WO2025166833A1

WO2025166833A1 - Uplink transmission in a duplex mode

Info

Publication number: WO2025166833A1
Application number: PCT/CN2024/077162
Authority: WO
Inventors: Qi Liu; Jingyuan Sun; Jie Gao; Nhat-Quang NHAN
Original assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd; Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Current assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd; Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Priority date: 2024-02-10
Filing date: 2024-02-10
Publication date: 2025-08-14
Anticipated expiration: 2026-08-10

Abstract

Example embodiments of the disclosure relate to uplink transmission in a duplex mode. A first apparatus determines that at least one resource for an uplink transmission to a second apparatus in a duplex mode is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus or overlapped with a guard resource in a time-frequency domain; based on the determined overlap, determines a resource pattern indicating at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode, the resource pattern comprising a transmission dropping pattern or a rate matching pattern; and performs, based on the determined resource pattern, the uplink transmission to the second apparatus in the duplex mode.

Description

UPLINK TRANSMISSION IN A DUPLEX MODE

FIELDS

Various example embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of telecommunication and in particular, to methods, devices, apparatuses and computer readable storage medium for uplink transmission in a duplex mode.

BACKGROUND

The duplex mode is a duplex communication approach, such as a sub-band full-duplex (SBFD) mode, dynamic Time Division Duplex (TDD) or unified TDD, and so on. The sub-band full-duplex (SBFD) mode is a duplex communication approach that assigns uplink and downlink signals to separate sub-bands for transmission. In this mode, uplink and downlink signals may be transmitted simultaneously in different frequency bands, thereby improving spectrum utilization and communication efficiency. However, an uplink transmission in the duplex mode may be overlapped with downlink transmission from network. In addition, the uplink transmission in the duplex mode may be overlapped with guard resource. A way to handle uplink transmission in the duplex mode is needed.

SUMMARY

In a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus at least to: determine that at least one resource for an uplink transmission to a second apparatus in a duplex mode is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus or overlapped with a guard resource in a time-frequency domain; based on the determined overlap, determine a resource pattern indicating at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode, the resource pattern comprising a transmission dropping pattern or a rate matching pattern; and perform, based on the determined resource pattern, the uplink transmission to the second apparatus in the duplex mode.

In a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second apparatus at least to: determine a resource pattern indicating at least one resource that is not allowed for an uplink transmission in a duplex mode for a first apparatus, the resource pattern comprising a transmission dropping pattern or a rate matching pattern; and receive, from the first apparatus and based on the resource pattern, the uplink transmission in the duplex mode, wherein at least one resource for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus or overlapped with a guard resource in a time-frequency domain.

In a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises: determining, by a first apparatus, that at least one resource for an uplink transmission to a second apparatus in a duplex mode is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus or overlapped with a guard resource in a time-frequency domain; based on the determined overlap, determining a resource pattern indicating at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode, the resource pattern comprising a transmission dropping pattern or a rate matching pattern; and performing, based on the determined resource pattern, the uplink transmission to the second apparatus in the duplex mode.

In a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises: determining, by a second apparatus, a resource pattern indicating at least one resource that is not allowed for an uplink transmission in a duplex mode for a first apparatus, the resource pattern comprising a transmission dropping pattern or a rate matching pattern; and receiving, from the first apparatus and based on the resource pattern, the uplink transmission in the duplex mode, wherein at least one resource for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus or overlapped with a guard resource in a time-frequency domain.

In a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises means for determining that at least one resource for an uplink transmission to a second apparatus in a duplex mode is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus or overlapped with a guard resource in a time-frequency domain; means for based on the determined overlap, determining a resource pattern indicating at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode, the resource pattern comprising a transmission dropping pattern or a rate matching pattern; and means for performing, based on the determined resource pattern, the uplink transmission to the second apparatus in the duplex mode.

In a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises means for determining a resource pattern indicating at least one resource that is not allowed for an uplink transmission in a duplex mode for a first apparatus, the resource pattern comprising a transmission dropping pattern or a rate matching pattern; and means for receiving, from the first apparatus and based on the resource pattern, the uplink transmission in the duplex mode, wherein at least one resource for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus or overlapped with a guard resource in a time-frequency domain.

In a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium comprises instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method according to the third aspect.

In an eighth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium comprises instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method according to the fourth aspect.

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

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

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

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

FIG. 2A illustrates an example of Time Division Duplexing;

FIG. 2B illustrates an example of Frequency Division Duplexing;

FIG. 2C illustrates an example of SBFD;

FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of SBFD and non-SBFD slots;

FIG. 4 illustrates a signaling flow for handling uplink transmission in a duplex mode according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a rate matching pattern according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a rate matching pattern according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 7A-7C illustrate examples of fixed mix rate matching patterns according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a fixed rate matching pattern according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 illustrates a signaling flow for handling uplink transmission in a duplex mode according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of an example method implemented at a terminal device according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 illustrates a flowchart of an example method implemented at a first apparatus according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 illustrates a flowchart of an example method implemented at a second apparatus according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 13 is a simplified block diagram of a device that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 14 illustrates a block diagram of an example computer readable medium in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure.

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

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

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

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

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

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

As used herein, “at least one of the following: <a list of two or more elements>” and “at least one of <a list of two or more elements>” and similar wording, where the list of two or more elements are joined by “and” or “or” , mean at least any one of the elements, or at least any two or more of the elements, or at least all the elements.

As used herein, unless stated explicitly, performing a step “in response to A” does not necessarily indicate that the step is performed immediately after “A” occurs. One or more intervening steps may be included between the “A” and the step.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As used herein, the term “communication network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards, such as New Radio (NR) , Long Term Evolution (LTE) , LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) , Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) , High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) , Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and so on. Furthermore, the communications between a terminal device and a network device in the communication network may be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G) , the sixth generation (6G) communication protocols, and/or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied in various communication systems. Given the rapid development in communications, there will of course also be future type communication technologies and systems with which the present disclosure may be embodied. It should not be seen as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to only the aforementioned system.

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

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

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

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication environment 100 in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. As shown in FIG. 1, the communication environment 100 comprises a first apparatus 110, a second apparatus 120, a third apparatus 140-1 and a third apparatus 140-2.

In the following, for the purpose of illustration, the third apparatus 140-1 and the third apparatus 140-2 may be collectively or individually referred to as third apparatuses 140. Some example embodiments may be described with the first apparatus 110 operating as a terminal device, the second apparatus 120 operating as a network device and the third apparatuses 140 operating as a terminal device. In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may support a duplex mode, such as a SBFD mode, a dynamic TDD mode or a unified TDD mode or FDD mode. When supporting the SBFD mode, such a first apparatus 110 is sometimes referred to as a SBFD terminal device, SBDF-aware UE or a SBFD UE. The third apparatuses 140 may be legacy terminal devices or SBFD terminal devices. However, in some example embodiments, operations described in connection with a terminal device may be implemented at a network device or other device, and operations described in connection with a network device may be implemented at a terminal device or other device.

In some example embodiments, the “legacy” can mean not supporting SBFD or non-SBFD.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus 120 may be a network device of a serving cell 130, for example, a gNB of the serving cell 130 for the first apparatus 110 and the third apparatuses 140.

It is to be understood that the number and types of apparatuses are shown in FIG. 1 for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitation. For example, the communication environment 100 may include any suitable number of first apparatuses and second apparatuses.

