WO2025022499A1 - Terminal, wireless communication method, and base station - Google Patents

Abstract

A terminal according to one aspect disclosed herein includes: a reception unit that receives information related to a sensing antenna port; and a control unit that, on the basis of the information, determines a sensing antenna port associated with an antenna or an antenna group. According to the one aspect disclosed herein, appropriate sensing and communication can be performed.

Description

Terminal, wireless communication method and base station

This disclosure relates to terminals, wireless communication methods, and base stations in next-generation mobile communication systems.

Long Term Evolution (LTE) was specified for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) networks with the aim of achieving higher data rates and lower latency (Non-Patent Document 1). In addition, LTE-Advanced (3GPP Rel. 10-14) was specified for the purpose of achieving higher capacity and greater sophistication over LTE (Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP (registered trademark)) Release (Rel.) 8, 9).

Successor systems to LTE (e.g., 5th generation mobile communication system (5G), 5G+ (plus), 6th generation mobile communication system (6G), New Radio (NR), 3GPP Rel. 15 and later, etc.) are also under consideration.

3GPP TS 36.300 V8.12.0 “Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and Evolved Univers al　Terrestrial　Radio　Access　Network　(E-UTRAN);　Overall　description;　Stage 2　(Release　8)”, April 2010

In future wireless communication systems (e.g., NR), it is being considered to introduce sensing (e.g., Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC)) in terminals (user terminals, User Equipment (UE)) and base stations.

However, there has been insufficient consideration given to the configuration/definition/instruction of antenna ports related to ISAC in UEs/base stations. In this case, appropriate sensing/communication cannot be performed, and there is a risk of reduced communication throughput.

Therefore, one of the objectives of this disclosure is to provide a terminal, a wireless communication method, and a base station that can perform appropriate sensing and communication.

A terminal according to one aspect of the present disclosure has a receiver that receives information related to a sensing antenna port, and a controller that determines the sensing antenna port associated with an antenna or antenna group based on the information.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, appropriate sensing and communication can be performed.

1A to 1C are diagrams showing examples of sensing method 1 and sensing method 2. FIG. 2A and 2B are diagrams illustrating an example of sensing method 3. In FIG. 3A to 3C are diagrams showing an example of sensing type 1. FIG. 4A to 4C are diagrams showing an example of sensing type 2. 5A to 5C are diagrams showing an example of sensing type 3. 6A to 6C are diagrams showing an example scenario. 7A to 7C are diagrams showing another example of a scenario. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a transmit antenna design for realizing VA. 9A and 9B are diagrams showing an example of the arrangement of transmitting antennas and receiving antennas. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a ULA antenna. 11A and 11B are diagrams showing examples of antenna ports related to option 1-1-1 and option 1-1-2. FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of an antenna port according to option 1-1-3-1. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of an antenna port according to option 1-1-3-2. FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of a sensing antenna port according to embodiment 1-2. 15A and 15B are diagrams illustrating an example of use of antenna ports according to the second embodiment. 16A and 16B are diagrams showing another example of the use of antenna ports according to the second embodiment. FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an example of resources for multiple sensing antenna ports according to embodiment 3-1. 18A and 18B are diagrams showing an example of resource allocation according to embodiment 3-2-1. 19A and 19B are diagrams showing an example of signal allocation to sensing antenna ports according to embodiment 3-2-2. FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of a wireless communication system according to an embodiment. FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of a base station according to an embodiment. FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of a user terminal according to an embodiment. FIG. 23 is a diagram illustrating an example of the hardware configuration of a base station and a user terminal according to an embodiment. FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating an example of a vehicle according to an embodiment.

(Wireless sensing technology)
Sensing technologies that use radio waves (wireless sensing technology, object detection, etc.) are being studied. Wireless sensing technology is thought to have the following advantages over other sensing technologies:
- Sensing using moving images or infrared rays can only be applied in specific directions, whereas wireless sensing technology is not limited by direction and can take advantage of characteristics such as diffraction.
- Wireless sensing technology can be implemented at low cost compared to video capture functions.

With wireless sensing technology, it is possible to collect sensing results at a base station (BS) and use the collected information to generate advanced cyberspace, or to use the collected information as feedback to the real world.

(ISAC)
As integrated sensing and communications (ISAC), sensing-assisted communication and communication-assisted sensing are considered. As sensing-assisted communication, sensing-assisted beam management and sensing-assisted resource allocation are considered. As communication-assisted sensing, network sensing and coordinated sensing are considered. To realize them, waveforms, beamforming, artificial intelligence (AI)/deep learning (DL) operation radio access technology (RAT), frame structure, and reference signals are considered. In addition, as shared spectrum, hardware, and algorithms for ISAC, higher frequency bands, larger antenna arrays, and similar signal processing algorithms for communication and sensing are considered.

In ISAC, the challenges are a unified waveform that simultaneously meets the requirements for communication (e.g., OFDM signal) and sensing (e.g., chirp signal), ISAC beamforming that simultaneously realizes communication (e.g., transmission signal, reception signal) and sensing (e.g., echo signal, transmission signal, reflection signal) by beamforming, and interference suppression between them, and CSI mining by AI that uses AI/DL networks to extract sensing information from channel information for communication (e.g., UL transmission signal) and radar (e.g., DL radar signal).

Three types of radar and communication systems are being considered based on whether the communication and radar (sensing) systems share hardware/bands. The three types are independent radar and communication systems (independent systems), joint radar and communication systems (joint systems), and integrated radar and communication systems (integrated systems). The following focuses on ISAC systems in which hardware and bands are shared between radar and communication systems.

Conventional communication systems include communication between one BS (base station) and one UE, and joint transmission between multiple BSs and one UE. Conventional radar systems include monostatic radar, in which one radar transmits a radar signal and receives echoes from a sensing target, and bistatic/multistatic radar, in which one radar transmits a radar signal and one or more radars receive echoes from a sensing target.

Independent systems use separate hardware and separate frequency bands for radar and communications. The separate hardware may be co-located or in separate locations.

The joint system uses the same hardware and separate frequency bands for radar and communications.

The integrated system uses the same hardware and the same frequency bands for radar and communications.

Parameters related to sensing (sensing parameters) may include parameters related to range, velocity, angle, localization, recognition, etc.

In the ISAC system, sensing can be achieved in three ways:
[Sensing method 1] Monostatic sensing, which uses the idea of monostatic radar.
[Sensing method 2] Bistatic/multistatic sensing using bistatic radar/multistatic radar.
[Sensing method 3] Sensing aided by UE (UE-assisted sensing) using the idea of NR positioning.

Sensing method 1 requires one BS or UE, and sensing is performed by echo signals. In sensing method 1, there is no BS-BS cooperation, UE-UE cooperation, or BS-UE cooperation. In sensing method 1, full duplex is required, and a low SNR of the echo signal is required. A use case of sensing method 1 is, for example, imaging using terahertz.

Sensing method 2 requires two or more BSs or two or more UEs, and sensing is performed by reflected signals. In sensing method 2, half duplex is sufficient. In sensing method 2, close synchronization and coordination between BSs or UEs is required, and scheduling coordination between multiple BSs is required. A use case of sensing method 2 is, for example, positioning.

Sensing method 3 requires a BS and a UE, and sensing is performed by communication (UL/DL) signals. In sensing method 3, the existing 5G NR framework operates. In sensing method 3, a UE is required, and both line of sight (LOS) and non-line of sight (NLOS) sensing require high computational complexity. A use case of sensing method 3 is, for example, breath monitoring.

In the ISAC system, each of the multiple sensing methods has its own suitable scenario, requirements regarding BS/UE capabilities, and sensing accuracy/performance. Sensing method 1 is suitable for BS/UE with full duplex, sensing targets close to the BS or UE. Sensing method 2 is suitable for BS/UE without full duplex, sensing targets far from the BS or UE. Sensing method 3 is suitable for BS/UE with high capabilities.

Scenarios suitable for sensing method 1 include sensing targets close to the sensing BS or UE, high or medium SNR of the echo signal, and sensing targets without communication capabilities. Capability requirements for sensing method 1 include full duplex (a high requirement) at the BS or UE. Sensing performance of sensing method 1 includes high accuracy with no quantization, accuracy related to the SNR of the echo signal, and low latency.

Scenarios suitable for sensing method 2 include very tight synchronization between multiple BSs or multiple UEs, sensing targets without communication capabilities. Capability requirements for sensing method 2 include half-duplex (low requirement), synchronization between multiple BSs or multiple UEs (high requirement). Sensing performance of sensing method 2 includes high accuracy with no quantization, accuracy related to synchronization error, and medium latency.

Scenarios suitable for sensing method 3 include communicating UEs around the sensing target. The capacity requirements of sensing method 3 are UEs with high computational resources (high requirements). The sensing performance of sensing method 3 includes medium accuracy due to quantization of feedback values, accuracy related to deployed resources and UE location, and high latency.

<Sensing method>
The sensing method may be at least one of the above sensing methods 1 to 3. The multiple sensing methods may require different capabilities for the UE/BS. Sensing method 1 may require full-duplex capability in the BS or UE. Sensing method 2 may require precise synchronization among multiple BSs or multiple UEs. Sensing method 3 may require communication capability or high computational complexity capability in the sensing target.

The sensing signal may be a signal for a sensing function.

The sensing signal may be at least one of a communication signal and a communication waveform. The sensing signal may be a signal with at least one of CP-OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM waveforms in a communication system. The signal may be, for example, at least one of PRS, SRS, CSI-RS, SSB, PDSCH, and PUSCH.

The sensing signal may be at least one of a radar signal and a radar waveform. The sensing signal may be a signal with at least one of a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW), a linear frequency modulation (LFM), and a chirp waveform (CW) in a radar system.

The sensing signal may be at least one of an ISAC signal and an ISAC waveform.

The UE may be a terminal with communication capabilities. The sensing target may or may not have communication capabilities.

In the example of monostatic sensing of sensing method 1 in FIG. 1A, a communication signal or an ISAC signal may be transmitted and received between the BS and the UE. A sensing signal or an ISAC signal may be transmitted from the BS or the UE to the sensing target. The BS or the UE may receive an echo signal from the sensing target.

In the example of bistatic sensing of sensing method 2 in FIG. 1B, a communication signal or an ISAC signal may be transmitted and received between the BS and the UE. A sensing signal or an ISAC signal may be transmitted from the BS or the UE to the sensing target. The associated BS1 or the associated UE may receive a reflected signal from the sensing target.

In the example of multistatic sensing of sensing method 2 in FIG. 1C, a communication signal or an ISAC signal may be transmitted and received between the BS and the UE. A sensing signal or an ISAC signal may be transmitted from the BS or the UE to the sensing target. The associated BS1 and associated BS2 or the associated UE1 and associated UE2 may receive a reflected signal from the sensing target.

In the example of UE-assisted sensing of sensing method 3 in FIG. 2A, a sensing signal or ISAC signal may be transmitted and received between the BS and the UE. The UE may be a sensing target.

In another example of UE-assisted sensing of sensing method 3 in FIG. 2B, a sensing signal or ISAC signal may be transmitted and received between the BS and the UE. The UE may or may not be a sensing target. The UE may receive a reflected signal from the sensing target.

In 5G wireless sensing, 5G system (5GS) capabilities provide the capability to use NR RF signals to obtain information about at least one of the characteristics of an environment and objects in the environment. The information may include at least one of the shape, size, speed, location, distance, and relative movement between multiple objects. In some cases, 5GS capabilities may provide the capability to obtain information that is predefined in EPC/E-UTRA.

The sensing transmitter may be an entity that emits sensing signals used by the sensing service in its operation. The sensing transmitter may be an NR radio access network (RAN) node or a UE. The sensing transmitter may be located in the same entity as the sensing receiver or in a different entity than the sensing receiver.

The sensing receiver may be an entity that receives sensing signals used by the sensing service in its operation. The sensing receiver may be an NR RAN node or a UE. The sensing receiver may be located within the same entity as the sensing transmitter or may be located within a different entity than the sensing transmitter.

A sensing group may be a set of one or more UEs that support sensing operations. The locations of all UEs in the set of UEs may be known. Sensing measurement data for the set of UEs may be collected simultaneously.

The sensing measurement data may be data collected about radio/wireless signals that are affected by the object or environment targeted for sensing.

The sensing measurement process may be the process of collecting sensing measurement data.

The sensing result may be information derived from processing the sensing measurement data. For example, the sensing result may be a characteristic of the object or the environment.

For wireless local area network (WLAN) sensing, sensing types, sensing settings, and sensing procedures are defined.

Sensing types include monostatic, monostatic with coordination (two or more transmitters and receivers), bistatic, bistatic with coordination (two or more receivers), multistatic, and passive sensing.

The sensing configuration includes any of a sensing transmitter, a sensing receiver, a sensing initiator, and a sensing responder. Any of cases 1 to 4 based on different combinations of sensing transmitters, sensing receivers, sensing initiators, and sensing responders may be configured. In case 1, the sensing initiator has the function of a sensing receiver and sends a request to the sensing responder. The sensing responder has the function of a sensing transmitter and sends a physical protocol data unit (PPDU) in response to the request. The sensing initiator receives the PPDU. In case 2, the sensing initiator has the function of a sensing transmitter and sends a PPDU. The sensing responder has the function of a sensing receiver, receives the PPDU, and sends a report based on the reception to the sensing initiator. In case 3, the sensing initiator has the function of both a sensing transmitter and a sensing receiver, and sends and receives PPDUs. The sensing responder has the functionality of both a sensing transmitter and a sensing receiver, transmits and receives PPDUs, and transmits reports based on the reception to the sensing initiator. In case 4, the sensing initiator does not have the functionality of either a sensing transmitter or a sensing receiver, and transmits requests. The sensing responder has the functionality of both a sensing transmitter and a sensing receiver, transmits and receives PPDUs in response to requests, and transmits reports based on the reception to the sensing initiator.

In the sensing procedure, sensing requirements/sensing services may be initiated by a sensing initiator. The sensing procedure includes, in order, a sensing session setup, a sensing measurement setup, a sensing measurement instance, a sensing measurement termination, and a sensing session termination.

