HK1254381B - Signaling methods for flexible radio resource management - Google Patents

Description

Signaling method for flexible radio resource management

Priority Declaration

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 62/239,213, filed on October 8, 2015, and entitled “SIGNAL METHODS FOR FLEXIBLE RADIORESOURCE MANAGEMENT,” the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Background Art

Various wireless cellular communication systems that have been implemented or are being proposed include the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, the 3GPP LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) system, and the 5th Generation Wireless System/5th Generation Mobile Network (5G) system. 5G systems (or other wireless cellular communication systems) can support various services, such as extreme mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine type communication (MMC/mMTC), ultra-reliable machine type communication (uMTC), mission-critical communication (MCC), vehicle-to-everything (V2X, e.g., communication between a vehicle and another entity X), and the like. Each supported service can target certain key performance indicators (KPIs).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete understanding of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be obtained from the detailed description given below and the accompanying drawings of various embodiments of the present disclosure. However, while the drawings aid in explanation and understanding, they are merely an aid and should not be considered to limit the present disclosure to the specific embodiments depicted therein.

FIG1 illustrates a radio resource mapping with multiple resource partitions according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

2 illustrates an example partitioned subframe structure based on an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) waveform, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

3 illustrates an example demodulation reference signal (DMRS) pattern for a type 2 resource block (RB), according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

4 illustrates example synchronization signal (SS) and physical broadcast channel (PBCH) periodicity for Type 2 RBs, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG5 illustrates example SS and PBCH patterns for Type 2 RBs according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

6 illustrates example SS and PBCH periodicity for RBs of types 3-7, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

7 illustrates example SS and PBCH patterns for RBs of types 3-7, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

8 illustrates an example channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) pattern for type 2 RBs according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

9 illustrates a signaling diagram for an extended physical downlink control channel (xPDCCH) for 5G radio access technology (RAT) set aggregation according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG10 shows a signaling diagram of extended carrier aggregation (CA) for sector aggregation according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG11 illustrates an evolved Node B (eNB) and a user equipment (UE) according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG12 illustrates hardware processing circuitry for an eNB for flexible radio resource management signaling according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG13 illustrates hardware processing circuitry for a UE with flexible radio resource management signaling according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG14 illustrates a method for an eNB for flexible radio resource management signaling according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG15 illustrates a method for a UE for flexible radio resource management signaling according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG16 illustrates example components of a UE device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Different radio resources can be advantageously managed in different ways based on different requirements (e.g., different key performance indicator (KPI) requirements). For example, latency-critical services can benefit from very short transmit time intervals (TTIs) to reduce air interface latency. As another example, narrowband machine-type communications (MTC) for sporadic small data packet transmissions may benefit from smaller subcarrier spacing and relatively longer TTIs.

Flexible radio resource partitioning frameworks (e.g., flexible radio access technology (xRAT)) have been proposed for 5G, allowing radio resources to be managed differently for different services. Several methods for dynamically signaling radio resource partitioning have been proposed, primarily based on new master information blocks (MIBs), system information blocks (SIBs), radio resource control (RRC) signaling, and/or physical channel designs. These proposals focus primarily on future-proofing designs rather than backward compatibility.

At the same time, various LTE-A specifications are evolving to support different services with different KPIs. For example, further enhanced carrier aggregation (CA) with up to 32 component carriers, enhancements for device-to-device (D2D) functionality, new physical layer enhancements for MTC, and other features are being developed for the LTE specification. In addition, some existing features (such as dual or multi-connectivity, coordinated multi-point (CoMP) functionality, and enhanced physical downlink control channel (E-PDCCH)) can provide an extensible framework to incorporate many potential further improvements.

The following discusses various methods and mechanisms for implementing enhanced signaling methods by utilizing features in the prior art framework, which can advantageously improve backward compatibility while providing more flexible radio resource allocation.

In the following description, many details are discussed to provide a more comprehensive explanation of the embodiments of the present disclosure. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the embodiments of the present disclosure can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, in order to avoid obscuring the embodiments of the present disclosure, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form rather than in full detail.

Note that in the corresponding figures of the embodiments, signals are represented by lines. Some lines may be thicker to indicate a greater number of constituent signal paths, and/or some lines may have arrows at one or more ends to indicate the direction of information flow. Such illustrations are not intended to be limiting. Rather, these lines are used in conjunction with one or more exemplary embodiments to facilitate easier understanding of circuits or logic units. Any represented signal (as dictated by design requirements or preferences) may essentially include one or more signals that can propagate in either direction and may be implemented using any appropriate type of signaling scheme.

Throughout this specification, and in the claims, the term "connected" refers to a direct electrical, mechanical, or magnetic connection between the things being connected, without any intermediate devices. The term "coupled" refers to a direct electrical, mechanical, or magnetic connection between the things being connected, or an indirect connection via one or more passive or active intermediate devices. The term "circuit" or "module" may refer to one or more passive and/or active components that are arranged to cooperate with each other to provide a desired function. The term "signal" may refer to at least one current signal, voltage signal, magnetic signal, or data/clock signal. The meaning of "a", "an", and "the" includes plural references. The meaning of "in" includes "in" and "on".

The terms "substantially," "closely," "approximately," and "about" generally refer to within +/- 10% of a target value. Unless otherwise indicated, the use of ordinal adjectives "first," "second," and "third," etc., to describe a common object merely indicates that different instances of similar objects are referenced and is not intended to imply that the objects described must be in a given order (temporally, spatially, ordinally, or otherwise).

It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments of the invention described herein are, for example, capable of operation in other orientations than those illustrated or otherwise described herein.

The terms "left," "right," "front," "back," "top," "bottom," "above," and "below" in the description and claims are used for descriptive purposes and not necessarily for describing permanent relative positions.

For the purpose of the embodiments, the transistors in various circuits, modules and logic blocks are tunneling FETs (TFETs). Some transistors of various embodiments may include metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors, which include drain terminals, source terminals, gate terminals and crystal terminals. The transistor may also include tri-gate and FinFET transistors, gate all-around cylindrical transistors (GateAllAroundCylindricalTransistor), square wire or rectangular ribbon transistors, or other devices such as carbon nanotubes or spintronics devices that implement transistor functions. The symmetrical source and drain terminals of MOSFETs are the same terminals and are used interchangeably herein. On the other hand, TFET devices have asymmetric source and drain terminals. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other transistors, such as bipolar junction transistors-BJT PNP/NPN, BiCMOS, CMOS, etc., may be used without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

For the purposes of this disclosure, the phrases "A and/or B" and "A or B" mean (A), (B), or (A and B). For the purposes of this disclosure, the phrases "A, B and/or C" mean (A), (B), (C), (A and B), (A and C), (B and C), or (A, B and C).

Furthermore, the various elements of combinatorial and sequential logic discussed in this disclosure may relate to physical structures (e.g., AND gates, OR gates, or XOR gates), or to a synthesized or optimized collection of devices that implement a logic structure that is the Boolean equivalent of the logic in question.

The proposed time-frequency resource mapping for the 5G system RAT can be divided into different resource partitions or regions for different services. Different partitions can be characterized or defined by numerology including a set of physical layer parameters, including but not limited to: subcarrier spacing; TTI length; various resource allocation parameters with respect to dimensionality and/or cyclic periodicity in the time and frequency domains (e.g., the number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols per TTI, the bandwidth of each resource block (RB), and/or the number of subcarriers per RB); the number of resource elements per RB; the corresponding waveform; and a partition-specific number of antenna ports and/or antenna beams for the supported partitions.

FIG1 illustrates a radio resource map with multiple resource partitions according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Radio resource map 100 may have a time dimension and a frequency dimension and may periodically cycle through the time dimension. Radio resource map 100 may include a first partition 110, a second partition 120, a third partition 130, a fourth partition 140, a fifth partition 150, and a sixth partition 160. First partition 110, second partition 120, and third partition 130 may span portions of the frequency dimension of radio resource map 100 for the entire time dimension and may be defined accordingly for all time.

In contrast, the fourth partition 140, the fifth partition 150, and the sixth partition 160 can span a portion of the frequency dimension of the radio resource map 100 for a subset of the time dimension. As a result, the fourth partition 140, the fifth partition 150, and the sixth partition 160 can be defined only for a specific time range. Because the radio resource map 100 can be periodically cycled in the time dimension, the fourth partition 140, the fifth partition 150, and the sixth partition 160 can also be periodically cycled in the time dimension.

Each partition can support one or more services. In some embodiments, the first partition 110 can support traditional user equipment (UE) using traditional voice and/or data services under traditional LTE operation, and can also support various radio control plane functions (RRC connection management, security authentication, etc.).

Other zones can then support a variety of different services, such as user plane data traffic. For example, the second zone 120 and the third zone 130 can support extreme broadband services with very low latency. Meanwhile, the fourth zone 140, the fifth zone 150, and the sixth zone 160 can support mMTC services, uMTC services, and V2X services, respectively. These zones may not overlap, may partially overlap, or may completely overlap.

In some embodiments, certain carrier frequencies (e.g., frequencies below 6 GHz) may comprise a primary partition and may use numerology corresponding to existing LTE numerology (e.g., the parameters described above for resource allocation). Auxiliary partitions may then be designed to support other services, such as low-latency applications. For example, the secondary partitions may support larger subcarrier spacing, such as 75 kHz subcarrier spacing.

FIG2 illustrates an example partitioned subframe structure based on an OFDM waveform according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the first example, a first subframe structure 210 can group six cyclic prefixes (CPs) 212 and six OFDM symbols 214 (numbered 0 through 5) within a TTI, with a symbol time of approximately 13.3 μs and a CP time of approximately 3.3 μs. A sampling rate of approximately 153.6 MHz can support 512 samples. Six CPs and six OFDM symbols can correspond to a TTI of approximately 0.1 ms.

As a second example, the second subframe structure 220 can be based on a smaller subcarrier spacing (e.g., 3.0 kHz) to support MTC services. The second subframe structure 220 (which can be a subframe structure for the secondary partition) can group fourteen CPs 222 and fourteen OFDM symbols 224 (numbered 0 to 13) within a TTI. When the symbol time is approximately 333.3 us and the CP time is approximately 23.8 us, the fourteen CPs and fourteen OFDM symbols can correspond to a TTI of approximately 5.0 ms.

Based on these examples, various TTIs may be similarly implemented. For example, the first subframe structure 210 may be extended to group 12 CPs 212 and 12 OFDM symbols 214, which may correspond to a TTI of approximately 0.2 ms.

Any particular UE does not need to be aware of all resource partitions supported by the radio resource map 100. For example, in addition to the control plane radio access technology (RAT), an MTC device may only be aware of the MTC-specific partitions. At the same time, UE devices with high data consumption do not need to be aware of any MTC-specific partitions. Signaling regarding resource partition configuration can accordingly be performed in a UE-specific manner to reduce system signaling overhead.

Extended resource block definition

Various supported radio resource formats may be defined in wireless cellular communication standards to support flexible radio resource partitioning, which may inherently support various KPIs related to throughput, latency, and reliability. A set of supported TTIs may be approximately 0.2 ms, approximately 1.0 ms, approximately 2.0 ms, and approximately 5.0 ms, and a set of supported subcarrier spacings may be approximately 3.0 kHz, approximately 7.5 kHz, approximately 7.5 kHz, approximately 15 kHz, approximately 75 kHz, approximately 750 kHz, and approximately 1.5 MHz.

Smaller subcarrier spacing (e.g., 3.0 kHz and 7.5 kHz) can be advantageously used for MTC with low bandwidth and low power consumption. Larger subcarrier spacing (e.g., 750 kHz and 1.5 MHz) can be advantageously used for high-band services (e.g., services using frequencies above 30 GHz).