In some example embodiments, if the first apparatus 110 and the third apparatuses 140 are terminal devices and the second apparatus 120 is a network device, the links from the second apparatus 120 to the first apparatus 110 and the third apparatuses 140 are referred to as a downlink (DL) , and links from the first apparatus 110 and the third apparatuses 140 to the second apparatus 120 are referred to as an uplink (UL) . In DL, the second apparatus 120 is a transmitting (TX) device (or a transmitter) and the first apparatus 110 and the third apparatuses 140 are receiving (RX) devices (or a receivers) . In UL, the first apparatus 110 and the third apparatuses 140 are TX devices (or a transmitters) and the second apparatus 120 is a RX device (or a receiver) .

Communications in the communication environment 100 may be implemented according to any proper communication protocol (s) , comprising, but not limited to, cellular communication protocols of the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , the fifth generation (5G) , the sixth generation (6G) , and the like, wireless local network communication protocols such as Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 and the like, and/or any other protocols currently known or to be developed in the future. Moreover, the communication may utilize any proper wireless communication technology, comprising but not limited to: Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) , Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) , Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) , Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) , Time Division Duplex (TDD) , Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) , Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple (OFDM) , Discrete Fourier Transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) and/or any other technologies currently known or to be developed in the future.

For duplexing evolution including the SBFD, two duplexing modes are supported in 5G NR, including Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) for paired bands and Time Division Duplexing (TDD) for unpaired bands. FIG. 2A illustrates an example of Time Division Duplexing. In TDD, as shown in FIG. 2A, the time domain resource is split between downlink and uplink. Allocation of a limited time duration for the uplink in TDD would result in reduced coverage, increased latency, and reduced capacity. FIG. 2B illustrates an example of Frequency Division Duplexing. In FDD, as shown in FIG. 2B, uplink and downlink transmission are allowed at the same time over different frequency bands which are separated by a guard resource or guard band 210. Frequency bands are generally inflexible to change which may result in higher complexity and high cost.

Motivated by this, one of the objectives of the evolution of duplexing operation in NR that addresses the challenges above is to allow simultaneous downlink and uplink transmission on different physical resource blocks (PRBs) /sub-bands within an unpaired wideband NR cell. FIG. 2C illustrates an example of sub-band full duplex or sub-band non-overlapping full duplex (SBFD) . In SBFD, as shown in FIG. 2C, downlink and uplink are operated simultaneously on the same time division duplex carrier on different frequency resources. This duplexing scheme may be also referred to as cross division duplexing (xDD) scheme or flexible division duplexing (FDU) .

In SBFD, there may be two slot types for both downlink and uplink transmissions. FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of SBFD and non-SBFD slots according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 3, during SBFD slots 310, the non-overlapping downlink sub-band (s) 312 and uplink sub-band (s) 314 may both exist. A guard resource may be between the downlink sub-band and the uplink sub-band in SBFD slots or between the downlink symbol and the uplink symbol, or guard band may be between the downlink sub-band and the uplink sub-band in SBFD slots. During non-SBFD slots 316 and 318, the entire band is used for either downlink or uplink (for example, legacy/full DL/UL slots) . In this example, full non-SBFD slots 316 are used for downlink transmission and full non-SBFD slots 318 are used for uplink transmission.

Several SBFD operation modes have been studied including whether time and frequency locations of sub-bands for the SBFD operation are known to a SBFD-aware UE or not, and it is agreed that at least the operation mode with time and frequency locations of sub-bands for SBFD operation being known to the SBFD-aware UE is prioritized. This means that SBFD slots should be known by the UE (for example, SBFD-aware UE) in some way.

It is agreed to study SBFD operation in Synchronization signal and Physical downlink broadcast channel block (SSB) symbols and different options have been discussed. It is agreed to study whether SBFD operation in SSB symbols is supported or not. Further, it is agreed to study some options for SBFD operation in SSB symbols. One of the options is that an UL sub-band cannot be configured in an SSB symbol. In such option, handling of misaligned periodicities between SSB and semi-static SBFD sub-band time location configuration is further studied. The other one of the options is that an UL sub-band can be configured in an SSB symbol. In this option, at least one of the followings is further studied: whether an SBFD-aware UE transmits in the UL sub-band or may receive SSB in the symbol, when the SBFD-aware UE transmits in the UL sub-band or may receive SSB in the symbol, and/or under which conditions the SBFD-aware UE transmits in the UL sub-band or may receive SSB in the symbol.

Whether a SBFD operation in SSB symbols is supported or not, final agreements is studied. It is discussed whether the UL sub-band can be configured in SSB symbol and agreed that the UL sub-band can be configured in an SSB symbol. The SSB is from a serving cell, which can be a cell defining SSB (CD-SSB) or a non-cell defining SSB (NCD-SSB) . If the SBFD-aware UE is not allowed to transmit in the SSB symbol, but is allowed to receive within a DL bandwidth part (BWP) in the SSB symbol, negative impact on SSB detection and measurement can be avoided, but UL performance may be degraded due to fewer UL opportunities. If the SBFD-aware UE is allowed to transmit in the SSB symbol, the UE may only transmit UL in an UL sub-band depending on gNB scheduling, configuration, UE measurement or priority rule. There may be negative impact on SSB detection and measurement if the SBFD-aware UE is requested to transmit in the SSB symbol.

As described above, the SBFD mode introduces simultaneous TX and RX in the same carrier non-overlapped frequency resource and the possibility of allowing a UL sub-band to be configured in SSB symbols has been discussed. In case that a SBFD symbol is overlapped with a SSB symbol, potential UL transmission in the UL sub-band by a SBFD UE may impact an SSB-based measurement and other legacy DL reception performed by another UE (e.g. a legacy UE or an SBFD UE) in the DL sub-band due to UE-to-UE inter sub-band cross-link interference (CLI) . For example, the UE configured to perform the UL transmission in the UL sub-band may be referred to as an aggressor UE. The other UE (legacy UE) performing legacy DL reception in the DL sub-band may be referred to as a victim UE.

In the legacy SBFD mode, problems to be solved are how to perform UL transmission in the SBFD mode and how to minimize inference caused by the UL transmission in the SBFD mode to another UE that measures SSB or performs other legacy DL reception. In case the UL sub-band in the SBFD mode overlaps with DL transmission (e.g. SSB, CSI-RS (channel status information reference signal) or any other common PDCCH (physical downlink control channel) /PDSCH (physical downlink shared channel) DL transmission) from the network or with the guard resource, a method of rate matching for the UL transmission in the SBFD mode can be performed. In addition to the SBFD mode, the collision of UL transmission with DL transmission may occur in other duplex mode, such as the dynamic TDD mode, unified TDD mode, etc.

According to some example embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a solution for handling uplink transmission in a duplex mode. In the solution, the first apparatus determines whether a UL transmission in a duplex mode to a second apparatus is overlapped with a DL transmission from the second apparatus or whether a UL transmission in duplex mode to a second apparatus is overlapped with the guard resource. The first apparatus further determines a resource pattern indicating resources that are not allowed for the UL transmission in the duplex mode. The resource pattern may be a transmission dropping pattern or a rate matching pattern. The rate matching pattern may be referred to as a transmission rate matching pattern. The first apparatus then performs the UL transmission to the second apparatus based on the determined resource pattern. In this way, when there is any UL transmission in the duplex mode overlapped with the DL transmission or with the guard resource, it may be specified how the UE determines a rule for the UL transmission. The main advantage of this solution is to remove the restriction that UL transmission in the duplex mode could not be in the slot with the DL transmission or the guard resource and provide an efficient way to prevent the interference to other UEs performing the DL reception, when UL transmission in UL sub-band in the duplex mode is overlapped with the DL transmission.

Example embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 4 illustrates a signaling flow 400 for handling uplink transmission in a duplex mode according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purposes of discussion, the signaling flow 400 will be discussed with reference to FIG. 1. The signaling flow 400 may involve a first apparatus 110 and a second apparatus 120. In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may be a terminal device (for example, a UE such as a SBFD-aware UE or SBFD UE) or comprised in a terminal device (for example, a UE such as a SBFD-aware UE or SBFD UE) . The second apparatus 120 may be a network device or comprised in a network device (e.g. gNB or other RAN node) .

It is to be understood that the signaling flow 400 may involve more apparatuses or less apparatuses, and the number of apparatuses illustrated in FIG. 4 is only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitations.

As shown in FIG. 4, the first apparatus 110 determines (435) that at least one resource for an uplink transmission in a duplex mode (also referred to as SBFD UL transmission if the duplex mode is SBFD) is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from a second apparatus 120 or overlapped with a guard resource in a time-frequency domain. The uplink transmission in the duplex mode is directed to the second apparatus 120 and the downlink transmission is performed by the second apparatus 120 to one or more third apparatuses 140 and/or to the first apparatus 110. The duplex mode may be a SBFD mode, a dynamic TDD mode or a unified TDD mode or FDD mode. The downlink transmission may be any transmission that may be overlapped with the uplink transmission, which includes, for example but not limited to, SSB, channel-state-information reference signal (CSI-RS) , or any other common channel PDCCH/PDSCH transmission. The downlink transmission may be in any mode, wherein the downlink transmission may collide with the UL transmission in the duplex mode in the time-frequency resource domain. For example, the downlink transmission may be in a legacy TDD mode. In the case of operating in the duplex mode, when an uplink transmission is to be performed, the first apparatus 110 may determine whether at least one resource for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus 120 or with the guard resource. The guard resource may be a time-frequency resource within a guard band and/or a guard period, for guarding purpose. The guard band may be configured between the UL sub-band or UL band and the DL sub-band or DL band, and the guard period may be configured for the symbols/slots where both UL resources and DL resources are configured.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may determine whether a scheduling resource of the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is overlapped with a resource of the downlink transmission from the second apparatus 120 or with the guard resource. For example, if the first apparatus 110 is scheduled to transmit on a UL sub-band overlapped with any resource (which may include, for example but not limited to, a PRB/symbol/resource element (RE) or slot) that is used e.g. for the common or cell specific downlink transmission from the second apparatus 120 or the guard resource, the first apparatus 110 may determine that the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is overlapped with the resource of the downlink transmission from the second apparatus 120 or with the guard resource. The uplink transmission in the duplex mode may include any data, information, signalling that is expected to be transmitted to the second apparatus120.

In some example embodiments, the downlink transmission can be a common or cell specific channel/signal. The UL transmission is not expected or allowed to interfere with the common or cell specific channel/signal received or being received by other UE (s) .

In some example embodiments, the downlink transmission can be UE specific channel/signal. The UL transmission is not expected or allowed to interfere with the UE specific channel/signal received or being received by a corresponding UE (target UE of the UE specific channel or signal) .

In further example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may determine whether a scheduling resource of the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is overlapped with a resource of other legacy transmission. For example, if the second apparatus 120 is explicitly configured or indicated with a rate matching pattern for a UL scheduling, the first apparatus 110 may determine that the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is overlapped with the resource used for the other legacy DL transmission.

The first apparatus 110 then determines (440) a resource pattern based on the determined overlap. The resource pattern indicates at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode. The resource pattern includes a transmission dropping pattern or a rate matching pattern, as will be discussed in detail below.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may determine whether the rate matching pattern should be applied for the UL transmission in the duplex mode or not based on the sub-band of the UL transmission being overlapped with the common or cell specific DL transmission from the second apparatus 120 (e.g., the SSB, CSI-RS, or any other common channel DL transmission) or with the guard resource. The first apparatus 110 may apply the rate matching pattern for UL transmissions that are scheduled to be overlapped with the DL transmission for the non-SBFD mode from the second apparatus 120 or with the guard resource.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may determine a rate matching pattern for the UL transmission based on an explicit rate matching pattern configuration from the second apparatus 120. In this case, resources indicated in the explicit rate matching pattern configuration may be not allowed for UL transmission in the duplex mode. The explicit rate matching pattern configuration may be configured from the second apparatus 120 via higher layer signaling, e.g. Radio Resource Control (RRC) configuration, MAC CE; or physical layer signaling, e.g. Downlink Control Information (DCI) indication.

In some example embodiments, alternatively or in addition, the first apparatus 110 may determine a rate matching pattern for the UL transmission based on the configuration of the DL transmission from the second apparatus 120 or of the guard resource. In this case, resources that are used for the DL transmission from the second apparatus 120 or for the guard resource need to be protected and may not be allowed for the UL transmission in the duplex mode.

After determining the resource pattern, the first apparatus 110 performs (445) the uplink transmission to the second apparatus in the duplex mode. The uplink transmission is performed based on the determined resource pattern. The second apparatus 120 then receives (450) the uplink transmission in the duplex mode.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus 120 may further transmit (405) resource information to the first apparatus 110. The first apparatus 110 may receive (410) the resource information. The resource information may indicate a frequency band. Alternatively or in addition, the resource information may indicate a number of slots/symbols, in which the frequency band is split into a plurality of sub-bands. At least one of the sub-bands may be used for DL transmission and at least one of the sub-bands may be used for UL transmissions. That is, SBFD slots/symbols and locations of the number of slots/symbols in a radio frame may be indicated in the resource information. Alternatively or in addition, the resource information may further indicate a number of slots/symbols in which the entire frequency band is used for DL transmissions or UL transmissions. That is, non-SBFD slots/symbols and locations of the number of slots/symbols in a radio frame may be indicated in the resource information.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may transmit (415) capability information to the second apparatus 120. The capability information may indicate whether the first apparatus 110 supports rate matching and/or dropping in uplink transmissions in the duplex mode. The second apparatus 120 may receive (420) the capability information from the first apparatus. The rate matching pattern may be determined based on the capability information. In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may indicate to the second apparatus 120 whether the first apparatus 110 has the capability of supporting the UL transmission in the duplex mode with a rate matching pattern to avoid the resource overlaps with the DL transmission from the second apparatus 120 (e.g., SSB and other DL transmission) or with the guard resource.

In some example embodiments, UE capability of supporting the rate matching and/or the dropping in the duplex mode (e.g., SBFD or other duplex mode) may be added to specify the terminal device supporting rate matching for UL transmission on the overlapped resource used by legacy transmission. The rate matching pattern may be beam-specific and be applied on the beam which is configured for the SBFD UL transmission.

In further example embodiments, whether or not to drop the UL transmission on the at least one resource that is not allowed for the UL transmission may be based on some rules. The first apparatus 110 may implicitly determine whether or not the UL transmission can be dropped based on the following rules: a) when the UL transmission in the duplex mode is a repetition, the UL transmission in unallowed resources in the duplex mode will be dropped and/or b) when the UL transmission in the duplex mode is not a repetition, the rate matching pattern will be used, instead of the transmission dropping pattern, when performing the UL transmission in the duplex mode.