In the function of the radar signal in each embodiment, the radar signal may have high sensing performance or may be designed for sensing. The form of the radar signal in each embodiment may be a pulse signal in one or more subcarriers or one or more frequency resources, a pulse signal in one or more OFDM symbols or one or more time resources, or a continuous signal with chirp/LFM characteristics. These signals may be generated in an NR (5G advanced (5GA) or 6G and beyond) system, or may be generated by another integrated non-NR/5GA/6G system.

The radar method and the sensing method using the radar signal may be the monostatic/bistatic/multistatic sensing described above.

The LFM radar signal may be one subcarrier in OFDM. The LFM radar signal may be a chirp signal.

The radar (sensing) signal may be a pulsed radar signal with regular intervals. Each pulse may be a chirp signal. The radar signal may be frequency division multiplexed (FDM) with the communication signal.

The radar (sensing) signal may be a continuous pulsed radar signal. Each pulse may be a chirp signal. The radar signal may be frequency-division multiplexed (FDM) with the communication signal.

<Sensing type>
Multiple sensing types may be supported within one ISAC system.

The high degree of freedom in the configuration of sensing transmitters/sensing receivers and sensing initiators/sensing responders may complicate the system. To reduce the signaling overhead and system complexity, some pre-configurations for sensing types may be defined.

Multiple sensing types may be defined. The sensing types may be defined as higher layer parameters. For example, the higher layer parameters may be RRC parameters or broadcast parameters such as SIB/MIB.

Based on the capabilities of the BS/UE, only some of the sensing methods or sensing signals/sensing waveforms may be supported in the corresponding area (coverage area)/scenario. In the sensing services in this area/scenario, the sensing types may be limited to fewer options through configuration in higher layers. This is beneficial in sensing resource allocation and sensing measurement data configuration.

Multiple areas/scenarios may support different sensing methods and sensing signals.

The sensing methods and sensing signals may be associated with measurement and reporting configurations. The configurations may be, for example, resource allocation for sensing and measurement results for reporting. For smaller overhead and lower complexity for resource allocation and measurement related configurations, the supported sensing methods and sensing signals for different coverage areas/scenarios may be pre-configured by higher layers.

One or more sensing types based on the sensing signal may be defined. The one or more sensing types may be at least one of several types below.

[Type 1] Communication-based Sensing At least one of one or more UEs, one or more objects, and the environment may be sensed by existing or new signals in a communication system.

[Type 2] Radar-based Sensing Through a radar method, at least one of one or more UEs, one or more objects, and the environment may be sensed by a sensing signal/ISAC signal. The sensing signal/ISAC signal may be a radar signal as described above. The radar method may be a monostatic sensing/bistatic sensing/multistatic sensing radar method as described above. One or more sensing methods (monostatic sensing/bistatic sensing/multistatic sensing) may be supported.

[Type 3] Hybrid-based sensing of communication and radar One or more UEs may be sensed by existing or new signals in the communication system. Through a radar method, at least one of one or more objects and the environment may be sensed by communication signals/sensing signals/ISAC signals. The radar method may be the above-mentioned monostatic sensing/bistatic sensing/multistatic sensing radar method. One or more sensing methods (monostatic sensing/bistatic sensing/multistatic sensing) may be supported.

At least one type may be supported by the sensing system. At least one type may be based on Type 1 with methods and signals defined by 5G NR positioning.

These signals are associated with a set of resource allocation and measurement/reporting configurations. By involving pre-configuration based on sensing transmission capabilities, measurement and reporting mechanisms can be configured with fewer options, lower signaling overhead and lower complexity.

An example of Type 1 in FIG. 3A is monostatic sensing at the BS or UE. In this example, the sensing transceiver may be the BS or the UE. The sensing transceiver transmits the communication signal and receives the echo signal from the object. An example of Type 1 in FIG. 3B is bistatic/multistatic sensing at the BS/UE. The sensing transmitter transmits the communication signal and the sensing receiver receives the signal affected by the object. In this example, the sensing transmitter is the BS or the UE and the sensing receiver is the associated BS or the associated UE. An example of Type 1 in FIG. 3C is UE-assisted sensing. In this example, the sensing transmitter is the BS and the sensing receiver is the UE, the BS transmits the communication signal, the UE receives the communication signal from the BS and feeds back the sensing result to the BS.

An example of Type 2 in FIG. 4A is monostatic sensing at the BS or UE. In this example, the sensing transceiver may be the BS or the UE. The sensing transceiver transmits a radar signal and receives an echo signal from the target. An example of Type 2 in FIG. 4B is bistatic/multistatic sensing at the BS/UE. The sensing transmitter transmits a radar signal and the sensing receiver receives the signal affected by the target. In this example, the sensing transmitter is the BS or the UE and the sensing receiver is an associated BS or an associated UE. An example of Type 2 in FIG. 4C is UE-assisted sensing. In this example, the sensing transmitter is the BS and the sensing receiver is the UE, the BS transmits a radar signal, the UE receives the radar signal from the BS, and feeds back the sensing result to the BS.

An example of Type 3 in FIG. 5A is monostatic sensing at the BS. In this example, the sensing transceiver is the BS. The BS uses communication signals for sensing the UE and radar signals for sensing the target. The BS transmits communication signals and radar signals. The UE receives communication signals from the BS and feeds back the reception results to the BS. The BS receives echo signals from the target and receives feedback from the UE. An example of Type 3 in FIG. 5B is bistatic/multistatic sensing at the BS. In this example, the sensing transmitter is the BS and the sensing receiver is a cooperating BS. The BS uses communication signals for sensing the UE and radar signals for sensing the target. The BS transmits communication signals and radar signals. The UE receives communication signals from the BS and feeds back the reception results to the BS. The cooperating BS receives signals influenced by the target. The BS receives feedback from the UE. An example of Type 3 in FIG. 5C is UE-assisted sensing. In this example, the sensing transmitter is a BS and the sensing receiver is a UE. The BS uses communication signals to sense the UE and radar signals to sense the target. The BS transmits communication signals and radar signals. The UE receives the communication signals from the BS and the signals affected by the target, and feeds back the reception results to the BS. The BS receives feedback from the UE.

<Sensing scenario (target scenario)>
An applicable scenario for non-UE targets and UE targets may be echo/reflection signal based sensing according to at least one of the following scenarios:
Scenario 1: Signal transmission and echo/reflection sensing are performed on the same base station side (FIG. 6A). This scenario may be monostatic sensing on the base station side.
Scenario 2: Signal transmission at the base station side and echo/reflection sensing at another base station side (FIG. 6B). This scenario may also be bistatic/multistatic sensing at the base station side.
Scenario 3: Signal transmission at the base station side and echo/reflection sensing at the UE side (Fig. 6C). This scenario can be UE assisted sensing or bistatic sensing from the base station to the UE.
Scenario 4: Signal transmission at the UE side and echo/reflection sensing at the base station side (Fig. 7A). This scenario can be base station-aided sensing or bistatic sensing from the UE to the base station.

The echo/reflection signal may be an echo/reflection signal of a communication signal or an echo/reflection signal of a radar signal.

The applicable scenario for UE targeting may be sensing based on DL/UL communication signals according to at least one of the following scenarios:
Scenario 5: Base station side sensing based on UL channels/signals (e.g. SRS, PRACH, DMRS, etc.) (Figure 7B).
- Scenario 6: UE side sensing based on DL channel/signals (e.g. CSI-RS, SSB, DMRS, PRS, etc.) (Figure 7C).

(Virtual Aperture (VA))
Long-range sensing scenarios (e.g., High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) sensing) or high-resolution imaging scenarios require high angular resolution and estimation accuracy, and thus related techniques are needed to improve sensing performance.

In conventional MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) radars, better angular resolution can be achieved in particular by realizing a larger virtual aperture (VA) through the placement of transmit/receive antennas (e.g., antenna spacing) and designing orthogonal signals across multiple transmit antennas.

For example, it is being considered to realize VA by adding new transmitting antennas for sensing with larger antenna spacing (where the transmitting antenna spacing is equal to the receiving antenna aperture) and using the new transmitting antennas and TDM orthogonal signals.

However, implementing this VA would pose problems of increased cost and complex design.

In addition, for example, it is being considered to realize VA by designing new transmitting antennas for the entire horizontal direction and new receiving antennas for the entire vertical direction for sensing, and using new transmitting/receiving antennas and TDM/CDM orthogonal signals.

However, implementing this VA would pose problems such as increased costs and incompatibility with communication.

Another issue is how to achieve VA in current systems with antenna spacing of a specific length (e.g., half a wavelength) and digital/analog/hybrid digital-analog beamforming (BF)/antenna configurations.

For example, when placing virtual antennas for VA, there is a possibility that overlapping antenna elements and unnecessary gaps between antenna elements may occur in the real antenna placement.

　It is being considered to reuse the digital antennas in current communication systems for sensing purposes to reduce costs.

However, VA in conventional MIMO radar systems requires specific transmit/receive antenna spacing design and hardware configuration.

Below, we explain one example of a method for achieving VA.

The transmit antennas may be divided into multiple transmit groups. The transmit precoding for each transmit group and the virtual transmit antenna spacing after precoding may be designed to achieve VA.

Each transmission group may include one or more transmit antennas.

When a group contains multiple transmit antennas, it results in a higher SNR but a smaller VA.

To achieve higher sensing performance, it is necessary to design an optimal number of transmitting antennas and transmitting groups.

Note that each transmission group may be composed of one transmission antenna. In this case, transmission precoding does not need to be performed.

Also, for systems with the same transmit/receive antennas (e.g., dynamic TDD systems), antennas may be assigned semi-statically/dynamically for transmit and receive to achieve the expected VA.

The system model targeted by the VA may be a model that uses monostatic sensing of one or more targets. In monostatic sensing, the angle of arrival (Angle of Arrival (AoA)) and the angle of departure (Angle of Departure (AoD)) of the signal at the object performing the sensing (e.g., a sensing station (e.g., a base station/terminal)) are equal.

In addition, the system model targeted by the VA may be a model that uses sensing other than monostatic sensing of one or more targets.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a transmit antenna design for realizing VA. In the example shown in FIG. 8, first, actual transmit antennas are grouped, and each transmit antenna is divided into transmit groups 1 to 4. These divided transmit groups are generated as virtual transmit apertures (antennas).

Then, a receiving antenna corresponding to each transmission group is designed to realize a virtual receiving aperture. The placement of each receiving antenna may be based on the position of each transmission group. In the example shown in FIG. 8, each receiving antenna is composed of 8×4 antenna elements.

Here, due to the presence of an inappropriate virtual transmit aperture, there may be non-expected/unnecessary antenna spacing (e.g., the central (horizontal) row of the aperture shown in FIG. 8 (shown by the dashed line)) and virtual antenna overlap (e.g., the central (vertical) column of the aperture shown in FIG. 8 (shown by the dashed line)).

Therefore, this unexpected antenna spacing and virtual antenna overlap is corrected to achieve the expected virtual receive aperture.

There are several possible configurations for the transmitting and receiving antennas.

For example, both the transmitting and receiving antennas may be located on one panel (antennas allocation case 1, see Figure 9A).

Also, for example, the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna may be arranged separately on different panels (antenna arrangement case 2, see Figure 9B).

In antenna arrangement case 1, N antennas spaced at half-wavelength (λ/2) intervals may be used/reused for transmission and reception. In other words, an antenna arrangement using a total of N antennas for transmission and reception may be required.

For example, in the case of N Uniform Linear Array (ULA) antennas, 2M antennas may be used for transmission and N-2M antennas may be used for reception.

In this case, for example, the 2M transmit antennas may be placed at the two ends of the ULA antenna and defined as two transmit groups, each having M transmit antennas (see FIG. 10).

In such an antenna arrangement, orthogonal signals may be transmitted from the two transmission groups to achieve VA. The orthogonal signals may be, for example, signals that are orthogonal in time/frequency/space/code resources.

Beamforming with beam sweeping may be performed on multiple antennas in one transmission group.

There may be a gap between the transmit antenna distance required by the VA and the virtual transmit antenna distance between transmit groups realized by transmit antenna selection and beamforming.

To correct this gap, a two-step estimation algorithm may be used.

In a two-step estimation algorithm, a coarse estimation may first be performed based on the signals transmitted by a certain transmission group (e.g., transmission group 1) (step 1).

Then, the angle estimated in step 1 may be used to fix/correct the received signal of another transmission group (e.g., transmission group 2), and an angle may be estimated using the fixed/corrected signal and the VA (step 2).

The two-step estimation algorithm achieves higher performance than existing methods by implementing VA, and achieves high SNR gain without hardware modifications.

(Analysis 0)
Possible ISAC MIMO schemes include ISAC MIMO beamforming and ISAC VA.

In ISAC MIMO beamforming, sensing beams can be generated to cover a predefined sensing area.

The ISAC VA can particularly improve the angular resolution and accuracy of the signal.

ISAC MIMO beamforming and ISAC VA have in common the use of multiple antennas at both the transmitter and receiver.

On the other hand, in ISAC MIMO beamforming, all transmit antennas are used, while in ISAC VA, some transmit antennas may be used.

In addition, with ISAC MIMO beamforming, the same signal can correspond to different antennas, while with ISAC VA, different signals can correspond to different antennas.

In addition, ISAC MIMO beamforming uses directional beamforming, while ISAC VA does not use directional beamforming.

　To date, designs of spacing/positions of transmitting/receiving antennas for sensing that are different from the half-wavelength spacing in communication systems have been considered, but there has been insufficient consideration of the design of spacing/positions of transmitting/receiving antennas with half-wavelength spacing (e.g., for realizing/generating VA).

In addition, there has been insufficient consideration given to the configuration/definition of antenna ports (e.g., antenna ports for sensing) to support the ISAC MIMO system.

In addition, there has been insufficient consideration given to the configuration/definition of orthogonal signals for multiple antenna ports (e.g., for realizing/generating VA).

If these considerations are not sufficient, appropriate ISAC cannot be performed, which may hinder improvements in communication throughput.

The inventors therefore came up with the idea of configuring/defining antenna ports for ISAC, specifying the antenna ports, resources for the antenna ports, and allocating antenna ports for communication and sensing.

Embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The wireless communication methods according to the embodiments may be applied independently or in combination.

In this disclosure, "A/B" and "at least one of A and B" may be interpreted as interchangeable. Also, in this disclosure, "A/B/C" may mean "at least one of A, B, and C."

