CN115804166A - Transmission Modes in Cellular Communication Systems - Google Patents

Abstract

The transmission mode of the SS/PBCH bursts is used at high SCS values to mitigate overlap between control signaling regions in the transmission mode for lower SCS values. A method of transmitting SS/PBCH bursts in an OFDM transmission system operating at a subcarrier spacing of 960KHz, comprising the steps of: selecting a start position for each of a series of SS/PBCH bursts, each burst having a duration of at least 2 OFDM symbols, wherein the start position is selected such that each burst does not overlap an uplink or downlink control transmission region allocated to subcarrier spacings of 60KHz, 120KHz, 240KHz, and 480 KHz; and transmitting the series of SS/PBCH bursts, each burst starting from a selected one of the starting positions and having a duration to avoid overlapping with the uplink or downlink control transmission regions allocated to the subcarrier spacings of 60KHz, 120KHz, 240KHz, and 480 KHz.

Description

Transmission Modes in Cellular Communication Systems

technical field

The present invention relates to transmission modes and, more particularly, to synchronization signals.

Background technique

Wireless communication systems such as third-generation (3G) mobile phone standards and technologies are well known. Such 3G standards and technologies have been developed by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) (RTM). Third generation wireless communications have generally been developed to support macrocellular mobile telephone communications. Communication systems and networks have evolved towards broadband and mobile systems.

In a cellular wireless communication system, a user equipment (User Equipment, UE) is connected to a radio access network (Radio Access Network, RAN) through a wireless link. The RAN includes a set of base stations and interfaces to the core network (CoreNetwork, CN), which provide radio links to UEs located in cells covered by the base stations, and interfaces to the CN that provide overall network control. It should be understood that the RAN and CN each perform respective functions related to the overall network. For convenience, the term cellular network will be used to refer to the combined RAN & CN, and it should be understood that this term is used to refer to the corresponding systems for performing the disclosed functions.

The Third Generation Partnership Project developed the so-called Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, namely the Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System Territorial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), for mobile An access network where one or more macro cells are supported by a base station called eNodeB or eNB (Evolved NodeB). More recently, LTE is being developed further into so-called 5G or NR (New Radio) systems, where one or more cells are supported by base stations called gNBs. NR is proposed to use Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM) physical transmission format.

The NR protocol is designed to provide the option to operate in the unlicensed radio band, known as NR-U. When operating in unlicensed radio bands, gNBs and UEs must compete with other devices for physical medium/resource access. For example, Wi-Fi (RTM), NR-U and LAA can use the same physical resources.

The trend in wireless communication is to provide lower latency and higher reliability services. For example, NR is designed to support Ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC), while massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC) is designed to support small packet sizes (typically 32 bytes) provide low latency and high reliability. The user plane delay of 1ms is proposed, the reliability is 99.99999%, and the packet loss rate of 10 ^-5 or 10 ^-6 is proposed in the physical layer.

The mMTC service is designed to support a large number of devices over a long lifetime through an energy-efficient communication channel, where data transmission to and from each device is sporadic and infrequent. For example, a cell may need to support thousands of devices.

The present invention follows various improvements to cellular radio communication systems.

Contents of the invention

The present invention provides a method for transmitting SS/PBCH bursts in an OFDM transmission system operating at a subcarrier interval of 960KHz, characterized in that the method comprises the following steps: for each of a series of SS/PBCH bursts A selected start position, each burst having a duration of at least 2 OFDM symbols, wherein the start position is selected such that each burst is not spaced from the uplink subcarriers allocated to 60KHz, 120KHz, 240KHz and 480KHz Road or downlink control transmission areas overlap; and transmit said series of SS/PBCH bursts, each burst starting from one of said starting positions selected and having a duration to avoid conflicts with those allocated to 60KHz, 120KHz The uplink or downlink control transmission regions of the subcarrier spacing of 240 KHz and 480 KHz overlap.

The starting position may be located at OFDM symbol numbers {32, 36, 40, 44, 64, 68, 72, 76, 88, 92, 128, 132, 144, 148, 152, 156, 176, 180, 184, 188}+224*n, where n=0, 1, 2, 3, refer to the symbol index 0 corresponds to the first symbol of the first slot in the half-frame in which the SS/PBCH block is being transmitted.

The starting position may be located at OFDM symbol numbers {32, 36, 40, 44, 64, 68, 72, 76}+112*n, where n=0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 , reference symbol index 0 corresponds to the first symbol of the first slot in the half-frame in which the SS/PBCH block is being transmitted.

The starting position may be located at the OFDM symbol number {32, 38, 44, 64, 70, 76, 88, 128, 144, 150, 156, 176, 182, 188}+224*n, where n=0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and the reference symbol index 0 corresponds to the The first symbol of the first slot in the half-frame in which the SS/PBCH block is transmitted.

The starting position may be located at the OFDM symbol number {32, 38, 44, 64, 70, 76}+112*n, where n=0, 1, 2, ..., 10, and the reference symbol index 0 corresponds to the The first symbol of the first slot in the half-frame in which the SS/PBCH block is transmitted.

Also provided is a method for transmitting SS/PBCH bursts in an OFDM transmission system operating at a subcarrier spacing of 480KHz, characterized in that the method comprises the following steps: for each of a series of SS/PBCH bursts Select a starting position, each burst having a duration of at least 4 OFDM symbols, wherein the starting position is chosen such that each burst is not spaced from the uplink subcarriers allocated to 60KHz, 120KHz, 240KHz and 480KHz or downlink control transmission areas overlap; and transmit said series of SS/PBCH bursts, each burst starting from one of said starting positions selected and having a duration to avoid conflicts with those allocated to 60KHz, 120KHz, Said uplink or downlink control transmission regions of said subcarrier spacing of 240KHz and 480KHz overlap.

The starting position may be located at OFDM symbol numbers {16, 20, 32, 36, 44, 64, 72, 76, 88, 92}+112*n, where n=0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 , 6, reference symbol index 0 corresponds to the first symbol of the first slot in the half-frame in which the SS/PBCH block is being transmitted.

The starting position may be located at OFDM symbol number {16, 20, 32, 36}+56*n, where n=0, 1, 2, ..., 15, reference symbol index 0 corresponds to the SS/PBCH being transmitted The first symbol of the first slot in the half frame of the block.

Also provided is a method for transmitting SS/PBCH bursts in an OFDM transmission system operating at a subcarrier interval of 960KHz, characterized in that the method comprises the following steps: transmitting a series of SS/PBCH bursts, each burst The transmission starts from the selected OFDM symbol {8, 12, 16, 20, 32, 36, 40, 44}+56*n, where n=0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, the reference symbol Index 0 corresponds to the first symbol of the first slot in the half-frame in which the SS/PBCH block is being transmitted.

Also provided is a method for transmitting SS/PBCH bursts in an OFDM transmission system operating at a subcarrier interval of 480KHz, characterized in that the method comprises the following steps: transmitting a series of SS/PBCH bursts, each burst The transmission starts from the selected OFDM symbol {4,8,16,20}+28*n, where n=0,1,2,...,15, and the reference symbol index 0 corresponds to the half of the SS/PBCH block being transmitted The first symbol of the first slot in the frame.

