Primary cell switching in non-simultaneous uplink carrier aggregation scenario

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to primary cell switching in a non-simultaneous uplink carrier aggregation scenario. The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for operating a transceiver circuit to transmit signals over various frequency ranges based on primary cell and / or secondary cell allocations. A controller associated with the transceiver circuit may operate a receiver to receive a handover initiation packet from a base station using a first frequency range as the primary cell. The controller may adjust the receiver and the transmitter to use a second frequency range as the primary cell, adjust the receiver and the transmitter to separate from the first frequency range as the primary cell, and reset information corresponding to the first frequency range to enable attachment of the first frequency range to the secondary cell.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62 / 975,461, filed on February 12, 2020, entitled “PRIMARY CELL SWITCHING IN NON-SIMULTANEOUS UPLINK CARRIER AGGREGATION SCENARIOS,” which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes. Background Art

[0003] The present disclosure relates generally to electronic devices, and more particularly to electronic devices that utilize radio frequency signals, transmitters, and receivers for wireless communications.

[0004] This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of the art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and / or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements should be read in this light, and not as an admission of the prior art.

[0005] The use of wireless communication systems is growing rapidly. In recent years, wireless devices such as smart phones and tablet computers have become increasingly sophisticated. In addition to supporting phone calls, many mobile devices now also provide access to the Internet, email, text messaging, and navigation using the Global Positioning System (GPS), and are capable of operating sophisticated applications that utilize these functions.

[0006] The transmitter and / or receiver may be included in various electronic devices to enable communication between user equipment (e.g., user electronic device, transmitting or receiving electronic device) and a core network on the wireless network over a wireless network, deployed by various technologies, including but not limited to access network base stations, such as eNodeBs (eNBs) for long term evolution (LTE) access networks (e.g., 4th generation (4G)) and / or next generation NodeBs (gNBs) for new radio (NR (e.g., 5th generation (5G)) access networks. In some user equipment (UE), the transmitter and receiver are combined to form a transceiver. The transceiver may send and / or receive wireless signals, such as radio frequency (RF) signals indicating data, via an antenna coupled to the transceiver. In practice, some UEs include transmit circuits and / or receive circuits for communicating on dual networks, such as with Circuitry for communicating over two or more access networks (e.g., 2nd generation (2G) access networks, 3rd generation (3G) access networks, 4G access networks, 5G access networks, etc.). Thus, some radio operators for cellular networks and / or communications networks may provide services through a combination of radio access nodes (e.g., base stations) that are capable of communicating with the UE using one or more networks. For situations where a radio operator may communicate with the UE over a 4G / LTE network at a first time and over a 5G / NR network at a second time, the radio operator may sometimes switch a primary serving cell for communicating with the UE between networks. For example, a network operator may switch from communicating with the UE using a primary serving cell of a first network (e.g., 4G / LTE) to communicating with the UE using a primary serving cell of a second network (e.g., 5G / NR).

[0007] Recent versions of new radio standards related to 5G communications (e.g., Release 16 (Rel-16), Release 17 (Rel-17)) apply to frequency range 2 (FR2), which includes frequency bands from 24.25 gigahertz (GHz) to 52.6 GHz, and describe additional enhancements to the LTE mobile standard managed by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). These additional enhancements may include integration of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technology with cyclic prefix (CP) (CP-OFDM), beamforming, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, carrier aggregation (CA) operation, etc. In practice, these standards describe intra-band non-contiguous uplink CA operation scenarios and inter-band uplink CA operation scenarios in FR2, where the CA operation may enable a UE to receive communications (e.g., downlink communications) sent from multiple base stations using different carrier signal frequency ranges of each base station, where intra-band non-contiguous and inter-band refer to frequency range arrangements.

[0008] Recent discussions on the standards development group have proposed non-simultaneous uplink (NSU) switching operations for inclusion in the standard. Such inclusion may limit the ability of a network provider to receive uplink communications from a user equipment on two different component carriers simultaneously and / or in parallel. To manage NSU operations, the network provider may perform switching between component carriers to enable the component carriers to have time to perform non-simultaneous uplink operations or to receive uplink data at different times.

[0009] In some cases, a switching operation may be used to selectively increase or decrease the amount of bandwidth (e.g., frequency range) allocated between a network provider's respective base stations and user equipment. A switching in an additional bandwidth portion (BWP) may allow a temporary increase in the size of a bandwidth allocation, while a switching may decrease the size of a bandwidth allocation.

[0010] For intra-band carrier aggregation in FR2, there are several benefits of non-simultaneous uplink (UL): retaining the same link budget as the contiguous UL CA case in Release 15 (Rel-15) of the new radio standard, reduced complexity of the UE RF architecture to support frequency band combinations with greater complexity, and flexibility in UL load balancing across non-contiguous spectrum. The maximum power reduction (MPR) specification for UL intra-band contiguous CA with contiguous and non-contiguous allocation cases can be a useful example. The quadrature phase shift keying (EE) discrete Fourier transform spread (DFT-s) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) MPR requirement for 400MHz aggregate BW is 5.0dB, while non-contiguous allocation can potentially increase the MPR by 2.0dB. In addition to the increased MPR, simultaneous non-contiguous UL allocation reduces the power spectral density (PSD) level received by the base station, further exacerbating the UL link budget. In the example of two non-contiguous UL CCs with equal bandwidth and full allocation, non-simultaneous UEs can have a 3dB advantage over simultaneous UEs in terms of PSD level received at the base station.

[0011] In scenarios with wide spacing between UL carriers (up to 1400 MHz), more MPRs may be allowed for non-contiguous UL CA. With such an impact on the already difficult UL link budget, non-simultaneous UL may enable practical deployment of UL intra-band NC CA features in FR2. It is also noted that the two power amplifiers associated with simultaneous uplink operation may generate reverse intermodulation (IMD) products, where the relatively strongest coupling mechanism is expected to be at the respective antenna arrays. If the design uses co-located arrays, as previously assumed in the multi-band framework, it is expected that the isolation between the antenna arrays is not sufficient to reduce or eliminate the intermodulation products that affect the uplink operation. In addition, if the design uses non-co-located arrays or even separate antenna panels for the UL component carriers, the design may not support some CA combinations (such as in the case of n258 and n257 bands) and / or the design may not comply with the Rel-16 specifications (e.g., since multi-panel operation is no longer within the scope of the Rel-16 Radio Layer 1 (RAN1) specification work and has not yet been initiated as part of the Rel-17 RAN1 work). Therefore, with the strong coupling mechanism for reverse IMD, inter-band UL CA scenarios in FR2 begin to resemble similar challenges previously experienced for Band 41 / n41 EN-DC. In addition to the desire to increase MPR to reduce the magnitude of intermodulation products, simultaneous inter-band UL allocation can reduce the PSD level received by the base station, further exacerbating the UL link budget.

[0012] However, despite these improvements, the proposed BWP switching method is applicable to only a subset of possible CA dual connectivity (CA-DC) configurations, such as switching between secondary cells of dual networks (e.g., 4G / LTE network and 5G / NR network), and not to other configurations, such as switching between primary cells of dual networks. As a result, bandwidth may not be effectively distributed among user equipments, because some user equipments may be using less than their fixed allocated bandwidth when communicating with the base station, while other user equipments may benefit from being allocated more than their fixed allocated bandwidth.

[0013] Various improvements to the above features may exist with respect to various aspects of the present invention. Other features may also be added to these various aspects. These improvements and additional features may exist alone or in any combination. For example, the various features associated with one or more of the illustrated embodiments discussed below may be incorporated into any of the above aspects of the present invention alone or in any combination. The brief summary presented above is intended to familiarize the reader with the specific aspects and context of the disclosed embodiments and does not limit the claimed subject matter. Summary of the invention

[0014] The following is a summary of certain embodiments disclosed herein. It should be understood that these aspects are presented only to provide the reader with a concise summary of these specific embodiments, and these aspects are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. In fact, the present disclosure may cover a number of aspects that may not be described below.

[0015] Previous bandwidth portion (BWP) switching techniques between two communication networks (such as between a 4G / LTE network and a 5G / NR network) may only be applicable to switching between secondary serving cells (Scells) of the dual networks. It may be desirable to implement a BWP switching operation that implements switching between component carriers associated with a primary serving cell (Pcell) or a primary and secondary serving cell (PScell). With the scope of UL inter-band CA in FR2 removed from Rel-16, it is expected that such a goal will be included in Rel-17 FR2 RF work. In fact, dynamically adjusting which frequency ranges are used for Pcell, PScell, and Scell ​​can enable flexibility in allocating bandwidth and / or resource amounts to user equipment. This can improve the flexibility of the network by not restricting network providers to keep the bandwidth allocated to user equipment constant. Specifically, some user equipment may use less than their allocated bandwidth at certain times, while other user equipment may benefit from a bandwidth greater than their allocated bandwidth. Dynamically allocating bandwidth by reallocating cell allocations between user equipment can more efficiently allocate bandwidth to meet or address the needs of the network, which can result in an overall reduction in resources used by network providers to deploy the network. In fact, in the example of two inter-band UL CCs with equal bandwidth and full allocation, a user equipment implementing non-simultaneous uplink (NSU) operation of the user equipment may benefit from a 3 dB advantage over a user equipment implementing simultaneous uplink in terms of the PSD level received at the corresponding base station of the user equipment. Thus, applying the NSU feature to inter-band UL CA in FR2 may improve user equipment operation, as further detailed herein, and is therefore expected to be included as part of the Rel-17 FR2 RF enhancement standard.

[0016] In practice, during operation, user equipment consumes a relatively large amount of power during FR2 operation, so power conservation techniques are an important enhancement goal, including dynamic allocation of bandwidth. One technique that the user equipment may use is to reduce or increase the number of RX antenna elements (e.g., for DL ​​operation) and / or TX antenna elements (e.g., for UL operation) based on operating conditions, thereby dynamically reducing power consumption levels when less bandwidth is available to support communications for the user equipment (and increasing power consumption levels when additional bandwidth is requested for communications).

[0017] For example, the user equipment may use two antenna elements by default. However, when requested by the base station and / or its own control system, the user equipment may be operated to use four antenna elements for the uplink of a relatively large communication. Once the communication is completed, the user equipment may return to a lower power consumption, default mode, thereby reducing power consumption overall based on operating conditions.

[0018] The beam correspondence performance of the user equipment may further benefit from enhancements to the measurement reporting process, and aspects related to "dynamic signaling" from the user equipment to the core network to improve the beam correspondence performance may be of interest. The gNB may control the sounding reference signal (SRS) TX beam of the user equipment through a spatial relationship configuration that defines the TX beam relative to the reference signal (RS), where this information may be sent to the user equipment when communication with the user equipment begins. In the absence of a configured spatial relationship indicated to the user equipment, there may be no gNB / UE coordination on which the user equipment TX beam can be scanned. If the beam scanning for the TX beam is to be initialized based on the RX beam, the beam scanning operation may be improved (e.g., reducing the overall time for completion) because, for example, the user equipment may be provided with a starting point to start the beam scanning.

