Enhance the inter-node handover signaling for conditional handover

Abstract

The present disclosure provides one or more methods for enhancing inter-node handover (HO) signaling for conditional handover (CHO). At least one of these methods includes: providing a message including an indication of a plurality of potential target cell identifiers applicable to CHO operation; and performing CHO operation based on the message.

Description

[0001] Cross - Reference to Related Applications

[0002] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application 62 / 842,153, filed on May 2, 2019, the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference. Technical Field

[0003] This disclosure generally relates to wireless communication, including methods, apparatuses, and systems for enhancing inter - node handover (HO) signaling for conditional handover (CHO). Background Art

[0004] The use of wireless communication systems is growing rapidly. Additionally, wireless communication technologies have evolved from voice - only communication to also include the transmission of data (such as Internet and multimedia content) to various devices. To accommodate an increasing number of devices that transmit both voice signals and data signals, many wireless communication systems share available communication channel resources among the devices.

[0005] Fifth - generation (5G) wireless communication technology can support cellular data networks. The spectrum of 5G can be divided into millimeter - wave, mid - band, and low - band. The low - band can use a frequency range similar to that of the leading networks of 5G, fourth - generation (4G) networks. 5G millimeter - wave may be the fastest, with actual speeds typically being 1 Gbit / s - 2 Gbit / s for downlink. The frequency can be higher than 24 GHz, up to a maximum of 72 GHz, which can be higher than the lower boundary of the extremely high - frequency band. The coverage may be insufficient, so more cells may be required. 5G New Radio (NR) can refer to a new radio access technology (RAT) developed for 5G mobile networks. In some cases, it is designed as a global standard for the air interface of 5G networks.

[0006] In cellular telecommunications, the term handover (HO) can refer to the process of transferring an ongoing call or data session from one channel connected to the core network to another channel. In satellite communication, HO can refer to the process of transferring satellite control responsibility from one ground station to another without loss or interruption of service. Summary of the Invention

[0007] Generally, in one aspect, a method for enhancing inter - node handover (HO) signaling for conditional handover (CHO) is provided. The method includes: providing a message including an indication of a plurality of potential target cell identifiers applicable to CHO operation; and performing CHO operation based on the message.

[0008] The provision may include transmitting a message via an X2 / Xn interface or an S1 / NG interface. The plurality of potential target cell identifiers may indicate potential target cells. The plurality of potential target cell identifiers may indicate one or more target cells that are no longer potential target cells. The CHO operation may be performed by a target node, and the CHO operation includes configuring a target cell among the plurality of potential target cells for handover of a user equipment (UE).

[0009] In one aspect, a method for operating a source node is provided. The method includes generating a message including an indication of a plurality of potential target cell identifiers applicable to a conditional handover (CHO) operation. The method includes causing the message to be transmitted to a target node via an X2 / Xn interface or an S1 / NG interface.

[0010] The message may include a handover request, and the plurality of target cell identifiers correspond to potential target cells for CHO. The handover request may include an additional target cell identifier list field that includes at least one indication of a potential target cell identifier.

[0011] In one aspect, a method for operating a source node is provided. The method includes providing an indication of a plurality of target cell identifiers applicable to a conditional handover (CHO) operation to a target node.

[0012] The method may further include transmitting a message to the target node indicating one or more target cell identifiers for which the handover of CHO is cancelled. The method may further include transmitting a message to the target node indicating one or more target cell identifiers for which the handover of CHO is cancelled.

[0013] The provision may include generating a message including a radio resource control (RRC) container having an indication of a plurality of potential target cell identifiers. The message may include a handover (HO) request message.

[0014] These target cell identifiers may be target cell global identifiers. The source node may be a base station.

[0015] In one aspect, a method for operating a target node is provided. The method may include receiving an indication of a plurality of target cell identifiers applicable to a conditional handover (CHO) operation from a source node.

[0016] The receiving may include processing a message including an indication of the plurality of potential target cell identifiers, wherein the message is transmitted via an X2 / Xn interface or an S1 / NG interface. The message may be a handover request, and the plurality of target cell identifiers correspond to potential target cells for CHO. The handover request may include an additional target cell identifier list field that includes at least one indication of the indication of a potential target cell identifier.

[0017] The method may include transmitting a message to a source node, the message indicating one or more target cell identifiers that are accepted for CHO. The method may include receiving, from the source node, a message indicating one or more target cell identifiers for which the handover for CHO is cancelled.

[0018] These target cell identifiers may be target cell global identifiers. The target node may be a base station.

[0019] In one aspect, an apparatus is provided that includes means for performing one or more elements of the foregoing method.

[0020] In one aspect, one or more non-transitory computer-readable media are provided, the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media including instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of the foregoing method.

[0021] In one aspect, an apparatus is provided that includes logic components, modules, or circuits for performing one or more elements of the foregoing method.

[0022] In one aspect, an apparatus is provided that includes one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media, the one or more computer-readable media including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform one or more elements of the foregoing method.

[0023] In one aspect, an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions is provided, wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors will cause the one or more processors to perform one or more elements of the foregoing method.

[0024] In one aspect, a processing element including instructions is provided, wherein execution of a program by the processing element will cause the processing element to perform one or more elements of the foregoing method.

[0025] In one aspect, one or more elements of the foregoing method are performed by one or more device processors in a cellular communication network.

[0026] One or more specific implementation details are set forth in the following drawings and description. Other features and advantages will be apparent from the detailed description, the drawings, and the claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0027] Figure 1 An exemplary wireless communication system is shown.

[0028] Figure 2 An example of infrastructure equipment is shown.

[0029] Figure 3 Shows an example of a platform or device.

[0030] Figure 4 Shows exemplary components of a baseband circuit and a radio front-end circuit.

[0031] Figure 5 Shows exemplary components of a cellular communication circuit.

[0032] Figure 6 Shows exemplary protocol functions that can be implemented in a wireless communication system.

[0033] Figure 7 Shows an exemplary computer system.

[0034] Figure 8 Shows an exemplary method for inter-node handover (HO) signaling for enhanced conditional handover (CHO).

[0035] Figure 9 Is a block diagram of an exemplary computing device that can be used to practice the various specific embodiments described in this specification.

[0036] Like reference symbols in the various figures indicate like elements. Detailed Description

[0037] Conditional HO (CHO) can be considered part of the "Further Mobility Enhancements in E-UTRAN" and "NR Mobility Enhancements" work items (WIs) approved in RP-181475 and RP-181433, where multiple potential target cells can be prepared, and where user equipment (UE) can be configured to select a final target cell for HO.

[0038] However, the HO-related signaling between the source node and the target node may only work for one target cell. For example, during HO preparation, the source node may send a HO request (REQ) message to the target node, but currently, this HO REQ message can be restricted to include only one target global cell ID - in traditional HO, the source selects only one target cell for handover based on the measurement report.

[0039] Relative to conditional HO (CHO) where the same traditional HO process and related messages may be reused, such a restriction may unnecessarily increase the NW signaling towards the same target node, because multiple potential target cells (based on the measurement report) applicable to CHO can be managed by the same node. This may be even more likely when considering CU-DU splitting that enables an eNB or gNB to cover a wide area with hundreds of cells.

[0040] Therefore, some enhancements may be important for overcoming the current limitations in HO signaling between nodes of CHO.

[0041] Specific embodiments of the present disclosure provide one or more three-phase embodiments to address this issue. In some embodiments, X2 / XnAP HO-related messages (HO REQUEST, HO REQUEST ACK, HO CANCE) or S1 / NGAP HO-related messages (HO REQUIRED, HO REQUEST, HO REQUEST ACK, HO COMMAND, HO CANCEL) are enhanced to carry multiple potential target cell IDs. This can be a simple way to overcome the limitation of carrying only one target cell ID and provide flexibility for CHO preparation. For example, such an enhancement to the HANDOVERREQUEST ACKNOWLEDGE message can enable the target node to accept a subset of the potential target cells for which the source has requested preparation for CHO. As another example, such an enhancement to the HANDOVER CANCEL message can enable the source to cancel HO only for a subset of the cells that are prepared for CHO and have one target node.

[0042] In some embodiments, the inter-node radio resource control (RRC) signaling is enhanced to carry multiple potential target cell IDs. For example, the RRC container HandoverPreparationInformation carried in the HANDOVER REQUEST message can be enhanced to provide multiple target cell IDs applicable to CHO.

[0043] Figure 1 An exemplary wireless communication system 100 is shown. For purposes of convenience and not limitation, the exemplary system 100 is described in the context of LTE and 5G NR communication standards defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) technical specifications. However, the techniques described herein can also be implemented in other communication systems using other communication standards such as other 3GPP standards or IEEE 802.16 protocols (e.g., WMAN or WiMAX), etc.

[0044] System 100 includes UEs 101a and 101b (collectively referred to as "UE 101"). In this example, UE 101 is shown as a smart phone (e.g., a handheld touchscreen mobile computing device that can connect to one or more cellular networks). In other examples, any one of the multiple UEs 101 can include other mobile computing devices or non-mobile computing devices, such as consumer electronic devices, cellular phones, smart phones, feature phones, tablets, wearable computing devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handheld devices, desktop computers, laptop computers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-vehicle entertainment (ICE) devices, instrument clusters (IC), head-up display (HUD) devices, on-board diagnostic (OBD) devices, on-board mobile equipment (DME), mobile data terminals (MDT), electronic engine management systems (EEMS), electronic / engine control units (ECU), electronic / engine control modules (ECM), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems (EMS), networked or "smart" home appliances, machine type communication (MTC) devices, machine-to-machine (M2M) devices, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, or combinations thereof, etc.

[0045] In some examples, any one of the multiple UEs 101 can be an IoT UE, which can include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. The IoT UE can utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC to exchange data with an MTC server or device, for example, via a public land mobile network (PLMN), proximity services (ProSe), device-to-device (D2D) communication, sensor networks, IoT networks, or combinations thereof, etc. The M2M or MTC data exchange can be machine-initiated data exchange. The IoT network describes interconnected IoT UEs, which can include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure) with short-lived connections. The IoT UE can execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages or status updates) to facilitate the connection to the IoT network.

[0046] UE 101 is configured to connect (e.g., communicatively couple) to an access network (AN) or radio access network (RAN) 110. In some examples, RAN 110 can be a next-generation RAN (NG RAN), an evolved UMTS terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN), or a legacy RAN, such as a UMTS terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) or a GSM EDGE radio access network (GERAN). As used herein, the term "NG RAN" can refer to RAN 110 operating in a 5G NR system 100, while the term "E-UTRAN" can refer to RAN 110 operating in an LTE or 4G system 100.

[0047] To connect to the RAN 110, multiple UEs 101 utilize connections (or channels) 103 and 104 respectively, and each connection (or channel) may include a physical communication interface or layer, as described below. In this example, connections 103 and 104 are shown as air interfaces to achieve communication coupling and may be compliant with cellular communication protocols such as the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network protocol, Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, Push-to-Talk over Cellular (PoC) protocol, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocol, 3GPP LTE protocol, 5G NR protocol, or a combination thereof, as well as other communication protocols. In some examples, multiple UEs 101 may directly exchange communication data using an interface 105 such as the ProSe interface. Interface 105 may alternatively be referred to as the sidelink interface 105 and may include one or more logical channels such as the Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH), Physical Sidelink Downlink Channel (PSDCH), or Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH) or a combination thereof, etc.

