Beam-based relay node switching

Abstract

Technology for beam-based relay node switching. An example method for a first wireless node to perform wireless communications generally includes relaying wireless communications between a user equipment (UE) (120, 120a-y) and a network entity; sending a relay request signal to one or more second wireless nodes via multiple beams (402a-d, 602a-d, 604a-b, 706a-b) at a relay request signal opportunity (1, 2, 3), wherein each of the relay request signals indicates a request to switch a relay service of the UE (120, 120a-y) from the first wireless node to the one or more second wireless nodes; and switching the relay service of the UE (120, 120a-y) to at least one of the one or more second wireless nodes.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Aspects of the present disclosure relate to wireless communications, and more particularly, to techniques for switching relay nodes. Background Art

[0002] Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcast, etc. These wireless communication systems may 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 systems include 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, Advanced LTE (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 (SCFDMA) systems, and Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) systems, to name a few.

[0003] These multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate at a city, country, region, 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 released by 3GPP. NR aims to better support mobile broadband Internet access by improving spectral efficiency, reducing costs, improving services, utilizing new spectrum, and better integrating with other open standards using OFDMA with cyclic prefix (CP) on downlink (DL) and uplink (UL). To this end, NR supports beamforming, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, and carrier aggregation.

[0004] However, as the demand for mobile broadband access continues to grow, further improvements to NR and LTE technologies are needed. Preferably, these improvements should be applicable to other multi-access technologies and the telecommunication standards that adopt these technologies. Summary of the invention

[0005] The systems, methods, and devices of the present disclosure each have several aspects, no one of which is solely responsible for its desirable attributes. Without limiting the scope of the present disclosure as expressed by the appended claims, some features will now be briefly discussed. After considering this discussion, and particularly after reading the section entitled "Detailed Description of the Invention," one will understand how the features of the present disclosure provide advantages including improved relay node switching.

[0006] Certain aspects provide a method for wireless communication by a first wireless node. The method generally includes relaying wireless communication between a user equipment (UE) and a network entity; sending a relay request signal to one or more second wireless nodes via a plurality of beams at a relay request signal opportunity, wherein each of the relay request signals indicates a request to switch a relay service of the UE from the first wireless node to the one or more second wireless nodes; and switching the relay service of the UE to at least one of the one or more second wireless nodes.

[0007] Certain aspects provide a method for wireless communication by a second wireless node. The method generally includes receiving one or more relay request signals from a first wireless node via one or more beams at one or more relay request signal opportunities, wherein each of the relay request signals indicates a request to switch a wireless communication relay service of a user equipment (UE) from the first wireless node to the second wireless node; switching the wireless communication relay service of the UE to the second wireless node; and after switching the wireless communication relay service, relaying communications between the UE and a network entity.

[0008] Certain aspects provide a method of wireless communication by a user equipment (UE). The method generally includes communicating with a network entity via a first wireless communication with a first wireless node; receiving one or more discovery signals from one or more second wireless nodes at one or more discovery signal opportunities; switching from the first wireless node to at least one of the second wireless nodes to communicate with the network entity based on the received discovery signals; and communicating with the network entity via a second wireless communication with at least one of the second wireless nodes.

[0009] Certain aspects provide a method for wireless communication by a network entity. The method generally includes communicating with a user equipment (UE) via a first wireless communication with a first wireless node; configuring the first wireless node with one or more associations between a relay request signal opportunity and at least one of a plurality of beams for switching a relay service of the UE from the first wireless node to one or more second wireless nodes; and communicating with the UE via a second wireless communication with one or more second wireless nodes.

[0010] Certain aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus generally includes a transceiver configured to relay wireless communication between a user equipment (UE) and a network entity, and to send a relay request signal to one or more second wireless nodes via a plurality of beams at a relay request signal opportunity, wherein each of the relay request signals indicates a request to switch a relay service of the UE from the apparatus to the one or more second wireless nodes. The apparatus also includes a processing system configured to switch the relay service of the UE to at least one of the one or more second wireless nodes.