[0019] Beam correspondence at the user equipment may be desirable to improve beamforming efficiency. However, given the complexity of RF front-end design and associated calibration, beam correspondence at the user equipment may be achieved within tolerances. RAN4's study of beam correspondence requirements clearly shows that deviations from ideal beam correspondence (i.e., non-zero tolerance) may be significant. A user equipment that selects a TX beam using a previously determined RX beam correspondence may not be pointing in the optimal direction and therefore suffers from some beam correspondence (BC) error. To mitigate beam correspondence error, the user equipment may be programmed with a small set (e.g., 2) of SRS resources that have the same "spatial relationship" as the reference RS, so that some SRS resources may use TX beams different from those TX beams determined by RX beam correspondence. By scanning this extended set of SRS resources, the gNB may find a relatively more suitable user equipment TX beam and, in response to the finding, signal the selection to the user equipment. This mechanism can address at least some of the errors arising from beam correspondence at the expense of limited beam scanning around candidate directions, and can improve the efficiency of UL SRS scanning by reducing SRS overhead and / or avoiding RX beam switching at the network. Note that these indications, among other indications, may be included in reports exchanged between the user equipment and the base station.

[0020] In view of the above, the user equipment may indicate to a network provider (such as a network provider of both the first network type and the second network type) its ability to perform switching operations associated with changes in Pcells, PScells, and / or Scells. In response to receiving the information, the network provider may cause one or more base stations to initiate a "make-before-break" switching (MBB switching) and / or a random access channel-less (RACH-less) switching between serving cells. When performing the switching, the network provider may reuse a previously determined frequency range that is used to communicate with the user equipment using a first Pcell allocation when communicating with the user equipment using a different Pcell allocation. Reusing the previous frequency allocation and / or configuration may reduce the amount of time spent performing the BWP switching overall, thereby improving the deployment of the switching in addition to increasing the flexibility of the BWP switching operation. In some cases, in addition to confirming that the switching operation is being performed in a defined sequence of operations, the switching operation associated with the MBB switching or RACH-less switching may be performed without the network provider exchanging intermediate confirmation messages with the user equipment.

[0021] The disclosed system may be deployed using various embodiments. For example, a method performed according to the discussion herein may involve communicating with a base station using a first frequency range assigned as a primary cell, the primary cell being associated with a bandwidth partial handover, and receiving a handover initiation packet from the base station using the first frequency range. The method may include, in response to receiving a handover initiation packet, assigning a second frequency range as a primary cell based on a parameter indicated in the handover initiation packet. The method may include receiving a control packet from a base station using the second frequency range as the primary cell, and in response to receiving the control packet from the base station, assigning the first frequency range as a secondary cell. The method may also include communicating with the base station using the first frequency range as a secondary cell and using the second frequency range as the primary cell.

[0022] In some embodiments, the user equipment may include a transmitter, a receiver, one or more processors communicatively coupled to the transmitter and the receiver; and one or more memory devices. The one or more memory devices may include instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to operate the receiver to receive a handover initiation packet from a base station using a first frequency range as a primary cell. The instructions may also cause the one or more processors to adjust the receiver and the transmitter to use a second frequency range as the primary cell, operate the transmitter to send a random access channel packet to the base station using the second frequency range as the primary cell, and adjust the receiver and the transmitter to separate from the first frequency range as the primary cell, and reset the information corresponding to the first frequency range in the transport layer. The instructions may also cause the one or more processors to operate the receiver to receive a random access response packet from a base station using the second frequency range as the primary cell, and operate the transmitter to send a handover completion notification to the base station in response to receiving a random access response packet using the second frequency range as the primary cell.

[0023] In addition, in some embodiments, the user equipment may include a transmitter, a receiver, one or more processors communicatively coupled to the transmitter and the receiver; and one or more memory devices. The one or more memory devices may include instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to operate the receiver to use the first frequency range as the primary cell to receive a handover initiation packet from the base station, and perform a defined sequence of operations in response to receiving the handover initiation packet. The defined sequence of operations may include adjusting the receiver and the transmitter to separate from the first frequency range as the primary cell, resetting information corresponding to the first frequency range in the transport layer, and adjusting the receiver and the transmitter to configure the circuit to use the second frequency range as the primary cell. The instructions may cause the one or more processors to operate the receiver to use the second frequency range as the primary cell to receive a control packet from the base station, and in response to the control packet, at least partially by allocating the first frequency range in the transport layer as the secondary cell to adjust the receiver and the transmitter to use the first frequency range as the secondary cell.

[0024] In addition, in some embodiments, the user equipment may include a transmitter, a receiver, one or more processors communicatively coupled to the transmitter and the receiver; and one or more memory devices. The one or more memory devices may include instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to operate the receiver to use a first frequency range as a primary cell to receive a handover initiation packet from the base station, and adjust the receiver and the transmitter to separate from the first frequency range as the primary cell, and reset the information corresponding to the first frequency range in the transport layer. These instructions may cause the one or more processors to adjust the receiver and the transmitter to use a second frequency range as the primary cell after separation in the transport layer, and operate the transmitter to send a handover completion notification to the base station using the second frequency range as the primary cell. These instructions may cause the one or more processors to operate the receiver to use the second frequency range as the primary cell to receive a control packet from the base station, and in response to the control packet, adjust the receiver and the transmitter to use the first frequency range as the secondary cell at least in part by allocating the information corresponding to the first frequency range in the transport layer as the secondary cell.

[0025] Various improvements to the above features may exist with respect to various aspects of the present invention. Other features may also be added to these various aspects. These improvements and additional features may exist alone or in any combination. For example, the various features associated with one or more of the illustrated embodiments discussed below may be incorporated into any of the above aspects of the present invention alone or in any combination. The brief summary presented above is intended to familiarize the reader with the specific aspects and context of the disclosed embodiments and does not limit the claimed subject matter. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0026] Various aspects of the present disclosure may be better understood upon reading the following detailed description and referring to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0027] Figure 1 is a schematic block diagram of an electronic device including a transceiver according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0028] Figure 2 Yes means Figure 1 A perspective view of a laptop computer of a first embodiment of the electronic device;

[0029] Figure 3 Yes means Figure 1 A front view of a handheld device of a second embodiment of the electronic device;

[0030] Figure 4 Yes means Figure 1 A front view of another handheld device of the third embodiment of the electronic device;

[0031] Figure 5 Yes means Figure 1 A front view of a desktop computer of a fourth embodiment of the electronic device;

[0032] Figure 6 Yes means Figure 1 A front view and a side view of a wearable electronic device of a fifth embodiment of the electronic device;

[0033] Figure 7 According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, an electronic device such as Figure 1 An illustration of a base station for electronic devices to communicate with;

[0034] Fig. 8A is a diagram of a first example of switching secondary cell allocation of component carriers in a standalone network according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0035] Figure 8B is a diagram of a second example of switching secondary cell allocation of component carriers in a non-standalone network according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0036] Figure 8C is a diagram of a third example of primary cell allocation for switching component carriers according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0037] Fig.8D is a diagram of a fourth example of primary and secondary cell allocation for switching component carriers according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0038] Fig. 9 is a flow chart of a method for performing a primary cell (or primary and secondary cell) switching between component carriers using a make-before-break (MBB) procedure according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0039] Fig.10 is a flowchart of a method for performing primary cell (or primary and secondary cell) switching between component carriers using a random access channel-less (RACH-less) signaling procedure according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

[0040] Fig.11 is a flow chart of a method for performing primary cell (or primary and secondary cell) switching between component carriers using a defined operation sequence when triggered by a handover initiation packet according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0041] When introducing elements of various embodiments of the present disclosure, the articles "one / an" and "the / said" are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms "comprises," "comprising," and "having" are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements. Additionally, it should be understood that reference to "one embodiment" or "embodiment" of the present disclosure is not intended to be interpreted as excluding the existence of additional embodiments that also incorporate the cited features. Also, the phrase A "based on" B is intended to mean that A is based at least in part on B. Moreover, the term "or" is intended to be inclusive (e.g., logical or) and not exclusive (e.g., logical exclusive or). In other words, the phrase A "or" B is intended to mean A, B, or both A and B.

[0042] The present invention discloses various techniques for adjusting the operating frequency range of an electronic device, such as the operating frequency range for receiving data and / or sending data to a network provider. A network provider may use component carriers (e.g., frequency blocks or sub-ranges) to wirelessly couple a base station to a user equipment (e.g., an electronic device), and different component carriers may send different parts of a communication to or from the user equipment to temporarily increase the bandwidth to the user equipment. These temporary allocations of component carriers may benefit from techniques that enable a network provider to switch a component carrier allocated as a primary cell (Pcell) and / or a primary secondary cell (PScell) to another component carrier allocated as another Pcell and / or PScell, for example, when both component carriers are associated with a frequency between 24 gigahertz (GHz) and 53 GHz, the frequency is designated as a frequency range 2 (FR2) frequency range. That is, these operations may be applicable to any suitable frequency range and may be referred to as Pcell switching operations.

[0043] The technology disclosed in the present invention can be applied to various electronic devices. It should be noted that a channel can be a medium for transmitting information from a sender (transmitter) to a receiver. It should be noted that since the characteristics of the term "channel" can vary according to different wireless protocols, the term "channel" used in the present invention can be regarded as being used in a manner that conforms to the standard of the type of device to which the term is referenced. In some standards, the channel width can be variable (e.g., depending on device capabilities, frequency band conditions). For example, a long-term evolution (LTE) network can support scalable channel bandwidths from 1.4 megahertz (MHz) to 20 MHz. New radio (NR) can support scalable channel bandwidths from 5 MHz to 400 MHz. In contrast, a wireless local area network (WLAN) channel can be 22 MHz wide, while A channel may be 1 MHz wide. Other protocols and standards may include different definitions of channels. In addition, some standards may define and use multiple types of channels, such as different channels for uplink or downlink and / or different channels for different purposes such as data, control information, etc. In addition, as used herein, the term "frequency band" has the full range of its ordinary meaning and includes at least a section of the spectrum (e.g., radio frequency spectrum) in which channels are used or set aside for the same purpose.

[0044] As detailed herein, Pcell switching may occur based on a make-before-break procedure, a switching procedure based on no random access channel notification (RACH), or based on a defined sequence of operations to be used for Pcell switching. As described herein, these procedures bring certain advantages to operation. In view of the foregoing, a general description of suitable electronic devices that may include such processing circuits is provided below.

