# US 2018/0323902 A1 · Enhancements to modulation order determination > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2018/0323902 A1 - Document ID: US20180323902A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 15/970,312 - Filed: 2018-05-03 - Published: 2018-11-08 - Earliest claimed: 2017-05-05 - Assignees: QUALCOMM Incorporated - Applicants: QUALCOMM Incorporated - Inventors: Alberto RICO ALVARINO; Jae Ho RYU; Peter GAAL; Supratik BHATTACHARJEE; Aamod Dinkar KHANDEKAR - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20180323902A1 ## CPC - H04L 1/0004: {applied to control information} - H04L 1/0025: {Transmission of mode-switching indication} - H04L 1/0031: {Multiple signaling transmission (H04L1/1664, F15 take precedence)} - H04L 5/0053: {Allocation of signalling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals} - H04W 72/23: in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal - H04B 7/0632: {Channel quality parameters, e.g. channel quality indicator [CQI]} - H04L 1/18: Automatic repetition systems, e.g. Van Duuren systems - H04L 1/1812: Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ] - 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 27/34: Amplitude- and phase-modulated carrier systems, e.g. quadrature-amplitude modulated carrier systems - 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) - H04B: TRANSMISSION ## Abstract Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communication. For example, aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for determining one or more modulation orders to be used for the communication of control channels and/or data channels. An exemplary method, performed by a UE, may include receiving downlink control information (DCI) that allocates resources for a communication, the DCI may include a first field that indicates a transport block size (TBS) of the communication and a second field, different from the first field, that indicates a modulation order of the communication, wherein the communication includes a transmission or a reception, and processing the communication according to the indicated modulation order. Numerous other aspects are provided. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving downlink control information (DCI) that allocates resources for a communication, the DCI includes a first field that indicates a transport block size (TBS) of the communication and a second field, different from the first field, that indicates a modulation order of the communication, wherein the communication includes a transmission or a reception; and processing the communication according to the indicated modulation order. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: indicating, to a base station (BS), a capability to determine the modulation order of the communication based on the second field; and receiving, from the BS, a configuration that configures the UE to process the communication according to the indicated modulation order. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein: the modulation order is selected from a group of potential modulation orders including at least one of: quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM), 64 quadrature amplitude modulation (64QAM), 256 quadrature amplitude modulation (256QAM), or 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation (1024QAM); and different values of the second field correspond to the different potential modulation orders. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein: the first field indicates a default modulation order, and different values of the second field indicate the default modulation order or an adjusted default modulation order. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) The method of claim 4, wherein the first field indicates whether the adjusted default modulation order is an increase from the default modulation order or a decrease from the default modulation order. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein: the communication is an uplink (UL) transmission, and processing the communication comprises transmitting the UL transmission using the indicated modulation order. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein: the communication is reception of a downlink (DL) transmission, and processing the communication comprises decoding the DL transmission using the indicated modulation order. ### Claim 8 A method for wireless communications by a base station, comprising: transmitting downlink control information (DCI), that allocates resources for a communication, the DCI includes a first field that indicates a transport block size (TBS) of the communication and a second field, different from the first field, that indicates a modulation order of the communication, wherein the communication includes a transmission or a reception; and processing the communication according to the indicated modulation order. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, further comprising: obtaining, from a user equipment (UE), a capability of the UE to determine the modulation order of the communication based on the second field; and transmitting, to the UE, a configuration that configures the UE to process the communication according to the indicated modulation order. ### Claim 10 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, wherein: the modulation order is selected from a group of potential modulation orders including at least one of: quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM), 64 quadrature amplitude modulation (64QAM), 256 quadrature amplitude modulation (256QAM), or 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation (1024QAM); and different values of the second field correspond to the different potential modulation orders. ### Claim 11 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, wherein: the first field indicates a default modulation order, and different values of the second field indicate the default modulation order or an adjusted default modulation order. ### Claim 12 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, wherein: the communication is reception of an uplink (UL) transmission, and processing the communication comprises decoding the UL transmission using the indicated modulation order. ### Claim 13 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, wherein: the communication is a downlink (DL) transmission, and processing the communication comprises transmitting the DL transmission using the indicated modulation order. ### Claim 14 A method for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving downlink control information (DCI) that includes a resource allocation for a communication, the DCI includes a field that indicates a transport block size (TBS) of the communication, wherein the communication includes a transmission or a reception; determining a number of resource elements (REs) for the communication based at least on the resource allocation; determining a modulation order for the communication based on the number of REs and the TBS; and processing the communication according to the determined modulation order. ### Claim 15 (depends on 14) The method of claim 14, wherein determining the modulation order comprises: determining a spectral efficiency (SE) for the communication based at least on the TBS and the number of REs; and determining the modulation order based on the SE. ### Claim 16 (depends on 15) The method of claim 15, wherein determining the SE is further based on at least one of a number of cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits of the communication, a number of control symbols of the communication, a number of reference signal tones, a cyclic prefix length, a beam index of the communication, a subcarrier spacing of the communication, numerology of the communication, or a subframe format of a subframe in which the communication occurs. ### Claim 17 (depends on 15) The method of claim 15, wherein determining the modulation order comprises: determining the modulation order as a potential modulation order corresponding to a largest threshold SE, from a set of threshold SEs that each correspond to a potential modulation order, that the SE for the communication is less than or equal to. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The method of claim 17, further comprising: obtaining the set of threshold SEs and corresponding potential modulation orders from at least one of: a network standard, a radio resource control (RRC) transmission from a base station (BS), or a system information block (SIB). ### Claim 19 (depends on 15) The method of claim 15, wherein determining the modulation order comprises determining the modulation order as a potential modulation order corresponding to an SE threshold satisfied by the determined SE. ### Claim 20 (depends on 14) The method of claim 14, wherein: the communication is an uplink (UL) transmission, and processing the communication comprises transmitting the UL transmission using the indicated modulation order. ### Claim 21 (depends on 14) The method of claim 14, wherein: the communication is reception of a downlink (DL) transmission, and processing the communication comprises decoding the DL transmission using the indicated modulation order. ### Claim 22 A method for wireless communications by a base station (BS), comprising: transmitting a downlink control information (DCI) that includes a resource allocation for a communication, the DCI includes a field that indicates a transport block size (TBS) of the communication, wherein the communication includes a transmission or a reception; and determining a number of resource elements (REs) for the communication based at least on the resource allocation; determining a modulation order for the communication based on the number or REs and the TBS; and processing the communication according to the determined modulation order. ### Claim 23 (depends on 22) The method of claim 22, wherein determining the modulation order comprises: determining a spectral efficiency (SE) for the communication based at least on the TBS and the number of REs; and determining the modulation order based on the SE. ### Claim 24 (depends on 23) The method of claim 23, wherein determining the SE is further based on at least one of a number of cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits of the communication, a number of control symbols of the communication, a number of reference signal, a cyclic prefix length, a beam index of the communication, a subcarrier spacing of the communication, numerology of the communication, or a subframe format of a subframe in which the communication occurs. ### Claim 25 (depends on 23) The method of claim 23, wherein determining the modulation order comprises: determining the modulation order as a potential modulation order corresponding to a largest threshold SE, from a set of threshold SEs that each correspond to a potential modulation order, that the SE for the communication is less than or equal to. ### Claim 26 (depends on 25) The method of claim 25, further comprising: obtaining the set of threshold SEs and corresponding potential modulation orders from a network standard. ### Claim 27 (depends on 25) The method of claim 25, further comprising: transmitting an indication of the set of threshold SEs and corresponding potential modulation orders in at least one of a radio resource control (RRC) transmission or a system information block (SIB). ### Claim 28 (depends on 23) The method of claim 23, wherein determining the modulation order comprises determining the modulation order as a potential modulation order corresponding to an SE threshold satisfied by the determined SE. ### Claim 29 (depends on 22) The method of claim 22, wherein: the communication is reception of an uplink (UL) transmission, and processing the communication comprises decoding the UL transmission using the indicated modulation order. ### Claim 30 (depends on 22) The method of claim 22, wherein: the communication is a downlink (DL) transmission, and processing the communication comprises transmitting the DL transmission using the indicated modulation order.