A resource block (RB) can be defined as the smallest unit allocated for a partition. Assuming an OFDM-like waveform in which a time-frequency symbol can be referred to as a resource element, Tables 1 to 7 below provide RB definitions supporting different TTIs and subcarrier spacings. (It should be noted that these tables can be expanded to include more information, such as CP length and other supported waveforms.)

Table 1. Resource Block Type 1

(Traditional Mobile Broadband (MBB), low frequency band, normal latency – TTI is 1ms)

Table 2. Resource Block Type 2

(MCC/V2X, low frequency band, low latency – TTI of 0.2ms)

Subcarrier spacing 15kHz TTI 0.2ms The number of OFDM symbols per TTI 2 The number of subcarriers per RB 72 Bandwidth of each RB 1080kHz The number of REs per RB 144=72x2

Table 3. Resource Block Type 3

(MBB/MCC/V2X, low-band and mid-band, low latency - TTI of 0.2ms)

Subcarrier spacing 75kHz TTI 0.2ms The number of OFDM symbols per TTI 14 The number of subcarriers per RB 12 Bandwidth of each RB 900kHz The number of REs per RB 168 = 12 x 14

Table 4. Resource Block Type 4

(MBB, high-bandwidth, low latency – TTI is 20us)

Subcarrier spacing 750kHz TTI 20us The number of OFDM symbols per TTI 14 The number of subcarriers per RB 12 Bandwidth of each RB 9MHz The number of REs per RB 168 = 12 x 14

Table 5. Resource Block Type 5

(MBB, high-bandwidth, low latency – TTI is 20us)

Subcarrier spacing 1500kHz TTI 10us The number of OFDM symbols per TTI 14 The number of subcarriers per RB 12 Bandwidth of each RB 18MHz The number of REs per RB 168 = 12 x 14

Table 6. Resource Block Type 6

(MCC, low cost - TTI is 2ms)

Subcarrier spacing 7.5kHz TTI 2ms The number of OFDM symbols per TTI 14 The number of subcarriers per RB 12 Bandwidth of each RB 90kHz The number of REs per RB 168 = 12 x 14

Table 7. Resource Block Type 7

(MCC, low cost - TTI is 4ms)

Subcarrier spacing 3.75kHz TTI 4ms The number of OFDM symbols per TTI 14 The number of subcarriers per RB 12 Bandwidth of each RB 36kHz The number of REs per RB 168 = 12 x 14

Extended DMRS mode

Each RB may require some embedded demodulation reference signals (DMRS) to enable channel estimation for coherent demodulation of transmitted control and data signals. RB types 1 and 3 to 7 defined above have resource blocks with 14 OFDM symbols per TTI across 12 subcarriers. Because existing LTE resource blocks have 14 OFDM symbols per TTI across 12 subcarriers, the existing DMRS pattern currently specified for LTE may be reused for RB types 1 and 3 to 7. However, RB type 2 defined above has resource blocks with 2 OFDM symbols per TTI across 72 subcarriers, and therefore the existing DMRS pattern specified for LTE may not be reused for type 2 RBs.

FIG3 shows an example demodulation reference signal (DMRS) pattern for a type 2 resource block (RB) according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG3 depicts a first DMRS RB pattern 310 and a second DMRS RB pattern 320. The first DMRS RB pattern 310 and the second DMRS RB pattern 320 both include a plurality of resource elements 302 spanning a resource block 301. According to the definition in Table 2 above, each resource block 301 has a TTI of approximately 0.2 ms (where each TTI has two OFDM symbols) and a subcarrier spacing of approximately 15 kHz (where each RB has 72 subcarriers). (Although this is different from existing LTE, the DMRS signal sequence generation method of LTE can be extended to type 2 RBs.)

For both the first DMRS RB pattern 310 and the second DMRS RB pattern 320, a DMRS symbol may be placed in every sixth subcarrier across the frequency bandwidth of the RB. In the first DMRS RB pattern 310, a DMRS symbol may be placed in two OFDM symbols of every sixth subcarrier starting from subcarrier 5. In contrast, in the second DMRS RB pattern 320, a DMRS symbol may be placed in the first OFDM symbol of every sixth subcarrier starting from subcarrier 0, while a DMRS symbol may be placed in the second OFDM symbol of every sixth subcarrier starting from subcarrier 3.

Synchronization signal and PBCH coverage extension for extended RB types

Although there are potential differences in TTI and subcarrier spacing compared to the primary resource partition, each supported partition can send its synchronization signal (SS) in a manner that enables the UE to achieve downlink synchronization. As described above, the UE-specific resource partition configuration can advantageously reduce system signaling overhead, and therefore any specific UE does not need to be aware of all resource partitions supported by the radio resource mapping. Each resource partition can accordingly operate in an independent manner to support various single-service UEs (e.g., smart meters or sensors supporting MMC) to connect directly to the network without first accessing the primary partition. Accordingly, a PBCH specific to the resource partition can be used.

To preserve SS overhead and synchronization tracking capabilities similar to those present in LTE, one SS may be sent every five TTIs for RB types 3 to 7. For RB type 2, one SS may be sent every twenty-five TTIs (which may be substantially similar to the five TTIs for RB types 3 to 7 in terms of resource elements).

To preserve MIB and/or PBCH coverage similar to that present in LTE, one PBCH subblock may be sent in the six center RBs of a resource partition (as in existing LTE) for RB types 3 to 7. For RB type 2, one PBCH subblock may be sent in the center RB of a resource partition.

For RB types 3 to 7, one PBCH code block may include four PBCH subblocks, while for RB type 2, one PBCH code block may include eight PBCH subblocks. To preserve PBCH overhead similar to that present in LTE, for RB types 3 to 7, one PBCH subblock may be transmitted every ten TTIs, while for RB type 2, one PBCH subblock may be transmitted every 25 TTIs.

The time interval between two adjacent PBCH subblocks can define the frame length. In addition, the number of multiple PBCH subblocks within a PBCH code, or the PBCH subblock index, can implicitly represent the frame number. Therefore, for RB types 3 to 7, the two least significant bits of the frame number may not be included in the MIB, while for RB type 2, the three least significant bits of the frame number may not be included in the MIB. Table 8 below summarizes the radio frame duration for the different RB types defined above.

Table 8. Radio frame duration for different RB types

RB type 1 (TTI is 1.0ms) 10ms RB type 2 (TTI is 0.2ms) 5.0ms RB types 3, 4, and 5 (TTI is 0.2ms) 2.0ms RB type 6 (TTI is 2.0ms) 20ms RB type 7 (TTI is 5.0ms) 50ms

Several coverage extension designs for various RB types are also provided below.In some embodiments, a cell-specific reference signal (CRS) may not be required for the new RB type, which can advantageously save system overhead.

SS and PBCH design for RB type 2

4 illustrates example synchronization signal (SS) and physical broadcast channel (PBCH) periodicity for RBs of type 2, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. A first sub-block 410 may correspond to no coverage extension (e.g., 0 dB coverage extension), a second sub-block 420 may correspond to 3 dB coverage extension, and a third sub-block 430 may correspond to 6 dB coverage extension.

As described above, for RB type 2, a PBCH code block may include eight PBCH subblocks, where the PBCH subblocks are transmitted every 25 TTIs. Each of the first subblock 410, the second subblock 420, and the third subblock 430 may include multiple resource blocks 401, starting with an SS RB and followed by a PBCH RB. Each subblock may extend to 25 RBs and then repeat.

The second sub-block 420 and the third sub-block 430 may repeat the PBCH RB based on the coverage spread. For a coverage spread of 3 dB, the second sub-block 420 may repeat the PBCH RB on the twelfth RB after the initial PBCH RB. For a coverage spread of 6 dB, the third sub-block 430 may repeat the PBCH RB on every sixth RB after the initial PBCH RB (including the twelfth RB after the initial PBCH RB).

The PBCH RB may correspond to a PBCH subblock index, which may represent the number of the PBCH subblock within the PBCH code block, starting from 0 and incrementing to 7 during 8 PBCH subblock transmissions. The eighth PBCH subblock may accordingly be the last PBCH subblock in the PBCH code block.

5 illustrates example SS and PBCH patterns for Type 2 RBs according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG5 depicts an SS RB pattern 510, a first PBCH RB pattern 520, and a second PBCH RB pattern 530, each of which may include multiple resource elements 502 on a resource block 501.

SS RB pattern 510 may include SS OFDM symbols placed on the central 60 subcarriers, but may not include any DMRS symbols. A first PBCH RB pattern 520 may include PBCH symbols placed on most subcarriers, except for those subcarriers on which DMRS are already placed (these subcarriers may be substantially similar to those subcarriers on which DMRS are placed for the first DMRS RB pattern 310 of FIG. 3 ). Similarly, a second PBCH RB pattern 530 may include PBCH symbols placed on most subcarriers, except for those subcarriers on which DMRS are already placed (these subcarriers may be substantially similar to those subcarriers on which DMRS are placed for the second DMRS RB pattern 320 of FIG. 3 ).

4 and 5, eight PBCH sub-blocks with 240 bits can be evenly distributed within a 40ms time window, which can allow PBCH coding gain similar to the existing PBCH coding gain in LTE. In addition, two DMRS patterns can be used for PBCH coherent demodulation.

SS and PBCH design for RB types 3-7

Figure 6 shows example SS and PBCH periodicity for RB types 3-7 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The first sub-block 610 may correspond to no coverage extension (e.g., 0 dB coverage extension), the second sub-block 620 may correspond to 3 dB coverage extension, and the third sub-block 630 may correspond to 6 dB coverage extension. PBCH coverage extension may be beneficial for mid- and high-frequency mobile broadband (MBB) and low-cost MMC.

As described above, for RB types 3-7, one PBCH code block may include four PBCH subblocks, and each PBCH subblock may be transmitted every 10 TTIs. Each of the first subblock 610, the second subblock 620, and the third subblock 630 may include multiple resource blocks 601 and may start with an SS and a PBCH of an RB having (a first DMRS pattern or a second DMRS pattern).

For a first sub-block 610 with no coverage expansion, the fifth RB after the initial SS and PBCH with DMRS RBs may be an SS RB. The first sub-block 610 may be repeated after another five RBs. For a 3 dB coverage expansion, the second sub-block 620 may repeat the SS and PBCH pattern with DMRS RBs on the fifth RB after the initial SS and PBCH with DMRS RBs (instead of placing SS RBs as in the first sub-block 610). The second sub-block 620 may be repeated after another five RBs. For a 6 dB coverage expansion, the third sub-block 630 may place the PBCH with DMRS RBs on the third and eighth RBs after the initial SS and PBCH with DMRS RBs, and may also repeat the SS and PBCH with DMRS RBs on the fifth RB after the initial SS and PBCH with DMRS RBs.

The SS and PBCH with DMRS RBs and the PBCH with DMRS RBs may correspond to a PBCH subblock index, which may represent the number of the PBCH subblock within the PBCH code block, starting from 0 and incrementing to 3 during the transmission of four PBCH subblocks. The fourth PBCH subblock may accordingly be the last PBCH subblock in the PBCH code block.

FIG7 illustrates example SS and PBCH patterns for RBs of types 3-7 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG7 depicts a first SS and PBCH pattern 710 with DMRS RBs, a second SS and PBCH pattern 720 with DMRS RBs, an SS RB pattern 730, a first PBCH pattern 740 with DMRS RBs, and a second PBCH pattern 750 with DMRS RBs, each of which may include multiple resource elements 702 on a resource block 701.

Due to the similarity between the sizes of RB types 3 to 7 and existing LTE RBs, the placement of SS and PBCH within an RB can be similar to that in existing LTE RBs. First SS and PBCH pattern 710 with DMRS RBs, second SS and PBCH pattern 720 with DMRS RBs, and SS RB pattern 730 can include SS OFDM symbols placed on all subcarriers of the sixth and seventh symbols of the RB. First SS and PBCH pattern 710 with DMRS RBs and second SS and PBCH pattern 720 with DMRS RBs can also include PBCH and DMRS OFDM symbols on all subcarriers of the eighth to eleventh OFDM symbols of the RB, where the DMRS symbol can be placed on every sixth subcarrier across the frequency bandwidth of the RB.

