However in case of NB-IOT, it is currently possible to schedule NB-PUSCH resource with a 1-subcarrier granularity, as illustrated in FIG. 12.
This implies that the base sequences used for DMRS must have good cross-correlation properties with an offset of 0, 1, 2, . . . , 6 subcarriers. Low correlation for all possible offsets is difficult to achieve in practice, especially for a sufficiently large number of length-6 and length-3 sequences. On the other hand, using base sequences with poor cross-correlation properties will lead to inter-cell interference.
FIG. 12 shows an example NB-PUSCH allocation within a subframe, for multi-tone transmission formats. The offset between NB-PUSCH allocations, and subsequently between the UL DMRS, can be on 1-subcarrier granularity. Additionally, the different NB-PUSCH transmission formats lead to a large number of possible resource allocations. In the most general case, the DCI for scheduling NB-PUSCH can:
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- Distinguish between 15 kHz and 3.75 kHz numerologies (1 bit) (if this is not signaled in other places such as SIBx.)
- In case of 15 kHz, the number of possible NB-PUSCH allocations for 1, 3, 6, and 12-tone formats are 12, 10, 7, and 1 respectively (30 cases requiring 5 bits)
- In case of 3.75 kHz, specify one of 48 subcarriers (requiring 6 bits)