In some example embodiments, both the first apparatus 110 and the second apparatus 120 may determine whether the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is a repetition. If the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is a repetition, the first apparatus 110 and the second apparatus 120 may determine the resource pattern to be the transmission dropping pattern. Alternatively or in addition, if the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is not a repetition, the first apparatus 110 and the second apparatus 120 may determine the resource pattern to be the rate matching pattern. When the resource pattern is the transmission dropping pattern, the first apparatus 110 may drop the uplink transmission on the at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission performs. Thus, the uplink transmission in the duplex mode may be performed based on the transmission dropping pattern.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may drop at least one modulated element of the UL transmission on the at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission, so that the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is performed based on the transmission dropping pattern. Accordingly, the second apparatus 120 may receive the UL transmission based on a determination that at least one modulated element of the uplink transmission is dropped on the at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission.

The difference between the rate matching pattern and the transmission dropping pattern is that, in the transmission dropping pattern, a part of the uplink transmission that is mapped or modulated to the overlapped resource (s) is directly dropped without transmission, while in the rate matching pattern, the whole uplink transmission is mapped or modulated to the remaining resource (s) that is not overlapped with the downlink transmission or with the guard resource.

In some example embodiments, the uplink transmission may contain a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) . If at least one modulated element of the DMRS in the uplink transmission is to be dropped, the first apparatus 110 may transmit the DMRS on a further resource. The further resource is not overlapped with the at least one resource for the downlink transmission or with the guard resource. In turn, the second apparatus 120 may receive the DMRS on the further resource. In case that a resource of the DL transmission from the second apparatus 120 or the guard resource is overlapped with a UL demodulation reference signal (DMRS) , the resource may be dropped or the symbol locations of the UL DMRS may be shifted. A UL DMRS position may be indicated to avoid the SBFD UL transmission to be overlapped with resources used for downlink or guard resource.

The second apparatus 120 may further transmit (425) configuration information to the first apparatus. The configuration information may explicitly indicate the resource pattern to be applied. Alternatively, the configuration information may explicitly indicate a set of candidate resource patterns. In such case, the resource pattern may be selected from the set of candidate rate matching patterns based on an indication of the resource pattern. The indication, e.g. an index of a candidate rate matching pattern, may be received from the second apparatus. For example, the configuration information may indicate the candidate rate matching pattern to be selected. The first apparatus 110 may receive (430) the configuration information from the second apparatus 120.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus 120 may explicitly indicate the configuration information to the first apparatus 110 via RRC, for example. The second apparatus 120 may explicitly indicate to the first apparatus 110 the configuration of rate matching pattern (s) to avoid the resources (e.g. PRBs, symbols and/or PRBs combined with symbols) which are not allowed for UL transmissions as they are used for legacy transmission. Specifically, the configuration information may indicate how many locations of PRBs and/or symbols need to be rate matched by bitmapping. In this case, the second apparatus 120 may fix or dynamically configure the rate matching pattern (e.g., the SSB and/or CSI-RS rate matching pattern) specifically for symbols locations. Bitmapping may be used to indicate how many symbols and symbol locations need to be rate matched.

The first apparatus 110 may further be configured with a set of rate matching patterns. Alternatively or in addition, the second apparatus 120 may indicate a new rate matching pattern to the first apparatus 110 via a RRC (re) configuration and DCI indication. The new rate matching pattern is specially defined for the first apparatus 110 to indicate the UL transmission in the duplex mode.

In further example embodiments, the second apparatus 120 may transmit, to the first apparatus 110, an update to the resource pattern or an update to at least one candidate resource pattern of the set of candidate resource patterns. The first apparatus 110 may receive the update from the second apparatus.

Specially, the second apparatus 120 may schedule a UL transmission in SBFD slot and the UL transmission in the SBFD frequency band is overlapped with resource used for the DL transmission from the second apparatus 120 or with the guard resource. The second apparatus 120 may configure and indicate, to the first apparatus 110, one of the configured rate matching patterns that can be applied for this corresponding UL transmission. The second apparatus 120 may adjust the rate matching pattern and/or the transmission dropping pattern based on measurement feedback (i.e. a CSI-RS measurement below a specific threshold) . The second apparatus 120 may indicate the adjusted rate matching pattern and/or the adjusted transmission dropping pattern to the first apparatus 110. The adjustment of the rate matching pattern and/or the transmission dropping pattern may decrease the duplex UL transmission interference to the legacy UE(s) . That is, to minimize the interference to the DL transmission from the second apparatus 120 (e.g. the SSB, CSI-RS transmission and other legacy DL transmission) or to the guard resource, the second apparatus 120 may determine the rate matching pattern based on a CSI-RS measurement feedback from another impacted legacy UE. The second apparatus 120 may indicate the rate matching pattern using RRC (re) configuration or DCI indication, and then the first apparatus 110 determines the matching patten based on RRC (re) configuration or DCI. If the CSI-RS measurement is below a specific threshold, the rate matching pattern is adjusted to decrease the SBFD UL transmission interference to the legacy UE.

Based on the UE capability of supporting the rate matching and/or dropping in the duplex mode (e.g., SBFD or other duplex mode) , the second apparatus 120 may configure or adjust the rate matching pattern via a RRC (re) configuration or DCI indication. The first apparatus 110 may then determine the configured or adjusted rate matching pattern. In this case, an information element (IE) may be added in the RRC (re) configuration to indicate the rate matching pattern. Alternatively or in addition, an IE may be added in the DCI indication to indicate the rate matching pattern.

From the above example embodiment, the first apparatus 110 may determine the resource pattern (the rate matching pattern or the transmission dropping pattern) in case that the second apparatus 120 explicitly indicates the resource pattern for UL transmission in the duplex mode and the frequency resource for the UL transmission in the duplex mode are overlapped with other legacy resources (e.g. PRBs, symbols, or PRBs combined with symbols) . The rate matching pattern or the transmission dropping pattern can be used by the first apparatus 110 to restrict the UL transmissions (which may include, for example but not limited to, PUSCH, PUCCH, PRACH, SRS) in the UL sub-band in the duplex mode to protect the resources used for the DL transmission (e.g. SSB, CSI-RS or other common channel transmission) from the second apparatus, or to protect the guard resource. In such a way, the interference to any other UE that is performing the DL reception is minimized. As described above, the rate matching pattern or the transmission dropping pattern may be determined based on the explicit indication from the second apparatus 120. However, the rate matching pattern or the transmission dropping pattern may be determined by an implicit determination performed by the first apparatus 110.

In case that the rate matching pattern or the transmission dropping pattern is determined implicitly by the first apparatus 110, the first apparatus 110 may receive, from the second apparatus 120, an indication to indicate that the uplink transmission is not allowed on at least one resource allocated for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus or on the guard resource. Based at least on the at least one resource allocated for the downlink transmission or the guard resource, the first apparatus 110 may then determine the resource pattern. The resource pattern may be determined based on some rules. The rules may be allowing the uplink transmission on a duplex uplink sub-band, except for the at least one resource allocated for the downlink transmission from the second apparatus and/or for the guard resource. Alternatively, the rules may be allowing the uplink transmission on a duplex uplink sub-band, except for a fixed resource pattern allocated or reserved for the downlink transmission and/or for the guard resource. At the second apparatus side, as the second apparatus 120 transmits the indication that the uplink transmission is not allowed on at least one resource allocated for a downlink transmission or on the guard resource, this second apparatus 120 may also determine the resource pattern in a same way as the first apparatus 110 does. As such, the second apparatus 120 can determine the same resource pattern that is used by the first apparatus 110 for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode. Then the second apparatus 120 may receive the uplink transmission based on the determined resource pattern.