Also provided is a method for transmitting SS/PBCH bursts in an OFDM transmission system operating at a subcarrier interval of 960KHz, characterized in that the method comprises the following steps: transmitting a series of SS/PBCH bursts, each burst The transmission starts from the selected OFDM symbol {8,14,20,32,38,44}+56*n, where n=0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Reference symbol index 0 corresponds to the first symbol of the first slot in the half-frame in which the SS/PBCH block is being transmitted.

Description of drawings

Further details, aspects and embodiments of the invention will be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings. Components in the figures are shown for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. Like reference numerals have been included in corresponding figures for ease of understanding.

Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of components of a cellular communication system;

Figure 2 shows the transmission modes for 120kHz and 240kHz SCS; and

Figures 3 to 6 illustrate transmission patterns for large SCS values.

Detailed ways

Those skilled in the art will recognize and understand that the details of the examples described are merely illustrations of some embodiments and that the teachings set forth herein apply to various alternative arrangements.

Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of three base stations (eg eNB or gNB depending on the particular cellular standard and terminology) forming a cellular network. Typically, each base station will be deployed by a cellular network operator to provide geographic coverage for UEs in that area. The base stations form a radio area network (Radio Area Network, RAN). Each base station provides radio coverage for UEs in its area or cell. The base stations are interconnected through the X2 interface and connected to the core network through the S1 interface. It should be understood that for the purpose of illustrating key features of a cellular network, only essential details are shown. The PC5 interface is provided between UEs for side chain (SideLink, SL) communication. Interface and component names related to Figure 1 are used as examples only, different systems operate on the same principles and may use different nomenclature.

Each base station contains hardware and software to implement RAN functions, including communication with the core network and other base stations, control and data signaling between the core network and UEs, and maintaining wireless communication with the UEs associated with each base station. The core network includes the hardware and software that implement network functions, such as overall network management and control, and the routing of calls and data.

The present invention relates to wireless communication systems. The main focus is on devices operating with large subcarrier spacing. The present invention proposes a novel method of transmitting synchronization signals, possibly from a large number of base station beams, which will allow user equipment (UE) and other cellular devices to acquire them and synchronize with the network.

SS/PBCH block:

The cell search is a process in which the UE acquires time and frequency synchronization with the cell and detects the physical layer cell identity (identity, ID) of the cell. The UE receives the following synchronization signals (synchronization signal, SS) to perform cell search: primary synchronization signal (primary synchronization signal, PSS) and secondary synchronization signal (secondary synchronization signal, SSS). The UE assumes that reception occasions of a physical broadcast channel (PBCH), PSS, and SSS are in consecutive symbols, as defined below, and forms an SS/PBCH block. PSS and SSS allow UE to be synchronized, and by decoding PBCH, UE obtains system timing and obtains minimum system information to be able to complete configuration and receive and initiate downlink (DL) and uplink (uplink, UL) communications respectively.

3GPP TS 38.211 Section 7.4.3.1 - Time-Frequency Structure of SS/PBCH Blocks:

In the time domain, an SS/PBCH block consists of 4 OFDM symbols, numbered in increasing order from 0 to 3 within the SS/PBCH block, where PSS, SSS, and PBCH and associated DM-RS are mapped to symbols such as TS 38.211 Table 7.4.3.1-1.

Table 7.4.3.1-1: Resources within SS/PBCH blocks of DM-RS for PSS, SSS, PBCH and PBCH.

给出，其中

是小区标识。In the frequency domain, an SS/PBCH block consists of 240 consecutive subcarriers (20 resource blocks, each resource block contains 12 subcarriers), and the subcarriers are in increasing order from 0 to 239 within the SS/PBCH block serial number. The quantities k and l represent frequency and time index within one SS/PBCH block, respectively. The quantity v in Table 7.4.3.1-1 is given by

given, where

is the cell ID.

SS/PBCH block mode:

For beam-based operation, the base station can scan the transmit beam with the beam in different directions. 3GPP specifies two frequency ranges, frequency range (frequency range, FR) 1 and FR2. FR1 was originally supposed to reach 6GHz, but was later extended to 7.125GHz. FR2 was originally specified from 24.25GHz to 52.6GHz. 5G New Radio (NR) Release 15 and Release 16 operations are specified for these frequency ranges. Release 17 is designed to extend FR2 operation up to 71GHz. These extensions are likely to reach 100GHz and beyond, as the wide availability of spectrum at such high carrier frequencies and antenna/RF advances enable efficient communication, which in the past was considered very difficult. 3GPP Release 15 allows 4 beams up to 3GHz and 8 beams beyond 3GHz in FR1. For FR2, the base station can use up to 64 beams. With beam scanning operation, each beam may need to transmit its own SS/PBCH block to allow UE synchronization and successful DL and UL data communication.

SS/PBCH block bursts span 5 milliseconds, where a base station can transmit SS/PBCH blocks for active beams, up to a maximum number of beams, according to the operating carrier frequency. Therefore, SS/PBCH blocks for active beams will always be limited to 5 ms bursts. 3GPP defined the SS/PBCH block mode in the RAN1 specification, which provides the symbol index in which the base station will transmit the SS/PBCH block.

3GPP TS38.213 defines SS/PBCH block transmission modes with different sub-carrier spacing (sub-carrier spacing, SCS). Reprinted these for reference.

Case A - 15kHz SCS: The first symbol of a candidate SS/PBCH block has an index of {2,8}+14·n.

For operation without shared spectrum channel access:

For carrier frequencies less than or equal to 3GHz, n=0,1.

For carrier frequencies greater than 3GHz within FR1, n=0,1,2,3.

For operations using shared spectrum channel access, n = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 as described in [15, TS 37.213].

Case B - 30kHz SCS: The first symbol of a candidate SS/PBCH block has indices {4,8,16,20}+28·n. For carrier frequencies less than or equal to 3GHz, n=0. For carrier frequencies greater than 3 GHz within FR1, n=0,1.

Case C - 30kHz SCS: The first symbol of the candidate SS/PBCH block has an index of {2,8}+14·n.

For operation without shared spectrum channel access:

For paired spectrum operations:

For carrier frequencies less than or equal to 3GHz, n=0,1. For carrier frequencies greater than 3GHz within FR1, n=0,1,2,3.

For unpaired spectrum operation without shared spectrum channel access:

For carrier frequencies less than or equal to 2.4GHz, n=0,1. For carrier frequencies greater than 2.4GHz within FR1, n=0,1,2,3.

n=0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 for operations using shared spectrum channel access.

Case D - 120kHz SCS: The first symbol of the candidate SS/PBCH block has indices {4,8,16,20}+28·n. For carrier frequencies within FR2, n=0,1,2,3,5,6,7,8,10,11,12,13,15,16,17,18.