In this disclosure, terms such as notify, activate, deactivate, indicate, select, configure, update, and determine may be read as interchangeable terms. In this disclosure, terms such as support, control, capable of control, operate, and capable of operating may be read as interchangeable terms.

In this disclosure, Radio Resource Control (RRC), RRC parameters, RRC messages, higher layer parameters, fields, information elements (IEs), settings, etc. may be interchangeable. In this disclosure, Medium Access Control (MAC Control Element (CE)), update commands, activation/deactivation commands, etc. may be interchangeable.

In the present disclosure, the higher layer signaling may be, for example, any one of Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, Medium Access Control (MAC) signaling, broadcast information, other messages (e.g., messages from the core network such as positioning protocols (e.g., NR Positioning Protocol A (NRPPa)/LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP)) messages), or a combination of these.

In the present disclosure, the MAC signaling may use, for example, a MAC Control Element (MAC CE), a MAC Protocol Data Unit (PDU), etc. The broadcast information may be, for example, a Master Information Block (MIB), a System Information Block (SIB), Remaining Minimum System Information (RMSI), Other System Information (OSI), etc.

In the present disclosure, the physical layer signaling may be, for example, Downlink Control Information (DCI), Uplink Control Information (UCI), etc.

In this disclosure, sensing, ISAC, and non-communication may be interpreted interchangeably.

In this disclosure, frequency resources, time-frequency resources, resource elements (REs), resource blocks (RBs), resource block groups (RBGs), RB sets, subbands, BWPs, carriers, cells, and bands may be interpreted as interchangeable.

In this disclosure, time resources, symbols, slots, subslots, subframes, and radio frames may be interpreted as interchangeable.

The application of each embodiment of the present disclosure may be determined on a band-by-band/cell-by-cell/BWP basis.

(Wireless communication method)
In the following, in each embodiment of the present disclosure, an "antenna port" will be described as an example, but in the present disclosure, terms such as "precoding", "precoder", "weight (precoding weight)", "Quasi-Co-Location (QCL)", "Transmission Configuration Indication state (TCI state)", "spatial relation", "spatial domain filter", "transmission power", "phase rotation", "antenna port", "layer", "number of layers", "rank", "resource", "resource set", "beam", "beam width", "beam angle", "antenna", "antenna element", "panel", "UE panel", "transmitting entity", and "receiving entity" may be read as interchangeable.

In this disclosure, sensing antenna port, sensing antenna port, ISAC antenna port, and ISAC antenna port may be interpreted as interchangeable.

First Embodiment
(Analysis 1)
In existing communication systems with only communication functions (e.g., NR), antenna ports are defined in logic and there is no explicit relationship between antenna ports and actual antennas/hardware.

In terms of polarization in existing communication systems, cross-polarization is defined as two ports.

Furthermore, for panels in existing notification systems, in the case of a base station (BS)/UE having multiple panels (multi-panel), the panel/antenna port group is explicitly/implicitly defined for the transmitter/receiver.

In (existing/future) ISAC VA, transmit antennas/transmit groups/transmit antenna groups can be explicitly defined.

However, there has been insufficient consideration on how to define antennas (transmitting antennas)/antenna groups to support ISAC MIMO schemes (e.g., ISAC VA/ISAC MIMO transmission).

The definition of the sensing antenna port will be explained below in the first embodiment.

An antenna port for sensing (hereinafter, sensing antenna port) may be defined.

The sensing antenna port may be associated with the antenna.

The association may be, for example, an explicit association or an implicit association.

<<Embodiment 1-1>>
A sensing antenna port may be associated with an antenna/antenna group.

The association may be, for example, an explicit association.

The association may be, for example, based on antenna hardware/antenna location.

The UE/BS may determine/decide on the association, for example, according to at least one of options 1-1-1 to 1-1-3 below.

[Option 1-1-1]
The sensing antenna ports may be defined by polarization.

For example, an antenna with a first value of polarization (e.g., polarization index=1) may be defined as a sensing antenna port with a first value/index (e.g., antenna port 0) and an antenna with a second value of polarization (e.g., polarization index=2) may be defined as a sensing antenna port with a second value/index (e.g., 1).

For example, linear polarization may be used for the polarization. The linear polarization may be, for example, X-polarization based on a first angle (e.g., +45°) and a second angle (e.g., -45°). In this case, the first angle may correspond to a first value of polarization and a sensing antenna port with a first value/index (e.g., 0), and the second angle may correspond to a second value of polarization and a sensing antenna port with a second value/index (e.g., 1).

Furthermore, the polarization may be, for example, circular polarization. In this case, right hand circular polarization (RHCP) may correspond to a sensing antenna port with a first value/index (e.g., 0) (or a sensing antenna port with a second value/index (e.g., 1)), and left hand circular polarization (LHCP) may correspond to a polarization with a second value and a sensing antenna port with a second value/index (e.g., 1) (or a sensing antenna port with a first value/index (e.g., 0)).

Linear polarization may be used, for example, in a terrestrial network (Terrestrial Network (TN)).

Circular polarization may be used, for example, in non-terrestrial networks (NTNs, e.g., networks that use satellites).

Furthermore, the polarization may be, for example, a combination of linear polarization and circular polarization. In this case, for example, a first angle (e.g., +45°) may correspond to a sensing antenna port with a first value/index (e.g., 0), a second angle (e.g., -45°) may correspond to a second value of polarization and a sensing antenna port with a second value/index (e.g., 1), a RHCP may correspond to a sensing antenna port with a third value/index (e.g., 2), and a LHCP may correspond to a fourth value of polarization and a sensing antenna port with a second value/index (e.g., 3).

With this method, there is no need to instruct the UE/BS on whether to use linear or circular polarization, reducing signaling overhead.

Note that the above responses are merely examples, and responses other than those above may be adopted.

FIG. 11A is a diagram showing an example of antenna ports according to option 1-1-1. In the example shown in FIG. 11A, in a single panel, an antenna with +45° polarization corresponds to sensing antenna port 0 (shown in solid line), and an antenna with -45° polarization corresponds to sensing antenna port 1 (shown in dashed line).

Option 1-1-1 allows for simple and clear definition of antenna ports, making implementation easier.

[Option 1-1-2]
The sensing antenna port may be defined by the panel.

The association of the sensing antenna port may be, for example, the same as the association for the communication antenna port.

One or more panel/antenna port groups may correspond to one sensing antenna port (sensing antenna port index).

For example, a first panel/antenna port group (multiple panels/antenna port groups) may correspond to a sensing antenna port with a first value/index (e.g., 0). Also, for example, a second panel/antenna port group (multiple panels/antenna port groups) may correspond to a sensing antenna port with a second value/index (e.g., 1).

The number (maximum number) of panels implemented for sensing may be defined. The number (maximum number) of panels may be, for example, 4.

For example, a panel (panel antenna) with a first index (e.g., 0), a panel (panel antenna) with a second index (e.g., 1), a panel (panel antenna) with a third index (e.g., 2), and a panel (panel antenna) with a fourth index (e.g., 3) may correspond to a sensing antenna port with a first value/index (e.g., 0), a sensing antenna port with a second value/index (e.g., 1), a sensing antenna port with a third value/index (e.g., 2), and a sensing antenna port with a fourth value/index (e.g., 3), respectively.

For example, a panel (panel antenna) with a first index (e.g., 0) and a panel (panel antenna) with a second index (e.g., 1) may correspond to a sensing antenna port with a first value/index (e.g., 0), and a panel (panel antenna) with a third index (e.g., 2) and a panel (panel antenna) with a fourth index (e.g., 3) may correspond to a sensing antenna port with a second value/index (e.g., 1).

FIG. 11B is a diagram showing an example of antenna ports for option 1-1-2. FIG. 11B shows a multi-panel (panel 1 and panel 2) case, with sensing antenna port 0 corresponding to panel 1 (panel 1 antenna) and sensing antenna port 1 corresponding to panel 2 (panel 2 antenna).

In addition, if the distance/spacing between the antennas in each panel is a and the distance/spacing between the antennas of adjacent panels is b, then if a=b, the multi-panel is defined as a uniform panel, and if a≠b, the multi-panel is defined as a non-uniform panel.

　Option 1-1-2 makes it easier to define sensing antenna ports by associating them with panels in the same way as communication antenna ports/antenna port groups.

[Option 1-1-3]
The sensing antenna ports may be defined by antennas/antenna groups (groupings).

[Option 1-1-3-1]
The antenna groups (antenna groupings) may be based on the antenna groups in ISAC VA.

One antenna group may correspond to one sensing antenna port.

Option 1-1-3-1 allows existing antennas with half-wavelength distances/spacing, including existing UE/BS, to be used for ISAC VA, resulting in cost reduction.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of an antenna port according to option 1-1-3-1. In the example shown in FIG. 12, multiple antennas in a single panel are grouped into antenna groups 1 to 4, each consisting of four antennas.

In the example shown in FIG. 12, the antennas in antenna group 1 correspond to sensing antenna port 0, the antennas in antenna group 2 correspond to sensing antenna port 1, the antennas in antenna group 3 correspond to sensing antenna port 2, and the antennas in antenna group 4 correspond to sensing antenna port 3.

[Option 1-1-3-2]
One antenna may correspond to one sensing antenna port.

Option 1-1-3-2, for example, would allow for a definition similar to that of MIMO radar, which would reduce costs and facilitate implementation.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of antenna ports related to option 1-1-3-2. In the example shown in FIG. 13, one sensing antenna port (sensing antenna ports 0 to 3) corresponds to each different antenna.

Note that if the horizontal distance/spacing between antennas in one panel is A and the horizontal distance/spacing between antennas in one panel is B, A may be equal to B or A may not be equal to B.

In addition, at least two of the above options 1-1-1 to 1-1-3 may be combined.

The combination may be, for example, a combination of some polarizations/panels/antennas/antenna groups.

For example, for one polarization, the above options 1-1-2 and 1-1-3 may be combined. In this case, for example, the antenna of the first polarization on the first panel (panel 1) may correspond to a sensing antenna port with a first value/index (e.g., 0), and the antenna of the first polarization on the second panel (panel 2) may correspond to a sensing antenna port with a second value/index (e.g., 1).

Furthermore, for example, for one panel, the above options 1-1-1 and 1-1-3 may be combined. In this case, for example, the first polarized antenna in the first panel (panel 1) may correspond to a sensing antenna port with a first value/index (e.g., 0), and the second polarized antenna in the first panel (panel 1) may correspond to a sensing antenna port with a second value/index (e.g., 1). Furthermore, the first and second polarized antennas in the second panel (panel 2) may correspond to a sensing antenna port with a third value/index (e.g., 2).

Note that the above responses are merely examples, and responses other than those above may be adopted.

According to the above embodiment 1-1, it is possible to appropriately specify an antenna that is suitable for any sensing method (e.g., ISAC MIMO beamforming in both monostatic and bistatic sensing) and that achieves better estimation performance of ISAC VA.

<<Embodiment 1-2>>
The sensing antenna ports may be defined in logic.

An explicit association between the sensing antenna port and real hardware (e.g., an antenna) does not need to be specified (see Figure 14).

The antennas for each sensing antenna port may depend on the implementation of the UE/BS performing the sensing.

Embodiments 1-2 are particularly suitable for monostatic sensing without multi-BS/UE cooperation in the case of ISAC VA.

According to embodiment 1-2, it is possible to reduce the impact on specifications and provide a configuration suitable for ISAC MIMO beamforming in both monostatic and bistatic sensing.

<<Embodiment 1-3>>
The sensing antenna port may not be defined.

The BS/UE may use (reuse) antenna ports used for communication for sensing.

According to embodiments 1-3, the impact on specifications can be reduced, making it easier to implement in UE/BS.

According to the first embodiment described above, the sensing antenna port can be appropriately defined and used.

Second Embodiment
(Analysis 2)
The sensing antenna ports defined in the first embodiment above can be used for MIMO transmission (including beamforming and VA generation).

The number of sensing antenna ports and the number of antennas on each port may vary based on the sensing service/requirements. For example, the number of sensing antenna ports and the number of antennas on each port may vary based on at least one of the sensing SNR, sensing range, angular resolution, and accuracy requirements.

In such cases, there has been insufficient consideration given to how to indicate/set the number of sensing antenna ports and the number of antennas per sensing antenna port.

Then, in the second embodiment, we will explain how to specify/set the sensing antenna port.

Information related to the sensing antenna ports of the BS/UE may be predefined.

Information related to the sensing antenna ports of the BS/UE may be semi-statically/dynamically instructed/configured to the UE/BS.

The BS/UE may determine/decide the sensing antenna port based on information related to the sensing antenna port and perform sensing using that sensing antenna port.

Information related to the BS/UE sensing antenna ports may be reported by the UE.

The information related to the sensing antenna port may include, for example, at least one of the following information:
- Number of sensing antenna ports.
The index of the sensing antenna port of the sensing station (eg, BS/UE).
Definition/definition method of sensing antenna port/antenna for each sensing antenna port.

The method of defining the sensing antenna port/antenna may include, for example, the number/position of the sensing antenna port/antenna.

The number of sensing antenna ports may, for example, indicate the number of sensing antenna ports that are actually used, or may indicate the maximum number of sensing antenna ports that can be used, or may indicate both.

The index of the sensing antenna port may, for example, indicate the index of the sensing antenna port that is actually used, or may indicate a candidate index of a sensing antenna port that may be used, or may indicate both.

In this disclosure, information related to the sensing antenna port, settings/instructions related to the sensing antenna port, and settings/instructions for information related to the sensing antenna port may be interpreted interchangeably.

Information related to the sensing antenna port may be indicated using a specific interface/signaling.

For example, the UE may receive information related to the sensing antenna port from at least one of other UEs, a BS, and a specific network node (e.g., an LMF/SF (Sensing Function)) using the specific interface/signaling.

For example, the BS may receive information related to the sensing antenna port from at least one of other BSs, UEs, and specific network nodes (e.g., LMF/SF (Sensing Function)) using the specific interface/signaling.

The specific interface may be, for example, an Xn/X2 interface defined in an existing/future wireless communication system. The specific signaling may be, for example, specific signaling between BSs performing sensing. These interfaces/signaling may be used for, for example, at least one of monostatic BS sensing with BS cooperation, BS-BS bistatic sensing with BS cooperation, and BS-BS bistatic sensing without BS cooperation.

