# US 12,120,049 B2 · Time-domain bundling of sounding reference signals

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- Number: US 12,120,049 B2
- Document ID: US12120049B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 17/481,992
- Filed: 2021-09-22
- Published: 2022-03-31
- Granted: 2024-10-15
- Earliest claimed: 2020-09-29
- Assignees: QUALCOMM Incorporated
- Applicants: QUALCOMM Incorporated
- Inventors: Hung Dinh Ly; Muhammad Sayed Khairy Abdelghaffar
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12120049B2

## CPC

- H04L 5/0048: {Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver (allocation of control signalling H04L5/0053; use of control signalling H04L5/0091)}
- H04L 5/0094: {Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated}
- H04W 72/1268: of uplink data flows
- 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

Aspects relate to sounding reference signal (SRS) time-domain bundling. Phase continuity may be maintained across SRS transmissions over multiple SRS occasions to enable a receiver to jointly process these SRS transmissions. In some examples, a user equipment may expect to be configured with SRS transmissions over multiple SRS occasions where SRS configurations for different SRS transmissions over different SRS occasions specify the same parameters. For example, a first SRS configuration for a first SRS transmission over a first SRS occasion may specify a first set of spatial relation information. In addition, a second SRS configuration for a second SRS transmission over a second SRS occasion may specify that same first set of spatial relation information. In this way, phase continuity may be maintained between the first SRS transmission over the first SRS occasion and the second SRS transmission over the second SRS occasion.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A base station, comprising:
a transceiver;
a memory; and
one or more processors coupled to the transceiver and the memory, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively configured to:
transmit to a user equipment via the transceiver a plurality of sounding reference signal (SRS) configurations that are defined to maintain phase continuity across a plurality of SRS transmissions associated with a plurality of SRS occasions that are separated in time;
receive from the user equipment a first SRS transmission of the plurality of SRS transmissions via the transceiver during a first SRS occasion of the plurality of SRS occasions;
receive from the user equipment a second SRS transmission of the plurality of SRS transmissions via the transceiver during a second SRS occasion of the plurality of SRS occasions; and
jointly process the first SRS transmission and the second SRS transmission to generate an SRS estimate.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The base station of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of SRS configurations specify at least one of: the same spatial relation information, the same uplink transmission configuration indicator state, the same transmission comb, the same number of SRS ports, the same frequency domain position in the same bandwidth part, the same frequency hop parameters, the same transmit power, or a combination thereof.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The base station of claim 1, wherein the plurality of SRS configurations comprises a first SRS configuration for the first SRS transmission and a second SRS configuration for the second SRS transmission.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The base station of claim 3, wherein:
the first SRS configuration specifies a first set of spatial relation information;
the second SRS configuration specifies a second set of spatial relation information; and
the first set of spatial relation information and the second set of spatial relation information specify at least one of: the same serving cell identifier, the same synchronization signal block index, the same channel state information reference signal index, the same SRS resource identifier, the same uplink bandwidth part, or a combination thereof.

### Claim 5 (depends on 3)

The base station of claim 3, wherein:
the first SRS configuration specifies a first uplink transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state; and
the second SRS configuration specifies the first uplink transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state.

### Claim 6 (depends on 3)

The base station of claim 3, wherein:
the first SRS configuration specifies at least one of: a first number of ports, a first transmission comb value, a first frequency domain position, a first frequency hopping configuration value, a first SRS bandwidth and a first SRS hopping bandwidth, a first transmit power configuration, or a combination thereof; and
the second SRS configuration specifies at least one of: the first number of ports, the first transmission comb value, the first frequency domain position, the first frequency hopping configuration value, the first SRS bandwidth and the first SRS hopping bandwidth, the first transmit power configuration, or a combination thereof.