Case E - 240kHz SCS: The first symbol of a candidate SS/PBCH block has indices {8, 12, 16, 20, 32, 36, 40, 44}+56·n. For carrier frequencies within FR2, n=0,1,2,3,5,6,7,8.

Since the invention is aimed at operation in the higher frequency range, the so-called FR2 region and its extension to 71GHz and beyond, the modes of interest are the ones labeled Case D and Case E, for 120KHz and 240KHz, as shown in Figure 2.

SS/PBCH block burst design for high frequency operation:

3GPP NR standardized beam-based operation in Release 15. In FR2, the base station can use up to 64 beams to transmit in different directions. The main principle behind beam-based operation is to compensate for the higher path loss at higher frequencies through beamforming and antenna gain. However, for cost reasons, a base station may not have separate hardware for each individual beam direction it intends to employ. Hybrid beamforming will therefore be the typical mode of operation, where a mix of digital and analog beamforming techniques will be employed.

In view of the higher frequency range extension of FR2, up to 71.6GHz and beyond 100GHz being studied in Release 17, base stations will use multi-beams to serve users as their typical mode of operation.

The Release 17 work item "Extending current NR operation to 71 GHz", agreed in RANP #86 of RP-193229, sets the following two goals for RAN1 in its goals section:

Physical layer aspects include [RAN1]:

a. A new parameter set or set of parameters (μ values in 38.211) operating in this frequency range. Address the impact (if any) on the physical signal/lane identified in the SI.

b. Timeline related aspects apply to each new parameter set, such as BWP and beam switching time, HARQ scheduling, UE processing, preparation and computation time of PDSCH, PUSCH/SRS and CSI.

c. Supports up to 64 SSB beams for licensed and unlicensed operation in this frequency range.

Physical layer procedures include [RAN1]:

a. Assume a channel access mechanism based on beam operation to comply with regulatory requirements applicable to unlicensed spectrum at frequencies between 52.6GHz and 71GHz.

The focus of the invention is the design of the SS/PBCH block transmission mode suitable for high frequency operation. As stated in the objectives, FR2 extensions will employ higher numerology. Typically, the transmission of multiple SS/PBCH blocks allows the synchronization of all UEs in different beam directions to occupy a certain space on the time-frequency resource grid, thereby reducing the potential time-frequency resources for control and communication purposes. Therefore, SS/PBCH blocks need to be transmitted at a higher frequency to reduce their footprint in the resource grid. This will require defining SS/PBCH block transmission candidate locations for higher sub-carrier spacing (SCS), as part of the set of parameters available in FR2 extensions.

In response to the above problems, the present invention proposes a method for efficient transmission of SS/PBCH blocks for higher SCSs of 480KHz and 960KHz, and also provides guidelines on how to extend the proposed design to higher SCSs for future expansion, further Increase the frequency regime.

The present invention is aimed at the design of beam-based SS/PBCH block transmission mode. It provides SS/PBCH block mode suitable for high frequency operation, where a new parameter set with higher sub-carrier spacing (SCS) needs to be introduced.

The present invention proposes three SS/PBCH block transmission mode designs for 480KHz and 960KHz subcarrier spacing. The first design proposes a mode where up to 64 SS/PBCH blocks can be transmitted in 1.75ms for SCS at 960KHz. The proposed pattern in the second design provides up to 64 SS/PBCH candidate positions for 960KHz SCS within 2 milliseconds interval. Furthermore, this pattern is perfectly symmetrical within each 250 microsecond interval. Both designs allow the use of subcarrier spacing from 60KHz to 960KHz, with zero overlap with typical downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) control of 60KHz to 480KHz SCS, and at 960KHz SCS There is minimal overlap with DL/UL control. A third design suggests using the existing SS/PBCH candidates at 120KHz and 240KHz to a higher SCS at 480KHz and 960KHz. The design packs 64 SSB candidate positions in 1 ms intervals. By limiting the use of SCS to 240KHz or higher, overlapping with DL/UL control occasions can be avoided, and this design may become an effective and simple solution for SSB candidate locations.

To overcome transients caused by beam switching, which can become a problem for back-to-back SS/PBCH blocks from different beams due to very short symbol durations, the present invention proposes a design extension of the SS/PBCH block mode, introducing time intervals. This is useful for maintaining synchronization accuracy and reliability despite beam switching transients.

In the last part of the present invention, it is presented how to adapt the proposed design to a number of beam positions other than 64 and how to extend the design to higher SCS above 960KHz (eg 1920KHz and 3840KHz). Such extensions may be of interest for FR2 extensions and higher frequencies when higher SCS may be required.

Current disclosure requirements:

1. Efficient SS/PBCH block design supports UE synchronization for high frequency operation.

2. The design keeps minimal or even no overlap with typical DL/UL control events to minimize the impact on scheduling and data transmission.

Typical downlink (DL) and uplink (uplink, UL) control overlap zero for KHz SCS, and overlap with DL/UL control is minimal at 960KHz SCS. A third design suggests using the existing SS/PBCH candidates at 120KHz and 240KHz to a higher SCS at 480KHz and 960KHz. The design packs 64 SSB candidate positions in 1 ms intervals. By limiting the use of SCS to 240KHz or higher, overlapping with DL/UL control occasions can be avoided, and this design may become an effective and simple solution for SSB candidate locations.

SS/PBCH block transmission mode design:

The SS/PBCH block design has been specified by 3GPP for subcarrier spacing up to 240KHz. The present invention extends the SS/PBCH block design to larger SCSs of 480KHz and 960KHz, which are candidate SCSs for higher frequency operation. In addition, guidelines are presented for a generic SS/PBCH block mode design that can be used for very large SCSs.

The present invention proposes three designs of SS/PBCH block modes suitable for high frequency operation. Important features and advantages of each design are highlighted in the description of each design approach. For the three proposed designs, one main goal is to keep the typical DL and UL controls available despite SS/PBCH block transmissions in the slots. DL control is usually sent in the first few symbols of a slot of the control (data) parameter set, helping the base station to schedule resources for DL and UL transmissions. UL control is usually arranged in the last few symbols of a time slot to help the base station receive HARQ feedback and UL control information.

design one

3GPP allows high frequency operation using 60KHz and greater subcarrier spacing. Rel-15 has standardized 120KHz and 240KHz SS/PBCH block mode SCS, where 240KHz is only used for SS/PBCH block transmission and not for data. For high-frequency operation where the carrier bandwidth may be very large, in terms of GHz bandwidth, a larger SCS may be required, which may help with large FFT sizes, which may become a bottleneck when the number of subcarriers becomes very large. In this regard, it may be advantageous to choose a very large SCS up to 960KHz or even 1920KHz for the entire Frequency Range 2 (FR2) operating regime. This will require the design of new SS/PBCH block patterns to accommodate SS/PBCH block transmissions in different beam directions and may allow different SCSs to be used for SS/PBCH block and other control and data transmissions.