Furthermore, the specific interface may be, for example, a sidelink/PC5 interface. The specific signaling may be, for example, specific signaling between UEs performing sensing. These interfaces/signaling may be used, for example, for at least one of monostatic UE sensing with UE cooperation, UE-UE bistatic sensing with UE cooperation, and UE-UE bistatic sensing without UE cooperation.

Furthermore, the specific interface may be, for example, a Uu interface. The specific signaling may be, for example, specific signaling between a UE (for example, a sensing UE) and a BS (for example, a sensing BS). These interfaces/signaling may be used, for example, for bistatic sensing between a UE and a BS (for example, from a UE to a BS, or from a BS to a UE).

The specific signaling between the UE (e.g., sensing UE) and the BS (e.g., sensing BS) may be, for example, higher layer signaling (e.g., SIB/RRC/MAC CE), physical layer signaling (e.g., DCI/UCI), or a combination of these.

The particular signaling may be, for example, F1-AP (Application Protocol) signaling from a DU (Distribution Unit)/CU (Central Unit). In this case, the IAB may be used for the signaling.

The particular signaling may be signaling related to the instruction/setting of the LMF/SF.

Predefined/indicated sensing antenna ports may be associated with sensing capabilities.

The settings/instructions related to the sensing antenna port may be reconfigured, for example, by the BS (e.g., sensing BS)/LMF/SF. The settings/instructions related to the sensing antenna port may be updated/reported, for example, by the UE (e.g., sensing UE).

The reconfiguration/update/reporting of settings/instructions related to the sensing antenna port may be based, for example, on the sensing service/requirements/coverage area/reception quality (e.g., SNR/SINR).

The number/index of sensing antenna ports for each sensing station (e.g., BS/UE) may be determined based on, for example, the service/requirements/coverage area/reception quality for sensing.

The number of antennas for each sensing antenna port may be determined based on, for example, the number of antenna ports (required number)/reception quality.

For example, different time-frequency resources/antenna ports may be used for multiple sensing services corresponding to different sensing requirements. The UE/BS may determine the time-frequency resources/antenna ports based on the sensing service corresponding to the sensing requirements.

For example, two antenna ports may be used for two sensing services.

For example, a first sensing antenna port may be used for a first service. The first service may be, for example, intruder detection. The first sensing antenna port may be, for example, an antenna port with a first value/index (e.g., 0) and may be used for beam sweeping.

For example, a second sensing antenna port may be used for a second service, which may be, for example, localization and tracking. The second sensing antenna port may be, for example, an antenna port with a second value/index (e.g., 1) and may be used for beamforming.

Also, for example, multiple sensing antenna ports may be used for multiple sensing areas. The UE/BS may determine the sensing antenna port based on the sensing area.

For example, two sensing antenna ports may be used for two separate sensing areas. For example, a first sensing antenna port (e.g., an antenna port with a first value/index (e.g., 0)) may be used for a first sensing area, and a second sensing antenna port (e.g., an antenna port with a second value/index (e.g., 1)) may be used for a second sensing area.

For example, one sensing antenna port may be used for one sensing area. In this case, for example, multiple (e.g., all) antennas of the sensing antenna port may be used.

FIG. 15A is a diagram showing an example of the use of antenna ports according to the second embodiment. In the example shown in FIG. 15A, sensing antenna port 0 is used for sensing area 1, and sensing antenna port 1 is used for sensing area 2.

FIG. 15B is a diagram showing another example of the use of antenna ports according to the second embodiment. In the example shown in FIG. 15B, one sensing antenna port 0 is used for one sensing area.

The number of antennas for a sensing antenna port may also be determined based on, for example, the reception quality related to sensing (e.g., SNR/SINR).

For example, if the reception quality (SNR/SINR) is higher than a certain threshold (e.g., for a relatively small sensing area), one sensing antenna port may include fewer antennas than the certain threshold. In this configuration, more antennas can produce better angular resolution.

For example, when the reception quality (SNR/SINR) is lower than a certain threshold (e.g., in the case of a relatively large sensing area (larger than a certain threshold)), one sensing antenna port may include more antennas than the certain threshold. By configuring in this way, sensing with high beamforming gain can be performed.

FIGS. 16A and 16B are diagrams showing another example of antenna port usage according to the second embodiment. In the example shown in FIG. 16A, 12 antennas in one antenna port are used for sensing targets with a relatively low SNR. On the other hand, in the example shown in FIG. 16B, 4 antennas in one antenna port are used for sensing targets with a relatively high SNR.

Information regarding sensing services/requirements/sensing areas may be sent from a specific server/network node (e.g., LMF/SF).

Information regarding reception quality (e.g., SNR/SINR) for sensing may be measured via a specific reference signal or may be determined based on the sensing area (e.g., area radius and/or whether sensing is indoor/outdoor).

Reconfiguration (e.g., reconfiguration by the BS/network node (e.g., LMF/SF))/update/reporting (e.g., reporting by the UE) of settings/instructions related to the sensing antenna port may be performed using specific signaling described in this embodiment.

The UE may report updated sensing antenna port related configurations based on certain conditions.

The UE may also send a request to update the settings related to the sensing antenna port based on certain conditions.

The specific condition (trigger condition) may be, for example, predefined in a specification, or may be set/instructed to the UE using higher layer signaling (SIB/RRC/MAC CE)/physical layer signaling (DCI). The setting/instruction may be performed, for example, when the UE supports a report/request based on the trigger condition (or when the UE reports support for the report).

The specific conditions may be defined/set/indicated, for example, based on sensing-related services/requirements/coverage area/reception quality (e.g., SNR/SINR).

Regarding the reconfiguration/update/reporting of information related to sensing antenna ports, reconfiguration/update/reporting of information related to some (partial) sensing antenna ports may be permitted.

The UE/BS may assume that the remaining information that is not reconfigured/updated/reported will not change. The UE/BS may maintain the settings/indications from the information before the reconfiguration/update/report for the remaining information that is not reconfigured/updated/reported.

According to the second embodiment described above, it is possible to appropriately configure/instruct the sensing antenna port.

Third Embodiment
(Analysis 3)
For the implementation of ISAC VA, orthogonal signals are required for multiple sensing antenna ports.

Also, to achieve ISAC MIMO beamforming, orthogonal signals are not required for multiple sensing antenna ports (using the same signal is sufficient).

As such, there has been insufficient consideration of how to allocate resources and generate signals for multiple sensing antenna ports in different ISAC MIMO schemes.

Then, in the third embodiment, we will explain the resources/signals for the sensing antenna port.

The allocated resources (which may simply be referred to as resources)/sensing signals (which may simply be referred to as signals) for multiple sensing antenna ports in an ISAC system may be determined based on an ISAC MIMO scheme.

In addition, in this disclosure, ISAC MIMO scheme, sensing scheme, ISAC scheme, scheme related to ISAC MIMO, scheme related to sensing, and scheme related to ISAC may be read as interchangeable.

Information regarding the sensing scheme may be set/instructed to the UE/BS using the specific interface/signaling described in the second embodiment above. The UE/BS may determine the sensing scheme to use based on the setting/instruction based on the information regarding the sensing scheme.

The UE/BS may determine the resources/signals/sequences corresponding to multiple sensing antenna ports based on information about the sensing scheme.

The UE/BS may also determine the sensing scheme to be used based on certain conditions. The certain conditions may be predefined in the specifications, or may be set/instructed to the UE/BS using the specific interface/signaling described in the second embodiment above.

<<Embodiment 3-1>>
For example, when the sensing scheme is a first scheme (eg, ISAC MIMO beam-homing scheme), the same resources and/or signals/sequences may be assigned to multiple sensing antenna ports.

These resources may include, for example, time/frequency resources for sensing.

The signal/sequence may include, for example, at least one of a specific reference signal (e.g., PRS/SRS/CSI-RS/SSB) and a new signal/sequence (e.g., a specific chirp sequence/waveform).

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an example of resources for multiple sensing antenna ports according to embodiment 3-1. In the example shown in FIG. 17, sensing antenna port 0 and sensing antenna port 1 are assigned to the same time/frequency resource.

In the example shown in FIG. 17, sensing beam/precoder 0 is used for the signal corresponding to sensing antenna port 0, and sensing beam/precoder 1 is used for the signal corresponding to sensing antenna port 1.

<<Embodiment 3-2>>
For example, when the sensing scheme is the second scheme (eg, the ISAC VA scheme), orthogonal (different) resources and/or signals/sequences may be assigned to multiple sensing antenna ports.

These resources may include, for example, time/frequency resources for sensing.

The signal/sequence may include, for example, at least one of a specific reference signal (e.g., PRS/SRS/CSI-RS/SSB) and a new signal/sequence (e.g., a specific chirp sequence/waveform).

[Embodiment 3-2-1]
Different sensing antenna ports may be assigned orthogonal (different) time/frequency resources.

For example, resources for the first sensing antenna port (port 0) and resources for the second sensing antenna port (port 1) may be frequency division multiplexed (FDM) (see FIG. 18A).

For example, resources for the first sensing antenna port (port 0) and resources for the second sensing antenna port (port 1) may be time division multiplexed (TDM) (see FIG. 18B).

Note that although Figures 18A and 18B above show cases where each resource is FDM and cases where each resource is TDM, each resource may be both FDM and TDM.

According to embodiment 3-2-1, resource allocation for sensing estimation can be simplified.

[Embodiment 3-2-2]
Orthogonal (different) signals/sequences (sequences of signals) may be assigned to different sensing antenna ports.

In other words, the signals for different sensing antenna ports may be signals with code division orthogonality.

For example, different RS ports of a particular RS (e.g., PRS/SRS/CSI-RS) may be assigned to different sensing antenna ports. The different RS ports may be orthogonal to each other.

FIG. 19A is a diagram showing an example of signal allocation to sensing antenna ports according to embodiment 3-2-2. In the example shown in FIG. 19A, for different RS ports (RS ports 0 and 1), RS port 0 corresponds to sensing antenna port 0, and RS port 1 corresponds to sensing antenna port 1, and VAs are generated.

Also, orthogonal chirp sequences may be assigned to different sensing antenna ports.

FIG. 19B is a diagram showing another example of signal allocation to sensing antenna ports according to embodiment 3-2-2. In the example shown in FIG. 19B, VA is generated for different chirp waveforms (chirps 0 and 1), with chirp 0 corresponding to sensing antenna port 0 and chirp 1 corresponding to sensing antenna port 1.

Also, specific codes (e.g., orthogonal cover codes/cyclic shifts) may be assigned to different sensing antenna ports.

Note that the resources/signals/sequences for each sensing antenna port in embodiment 3-2 may be configured/instructed to the UE/BS using the specific interface/signaling described in the second embodiment above.

These settings/instructions may be set/instructed in common with the settings/instructions regarding the sensing antenna port described in the second embodiment above, or may be set/instructed separately from the settings/instructions regarding the sensing antenna port described in the second embodiment above.

In addition, the setting/instruction may be set/instructed together with the setting/instruction of the sensing resources (e.g., the time resources (e.g., symbols/slots)/frequency resources (e.g., subcarriers/resource blocks/resource block groups) for sensing), or may be set/instructed separately from the setting/instruction of the sensing resources.

According to the third embodiment described above, it is possible to appropriately allocate sensing antenna port resources/signals/sequences to multiple sensing antenna ports.

Fourth Embodiment
In the ISAC system, it is being considered that communication resources and sensing resources will be multiplexed in the time domain, frequency domain, space domain, power domain, and code domain.

However, there has been insufficient consideration of the details of multiplexing methods in the spatial domain, particularly between communication resources and sensing resources.

Then, in the fourth embodiment, we will explain the allocation of antenna ports for communication and antenna ports for sensing.

Antenna ports for communication/sensing may be predefined.

Antenna ports for communication/sensing may be assigned semi-statically/dynamically (explicitly/implicitly).

<<Embodiment 4-1>>
Antenna ports for communication and sensing (general antenna ports) may be defined.

The communication and sensing antenna ports may be antenna ports that can be used for both communication and sensing.

The communication and sensing antenna ports may be used for sensing and communication, for example, without explicitly defining a sensing antenna port.

The communication and sensing antenna ports may be configured/instructed to the UE/BS using, for example, the specific interface/signaling described in the second embodiment above.

The UE/BS may determine whether to use multiple communication and sensing antenna ports for communication and sensing based on the communication traffic load/sensing requirements.

For example, when the communication traffic load is higher than a certain threshold, multiple specific antenna ports (e.g., antenna ports 0 to 11) may be used for communication, and multiple other antenna ports (e.g., antenna ports 12 to 15) may be used for sensing.

For example, when sensing demand is higher than a certain threshold, multiple specific antenna ports (e.g., antenna ports 0 to 3) may be used for communication and multiple other antenna ports (e.g., antenna ports 4 to 15) may be used for sensing.

Embodiment 4-1 is particularly suitable when the same antenna design is used for sensing and communication.

According to embodiment 4-1, it is possible to design antenna ports simply and flexibly.

<<Embodiment 4-2>>
The sensing antenna port and the communication antenna port may be defined separately.

The UE/BS does not need to assume dynamic allocation/switching/adjustment of antenna ports for sensing and antenna ports for communication.

When a sensing antenna is designed/configured, the UE/BS may assume that the antenna port corresponding to that antenna will not be used for communication.

According to embodiment 4-2, antenna ports can be appropriately used in ISAC scenarios where different antenna designs are used for sensing and communication.

<Additional Information>
[Notification of information to UE]
In the above-described embodiment, any information may be notified to the UE (from a network (NW) (e.g., a base station (BS))) (in other words, any information is received from the BS by the UE) using physical layer signaling (e.g., DCI), higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling, MAC CE), a specific signal/channel (e.g., PDCCH, PDSCH, reference signal), or a combination thereof.

When the above notification is performed by a MAC CE, the MAC CE may be identified by including in the MAC subheader a new Logical Channel ID (LCID) that is not specified in existing standards.

When the notification is made by a DCI, the notification may be made by a specific field of the DCI, a Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) used to scramble Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) bits assigned to the DCI, the format of the DCI, etc.

Furthermore, notification of any information to the UE in the above-mentioned embodiments may be performed periodically, semi-persistently, or aperiodically.

[Information notification from UE]
In the above-described embodiments, notification of any information from the UE (to the NW) (in other words, transmission/report of any information from the UE to the BS) may be performed using physical layer signaling (e.g., UCI), higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling, MAC CE), a specific signal/channel (e.g., PUCCH, PUSCH, PRACH, reference signal), or a combination thereof.

If the notification is made by a MAC CE, the MAC CE may be identified by including a new LCID in the MAC subheader that is not specified in existing standards.

If the notification is made by UCI, the notification may be transmitted using PUCCH or PUSCH.

Furthermore, in the above-mentioned embodiments, notification of any information from the UE may be performed periodically, semi-persistently, or aperiodically.

[Application of each embodiment]
At least one of the above-mentioned embodiments may be applied when a specific condition is met, which may be specified in a standard or may be notified to a UE/BS using higher layer signaling/physical layer signaling.

At least one of the above-described embodiments may be applied only to UEs/BSs that have reported or support a particular UE capability/BS capability.

The specific UE/BS capabilities may indicate at least one of the following:
- Supporting specific processing/operations/control/information for at least one of the above embodiments.
- Support ISAC operations.
- Support sensing.
Support sensing MIMO transmission.
Support ISAC MIMO transmission.
Supporting association between antennas and sensing antenna ports.
Support signal generation for multiple sensing antenna ports.
Support dynamic allocation/switching between sensing antenna ports and communication antenna ports.

Furthermore, the above-mentioned specific UE capabilities may be capabilities that are applied across all frequencies (commonly regardless of frequency), capabilities per frequency (e.g., one or a combination of a cell, band, band combination, BWP, component carrier, etc.), capabilities per frequency range (e.g., Frequency Range 1 (FR1), FR2, FR3, FR4, FR5, FR2-1, FR2-2), capabilities per subcarrier spacing (SubCarrier Spacing (SCS)), or capabilities per Feature Set (FS) or Feature Set Per Component-carrier (FSPC).

The above-mentioned specific UE capabilities may be capabilities that are applied across all duplexing methods (commonly regardless of the duplexing method), or may be capabilities for each duplexing method (e.g., Time Division Duplex (TDD) and Frequency Division Duplex (FDD)).

Furthermore, at least one of the above-mentioned embodiments may be applied when the UE configures/activates/triggers specific information related to the above-mentioned embodiments (or performs the operations of the above-mentioned embodiments) by higher layer signaling/physical layer signaling. For example, the specific information may be information indicating that ISAC is enabled, any RRC parameters for a specific release (e.g., Rel. 18/19 or later), etc.

If the UE does not support at least one of the above specific UE capabilities or the above specific information is not configured, the UE may, for example, apply Rel. 15/16 operations.

(Appendix A)
With respect to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the following invention is noted.
[Appendix A-1]
A terminal having a receiver that receives information related to a sensing antenna port, and a controller that determines a sensing antenna port associated with an antenna or antenna group based on the information.
[Appendix A-2]
The terminal of claim A-1, wherein the sensing antenna port is associated with the antenna or the antenna group based on at least one of polarization and panel.
[Appendix A-3]
The information related to the sensing antenna port includes at least one of information regarding the number of sensing antenna ports, information regarding the index of the sensing antenna port, and information regarding the definition of the sensing antenna port. A terminal described in Appendix A-1 or Appendix A-2.
[Appendix A-4]
The terminal according to any one of Appendix A-1 to Appendix A-3, wherein the sensing antenna port is determined from an antenna port common to the communication antenna port, or is determined from an antenna port other than the communication antenna port.

(Appendix B)
With respect to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the following invention is noted.
[Appendix B-1]
A base station comprising: a receiver for receiving information related to a sensing antenna port; and a controller for determining, based on the information, a sensing antenna port associated with an antenna or antenna group.
[Appendix B-2]
The base station of Appendix B-1, wherein the sensing antenna port is associated with the antenna or the antenna group based on at least one of polarization and panel.
[Appendix B-3]
The base station described in Appendix B-1 or Appendix B-2, wherein the information related to the sensing antenna port includes at least one of information regarding the number of sensing antenna ports, information regarding the index of the sensing antenna port, and information regarding the definition of the sensing antenna port.
[Appendix B-4]
The base station according to any one of Appendix B-1 to Appendix B-3, wherein the sensing antenna port is determined from an antenna port common to a communication antenna port.
[Appendix B-5]
The base station according to any one of Supplementary Note B-1 to Supplementary Note B-4, wherein the sensing antenna port is determined from an antenna port other than the communication antenna port.

(Appendix C)
With respect to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the following invention is noted.
[Appendix C-1]
A terminal having a receiving unit that receives information regarding a sensing scheme, and a control unit that determines, based on the information, a sensing scheme to be used for sensing and at least one of resources and signals corresponding to multiple sensing antenna ports.
[Appendix C-2]
The terminal according to Supplementary Note C-1, wherein, when the sensing scheme is a first sensing scheme, the control unit determines that the same time and frequency resources are assigned to the multiple sensing antenna ports.
[Appendix C-3]
When the sensing scheme is a second sensing scheme, the control unit determines that at least one of different time resources and different frequency resources is assigned to the multiple sensing antenna ports. The terminal according to Appendix C-1 or Appendix C-2.
[Appendix C-4]
When the sensing scheme is a second sensing scheme, the control unit determines that different signal sequences are assigned to the multiple sensing antenna ports. A terminal according to any one of Supplementary Note C-1 to Supplementary Note C-3.

(Appendix D)
With respect to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the following invention is noted.
[Appendix D-1]
A base station having a receiving unit that receives information regarding a sensing scheme, and a control unit that determines, based on the information, a sensing scheme to be used for sensing and at least one of resources and signals corresponding to multiple sensing antenna ports.
[Appendix D-2]
When the sensing scheme is a first sensing scheme, the control unit determines that the same time and frequency resources are assigned to the multiple sensing antenna ports.
[Appendix D-3]
When the sensing scheme is a second sensing scheme, the control unit determines that at least one of different time resources and different frequency resources is assigned to the multiple sensing antenna ports. A base station as described in Appendix D-1 or Appendix D-2.
[Appendix D-4]
When the sensing scheme is a second sensing scheme, the control unit determines that different signal sequences are assigned to the multiple sensing antenna ports. A base station according to any one of Appendix D-1 to Appendix D-3.
[Appendix D-5]
When the sensing scheme is a second sensing scheme, the control unit determines that different reference signal ports or different chirp waveforms correspond to the multiple sensing antenna ports. A base station according to any one of Appendix D-1 to Appendix D-4.

(Wireless communication system)
A configuration of a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described below. In this wireless communication system, communication is performed using any one of the wireless communication methods according to the above embodiments of the present disclosure or a combination of these methods.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a wireless communication system according to an embodiment. The wireless communication system 1 (which may simply be referred to as system 1) may be a system that realizes communication using Long Term Evolution (LTE) specified by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), 5th generation mobile communication system New Radio (5G NR), or the like.

The wireless communication system 1 may also support dual connectivity between multiple Radio Access Technologies (RATs) (Multi-RAT Dual Connectivity (MR-DC)). MR-DC may include dual connectivity between LTE (Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA)) and NR (E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity (EN-DC)), dual connectivity between NR and LTE (NR-E-UTRA Dual Connectivity (NE-DC)), etc.

In EN-DC, the LTE (E-UTRA) base station (eNB) is the master node (MN), and the NR base station (gNB) is the secondary node (SN). In NE-DC, the NR base station (gNB) is the MN, and the LTE (E-UTRA) base station (eNB) is the SN.

The wireless communication system 1 may support dual connectivity between multiple base stations within the same RAT (e.g., dual connectivity in which both the MN and SN are NR base stations (gNBs) (NR-NR Dual Connectivity (NN-DC))).

The wireless communication system 1 may include a base station 11 that forms a macrocell C1 with a relatively wide coverage, and base stations 12 (12a-12c) that are arranged within the macrocell C1 and form a small cell C2 that is narrower than the macrocell C1. A user terminal 20 may be located within at least one of the cells. The arrangement and number of each cell and user terminal 20 are not limited to the embodiment shown in the figure. Hereinafter, when there is no need to distinguish between the base stations 11 and 12, they will be collectively referred to as base station 10.

The user terminal 20 may be connected to at least one of the multiple base stations 10. The user terminal 20 may utilize at least one of carrier aggregation (CA) using multiple component carriers (CC) and dual connectivity (DC).

Each CC may be included in at least one of a first frequency band (Frequency Range 1 (FR1)) and a second frequency band (Frequency Range 2 (FR2)). Macro cell C1 may be included in FR1, and small cell C2 may be included in FR2. For example, FR1 may be a frequency band below 6 GHz (sub-6 GHz), and FR2 may be a frequency band above 24 GHz (above-24 GHz). Note that the frequency bands and definitions of FR1 and FR2 are not limited to these, and for example, FR1 may correspond to a higher frequency band than FR2.

In addition, the user terminal 20 may communicate using at least one of Time Division Duplex (TDD) and Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) in each CC.

The multiple base stations 10 may be connected by wire (e.g., optical fiber conforming to the Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI), X2 interface, etc.) or wirelessly (e.g., NR communication). For example, when NR communication is used as a backhaul between base stations 11 and 12, base station 11, which corresponds to the upper station, may be called an Integrated Access Backhaul (IAB) donor, and base station 12, which corresponds to a relay station, may be called an IAB node.

The base station 10 may be connected to the core network 30 via another base station 10 or directly. The core network 30 may include, for example, at least one of an Evolved Packet Core (EPC), a 5G Core Network (5GCN), a Next Generation Core (NGC), etc.

The core network 30 may include network functions (Network Functions (NF)) such as, for example, a User Plane Function (UPF), an Access and Mobility management Function (AMF), a Session Management Function (SMF), a Unified Data Management (UDM), an Application Function (AF), a Data Network (DN), a Location Management Function (LMF), and Operation, Administration and Maintenance (Management) (OAM). Note that multiple functions may be provided by one network node. In addition, communication with an external network (e.g., the Internet) may be performed via the DN.

The user terminal 20 may be a terminal that supports at least one of the communication methods such as LTE, LTE-A, and 5G.

In the wireless communication system 1, a wireless access method based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) may be used. For example, in at least one of the downlink (DL) and uplink (UL), Cyclic Prefix OFDM (CP-OFDM), Discrete Fourier Transform Spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA), etc. may be used.

The radio access method may also be called a waveform. Note that in the wireless communication system 1, other radio access methods (e.g., other single-carrier transmission methods, other multi-carrier transmission methods) may be used for the UL and DL radio access methods.

In the wireless communication system 1, a downlink shared channel (Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)) shared by each user terminal 20, a broadcast channel (Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH)), a downlink control channel (Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH)), etc. may be used as the downlink channel.

In addition, in the wireless communication system 1, an uplink shared channel (Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH)) shared by each user terminal 20, an uplink control channel (Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH)), a random access channel (Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH)), etc. may be used as an uplink channel.

User data, upper layer control information, System Information Block (SIB), etc. are transmitted via PDSCH. User data, upper layer control information, etc. may also be transmitted via PUSCH. Furthermore, Master Information Block (MIB) may also be transmitted via PBCH.

Lower layer control information may be transmitted by the PDCCH. The lower layer control information may include, for example, downlink control information (Downlink Control Information (DCI)) including scheduling information for at least one of the PDSCH and the PUSCH.

Note that the DCI for scheduling the PDSCH may be called a DL assignment or DL DCI, and the DCI for scheduling the PUSCH may be called a UL grant or UL DCI. Note that the PDSCH may be interpreted as DL data, and the PUSCH may be interpreted as UL data.

A control resource set (COntrol REsource SET (CORESET)) and a search space may be used to detect the PDCCH. The CORESET corresponds to the resources to search for DCI. The search space corresponds to the search region and search method of PDCCH candidates. One CORESET may be associated with one or multiple search spaces. The UE may monitor the CORESET associated with a search space based on the search space configuration.

A search space may correspond to PDCCH candidates corresponding to one or more aggregation levels. One or more search spaces may be referred to as a search space set. Note that the terms "search space," "search space set," "search space setting," "search space set setting," "CORESET," "CORESET setting," etc. in this disclosure may be read as interchangeable.

The PUCCH may transmit uplink control information (UCI) including at least one of channel state information (CSI), delivery confirmation information (which may be called, for example, Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest ACKnowledgement (HARQ-ACK), ACK/NACK, etc.), and a scheduling request (SR). The PRACH may transmit a random access preamble for establishing a connection with a cell.

Note that in this disclosure, downlink, uplink, etc. may be expressed without adding "link." Also, various channels may be expressed without adding "Physical" to the beginning.

In the wireless communication system 1, a synchronization signal (SS), a downlink reference signal (DL-RS), etc. may be transmitted. In the wireless communication system 1, as the DL-RS, a cell-specific reference signal (CRS), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), a positioning reference signal (PRS), a phase tracking reference signal (PTRS), etc. may be transmitted.

The synchronization signal may be, for example, at least one of a Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS) and a Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS). A signal block including an SS (PSS, SSS) and a PBCH (and a DMRS for PBCH) may be called an SS/PBCH block, an SS Block (SSB), etc. In addition, the SS, SSB, etc. may also be called a reference signal.

In addition, in the wireless communication system 1, a measurement reference signal (Sounding Reference Signal (SRS)), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), etc. may be transmitted as an uplink reference signal (UL-RS). Note that the DMRS may also be called a user equipment-specific reference signal (UE-specific Reference Signal).

(Base station)
21 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of a base station according to an embodiment. The base station 10 includes a control unit 110, a transceiver unit 120, a transceiver antenna 130, and a transmission line interface 140. Note that one or more of each of the control unit 110, the transceiver unit 120, the transceiver antenna 130, and the transmission line interface 140 may be provided.

Note that this example mainly shows the functional blocks of the characteristic parts of this embodiment, and the base station 10 may also be assumed to have other functional blocks necessary for wireless communication. Some of the processing of each part described below may be omitted.

The control unit 110 controls the entire base station 10. The control unit 110 can be configured from a controller, a control circuit, etc., which are described based on a common understanding in the technical field to which this disclosure pertains.

The control unit 110 may control signal generation, scheduling (e.g., resource allocation, mapping), etc. The control unit 110 may control transmission and reception using the transceiver unit 120, the transceiver antenna 130, and the transmission path interface 140, measurement, etc. The control unit 110 may generate data, control information, sequences, etc. to be transmitted as signals, and transfer them to the transceiver unit 120. The control unit 110 may perform call processing of communication channels (setting, release, etc.), status management of the base station 10, management of radio resources, etc.

