# US 12,004,179 B2 · Method and apparatus for transmitting group downlink control information

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- Number: US 12,004,179 B2
- Document ID: US12004179B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 17/422,223
- Filed: 2020-01-13
- Published: 2022-03-17
- Granted: 2024-06-04
- Earliest claimed: 2019-01-11
- Assignees: Zte Corporation
- Applicants: Zte Corporation
- Inventors: Xianghui Han; Peng Hao; Wei Gou; Chunli Liang; Jing Shi; Shuqiang Xia
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12004179B2

## CPC

- H04L 1/1822: involving configuration of automatic repeat request [ARQ] with parallel processes
- H04W 72/23: in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
- H04L 1/1614: {using bitmaps}
- H04L 1/1812: Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
- H04L 1/1864: {ARQ related signaling (H04L1/1607 takes precedence)}
- H04L 5/0055: {Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK (for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861)}
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)
- H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72)

## Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method and apparatus for transmitting group downlink control information (DCI), wherein the method includes: transmitting group DCI to a user side, wherein the group DCI includes N bit blocks, and each bit block carries indication information including at least one of: an identifier of a user to be fed back (UE-ID), an identifier of a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) process (HARQ-ID) of the user to be fed back, and a bitmap mapping of K HARQ processes of one user; and the indication information carried in each bit block of the group DCI is configured to indicate feedback information of the corresponding HARQ process.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method for transmitting group downlink control information (DCI), comprising:
transmitting group Downlink Control Information (DCI) to a user side, wherein the group DCI comprises N bit blocks, and each bit block carries indication information comprising at least one of: an identifier of a user to be fed back (UE-ID), an identifier of a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) process (HARQ-ID) of the user to be fed back, and a bitmap mapping of K HARQ processes of one user; where N is a positive integer greater than 0; and the indication information carried in each bit block of the group DCI is configured to indicate feedback information of an HARQ process corresponding to the indication information;
wherein before transmitting the group DCI to the user side, the method further comprises:
setting a bit value corresponding to at least one of the UE-ID and the HARQ-ID in bit blocks of the group DCI, wherein each bit block comprises one UE-ID and at least one HARQ-ID, and N is a predefined value or a semi-statically configured value;
wherein the step of setting a bit value corresponding to at least one of the UE-ID and the HARQ-ID in bit blocks of the group DCI comprises:
selecting P bit blocks for setting at least one of the UE-ID of the user to be fed back and the HARQ-ID of the user to be fed back, and defining the P bit blocks as valid bit blocks, where P is a integer greater than 0; and
defining, in the case that P<N, bit blocks except the P bit blocks among the N bit blocks as invalid bit blocks, wherein values of the invalid bit blocks are set by at least one of:
setting each invalid bit block to the same value as at least one valid bit block among the P bit blocks; or
setting values of all invalid bit blocks to 0 or 1 or other preset values.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, wherein the group DCI has a bit size that is an integer multiple of the number of bit blocks N in the group DCI.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, wherein each bit block comprises M bit fields indicating M HARQ-IDs of one user, where M is a positive integer greater than 0, and M is a predefined value or a semi-statically configured value.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The method according to claim 3, wherein a value of M of different users is configured to be the same or different.

### Claim 5 (depends on 3)

The method according to claim 3, further comprising:
setting one-to-one correspondences between users and indexes of the bit blocks or indexes of the bit fields.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The method according to claim 5, wherein the step of setting one-to-one correspondences between users and indexes of the bit blocks or indexes of the bit fields comprises:
configuring the indexes of the bit blocks or the indexes of the bit fields corresponding to the users semi-statically through a radio resource control (RRC) signaling, wherein the indexes of the bit fields comprise the indexes for overall numbers of all bit fields contained in all bit blocks.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, wherein in the case that the number of invalid bit blocks is greater than 1, a plurality of invalid bit blocks are set to have the same value.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, wherein the maximum numbers of HARQ processes supported by different users within a single said group DCI are the same, wherein the number of bits occupied by the HARQ-ID is determined by the maximum number of HARQ processes.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The method according to claim 8, wherein the indication information carried in each bit block of the group DCI indicates an Acknowledgement (ACK) message of the HARQ process corresponding to the indication information.

### Claim 10

An apparatus for transmitting group downlink control information (DCI), comprising:
a transmitting module configured to transmit group DCI to a user side, wherein the group DCI comprises N bit blocks, and each bit block carries indication information comprising at least one of: an identifier of a user to be fed back (UE-ID), an identifier of a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) process (HARQ-ID) of the user to be fed back, and a bitmap mapping of K HARQ processes of one user; and N is a positive integer greater than 0; and the indication information carried in each bit block of the group DCI is configured to indicate feedback information of the corresponding HARQ process;
wherein each bit block comprises a bitmap mapping of M processes of one user, wherein each process corresponds to 1 bit in the bitmap mapping;
wherein the transmitting module is further configured to: set bit values of the bitmap mapping in the bit blocks of the group DCI;
wherein setting bit values of the bitmap mapping in the bit blocks of the group DCI comprises:
selecting P bit blocks for setting a receiving state value corresponding to the HARQ process of the user to be fed back, and defining the P bit blocks as valid bit blocks;
defining, in the case that P<N, bit blocks except the P bit blocks among the N bit blocks as invalid bit blocks, wherein values of the invalid bit blocks are set by at least one of:
setting each invalid bit block to the same value as at least one valid bit block among the P bit blocks; or
setting values of all invalid bit blocks to 0 or 1 or other preset values.

### Claim 11

A method for transmitting group downlink control information (DCI), comprising:
transmitting group Downlink Control Information (DCI) to a user side, wherein the group DCI comprises N bit blocks, and each bit block carries indication information comprising at least one of: an identifier of a user to be fed back (UE-ID), an identifier of a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) process (HARQ-ID) of the user to be fed back, and a bitmap mapping of K HARQ processes of one user; where N is a positive integer greater than 0; and the indication information carried in each bit block of the group DCI is configured to indicate feedback information of an HARQ process corresponding to the indication information;
wherein each bit block comprises a bitmap mapping of M processes of one user, wherein each process corresponds to 1 bit in the bitmap mapping;
wherein the method further comprises: setting bit values of the bitmap mapping in the bit blocks of the group DCI; and
wherein the step of setting bit values of the bitmap mapping in the bit blocks of the group DCI comprises:
selecting P bit blocks for setting a receiving state value corresponding to the HARQ process of the user to be fed back, and defining the P bit blocks as valid bit blocks; and
defining, in the case that P<N, bit blocks except the P bit blocks among the N bit blocks as invalid bit blocks, wherein values of the invalid bit blocks are set by at least one of:
setting each invalid bit block to the same value as at least one valid bit block among the P bit blocks; or
setting values of all invalid bit blocks to 0 or 1 or other preset values.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program thereon, wherein the computer program is configured to be executed to cause the method of claim 11 to be implemented.

### Claim 13 (depends on 11)

An electronic apparatus, comprising a memory and a processor, wherein the memory has a computer program stored thereon, and the processor is configured to execute the computer program to implement the method of claim 11.

### Claim 14 (depends on 11)

The method according to claim 11, wherein a value of M of different users is configured to be the same or different.

### Claim 15 (depends on 11)

The method according to claim 11, further comprising:
setting one-to-one correspondences between users and indexes of the bit blocks or indexes of the bit fields.

### Claim 16 (depends on 11)

The method according to claim 11, wherein in the case that the number of invalid bit blocks is greater than 1, a plurality of invalid bit blocks are set to have the same value.