Figure 3 shows the proposed design for SS/PBCH block mode for 480KHz and 960KHz subcarrier spacing. This design supports harmonious operation of SS/PBCH blocks using 480KHz and 960KHz transmissions, while fully allowing DL/UL control transmission opportunities for all SCSs starting at 60KHz. Fig. 3 shows that one time slot (14 symbols) of 60KHz SCS corresponds to 28, 56, 112 and 224 symbols of 120KHz, 240KHz, 480KHz and 960KHz SCS respectively in time. The figure consists of four sub-figures stacked on top of each other, where each sub-figure shows a time slot of 240KHz SCS (14 OFDM symbols).

In each subplot, the first 5 rows show symbols for SCS from 60KHz to 960KHz, and the first column mentions SCS. For each SCS in its corresponding row, the first two symbols (0, 1, 14, 15, 28, 29, 42, 43, 56, 57, 70, 71, 84, 85, 98, 99) have highlighted potential downlink control transmissions, the last two symbols (12, 13, 26, 27, 40, 41, 54, 55, 68, 69, 82, 83, 96, 97) have been highlighted to show potential uplink control transmissions that may occur in these symbols. SS/PBCH block mode designs for 480KHz and 960KHz SCS are provided at the bottom of each sub-figure.

For the period shown in this figure, i.e. 1 slot (250 microseconds) of 60KHz SCS or 16 slots of 960KHz SCS, with the proposed design, the following are the SS/PBCH block candidate positions in 1 60KHz slot .

The first 20 SS/PBCH block candidate positions of 960KHz SCS:

32, 36, 40, 44, 64, 68, 72, 76, 88, 92, 128, 132, 144, 148, 152, 156, 176, 180, 184, 188.

Top 10 SS/PBCH block candidate positions for 480KHz SCS:

16, 20, 32, 36, 44, 64, 72, 76, 88, 92.

This design allocates the top 20 SS/PBCH block candidates for 960KHz SCS and the top 10 candidates for 480KHz within 250 microseconds. The pattern repeats itself in the upcoming 250 microsecond interval. If the number of candidate positions is limited to 64, the last interval will only have 4 SS/PBCH block candidate positions. It is recommended to use the first 4 candidate positions of the last interval to accommodate the last 4 candidates to achieve a total of 64 beams (requiring 64 SS/PBCH blocks). With these repetitions, the 64 candidate positions will be completed within 1000 microseconds (4 60KHz SCS slots) for 960SCS and 1750 microseconds (7 60KHz SCS slots) for 480KHz SCSSSB transmission.

SS/PBCH positions may be defined relative to the first symbol in a 5 ms field. Thus, reference symbol index 0 corresponds to the first symbol of the first slot in the half-frame in which the SS/PBCH block is being transmitted. For this proposed design, with respect to this reference symbol, the first symbol index of the candidate SS/PBCH block is determined from the SCS of the SS/PBCH block as follows:

Candidate locations for 960KHz SCS:

{32, 36, 40, 44, 64, 68, 72, 76, 88, 92, 128, 132, 144, 148, 152, 156, 176, 180, 184, 188}+224*n.

where n=0,1,2,3.

Using only the top 4 candidates, n=3 results in 64 candidate positions.

Candidate locations for 480KHz SCS:

{16,20,32,36,44,64,72,76,88,92}+112*n.

Where n=0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Using only the top 4 candidates, n=6 yields 64 candidate positions.

The reference symbol of the SS/PBCH candidate position can be regarded as a different reference than the first symbol of the field. Similarly, for high frequency operation, the duration of the SS/PBCH burst can be reduced from 5ms if required.

The key feature of the proposed design is that the SS/PBCH bursts are designed such that for any SCS from 60KHz to 480KHz, the proposed SS/PBCH block candidate positions are never separated from any potential downlink control (the first two OFDM symbols) and uplink control (the last two OFDM symbols in the slot) control overlap. This means that the proposed SS/PBCH block pattern for 480KHz and 960KHz in this design allows full downlink and uplink control resources while this control transmission can use any SCS from 60KHz to 480KHz.

The proposed SS/PBCH block locations overlap for downlink control and uplink control when this control transmission uses a 960KHz SCS. The design though minimizes overlap thus leaving most of the downlink and uplink control free for control transfers. For the 16 slot periods shown in the figure (assuming slot numbers 0 to 15), the downlink control (first 2 symbols of the slot) may only overlap with slots 3, 5, 11, 13 and uplink Link control (last 2 symbols of slots) may only overlap with slots 2, 4, 10, 12. This means that even in those slots where all SS/PBCH block candidate positions are filled, only 4 DL and 4 UL control positions overlap, leaving 12 DL and 12 UL control positions available. Therefore, when all SS/PBCH block candidate positions are utilized, only 25% of the positions may overlap with SS/PBCH block candidate positions.

Rationale and key advantages:

* Well-compressed SS/PBCH block candidates have 64 candidates within 1000 microseconds for 960KHz and 64 candidate positions within 1750 microseconds for 480KHz SCS SS/PBCH blocks.

*No overlap with any DL control position (first 2 symbols in slot) for 60KHz, 120KHz, 240KHz and 480KHz SCS.

*No overlap with any UL Control (PUCCH) (last 2 symbols in slot) for 60KHz, 120KHz, 240KHz and 480KHz SCS.

*Limited effect on DL and UL control positions (maximum 25% overlap) for 960KHz SCS.

design two

Design of SS/PBCH bursts—package SS/PBCH candidate positions in the shortest possible interval while avoiding overlapping with DL and UL transmission opportunities. Although Design One has some limitations: One problem with Design One is that it is not symmetrical. For example, in Design One for a 480KHz SCS with 64 candidates, the first 6 intervals of 250 microseconds have 10 SS/PBCH candidate positions, and the last interval has only 4 positions to achieve 64 candidate positions. The second issue is related to temporally different SS/PBCH candidate densities. For each group of two 480KHz time slots, the first group has 2, the next 2 groups have 3, and the 4th group has 2 SS/PBCH candidate positions.

This may be a problem for transmissions that require the remaining minimum system information to be transmitted in each beam associated with its SS/PBCH block. This varying density of SS/PBCH candidate positions in different intervals will lead to complex design of the remaining minimum system information transmission and will impose additional constraints on beam scanning based operation.

To overcome these limitations of SS/PBCH burst design 1, a novel SS/PBCH burst pattern is proposed in this section. The design is based on the principle of packing SS/PBCH candidate positions as close as possible. The problem in design one is additionally overcome by eliminating the SS/PBCH candidate positions in groups 2 and 3, where each group spans 2 480KHz time slots. More precisely, a single SS/PBCH candidate position, 1 in group 2 and 1 in group 3, is removed. This results in an optimized design (i) fully symmetric for all intervals in which SS/PBCH candidates exist, (ii) having a uniform density of SS/PBCH candidate locations in each interval of the 2 480KHz time slots, thus facilitating transmission of the least system remaining information.

