a previous frame based equipment configuration adjustment exceeds a threshold time duration. If the first time duration exceeds the threshold time period, the terminal device 110 adjusts the frame based equipment configuration.

In some example embodiments, an apparatus capable of performing any of the method 500 (for example, the terminal device 401 in Fig. 4 or a terminal device 110 in Fig. 1) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 500. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The apparatus may be implemented as or included in the terminal device 401 in Fig. 4 or a terminal device 110 in Fig. 1.

In some example embodiments, the apparatus comprises means for determining, based on at least one condition, whether a frame based equipment (FBE) configuration is to be adjusted. The apparatus further comprises means for adjusting the FBE configuration in accordance with a determination that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted.

In some example embodiments, the at least one condition comprises occurrence of a number of listen before talk failures within a predetermined time window. The means for determining whether the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted comprises: means for in accordance with a determination that the number of listen before talk failures exceeds a first threshold number, determining that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted.

In some example embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for receiving, from a further apparatus, an indication of the first threshold number. In some example embodiments, the means for determining that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted comprises: means for in accordance with a determination that the number of listen before talk failures is between the first threshold number and a second threshold number larger than the first threshold number, determining that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted.

In some example embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for in accordance with a determination that the number of listen before talk failures exceeds the second threshold number, performing a listen before talk failure recovery.

In some example embodiments, the at least one condition comprises reception of an instruction from a further apparatus to adjust the frame based equipment configuration. The means for determining whether the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted comprises: means for in response to the reception of the instruction, determining that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted. In some example embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for receiving, from the further apparatus, the instruction in at least one of: physical layer signaling, medium access control layer signaling, or radio resource control signaling.

In some example embodiments, the means for adjusting the frame based equipment configuration comprises at least one of: means for modifying a starting offset of a fixed frame period of the frame based equipment configuration; means for modifying a time length of the fixed frame period; means for aligning a starting point of the fixed frame period to a further starting point of a further fixed frame period for a further apparatus; or means for switching from the frame based equipment configuration to a load based equipment configuration.

In some example embodiments, the means for modifying the starting offset of the fixed frame period comprises: means for modifying the starting offset of the fixed time period of the frame based equipment based on a starting time of at least one of the following signals transmitted by the apparatus: a sounding reference signal, a physical uplink control channel signal, a physical random access channel signal or a configured grant physical uplink shared channel.

In some example embodiments, the means for adjusting the frame based equipment configuration comprises: means for receiving, from a further apparatus, a configuration message indicating a plurality of candidate configurations for the frame based equipment configuration, each of the plurality of candidate configurations comprising at least one of: a candidate starting offset of the fixed frame period, a candidate time length of the fixed frame period, or a candidate starting point of the fixed frame period; means for selecting a target configuration from the plurality of candidate configurations; and means for modifying the frame based equipment configuration to be the target configuration.

In some example embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for in response to adjusting the frame based equipment configuration, transmitting, to a further apparatus, at least one of: an indication of a listen before talk failure, or a frame based equipment configuration adjustment report.

In some example embodiments, the means for adjusting the frame based equipment configuration comprises: means for determining whether a first time duration since a previous frame based equipment configuration adjustment exceeds a threshold time duration; and means for in accordance with a determination that the first time duration exceeds the threshold time period, adjusting the frame based equipment configuration.

Fig. 6 shows a flowchart of an example method 600 implemented at a network device in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 600 will be described from the perspective of a network device 120 in Fig. 1.

At block 610, the network device 120 transmits, to a terminal device 110, an instruction indicating to adjust a frame based equipment configuration.

In some example embodiments, the network device 120 transmits the instruction in at least one of: physical layer signaling, medium access control layer signaling, or radio resource control signaling.

In some example embodiments, the network device 120 transmits, to the terminal device 110, an indication of at least a first threshold number to enable the terminal device to determine, based on a comparison of the number of listen before talk failures and the first threshold number, whether the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted.

In some example embodiments, the network device 120 transmits, to the terminal device 110, an indication of a second time duration to enable the terminal device 110 to adjust the frame based equipment configuration during the second time duration.

In some example embodiments, the network device 120 transmits, to the terminal device 110, a configuration message indicating a plurality of candidate configurations for the frame based equipment configuration. Each of the plurality of candidate configurations comprises at least one of: a candidate starting offset of the fixed frame period, a candidate time length of the fixed frame period, or a candidate starting point of the fixed frame period.