[0011] Certain aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus generally includes a transceiver configured to receive one or more relay request signals from a first wireless node via one or more beams at one or more relay request signal opportunities, wherein each of the relay request signals indicates a request to switch a wireless communication relay service of a UE from the first wireless node to the apparatus. The apparatus also includes a processing system configured to switch the wireless communication relay service of the UE to the apparatus. The transceiver is also configured to relay communications between the UE and a network entity after switching the wireless communication relay service.

[0012] Certain aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus generally includes a transceiver configured to communicate with a network entity via a first wireless communication with a first wireless node and receive one or more discovery signals from one or more second wireless nodes at one or more discovery signal opportunities. The apparatus also includes a processing system configured to switch from the first wireless node to at least one of the second wireless nodes to communicate with the network entity based on the received discovery signal. The transceiver is also configured to communicate with the network entity via a second wireless communication with at least one of the second wireless nodes.

[0013] Certain aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus generally includes a transceiver configured to communicate with a user equipment (UE) via a first wireless communication with a first wireless node. The apparatus also includes a processing system configured to configure the first wireless node with one or more associations between a relay request signal opportunity and an acknowledgement signal opportunity, a control signal opportunity, a discovery signal opportunity, or at least one of a plurality of beams for switching a relay service of the UE from the first wireless node to one or more second wireless nodes. The transceiver is also configured to communicate with the UE via a second wireless communication with one or more second wireless nodes.

[0014] Certain aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus generally includes components for relaying wireless communication between a user equipment (UE) and a network entity; components for sending a relay request signal to one or more second wireless nodes via multiple beams at a relay request signal opportunity, wherein each of the relay request signals indicates a request to switch a relay service of the UE from a first wireless node to one or more second wireless nodes; and components for switching the relay service of the UE to at least one of the one or more second wireless nodes.

[0015] Certain aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus generally includes a component for receiving one or more relay request signals from a first wireless node via one or more beams at one or more relay request signal opportunities, wherein each of the relay request signals indicates a request to switch a wireless communication relay service of a user equipment (UE) from the first wireless node to the apparatus; a component for switching the wireless communication relay service of the UE to the second wireless node; and a component for relaying communications between the UE and a network entity after switching the wireless communication relay service.

[0016] Certain aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus generally includes means for communicating with a network entity via a first wireless communication with a first wireless node; means for receiving one or more discovery signals from one or more second wireless nodes at one or more discovery signal opportunities; means for switching from the first wireless node to at least one of the second wireless nodes to communicate with the network entity based on the received discovery signals; and means for communicating with the network entity via a second wireless communication with at least one of the second wireless nodes.

[0017] Certain aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus generally includes components for communicating with a user equipment (UE) via a first wireless communication with a first wireless node; components for configuring the first wireless node with one or more associations between a relay request signal opportunity and an acknowledgement signal opportunity, a control signal opportunity, a discovery signal opportunity, or at least one of a plurality of beams for switching a relay service of the UE from the first wireless node to one or more second wireless nodes; and components for communicating with the UE via a second wireless communication with one or more second wireless nodes.

[0018] Certain aspects provide a computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions for performing the following operations: relaying wireless communications between a user equipment (UE) and a network entity; sending a relay request signal to one or more second wireless nodes via multiple beams at a relay request signal timing, wherein each of the relay request signals indicates a request to switch the UE's relay service from a first wireless node to one or more second wireless nodes; and switching the UE's relay service to at least one of the one or more second wireless nodes.

[0019] Certain aspects provide a computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions for performing the following operations: receiving one or more relay request signals from a first wireless node via one or more beams at one or more relay request signal timings, wherein each of the relay request signals indicates a request to switch a wireless communication relay service of a user equipment (UE) from the first wireless node to a second wireless node; switching the wireless communication relay service of the UE to the second wireless node; and after switching the wireless communication relay service, relaying communications between the UE and a network entity.

[0020] Certain aspects provide a computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions for performing the following operations: communicating with a network entity via a first wireless communication with a first wireless node; receiving one or more discovery signals from one or more second wireless nodes at one or more discovery signal opportunities; switching from the first wireless node to at least one of the second wireless nodes to communicate with the network entity based on the received discovery signals; and communicating with the network entity via a second wireless communication with at least one of the second wireless nodes.