For the first SS and PBCH pattern with DMRS RBs 710, DMRS symbols may be placed in the sixth and twelfth subcarriers of the eighth to eleventh OFDM symbols. For the second SS and PBCH pattern with DMRS RBs 720, DMRS symbols may be placed in the first and seventh subcarriers of the eighth and tenth OFDM symbols, and DMRS symbols may be placed in the fourth and tenth subcarriers of the ninth and eleventh OFDM symbols.

As with RB type 2, two exemplary DMRS patterns may be used for PBCH coherent demodulation.

Resource partition specific CSI-RS signal

The partition-specific discovery signal or CSI-RS can enable radio resource measurement (RRM) for specific partition resources. For RB types 3 to 7, a CSI-RS similar to the existing LTE CSI-RS can be used. RB type 2 may not be able to use the existing LTE CSI-RS.

FIG8 illustrates an example channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) pattern for type 2 RBs according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG8 depicts a first CSI-RS RB pattern 810 and a second CSI-RS RB pattern 820. Both the first CSI-RS RB pattern 810 and the second CSI-RS RB pattern 820 include a plurality of resource elements 802 on a resource block 801.

3 , according to the first DMRS RB pattern 310 and the second DMRS RB pattern 320, the first CSI-RS RB pattern 810 and the second CSI-RS RB pattern 820 may include various DMRS symbols. CSI antenna ports may be supported on the following subcarriers: no DMRS is placed on these subcarriers for any OFDM symbol. For the first CSI-RS RB pattern 810, ten CSI-RS antenna ports (which may be numbered from x15 to x24) may be supported accordingly. In contrast, for the second CSI-RS RB pattern 820, eight CSI-RS antenna ports (which may be numbered from x15 to x22) may be supported. Resource elements supporting various antenna ports may be repeated every 12 subcarriers.

Extended primary partition SIB for secondary partition signaling

For a system that supports multiple resource partitions (e.g., partitions based on the various RB types discussed above), one resource partition can become the primary partition of the system and can serve the majority of UEs residing in the system, while the other resource partitions can become secondary resource partitions. A low-frequency resource partition that provides standard voice and data service coverage can serve as the primary partition of the system. For example, resource partition 1 in Figure 1 can serve as the primary partition in the exemplary system.

In some cases, resource partitions may overlap in the time and/or frequency domains. For example, as shown in Figure 1, resource partition 6 may be completely embedded in resource partition 1. In a practical scenario, fully overlapping resource partitions may include several narrowband (1.4 MHz) MMC resource partitions completely embedded in a broadband primary resource partition.

Overlapping resource partitions can also be active at the same time. To ensure that UEs in the primary partition have clear RE mapping when the allocated primary physical resource blocks (PRBs) overlap with one or more secondary resource partitions, resource allocation information about the embedded secondary partitions can be sent in the SIB of the primary partition. This can advantageously improve efficiency compared to signaling such information via dedicated signaling to the UE (which can result in large signaling overhead).

Aggregation of multiple service-specific resource partitions

Sometimes, a UE capable of communicating with multiple services operating with different RB types may be arranged to communicate with these services simultaneously. As an example, one application on the UE may be performing an MBB service (such as high-definition live video streaming) while another background application on the UE may be performing an MTC service (e.g., MMC/MCC/V2X service).

Two methods are described below to help UEs perform multiple services simultaneously and communicate with different resource partitions. The first method involves xPDCCH for 5G PDCCH set aggregation, which can be applied to aggregate multiple resource partitions with scheduled access. The secondary partition can be regarded as a special data resource partition with different RB types within the primary partition.

Figure 9 shows a signaling diagram for an extended physical downlink control channel (xPDCCH) for 5G radio access technology (RAT) aggregation according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Method 900 may involve an evolved Node B (eNB) 901 and a UE 902 undertaking various steps (which may be divided and/or combined into various stages of the method).

The first phase of method 900 may involve establishing an RRC connection and indicating UE capabilities to the network. In a first step 910, UE 902 may establish an RRC connection with a selected eNB 901 (which may be a 5G eNB) via a primary partition (which may be responsible for one or more control plane functions). The primary partition may provide a common xPDCCH search space for 5G RATs for system information (SI), random access channel (RACH) responses, and paging transmissions. An initial UE-specific xPDCCH search space may be allocated in the primary partition. In a second step 920, UE 902 may signal to the network its ability to support various service-specific partitions.

The second phase of the method 900 may involve xPDCCH reconfiguration to configure multiple xPDCCH sets. In a third step 930, based on the signaled capability of the UE 902 to support various service-specific partitions, the eNB 901 may reconfigure the UE-specific search space using multiple xPDCCH sets via UE-specific RRC signaling. Each such xPDCCH set may be allocated within a specific resource partition, which may be considered a secondary partition. For each added xPDCCH set, the reconfiguration may include (but is not limited to) the following information:

RB type of the xPDCCH set and its scheduled partition;

Resource allocation for the partition (time-frequency resource location and cyclic periodicity; can be non-overlapping, partially overlapping, or fully overlapping with the primary partition);

Resource allocation of xPDCCH sets within a partition; and

Quasi-collocated partition-specific CSI-RS configurations for the partitions (which may include: CSI-RS sequence ID; number of antenna ports; and time-frequency resource allocation for the CSI-RS, e.g., bandwidth, TTI in a frame, and transmission periodicity according to the number of RBs and/or TTIs defined in the partition).

In act 932, UE 902 may confirm the reconfiguration.

The third stage of method 900 may involve UE 902 monitoring multiple configured xPDCCH sets. In a fourth step 940, UE 902 may monitor multiple reconfigured xPDCCH sets allocated in various resource partitions. The xPDCCHs in the set may schedule downlink data packets and/or uplink data packets to be transmitted in the resource partition corresponding to the xPDCCH set.

The second approach to help UEs perform multiple services simultaneously and communicate with different resource partitions involves extended carrier aggregation, which can be applied to various resource partition aggregations. Each resource partition can support independent operation based on the full physical channel and reference signal provisions.

Figure 10 shows a signaling diagram of extended carrier aggregation (CA) for sectorized aggregation according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.The method 1000 may involve an eNB 1001 and a UE 1002 carrying out various steps (which may be divided and/or combined into various stages of the method).

The first stage of the method may involve RRC connection establishment and UE 1002 signaling its capabilities to the network. In a first step 1010, UE 1002 may establish an RRC connection with a selected eNB 1001 (which may be a 5G eNB) via a primary partition (which may be responsible for one or more control plane functions and may serve as a primary cell for UE 1002). In a second step 1020, UE 1002 may signal its capabilities to support various service-specific RB types to the network.

The second phase of method 1000 may involve secondary resource partition aggregation. In a third step 1030, the primary resource partition may request UE 1002 to perform RRM on one or more supported secondary partitions and report measurement results. The measurement request information regarding the secondary partitions may include (but is not limited to) the following information:

RB type of the partition (index of RB types supported in the standard);

Partitioned SS and PBCH configuration (which may include: SS sequence ID defining the partition ID; supported PBCH coverage extensions; and resource allocation for SS and PBCH (formatted as frequency location and radio frame boundaries relative to the SS and radio frame boundaries in the primary region based on the number of RBs and TTIs; SS and PBCH allocation for secondary partitions can be derived from their RB types and radio frame boundaries));

Partition-specific CSI-RS configuration;

CSI-RS sequence ID;

Number of antenna ports; and

Time-frequency resource allocation for CSI-RS, such as bandwidth, TTI in a frame, and transmission periodicity according to the number of RBs and/or TTIs defined in a partition.

In action 1032 , UE 1002 may search for the SS of the secondary partition and perform RRM based on the partition-specific CSR-RS. In action 1034 , UE 1002 may return the requested measurement to eNB 1001 .

In a fourth step 1040, based on the measurement results provided by UE 1002, eNB 1001 may select and configure one or more service-specific resource partitions as secondary cells (SCells) (UE 1002 identifies the SCells by partition IDs). Each SCell configuration includes (but is not limited to) the following parameters:

Partition ID; and optionally,

The following information can be received from the secondary partition's MIB/SIB:

Resource allocation for the partition (time-frequency resource location and cyclic periodicity; can be non-overlapping, partially overlapping, or fully overlapping with the primary partition);

Supported link directions (downlink transmission, uplink transmission, or downlink transmission and uplink transmission);

Physical downlink/uplink control channel configuration (which may include: region-specific common search space configuration; resource block allocation; and/or partition-specific SI-RNTI, RA-RNTI, and/or P-RNTI, which may be hard-coded in the specification);

UE-specific search space configuration (which may include resource block allocation and/or C-RNTI); and

Random access resource configuration (which may include resource pool allocation and/or configuration for the 5G Physical Random Access Channel (xPRACH)).

In the fifth step 1050, if uplink transmission is supported in the secondary partition, the UE 1002 may perform a contention-based or contention-free random access procedure on the correspondingly configured Scell.

The third phase of method 1000 may involve UE 1002 monitoring multiple configured secondary cells. In a sixth step 1060, UE 1002 may monitor downlink data allocations or uplink data allocations for SCells configured using secondary resource partitioning. Such downlink data allocations or uplink allocations may be signaled via a physical downlink control channel in the primary cell or the secondary cell. In some cases, a cross-partition scheduling mechanism may be applied, where resource allocations in the secondary cell may be explicitly indicated using a downlink control indicator (DCI) format.

FIG11 illustrates an eNB and a UE according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG11 includes a block diagram of an eNB 1110 and a UE 1130 operable to coexist with each other and with other elements of an LTE network. A high-level, simplified architecture of the eNB 1110 and the UE 1130 is depicted to avoid obscuring the embodiments. It should be noted that in some embodiments, the eNB 1110 may be a fixed, non-mobile device.

The eNB 1110 is coupled to one or more antennas 1105, and the UE 1130 is similarly coupled to one or more antennas 1125. However, in some embodiments, the eNB 1110 may incorporate or include antennas 1105, and in various embodiments, the UE 1130 may incorporate or include antennas 1125.

In some embodiments, antenna 1105 and/or antenna 1125 may include one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including monopole antennas, dipole antennas, loop antennas, patch antennas, microstrip antennas, coplanar wave antennas, or other types of antennas suitable for transmitting RF signals. In some MIMO (multiple-input and multiple-output) embodiments, antennas 1105 are separated to exploit spatial diversity.

The eNB 1110 and the UE 1130 are operable to communicate with each other over a network (e.g., a wireless network). The eNB 1110 and the UE 1130 can communicate with each other via a wireless communication channel 1150 having a downlink path from the eNB 1110 to the UE 1130 and an uplink path from the UE 1130 to the eNB 1110.

11 , in some embodiments, an eNB 1110 may include a physical layer circuit 1112, a MAC (media access control) circuit 1114, a processor 1116, a memory 1118, and a hardware processing circuit 1120. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that, in addition to the components shown, other components not shown may be used to form a complete eNB.

In some embodiments, the physical layer circuitry 1112 includes a transceiver 1113 for providing signals to and from the UE 1130. The transceiver 1113 uses one or more antennas 1105 to provide signals to and from the UE or other devices. In some embodiments, the MAC circuitry 1114 controls access to the wireless medium. The memory 1118 may be or may include one or more storage media, such as magnetic storage media (e.g., magnetic tape or disk), optical storage media (e.g., optical disk), electronic storage media (e.g., traditional hard drive, solid-state disk drive, or flash-based storage media), or any tangible storage media or non-transitory storage media. The hardware processing circuitry 1120 may include logic devices or circuits to perform various operations. In some embodiments, the processor 1116 and the memory 1118 are arranged to perform the operations of the hardware processing circuitry 1120, such as the operations described herein with reference to the logic devices and circuits within the eNB 1110 and/or the hardware processing circuitry 1120.

