Telecommunications apparatus and methods for half-duplex and full-duplex

A method of operating a terminal device in a telecommunications system comprising a plurality of base stations and a plurality of terminal devices arranged to communicate over a radio interface having a radio frame structure comprising radio subframes, the method comprising:

• sending data, using circuitry of the terminal device, to at least one base station of the plurality of base stations using a physical channel;
• and
• receiving data, using circuitry of the terminal device, from the least one base station of the plurality of base stations using the physical channel,
• wherein each radio subframe comprises a plurality of symbols, at least one symbol in each radio subframe is used to support a physical shared channel, which is different from said physical channel, and at least one symbol in each radio subframe is used to support a physical control channel associated with the physical shared channel,
• wherein a symbol at the beginning or end of each radio subframe is used in a communication cell supporting terminal devices operating in a full-duplex communication mode to support the physical shared channel, and is used in a communication cell supporting terminal devices operating in a half-duplex communication mode to support the physical channel, and
• wherein said sending and receiving data using the physical channel is in a communication cell supporting terminal devices operating in the half-duplex communication mode.

A terminal device arranged to communicate with a base station over a radio interface operating in a mode that supports half-duplex mode terminal devices, wherein the terminal device comprises:

• a processor;
• and
• a transceiver configured to communicate with the base station in the half-duplex mode via the radio interface by transmission and/or reception of radio subframes,
• wherein each radio subframe comprises a plurality of symbols, at least one symbol in each radio subframe is used to support a physical shared channel, and at least one symbol in each radio subframe is used to support a physical control channel associated with the physical shared channel, and
• wherein a symbol at the beginning or end of each radio subframe is used to support a different additional physical channel and is associated with another terminal device configured to communicate with the base station in a full-duplex mode, the different additional physical channel being a low-rate channel.

A base station configured to communicate over a radio interface having a frame structure comprising a plurality of subframes, the base station comprising:

• transceiver circuitry configured to
• transmit data to a first terminal device using a physical channel,
• transmit data to a second terminal device using a physical shared channel,
• receive data from the first terminal device using the physical channel, and
• receive data from the second terminal device using the physical shared channel;
• and
• control circuitry configured to control the transceiver circuitry,
• wherein each subframe includes a plurality of symbols, at least one symbol in each subframe being used to support the physical shared channel, which is different from said physical channel, and at least one symbol in each subframe being to support a physical control channel associated with the physical shared channel,
• wherein the at least one symbol to support the physical shared channel supports the physical shared channel in a first communication cell supporting the second terminal device operating in a half-duplex communication mode,
• wherein a symbol at the end of each subframe, which is different from said at least one symbol supporting the physical shared channel and said at least one symbol supporting the physical control channel, supports the physical channel in a second communication cell supporting the first terminal device operating in a full-duplex communication mode,
• wherein the base station is in the second communication cell, and
• wherein the physical shared channel provides for a communication rate higher than a maximum communication rate provided by the physical channel.

A base station configured to communicate with a first set of terminal devices over a first wireless interface operating in a first mode that supports half-duplex mode terminal devices and with a second set of one or more terminal devices over a second wireless interface operating in a second mode that supports full-duplex mode terminal devices, the base station comprising:

• transceiver circuitry configured to
• provide subframes for transmission;
• and
• transmit the subframes via one of the first wireless interface to the terminal devices of the first set operating in a half-duplex mode and the second wireless interface to the terminal devices of the second set operating in a full-duplex mode;
• and
• control circuitry configured to control the transceiver circuitry,
• wherein each subframe includes a plurality of symbols, at least one symbol in each subframe supports a physical shared channel, and at least one symbol in each subframe supports a physical control channel associated with the physical shared channel,
• wherein a symbol at the end of each subframe, which is different from said at least one symbol supporting the physical shared channel and said at least one symbol supporting the physical control channel, supports an additional physical channel, and
• wherein the physical shared channel provides for a communication rate higher than a maximum communication rate provided by the additional physical channel.