[0021] Certain aspects provide a computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions for performing the following operations: communicating with a user equipment (UE) via a first wireless communication with a first wireless node; configuring the first wireless node with one or more associations between a relay request signal timing and a confirmation signal timing, a control signal timing, a discovery signal timing, or at least one of a plurality of beams for switching a relay service of the UE from the first wireless node to one or more second wireless nodes; and communicating with the UE via a second wireless communication with one or more second wireless nodes.

[0022] To achieve the foregoing and related ends, one or more aspects include features fully described below and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description and the accompanying drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative features of one or more aspects. However, these features are only indicative of a few of the various ways in which the principles of the various aspects can be employed. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0023] In order to enable a detailed understanding of the above features of the present disclosure, a more specific description of the content briefly summarized above may be made with reference to some aspects, some of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. However, it should be noted that the accompanying drawings illustrate only certain typical aspects of the present disclosure and are therefore not to be considered as limiting the scope thereof, as the description may admit of other equally effective aspects.

[0024] Figure 1 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example telecommunications system in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0025] Figure 2is a block diagram conceptually illustrating designs of example base stations (BSs) and user equipment (UEs) in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0026] Figure 3 An example of a frame format for a telecommunications system in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure is shown.

[0027] Figure 4 An example wireless communication network in which a relay node communicates with a UE and a network entity is illustrated, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0028] Figure 5 is a call flow diagram illustrating example signaling for performing beam-based relay node switching according to aspects of the present disclosure.

[0029] Figure 6 A diagram illustrating an example association between relay request signal opportunities and acknowledgement opportunities in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0030] Figure 7 A schematic diagram illustrating an example association between acknowledgement opportunities and control signal opportunities in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0031] Figure 8 A schematic diagram illustrating an example association between control signal opportunities and discovery signal opportunities according to certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0032] Fig. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations for wireless communications by a first wireless node in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0033] Fig.10 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations for wireless communications by a second wireless node in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0034] Fig.11 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations for wireless communications by a UE in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0035] Fig.12 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations for wireless communications by a BS in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0036] Fig.13 A communication device (eg, UE) is shown that may include various components configured to perform operations of the techniques disclosed herein according to aspects of the present disclosure.

[0037] Fig.14 A communication device (eg, a BS) is shown, which may include various components configured to perform operations of the techniques disclosed herein according to aspects of the present disclosure.

[0038] To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures. It is contemplated that elements disclosed in one aspect may be beneficially utilized on other aspects without specific recitation. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0039] Aspects of the present disclosure provide apparatus, methods, processing systems, and computer-readable media for performing beam-based relay node switching. In some cases, a relay node may hand over a wireless communication relay service of a UE to another adjacent relay node. The handover of a relay service may also be referred to herein as a relay handover. In some cases, if the relay handover operation is performed only by the UE without any help from a source relay node, such as detecting and waking up a target relay node, the power consumption from the relay handover activity may significantly affect the battery life of the UE. In some cases, if there are a large number of neighbors, discovering and activating each neighbor individually may increase the delay of the relay handover and consume high power at the source relay node and / or the UE. This relay handover process may affect the relay handover performance and power consumption of the source relay node and / or the UE.

[0040] Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a relay node that helps a UE perform relay switching to reduce the power consumption of the UE and reduce the interruption time of the relay switching process, which can provide enhanced performance (e.g., improved latency and bandwidth) of the UE's wireless communication. In one or more aspects, the relay node can discover and activate one or more neighbors based on beams, where the source relay node multicasts / broadcasts various signals on one or more beams to discover and activate neighbors. In other words, instead of performing discovery and activation on a per-neighbor basis, the source relay node can perform discovery and activation across a certain number of beams, where in some cases, multiple neighbors can be located within the coverage of one or more beams. Therefore, the relay switching techniques described herein can reduce relay switching delays and reduce power consumption of the source relay and the UE.