11 , in some embodiments, UE 1130 may include physical layer circuitry 1132, MAC circuitry 1134, a processor 1136, memory 1138, hardware processing circuitry 1140, a wireless interface 1142, and a display 1144. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that, in addition to the components shown, other components not shown may be used to form a complete UE.

In some embodiments, the physical layer circuitry 1132 includes a transceiver 1133 for providing signals to and from the eNB 1110 (and other eNBs). The transceiver 1133 uses one or more antennas 1125 to provide signals to and from the eNB or other devices. In some embodiments, the MAC circuitry 1134 controls access to the wireless medium. The memory 1138 may be or may include one or more storage media, such as magnetic storage media (e.g., magnetic tape or disk), optical storage media (e.g., optical disk), electronic storage media (e.g., traditional hard drives, solid-state disk drives, or flash-based storage media), or any tangible or non-transitory storage media. The wireless interface 1142 may be arranged to allow the processor to communicate with another device. The display 1144 may provide a visual and/or tactile display, such as a touchscreen display, for the user to interact with the UE 1130. The hardware processing circuitry 1140 may include logic devices or circuits to perform various operations. In some embodiments, the processor 1136 and the memory 1138 may be arranged to perform the operations of the hardware processing circuit 1140 , eg, the operations described herein with reference to the logic devices and circuits within the UE 1130 and/or the hardware processing circuit 1140 .

The elements of FIG. 11 (and elements of other figures having the same name or reference number) may operate or function in the manner described herein with respect to any such figures (although the operation and functionality of these elements are not limited to such description). For example, FIG. 12 , 13 , and 16 also depict embodiments of an eNB, hardware processing circuitry of an eNB, a UE, and/or hardware processing circuitry of a UE, and the embodiments described with reference to FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 , 13 , and 16 may operate or function in the manner described herein with respect to any such figures.

In addition, although the eNB 1110 and the UE 1130 are each described as having several separate functional elements, one or more functional elements may be combined and may be implemented by combining software-configured elements and/or other hardware elements. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, a functional element may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements. Examples of software and/or hardware-configured elements include a digital signal processor (DSP), one or more microprocessors, a DSP, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), and the like.

FIG12 illustrates hardware processing circuitry for an eNB for flexible radio resource management signaling according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Hardware processing circuitry 1200 may include logic devices and/or circuitry operable to perform various operations. For example, with reference to FIG11 and FIG12 , eNB 1110 (or various elements or components thereof (e.g., hardware processing circuitry 1120), or a combination of elements or components therein) may include a portion or all of hardware processing circuitry 1200. In some embodiments, processor 1116 and memory 1118 (and/or other elements or components of eNB 1110) may be arranged to perform operations of hardware processing circuitry 1200, such as those described herein with reference to the devices and circuitry within hardware processing circuitry 1200. For example, one or more devices or circuits of hardware processing circuitry 1200 may be implemented by combining software-configured elements and/or other hardware elements.

In some embodiments, hardware processing circuitry 1200 may include one or more antenna ports 1205 operable to provide various transmissions over a wireless communication channel (e.g., wireless communication channel 1150). Antenna ports 1205 may be coupled to one or more antennas 1207 (which may be antennas 1105). In some embodiments, hardware processing circuitry 1200 may incorporate antennas 1207, while in other embodiments, hardware processing circuitry 1200 may simply be coupled to antennas 1207.

Antenna port 1205 and antenna 1207 may be operable to provide signals from the eNB to a wireless communication channel and/or a UE, and may be operable to provide signals from a UE and/or a wireless communication channel to the eNB. For example, antenna port 1205 and antenna 1207 may be operable to provide transmissions from eNB 1110 to wireless communication channel 1150 (and from wireless communication channel 1150 to UE 1130 or to another UE). Similarly, antenna 1207 and antenna port 1205 may be operable to provide transmissions from wireless communication channel 1150 (and, before that, from UE 1130 or another UE) to eNB 1110.

The apparatus of the eNB 1110 (or another eNB or base station) may be operable to communicate with a UE over a wireless network and may include hardware processing circuitry 1200. In some embodiments, the eNB (or other base station) may be a device that includes an application processor, memory, one or more antenna ports, and an interface for allowing the application processor to communicate with another device.

12 , the hardware processing circuit 1200 may include a first circuit 1210, a second circuit 1220, a third circuit 1230, and a fourth circuit 1240. The first circuit 1210 may be operable to establish an RRC connection with a UE (e.g., UE 1130 or another UE). The RRC connection may be established by one or more transmissions provided to the second circuit 1220 via the RRC connection interface 1215.

The second circuit 1220 may be operable to receive a transmission from the UE 1130 that lists one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by the UE 1130 within the wireless cellular communication system bandwidth. Information about the one or more service-specific resource partitions may be provided to the third circuit 1230 via a resource partition interface 1225. In some embodiments, the one or more service-specific resource partitions may have a resource block definition that differs from a traditional LTE resource block definition for at least one of the following: subcarrier spacing, TTI, number of OFDM symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per RB, bandwidth per RB, number of resource elements (REs) per RB, and cyclic prefix length. For various embodiments, the one or more service-specific resource partitions may be secondary partitions.

The third circuit 1230 may be operable to provide a partition configuration transmission 1235 to the fourth circuit 1240 for configuring one or more of the service specific resource partitions. In some embodiments, the third circuit 1230 may be operable to provide resource allocation information regarding at least one secondary partition in a SIB transmission.

The fourth circuit 1240 may be operable to send a partition configuration transmission to the UE 1130. In some embodiments, the fourth circuit 1240 may be operable to send a SIB transmission to the UE 1130 in the primary partition.

In some embodiments, the third circuit 1230 may be operable to provide a resource partition specific PBCH transmission to the fourth circuit 1240 via the downlink transmit interface 1235. In such embodiments, the fourth circuit 1240 may be operable to transmit the resource partition specific PBCH transmission received via the downlink transmit interface 1235 to the UE 1130.

In some embodiments, the third circuit 1230 may be operable to provide multiple PBCH transmissions via the downlink transmit interface 1235. In such embodiments, the fourth circuit 1240 may be operable to transmit the PBCH transmissions at a first repetition rate at a first coverage extension to the UE 1130, and may be further operable to transmit the PBCH transmissions at a second repetition rate at a second coverage extension to the UE 1130. The second repetition rate may be greater than the first repetition rate, and the second coverage extension may be greater than the first coverage extension.

For various embodiments, the third circuit 1230 may be operable to provide a set of xPDCCH transmissions for one of the service-specific resource partitions via the downlink transmit interface 1235. In such embodiments, the fourth circuit 1240 may be operable to transmit the set of xPDCCH transmissions to the UE 1130. The set of xPDCCH transmissions may include at least one of: a resource block type for the service-specific resource partition; a resource allocation for the service-specific resource partition; and a quasi-collateral partition-specific channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration.

The third circuit 1230 may be operable to provide a primary resource partition request transmission via the downlink transmit interface 1235, and the fourth circuit 1240 may be operable to transmit the primary resource partition request transmission to the UE 1130. For such embodiments, the primary resource partition request transmission may include one or more of: a resource block type serving a specific resource partition; a synchronization signal (SS) ID defining a partition ID; supported PBCH coverage extensions; resource allocations for SS and PBCH transmissions; and a partition-specific channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration.

In some embodiments, the first circuit 1210, the second circuit 1220, the third circuit 1230, and the fourth circuit 1240 may be implemented as separate circuits. In other embodiments, one or more of the first circuit 1210, the second circuit 1220, the third circuit 1230, and the fourth circuit 1240 may be combined and implemented together in a circuit without changing the essence of the embodiment. In various embodiments, the processor 1116 (and/or one or more other processors that the eNB 1110 may include) may be configured to perform the operations of the first circuit 1210, the second circuit 1220, the third circuit 1230, and/or the fourth circuit 1240. In such embodiments, the first circuit 1210, the second circuit 1220, the third circuit 1230, and/or the fourth circuit 1240 may be implemented by various combinations of software-configured elements (e.g., the processor 1116 and/or one or more other processors that the eNB 1110 may include) and/or other hardware elements. In various embodiments, the processor 1116 (and/or one or more other processors that the eNB 1110 may include) may be a baseband processor.

Figure 13 shows a hardware processing circuit for a UE for flexible radio resource management signaling notification according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The hardware processing circuit 1300 may include logic devices and/or circuits operable to perform various operations. For example, with reference to Figures 11 and 13, the UE 1130 (or various elements or components therein (e.g., the hardware processing circuit 1140), or a combination of elements or components therein) may include a portion or all of the hardware processing circuit 1300. In some embodiments, the processor 1136 and the memory 1138 (and/or other elements or components of the UE 1130) may be arranged to perform various operations of the hardware processing circuit 1300, such as the operations described herein with reference to the devices and circuits within the hardware processing circuit 1300. For example, one or more devices or circuits of the hardware processing circuit 1300 may be implemented by combining software-configured elements and/or other hardware elements.

In some embodiments, hardware processing circuitry 1300 may include one or more antenna ports 1305 operable to provide various transmissions over a wireless communication channel (e.g., wireless communication channel 1150). Antenna ports 1305 may be coupled to one or more antennas 1307 (which may be antennas 1105). In some embodiments, hardware processing circuitry 1300 may incorporate antennas 1307, while in other embodiments, hardware processing circuitry 1300 may simply be coupled to antennas 1307.

Antenna port 1305 and antenna 1307 may be operable to provide signals from a UE to a wireless communication channel and/or an eNB, and may be operable to provide signals from an eNB and/or a wireless communication channel to a UE. For example, antenna port 1305 and antenna 1307 may be operable to provide transmissions from UE 1130 to wireless communication channel 1150 (and from wireless communication channel 1150 to eNB 1110 or to another eNB). Similarly, antenna 1307 and antenna port 1305 may be operable to provide transmissions from wireless communication channel 1150 (and, before that, from eNB 1110 or another eNB) to UE 1130.

An apparatus of UE 1130 (or another UE or mobile handset) may be operable to communicate with an eNB over a wireless network and may include hardware processing circuitry 1300. In some embodiments, the UE (or other mobile handset) may be a device that includes an application processor, memory, one or more antennas, a wireless interface for allowing the application processor to communicate with another device, and a touch screen display.

13 , hardware processing circuit 1300 may include a first circuit 1310, a second circuit 1320, a third circuit 1330, and a fourth circuit 1340. First circuit 1310 may be operable to establish an RRC connection with an eNB (e.g., eNB 1110 or another eNB). The RRC connection may be established by one or more transmissions provided to fourth circuit 1340 via RRC connection interface 1315.

The second circuit 1320 may be operable to provide a partition support signal to the eNB 1110, the partition support signal listing one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by the UE 1230 within the wireless cellular communication system bandwidth. The partition support signal may be provided to the third circuit 1330 via the partition support interface 1325. The third circuit 1330 may then be operable to send the partition support signal to the eNB 1110.

In some embodiments, one or more service-specific resource partitions have a resource block definition that differs from a legacy LTE resource block definition for at least one of the following: subcarrier spacing, TTI, number of OFDM symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per RB, bandwidth per RB, number of REs per RB, and cyclic prefix length. For various embodiments, one or more of the service-specific resource partitions may be secondary partitions.

The fourth circuit 1340 may be operable to receive a partition configuration transmission configuring one or more of the service-specific resource partitions. The partition configuration transmission may be received from the antenna port 1305 and/or the antenna 1307. In some embodiments, the fourth circuit 1340 may be operable to receive a SIB transmission from the eNB 1110, and then the fourth circuit 1340 may forward the SIB transmission to the second circuit 1320 via the partition configuration interface 1345. The SIB transmission may include resource allocation information for at least one secondary partition.