In some example embodiments, the network device 120 receives, from the terminal device 110, at least one of: an indication of a listen before talk failure, or a frame based equipment configuration adjustment report.

In some example embodiments, an apparatus capable of performing any of the method 600 (for example, a network device 120 in Fig. 1) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 600. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The apparatus may be implemented as or included in a network device 120 in Fig. 1.

In some example embodiments, the apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to a further apparatus, an instruction indicating to adjust a frame based equipment configuration.

In some example embodiments, the means for transmitting the instruction comprises means for transmitting the instruction in at least one of: physical layer signaling, medium access control layer signaling, or radio resource control signaling.

In some example embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for transmitting, to the further apparatus, an indication of at least a first threshold number to enable the further apparatus to determine, based on a comparison of the number of listen before talk failures and the first threshold number, whether the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted.

In some example embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for transmitting, to the further apparatus, an indication of a second time duration to enable the further apparatus to adjust the frame based equipment configuration during the second time duration.

In some example embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for transmitting, to the further apparatus, a configuration message indicating a plurality of candidate configurations for the frame based equipment configuration. Each of the plurality of candidate configurations comprises at least one of: a candidate starting offset of the fixed frame period, a candidate time length of the fixed frame period, or a candidate starting point of the fixed frame period.

In some example embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for receiving, from the further apparatus, at least one of: an indication of a listen before talk failure, or a frame based equipment configuration adjustment report.

Fig. 7 is a simplified block diagram of a device 700 that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 700 may be provided to implement a communication device, for example, the terminal device 110 or the network device 120 as shown in Fig. 1, or a terminal device 401, a network device 402, or a further device 404 as shown in Fig. 4. As shown, the device 700 includes one or more processors 710, one or more memories 720 coupled to the processor 710, and one or more communication modules 740 coupled to the processor 710.

The communication module 740 is for bidirectional communications. The communication module 740 has one or more communication interfaces to facilitate communication with one or more other modules or devices. The communication interfaces may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements. In some example embodiments, the communication module 740 may include at least one antenna.

The processor 710 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may include one or more of the following: general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 700 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

The memory 720 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of the non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 724, an electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM) , a flash memory, a hard disk, a compact disc (CD) , a digital video disk (DVD) , an optical disk, a laser disk, and other magnetic storage and/or optical storage. Examples of the volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a random access memory (RAM) 722 and other volatile memories that will not last in the power-down duration.

A computer program 730 includes computer executable instructions that are executed by the associated processor 710. The program 730 may be stored in the memory, e.g., ROM 724. The processor 710 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 730 into the RAM 722.

The example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of the program 730 so that the device 700 may perform any process of the disclosure as discussed with reference to Figs. 4 to 6. The example embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

In some example embodiments, the program 730 may be tangibly contained in a computer readable medium which may be included in the device 700 (such as in the memory 720) or other storage devices that are accessible by the device 700. The device 700 may load the program 730 from the computer readable medium to the RAM 722 for execution. The computer readable medium may include any types of tangible non-volatile storage, such as ROM, EPROM, a flash memory, a hard disk, CD, DVD, and the like. Fig. 8 shows an example of the computer readable medium 800 which may be in form of CD, DVD or other optical storage disk. The computer readable medium has the program 730 stored thereon.

Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. While various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representations, it is to be understood that the block, apparatus, system, technique or method described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target physical or virtual processor, to carry out any of the methods as described above with reference to Fig. 5 and Fig. 6. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

Program code for carrying out methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. These program codes may be provided to a processor or controller of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program codes, when executed by the processor or controller, cause the functions/operations specified in the flowcharts and/or block diagrams to be implemented. The program code may execute entirely on a machine, partly on the machine, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the machine and partly on a remote machine or entirely on the remote machine or server.

In the context of the present disclosure, the computer program code or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier to enable the device, apparatus or processor to perform various processes and operations as described above. Examples of the carrier include a signal, computer readable medium, and the like.

