Flexible resource allocation for even further enhanced machine type communication (EFEMTC)

A non-transitory computer readable storage device including instructions stored thereon, which when executed by one or more processors of a User Equipment (UE), configure the UE for machine type communication (MTC) and cause the UE to perform operations to:

• decode UE-specific radio resource control (RRC) signaling from a base station, the UE-specific RRC signaling including a higher-layer parameter indicating that flexible starting physical resource block (PRB) for a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) resource allocation is activated when the higher-layer parameter is set;
• decode downlink control information (DCI) received in an MTC physical downlink control channel (MPDCCH), the DCI indicating a resource block assignment for the PDSCH resource allocation;
• determine a narrowband (NB) index of a NB frequency resource of the PDSCH resource allocation based on the resource block assignment;
• shift the NB frequency resource associated with the NB index by a predefined number of resource blocks, when the higher-layer parameter in the UE-specific RRC signaling is set, the predefined number of resource blocks selected based on the NB index;
• refrain from shifting the NB frequency resource the NB index when the higher-layer parameter in the UE-specific RRC signaling is not set;
• and
• decode PDSCH data received from the base station using the shifted NB frequency resource.

A non-transitory computer readable storage device including instructions stored thereon, which when executed by one or more processors of a base station, configure the base station for machine type communication (MTC) and cause the base station to perform operations to:

• encode UE-specific radio resource control (RRC) signaling for transmission to a user equipment (UE), the UE-specific RRC signaling including a higher-layer parameter indicating whether flexible starting physical resource block (PRB) for a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) resource allocation is activated;
• encode downlink control information (DCI) for transmission in an MTC physical downlink control channel (MPDCCH), the DCI indicating a resource block assignment for the PDSCH resource allocation;
• and
• encode PDSCH data for transmission to the UE using a shifted narrowband (NB) frequency resource, wherein a NB index of a NB frequency resource corresponding to the shifted NB frequency resource is based on the resource block assignment and the shifted NB frequency resource is associated with shifting by a pre-defined number of resource blocks selected based on the NB index.