[0045] First go to Figure 1 , an electronic device 10 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may include, among other things, one or more of a processor 12, a memory 14, a non-volatile storage device 16, a display 18, an input structure 22, an input / output (I / O) interface 24, a network interface 26, a transceiver 28, and a power supply 30. Figure 1 The various functional blocks shown in the may include hardware elements (including circuits), software elements (including computer code stored on a computer-readable medium), or a combination of both hardware elements and software elements. In addition, the combination of elements may be included in a tangible, non-transitory machine-readable medium including machine-readable instructions. The instructions may be executed by the processor 12 and may cause the processor 12 to perform operations as described herein. It should be noted that Figure 1 This is merely one example of a particular embodiment and is intended to illustrate the types of elements that may be present in electronic device 10 .

[0046] By way of example, the electronic device 10 may represent Figure 2 The laptop shown in Figure 3 The handheld device shown in Figure 4 The handheld device shown in Figure 5 The desktop computer shown in Figure 6 A block diagram of a wearable electronic device or similar device is shown in FIG. It should be noted that Figure 1 The processor 12 and other related items in the electronic device 10 may be generally referred to herein as "data processing circuitry". Such data processing circuitry may be implemented in whole or in part in software, firmware, hardware, or any combination thereof. In addition, the data processing circuitry may be a single processing module that is contained, or may be fully or partially incorporated into any of the other elements within the electronic device 10.

[0047] exist Figure 1 In the electronic device 10 of the present invention, the processor 12 can be coupled with the memory 14 and the non-volatile storage device 16 to execute various algorithms. Such programs or instructions executed by the processor 12 can be stored in any suitable product, which includes one or more tangible computer-readable media that at least collectively store the instructions or routines, such as the memory 14 and the non-volatile storage device 16. The memory 14 and the non-volatile storage device 16 may include any suitable product for storing data and executable instructions, such as random access memory, read-only memory, rewritable flash memory, hard disk drive, and optical disk. In addition, the program (e.g., operating system) encoded on such a computer program product may also include instructions that can be executed by the processor 12 to enable the electronic device 10 to provide various functions.

[0048] In some embodiments, display 18 may be a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a digital micromirror display (DMD), one or more organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays, or some combination of these displays, which may enable a user to view images generated by electronic device 10. In some embodiments, display 18 may include a touch screen that may facilitate user interaction with a user interface of electronic device 10.

[0049] In some cases, the one or more processors 12 may operate circuits to input or output data generated by the electronic device 10. For example, the one or more processors 12 may control and / or operate the memory 14, the non-volatile storage device 16, the display 18, the input structure 22, the input / output (I / O interface) 24, the network interface 26, the transceiver 28, the power supply 30, etc. to perform operations of the electronic device 10 and / or facilitate control of the operation of the electronic device. In particular, the one or more processors 12 may generate control signals for operating the transceiver 28 to send data over one or more communication networks.

[0050] The input structures 22 of the electronic device 10 may enable a user to interact with the electronic device 10 (e.g., press a button to increase or decrease a volume level). As with the network interface 26, the I / O interface 24 may enable the electronic device 10 to interact with various other electronic devices. The network interface 26 may, for example, include one or more interfaces for a personal area network (PAN) such as a Network, Local Area Network (LAN) or Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) such as 802.11x A network and / or a wide area network (WAN) such as a third generation (3G) cellular network, a fourth generation (4G) cellular network, a long term evolution (LTE) cellular network, a long term evolution licensed assisted access (LTE-LAA) cellular network, a fifth generation (5G) cellular network, or a new radio (NR) cellular network. The network interface 26 may also include, for example, one or more interfaces for: a broadband fixed wireless access network (e.g., ), mobile broadband wireless network (mobile ), asynchronous digital subscriber line (e.g., ADSL, VDSL), digital video terrestrial broadcasting Network and its extension DVB handheld equipment Networks, ultra-wideband (UWB) networks, alternating current (AC) power lines, etc.

[0051] In some embodiments, the electronic device 10 uses the transceiver 28 to communicate with the user via the aforementioned wireless network (e.g., 4G, 5G, etc.) to communicate. The transceiver 28 may include circuits such as a transmitter and / or a receiver that are usable in both wireless reception and wireless transmission of signals (e.g., data signals, wireless data signals, wireless carrier signals, RF signals). In fact, in some embodiments, the transceiver 28 may include a transmitter and a receiver that are combined into a single unit, or in other embodiments, the transceiver 28 may include a transmitter separate from the receiver. The transceiver 28 may send and receive RF signals to support voice and / or data communications in wireless applications in the networks listed above or any suitable network (such as a PAN network, a WLAN network, a UWB network, etc.). As further shown, the electronic device 10 may include a power supply 30. The power supply 30 may include any suitable power supply, such as a rechargeable lithium polymer (Li-poly) battery and / or an alternating current (AC) power converter.

[0052] In some embodiments, the electronic device 10 may take the form of a computer, a portable electronic device, a wearable electronic device, or other type of electronic device. Such computers may be computers that are generally portable (such as laptops, notebook computers, and tablet computers) and / or computers that are generally used in one location (such as desktop computers, workstations, and / or servers). In some embodiments, the electronic device 10 in the form of a computer may be a computer available from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, California. PRO、MACBOOK mini or MAC By way of example, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in Figure 21 shows an electronic device 10 in the form of a laptop computer 10A. The laptop computer 10A may include a housing or casing 36, a display 18, input structures 22, and ports associated with an I / O interface 24. In one embodiment, the input structures 22 (such as a keyboard and / or a touchpad) may enable interaction with the laptop computer 10A, such as launching, controlling, or operating a graphical user interface (GUI) or application running on the laptop computer 10A. For example, the keyboard and / or touchpad may facilitate user interaction with a user interface, GUI, and / or application interface displayed on the display 18.

[0053] Figure 3 A front view of a handheld device 10B is depicted, which represents one embodiment of an electronic device 10. The handheld device 10B may represent, for example, a portable telephone, a media player, a personal data organizer, a handheld gaming platform, or any combination of such devices. By way of example, the handheld device 10B may be a iPod Touch available from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, California. or The handheld device 10B may include a housing 36 to protect the internal components from physical damage and to shield the internal components from electromagnetic interference. The housing 36 may surround the display 18. The I / O interface 24 may be opened through the housing 36 and may include, for example, an I / O port for a hardwired connection for charging and / or content manipulation using a connector and protocol such as a Lightning connector provided by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, California, a universal serial bus (USB), or other similar connectors and protocols.

[0054] The input structure 22 in conjunction with the display 18 can enable the user to control the handheld device 10B. For example, the input structure 22 can activate or deactivate the handheld device 10B, navigate the user interface to the home screen, present a user editable application screen, and / or activate the voice recognition feature of the handheld device 10B. Other input structures 22 can provide volume control, or can switch between vibration and ringtone modes. The input structure 22 can also include a microphone for acquiring the user's voice for various voice-related features, and a speaker for enabling audio playback. The input structure 22 can also include a headphone input for enabling input from an external speaker and / or headphones.

[0055] Figure 4A front view of another handheld device 10C is depicted, which represents another embodiment of the electronic device 10. The handheld device 10C may represent, for example, a tablet computer, or one of a variety of portable computing devices. By way of example, the handheld device 10C may be a tablet-sized embodiment of the electronic device 10, specifically, may be, for example, an Apple computer available from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, California. Type handheld device.

[0056] See also Figure 5 , the computer 10D can represent Figure 1 The computer 10D may be any computer, such as a desktop computer, a server, or a notebook computer, and / or may be a stand-alone media player or video game console. By way of example, the computer 10D may be a iPod Touch from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, California. or other similar devices. It should be noted that the computer 10D may also represent a personal computer (PC) of another manufacturer. The housing 36 may protect and enclose the internal components of the computer 10D, such as the display 18. In some embodiments, a user of the computer 10D may interact with the computer 10D using various peripheral input devices such as a keyboard 22A or a mouse 22B (e.g., input structures 22) that may be operatively coupled to the computer 10D.

[0057] Similarly, Figure 6 Depicted Figure 1 Another embodiment of the electronic device 10 is a wearable electronic device 10E. By way of example, the wearable electronic device 10E that may include the wristband 43 may be an APPLE However, in other embodiments, the wearable electronic device 10E may include any wearable electronic device, such as a wearable motion monitoring device (e.g., a pedometer, an accelerometer, a heart rate monitor), or other devices from another manufacturer. The display 18 of the wearable electronic device 10E may include a display 18 (e.g., an LCD, an OLED display, an active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) display, etc.) and a touch screen version of the output structure 22, which may facilitate user interaction with the user interface of the wearable electronic device 10E. In certain embodiments, as described above, each embodiment of the electronic device 10 (e.g., a laptop 10A, a handheld device 10B, a handheld device 10C, a computer 10D, and a wearable electronic device 10E) may include a transceiver 28.

[0058] Considering the above, Figure 74 is a diagram of a cellular network 48 (e.g., a portion of the network is shown) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the cellular network including access network nodes such as base stations 50 (e.g., base stations 50A, 50B) and user equipment 52 such as electronic device 10. Each of the base station 50 and / or the user equipment 52 may have one or more components similar to the electronic device 10, and thus may include a control circuit as a controller 54 (e.g., controller 54A, controller 54B, controller 54C), such as processor 12, a memory circuit as a memory 56 (memory 56A, memory 56B, memory 56C), such as memory 14 and / or non-volatile storage device 16, which components can operate together to enable the base station 50 and / or the user equipment 52 to perform corresponding operations. It is noted that the user equipment 52 may include any of various types of computer systems or computing devices capable of communicating with the base station 50. Examples of user equipment include any suitable portable electronic device, mobile phone, smart phone, portable gaming device, laptop computer, wearable device, etc.

[0059] In general, the term "UE" or "UE device" may be broadly defined to encompass any electronic, computing, and / or telecommunication device (or combination of devices) that may be easily transported by a user and that is capable of wireless communication. The term "base station" has the full scope of its ordinary meaning and includes at least a wireless communication station that is installed at a location (e.g., a fixed location) and used to communicate as part of a wireless telephone system or radio system. In general, "uplink operation" refers to communication in which one or more of the base stations 50 receive signals from user equipment 52, and "downlink operation" refers to communication in which user equipment 52 receives signals from one or more of the base stations 50.