Figure 4 shows an optimized design for SS/PBCH block patterns with 480KHz and 960KHz subcarrier spacing. This design supports harmonious operation of SS/PBCH candidates using 480KHz and 960KHz transmissions, and fully allows data transmission opportunities for all SCSs starting at 60KHz. Fig. 4 shows that one time slot (14 symbols) of 60KHz SCS corresponds to 28, 56, 112 and 224 symbols of 120KHz, 240KHz, 480KHz and 960KHz SCS respectively in time. The figure consists of four sub-figures stacked on top of each other, where each sub-figure shows a time slot of 240KHz SCS (14 OFDM symbols).

In each subplot, the first 5 rows show symbols/slots from 60KHz to 960KHz SCS, and the first column mentions SCS. For each SCS in the corresponding row, the first two symbols have been highlighted to show potential downlink control transmissions and the last two symbols have been highlighted to show potential uplink control transmissions. The bottom part of each sub-figure provides the SS/PBCH block mode design for 480KHz and 960KHz SCS.

For the period shown in this figure, i.e. 1 slot (250 microseconds) of 60KHz SCS or 16 slots of 960KHz SCS, with the proposed design, the following is the SS/PBCH for the duration of 1 slot at 60KHz Block candidate locations.

The first 16 SS/PBCH block candidate positions of 960KHz SCS:

32, 36, 40, 44, 64, 68, 72, 76, 144, 148, 152, 156, 176, 180, 184, 188.

The first 8 SS/PBCH block candidate positions of 480KHz SCS:

16, 20, 32, 36, 72, 76, 88, 92.

This design allocates the first 16 SS/PBCH block candidates for 960KHz SCS and the first 8 candidates for 480KHz within 250 microseconds. The pattern repeats itself in subsequent 250 microsecond intervals. If the number of candidate positions is limited to 64, four 250 microsecond periods will provide 64 SS/PBCH block candidate positions for a 960KHz SCS, which will be done within 1 millisecond. For a 480KHz SCS, one 250 microsecond interval provides 8 candidate SS/PBCH block positions, so 8 such intervals spanning 2 milliseconds will provide 64 candidate SS/PBCH block positions.

SS/PBCH positions may be defined relative to the first symbol in a 5 ms field. Thus, reference symbol index 0 corresponds to the first symbol of the first slot in the half-frame in which the SS/PBCH block is being transmitted. For this proposed design, with respect to this reference symbol, the first symbol index of the candidate SS/PBCH block is determined from the SCS of the SS/PBCH block as follows:

Candidate locations for 960KHz SCS:

{32,36,40,44,64,68,72,76}+112*n.

n=0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

Candidate locations for 480KHz SCS:

{16,20,32,36}+56*n.

n=0, 1, 2, . . . , 15.

The key feature of the proposed design is that the SS/PBCH block pattern is designed such that the proposed SS/PBCH block candidate positions are never related to any potential downlink control of any SCS from 60KHz to 480KHz (the first two OFDM symbols) and uplink control (the last two OFDM symbols in the slot) control overlap. This means that the proposed SS/PBCH block pattern for 480KHz and 960KHz in this design allows full downlink and uplink control resources while this control transmission can use any SCS from 60KHz to 480KHz.

The proposed SS/PBCH block locations overlap for downlink control and uplink control when this control transmission uses a 960KHz SCS. The design though minimizes overlap thus leaving most of the downlink and uplink control free for control transfers. For the 16 slot periods shown in the figure (assuming slot numbers 0 to 15), the downlink control (first 2 symbols of the slot) may only overlap with slots 3, 5, 11, 13, and Uplink control (last 2 symbols of the slot) may overlap with slots 2, 4, 10, 12 only. This means that even in those slots where all SS/PBCH block candidate positions are filled, only 4 DL and 4 UL control positions overlap, leaving 12 DL and 12 UL control positions available. Therefore, when all SS/PBCH block candidate positions are utilized, only 25% of the positions may overlap with SS/PBCH block candidate positions.

The design presented in this section differs from the first design in that the 960KHz SCS does not have the 4 candidate positions starting at symbols 88, 92, 128 and 130, and the 480KHz SCS design does not have the two SS/ PBCH block candidate position. Although the first design completes the 64 candidate bursts faster than the second design presented in this section, the first design is asymmetric because the last 250 µs interval is different from the first The seed and intermediate intervals have different numbers of SS/PBCH block candidate intervals. However, the design presented in this section is fully symmetric, with all 250 µs intervals equally carrying 16 or 8 SS/PBCH block candidate positions for 960KHz or 480KHz SCS, respectively. This facilitates the implementation of the UE and its search for synchronization blocks when trying to synchronize with a given cell.

The symmetry of the proposed design also makes it suitable for use if the number of candidate beams increases beyond 64. For example, if the number of beams is increased to 128 or 256, the proposed pattern can be easily extended by repeating the 250 microsecond interval multiple times. For 960KHz SCS, since the 250 microsecond period provides 16 SS/PBCH block candidate positions, the pattern repeated 8 times and 16 times will provide 128 and 256 positions respectively. For 480KHz SCS, since the 250 microsecond period provides 8 SS/PBCH block candidate positions, the pattern repeated 16 times and 32 times will provide 128 and 256 positions respectively.

A very important aspect of this design is that the proposed design for SS/PBCH block transmission for 480KHz SCS and 960KHz SCS is combined with the existing design for 120KHz SCS and 240KHz SCS to provide SCS for 4 different SS/PBCH block designs Harmoniously integrated control/data transmission from 60KHz SCS to 960KHz SCS. This can easily be projected to a higher SCS if required. In one example, all the SCSs in Figure 4 can be projected to the next level, 960KHz SCS becomes 1920KHz, 480KHz becomes 960KHz, all the same, the same pattern shown in the figure can be reused with this change of SCS symbols, they will provide SS/PBCH modes from 240KHz SCS to 1960KHz SCS, still with good characteristics of minimal or no overlap with DL and UL control. In another example, all SCSs in this design can be scaled up to two levels or different higher levels and will immediately provide SS/PBCH block designs for higher SCSs with good properties.

Rationale and key advantages:

* Well compressed SS/PBCH block candidate positions, 64 candidate positions available within 1ms for 960KHz and 2ms for 480KHz SCS SS/PBCH blocks.

*SS/PBCH block candidate positions are completely symmetrically designed from the beginning to the end, which is convenient for UE to realize.

* Does not overlap with any DL control position (first 2 symbols in slot) for 60KHz, 120KHz, 240KHz and 480KHz SCS.

*No overlap with any UL Control (PUCCH) (last 2 symbols in slot) for 60KHz, 120KHz, 240KHz and 480KHz SCS.

*Limited effect on DL and UL control positions (maximum 25% overlap) for 960KHz SCS.

* Easily scalable to higher SCS for higher frequency operation.

design three

Fig. 5 shows a third design of the SS/PBCH block transmission mode with subcarrier spacings of 480KHz and 960KHz. The rationale behind this design is to reuse the SS/PBCH burst design for 120KHz and 240KHz SCS. Therefore, the design of 120KHz and 240KHz SCS was reused for 480KHz and 960KHz SCS. Fig. 3 shows that one time slot (14 symbols) of 60KHz SCS corresponds to 28, 56, 112 and 224 symbols of 120KHz, 240KHz, 480KHz and 960KHz SCS respectively in time. The figure consists of four vertical sub-figures, each sub-figure shows a 240KHz SCS time slot.

