Systems and methods for virtual bandwidth parts

A system comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• a memory coupled to the at least one processor, the memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to perform operations including:
• configuring, via radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a user equipment (UE) with a fifth generation (5G) New radio (NR) wireless network bandwidth part (BWP) that is a is a contiguous set of physical resource blocks (PRBs) from a contiguous subset of common resource blocks on a wireless carrier channel, wherein the BWP has a bandwidth that is at least 5 MHz and comprises at least 25 physical resource blocks (PRBs) and the BWP enables the UE to operate, when the BWP is active, within the bandwidth of the BWP that is narrower than a bandwidth of the wireless carrier channel;
• creating for the UE, via PRB scheduling in the 5G NR wireless network, a virtual BWP that has a bandwidth of less than 5 MHz and that comprises less than 25 PRBs, wherein the virtual BWP enables the UE to operate within the bandwidth of the virtual BWP when the virtual BWP is active;
• restricting a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for the UE to be only within the bandwidth of the virtual BWP in response to the virtual BWP being active;
• and
• restricting a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) for the UE to be only within the bandwidth of the virtual BWP in response to the virtual BWP being active.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, cause a system to perform operations including:

• configuring, via radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a user equipment (UE) with a fifth generation (5G) New radio (NR) wireless network bandwidth part (BWP) that is a is a contiguous set of physical resource blocks (PRBs) from a contiguous subset of common resource blocks on a wireless carrier channel, wherein the BWP has a bandwidth that is at least 5 MHz and comprises at least 25 physical resource blocks (PRBs) and the BWP enables the UE to operate, when the BWP is active, within the bandwidth of the BWP that is narrower than a bandwidth of the wireless carrier channel;
• creating for the UE, via PRB scheduling in the 5G NR wireless network, a virtual BWP that has a bandwidth of less than 5 MHz and that comprises less than 25 PRBs, wherein the virtual BWP enables the UE to operate within the bandwidth of the virtual BWP when the virtual BWP is active;
• restricting a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for the UE to be only within the bandwidth of the virtual BWP in response to the virtual BWP being active;
• and
• restricting a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) for the UE to be only within the bandwidth of the virtual BWP in response to the virtual BWP being active.