Specifically, the first apparatus 110 may implicitly determine the rate matching pattern based on the DL transmission from the second apparatus 120 (e.g. the SSB, CSI-RS and other common channel resources) or based on the guard resource depending on one of the following rules: 1) the UL transmission in the duplex mode being allowed on UL sub-band in the duplex mode with rate matching applied, except for the RBs/symbols/REs/slots where the resource for the DL transmission from the second apparatus or the guard resource is scheduled; or 2) the UL transmission in the duplex mode being allowed on UL sub-band in the duplex mode with rate matching applied, except for the fixed mix pattern where the resource for the DL transmission from the second apparatus 120 or the guard resource is scheduled and other reserved resource. The former rule corresponds to FIGS. 5 and 6, which illustrate examples of a rate matching pattern according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 5, with rate matching applied, the UL transmission in the duplex mode is not allowed on the resources for SSB. As shown in FIG. 6, the SBFD UL transmission is not allowed on the resources for CSI RS or DMRS. The latter rule corresponds to FIGS. 7A-7C and 8, which illustrate examples of fixed mix rate matching patterns and an example of a fixed rate matching pattern respectively. As shown in FIGS. 7A-7C, with rate matching applied, the UL transmission in the duplex mode is not allowed on the resource for SSB and other reserved resource, such as reserved PRBs/symbols/REs. As shown in FIG. 8, the UL transmission in the duplex mode is not allowed on the resources for CSI RS or DMRS and other reserved resource, such as reserved symbols.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may be or be comprised in a terminal device, and the second apparatus 120 may be or be comprised in a network device.

FIG. 9 illustrates a signaling flow 900 for handling uplink transmission in a duplex mode according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purposes of discussion, the signaling flow 900 will be discussed with reference to FIG. 1. The signaling flow 900 may involve a first apparatus 110 and a second apparatus 120. In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may be a terminal device (for example, a SBFD-aware UE or SBFD UE) or comprised in a terminal device (for example, a SBFD-aware UE or SBFD UE) . The second apparatus 120 may be a network device or comprised in a network device (e.g. gNB) .

It is to be understood that the signaling flow 900 may involve more apparatuses or less apparatuses, and the number of apparatuses illustrated in FIG. 9 is only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitations.

The second apparatus 120 transmits (905) resource information to the first apparatus 110 and the first apparatus 110 receives (910) the resource information. The resource information may include, for example but not limited to, a number of SBFD slots/symbols in which a frequency band is split into a plurality of sub-bands and locations of the number of SBFD slots/symbols in a radio frame. In the number of SBFD slots/symbols, at least one sub-band is used for DL transmissions and at least one sub-band is used for UL transmissions, that is, the number of SBFD slots/symbols are SBFD slots/symbols. Alternatively or in addition, the resource information may include a number of slots/symbols in which an entire frequency band is used for DL transmissions or UL transmissions and locations of the number of slots/symbols in a radio frame., that is, the number of slots/symbols are non-SBFD slots/symbols.

The first apparatus 110 transmits (915) capability information to the second apparatus 120. The capability information may indicate whether the first apparatus supports rate matching and/or dropping in uplink transmissions in the duplex mode, i.e. whether the first apparatus 110 has the capability of supporting UL transmission in the duplex mode with rate matching to avoid the resource overlaps with DL transmission from the second apparatus (e.g. SSB and other DL transmission) or with the guard resource.

The second apparatus 120 receives (920) the capability information and may transmit (925) configuration information to the first apparatus 110. The first apparatus 110 receives (930) the configuration information. The second apparatus 120 may explicitly indicate, to the first apparatus 110, the resource pattern to be applied via the capability information, in order to avoid the resources (such as, PRBs, symbols or PRBs combined with symbols) used for legacy transmission to be allowed in UL transmissions. The capability information may be implemented as a bitmapping to indicate how many locations of PRBs or symbols need to be rate matched. Alternatively or in addition, the configuration information may indicate a set of candidate resource patterns. In further embodiments, a new rate matching pattern defined for the first apparatus 110 is transmitted via a RRC (re) configuration or DCI indication.

The second apparatus 120 transmits (935) an update to the resource pattern or an update to at least one candidate resource pattern of the set of candidate resource patterns. In such case, after scheduling a UL transmission in SBFD slots and configuring, to the first apparatus 110, one of the rate matching patterns that is to be applied for this corresponding UL transmission, the second apparatus 120 may adjust the configured rate matching pattern and indicate the adjusted rate matching pattern to the first apparatus 110 based on a measurement feedback (such as, a CSI-RS measurement below a specific threshold) .

After receiving (940) the update, the first apparatus 110 determines (945) at least one resource for an uplink transmission to a second apparatus 120 in a duplex mode is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus 120 or overlapped with a guard resource in a time-frequency domain. The downlink transmission may be in any mode wherein the DL transmission may be overlapped with the UL transmission, e.g. in TDD. If the first apparatus 110 is scheduled to transmit on a UL sub-band overlapped with any resources (which may include, for example but not limited to, PRBs/symbols/REs or slots) that are used for DL transmission (e.g. SSB or CSI-RS or other common channel) or for the guard resource, the first apparatus 110 may determine that the UL transmissions is overlapped with the DL transmission or with the guard resource. If the second apparatus 120 explicitly configures or indicates the rate matching pattern for the UL transmissions, the first apparatus 110 may determine the UL transmission is overlapped with resources used for other legacy transmission.

The first apparatus 110 further determines (945) which resource pattern should be applied for the UL transmission if the UL transmission in the duplex mode is overlapped with a resource used by the DL transmission or with the guard resource. For example, the first apparatus 110 implicitly determines the rate matching pattern based on the resource used for the DL transmission (e.g. NR SSB, CSI-RS and other common legacy DL transmission) or based on the guard resource following one of the following rules: 1) the UL transmission in the duplex mode being allowed on UL sub-band with rate matching applied, except for the RBs/symbols/REs/slots in which the DL transmission or guard resource is scheduled; or 2) the UL transmission in the duplex mode being allowed on UL sub-band with rate matching applied, except for the fixed mix resource pattern in which the DL transmission or the guard resource is scheduled.

Alternatively or in addition, the first apparatus 110 may determine (945) whether there is configuration information (also known as an explicit rate matching pattern) indicated from the second apparatus 120 that should be applied for UL transmission if other legacy transmission overlaps with the UL sub-band in the duplex mode. For example, the first apparatus 110 determines which rate matching pattern shall be applied for the UL transmission if the second apparatus 120 explicitly indicates via a RRC (re) configuration or DCI indication.

After determining the rate matching pattern, the first apparatus 110 performs (950) the uplink transmission based on the rate matching pattern and the second apparatus 120 receives (955) the uplink transmission.

