阅读说明：本技术 非陆地网络中的信道质量指示符反馈 (Channel quality indicator feedback in non-terrestrial networks ) 是由 徐慧琳 马俊 X·F·王 I·I·沙赫尼尼 张丹 于 2020-03-11 设计创作，主要内容包括：在一些方面中,用户设备(UE)可以从基站接收指示是否使用来自与陆地网络通信相关联的信道质量指示符(CQI)表的第一集合的第一CQI表、或者是否使用来自与非陆地网络通信相关联的CQI表的第二集合的第二CQI表的配置。UE可以至少部分地基于配置来向基站发送CQI反馈。当配置指示要使用第一CQI表时,UE可以使用第一CQI表来发送CQI反馈,或者当配置指示要使用第二CQI表时,UE可以使用第二CQI表来发送CQI反馈。(In some aspects, a User Equipment (UE) may receive a configuration from a base station indicating whether to use a first Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) table from a first set of CQI tables associated with terrestrial network communications or whether to use a second CQI table from a second set of CQI tables associated with non-terrestrial network communications. The UE may send CQI feedback to the base station based at least in part on the configuration. The UE may send CQI feedback using the first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used, or may send CQI feedback using the second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used.)

1. A method of wireless communication performed by a User Equipment (UE), comprising:

receiving, from a base station, a configuration indicating whether to use a first Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) table from a first set of CQI tables associated with terrestrial network communications or whether to use a second CQI table from a second set of CQI tables associated with non-terrestrial network communications; and

transmitting CQI feedback to the base station based at least in part on the configuration, wherein the CQI feedback is transmitted using the first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used or the CQI feedback is transmitted using the second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second CQI table comprises at least one of more CQI indices than the first CQI table, a different Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) mapping than the first CQI table, an association with a different block error rate (BLER) target than the first CQI table, or a combination thereof.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting a UE capability to the base station, wherein the UE capability indicates whether the UE supports terrestrial network communications without supporting non-terrestrial network communications, whether the UE supports non-terrestrial network communications without supporting terrestrial network communications, or whether the UE supports both terrestrial network communications and non-terrestrial network communications.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the configuration is received based at least in part on transmitting the UE capability to the base station.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first CQI table comprises fewer CQI indices than the second CQI table.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein when the first CQI table is used to transmit the CQI feedback, the CQI feedback comprises fewer bits than a number of bits included when the second CQI table is used to transmit the CQI feedback.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration is based at least in part on at least one of whether the UE is connected to a terrestrial network or a non-terrestrial network, quality of service requirements for data communication associated with the CQI feedback, a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) configuration for the UE, or a combination thereof.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein each CQI index in the second CQI table has a one-to-one mapping to a corresponding Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) index in a MCS table.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each CQI index in the second CQI table is a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) index in a MCS table.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first CQI table is associated with a different block error rate (BLER) target than the second CQI table.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of CQI tables corresponds to a first set of block error rate (BLER) targets and the second set of CQI tables corresponds to a second set of BLER targets different from the first set of BLER targets.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration is one of: cell-specific, UE group-specific, or UE-specific.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration is indicated in an aperiodic Channel State Information (CSI) request.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration is indicated in at least one of a system information block, a radio resource control message, downlink control information, a Medium Access Control (MAC) control element, or a combination thereof.

15. A method of wireless communication performed by a User Equipment (UE), comprising:

receiving, from a base station, a configuration indicating a non-terrestrial network Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) table to be used by the UE, wherein the non-terrestrial network CQI table includes at least one of more CQI indexes than a terrestrial network CQI table, a different Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) mapping than a terrestrial network CQI table, an association with a different block error rate (BLER) target than a terrestrial network CQI table, or a combination thereof; and

transmitting CQI feedback to the base station based at least in part on the indicated non-terrestrial network CQI table.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising: transmitting a UE capability to the base station, wherein the UE capability indicates whether the UE supports non-terrestrial network communications without supporting terrestrial network communications or whether the UE supports both terrestrial network communications and non-terrestrial network communications.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the configuration is received based at least in part on transmitting the UE capability to the base station.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the CQI feedback comprises a greater number of bits than a number of bits included when transmitting CQI feedback using a terrestrial network CQI table.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the configuration is based at least in part on at least one of whether the UE is connected to a terrestrial network or a non-terrestrial network, quality of service requirements for data communication associated with the CQI feedback, a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) configuration for the UE, or a combination thereof.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein each CQI index in the non-terrestrial network CQI table has a one-to-one mapping to a corresponding MCS index in an MCS table.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein each CQI index in the non-terrestrial network CQI table is an MCS index in an MCS table.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the non-terrestrial network CQI table is included in a set of non-terrestrial network CQI tables corresponding to a first set of BLERs that is different from a second set of BLER targets corresponding to a set of terrestrial network CQI tables.

23. The method of claim 15, wherein the configuration is one of: cell-specific, UE group-specific, or UE-specific.

24. The method of claim 15, wherein the configuration is indicated in an aperiodic Channel State Information (CSI) request.

25. The method of claim 15, wherein the configuration is indicated in at least one of a system information block, a radio resource control message, downlink control information, a Medium Access Control (MAC) control element, or a combination thereof.

26. A User Equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising:

a memory; and

one or more processors operatively coupled to the memory, the one or more processors configured to:

receiving, from a base station, a configuration indicating whether to use a first Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) table from a first set of CQI tables associated with terrestrial network communications or whether to use a second CQI table from a second set of CQI tables associated with non-terrestrial network communications; and

transmitting CQI feedback to the base station based at least in part on the configuration, wherein the CQI feedback is transmitted using the first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used or the CQI feedback is transmitted using the second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used.

27. The UE of claim 26, wherein the second CQI table comprises at least one of more CQI indices than the first CQI table, a different Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) mapping than the first CQI table, an association with a different block error rate (BLER) target than the first CQI table, or a combination thereof.

28. The UE of claim 26, wherein the UE is further configured to: transmitting a UE capability to the base station, wherein the UE capability indicates whether the UE supports terrestrial network communications without supporting non-terrestrial network communications, whether the UE supports non-terrestrial network communications without supporting terrestrial network communications, or whether the UE supports both terrestrial network communications and non-terrestrial network communications.

29. A User Equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising:

a memory; and

one or more processors operatively coupled to the memory, the one or more processors configured to:

receiving, from a base station, a configuration indicating a non-terrestrial network Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) table to be used by the UE, wherein the non-terrestrial network CQI table includes at least one of more CQI indexes than a terrestrial network CQI table, a different Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) mapping than a terrestrial network CQI table, an association with a different block error rate (BLER) target than a terrestrial network CQI table, or a combination thereof; and

transmitting CQI feedback to the base station based at least in part on the indicated non-terrestrial network CQI table.

30. The UE of claim 29, wherein the UE is further configured to: transmitting a UE capability to the base station, wherein the UE capability indicates whether the UE supports non-terrestrial network communications without supporting terrestrial network communications or whether the UE supports both terrestrial network communications and non-terrestrial network communications.

Technical Field

Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communications, and to techniques and apparatus for channel quality indicator feedback in non-terrestrial networks.

Background

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, and broadcasting. Typical wireless communication systems may employ multiple-access techniques capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power, etc., or a combination thereof). Examples of such multiple-access techniques include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems, single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems, and Long Term Evolution (LTE). LTE/LTE-Advanced (LTE-Advanced) is a set of enhancements to the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) mobile standard promulgated by the third generation partnership project (3 GPP).

These multiple access techniques have been adopted in various telecommunications standards to provide a common protocol that enables different User Equipment (UE) to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, or even global level. The New Radio (NR) (which may also be referred to as 5G) is a set of enhancements to the LTE mobile standard promulgated by 3 GPP. NR is designed to better support mobile broadband internet access by: the frequency spectrum efficiency is improved; lower cost, improve service, utilize new spectrum, and better integrate with other open standards using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) with Cyclic Prefix (CP) (CP-OFDM) on Downlink (DL) and CP-OFDM or SC-FDM (e.g., also known as discrete fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM)) on Uplink (UL); beamforming, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna techniques and carrier aggregation are also supported. However, as the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, further improvements in LTE and NR technology are needed. Preferably, these improvements apply to other multiple access techniques and to telecommunication standards employing these techniques.

In terrestrial networks, data loss due to channel condition changes can be mitigated by using hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback. For example, the terrestrial network may allow a relatively large number of HARQ retransmissions, e.g., eight HARQ retransmissions per HARQ process. As a result, if channel conditions change in a manner such that the UE cannot successfully receive the downlink data communication at the current Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), the downlink data communication may be retransmitted, potentially using a different MCS compared to the MCS used for the previous transmission. However, in non-terrestrial networks, allowing a larger number of HARQ retransmissions may be inefficient due to long communication delays. Thus, in non-terrestrial networks, the number of HARQ retransmissions may be limited or disabled in some cases. Inaccurate Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) reporting significantly degrades spectral efficiency with a small number of HARQ retransmissions or with HARQ retransmissions disabled. For example, if the reported CQI indicates better channel conditions than the actual channel conditions, the base station may select a aggressive MCS that the channel conditions cannot support, which results in the UE failing to successfully receive the communication, which may result in a higher block error rate (BLER) and lower throughput. Conversely, if the reported CQI indicates worse than actual channel conditions, the base station 110 may select a conservative MCS that may waste network resources, also resulting in lower throughput.

Disclosure of Invention

In some aspects, a method of wireless communication performed by a User Equipment (UE) may include: receiving, from a base station, a configuration indicating whether to use a first Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) table from a first set of CQI tables associated with terrestrial network communications or whether to use a second CQI table from a second set of CQI tables associated with non-terrestrial network communications; and transmitting CQI feedback to the base station based at least in part on the configuration, wherein the CQI feedback is transmitted using the first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used or the CQI feedback is transmitted using the second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used.

In some aspects, a method of wireless communication performed by a UE may comprise: receiving, from a base station, a configuration indicating a non-terrestrial network CQI table to be used by the UE, wherein the non-terrestrial network CQI table comprises at least one of more CQI indexes than a terrestrial network CQI table, a different Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) mapping than a terrestrial network CQI table, an association with a different block error rate (BLER) target than a terrestrial network CQI table, or a combination thereof; and transmitting CQI feedback to the base station based at least in part on the indicated non-terrestrial network CQI table.

In some aspects, a UE for wireless communication may include a memory and one or more processors operatively coupled to the memory. The memory and the one or more processors may be configured to: receiving, from a base station, a configuration indicating whether to use a first CQI table from a first set of CQI tables associated with terrestrial network communications or whether to use a second CQI table from a second set of CQI tables associated with non-terrestrial network communications; and transmitting CQI feedback to the base station based at least in part on the configuration, wherein the CQI feedback is transmitted using the first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used or the CQI feedback is transmitted using the second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used.