In some embodiments, the fourth circuit 1340 may be operable to receive a resource partition-specific PBCH transmission from the eNB 1110. In various embodiments, the fourth circuit 1340 may be operable to receive multiple PBCH transmissions at a first repetition rate at a first coverage extension degree from the eNB 1110, and may be operable to receive multiple PBCH transmissions at a second repetition rate at a second coverage extension degree from the eNB 1110. The second repetition rate may be greater than the first repetition rate, and the second coverage extension degree may be greater than the first coverage extension degree.

In various embodiments, the fourth circuit 1340 may be operable to receive a set of PDCCH transmissions for one of the service-specific resource partitions from the eNB 1110. In such embodiments, the set of xPDCCH transmissions may include at least one of: a resource block type for the service-specific resource partition; a resource allocation for the service-specific resource partition; and a quasi-collocated partition-specific CSI-RS configuration.

In some embodiments, the fourth circuit 1340 may be operable to receive a primary resource partition request transmission from the eNB 1110. In such embodiments, the primary resource partition request transmission may include at least one of: a resource block type serving a specific resource partition; an SS ID defining a partition ID; supported PBCH coverage extensions; resource allocations for SS and PBCH transmissions; and a partition-specific CSI-RS configuration.

In some embodiments, the first circuit 1310, the second circuit 1320, the third circuit 1330, and the fourth circuit 1340 may be implemented as separate circuits. In other embodiments, one or more of the first circuit 1310, the second circuit 1320, the third circuit 1330, and the fourth circuit 1340 may be combined and implemented together in a circuit without changing the essence of the embodiment. In various embodiments, the processor 1136 (and/or one or more other processors that the UE 1130 may include) may be arranged to perform the operations of the first circuit 1310, the second circuit 1320, the third circuit 1330, and/or the fourth circuit 1340. In such embodiments, the first circuit 1310, the second circuit 1320, the third circuit 1330, and/or the fourth circuit 1340 may be implemented by various combinations of software-configured elements (e.g., the processor 1136 and/or one or more other processors that the UE 1130 may include) and/or other hardware elements. In various embodiments, the processor 1136 (and/or one or more other processors that the UE 1130 may include) may be a baseband processor.

FIG14 illustrates a method for an eNB for flexible radio resource management signaling according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Method 1400 may include establishing 1410, receiving 1415, providing 1420, and sending 1425. In establishing 1410, an RRC connection may be established for an eNB (e.g., eNB 1110 or another eNB) with a UE (e.g., UE 1130 or another UE). In receiving 1415, a transmission may be received from UE 1130 that lists one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by UE 1130 within the wireless cellular communication system bandwidth. In providing 1420, a partition configuration transmission may be provided that configures the one or more service-specific resource partitions. In sending 1425, the partition configuration transmission may be sent to UE 1130.

In various embodiments of method 1400, one or more service-specific resource partitions may have a resource block definition that is different from the traditional LTE resource block definition for at least one of the following: subcarrier spacing, TTI, number of OFDM symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per RB, bandwidth per RB, number of REs per RB, and cyclic prefix length.

Some embodiments of method 1400 may include providing 1430 and transmitting 1435, wherein the one or more service-specific resource partitions may be secondary partitions. In providing 1430, resource allocation information for the at least one secondary partition may be provided in a SIB transmission. In transmitting 1435, the SIB transmission may be transmitted to UE 1130 in the primary partition.

In various embodiments, method 1400 may further include providing 1440 and transmitting 1445. In providing 1440, a resource partition-specific PBCH transmission may be provided, and in transmitting 1445, the resource partition-specific PBCH transmission may be transmitted to UE 1130. Similarly, in some embodiments, method 1400 may include providing 1450 and transmitting 1455. In providing 1450, multiple PBCH transmissions may be provided, and in transmitting 1455, the PBCH transmission may be transmitted to UE 1130 at a first repetition rate at a first coverage extension degree, and at a second repetition rate at a second coverage extension degree. In such embodiments, the second repetition rate may be greater than the first repetition rate, and the second coverage extension degree may be greater than the first coverage extension degree.

In some embodiments, method 1400 may include providing 1460 and transmitting 1465. In providing 1460, a set of xPDCCH transmissions for one of the service-specific resource partitions may be provided, and in transmitting 1465, the set of xPDCCH transmissions may be transmitted to UE 1130. In such embodiments, the set of xPDCCH transmissions may include at least one of: a resource block type for the service-specific resource partition; a resource allocation for the service-specific resource partition; and a quasi-collocated partition-specific CSI-RS configuration.

Some embodiments of method 1400 may include providing 1470 and transmitting 1475. In providing 1470, a primary resource partition request transmission may be provided, and in transmitting 1475, the primary resource partition request transmission may be transmitted to UE 1130. In such embodiments, the primary resource partition request transmission may include at least one of: a resource block type serving a specific resource partition; an SS ID defining a partition ID; supported PBCH coverage extensions; resource allocations for SS and PBCH transmissions; and partition-specific CSI-RS configurations.

FIG15 illustrates a method for a UE for flexible radio resource management signaling according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Method 1500 may include establishing 1510, providing 1515, sending 1520, and receiving 1525. In establishing 1510, an RRC connection may be established for a UE (e.g., UE 1130 or another UE) with an eNB (e.g., eNB 1110 or another eNB). In providing 1515, a partition support transmission may be provided for eNB 1110, the partition support transmission listing one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by UE 1130 within the wireless cellular communication system bandwidth. In sending 1520, a partition support transmission may be sent to eNB 1110. In receiving 1525, a partition configuration transmission may be received that configures one or more service-specific resource partitions.

In various embodiments of the method 1500, one or more service-specific resource partitions may have a resource block definition that differs from a legacy LTE resource block definition for at least one of the following: subcarrier spacing, TTI, number of OFDM symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per RB, bandwidth per RB, number of REs per RB, and cyclic prefix length. In some embodiments of the method 1500, one or more service-specific resource partitions may be secondary partitions.

Various embodiments of method 1500 may include one or more of receiving 1530, receiving 1540, receiving 1550, receiving 1560, and/or receiving 1570. In receiving 1530, a SIB transmission may be received from eNB 1110. The SIB transmission may include resource allocation information regarding at least one secondary partition.

At reception 1540, a resource partition-specific PBCH transmission may be received from eNB 1110. At reception 1550, multiple PBCH transmissions may be received from eNB 1110 at a first repetition rate when at one coverage extension, and multiple PBCH transmissions may be received from eNB 1110 at a second repetition rate when at a second coverage extension. In such embodiments, the second repetition rate may be greater than the first repetition rate, and the second coverage extension may be greater than the first coverage extension.

At reception 1560, a set of PDCCH transmissions may be received for one of the service-specific resource partitions from the eNB 1110. The set of xPDCCH transmissions may include at least one of: a resource block type for the service-specific resource partition; a resource allocation for the service-specific resource partition; and a quasi-collocated partition-specific CSI-RS configuration.

Finally, in reception 1570, a primary resource partition request transmission may be received from the eNB 1110. The primary resource partition request transmission may include at least one of: a resource block type serving a specific resource partition; an SSID defining a partition ID; supported PBCH coverage extensions; resource allocations for SS and PBCH transmissions; and partition-specific CSI-RS configurations.

Although the action of reference figures 14 and 15 is shown in a particular order in the flow chart, the order of the action can be modified. Therefore, the embodiment shown can be performed in different orders, and some actions can be performed in parallel. Some actions and/or operations listed in Figures 14 and 15 are optional according to specific embodiments. The numbering of the proposed action is for the sake of clarity, rather than to specify the order of operations that must occur for various actions. In addition, the operation from various flow processes can be utilized in various combinations.

Furthermore, in some embodiments, a machine-readable storage medium may have executable instructions that, when executed, cause the eNB 1110 and/or the hardware processing circuitry 1120 to perform operations including the method 1400. Similarly, in some embodiments, a machine-readable storage medium may have executable instructions that, when executed, cause the UE 1130 and/or the hardware processing circuitry 1140 to perform operations including the method 1500. Such machine-readable storage media may include any number of storage media, such as magnetic storage media (e.g., magnetic tapes or magnetic disks), optical storage media (e.g., optical disks), electronic storage media (e.g., conventional hard drives, solid-state disk drives, or flash-based storage media), or any other tangible or non-transitory storage media.

FIG16 illustrates example components of a UE device 1600 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the UE device 1600 may include at least application circuitry 1602, baseband circuitry 1604, radio frequency (RF) circuitry 1606, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 1608, a low-power wake-up receiver (LP-WUR), and one or more antennas 1610, coupled together as shown. In some embodiments, the UE device 1600 may include additional elements, such as memory/storage, a display, a camera, sensors, and/or input/output (I/O) interfaces.

Application circuitry 1602 may include one or more application processors. For example, application circuitry 1602 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and specialized processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processor(s) may be coupled to and/or include memory/storage devices and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage devices to enable various applications and/or operating systems to run on the system.

The baseband circuitry 1604 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 1604 may include one or more baseband processors and/or control logic to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1606 and generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1606. The baseband processing circuitry 1604 may interface with the application circuitry 1602 for generating and processing baseband signals and for controlling the operation of the RF circuitry 1606. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1604 may include a second generation (2G) baseband processor 1604a, a third generation (3G) baseband processor 1604b, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 1604c, and/or one or more other baseband processors 1604d for other current generations, generations in development, or generations to be developed in the future (e.g., fifth generation (5G), 6G, etc.). Baseband circuitry 1604 (e.g., one or more of baseband processors 1604a through 1604d) may handle various radio control functions supporting communication with one or more radio networks via RF circuitry 1606. Radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, and the like. In some embodiments, the modulation/demodulation circuitry of baseband circuitry 1604 may include fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, and/or constellation mapping/demapping functions. In some embodiments, the encoding/decoding circuitry of baseband circuitry 1604 may include convolution, tail-biting, turbo, Viterbi, and/or low-density parity check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functions. Embodiments of the modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functions are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functions in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1604 may include elements of a protocol stack, such as elements of the EUTRAN protocol, including, for example, physical (PHY), medium access control (MAC), radio link control (RLC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), and/or RRC elements. The central processing unit (CPU) 1604e of the baseband circuitry 1604 may be configured to execute signaling elements of the protocol stack for the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP, and/or RRC layers. In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry may include one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 1604f. The audio DSP(s) 1604f may include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation, and in other embodiments may include other suitable processing elements. In some embodiments, the components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or arranged on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of the components of the baseband circuitry 1604 and the application circuitry 1602 may be implemented together, for example, on a system-on-chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1604 can provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1604 can support communications with the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) and/or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMANs), wireless local area networks (WLANs), and wireless personal area networks (WPANs). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 1604 is configured to support radio communications of multiple wireless protocols can be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

RF circuitry 1606 may support communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation over a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, RF circuitry 1606 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, and the like to facilitate communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 1606 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry for down-converting RF signals received from the FEM circuitry and providing a baseband signal to baseband circuitry 1604. RF circuitry 1606 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry for up-converting baseband signals provided by baseband circuitry 1604 and providing an RF output signal to FEM circuitry 1608 for transmission.