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart 1000 of an example method implemented at a terminal device according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purposes of discussion, the flowchart 1000 will be discussed with a terminal device, which may be an example of the first apparatus 110 described in FIG. 1. In some example embodiments, the terminal device in FIG. 10 may be, for example, a SBFD-aware UE or SBFD UE.

At block 1005, the terminal device receives resource information, which indicates the time and/or frequency configuration of UL transmission in a duplex mode. At block 1010, the terminal device reports capability information to a network device. The capability information indicates whether the terminal device supports rate matching and/or dropping in uplink transmissions in the duplex mode. At block 1015, the terminal device then receives configuration information, which indicates the resource pattern to be applied. The terminal device receives scheduling of the UL transmissions in the duplex mode at block 1020. At block 1025, it is determined by the terminal device that whether the UL transmission is overlapped with DL transmission or with a guard resource. If the UL transmission is not overlapped with DL transmission or the guard resource, the terminal device transmits on the UL frequency band without rate matching at block 1035. However, If the UL transmission is overlapped with DL transmission or the guard resource, the terminal device determines a rate matching patten for UL transmission in the duplex mode at block 1030. At block 1040, the terminal device determines whether the UL transmission in the duplex mode is a repetition. If the UL transmission for in duplex mode is not a repetition, the terminal device transmits on UL frequency band with the determined rate matching pattern at block 1050. If the UL transmission for in the duplex mode is a repetition, the terminal device drops this UL transmission at block 1045.

FIG. 11 shows a flowchart of an example method 1100 implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 1100 will be described from the perspective of the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1.

At block 1110, the first apparatus 110 determines that at least one resource for an uplink transmission to a second apparatus in a duplex mode is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus or overlapped with a guard resource in a time-frequency domain.

At block 1120, based on the determined overlap, the first apparatus 110 determines a resource pattern indicating at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode, the resource pattern comprising a transmission dropping pattern or a rate matching pattern.

At block 1130, the first apparatus 110 performs, based on the determined resource pattern, the uplink transmission to the second apparatus in the duplex mode.

In some example embodiments, the method 1100 further comprises: transmitting, to the second apparatus, capability information indicating whether the first apparatus supports rate matching and/or dropping in uplink transmissions in the duplex mode.

In some example embodiments, determining the resource pattern comprises: determining whether the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is a repetition; in accordance with a determination that the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is a repetition, determining the resource pattern to be the transmission dropping pattern; and in accordance with a determination that the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is not a repetition, determining the resource pattern to be the rate matching pattern.

In some example embodiments, performing the uplink transmission comprises: performing, based on the transmission dropping pattern, the uplink transmission in the duplex mode by dropping the uplink transmission on the at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission.

In some example embodiments, performing the uplink transmission comprises: performing, based on the transmission dropping pattern, the uplink transmission in the duplex mode by dropping at least one modulated element of the uplink transmission on the at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission.

In some example embodiments, performing the uplink transmission comprises: in accordance with a determination that at least one modulated element of the demodulation reference signal in the uplink transmission is to be dropped, transmitting the demodulation reference signal on a further resource that is not overlapped with the at least one resource for the downlink transmission or with the guard resource.

In some example embodiments, the method 1100 further comprises: receiving, from the second apparatus, configuration information indicating the resource pattern to be applied, or receiving, from the second apparatus, configuration information indicating a set of candidate resource patterns, wherein the resource pattern is selected from the set of candidate resource patterns based on an indication of the resource pattern received from the second apparatus.

In some example embodiments, the method 1100 further comprises: receiving, from the second apparatus, an update to the resource pattern or an update to at least one candidate resource pattern of the set of candidate resource patterns.

In some example embodiments, determining the resource pattern comprises: receiving, from the second apparatus, an indication to indicate that the uplink transmission is not allowed on at least one resource allocated for a downlink transmission or on the guard resource; and determining the resource pattern based at least in part on the at least one resource allocated for the downlink transmission or the guard resource.

In some example embodiments, determining the resource pattern comprises: determining the resource pattern based on one of the following rules: allowing the uplink transmission on a duplex uplink sub-band, except for the at least one resource allocated for the downlink transmission and/or for the guard resource; or allowing the uplink transmission on a duplex uplink sub-band, except for a fixed resource pattern allocated or reserved for the downlink transmission and/or for the guard resource.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is or is comprised in a terminal device, and the second apparatus is or is comprised in a network device.

FIG. 12 shows a flowchart of an example method 1200 implemented at a second apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 1200 will be described from the perspective of the second apparatus 120 in FIG. 1.

At block 1210, the second apparatus 120 determines a resource pattern indicating at least one resource that is not allowed for an uplink transmission in a duplex mode for a first apparatus, the resource pattern comprising a transmission dropping pattern or a rate matching pattern.

At block 1220, the second apparatus 120 receives, from the first apparatus and based on the resource pattern, the uplink transmission in the duplex mode, wherein at least one resource for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus or overlapped with a guard resource in a time-frequency domain.

In some example embodiments, the method 1200 further comprises: receiving, from the first apparatus, capability information indicating whether the first apparatus supports rate matching and/or dropping in uplink transmissions in the duplex mode; and wherein the resource pattern is determined based on the capability information.

In some example embodiments, determining the resource pattern comprises: determining whether the uplink transmission for the duplex mode is a repetition; in accordance with a determination that the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is a repetition, determining the resource pattern to be the transmission dropping pattern; and in accordance with a determination that the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is not a repetition, determining the resource pattern to be the rate matching pattern.

In some example embodiments, receiving the uplink transmission comprises: receiving the uplink transmission based on a determination that the uplink transmission is dropped on the at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission.

In some example embodiments, receiving the uplink transmission comprises: receiving the uplink transmission based on a determination that at least one modulated element of the uplink transmission is dropped on the at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission.

In some example embodiments, receiving the uplink transmission comprises: in accordance with a determination that at least one modulated element of the demodulation reference signal in the uplink transmission is to be dropped, receiving the demodulation reference signal on a further resource that is not overlapped with the at least one resource for the downlink transmission or with the guard resource.

In some example embodiments, the method 1200 further comprises: transmitting, to the first apparatus, configuration information indicating the resource pattern; or transmitting, to the first apparatus, configuration information indicating a set of candidate resource patterns for the first apparatus to select the resource pattern from the set of candidate resource patterns based on an indication of the resource pattern.

In some example embodiments, the method 1200 further comprises: transmitting, to the first apparatus, an update to the resource pattern or an update to at least one candidate resource pattern of the set of candidate resource patterns.

In some example embodiments, determining the resource pattern comprises: transmitting, to the first apparatus, an indication to indicate that the uplink transmission is not allowed on at least one resource allocated for a downlink transmission or on the guard resource; and determining the resource pattern based at least in part on the at least one resource allocated for the downlink transmission or the guard resource.

Example Apparatuses, Devices and Medium

In some example embodiments, a first apparatus capable of performing any of the method 1100 (for example, the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1 may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 1100. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The first apparatus may be implemented as or included in the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises means for determining that at least one resource for an uplink transmission to a second apparatus in a duplex mode is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus or overlapped with a guard resource in a time-frequency domain; means for based on the determined overlap, determining a resource pattern indicating at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode, the resource pattern comprising a transmission dropping pattern or a rate matching pattern; and means for performing, based on the determined resource pattern, the uplink transmission to the second apparatus in the duplex mode.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting, to the second apparatus, capability information indicating whether the first apparatus supports rate matching and/or dropping in uplink transmissions in the duplex mode.