In some aspects, a UE for wireless communication may include a memory and one or more processors operatively coupled to the memory. The memory and the one or more processors may be configured to: receiving, from a base station, a configuration indicating a non-terrestrial network CQI table to be used by the UE, wherein the non-terrestrial network CQI table comprises at least one of more CQI indexes than a terrestrial network CQI table, a different MCS mapping than a terrestrial network CQI table, an association with a different BLER target than a terrestrial network CQI table, or a combination thereof; and transmitting CQI feedback to the base station based at least in part on the indicated non-terrestrial network CQI table.

In some aspects, a non-transitory computer-readable medium may store one or more instructions for wireless communication. When executed by one or more processors of a UE, the one or more instructions may cause the one or more processors to: receiving, from a base station, a configuration indicating whether to use a first CQI table from a first set of CQI tables associated with terrestrial network communications or whether to use a second CQI table from a second set of CQI tables associated with non-terrestrial network communications; and transmitting CQI feedback to the base station based at least in part on the configuration, wherein the CQI feedback is transmitted using the first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used or the CQI feedback is transmitted using the second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used.

In some aspects, a non-transitory computer-readable medium may store one or more instructions for wireless communication. When executed by one or more processors of a UE, the one or more instructions may cause the one or more processors to: receiving, from a base station, a configuration indicating a non-terrestrial network CQI table to be used by the UE, wherein the non-terrestrial network CQI table comprises at least one of more CQI indexes than a terrestrial network CQI table, a different MCS mapping than a terrestrial network CQI table, an association with a different BLER target than a terrestrial network CQI table, or a combination thereof; and transmitting CQI feedback to the base station based at least in part on the indicated non-terrestrial network CQI table.

In some aspects, an apparatus for wireless communication may comprise: means for receiving a configuration from a base station indicating whether to use a first CQI table from a first set of CQI tables associated with terrestrial network communications or whether to use a second CQI table from a second set of CQI tables associated with non-terrestrial network communications; and means for transmitting CQI feedback to the base station based at least in part on the configuration, wherein the CQI feedback is transmitted using the first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used or the CQI feedback is transmitted using the second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used.

In some aspects, an apparatus for wireless communication may comprise: means for receiving, from a base station, a configuration indicating a non-terrestrial network CQI table to be used by the apparatus, wherein the non-terrestrial network CQI table comprises at least one of more CQI indexes than a terrestrial network CQI table, a different MCS mapping than a terrestrial network CQI table, an association with a different BLER target than a terrestrial network CQI table, or a combination thereof; and means for sending CQI feedback to the base station based at least in part on the indicated non-terrestrial network CQI table.

In some aspects, a method of wireless communication performed by a base station may comprise: sending a configuration to the UE indicating whether to use a first CQI table from a first set of CQI tables associated with terrestrial network communications or whether to use a configuration of a second CQI table from a second set of CQI tables associated with non-terrestrial network communications; receiving CQI feedback from the UE; and interpreting the CQI feedback based at least in part on the configuration, wherein the CQI feedback is interpreted using the first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used or the CQI feedback is interpreted using the second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used.

In some aspects, a method of wireless communication performed by a base station may comprise: sending a configuration to a UE indicating a non-terrestrial network CQI table to be used by the UE, wherein the non-terrestrial network CQI table comprises at least one of more CQI indexes than a terrestrial network CQI table, a different MCS mapping than a terrestrial network CQI table, an association with a different BLER target than a terrestrial network CQI table, or a combination thereof; receiving CQI feedback from the UE; and interpreting the CQI feedback based at least in part on the indicated non-terrestrial network CQI table.

In some aspects, a base station for wireless communication may include a memory and one or more processors operatively coupled to the memory. The memory and the one or more processors may be configured to: sending a configuration to the UE indicating whether to use a first CQI table from a first set of CQI tables associated with terrestrial network communications or whether to use a configuration of a second CQI table from a second set of CQI tables associated with non-terrestrial network communications; receiving CQI feedback from the UE; and interpreting the CQI feedback based at least in part on the configuration, wherein the CQI feedback is interpreted using the first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used or the CQI feedback is interpreted using the second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used.

In some aspects, a base station for wireless communication may include a memory and one or more processors operatively coupled to the memory. The memory and the one or more processors may be configured to: sending a configuration to a UE indicating a non-terrestrial network CQI table to be used by the UE, wherein the non-terrestrial network CQI table comprises at least one of more CQI indexes than a terrestrial network CQI table, a different MCS mapping than a terrestrial network CQI table, an association with a different BLER target than a terrestrial network CQI table, or a combination thereof; receiving CQI feedback from the UE; and interpreting the CQI feedback based at least in part on the indicated non-terrestrial network CQI table.

In some aspects, a non-transitory computer-readable medium may store one or more instructions for wireless communication. When executed by one or more processors of a base station, the one or more instructions may cause the one or more processors to: sending a configuration to the UE indicating whether to use a first CQI table from a first set of CQI tables associated with terrestrial network communications or whether to use a configuration of a second CQI table from a second set of CQI tables associated with non-terrestrial network communications; receiving CQI feedback from the UE; and interpreting the CQI feedback based at least in part on the configuration, wherein the CQI feedback is interpreted using the first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used or the CQI feedback is interpreted using the second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used.

In some aspects, a non-transitory computer-readable medium may store one or more instructions for wireless communication. When executed by one or more processors of a base station, the one or more instructions may cause the one or more processors to: sending a configuration to a UE indicating a non-terrestrial network CQI table to be used by the UE, wherein the non-terrestrial network CQI table comprises at least one of more CQI indexes than a terrestrial network CQI table, a different MCS mapping than a terrestrial network CQI table, an association with a different BLER target than a terrestrial network CQI table, or a combination thereof; receiving CQI feedback from the UE; and interpreting the CQI feedback based at least in part on the indicated non-terrestrial network CQI table.

In some aspects, an apparatus for wireless communication may comprise: means for sending a configuration to a UE indicating whether to use a first CQI table from a first set of CQI tables associated with terrestrial network communications or whether to use a configuration of a second CQI table from a second set of CQI tables associated with non-terrestrial network communications; means for receiving CQI feedback from the UE; and means for interpreting the CQI feedback based at least in part on the configuration, wherein the CQI feedback is interpreted using the first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used or the CQI feedback is interpreted using the second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used.

In some aspects, an apparatus for wireless communication may comprise: means for transmitting, to a UE, a configuration indicating a non-terrestrial network CQI table to be used by the UE, wherein the non-terrestrial network CQI table comprises at least one of more CQI indices than a terrestrial network CQI table, a different MCS mapping than a terrestrial network CQI table, an association with a different BLER target than a terrestrial network CQI table, or a combination thereof; means for receiving CQI feedback from the UE; and means for interpreting the CQI feedback based at least in part on the indicated non-terrestrial network CQI table.

As substantially described herein with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying figures and description, aspects generally include a method, apparatus, system, computer program product, non-transitory computer-readable medium, user equipment, base station, wireless communication device, or processing system.

The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of examples according to the present disclosure in order that the detailed description that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages will be described hereinafter. The conception and specific examples disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present disclosure. Such equivalent constructions do not depart from the scope of the appended claims. The features of the concepts disclosed herein (both as to their organization and method of operation), together with the associated advantages, will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying figures. Each of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration and description and is not intended as a definition of the limits of the claims.

Drawings

So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present disclosure can be understood in detail, a more particular description, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to aspects, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only some typical aspects of this disclosure and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the description may admit to other equally effective aspects. The same reference numbers in different drawings may identify the same or similar elements.

Fig. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example wireless network in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a Base Station (BS) communicating with a User Equipment (UE) in a wireless network in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure.

Fig. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) feedback process in a non-terrestrial network, in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure.

Fig. 4 and 5 are diagrams illustrating examples of CQI feedback in a non-terrestrial network, in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure.

Fig. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example process performed by a UE in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure.

Fig. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example process performed by a BS in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure.

Fig. 8 is a diagram illustrating another example process performed by a UE in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure.

Fig. 9 is a diagram illustrating another example process performed by a BS in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure.

Fig. 10 is a block diagram of an example apparatus for wireless communication.

Fig. 11 is a block diagram of an example apparatus for wireless communication.

Detailed Description

Various aspects of the disclosure are described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. This disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to any specific structure or function presented throughout this disclosure. Rather, these aspects are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art. Based on the teachings herein one skilled in the art can appreciate that the scope of the present disclosure is intended to cover any aspect of the present disclosure disclosed herein, whether implemented independently or combined with any other aspect of the present disclosure. For example, an apparatus may be implemented or a method may be practiced using any of the quantitative aspects set forth herein. In addition, the scope of the present disclosure is intended to cover such an apparatus or method practiced using other structure, functionality, or structure and functionality in addition to or other than the various aspects of the present disclosure set forth herein. Any aspect of the disclosure disclosed herein may be embodied by one or more elements of a claim.

Several aspects of telecommunications systems will now be presented with reference to various devices and techniques. These apparatus and methods are described in the following detailed description and illustrated in the accompanying drawings by various blocks, modules, components, circuits, steps, processes, algorithms, etc., or combinations thereof (collectively, "elements"). These elements may be implemented using hardware, software, or a combination thereof. Whether such elements are implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system.

It should be noted that although aspects may be described herein using terminology commonly associated with 3G or 4G wireless technology, aspects of the present disclosure may be applied in other generation-based communication systems, e.g., 5G and beyond (including NR technology).

In terrestrial networks, data loss due to channel condition changes can be mitigated by using hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback. For example, the terrestrial network may allow a relatively large number of HARQ retransmissions, e.g., eight HARQ retransmissions per HARQ process. As a result, if channel conditions change in a manner such that the UE cannot successfully receive the downlink data communication at the current Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), the downlink data communication may be retransmitted, potentially using a different MCS compared to the MCS used for the previous transmission. However, in non-terrestrial networks, allowing a larger number of HARQ retransmissions may be inefficient due to long communication delays. Thus, in non-terrestrial networks, the number of HARQ retransmissions may be limited or disabled in some cases. Inaccurate Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) reporting significantly degrades spectral efficiency with a small number of HARQ retransmissions or with HARQ retransmissions disabled. For example, if the reported CQI indicates better channel conditions than the actual channel conditions, the base station may select a aggressive MCS that the channel conditions cannot support, which results in the UE failing to successfully receive the communication, which may result in a higher block error rate (BLER) and lower throughput. Conversely, if the reported CQI indicates worse than actual channel conditions, the base station 110 may select a conservative MCS that may waste network resources, also resulting in lower throughput.

Thus, CQI reporting may need to be done with finer granularity in non-terrestrial networks to achieve a proper tradeoff between throughput and the likelihood of successful transmission in non-terrestrial networks. Since channels of non-terrestrial networks operate using line-of-sight communications (e.g., between a UE and a non-terrestrial base station), the channels typically vary slowly over time, with predictable interference or noise (e.g., due to Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN)). As a result, future channel conditions in the non-terrestrial network can be accurately predicted due to a low likelihood that the channel conditions will change between the time when the UE measures the channel conditions and the time when the non-terrestrial base station transmits downlink data communications using an MCS determined based at least in part on the channel conditions. Thus, reporting CQI at a finer granularity may result in improved performance. Some of the techniques and apparatus described herein allow CQI reports that more accurately represent actual channel conditions for non-terrestrial networks, thereby reducing latency, increasing throughput, and improving spectral efficiency in non-terrestrial networks. Furthermore, some techniques and apparatus described herein allow for proper and flexible configuration of CQI reports using different granularities to allow coexistence between terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks.

Fig. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example wireless network 100 in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. Wireless network 100 may be a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network or some other wireless network (e.g., a 5G or NR network). Wireless network 100 may include a number of Base Stations (BS)110 (shown as BS110a, BS110 b, BS110 c, and BS110 d) and other network entities. A BS is an entity that communicates with User Equipment (UE) and may also be referred to as node B, e node B, eNB, gNB, NR BS, 5G node B (nb), Access Point (AP), Transmit Receive Point (TRP), etc., or a combination thereof (these terms may be used interchangeably herein). Each BS may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area. In 3GPP, the term "cell" can refer to a coverage area of a BS or a BS subsystem serving the coverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used.

The BS may provide communication coverage for a macrocell, picocell, femtocell, or another type of cell. A macro cell may cover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers in radius) and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscriptions. A pico cell may cover a relatively small geographic area and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscriptions. A femto cell may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home) and may allow restricted access by UEs having an association with the femto cell (e.g., UEs in a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG)). The BS for the macro cell may be referred to as a macro BS. The BS for the pico cell may be referred to as a pico BS. The BS for the femto cell may be referred to as a femto BS or a home BS. A BS may support one or more (e.g., three) cells.

The wireless network 100 may be a heterogeneous network including different types of BSs (e.g., macro BSs, pico BSs, femto BSs, relay BSs, etc., or a combination thereof). These different types of BSs may have different transmit power levels, different coverage areas, and different effects on interference in wireless network 100. For example, the macro BS may have a high transmit power level (e.g., 5 to 40 watts), while the pico BS, femto BS, and relay BS may have a lower transmit power level (e.g., 0.1 to 2 watts). In the example shown in fig. 1, BS110a may be a macro BS for macro cell 102a, BS110 b may be a pico BS for pico cell 102b, and BS110 c may be a femto BS for femto cell 102 c. Network controller 130 may be coupled to a set of BSs 102a, 102b, 110a, and 110b and may provide coordination and control for these BSs. The network controller 130 may communicate with the BSs via a backhaul. The BSs may also communicate with each other, directly or indirectly, e.g., via a wireless or wired backhaul.

In some aspects, the cell may not be stationary, but rather the geographic area of the cell may be moved according to the location of the mobile BS. In some aspects, the BSs may be interconnected to each other and/or to one or more other BSs or network nodes (not shown) in the wireless network 100 through various types of backhaul interfaces, such as direct physical connections, virtual networks, etc., or a combination thereof, using any suitable transport network.

In some examples, a cell may be provided by a base station 110 of a non-terrestrial network (also referred to as a non-terrestrial base station 110 or a non-terrestrial access point). As used herein, a non-terrestrial network may refer to a network for which access is provided by non-terrestrial base stations 110. In some aspects, the non-terrestrial base stations 110 may be located on onboard vehicles or rail vehicles (e.g., satellites, balloons, airships, airplanes, unmanned vehicles, drones, etc.). Additionally or alternatively, non-terrestrial base stations 110 can act as relay stations to relay communications between UEs 120 and terrestrial base stations 110 (e.g., base stations 110 located on the ground), as described below. In some aspects, the UE 120 may be a Ground Station (GS).

Wireless network 100 may also include relay stations. A relay station is an entity that can receive a data transmission from an upstream station (e.g., a BS or a UE) and send the data transmission to a downstream station (e.g., a UE or a BS). A relay station may also be a UE that is capable of relaying transmissions for other UEs. In the example shown in fig. 1, relay station 110d may communicate with macro BS110a and UE 120d to facilitate communication between BS110a and UE 120 d. The relay station may also be referred to as a relay BS, a relay base station, a relay, etc., or a combination thereof.

UEs 120 (e.g., 120a, 120b, 120c) may be dispersed throughout wireless network 100, and each UE may be stationary or mobile. A UE may also be referred to as an access terminal, a mobile station, a subscriber unit, a station, etc., or a combination thereof. A UE may be a cellular phone (e.g., a smartphone), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a wireless communication device, a handheld device, a laptop, a cordless phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a tablet, a camera, a gaming device, a netbook, a smartbook, an ultrabook, a medical device or apparatus, a biometric sensor/device, a wearable device (smartwatch, smartclothing, smartglasses, a smartwristband, smartjewelry (e.g., a smartring, smartbracelet, etc.)), an entertainment device (e.g., a music or video device, or a satellite radio, etc.), a vehicle component or sensor, a smart meter/sensor, an industrial manufacturing device, a global positioning system device, or any other suitable device configured to communicate via a wireless medium.

Some UEs may be considered Machine Type Communication (MTC) UEs or evolved or enhanced machine type communication (eMTC) UEs. MTC UEs and eMTC UEs include, for example, a robot, a drone, a remote device, a sensor, a meter, a monitor, a location tag, etc., or a combination thereof, which may communicate with a base station, another device (e.g., a remote device), or some other entity. The wireless node may provide a connection to or to a network (e.g., a wide area network such as the internet or a cellular network), for example, via a wired or wireless communication link. Some UEs may be considered internet of things (IoT) devices, or may be implemented as NB-IoT (narrowband internet of things) devices. Some UEs may be considered Customer Premises Equipment (CPE). UE 120 may be included inside a housing that houses components of UE 120, such as a processor component, a memory component, and the like, or a combination thereof.

In general, any number of wireless networks may be deployed in a given geographic area. Each wireless network may support a particular Radio Access Technology (RAT) and may operate on one or more frequencies or frequency channels. The frequencies may also be referred to as carriers, etc., or a combination thereof. Each frequency may support a single RAT in a given geographic area in order to avoid interference between wireless networks of different RATs. In some cases, NR or 5G RAT networks may be deployed.

In some aspects, two or more UEs 120 (e.g., shown as UE 120a and UE 120e) may communicate directly with each other (e.g., without using base station 110 as an intermediary) using one or more sidelink channels. For example, the UE 120 may communicate using peer-to-peer (P2P) communication, device-to-device (D2D) communication, vehicle-to-anything (V2X) protocol (e.g., which may include vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) protocol, vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), or the like or a combination thereof), mesh network, or the like, or a combination thereof. In this case, UE 120 may perform scheduling operations, resource selection operations, or other operations described elsewhere herein as being performed by base station 110.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram 200 illustrating an example of a Base Station (BS) communicating with a User Equipment (UE) in a wireless network, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. The base station 110 may be equipped with T antennas 234a through 234T and the UE 120 may be equipped with R antennas 252a through 252R, where T ≧ 1 and R ≧ 1 in general.

At base station 110, transmit processor 220 may receive data for one or more UEs from a data source 212, select one or more Modulation and Coding Schemes (MCSs) for each UE based at least in part on a Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) received from the UE, process (e.g., encode) the data for each UE based at least in part on the MCS selected for the UE, and provide data symbols for all UEs. Transmit processor 220 may also process system information (e.g., for semi-Static Resource Partitioning Information (SRPI), etc., or a combination thereof) and control information (e.g., CQI requests, grants, upper layer signaling, etc., or a combination thereof), as well as provide overhead symbols and control symbols. Transmit processor 220 may also generate reference symbols for reference signals (e.g., cell-specific reference signals (CRS)) and synchronization signals (e.g., Primary Synchronization Signals (PSS) and Secondary Synchronization Signals (SSS)). A Transmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor 230 may perform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on the data symbols, the control symbols, the overhead symbols, or the reference symbols, if applicable, and may provide T output symbol streams to T Modulators (MODs) 232a through 232T. Each MOD 232 may process a respective output symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM, etc., or a combination thereof) to obtain an output sample stream. Each MOD 232 may further process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and upconvert) the output sample stream to obtain a downlink signal. T downlink signals from MODs 232a through 232T may be transmitted via T antennas 234a through 234T, respectively. According to certain aspects described in more detail below, a synchronization signal may be generated using position coding to convey additional information.

At UE 120, antennas 252a through 252R may receive downlink signals from base station 110 or other base stations and may provide received signals to R demodulators (DEMODs) 254a through 254R, respectively. Each DEMOD 254 may condition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) a received signal to obtain input samples. Each DEMOD 254 may further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM, etc., or a combination thereof) to obtain received symbols. MIMO detector 256 may obtain received symbols from all R DEMODs 254 a-254R, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols (if applicable), and provide detected symbols. A receive processor 258 may process (e.g., decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for UE 120 to a data sink 260, and provide decoded control information and system information to a controller/processor 280. The channel processor may determine a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), a Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), a Channel Quality Indicator (CQI), and the like, or combinations thereof. In some aspects, one or more components of UE 120 may be included in a housing.

On the uplink, at UE 120, a transmit processor 264 may receive and process data from a data source 262 and control information from a controller/processor 280 (e.g., for reporting including RSRP, RSSI, RSRQ, CQI, etc., or a combination thereof). Transmit processor 264 may also generate reference symbols for one or more reference signals. The symbols from transmit processor 264 may be precoded by a TX MIMO processor 266 if applicable, further processed by MODs 254a through 254r (e.g., for discrete fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-s-OFDM), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing with Cyclic Prefix (CP) (OFDM) (CP-OFDM), etc., or a combination thereof), and transmitted to base station 110. At base station 110, the uplink signals from UE 120 and other UEs may be received by antennas 234, processed by DEMODs 232, detected by a MIMO detector 236 (if applicable), and further processed by a receive processor 238 to obtain decoded data and control information sent by UE 120. Receive processor 238 may provide decoded data to a data sink 239 and decoded control information to controller/processor 240. BS110 may include a communication unit 244 and communicate with network controller 130 via communication unit 244. Network controller 130 may include a communication unit 294, a controller/processor 290, and a memory 292.

Controller/processor 240 of base station 110, controller/processor 280 of UE 120, or any other component in fig. 2 may perform one or more techniques associated with CQI feedback in a non-terrestrial network, as described in more detail elsewhere herein. For example, controller/processor 240 of base station 110, controller/processor 280 of UE 120, or any other component in fig. 2 may perform or direct, for example, the operations of process 600 of fig. 6, process 700 of fig. 7, process 800 of fig. 8, process 900 of fig. 9, and/or other processes as described herein. Memories 242 and 282 may store data and program codes for base station 110 and UE 120, respectively. A scheduler 246 may schedule UEs for data transmission on the downlink or uplink.

In some aspects, UE 120 may include: means for receiving a configuration from a base station indicating whether to use a first CQI table from a first set of CQI tables associated with terrestrial network communications or whether to use a second CQI table from a second set of CQI tables associated with non-terrestrial network communications; means for transmitting CQI feedback to a base station based at least in part on the configuration, wherein the CQI feedback is transmitted using the first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used or the CQI feedback is transmitted using the second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used; and the like; or a combination thereof. Additionally or alternatively, UE 120 may include: means for receiving, from a base station, a configuration indicating a non-terrestrial network CQI table to be used by the UE, wherein the non-terrestrial network CQI table comprises at least one of more CQI indexes than a terrestrial network CQI table, a different MCS mapping than a terrestrial network CQI table, an association with a different BLER target than a terrestrial network CQI table, or a combination thereof; means for transmitting CQI feedback to the base station based at least in part on the indicated non-terrestrial network CQI table; and the like; or a combination thereof. In some aspects, such units may include one or more components of UE 120 described in conjunction with fig. 2.

In some aspects, base station 110 may comprise: means for sending a configuration to a UE indicating whether to use a first CQI table from a first set of CQI tables associated with terrestrial network communications or whether to use a second CQI table from a second set of CQI tables associated with non-terrestrial network communications; means for receiving CQI feedback from the UE; means for interpreting the CQI feedback based at least in part on the configuration, wherein the CQI feedback is interpreted using the first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used or the CQI feedback is interpreted using the second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used; and the like; or a combination thereof. Additionally or alternatively, the base station 110 may include: means for transmitting, to a UE, a configuration indicating a non-terrestrial network CQI table to be used by the UE, wherein the non-terrestrial network CQI table comprises at least one of more CQI indices than a terrestrial network CQI table, a different MCS mapping than a terrestrial network CQI table, an association with a different BLER target than a terrestrial network CQI table, or a combination thereof; means for receiving CQI feedback from the UE; means for interpreting the CQI feedback based at least in part on the indicated non-terrestrial network CQI table; and the like; or a combination thereof. In some aspects, such a unit may include one or more components of base station 110 described in conjunction with fig. 2.

Fig. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example 300 of a CQI feedback process in a non-terrestrial network in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure. As shown in fig. 3, UE 120 and non-terrestrial (NT) base station 110 may communicate with each other. In some aspects, UE 120 may be a ground station.

In a first operation 310, the NT base station 110 may transmit a reference signal, e.g., a Channel State Information (CSI) reference signal (CSI-RS), which may be received by the UE 120. In some cases, NT base station 110 may transmit multiple reference signals for a channel. UE 120 may measure the received reference signals and use the reference signal measurements to determine a CQI index that represents the channel quality. For example, UE 120 may measure or process the reference signal to determine a signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) of the channel, and may use the SINR to determine a CQI index for the channel. In some aspects, UE 120 may map the SINR to a CQI index. For example, different ranges of SINR values may be associated with different CQI indices, and UE 120 may map the determined SINR to a particular CQI index based on the corresponding range of SINR values at which the determined SINR is located.

In a second operation 320, the UE 120 may send the determined CQI index to the NT base station 110. For example, UE 120 may send a CQI index as CQI feedback, which may be sent in a Channel State Information (CSI) report. NT base station 110 may determine a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) for modulating and coding downlink communications for UE 120 based at least in part on the CQI index. For example, the CQI index may be mapped to an MCS index indicating a modulation scheme, a modulation order, a target code rate, and the like. As such, a lower order MCS (e.g., a less complex MCS, an MCS that carries fewer bits per symbol, etc.) may be used to improve the likelihood of successful demodulation and decoding when channel conditions are poor, while a higher order MCS (e.g., a more complex MCS, an MCS that carries more bits per symbol, etc.) may be used to improve throughput and spectral efficiency when channel conditions allow.

In a third operation 330, the NT base station 110 may indicate to the UE 120 the MCS used to modulate and encode the downlink communication, e.g., by indicating the MCS index. For example, the MCS may be indicated in Downlink Control Information (DCI) (e.g., a downlink grant for downlink data communication) of a downlink control channel (e.g., a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH)). The NT base station 110 may then transmit the downlink data communication modulated and encoded according to the MCS in a downlink data channel, such as a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH). UE 120 may use the indicated MCS to demodulate and decode the downlink data communication.

In order to reduce the signaling overhead required to indicate the channel quality, a limited number of CQI indices are defined, which may be less than the number of defined MCS indices. For example, in LTE and NR, four bits are used to signal CQI indices, limiting the number of possible CQI indices to 16 (some CQI index values may be reserved). However, in LTE and NR, the MCS index is indicated using five bits, and thus, there are 32 possible MCSs (some MCS index values may be reserved). In a terrestrial network where channel fading is prevalent, the number of CQI indices is less than the number of MCS indices because the performance improvement of high-precision CQI measurement is limited due to the channel conditions changing over time. More specifically, due to channel fading in the terrestrial network, there is a relatively high likelihood that the channel conditions will change between the time when UE 120 measures the channel conditions and the time when terrestrial base station 110 transmits downlink data communications using an MCS determined based at least in part on the channel conditions. In other words, due to channel fading, the MCS selection algorithm cannot rely on predictions of future channel conditions in the terrestrial network.

In terrestrial networks, data loss due to channel condition changes can be mitigated by using hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback. For example, the terrestrial network may allow a relatively large number of HARQ retransmissions, e.g., eight HARQ retransmissions per HARQ process. As a result, if the channel conditions change in a manner such that the UE 120 cannot successfully receive the downlink data communication at the current MCS, the downlink data communication may be retransmitted, potentially using a different MCS than was used for the previous transmission. For example, using a relatively lower CQI granularity compared to MCS granularity, in some cases the reported CQI index may be more optimistic than the actual channel quality measurement. For example, the reported CQI index may indicate a better channel quality than the measured channel quality due to the lack of a CQI index that more accurately indicates the measured channel quality. In this case, the HARQ process may use a greater number of HARQ retransmissions, e.g., when the UE 120 is unable to successfully receive the downlink data. In other cases, low granularity of CQI may result in reported CQI being pessimistic compared to actual channel quality measurements. For example, the reported CQI index may indicate a channel quality that is worse than the measured channel quality due to the lack of a CQI index that more accurately indicates the measured channel quality. In this case, the HARQ process may use a smaller number of HARQ retransmissions. In either case (e.g., more optimistic or pessimistic CQI reporting), using low granularity reporting CQI results in only a small loss of spectral efficiency in the terrestrial network due to the relatively large number of allowed HARQ retransmissions.

However, in non-terrestrial networks, it may be inefficient to allow a greater number of HARQ retransmissions. For example, in a non-terrestrial network, since UE 120 and NTN base station 110 are located at a much greater distance than UE 120 and terrestrial base station 110, the communication delay between the transmission of the communication and the reception of the communication may be much greater than in a terrestrial network. As a result, allowing a greater number of HARQ retransmissions may result in very large latencies due to long communication delays for the initial transmission, and for Negative Acknowledgement (NACK) transmissions when the initial transmission was not successfully received, long communication delays in sending control information and retransmissions, and so on. If the retransmission is unsuccessful, the latency may be further increased. Thus, in non-terrestrial networks, the number of HARQ retransmissions may be limited (e.g., less than 8) or even disabled.

By limiting the number of HARQ retransmissions or disabling HARQ retransmissions, inaccurate CQI reporting may significantly reduce spectral efficiency. For example, if the reported CQI indicates better channel conditions than actual channel conditions, the base station 110 may select a positive MCS for the downlink communication, but the channel conditions may not allow such a positive MCS to be used, and as a result, the UE 120 may not be able to successfully receive the downlink communication, resulting in a higher packet error rate (BLER) and lower throughput. Conversely, if the reported CQI indicates poor channel conditions compared to actual channel conditions, the base station 110 may select an MCS that is too conservative and thereby wastes network resources, also resulting in lower throughput (e.g., due to the use of additional resources that may have been used for other transmissions). Thus, it may be desirable in a non-terrestrial network to utilize finer granularity of CQI reporting to achieve a suitable tradeoff between throughput and likelihood of successful transmission in a non-terrestrial network. Since the channel of the non-terrestrial network is typically line-of-sight (e.g., between the UE 120 and the NT base station 110), the channel typically varies regularly over time, with predictable attenuation or noise (e.g., due to Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN)). As a result, future channel conditions in the non-terrestrial network can be accurately predicted since there is a low likelihood that the channel conditions will change suddenly with respect to between the time when the UE 120 measures the channel conditions and the time when the non-terrestrial base station 110 transmits downlink data communications using an MCS determined based at least in part on the channel conditions. Thus, reporting CQI at a finer granularity may lead to performance improvements in non-terrestrial networks.

Some of the techniques and apparatus described herein allow for CQI reporting that is more accurately representative of the actual channel conditions of the non-terrestrial network, thereby reducing latency, increasing throughput, and improving spectral efficiency in the non-terrestrial network. Furthermore, some techniques and apparatus described herein allow for appropriate and flexible configuration of CQI reporting using different granularities to enhance coexistence between terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks.

Fig. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example 400 of CQI feedback in a non-terrestrial network in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure. As shown in fig. 4, UE 120 and non-terrestrial (NT) base station 110 may communicate with each other.

In a first operation 405, the UE 120 may indicate UE capabilities to the base station 110. The UE capabilities may indicate whether the UE 120 supports one or both of Terrestrial Network (TN) communications and non-terrestrial network (NTN) communications. For example, the UE 120 may determine whether the UE 120 supports both TN communications and NTN communications (shown as TN + NTN), whether the UE 120 supports NTN communications but not TN communications (shown as NTN only), or whether the UE 120 supports TN communications but not NTN communications (shown as TN only). In some aspects, the UE capabilities may be programmed into the UE 120. Additionally or alternatively, the UE capabilities may be based at least in part on a category or type of the UE 120.

In a second operation 410, the base station 110 may determine whether to use a TN CQI table or an NTN CQI table for CQI reporting. In some aspects, base station 110 may determine the configuration based at least in part on the UE capabilities. For example, base station 110 may determine whether to configure UE 120 with a TN CQI table or an NTN CQI table based at least in part on the UE capabilities. Additionally or alternatively, base station 110 may determine whether to configure UE 120 with a TN CQI table or an NTN CQI table based at least in part on whether base station 110 is a terrestrial base station or a non-terrestrial base station. However, in some aspects, base station 110 may determine the configuration independent of UE capabilities or independent of whether base station 110 is a terrestrial base station or a non-terrestrial base station.

For example, if UE 120 supports both TN and NTN communications, and base station 110 is a terrestrial base station, base station 110 may configure UE 120 with a TN CQI table. As another example, if UE 120 supports both TN communication and NTN communication, and base station 110 is a non-terrestrial base station, base station 110 may configure UE 120 with an NTN CQI table. As another example, if UE 120 is an NTN-only UE 120 (meaning that UE 120 supports NTN communications but not TN communications), base station 110 may configure UE 120 with an NTN CQI table (e.g., when base station 110 is a non-terrestrial base station).

Additionally or alternatively, base station 110 may determine the configuration based at least in part on quality of service (QoS) requirements of data communications (e.g., NTN data communications) associated with UE 120 (e.g., data communications that use an MCS that depends on CQI feedback sent by UE 120). For example, the base station 110 may configure the UE 120 with an NTN CQI table for high QoS requirements (meeting thresholds) because the NTN CQI table may result in lower latency, improved throughput, higher reliability, etc., as compared to the TN CQI table, as described above in connection with fig. 3. Conversely, the base station 110 may configure the UE 120 with a TN CQI table for low QoS requirements (not meeting the threshold) because the TN CQI table may be associated with more relaxed QoS requirements than the NTN CQI table. In some aspects, to reduce signaling overhead, base station 110 may configure UE 120 with a TN CQI table for low QoS requirements even if UE 120 supports NTN communications and base station 110 is a non-terrestrial base station (e.g., even if UE 120 is connected to an NTN).

Additionally or alternatively, base station 110 may determine the configuration based at least in part on the HARQ configuration of UE 120. For example, if the UE 120 is configured with a number of HARQ retransmissions that satisfies a threshold (e.g., greater than or equal to a threshold), the base station 110 may configure the UE 120 with a TN CQI table because the relative inaccuracy of the CQI feedback associated with the TN CQI table may be mitigated using HARQ retransmissions, as described above in connection with fig. 3. Conversely, if the UE 120 is configured with a number of HARQ retransmissions that does not satisfy a threshold (e.g., is less than or equal to the threshold), the base station 110 may configure the UE 120 with an NTN CQI table because potential data loss due to lack of HARQ retransmissions or a small number of HARQ retransmissions may be mitigated by using relatively accurate CQI feedback associated with the NTN CQI table. In some aspects, base station 110 may determine the HARQ configuration based at least in part on the HARQ capabilities of UE 120, which may be signaled to base station 110 in a UE capability report. In some aspects, to reduce signaling overhead, even if UE 120 supports NTN communications and base station 110 is a non-terrestrial base station (e.g., even if UE 120 is connected to the NTN), base station 110 may configure UE 120 with a TN CQI table when the number of HARQ retransmissions configured for UE 120 satisfies a threshold.

Additionally or alternatively, the base station 110 may determine the configuration based at least in part on an NTN deployment type associated with the base station 110. NTN deployment types may include: for example, a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) deployment type (e.g., below 2000 kilometers (km) altitude), a Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) deployment type (e.g., below about 35786km in altitude), a geosynchronous orbit (GSO) or geostationary orbit (GEO) deployment type (e.g., which matches the earth's sidereal rotation period to an altitude of about 35786 km), a High Earth Orbit (HEO) deployment type (e.g., when the altitude is above about 35786 km), a deployment where the orbit meets one or more thresholds (e.g., less than or equal to the altitude threshold, greater than or equal to the altitude threshold, less than or equal to the first altitude threshold, and greater than or equal to the second altitude threshold, etc.), a deployment with a beam coverage area (beam footprint) that meets one or more thresholds (e.g., a beam coverage diameter less than or equal to the threshold, greater than or equal to the threshold, less than or equal to the first threshold, and greater than or equal to the second threshold, etc.), and the like. Additionally or alternatively, base station 110 may determine the configuration based at least in part on channel characteristics (e.g., whether the channel is experiencing channel fading). In some aspects, the channel characteristics may depend on the NTN deployment type.

For example, the GEO base station may determine to use an NTN CQI table with more CQI levels than a TN CQI table and a target BLER of 1 e-5. As another example, the high altitude drone may determine to use a TN CQI table. As another example, the LEO base station may determine to use a different NTN CQI table (e.g., an NTN CQI table with more CQI levels (e.g., more CQI indices)) and a target BLER in the range of 1e-1, 1e-3, or 1e-5 as compared to the GEO base station.

In some aspects, the set of TN-CQI tables and the set of NTN-CQI tables may be mutually exclusive. As described in more detail below, the set of TN-CQI tables and the set of NTN-CQI tables may have different characteristics. For example, the NTN-CQI table may include more CQI indices than the TN-CQI table, may include a different MCS mapping than the TN-CQI table (for the same number of CQI indices or a different number of CQI indices than the TN-CQI table), may be associated with a different BLER target than the terrestrial network, may be associated with a different coding rate than the TN-CQI table (for the same number of CQI indices or a different number of CQI indices than the TN-CQI table), may be associated with a different reference resource allocation than the TN-CQI table, and so on. Different ones of the set of CQI tables may correspond to different BLER targets, different sets of modulation schemes, different sets of code rates, different sets of spectral efficiencies, and so on.

In a third operation 415, the base station 110 may send a configuration to the UE 120 indicating whether to use a TN CQI table (e.g., a first CQI table) or an NTN CQI table (e.g., a second CQI table). The TN CQI table may be included in a set of TN CQI tables (e.g., a first set of CQI tables associated with TN communications). Similarly, the NTN CQI table may be included in a set of NTN CQI tables (e.g., a second set of CQI tables associated with NTN communications).

In some aspects, the configuration indicating whether to use the TN CQI table or the NTN CQI table may be cell specific. In this case, all UEs 120 in the cell are configured to use only the TN CQI table or only the NTN CQI table, and different UEs 120 in the cell may not be configured to use different types of CQI tables. In some aspects, the configuration as to whether to use a TN CQI table or an NTN CQI table in a cell may change over time, but at any time, all UEs 120 in the cell are configured to use the same type of CQI table (e.g., TN only or NTN only). For cell-specific CQI tables, UEs 120 in different cells may use the same or different CQI tables. In some aspects, for a cell-specific CQI table, the configuration may be indicated in system information (e.g., in a System Information Block (SIB)), in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, or the like. In this manner, the UE 120 handed over from the NTN cell to the TN cell or the UE 120 handed over from the TN cell to the NTN cell may be configured with an appropriate CQI table.

In some aspects, the configuration indicating whether to use the TN CQI table or the NTN CQI table may be beam specific. In this case, all UEs 120 communicating with the base station 110 using a particular beam are configured to use only the TN CQI table or only the NTN CQI table, and different UEs 120 communicating using that beam may not be configured to use different types of CQI tables. In some aspects, the configuration of whether to use a TN CQI table or an NTN CQI table for the beam may change over time in a similar manner as shown above. For a beam-specific CQI table, UEs 120 using different beams may use the same or different CQI tables. In some aspects, for a beam-specific CQI table, the configuration may be indicated in an RRC message, a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) (MAC-CE), or the like.

In some aspects, the configuration indicating whether to use a TN CQI table or an NTN CQI table may be group specific (e.g., UE group specific). In this case, all UEs 120 in the configured UE group are configured to use only the TN CQI table or only the NTN CQI table, and different UEs 120 in the UE group may not be configured to use different types of CQI tables. In some aspects, the configuration for whether to use a TN CQI table or an NTN CQI table for a group may change over time in a similar manner as shown above. For the group-specific CQI table, UEs 120 in different groups may use the same or different CQI tables. In some aspects, for group-specific CQI tables, the configuration may be indicated in a group-common DCI, sometimes referred to as group-common PDCCH communication. For example, the group common DCI may include a plurality of CQI table indicators. Each CQI table indicator may indicate whether the group of UEs 120 corresponding to that CQI table indicator is to use a TN CQI table or an NTN CQI table. Base station 110 may indicate to UE 120 which CQI table indicator in the group common DCI corresponds to that UE 120. In some aspects, an indication of a correspondence between UE 120 and a CQI table indicator (or group to which UE 120 belongs) may be indicated in an RRC message sent to UE 120.

In some aspects, the configuration indicating whether to use the TN CQI table or the NTN CQI table may be UE-specific. In this case, each UE 120 may be configured to use a TN CQI table or an NTN CQI table. In some aspects, the configuration of whether to use a TN CQI table or an NTN CQI table for the UE 120 may change over time in a similar manner as shown above. For UE-specific CQI tables, different UEs 120 may be configured to use the same or different CQI tables. In some aspects, for a UE-specific CQI table, the configuration may be indicated in an RRC message, in DCI (sometimes referred to as PDCCH communication), or the like. For example, the base station 110 may send an aperiodic CSI request on the PDCCH to request the UE 120 to send aperiodic CSI including CQI indices. In some aspects, the aperiodic CSI request may include a CQI table indicator that indicates whether a TN CQI table or an NTN CQI table is to be used to determine a CQI index for the aperiodic CSI. In this way, the UE 120 may be dynamically configured on a per aperiodic CSI basis.

In a fourth operation 420, the UE 120 may identify a CQI table in the configuration indicated by the base station 110. For example, the UE 120 may identify a TN CQI table from a set of stored TN CQI tables, or may identify an NTN CQI table from a set of stored NTN CQI tables. In some aspects, the UE 120 may store the set of TN CQI tables without storing the set of NTN CQI tables, may store the set of NTN CQI tables without storing the set of TN CQI tables, or may store both the set of TN CQI tables and the set of NTN CQI tables in memory according to UE capabilities. For example, if the UE 120 supports both TN communication and NTN communication, the UE 120 may store both the set of TN CQI tables and the set of NTN CQI tables in memory. As another example, if the UE 120 supports NTN communications but not TN communications, the UE 120 may store a set of NTN CQI tables in memory instead of the set of TN CQI tables. However, in some aspects, as described above, only the NTN-type UE 120 may store both the set of NTN CQI tables and the set of TN CQI tables in memory if the type of CQI table to be used depends on the QoS requirements or HARQ configuration. In some aspects, the configuration may include a CQI table indicator (e.g., an index value, a set of bits, etc.) that indicates a CQI table to use. The UE 120 may use the CQI table indicator to identify an indicated CQI table in a memory of the UE 120.

As shown, in some aspects, the set of TN CQI tables may include a plurality of TN CQI tables. Similarly, the set of NTN CQI tables may include a plurality of NTN CQI tables. Different ones of the set of CQI tables may correspond to different parameters, such as different BLER targets, different sets of modulation schemes, different sets of code rates, different sets of spectral efficiencies, and so forth. In some aspects, UE 120 may select or be configured to use a CQI table from a set of CQI tables based at least in part on one or more of the parameters described above.

In a fifth operation 425, the UE 120 may send CQI feedback to the base station based at least in part on the configuration. For example, when the configuration indicates that a TN-CQI table is to be used, the UE 120 may send CQI feedback using the TN CQI table. Similarly, when the configuration indicates that the NTN CQI table is to be used, UE 120 may send CQI feedback using the NTN CQI table. To send CQI feedback, UE 120 may select a CQI index based at least in part on the identified CQI table and channel measurements and may send the CQI index to base station 110 (e.g., as CQI feedback, in a CSI report, etc.). As described in more detail below in conjunction with fig. 5, the set of CQI indices from which the UE 120 may select a CQI index to transmit may be different for the TN CQI table as compared to the NTN CQI table. In other words, the TN CQI table and the NTN CQI table may have different CQI index granularities. As a result, the UE 120 may select different CQI indices for the same channel quality measurement depending on whether the UE 120 is configured to use a TN CQI table (which may result in a less accurate channel quality indication, potentially using less signaling overhead) or an NTN CQI table (which may result in a more accurate channel quality indication, potentially using more signaling overhead).

In a sixth operation 430, the base station 110 may interpret the CQI feedback based at least in part on the configuration. For example, when the configuration indicates that UE 120 is to use an NTN CQI table, base station 110 may use the NTN CQI table to interpret CQI feedback. As another example, when the configuration indicates that UE 120 is to use a TN CQI table, base station 110 may use the TN CQI table to interpret CQI feedback. Other examples are provided above in connection with QoS requirements, HARQ configurations, etc. The base station 110 may store both the TN CQI table and the NTN CQI table in memory.

The base station 110 may interpret the CQI feedback by determining an MCS corresponding to the CQI index indicated in the CQI feedback. The base station 110 may transmit data communications using the determined MCS, as described above in connection with fig. 3.

By reporting CQI as described herein, UE 120 can more accurately represent actual channel conditions of the non-terrestrial network, thereby reducing latency, increasing throughput, and improving spectral efficiency in the non-terrestrial network. Further, UE 120 may be flexibly configured for CQI reporting based on various factors and with different granularities to allow terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks to coexist.

Fig. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example 510 of CQI feedback in a non-terrestrial network 530 in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure. Example 510-.

In a first example 510, a TN CQI table may include fewer CQI indices than an NTN CQI table. For example, a TN CQI table may include 16 CQI indices, one or more of which are potentially reserved. The NTN CQI table may include more than 16 CQI indices. For example, the NTN CQI table may include 32 CQI indices, with one or more CQI indices potentially being reserved. As another example, the NTN CQI table may include 64 CQI indices, 128 CQI indices, and the like.

When UE 120 reports CQI feedback, the number of bits used to indicate the CQI index may depend on the number of CQI indices in the CQI table used by UE 120. For example, when UE 120 uses a TN CQI table that includes 16 CQI indices, UE 120 may report the CQI indices using a 4-bit value. As another example, when UE 120 uses an NTN CQI table that includes 32 CQI indices, UE 120 may report the CQI indices using a 5-bit value. Similarly, when the CQI table includes 64 CQI indices, the CQI indices may be reported using a 6-bit value, when the CQI table includes 128 CQI indices, the CQI indices may be reported using a 7-bit value, and so on. Thus, when the TN CQI table includes fewer CQI indices than the NTN CQI table, the UE 120 may use the TN CQI table to use fewer bits to report CQI feedback than the number of bits used to report CQI feedback when using the NTN CQI table.

In a second example 520, the CQI index in the TN CQI table has a one-to-many mapping to a corresponding MCS index in the MCS table. In this case, the MCS table includes a larger number of MCS indexes than the number of CQI indexes included in the TN CQI table. This may result in less accurate MCS selection (but less signaling overhead) when using the TN-CQI table. As further shown, the CQI index in the NTN CQI table may have a one-to-one mapping to a corresponding MCS index in the MCS table. In this case, each CQI index in the NTN CQI table may correspond to a single MCS index in the MCS table. Accordingly, the MCS table may include the same number of MCS indexes as the number of CQI indexes included in the NTN CQI table. This may result in more accurate MCS selection (but more signaling overhead) when using the NTN CQI table. In some aspects, the CSI report may include the MCS index instead of the CQI index without using a separate NTN CQI table indicating a one-to-one mapping of CQI index to MCS index. For example, as described herein, each CQI index in the NTN CQI table may be an MCS index in the MCS table. In this way, the MCS table may be reused instead of configuring or storing a separate NTN CQI table, thereby saving storage.

In a third example 530, the TN CQI table may be associated with a BLER target that is different from the NTN CQI table. Additionally or alternatively, the set of BLER targets corresponding to the set of TN CQI tables may be different from the set of BLER targets corresponding to the set of NTN CQI tables. For example, a first TN-CQI table may correspond to a BLER target of 0.1 (or 1e-1, e.g., for enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) communications), while a second TN-CQI table may correspond to a BLER target of 0.00001 (or 1e-5, e.g., for ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC)). As shown, the NTN CQI table may correspond to a BLER target of 0.001 (or 1 e-3). As another example, the NTN CQI table may correspond to a BLER target of 0.000001 (or 1 e-6). These different BLER targets for TN communications compared to NTN communications may result in different HARQ configurations for TN communications compared to NTN communications.

Fig. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example process 600 performed, for example, by a UE in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure. Example process 600 is an example of a UE (e.g., UE 120, etc.) performing operations associated with channel quality indicator feedback in a non-terrestrial network.

As shown in fig. 6, in some aspects, process 600 may include receiving a configuration from a base station indicating whether to use a first CQI table from a first set of CQI tables associated with terrestrial network communications or whether to use a second CQI table from a second set of CQI tables associated with non-terrestrial network communications (block 610). For example, the UE (e.g., using receive processor 258, controller/processor 280, memory 282, etc.) may receive a configuration from the base station indicating whether to use a first CQI table from a first set of CQI tables associated with terrestrial network communications or whether to use a second CQI table from a second set of CQI tables associated with non-terrestrial network communications, as described above in connection with fig. 4 and 5.

As further shown in fig. 6, in some aspects process 600 may include sending CQI feedback to the base station based at least in part on the configuration, wherein the CQI feedback is sent using a first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used or using a second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used (block 620). For example, the UE (e.g., using transmit processor 264, controller/processor 280, memory 282, etc.) may transmit CQI feedback to the base station based at least in part on the configuration, as described above in connection with fig. 4 and 5. In some aspects, the CQI feedback is sent using the first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used, or the CQI feedback is sent using the second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used.

The process 600 may include additional aspects, such as any single aspect or any combination of aspects described below or in conjunction with one or more other processes described elsewhere herein.

In the first aspect, the second CQI table includes at least one of more CQI indices than the first CQI table, a different MCS mapping than the first CQI table, an association with a different BLER target than the first CQI table, or a combination thereof.

In a second aspect, alone or in combination with the first aspect, the UE capability indicates whether the UE supports terrestrial network communications without supporting non-terrestrial network communications, whether the UE supports non-terrestrial network communications without supporting terrestrial network communications, or whether the UE supports both terrestrial network communications and non-terrestrial network communications.

In a third aspect, the configuration is received based at least in part on transmitting UE capabilities to the base station, either alone or in combination with one or more of the first and second aspects.

In a fourth aspect, the first CQI table comprises fewer CQI indices than the second CQI table, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to third aspects.

In a fifth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to fourth aspects, when the first CQI table is used to send CQI feedback, the CQI feedback comprises fewer bits than the number of bits comprised when the second CQI table is used to send CQI feedback.

In a sixth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through fifth aspects, the configuring is based at least in part on at least one of whether the UE is connected to a terrestrial network or a non-terrestrial network, a quality of service requirement for data communication associated with CQI feedback, a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) configuration for the UE, or a combination thereof.

In a seventh aspect, each CQI index in the second CQI table has a one-to-one mapping to a corresponding MCS index in the MCS table, either alone or in combination with one or more of the first to sixth aspects.

In an eighth aspect, each CQI index in the second CQI table is an MCS index in an MCS table, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to seventh aspects.

In a ninth aspect, the first CQI table is associated with a different BLER target than the second CQI table, either alone or in combination with one or more of the first to eighth aspects.

In a tenth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to ninth aspects, the first set of CQI tables corresponds to a first set of BLER targets and the second set of CQI tables corresponds to a second set of BLER targets different from the first set of BLER targets.

In an eleventh aspect, the configuration is cell-specific, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to tenth aspects.

In a twelfth aspect, the configuration is UE group specific, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to eleventh aspects.

In a thirteenth aspect, the configuration is UE-specific, either alone or in combination with one or more of the first to twelfth aspects.

In a fourteenth aspect, the configuration is indicated in the aperiodic CSI request, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through thirteenth aspects.

In a fifteenth aspect, the configuration is indicated in at least one of a system information block, a radio resource control message, downlink control information, MAC-CE, or a combination thereof, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to fourteenth aspects.

In a sixteenth aspect, the configuration is indicated in at least one of a system information block, a radio resource control message, downlink control information, a Medium Access Control (MAC) control element, or a combination thereof, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to fifteenth aspects.

Fig. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example process 700 performed, for example, by a base station, in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure. Example process 700 is an example of a base station (e.g., base station 110, etc.) performing operations associated with channel quality indicator feedback in a non-terrestrial network.

As shown in fig. 7, in some aspects, process 700 may include sending a configuration to a UE indicating whether to use a first CQI table from a first set of CQI tables associated with terrestrial network communications or whether to use a second CQI table from a second set of CQI tables associated with non-terrestrial network communications (block 710). For example, the base station (e.g., using transmit processor 220, controller/processor 240, memory 242, etc.) may send a configuration to the UE indicating whether to use a first CQI table from a first set of CQI tables associated with terrestrial network communications or whether to use a second CQI table from a second set of CQI tables associated with non-terrestrial network communications, as described above in connection with fig. 4 and 5.

As further shown in fig. 7, in some aspects, process 700 may include receiving CQI feedback from a UE (block 720). For example, as described above in connection with fig. 4 and 5, the base station (e.g., using receive processor 238, controller/processor 240, memory 242, etc.) may receive CQI feedback from the UE.

As further shown in fig. 7, in some aspects, process 700 may include interpreting CQI feedback based at least in part on the configuration, wherein the CQI feedback is interpreted using a first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used or a second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used (block 730). For example, the base station (e.g., using receive processor 238, controller/processor 240, memory 242, etc.) may interpret the CQI feedback based at least in part on the configuration, as described above in connection with fig. 4 and 5. In some aspects, the CQI feedback is interpreted using the first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used, or the second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used.

Process 700 may include additional aspects, such as any single aspect or any combination of aspects described below or in conjunction with one or more other processes described elsewhere herein.

In the first aspect, the second CQI table includes at least one of more CQI indices than the first CQI table, a different MCS mapping than the first CQI table, an association with a different BLER target than the first CQI table, or a combination thereof.

In a second aspect, alone or in combination with the first aspect, the process 700 includes receiving a UE capability indicating whether the UE supports terrestrial network communications without supporting non-terrestrial network communications, whether the UE supports non-terrestrial network communications without supporting terrestrial network communications, or whether the UE supports both terrestrial network communications and non-terrestrial network communications.

In a third aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first and second aspects, the process 700 includes determining a configuration based at least in part on UE capabilities.

In a fourth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through third aspects, process 700 includes determining a configuration based at least in part on at least one of whether a base station is a terrestrial base station or a non-terrestrial base station, a quality of service requirement for data communication associated with CQI feedback, a HARQ configuration, or a combination thereof.

In a fifth aspect, the first CQI table comprises fewer CQI indices than the second CQI table, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to fourth aspects.

In a sixth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to fifth aspects, when the first CQI table is used to send CQI feedback, the CQI feedback comprises fewer bits than the number of bits comprised when the second CQI table is used to send CQI feedback.

In a seventh aspect, each CQI index in the second CQI table has a one-to-one mapping to a corresponding MCS index in the MCS table, either alone or in combination with one or more of the first to sixth aspects.

In an eighth aspect, each CQI index in the second CQI table is an MCS index in an MCS table, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to seventh aspects.

In a ninth aspect, the first CQI table is associated with a different BLER target than the second CQI table, either alone or in combination with one or more of the first to eighth aspects.

In a tenth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to ninth aspects, the first set of CQI tables corresponds to a first set of BLER targets and the second set of CQI tables corresponds to a second set of BLER targets different from the first set of BLER targets.

In an eleventh aspect, the configuration is cell-specific, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to tenth aspects.

In a twelfth aspect, the configuration is UE group specific, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to eleventh aspects.

In a thirteenth aspect, the configuration is UE-specific, either alone or in combination with one or more of the first to twelfth aspects.

In a fourteenth aspect, the configuration is indicated in the aperiodic CSI request, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through thirteenth aspects.

Fig. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example process 800 performed, for example, by a UE in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure. Example process 800 is another example of a UE (e.g., UE 120, etc.) performing operations associated with channel quality indicator feedback in a non-terrestrial network.

As shown in fig. 8, in some aspects, process 800 may include receiving a configuration from a base station indicating a non-terrestrial network CQI table to be used by a UE, wherein the non-terrestrial network CQI table includes at least one of more CQI indices than the terrestrial network CQI table, a different MCS mapping than the terrestrial network CQI table, an association with a different BLER target than the terrestrial network CQI table, or a combination thereof (block 810). For example, as described above in connection with fig. 4 and 5, the UE (e.g., using receive processor 258, controller/processor 280, memory 282, etc.) may receive from the base station a configuration indicating a non-terrestrial network CQI table to be used by the UE. In some aspects, the non-terrestrial network CQI table includes at least one of more CQI indices than the terrestrial network CQI table, a different MCS mapping than the terrestrial network CQI table, an association with a different BLER target than the terrestrial network CQI table, or a combination thereof.

As further shown in fig. 8, in some aspects process 800 may include sending CQI feedback to a base station based at least in part on an indicated non-terrestrial network CQI table (block 820). For example, the UE (e.g., using transmit processor 264, controller/processor 280, memory 282, etc.) may send CQI feedback to the base station based at least in part on the indicated non-terrestrial network CQI table, as described above in connection with fig. 4 and 5.

Process 800 may include additional aspects, such as any single aspect or any combination of aspects described below or in conjunction with one or more other processes described elsewhere herein.

In the first aspect, the UE capability indicates whether the UE supports non-terrestrial network communications but not terrestrial network communications, or whether the UE supports both terrestrial network communications and non-terrestrial network communications.

In a second aspect, alone or in combination with the first aspect, the configuration is received based at least in part on transmitting UE capabilities to a base station.

In a third aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first and second aspects, the CQI feedback comprises a greater number of bits than a number of bits comprised when the CQI feedback is sent using a terrestrial network CQI table.

In a fourth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through third aspects, the configuring is based at least in part on at least one of whether the UE is connected to a terrestrial network or a non-terrestrial network, a quality of service requirement for data communication associated with CQI feedback, a HARQ configuration for the UE, or a combination thereof.

In a fifth aspect, each CQI index in the non-terrestrial network CQI table has a one-to-one mapping to a corresponding MCS index in the MCS table, either alone or in combination with one or more of the first to fourth aspects.

In a sixth aspect, each CQI index in the non-terrestrial network CQI table is an MCS index in an MCS table, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to fifth aspects.

In a seventh aspect, the non-terrestrial network CQI tables are included in a set of non-terrestrial network CQI tables corresponding to a first set of BLERs that is different from a second set of BLER targets corresponding to a set of terrestrial network CQI tables, either alone or in combination with one or more of the first to sixth aspects.

In an eighth aspect, the configuration is cell-specific, either alone or in combination with one or more of the first to seventh aspects.

In a ninth aspect, the configuration is specific to a group of UEs, either alone or in combination with one or more of the first to eighth aspects.

In a tenth aspect, the configuration is UE-specific, either alone or in combination with one or more of the first to ninth aspects.

In an eleventh aspect, the configuration is indicated in the aperiodic CSI request, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to tenth aspects.

In a twelfth aspect, the configuration is indicated in at least one of a system information block, a radio resource control message, downlink control information, MAC-CE, or a combination thereof, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to eleventh aspects.

Fig. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example process 900 performed, for example, by a base station in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure. Example process 900 is another example of a base station (e.g., base station 110, etc.) performing operations associated with channel quality indicator feedback in a non-terrestrial network.

As shown in fig. 9, in some aspects, process 900 may include sending a configuration to the UE indicating a non-terrestrial network CQI table to be used by the UE, wherein the non-terrestrial network CQI table includes at least one of more CQI indices than the terrestrial network CQI table, a different MCS mapping than the terrestrial network CQI table, an association with a different BLER target than the terrestrial network CQI table, or a combination thereof (block 910). For example, the base station (e.g., using transmit processor 220, controller/processor 240, memory 242, etc.) may send the UE a configuration indicating a non-terrestrial network CQI table to be used by the UE, as described above in connection with fig. 4 and 5. In some aspects, the non-terrestrial network CQI table includes at least one of more CQI indices than the terrestrial network CQI table, a different MCS mapping than the terrestrial network CQI table, an association with a different BLER target than the terrestrial network CQI table, or a combination thereof.

As further shown in fig. 9, in some aspects, process 900 may include receiving CQI feedback from a UE (block 920). For example, as described above in connection with fig. 4 and 5, the base station (e.g., using receive processor 238, controller/processor 240, memory 242, etc.) may receive CQI feedback from the UE.

As further shown in fig. 9, in some aspects, process 900 may include interpreting CQI feedback based at least in part on the indicated non-terrestrial network CQI table (block 930). For example, the base station (e.g., using receive processor 238, controller/processor 240, memory 242, etc.) may interpret the CQI feedback based at least in part on the indicated non-terrestrial network CQI table, as described above in connection with fig. 4 and 5.

Process 900 may include additional aspects, such as any single aspect or any combination of aspects described below or in conjunction with one or more other processes described elsewhere herein.

In a first aspect, process 900 includes receiving a UE capability indicating whether the UE supports non-terrestrial network communications but not terrestrial network communications or whether the UE supports both terrestrial network communications and non-terrestrial network communications.

In a second aspect, alone or in combination with the first aspect, the process 900 includes determining the configuration based at least in part on UE capabilities.

In a third aspect, the CQI feedback comprises more bits than the number of bits comprised when indicating the terrestrial network CQI table, either alone or in combination with one or more of the first and second aspects.

In a fourth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through third aspects, process 900 includes determining a configuration based at least in part on at least one of whether a base station is a terrestrial base station or a non-terrestrial base station, a quality of service requirement for data communication associated with CQI feedback, a HARQ configuration, or a combination thereof.

In a fifth aspect, each CQI index in the non-terrestrial network CQI table has a one-to-one mapping to a corresponding MCS index in the MCS table, either alone or in combination with one or more of the first to fourth aspects.

In a sixth aspect, each CQI index in the non-terrestrial network CQI table is an MCS index in an MCS table, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to fifth aspects.

In a seventh aspect, the non-terrestrial network CQI tables are included in a set of non-terrestrial network CQI tables corresponding to a first set of BLERs that is different from a second set of BLER targets corresponding to a set of terrestrial network CQI tables, either alone or in combination with one or more of the first to sixth aspects.

In an eighth aspect, the configuration is cell-specific, either alone or in combination with one or more of the first to seventh aspects.

In a ninth aspect, the configuration is specific to a group of UEs, either alone or in combination with one or more of the first to eighth aspects.

In a tenth aspect, the configuration is UE-specific, either alone or in combination with one or more of the first to ninth aspects.

In an eleventh aspect, the configuration is indicated in the aperiodic CSI request, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to tenth aspects.

In a twelfth aspect, the configuration is indicated in at least one of a system information block, a radio resource control message, downlink control information, MAC-CE, or a combination thereof, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to eleventh aspects.

Fig. 10 is a block diagram of an example apparatus 1000 for wireless communication. Apparatus 1000 may be a UE, or a UE may comprise apparatus 1000. In some aspects, the apparatus 1000 includes a receiving component 1002, a communication manager 1004, and a sending component 1006, which may be in communication with each other (e.g., via one or more buses). As shown, apparatus 1000 may communicate with another apparatus 1008 (e.g., a UE, a base station, or another wireless communication device) using a receiving component 1002 and a transmitting component 1006.

In some aspects, the apparatus 1000 may be configured to perform one or more of the operations described herein in connection with fig. 3-5. Additionally or alternatively, apparatus 1000 may be configured to perform one or more processes described herein, such as process 600 of fig. 6, process 800 of fig. 8, or a combination thereof. In some aspects, apparatus 1000 may include one or more components of the UE described above in connection with fig. 2.