The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable medium may include but not limited to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the computer readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM) , a read-only memory (ROM) , an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory) , an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) , an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Further, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, while several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

Although the present disclosure has been described in languages specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the present disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

A terminal device comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code;

wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the terminal device to:

determine, based on at least one condition, whether a frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted; and

in accordance with a determination that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted, adjust the frame based equipment configuration.
The terminal device of Claim 1, wherein the at least one condition comprises occurrence of a number of listen before talk failures within a predetermined time window, and the terminal device is caused to determine whether the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted by:

in accordance with a determination that the number of listen before talk failures exceeds a first threshold number, determining that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted.
The terminal device of Claim 2, wherein the terminal device is further caused to:

receive, from a network device, an indication of the first threshold number.
The terminal device of Claim 2, wherein the terminal device is caused to determine that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted by:

in accordance with a determination that the number of listen before talk failures is between the first threshold number and a second threshold number larger than the first threshold number, determining that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted.
The terminal device of Claim 4, wherein the terminal device is further caused to:

in accordance with a determination that the number of listen before talk failures exceeds the second threshold number, perform a listen before talk failure recovery.
The terminal device of Claim 1, wherein the at least one condition comprises reception of an instruction from a network device to adjust the frame based equipment configuration, and the terminal device is caused to determine whether the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted by:

in response to the reception of the instruction, determining that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted.
The terminal device of Claim 6, wherein the terminal device is further caused to:

receive, from the network device, the instruction in at least one of:

physical layer signaling,

medium access control layer signaling, or

radio resource control signaling.
The terminal device of any of Claims 1-7, wherein the terminal device is caused to adjust the frame based equipment configuration by at least one of:

modifying a starting offset of a fixed frame period of the frame based equipment configuration;

modifying a time length of the fixed frame period;

aligning a starting point of the fixed frame period to a further starting point of a further fixed frame period for a network device; or

switching from the frame based equipment configuration to a load based equipment configuration.
The terminal device of Claim 8, wherein the terminal device is caused to modify the starting offset of the fixed frame period by:

modifying the starting offset of the fixed time period of the frame based equipment based on a starting time of at least one of the following signals transmitted by the terminal device:

a sounding reference signal,

a physical uplink control channel signal,

a physical random access channel signal, or

a configured grant physical uplink shared channel signal.
The terminal device of any of Claims 1-9, wherein the terminal device is caused to adjust the frame based equipment configuration by:

receiving, from a network device, a configuration message indicating a plurality of candidate configurations for the frame based equipment configuration, each of the plurality of candidate configurations comprising at least one of:

a candidate starting offset of the fixed frame period,

a candidate time length of the fixed frame period, or

a candidate starting point of the fixed frame period;

selecting a target configuration from the plurality of candidate configurations; and

modifying the frame based equipment configuration to be the target configuration.
The terminal device of any of Claims 1-10, wherein the terminal device is further caused to:

in response to adjusting the frame based equipment configuration, transmit, to a network device, at least one of:

an indication of a listen before talk failure, or

a frame based equipment configuration adjustment report.
The terminal device of any of Claims 1-11, wherein the terminal device is caused to adjust the frame based equipment configuration by:

determining whether a first time duration since a previous frame based equipment configuration adjustment exceeds a threshold time duration; and

in accordance with a determination that the first time duration exceeds the threshold time period, adjusting the frame based equipment configuration.
A network device comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code;

wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the network device to:

transmit, to a terminal device, an instruction indicating to adjust a frame based equipment configuration.
The network device of Claim 13, wherein the network device is caused to transmit the instruction in at least one of:

physical layer signaling,

medium access control layer signaling, or

radio resource control signaling.
The network device of Claim 13 or Claim 14, wherein the network device is further caused to:

transmit, to the terminal device, an indication of at least a first threshold number to enable the terminal device to determine, based on a comparison of the number of listen before talk failures and the first threshold number, whether the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted.
The network device of any of Claims 13-15, wherein the network device is further caused to:

transmit, to the terminal device, an indication of a second time duration to enable the terminal device to adjust the frame based equipment configuration during the second time duration.
The network device of any of Claims 13-16, wherein the network device is further caused to:

transmit, to the terminal device, a configuration message indicating a plurality of candidate configurations for the frame based equipment configuration, each of the plurality of candidate configurations comprising at least one of:

a candidate starting offset of the fixed frame period,

a candidate time length of the fixed frame period, or

a candidate starting point of the fixed frame period.
The network device of any of Claims 13-17, wherein the network device is further caused to:

receive, from the terminal device, at least one of:

an indication of a listen before talk failure, or

a frame based equipment configuration adjustment report.
A method comprising:

determining, by a terminal device, based on at least one condition, whether a frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted; and

in accordance with a determination that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted, adjusting the frame based equipment configuration.
The method of Claim 19, wherein the at least one condition comprises occurrence of a number of listen before talk failures within a predetermined time window, and determining whether the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted comprises:

in accordance with a determination that the number of listen before talk failures exceeds a first threshold number, determining that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted.
The method of Claim 20, further comprising:

receiving, from a network device, an indication of the first threshold number.
The method of Claim 20, wherein determining that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted comprises:

in accordance with a determination that the number of listen before talk failures is between the first threshold number and a second threshold number larger than the first threshold number, determining that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted.
The method of Claim 22, further comprising:

in accordance with a determination that the number of listen before talk failures exceeds the second threshold number, performing a listen before talk failure recovery.
The method of Claim 19, wherein the at least one condition comprises reception of an instruction from a network device to adjust the frame based equipment configuration, and wherein determining whether the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted comprises:

in response to the reception of the instruction, determining that the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted.
The method of Claim 24, further comprising:

receiving, from the network device, the instruction in at least one of:

physical layer signaling,

medium access control layer signaling, or

radio resource control signaling.
The method of any of Claims 19-25, wherein adjusting the frame based equipment configuration comprises:

modifying a starting offset of a fixed frame period of the frame based equipment configuration;

modifying a time length of the fixed frame period;

aligning a starting point of the fixed frame period to a further starting point of a further fixed frame period for a network device; or

switching from the frame based equipment configuration to a load based equipment configuration.
The method of Claim 26, wherein modifying the starting offset of the fixed frame period comprises:

modifying the starting offset of the fixed time period of the frame based equipment based on a time offset of at least one of the following signals transmitted by the terminal device:

a sounding reference signal,

a physical uplink control channel signal,

a physical random access channel signal, or

a configured grant physical uplink shared channel signal.
The method of any of Claims 19-27, wherein adjusting the frame based equipment configuration comprises:

receiving, from a network device, a configuration message indicating a plurality of candidate configurations for the frame based equipment configuration, each of the plurality of candidate configurations comprising at least one of:

a candidate starting offset of the fixed frame period,

a candidate time length of the fixed frame period, or

a candidate starting point of the fixed frame period;

selecting a target configuration from the plurality of candidate configurations; and

modifying the frame based equipment configuration to be the target configuration.
The method of any of Claims 19-28, further comprising:

in response to adjusting the frame based equipment configuration, transmitting, to a network device, at least one of:

an indication of a listen before talk failure, or

a frame based equipment configuration adjustment report.
The method of any of Claims 19-29, wherein adjusting the frame based equipment configuration comprises:

determining whether a first time duration since a previous frame based equipment configuration adjustment exceeds a threshold time duration; and

in accordance with a determination that the first time duration exceeds the threshold time period, adjusting the frame based equipment configuration.
A method comprising:

transmitting, by a network device and to a terminal device, an instruction indicating to adjust a frame based equipment configuration.
The method of Claim 31, wherein transmitting the instruction comprises:

transmitting the instruction in at least one of:

physical layer signaling,

medium access control layer signaling, or

radio resource control signaling.
The method of Claim 31 or Claim 32, further comprising

transmitting, to the terminal device, an indication of at least a first threshold number to enable the terminal device to determine, based on a comparison of the number of listen before talk failures and the first threshold number, whether the frame based equipment configuration is to be adjusted.
The method of any of Claims 31-33, further comprising:

transmitting, to the terminal device, an indication of a second time duration to enable the terminal device to adjust the frame based equipment configuration during the second time duration.
The method of any of Claims 31-34, further comprising:

transmitting, to the terminal device, a configuration message indicating a plurality of candidate configurations for the frame based equipment configuration, each of the plurality of candidate configurations comprising at least one of:

a candidate starting offset of the fixed frame period,

a candidate time length of the fixed frame period, or

a candidate starting point of the fixed frame period.
The method of any of Claims 31-35, further comprising:

receiving, from the terminal device, at least one of:

an indication of a listen before talk failure, or

a frame based equipment configuration adjustment report.
An apparatus comprising: means for performing at least the method of any of claims 19-36.
A computer readable medium comprising program instructions for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method of any of claims 19-36.