In some example embodiments, the means for determining the resource pattern comprises: means for determining whether the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is a repetition; means for in accordance with a determination that the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is a repetition, determining the resource pattern to be the transmission dropping pattern; and means for in accordance with a determination that the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is not a repetition, determining the resource pattern to be the rate matching pattern.

In some example embodiments, the resource pattern is the transmission dropping pattern, and the means for performing the uplink transmission comprises: means for performing, based on the transmission dropping pattern, the uplink transmission in the duplex mode by dropping the uplink transmission on the at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission.

In some example embodiments, the means for performing the uplink transmission comprises: means for performing, based on the transmission dropping pattern, the uplink transmission in the duplex mode by dropping at least one modulated element of the uplink transmission on the at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission.

In some example embodiments, the uplink transmission contains a demodulation reference signal, and the means for performing the uplink transmission comprises: means for in accordance with a determination that at least one modulated element of the demodulation reference signal in the uplink transmission is to be dropped, transmitting the demodulation reference signal on a further resource that is not overlapped with the at least one resource for the downlink transmission or with the guard resource.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for receiving, from the second apparatus, configuration information indicating the resource pattern to be applied, or means for receiving, from the second apparatus, configuration information indicating a set of candidate resource patterns, wherein the resource pattern is selected from the set of candidate resource patterns based on an indication of the resource pattern received from the second apparatus.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for receiving, from the second apparatus, an update to the resource pattern or an update to at least one candidate resource pattern of the set of candidate resource patterns.

In some example embodiments, the means for determining the resource pattern comprises: means for receiving, from the second apparatus, an indication to indicate that the uplink transmission is not allowed on at least one resource allocated for a downlink transmission or on the guard resource; and means for determining the resource pattern based at least in part on the at least one resource allocated for the downlink transmission or the guard resource.

In some example embodiments, the means for determining the resource pattern comprises: means for determining the resource pattern based on one of the following rules: allowing the uplink transmission on a duplex uplink sub-band, except for the at least one resource allocated for the downlink transmission and/or for the guard resource; or allowing the uplink transmission on a duplex uplink sub-band, except for a fixed resource pattern allocated or reserved for the downlink transmission and/or for the guard resource.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises means for performing other operations in some example embodiments of the method 1100 or the first apparatus 110. In some example embodiments, the means comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the performance of the first apparatus.

In some example embodiments, a second apparatus capable of performing any of the method 1200 (for example, the second apparatus 120 in FIG. 1 may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 1200. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The second apparatus may be implemented as or included in the second apparatus 120 in FIG. 1.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises means for determining a resource pattern indicating at least one resource that is not allowed for an uplink transmission in a duplex mode for a first apparatus, the resource pattern comprising a transmission dropping pattern or a rate matching pattern; and means for receiving, from the first apparatus and based on the resource pattern, the uplink transmission in the duplex mode, wherein at least one resource for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus or overlapped with a guard resource in a time-frequency domain.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for receiving, from the first apparatus, capability information indicating whether the first apparatus supports rate matching and/or dropping in uplink transmissions in the duplex mode; and wherein the resource pattern is determined based on the capability information.

In some example embodiments, the means for determining the resource pattern comprises: means for determining whether the uplink transmission for the duplex mode is a repetition; means for in accordance with a determination that the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is a repetition, determining the resource pattern to be the transmission dropping pattern; and means for in accordance with a determination that the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is not a repetition, determining the resource pattern to be the rate matching pattern.

In some example embodiments, the resource pattern is the transmission dropping pattern, and the means for receiving the uplink transmission comprises: means for receiving the uplink transmission based on a determination that the uplink transmission is dropped on the at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission.

In some example embodiments, the means for receiving the uplink transmission comprises: means for receiving the uplink transmission based on a determination that at least one modulated element of the uplink transmission is dropped on the at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission.

In some example embodiments, the uplink transmission contains a demodulation reference signal, and the means for receiving the uplink transmission comprises: means for in accordance with a determination that at least one modulated element of the demodulation reference signal in the uplink transmission is to be dropped, receiving the demodulation reference signal on a further resource that is not overlapped with the at least one resource for the downlink transmission or with the guard resource.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, configuration information indicating the resource pattern; or means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, configuration information indicating a set of candidate resource patterns for the first apparatus to select the resource pattern from the set of candidate resource patterns based on an indication of the resource pattern.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, an update to the resource pattern or an update to at least one candidate resource pattern of the set of candidate resource patterns.

In some example embodiments, the means for determining the resource pattern comprises: means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, an indication to indicate that the uplink transmission is not allowed on at least one resource allocated for a downlink transmission or on the guard resource; and means for determining the resource pattern based at least in part on the at least one resource allocated for the downlink transmission or the guard resource.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises means for performing other operations in some example embodiments of the method 1200 or the second apparatus 120. In some example embodiments, the means comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the performance of the second apparatus.

FIG. 13 is a simplified block diagram of a device 1300 that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 1300 may be provided to implement a communication device, for example, the first apparatus 110 or the second apparatus 120 as shown in FIG. 1, which may be a terminal device or a network device. As shown, the device 1300 includes one or more processors 1310, one or more memories 1320 coupled to the processor 1310, and one or more communication modules 1340 coupled to the processor 1310.

The communication module 1340 is for bidirectional communications. The communication module 1340 has one or more communication interfaces to facilitate communication with one or more other modules or devices. The communication interfaces may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements. In some example embodiments, the communication module 1340 may include at least one antenna.

The processor 1310 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may include one or more of the following: general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 1300 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

The memory 1320 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of the non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 1324, an electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM) , a flash memory, a hard disk, a compact disc (CD) , a digital video disk (DVD) , an optical disk, a laser disk, and other magnetic storage and/or optical storage. Examples of the volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a random access memory (RAM) 1322 and other volatile memories that will not last in the power-down duration.

A computer program 1330 includes computer executable instructions that are executed by the associated processor 1310. The instructions of the program 1330 may include instructions for performing operations/acts of some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The program 1330 may be stored in the memory, e.g., the ROM 1324. The processor 1310 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 1330 into the RAM 1322.

The example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of the program 1330 so that the device 1300 may perform any process of the disclosure as discussed with reference to FIG. 2 to FIG. 12. The example embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

In some example embodiments, the program 1330 may be tangibly contained in a computer readable medium which may be included in the device 1300 (such as in the memory 1320) or other storage devices that are accessible by the device 1300. The device 1300 may load the program 1330 from the computer readable medium to the RAM 1322 for execution. In some example embodiments, the computer readable medium may include any types of non-transitory storage medium, such as ROM, EPROM, a flash memory, a hard disk, CD, DVD, and the like. The term “non-transitory, ” as used herein, is a limitation of the medium itself (i.e., tangible, not a signal) as opposed to a limitation on data storage persistency (e.g., RAM vs. ROM) .