In some embodiments, RF circuitry 1606 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of RF circuitry 1606 may include mixer circuitry 1606a, amplifier circuitry 1606b, and filter circuitry 1606c. The transmit signal path of RF circuitry 1606 may include filter circuitry 1606c and mixer circuitry 1606a. RF circuitry 1606 may also include synthesizer circuitry 1606d for synthesizing a frequency spectrum for use by mixer circuitry 1606a in the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 1606a in the receive signal path may be configured to downconvert the RF signal received from FEM circuitry 1608 based on a synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 1606d. Amplifier circuitry 1606b may be configured to amplify the downconverted signal, and filter circuitry 1606c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or a band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the downconverted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuitry 1604 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may be a zero-frequency baseband signal, but this is not required. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 1606a of the receive signal path may include a passive mixer, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, mixer circuit 1606a of the transmit signal path can be configured to up-convert an input baseband signal based on a synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuit 1606d to generate an RF output signal for FEM circuit 1608. The baseband signal can be provided by baseband circuit 1604 and can be filtered by filter circuit 1606c. Filter circuit 1606c can include a low-pass filter (LPF), but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1606a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and/or up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1606a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image suppression (e.g., Hartley image suppression). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1606a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and/or direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1606a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, RF circuitry 1606 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, and baseband circuitry 1604 may include a digital baseband interface for communicating with RF circuitry 1606.

In some dual-mode embodiments, separate radio integrated circuit (IC) circuits may be provided to process signals for one or more spectrums, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 1606 d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional-N/N+1 synthesizer, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect, as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuit 1606 d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

Synthesizer circuit 1606d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency based on the frequency input and the divider control input for use by mixer circuit 1606a of RF circuit 1606. In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 1606d may be a fractional-N/N+1 synthesizer.

In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), but this is not required. Depending on the desired output frequency, the divider control input may be provided by baseband circuitry 1604 or application processor 1602. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a lookup table based on the channel indicated by application processor 1602.

The synthesizer circuit 1606d of the RF circuit 1606 may include a frequency divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the frequency divider may be a dual-modulus frequency divider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry output) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a set of cascaded tunable delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to decompose the VCO cycle into a maximum of Nd equal phase groups, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this manner, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 1606d can be configured to generate a carrier frequency as an output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency can be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency), and can be used in conjunction with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple phases different from each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency can be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, RF circuit 1606 can include an IQ/polarity converter.

FEM circuitry 1608 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 1610, amplify the received signals, and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to RF circuitry 1606 for further processing. FEM circuitry 1608 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by RF circuitry 1606 for transmission by one or more of one or more antennas 1610.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuit 1608 may include a transmit/receive (TX/RX) switch to switch between transmit and receive modes of operation. The FEM circuit 1608 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuit 1608 may include a low noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify a received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuit 1606). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuit 1608 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify an input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuit 1606) and may include one or more filters to generate an RF signal for subsequent transmission (e.g., via one or more antennas 1610).

In some embodiments, UE 1600 includes multiple power saving mechanisms. If UE 1600 is in the RRC_Connected state (where UE 1600 is still connected to the eNB because it expects to receive traffic soon), UE 1600 can enter a state called discontinuous reception mode (DRX) after a period of inactivity. In this state, the device can be turned off for brief intervals to save power.

If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, the UE 1600 may transition to an RRC idle state (RRC_Idle state) (where the UE 1600 is disconnected from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc.). The UE 1600 enters a very low power state and performs paging, where the UE 1600 periodically wakes up again to listen to the network and then powers down again. Since the device may not receive data in this state, in order to receive data, the device should transition back to the RRC connected state.

An additional power saving mode can allow a device to be unavailable to the network for periods longer than the paging interval (from a few seconds to a few hours). During this period, the device is completely unable to connect to the network and can be completely powered off. Any data sent during this period will incur a significant delay, assuming this delay is acceptable.

References in the specification to "an embodiment," "one embodiment," "some embodiments," or "other embodiments" mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least some, but not necessarily all, embodiments. The various expressions "an embodiment," "one embodiment," or "some embodiments" do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. If the specification states that a component, feature, structure, or characteristic "may," "might," or "could" be included, that particular component, feature, structure, or characteristic is not necessarily included. If the specification or claims refer to "one" or "an" element, this does not mean that there is only one element. If the specification or claims refer to "additional" elements, this does not preclude the presence of a plurality of additional elements.

In addition, in one or more embodiments, the specific features, structures, functions or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner. For example, the first embodiment may be combined with the second embodiment, where the specific features, structures, functions or characteristics associated with the two embodiments are not mutually exclusive.

Although the present disclosure has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments, many alternatives, modifications, and variations of these embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on the foregoing description. For example, other memory architectures (e.g., dynamic RAM (DRAM)) may utilize the embodiments discussed. The embodiments of the present disclosure are intended to encompass all such alternatives, modifications, and variations that fall within the broad scope of the appended claims.

In addition, for simplicity of illustration and discussion and in order not to obscure the present disclosure, well-known power/ground connections of integrated circuit (IC) chips and other components may or may not be shown in the illustrated figures. In addition, in order to avoid obscuring the present disclosure, and in view of the fact that the details of the implementation of such block diagram arrangements are highly dependent on the platform on which the present disclosure is implemented (i.e., these details should be well known to those skilled in the art), the arrangements may be shown in the form of block diagrams. Where specific details (e.g., circuits) are set forth in order to describe example embodiments of the present disclosure, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present disclosure may be implemented without these specific details or with variations of these specific details. The description is therefore considered to be illustrative and not restrictive.

The following examples relate to further embodiments. Details in the examples can be used anywhere in one or more embodiments. All optional features of the apparatus described herein can also be implemented for the method or process.

Example 1 provides an apparatus of an evolved Node B (eNB) operable to communicate with a user equipment (UE) on a wireless network, comprising: one or more processors for: establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection with the UE; processing a transmission from the UE that lists one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by the UE within a wireless cellular communication system bandwidth; and generating a partition configuration transmission for the UE that configures the one or more service-specific resource partitions.

In Example 2, the apparatus of Example 1, wherein one or more service-specific resource partitions have a resource block definition that is different from a traditional LTE resource block definition for at least one of the following: subcarrier spacing, transmit time interval (TTI), number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per resource block (RB), bandwidth per RB, number of resource elements (REs) per RB, or cyclic prefix length.

In Example 3, the apparatus of any of Examples 1 or 2, wherein the one or more service-specific resource partitions are secondary partitions; wherein the one or more processors are used to generate resource allocation information about at least one of the secondary partitions in a system information block (SIB) transmission to the UE in the primary partition.

In Example 4, the apparatus of any one of Examples 1 to 3, wherein the one or more processors are configured to generate a resource partitioned dedicated physical broadcast channel (PBCH) transmission for the UE.

In Example 5, an apparatus of any one of Examples 1 to 4, wherein the one or more processors are used to generate multiple physical broadcast channel (PBCH) transmissions to the UE at a first repetition rate at a first coverage extension; wherein the one or more processors are used to generate multiple PBCH transmissions to the UE at a second repetition rate at a second coverage extension; wherein the second coverage extension is greater than the first coverage extension; and wherein the second repetition rate is greater than the first repetition rate.

In Example 6, an apparatus of any of Examples 1 to 5, wherein one or more processors are used to generate a set of extended physical downlink control channel (xPDCCH) transmissions to the UE for one of the service-specific resource partitions; and wherein the set of xPDCCH transmissions includes at least one of: a resource block type for the service-specific resource partition; a resource allocation for the service-specific resource partition; or a quasi-parallel partition-specific channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration.

In Example 7, an apparatus of any one of Examples 1 to 6, wherein the one or more processors are used to generate a primary resource partition request transmission for the UE; and wherein the primary resource partition request transmission includes at least one of the following: a resource block type serving a specific resource partition; a synchronization signal (SS) ID defining a partition ID; supported physical broadcast channel (PBCH) coverage extension; resource allocation for SS and PBCH transmissions; or a partition-specific channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration.

Example 8 provides an eNB device comprising: an application processor; a memory; one or more antenna ports; and an interface for allowing the application processor to communicate with another device; the eNB device includes an apparatus according to any one of Examples 1 to 7.

Example 9 provides a machine-readable storage medium having machine-executable instructions, which, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform operations, the operations including: establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection with a UE for an evolved Node B (eNB); processing a transmission from the UE, wherein the transmission lists one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by the UE within a wireless cellular communication system bandwidth; and generating a partition configuration transmission for the UE, wherein the partition configuration transmission configures one or more service-specific resource partitions.

In Example 10, the machine-readable storage medium of Example 9, wherein one or more service-specific resource partitions have a resource block definition that is different from a traditional LTE resource block definition for at least one of the following: subcarrier spacing, transmit time interval (TTI), number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per resource block (RB), bandwidth per RB, number of resource elements (REs) per RB, or cyclic prefix length.

In Example 11, the machine-readable storage medium of any one of Examples 9 or 10, wherein the one or more service-specific resource partitions are secondary partitions, the operation includes: generating resource allocation information about at least one of the secondary partitions in a system information block (SIB) sent to the UE in the primary partition.

In Example 12, the machine-readable storage medium of any one of Examples 9 to 11, the operations comprising generating a resource partitioned dedicated physical broadcast channel (PBCH) transmission for the UE.

In Example 13, the machine-readable storage medium of any one of Examples 9 to 12, the operations include: generating multiple physical broadcast channel (PBCH) transmissions for the UE at a first repetition rate at a first coverage extension; and generating multiple PBCH transmissions to the UE at a second repetition rate at a second coverage extension, wherein the second coverage extension is greater than the first coverage extension, and wherein the second repetition rate is greater than the first repetition rate.

In Example 14, the machine-readable storage medium of any one of Examples 9 to 13, the operation includes: generating a set of extended physical downlink control channel (xPDCCH) transmissions for the UE for one of the service-specific resource partitions, wherein the set of xPDCCH transmissions includes at least one of the following: a resource block type of the service-specific resource partition; a resource allocation of the service-specific resource partition; or a quasi-parallel partition-specific channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration.

In Example 15, the machine-readable storage medium of any one of Examples 9 to 14, the operation includes: generating a primary resource partition request for the UE; wherein the primary resource partition request includes at least one of the following: a resource block type serving a specific resource partition; a synchronization signal (SS) ID defining a partition ID; supported physical broadcast channel (PBCH) coverage extension; resource allocation for SS and PBCH transmissions; or a partition-specific channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration.

Example 16 provides a method comprising: establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection with a UE for an evolved Node B (eNB); processing a transmission from the UE, wherein the transmission lists one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by the UE within a wireless cellular communication system bandwidth; and generating a partition configuration transmission for the UE, wherein the partition configuration transmission configures one or more service-specific resource partitions.

In Example 17, the method of Example 16, wherein one or more service-specific resource partitions have a resource block definition that is different from a traditional LTE resource block definition for at least one of the following: subcarrier spacing, transmit time interval (TTI), number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per resource block (RB), bandwidth per RB, number of resource elements (REs) per RB, or cyclic prefix length.

In Example 18, the method of any one of Examples 16 or 17, wherein the one or more service-specific resource partitions are secondary partitions, the method includes generating resource allocation information about at least one of the secondary partitions in a system information block (SIB) sent to the UE in the primary partition.

In Example 19, the method of any one of Examples 16 to 18, the method comprising generating a resource partitioned dedicated physical broadcast channel (PBCH) transmission for the UE.

In Example 20, the method of any one of Examples 16 to 19, the method comprising: generating multiple physical broadcast channel (PBCH) transmissions to the UE at a first repetition rate at a first coverage extension; and generating multiple PBCH transmissions to the UE at a second repetition rate at a second coverage extension, wherein the second coverage extension is greater than the first coverage extension, and wherein the second repetition rate is greater than the first repetition rate.

In Example 21, the method of any one of Examples 16 to 20 includes: generating a set of extended physical downlink control channel (xPDCCH) transmissions for the UE for one of the service-specific resource partitions, wherein the set of xPDCCH transmissions includes at least one of the following: a resource block type of the service-specific resource partition; a resource allocation of the service-specific resource partition; or a quasi-parallel partition-specific channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration.

In Example 22, the method of any one of Examples 16 to 21 includes: generating a primary resource partition request for a UE; wherein the primary resource partition request includes at least one of the following: a resource block type serving a specific resource partition; a synchronization signal (SS) ID defining a partition ID; supported physical broadcast channel (PBCH) coverage extension; resource allocation for SS and PBCH transmissions; or a partition-specific channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration.