[0041] The following description provides an example of switching relay nodes in a communication system, and does not limit the scope, applicability or examples set forth in the claims. Without departing from the scope of the present disclosure, the functions and arrangements of the elements discussed may be changed. Various examples may appropriately omit, replace or add various processes or components. For example, the described method may be performed in a different order than described, and various steps may be added, omitted or combined. In addition, the features described with respect to some examples may be combined in some other examples. For example, any number of aspects set forth herein may be used to implement a device or practice method. In addition, the scope of the present disclosure is intended to cover such a device or method, which is practiced using other structures, functions or structures and functions in addition to or different from the various aspects of the present disclosure set forth herein. It should be understood that any aspect of the disclosure disclosed herein may be embodied by one or more elements of the claims. The term "exemplary" used herein means "used as an example, instance or illustration". Any aspect described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be interpreted as being more preferred or more advantageous than other aspects.

[0042] Typically, any number of wireless networks can be deployed in a given geographic area. Each wireless network can support a specific radio access technology (RAT) and can operate on one or more frequencies. RAT may also be referred to as radio technology, air interface, etc. Frequency may also be referred to as carrier, subcarrier, frequency channel, tone, subband, etc. Each frequency may support a single RAT in a given geographic area to avoid interference between wireless networks of different RATs. In some cases, a 5GNR RAT network may be deployed.

[0043] Figure 1 An example wireless communication network 100 is shown in which various aspects of the present disclosure may be performed. The wireless communication network 100 may be a NR system (e.g., a 5G NR network).

[0044] like Figure 1 As shown, according to aspects of the present disclosure, BS 110a includes a relay node manager 112, which configures a first wireless node (e.g., UE120a) using one or more associations between a relay request signal timing and a confirmation signal timing, a control signal timing, a discovery signal timing, or at least one of a plurality of beams for switching a relay service of a UE (e.g., UE 120b) from a first wireless node to one or more second wireless nodes (e.g., UE120c).

[0045] According to aspects of the present disclosure, UE 120a includes a relay node manager 122a that performs relay switching on a per-beam basis. According to aspects of the present disclosure, UE 120b includes a relay node manager 122b that receives a discovery signal from a relay node (e.g., UE 120c) and switches from UE 120a to UE 120c based on the received discovery signal to communicate with BS 110. According to aspects of the present disclosure, UE 120c includes a relay node manager 122c that performs relay switching on a per-beam basis.

[0046] In some cases, two or more subordinate entities (e.g., UE 120a-c) can use sidelink signals to communicate with each other. Real-world applications of such sidelink communications may include public safety, proximity services, UE-to-network relay, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, Internet of Everything (IoE) communications, IoT communications, mission-critical grids, and / or various other suitable applications. In general, a sidelink signal may refer to a signal communicated from one subordinate entity (e.g., UE 120a) to another subordinate entity (e.g., UE 120b) without relaying the communication through a scheduling entity (e.g., UE or BS), even though the scheduling entity may be used for scheduling and / or control purposes. In some examples, licensed spectrum may be used to communicate sidelink signals (unlike wireless local area networks, which typically use unlicensed spectrum).

[0047] Various sidelink channels may be used for sidelink communications, including a physical sidelink discovery channel (PSDCH), a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), and a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH). The PSDCH may carry discovery expressions that enable neighboring devices to discover each other. The PSCCH may carry control signaling, such as sidelink resource configurations and other parameters for data transmission, and the PSSCH may carry data transmissions. The PSFCH may carry feedback related to sidelink channel quality, including HARQ feedback and / or channel state feedback (CSF).

[0048] NR access (e.g., 5G NR) can support various wireless communication services, such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) targeting wide bandwidth (e.g., 80 MHz or above), millimeter wave (mmWave) targeting high carrier frequency (e.g., 24 GHz to 53 GHz or above), massive machine type communication MTC (mMTC) targeting non-backward compatible MTC technology, and / or mission-critical services 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 their respective quality of service (QoS) requirements. In addition, these services can coexist in the same subframe.