[0048] It is shown that UE 101b is configured to access an access point (AP) 106 (also referred to as "WLAN node 106", "WLAN 106", "WLAN termination 106", "WT106", etc.) using connection 107. Connection 107 may include a local wireless connection, such as a connection compliant with any IEEE802.11 protocol, where AP 106 will include a Wi-Fi router. In this example, it is shown that AP 106 is connected to the Internet without being connected to the core network of the wireless system, as described in further detail below. In various examples, UE 101b, RAN 110, and AP 106 may be configured to use LTE-WLAN Aggregation (LWA) operation or LTW / WLAN radio-level operation integrated with an IPsec tunnel (LWIP). LWA operation may involve configuring the UE 101b in the RRC_CONNECTED state by RAN nodes 111a, 111b to utilize the radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operation may involve the UE 101b using the IPsec protocol tunnel to use the WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 107) to authenticate and encrypt the packets (e.g., IP packets) sent through connection 107. IPsec tunnel transmission may include encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header, thus protecting the original header of the IP packet.

[0049] The RAN 110 includes one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes 111a and 111b (collectively referred to as "RAN nodes 111") that enable connections 103 and 104. As used herein, terms such as "access node", "access point", etc. may describe equipment that provides radio baseband functionality for data or voice connections or both between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as base stations (BS), gNodeB, gNB, eNodeB, eNB, NodeB, RAN nodes, roadside units (RSU), transmit receive points (TRxP or TRP), etc., and may include terrestrial stations (e.g., land access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographical area (e.g., a cell), etc. As used herein, terms such as "NG RAN node", etc. may refer to RAN nodes 111 (e.g., gNB) operating in a 5G NR system 100, while the term "E-UTRAN node" may refer to RAN nodes 111 (e.g., eNB) operating in an LTE or 4G system 100. In some examples, multiple RAN nodes 111 may be implemented as one or more of dedicated physical devices such as macro cell base stations or low-power (LP) base stations for providing femto cells, pico cells, or other similar cells with a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macro cells.

[0050] In some examples, some or all of the multiple RAN nodes 111 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer, as part of a virtual network that may be referred to as cloud RAN (CRAN) or virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). CRAN or vBBUP may implement RAN function partitioning, such as packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) partitioning, where the radio resource control (RRC) and PDCP layers are operated by CRAN / vBBUP, and other layer 2 (e.g., data link layer) protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes 111; medium access control (MAC) / physical layer (PHY) partitioning, where RRC, PDCP, MAC, and radio link control (RLC) layers are operated by CRAN / vBBUP, and the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 111; or "lower PHY" partitioning, where RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers and the upper part of the PHY layer are operated by CRAN / vBBUP, and the lower part of the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 111. This virtualization framework allows idle processor cores of RAN nodes 111 to execute, for example, other virtualized applications. In some examples, individual RAN nodes 111 may represent individual gNB distributed units (DU) that use respective F1 interfaces ( Figure 1 not shown) to connect to a gNB central unit (CU). In some examples, the gNB-DU may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEM (see, for example,Figure 2 ), and the gNB-CU can be operated by a server (not shown) located in the RAN 110 or by a server pool in a manner similar to CRAN / vBBUP. In addition or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes in the RAN node 111 can be a next-generation eNB (ng-eNB), including a RAN node that provides E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminations to the UE 101 and is connected to the 5G core network (e.g., the core network 120) using a next-generation interface.

[0051] In a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) scenario, one or more of the RAN nodes in the RAN node 111 can be or act as a roadside unit (RSU). The term "roadside unit" or "RSU" refers to any transportation infrastructure entity for V2X communication. The RSU can be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE, where the RSU implemented in or by a UE can be referred to as a "UE-type RSU", the RSU implemented in or by an eNB can be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU", the RSU implemented in or by a gNB can be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU", and so on. In some examples, the RSU is a computing device coupled to a radio frequency circuit located on the roadside, which provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs 101 (vUE 101). The RSU may also include an internal data storage circuit for storing intersection map geometries, traffic statistics, media, and applications or other software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU can operate on the 5.9 GHz dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) band to provide extremely low-latency communication required for high-speed events, such as collision avoidance, traffic warnings, etc. In addition or alternatively, the RSU can operate on the cellular V2X band to provide the aforementioned low-latency communication and other cellular communication services. In addition or alternatively, the RSU can operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot (2.4 GHz band) or provide connectivity to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communication, or both. Some or all of the computing device and the radio frequency circuit of the RSU can be encapsulated in a weather-resistant package suitable for outdoor installation and can include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller or a backhaul network, or both.

[0052] Any one of the RAN nodes in the RAN node 111 can be the termination point of the air interface protocol and can be the first contact point for the UE 101. In some examples, any one of the multiple RAN nodes 111 can perform various logical functions of the RAN 110, including but not limited to the functions of a radio network controller (RNC), such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[0053] In some examples, multiple UEs 101 may be configured to communicate with each other or with any one of multiple RAN nodes 111 over a multi-carrier communication channel using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals according to various communication technologies, such as but not limited to OFDMA communication technology (e.g., for downlink communication) or SC-FDMA communication technology (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communication), although the scope of the techniques described herein is not limited in this regard. The OFDM signal may include a plurality of orthogonal sub-carriers.

[0054] In some examples, a downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from any one of multiple RAN nodes 111 to multiple UEs 101, and uplink transmissions may utilize similar techniques. The grid may be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or a time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resources in the downlink in each time slot. For OFDM systems, such time-frequency plane representations are a common practice, which makes radio resource allocation intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid correspond to an OFDM symbol and an OFDM sub-carrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one time slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is represented as a resource element. Each resource grid includes a plurality of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block includes a set of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the smallest amount of resources that can be currently allocated. Such resource blocks are used to transmit several different physical downlink channels.

[0055] In some examples, multiple UEs 101 and multiple RAN nodes 111 transmit (e.g., send and receive) data over a licensed medium (also referred to as "licensed spectrum" or "licensed band") and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as "unlicensed spectrum" and / or "unlicensed band"). The licensed spectrum may include channels operating in a frequency range of approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, while the unlicensed spectrum may include the 5 GHz band.

[0056] To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, multiple UEs 101 and multiple RAN nodes 111 may operate using licensed-assisted access (LAA), enhanced LAA (eLAA), or further enhanced LAA (feLAA) mechanisms. In these embodiments, multiple UEs 101 and multiple RAN nodes 111 may perform one or more known medium sensing operations or carrier sensing operations or both to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied before transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium / carrier sensing operations may be performed according to the listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol. LBT is a mechanism by which devices (e.g., multiple UEs 101, multiple RAN nodes 111) sense the medium (e.g., a channel or carrier frequency) and transmit when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a particular channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operations may include a clear channel assessment (CCA) that uses energy detection to determine whether there are other signals on the channel in order to determine whether the channel is occupied or clear. This LBT mechanism allows cellular / LAA networks to coexist with existing systems in the unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. Energy detection may include sensing RF energy on the expected transmission band for a period of time and comparing the sensed RF energy with a predefined or configured threshold.

[0057] Existing systems in the 5 GHz band may be WLANs based on IEEE 802.11 technology. WLANs employ a contention-based channel access mechanism (e.g., CSMA with collision avoidance (CSMA / CA)). In some examples, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS) such as a UE 101, an AP 106, etc.) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform a CCA before transmitting. Additionally, in the case where more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits simultaneously, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid collisions. The backoff mechanism may be a counter randomly drawn within a contention window size (CWS) that increases exponentially in the event of a collision and is reset to a minimum value upon successful transmission. In some examples, the LBT mechanism designed for LAA is similar to WLAN's CSMA / CA. In some examples, the LBT process for a DL or UL transmission burst (including PDSCH or PUSCH transmission) may have a variable-length LAA contention window between X and Y extended CAA (ECCA) slots, where X and Y are the minimum and maximum values of the LAA's CWS. In one example, the minimum CWS for LAA transmission may be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWS and the maximum channel occupancy time (e.g., transmission burst) may be based on government regulatory requirements.

[0058] In some examples, the LAA mechanism is built on the carrier aggregation technology of the LTE-Advanced system. In CA, each aggregated carrier is referred to as a component carrier. In some examples, a component carrier may have a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, or 20 MHz, and up to five component carriers can be aggregated to provide a maximum aggregated bandwidth of 100 MHz. In a frequency division duplex (FDD) system, the number of aggregated carriers can be different for DL and UL. For example, the number of UL component carriers can be equal to or less than the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, the individual component carriers may have different bandwidths from other component carriers. In a time division duplex (TDD) system, the number of component carriers and the bandwidth of each component carrier are typically the same for DL and UL.

[0059] Carrier aggregation may also include separate serving cells to provide separate component carriers. The coverage of the serving cells can be different. For example, because the component carriers on different frequency bands may experience different path losses. The primary serving cell (PCell) can provide the primary component carrier for both UL and DL, and can handle RRC and non-access stratum (NAS) related activities. Other serving cells are referred to as secondary component carriers (SCells), and each SCell can provide a separate secondary component carrier for both UL and DL. The secondary component carriers can be added and removed as needed, while changing the primary component carrier may require the UE 101 to undergo a handover. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells can operate in the unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA SCells"), and the LAA SCells are assisted by the PCell operating in the licensed spectrum. When the UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE can receive UL grants on the configured LAA SCells, indicating different PUSCH start positions within the same subframe.

[0060] The PDSCH carries user data and higher layer signaling to multiple UEs 101. Among other information, the PDCCH carries information about the transmission format and resource allocation related to the PDSCH channel. It can also notify the UE 101 about the transmission format, resource allocation, and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information related to the uplink shared channel. Downlink scheduling (e.g., allocating control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE 101b within the cell) can be performed at any of the RAN nodes 111 based on the channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 101. The downlink resource allocation information can be sent on the PDCCH for each UE among the UEs 101 (e.g., allocated to).

[0061] The PDCCH uses control channel elements (CCEs) to transmit control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols can first be organized into quadruples, and then a sub-block interleaver can be used to permute them for rate matching. In some examples, one or more of these CCEs can be used to transmit each PDCCH, where each CCE can correspond to a set of four physical resource elements out of nine, collectively referred to as a resource element group (REG). Four quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols can be mapped to each REG. Depending on the size of the downlink control information (DCI) and the channel conditions, one or more CCEs can be used to transmit the PDCCH. In LTE, there can be four or more different PDCCH formats defined with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L = 1, 2, 4, or 8).

[0062] Some embodiments can use the concept of resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above concept. For example, some embodiments can utilize an enhanced PDCCH (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. One or more enhanced CCEs (ECCEs) can be used to transmit the EPDCCH. Similar to the above, each ECCE can correspond to a set of four physical resource elements out of nine, collectively referred to as an enhanced REG (EREG). In some examples, an ECCE can have a different number of EREGs.

[0063] RAN nodes 111 are configured to communicate with each other using interface 112. In an example, such as when system 100 is an LTE system (e.g., when core network 120 is an evolved packet core (EPC) network), interface 112 can be an X2 interface 112. The X2 interface can be defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more eNBs, etc.) connected to EPC 120, or between two eNBs connected to EPC 120, or both. In some examples, the X2 interface can include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U can provide a flow control mechanism for user packets transmitted through the X2 interface and can be used to convey information about the delivery of user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U can provide specific sequence number information about user data transmitted from a primary eNB to a secondary eNB; information about the successful in-sequence delivery of PDCP protocol data units (PDUs) from the secondary eNB to UE 101 for user data; information about PDCP PDUs not delivered to UE 101; information about the current minimum desired buffer size at the secondary eNB for transmitting user data to the UE; and so on. The X2-C can provide access mobility functions within LTE, including context transfer from a source eNB to a target eNB, or user plane transmission control; load management functions; inter-cell interference coordination functions; and so on.