The transceiver unit 120 may include a baseband unit 121, a radio frequency (RF) unit 122, and a measurement unit 123. The baseband unit 121 may include a transmission processing unit 1211 and a reception processing unit 1212. The transceiver unit 120 may be composed of a transmitter/receiver, an RF circuit, a baseband circuit, a filter, a phase shifter, a measurement circuit, a transceiver circuit, etc., which are described based on a common understanding in the technical field to which the present disclosure relates.

The transceiver 120 may be configured as an integrated transceiver, or may be composed of a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter may be composed of a transmission processing unit 1211 and an RF unit 122. The receiver may be composed of a reception processing unit 1212, an RF unit 122, and a measurement unit 123.

The transmitting/receiving antenna 130 can be configured as an antenna described based on common understanding in the technical field to which this disclosure pertains, such as an array antenna.

The transceiver 120 may transmit the above-mentioned downlink channel, synchronization signal, downlink reference signal, etc. The transceiver 120 may receive the above-mentioned uplink channel, uplink reference signal, etc.

The transceiver 120 may form at least one of the transmit beam and receive beam using digital beamforming (e.g., precoding), analog beamforming (e.g., phase rotation), etc.

The transceiver 120 (transmission processing unit 1211) may perform Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer processing, Radio Link Control (RLC) layer processing (e.g., RLC retransmission control), Medium Access Control (MAC) layer processing (e.g., HARQ retransmission control), etc. on data and control information obtained from the control unit 110 to generate a bit string to be transmitted.

The transceiver 120 (transmission processor 1211) may perform transmission processing such as channel coding (which may include error correction coding), modulation, mapping, filtering, Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) processing (if necessary), Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) processing, precoding, and digital-to-analog conversion on the bit string to be transmitted, and output a baseband signal.

The transceiver unit 120 (RF unit 122) may perform modulation, filtering, amplification, etc., on the baseband signal to a radio frequency band, and transmit the radio frequency band signal via the transceiver antenna 130.

On the other hand, the transceiver unit 120 (RF unit 122) may perform amplification, filtering, demodulation to a baseband signal, etc. on the radio frequency band signal received by the transceiver antenna 130.

The transceiver 120 (reception processing unit 1212) may apply reception processing such as analog-to-digital conversion, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) processing, Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) processing (if necessary), filtering, demapping, demodulation, decoding (which may include error correction decoding), MAC layer processing, RLC layer processing, and PDCP layer processing to the acquired baseband signal, and acquire user data, etc.

The transceiver 120 (measurement unit 123) may perform measurements on the received signal. For example, the measurement unit 123 may perform Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurements, Channel State Information (CSI) measurements, etc. based on the received signal. The measurement unit 123 may measure received power (e.g., Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP)), received quality (e.g., Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR), Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)), signal strength (e.g., Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI)), propagation path information (e.g., CSI), etc. The measurement results may be output to the control unit 110.

The transmission path interface 140 may transmit and receive signals (backhaul signaling) between devices included in the core network 30 (e.g., network nodes providing NF), other base stations 10, etc., and may acquire and transmit user data (user plane data), control plane data, etc. for the user terminal 20.

Note that the transmitting section and receiving section of the base station 10 in this disclosure may be configured with at least one of the transmitting/receiving section 120, the transmitting/receiving antenna 130, and the transmission path interface 140.

The transceiver 120 may transmit information related to the sensing antenna port. The control unit 110 may use the information to indicate the sensing antenna port associated with the antenna or antenna group (first and second embodiments).

The transceiver 120 may receive information related to the sensing antenna port. The control unit 110 may determine the sensing antenna port associated with the antenna or antenna group based on the information (first and second embodiments).

The sensing antenna port may be associated with the antenna or the antenna group based on at least one of the polarization and the panel (first embodiment).

The information related to the sensing antenna ports may include at least one of information regarding the number of sensing antenna ports, information regarding the index of the sensing antenna ports, and information regarding the definition of the sensing antenna ports (second embodiment).

The sensing antenna port may be determined from an antenna port common to the communication antenna port (fourth embodiment).

The sensing antenna port may be determined from an antenna port other than the communication antenna port (fourth embodiment).

The transceiver 120 may transmit information related to the sensing scheme. The control unit 110 may use the information to indicate the sensing scheme to be used for sensing and at least one of the resources and signals corresponding to the multiple sensing antenna ports (third embodiment).

The transceiver 120 may receive information related to the sensing scheme. The control unit 110 may determine the sensing scheme to be used for sensing and at least one of the resources and signals corresponding to the multiple sensing antenna ports based on the information (third embodiment).

If the sensing scheme is the first sensing scheme, the control unit 110 may determine that the same time and frequency resources are assigned to the multiple sensing antenna ports (third embodiment).

If the sensing scheme is the second sensing scheme, the control unit 110 may determine that at least one of different time resources and different frequency resources is assigned to the multiple sensing antenna ports (third embodiment).

If the sensing scheme is the second sensing scheme, the control unit 110 may determine that different signal sequences are assigned to the multiple sensing antenna ports (third embodiment).

If the sensing scheme is the second sensing scheme, the control unit 110 may determine that different reference signal ports or different chirp waveforms correspond to the multiple sensing antenna ports (third embodiment).

(User terminal)
22 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a user terminal according to an embodiment. The user terminal 20 includes a control unit 210, a transmitting/receiving unit 220, and a transmitting/receiving antenna 230. Note that the control unit 210, the transmitting/receiving unit 220, and the transmitting/receiving antenna 230 may each include one or more.

Note that this example mainly shows the functional blocks of the characteristic parts of this embodiment, and the user terminal 20 may also be assumed to have other functional blocks necessary for wireless communication. Some of the processing of each part described below may be omitted.

The control unit 210 controls the entire user terminal 20. The control unit 210 can be configured from a controller, a control circuit, etc., which are described based on a common understanding in the technical field to which this disclosure pertains.

The control unit 210 may control signal generation, mapping, etc. The control unit 210 may control transmission and reception using the transceiver unit 220 and the transceiver antenna 230, measurement, etc. The control unit 210 may generate data, control information, sequences, etc. to be transmitted as signals, and transfer them to the transceiver unit 220.

The transceiver unit 220 may include a baseband unit 221, an RF unit 222, and a measurement unit 223. The baseband unit 221 may include a transmission processing unit 2211 and a reception processing unit 2212. The transceiver unit 220 may be composed of a transmitter/receiver, an RF circuit, a baseband circuit, a filter, a phase shifter, a measurement circuit, a transceiver circuit, etc., which are described based on a common understanding in the technical field to which the present disclosure relates.

The transceiver unit 220 may be configured as an integrated transceiver unit, or may be composed of a transmission unit and a reception unit. The transmission unit may be composed of a transmission processing unit 2211 and an RF unit 222. The reception unit may be composed of a reception processing unit 2212, an RF unit 222, and a measurement unit 223.

The transmitting/receiving antenna 230 can be configured as an antenna described based on common understanding in the technical field to which this disclosure pertains, such as an array antenna.

The transceiver 220 may receive the above-mentioned downlink channel, synchronization signal, downlink reference signal, etc. The transceiver 220 may transmit the above-mentioned uplink channel, uplink reference signal, etc.

The transceiver unit 220 may form at least one of the transmit beam and receive beam using digital beamforming (e.g., precoding), analog beamforming (e.g., phase rotation), etc.

The transceiver 220 (transmission processor 2211) may perform PDCP layer processing, RLC layer processing (e.g., RLC retransmission control), MAC layer processing (e.g., HARQ retransmission control), etc. on the data and control information acquired from the controller 210, and generate a bit string to be transmitted.

The transceiver 220 (transmission processor 2211) may perform transmission processing such as channel coding (which may include error correction coding), modulation, mapping, filtering, DFT processing (if necessary), IFFT processing, precoding, and digital-to-analog conversion on the bit string to be transmitted, and output a baseband signal.

Whether or not to apply DFT processing may be based on the settings of transform precoding. When transform precoding is enabled for a certain channel (e.g., PUSCH), the transceiver unit 220 (transmission processing unit 2211) may perform DFT processing as the above-mentioned transmission processing in order to transmit the channel using a DFT-s-OFDM waveform, and when transform precoding is not enabled, it is not necessary to perform DFT processing as the above-mentioned transmission processing.

The transceiver unit 220 (RF unit 222) may perform modulation, filtering, amplification, etc., on the baseband signal to a radio frequency band, and transmit the radio frequency band signal via the transceiver antenna 230.

On the other hand, the transceiver unit 220 (RF unit 222) may perform amplification, filtering, demodulation to a baseband signal, etc. on the radio frequency band signal received by the transceiver antenna 230.

The transceiver 220 (reception processor 2212) may apply reception processing such as analog-to-digital conversion, FFT processing, IDFT processing (if necessary), filtering, demapping, demodulation, decoding (which may include error correction decoding), MAC layer processing, RLC layer processing, and PDCP layer processing to the acquired baseband signal to acquire user data, etc.

The transceiver 220 (measurement unit 223) may perform measurements on the received signal. For example, the measurement unit 223 may perform RRM measurements, CSI measurements, etc. based on the received signal. The measurement unit 223 may measure received power (e.g., RSRP), received quality (e.g., RSRQ, SINR, SNR), signal strength (e.g., RSSI), propagation path information (e.g., CSI), etc. The measurement results may be output to the control unit 210.

The measurement unit 223 may derive channel measurements for CSI calculation based on channel measurement resources. The channel measurement resources may be, for example, non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS resources. The measurement unit 223 may derive interference measurements for CSI calculation based on interference measurement resources. The interference measurement resources may be at least one of NZP CSI-RS resources for interference measurement, CSI-Interference Measurement (IM) resources, etc. CSI-IM may be called CSI-Interference Management (IM) or may be interchangeably read as Zero Power (ZP) CSI-RS. In this disclosure, CSI-RS, NZP CSI-RS, ZP CSI-RS, CSI-IM, CSI-SSB, etc. may be read as interchangeable.

In addition, the transmitting unit and receiving unit of the user terminal 20 in this disclosure may be configured by at least one of the transmitting/receiving unit 220 and the transmitting/receiving antenna 230.

The transceiver 220 may receive information related to the sensing antenna port. The control unit 210 may determine the sensing antenna port associated with the antenna or antenna group based on the information (first/second embodiment).

The sensing antenna port may be associated with the antenna or the antenna group based on at least one of the polarization and the panel (first embodiment).

The information related to the sensing antenna ports may include at least one of information regarding the number of sensing antenna ports, information regarding the index of the sensing antenna ports, and information regarding the definition of the sensing antenna ports (second embodiment).

The sensing antenna port may be determined from an antenna port common to the communication antenna port (fourth embodiment).

The sensing antenna port may be determined from an antenna port other than the communication antenna port (fourth embodiment).

The transceiver 220 may receive information related to the sensing scheme. The control unit 210 may determine the sensing scheme to be used for sensing and at least one of the resources and signals corresponding to the multiple sensing antenna ports based on the information (third embodiment).

If the sensing scheme is the first sensing scheme, the control unit 210 may determine that the same time and frequency resources are assigned to the multiple sensing antenna ports (third embodiment).

If the sensing scheme is the second sensing scheme, the control unit 210 may determine that at least one of different time resources and different frequency resources is assigned to the multiple sensing antenna ports (third embodiment).

If the sensing scheme is the second sensing scheme, the control unit 210 may determine that different signal sequences are assigned to the multiple sensing antenna ports (third embodiment).

(Hardware configuration)
The block diagrams used in the description of the above embodiments show functional blocks. These functional blocks (components) are realized by any combination of at least one of hardware and software. The method of realizing each functional block is not particularly limited. That is, each functional block may be realized using one device that is physically or logically coupled, or may be realized using two or more devices that are physically or logically separated and directly or indirectly connected (for example, using wires, wirelessly, etc.). The functional blocks may be realized by combining the one device or the multiple devices with software.

Here, the functions include, but are not limited to, judgement, determination, judgment, calculation, computation, processing, derivation, investigation, search, confirmation, reception, transmission, output, access, resolution, selection, selection, establishment, comparison, assumption, expectation, deeming, broadcasting, notifying, communicating, forwarding, configuring, reconfiguring, allocating, mapping, and assignment. For example, a functional block (component) that performs the transmission function may be called a transmitting unit, a transmitter, and the like. In either case, as mentioned above, there are no particular limitations on the method of realization.

For example, a base station, a user terminal, etc. in one embodiment of the present disclosure may function as a computer that performs processing of the wireless communication method of the present disclosure. FIG. 23 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of a base station and a user terminal according to one embodiment. The above-mentioned base station 10 and user terminal 20 may be physically configured as a computer device including a processor 1001, a memory 1002, a storage 1003, a communication device 1004, an input device 1005, an output device 1006, a bus 1007, etc.

In addition, in this disclosure, terms such as apparatus, circuit, device, section, and unit may be interpreted as interchangeable. The hardware configurations of the base station 10 and the user terminal 20 may be configured to include one or more of the devices shown in the figures, or may be configured to exclude some of the devices.

For example, although only one processor 1001 is shown, there may be multiple processors. Furthermore, processing may be performed by one processor, or processing may be performed by two or more processors simultaneously, sequentially, or using other techniques. Furthermore, the processor 1001 may be implemented by one or more chips.

The functions of the base station 10 and the user terminal 20 are realized, for example, by loading specific software (programs) onto hardware such as the processor 1001 and memory 1002, causing the processor 1001 to perform calculations, control communications via the communication device 1004, and control at least one of the reading and writing of data in the memory 1002 and storage 1003.

The processor 1001, for example, operates an operating system to control the entire computer. The processor 1001 may be configured as a central processing unit (CPU) including an interface with peripheral devices, a control device, an arithmetic unit, registers, etc. For example, at least a portion of the above-mentioned control unit 110 (210), transmission/reception unit 120 (220), etc. may be realized by the processor 1001.

The processor 1001 also reads out programs (program codes), software modules, data, etc. from at least one of the storage 1003 and the communication device 1004 into the memory 1002, and executes various processes according to these. The programs used are those that cause a computer to execute at least some of the operations described in the above embodiments. For example, the control unit 110 (210) may be realized by a control program stored in the memory 1002 and running on the processor 1001, and similar implementations may be made for other functional blocks.

