Improved Frequency Domain Resource Allocation Indication

This paper presents a new method for indicating contiguous resources in the frequency domain where the granularity of frequency resource can vary depending on the size of the actual allocation. The outcome is flexible frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) where the resource can be finely scheduled when the actual allocation is small or coarsely scheduled when the actual allocation is large. It provides a better tradeoff between scheduling flexibility and overhead reduction as compared to existing approaches. The method reduces the number of bits required to indicate the FDRA in the downlink control information (DCI) and can be applicable for future releases of 5G NR and any future generations of wireless access technologies.