# US 12,192,968 B2 · Physical downlink control channel candidates related to physical downlink control channel repetitions > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 12,192,968 B2 - Document ID: US12192968B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 18/354,481 - Filed: 2023-07-18 - Published: 2023-11-09 - Granted: 2025-01-07 - Earliest claimed: 2019-12-20 - Assignees: QUALCOMM Incorporated - Applicants: QUALCOMM Incorporated - Inventors: Mostafa Khoshnevisan; Xiaoxia Zhang; Tao Luo; Arumugam Chendamarai Kannan - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12192968B2 ## CPC - H04L 5/0053: {Allocation of signalling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals} - H04W 72/02: Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal - H04L 1/0038: {Blind format detection (for detection of modulation format H04L27/0012)} - H04L 1/08: by repeating transmission, e.g. Verdan system {(H04L1/1858 and H04L1/189 take precedence)} - H04W 24/08: Testing, {supervising or monitoring} using real traffic - H04W 48/12: using downlink control channel - H04W 72/0446: Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames - H04W 72/0466: {the resource being a scrambling code} - H04W 72/23: in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal - H04L 1/0045: {Arrangements at the receiver end} - H04L 1/0048: {in conjunction with detection of multiuser or interfering signals, e.g. iteration between CDMA or MIMO detector and FEC decoder (for spatial equalizer H04L25/03286)} - H04L 1/1854: {Scheduling and prioritising arrangements} - 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 Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. A communication device, which may be otherwise known as user equipment (UE) may support repetition of physical downlink control channels (PDCCH) and handling a combined PDCCH candidate associated with multiple search space sets. For example, a UE may combine a first PDCCH candidate corresponding to a first search space set and a second PDCCH candidate corresponding to a second search space set to form a combined PDCCH candidate. The UE may decode the combined PDCCH candidate based on one or more factors, for example, such as a blind decoding PDCCH candidate threshold. As a result, the UE may decode the combined PDCCH candidate in addition to decoding of individual PDCCH candidates, thereby providing increased flexibility for downlink control information (DCI) and improving the reliability of PDCCH. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more memories storing processor-executable code; and one or more processors coupled with the one or more memories and individually or collectively operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: receive a configuration message indicating a first pool index configuration associated with a first control resource set and a second pool index configuration associated with a second control resource set, wherein the first pool index configuration and the second pool index configuration comprise a same value; combine a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidate corresponding to a first search space set associated with the first control resource set and a second PDCCH candidate corresponding to a second search space set associated with the second control resource set to form a combined PDCCH candidate based at least in part on a capability of the UE associated with supporting PDCCH repetition, wherein the UE counts the first PDCCH candidate, the second PDCCH candidate, and the combined PDCCH candidate as monitored PDCCH candidates; and monitor the combined PDCCH candidate based at least in part on the first pool index configuration and the second pool index configuration comprising the same value. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: assign the combined PDCCH candidate to a set of PDCCH candidates, wherein to monitor the combined PDCCH candidate is based at least in part on the assigning. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The UE of claim 2, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: order jointly the combined PDCCH candidate and one or more PDCCH candidates in the set of PDCCH candidates based at least in part on corresponding search space set indices associated with the combined PDCCH candidate and search space set indices associated with the one or more PDCCH candidates in the set of PDCCH candidates. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The UE of claim 3, wherein the search space set indices associated with the combined PDCCH candidate have a higher priority than the search space set indices associated with the one or more PDCCH candidates. ### Claim 5 (depends on 2) The UE of claim 2, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: determine a first priority associated with a first search space set index of the combined PDCCH candidate; determine a second priority associated with a second search space set index of the combined PDCCH candidate; determine a sum of the first search space set index and the second search space set index of the combined PDCCH candidate; determine that the first search space set index or the second search space set index is a lowest or a highest search space set index of a set of search space set indices; and order the combined PDCCH candidate with respect to other combined PDCCH candidates in the set of PDCCH candidates based at least in part on the first priority associated with the first search space set index, the second priority associated with the second search space set index, the lowest or the highest search space set index of the combined PDCCH candidate, the sum of the first search space set index and the second search space set index, or any combination thereof, wherein to monitor the combined PDCCH candidate is based at least in part on the first priority, the second priority, the ordering, or any combination thereof. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: determine that a set of PDCCH candidates including the combined PDCCH candidate, the first PDCCH candidate, and the second PDCCH candidate, satisfies a threshold, the threshold comprising a threshold quantity of PDCCH candidates within a time interval, wherein to monitor the combined PDCCH candidate is based at least in part on the set of PDCCH candidates including the combined PDCCH candidate satisfying the threshold. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: determine the first control resource set associated with the first search space set; and determine a threshold for PDCCH candidates associated with the first pool index configuration. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The UE of claim 7, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: determine the second control resource set associated with the second search space set; and determine a threshold for PDCCH candidates associated with the second pool index configuration. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The UE of claim 8, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: determine that the first pool index configuration is different than the second pool index configuration; and assign the combined PDCCH candidate to the first pool index configuration, or the second pool index configuration, or both, wherein monitoring the combined PDCCH candidate is based at least in part on that the first pool index configuration is different than the second pool index configuration. ### Claim 10 (depends on 8) The UE of claim 8, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: determine that the first pool index configuration and the second pool index configuration comprise the same value; and assign the combined PDCCH candidate to the first pool index configuration associated with the first control resource set or the second pool index configuration associated with the second control resource set. ### Claim 11 (depends on 8) The UE of claim 8, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: identify that the UE is configured with a quantity of PDCCH candidates in a set of PDCCH candidates including the combined PDCCH candidate; and determine that the quantity of PDCCH candidates satisfies a threshold quantity of blind decoding PDCCH candidates for a primary serving cell or a threshold quantity of control channel elements for the primary serving cell, or both, wherein to monitor the combined PDCCH candidate is based at least in part on the quantity of PDCCH candidates satisfying the threshold quantity of blind decoding PDCCH candidates for the primary serving cell or the threshold quantity of control channel elements for the primary serving cell, or both. ### Claim 12 (depends on 11) The UE of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: identify blind decoding PDCCH candidates in the set of PDCCH candidates or control channel elements in the set of PDCCH candidates, or both associated with a common search space set; and exclude the blind decoding PDCCH candidates, or the control channel elements, or both associated with the common search space set from the threshold quantity of blind decoding PDCCH candidates for the primary serving cell or the threshold quantity of control channel elements for the primary serving cell, or both. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) The UE of claim 12, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: identify a UE-specific search space set associated with a lowest search space index; and identify a quantity of blind decoding PDCCH candidates or a quantity of control channel elements, or both associated with the UE-specific search space set, wherein to monitor the combined PDCCH candidate is based at least in part on the quantity of blind decoding PDCCH candidates or the quantity of control channel elements, or both associated with the UE-specific search space set. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The UE of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: determine a remainder of PDCCH candidates in the set of PDCCH candidates based at least in part on the excluding; determine a difference between the remainder of PDCCH candidates and the quantity of blind decoding PDCCH candidates associated with the UE-specific search space set; and allocate the remainder of PDCCH candidates and applying the quantity of blind decoding PDCCH candidates associated with the UE-specific search space set to the threshold quantity of blind decoding PDCCH candidates for the primary serving cell. ### Claim 15 (depends on 11) The UE of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: determine that the first pool index configuration associated with the first control resource set is different than the second pool index configuration associated with the second control resource set; determine that the combined PDCCH candidate is for a UE-specific search space associated with the primary serving cell, wherein the combined PDCCH candidate is allocated to the UE based at least in part on determining that the first pool index configuration is different than the second pool index configuration and that the combined PDCCH candidate is for the UE-specific search space; and apply the combined PDCCH candidate to the threshold quantity of blind decoding PDCCH candidates for the primary serving cell, wherein the combined PDCCH candidate is counted for overbooking of PDCCH candidates for the primary serving cell and satisfies a threshold quantity of PDCCH candidates for the primary serving cell, wherein monitoring the combined PDCCH candidate is based at least in part on the applying. ### Claim 16 (depends on 11) The UE of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: determine that the first pool index configuration associated with the first control resource set and the second pool index configuration associated with the second control resource set have a same pool index configuration; and determine that the combined PDCCH candidate is for a UE-specific search space associated with the primary serving cell, wherein monitoring the combined PDCCH candidate is based at least in part on the UE-specific search space associated with the primary serving cell. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The UE of claim 16, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: exclude the combined PDCCH candidate from the threshold quantity of blind decoding PDCCH candidates for the primary serving cell based at least in part on one or more of that the first pool index configuration associated with the first control resource set and the second pool index configuration associated with the second control resource set have the same pool index configuration, or that the combined PDCCH candidate is for the UE-specific search space associated with the primary serving cell, or both, wherein the combined PDCCH candidate be not counted for overbooking of PDCCH candidates for the primary serving cell. ### Claim 18 (depends on 1) The UE of claim 1, wherein the combined PDCCH candidate is defined over one or more search space indices of a set of search space set indices. ### Claim 19 (depends on 1) The UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: order the combined PDCCH candidate based at least in part on a sum of search space indices of the combined PDCCH candidate. ### Claim 20 (depends on 1) The UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: identify a PDCCH demodulation reference signal scrambling identifier associated with the combined PDCCH candidate; and refrain from separately counting control channel elements of the combined PDCCH candidate for a nonoverlapping control channel threshold