Memory 1002 is a computer-readable recording medium and may be composed of at least one of, for example, Read Only Memory (ROM), Erasable Programmable ROM (EPROM), Electrically EPROM (EEPROM), Random Access Memory (RAM), and other suitable storage media. Memory 1002 may also be called a register, cache, main memory, etc. Memory 1002 can store executable programs (program codes), software modules, etc. for implementing a wireless communication method according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

Storage 1003 is a computer-readable recording medium and may be composed of at least one of a flexible disk, a floppy disk, a magneto-optical disk (e.g., a compact disk (Compact Disc ROM (CD-ROM)), a digital versatile disk, a Blu-ray disk), a removable disk, a hard disk drive, a smart card, a flash memory device (e.g., a card, a stick, a key drive), a magnetic stripe, a database, a server, or other suitable storage medium. Storage 1003 may also be referred to as an auxiliary storage device.

The communication device 1004 is hardware (transmitting/receiving device) for communicating between computers via at least one of a wired network and a wireless network, and is also called, for example, a network device, a network controller, a network card, a communication module, etc. The communication device 1004 may be configured to include a high-frequency switch, a duplexer, a filter, a frequency synthesizer, etc. to realize at least one of, for example, Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD). For example, the above-mentioned transmitting/receiving unit 120 (220), transmitting/receiving antenna 130 (230), etc. may be realized by the communication device 1004. The transmitting/receiving unit 120 (220) may be implemented as a transmitting unit 120a (220a) and a receiving unit 120b (220b) that are physically or logically separated.

The input device 1005 is an input device (e.g., a keyboard, a mouse, a microphone, a switch, a button, a sensor, etc.) that accepts input from the outside. The output device 1006 is an output device (e.g., a display, a speaker, a Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamp, etc.) that performs output to the outside. Note that the input device 1005 and the output device 1006 may be integrated into one structure (e.g., a touch panel).

Furthermore, each device such as the processor 1001 and memory 1002 is connected by a bus 1007 for communicating information. The bus 1007 may be configured using a single bus, or may be configured using different buses between each device.

Furthermore, the base station 10 and the user terminal 20 may be configured to include hardware such as a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD), or a field programmable gate array (FPGA), and some or all of the functional blocks may be realized using the hardware. For example, the processor 1001 may be implemented using at least one of these pieces of hardware.

(Modification)
In addition, the terms described in this disclosure and the terms necessary for understanding this disclosure may be replaced with terms having the same or similar meanings. For example, a channel, a symbol, and a signal (signal or signaling) may be read as mutually interchangeable. A signal may also be a message. A reference signal may be abbreviated as RS, and may be called a pilot, a pilot signal, or the like depending on the applied standard. A component carrier (CC) may also be called a cell, a frequency carrier, a carrier frequency, or the like.

A radio frame may be composed of one or more periods (frames) in the time domain. Each of the one or more periods (frames) constituting a radio frame may be called a subframe. Furthermore, a subframe may be composed of one or more slots in the time domain. A subframe may have a fixed time length (e.g., 1 ms) that is independent of numerology.

Here, the numerology may be a communication parameter that is applied to at least one of the transmission and reception of a signal or channel. The numerology may indicate, for example, at least one of the following: SubCarrier Spacing (SCS), bandwidth, symbol length, cyclic prefix length, Transmission Time Interval (TTI), number of symbols per TTI, radio frame configuration, a specific filtering process performed by the transceiver in the frequency domain, a specific windowing process performed by the transceiver in the time domain, etc.

A slot may consist of one or more symbols in the time domain (such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) symbols, etc.). A slot may also be a time unit based on numerology.

A slot may include multiple minislots. Each minislot may consist of one or multiple symbols in the time domain. A minislot may also be called a subslot. A minislot may consist of fewer symbols than a slot. A PDSCH (or PUSCH) transmitted in a time unit larger than a minislot may be called PDSCH (PUSCH) mapping type A. A PDSCH (or PUSCH) transmitted using a minislot may be called PDSCH (PUSCH) mapping type B.

A radio frame, subframe, slot, minislot, and symbol all represent time units when transmitting a signal. A different name may be used for radio frame, subframe, slot, minislot, and symbol. Note that the time units such as frame, subframe, slot, minislot, and symbol in this disclosure may be read as interchangeable.

For example, one subframe may be called a TTI, multiple consecutive subframes may be called a TTI, or one slot or one minislot may be called a TTI. In other words, at least one of the subframe and the TTI may be a subframe (1 ms) in existing LTE, a period shorter than 1 ms (e.g., 1-13 symbols), or a period longer than 1 ms. Note that the unit representing the TTI may be called a slot, minislot, etc., instead of a subframe.

Here, TTI refers to, for example, the smallest time unit for scheduling in wireless communication. For example, in an LTE system, a base station schedules each user terminal by allocating radio resources (such as frequency bandwidth and transmission power that can be used by each user terminal) in TTI units. Note that the definition of TTI is not limited to this.

The TTI may be a transmission time unit for a channel-coded data packet (transport block), a code block, a code word, etc., or may be a processing unit for scheduling, link adaptation, etc. When a TTI is given, the time interval (e.g., the number of symbols) in which a transport block, a code block, a code word, etc. is actually mapped may be shorter than the TTI.

Note that when one slot or one minislot is called a TTI, one or more TTIs (i.e., one or more slots or one or more minislots) may be the minimum time unit of scheduling. In addition, the number of slots (minislots) that constitute the minimum time unit of scheduling may be controlled.

A TTI having a time length of 1 ms may be called a normal TTI (TTI in 3GPP Rel. 8-12), normal TTI, long TTI, normal subframe, normal subframe, long subframe, slot, etc. A TTI shorter than a normal TTI may be called a shortened TTI, short TTI, partial or fractional TTI, shortened subframe, short subframe, minislot, subslot, slot, etc.

Note that a long TTI (e.g., a normal TTI, a subframe, etc.) may be interpreted as a TTI having a time length of more than 1 ms, and a short TTI (e.g., a shortened TTI, etc.) may be interpreted as a TTI having a TTI length shorter than the TTI length of a long TTI and equal to or greater than 1 ms.

A resource block (RB) is a resource allocation unit in the time domain and frequency domain, and may include one or more consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain. The number of subcarriers included in an RB may be the same regardless of numerology, and may be, for example, 12. The number of subcarriers included in an RB may be determined based on numerology.

Furthermore, an RB may include one or more symbols in the time domain and may be one slot, one minislot, one subframe, or one TTI in length. One TTI, one subframe, etc. may each be composed of one or more resource blocks.

In addition, one or more RBs may be referred to as a physical resource block (PRB), a sub-carrier group (SCG), a resource element group (REG), a PRB pair, an RB pair, etc.

Furthermore, a resource block may be composed of one or more resource elements (REs). For example, one RE may be a radio resource area of one subcarrier and one symbol.

A Bandwidth Part (BWP), which may also be referred to as a partial bandwidth, may represent a subset of contiguous common resource blocks (RBs) for a given numerology on a given carrier, where the common RBs may be identified by an index of the RB relative to a common reference point of the carrier. PRBs may be defined in a BWP and numbered within the BWP.

The BWP may include a UL BWP (BWP for UL) and a DL BWP (BWP for DL). One or more BWPs may be configured for a UE within one carrier.

At least one of the configured BWPs may be active, and the UE may not expect to transmit or receive a given signal/channel outside the active BWP. Note that "cell," "carrier," etc. in this disclosure may be read as "BWP."

Note that the above-mentioned structures of radio frames, subframes, slots, minislots, and symbols are merely examples. For example, the number of subframes included in a radio frame, the number of slots per subframe or radio frame, the number of minislots included in a slot, the number of symbols and RBs included in a slot or minislot, the number of subcarriers included in an RB, as well as the number of symbols in a TTI, the symbol length, and the cyclic prefix (CP) length can be changed in various ways.

In addition, the information, parameters, etc. described in this disclosure may be represented using absolute values, may be represented using relative values from a predetermined value, or may be represented using other corresponding information. For example, a radio resource may be indicated by a predetermined index.

The names used for parameters and the like in this disclosure are not limiting in any respect. Furthermore, the formulas and the like using these parameters may differ from those explicitly disclosed in this disclosure. The various channels (PUCCH, PDCCH, etc.) and information elements may be identified by any suitable names, and the various names assigned to these various channels and information elements are not limiting in any respect.

The information, signals, etc. described in this disclosure may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies. For example, the data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, chips, etc. that may be referred to throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or magnetic particles, optical fields or photons, or any combination thereof.

In addition, information, signals, etc. may be output from a higher layer to a lower layer and/or from a lower layer to a higher layer. Information, signals, etc. may be input/output via multiple network nodes.

Input/output information, signals, etc. may be stored in a specific location (e.g., memory) or may be managed using a management table. Input/output information, signals, etc. may be overwritten, updated, or added to. Output information, signals, etc. may be deleted. Input information, signals, etc. may be transmitted to another device.

The notification of information is not limited to the aspects/embodiments described in this disclosure, and may be performed using other methods. For example, the notification of information in this disclosure may be performed by physical layer signaling (e.g., Downlink Control Information (DCI), Uplink Control Information (UCI)), higher layer signaling (e.g., Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, broadcast information (Master Information Block (MIB), System Information Block (SIB)), etc.), Medium Access Control (MAC) signaling), other signals, or a combination of these.

The physical layer signaling may be called Layer 1/Layer 2 (L1/L2) control information (L1/L2 control signal), L1 control information (L1 control signal), etc. The RRC signaling may be called an RRC message, for example, an RRC Connection Setup message, an RRC Connection Reconfiguration message, etc. The MAC signaling may be notified, for example, using a MAC Control Element (CE).

Furthermore, notification of specified information (e.g., notification that "X is the case") is not limited to explicit notification, but may be implicit (e.g., by not notifying the specified information or by notifying other information).

The determination may be based on a value represented by a single bit (0 or 1), a Boolean value represented by true or false, or a comparison of numerical values (e.g., with a predetermined value).

Software shall be construed broadly to mean instructions, instruction sets, code, code segments, program code, programs, subprograms, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executable files, threads of execution, procedures, functions, etc., whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise.

Software, instructions, information, etc. may also be transmitted and received via a transmission medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using at least one of wired technologies (such as coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)), and/or wireless technologies (such as infrared, microwave, etc.), then at least one of these wired and wireless technologies is included within the definition of a transmission medium.

As used in this disclosure, the terms "system" and "network" may be used interchangeably. "Network" may refer to the devices included in the network (e.g., base stations).

In this disclosure, terms such as "precoding", "precoder", "weight (precoding weight)", "Quasi-Co-Location (QCL)", "Transmission Configuration Indication state (TCI state)", "spatial relation", "spatial domain filter", "transmit power", "phase rotation", "antenna port", "layer", "number of layers", "rank", "resource", "resource set", "beam", "beam width", "beam angle", "antenna", "antenna element", "panel", "UE panel", "transmitting entity", "receiving entity", etc. may be used interchangeably.

In the present disclosure, the antenna port may be interchangeably read as an antenna port for any signal/channel (e.g., a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port). In the present disclosure, the resource may be interchangeably read as a resource for any signal/channel (e.g., a reference signal resource, an SRS resource, etc.). The resource may include time/frequency/code/space/power resources. The spatial domain transmission filter may include at least one of a spatial domain transmission filter and a spatial domain reception filter.

The above groups may include, for example, at least one of a spatial relationship group, a Code Division Multiplexing (CDM) group, a Reference Signal (RS) group, a Control Resource Set (CORESET) group, a PUCCH group, an antenna port group (e.g., a DMRS port group), a layer group, a resource group, a beam group, an antenna group, a panel group, etc.

Furthermore, in this disclosure, beam, SRS Resource Indicator (SRI), CORESET, CORESET pool, PDSCH, PUSCH, codeword (CW), transport block (TB), RS, etc. may be read as interchangeable.

Furthermore, in this disclosure, the terms TCI state, downlink TCI state (DL TCI state), uplink TCI state (UL TCI state), unified TCI state, common TCI state, joint TCI state, etc. may be interpreted as interchangeable.

Furthermore, in this disclosure, "QCL", "QCL assumptions", "QCL relationship", "QCL type information", "QCL property/properties", "specific QCL type (e.g., Type A, Type D) characteristics", "specific QCL type (e.g., Type A, Type D)", etc. may be read as interchangeable.

In this disclosure, the terms index, identifier (ID), indicator, indication, resource ID, etc. may be interchangeable. In this disclosure, the terms sequence, list, set, group, cluster, subset, etc. may be interchangeable.

Furthermore, the spatial relationship information identifier (ID) (TCI state ID) and the spatial relationship information (TCI state) may be interchangeable. "Spatial relationship information (TCI state)" may be interchangeable as "set of spatial relationship information (TCI state)", "one or more pieces of spatial relationship information", etc. TCI state and TCI may be interchangeable. Spatial relationship information and spatial relationship may be interchangeable.

In this disclosure, terms such as "Base Station (BS)", "Radio base station", "Fixed station", "NodeB", "eNB (eNodeB)", "gNB (gNodeB)", "Access point", "Transmission Point (TP)", "Reception Point (RP)", "Transmission/Reception Point (TRP)", "Panel", "Cell", "Sector", "Cell group", "Carrier", "Component carrier", etc. may be used interchangeably. Base stations may also be referred to by terms such as macrocell, small cell, femtocell, picocell, etc.

A base station can accommodate one or more (e.g., three) cells. When a base station accommodates multiple cells, the entire coverage area of the base station can be divided into multiple smaller areas, and each smaller area can also provide communication services by a base station subsystem (e.g., a small base station for indoor use (Remote Radio Head (RRH))). The term "cell" or "sector" refers to a part or the entire coverage area of at least one of the base station and base station subsystems that provide communication services in this coverage.

In this disclosure, a base station transmitting information to a terminal may be interpreted as the base station instructing the terminal to control/operate based on the information.

In this disclosure, the terms "Mobile Station (MS)", "user terminal", "User Equipment (UE)", "terminal", etc. may be used interchangeably.

A mobile station may also be referred to as a subscriber station, mobile unit, subscriber unit, wireless unit, remote unit, mobile device, wireless device, wireless communication device, remote device, mobile subscriber station, access terminal, mobile terminal, wireless terminal, remote terminal, handset, user agent, mobile client, client, or some other suitable terminology.

At least one of the base station and the mobile station may be called a transmitting device, a receiving device, a wireless communication device, etc. In addition, at least one of the base station and the mobile station may be a device mounted on a moving object, the moving object itself, etc.

The moving body in question refers to an object that can move, and the moving speed is arbitrary, and of course includes the case where the moving body is stationary. The moving body in question includes, but is not limited to, vehicles, transport vehicles, automobiles, motorcycles, bicycles, connected cars, excavators, bulldozers, wheel loaders, dump trucks, forklifts, trains, buses, handcarts, rickshaws, ships and other watercraft, airplanes, rockets, artificial satellites, drones, multicopters, quadcopters, balloons, and objects mounted on these. The moving body in question may also be a moving body that moves autonomously based on an operating command.

The moving object may be a vehicle (e.g., a car, an airplane, etc.), an unmanned moving object (e.g., a drone, an autonomous vehicle, etc.), or a robot (manned or unmanned). Note that at least one of the base station and the mobile station may also include devices that do not necessarily move during communication operations. For example, at least one of the base station and the mobile station may be an Internet of Things (IoT) device such as a sensor.

FIG. 24 is a diagram showing an example of a vehicle according to an embodiment. The vehicle 40 includes a drive unit 41, a steering unit 42, an accelerator pedal 43, a brake pedal 44, a shift lever 45, left and right front wheels 46, left and right rear wheels 47, an axle 48, an electronic control unit 49, various sensors (including a current sensor 50, a rotation speed sensor 51, an air pressure sensor 52, a vehicle speed sensor 53, an acceleration sensor 54, an accelerator pedal sensor 55, a brake pedal sensor 56, a shift lever sensor 57, and an object detection sensor 58), an information service unit 59, and a communication module 60.

The drive unit 41 is composed of at least one of an engine, a motor, and a hybrid of an engine and a motor, for example. The steering unit 42 includes at least a steering wheel (also called a handlebar), and is configured to steer at least one of the front wheels 46 and the rear wheels 47 based on the operation of the steering wheel operated by the user.

The electronic control unit 49 is composed of a microprocessor 61, memory (ROM, RAM) 62, and a communication port (e.g., an Input/Output (IO) port) 63. Signals are input to the electronic control unit 49 from various sensors 50-58 provided in the vehicle. The electronic control unit 49 may also be called an Electronic Control Unit (ECU).

Signals from the various sensors 50-58 include a current signal from a current sensor 50 that senses the motor current, a rotation speed signal of the front wheels 46/rear wheels 47 acquired by a rotation speed sensor 51, an air pressure signal of the front wheels 46/rear wheels 47 acquired by an air pressure sensor 52, a vehicle speed signal acquired by a vehicle speed sensor 53, an acceleration signal acquired by an acceleration sensor 54, a depression amount signal of the accelerator pedal 43 acquired by an accelerator pedal sensor 55, a depression amount signal of the brake pedal 44 acquired by a brake pedal sensor 56, an operation signal of the shift lever 45 acquired by a shift lever sensor 57, and a detection signal for detecting obstacles, vehicles, pedestrians, etc. acquired by an object detection sensor 58.

The information service unit 59 is composed of various devices, such as a car navigation system, audio system, speakers, displays, televisions, and radios, for providing (outputting) various information such as driving information, traffic information, and entertainment information, and one or more ECUs that control these devices. The information service unit 59 uses information acquired from external devices via the communication module 60, etc., to provide various information/services (e.g., multimedia information/multimedia services) to the occupants of the vehicle 40.

The information service unit 59 may include input devices (e.g., a keyboard, a mouse, a microphone, a switch, a button, a sensor, a touch panel, etc.) that accept input from the outside, and may also include output devices (e.g., a display, a speaker, an LED lamp, a touch panel, etc.) that perform output to the outside.

The driving assistance system unit 64 is composed of various devices that provide functions for preventing accidents and reducing the driver's driving load, such as a millimeter wave radar, a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), a camera, a positioning locator (e.g., a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)), map information (e.g., a High Definition (HD) map, an Autonomous Vehicle (AV) map, etc.), a gyro system (e.g., an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), an Inertial Navigation System (INS), etc.), an Artificial Intelligence (AI) chip, and an AI processor, and one or more ECUs that control these devices. The driving assistance system unit 64 also transmits and receives various information via the communication module 60 to realize a driving assistance function or an autonomous driving function.

The communication module 60 can communicate with the microprocessor 61 and components of the vehicle 40 via the communication port 63. For example, the communication module 60 transmits and receives data (information) via the communication port 63 between the drive unit 41, steering unit 42, accelerator pedal 43, brake pedal 44, shift lever 45, left and right front wheels 46, left and right rear wheels 47, axles 48, the microprocessor 61 and memory (ROM, RAM) 62 in the electronic control unit 49, and the various sensors 50-58 that are provided on the vehicle 40.

The communication module 60 is a communication device that can be controlled by the microprocessor 61 of the electronic control unit 49 and can communicate with an external device. For example, it transmits and receives various information to and from the external device via wireless communication. The communication module 60 may be located either inside or outside the electronic control unit 49. The external device may be, for example, the above-mentioned base station 10 or user terminal 20. The communication module 60 may also be, for example, at least one of the above-mentioned base station 10 and user terminal 20 (it may function as at least one of the base station 10 and user terminal 20).

The communication module 60 may transmit at least one of the signals from the various sensors 50-58 described above input to the electronic control unit 49, information obtained based on the signals, and information based on input from the outside (user) obtained via the information service unit 59 to an external device via wireless communication. The electronic control unit 49, the various sensors 50-58, the information service unit 59, etc. may be referred to as input units that accept input. For example, the PUSCH transmitted by the communication module 60 may include information based on the above input.

The communication module 60 receives various information (traffic information, signal information, vehicle distance information, etc.) transmitted from an external device and displays it on an information service unit 59 provided in the vehicle. The information service unit 59 may also be called an output unit that outputs information (for example, outputs information to a device such as a display or speaker based on the PDSCH (or data/information decoded from the PDSCH) received by the communication module 60).

The communication module 60 also stores various information received from external devices in memory 62 that can be used by the microprocessor 61. Based on the information stored in memory 62, the microprocessor 61 may control the drive unit 41, steering unit 42, accelerator pedal 43, brake pedal 44, shift lever 45, left and right front wheels 46, left and right rear wheels 47, axles 48, various sensors 50-58, and the like provided on the vehicle 40.

Furthermore, the base station in the present disclosure may be read as a user terminal. For example, each aspect/embodiment of the present disclosure may be applied to a configuration in which communication between a base station and a user terminal is replaced with communication between multiple user terminals (which may be called, for example, Device-to-Device (D2D), Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X), etc.). In this case, the user terminal 20 may be configured to have the functions of the base station 10 described above. Furthermore, terms such as "uplink" and "downlink" may be read as terms corresponding to terminal-to-terminal communication (for example, "sidelink"). For example, the uplink channel, downlink channel, etc. may be read as the sidelink channel.

Similarly, the user terminal in this disclosure may be interpreted as a base station. In this case, the base station 10 may be configured to have the functions of the user terminal 20 described above.

In this disclosure, operations that are described as being performed by a base station may in some cases be performed by its upper node. In a network that includes one or more network nodes having base stations, it is clear that various operations performed for communication with terminals may be performed by the base station, one or more network nodes other than the base station (such as, but not limited to, a Mobility Management Entity (MME) or a Serving-Gateway (S-GW)), or a combination of these.

Each aspect/embodiment described in this disclosure may be used alone, in combination, or switched between depending on the implementation. In addition, the processing procedures, sequences, flow charts, etc. of each aspect/embodiment described in this disclosure may be rearranged as long as there is no inconsistency. For example, the methods described in this disclosure present elements of various steps in an exemplary order, and are not limited to the particular order presented.

Each aspect/embodiment described in this disclosure includes Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), LTE-Beyond (LTE-B), SUPER 3G, IMT-Advanced, 4th generation mobile communication system (4G), 5th generation mobile communication system (5G), 6th generation mobile communication system (6G), xth generation mobile communication system (xG (x is, for example, an integer or decimal)), Future Radio Access (FRA), New-Radio The present invention may be applied to systems that use Access Technology (RAT), New Radio (NR), New radio access (NX), Future generation radio access (FX), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM (registered trademark)), CDMA2000, Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi (registered trademark)), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX (registered trademark)), IEEE 802.20, Ultra-Wide Band (UWB), Bluetooth (registered trademark), and other appropriate wireless communication methods, as well as next-generation systems that are expanded, modified, created, or defined based on these. In addition, multiple systems may be combined (for example, a combination of LTE or LTE-A and 5G, etc.).

As used in this disclosure, the phrase "based on" does not mean "based only on," unless expressly stated otherwise. In other words, the phrase "based on" means both "based only on" and "based at least on."

Any reference to an element using a designation such as "first," "second," etc., used in this disclosure does not generally limit the quantity or order of those elements. These designations may be used in this disclosure as a convenient method of distinguishing between two or more elements. Thus, a reference to a first and second element does not imply that only two elements may be employed or that the first element must precede the second element in some way.

The term "determining" as used in this disclosure may encompass a wide variety of actions. For example, "determining" may be considered to be judging, calculating, computing, processing, deriving, investigating, looking up, search, inquiry (e.g., looking in a table, database, or other data structure), ascertaining, etc.

"Determining" may also be considered to mean "determining" receiving (e.g., receiving information), transmitting (e.g., sending information), input, output, accessing (e.g., accessing data in a memory), etc.

Furthermore, "judgment (decision)" may be considered to mean "judging (deciding)" resolving, selecting, choosing, establishing, comparing, etc. In other words, "judgment (decision)" may be considered to mean "judging (deciding)" some kind of action. In this disclosure, "judgment (decision)" may be read as interchangeably with the actions described above.

Furthermore, in this disclosure, "determine/determining" may be interpreted interchangeably as "assume/assuming," "expect/expecting," "consider/considering," etc. Furthermore, in this disclosure, "does not expect to do..." may be interpreted interchangeably as "assumes not to do...."

In the present disclosure, "expect" may be read as "be expected". For example, "expect(s) ..." ("..." may be expressed, for example, as a that clause, a to infinitive, etc.) may be read as "be expected ...". "does not expect ..." may be read as "be not expected ...". Also, "An apparatus A is not expected ..." may be read as "An apparatus B other than apparatus A does not expect ..." (for example, if apparatus A is a UE, apparatus B may be a base station).

The "maximum transmit power" referred to in this disclosure may mean the maximum value of transmit power, may mean the nominal UE maximum transmit power, or may mean the rated UE maximum transmit power.

As used in this disclosure, the terms "connected" and "coupled," or any variation thereof, refer to any direct or indirect connection or coupling between two or more elements, and may include the presence of one or more intermediate elements between two elements that are "connected" or "coupled" to each other. The coupling or connection between the elements may be physical, logical, or a combination thereof. For example, "connected" may be read as "access."

In this disclosure, when two elements are connected, they may be considered to be "connected" or "coupled" to one another using one or more wires, cables, printed electrical connections, and the like, as well as using electromagnetic energy having wavelengths in the radio frequency range, microwave range, light (both visible and invisible) range, and the like, as some non-limiting and non-exhaustive examples.

In this disclosure, the term "A and B are different" may mean "A and B are different from each other." The term may also mean "A and B are each different from C." Terms such as "separate" and "combined" may also be interpreted in the same way as "different."

When the terms "include," "including," and variations thereof are used in this disclosure, these terms are intended to be inclusive, similar to the term "comprising." Additionally, the term "or," as used in this disclosure, is not intended to be an exclusive or.

In this disclosure, where articles have been added through translation, such as a, an, and the in English, this disclosure may include that the nouns following these articles are plural.

In this disclosure, terms such as "less than", "less than", "greater than", "more than", "equal to", etc. may be read as interchangeable. In addition, in this disclosure, terms meaning "good", "bad", "big", "small", "high", "low", "fast", "slow", "wide", "narrow", etc. may be read as interchangeable, not limited to positive, comparative and superlative. In addition, in this disclosure, terms meaning "good", "bad", "big", "small", "high", "low", "fast", "slow", "wide", "narrow", etc. may be read as interchangeable, not limited to positive, comparative and superlative, as expressions with "ith" (i is any integer) (for example, "best" may be read as "ith best").

In this disclosure, the terms "of," "for," "regarding," "related to," "associated with," etc. may be read interchangeably.

In the present disclosure, "when A, B", "if A, (then) B", "B upon A", "B in response to A", "B based on A", "B during/while A", "B before A", "B at (the same time as)/on A", "B after A", "B since A", "B until A" and the like may be read as interchangeable. Note that A, B, etc. here may be replaced with appropriate expressions such as nouns, gerunds, and normal sentences depending on the context. Note that the time difference between A and B may be almost 0 (immediately after or immediately before). Also, a time offset may be applied to the time when A occurs. For example, "A" may be read interchangeably as "before/after the time offset at which A occurs." The time offset (e.g., one or more symbols/slots) may be predefined or may be identified by the UE based on signaled information.

In this disclosure, timing, time, duration, time instance, any time unit (e.g., slot, subslot, symbol, subframe), period, occasion, resource, etc. may be interpreted as interchangeable.

The invention disclosed herein has been described in detail above, but it is clear to those skilled in the art that the invention disclosed herein is not limited to the embodiments described herein. The description of the present disclosure is intended for illustrative purposes only and does not imply any limitations on the invention disclosed herein.

Claims (6)

a receiving unit for receiving information related to a sensing antenna port;
A terminal having a control unit that determines a sensing antenna port associated with an antenna or antenna group based on the information. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the sensing antenna port is associated with the antenna or the antenna group based on at least one of polarization and panel. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein the information related to the sensing antenna port includes at least one of information regarding the number of sensing antenna ports, information regarding indexes of the sensing antenna ports, and information regarding definitions of the sensing antenna ports. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein the sensing antenna port is determined from an antenna port common to the communication antenna port, or is determined from an antenna port different from the communication antenna port. receiving information related to a sensing antenna port;
and determining a sensing antenna port associated with an antenna or antenna group based on the information. a transmitter for transmitting information related to a sensing antenna port;
and a control unit that uses the information to indicate a sensing antenna port associated with an antenna or antenna group.

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