[0060] The base station 50 and the electronic device 10 may communicate using any of a variety of radio access technologies (RATs) (also referred to as wireless communication technologies or telecommunication standards), such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS) (e.g., associated with Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) or Time Division (TD) Short-Band Code Division Multiple Access (SCDMA) air interfaces), Long Term Evolution (LTE), Advanced LTE (LTE-A), 5G New Radio (5G NR), High Speed ​​Packet Access (HSPA), 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., Real Time Text (lxRTT), Evolution Data Optimized (lxEV-DO), High Rate Packet Data (HRPD), Evolved HRPD (eHRPD)), etc. Note that if the base station 50 provides LTE communication capabilities, it may alternatively be referred to as an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node B, "eNodeB" or "eNB". It should be noted that if a corresponding base station in the base station is implemented in the environment of 5G NR, it may be referred to as a “gNodeB” or a “gNB”.

[0061] The frequency range for enabling communication between the base station 50 and the electronic device 10 may be defined by a standard body (e.g., a standard generated by a third generation partnership project (3GPP) standard body or development group), and may therefore include third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), and fifth generation (5G) frequency bands. For example, the frequency band may include frequencies between 24 gigahertz (GHz) and 48 GHz associated with a 5G / NR network. The user equipment 52 may include a transceiver 58 to communicate with the base station 50 using a set of allocated frequencies referred to as component carriers 60. The transceiver 58 may include a transmit circuit for processing and generating signals to send data packets, and may include a receive circuit for receiving and processing received signals received as data packets. Since different component carriers 60 are associated with non-overlapping and / or different frequency ranges, messages transmitted using frequencies within the same frequency band on separate component carriers 60 can generally be sent (e.g., simultaneously) without cross interference. It should be noted that the component carrier 60 is sometimes characterized by a center frequency and a bandwidth, which defines which portion of the frequency range is allocated to communications sent using the component carrier 60. Base station 50 and / or user equipment 52 may use component carrier 60 to transmit data packets modulated on radio frequency waves characterized by frequencies within a bandwidth assigned to component carrier 60. Component carrier 60 may be considered a wireless link between base station 50 and user equipment 52 and may be used to coordinate communications so that communications may remain non-overlapping when so desired.

[0062] In some cases, the user equipment 52 may be wirelessly coupled to (e.g., communicate with) one or more base stations 50 via two or more component carriers 60. For example, the user equipment 52 may use one set of component carriers 60A to communicate with the base station 50A, and another set of component carriers 60B to communicate with the base station 50B. In some embodiments, the component carrier groups 60A, 60B may be in the same frequency band, such as a new radio (NR) or fifth generation (5G) frequency band, but may be associated with different frequency ranges within the same frequency band. For example, component carrier 60A1 may use a first frequency range (e.g., a sub-band) within a first frequency band, and component carrier 60A2 may use a second frequency range (e.g., a different frequency range or sub-band) within the first frequency band. However, in some cases, the component carriers 60A, 60B and the corresponding base stations 50 deploy different communication networks (e.g., NR or LTE) or a combination of communication networks (e.g., NR and LTE).

[0063] For example, base station 50A may requisition base station 50B when base stations 50 are respectively associated with different radio network technologies, e.g., as provided by a multi-radio access technology (multi-RAT) network 48. When network 48 is deployed as a multi-RAT dual connectivity (MR-DC) network, network 48 may use two or more radio access technologies (RATs) at different times to communicate with user equipment 52. Another example of an MR-DC network includes a network that uses both the air interface of an LTE network (referred to as an "E-UTRA" network) and an E-UTRAN NR dual connectivity (EN-DC) network.

[0064] Certain adjustments may be performed to improve or optimize network operation. For example, for MR-DC or EN-DC networks, the base station 50 may switch between network types to communicate with the user equipment 52. Other adjustments include the user equipment 52 performing (e.g., at a portion of the transceiver 58) non-simultaneous uplink switching (NSU) operations and / or selective carrier aggregation (CA) between component carriers 60. Using one or more component carriers 60 to dynamically adjust the bandwidth or amount of resources allocated to the user equipment 52 can improve the flexibility of the network 48 by not restricting the core network 62 of the network provider to keep the bandwidth allocated to the user equipment 52 constant. Specifically, some user equipment 52 may use less than its allocated bandwidth at certain times, while other user equipment 52 may benefit from a bandwidth greater than its allocated bandwidth. Dynamically allocating bandwidth by reallocating component carriers 60 between user equipment 52 can more efficiently allocate bandwidth to meet or address the needs of the network 48, which can result in an overall reduction in resources used to deploy the network 48.

[0065] The base station 50 may use non-simultaneous uplink (NSU) operation when communicating with the user equipment 52, rather than scheduling the user equipment 52 to transmit on multiple component carriers 60 simultaneously. Non-simultaneous uplink may mean that given a configuration with a certain set of uplink component carriers, uplink operations are performed by the user equipment 52 on a subset of the configured uplink component carriers, while downlink operations are performed on all configured component carriers. For example, in Releases 16 and 17 of the 3GPP communication standards, NSU operation is proposed as a way to achieve an improved band budget with reduced device complexity and improved scheduling flexibility. The user equipment 52 may operate according to a schedule or mode of a communication allocation (e.g., included in the communication configuration), which defines when uplink of data occurs on which subset of the configured component carriers and when a switching operation to another subset of the component carriers is performed. The user equipment 52 may refer to the communication allocation schedule to determine when to configure its circuit to send signals and when to configure its circuit to receive signals, depending on the duplex configuration of the frequency band in which it operates. For example, the user equipment 52 may refer to the schedule of the communication assignment to know when to switch its circuitry to perform uplink operations using the first component carrier 60, and when to switch its circuitry to perform downlink operations using the first component carrier 60. Operating in accordance with the schedule of the communication assignment may enable the user equipment 52 to know when uplink or downlink is allowed on a particular component carrier (e.g., component carrier 60A1) of the component carriers 60 (e.g., component carrier 60A2, component carrier 60A3, component carrier 60B1, component carrier 60B2, component carrier 60B3), and therefore when to expect to receive a signal or send a signal.

[0066] The core network 62 may instruct the base station 50 assigned as the master node of the network 48 to operate according to dynamic bandwidth allocation, NSU operation, etc. It should be noted that the base station 50A assigned as the master node may receive data and / or configuration data to be communicated with the user equipment 52 from the core network 62, and the base station 50B assigned as the secondary node may receive data and / or configuration data to be communicated with the user equipment 52 from the base station 50A via the inter-base station communication coupler 64. In practice, the master node communicates with the core network 62 on behalf of the secondary nodes in the network. In some cases, one or more base stations 50 may perform local (e.g., in the base station 50) analysis of bandwidth allocation, link quality, delay, etc. (and / or send data to the core network 62 for analysis) to determine whether to perform a handover operation. In this way, the handover instruction may originate from either the base station 50 and / or the core network 62 to improve network operation.

[0067] To implement a specific switching operation, in some embodiments, the component carrier 60 may be switched between being assigned as a primary cell (Pcell), a primary secondary cell (PScell), or a secondary cell (Scell). It should be noted that the component carrier 60 assigned as a primary cell of a base station 50 assigned as a primary node may be referred to as a primary cell (Pcell), and the component carrier 60 assigned as a primary cell of a base station 50 assigned as a secondary node may be referred to as a primary secondary cell (PScell). As mentioned below, "Pcell" refers to the primary cell (Pcell) of the primary node. It should be noted that Pcell and PScell ​​can be used when sending status and / or other prioritized communications between the base station 50 and the user equipment 52. Pcell and / or PScell ​​can support physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission of radio resource control (RRC) signaling messages, physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission of messages, etc. For example, Pcell and / or PScell ​​can operate on a primary frequency or frequency range, where the user equipment 52 can perform an initial connection establishment process, initiate a connection reconstruction process, and / or a switching process. The cell may operate on a secondary frequency or frequency range, which may be configured after establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection and may be used to provide additional radio resources.

[0068] In some cases, the component carrier 60 assigned as a PScell ​​may operate as a Pcell, such as when dual connectivity operation (e.g., EN-DC, CA / EN-DC) is not used. A base station 50 assigned as a primary node and a base station 50 assigned as a secondary node may communicate with a user equipment 52 using a component carrier 60 assigned as a secondary cell (Scell), respectively, such as when additional bandwidth is to be used to communicate with the user equipment 52. For example, the base station 50A may be a primary node having a Pcell assigned as a component carrier 60A1 and having Scells assigned to component carriers 60A2 and 60A3. The base station 50B is shown as a secondary node having a PScell ​​assigned as a component carrier 60B1 and having Scells assigned as component carriers 60B2 and 60B3. The PScell ​​of the base station 50B (eg, component carrier 60B1 ) can operate as an Scell ​​of the component carrier 60A1 (eg, Pcell), and can also operate as Pcells of component carriers 60B2 , 60B3 (eg, Scells of secondary nodes).

[0069] Pcell, PScell ​​and / or Scell ​​allocations may be switched in response to changes in operations initiated by the base station 50 and / or the core network 62, changes in the quality of the communication link between the base station 50 and the user equipment 52 (e.g., a communication link deteriorates or improves by more than a threshold amount of noise, amplitude, frequency, etc. that triggers a change in the primary serving cell of the user equipment 52), etc. Pcell, PScell ​​and Scell ​​switching operations may occur without switching primary node (Pnode) and / or secondary node (Snode) allocations. Pcell switching may be performed without performing Scell ​​switching, Scell ​​switching may be performed without performing Pcell or PScell ​​switching, or any combination thereof.

[0070] Ongoing Scell ​​switching operations between component carriers 60, such as switching associated with non-simultaneous uplink operation, may complicate Pcell switching. Among other operations, the systems and methods described herein may enable network 48 to perform Pcell and PScell ​​switching in a dual connectivity network compatible with non-simultaneous uplink operation.

[0071] Considering the above, FIG. 8A to FIG. 8D is a diagram of exemplary switching operations associated with component carriers 60 of different frequency ranges (e.g., represented by frequency allocations distributed across frequency axis 74). In practice, these switching operations may be viewed as bandwidth portion (BWP) switching operations because, for example, respective portions of bandwidth allocated to respective base stations 50 (e.g., component carriers 60) may be switched or reassigned roles in communications operations of network 48.

[0072] Specifically, Fig. 8A Scell ​​switching operations between FR2-specified component carriers in a standalone (SA) network (e.g., a network using one type of network, such as NR) are shown. In fact, component carrier 60 visualized in FR2 frequency band 80 shows Scell ​​switching operations between component carriers 60 to enable non-simultaneous uplink operations (e.g., switching component carrier 60 between a Scell ​​DL allocation for downlink-only communications on the communication carrier 60 and a Scell ​​UL / DL allocation for enabling downlink and uplink communications on the component carrier 60). Fig. 8A The Scell ​​switching operation shown can generally be combined with a Pcell switching or a PScell ​​switching operation (eg Figure 8C or Fig.8D ) is combined to manage changes in both Pcell allocation and non-simultaneous uplink operation so that communications are not dropped during either switching operation.

