Methods and apparatus for scheduling in uplink

A User Equipment (UE) configured for operation in a wireless communication network that is based on an uplink signal structure that defines transmission subframes divided into Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, the UE comprising:

• receiver circuitry;
• transmitter circuitry;
• and
• control circuitry configured to:
• receive, via the receiver circuitry, an uplink grant from a base station (BS) of the wireless communication network, the uplink grant scheduling an uplink transmission by the UE that is based on a short Transmission Time Interval (TTI) having a duration in number of OFDM symbols that is less than one transmission subframe, the duration being dynamically configured by the BS for the uplink grant;
• determine, from uplink scheduling information contained in the uplink grant, the dynamically configured duration of the short TTI and a position of one or more OFDM symbols within uplink resources allocated by the uplink grant for transmission of Demodulation Reference Symbols (DMRS);
• and
• perform, via the transmitter circuitry, the scheduled uplink transmission on the allocated uplink resources, according to the determined duration of the short TTI and the determined position of the one or more OFDM symbols for the transmission of DMRS.

A Base Station (BS) configured for a wireless communication network and further configured to schedule a User Equipment (UE) in uplink and to use an uplink signal structure defining transmission subframes divided into Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, the BS comprising:

• a transceiver;
• and
• control circuitry configured to:
• dynamically configure a duration in number of OFDM symbols of a short Transmission Time Interval (TTI) to be used for an uplink transmission by the UE, the duration being less than one transmission subframe;
• and
• transmit, via the transceiver circuitry, an uplink scheduling grant for the UE, the uplink scheduling grant containing uplink scheduling information that indicates the dynamically configured duration of the short TTI and a position of one or more OFDM symbols within uplink resources allocated for the uplink transmission to be used by the UE in transmitting Demodulation Reference Symbols (DMRS).