[0064] In some examples, such as when the system 100 is a 5G NR system (e.g., when the core network 120 is a 5G core network as shown in Figure 3 ), the interface 112 can be the Xn interface 112. The Xn interface can be defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more gNBs, etc.) connected to the 5G core network 120, between a RAN node 111 (e.g., gNB) connected to the 5G core network 120 and an eNB, or between two eNBs connected to the 5G core network 120, or a combination of the above. In some examples, the Xn interface can include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U can provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support / provide data forwarding and traffic control functions. The Xn-C can provide management and error handling functions for managing the functions of the Xn-C interface; mobility support for UEs 101 in the connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED), including functions for managing UE mobility in the connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 111; and so on. Mobility support can include context transfer from an old (source) serving RAN node 111 to a new (target) serving RAN node 111, and control of the user plane tunnel between the old (source) serving RAN node 111 and the new (target) serving RAN node 111. The protocol stack of the Xn-U can include a transport network layer built on the Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GPRS tunneling protocol (GTP-U) layer of the user plane for carrying user plane PDUs on top of the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) or the IP layer or both. The Xn-C protocol stack can include an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as the Xn application protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer built on the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP). The SCTP can be on top of the IP layer and can provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer, point-to-point transmission is used to deliver signaling PDUs. In other specific implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack or the Xn-C protocol stack or both can be the same as or similar to the user plane and / or control plane protocol stacks shown and described herein.

[0065] RAN 110 is shown as communicatively coupled to a core network 120 (referred to as "CN 120"). CN 120 includes one or more network elements 122 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UE 101) connected to CN 120 using RAN 110. Components of CN 120 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes and may include components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some examples, network function virtualization (NFV) may be used to virtualize some or all of the network node functions described herein using executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media, as will be described further in detail below. A logical instance of CN 120 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instance of a part of CN 120 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. NFV architectures and infrastructures may be used to virtualize one or more network functions onto physical resources that include a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches (alternatively performed by proprietary hardware). In other words, an NFV system may be used to perform virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more network components or functions, or both.

[0066] Generally, an application server 130 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS packet service (PS) domain, LTE PS data service, etc.). Application server 130 may also be configured to support one or more communication services for UE 101 using CN 120 (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social network services, etc.).

[0067] In some examples, CN 120 may be a 5G core network (referred to as "5GC 120"), and RAN 110 may connect to CN 120 using a next-generation interface 113. In some examples, the next-generation interface 113 may be split into two parts: a next-generation user plane (NG-U) interface 114 that carries traffic data between multiple RAN nodes 111 and a user plane function (UPF); and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 115 that is a signaling interface between RAN node 111 and an access and mobility management function (AMF). Refer to Figure 3 Examples where CN 120 is 5GC 120 are discussed in more detail.

[0068] In some examples, CN 120 can be an EPC (referred to as "EPC 120", etc.), and the RAN 110 can be connected to the CN 120 using the S1 interface 113. In some examples, the S1 interface 113 can be divided into two parts: the S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 114, which carries traffic data between the RAN node 111 and the serving gateway (S-GW); and the S1-MME interface 115, which is a signaling interface between the RAN node 111 and the mobility management entity (MME).

[0069] Figure 2 An example of infrastructure equipment 400 is shown. The infrastructure equipment 400 (or "system 400") can be implemented as a base station, a radio headend, a RAN node (such as the RAN node 111 or the AP 106 shown and described previously), an application server 130, or any other component or device described herein. In other examples, the system 400 can be implemented in or by a UE.

[0070] The system 400 includes: an application circuit 405, a baseband circuit 410, one or more radio frequency front-end modules (RFEMs) 415, a memory circuit 420, a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 425, a power splitter circuit 430, a network controller circuit 435, a network interface connector 440, a satellite positioning circuit 445, and a user interface circuit 450. In some examples, the system 400 can include additional elements, such as for example, a memory, a storage device, a display, a camera, one or more sensors, or an input / output (I / O) interface, or a combination thereof, etc. In other examples, the components described with reference to the system 400 can be included in more than one device. For example, various circuits can be separately included in more than one device for CRAN, vBBU, or other specific implementations.

[0071] The application circuit 405 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, one or more of the following: low dropout regulators (LDOs), interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, I2C, or general-purpose programmable serial interface modules, real-time clocks (RTCs), timer-counters including interval timers and watchdog timers, general-purpose input / output (I / O or IO), memory card controllers such as Secure Digital (SD) Multimedia Card (MMC) or the like, Universal Serial Bus (USB) interfaces, Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) interfaces, and Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) test access ports. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 405 may be coupled to or may include memory or storage elements and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory or storage elements to enable various application programs or operating systems to run on the system 400. In some examples, the memory or storage elements may include on-chip memory circuitry that may include any suitable volatile or non-volatile memory such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, or a combination thereof, etc.

[0072] The processor of the application circuit 405 may include, for example, one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors, one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISC Machine (ARM) processors, one or more complex instruction set computing (CISC) processors, one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, or a combination thereof, etc. In some examples, the application circuit 405 may include or may be a dedicated processor or controller configured to execute the various techniques described herein. As an example, the processor of the application circuit 405 may include one or more Intel or processors; Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) processors, accelerated processing units (APUs), or processors; ARM-based processors licensed by ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A series processors provided by Cavium (TM), Inc., and MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as MIPS Warrior P-class processors; and so on. In some examples, system 400 may not utilize application circuitry 405 and, instead, may include a dedicated processor or controller to process, for example, IP data received from an EPC or 5GC.

[0073] In some examples, application circuitry 405 may include one or more hardware accelerators, which may be a microprocessor, a programmable processing device, and so on. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, a computer vision (CV) or deep learning (DL) accelerator or both. In some examples, the programmable processing device may be one or more field programmable devices (FPDs), such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA) and so on; a programmable logic device (PLD), such as a complex PLD (CPLD) or a high-capacity PLD (HCPLD); an ASIC, such as a structured ASIC; a programmable system on a chip (PSoC), or a combination thereof and so on. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry 405 may include logic blocks or a logic fabric, as well as other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions such as the processes, methods, functions described herein. In some examples, the circuitry of application circuitry 405 may include memory units (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM) or antifuse)) for storing logic blocks, logic fabric, data, or other data in a look-up table (LUT).

[0074] Baseband circuitry 410 may be implemented as, for example, a soldered-in substrate, including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module including two or more integrated circuits. Refer to Figure 4 discusses various hardware electronic components of baseband circuitry 410.

[0075] User interface circuitry 450 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable a user to interact with system 400 or a peripheral component interface designed to enable a peripheral component to interact with system 400. The user interface may include, but is not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., a light-emitting diode (LED)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touch screen, a speaker or other audio emitting device, a microphone, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, or a combination thereof and so on. The peripheral component interface may include, but is not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power interface, and so on.

[0076] The radio front end module (RFEM) 415 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-mmWave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some examples, the one or more sub-mmWave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, e.g., Figure 4 The antenna array 611) can be connected to multiple antennas, and the RFEM can be connected to multiple antennas. In some examples, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions can be implemented in the same physical RFEM 415 that combines both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0077] Memory circuit 420 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) or synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM); and non-volatile memory (NVM), such as high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), or magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), or a combination thereof. In some examples, memory circuit 420 may include a memory device obtained from and For example, the memory circuit 420 may be implemented as one or more of the following: a solder-in package integrated circuit, a socket memory module, and a plug-in memory card.

[0078] The PMIC 425 may include a voltage regulator, a surge protector, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power sources, such as a battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of a brownout (undervoltage) and a surge (overvoltage) condition. The power tee circuit 430 may provide power extracted from the network cable to provide both power and data connections for the infrastructure equipment 400 using a single cable.

[0079] The network controller circuit 435 may provide connectivity to the network using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet, Ethernet based on a GRE tunnel, Ethernet based on a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may be provided to and from the infrastructure equipment 400 using a network interface connector 440 using a physical connection, which may be an electrical connection (commonly referred to as a "copper interconnect"), an optical connection, or a wireless connection. The network controller circuit 435 may include one or more dedicated processors or FPGAs, or both, for communicating using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some examples, the network controller circuit 435 may include multiple controllers for providing connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

[0080] The positioning circuit 445 includes circuitry for receiving and decoding signals transmitted or broadcast by the positioning network of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). Examples of GNSS include the Global Positioning System (GPS) of the United States, the Global Navigation System (GLONASS) of Russia, the Galileo system of the European Union, the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System of China, regional navigation systems, or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., navigation using the Indian Constellation (NAVIC), the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) of Japan, the Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) of France), etc. The positioning circuit 445 may include various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices for facilitating OTA communication such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc.) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some examples, the positioning circuit 445 may include a Microtechnology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (Micro-PNT) IC that uses a primary timing clock to perform position tracking and estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 445 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 410 or the RFEM 415 or both to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit 445 may also provide data (e.g., position data, time data) to the application circuit 405, which may use this data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., RAN node 111, etc.).

[0081] Figure 2 The components shown may communicate with each other using an interface circuit, which may include any number of bus or interconnect (IX) technologies, such as Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), Extended ISA (EISA), Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), Peripheral Component Interconnect Extended (PCIx), PCI Express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. The bus or IX may be a proprietary bus, e.g., used in an SoC-based system. Other bus or IX systems may be included, such as I2C interface, SPI interface, point-to-point interface, and power bus, etc.

[0082] Figure 3 An example of a platform 500 (or “device 500”) is shown. In some examples, the computer platform 500 may be adapted to be used as a UE 101, 201, 301, an application server 130, or any other component or device discussed herein. The platform 500 may include any combination of the components shown in the example. The components (or portions thereof) of the platform 500 may be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), discrete electronic devices, or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or combinations thereof adapted within the computer platform 500, or as components otherwise incorporated within the chassis of a larger system. Figure 3The block diagram is intended to show a high-level view of the components of platform 500. However, in some examples, platform 500 may include fewer, additional, or alternative components, or include Figure 3 a different arrangement of the components shown.

[0083] Application circuit 505 includes circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more of an LDO, interrupt controller, serial interface (such as SPI), I2C, or general programmable serial interface module, RTC, timer-counter (including interval timer and watchdog timer), general-purpose I / O, memory card controller (such as SD MMC or similar controller), USB interface, MIPI interface, and JTAG test access port. The processor (or core) of application circuit 505 may be coupled to or may include memory / storage elements and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory or storage device to enable various applications or operating systems to run on system 500. In some examples, the memory or storage element may be an on-chip memory circuit that may include any suitable volatile or non-volatile memory such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, or a combination thereof, etc.

[0084] The processor of application circuit 405 may include, for example, one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one or more GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, one or more CISC processors, one or more DSPs, one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, multi-threaded processors, ultra-low voltage processors, embedded processors, some other known processing elements, or any suitable combination thereof. In some examples, application circuit 405 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for performing the techniques described herein.

[0085] As an example, the processor of application circuit 505 may include a processor based on Architecture TM such as, for example, Quark TM 、Atom TM 、i3, i5, i7, or MCU-class processor, or another such processor available from a company in Santa Clara, California. The processor of application circuit 505 may also be one or more of the following: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) processor or accelerated processing unit (APU); from A5 - A9 processors of Inc., Snapdragon processors from Technologies, Inc., Texas Instruments, TM processors, Open Multimedia Applications Platform (OMAP) ; MIPS - based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as MIPS Warrior M - class, Warrior I - class, and Warrior P - class processors; ARM - based designs licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as ARM Cortex - A, Cortex - R, and Cortex - M series processors; and so on. In some examples, application circuit 505 can be part of a system - on - a - chip (SoC), where application circuit 505 and other components are formed as a single integrated circuit or a single package, such as TM the Edison or Galileo SoC board from Corporation. TM TM

[0086] Additionally or alternatively, application circuit 505 can include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more field - programmable devices (FPDs) such as FPGAs; programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high - capacity PLDs (HCPLDs); ASICs, such as structured ASICs; programmable SoCs (PSoCs), or combinations thereof, and so on. In some examples, application circuit 505 can include logic blocks or logic architectures, and other interconnected resources that can be programmed to perform various functions such as the processes, methods, functions described herein. In some examples, application circuit 505 can include memory units (e.g., erasable programmable read - only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read - only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random - access memory (SRAM) or antifuse)) for storing logic blocks, logic architectures, data, or other data in look - up tables (LUTs).

[0087] Baseband circuit 510 can be implemented as, for example, a soldered - in substrate that includes one or more integrated circuits, a single - package integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi - chip module that contains two or more integrated circuits. Various hardware electronic components of baseband circuit 510 are discussed with reference to Figure 4

[0088] ​​​RFEM 515 may include a millimeter-wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter-wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some examples, the one or more sub-millimeter-wave RFICs may be physically separated from the millimeter-wave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, for example Figure 4 for the antenna array 611), and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In some examples, radio functions for both millimeter-wave and sub-millimeter-wave may be implemented in the same physical RFEM 515 that combines millimeter-wave antennas and sub-millimeter-wave.

[0089] The memory circuit 520 may include any number and type of memory devices for providing a given amount of system memory. As an example, the memory circuit 520 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory such as random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), or synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM); and non-volatile memory (NVM) such as high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly known as flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), or magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) or combinations thereof, etc. The memory circuit 520 may be developed according to Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) low-power double data rate (LPDDR)-based designs such as LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, etc. The memory circuit 520 may be implemented as one or more of the following: a soldered-in package integrated circuit, a single-die package (SDP), a dual-die package (DDP), or a quad-die package (Q17P), a socketed memory module, a dual in-line memory module (DIMM) including a micro DIMM or a mini DIMM, or soldered to a motherboard using a ball grid array (BGA). In a low-power implementation, the memory circuit 520 may be an on-chip memory or register associated with the application circuit 505. To provide persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems, etc., the memory circuit 520 may include one or more mass storage devices, which may include, for example, solid state disk drives (SSDDs), hard disk drives (HDDs), micro HDDs, resistive change memories, phase change memories, holographic memories, or chemical memories, etc. In some examples, the computer platform 500 may incorporate 3D cross-point (XPOINT) memory obtained from and .

[0090] The removable memory circuit 523 may include a device, circuit, housing, casing, port, or socket, etc. for coupling a portable data storage device to the platform 500. These portable data storage devices can be used for mass storage and may include, for example, flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, micro SD cards, xD Picture Cards), as well as USB flash drives, optical discs, or external HDDs, or combinations thereof, etc.

[0091] The platform 500 may also include interface circuitry (not shown) for connecting external devices to the platform 500. External devices connected to the platform 500 using this interface circuitry include sensor circuit 521 and electromechanical components (EMC) 522, as well as a removable memory device coupled to the removable memory circuit 523.

[0092] The sensor circuit 521 includes a device, module, or subsystem that is intended to detect an event or change in its environment and send information about the detected event (e.g., sensor data) to one or more other devices, modules, or subsystems. Examples of such sensors include: Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs), such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, or magnetometers; Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) or Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems (NEMS) including triaxial accelerometers, triaxial gyroscopes, or magnetometers; level sensors; flow sensors; temperature sensors (e.g., thermistors); pressure sensors; barometric pressure sensors; gravimeters; altimeters; image capture devices (e.g., cameras or lensless apertures); Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors; proximity sensors (e.g., infrared radiation detectors, etc.), depth sensors, ambient light sensors, ultrasonic transceivers; microphones or other audio capture devices, or combinations thereof, etc.

[0093] The EMC 522 includes a device, module, or subsystem that is intended to enable the platform 500 to change its state, position, or orientation or move or control a mechanism, system, or subsystem. Additionally, the EMC 522 may be configured to generate messages or signaling and send messages or signaling to other components of the platform 500 to indicate the current state of the EMC 522. Examples of the EMC 522 include, among other electromechanical components, one or more power switches, relays (such as electromechanical relays (EMRs) or solid-state relays (SSRs)), actuators (e.g., valve actuators), audible sound generators, visual warning devices, motors (e.g., DC motors or stepper motors), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks, or combinations thereof. In some examples, the platform 500 is configured to operate one or more EMC 522 based on one or more captured events, instructions, or control signals received from a service provider or a client or both.

[0094] In some examples, the interface circuit may connect the platform 500 to the positioning circuit 545. The positioning circuit 545 includes circuitry for receiving and decoding signals transmitted or broadcast by a positioning network of GNSS. Examples of GNSS may include GPS in the United States, GLONASS in Russia, the Galileo system in the European Union, the Beidou Navigation Satellite System in China, regional navigation systems, or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., NAVIC), QZSS in Japan, DORIS in France, etc. The positioning circuit 545 includes various hardware components (e.g., including hardware devices for facilitating OTA communication such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc.) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as nodes of a navigation satellite constellation. In some examples, the positioning circuit 545 may include a micro PNT IC that uses a primary timing clock to perform position tracking or estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 545 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 410 or the RFEM 515 or both to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit 545 may also provide data (e.g., position data, time data) to the application circuit 505, which may use this data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., radio base stations) for turn-by-turn navigation applications, etc.

[0095] In some examples, the interface circuit may connect the platform 500 to the near-field communication (NFC) circuit 540. The NFC circuit 540 is configured to provide contactless short-range communication based on radio frequency identification (RFID) standards, where magnetic field sensing is used to enable communication between the NFC circuit 540 and an NFC-enabled device external to the platform 500 (e.g., an "NFC contact point"). The NFC circuit 540 includes an NFC controller coupled to an antenna element and a processor coupled to the NFC controller. The NFC controller may be a chip or IC that provides NFC functionality to the NFC circuit 540 by executing NFC controller firmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack may be executed by the processor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmware may be executed by the NFC controller to control the antenna element to transmit short-range RF signals. The RF signals may power a passive NFC tag (e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transfer stored data to the NFC circuit 540, or initiate data transfer between the NFC circuit 540 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smart phone or an NFC-enabled POS terminal) near the platform 500.

[0096] The drive circuit 546 may include software elements and hardware elements for controlling specific devices embedded in, attached to, or otherwise communicatively coupled to the platform 500. The drive circuit 546 may include individual drivers, thereby allowing other components of the platform 500 to interact with or control various input / output (I / O) devices that may be present within or connected to the platform 500. For example, the drive circuit 546 may include: a display driver for controlling and allowing access to a display device, a touchscreen driver for controlling and allowing access to a touchscreen interface of the platform 500, a sensor driver for obtaining sensor readings of the sensor circuit 521 and controlling and allowing access to the sensor circuit 521, an EMC driver for obtaining the actuator position of the EMC 522 or controlling and allowing access to the EMC 522, a camera driver for controlling and allowing access to an embedded image capture device, and an audio driver for controlling and allowing access to one or more audio devices.

[0097] A power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 525 (also referred to as “power management circuit 525”) may manage the power supplied to various components of the platform 500. Specifically, relative to the baseband circuit 510, the PMIC 525 may control power selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion. When the platform 500 is capable of being powered by a battery 530, for example, when the device is included in the UE 101, 201, 301, the PMIC 525 may be included.

[0098] In some examples, the PMIC 525 may control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms of the platform 500. For example, if the platform 500 is in the RRC_Connected state, in which the platform remains connected to a RAN node because it expects to receive traffic soon, after a period of inactivity, the platform may enter a state called discontinuous reception mode (DRX). During this state, the platform 500 may power down for short intervals, thereby saving power. If there is no data traffic activity for a longer period of time, the platform 500 may transition to the RRC_Idle state, in which it is disconnected from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback or handover. This may allow the platform 500 to enter a very low power state, in which it wakes up periodically to listen for the network and then powers down again. In some examples, the platform 500 may not receive data in the RRC_Idle state but must transition back to the RRC_Connected state to receive data. Additional power saving modes may disable the device from using the network for a time period longer than the paging interval (ranging from a few seconds to several hours). During this time, the device may not be able to connect to the network and may power down completely. Any data sent during this time may experience significant latency, and it is assumed that the latency is acceptable.

[0099] The battery 530 can power the platform 500, but in some examples, the platform 500 can be deployed in a fixed location and can have a power source coupled to the power grid. The battery 530 can be a lithium-ion battery, a metal-air battery such as a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, or a lithium-air battery, etc. In some examples, such as in V2X applications, the battery 530 can be a typical lead-acid automotive battery.

[0100] In some examples, the battery 530 can be a "smart battery" that includes or is coupled to a battery management system (BMS) or a battery monitoring integrated circuit. The BMS can be included in the platform 500 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 530. The BMS can be used to monitor other parameters of the battery 530, such as the state of health (SoH) and the state of function (SoF) of the battery 530 to provide fault prediction. The BMS can transmit information about the battery 530 to the application circuit 505 or other components of the platform 500. The BMS can also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter that allows the application circuit 505 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 530 or the current from the battery 530. The battery parameters can be used to determine actions that the platform 500 can perform, such as transmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, etc.

[0101] A power block or other power source coupled to the power grid can be coupled to the BMS to charge the battery 530. In some examples, the power block 530 can be replaced with a wireless power receiver to wirelessly obtain power, for example, through a loop antenna in the computer platform 500. In these examples, a wireless battery charging circuit can be included in the BMS. The specific charging circuit selected can depend on the size of the battery 530 and thus on the required current. Charging can be performed using the aviation fuel standards published by the Aviation Fuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standard published by the Wireless Power Consortium, or the Rezence charging standard published by the Wireless Power Consortium.

[0102] The user interface circuit 550 includes various input / output (I / O) devices that are present within or connected to the platform 500, and includes one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the platform 500 or a peripheral component interface designed to enable interaction with peripheral components of the platform 500. The user interface circuit 550 includes input device circuitry and output device circuitry. The input device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for accepting input, including one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, a microphone, a scanner, or a headset, or a combination thereof, etc. The output device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for displaying information or otherwise communicating information (such as sensor readings, actuator positions, or other information). The output device circuitry may include any number or combination of audio or visual displays, including one or more simple visual outputs or indicators (e.g., binary state indicators (e.g., light-emitting diodes (LEDs)), multi-character visual outputs, or more complex outputs such as a display device or a touchscreen (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD), an LED display, a quantum dot display, or a projector), where the output of characters, graphics, or multimedia objects is generated or produced by the operation of the platform 500. The output device circuitry may also include a speaker or other audio emitting device, or a printer. In some examples, the sensor circuit 521 may be used as input device circuitry (e.g., an image capture device or a motion capture device) and one or more EMCs may be used as output device circuitry (e.g., an actuator for providing haptic feedback). In another example, an NFC circuit may be included to read an electronic tag or connect to another NFC-enabled device, and the NFC circuit includes an NFC controller and a processing device coupled to an antenna element. The peripheral component interface may include, but is not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a USB port, an audio jack, or a power interface.

[0103] Although not shown, the components of the platform 500 may communicate with each other using suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technologies, which may include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCIx, PCIe, Time-Triggered Protocol (TTP) systems, FlexRay systems, or any number of other technologies. The bus or IX may be a proprietary bus or IX, e.g., used in a system-on-chip (SoC)-based system. Other bus or IX systems may be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, a point-to-point interface, and a power bus, etc.

[0104] Figure 4 Exemplary components of the baseband circuit 610 and the radio frequency front-end module (RFEM) 615 are shown. The baseband circuit 610 may correspond respectively to Figure 2 the baseband circuit 410 of Figure 3Baseband circuit 510. The RFEM 615 can respectively correspond to Figure 2 the RFEM 415 of Figure 3 the RFEM 515. As shown, the RFEM 615 can include a radio frequency (RF) circuit 606, a front-end module (FEM) circuit 608, and an antenna array 611 that are coupled together.

[0105] The baseband circuit 610 includes circuitry or control logic components or both, which are configured to perform various radio or network protocols and control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks using the RF circuit 606. The radio control functions can include, but are not limited to, signal modulation and demodulation, encoding and decoding, and radio frequency shifting. In some examples, the modulation and demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuit 610 can include fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping and demapping functions. In some examples, the encoding and decoding circuitry of the baseband circuit 610 can include convolutional, tail-biting convolutional, turbo, Viterbi, or low-density parity-check (LDPC) encoder and decoder functions. The modulation and demodulation and encoder and decoder functions are not limited to these examples and can include other suitable functions in other examples. The baseband circuit 610 is configured to process the baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuit 606 and generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 606. The baseband circuit 610 is configured to interact with application circuits (e.g., Figure 2 and Figure 3 the application circuits 405 and 505 shown) to generate and process baseband signals and control the operation of the RF circuit 606. The baseband circuit 610 can process various radio control functions.

[0106] The foregoing circuitry and control logic components of the baseband circuitry 610 may include one or more single-core or multi-core processors. For example, the one or more processors may include a 3G baseband processor 604A, a 4G or LTE baseband processor 604B, a 5G or NR baseband processor 604C, or some other baseband processor 604D for other existing generations, generations under development, or generations to be developed in the future (e.g., sixth generation (6G)). In some examples, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 604A-D may be included in modules stored in a memory 604G and executed using a central processing unit (CPU) 604E. In some examples, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 604A-D may be provided as a hardware accelerator (e.g., FPGA or ASIC) loaded with an appropriate bitstream or logic block stored in a corresponding memory cell. In some examples, the memory 604G may store program code for a real-time OS (RTOS) that, when executed by the CPU 604E (or other baseband processor), causes the CPU 604E (or other baseband processor) to manage the resources of the baseband circuitry 610, schedule tasks, or perform other operations. Examples of RTOSs may include Operating System Embedded (OSE) provided by TM Mentor Nucleus RTOS provided by TM Mentor Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX) provided by Mentor, ThreadX provided by Express TM by FreeRTOS, REX OS provided by OpenKernel (OK) OKL4 provided by

[0107] or any other suitable RTOS, such as those discussed herein. Additionally, the baseband circuitry 610 includes one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 604F. The audio DSP 604F includes elements for compression and decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in some examples. In some examples, each of the processors 604A - 604E includes a corresponding memory interface to send data to and receive data from the memory 604G. The baseband circuitry 610 may also include one or more interfaces for communicatively coupling to other circuits or devices, such as an interface for sending data to and receiving data from a memory external to the baseband circuitry 610; for sending to Figure 2 and Figure 4An application circuit interface for sending data to and receiving data from application circuits 405 and 505; for sending data to Figure 4 an RF circuit interface for sending data to and receiving data from RF circuit 606; for receiving data from one or more wireless hardware components (e.g., near field communication (NFC) components, low-power components, components, etc.) and sending data to these wireless hardware components; and a power management interface for sending power or control signals to PMIC 525 and receiving power or control signals from the PMIC.

[0108] In some examples (which may be combined with the above examples), baseband circuit 610 includes one or more digital baseband systems that are coupled to each other and to the CPU subsystem, audio subsystem, and interface subsystem using an interconnect subsystem. The digital baseband subsystem may also be coupled to the digital baseband interface and the mixed-signal baseband subsystem using another interconnect subsystem. Each of the interconnect subsystems may include a bus system, point-to-point connectors, a network-on-chip (NOC) architecture, or some other suitable bus or interconnect technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include DSP circuits, buffer memories, program memories, voice processing accelerator circuits, data converter circuits such as analog-to-digital converter circuits and digital-to-analog converter circuits, analog circuits including one or more of amplifiers and filters, etc. In some examples, baseband circuit 610 may include protocol processing circuitry having one or more control circuit instances (not shown) to provide control functions for the digital baseband circuit or radio frequency circuit (e.g., radio front-end module 615).

[0109] Although Figure 4Not shown, but in some examples, the baseband circuit 610 includes respective processing devices (e.g., a "multi-protocol baseband processor" or "protocol processing circuitry") for operating one or more wireless communication protocols and respective processing devices for implementing PHY layer functions. In some examples, the PHY layer functions include the aforementioned radio control functions. In some examples, the protocol processing circuitry operates or implements various protocol layers or entities of one or more wireless communication protocols. For example, when the baseband circuit 610 or the RF circuit 606 or both are part of a millimeter wave communication circuit or some other suitable cellular communication circuit, the protocol processing circuitry may operate an LTE protocol entity or a 5G NR protocol entity or both. In this example, the protocol processing circuitry may operate MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC, and NAS functions. In some examples, when the baseband circuit 610 or the RF circuit 606 or both are part of a Wi-Fi communication system, the protocol processing circuitry may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols. In this example, the protocol processing circuitry may operate Wi-Fi MAC and logical link control (LLC) functions. The protocol processing circuitry may include one or more memory structures (e.g., 604G) for storing program code and data for operating the protocol functions, and one or more processing cores for executing the program code and performing various operations using the data. The baseband circuit 610 may also support radio communication for more than one wireless protocol.

[0110] The various hardware elements of the baseband circuit 610 discussed herein may be implemented as, for example, a soldered-in substrate that includes one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module that includes two or more ICs. In some examples, the components of the baseband circuit 610 may be appropriately combined in a single chip or a single chipset, or disposed on the same circuit board. In some examples, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuit 610 and the RF circuit 606 may be implemented together, such as, for example, a system-on-chip (SoC) or a system-in-package (SiP). In some examples, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuit 610 may be implemented as a separate SoC communicatively coupled to the RF circuit 606 (or multiple instances of the RF circuit 606). In some examples, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuit 610 and the application circuits 405, 505 may be implemented together as separate SoCs (e.g., a "multi-chip package") mounted on the same circuit board.

[0111] In some examples, the baseband circuit 610 may provide communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, the baseband circuit 610 may support communication with E-UTRAN or other WMAN, WLAN, or WPAN. Examples where the baseband circuit 610 is configured to support radio communication for more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuits.

[0112] RF circuit 606 can communicate with a wireless network through a non-solid medium using modulated electromagnetic radiation. In some examples, RF circuit 606 can include components such as switches, filters, or amplifiers to facilitate communication with the wireless network. RF circuit 606 can include a receive signal path that can include circuitry for down-converting an RF signal received from FEM circuit 608 and providing a baseband signal to baseband circuit 610. RF circuit 606 can also include a transmit signal path that can include circuitry for up-converting a baseband signal provided by baseband circuit 610 and providing an RF output signal for transmission to FEM circuit 608.

[0113] The receive signal path of RF circuit 606 includes mixer circuit 606a, amplifier circuit 606b, and filter circuit 606c. In some examples, the transmit signal path of RF circuit 606 can include filter circuit 606c and mixer circuit 606a. RF circuit 606 also includes synthesizer circuit 606d for synthesizing frequencies for use by mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some examples, mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path can be configured to down-convert an RF signal received from FEM circuit 608 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuit 606d. Amplifier circuit 606b can be configured to amplify the down-converted signal, and filter circuit 606c can be a low-pass filter (LPF) or a band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal can be provided to baseband circuit 610 for further processing. In some examples, although not required, the output baseband signal can be a zero-frequency baseband signal. In some examples, mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path can include a passive mixer.

[0114] In some examples, mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path can be configured to up-convert an input baseband signal based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuit 606d to generate an RF output signal for FEM circuit 608. The baseband signal can be provided by baseband circuit 610 and can be filtered by filter circuit 606c.

[0115] In some examples, mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged separately for quadrature downconversion and upconversion. In some examples, mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some examples, mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct downconversion and direct upconversion, respectively. In some examples, mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

[0116] In some examples, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals. In some examples, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals, and RF circuit 606 may include an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuit, and baseband circuit 610 may include a digital baseband interface for communicating with RF circuit 606.

[0117] In some dual-mode examples, separate radio IC circuits may be provided to process signals of each spectrum, but the techniques described herein are not limited in this regard.

[0118] In some examples, synthesizer circuit 606d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional-N / N+1 synthesizer, but other types of frequency synthesizers may be used. For example, synthesizer circuit 606d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0119] Synthesizer circuit 606d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency based on a frequency input and a frequency divider control input for use by mixer circuit 606a of RF circuit 606. In some examples, synthesizer circuit 606d may be a fractional-N / N+1 synthesizer.

[0120] In some examples, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), although this is not required. The frequency divider control input may be provided by baseband circuit 610 or application circuit 405 / 505 according to the desired output frequency. In some examples, the frequency divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on the channel indicated by application circuits 405, 505.

[0121] The synthesizer circuit 606d of the RF circuit 606 may include a frequency divider, a delay locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some examples, the frequency divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some examples, the DMD may be configured to divide an input signal by N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some examples, the DLL may include cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a set of D-type flip-flops. The delay elements may be configured to divide the VCO period into Nd equal phase bins, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO period.

[0122] In some examples, the synthesizer circuit 606d may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other examples, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and may be used with an orthogonal generator and a frequency divider circuit to generate multiple signals having multiple different phases relative to each other at that carrier frequency. In some examples, the output frequency may be the LO frequency (fLO). In some examples, the RF circuit 606 may include an IQ or polar converter.

[0123] The FEM circuit 608 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from the antenna array 611, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to the RF circuit 606 for further processing. The FEM circuit 608 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify transmit signals provided by the RF circuit 606 for transmission by one or more antenna elements in the antenna array 611. Amplification through the transmit signal path or the receive signal path may be done only in the RF circuit 606, only in the FEM circuit 608, or in both the RF circuit 606 and the FEM circuit 608.

[0124] In some examples, the FEM circuit 608 may include a TX / RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operations. The FEM circuit 608 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuit 608 may include an LNA to amplify the received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuit 606). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuit 608 may include a power amplifier (PA) for amplifying an input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuit 606), and one or more filters for generating an RF signal for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 611.

[0125] The antenna array 611 includes one or more antenna elements, each antenna element being configured to convert an electrical signal into a radio wave to travel through the air and to convert a received radio wave into an electrical signal. For example, a digital baseband signal provided by the baseband circuit 610 is converted into an analog RF signal (e.g., a modulated waveform), which will be amplified and transmitted by an antenna element of the antenna array 611 including one or more antenna elements (not shown). The antenna elements can be omnidirectional, directional, or a combination thereof. The antenna elements can form various arrangements as known and / or discussed herein. The antenna array 611 can include microstrip antennas or printed antennas fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards. The antenna array 611 can be formed as patches of metal foil of various shapes (e.g., patch antennas), and can be coupled to the RF circuit 606 and / or the FEM circuit 608 using metal transmission lines and the like.

[0126] The processors of the application circuits 405 / 505 and the baseband circuit 610 can be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, the processor of the baseband circuit 610 can be used, either alone or in combination, to execute layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processors of the application circuits 405, 505 can utilize the data received from these layers (e.g., packet data) and further execute layer 4 functions (e.g., TCP and UDP layers). As mentioned herein, layer 3 can include the RRC layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 2 can include the MAC layer, the RLC layer, and the PDCP layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 1 can include the PHY layer of the UE / RAN node, which will be described in further detail below.