[0073] by Figure 7As an example, each of the component carriers 60A is Fig. 8A 78A to a second time 78B). Each frequency range 76 is maintained by a switching operation that reallocates component carrier 60A2 from a secondary cell (e.g., Scell ​​UL / DL) used for both uplink and downlink communications to a secondary cell used for downlink operations (Scell ​​DL) rather than uplink operations, and reallocates component carrier 60A3 from Scell ​​DL to Scell ​​UL / DL. Component carriers 60A2, 60A3 may be assigned frequencies with intra-band non-contiguous and / or inter-band frequency allocations. That is, component carriers 60 that use contiguous frequencies in the same frequency band may be referred to as "intra-band contiguous," while component carriers 60 that use frequencies in the same frequency band but separated by frequency gaps may be referred to as "intra-band non-contiguous." Component carriers 60 that use frequencies in different frequency bands separated by frequency gaps may be referred to as "inter-band." In Fig. 8A For example, component carriers 60A assigned to different cell functions in the FR2 band 80 may be considered to be intra-band non-contiguous (i.e., in the same frequency band) or inter-band sub-blocks (i.e., in different frequency bands) because a frequency range 82 (e.g., a frequency gap) separates the frequency assignments of the different component carriers 60A2, 60A3.

[0074] like Fig. 8A As shown, Scell ​​switching associated with non-simultaneous uplink (NSU) operation is performed. Specifically, component carrier 60A2 allocated as Scell ​​UL / DL at the first time 78A is switched and allocated as Scell ​​DL at the second time 78B. In addition, component carrier 60A3 allocated as Scell ​​DL at the first time 78A is switched and allocated as Scell ​​UL / DL at the second time 78B. During the switching, component carrier 60A1 allocated as Pcell remains unchanged from the first time 78A to the second time 78B.

[0075] Similar switching operations are Figure 8B Shown in. Figure 8B is a diagram of a second exemplary switching operation. Specifically, Figure 8B Scell ​​switching operations between FR2 component carriers 60 in a network (also referred to as a non-standalone (NSA) network) using two or more types of communication protocols (e.g., NR and LTE) are shown. Figure 7Base station 50B may operate using the LTE communication protocol and be assigned as a master node, while base station 50A may operate using the NR communication protocol and be assigned as a slave node. After these assignments, base station 50B may assign component carrier 60B1 as Pcell UL / DL, and base station 50A may assign component carrier 60A1 as PScell ​​UL / DL. From the first time 78A to the second time 78B, the Pcell and PScell ​​assignments may remain constant. However, base station 50A may switch Scell ​​assignments based on communication scheduling. Therefore, between the first time 78A and the second time 78B, base station 50A may switch assignments so that component carrier 60A2 is assigned from Scell ​​UL / DL to Scell ​​DL, and component carrier 60A3 is assigned from SCell DL to Scell ​​UL / DL. Note that any combination of component carrier 60 switching may occur, even if not specifically noted herein, and thus any suitable role may be assigned to any of the component carriers 60.

[0076] Sometimes, the base station 50 is Figure 8C and Fig.8D The Pcell switching is coordinated in the FR2 band 80 shown. Specifically, Figure 8C is a diagram of a third exemplary switching operation of Pcell switching in FR2 band 80. Figure 8C The switching operation may correspond to an SA network in which the base station 50A is assigned as a master node. After these assignments, the base station 50A may assign the component carrier 60A1 as Pcell UL / DL and Scell ​​UL / DL at a first time 78A, and assign other component carriers 60 such as component carrier 60A2 as Scell ​​DL. The base station 50A may determine to switch the component carrier 60 assigned as Pcell. Therefore, at a second time 78B, a switching operation may occur, and the base station 50A may reallocate the component carrier 60A2 initially assigned as Scell ​​DL as Pcell UL / DL and Scell ​​UL / DL. In addition, the base station 50A may reallocate the component carrier 60A1 initially assigned as Pcell UL / DL and Scell ​​UL / DL as Scell ​​DL.

[0077] also, Fig.8D4 is an illustration of a fourth exemplary switching operation for PScell ​​switching in FR2 frequency band 80. As shown, the switching operation is performed in an NSA network, where a base station 50B using an LTE communication protocol is assigned as a primary node, and a base station 50A using an NR communication protocol is assigned as a secondary node. After these assignments, the base station 50B may assign component carrier 60B1 as a Pcell UL / DL for use at a first time 78A. The base station 50A may assign component carrier 60A1 as a PScell ​​UL / DL and a Scell ​​UL / DL, and assign component carrier 60A2 as a Scell ​​DL. During operation of the network 48, the base station 50A may determine to switch the component carrier 60 assigned as a PScell. Therefore, by the second time 78B, the switching operation may occur, and the base station 50A may have reallocated component carrier 60A1 as a Scell ​​DL, and reallocated component carrier 60A2 as a Pcell UL / DL and a Scell ​​UL / DL.

[0078] These or any other switching operations may be initiated by one or more base stations 50. The primary base station 50 may reallocate or switch the allocation of component carriers 60 of the base station 50 (e.g., its own component carriers 60 as a primary base station, or component carriers 60 of a secondary base station) to help improve bandwidth allocation and / or link characteristics for communicating with the user equipment 52. For example, in FIG. 8A to FIG. 8C When the base station 50A is assigned as the primary base station, the base station 50A may determine when to switch the assignment of the component carrier 60A (e.g., its own component carrier 60A). In some cases, the switching is requested by the user equipment 52. However, in other cases, such as in response to determining that the noise on the corresponding component carrier 60A is relatively high, or that the communication operation may be better suited to a different combination of component carriers 60, the switching is confirmed or requested by the base station 50A itself.

[0079] A variety of processes may be used to signal a handoff between user equipment 52 and a primary base station 50, which for convenience is referred to as base station 50, it being understood that when performing FIG. 8A to FIG. 8C When performing a switching operation, the master base station refers to base station 50A, and when performing Fig.8D For example, the base station 50 may perform a make-before-break (MBB) handover operation, a handover operation performed without a random access channel notification (RACH) based communication, and / or a handover operation using parameters such as those stored in a memory or predefined prior to operation of the network 48.

[0080] Figures 9 to 11Operations performed by user equipment 52 and base station 50 when performing MBB switching operations, switching operations performed without RACH-based communications, and / or switching operations using switching parameters (such as parameters stored in memory or predefined prior to operation of network 48) are shown. In each of these examples, when operating to deploy the same type of communication network (e.g., two NRs, two LTEs), the switching may occur between component carriers 60 of a single base station 50 or two synchronized base stations 50 (such as base station 50A and base station 50B). For ease of discussion, reference is made to switching between component carriers 60 of the same base station (such as in Figure 8C and Fig.8D The following processes and systems are described using a Pcell switching operation performed between component carriers 60A1 and 60A2 as shown in FIG. However, it should be understood that these methods can be applied to any suitable switching operation, including in an NR network, an LTE network, or a network using both NR communication protocols and LTE communication protocols (e.g., such as reference 1). Figure 8B and Fig.8D Switching operations performed between those discussed).

[0081] To further improve the handover operation, certain communication configurations used with the initial Pcell assignment may be transferred or switched to the new Pcell. That is, the communication configuration may be a stored indication of attributes to be used when communicating between the user equipment 52 and a particular component carrier 60 and / or one or more base stations 50, such as a center frequency, a communication power level, an uplink / downlink (UL / DL) assignment period or frequency, beam management information associated with the optimal configuration of the base station receiving and transmitting antennas to maximize the reception of the UE's uplink signal (e.g., spatial filter information, beam identifier (ID), angle of arrival or departure, beamforming coefficients, etc.). Thus, when performing a primary cell handover between synchronized base stations 50 (e.g., when handing the primary cell from a component carrier 60 of a first base station 50 to a component carrier 60 of a second base station 50), the first base station 50 may share one or more corresponding communication configurations with the second base station 50. In fact, when the Pcell of the base station 50 is reallocated from the first component carrier 60 to the second component carrier 60, the base station 50 may use a similar or identical communication configuration when operating the second component carrier 60 as used when operating the first component carrier 60. Sharing these configurations can reduce the amount of time used to complete a handover because some initialization operations are not repeated after and / or to complete a handover. For example, initialization operations related to center frequency, communication power level, and / or UL / DL allocation time period can be shared so that the base station 50 can avoid re-determining this information to operate a newly allocated Pcell.

[0082] To explain the MBB handover operation in detail, Fig. 9Flowchart of operations performed by user equipment 52 and base station 50 when performing an MBB switching operation flow. The MBB switching operation enables the communication link between base station 50 and user equipment 52 to be maintained (e.g., avoiding dropping the communication link and thus avoiding the need to re-establish the communication link). After the new communication link is established, the existing (previously used) communication link may be dropped, and the Pcell switching may be considered complete.

[0083] In fact, Fig. 9 is a flow chart of a method 96 for operating a base station 50 and a user equipment 52 to coordinate a Pcell switch between component carriers 60 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Note that, although shown in a particular order, the blocks of the method 96 can be performed in any suitable order, and at least some blocks can be skipped entirely. As described herein, the method 96 is described as being performed in part by the user equipment 52 and in part by the base station 50, first using a first component carrier 60 as a Pcell before a Pcell switch, and then using a second component carrier 60 as a Pcell after a Pcell switch. For each of the following method examples (e.g., Figures 9 to 11 ), the user equipment 52 uses the first component carrier 60 as the Pcell when communicating with the base station 50 in configuration 97A until a Pcell switching occurs, and then the user equipment 52 uses the second component carrier 60 as the Pcell when communicating with the base station 50 in configuration 97B. However, it should be understood that any suitable processing and / or control circuitry (such as one or more of the processor 12, the core network 62, etc.) can perform some or all of the operations of the method 96.

[0084] At block 98, the base station 50 initiates communication with the user equipment 52 using the first component carrier 60 assigned as the Pcell. The base station 50 may send and / or receive information for initiating communication with the user equipment 52 using the first component carrier 60. The information may include an initial access request, a radio resource control (RRC) configuration, a cell group configuration, etc., and the user equipment 52 uses the information to establish the first component carrier 60 as the Pcell and the second component carrier 60 as the Scell. Once configured, the user equipment 52 uses the first component carrier 60 as the Pcell when communicating with the base station 50 in configuration 97A until a Pcell handover occurs, and then the user equipment 52 uses the second component carrier 60 as the Pcell when communicating with the base station 50 in configuration 97B.

[0085] At block 100, the base station 50 activates the Scell ​​and sends control information to the user equipment 52. That is, the base station 50 may allocate the second component carrier 60 as a Scell ​​and transmit the allocation to the user equipment 52. To transmit the allocation to the user equipment 52, the base station 50 may send control information to the user equipment 52, which the user equipment 52 may use to allocate the second component carrier 60 as a Scell. In some embodiments, the control information may include a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE).

[0086] Using the information received from the base station 50, at block 102, the user equipment 52 initiates a communication link to the first component carrier 60 assigned as a Pcell and to the second component carrier 60 assigned as an Scell ​​of the base station 50. The user equipment 52 may identify and / or calibrate one or more circuits of the transceiver 58 to the frequencies assigned as each of the first component carrier 60 and the second component carrier 60. Specifically, calibrating the transceiver 58 to the frequencies may allow the user equipment 52 to use the frequencies to send and / or receive messages via the corresponding component carrier 60.

[0087] At block 104, the base station 50 sends a communication configuration to the user equipment 52. As described above, the communication configuration may indicate a communication schedule that the user equipment 52 is to follow when operating. The user equipment 52 may anticipate Scell ​​switching based on the uplink allocation and / or downlink allocation indicated by the communication schedule. At block 106, the user equipment 52 communicates (e.g., sends and / or receives data) with the base station 50 using the communication allocation indicated by the communication schedule of the communication configuration. The communications exchanged between the base station 50 and the user equipment 52 may include user data and / or measurement control information and reports referenced by the base station 50 to determine when to perform Pcell switching. For example, the base station 50 may send measurement control information to the user equipment 52 to request the user equipment 52 to perform a specific sensing operation. The report may include information (e.g., measurement results, sensing data) generated by the sensing operation, which the base station 50 may use to determine link quality. For example, these reports may include and / or indicate a sensed noise level associated with the corresponding component carrier 60, an amplitude (e.g., average amplitude) of the received communication used to determine signal attenuation, and the like.

[0088] At block 108, the base station 50 determines to perform a Pcell handover from the first component carrier 60 to the second component carrier 60. Specifically, the base station 50 may reallocate the first component carrier 60 as a Scell. The Pcell handover may be represented as a Pcell F1 to Pcell F2 handover because the frequency used as the Pcell changes due to the Pcell handover from the first frequency range (F1) to the second frequency range (F2) (this should not be confused with the designation of the FR2 defined frequency band associated with 5G / NR operation). Specifically, the first component carrier 60 may include a first frequency range (F1) and the second component carrier 60 may include a second frequency range (F2).

[0089] At block 110, the base station 50 sends a handover initiation packet to the user equipment 52 to initiate a Pcell handover. The handover initiation packet may include an identifier transmitted to the user equipment 52 to perform a connect-before-break (MBB) Pcell handover, in which a connection with a new Pcell (e.g., a second component carrier 60) is made before detaching from the current Pcell (e.g., a first component carrier 60). Other information included in the handover initiation packet may include radio resource control (RRC) setup information, cell group configuration, an indicator of using a RACH-less handover method, an indicator of using a predefined handover operation, and the like. In this case, the information may include at least an indication of using an MBB handover method with the user equipment 52. In response to receiving the handover initiation packet, the user equipment 52 may prepare to perform a Pcell handover in its system (e.g., hardware, software). As part of these operations, the base station 50 may suspend outgoing communications to the user equipment 52 that are not related to the handover operation so as not to discard any messages.

[0090] The base station 50 may use a variety of suitable signaling techniques to send the handover initiation packet (e.g., block 110) and / or send or receive any packet or communication described herein, including a physical (PHY) layer signal, a medium access control (MAC) layer signal (e.g., MAC CE), a radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a portion of downlink control information (DCI) sent as a DCI command, etc. In this way, the base station 50 may send the handover initiation packet as an RRC protocol message in response to a MAC protocol message, a message sent via physical layer signaling, etc. In addition, in some cases, the base station 50 may send the handover initiation packet in response to receiving a control signal from a controller 54 (e.g., controller 54A, controller 54B) of the base station 50 or another base station 50 according to a timing parameter or according to a timing schedule maintained by the controller 54 for managing Pcell handover operations and / or non-simultaneous uplink operations.

[0091] In practice, in response to receiving the handover initiation packet, at block 111, the user equipment 52 switches the MAC entity (e.g., the second component carrier 60) for the second frequency range to be communicatively linked with the second component carrier 60 as the primary cell without being delinked from the first component carrier 60 as the primary cell. This may involve a network address change between an address for the second component carrier 60 when assigned as an Scell ​​and an address for the second component carrier 60 when assigned as a Pcell and / or PScell. Similar to the operation of block 102, the communication link may involve initiating a MAC layer and / or interface between the user equipment 52 and the base station 50 via the corresponding component carrier 60. As part of these operations, the user equipment 52 may also suspend outgoing communications not related to the handover operation so as not to discard any messages.

[0092] Once the user equipment 52 is linked with the second component carrier 60, at block 112, the user equipment 52 sends a random access preamble to the base station 50 using the second component carrier 60 as a Pcell (indicated by the transmission occurring in the "Pcell F2" configuration) instead of the first component carrier 60. This transmission may indicate to the base station 50 that the user equipment 52 is ready to receive communications using the second component carrier 60 as a Pcell. At block 114, the user equipment 52 detaches from the first component carrier 60 as a Pcell after attaching to the second component carrier 60 as a Pcell. This make-before-break (MBB) connection enables the user equipment 52 to maintain its connection with the previous Pcell (e.g., the first component carrier 60) until connecting to the next Pcell (e.g., the second component carrier 60). The first component carrier 60 may be reassigned as a Scell. In addition, the radio resource management (RRM) configuration definition (e.g., for Pcell, PScell, and / or Scell) may be adjusted for the case where the target frequency of the corresponding component carrier 60 has been configured (e.g., by the user equipment 52) ​​as a Scell ​​DL to prevent overlapping allocations. The switching operations of block 114 may be performed at least substantially simultaneously with (eg, at least partially overlapping with) the operations of block 112 .

[0093] Thus, the configuration of the second component carrier 60 as a Pcell and the first component carrier 60 as an Scell ​​may continue at the base station 50, the user equipment 52, or both. At block 116, the base station 50, after receiving the random access channel preamble from the user equipment 52, sends a random access response as an acknowledgement message to the user equipment 52 on the second component carrier 60 assigned as a Pcell.

[0094] At block 118, the user equipment 52 acknowledges receipt of the random access response from the base station 50, at least in part, by sending a handover completion notification to the base station 50. Because the handover completion notification is sent after the user equipment 52 is detached from the first component carrier 60 as the Pcell, the handover completion notification may confirm completion of the Pcell handover to the base station 50. In response to receiving the handover completion notification, at block 120, the base station 50 activates the first component carrier 60 as the Scell ​​and sends control information (e.g., MAC CE) to the user equipment 52. These operations may be similar to the operations of block 100, but the first component carrier 60 may be used as the Scell ​​instead of the second component carrier 60. Upon receiving the control information, at block 122, the user equipment 52 initiates a communication link to the Pcell via the second component carrier 60 and to the Scell ​​via the first component carrier 60. Similar to the operations of block 102, the communication link initiation may involve initiating a MAC layer and / or interface between the user equipment 52 and the base station 50 via the corresponding component carrier 60.

[0095] At block 124, the base station 50 sends the communication configuration to the user equipment 52. The communication configuration may define a communication schedule that the user equipment 52 is to follow when communicating using the Pcell and the Scell. In some cases, this block may be skipped instead of the user equipment 52 and the base station 50 each referring to the communication schedules of the Pcell and the Scell ​​stored before the Pcell switching occurs. For example, the base station 50 and the user equipment 52 may store the communication schedule received via the operation of block 104 in a memory, and refer to the stored communication schedule after the Pcell switching to determine which Pcell communication allocation and Scell ​​communication allocation to follow, rather than communicating via a new communication schedule at block 124 or repeating the transmission of an existing communication schedule. The communication schedule may take into account the Scell ​​switching operation in the non-simultaneous uplink operation between the component carriers 60.

[0096] When the message is received at blocks 112 and 118, the communication configuration may implement a timing advance. The timing advance may help compensate for the delay seen by the base station 50 and / or compensate for receiving the message in a shorter time than expected. In practice, the user equipment 52 may calculate the timing advance of the second component carrier 60 based on the timing difference between the reception time of the packet sent using the first component carrier 60 and the reception time of the packet sent using the second component carrier 60. When the first component carrier 60 and the second component carrier 60 are associated with different base stations 50, the difference in reception time may be caused by the difference in the physical location of the base stations 50, however, when the first component carrier 60 and the second component carrier 60 are associated with the same base station 50, the difference in reception time may be caused by other factors, such as differences in processing time and / or differences in equipment aging that cause delays between component carriers 60. Applying a timing advance (TA) to the communication scheduling of the communication configuration may compensate for reception delays between component carriers 60. Determining the timing advance may also facilitate determining the UL allocation grant because the timing advance adjusts the scheduling allocation to better align symbols used to organize communication allocations so that simultaneous uplink and downlink operations are avoided in systems that are not capable of performing simultaneous uplink and downlink.

[0097] At block 126, when the Pcell handover and / or any Scell ​​handover is complete, the user equipment 52 and the base station 50 resume communication. Communication may be resumed at an uplink allocation or at a downlink allocation corresponding to the time when operation was first suspended at blocks 110 and 111. Communication may involve using the second component carrier 60 (e.g., including frequency range F2) as a Pcell and using the first component carrier 60 (e.g., including frequency range F1) as a Scell.

[0098] To elaborate on the handover operation performed without RACH-based communication, Fig.10is a flow chart of operations performed by a user equipment 52 and one or more base stations 50 when performing a RACH-less handover operation process. For example, when using a RACH-less operation process, each communication link associated with handing over a Pcell, PScell, and / or Scell ​​is dropped between the one or more base stations 50 and the user equipment 52 before being reestablished. The core network 62 may initiate a primary cell handover by instructing the first component carrier 60 assigned as the primary cell to send an uplink grant message (e.g., a UL grant message) to the user equipment 52, such as in response to an instruction from a network provider, the uplink grant message including a handover (HO) initiation command indicating an updated Pcell, PScell, and / or Scell ​​allocation. In response to receiving the UL grant message, the user equipment 52 may skip performing a RACH process, and may be detached from the ongoing Pcell, PScell, and / or Scell ​​allocation, and may generate an RRC reconfiguration complete message in the allocation portion of the UL grant message. The user equipment 52 may send an RRC Reconfiguration Complete message (eg, returned as part of an UL Grant message packet) using the updated Pcell, PScell, and Scell ​​allocations previously indicated in the HO Initiate Command.