FIG. 14 shows an example of the computer readable medium 1400 which may be in form of CD, DVD or other optical storage disk. The computer readable medium 1400 has the program 1330 stored thereon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Claims

A first apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus at least to:

determine that at least one resource for an uplink transmission to a second apparatus in a duplex mode is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus or overlapped with a guard resource in a time-frequency domain;

based on the determined overlap, determine a resource pattern indicating at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode, the resource pattern comprising a transmission dropping pattern or a rate matching pattern; and

perform, based on the determined resource pattern, the uplink transmission to the second apparatus in the duplex mode.
The first apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first apparatus is further caused to:

transmit, to the second apparatus, capability information indicating whether the first apparatus supports rate matching and/or dropping in uplink transmissions in the duplex mode.
The first apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:

determine whether the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is a repetition;

in accordance with a determination that the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is a repetition, determine the resource pattern to be the transmission dropping pattern; and

in accordance with a determination that the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is not a repetition, determine the resource pattern to be the rate matching pattern.
The first apparatus of any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the resource pattern is the transmission dropping pattern, and wherein the first apparatus is caused to:

perform, based on the transmission dropping pattern, the uplink transmission in the duplex mode by dropping the uplink transmission on the at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission.
The first apparatus of claim 4, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:

perform, based on the transmission dropping pattern, the uplink transmission in the duplex mode by dropping at least one modulated element of the uplink transmission on the at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission.
The first apparatus of claim 4 or 5, wherein the uplink transmission contains a demodulation reference signal, and wherein the first apparatus is further caused to:

in accordance with a determination that at least one modulated element of the demodulation reference signal in the uplink transmission is to be dropped, transmit the demodulation reference signal on a further resource that is not overlapped with the at least one resource for the downlink transmission or with the guard resource.
The first apparatus of any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the first apparatus is further caused to:

receive, from the second apparatus, configuration information indicating the resource pattern to be applied, or

receive, from the second apparatus, configuration information indicating a set of candidate resource patterns, wherein the resource pattern is selected from the set of candidate resource patterns based on an indication of the resource pattern received from the second apparatus.
The first apparatus of claim 7, wherein the first apparatus is further caused to:

receive, from the second apparatus, an update to the resource pattern or an update to at least one candidate resource pattern of the set of candidate resource patterns.
The first apparatus of any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the first apparatus is further caused to:

receive, from the second apparatus, an indication to indicate that the uplink transmission is not allowed on at least one resource allocated for a downlink transmission or on the guard resource; and

determine the resource pattern based at least in part on the at least one resource allocated for the downlink transmission or the guard resource.
The first apparatus of claim 9, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:

determine the resource pattern based on one of the following rules:

allowing the uplink transmission on a duplex uplink sub-band, except for the at least one resource allocated for the downlink transmission and/or for the guard resource; or

allowing the uplink transmission on a duplex uplink sub-band, except for a fixed resource pattern allocated or reserved for the downlink transmission and/or for the guard resource.
The first apparatus of any of claims 1 to 10, wherein the first apparatus is or is comprised in a terminal device, and the second apparatus is or is comprised in a network device.
A second apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second apparatus at least to:

determine a resource pattern indicating at least one resource that is not allowed for an uplink transmission in a duplex mode for a first apparatus, the resource pattern comprising a transmission dropping pattern or a rate matching pattern; and

receive, from the first apparatus and based on the resource pattern, the uplink transmission in the duplex mode, wherein at least one resource for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus or overlapped with a guard resource in a time-frequency domain.
The second apparatus of claim 12, wherein the second apparatus is further caused to:

receive, from the first apparatus, capability information indicating whether the first apparatus supports rate matching and/or dropping in uplink transmissions in the duplex mode; and

wherein the resource pattern is determined based on the capability information.
The second apparatus of claim 12 or 13, wherein the second apparatus is caused to:

determine whether the uplink transmission for the duplex mode is a repetition;

in accordance with a determination that the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is a repetition, determine the resource pattern to be the transmission dropping pattern; and

in accordance with a determination that the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is not a repetition, determine the resource pattern to be the rate matching pattern.
The second apparatus of any of claims 12 to 14, wherein the resource pattern is the transmission dropping pattern, and wherein the second apparatus is caused to:

receive the uplink transmission based on a determination that the uplink transmission is dropped on the at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission.
The second apparatus of claim 15, wherein the second apparatus is caused to:

receive the uplink transmission based on a determination that at least one modulated element of the uplink transmission is dropped on the at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission.
The second apparatus of claim 15 or 16, wherein the uplink transmission contains a demodulation reference signal, and wherein the second apparatus is further caused to:

in accordance with a determination that at least one modulated element of the demodulation reference signal in the uplink transmission is to be dropped, receive the demodulation reference signal on a further resource that is not overlapped with the at least one resource for the downlink transmission or with the guard resource.
The second apparatus of any of claims 12 to 17, wherein the second apparatus is further caused to:

transmit, to the first apparatus, configuration information indicating the resource pattern; or

transmit, to the first apparatus, configuration information indicating a set of candidate resource patterns for the first apparatus to select the resource pattern from the set of candidate resource patterns based on an indication of the resource pattern.
The second apparatus of claim 18, wherein the second apparatus is further caused to:

transmit, to the first apparatus, an update to the resource pattern or an update to at least one candidate resource pattern of the set of candidate resource patterns.
The second apparatus of any of claims 12 to 17, wherein the second apparatus is further caused to:

transmit, to the first apparatus, an indication to indicate that the uplink transmission is not allowed on at least one resource allocated for a downlink transmission or on the guard resource; and

determine the resource pattern based at least in part on the at least one resource allocated for the downlink transmission or the guard resource.
The second apparatus of claim 20, wherein the second apparatus is caused to:

determine the resource pattern based on one of the following rules:

allowing the uplink transmission on a duplex uplink sub-band, except for the at least one resource allocated for the downlink transmission and/or for the guard resource; or

allowing the uplink transmission on a duplex uplink sub-band, except for a fixed resource pattern allocated or reserved for the downlink transmission and/or for the guard resource.
A method comprising:

determining, by a first apparatus, that at least one resource for an uplink transmission to a second apparatus in a duplex mode is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus or overlapped with a guard resource in a time-frequency domain;

based on the determined overlap, determining a resource pattern indicating at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode, the resource pattern comprising a transmission dropping pattern or a rate matching pattern; and

performing, based on the determined resource pattern, the uplink transmission to the second apparatus in the duplex mode.
A method comprising:

determining, by a second apparatus, a resource pattern indicating at least one resource that is not allowed for an uplink transmission in a duplex mode for a first apparatus, the resource pattern comprising a transmission dropping pattern or a rate matching pattern; and

receiving, from the first apparatus and based on the resource pattern, the uplink transmission in the duplex mode, wherein at least one resource for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus or overlapped with a guard resource in a time-frequency domain.
A first apparatus comprising:

means for determining that at least one resource for an uplink transmission to a second apparatus in a duplex mode is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus or overlapped with a guard resource in a time-frequency domain;

means for based on the determined overlap, determining a resource pattern indicating at least one resource that is not allowed for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode, the resource pattern comprising a transmission dropping pattern or a rate matching pattern; and

means for performing, based on the determined resource pattern, the uplink transmission to the second apparatus in the duplex mode.
A second apparatus comprising:

means for determining a resource pattern indicating at least one resource that is not allowed for an uplink transmission in a duplex mode for a first apparatus, the resource pattern comprising a transmission dropping pattern or a rate matching pattern; and

means for receiving, from the first apparatus and based on the resource pattern, the uplink transmission in the duplex mode, wherein at least one resource for the uplink transmission in the duplex mode is overlapped with at least one resource for a downlink transmission from the second apparatus or overlapped with a guard resource in a time-frequency domain.
A computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus at least to perform the method of claim 22 or the method of claim 23.