[0127] Figure 5 Exemplary components of a communication circuit 700 are shown. In some examples, the communication circuit 700 can be implemented as Figure 4 and Figure 5 part of the system 400 or platform 500 shown. The communication circuit 700 can be communicatively (e.g., directly or indirectly) coupled to one or more antennas, such as antennas 702a-c. In some examples, the communication circuit 700 includes or is communicatively coupled to dedicated receive chains for multiple RATs (e.g., a first receive chain for LTE and a second receive chain for 5G NR), processors, or radio components, or a combination thereof. For example, as Figure 5 shown, the communication circuit 700 includes modems 710 and 720, which can correspond to or can be Figure 4 and Figure 5Parts of the baseband circuits 410 and 510. The modem 710 may be configured to communicate according to a first RAT, such as LTE or LTE-A, and the modem 720 may be configured to communicate according to a second RAT, such as 5G NR.

[0128] The modem 710 includes one or more processors 712 and a memory 716 that communicates with the processors 712. The modem 710 communicates with a radio frequency (RF) front end 730, which may correspond to or be part of Figure 4 and Figure 5 the RFEMs 415 and 515 of. The RF front end 730 may include circuitry for transmitting and receiving radio signals. For example, the RF front end 730 includes a receive circuit (RX) 732 and a transmit circuit (TX) 734. In some examples, the receive circuit 732 communicates with a DL front end 750, which may include circuitry for receiving radio signals from the antenna 702a. The switch 770 may selectively couple the modem 710 to a UL front end 772, which may include circuitry for transmitting radio signals using the antenna 702c.

[0129] Similarly, the modem 720 includes one or more processors 722 and a memory 726 that communicates with the processors 722. The modem 720 communicates with an RF front end 740, which may correspond to or be part of Figure 4 and Figure 5 the RFEMs 415 and 515 of. The RF front end 740 may include circuitry for transmitting and receiving radio signals. For example, the RF front end 740 includes a receive circuit 742 and a transmit circuit 744. In some examples, the receive circuit 742 communicates with a DL front end 760, which may include circuitry for receiving radio signals from the antenna 702b. The switch 770 may selectively couple the modem 720 to the UL front end 772 for transmitting radio signals using the antenna 702c.

[0130] The modem 710 may include hardware and software components for time-division multiplexing UL data (e.g., for NSA NR operation) and various other techniques described herein. The processor 712 may include one or more processing elements configured to implement various features described herein, such as by executing program instructions stored in the memory 716 (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). In some examples, the processor 712 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA or an ASIC. In some examples, the processor 712 may include one or more ICs configured to perform the functions of the processor 712. For example, each IC may include circuitry configured to perform the functions of the processor 712.

[0131] The modem 720 may include hardware and software components for time division multiplexing UL data (e.g., for NSA NR operation) and various other techniques described herein. The processor 722 may include one or more processing elements configured to implement various features described herein, such as by executing instructions stored in the memory 726 (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). In some examples, the processor 722 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA or an ASIC. In some examples, the processor 722 may include one or more ICs configured to perform the functions of the processor 722. For example, each IC may include circuitry configured to perform the functions of the processor 522.

[0132] Figure 6 Various protocol functions that may be implemented in a wireless communication device are shown. Specifically, Figure 6 Arrangement 800 includes an interconnection between various protocol layers / entities shown. The following description is provided for various protocol layers and entities operating in conjunction with the 5G NR system standard and the LTE system standard, but Figure 6 some or all aspects of Figure 6 may also be applicable to other wireless communication network systems.

[0133] In addition to other higher layer functions not shown, the protocol layers of arrangement 800 may include one or more of PHY 810, MAC 820, RLC 830, PDCP 840, SDAP 847, RRC 855, and NAS layer 857. These protocol layers may include one or more service access points (e.g., Figure 6 items 859, 856, 850, 849, 845, 835, 825, and 815 in

[0134] The PHY 810 can transmit and receive physical layer signals 805, which can be received from or transmitted to one or more other communication devices. The physical layer signals 805 can include one or more physical channels, such as those discussed herein. The PHY 810 can also perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and handover purposes), and other measurements used by higher layers (e.g., RRC 855). The PHY 810 can further perform error detection on the transport channel, forward error correction (FEC) encoding and decoding of the transport channel, modulation and demodulation of the physical channel, interleaving, rate matching, mapping onto the physical channel, and MIMO antenna processing. In some examples, instances of the PHY810 can process requests from and provide indications to instances of the MAC 820 using one or more PHY-SAPs 815. In some examples, the requests and indications conveyed using the PHY-SAP 815 can include one or more transport channels.

[0135] Instances of the MAC 820 can process requests from and provide indications to instances of the RLC 830 using one or more MAC-SAPs 825. These requests and indications conveyed using the MAC-SAP 825 can include one or more logical channels. The MAC 820 can perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplex MAC SDUs from one or more logical channels onto transport blocks (TBs) to be delivered to the PHY 810 using the transport channel, demultiplex MAC SDUs from the TBs delivered from the PHY 810 using the transport channel onto one or more logical channels, multiplex MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction via HARQ, and logical channel prioritization.

[0136] Instances of RLC 830 can utilize one or more radio link control service access points (RLC-SAPs) 835 to process requests from and provide indications to instances of PDCP 840. These requests and indications transmitted using RLC-SAP 835 can include one or more logical channels. RLC 830 can operate in multiple operation modes, including: transparent mode (TM), unacknowledged mode (UM), and acknowledged mode (AM). RLC 830 can perform the transmission of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction by automatic repeat request (ARQ) for AM data transmission, and concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission. RLC 830 can also perform re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transmission, reordering of RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detection of duplicate data for UM and AM data transmission, discarding of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detection of protocol errors for AM data transmission, and perform RLC re-establishment.

[0137] Instances of PDCP 840 can utilize one or more packet data convergence protocol service access points (PDCP-SAPs) 845 to process requests from and provide indications to instances of RRC 855 or instances of SDAP 847 or both. These requests and indications transmitted using PDCP-SAP 845 can include one or more radio bearers. PDCP 840 can perform header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP sequence numbers (SNs), perform in-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs upon re-establishment of the lower layer, eliminate duplicates of lower layer SDUs upon re-establishment of the lower layer for radio bearers mapped to RLC AM, encrypt and decrypt control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification on control plane data, control timer-based data discarding, and perform security operations (e.g., encryption, decryption, integrity protection, or integrity verification).

[0138] Instances of SDAP 847 can utilize one or more SDAP-SAPs 849 to process requests from one or more higher layer protocol entities and provide indications to them. These requests and indications transmitted using SDAP-SAP 849 can include one or more QoS flows. SDAP 847 can map QoS flows to data radio bearers (DRBs) and vice versa, and can also mark QoS flow identifiers (QFIs) in DL packets and UL packets. A single SDAP entity 847 can be configured for a separate PDU session. In the UL direction, the NG-RAN 110 can control the mapping of QoS flows to DRBs in two different ways (reflection mapping or explicit mapping). For reflection mapping, the SDAP 847 of the UE 101 can monitor the QFI of DL packets of each DRB, and can apply the same mapping to the packets flowing in the UL direction. For a DRB, the SDAP 847 of the UE 101 can map UL packets belonging to a QoS flow that corresponds to the QoS flow ID and PDU session observed in the DL packets of that DRB. To implement reflection mapping, the NG-RAN 310 can mark DL packets with the QoS flow ID via the Uu interface. Explicit mapping can involve the RRC 855 configuring the SDAP 847 with an explicit mapping rule of QoS flows to DRBs, which can be stored and followed by the SDAP 847. In some examples, SDAP 847 can be used only in NR implementations and not in LTE implementations.

[0139] The RRC 855 can configure aspects of one or more protocol layers using one or more management service access points (M-SAPs), and the one or more protocol layers can include one or more instances of PHY 810, MAC 820, RLC 830, PDCP 840, and SDAP 847. In some examples, instances of the RRC 855 can use one or more RRC-SAPs 856 to process requests from one or more NAS entities 857 and provide indications to them. The main services and functions of the RRC 855 can include broadcasting of system information (e.g., included in the master information block (MIB) or system information blocks (SIBs) related to the NAS), broadcasting of system information related to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance, and release of the RRC connection between the UE 101 and the RAN 110 (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance, and release of point-to-point radio bearers, security functions including key management, mobility between RATs, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. The MIB and SIBs can include one or more information elements, each of which can include individual data fields or data structures.

[0140] NAS 857 can form the top layer of the control plane between the UE 101 and the AMF 321. NAS 857 can support the mobility and session management procedures of the UE 101 to establish and maintain an IP connection between the UE 101 and the P-GW in the LTE system.

[0141] In some examples, one or more protocol entities of the arrangement 800 can be implemented in the UE 101, the RAN node 111, the AMF 321 in the NR implementation or the MME 221 in the LTE implementation, the UPF 302 in the NR implementation or the S-GW 222 and the P-GW 223 in the LTE implementation, etc., for the control plane or user plane communication protocol stacks between the foregoing devices. In some examples, one or more protocol entities that can be implemented in one or more of the UE 101, the gNB 111, the AMF 321, etc., can communicate with corresponding peer protocol entities that can be implemented in another device or on another device (using the services of the corresponding lower layer protocol entities to perform such communication). In some examples, the gNB-CU of the gNB 111 can host the RRC 855, the SDAP 847, and the PDCP 840 that control one or more gNB-DU operations of the gNB, and each gNB-DU of the gNB 111 can host the RLC 830, the MAC 820, and the PHY 810 of the gNB 111.

[0142] In some examples, the control plane protocol stack can include, in order from the top layer to the bottom layer, the NAS 857, the RRC 855, the PDCP 840, the RLC 830, the MAC 820, and the PHY 810. In this example, the upper layer 860 can be built on top of the NAS 857, which includes the IP layer 861, the SCTP 862, and the application layer signaling protocol (AP) 863.

[0143] In some examples such as the NR implementation, the AP 863 can be the NG application protocol layer (NGAP or NG-AP) 863 for the NG interface 113 defined between the NG-RAN node 111 and the AMF 321, or the AP 863 can be the Xn application protocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP) 863 for the Xn interface 112 defined between two or more RAN nodes 111.

[0144] The NG-AP 863 can support the functions of the NG interface 113 and may include a primary procedure (EP). The NG-AP EP can be an interaction unit between the NG-RAN node 111 and the AMF 321. The NG-AP 863 services can include two groups: UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the UE 101) and non-UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the entire NG interface instance between the NG-RAN node 111 and the AMF 321). These services can include functions such as, but not limited to: a paging function for sending a paging request to the NG-RAN node 111 involved in a specific paging area; a UE context management function for allowing the AMF 321 to establish, modify, or release the UE context in the AMF 321 and the NG-RAN node 111; a mobility function for the UE 101 in the ECM-CONNECTED mode, for in-system HO to support mobility within the NG-RAN, and for inter-system HO to support mobility from / to the EPS system; a NAS signaling transmission function for transmitting or rerouting NAS messages between the UE 101 and the AMF 321; a NAS node selection function for determining the association between the AMF 321 and the UE 101; an NG interface management function for setting up the NG interface and monitoring errors through the NG interface; a warning message transmission function for providing a means to transmit warning messages or cancel the ongoing broadcast of warning messages using the NG interface; a configuration transmission function for requesting and transmitting RAN configuration information (e.g., SON information, or performance measurement (PM) data) between two RAN nodes 111 using the CN 120; or a combination thereof, etc.

[0145] The XnAP 863 can support the functions of the Xn interface 112 and may include XnAP basic mobility procedures and XnAP global procedures. The XnAP basic mobility procedures can include procedures for handling UE mobility within the NG RAN 111 (or E-UTRAN 210), such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN status transmission procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, or procedures related to dual connectivity, etc. The XnAP global procedures can include procedures not related to a specific UE 101, such as Xn interface setup and reset procedures, NG-RAN update procedures, or cell activation procedures, etc.