Example 23 provides a machine-readable storage medium having machine-executable instructions stored thereon, which, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform the method according to any one of Examples 16 to 22.

Example 24 provides a device of an evolved Node B (eNB) operable to communicate with a user equipment (UE) on a wireless network, comprising: a device for establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection with the UE; a device for processing a transmission from the UE, the transmission listing one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by the UE within the bandwidth of a wireless cellular communication system; and a device for generating a partition configuration transmission for the UE, the partition configuration transmission configuring one or more service-specific resource partitions.

In Example 25, the device of Example 24, wherein one or more service-specific resource partitions have a resource block definition that is different from a traditional LTE resource block definition for at least one of the following: subcarrier spacing, transmit time interval (TTI), number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per resource block (RB), bandwidth per RB, number of resource elements (REs) per RB, or cyclic prefix length.

In Example 26, the device of any of Examples 24 or 25, wherein one or more service-specific resource partitions are secondary partitions, the device includes: a device for generating resource allocation information about at least one of the secondary partitions in a system information block (SIB) transmission to the UE in the primary partition.

In Example 27, the apparatus of any one of Examples 24 to 26, the apparatus comprising: means for generating a resource partitioned dedicated physical broadcast channel (PBCH) transmission for the UE.

In Example 28, the device of any one of Examples 24 to 27 includes: a device for generating multiple physical broadcast channel (PBCH) transmissions to the UE at a first repetition rate at a first coverage extension; and a device for generating multiple PBCH transmissions to the UE at a second repetition rate at a second coverage extension, wherein the second coverage extension is greater than the first coverage extension, and wherein the second repetition rate is greater than the first repetition rate.

In Example 29, the device of any one of Examples 24 to 28 includes: a device for generating a set of extended physical downlink control channel (xPDCCH) transmissions for the UE for one of the service-specific resource partitions, wherein the set of xPDCCH transmissions includes at least one of the following: a resource block type of the service-specific resource partition; a resource allocation of the service-specific resource partition; or a quasi-parallel partition-specific channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration.

In Example 30, the device of any one of Examples 24 to 29 includes: a device for generating a primary resource partition request sent to a UE; wherein the primary resource partition request sent includes at least one of the following: a resource block type serving a specific resource partition; a synchronization signal (SS) ID defining a partition ID; supported physical broadcast channel (PBCH) coverage extension; resource allocation for SS and PBCH transmissions; or a partition-specific channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration.

Example 31 provides an apparatus for a user equipment (UE) operable to communicate with an evolved Node B (eNB) on a wireless network, comprising: one or more processors for: establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection with the eNB; generating a partition support transmission to the eNB, wherein the partition support transmission lists one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by the UE within the bandwidth of the wireless cellular communication system; and processing a partition configuration transmission that configures the one or more service-specific resource partitions.

In Example 32, the apparatus of Example 31, wherein one or more service-specific resource partitions have a resource block definition that is different from a traditional LTE resource block definition for at least one of: subcarrier spacing, transmit time interval (TTI), number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per resource block (RB), bandwidth per RB, number of resource elements (REs) per RB, or cyclic prefix length.

In Example 33, the apparatus of any of Examples 31 or 32, wherein the one or more service-specific resource partitions are secondary partitions; and wherein the one or more processors are used to process a system information block (SIB) transmission from the eNB, the SIB transmission including resource allocation information about at least one of the secondary partitions.

In Example 34, the apparatus of any one of Examples 31 to 33, wherein the one or more processors are configured to process a resource partitioned dedicated physical broadcast channel (PBCH) transmission from the eNB.

In Example 35, the apparatus of any of Examples 31 to 34, wherein the one or more processors are used to process a first plurality of physical broadcast channel (PBCH) transmissions from the eNB at a first repetition rate at a first coverage spread; wherein the one or more processors are used to process a second plurality of PBCH transmissions from the eNB at a second repetition rate at a second coverage spread; wherein the second coverage spread is greater than the first coverage spread; and wherein the second repetition rate is greater than the first repetition rate.

In Example 36, an apparatus of any of Examples 31 to 35, wherein one or more processors are used to process a set of extended physical downlink control channel (xPDCCH) transmissions from an eNB for one of the service-specific resource partitions; and wherein the set of xPDCCH transmissions includes at least one of: a resource block type for the service-specific resource partition; a resource allocation for the service-specific resource partition; or a quasi-parallel partition-specific channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration.

In Example 37, an apparatus of any of Examples 31 to 36, wherein the one or more processors are used to process a primary resource partition request transmission from an eNB; and wherein the primary resource partition request transmission includes at least one of the following: a resource block type serving a specific resource partition; a synchronization signal (SS) ID defining a partition ID; supported physical broadcast channel (PBCH) coverage extensions; resource allocations for SS and PBCH transmissions; or a partition-specific channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration.

Example 38 provides a UE device comprising: an application processor; a memory; one or more antennas; a wireless interface for allowing the application processor to communicate with another device; and a touch screen display; the UE device includes an apparatus according to any one of Examples 31 to 37.

Example 39 provides a machine-readable storage medium having machine-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform operations, the operations comprising: establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection with an evolved Node B (eNB) for a user equipment (UE); generating a partition support transmission to the eNB, the partition support transmission listing one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by the UE within the bandwidth of a wireless cellular communication system; and processing a partition configuration transmission that configures the one or more service-specific resource partitions.

In Example 40, the machine-readable storage medium of Example 39, wherein one or more service-specific resource partitions have a resource block definition that is different from a legacy LTE resource block definition for at least one of: subcarrier spacing, transmit time interval (TTI), number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per resource block (RB), bandwidth per RB, number of resource elements (REs) per RB, or cyclic prefix length.

In Example 41, the machine-readable storage medium of any of Examples 39 or 40, wherein the one or more service-specific resource partitions are secondary partitions, the operation includes: processing a system information block (SIB) transmission from the eNB, the SIB transmission including resource allocation information about at least one of the secondary partitions.

In Example 42, the machine-readable storage medium of any one of Examples 39 to 41, the operations comprising processing a resource partitioned dedicated physical broadcast channel (PBCH) transmission from the eNB.

In Example 43, the machine-readable storage medium of any one of Examples 39 to 42, the operations include: processing a first plurality of physical broadcast channel (PBCH) transmissions from the eNB at a first repetition rate at a first coverage extension; and processing a second plurality of PBCH transmissions from the eNB at a second repetition rate at a second coverage extension; wherein the second coverage extension is greater than the first coverage extension; and wherein the second repetition rate is greater than the first repetition rate.

In Example 44, the machine-readable storage medium of any one of Examples 39 to 43, the operations include: processing a set of extended physical downlink control channel (xPDCCH) transmissions from an eNB for one of the service-specific resource partitions, wherein the set of xPDCCH transmissions includes at least one of the following: a resource block type for the service-specific resource partition; a resource allocation for the service-specific resource partition; or a quasi-parallel partition-specific channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration.

In Example 45, the machine-readable storage medium of any one of Examples 39 to 44, the operations include: processing a master resource partition request transmission from an eNB, wherein the master resource partition request transmission includes at least one of the following: a resource block type serving a specific resource partition; a synchronization signal (SS) ID defining a partition ID; supported physical broadcast channel (PBCH) coverage extensions; resource allocations for SS and PBCH transmissions; or a partition-specific channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration.

Example 46 provides a method comprising: establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection for a user equipment (UE) with an evolved Node B (eNB); generating a partition support transmission to the eNB, the partition support transmission listing one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by the UE within a wireless cellular communication system bandwidth; and processing a partition configuration transmission that configures the one or more service-specific resource partitions.

In Example 47, the method of Example 46, wherein one or more service-specific resource partitions have a resource block definition that is different from the traditional LTE resource block definition for at least one of the following: subcarrier spacing, transmit time interval (TTI), number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per resource block (RB), bandwidth per RB, number of resource elements (REs) per RB, or cyclic prefix length.

In Example 48, the method of any of Examples 46 or 47, wherein the one or more service-specific resource partitions are secondary partitions, the operation includes: processing a system information block (SIB) transmission from the eNB, the SIB transmission including resource allocation information about at least one of the secondary partitions.

In Example 49, the method of any one of Examples 46 to 48, the method comprising processing a resource partitioned dedicated physical broadcast channel (PBCH) transmission from the eNB.

In Example 50, the method of any one of Examples 46 to 49, the method comprising: processing a first plurality of physical broadcast channel (PBCH) transmissions from the eNB at a first repetition rate at a first coverage extension; and processing a second plurality of PBCH transmissions from the eNB at a second repetition rate at a second coverage extension; wherein the second coverage extension is greater than the first coverage extension; and wherein the second repetition rate is greater than the first repetition rate.

In Example 51, the method of any one of Examples 46 to 50, the method comprising: processing a set of extended physical downlink control channel (xPDCCH) transmissions from an eNB for one of the service-specific resource partitions, wherein the set of xPDCCH transmissions comprises at least one of: a resource block type for the service-specific resource partition; a resource allocation for the service-specific resource partition; or a quasi-parallel partition-specific channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration.

In Example 52, the method of any one of Examples 46 to 51, the method comprising: processing a master resource partition request sent from an eNB, wherein the master resource partition request sent includes at least one of the following: a resource block type serving a specific resource partition; a synchronization signal (SS) ID defining a partition ID; supported physical broadcast channel (PBCH) coverage extensions; resource allocations for SS and PBCH transmissions; or a partition-specific channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration.

Example 53 provides a machine-readable storage medium having machine-executable instructions stored thereon, which, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform the method according to any one of Examples 46 to 52.

Example 54 provides a device for a user equipment (UE) operable to communicate with an evolved Node B (eNB) on a wireless network, comprising: a device for establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection with the eNB; a device for generating a partition support transmission to the eNB, the partition support transmission listing one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by the UE within the bandwidth of the wireless cellular communication system; and a device for processing a partition configuration transmission that configures the one or more service-specific resource partitions.

In Example 55, the device of Example 54, wherein one or more service-specific resource partitions have a resource block definition that is different from a traditional LTE resource block definition for at least one of the following: subcarrier spacing, transmit time interval (TTI), number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per resource block (RB), bandwidth per RB, number of resource elements (REs) per RB, or cyclic prefix length.

In Example 56, the apparatus of any of Examples 54 or 55, wherein one or more service-specific resource partitions are secondary partitions, the apparatus comprising: a device for processing a system information block (SIB) transmission from an eNB, the SIB transmission including resource allocation information about at least one of the secondary partitions.

In Example 57, the apparatus of any one of Examples 54 to 56, the apparatus comprising: means for processing a resource partitioned dedicated physical broadcast channel (PBCH) transmission from an eNB.

In Example 58, the apparatus of any one of Examples 54 to 57, the apparatus comprising: a device for processing a first plurality of physical broadcast channel (PBCH) transmissions from an eNB at a first repetition rate at a first coverage extension; and a device for processing a second plurality of PBCH transmissions from the eNB at a second repetition rate at a second coverage extension; wherein the second coverage extension is greater than the first coverage extension; and wherein the second repetition rate is greater than the first repetition rate.

In Example 59, the apparatus of any one of Examples 54 to 58, the apparatus comprising: an apparatus for processing a set of extended physical downlink control channel (xPDCCH) transmissions from an eNB for one of the service-specific resource partitions, wherein the set of xPDCCH transmissions comprises at least one of: a resource block type for the service-specific resource partition; a resource allocation for the service-specific resource partition; or a quasi-parallel partition-specific channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration.

In Example 60, the apparatus of any one of Examples 54 to 59, the apparatus comprising: a device for processing a primary resource partition request sent from an eNB, wherein the primary resource partition request sent includes at least one of: a resource block type serving a specific resource partition; a synchronization signal (SS) ID defining a partition ID; supported physical broadcast channel (PBCH) coverage extensions; resource allocations for SS and PBCH transmissions; or a partition-specific channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) configuration.

In Example 61, the apparatus of any one of Examples 1 to 7, 24 to 30, 31 to 37, and 54 to 60, wherein the one or more processors include a baseband processor.

The abstract is provided to allow the reader to ascertain the nature and gist of the technical disclosure. The abstract is submitted without being used to limit the scope or meaning of the claims. The following claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.

Claims (34)

1. An apparatus operable for communicating with a user equipment (UE) over a wireless network in an evolved Node B (eNB), comprising: One or more processors, for: Establish a radio resource control (RRC) connection with the UE; Processing transmissions from the UE, wherein the transmissions list one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by the UE within the bandwidth of the wireless cellular communication system; Generate a partition configuration transmission for the UE, wherein the partition configuration transmission configures the one or more service-specific resource partitions; When the coverage extension is at the first level, multiple physical broadcast channels (PBCH) are generated and transmitted for the UE at a first repetition rate; and When the coverage extension is second, the plurality of PBCH transmissions for the UE are generated at the second repetition rate. The second coverage extension is greater than the first coverage extension, and the second repetition rate is greater than the first repetition rate. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, The one or more service-specific resource partitions mentioned therein have a resource block definition that differs from the conventional LTE resource block definition for at least one of the following: subcarrier spacing, transmission time interval (TTI), number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per resource block (RB), bandwidth per RB, number of resource elements (RE) per RB, or cyclic prefix length. 3. The apparatus according to any one of claims 1 or 2, The one or more service-specific resource partitions mentioned above are secondary partitions; The one or more processors are configured to generate resource allocation information about at least one of the secondary partitions in the secondary partition during the transmission of a System Information Block (SIB) for the UE in the primary partition. 4. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the plurality of PBCH transmissions are resource partition specific. 5. An eNB device, comprising: an application processor; a memory; one or more antenna ports; and an interface for allowing the application processor to communicate with another device; the eNB device comprising the means according to any one of claims 1 to 4. 6. A machine-readable storage medium having machine-executable instructions, which, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform operations, the operations including: Establish a radio resource control (RRC) connection between the evolved Node B (eNB) and the UE; Processing transmissions from the UE, wherein the transmissions list one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by the UE within the bandwidth of the wireless cellular communication system; Generate a partition configuration transmission for the UE, wherein the partition configuration transmission configures the one or more service-specific resource partitions; When the coverage extension is at the first level, multiple physical broadcast channels (PBCH) are generated and transmitted for the UE at a first repetition rate; and When the coverage extension is second, the plurality of PBCH transmissions for the UE are generated at the second repetition rate. The second coverage extension is greater than the first coverage extension, and the second repetition rate is greater than the first repetition rate. 7. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the one or more service-specific resource partitions have a resource block definition different from a conventional LTE resource block definition for at least one of the following: subcarrier spacing, transmission time interval (TTI), number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per resource block (RB), bandwidth per RB, number of resource elements (REs) per RB, or cyclic prefix length. 8. The machine-readable storage medium according to any one of claims 6 or 7, wherein the one or more service-specific resource partitions are secondary partitions, the operation comprising: Resource allocation information for at least one of the secondary partitions is generated during the transmission of the System Information Block (SIB) for the UE in the primary partition. 9. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 6 or 7, wherein the plurality of PBCH transmissions are resource partition-specific. 10. A method for communication, comprising: Establish a radio resource control (RRC) connection between the evolved Node B (eNB) and the UE; Processing transmissions from the UE, wherein the transmissions list one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by the UE within the bandwidth of the wireless cellular communication system; Generate a partition configuration transmission for the UE, wherein the partition configuration transmission configures the one or more service-specific resource partitions; When the coverage extension is at the first level, multiple physical broadcast channels (PBCH) are generated and transmitted for the UE at a first repetition rate; and When the coverage extension is second, the plurality of PBCH transmissions for the UE are generated at the second repetition rate. The second coverage extension is greater than the first coverage extension, and the second repetition rate is greater than the first repetition rate. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more service-specific resource partitions have a resource block definition different from a conventional LTE resource block definition for at least one of the following: subcarrier spacing, transmission time interval (TTI), number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per resource block (RB), bandwidth per RB, number of resource elements (REs) per RB, or cyclic prefix length. 12. The method of any one of claims 10 or 11, wherein the one or more service-specific resource partitions are secondary partitions, the method comprising: Resource allocation information for at least one of the secondary partitions is generated during the transmission of the System Information Block (SIB) for the UE in the primary partition. 13. The method of any one of claims 10 or 11, wherein the plurality of PBCH transmissions are resource partition specific. 14. An evolved Node B (eNB) operable for communicating with a User Equipment (UE) over a wireless network, comprising: A means for establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection with the UE; A means for processing transmissions from the UE, wherein the transmissions list one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by the UE within the bandwidth of the wireless cellular communication system; A means for generating a partition configuration transmission for the UE, the partition configuration transmission configuring the one or more service-specific resource partitions; Means for generating and transmitting multiple physical broadcast channels (PBCHs) for the UE at a first repetition rate under a first coverage extension; and A means for generating the plurality of PBCH transmissions for the UE at a second repetition rate when under a second coverage extension. The second coverage extension is greater than the first coverage extension, and the second repetition rate is greater than the first repetition rate. 15. The device of claim 14, wherein the one or more service-specific resource partitions have a resource block definition different from a conventional LTE resource block definition for at least one of the following: subcarrier spacing, transmission time interval (TTI), number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per resource block (RB), bandwidth per RB, number of resource elements (REs) per RB, or cyclic prefix length. 16. The device according to any one of claims 14 or 15, wherein the one or more service-specific resource partitions are secondary partitions, the device comprising: A means for generating resource allocation information about at least one of the secondary partitions in the secondary partitions during the transmission of a System Information Block (SIB) for the UE in the primary partition. 17. The device according to any one of claims 14 or 15, wherein the plurality of PBCH transmissions are resource partition specific. 18. An apparatus operable for communicating with an evolved Node B (eNB) over a wireless network, comprising: One or more processors, for: Establish a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection with the eNB; Generate a partition support transmission for the eNB, wherein the partition support transmission lists one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by the UE within the wireless cellular communication system bandwidth; Process the sending of partition configurations for one or more service-specific resource partitions; When the coverage extension is at the first level, the first plurality of physical broadcast channels (PBCH) transmissions from the eNB are processed at the first repetition rate; and When the coverage extension is second, the second plurality of PBCH transmissions from the eNB are processed at the second repetition rate. The second coverage extension is greater than the first coverage extension, and the second repetition rate is greater than the first repetition rate. 19. The apparatus according to claim 18, The one or more service-specific resource partitions mentioned therein have a resource block definition that differs from the conventional LTE resource block definition for at least one of the following: subcarrier spacing, transmission time interval (TTI), number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per resource block (RB), bandwidth per RB, number of resource elements (RE) per RB, or cyclic prefix length. 20. The apparatus according to any one of claims 18 or 19, The one or more service-specific resource partitions mentioned above are secondary partitions; and The one or more processors are used to process System Information Block (SIB) transmissions from the eNB, the SIB transmissions including resource allocation information about at least one of the secondary partitions. 21. The apparatus of claim 18 or 19, wherein the first plurality of PBCH transmissions and the second plurality of PBCH transmissions are resource partition specific. 22. A UE device, comprising: an application processor; a memory; one or more antennas; a wireless interface for allowing the application processor to communicate with another device; and a touchscreen display; the UE device comprising means according to any one of claims 18 to 21. 23. A machine-readable storage medium having machine-executable instructions, which, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform operations, the operations including: Establish a radio resource control (RRC) connection between the user equipment (UE) and the evolved Node B (eNB); Generate a partition support transmission for the eNB, wherein the partition support transmission lists one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by the UE within the wireless cellular communication system bandwidth; Process the sending of partition configurations for one or more service-specific resource partitions; When the coverage extension is at the first level, the transmissions from the first plurality of physical broadcast channels (PBCH) of the eNB are processed at the first repetition rate; and When the coverage extension is second, the second plurality of PBCH transmissions from the eNB are processed at the second repetition rate. The second coverage extension is greater than the first coverage extension, and the second repetition rate is greater than the first repetition rate. 24. The machine-readable storage medium according to claim 23, The one or more service-specific resource partitions mentioned therein have a resource block definition that differs from the conventional LTE resource block definition for at least one of the following: subcarrier spacing, transmission time interval (TTI), number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per resource block (RB), bandwidth per RB, number of resource elements (RE) per RB, or cyclic prefix length. 25. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 23 or 24, wherein the one or more service-specific resource partitions are secondary partitions, the operation comprising: Processing System Information Block (SIB) transmissions from the eNB, the SIB transmissions including resource allocation information for at least one of the secondary partitions. 26. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 23 or 24, wherein the first plurality of PBCH transmissions and the second plurality of PBCH transmissions are resource partition-specific. 27. A method for communication, comprising: Establish a radio resource control (RRC) connection between the user equipment (UE) and the evolved Node B (eNB); Generate a partition support transmission for the eNB, wherein the partition support transmission lists one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by the UE within the wireless cellular communication system bandwidth; Process the sending of partition configurations for one or more service-specific resource partitions; When the coverage extension is at the first level, the first plurality of physical broadcast channels (PBCH) transmissions from the eNB are processed at the first repetition rate; and When the coverage extension is second, the second plurality of PBCH transmissions from the eNB are processed at the second repetition rate. The second coverage extension is greater than the first coverage extension, and the second repetition rate is greater than the first repetition rate. 28. The method according to claim 27, The one or more service-specific resource partitions mentioned therein have a resource block definition that differs from the conventional LTE resource block definition for at least one of the following: subcarrier spacing, transmission time interval (TTI), number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per resource block (RB), bandwidth per RB, number of resource elements (RE) per RB, or cyclic prefix length. 29. The method of claim 27 or 28, wherein the one or more service-specific resource partitions are secondary partitions, the method comprising: Processing System Information Block (SIB) transmissions from the eNB, the SIB transmissions including resource allocation information for at least one of the secondary partitions. 30. The method of any one of claims 27 or 28, wherein the first plurality of PBCH transmissions and the second plurality of PBCH transmissions are resource partition specific. 31. An apparatus operable for communicating with an evolved Node B (eNB) over a wireless network, comprising: Devices for establishing a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection with an evolved Node B (eNB); A means for generating a partition support transmission for the eNB, wherein the partition support transmission lists one or more service-specific resource partitions supported by the UE within the bandwidth of the wireless cellular communication system. A means for processing the transmission of partition configurations for configuring one or more service-specific resource partitions; Means for processing first plurality of physical broadcast channels (PBCH) transmissions from the eNB at a first repetition rate under a first coverage extension; and A means for processing a second plurality of PBCH transmissions from the eNB at a second repetition rate when under a second coverage extension. The second coverage extension is greater than the first coverage extension, and the second repetition rate is greater than the first repetition rate. 32. The device according to claim 31, The one or more service-specific resource partitions mentioned therein have a resource block definition that differs from the conventional LTE resource block definition for at least one of the following: subcarrier spacing, transmission time interval (TTI), number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols per TTI, number of subcarriers per resource block (RB), bandwidth per RB, number of resource elements (RE) per RB, or cyclic prefix length. 33. The device of claim 31 or 32, wherein the one or more service-specific resource partitions are secondary partitions, the device comprising: A means for processing System Information Block (SIB) transmissions from the eNB, the SIB transmissions including resource allocation information about at least one of the secondary partitions. 34. The device according to claim 31 or 32, wherein the first plurality of PBCH transmissions and the second plurality of PBCH transmissions are resource partition specific.