The design presented in this section basically extends the 3GPP Release-15SS/PBCH block-mode design suitable for 120KHz and 240KHz SCS to 480KHz and 960SCS. Since the traditional design was designed to work with 60 and 120KHz control and data SCS, the proposed scalable design works well when using 240KHz or higher (480KHz, 960KHz) SCS for control and data transmission. In contrast, the figure shows that there are significantly overlapping DL/UL control occasions for the lower SCSs of 60KHz, 120KHz and 240KHz. Therefore, using this design may impose certain limitations when all these SCSs can be used. To overcome the problem of significant overlap of DL/UL control locations from lower SCS with SS/PBCH blocks, the usage of 60KHz and 120KHz can be limited. Therefore, when the SS/PBCH block follows this design of 480KHz and 960KHz SCS, the control/data transmission can use 240KHz or higher SCS. When control/data use 240KHz or 480KHz SCS, it will cause DL control and UL control to have zero overlap with the proposed SS/PBCH position. For 960KHz SCS there will be partial overlap. For DL control and UL control, the overlap occurs in 50% of cases, i.e. when all candidate SS/PBCH block positions are occupied, half of DL control (first 2 symbols of the slot) and half of UL control (time The last 2 symbols of the slot) cannot be used to transmit SS/PBCH blocks. On the other hand, since this design packs SS/PBCH candidate positions in very short intervals, the impact of overlapping control positions for 960KHz SCS is acceptable.

Based on the above explanations, it is sensible to restrict frequency carriers to operate using SCS 60 to 240KHz or 240KHz to 960KHz (including SS/PBCH transmissions and DL/UL control and data transmissions).

SS/PBCH positions may be defined relative to the first symbol in a 5 ms field. Thus, reference symbol index 0 corresponds to the first symbol of the first slot in the half-frame in which the SS/PBCH block is being transmitted. For this proposed design, with respect to this reference symbol, the first symbol index of the candidate SS/PBCH block is determined from the SCS of the SS/PBCH block as follows:

Candidate locations for 960KHz SCS:

{8,12,16,20,32,36,40,44}+56*n.

n=0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

Candidate locations for 480KHz SCS:

{4,8,16,20}+28*n.

n=0, 1, 2, . . . , 15.

An interesting aspect of this design is that SS/PBCH block candidates are packed in a very short time. For example, 64 SS/PBCH block candidate positions are filled in 32 slots of the SCS of an SS/PBCH block, which spans a time of 500 microseconds at an SCS of 960 KHz or 1 millisecond at an SCS of 480 KHz. According to the SS/PBCH block periodicity configured by the base station (network), this will leave a large part of time slots that do not need to transmit SS/PBCH blocks, so these time slots can be fully used for scheduling, control and data transmission.

Rationale and key advantages:

*Highly compressed SS/PBCH block candidates, 64 candidates within 500 microseconds for 960KHz and 64 candidates within 1 millisecond for 480KHz SCS SS/PBCH blocks.

*SS/PBCH block candidate positions are completely symmetrically designed from the beginning to the end, which is convenient for UE to realize.

*This design is more suitable for 480KHz or 960KHz SS/PBCH blocks if control/data use 240KHz SCS or higher. This design can be very beneficial if control/data is limited to SCS using 240KHz or higher.

*Up to 50% overlap with DL and UL control locations if control/data uses SCS at 960KHz SCS. This effect is acceptable although considering the highly temporally compressed nature of the entire SS/PBCH block burst.

time interval between successive beams

The present invention proposes a design for high frequency operation with very large SCSs of 480KHz and 960KHz. When the symbol time is large, the beam switching delay is only a fraction of the symbol time. So if there are some transients due to beam switching, they will only occur on a small fraction of the boundary symbols and may be acceptable. At such a high SCS, the symbol duration is very short, on the order of microseconds. At such short symbol durations, beam switching delays can become a significant issue, and associated transients can occupy a significant portion of a symbol. This means that SS/PBCH blocks placed back-to-back for different beams may degrade the synchronization quality. To overcome this problem, we propose to introduce a time gap between SS/PBCH blocks from different beams. This gap can be considered as 1 OFDM symbol (OS) or 2 OFDM symbol (OS) duration. In fact, a careful investigation of the resulting patterns shows that a pattern based on a single OFDM symbol gap brings no real advantage and leads to a highly asymmetric SS/PBCH block pattern. To this end, we propose to introduce a gap of 2 OFDM symbol duration between consecutive SS/PBCH blocks. Figure 6 shows three patterns of SS/PBCH blocks for 960KHz SCS, each pattern has at least 2 symbol gaps between SS/PBCH blocks from different beams. This figure shows a time slot of 60KHzSCS (14 OS), which is divided into 4 vertically stacked sub-figures, each sub-figure shows a 240KHz SCS time slot. Each sub-picture shows DL/UL control symbols for 60KHz to 960KHz SCS. The last three rows in each figure are slot-based SS/PBCH block patterns for 960KHz SCS.

The three models are inspired by the three designs presented previously, so they inherit all the technical characteristics of the source design. Taking the D1 and D2 inspired designs as an example, denoted as D1-960 KHz-2 OS gap and D2-960KHz-2OS gap in the diagram respectively, there is no overlap with any DL/UL control from 60KHz SCS to 480KHz SCS. These first symbol positions of the SS/PBCH block candidates for the two designs can be expressed as follows:

D1-960KHz SSB- 2 OS Gap:

{32, 38, 44, 64, 70, 76, 88, 128, 144, 150, 156, 176, 182, 188}+224*n.

where n=0, 1, 2, 3, 4.

Using only the first 8 candidates, n=4 yields 64 candidate positions.

D2-960KHz SSB - 2 OS Gap:

{32,38,44,64,70,76}+112*n.

where n=0, 1, 2, . . . , 10.

Using only the top 2 candidates, n=10 yields 64 candidate positions.

The design denoted as D3-960 KHz-2OS gap in the figure is derived from the rationale of designing D3 by properly introducing at least 2 OFDM symbols (OS) between consecutive SS/PBCH blocks. Starting with its parent design, D3, this design is more suitable for use with SCS at 240KHz and higher for control and data. The first symbol position of the SS/PBCH candidate block for this design can be expressed as follows:

[1]D3-960KHz SSB - 2 OS Gap:

{8,14,20,32,38,44}+56*n.

Where n=0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Only the first 4 candidate positions are used, n=10 to obtain 64 candidate positions.

Suitability of proposed design

The discussion of the proposed SS/PBCH block designs is primarily in the context of licensed spectrum, but the reader will understand that these designs apply verbatim to shared spectrum.