[0049] like Figure 1 As shown, the wireless communication network 100 may include several base stations (BSs) 110a-z (each also individually referred to herein as BS 110 or collectively referred to as BS 110) and other network entities. BS 110 may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area (sometimes referred to as a "cell"), which may be fixed or may move depending on the location of the mobile BS 110. In some examples, BS 110 may be interconnected with each other and / or with one or more other BSs or network nodes (not shown) in the wireless communication network 100 through various types of backhaul interfaces (e.g., direct physical connections, wireless connections, virtual networks, etc.) using any suitable transport network. Figure 1 In the example shown, base stations 110a, 110b, and 110c may be macro base stations for macro cells 102a, 102b, and 102c, respectively. BS 110x may be a pico BS for pico cell 102x. Base stations 110y and 110z may be femto base stations for femto cells 102y and 102z, respectively. A BS may support one or more cells. BS 110 communicates with user equipment (UE) 120a-y (each also individually referred to herein as UE 120 or collectively referred to as UE 120) in wireless communication network 100. UE 120 (e.g., 120x, 120y, etc.) may be dispersed in wireless communication network 100, and each UE 120 may be fixed or mobile.

[0050] The wireless communication network 100 may also include a relay station (e.g., relay station 110r), also known as a wireless relay node, relay node, relay, etc., which receives transmissions of data and / or other information from an upstream station (e.g., BS 110a or UE 120r) and transmits transmissions of data and / or other information to a downstream station (e.g., UE 120 or BS 110), or relays transmissions between UE 120 to facilitate communication between devices.

[0051] A network controller 130 may couple to a set of BSs 110 and provide coordination and control for these BSs 110. The network controller 130 may communicate with the BSs 110 via a backhaul. The BSs 110 may also communicate with each other via a wireless or wired backhaul (eg, directly or indirectly).

[0052] Figure 2 Example components of BS 110 and UE 120 are shown (eg, in Figure 1 In the wireless communication network 100), which can be used to implement various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0053] At BS 110, a transmit processor 220 may receive data from a data source 212 and control information from a controller / processor 240. The control information may be for a physical broadcast channel (PBCH), a physical control format indicator channel (PCFICH), a physical hybrid ARQ indicator channel (PHICH), a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), a group common PDCCH (GC PDCCH), etc. The data may be for a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), etc. The processor 220 may process (e.g., encode and symbol map) the data and the control information to obtain data symbols and control symbols, respectively. The transmit processor 220 may also generate reference symbols, such as for a primary synchronization signal (PSS), a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), and a PBCH demodulation reference signal (DMRS). A transmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor 230 may perform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on ​​data symbols, control symbols, and / or reference symbols (if applicable), and may provide output symbol streams to modulators (MODs) 232a-232t. Each modulator 232 may process a respective output symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain an output sample stream. Each modulator may further process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and upconvert) the output sample stream to obtain a downlink signal. The downlink signals from modulators 232a-232t may be transmitted via antennas 234a-234t, respectively.

[0054] At the UE 120, antennas 252a-252r may receive downlink signals from the BS 110 and may provide received signals to demodulators (DEMODs) in transceivers 254a-254r, respectively. Each demodulator 254 may condition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) a corresponding received signal to obtain input samples. Each demodulator may further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. A MIMO detector 256 may obtain received symbols from all demodulators 254a-254r, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols if applicable, and provide detected symbols. A receive processor 258 may process (e.g., demodulate, deinterleave, and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for the UE 120 to a data sink 260, and provide decoded control information to a controller / processor 280.

[0055] On the uplink, at the UE 120, a transmit processor 264 may receive and process data from a data source 262 (e.g., for a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)) and control information from a controller / processor 280 (e.g., for a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH)). The transmit processor 264 may also generate reference symbols for a reference signal (e.g., a sounding reference signal (SRS)). The symbols from the transmit processor 264 may be precoded by a TX MIMO processor 266, if applicable, further processed by a demodulator in the transceiver 254a-254r (e.g., for SC-FDM, etc.), and transmitted to the BS 110. At the BS 110, the uplink signal from the UE 120 may be received by the antenna 234, processed by the modulator 232, detected by the MIMO detector 236 (if applicable), and further processed by the receive processor 238 to obtain decoded data and control information transmitted by the UE 120. Receive processor 238 may provide decoded data to a data sink 239 and decoded control information to controller / processor 240 .

[0056] Memories 242 and 282 may store data and program codes for BS 110 and UE 120, respectively. Scheduler 244 may schedule UEs for data transmission on the downlink and / or uplink.