### Claim 7 (depends on 3)

The base station of claim 3, wherein:
the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to transmit at least one downlink control information (DCI) to the user equipment via the transceiver;
the at least one DCI specifies a first resource for the first SRS occasion and a second resource for the second SRS occasion; and
the at least one DCI specifies that the user equipment is to use the first SRS configuration for the first SRS transmission during the first SRS occasion and that the user equipment is to use the second SRS configuration for the second SRS transmission during the second SRS occasion.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The base station of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to:
specify the same parameter values for the plurality of SRS configurations.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The base station of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to:
define the plurality of SRS configurations.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The base station of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to:
receive capability information from the user equipment via the transceiver, wherein the capability information indicates that the user equipment supports maintaining phase continuity across different SRS transmissions for different SRS occasions; and
transmit an indication to the user equipment via the transceiver after receiving the capability information, wherein the indication is to configure the user equipment to maintain phase continuity across the first SRS transmission and the second SRS transmission.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The base station of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to:
combine the first SRS transmission and the second SRS transmission to provide a combined SRS transmission, wherein where a first weight is associated with the first SRS transmission and a second weight is associated with the second SRS transmission; and
process the combined SRS transmission to generate the SRS estimate.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The base station of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to:
process the first SRS transmission to provide a first SRS estimate;
process the second SRS transmission to provide a second SRS estimate; and
combine the first SRS estimate and the second SRS estimate to generate the SRS estimate, wherein where a first weight is associated with the first SRS transmission and a second weight is associated with the second SRS transmission.

### Claim 13 (depends on 1)

The base station of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to:
determine to jointly process the plurality of SRS transmission based on at least one of:
whether the user equipment is near a cell edge of a serving cell for the user equipment, whether a quality of a channel between the user equipment and the base station is less than a threshold quality, whether a signal-to-noise ratio associated with the user equipment is less than a threshold signal- to-noise ratio, or a combination thereof.

### Claim 14

A method of wireless communication at a base station, the method comprising:
transmitting to a user equipment a plurality of sounding reference signal (SRS) configurations that are defined to maintain phase continuity across a plurality of SRS transmissions associated with a plurality of SRS occasions that are separated in time;
receiving from the user equipment a first SRS transmission of the plurality of SRS transmissions during a first SRS occasion of the plurality of SRS occasions;
receiving from the user equipment a second SRS transmission of the plurality of SRS transmissions during a second SRS occasion of the plurality of SRS occasions; and
jointly processing the first SRS transmission and the second SRS transmission to generate an SRS estimate.

### Claim 15

A user equipment, comprising:
a transceiver;
a memory; and
one or more processors coupled to the transceiver and the memory, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively configured to:
receive via the transceiver a first resource allocation for a first sounding reference signal (SRS) transmission scheduled for a first SRS occasion and a first SRS configuration for the first SRS transmission;
receive via the transceiver a second resource allocation for a second SRS transmission scheduled for a second SRS occasion and a second SRS configuration for the second SRS transmission, the first SRS occasion and the second SRS occasion being separated in time;
receive via the transceiver an indication to maintain phase continuity across the first SRS transmission and the second SRS transmission; and
transmit via the transceiver the first SRS transmission during the first SRS occasion and the second SRS transmission during the second SRS occasion after verifying whether use of the first SRS configuration and the second SRS configuration maintains the phase continuity across the first SRS transmission and the second SRS transmission.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The user equipment of claim 15, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to:
determine that use of the first SRS configuration and the second SRS configuration maintains the phase continuity across the first SRS transmission and the second SRS transmission.

### Claim 17 (depends on 16)

The user equipment of claim 16, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to:
transmit the first SRS transmission via the transceiver according to the first SRS configuration and transmit the second SRS transmission via the transceiver according to the second SRS configuration, maintaining the phase continuity across the first SRS transmission and the second SRS transmission.

### Claim 18 (depends on 17)

The user equipment of claim 17, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to:
maintain substantially the same phase continuity across the first SRS transmission and the second SRS transmission.

### Claim 19 (depends on 15)

The user equipment of claim 15, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to:
determine that use of the first SRS configuration and the second SRS configuration will not maintain the phase continuity across the first SRS transmission and the second SRS transmission.

### Claim 20 (depends on 19)

The user equipment of claim 19, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to:
transmit the first SRS transmission via the transceiver according to the first SRS configuration, transmit the second SRS transmission via the transceiver according to the second SRS configuration, and abstain from maintaining the phase continuity across the first SRS transmission and the second SRS transmission.

### Claim 21 (depends on 19)

The user equipment of claim 19, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to:
transmit the first SRS transmission via the transceiver and transmit the second SRS transmission via the transceiver, maintaining the phase continuity across the first SRS transmission and the second SRS transmission.

