# US 2021/0344467 A1 · Arrangement for Reliable Relaying

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- Number: US 2021/0344467 A1
- Document ID: US20210344467A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 17/272,975
- Filed: 2018-09-04
- Published: 2021-11-04
- Earliest claimed: 2018-09-04
- Assignees: Nokia Technologies Oy
- Applicants: Nokia Technologies Oy
- Inventors: Kari Juhani HOOLI; Esa Tapani TIIROLA; Timo Erkki LUNTTILA; Klaus HUGL
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20210344467A1

## CPC

- H04L 5/0044: {Allocation of payload; Allocation of data channels, e.g. PDSCH or PUSCH}
- H04W 88/04: adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user
- H04L 1/0023: {characterised by the signalling}
- H04L 5/0037: {Inter-user or inter-terminal allocation}
- H04W 72/21: in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
- H04W 72/542: using measured or perceived quality
- H04W 76/14: Direct-mode setup
- H04L 1/0003: {by switching between different modulation schemes}
- H04L 1/0009: {by adapting the channel coding (H04L1/1812 takes precedence)}
- H04L 5/0051: {of dedicated pilots, i.e. pilots destined for a single user or terminal}
- H04L 5/006: {Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling}
- H04L 5/0091: {Signalling for the administration of the divided path, e.g. signalling of configuration information}
- H04L 5/0094: {Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated}
- H04L 5/143: {for modulated signals (H04L5/1469 takes precedence)}
- H04L 5/16: Half-duplex systems; Simplex/duplex switching; Transmission of break signals {non-automatically inverting the direction of transmission}
- H04L 2001/0097: {Relays}
- H04W 8/005: {Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals}
- H04W 74/0808: using carrier sensing, e.g. carrier sense multiple access [CSMA]
- 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

According to an aspect, there is provided an access node for configuring relaying using one or more terminal devices. The access node is configured to select the one or more terminal devices connected to the access node for relaying a signal from the source terminal device to the access node based on radio link measurements. Further, the access node is configured to configure each of the one or more terminal devices to decode each received primary uplink resource and if the decoding is successful, to cause transmitting a transport block corresponding to the decoded primary uplink resource on a secondary uplink resource using a pre-defined starting position to a target network node. The access node is also configured to receive at least one transport block transmitted from the source terminal device via one or more terminal devices on one or more secondary uplink resources.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An access node comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one non-transitory memory including computer program code;
the at least one memory and the computer program code configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the access node at least to perform:
selecting one or more terminal devices connected to the access node for relaying a signal from the source terminal device to the access node based at least on radio link measurements;
configuring, by generating configuration information and causing transmitting the configuration information, each of the one or more terminal devices to decode each received primary uplink resource, and
if the decoding is successful, causing transmitting a transport block corresponding to the decoded primary uplink resource on a secondary uplink re-source using a pre-defined starting position to a target network node, wherein the target network node is the access node or one of the one or more terminal devices, at least one terminal device being configured by the access node to use the access node as the target network node; and
receiving at least one transport block transmitted from the source terminal device via one or more terminal devices of the one or more terminal devices on one or more secondary uplink resources.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

An access node of claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the access node to perform the selecting in response to failing to detect a signal from a source terminal device and/or the source terminal device being configured for transmission with low latency and high or ultra-high reliability.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The access node of claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the access node further to perform the radio link measurements before the selecting by:
causing performing discovery on one or more terminal devices;
causing performing radio link measurements between terminal devices using one or more discovered terminal devices;
receiving measurement results from the discovered one or more terminal devices;
causing transmitting to the one or more discovered terminal devices a request for transmitting a reference signal to the access node; and
detecting and measuring one or more reference signals transmitted from the one or more discovered terminal devices.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The access node of claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the access node further to perform:
configuring each of the one or more terminal devices using the configuration information to perform the decoding based on a first radio network temporary identifier, used by the source terminal device and comprised in the configuration information and to perform the transmitting using the first radio network temporary identifier or a second radio network temporary identifier comprised in the configuration information.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The access node of claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the access node further to perform:
configuring the source terminal device, by causing transmitting configuration information comprising at least a first radio network temporary identifier to the source terminal device, to use the first radio network temporary identifier for transmitting on the primary uplink resource, the first radio network temporary identifier being used by the source terminal device only for transmissions on primary uplink resources.

### Claim 6

(canceled)

### Claim 7

(canceled)

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The access node of claim 1, wherein the pre-defined starting position is assigned for each terminal device based on the radio link measurements so that the pre-defined starting position is defined via a mono-tonically decreasing function of the pre-defined metric indicating link quality or is based on the order of values of the pre-defined metric indicating link quality for the one or more terminal devices so that the highest value of the pre-defined metric corresponds to a first starting position and the lowest value of the pre-defined metric corresponds to a last starting position.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The access node of claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the access node further to perform:
configuring with the configuration information any terminal devices with a pre-defined starting position later than the earliest pre-defined starting position assigned for the one or more terminal devices to
detect, before the transmitting, whether the secondary uplink resource to be used for the transmitting is already occupied based on a listen before talk procedure or a sequence detection procedure,
perform the transmitting on the secondary uplink resource only in response to a secondary physical uplink shared channel resource not being occupied and
transmit, in response to the secondary uplink resource being occupied, the transport block corresponding to the decoded primary uplink resource on another secondary physical uplink shared channel resource determined not to be occupied to the target network node.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The access node of claim 9, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the access node further to perform:
configuring with the configuration information any terminal devices with the pre-defined starting position later than the earliest pre-defined starting position assigned for the one or more terminal devices to
in response to the secondary uplink resource being occupied, detect, before the transmitting on the another secondary uplink resource, whether one or more secondary uplink resources, configured to be used for transmitting of the transport block if the secondary uplink resource is occupied, are already occupied based on the listen before talk procedure or the sequence detection procedure.

