METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ASYMMETRICAL UP-LINK/DOWN-LINK PROTOCOL STACK AND FRAME STRUCTURE IN A 5G NR COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

摘要

A 5G NR user equipment (UE) and 5G NR based station (gNB) for transmitting and receiving NR User Plane data traffic and NR Control Plane data are described. Both, the UE and gNB include processor memory in electronic communication with the processor. Instructions stored in the memory are executable to process received downlink (DL) packets according to receive Medium Access Control (MAC) Protocol and/or Received Radio Link Control (RLC) Protocol. The instructions are also executable to process uplink (UL) packets for transmission according to transmit MAC and/or RLC protocols. The Transmit MAC frame structure and/or RLC frame structure are/is different in formats than those from Receive MAC and/or RLC frame structure at each end (i.e., at the UE and/or at the gNB). In the Up-link (UL), the MAC CE is transmitted at the end of the frame while for the Down-link (DL) the MAC CE is transmitted at beginning of the frame.