### Claim 22 (depends on 15)

The user equipment of claim 15, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to:
determine whether the first SRS configuration and the second SRS configuration specify at least one of: the same spatial relation information, the same uplink transmission configuration indicator state, the same transmission comb, the same number of SRS ports, the same frequency domain position in the same bandwidth part, the same frequency hop parameters, the same transmit power, or a combination thereof.

### Claim 23 (depends on 15)

The user equipment of claim 15, wherein:
the first SRS configuration specifies a first set of spatial relation information;
the second SRS configuration specifies a second set of spatial relation information; and
the one or more processors are further individually or collectively_configured to determine whether the first set of spatial relation information and the second set of spatial relation information specify at least one of: the same serving cell identifier, the same synchronization signal block index, the same channel state information reference signal index, the same SRS resource identifier, the same uplink bandwidth part, or a combination thereof.

### Claim 24 (depends on 15)

The user equipment of claim 15, wherein, to verify whether use of the first SRS configuration and the second SRS configuration maintains the phase continuity across the first SRS transmission and the second SRS transmission, the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to determine at least one of: whether the first SRS configuration specifies a first uplink transmission configuration indicator state, whether the first SRS configuration specifies a first number of ports, whether the first SRS configuration specifies a first transmission comb value, whether the first SRS configuration specifies a first frequency domain position, whether the first SRS configuration specifies a first frequency hopping configuration value, whether the first SRS configuration specifies a first SRS bandwidth and a first SRS hopping bandwidth, whether the first SRS configuration specifies a first transmit power configuration, or a combination thereof.

### Claim 25 (depends on 24)

The user equipment of claim 24, wherein, to verify whether the use of the first SRS configuration and the second SRS configuration maintains the phase continuity across the first SRS transmission and the second SRS transmission, the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to determine at least one of: whether the second SRS configuration specifies the first uplink transmission configuration indicator state, whether the second SRS configuration specifies the first number of ports, whether the second SRS configuration specifies the first transmission comb value, whether the second SRS configuration specifies the first frequency domain position, whether the second SRS configuration specifies the first frequency hopping configuration value, whether the second SRS configuration specifies the first SRS bandwidth and the first SRS hopping bandwidth, whether the second SRS configuration specifies the first transmit power configuration, or a combination thereof.

### Claim 26 (depends on 15)

The user equipment of claim 15, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to:
transmit capability information to a base station via the transceiver, wherein the capability information indicates that the user equipment supports maintaining phase continuity across different SRS transmissions for different SRS occasions; and
receive the indication via the transceiver after transmitting the capability information.

### Claim 27 (depends on 15)

The user equipment of claim 15, wherein:
the one or more processors are further individually or collectively_configured to receive at least one downlink control information (DCI) from a base station via the transceiver; and
the at least one DCI specifies that the user equipment is to use the first SRS configuration for the first SRS transmission during the first SRS occasion and that the user equipment is to use the second SRS configuration for the second SRS transmission during the second SRS occasion.

### Claim 28 (depends on 15)

The user equipment of claim 15, wherein the one or more processors are further individually or collectively configured to:
receive a medium access control-control element (MAC-CE) that includes the indication via the transceiver.

### Claim 29 (depends on 15)

The user equipment of claim 15, wherein:
the first SRS occasion corresponds to at least one first time slot; and
the second SRS occasion corresponds to at least one second time slot that is different from the at least one first time slot.

### Claim 30

A method for wireless communication at a user equipment, the method comprising:
receiving a first resource allocation for a first sounding reference signal (SRS) transmission scheduled for a first SRS occasion and a first SRS configuration for the first SRS transmission;
receiving a second resource allocation for a second SRS transmission scheduled for a second SRS occasion and a second SRS configuration for the second SRS transmission, the first SRS occasion and the second SRS occasion being separated in time;
receiving an indication to maintain phase continuity across the first SRS transmission and the second SRS transmission; and
transmitting the first SRS transmission during the first SRS occasion and the second SRS transmission during the second SRS occasion after verifying whether use of the first SRS configuration and the second SRS configuration maintains the phase continuity across the first SRS transmission and the second SRS transmission.