[0146] In the LTE embodiment, the AP 863 can be the S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 863 for the S1 interface 113 defined between the E-UTRAN node 111 and the MME, or the AP 863 can be the X2 application protocol layer (X2AP or X2-AP) 863 for the X2 interface 112 defined between two or more E-UTRAN nodes 111.

[0147] The S1 Application Protocol Layer (S1-AP) 863 can support the functions of the S1 interface, and similar to the previously discussed NG-AP, the S1-AP can include the S1-AP EP. The S1-AP EP can be an interaction unit between the E-UTRAN node 111 and the MME 221 within the LTE CN 120. The S1-AP 863 services can include two groups: UE-associated services and non-UE-associated services. The functions performed by these services include, but are not limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transmission, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transmission.

[0148] The X2AP 863 can support the functions of the X2 interface 112, and can include X2AP basic mobility procedures and X2AP global procedures. The X2AP basic mobility procedures can include procedures for handling UE mobility within the E-UTRAN 120, such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN status transmission procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, or procedures related to dual connectivity, etc. The X2AP global procedures can include procedures not related to a specific UE 101, such as X2 interface setup and reset procedures, load indication procedures, error indication procedures, or cell activation procedures, etc.

[0149] The SCTP layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP / IP layer) 862 can provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages (e.g., NGAP or XnAP messages in an NR implementation, or S1-AP or X2AP messages in an LTE implementation). The SCTP 862 can ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node 111 and the AMF 321 / MME 221 partly based on the IP protocol supported by the IP 861. The Internet Protocol layer (IP) 861 can be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. In some implementations, the IP layer 861 can use point-to-point transmission to deliver and transfer PDUs. In this regard, the RAN node 111 can include communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the L2 and L1 layers of the MME / AMF to exchange information.

[0150] In some examples, the user plane protocol stack may include SDAP 847, PDCP 840, RLC 830, MAC 820, and PHY 810 in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer. The user plane protocol stack may be used for communication between the UE 101, RAN node 111, and UPF 302 in an NR implementation, or between the S-GW 222 and P-GW 223 in an LTE implementation. In this example, the upper layer 851 may be built on top of SDAP 847 and may include the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and Internet Protocol Security layer (UDP / IP) 852, the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol layer for the user plane (GTP-U) 853, and the user plane PDU layer (UP PDU) 863.

[0151] The transport network layer 854 (also referred to as the "transport layer") may be built on top of IP transport, and GTP-U 853 may be used on top of the UDP / IP layer 852 (including the UDP layer and the IP layer) to carry user plane PDUs (UP-PDUs). The IP layer (also referred to as the "Internet layer") may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. The IP layer may assign IP addresses to user data packets in, for example, any one of the IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats.

[0152] GTP-U 853 may be used to carry user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. For example, the user data transmitted may be packets in any one of the IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats. UDP / IP 852 may provide a checksum for data integrity, port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication for selected data flows. The RAN node 111 and S-GW 222 may utilize the S1-U interface to exchange user plane data using a protocol stack including the L1 layer (e.g., PHY 810), L2 layer (e.g., MAC 820, RLC 830, PDCP 840, and / or SDAP 847), UDP / IP layer 852, and GTP-U 853. The S-GW 222 and P-GW 223 may utilize the S5 / S8a interface to exchange user plane data using a protocol stack including the L1 layer, L2 layer, UDP / IP layer 852, and GTP-U 853. As previously discussed, the NAS protocol may support the mobility and session management processes of the UE 101 to establish and maintain an IP connection between the UE 101 and the P-GW 223.

[0153] In addition, although Figure 6Not shown, but the application layer may exist above the AP 863 and / or the transport network layer 854. The application layer may be a layer in which users of the UE 101, the RAN node 111, or other network elements interact with software applications, such as those executed by the application circuit 405 or the application circuit 505, respectively. The application layer may also provide one or more interfaces for the software applications to interact with the communication system (such as the baseband circuit 610) of the UE 101 or the RAN node 111. In some examples, the IP layer or the application layer or both may provide the same or similar functions as layers 5 to 7 or portions thereof of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model (e.g., OSI layer 7 - application layer, OSI layer 6 - presentation layer, and OSI layer 5 - session layer).

[0154] Figure 7 is a block diagram showing components for reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the techniques described herein. Specifically, Figure 7 shows a schematic diagram of hardware resources 1100, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1110, one or more memories or storage devices 1120, and one or more communication resources 1130, each of which may be communicatively coupled using a bus 1140. For a specific implementation in which node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1102 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices or sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1100.

[0155] The processor 1110 may include a processor 1112 and a processor 1114. The processor 1110 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[0156] The memory / storage device 1120 may include a main memory, a disk memory, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 1120 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, or solid-state storage devices or combinations thereof, etc.

[0157] The communication resource 1130 may include an interconnect or network interface component or other suitable device to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1104 or one or more databases 1106 using the network 1108. For example, the communication resource 1130 may include a wired communication component (e.g., for coupling using USB), a cellular communication component, an NFC component, (or low power) component, components, and other communication components.

[0158] The instructions 1150 may include software, programs, applications, applets, applications, or other executable code for causing at least any one of the processors 1110 to execute any one or more of the method sets discussed herein. The instructions 1150 may reside, in whole or in part, in at least one of the processors 1110 (e.g., within the cache memory of the processor), the memory / storage device 1120, or any suitable combination thereof. Additionally, any part of the instructions 1150 may be transmitted from any combination of the peripheral devices 1104 or the databases 1106 to the hardware resources 1100. Thus, the memory of the processor 1110, the memory / storage device 1120, the peripheral devices 1104, and the databases 1106 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0159] In some specific embodiments, at least one of the components illustrated in one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to perform one or more elements of the method 1200 discussed later with reference to Figure 8 In some specific embodiments, the baseband circuit previously described in connection with one or more of the foregoing figures is configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the methods discussed later with reference to Figure 8 In some specific embodiments, as previously described in connection with one or more of the foregoing figures, the circuitry associated with one or more of a UE, a base station, a network element, etc. may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the methods described with respect to Figure 8 the methods described.

[0160] Figure 8 An exemplary method 1200 for inter-node handover (HO) signaling for enhanced conditional handover (CHO) is shown. The method 1200 may be performed by a source node or a target node or their components (e.g., the baseband circuit) to facilitate CHO. The source node / target node may be an eNB / gNB, such as those described in this specification. The method 1200 includes providing or receiving a message (block 1202) and performing CHO operations based on the message (block 1204).

[0161] In some specific implementations, the message includes a handover (HO) request, an HO request acknowledgement, and / or an HO cancellation message. In some specific implementations, the message is transmitted via the X2 / Xn interface or the S1 / NG interface.

[0162] In some specific implementations, the message includes an indication of a plurality of potential target cell identifiers that may be applicable to CHO operations. In some specific implementations, the target cell identifier is transmitted in the handover request message and may indicate a potential target cell. In some specific implementations, the target cell identifier is transmitted in the handover cancellation message, and the handover cancellation message may indicate one or more target cells that are no longer potential target cells.

[0163] In some specific implementations, the CHO operation includes the target node preparing or otherwise configuring the target cells for a possible handover of the UE indicated in the target cell identifier list.

[0164] As previously noted, specific implementations of the present disclosure provide one or more mechanisms to overcome the limitations associated with having only one target cell ID in inter-node HO signaling, for which, without addressing, the NW signaling of CHO may be unnecessarily increased.

[0165] In some specific implementations, X2 / XnAP HO-related messages (e.g., HO REQUEST, HO REQUEST ACK, HO CANCEL) or S1 / NGAP HO-related messages (e.g., HO REQUIRED, HO REQUEST, HO REQUEST ACK, HO COMMAND, HO CANCEL) are enhanced to carry a plurality of potential target cell IDs. In some specific implementations (e.g., specific implementations related to TS36.423), the source eNB (base station) sends an HO REQUEST message to the target eNB to request resources to be prepared for the handover. In some specific implementations (e.g., specific implementations related to TS36.423), the target eNB sends an HO REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGE message to notify the source eNB about the resources prepared at the target. In some specific implementations (e.g., specific implementations related to TS36.423), the source eNB sends an HO CANCEL message to the target eNB to cancel the ongoing handover.

[0166] In some specific implementations (e.g., specific implementations related to TS 38.423), the source NG-RAN node sends a HO REQUEST message to the target NG-RAN node to request the preparation of resources for handover. In some specific implementations (e.g., specific implementations related to TS 38.423), the target NG-RAN node sends a HO REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGE message to notify the source NG-RAN node about the resources prepared at the target. In some specific implementations (e.g., specific implementations related to TS 38.423), the source NG-RAN node sends a HO CANCEL message to the target NG-RAN node to cancel the ongoing handover.

[0167] In some specific implementations, the enhanced inter-node RRC signaling is to carry additional potential target cells on the same node. In some specific implementations (e.g., specific implementations related to TS 36.331), HandoverPreparationInformation is sent from the source eNB / source RAN to the target eNB or target ng-eNB, and is used to transmit the E-UTRA RRC information used by the target eNB or target ng-eNB during handover preparation, including UE capability information. The HandoverPreparationInformation message can be defined as follows:

[0168]

[0169]

[0170]

[0171]

[0172]

[0173] Which includes the following field descriptions

[0174]

[0175]

[0176] In some specific implementations, the source usually sets ue-ConfigRelease to the version corresponding to the current dedicated radio configuration. However, the source may also consider the common radio resource configuration (e.g., if the UE temporarily continues to expand this part of the configuration in the target PCell that does not support them, interoperability issues will occur).

[0177] The following table can indicate whether each source RAT includes RAT capabilities:

[0178]

[0179]

[0180] In some specific implementations (e.g., specific implementations related to TS 38.331), the HandoverPreparationInformation message is used to transmit NR RRC information used by the target gNB during handover preparation, including UE capability information. This message is also used to transmit information between the CU and the DU. The HandoverPreparationInformation message can be defined as follows:

[0181]

[0182]

[0183]

[0184]

[0185]

[0186]

[0187] The following table indicates whether each source RAT includes RAT capabilities:

[0188] Source RAT NR Capability E-UTRA Capability MR-DC Capability NR includes may include may include E-UTRAN includes may include may include

[0189] The following table indicates which additional IEs are included or not included if an inter-RAT handover is performed from E-UTRA:

[0190]

[0191] Figure 9An exemplary system 900 is shown, which includes interface circuitry 902 (which may include radio frequency (RF) circuitry 904 and baseband circuitry 908 in some embodiments) coupled to each other at least as shown, application circuitry 912, memory / storage 916, display 920, camera 924, sensors 928, and input / output (I / O) interface 932. The application circuitry 912 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The one or more processors may include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). These processors may be coupled to the memory / storage 916 and configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage 916 to enable various applications and / or operating systems to run on the system 900. The interface circuitry 902 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors designed to provide a suitable communication interface for corresponding devices and networking applications. Although the interface circuitry 902 is in Figure 9is shown as having a baseband circuit and an RF circuit, but these components may not be included in a device that does not directly participate in wireless transmission / reception. The baseband circuit 908 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The one or more processors may include a baseband processor. The baseband circuit 908 may process various radio control functions for implementing communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuit. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation, encoding, decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, the baseband circuit 908 may provide communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuit 908 may support communication with E-UTRAN and / or other wireless metropolitan area networks (“WMAN”), wireless local area networks (“WLAN”), or wireless personal area networks (“WPAN”). Embodiments in which the baseband circuit 908 is configured to support radio communication of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuits. In various embodiments, the baseband circuit 908 may include circuitry that operates using signals that are not strictly considered to be at baseband frequencies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuit 908 may include circuitry that operates using signals having an intermediate frequency between the baseband frequency and the radio frequency. The Rf circuit 904 may implement communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuit 904 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc., to facilitate communication with the wireless network. In various embodiments, the RF circuit 904 may include circuitry that operates using signals that are not strictly considered to be at radio frequencies. For example, in some embodiments, the RF circuit 904 may include circuitry that operates using signals having an intermediate frequency between the baseband frequency and the radio frequency. In some embodiments, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 908, the application circuit 912, and / or the memory / storage device 916 may be implemented together on a system-on-chip (SOC). In some embodiments in which the system 900 represents an eNB (e.g., as described throughout this specification), components such as remote radio transceivers, communication transceivers, and control circuits may be implemented in the interface circuit 902 and / or the application circuit 912.