The proposed design is mainly for 480KHz SCS and 960KHz SCS, although these SCS can be easily scaled up, further maintaining the same SS/PBCH block pattern. Scaling to a higher SCS keeping the same design will shrink the pattern in time due to the shortened symbol spacing, although it will retain the characteristics of the proposed design. This will allow the proposed design to be easily extended to various SCSs. In order to avoid overlapping with DL/UL control occasions of very low SCS, some lower SCS may be restricted for control/data transmission.

If the SCS increases above 960KHz, to 2*960KHz or 4*960KHz, one strategy can be to limit a set of SCSs for data and SS/PBCH transmission. There can be multiple collections. A group can be 60KHz to 240KHz, which will allow data and SS/PBCH to be transmitted within that group. For higher SCS, one or two additional sets may be formed. Each restricted set can have SS/PBCHs that have no or minimal overlap in the set. This design strategy can then apply design three to any formed set. UE synchronization can be facilitated by defining a default SCS for SS/PBCH transmissions per frequency set.

Another design for higher SCS SS/PBCH candidates is to place higher SCS (eg, 1920 KHz) SS/PBCH candidates at the positions occupied in the current design. Since 1920KHz has twice as many symbols as 960KHz for a given duration, the SS/PBCH positions are also doubled. In these indices, candidate positions that overlap with lower SCS controls can be removed, and the top 64 (or as many as desired) positions can be kept.

3GPP NR Release-15 has limited the burst length to the duration of a half frame, which is 5 milliseconds. This basically means that all candidate positions for a given frequency range always fit into this 5ms duration. The design proposed in this invention provides symbol positions starting from reference symbol 0. To keep up with existing designs, this reference symbol 0 is considered to be the first symbol of a field. However, for higher frequency operation, the symbol time will become very small with very large SCS. This can result in burst lengths changing from 5 ms to smaller intervals. Even if the burst length is changed to a different duration, the proposed design still works. Symbol 0 (reference point) in the proposed design needs to be mapped to a new reference symbol as a minor adjustment to implement the design for any new burst duration.

The proposed design provides 64 candidate locations, and 3GPP has now decided to support up to 64 beams in FR2 and FR2 extensions up to 71GHz. The reader will understand though that the three proposed designs can be easily adjusted to achieve a smaller or greater number of SS/PBCH candidate positions. To achieve a smaller number of beam positions, say 32 or 16, the first 32 or 16 candidate positions in the proposed design can be used. To achieve designs with more than 64 beams and eventually more SS/PBCH block positions, additional positions can be implemented, continuing the proposed design to the required number of candidate positions.

It is important to emphasize that the three designs proposed in this invention use the same basic principles and philosophy for each of the proposals for 480KHz and 960KHz SCS, but the SS/PBCH burst design for each of these SCS Can be used alone for network operations. In fact, if SS/PBCH blocks for multiple SCSs are defined and allowed without any default configuration, it may increase the UE's initial synchronization calculation since they may need to synchronize blindly with both SCSs. To overcome this burden, it may be advantageous to define one SS/PBCH block SCS as the default configuration of frequency channels. Also, in order to limit the design work of SS/PBCH blocks and potential different multiplexing problems, SS/PBCH blocks can only be defined as 960KHz, which also becomes the preferred SCS for high frequency operation. In this case, any suitable 960KHz SCS SS/PBCH block mode can be selected from the proposed design, depending on the frequencies allowed for control/data transmission.

Clearly, the disclosures above suggest that:

The SS/PBCH block transmission mode of SCS at 480KHz and 960KHz allows no or minimal overlap with DL and UL control.

Using the suggested guidelines, the proposed model is easily scalable to higher SCS.

Very high SCS beam switching delays and gap-allowed modes for transients.

Although not shown in detail, any device or apparatus forming part of a network may include at least a processor, memory and communication interface configured to perform the method of any aspect of the invention. Further options and selections are described below.

The signal processing functions of the embodiments of the present invention, especially the gNB and the UE, can be implemented by using a computing system or architecture known to those skilled in the art. Computing systems such as desktops, laptops or notebooks, handheld computing devices (PDAs, cell phones, PDAs, etc.), mainframes, servers, clients, or any other type of special-purpose or general-purpose computing device for a given application or circumstances, may be ideal or appropriate. A computing system may include one or more processors, which may be implemented using a general or special purpose processing engine such as a microprocessor, microcontroller or other control module.

The computing system may also include main memory, such as random access memory (RAM) or other dynamic memory, for storing information and instructions to be executed by the processor. Such main memory may also be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediate information during execution of instructions to be executed by the processor. The computing system may also include read-only memory (ROM) or other static storage devices for storing static information and instructions for the processor.

The computing system may also include an information storage system, which may include, for example, media drives and removable storage interfaces. Media drives can include drives or other mechanisms that support fixed or removable storage media, such as hard drives, floppy drives, tape drives, compact disc drives, compact disc (CD) or digital video drive (DVD) (RTM) read or write drives (R or RW), or other removable or fixed media drives. The storage media may include, for example, hard disks, floppy disks, magnetic tape, optical disks, CDs or DVDs, or other fixed or removable media that is read from and written to by a media drive. The storage media may include computer-readable storage media in which specific computer software or data is stored.

In alternative embodiments, the information storage system may include other similar components for allowing computer programs or other instructions or data to be loaded into the computing system. Such components may include, for example, removable storage units and interfaces, such as program cartridges and cartridge interfaces, removable storage (e.g., flash memory or other removable memory modules) and memory slots, and other removable storage units and that allow software and data An interface for transferring from a removable storage unit to a computing system.

The computing system may also include a communication interface. Such communication interfaces can be used to allow software and data to be transferred between the computing system and external devices. Examples of communications interfaces may include modems, network interfaces such as Ethernet or other NIC cards, communications ports such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports, PCMCIA slots and cards, and the like. Software and data transmitted via the communication interface takes the form of signals, which may be electronic, electromagnetic, optical or other signals capable of being received by the communication interface medium.

In this document, the terms "computer program product", "computer readable medium" and the like may be used generally to refer to tangible media such as memory, storage device or storage unit. These and other forms of computer-readable media may store one or more instructions for use by a processor comprising a computer system to cause the processor to perform specified operations. Such instructions, generally 45 referred to as "computer program code" (which may be grouped in computer program or other grouping), when executed, enable a computing system to perform the functions of the embodiments of the invention. Note that the code may directly cause the processor to perform the specified action, be compiled to do so, and/or be combined with other software, hardware, and/or firmware components (e.g., libraries to perform standard functions) to do so .

The non-transitory computer readable medium may include at least one from the group consisting of: hard disk, CD-ROM, optical storage device, magnetic storage device, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, erasable memory Programmable ROM, EPROM, Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM, and Flash. In embodiments where the components are implemented using software, the software may be stored on a computer readable medium and loaded into the computing system using, for example, a removable storage drive. When executed by a processor in a computer system, the control module (in this example, software instructions or executable computer program code) causes the processor to perform the functions of the invention as described herein.

