US 11,109,409 B2 · Assisted random access procedure for NR-U

Abstract

An assisted random-access procedure allows band sharing between New Radio Unlicensed (NR-U) and Wi-Fi to improve coexistence of NR-U and Wi-Fi in shared unlicensed bands (e.g., below 7 GHz). To connect to an NR-U network, NR-U User Equipment (UE) receives and decodes an NR-U preamble of an NR-U wireless transmission to determine NR-U channel occupancy time (COT). The NR-U UE detects Wi-Fi wireless transmissions and decodes a Wi-Fi preamble to determine Wi-Fi COT. A random access (RA) opportunity is acquired based upon the NR-U wireless transmission and the NR-U COT. When the RA opportunity is not during the Wi-Fi COT, a PRACh message is transmitted from the NR-U UE to a NR-U base station (gNB) to allow the NR-U UE to join the NR-U network. NR-U transmissions may include an NR-U common preamble that may be decoded by existing Wi-Fi devices to avoid collisions with NR-U wireless transmissions.

Claims8

Dependent claims

An assisted random-access procedure for New Radio Unlicensed (NR-U) to share a band with Wi-Fi, comprising:

receiving, by NR-U User Equipment (UE), an NR-U wireless transmission;
decoding the NR-U wireless transmission to determine an NR-U channel occupancy time (COT);
detecting, by the NR-U UE, a Wi-Fi wireless transmission including a Wi-Fi preamble;
decoding the Wi-Fi preamble to determine a Wi-Fi COT;
acquiring a random access (RA) opportunity based upon the NR-U wireless transmission;
and
transmitting, during the RA opportunity, a physical random-access channel (PRACh) message from the NR-U UE to a NR-U base station (gNB) when (a) the RA opportunity does not occur during the NR-U COT or the Wi-Fi COT, or when (b) the NR-U COT is from the gNB and the RA opportunity occurs within a remainder of the NR-U COT, and the RA opportunity does not occur within the Wi-Fi COT;
wherein the step of transmitting further comprises performing listen-before-talk (LBT) when (c) the RA opportunity is not within the NR-U COT and when (d) the RA opportunity is within the NR-U COT but the NR-U COT is not generated by the gNB.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Assisted random access procedure for NR-U

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Assisted random access procedure for NR-U

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims8