Uplink control channel configuration for unlicensed carriers

A wireless communication device, comprising:

• at least one processor configured to:
• identify a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) format for transmission of uplink control information (UCI) in unlicensed spectrum, wherein the PUCCH format is short PUCCH or long PUCCH, wherein the short PUCCH occupies less than 1 subframe in the time domain and spans an entire system bandwidth in the frequency domain with interlacing on a resource block level, wherein the short PUCCH comprises a sequence of symbols at the end of a downlink partial subframe, wherein the long PUCCH occupies one subframe in the time domain and spans the entire system bandwidth in the frequency domain with interlacing on a resource block level, and wherein the short PUCCH or long PUCCH comprises at least one demodulation reference signal (DMRS) symbol and at least one control-data symbol in the time domain;
• and
• at least one transmitter configured to transmit the UCI to a radio access node in accordance with the identified PUCCH format, wherein the UCI is transmitted to the radio access node in coordination with one or more other wireless communication devices, and wherein transmitting the UCI in coordination with the one or more other wireless communication devices comprises applying orthogonal cover codes (OCC) and cyclic shifts (CS) on control-data symbols and reference symbols, respectively, in the short PUCCH or long PUCCH.

A method of operating a radio access node, comprising:

• identifying a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) format to be used by at least one wireless communication device for transmission of uplink control information (UCI) in unlicensed spectrum, wherein the PUCCH format is short PUCCH or long PUCCH, wherein the short PUCCH occupies less than 1 subframe in the time domain and spans an entire system bandwidth in the frequency domain with interlacing on a resource block level, wherein the short PUCCH comprises a sequence of symbols at the end of a downlink partial subframe, wherein the long PUCCH occupies one subframe in the time domain and spans the entire system bandwidth in the frequency domain with interlacing on a resource block level, and wherein the short PUCCH or long PUCCH comprises at least one demodulation reference signal (DMRS) symbol and at least one control-data symbol in the time domain;
• and
• receiving the UCI from the at least one wireless communication device in accordance with the identified PUCCH format, wherein the received UCI is multiplexed in the short PUCCH or long PUCCH with information transmitted from at least one other wireless communication device, and wherein the UCI and the information transmitted from the at least one other wireless communication device are multiplexed using orthogonal cover codes (OCC) and cyclic shifts (CS) on control-data symbols and reference symbols, respectively.

A radio access node, comprising:

• at least one processor and memory collectively configured to:
• identify a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) format to be used by at least one wireless communication device for transmission of uplink control information (UCI) in unlicensed spectrum, wherein the PUCCH format is short PUCCH or long PUCCH, wherein the short PUCCH occupies less than 1 subframe in the time domain and spans an entire system bandwidth in the frequency domain with interlacing on a resource block level, wherein the short PUCCH comprises a sequence of symbols at the end of a downlink partial subframe, wherein the long PUCCH occupies one subframe in the time domain and spans the entire system bandwidth in the frequency domain with interlacing on a resource block level, and wherein the short PUCCH or long PUCCH comprises at least one demodulation reference signal (DMRS) symbol and at least one control-data symbol in the time domain;
• and
• a receiver configured to receive the UCI from the at least one wireless communication device in accordance with the identified PUCCH format, wherein the received UCI is multiplexed in the short PUCCH or long PUCCH with information transmitted from at least one other wireless communication device, and wherein the UCI and the information transmitted from the at least one other wireless communication device are multiplexed using orthogonal cover codes (OCC) and cyclic shifts (CS) on control-data symbols and reference symbols, respectively.