[0099] In fact, Fig.10 1 is a flow chart of a method 138 for operating a base station 50 and a user equipment 52 to coordinate a Pcell switching between component carriers 60 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. It should be noted that, although shown in a particular order, the blocks of the method 138 can be performed in any suitable order, and at least some blocks can be skipped entirely. As described herein, the method 138 is described as being performed by the user equipment 52 and the base station 50, however, it should be understood that any suitable processing and / or control circuit (such as one or more of the processor 12, the core network 62, etc.) can perform some or all of the operations of the method 138.

[0100] refer to Fig.10 , a brief review Fig. 9 , the operations of blocks 98, 100, 102, 104, 106, and 108 may be the same or similar to the operations in method 96. At block 140, the base station 50 sends a handover initiation packet to the user equipment 52 to initiate a Pcell handover. The handover initiation packet may include an identifier transmitted to the user equipment 52 to perform a RACH-less handover. After detaching from the current Pcell (e.g., the first component carrier 60), the user equipment 52 may connect to a new Pcell (e.g., the second component carrier 60). In response to receiving the handover initiation packet, the user equipment 52 may prepare to perform a Pcell handover in its system (e.g., hardware, software).

[0101] In practice, at box 142, the user equipment 52 detaches from the first component carrier 60 as a Pcell before attaching to the second component carrier 60 as a Pcell. To this end, at box 144, the user equipment 52 switches the MAC entity (e.g., identifier, configuration) from the first component carrier 60 (F1) to the second component carrier 60 (F2) (e.g., switches the MAC entity from F1 to F2), and selects an uplink beam (e.g., frequency range) for the second component carrier 60 as a Pcell.

[0102] Since the information exchanged at block 98 indicates that the user equipment 52 and the base station 50 do not use RACH operation, the user equipment 52 determines any timing advance by itself and sends the determined timing advance to the base station 50 for implementation in the communication configuration. The user equipment 52 may calculate the timing advance of the second component carrier 60 based on the timing difference (e.g., delay) between the reception time of the packet sent using the first component carrier 60 and the reception time of the packet sent using the second component carrier 60 during the operation corresponding to block 106. The timing advance may help compensate for the delay seen by the base station 50 and / or compensate for receiving the message in a shorter time than expected. To this end, the user equipment 52 may retain at least some records of the most recent arrival time of each component carrier 60 in the memory 56C, wherein the difference between the arrival times of the packets can be used to determine the delay (e.g., difference) between the arrival times. In addition, the user equipment 52 may use downlink measurements of the reference signal of the second component carrier 60 (such as single sideband (SSB) signals and / or power measurements, channel state information reference signals, etc.) to select an uplink beam (e.g., frequency range). In some embodiments, the user equipment 52 may use the previous uplink allocation used by the second component carrier 60 when it was previously allocated as an Scell, and therefore reallocate these parameters in memory as being associated with a Pcell.

[0103] Once the Pcell is switched, at block 146, the user equipment 52 sends a handover complete notification to the base station 50. The transmission of the handover complete notification occurs similarly to the operation of block 118. The handover complete notification may also include an indication of the determined UL allocation grant to be applied to the communication schedule determined at block 144. In this way, the handover complete notification indicates to the base station 50 a specific timing allocation (e.g., timing advance) determined by the user equipment 52 that compensates for the timing difference between the component carriers 60. By performing at least some of the above operations, the base station 50 can avoid performing a RACH procedure to determine the timing advance (because the user equipment 52 determines the timing advance and sends it to the base station 50), and can send an RRC reconfiguration complete message in the handover complete notification including the allocated UL grant. In this way, the handover complete notification may also signal to the base station 50 that the RRC reconfiguration is complete at the user equipment 52.

[0104] In response to the completion of the Pcell handover (eg, the completion of the RRC reconfiguration), the base station 50 may activate the first component carrier 60 as the Scell ​​and initiate communication with the user equipment 52. Fig. 9 The operations of blocks 120, 122, 124, and 126 are repeated as described in method 96 of . Note that the communication configuration sent at block 124 may include a communication schedule that accommodates any timing advance determined by the user equipment 52 at block 144 and indicated by the user equipment 52 at block 146. In this way, the communication configuration may shift the uplink and / or downlink allocations relative to the allocations previously used when the first component carrier 60 was allocated as a Pcell.

[0105] In some cases, the Pcell switching may refer to defined switching parameters. That is, in response to receiving a switching initiation packet from the base station 50, the user equipment 52 may switch the Pcell using a predefined or preconfigured sequence of operations without sending and / or receiving Pcell switching information from the base station 50 in addition to the information included in the switching initiation packet. To further elaborate, Fig.11 1 is a flow chart of operations performed by user equipment 52 and one or more base stations 50 when performing a handover operation using handover parameters. Fig.111 is a flow chart of a method 158 for operating a base station 50 and a user equipment 52 to coordinate a Pcell switching between component carriers 60 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. It should be noted that, although shown in a particular order, the blocks of the method 158 can be performed in any suitable order, and at least some blocks can be skipped entirely. As described herein, the method 158 is described as being performed by the user equipment 52 and the base station 50, however, it should be understood that any suitable processing and / or control circuit (such as one or more of the processor 12, the core network 62, etc.) can perform some or all of the operations of the method 138.

[0106] refer to Fig.10 , a brief review Fig. 9 , the operations of blocks 98, 100, 102, 104, 106, and 108 may be the same as the operations in method 96 and method 138. Note that in this case, the information exchanged at block 98 may include at least an indication to the user equipment 52 to use a defined sequence of handover operations in response to receiving a handover initiation packet.

[0107] At block 160, the base station 50 sends a handover initiation packet to the user equipment 52 to initiate a Pcell handover. The information included in the handover initiation packet may include at least an indication to use a defined handover method sequence with the user equipment 52 that follows a known timeline and / or takes a known or estimated duration to complete.

[0108] The base station 50 may use various suitable signaling techniques, including physical (PHY) layer signals, MAC layer signals (e.g., MAC CE), RRC signaling, etc., as part of the downlink control information (DCI) sent as a DCI command. In this way, the base station 50 may send a handover initiation packet as a radio resource control (RRC) protocol message in response to receiving a medium access control (MAC) protocol message, a message sent via physical layer signaling, etc. In addition, in some cases, the base station 50 may send a handover initiation packet in response to receiving a control signal from a controller 54 (e.g., controller 54A, controller 54B) of the base station 50 or another base station 50 according to a timing parameter or according to a timing schedule maintained by the controller 54 for managing Pcell handover operations and / or non-simultaneous uplink operations.

[0109] The user equipment 52 may have access to one or more identifiers sent as part of the handover initiation packet to determine that a Pcell handover is to be performed. For example, when physical layer signaling is used, the user equipment 52 may have access to a 1-bit indication, and the 1-bit indication may simultaneously communicate that a Pcell handover should be performed and that the second component carrier 60 is the target component carrier 60 to be assigned as the new Pcell. In some cases, the handover initiation packet may also include a signal to communicate to the user equipment 52 that a RACH-less handover should be performed (and therefore should be followed). Fig.10 operation), make-before-break switching (and therefore should follow Fig. 9 operation) or both. In fact, Fig. 9 and Fig.10 The exemplary operations of can be combined to perform RACH-less MBB handover by waiting to perform the operations of block 142 until the operations of block 144 are performed when the Pcell is switched according to a defined handover operation (e.g., the operations of block 162 are performed). The user equipment 52 can establish a connection to a new Pcell (e.g., a second component carrier 60) before or after separation from the current Pcell (e.g., the first component carrier 60) based on the operation mode indicated by the handover initiation packet (e.g., MBB handover operation mode, RACH-less handover operation mode). The base station 50 may also include a Pcell handover mode with a handover initiation packet transmission and / or otherwise indicate to the user equipment 52 to access a stored Pcell handover mode to perform a determined handover operation. The Pcell handover mode may correspond to a set of defined operations performed according to parameters indicated in the handover initiation packet in response to receiving the handover initiation packet. In practice, the Pcell handover mode may provide a series of operations and / or parameters to be implemented by the user equipment 52 when instructed to perform a Pcell handover.

[0110] At block 162, in response to receiving a Pcell switching command via a switching initiation packet from the base station 50, the user equipment 52 switches the Pcell by, for example, executing a defined switching sequence (e.g., a Pcell switching pattern). The operations performed by the user equipment 52 include detaching from the first component carrier 60 as the Pcell, attaching to the second component carrier 60 as the Pcell, resetting the MAC entity for the Pcell, setting the MAC entity and / or the transceiver 58 corresponding to the Pcell to parameters corresponding to the second component carrier 60 (e.g., center frequency, bandwidth, frequency range, communication amplitude of the signal), selecting an uplink beam for the Pcell based on the second component carrier 60 (e.g., based on a previous timing advance and / or UL allocation for the second component carrier 60 when previously assigned as an Scell), etc. It is noted that these listed operations can be performed in a different order and, for example, can enable the user equipment 52 to attach to the second component carrier 60 as the Pcell before detaching from the first component carrier 60 (e.g., according to MBB switching). Since the base station 50 can know the operational sequence of the Pcell switching before performing the Pcell switching, the base station 50 can know how long to wait before activating the first component carrier 60 as the Scell ​​to give the user equipment 52 time to complete the Pcell switching. In this way, the base station 50 can wait for a message to be transmitted via the switched Pcell for a determined duration (e.g., a duration that enables the completion of the operational sequence) instead of waiting until a switching completion notification is received (e.g., as occurs in method 138). Once the determined duration has passed after sending the Pcell switching command, the base station 50 can drop the previous communication link as a new communication link (e.g., a new Pcell, PScell, and / or Scell ​​allocation) is established, thereby completing the Pcell switching.

[0111] Thus, at block 164, after the determined duration corresponding to the amount of time the user equipment 52 takes to complete the Pcell switch, the base station 50 may activate the first component carrier 60 as the Scell ​​and send a MAC command to the user equipment 52 (e.g., switching the Scell ​​from the second component carrier 60 to the first component carrier 60). At block 122, the user equipment 52 receives the MAC command from the base station 50 and proceeds to complete the assignment of the second component carrier 60 as the Scell. The operations of blocks 122, 124, and 126 may be the same as those in methods 96 and 138.

[0112] In some embodiments, the center frequency used to define the component carrier 60 may remain constant during Pcell switching. For example, when assigned as a Pcell, the first component carrier 60 may have the same center frequency and the same bandwidth as when assigned as an Scell. When switching is performed in the case where the center frequency and / or other parameters are constant during Pcell switching, these attributes may be copied and referenced to complete the switching instead of repeating beamforming operations, etc. This may result in more efficient Pcell switching because existing configurations are swapped between Pcell allocations and Scell ​​allocations (e.g., in memory and / or data processing circuitry for processing incoming or outgoing signals), thereby avoiding re-determination and / or recalibration to the center frequency.