### Claim 11 (depends on 9)

The access node of claim 9, wherein if the sequence detection procedure is used in the detecting, the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the access node further to perform:
configuring, with the configuration information, each of the one or more terminal devices to transmit a front-loaded demodulation reference signal on a secondary uplink resource used for transmitting of the transport block to enable sequence detection by other terminal devices of the one or more terminal devices; and
configuring with the configuration information each terminal device with the pre-defined starting position later than the earliest pre-defined starting position assigned for the one or more terminal devices to perform the detecting based on the sequence detection procedure so as to detect any front-loaded demodulation reference signals transmitted by other terminal devices of the one or more terminal devices.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The access node of claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the access node further to perform:
configuring each of the one or more terminal devices with the configuration information to perform the decoding only for ultra-reliable low latency communication transmissions and/or for transmissions originating from the source terminal device based on the decoded primary uplink resources and/or a first radio network temporary identifier used in the decoding.

### Claim 13 (depends on 1)

The access node of claim 1, wherein the configuration information comprises one or more of information on the primary uplink resources to be used in the decoding, information on the secondary uplink resources to be used in the transmitting, a modulation coding scheme and a physical resource block allocation, a first radio network temporary identifier used by the source terminal device and a second radio network temporary identifier to be used by the configured terminal device.

### Claim 14 (depends on 1)

The access node of claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the access node further to perform:
configuring at least two of the one or more terminal devices with the configuration information to perform the transmitting using two or more secondary uplink resources parallel in frequency.

### Claim 15

A terminal device comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one non-transitory memory including computer program code;
the at least one memory and the computer program code configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the terminal device at least to perform:
in response to receiving configuration information from an access node, configuring the terminal device based on the configuration information;
decoding any received primary uplink resources according to a configuration of the terminal device; and
in response to decoding of a primary uplink resource being successful, causing transmitting a transport block corresponding to the decoded primary uplink resource on a secondary uplink resource using a pre-defined starting position to a target network node according to the configuration, wherein the target network node is the access node or a terminal device.

### Claim 16

(canceled)

### Claim 17

(canceled)

### Claim 18 (depends on 15)

The terminal device of claim 15, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the terminal device further to perform according to the configuration of the terminal device:
detecting, before the transmitting, whether the secondary uplink resource to be used for the transmitting is already occupied based on a listen before talk procedure or a sequence detection procedure;
performing the transmitting on the secondary uplink resource only in response to the secondary uplink resource not being occupied; and
causing transmitting, in response to the secondary uplink resource being occupied, the transport block corresponding to the decoded primary uplink resource on another secondary uplink resource determined not to be occupied to the target network node.

### Claim 19 (depends on 18)

The terminal device of claim 18, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the terminal device further to perform according to the configuration of the terminal device before the transmitting on the another secondary resource:
in response to the secondary uplink resource being occupied, detecting whether one or more secondary uplink resources configured to be used for transmitting of the transport block are occupied based on the listen before talk procedure or the sequence detection procedure, wherein the another secondary resource is one of the one or more secondary uplink resources.

### Claim 20 (depends on 18)

The terminal device of claim 18, wherein if the sequence detection procedure is used in the detecting, the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the terminal device further to perform according to the configuration of the terminal device:
performing the detecting based on the sequence detection procedure so as to detect any front-loaded demodulation reference signal transmitted by one or more other terminal devices; and/or
causing transmitting a front-loaded demodulation reference signal on a secondary uplink resource used for transmitting of the transport block to enable sequence detection by other terminal devices.

### Claim 21 (depends on 15)

The terminal device of claim 15, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the terminal device further to perform the decoding according to the configuration only for ultra-reliable low latency communication transmissions and/or for transmissions originating from the source terminal device based on the decoded primary uplink resources and/or a first radio network temporary identifier used in the decoding.

### Claim 22 (depends on 15)

The terminal device of claim 15, wherein the configuration information comprises one or more of information on the primary uplink resource to be used in the decoding, information on secondary uplink resources to be used in the transmitting, a modulation coding scheme and a physical resource block allocation, a first radio network temporary identifier used by the source terminal device and a second radio network temporary identifier to be used by the configured terminal device.

### Claim 23

A method comprising:
selecting one or more terminal devices connected to an access node for relaying a signal from the source terminal device to the access node based at least on radio link measurements;
configuring, by generating configuration information and causing transmitting the configuration information, each of the one or more terminal devices to
decode each received primary uplink resource, and
if the decoding is successful, causing transmitting a transport block corresponding to the decoded primary uplink resource on a secondary uplink resource using a pre-defined starting position to a target network node, wherein the one or more terminal devices are configured by the access node to use different secondary uplink resources and different pre-defined starting positions and the target network node is the access node or one of the one or more terminal devices, at least one terminal device being configured by the access node to use the access node as the target network node; and
receiving at least one transport block transmitted from the source terminal device via one or more terminal devices of the one or more terminal devices on one or more secondary uplink resources.

### Claim 24

A method comprising:
in response to receiving configuration information from an access node, configuring a terminal device based on the configuration information;
decoding any received primary uplink resources according to a configuration of the terminal device; and
in response to decoding of a primary uplink resource being successful, causing transmitting a transport block corresponding to the decoded primary uplink resource on a secondary uplink resource using a pre-defined starting position to a target network node according to the configuration, wherein the target network node is the access node or a terminal device.

### Claim at position 25

-29. (canceled)