Beam failure report response receiving cell restriction rules

Abstract

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for reporting and responding to beam failure events based on receiving cell restriction rules. An example method, which can be performed by a user equipment (UE), includes detecting an occurrence of a threshold number of beam failures of a connection between the UE and a set of cells; identifying, in response to detecting the occurrence of the threshold number of beam failures, a candidate beam for recovering the connection between the UE and the set of cells; transmitting, to one or more cells of the set of cells, a beam failure recovery (BFR) request including an identification of the candidate beam; receiving, in response to transmitting the BFR request, a BFR response from a cell of the set of cells, wherein the BFR response is received in accordance with a restriction rule; and continuing communication with the set of cells based on the BFR response.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims priority to U.S. Application No. 17 / 096,873, filed November 12, 2020, which claims benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62 / 936,390, entitled “Beam Failure Report Response Receiving Cell Restriction Rule,” filed November 15, 2019, which are both assigned to the assignee hereof and the contents of which are relied upon and incorporated herein by reference in their entirety as if fully set forth below and for all applicable purposes. TECHNICAL FIELD

[0003] Aspects of the present disclosure relate to wireless communications, and more particularly, to techniques for responding to a beam failure report based on a cell restriction rule. BACKGROUND

[0004] Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, etc. These wireless communication systems can employ multiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power, etc.). Examples of such multiple-access technologies include 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, 3GPP LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) systems, code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems, to name a few.

[0005] These multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and even global level. New radio (e.g., 5G NR) is an example of an emerging telecommunication standard. NR is a set of enhancements to the LTE mobile standard promulgated by 3GPP. NR is designed to better support mobile broadband Internet access by improving spectral efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum, and better integrating with other open standards using OFDMA with a cyclic prefix (CP) on the downlink (DL) and on the uplink (UL). To these ends, NR supports beamforming, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, and carrier aggregation.

[0006] However, as the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, there exists a need for further improvements in NR and LTE technology. Preferably, these improvements should be applicable to other multi-access technologies and the telecommunication standards that employ these technologies. SUMMARY

[0007] The systems, methods, and devices of the disclosure each have several aspects, no single one of which is solely responsible for its desirable attributes. Without limiting the scope of this disclosure as expressed by the claims which follow, some features will now be discussed briefly. The features described herein are meant to be examples of implementations and are not meant to be limiting as to the scope of the disclosure. One skilled in the art will recognize that the features described herein can be combined with each other in various combinations without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0008] Certain aspects of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in a method of wireless communication by a user equipment (UE). The method generally includes detecting an occurrence of a threshold number of beam failures of a connection between the UE and a set of cells, identifying a candidate beam for recovering the connection between the UE and the set of cells in response to detecting the occurrence of the threshold number of beam failures, transmitting a beam failure recovery (BFR) request to one or more cells of the set of cells, the BFR request including an identification of the candidate beam, receiving a BFR response from a cell of the set of cells in response to transmitting the BFR request, wherein the BFR response is received in accordance with a restriction rule, and continuing communication with the set of cells based on the BFR response.

[0009] Certain aspects of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in a method of wireless communication by a network entity. The method generally includes receiving a beam failure recovery (BFR) request from a user equipment (UE), the BFR request including an identification of a candidate beam, generating a BFR response based on the identified candidate beam, transmitting the BFR response to the UE based on a restriction rule, and communicating with the UE based on the identified candidate beam.

[0010] Aspects of the disclosure provide apparatuses, devices, processors, and computer-readable media for performing the methods described herein.

[0011] Aspects of the disclosure provide apparatuses, devices, processors, and computer-readable media for performing techniques and methods that can be complementary to operations performed by UEs (e.g., BSs) described herein.

[0012] To achieve the foregoing and related objectives, these one or more aspects include the features fully described below and specifically pointed out in the claims. Certain illustrative features of these one or more aspects are set forth in detail in the following description and drawings. However, these features merely indicate a few of the various ways in which the principles of these aspects may be employed. Attached Figure Description

[0013] To gain a more detailed understanding of the features described above in this disclosure, reference can be made to a more specific description of the above-briefly summarized aspects, some of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. However, it should be noted that the drawings illustrate only certain typical aspects of this disclosure and should not be considered as limiting its scope, as other equivalent aspects are permissible in this description.

[0014] Figure 1 It is a schematic explanation based on some aspects of wireless communication systems.

[0015] Figure 2 It is a conceptual explanation based on examples of radio access networks from various aspects.

[0016] Figure 3 It is a block diagram illustrating a wireless communication system that supports multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication.

[0017] Figure 4 This is a schematic illustration of the organization of radio resources in an air interface utilizing orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) according to some embodiments.

[0018] Figure 5 This is a schematic illustration of an OFDM air interface designed using scalable parameters according to some aspects of this disclosure.

[0019] Figure 6 This is a block diagram that conceptually illustrates an example of a hardware implementation of a scheduling entity according to some aspects of this disclosure.

[0020] Figure 7 This is a block diagram that conceptually illustrates an example of a hardware implementation of a user equipment (UE) according to some aspects of this disclosure.

[0021] Figure 8 This is a flowchart illustrating an example operation of a UE performing wireless communication according to certain aspects of this disclosure.

[0022] Figure 9 This is a flowchart illustrating example operations for wireless communication by a network entity according to certain aspects of this disclosure.

[0023] Figure 10 This is a call flow diagram illustrating messages exchanged between a UE and a network entity for beam fault reporting, according to certain aspects of this disclosure.

[0024] Figure 11 The description of various aspects of this disclosure includes communication devices that may include various components configured to perform operations for the various techniques disclosed herein.

[0025] Figure 12 The description of various aspects of this disclosure includes communication devices that may include various components configured to perform operations for the various techniques disclosed herein.

[0026] To facilitate understanding, the same reference numerals are used wherever possible to designate common elements shared by all figures. Elements disclosed in one aspect are conceived to be usefully applied in other aspects without specific citation. Detailed Implementation

[0027] This disclosure provides apparatus, methods, processing systems, and computer-readable media for beam fault reporting and response based on receive cellular restriction rules.

[0028] The following description provides examples of beam fault reporting and response based on receive cell restriction rules in a communication system, and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or examples set forth in the claims. Changes may be made to the function and arrangement of the elements discussed without departing from the scope of this disclosure. Various procedures or components may be appropriately omitted, substituted, or added to various examples. For example, the described methods may be performed in a different order than described, and various steps may be added, omitted, or combined. Moreover, features described with reference to some examples may be combined in others. For example, any number of aspects set forth herein may be used to implement an apparatus or practice. Furthermore, the scope of this disclosure is intended to cover such apparatuses or methods practiced using additional structures, functionalities, or structures and functionalities that complement or supplement the various aspects of this disclosure set forth herein. It should be understood that any aspect of this disclosure disclosed herein may be implemented by one or more elements of the claims. The term “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any aspect described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as superior to or overriding other aspects.

[0029] Generally, any number of wireless networks can be deployed in a given geographical area. Each wireless network can support a specific Radio Access Technology (RAT) and can operate on one or more frequencies. A RAT may also be referred to as a radio technology, air interface, etc. A frequency may also be referred to as a carrier, subcarrier, frequency channel, frequency modulation, subband, etc. Each frequency can support a single RAT in a given geographical area to avoid interference between wireless networks using different RATs.

[0030] The techniques described herein can be used in a variety of wireless networks and radio technologies. While the aspects may be described herein using terms commonly associated with 3G, 4G, and / or newer radio technologies (e.g., 5G NR), the aspects of this disclosure can be applied to communication systems based on other generations.

[0031] NR access supports a variety of wireless communication services, such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) targeting wide bandwidth, millimeter wave (mmW), massive machine-type communications (mMTC) targeting non-backward-compatible MTC technology, and / or mission-critical communications targeting ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC). These services may include latency and reliability requirements. These services may also have different transmission time intervals (TTIs) to meet corresponding quality of service (QoS) requirements. Furthermore, these services can coexist in the same subframe.

[0032] The electromagnetic spectrum is typically subdivided into various classes, bands, channels, etc., based on frequency / wavelength. In 5G NR, two initial operating bands have been designated as frequency ranges FR1 (410MHz–7.125GHz) and FR2 (24.25GHz–52.6GHz). The frequencies between FR1 and FR2 are generally referred to as the mid-band frequencies. Although a portion of FR1 is greater than 6GHz, FR1 is often (interchangeably) referred to as the “sub-6GHz band” in various documents and articles. Similar naming issues sometimes arise regarding FR2, although it is different from the Very High Frequency (EHF) band (30GHz–300GHz) designated as the “millimeter wave” band by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), FR2 is often (interchangeably) referred to as the “millimeter wave” band in various documents and articles.

[0033] In light of the foregoing, unless otherwise stated, it should be understood that, as used herein, the term "sub-6GHz" and the like can broadly refer to frequencies less than 6GHz, within FR1, or including intermediate frequency band frequencies. Furthermore, unless otherwise stated, it should be understood that, as used herein, the term "millimeter wave" and the like can broadly refer to frequencies that can include intermediate frequency band frequencies, within FR2, or within the EHF band.

[0034] NR supports beamforming and the beam direction can be dynamically configured. It also supports MIMO transmission with precoding. MIMO configuration in DL supports up to 8 transmit antennas (with up to 8 streams in multilayer DL transmission) and up to 2 streams per UE. Multilayer transmission with up to 2 streams per UE is supported. Up to 8 serving cells can be used to support aggregation of multiple cells.

[0035] RAT: Radio Access Technology. A type of technology or communication standard used for radio access and communication over a wireless air interface. Some examples of RATs include GSM, UTRA, E-UTRA (LTE), Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.

[0036] NR: New Radio. Generally refers to 5G technology and new radio access technologies being defined and standardized by 3GPP in Release 15.

[0037] Legacy compatibility: can refer to the ability of a 5G network to provide connectivity to previous 5G devices, and the ability of 5G devices to obtain connectivity to previous 5G networks.

[0038] Multi-mode devices: Devices that can provide simultaneous connectivity across different networks, such as 5G, 4G, and Wi-Fi networks.

[0039] CA: Carrier Aggregation. 5G networks can provide aggregation of all sub-6GHz carriers, higher than 6GHz carriers, mmWave carriers, etc., controlled by a single integrated MAC layer.

[0040] MR-AN: Multi-RAT Radio Access Network. A single radio access network can provide one or more cells for each of multiple RATs and can support mobility and aggregation between and within RATs.

[0041] MR-CN: Multi-RAT Core Network. A single shared core network can support multiple RATs (e.g., 5G, LTE, and WLAN). In some examples, a single 5G control plane can support the user plane of multiple RATs by utilizing software-defined networking (SDN) technology in the core network.

[0042] SDN: Software-Defined Networking. A dynamic, adaptive network architecture that can be managed through abstractions of the network's lower-level functions, making the control of network functions directly programmable.

[0043] SDR: Software-Defined Radio. A dynamic, adaptive radio architecture in which many signal processing components of a radio (such as amplifiers, modulators, demodulators, etc.) are replaced by software functions. SDR simply enables a single radio device to communicate using different and separate waveforms and RATs by reprogramming it.

[0044] mm wave: Millimeter wave. Generally refers to the high-frequency band above 24 GHz, which can provide a very large bandwidth.

[0045] Beamforming: Directional signal transmission or reception. For beamforming transmissions, the amplitude and phase of each antenna in an antenna array can be pre-coded or controlled to create desired (e.g., directional) patterns of constructive and destructive interference in the wavefront.

[0046] MIMO: Multiple-Input Multiple-Output. MIMO is a multi-antenna technique that utilizes multipath signal propagation to exponentially increase the information carrying capacity of a wireless link by transmitting multiple simultaneous streams using multiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver. At the multi-antenna transmitter, a suitable precoding algorithm (scaling the amplitude and phase of the respective streams) is applied (in some examples, based on known channel state information). At the multi-antenna receiver, the different spatial signatures of the respective streams (and in some examples, known channel state information) enable the separation of these streams from one another.

[0047] In single-user MIMO, the transmitter sends one or more streams to the same receiver, thereby taking advantage of the capacity gain associated with the use of multiple Tx, Rx antennas in a scattering-rich environment where channel variations can be tracked.

[0048] The receiver can track these channel changes and provide corresponding feedback to the transmitter. This feedback may include channel quality information (CQI), the number of preferred data streams (e.g., rate control, rank indicators (RI)), and the precoding matrix index (PMI).

[0049] Massive MIMO: MIMO systems with a very large number of antennas (e.g., arrays larger than 8x8).

[0050] MU-MIMO: A multi-antenna technology in which base stations communicating with a large number of UEs can utilize multipath signal propagation to increase overall network capacity by increasing throughput and spectral efficiency and reducing the required transmission energy.

[0051] Transmitters can attempt to increase capacity by simultaneously using multiple transmit antennas and transmitting to multiple users using the same allocated time-frequency resources. Receivers can transmit feedback including a quantized version of the channel, allowing the transmitter to schedule receivers with good channel spacing. The transmitted data is pre-coded to maximize user throughput and minimize inter-user interference.

[0052] AS: Access Layer. A functional group consisting of the parts of the radio access network and the parts of the UE, and the access technology-specific protocols between these parts (i.e., the specific physical medium between the UE and the radio access network used to carry information).

[0053] NAS: Non-Access Layer. Protocols between the UE and the core network that are not terminated in the radio access network.

[0054] RAB: Radio Access Bearer. A service provided by the access layer to non-access layers for transmitting user information between the UE and the core network.

[0055] Network slicing: Wireless communication networks can be divided into multiple Virtual Service Networks (VSNs) or network slices, which are configured separately to better suit the needs of different types of services. Some wireless communication networks can be separated, for example, according to eMBB, IoT, and URLLC services.

[0056] eMBB: Enhanced Mobile Broadband. Generally, eMBB refers to the continuous advancements in existing broadband wireless communication technologies, such as LTE. eMBB provides (generally continuously) increased data rates and network capacity.

[0057] IoT: Internet of Things. Generally speaking, this refers to the convergence of several technologies with different use cases within a single shared infrastructure. Much of the discussion surrounding IoT focuses on machine-type communication (MTC) devices.

[0058] URLLC: Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication. Sometimes equivalently referred to as mission-critical communication. Reliability refers to the probability of successfully transmitting a given number of bytes within 1 ms under given channel quality. Ultra-reliability refers to high target reliability, such as a packet success rate greater than 99.999%. Latency refers to the time taken to successfully deliver application layer packets or messages. Low latency refers to low target latency, such as 1 ms or even 0.5 ms (in contrast, the target for eMBB could be 4 ms).

[0059] MTC: Machine-Type Communication. A form of data communication involving one or more entities that does not necessarily require human interaction. Optimization of MTC services differs from human-to-human communication because MTC services generally involve different market scenarios, data communication, lower costs and effort, a potentially very large number of communication terminals, and largely low call volume per terminal. (See 3GPP TS22.368.)

[0060] Full-duplex: A point-to-point communication link in which both endpoints can communicate with each other in both directions. Full-duplex means that both endpoints can communicate with each other simultaneously. Half-duplex means that only one endpoint can send information to the other endpoint at a time. In wireless links, full-duplex channels generally rely on physical isolation and interference cancellation techniques between transmitters and receivers. Full-duplex simulation is usually achieved by using Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) or Time Division Duplex (TDD) for wireless links. In FDD, the transmitter and receiver at each endpoint operate at different carrier frequencies. In TDD, transmissions in different directions on a given channel are separated using time division multiplexing. That is, sometimes the channel is dedicated to transmission in one direction, and sometimes the channel is dedicated to transmission in the other direction.

[0061] OFDM: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing. The air interface can be defined according to a two-dimensional grid of resource elements, which is defined by separating resources in frequency by defining a set of closely spaced frequency moduli or subcarriers, and in time by defining symbol sequences with a given duration. Inter-symbol interference can be eliminated by setting the intervals between each moduli based on the symbol rate. OFDM channels provide high data rates by distributing data streams across multiple subcarriers in a parallel manner.

[0062] CP: Cyclic Prefix. Multipath environments degrade the orthogonality between subcarriers because symbols received from reflected or delayed paths may overlap into subsequent symbols. CP addresses this by copying the tail of each symbol and pasting it to the front of the OFDM symbol. In this way, any multipath components from the previous symbol fall within the effective guard time at the beginning of each symbol and can be discarded.

[0063] Scalable parameter design: In OFDM, to maintain the orthogonality of subcarriers or frequency modulations, the subcarrier spacing is equal to the reciprocal of the symbol period. Scalable parameter design refers to the network's ability to select different subcarrier spacings and, correspondingly, a suitable symbol period for each spacing. The symbol period should be short enough that the channel does not change significantly within each period, in order to reserve orthogonality and limit inter-subcarrier interference.

[0064] RSMA: Resource Extended Multiple Access. A non-orthogonal multiple access scheme typically characterized by unlicensed small data bursts in the uplink, where signaling overhead is a critical issue, for example, in IoT.

[0065] LBT: Listen Before You Speak. An unscheduled, contention-based multiple access technique in which a device monitors or listens to a carrier to determine its availability before transmission can take place on it. Some LBT techniques utilize signaling such as Request to Send (RTS) and Clear to Send (CTS) to reserve a channel for a given duration.

[0066] D2D: Device to Device. Also known as Point-to-Point (P2P). D2D uses direct links between neighboring devices (i.e., without passing through base stations, relay stations, or other nodes) to discover and communicate with neighboring devices. D2D enables mesh networking and device-to-network relay functionality. Some examples of D2D technologies include Bluetooth pairing, Wi-Fi Direct, Miracast, and LTE-D Direct.

[0067] IAB: Integrated Access and Backhaul. Some base stations can be configured as IAB nodes, where radio spectrum can be used for both access links (i.e., radio links with the UE) and backhaul links. This approach is sometimes referred to as radio self-backhaul. By using radio self-backhaul (instead of requiring each new base station deployment to have its own hardwired backhaul connection), radio spectrum used for communication between the base station and the UE can be utilized for backhaul communication, thus enabling the rapid and easy deployment of highly dense small cell networks.

[0068] QoS: Quality of Service. The aggregate effect of service performance on user satisfaction with a service. QoS is characterized by a combination of performance factors applicable to all services, such as service operability performance; service accessibility performance; service maintainability performance; service integrity performance; and other factors that vary from service to service.

[0069] Blockchain: A distributed database and transaction processing technology with certain characteristics that provide secure and reliable transaction records in a way that is highly resistant to fraud or other attacks. When a transaction occurs, many copies of the transaction record are sent to other participants in the network, each of whom simultaneously confirms the transaction through mathematical calculations. Blocks are accepted based on these records through a scoring algorithm. A block is a group or batch of transaction records, including the timestamp and hash of the previous block, thus linking the individual blocks together. This chain of blocks forms a blockchain. In wireless communication networks, especially those with a large number of IoT devices, blockchain can improve the security and trustworthiness of any type of transaction or instruction between devices.

[0070] The various concepts presented throughout this disclosure can be implemented across a wide range of telecommunications systems, network architectures, and communication standards. Now refer to... Figure 1 Various aspects of this disclosure are explained with reference to a wireless communication system 100, by way of illustrative example and not limitation. The wireless communication system 100 includes three interaction domains: a core network 102, a radio access network (RAN) 104, and a user equipment (UE) 106. The wireless communication system 100 enables the UE 106 to perform data communication with an external data network 110 (such as, but not limited to, the Internet).

[0071] RAN 104 can implement any suitable one or more wireless communication technologies to provide radio access to UE 106. As an example, RAN 104 can operate according to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) New Radio (NR) specification (commonly referred to as 5G). As another example, RAN 104 can operate under a hybrid of 5G NR and the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (eUTRAN) standard (commonly referred to as LTE). 3GPP refers to this hybrid RAN as Next Generation RAN, or NG-RAN. Of course, many other examples can be utilized within the scope of this disclosure.

[0072] As explained, RAN 104 includes multiple base stations 108. Broadly speaking, a base station is a network element in a radio access network responsible for radio transmission and reception to or from a UE in one or more cells. In different technologies, standards, or contexts, a base station may be referred to by those skilled in the art as a base transceiver station (BTS), radio base station, radio transceiver, transceiver function, basic service set (BSS), extended service set (ESS), access point (AP), B-node (NB), evolved B-node (eNB), g-B-node (gNB), or some other suitable term.

[0073] Radio access network 104 is further described as supporting wireless communication for multiple mobile devices. In 3GPP standards, a mobile device may be referred to as User Equipment (UE), but may also be referred to by those skilled in the art as a mobile station (MS), subscriber station, mobile unit, subscriber unit, radio unit, remote unit, mobile device, radio device, wireless communication device, remote device, mobile subscriber station, access terminal (AT), mobile terminal, radio terminal, remote terminal, handheld device, terminal, user agent, mobile client, client, or any other suitable term. A UE may be a device (e.g., a mobile device) that provides users with access to network services.

[0074] In this document, a “mobile” device does not necessarily need to be mobile and may be stationary. The term mobile device or mobile equipment refers to a wide variety of devices and technologies. A UE may include several hardware structural components that are sized, shaped, and arranged to facilitate communication; such components may include antennas, antenna arrays, RF chains, amplifiers, one or more processors, etc., electrically coupled to each other. For example, some non-limiting examples of mobile devices include mobile devices, cellular phones, smartphones, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, laptops, personal computers (PCs), laptops, netbooks, smartbooks, tablets, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and a wide variety of embedded systems, such as those corresponding to the “Internet of Things” (IoT). Additionally, mobile devices can be automobiles or other transportation vehicles, remote sensors or actuators, robots or robotic equipment, satellite radios, Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, object tracking devices, drones, multi-rotor aircraft, quadcopters, remote control devices, consumer and / or wearable devices (such as glasses), wearable cameras, virtual reality devices, smartwatches, health or fitness trackers, digital audio players (e.g., MP3 players), cameras, game consoles, etc. Mobile devices can also be digital home or smart home devices, such as home audio, video and / or multimedia equipment, appliances, vending machines, smart lighting equipment, home security systems, smart meters, etc. Mobile devices can also be smart energy devices, security devices, solar panels or solar arrays, municipal infrastructure equipment controlling electricity, lighting, water, etc. (e.g., smart grids); industrial automation and enterprise equipment; logistics controllers; agricultural equipment; military defense equipment, vehicles, aircraft, ships, and weapons, etc. Furthermore, mobile devices can provide connected or telemedicine support, such as remote healthcare. Remote healthcare devices may include remote healthcare monitoring devices and remote healthcare supervision devices, whose communications may be given priority access, for example, in the form of priority access for critical service data transmission and / or relevant QoS for critical service data transmission, or priority access over other types of information.

[0075] Wireless communication between RAN 104 and UE 106 can be described as utilizing an air interface. Transmissions over the air interface from a base station (e.g., base station 108) to one or more UEs (e.g., UE 106) can be referred to as downlink (DL) transmissions. According to certain aspects of this disclosure, the term downlink can refer to point-to-multipoint transmissions originating at a scheduling entity (further described below; e.g., base station 108). Another way to describe this scheme is to use the term broadcast channel multiplexing. Transmissions from a UE (e.g., UE 106) to a base station (e.g., base station 108) can be referred to as uplink (UL) transmissions. According to a further aspect of this disclosure, the term uplink can refer to point-to-point transmissions originating at a scheduled entity (further described below; e.g., UE 106).

[0076] In some examples, access to the air interface can be scheduled, where a scheduling entity (e.g., base station 108) allocates resources for communication among some or all of the equipment and apparatus within its service area or cell. Within this disclosure, as further discussed below, the scheduling entity may be responsible for scheduling, assigning, reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one or more scheduled entities. That is, for scheduled communication, UE 106 (which may be a scheduled entity) may utilize resources allocated by scheduling entity 108.

[0077] Base station 108 is not the only entity that can be used as a scheduling entity. That is, in some examples, a UE can be used as a scheduling entity to schedule resources for one or more scheduled entities (e.g., one or more other UEs).

[0078] like Figure 1 As explained, scheduling entity 108 may broadcast downlink traffic 112 to one or more scheduled entities 106. Broadly speaking, scheduling entity 108 is a node or device responsible for scheduling traffic (including downlink traffic 112 and, in some examples, uplink traffic 116 from one or more scheduled entities 106 to scheduling entity 108) in a wireless communication network. On the other hand, scheduled entity 106 is a node or device that receives downlink control information 114 (including, but not limited to, scheduling information (e.g., permission), synchronization or timing information), or other control information from another entity in the wireless communication network (such as scheduling entity 108).

[0079] Generally, base station 108 may include a backhaul interface for communicating with the backhaul section 120 of a wireless communication system. Backhaul 120 provides a link between base station 108 and core network 102. Furthermore, in some examples, the backhaul network provides interconnection between the respective base stations 108. Various types of backhaul interfaces can be employed, such as a direct physical connection using any suitable transport network, a virtual network, etc.

[0080] Core network 102 may be part of wireless communication system 100 and may be independent of the radio access technology used in RAN 104. In some examples, core network 102 may be configured according to 5G standards (e.g., 5GC). In other examples, core network 102 may be configured according to 4G evolved packet core (EPC), or any other suitable standard or configuration.

[0081] Now refer to Figure 2 The illustrative explanation of RAN 200 is provided as an example, not a limitation. In some examples, RAN 200 may be used in conjunction with the RAN 200 described above and in [the context of other examples]. Figure 1 The same applies to RAN 104 as explained in the text. The geographical area covered by RAN 200 can be divided into cellular areas (cells), which can be uniquely identified by the user equipment (UE) based on an identifier broadcast from an access point or base station. Figure 2 Macrocells 202, 204, and 206, and small cell 208, are described, each of which may include one or more sectors (not shown). A sector is a sub-area of ​​a cell. All sectors within a cell are served by the same base station. Radio links within a sector may be identified by a single logical identifier belonging to that sector. In a cell divided into sectors, multiple sectors within the cell may be formed by an antenna array, where each antenna is responsible for communication with UEs within a portion of the cell.

[0082] exist Figure 2 In the illustration, two base stations 210 and 212 are shown in cells 202 and 204; and a third base station 214 is shown as a remote radio head (RRH) 216 controlling cell 206. That is, the base stations may have integrated antennas, or they may be connected to the antenna or RRH via a feed cable. In the illustrated example, cells 202, 204, and 216 may be referred to as macrocells because base stations 210, 212, and 214 support cells with large sizes. Furthermore, base station 218 is shown in a small cell 208 (e.g., microcell, picocell, femtocell, home base station, home B-node, home evolved B-node, etc.), which may overlap with one or more macrocells. In this example, cell 208 may be referred to as a small cell because base station 218 supports cells with relatively small sizes. Cell size settings can be determined based on system design and component constraints.

[0083] To understand, radio access network 200 may include any number of radio base stations and cells. Furthermore, relay nodes may be deployed to extend the size or coverage area of ​​a given cell. Base stations 210, 212, 214, and 218 provide radio access points to the core network for any number of mobile devices. In some examples, base stations 210, 212, 214, and / or 218 may be used in conjunction with those described above and in… Figure 1 The base station / scheduling entity 108 described in the Chinese explanation is the same.

[0084] Figure 2 Further includes a quadcopter or drone 220, which can be configured to be used as a base station. That is, in some examples, the cell may not be stationary, and the geographical area of ​​the cell may move depending on the location of the mobile base station (such as the quadcopter 220).

[0085] Within RAN 200, a cell may include UEs capable of communicating with one or more sectors of each cell. Furthermore, each base station 210, 212, 214, 218, and 220 may be configured to provide all UEs in the respective cell to the core network 102 (see [link to core network 102]). Figure 1 Access points. For example, UEs 222 and 224 may communicate with base station 210; UEs 226 and 228 may communicate with base station 212; UEs 230 and 232 may communicate with base station 214 via RRH 216; UE 234 may communicate with base station 218; and UE 236 may communicate with mobile base station 220. In some examples, UEs 222, 224, 226, 228, 230, 232, 234, 236, 238, 240 and / or 242 may communicate with the access points described above and in... Figure 1 The UE / scheduled entity 106 described in the text is the same.

[0086] In some examples, a mobile network node (e.g., quadcopter 220) can be configured to act as a UE. For example, quadcopter 220 can operate within cell 202 by communicating with base station 210.

[0087] In a further aspect of RAN 200, sidelink signals can be used between UEs without relying on scheduling or control information from a base station. For example, two or more UEs (e.g., UEs 226 and 228) can communicate with each other using peer-to-peer (P2P) or sidelink signal 227 without relaying the communication through a base station (e.g., base station 212). In a further example, UE 238 is described as communicating with UEs 240 and 242. Here, UE 238 can act as a scheduling entity or a primary sidelink device, and UEs 240 and 242 can act as scheduled entities or non-primary (e.g., secondary) sidelink devices. In yet another example, the UE can act as a scheduling entity in a device-to-device (D2D), peer-to-peer (P2P), or vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) network, and / or a mesh network. In a mesh network example, UEs 240 and 242 can optionally communicate directly with each other in addition to communicating with scheduling entity 238. Thus, in a wireless communication system with scheduled access to time-frequency resources and with cellular, P2P, or mesh configurations, a scheduling entity and one or more scheduled entities can communicate using the scheduled resources.

[0088] In the radio access network 200, the ability of a UE to communicate independently of its location while on the move is referred to as mobility. The various physical channels between the UE and the radio access network are generally defined within the Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF, not explained). Figure 1 The AMF is established, maintained, and released under the control of the core network 102 (part of the core network). The AMF may include the Security Context Management Function (SCMF) for managing the security contexts of both the control plane and user plane functionalities, and the Security Anchor Function (SEAF) for performing authentication.

[0089] In various implementations, the air interface in the radio access network 200 may utilize licensed spectrum, unlicensed spectrum, or shared spectrum. Licensed spectrum typically provides exclusive use of a portion of the spectrum by a mobile network operator purchasing a license from a government regulatory agency. Unlicensed spectrum provides shared use of a portion of the spectrum without a government-granted license. While some technical rules generally still need to be followed to access unlicensed spectrum, access can be obtained by any operator or device. Shared spectrum may fall between licensed and unlicensed spectrum, where technical rules or restrictions may be required to access the spectrum, but the spectrum may still be shared by multiple operators and / or multiple RATs. For example, a licensee of a portion of licensed spectrum may provide Licensed Shared Access (LSA) to share that spectrum with other parties, for example, by utilizing conditions determined by the appropriate licensee.

[0090] The air interface in the radio access network 200 can utilize one or more duplex algorithms. Duplex refers to a point-to-point communication link where both endpoints can communicate with each other in both directions. Full-duplex means that both endpoints can communicate with each other simultaneously. Half-duplex means that only one endpoint can send information to the other endpoint at a time. In a wireless link, a full-duplex channel generally relies on physical isolation between the transmitter and receiver, and appropriate interference cancellation techniques. Full-duplex simulation for wireless links is typically achieved using Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) or Time Division Duplex (TDD). In FDD, transmissions in different directions operate at different carrier frequencies. In TDD, transmissions in different directions on a given channel are separated using time division multiplexing. That is, at some times, the channel is dedicated to transmissions in one direction, and at other times, the channel is dedicated to transmissions in the other direction, where the direction can change very rapidly, for example, several times per time slot.

[0091] In some aspects of this disclosure, the scheduling entity and / or the scheduled entity can be configured for beamforming and / or multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques. Figure 3 An example of a MIMO-enabled wireless communication system 300 has been described. In the MIMO system, transmitter 302 includes multiple transmit antennas 304 (e.g., N transmit antennas), and receiver 306 includes multiple receive antennas 308 (e.g., M receive antennas). Thus, there are N×M signal paths 308 from the transmit antennas 304 to the receive antennas 310. Each of transmitter 302 and receiver 306 can be implemented, for example, in scheduling entity 108, scheduled entity 106, or any other suitable wireless communication device.

[0092] The use of such multi-antenna techniques enables wireless communication systems to utilize the spatial domain to support spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and transmit diversity. Spatial multiplexing can be used to simultaneously transmit different data streams (also known as layers) on the same time-frequency resources. These data streams can be transmitted to a single UE to increase the data rate or to multiple UEs to increase the overall system capacity, the latter being known as multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO). This is achieved by spatially precoding each data stream (i.e., multiplying these data streams by different weights and phase shifts) and then transmitting each spatially precoded stream over multiple transmit antennas on the downlink. The spatially precoded data streams arrive at the UE(s) with different spatial signatures, which allow each UE to recover one or more data streams intended for that UE. On the uplink, each UE transmits spatially precoded data streams, which allows the base station to identify the source of each spatially precoded data stream.

[0093] The number of data streams or layers corresponds to the transmission rank. Generally, the rank of a MIMO system 300 is limited by the lower of the number of transmit or receive antennas 304 or 308. Additionally, channel conditions at the UE and other considerations (such as available resources at the base station) can also affect the transmission rank. For example, the rank assigned to a particular UE on the downlink (and therefore the number of data streams) can be determined based on a rank indicator (RI) transmitted from that UE to the base station. The RI can be determined based on the antenna configuration (e.g., the number of transmit and receive antennas) and the measured signal-to-interference-noise ratio (SINR) on each receive antenna. The RI can indicate, for example, the number of layers that can be supported under the current channel conditions. The base station can use the RI along with resource information (e.g., available resources and the amount of data to be scheduled for the UE) to assign a transmission rank to the UE.

[0094] In a Time Division Duplex (TDD) system, UL and DL are reciprocal, with each using different time slots of the same frequency bandwidth. Therefore, in a TDD system, the base station can assign a rank for DL ​​MIMO transmission based on UL SINR measurements (e.g., based on a probe reference signal (SRS) or other pilot signal transmitted from the UE). Based on the assigned rank, the base station can then transmit a CSI-RS using a separate C-RS sequence for each layer to provide multi-layer channel estimation. According to this CSI-RS, the UE can measure channel quality across layers and resource blocks and feed back CQI and RI values ​​to the base station for use when updating rank and assigning REs for future downlink transmissions.

[0095] In the simplest case, such as Figure 3 As shown, rank-2 spatial multiplexing transmission on a 2x2 MIMO antenna configuration will transmit one data stream from each transmit antenna 304. Each data stream arrives at each receive antenna 310 along a different signal path 308. Receiver 306 can then reconstruct these data streams using the signals received from each receive antenna 308.

[0096] The air interface in the radio access network 200 can utilize one or more multiplexing and multiple access algorithms to enable simultaneous communication between various devices. For example, the 5G NR specification utilizes Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) with a cyclic prefix (CP) to provide multiple access for UL transmissions from UEs 222 and 224 to base station 210, and to provide multiplexing for DL ​​transmissions from base station 210 to one or more UEs 222 and 224. Additionally, for UL transmissions, the 5G NR specification provides support for Discrete Fourier Transform Extended OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) with CP (also known as Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA)). However, within the scope of this disclosure, multiplexing and multiple access are not limited to the above schemes and can be provided using Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Sparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA), Resource Extended Multiple Access (RSMA), or other suitable multiple access schemes. In addition, multiplexing of DL transmission from base station 210 to UEs 222 and 224 can be provided using time division multiplexing (TDM), code division multiplexing (CDM), frequency division multiplexing (FDM), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), sparse code multiplexing (SCM), or other suitable multiplexing schemes.

[0097] Reference Figure 4 The various aspects of this disclosure are illustrated using OFDM waveforms. Those skilled in the art will understand that the various aspects of this disclosure can be applied to DFT-s-OFDMA waveforms in substantially the same manner as described below. That is, while some examples of this disclosure may focus on OFDM links for clarity, it should be understood that the same principles can also be applied to DFT-s-OFDMA waveforms.

[0098] Within this disclosure, a frame refers to a 10ms duration used for wireless transmission, where each frame comprises 10 subframes, each 1ms in length. On a given carrier, there may exist a set of frames in the UL and another set of frames in the DL. Referring now to... Figure 4 An expanded view of an exemplary DL subframe 402 is illustrated, showing an OFDM resource grid 404. However, as those skilled in the art will readily appreciate, the PHY transmission structure for any particular application may vary from the example described herein depending on any number of factors. Here, time is in the horizontal direction in units of OFDM symbols; while frequency is in the vertical direction in units of subcarriers or frequency modulations.

[0099] Resource grid 404 can be used to schematically represent time-frequency resources for a given antenna port. That is, in a MIMO implementation with multiple antenna ports available, there can be multiple corresponding resource grids 404 available for communication. Resource grid 404 is divided into multiple resource elements (REs) 406. An RE (which is 1 subcarrier × 1 symbol) is the smallest discrete part of the time-frequency grid and contains a single complex value representing data from a physical channel or signal. Depending on the modulation used in a particular implementation, each RE may represent one or more information bits. In some examples, an RE block may be referred to as a physical resource block (PRB) or more simply as a resource block (RB) 408, which contains any suitable number of coherent subcarriers in the frequency domain. In one example, an RB may include 12 subcarriers, the number of which is independent of the parameter design used. In some examples, depending on the parameter design, an RB may include any suitable number of coherent OFDM symbols in the time domain. Within this disclosure, it is assumed that a single RB (such as RB 408) corresponds exactly to a single communication direction (transmission or reception for a given device).

[0100] UEs typically utilize only a subset of resource grid 404. An RB can be the smallest unit of resource that can be allocated to a UE. Therefore, the more RBs scheduled for a UE and the more sophisticated the modulation scheme selected for the air interface, the higher the UE's data rate.

[0101] In this explanation, RB 408 is shown to occupy less than the entire bandwidth of subframe 402, where some subcarriers above and below RB 408 are explained. In a given implementation, subframe 402 may have bandwidth corresponding to any number of one or more RB 408s. Furthermore, in this explanation, RB 408 is shown to occupy less than the entire duration of subframe 402, but this is merely one possible example.

[0102] Each subframe 402 (e.g., a 1ms subframe) may include one or more adjacent time slots. As an illustrative example, in Figure 4 In the example shown, a subframe 402 includes four time slots 410. In some examples, time slots may be defined based on a specified number of OFDM symbols having a given cyclic prefix (CP) length. For example, a time slot may include 7 or 14 OFDM symbols with a nominal CP. Additional examples may include mini-time slots with shorter durations (e.g., 1, 2, 4, or 7 OFDM symbols). In some cases, these mini-time slots may occupy resources scheduled for ongoing time slot transmissions for the same or different UEs.

[0103] An expanded view of one of these time slots 410 illustrates that the time slot 410 includes a control area 412 and a data area 414. Generally, the control area 412 may carry a control channel (e.g., PDCCH), while the data area 414 may carry a data channel (e.g., PDSCH or PUSCH). Of course, the time slot may contain all DL, all UL, or at least one DL portion and at least one UL portion. Figure 4 The simple structure described in the text is merely exemplary in nature and can utilize different time slot structures, and may include one or more of each control region and data region.

[0104] Although not in Figure 4 The explanation is as follows: Each RE 406 within RB 408 can be scheduled to carry one or more physical channels, including control channels, shared channels, data channels, etc. Other REs 406 within RB 408 can also carry pilot or reference signals. These pilot or reference signals can be used by the receiver equipment to perform channel estimation for the corresponding channels, which enables coherent demodulation / detection of the control and / or data channels within RB 408.

[0105] In DL transmission, the transmitting device (e.g., scheduling entity 108) may allocate (e.g., within control area 412) one or more REs 406 to carry DL control information 114 to one or more scheduled entities 106. This DL control information 114 includes one or more DL control channels, such as Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), etc., which generally carry information originating from higher layers. Additionally, each DL RE may be allocated to carry DL physical signals, which generally do not carry information originating from higher layers. These DL physical signals may include a primary synchronization signal (PSS); a secondary synchronization signal (SSS); a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS); a phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS); a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), etc.

[0106] Synchronization signals PSS and SSS (collectively referred to as SS), and in some examples PBCH, may be transmitted in an SS block comprising four consecutive OFDM symbols numbered in ascending order from 0 to 3 via time indexing. In the frequency domain, the SS block may be extended over 240 adjacent subcarriers, wherein the subcarriers are numbered in ascending order from 0 to 239 via frequency indexing. Of course, this disclosure is not limited to this particular SS block configuration. Within the scope of this disclosure, other non-limiting examples may utilize more or fewer synchronization signals; may include one or more supplementary channels in addition to PBCH; may omit PBCH; and / or may use non-contiguous symbols in the SS block.

[0107] The PDCCH may carry downlink control information (DCI) for one or more UEs in a cell. This may include, but is not limited to, power control commands, scheduling information, grants, and / or RE assignments for DL ​​and UL transmissions.

[0108] In UL transmission, the transmitting device (e.g., the scheduled entity 106) may use one or more REs 406 to carry UL control information (UCI) 118. The UCI may originate from a higher layer via one or more UL control channels (such as the Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), etc.) to the scheduling entity 108. Furthermore, each UL RE may carry UL physical signals (which generally do not carry information originating from higher layers), such as demodulation reference signals (DM-RS), phase tracking reference signals (PT-RS), probe reference signals (SRS), etc. In some examples, the control information 118 may include a scheduling request (SR), i.e., a request for the scheduling entity 108 to schedule uplink transmissions. Here, in response to an SR transmitted on a control channel, the scheduling entity 108 may transmit downlink control information 114, which can schedule resources for uplink packet transmissions.

[0109] UL control information may also include Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback (such as ACK or NACK), Channel State Information (CSI), or any other suitable UL control information. HARQ is a technique well-known to those skilled in the art, where, for accuracy, any suitable integrity verification mechanism (such as checksum or Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)) can be used to verify the integrity of packet transmissions at the receiving side. If the integrity of the transmission is acknowledged, an ACK can be transmitted; otherwise, a NACK can be transmitted. In response to a NACK, the transmitting device can send a HARQ retransmission, which enables catch-up combining, incremental redundancy, etc.

[0110] In addition to control information, one or more REs 406 (e.g., within data area 414) may also be allocated for user data or traffic data. Such traffic may be carried on one or more traffic channels, such as on the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) for DL ​​transmissions, or on the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) for UL transmissions.

[0111] To enable the UE to gain initial access to a cell, the RAN can provide system information (SI) characterizing the cell. This system information can be provided using minimum system information (MSI) and other system information (OSI). MSI can be periodically broadcast on the cell to provide the most basic information needed for initial cell access and to acquire any OSI that can be periodically broadcast or sent on demand. In some examples, MSI can be provided on two different downlink channels. For example, the PBCH can carry the Master Information Block (MIB), while the PDSCH can carry System Information Block Type 1 (SIB1). In the art, SIB1 may be referred to as Residual Minimal System Information (RMSI).

[0112] OSI may include any SI that is not broadcast in MSI. In some examples, PDSCH may carry multiple SIBs, not limited to SIB1 discussed above. Here, OSI may be provided in these SIBs (e.g., SIB2 and above).

[0113] The above description and in Figure 1 and 4 The channels or carriers described are not necessarily all the channels or carriers available between the scheduling entity 108 and the scheduled entity 106, and those skilled in the art will recognize that other channels or carriers, such as other traffic, control, and feedback channels, may be available in addition to those described.

[0114] These physical channels are typically multiplexed and mapped to transport channels for processing by the Media Access Control (MAC) layer. The transport channel carries blocks of information, called transport blocks (TBs). The transport block size (TBS) (which may correspond to the number of information bits) can be a controlled parameter based on the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and the number of redundancies (RBs) in a given transmission.

[0115] In OFDM, to maintain the orthogonality of subcarriers or frequency modulations, the subcarrier spacing can be equal to the reciprocal of the symbol period. OFDM waveform parameter design refers to its specific subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix (CP) overhead. Scalable parameter design refers to the network's ability to select different subcarrier spacings and correspondingly choose the appropriate symbol duration (including the CP length) for each spacing. Using scalable parameter design, the nominal subcarrier spacing (SCS) can be scaled up or down in integer multiples. In this way, regardless of the CP overhead and the selected SCS, symbol boundaries can be aligned at certain common multiples of the symbols (e.g., alignment at the boundaries of each 1ms subframe). The range of SCS can include any suitable SCS. For example, scalable parameter design can support SCS ranging from 15kHz to 480kHz.

[0116] To explain this concept of scalable parameter design, Figure 5A first RB502 with nominal parameters and a second RB504 with scaled parameters are shown. As an example, the first RB502 may have a nominal subcarrier spacing (SCS) of 30 kHz. n The nominal symbol duration n is 333 μs. Here, in the second RB 504, the scaling parameter design includes twice the nominal SCS, or 2 × SCS. n =60kHz scaled SCS. Because this provides twice the bandwidth per symbol, it results in a shortened symbol duration to carry the same information. Thus, in the second RB 504, the scaling parameter design includes half the nominal symbol duration, or (symbol duration n) ÷ 2 = 167μs scaled symbol duration.

[0117] Figure 6 This is a block diagram illustrating an example of the hardware implementation of a scheduling entity 600 using processing system 614. For example, scheduling entity 600 may be as follows: Figure 1 , 2 User equipment (UE) described in any one or more of 3, 4, and / or 5. In another example, scheduling entity 600 may be as follows: Figure 1 , 2 The base station explained in any one or more of 1, 2, and / or 3.

[0118] The scheduling entity 600 may be implemented using a processing system 614 that includes one or more processors 604. Examples of processors 604 include microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), state machines, gated logic, discrete hardware circuits, and other suitable hardware configured to perform the various functionalities described throughout this disclosure. In various examples, the scheduling entity 600 may be configured to perform any or more of the functions described herein.

[0119] In this example, the processing system 614 can be implemented using a bus architecture generally represented by bus 602. Depending on the specific application and overall design constraints of the processing system 614, bus 602 may include any number of interconnect buses and bridges. Bus 602 communicatively couples together various circuits including one or more processors (generally represented by processor 604), memory 605, and computer-readable media (generally represented by computer-readable media 606). Bus 602 may also link various other circuits, such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art and therefore will not be described further. Bus interface 608 provides an interface between bus 602 and transceiver 610. Transceiver 610 provides a communication interface or means for communicating with various other devices over a transmission medium. Depending on the characteristics of the device, a user interface 612 (e.g., keypad, display, speaker, microphone, joystick) may also be provided. Of course, such a user interface 612 is optional and may be omitted in some examples (such as base stations).

[0120] Processor 604 is responsible for managing bus 602 and general processing, including the execution of software stored on computer-readable medium 606. When executed by processor 604, the software causes processing system 614 to perform various functions described below for any particular device. Computer-readable medium 606 and memory 605 can also be used to store data manipulated by processor 604 during software execution.

[0121] One or more processors 604 in the processing system can execute software. Software should be broadly interpreted as instructions, instruction sets, code, code segments, program code, programs, subroutines, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executables, threads of execution, procedures, functions, etc., whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages, or other terms. Software may reside on a computer-readable medium 606. The computer-readable medium 606 may be a non-transitory computer-readable medium. As examples, non-transient computer-readable media include magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disks, floppy disks, magnetic tapes), optical discs (e.g., compact discs (CDs) or digital multi-purpose discs (DVDs)), smart cards, flash memory devices (e.g., cards, sticks, or key drives), random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), registers, removable disks, and any other suitable media for storing software and / or instructions that can be accessed and read by a computer. Computer-readable medium 606 may reside in processing system 614, be external to processing system 614, or be distributed across multiple entities including processing system 614. Computer-readable medium 606 may be implemented in a computer program product. As an example, a computer program product may include a computer-readable medium within encapsulation material. Those skilled in the art will recognize how the functionality described throughout this disclosure is best implemented depending on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the system as a whole.

[0122] Figure 7 This is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example hardware implementation of an exemplary scheduled entity 700 employing a processing system 714. According to various aspects of this disclosure, elements, any part of elements, or any combination of elements can be implemented using a processing system 714 including one or more processors 704. For example, the scheduled entity 700 can be as shown in... Figure 1 , 2 User equipment (UE) explained in any one or more of 1, 2, and / or 3.

[0123] Processing system 714 can be with Figure 6 The processing system 614 described above is essentially the same, including a bus interface 708, a bus 702, a memory 705, a processor 704, and a computer-readable medium 706. Furthermore, the scheduled entity 700 may include components similar to those described above. Figure 6 The user interfaces described in the document are basically similar to those of the transceiver 712 and transceiver 710.

[0124] In 5G NR, carrier aggregation (CA) is supported. CA refers to the cascading of multiple component carriers (CCs) to provide increased bandwidth. Such 5G networks can provide aggregation of sub-6GHz carriers, above-6GHz carriers, mmWave carriers, etc., all controlled by a single integrated MAC layer. Aggregated CCs can be contiguous or non-contiguous, and they can be inter-band or intra-band. Furthermore, aggregated CCs can be designed with different parameters, such as different subcarrier spacing (SCS), time slot lengths, etc. In some examples, one of these CCs may be referred to as the primary cell (PCell), while one or more other CCs may be referred to as secondary cells (SCells).

[0125] Example Beam Failure Detection and Recovery

[0126] Various aspects of this disclosure provide techniques for detecting beam faults and recovering from beam faults. As discussed in more detail herein, beam fault detection and recovery from beam faults can be based on cellular restriction rules that restrict the cells from which beam fault recovery response messages are received.

[0127] For downlink transmission from gNB to UE, beamforming or spatial filtering can be utilized. Beamforming generally refers to directional signal transmission or reception. For beamformed transmissions, the amplitude and phase of each antenna in the antenna array can be precoded or controlled to create desired (e.g., directional) patterns of constructive and destructive interference in the wavefront. The beam can be formed from, but is not limited to, antennas, antenna ports, antenna elements, antenna groups, antenna port groups, or antenna element groups. The beam can also be formed from a reference signal resource. Beamforming is equivalent to spatial domain filtering, through which electromagnetic (EM) radiation can be transmitted.

[0128] Beam fault detection and recovery procedures allow for beam switching upon the occurrence of a beam fault event. Generally, a beam fault corresponds to a condition where beam quality degrades to an unacceptably low level. In one example, the UE may consider a beam fault instance to have occurred when the measured quality of the downlink reference signal drops below a given threshold quality metric. In some examples, the UE may determine that a beam fault event has occurred using measurements of the Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), or other signal quality metrics (and corresponding thresholds) corresponding to the Received CSI-RS or SS block. Once the UE detects a consecutive beam fault event of a threshold number, the UE can declare a beam fault and initiate a beam fault recovery (BFR) procedure accordingly, as discussed in more detail below.

[0129] Figure 8Example operation 800, which can be performed by a user equipment (UE) to execute a BFR procedure based on receive cell restriction rules according to certain aspects described herein, is explained. As explained, operation 800 may begin at block 802, where the UE detects the occurrence of a beam fault of a threshold number of connections between the UE and the cell set.

[0130] In block 804, the UE identifies candidate beams for restoring the connection between the UE and the set of cells in response to detecting the occurrence of the threshold number of beam failures.

[0131] In box 806, the UE transmits a beam fault recovery (BFR) request to one or more cells in the cell set, the beam fault recovery (BFR) request including the identifier of the candidate beam.

[0132] In box 808, the UE receives a BFR response from a cell in the cell set in response to transmitting the BFR request. This BFR response is generally received according to restrictive rules, as discussed in more detail herein.

[0133] In box 810, the UE continues communication with the set of cells based on the BFR response.

[0134] Figure 9 Example operation 900, which can be performed by a network entity to execute a BFR procedure based on receive cell restriction rules according to certain aspects described herein, is explained. As explained, operation 900 may begin at box 902, whereby the network entity receives a beam fault recovery (BFR) request from a user equipment (UE), the beam fault recovery (BFR) request including the identifier of a candidate beam.

[0135] In box 904, the network entity generates a BFR response based on the identified candidate beams.

[0136] In box 906, the network entity sends a BFR response to the UE based on the restriction rules.

[0137] In box 908, the network entity communicates with the UE based on the identified candidate beam.

[0138] Generally, to execute BFR procedures, the UE can search for new candidate beams for restoring connectivity. When searching for new beams to restore connectivity between the network entity and the UE, the UE can measure the quality of one or more reference signals (e.g., RSRP, RSSI, etc.) on a given set of candidate beams. For example, the UE can attempt to measure the beams on which each cell in a wireless communication network transmits synchronization signal blocks in a synchronization signal burst. If the measured quality of a beam is higher than a threshold quality metric, the beam is considered a beam on which connectivity can be restored. In some aspects, when multiple beams have measured qualities exceeding a threshold quality metric, the UE can select the beam with the highest measured quality as a candidate beam.

[0139] Once the UE identifies a candidate beam, it can trigger a BFR request transmission to notify the gNB that it has detected a beam failure. The BFR request message may include information identifying the candidate beam found in the UE's beam search. In some examples, the UE may utilize a random access procedure to transmit the BFR request. The random access procedure is the procedure in which the UE transmits the random access preamble and payload (msgA). If the gNB detects the random access preamble and decodes the payload, it responds by transmitting a random access response (RAR or msgB).

[0140] In this example, corresponding to the BFR procedure, the payload (msgA) of the UE's random access message may include information identifying candidate beams found in the UE's candidate beam search. For example, each candidate beam may be associated with a specific random access preamble configuration, such that the gNB can receive the candidate beam identified by the UE by detecting that specific random access preamble configuration. In some examples, the payload of the UE's random access message may be referred to as "Step 2 MAC CE". Here, Step 2 may refer to a series of steps in the UE's BFR procedure. Furthermore, the random access response transmitted by the gNB may be referred to as a BFR response. Here, the SCellBFR response includes uplink permission for a new transmission with the same HARQ procedure ID as Step 2 MAC CE.

[0141] Generally, after receiving K symbols following a BFR response from the secondary cell (SCell), the beams of all control resource sets (CORESETs) in the faulty SCell will be reset to the new beams reported in step 2 MAC CE. Therefore, in each SCell, if a beam fault exists, the UE can transmit a beam candidate to the gNB via a BFR request message (step 2 MAC CE), and the gNB can transmit a BFR response in response to receiving the BFR request message. After receiving the BFR response, the UE waits for K symbols. After waiting for K symbols after receiving the BFR response, the UE can apply the identified downlink beam (e.g., in the BFR request message) it conveyed to the gNB to all CORESETs in the faulty SCell. The value of K can be any suitable value according to various aspects of this disclosure.

[0142] In some respects, at least for the PDCCH, after receiving K symbols following the BFR response to step 2 MAC CE, the UE may apply the new beam indicated in step 2 MAC CE to receive the individual signals. For example, the UE may apply the new beam, if identified, for downlink reception at least on the faulty SCell. In some respects, the new beam may be applied for reception of all CORESETs in the faulty SCell.

[0143] For example, based on the parameter design (or subcarrier spacing (SCS)) of the faulty cell and the cell on which a BFR response is received, various actions can be taken after waiting for K symbols. For example, suppose the UE reports a beam fault on the first SCell. The UE can then receive a BFR response on the second SCell. However, the first and second SCells can have different parameter designs and, correspondingly, different symbol lengths. The amount of time corresponding to the K symbol waiting period can therefore differ depending on whether the K symbol waiting period is measured based on the parameter design (or subcarrier spacing) of the first or second SCell.

[0144] To resolve ambiguities related to the duration of the K symbol waiting periods, the UE may apply appropriate limiting rules related to the BFR response. Various such limiting rules may be applied within the scope of this disclosure, as described below.

[0145] For example, the UE may not apply SCell restrictions, allowing it to send BFR responses on any SCell. In this example, if the UE reports a beam fault corresponding to the first SCell, it can receive a BFR response on any SCell, not just the first. In this example, the UE can determine the time length corresponding to the "K symbols" based on the parameter design of the SCell receiving the BFR response, the parameter design of the faulty SCell, or the parameter design of the SCell with the larger or smaller parameter design of the two SCells. That is, the rule regarding which parameter design corresponds to the K symbols can be a fixed value pre-agreed between the UE and the network for the UE to use in this scenario.

[0146] In another example, the UE can restrict the BFR response so that it must be received on an SCell with the same parameter design as the faulty SCell (e.g., the same SCS). In this example, if no such SCell with the same parameter design as the faulty SCell exists, the gNB can simply abandon the transmission of the BFR response. Here, the UE can infer the elapsed time corresponding to K symbols based on the parameter design of the faulty SCell and, after a suitable amount of time has elapsed, simply change the beam to the selected candidate beam identified by the UE in the BFR request message. The UE can utilize a local timer started at the time of transmission of the BFR request message, and if the timer expires before receiving a BFR response from an SCell with the same parameter design as the faulty SCell, the UE can set its beam as the candidate beam. That is, receiving a BFR response from the SCell causes the timer to stop. When the timer expires (i.e., indicating that no BFR response has been received from the SCell), the UE can set its beam as the candidate beam and use the candidate beam to communicate with one or more cells.

[0147] In another example, the UE can restrict the BFR response so that it must be received on the faulty SCell. In this case, the UE may need to set at least all CORESET beams on the faulty SCell to the reported new candidate beams immediately after the UE transmits the step 2 MAC CE. Furthermore, the gNB can utilize the reported new candidate beams to transmit the BFR response on the faulty SCell. The UE changes to the new beams accordingly, K symbols after receiving the BFR response, based on the symbol length of the faulty SCell.

[0148] In yet another example, the UE may restrict the BFR response such that the BFR response must be received on a cell with a different parameter design (e.g., a different SCS) than the faulty SCell. In this case, the reference used to determine the time length of K symbols may correspond to the symbol duration of the faulty SCell, or in another example, to the symbol duration of the SCell on which the BFR response is received.

[0149] Figure 10 This is a call flow diagram illustrating the exchange of messages between a User Equipment (UE) and one or more cells to handle beam failures based on receiving cell restriction rules, according to certain aspects described herein. As explained, UE 1002 may begin at block 1010, detecting that a threshold number of consecutive beam failure events has occurred. In response to detecting that the threshold number of consecutive beam failure events has occurred at block 1010, at block 1012, the UE identifies candidate beams for subsequent communication. Candidate beams may be, for example, based on the beam direction from a network entity (e.g., one of the multiple cells serving the UE, such as...) in each of a plurality of beam directions. Figure 10 The signaling received by the UE (cell 1004 or 1006) as described herein is used for identification. This signaling may be, for example, a synchronization signal block transmitted in a synchronization signal burst in different beam directions. In block 1012, the UE may identify candidate beams based on a comparison of measured signal quality (e.g., RSRP, RSSI, etc.) with a threshold signal quality metric. If the measured signal quality of a beam exceeds the threshold signal quality metric, the UE may identify that beam as a candidate beam. If multiple beams have measured signal quality exceeding the threshold signal quality metric, the UE may select the beam associated with the highest measured signal quality as a candidate beam.

[0150] After identifying the candidate beam in block 1012, UE 1002 transmits a BFR request 1014 to cell 1004. In some aspects, cell 1004 may be a subcell (SCell) in a group of cells serving UE 1002. BFR request 1014 generally includes the identification of the candidate beam. In response, cell 1004 transmits a BFR response 1016 to UE 1002. UE 1002 may wait for K symbol gaps 1018 to communicate using the candidate beam 1020. As discussed, K symbol gaps 1018 may be the number of symbols since the BFR response 1016 was received, and may have a duration based on the subcarrier spacing configuration (or parameter design) of one of the cells on which a beam failure was detected or from which the BFR response was received.

[0151] Figure 11 The description includes operations that may be configured to perform the techniques disclosed herein (such as,Figure 8 The communication device 1100 comprises various components (e.g., corresponding to device plus functional components) of the operation described herein. The communication device 1100 includes a processing system 1102 coupled to a transceiver 1108 (e.g., a transmitter and / or receiver). The transceiver 1108 is configured to transmit and receive signals (such as the various signals described herein) for the communication device 1100 via an antenna 1110. The processing system 1102 may be configured to perform processing functions for the communication device 1100, including processing signals received and / or to be transmitted by the communication device 1100.

[0152] Processing system 1102 includes processor 1104 coupled to computer-readable medium / memory 1112 via bus 1106. In some aspects, computer-readable medium / memory 1112 is configured to store data that, when executed by processor 1104, causes processor 1104 to execute. Figure 8 The instructions (e.g., computer-executable code) for performing the operations described herein or other operations for reporting and responding to beam failure events based on receive cell restriction rules. In some aspects, the computer-readable medium / memory 1112 stores code 1114 for detecting the occurrence of a threshold number of beam failures in the connection between the UE and the cell set; code 1116 for identifying candidate beams for restoring the connection between the UE and the cell set in response to detecting the occurrence of the threshold number of beam failures; code 1118 for transmitting a beam failure recovery (BFR) request to one or more cells in the cell set, the BFR request including the identifier of the candidate beam; code 1120 for receiving a BFR response from a cell in the cell set in response to transmitting the BFR request; and code 1122 for continuing communication with the cell set based on the BFR response. In some aspects, the processor 1104 has a circuitry configured to implement the code stored in the computer-readable medium / memory 1112. Processor 1104 includes circuitry 1124 for detecting the occurrence of a beam fault of a threshold number of connections between the UE and the cell set; circuitry 1126 for identifying candidate beams for restoring the connection between the UE and the cell set in response to detecting the occurrence of the threshold number of beam faults; circuitry 1128 for transmitting a beam fault recovery (BFR) request to one or more cells in the cell set, the beam fault recovery (BFR) request including the identifier of the candidate beam; circuitry 1130 for receiving a BFR response from a cell in the cell set in response to transmitting the BFR request; and circuitry 1132 for continuing communication with the cell set based on the BFR response.

[0153] Figure 12 The description includes operations that may be configured to perform the techniques disclosed herein (such as...). Figure 9 The communication device 1200 comprises various components (e.g., corresponding to device plus functional components) of the operation described herein. The communication device 1200 includes a processing system 1202 coupled to a transceiver 1208 (e.g., a transmitter and / or receiver). The transceiver 1208 is configured to transmit and receive signals (such as the various signals described herein) for the communication device 1200 via an antenna 1210. The processing system 1202 may be configured to perform processing functions for the communication device 1200, including processing signals received and / or to be transmitted by the communication device 1200.

[0154] Processing system 1202 includes processor 1204 coupled to computer-readable medium / memory 1212 via bus 1206. In some aspects, computer-readable medium / memory 1212 is configured to store data that, when executed by processor 1204, causes processor 1204 to execute. Figure 9 The instructions (e.g., computer-executable code) for performing the operations described herein or other operations for reporting and responding to beam failure events based on receive cell restriction rules. In some aspects, the computer-readable medium / memory 1212 stores code 1214 for receiving a beam failure recovery (BFR) request from a user equipment (UE), the BFR request including an identifier of a candidate beam; code 1216 for generating a BFR response based on the identified candidate beam; code 1218 for transmitting the BFR response to the UE based on restriction rules; and code 1220 for communicating with the UE based on the identified candidate beam. In some aspects, the processor 1204 has a circuitry configured to implement the code stored in the computer-readable medium / memory 1212. Processor 1204 includes circuitry 1222 for receiving a beam fault recovery (BFR) request from a user equipment (UE), the BFR request including an identifier of a candidate beam; circuitry 1224 for generating a BFR response based on the identified candidate beam; circuitry 1226 for transmitting the BFR response to the UE based on a restriction rule; and circuitry 1228 for communicating with the UE based on the identified candidate beam.

[0155] Additional considerations

[0156] The techniques described in this document can be used in various wireless communication technologies, such as NR (e.g., 5G NR), 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-A Advanced (LTE-A), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA), Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA), and other networks. The terms "network" and "system" are often used interchangeably. CDMA networks can implement radio technologies such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) and cdma2000. UTRA includes Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and other variants of CDMA. cdma2000 covers the IS-2000, IS-95, and IS-856 standards. TDMA networks can implement radio technologies such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). OFDMA networks can implement radio technologies such as NR (e.g., 5G RA), evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, and Flash-OFDMA. UTRA and E-UTRA are parts of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). LTE and LTE-A are UMTS versions using E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A, and GSM are described in documents from an organization called the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). cdma2000 and UMB are described in documents from an organization called the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2). NR is an emerging wireless communication technology under development.

[0157] In 3GPP, the term "cell" can refer to the coverage area of ​​a B-node (NB) and / or the NB subsystem serving that coverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used. In NR systems, the terms "cell" and BS, next-generation B-node (gNB or g B-node), access point (AP), distributed cell (DU), carrier, or transmit / receive point (TRP) can be used interchangeably. A BS can provide communication coverage for macrocells, picocells, femtocells, and / or other types of cells. A macrocell can cover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., a radius of several kilometers) and allows unrestricted access by UEs with a service subscription. A picocell can cover a relatively small geographic area and allows unrestricted access by UEs with a service subscription. A femtocell can cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a residential area) and allows restricted access by UEs associated with that femtocell (e.g., UEs in a closed subscriber group (CSG), UEs of users in a residential area, etc.). A BS used for a macrocell can be referred to as a macro BS. A BS used for picocells can be called a picoBS. A BS used for femtocells can be called a femtoBS or a home BS.

[0158] A UE can also be referred to as a mobile station, terminal, access terminal, subscriber unit, station, customer premises equipment (CPE), cellular phone, smartphone, personal digital assistant (PDA), wireless modem, wireless communication device, handheld device, laptop computer, cordless phone, wireless local loop (WLL) station, tablet computer, camera, gaming device, netbook, smartbook, ultrabook, appliance, medical device or medical equipment, biometric sensor / device, wearable device (such as smartwatch, smart clothing, smart glasses, smart wristband, smart jewelry (e.g., smart ring, smart bracelet, etc.)), entertainment device (e.g., music device, video device, satellite radio, etc.), vehicle component or sensor, smart meter / sensor, industrial manufacturing equipment, GPS device, or any other suitable device configured to communicate via wireless or wired media. Some UEs may be considered machine-type communication (MTC) devices or evolved MTC (eMTC) devices. MTC and eMTC UEs include, for example, robots, drones, remote devices, sensors, meters, monitors, location tags, etc., which can communicate with a BS, another device (e.g., a remote device), or another entity. Wireless nodes can provide connectivity to or to a network (e.g., a wide area network such as the Internet) or a cellular network, for example, via wired or wireless communication links. Some UEs can be considered Internet of Things (IoT) devices, which can be narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) devices.

[0159] In some examples, access to the air interface can be scheduled. A scheduling entity (e.g., a BS) allocates resources for communication among some or all devices and equipment within its service area or cell. The scheduling entity may be responsible for scheduling, assigning, reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one or more subordinate entities. That is, for scheduled communication, the subordinate entity utilizes the resources allocated by the scheduling entity. A base station is not the only entity that can be used as a scheduling entity. In some examples, a UE may act as a scheduling entity and can schedule resources for one or more subordinate entities (e.g., one or more other UEs), and other UEs may utilize the resources scheduled by that UE for wireless communication. In some examples, a UE may act as a scheduling entity in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network and / or in a mesh network. In the mesh network example, UEs may communicate directly with each other in addition to communicating with a scheduling entity.

[0160] The methods disclosed herein include one or more steps or actions for implementing the method. These method steps and / or actions may be interchanged without departing from the scope of the claims. In other words, unless a specific order of steps or actions is specified, the order and / or use of specific steps and / or actions may be modified without departing from the scope of the claims.

[0161] As used in this article, the phrase “at least one of” in a list of items refers to any combination of those items, including a single member. As an example, “at least one of a, b, or c” is intended to cover: a, b, c, ab, ac, bc, and abc, as well as any combination with multiple identical elements (e.g., aa, aaa, aab, aac, abb, acc, bb, bbb, bbb, bbc, cc, and ccc, or any other ordering of a, b, and c).

[0162] As used herein, the term "determine" encompasses a wide variety of actions. For example, "determine" can include calculation, computation, processing, derivation, research, searching (e.g., looking in a table, database, or other data structure), ascertaining, and the like. Furthermore, "determine" can include receiving (e.g., receiving information), accessing (e.g., accessing data in memory), and the like. Moreover, "determine" can include parsing, selecting, choosing, building, and the like.

[0163] The preceding description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the various aspects described herein. Various modifications to these aspects will readily be understood by those skilled in the art, and the universal principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects. Therefore, the claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein, but are to be granted the full scope consistent with the language of the claims, wherein references to the singular form of an element are not intended to mean “one and only one” (unless specifically stated otherwise) but “one or more.” Unless specifically stated otherwise, the term “some / a” refers to one or more. All structural and functional equivalents of the aspects described throughout this disclosure that are now or hereafter known to a person skilled in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be covered by the claims. Furthermore, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be donated to the public, whether or not such disclosure is expressly stated in the claims. No element of a claim should be interpreted in accordance with the provisions of 35 U.S.SC §112(f) unless the element is expressly stated using the phrase “means for…” or, in the case of a method claim, the element is stated using the phrase “steps for…”.

[0164] The various operations of the methods described above can be performed by any suitable means capable of performing the corresponding functions. These means may include a variety of hardware and / or software components and / or modules, including but not limited to circuits, digital signal processors (DSPs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or processors (e.g., general-purpose processors or specially programmed processors). Generally, where the operations illustrated in the figures are present, these operations may have corresponding paired means with similar numbers plus functional components.

[0165] The various illustrative logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in this disclosure can be implemented or executed using a general-purpose processor, DSP, ASIC, field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device (PLD), discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof, designed to perform the functions described herein. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in alternatives, the processor may be any commercially available processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, such as a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors cooperating with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0166] If implemented in hardware, an example hardware configuration could include a processing system in a wireless node. The processing system can be implemented using a bus architecture. Depending on the specific application and overall design constraints of the processing system, the bus can include any number of interconnect buses and bridges. The bus can link together various circuits, including a processor, machine-readable media, and a bus interface. The bus interface can be used to connect network adapters, etc., to the processing system via the bus. The network adapter can be used to implement signal processing functions at the PHY layer. In the user terminal (see...), Figure 1 In such cases, the user interface (e.g., keypad, display, mouse, joystick, etc.) can also be connected to the bus. The bus can also link various other circuits, such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, power management circuits, and similar circuits, which are well known in the art and will not be described further. The processor can be implemented using one or more general-purpose and / or special-purpose processors. Examples include microprocessors, microcontrollers, DSP processors, and other circuit systems capable of executing software. Depending on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the system, those skilled in the art will recognize how best to implement the functionality described for the processing system.

[0167] If implemented in software, the functions can be stored or transmitted as one or more instructions or codes on a computer-readable medium. Software should be broadly interpreted to mean instructions, data, or any combination thereof, whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media, encompassing any medium that facilitates the transfer of a computer program from one location to another. The processor may be responsible for managing the bus and general processing, including executing software modules stored on the machine-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium may be coupled to the processor so that the processor can read and write information to / from the storage medium. Alternatively, the storage medium may be integrated into the processor. As an example, the machine-readable medium may include a transmission line, a data-modulated carrier wave, and / or a separate computer-readable storage medium containing instructions stored thereon, all accessible to the processor via a bus interface. Alternatively or additionally, the machine-readable medium or any portion thereof may be integrated into the processor, such as caches and / or general-purpose register files. As an example, examples of machine-readable storage media may include RAM (random access memory), flash memory, ROM (read-only memory), PROM (programmable read-only memory), EPROM (erasable programmable read-only memory), EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory), registers, disks, optical disks, hard drives, or any other suitable storage media, or any combination thereof. Machine-readable media may be implemented in computer program products.

[0168] Software modules may comprise a single instruction or a number of instructions, and may be distributed across several different code segments, across different programs, and across multiple storage media. Computer-readable media may include several software modules. These software modules include instructions that, when executed by an instrument (such as a processor), enable the processing system to perform various functions. These software modules may include transfer modules and receive modules. Each software module may reside in a single storage device or be distributed across multiple storage devices. As an example, when a trigger event occurs, a software module may be loaded from a hard drive into RAM. During the execution of a software module, the processor may load some instructions into a cache to improve access speed. One or more cache lines may subsequently be loaded into a general-purpose register file for processor execution. In the context of the functionality of a software module described below, it will be understood that such functionality is implemented by the processor when the processor executes the instructions from that software module.

[0169] Similarly, any connection is also legitimately referred to as computer-readable medium. For example, if software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technology (such as infrared (IR), radio, and microwave), then that coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technology (such as infrared, radio, and microwave) is included in the definition of medium. As used herein, disks and discs include compact discs (CDs), laser discs, optical discs, digital multi-purpose discs (DVDs), floppy disks, and... Disks, where disks often magnetically reproduce data, and discs optically reproduce data using lasers. Therefore, in some aspects, computer-readable media may include non-transient computer-readable media (e.g., tangible media). Additionally, in other aspects, computer-readable media may include transient computer-readable media (e.g., signals). Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0170] Therefore, certain aspects may include computer program products for performing the operations described herein. For example, such computer program products may include computer-readable media on which instructions are stored (and / or encoded) that can be executed by one or more processors to perform the operations described herein, such as those for performing the operations described herein and in... Figure 8 and / or Figure 9 The instructions for the operation explained in the text.

[0171] Furthermore, it should be understood that modules and / or other suitable means for performing the methods and techniques described herein may be downloaded and / or otherwise obtained by the user terminal and / or base station where applicable. For example, such devices can be coupled to a server to facilitate the transfer of means for performing the methods described herein. Alternatively, the various methods described herein can be provided via a storage device (e.g., RAM, ROM, physical storage media such as CDs or floppy disks, etc.) so that the device can obtain the various methods once the storage device is coupled to or provided to the user terminal and / or base station. Furthermore, any other suitable techniques appropriate for providing the methods and techniques described herein to the device may be utilized.

[0172] It will be understood that the claims are not limited to the precise configurations and components described above. Various modifications, substitutions, and variations may be made to the layout, operation, and details of the methods and apparatus described above without departing from the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE), comprising: detecting an occurrence of a threshold number of beam failures of a connection between the UE and a set of cells; identifying, in response to detecting the occurrence of the threshold number of beam failures, a candidate beam for recovering the connection between the UE and the set of cells; transmitting, to one or more of the set of cells, a beam failure recovery (BFR) request including an identification of the candidate beam; receiving, in response to transmitting the BFR request, a BFR response from a cell of the set of cells, wherein the BFR response is received in accordance with a restriction rule, wherein the restriction rule allows the BFR response to be received from any cell of the set of cells, wherein the restriction rule further defines a gap between receiving the BFR response and continuing communications with the set of cells based on a parameter design of one of: the cell from which the BFR response is received, or a failing cell on which a beam failure is detected, wherein the gap includes a number of symbols between receiving the BFR response and continuing communications with the set of cells, the number of symbols based on a lesser one of: a subcarrier spacing associated with the failing cell, and a subcarrier spacing associated with the cell from which the BFR response is received; and continuing communications with the set of cells based on the BFR response.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: starting a timer upon transmitting the BFR request to one or more of the set of cells; and continuing communications with the set of cells based on the identified candidate beam upon expiration of the timer.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: resetting a beam for each control resource set (CORESET) to the identified beam upon transmitting the BFR request, wherein the BFR response is received from the failing cell on the identified beam.

4. A method for wireless communications by a network entity, comprising: receiving, from a user equipment (UE), a beam failure recovery (BFR) request including an identification of a candidate beam; generating a BFR response based on the identified candidate beam; transmitting the BFR response to the UE based on a restriction rule, wherein the restriction rule allows the BFR response to be transmitted from any cell of a group of cells serving the UE, the restriction rule further defines a gap between receiving the BFR response and continuing communications with the UE based on a parameter design of one of: the cell from which the BFR response is received, or a cell on which the UE detects a beam failure, the gap comprises a number of symbols between receiving the BFR response and continuing communication with the UE, the number of symbols based on a smaller one of a subcarrier spacing associated with a cell on which the UE detected the beam failure and a subcarrier spacing associated with a cell from which the BFR response is received; and continuing communication with the set of cells based on the identified candidate beam.

5. An apparatus for wireless communication by a user equipment (UE), comprising: a processor configured to: detect an occurrence of a threshold number of beam failures of a connection between the UE and a set of cells; identify, in response to detecting the occurrence of the threshold number of beam failures, a candidate beam for recovering the connection between the UE and the set of cells; transmit, to one or more of the set of cells, a beam failure recovery (BFR) request including an identification of the candidate beam; receive, from a cell of the set of cells, a BFR response in response to transmitting the BFR request, wherein the BFR response is received according to a restriction rule, wherein the restriction rule allows the BFR response to be received from any cell of the set of cells, wherein the restriction rule further defines a gap between receiving the BFR response and continuing communication with the set of cells based on a parameter design of one of the cell from which the BFR response is received, or a failure cell on which a beam failure is detected, wherein the gap comprises a number of symbols between receiving the BFR response and continuing communication with the set of cells, the number of symbols based on a smaller one of a subcarrier spacing associated with a failure cell and a subcarrier spacing associated with a cell from which the BFR response is received; and continue communication with the set of cells based on the BFR response; and a memory.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to perform the method of any of claims 2-3.

7. An apparatus for wireless communication by a user equipment (UE), comprising: means for detecting an occurrence of a threshold number of beam failures of a connection between the UE and a set of cells; means for identifying, in response to detecting the occurrence of the threshold number of beam failures, a candidate beam for recovering the connection between the UE and the set of cells; means for transmitting, to one or more of the set of cells, a beam failure recovery (BFR) request including an identification of the candidate beam; means for receiving, from a cell of the set of cells, a BFR response in response to transmitting the BFR request, wherein the BFR response is received according to a restriction rule, wherein the restriction rule allows the BFR response to be received from any cell of the set of cells, wherein the restriction rule further limits a gap between receiving the BFR response and continuing communication with the set of cells based on a numerology of a cell from which the BFR response is received or a failure cell on which a beam failure is detected, wherein the gap comprises a number of symbols between receiving the BFR response and continuing communication with the set of cells, the number of symbols based on a smaller one of a subcarrier spacing associated with a failure cell and a subcarrier spacing associated with a cell from which the BFR response is received; and means for continuing communication with the set of cells based on the BFR response.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, further comprising: means for starting a timer upon transmitting the BFR request to one or more of the set of cells; and means for continuing communication with the set of cells based on the identified candidate beams upon expiration of the timer.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, further comprising: means for resetting a beam for each control resource set (CORESET) to an identified beam upon transmitting the BFR request, wherein the BFR response is received from the failure cell on the identified beam.

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