[0113] It is noted that the component carriers 60 may operate continuously in the same frequency band (e.g., referred to as intra-band contiguous carrier aggregation), non-contiguously in the same frequency band but separated by one or more frequency gaps (e.g., referred to as intra-band non-contiguous carrier aggregation), and / or continuously in different frequency bands (e.g., inter-band carrier aggregation). The base station 50 may send and / or receive downlink control information (DCI) to / from the user equipment 52. The DCI may include information for scheduling downlink data channels (e.g., physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH)) and / or scheduling uplink data channels (e.g., physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)). In addition or alternatively, the base station 50 may receive a medium access control (MAC) protocol address that uniquely identifies a network interface controller (NIC), and the MAC protocol address may be used as a network address in communications within a network segment, such as to identify communications to and / or from the user equipment 52. The base station 50 may use processes such as radio resource control (RRC) protocol processes to transmit messages between base stations 50 of a radio network (e.g., a wireless network provided by the base station 50) and / or between user equipment 52. In addition, the base station 50 may include an access management device that performs operations associated with the deployment of a radio network (e.g., a wireless network, a cellular network, a core network of a cellular service provider), such as an access and mobility management function (AMF). The access management device may also perform operations associated with registering and / or maintaining information associated with user equipment accessing and / or attempting to access the radio network, such as a user plane function (UPF). In this way, when registering the user equipment 52 to the wireless network, the access management device of each base station 50 may access the permissions associated with the SIM card of the user equipment 52.

[0114] The technical effects of the present disclosure include systems and methods for operating components of a network (e.g., base stations, user equipment) to send or receive signals on various frequency ranges that dynamically change between Pcell, PScell, and Scell ​​allocations. Network providers using dual networks (such as using both 4G / LTE networks and 5G / NR networks) can benefit from switching Pcell, PScell, and / or Scell ​​between different frequency range allocations. In fact, dynamically adjusting which frequency ranges are used for Pcell, PScell, and Scell ​​can enable bandwidth and / or resource amounts to be flexibly allocated to user equipment. For example, changing Pcell and / or PScell ​​allocations can enable some user equipment of the network to use less than the allocated bandwidth, while other user equipment uses more than the allocated bandwidth. Dynamically allocating bandwidth by reallocating cell allocations between user equipment can more efficiently allocate bandwidth to meet or address the needs of the network, which can result in an overall reduction in resources used by network providers to deploy networks.

[0115] To this end, the user equipment may indicate to the network provider its ability to perform switching operations associated with Pcell, PScell ​​and / or Scell ​​changes. In response to receiving this information, the network provider may cause one or more base stations to initiate a "make-before-break" handover (MBB handover) and / or a random access channel-less (RACH-less) handover between serving cells. In some cases, in addition to confirming that the switching operation is being performed in a defined sequence of operations, the switching operation associated with the MBB handover or RACH-less handover may be performed without the network provider exchanging intermediate confirmation messages with the user equipment. When performing a handover, the network provider may reuse a previous frequency allocation and / or configuration to reduce the amount of time spent performing the BWP handover overall, thereby improving the deployment of the handover in addition to increasing the flexibility of the BWP handover operation.

[0116] The above specific embodiments have been shown by way of example, and it should be understood that these embodiments are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms. It should also be understood that the claims are not intended to be limited to the specific forms disclosed, but are intended to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives that fall within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

[0117] The technology described and claimed herein is cited and applied to specific examples of a physical and practical nature that significantly improves the art and is therefore not abstract, intangible, or purely theoretical. In addition, if any claim appended to the end of this specification contains one or more elements designated as "means for [performing] [the function] ..." or "steps for [performing] [the function] ...", then those elements will be interpreted in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f). However, for any claim containing elements designated in any other manner, those elements will not be interpreted in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f).

Claims

1. A method for operating a user equipment, comprising: communicating with a base station using a first frequency range allocated as a primary cell, the primary cell being associated with the bandwidth portion handover; receiving a handover initiation packet from the base station using the first frequency range; In response to receiving the handover initiation packet, allocating a second frequency range as the primary cell based on parameters indicated in the handover initiation packet; receiving a control packet from the base station using the second frequency range as the primary cell; In response to receiving the control packet from the base station, allocating the first frequency range as a secondary cell; as well as The base station is communicated with using the first frequency range as the secondary cell and using the second frequency range as the primary cell.

2. The method according to claim 1, comprising: determining a timing advance associated with a time delay between a first signal received using the first frequency range and a second signal received using the second frequency range; sending the timing advance to the base station; as well as Communicating with the base station is based at least in part on the timing advance.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising receiving an indication of a medium access control (MAC) message from the base station, the MAC message comprising configuration data for allocating the first frequency range as the secondary cell.

4. The method according to claim 1, comprising: receiving a communication configuration using the first frequency range; as well as The first frequency range, the second frequency range, or both the first frequency range and the second frequency range are used to communicate with the base station according to the communication configuration. 5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein communicating with the base station comprises receiving downlink communications from the base station during a time period indicated by the communication configuration. 6 . The method according to claim 1 , comprising separating the first frequency range as the primary cell after allocating the second frequency range as the primary cell.

7. The method according to claim 1, comprising: sending a random access channel preamble to the base station using the second frequency range as the primary cell; receiving a random access response as the control packet from the base station, the random access response being generated in response to the base station receiving the random access channel preamble; as well as A handover completion notification is sent in response to receiving the random access response from the base station and in response to allocating the first frequency range as the secondary cell.

8. The method according to claim 1, comprising: allocating the second frequency range as the primary cell before separating from the first frequency range as the primary cell; as well as A handover completion notification is sent to the base station using the second frequency range after the second frequency range is allocated as the primary cell.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising sending a handover completion notification to the base station if no random access response is received from the base station.

10. The method of claim 1, the first frequency range corresponding to a frequency subset between 600 megahertz (MHz) and 700 MHz, between 2.5 gigahertz (GHz) and 3.7 GHz, between 25 GHz and 42 GHz, or any combination thereof.

11. A user equipment comprising: Transmitter; Receiver; one or more processors communicatively coupled to the transmitter and the receiver and configured to: operating the receiver to receive a handover initiation packet from a base station using the first frequency range as a primary cell, adjusting the receiver and the transmitter to use a second frequency range as the primary cell, operating the transmitter to send a random access channel packet to the base station using the second frequency range as the primary cell, adjusting the receiver and the transmitter to be separated from the first frequency range as the primary cell, and resetting information corresponding to the first frequency range in a transmission layer, operating the receiver to receive a random access response packet from the base station using the second frequency range as the primary cell, and The transmitter is operated to send a handover completion notification to the base station in response to receiving the random access response packet using the second frequency range as the primary cell.

12. The user equipment of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to adjust the receiver and the transmitter to separate from the first frequency range as the primary cell after adjusting the receiver and the transmitter to use a second frequency range as the primary cell.

13. The user equipment of claim 12, the first frequency range corresponding to a frequency subset between 600 megahertz (MHz) and 700 MHz, between 2.5 gigahertz (GHz) and 3.7 GHz, between 25 GHz and 42 GHz, or any combination thereof.

14. The user equipment of claim 12, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: operating the receiver to receive a random access response; operating the transmitter to send a handover complete message in response to receiving the random access response; operating the receiver to receive control information from the base station using the second frequency range as the primary cell; and The receiver and the transmitter are adjusted based at least in part on the control information to use the first frequency range as a secondary cell.

15. The user equipment of claim 14, the control information comprising one or more medium access control (MAC) layer signals.

16. The user equipment of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: in response to receiving a medium access control address packet, adjusting the receiver and the transmitter to use the first frequency range as the secondary cell at least in part by assigning the first frequency range as the secondary cell in the transport layer; operating the receiver to receive a communication configuration from the base station, the communication configuration comprising an indication of uplink allocations and downlink allocations to be observed by the one or more processors for the first frequency range, the second frequency range, or both the first frequency range and the second frequency range, the first frequency range and the second frequency range each corresponding to a respective component carrier; When a next communication cycle indicated by the communication configuration includes a downlink allocation, operating the receiver to receive signals using the first frequency range, the second frequency range, or both the first frequency range and the second frequency range; and When the next communication cycle indicated by the communication configuration includes an uplink allocation, the transmitter is operated to transmit signals using the first frequency range, the second frequency range, or both the first frequency range and the second frequency range.

17. A user equipment comprising: a transmitter configured to transmit a signal within a first frequency range; a receiver configured to receive a handover initiation packet from a base station using the first frequency range as a primary cell; One or more processors communicatively coupled to the transmitter and the receiver and configured to perform a defined sequence of operations including: adjusting the receiver and the transmitter to be separated from the first frequency range as the primary cell, and resetting information corresponding to the first frequency range in a transmission layer, adjusting the receiver and the transmitter to configure circuitry to use a second frequency range as the primary cell, operating the receiver to receive control packets from the base station using the second frequency range as the primary cell, and In response to the control packet, the receiver and the transmitter are adjusted to use the first frequency range as the secondary cell at least in part by assigning the first frequency range as the secondary cell in the transport layer.

18. The user equipment of claim 17, wherein the base station sends the handover initiation packet as a radio resource control (RRC) protocol message in response to receiving a medium access control (MAC) protocol message, a message sent via physical layer signaling, a control signal, according to a timing parameter or a timing schedule, or any combination thereof.

19. The user equipment of claim 17, wherein the defined sequence of operations is performed for a duration, and after the handover initiation packet is sent from the base station for the duration, the instructions cause the one or more processors to adjust the operation of the receiver and the transmitter in response to the base station sending control information.

20. The user equipment of claim 17, the first frequency range corresponding to a frequency subset between 600 megahertz (MHz) and 700 MHz, between 2.5 gigahertz (GHz) and 3.7 GHz, between 25 GHz and 42 GHz, or any combination thereof.

21. A user equipment comprising: Transmitter; Receiver; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the transmitter and the receiver and configured to: operating the receiver to receive a handover initiation packet from a base station using the first frequency range as a primary cell, adjusting the receiver and the transmitter to be separated from the first frequency range as the primary cell, and resetting information corresponding to the first frequency range in a transmission layer, After separation in the transmission layer, adjusting the receiver and the transmitter to use a second frequency range as the primary cell, operating the transmitter to send a handover completion notification to the base station using the second frequency range as the primary cell, operating the receiver to receive control packets from the base station using the second frequency range as the primary cell, and In response to the control packet, the receiver and the transmitter are adjusted to use the first frequency range as the secondary cell at least in part by assigning in the transport layer the information corresponding to the first frequency range as the secondary cell.

Images