per slot, wherein the PDCCH demodulation reference signal scrambling identifier associated with the combined PDCCH candidate has a same value as a PDCCH demodulation reference signal scrambling identifier associated with the first search space set, or the second search space set, or both. ### Claim 21 (depends on 1) The UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: determine that a PDCCH demodulation reference signal scrambling identifier associated with the combined PDCCH candidate has a different value than a PDCCH demodulation reference signal scrambling identifier associated with the first search space set or the second search space set, or both, wherein to monitor the combined PDCCH candidate is based at least in part on the determining. ### Claim 22 (depends on 1) The UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to execute the code to cause the UE to: separately count control channel elements of the combined PDCCH candidate for a nonoverlapping control channel threshold per slot. ### Claim 23 (depends on 1) The UE of claim 1, wherein: a threshold quantity of combined PDCCH candidates within a time interval is based at least in part on the capability of the UE; and the threshold quantity of combined PDCCH candidates are per slot or PDCCH span. ### Claim 24 A method for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving a configuration message indicating a first pool index configuration associated with a first control resource set and a second pool index configuration associated with a second control resource set, wherein the first pool index configuration and the second pool index configuration comprise a same value; combining a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidate corresponding to a first search space set associated with the first control resource set and a second PDCCH candidate corresponding to a second search space set associated with the second control resource set to form a combined PDCCH candidate based at least in part on a capability of the UE associated with supporting PDCCH repetition, wherein the UE counts the first PDCCH candidate, the second PDCCH candidate, and the combined PDCCH candidate as monitored PDCCH candidates; and monitoring the combined PDCCH candidate based at least in part on the first pool index configuration and the second pool index configuration comprising the same value. ### Claim 25 (depends on 24) The method of claim 24, further comprising: assigning the combined PDCCH candidate to a set of PDCCH candidates, wherein monitoring the combined PDCCH candidate is based at least in part on the assigning. ### Claim 26 (depends on 25) The method of claim 25, further comprising: ordering jointly the combined PDCCH candidate and one or more PDCCH candidates in the set of PDCCH candidates based at least in part on corresponding search space set indices associated with the combined PDCCH candidate and search space set indices associated with the one or more PDCCH candidates in the set of PDCCH candidates. ### Claim 27 (depends on 26) The method of claim 26, wherein the search space set indices associated with the combined PDCCH candidate have a higher priority than the search space set indices associated with the one or more PDCCH candidates. ### Claim 28 (depends on 26) The method of claim 26, further comprising: determining a first priority associated with a first search space set index of the combined PDCCH candidate; determining a second priority associated with a second search space set index of the combined PDCCH candidate; determining a sum of the first search space set index and the second search space set index of the combined PDCCH candidate; determining that the first search space set index or the second search space set index is a lowest or a highest search space set index of a set of search space set indices; and ordering the combined PDCCH candidate with respect to other combined PDCCH candidates in the set of PDCCH candidates based at least in part on the first priority associated with the first search space set index, the second priority associated with the second search space set index, the lowest or the highest search space set index of the combined PDCCH candidate, the sum of the first search space set index and the second search space set index, or any combination thereof, wherein monitoring the combined PDCCH candidate is based at least in part on the first priority, the second priority, the ordering, or any combination thereof. ### Claim 29 A user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising: means for receiving a configuration message indicating a first pool index configuration associated with a first control resource set and a second pool index configuration associated with a second control resource set, wherein the first pool index configuration and the second pool index configuration comprise a same value; means for combining a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidate corresponding to a first search space set associated with the first control resource set and a second PDCCH candidate corresponding to a second search space set associated with the second control resource set to form a combined PDCCH candidate based at least in part on a capability of the UE associated with supporting PDCCH repetition, wherein the UE counts the first PDCCH candidate, the second PDCCH candidate, and the combined PDCCH candidate as monitored PDCCH candidates; and means for monitoring the combined PDCCH candidate based at least in part on the first pool index configuration and the second pool index configuration comprising the same value. ### Claim 30 A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for wireless communication, the code comprising instructions executable by one or more processors to: receive a configuration message indicating a first pool index configuration associated with a first control resource set and a second pool index configuration associated with a second control resource set, wherein the first pool index configuration and the second pool index configuration comprise a same value; combine a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidate corresponding to a first search space set associated with the first control resource set and a second PDCCH candidate corresponding to a second search space set associated with the second control resource set to form a combined PDCCH candidate based at least in part on a capability of a user equipment (UE) associated with supporting PDCCH repetition, wherein the UE counts the first PDCCH candidate, the second PDCCH candidate, and the combined PDCCH candidate as monitored PDCCH candidates; and monitor the combined PDCCH candidate based at least in part on the first pool index configuration and the second pool index configuration comprising the same value.