Receiving component 1002 may receive communications, such as reference signals, control information, data communications, or a combination thereof, from device 1008. The receiving component 1002 may provide the received communication to one or more other components of the apparatus 1000 (e.g., the communication manager 1004). In some aspects, receive component 1002 may perform signal processing (e.g., filtering, amplifying, demodulating, analog-to-digital converting, demultiplexing, deinterleaving, demapping, equalizing, interference cancellation or decoding, etc.) on the received communication and may provide the processed signal to one or more other components. In some aspects, receiving component 1002 may include one or more antennas, demodulators, MIMO detectors, receive processors, controllers/processors, memory, or a combination thereof, for a UE as described above in connection with fig. 2.

The sending component 1006 may send communications, such as reference signals, control information, data communications, or a combination thereof, to the device 1008. In some aspects, the communication manager 1004 may generate a communication and may send the generated communication to the sending component 1006 for sending to the apparatus 1008. In some aspects, a transmit component 1006 may perform signal processing (e.g., filtering, amplifying, modulating, digital-to-analog converting, multiplexing, interleaving, mapping, or encoding, etc.) on the generated communication and may transmit the processed signal to a device 1008. In some aspects, the transmitting component 1006 may include one or more antennas, modulators, transmit MIMO processors, transmit processors, controllers/processors, memory, or a combination thereof, of the UE described above in connection with fig. 2. In some aspects, the transmitting component 1006 may be collocated with the receiving component 1002 in a transceiver.

In some aspects, communications manager 1004 receives or causes receiving component 1002 to receive a configuration indicating whether to use a first CQI table from a first set of CQI tables associated with terrestrial network communications or whether to use a second CQI table from a second set of CQI tables associated with non-terrestrial network communications. In some aspects, communication manager 1004 transmits or causes transmitting component 1006 to transmit CQI feedback based at least in part on the configuration. The CQI feedback may be sent using the first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used, or may be sent using the second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used.

Additionally or alternatively, communications manager 1004 can receive or cause receiving component 1002 to receive a configuration indicating a non-terrestrial network CQI table to be used by the UE. The non-terrestrial network CQI table may include at least one of more CQI indices than the terrestrial network CQI table, a different MCS mapping than the terrestrial network CQI table, an association with a different BLER target than the terrestrial network CQI table, or a combination thereof. In some aspects, communications manager 1004 sends or causes sending component 1006 to send CQI feedback based at least in part on the indicated non-terrestrial network CQI table. In some aspects, the communication manager 1004 may include the controller/processor, memory, or a combination thereof of the UE described above in connection with fig. 2.

In some aspects, communications manager 1004 may include a set of components, such as CQI determination component 1010. Alternatively, the set of components may be separate and distinct from the communication manager 1004. In some aspects, one or more components of the set of components may include, or may be implemented within, the controller/processor of the UE, memory, or a combination thereof described above in connection with fig. 2. Additionally or alternatively, one or more components of the set of components may be implemented at least in part as software stored in memory. For example, a component (or a portion of a component) may be implemented as instructions or code stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium and may be executable by a controller or processor to perform functions or operations of the component.

As described elsewhere herein, CQI determining component 1010 can determine one or more CQI parameters based at least in part on a configuration received from a base station. In some aspects, CQI determining component 1010 determines one or more CQI parameters based at least in part on a non-terrestrial network CQI table, as described elsewhere herein.

The number and arrangement of components shown in fig. 10 are provided as examples. In fact, there may be additional components, fewer components, different components, or a different arrangement of components than those shown in FIG. 10. Further, two or more of the components shown in fig. 10 may be implemented in a single component, or a single component shown in fig. 10 may be implemented as multiple distributed components. Additionally or alternatively, a set (one or more components) of components shown in fig. 10 may perform one or more functions described as being performed by another set of components shown in fig. 10.

Fig. 11 is a block diagram of an example apparatus 1100 for wireless communication. Apparatus 1100 may be a base station, or a base station may comprise apparatus 1100. In some aspects, the apparatus 1100 includes a receiving component 1102, a communication manager 1104, and a sending component 1106, which can be in communication with each other (e.g., via one or more buses). As shown, apparatus 1100 may communicate with another apparatus 1108 (e.g., a UE, a base station, or another wireless communication device) using a receiving component 1102 and a transmitting component 1106.

In some aspects, the apparatus 1100 may be configured to perform one or more of the operations described herein in connection with fig. 3-5. Additionally or alternatively, apparatus 1100 may be configured to perform one or more processes described herein, such as process 700 of fig. 7, process 900 of fig. 9, or a combination thereof. In some aspects, apparatus 1100 may include one or more components of a base station described above in connection with fig. 2.

Receiving component 1102 may receive communications, such as reference signals, control information, data communications, or a combination thereof, from apparatus 1108. The receiving component 1102 may provide the received communication to one or more other components of the apparatus 1100 (e.g., the communication manager 1104). In some aspects, receiving component 1102 may perform signal processing (e.g., filtering, amplifying, demodulating, analog-to-digital converting, demultiplexing, deinterleaving, demapping, equalizing, interference cancellation or decoding, etc.) on the received communication and may provide the processed signal to one or more other components. In some aspects, receiving component 1102 may comprise one or more antennas, demodulators, MIMO detectors, receive processors, controllers/processors, memory, or a combination thereof, of a base station as described above in connection with fig. 2.

The sending component 1106 can send communications, such as reference signals, control information, data communications, or a combination thereof, to the apparatus 1108. In some aspects, the communication manager 1104 may generate a communication and may send the generated communication to the sending component 1106 for transmission to the apparatus 1108. In some aspects, a transmitting component 1106 may perform signal processing (e.g., filtering, amplifying, modulating, digital-to-analog converting, multiplexing, interleaving, mapping, or encoding, etc.) on the generated communication and may transmit the processed signal to a device 1108. In some aspects, the transmit component 1106 may include one or more antennas, modulators, transmit MIMO processors, transmit processors, controllers/processors, memory, or a combination thereof, of a base station described above in connection with fig. 2. In some aspects, the transmitting component 1106 may be collocated with the receiving component 1102 in a transceiver.

In some aspects, the communication manager 1104 sends or causes a sending component 1106 to send a configuration indicating whether to use a first CQI table from a first set of CQI tables associated with terrestrial network communication or whether to use a second CQI table from a second set of CQI tables associated with non-terrestrial network communication. A communication manager 1104 can receive or can cause to receive component 1102 to receive CQI feedback. The communication manager 1104 may interpret the CQI feedback based at least in part on the configuration, wherein the CQI feedback is interpreted using the first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used or the CQI feedback is interpreted using the second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used.

Additionally or alternatively, communications manager 1104 can transmit or cause a transmitting component 1106 to transmit a configuration indicating a non-terrestrial network CQI table. The non-terrestrial network CQI table may include at least one of more CQI indices than the terrestrial network CQI table, a different MCS mapping than the terrestrial network CQI table, an association with a different BLER target than the terrestrial network CQI table, or a combination thereof. A communication manager 1104 can receive or can cause to receive component 1102 to receive CQI feedback. The communication manager 1104 can interpret the CQI feedback based at least in part on the indicated non-terrestrial network CQI table. In some aspects, the communication manager 1104 may include a controller/processor, a memory, a scheduler, a communication unit, or a combination thereof, of the base station described above in connection with fig. 2.

In some aspects, communications manager 1104 may include a set of components, such as CQI interpretation component 1110. Alternatively, the set of components may be separate and distinct from the communication manager 1104. In some aspects, one or more components of the set of components may include, or may be implemented within, the controller/processor of the base station described above in connection with fig. 2, a memory, or a combination thereof. Additionally or alternatively, one or more components of the set of components may be implemented at least in part as software stored in memory. For example, a component (or a portion of a component) may be implemented as instructions or code stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium and may be executable by a controller or processor to perform functions or operations of the component.

CQI interpretation component 1110 can interpret CQI feedback based at least in part on the configuration. For example, CQI interpretation component 1110 can interpret CQI feedback using a first CQI table when the configuration indicates that the first CQI table is to be used, or CQI interpretation component 1110 can interpret CQI feedback using a second CQI table when the configuration indicates that the second CQI table is to be used. In some aspects, CQI interpretation component 1110 interprets CQI feedback based at least in part on a non-terrestrial network CQI table indicated in the configuration.

The number and arrangement of components shown in fig. 11 are provided as examples. In fact, there may be additional components, fewer components, different components, or a different arrangement of components than those shown in FIG. 11. Further, two or more of the components shown in fig. 11 may be implemented in a single component, or a single component shown in fig. 11 may be implemented as multiple distributed components. Additionally or alternatively, a set (one or more components) of components shown in fig. 11 may perform one or more functions described as being performed by another set of components shown in fig. 11.

The foregoing disclosure provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit aspects to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above disclosure or may be acquired from practice of the aspects.

As used herein, the term "component" is intended to be broadly interpreted as hardware, firmware, or a combination of hardware and software. As used herein, a processor is implemented in hardware, firmware, or a combination of hardware and software.

Some aspects are described herein with respect to thresholds. As used herein, meeting a threshold may refer to a value that is greater than the threshold, greater than or equal to the threshold, less than or equal to the threshold, not equal to the threshold, the like, or a combination thereof.

It is apparent that the systems or methods described herein may be implemented in various forms of hardware, firmware, or a combination of hardware and software. The actual specialized control hardware or software code used to implement these systems or methods is not limiting of these aspects. Thus, the operation and behavior of the systems or methods were described herein without reference to the specific software code-it being understood that software and hardware may be designed to implement the systems or methods based, at least in part, on the description herein.

Although particular combinations of features are set forth in the claims or disclosed in the specification, these combinations are not intended to limit the disclosure of the various aspects. Indeed, many of these features may be combined in ways not specifically recited in the claims and/or disclosed in the specification. Although each dependent claim listed below may directly depend on only one claim, the disclosure of the various aspects includes each dependent claim in combination with every other claim in the set of claims. A phrase referring to "at least one of" a list of items refers to any combination of those items, including a single member. By way of example, "at least one of a, b, or c" is intended to encompass a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, and a-b-c, as well as any combination of multiple identical elements (e.g., a-a-a, a-a-b, a-a-c, a-b-b, a-c-c, b-b-b, b-b-c, c-c, and c-c-c, or any other ordering of a, b, and c).

No element, act, or instruction used herein is intended to be construed as critical or essential unless explicitly described as such. In addition, as used herein, the articles "a" and "an" are intended to include one or more items, and may be used interchangeably with "one or more". Further, as used herein, the terms "set" and "group" are intended to include one or more items (e.g., related items, unrelated items, combinations of related and unrelated items, etc., or combinations thereof) and may be used interchangeably with "one or more". Where only one item is desired, the term "only one" or similar language is used. Further, as used herein, the terms "having," "containing," and the like, or combinations thereof, are intended to be open-ended terms. Further, the phrase "based on" is intended to mean "based, at least in part, on" unless explicitly stated otherwise.