[0192] In embodiments in which the system 900 represents a UE (e.g., as described throughout this specification), components such as configuration circuits, positioning measurement circuits, and / or wireless transceivers may be implemented in the RF circuit 904, the baseband circuit 908, and / or the application circuit 912.

[0193] In embodiments in which the system 900 represents an RRH, control circuits, wireless transceivers, and remote radio transceivers may be implemented in the interface circuit 902 and / or the application circuit 912.

[0194] In an implementation where system 900 represents an LBS server, the control circuit and communication transceiver may be implemented in application circuit 912 and / or interface circuit 902.

[0195] Memory / storage device 916 may be used to load and store data and / or instructions of system 900, for example. The memory / storage device 916 of one implementation may include any combination of suitable volatile memory (e.g., dynamic random access memory (DRAM)) and / or non-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory).

[0196] In various implementations, I / O interface 932 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable a user to interact with system 900 or a peripheral component interface, and the peripheral component interface is designed to enable a peripheral component to interact with system 900. The user interface may include, but is not limited to, a physical keyboard or keypad, a touchpad, a speaker, a microphone, etc. The peripheral component interface may include, but is not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, and a power interface.

[0197] In various implementations, sensor 928 may include one or more sensing devices to determine environmental conditions and / or location information related to system 900. In some implementations, the sensor may include, but is not limited to, a gyroscope sensor, an accelerometer, a proximity sensor, an ambient light sensor, and a positioning unit. The positioning unit may also be part of or interact with baseband circuit 908 and / or RF circuit 904 to communicate with components of a positioning network (e.g., Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites). In various implementations, display 920 may include a display (e.g., a liquid crystal display, a touch screen display, etc.).

[0198] In various implementations, system 900 may be a mobile computing device, such as, but not limited to, a laptop computing device, a tablet computing device, a netbook, a ultrabook, a smart phone, etc. In various implementations, system 900 may have more or fewer components and / or a different architecture.

[0199] It is well known that the use of personally identifiable information should follow privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or government requirements for maintaining user privacy. Specifically, personally identifiable information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of inadvertent or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of authorized use should be clearly explained to users.

[0200] In various specific implementations, the methods described herein can be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination thereof. Additionally, the order of the blocks of the method can be changed, and various elements can be added, reordered, combined, omitted, modified, etc. Various modifications and changes will be apparent to those skilled in the art who benefit from this disclosure. The various specific implementations described herein are intended to be illustrative and not restrictive. Many variations, modifications, additions, and improvements are possible. Thus, multiple examples can be provided for components described herein as a single example. The boundaries between various components, operations, and data repositories are to some extent arbitrary, and specific operations are shown in the context of a particular exemplary configuration. Other allocations of functionality are anticipated and can fall within the scope of the appended claims. Finally, the structure and functionality presented as discrete components in an exemplary configuration can be implemented as a combined structure or component.

[0201] The following terms and definitions may apply to the examples described herein.

[0202] As used herein, the term "circuit" refers to, is part of, or includes the following: hardware components such as electronic circuits, logic circuits, processors (shared, dedicated, or group) and / or memories (shared, dedicated, or group) configured to provide the functionality, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable devices (FPDs) (e.g., field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), structured ASICs, or programmable system-on-chips (SoCs)), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc. In some embodiments, the circuit can execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the functionality. The term "circuit" can also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements and program code for performing the functions of the program code (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system). In these embodiments, the combination of the hardware elements and the program code can be referred to as a particular type of circuit.

[0203] As used herein, the term "processor circuit" refers to, is part of, or includes the following: a circuit capable of sequentially and automatically performing a series of arithmetic or logical operations or recording, storing, and / or transmitting digital data. The term "processor circuit" can refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and / or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating on computer-executable instructions (such as program code, software modules, and / or functional procedures). The terms "application circuit" and / or "baseband circuit" can be considered synonymous with "processor circuit" and can be referred to as "processor circuit".

[0204] As used herein, the term "interface circuit" refers to a circuit that enables information exchange between two or more components or devices, a part of such circuit, or includes such circuit. The term "interface circuit" may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, such as a bus, I / O interface, peripheral component interface, network interface card, etc.

[0205] As used herein, the term "user equipment" or "UE" refers to a device of a remote user that has radio communication capabilities and can describe network resources in a communication network. Additionally, the terms "user equipment" or "UE" may be considered synonymous and may be referred to as a client, mobile phone, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Further, the term "user equipment" or "UE" may include any type of wireless / wired device or any computing device that includes a wireless communication interface.

[0206] As used herein, the term "network element" refers to physical or virtualized equipment and / or infrastructure for providing wired or wireless communication network services. The term "network element" may be considered synonymous with and / or referred to as a networked computer, networked hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, etc.

[0207] As used herein, the term "computer system" refers to any type of interconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or their components. Additionally, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled to each other. Further, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to multiple computer devices and / or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled to each other and are configured to share computing and / or networking resources.

[0208] As used herein, terms such as "appliance", "computer appliance", etc. refer to a computer device or computer system that has program code (e.g., software or firmware) specifically designed to provide specific computing resources. A "virtual appliance" is a virtual machine image to be implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizes or emulates a computer appliance or is otherwise dedicated to providing specific computing resources.

[0209] As used herein, the term "resource" refers to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component within a computing environment, and / or a physical or virtual component within a particular device, such as a computing device, a mechanical device, a memory space, a processor / CPU time and / or processor / CPU utilization, a processor and accelerator load, a hardware time or utilization, a power supply, an input / output operation, a port or network socket, a channel / link allocation, a throughput, a memory utilization, a storage, a network, a database and an application, a workload unit, etc. A "hardware resource" may refer to computing, storage, and / or network resources provided by physical hardware components. A "virtualized resource" may refer to computing, storage, and / or network resources provided by a virtualized infrastructure to applications, devices, systems, etc. The term "network resource" or "communication resource" may refer to a resource accessible by a computing device / system via a communication network. The term "system resource" may refer to any kind of shared entity that provides services and may include computing resources and / or network resources. A system resource may be regarded as a set of coherent functions, network data objects, or services accessible through a server, where such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and can be clearly identified.

[0210] As used herein, the term "channel" refers to any tangible or intangible transmission medium for transmitting data or a data stream. The term "channel" may be synonymous and / or equivalent to "communication channel", "data communication channel", "transmission channel", "data transmission channel", "access channel", "data access channel", "link", "data link", "carrier", "radio frequency carrier", and / or any other similar terms indicating a path or medium through which data is transmitted. Additionally, as used herein, the term "link" refers to a connection for transmitting and receiving information between two devices via a RAT.

[0211] As used herein, terms such as "instantiate", "instantiation", etc. refer to the creation of an instance. An "instance" also refers to a specific occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during the execution of program code.

[0212] The terms "couple", "communicatively couple" and their derivatives are used herein. The term "couple" may mean that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other, may mean that two or more elements are in indirect contact with each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and / or may mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements said to be coupled to each other. The term "directly couple" may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with each other. The term "communicatively couple" may mean that two or more elements can be in contact with each other by means of communication, including through a wire or other interconnect connection, through a wireless communication channel or link, etc.

[0213] The term "information element" refers to a structural element that contains one or more fields. The term "field" refers to the individual contents of an information element, or a data element that contains contents.

[0214] The term "SMTC" refers to the SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration.

[0215] The term "SSB" refers to the SS / PBCH block.

[0216] The term "primary cell" refers to the MCG cell operating on the primary frequency, where the UE either performs the initial connection establishment procedure or initiates the connection re-establishment procedure.

[0217] The term "primary SCG cell" refers to the SCG cell in which the UE performs random access when reconfiguration is performed using the synchronization process for DC operation.

[0218] The term "secondary cell" refers to a cell that provides additional radio resources on top of the special cell of a UE configured with CA.

[0219] The term "secondary cell group" refers to a subset of serving cells that includes the PSCell and zero or more secondary cells for a UE configured with DC.

[0220] The term "serving cell" refers to the primary cell for a UE that is in RRC_CONNECTED and not configured with CA / DC, where there is only one serving cell that includes the primary cell.

[0221] The term "serving cell" refers to a cell group that includes the special cell and all secondary cells for a UE configured with CA / DC and in RRC_CONNECTED.

[0222] The term "special cell" refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell of the SCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term "special cell" refers to the Pcell.

Claims

1. A method, the method comprising: Providing a first message from a source node associated with a first radio access technology (RAT) to a target node associated with a second RAT different from the first RAT, the first message including (i) a plurality of potential target cell identifiers corresponding to a plurality of potential target cells associated with the target node and (ii) one or more RAT-specific parameters for an inter-RAT conditional handover (CHO) from the first RAT to the second RAT; After providing the first message, performing the inter-RAT CHO from the source node to the target node based on the first message; and During the inter-RAT CHO, transmitting a second message from the source node to the target node, the second message including identifiers of two or more target cells that are no longer potential target cells for the inter-RAT CHO, wherein the two or more target cells indicated by the second message are a subset of the plurality of potential target cells associated with the target node.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the providing includes transmitting the first message via an X2 / Xn interface or an S1 / NG interface.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein performing the inter-RAT CHO includes causing the target node to configure one or more selected target cells among the plurality of potential target cells for handover of a user equipment (UE).

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the providing includes: Generating the first message including a radio resource control (RRC) container indicating the plurality of potential target cell identifiers.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the first message includes a handover (HO) request message.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the plurality of potential target cell identifiers are target cell global identifiers.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the source node is a base station.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the method is executed by one or more device processors in a cellular communication network.

9. A method, the method comprising: Receiving, by a target node associated with a first radio access technology (RAT), a first message from a source node associated with a second RAT different from the first RAT, the first message including (i) a plurality of potential target cell identifiers corresponding to a plurality of potential target cells associated with the target node and (ii) one or more RAT-specific parameters for an inter-RAT conditional handover (CHO) from the second RAT to the first RAT; After receiving the first message, performing the inter-RAT CHO from the source node to the target node based on the first message; And During the inter-RAT CHO, a second message is received from the source node, the second message including identifiers of two or more target cells that are no longer potential target cells for the inter-RAT CHO, wherein the two or more target cells indicated by the second message are a subset of the plurality of potential target cells associated with the target node.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the receiving comprises processing the first message including the identifiers of the plurality of potential target cells, wherein the first message is transmitted via an X2 / Xn interface or an S1 / NG interface.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the first message is a handover request.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the handover request includes an additional target cell identifier list field.

13. The method according to claim 9, further comprising transmitting a third message to the source node, wherein the third message indicates one or more target cell identifiers accepted for the inter-RAT CHO.

14. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 13, wherein the plurality of potential target cell identifiers are target cell global identifiers.

15. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 13, wherein the target node is a base station.

16. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 13, wherein the method is executed by one or more device processors in a cellular communication network.

17. An apparatus, the apparatus comprising means for performing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 16.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, the non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 16.

19. An apparatus, comprising: one or more processors; and one or more computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 16.

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