Furthermore, the inventive concept may be applied to any circuit for performing signal processing functions within a network element. It is further contemplated that, for example, semiconductor manufacturers could employ the concepts of the present invention in the design of stand-alone devices, such as microcontrollers for digital signal processors (DSPs), or application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), and/or any other subsystem components .

It should be appreciated that, for clarity, the foregoing description has described embodiments of the invention with reference to a single processing logic. However, the inventive concept may equally be implemented by means of a plurality of different functional units and processors to provide signal processing functionality. References to specific functional units are therefore only to be seen as references to suitable means for providing said functionality, while Not indicative of a strict logical or physical structure or organization.

Aspects of the invention can be implemented in any suitable form including hardware, software, firmware or any combination of these. The invention may optionally be implemented at least in part as computer software running on one or more data processors and/or digital signal processors or configurable modular components such as FPGA devices.

Accordingly, the components and means of an embodiment of the invention may be physically, functionally and logically implemented in any suitable way. Indeed the functionality may be implemented in a single unit, in a plurality of units or as part of other functional units. Although this invention has been described in connection with some embodiments, it is not intended to be limited to the specific forms set forth herein. Rather, the scope of the present invention is limited only by the appended claims. Additionally, although a feature may appear to be described in connection with particular embodiments, one skilled in the art would recognize that various features of the described embodiments may be combined in accordance with the invention. In the claims, the term "comprising" does not exclude the presence of other components or steps.

Furthermore, although individually listed, a plurality of means, elements or method steps may be implemented by eg a single unit or processor. Additionally, although individual features may be included in different claims, these may possibly be advantageously combined, and the inclusion in different claims does not imply that a combination of features is not feasible and/or advantageous. Furthermore, the inclusion of a feature in one category of claims does not imply a limitation to that category but rather indicates that the feature is equally applicable to other claim categories as appropriate.

Furthermore, the order of features in the claims do not imply any specific order in which the features must be performed and in particular the order of individual steps in a method claim does not imply that the steps must be performed in this order. Rather, the steps may be performed in any suitable order. Furthermore, references in the singular do not exclude the plural. Thus, references to "a", "an", "first", "second", etc. do not preclude a plurality.

Although this invention has been described in connection with some embodiments, it is not intended to be limited to the specific forms set forth herein. Rather, the scope of the present invention is limited only by the appended claims. Additionally, although a feature may appear to be described in connection with particular embodiments, one skilled in the art would recognize that various features of the described embodiments may be combined in accordance with the invention. In the claims, the terms "comprising" or "comprises" do not exclude the presence of other components.

Claims (11)

1. A method of transmitting SS/PBCH bursts in an OFDM transmission system operating at a subcarrier spacing of 960KHz, the method comprising the steps of:

selecting a start position for each of a series of SS/PBCH bursts, each burst having a duration of at least 2 OFDM symbols, wherein the start position is selected such that each burst does not overlap an uplink or downlink control transmission region allocated to subcarrier spacings of 60KHz, 120KHz, 240KHz, and 480 KHz; and

transmitting the series of SS/PBCH bursts, each burst starting from a selected one of the starting positions and having a duration to avoid overlapping with the uplink or downlink control transmission regions allocated to the subcarrier spacings of 60KHz, 120KHz, 240KHz, and 480 KHz.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the starting position is located at OFDM symbol number {32,36,40,44,64,68,72,76,88,92,128,132,144,148,152,156,176,180,184,188} +224 x n, where n =0,1,2,3 and reference symbol index 0 corresponds to the first symbol of the first slot in the half frame in which the SS/PBCH block is being transmitted.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the starting position is located at OFDM symbol number {32,36,40,44,64,68,72,76} +112 x n, where n =0,1,2,3, 4, 5,6,7, and wherein reference symbol index 0 corresponds to the first symbol of the first slot in the half-frame in which the SS/PBCH block is being transmitted.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the starting position is located at OFDM symbol number {32,38,44,64,70,76,88,128,144,150,156,176,182,188} +224 x n, where n =0,1,2,3, 4 and reference symbol index 0 corresponds to the first symbol of the first slot in the half-frame in which the SS/PBCH block is being transmitted.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the starting position is located at OFDM symbol number {32,38,44,64,70,76} +112 x n, where n =0,1,2,. And 10, and wherein reference symbol index 0 corresponds to the first symbol of the first slot in the half-frame in which the SS/PBCH block is being transmitted.

6. A method of transmitting SS/PBCH bursts in an OFDM transmission system operating at a subcarrier spacing of 480KHz, the method comprising the steps of:

selecting a starting position for each of a series of SS/PBCH bursts, each burst having a duration of at least 4 OFDM symbols, wherein the starting position is selected such that each burst does not overlap an uplink or downlink control transmission region allocated to subcarrier spacings of 60KHz, 120KHz, 240KHz, and 480 KHz; and

transmitting the series of SS/PBCH bursts, each burst starting from a selected one of the starting positions and having a duration to avoid overlapping with the uplink or downlink control transmission regions allocated to the subcarrier spacings of 60KHz, 120KHz, 240KHz, and 480 KHz.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the starting position is located at OFDM symbol number {16,20,32,36,44,64,72,76,88,92} +112 x n, where n =0,1,2,3, 4, 5,6 and reference symbol index 0 corresponds to the first symbol of the first slot in the half-frame in which the SS/PBCH block is being transmitted.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the starting position is located at OFDM symbol number {16,20,32,36} +56 x n, where n =0,1,2,. Eta.. 15 and reference symbol index 0 corresponds to the first symbol of the first slot in the half frame in which the SS/PBCH block is being transmitted.

9. A method of transmitting SS/PBCH bursts in an OFDM transmission system operating at a subcarrier spacing of 960KHz, the method comprising the steps of:

a series of SS/PBCH bursts are transmitted, each burst starting with a selected OFDM symbol {8,12,16,20,32,36,40,44} +56 × n, where n =0,1,2,3, 4, 5,6,7, and reference symbol index 0 corresponds to the first symbol of the first slot in the half-frame in which the SS/PBCH block is being transmitted.

10. A method of transmitting SS/PBCH bursts in an OFDM transmission system operating at a subcarrier spacing of 480KHz, the method comprising the steps of:

a series of SS/PBCH bursts are transmitted, each burst beginning with a selected OFDM symbol {4,8,16,20} +28 × n, where n =0,1,2,. Eta., 15, and the reference symbol index 0 corresponds to the first symbol of the first slot in the half-frame in which the SS/PBCH block is being transmitted.

11. A method of transmitting SS/PBCH bursts in an OFDM transmission system operating at a subcarrier spacing of 960KHz, the method comprising the steps of:

a series of SS/PBCH bursts are transmitted, each burst starting with a selected OFDM symbol {8,14,20,32,38,44} +56 × n, where n =0,1,2,3, 4, 5,6,7,8, 9, 10, and reference symbol index 0 corresponds to the first symbol of the first slot in the half-frame in which the SS/PBCH block is being transmitted.

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