[0057] The controller / processor 280 and / or other processors and modules at the UE 120 may perform or direct the execution of processes for the techniques described herein. Figure 2 As shown, according to aspects described herein, the controller / processor 240 of BS 110 has a relay node manager 241, which configures the first wireless node using one or more associations between a relay request signal timing and an acknowledgement signal timing, a control signal timing, a discovery signal timing, or at least one of a plurality of beams for switching a relay service of a UE (e.g., UE 120b) from a first wireless node (e.g., UE 120a) to one or more second wireless nodes (e.g., UE 120c). According to aspects of the present disclosure, the controller / processor 280 of UE 120 has a relay node manager 281, which performs relay switching on a per-beam basis. In certain aspects, according to aspects described herein, the relay node manager 281 receives a discovery signal from a relay node and switches to another relay node for relay service. Although shown at the controller / processor, other components of UE 120 and BS 110 may be used to perform the operations described herein.

[0058] Although Figure 2 The example provided in the description is for wireless communication between a UE and a base station, but for ease of understanding, Figure 2Aspects of the present invention may also be applicable to UEs communicating with each other, for example, via a side link interface, as described herein. Figure 1 As described.

[0059] Figure 3 300 is a diagram showing an example of a frame format 300 for NR. The transmission timeline for each of the downlink and uplink may be divided in units of radio frames. Each radio frame may have a predetermined duration (e.g., 10 ms) and may be divided into 10 subframes, each 1 ms, indexed from 0 to 9. Depending on the subcarrier spacing, each subframe may include a variable number of slots. Depending on the subcarrier spacing, each slot may include a variable number of symbol periods (e.g., 7 or 14 symbols). The symbol periods in each slot may be assigned an index. A mini slot, which may be referred to as a subslot structure, refers to a transmission time interval (e.g., 2, 3, or 4 symbols) whose duration is less than a slot.

[0060] Each symbol in a time slot may indicate the link direction (e.g., DL, UL, or flexible) of data transmission, and the link direction of each subframe may be switched dynamically. The link direction may be based on the time slot format. Each time slot may include DL / UL data and DL / UL control information.

[0061] In NR, a synchronization signal (SS) block is transmitted. The SS block includes PSS, SSS, and two-symbol PBCH. The SS block can be transmitted at a fixed time slot position, such as Figure 3 Symbols 0-3 shown. PSS and SSS are used by UE for cell search and acquisition. PSS can provide half-frame timing, and SS can provide CP length and frame timing. PSS and SSS can provide cell identity. PBCH carries some basic system information, such as downlink system bandwidth, timing information within a radio frame, SS burst set period, system frame number, etc. SS blocks can be organized into SS bursts to support beam scanning. Additional system information such as remaining minimum system information (RMSI), system information block (SIB), other system information (OSI) can be sent on the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) in certain subframes. For example, for millimeter wave transmission, SS blocks can be sent up to 64 times with up to 64 different beam directions. Up to 64 transmissions of SS blocks are called SS burst sets. SS blocks in an SS burst set are sent in the same frequency region, while SS blocks in different SS burst sets can be sent at different frequency locations.

[0062] The UE may operate in various radio resource configurations, including a configuration associated with sending a pilot using a dedicated resource set (e.g., a radio resource control (RRC) dedicated state, etc.) or a configuration associated with sending a pilot using a common resource set (e.g., an RRC common state, etc.). When operating in the RRC dedicated state, the UE may select a dedicated resource set for sending a pilot signal to the network. When operating in the RRC common state, the UE may select a common resource set for sending a pilot signal to the network. In either case, the pilot signal sent by the UE may be received by one or more network access devices (such as an access network (AN) or a distributed unit (DU) or a portion thereof). Each receiving network access device may be configured to receive and measure pilot signals sent on a common resource set, and also receive and measure pilot signals sent on a dedicated resource set allocated to a UE for which the network access device is a member of a monitoring set of the network access device of the UE. A central unit (CU) receiving one or more of the network access devices or to which the receiving network access device sends a pilot signal measurement value may use the measurement value to identify a serving cell of the UE, or initiate a change of a serving cell of one or more of the UEs.

[0063] Exemplary beam-based relay node switching

[0064] In some wireless communication networks (e.g., 5G NR), device-to-device (D2D) communications, such as sidelink communications, may include communications between an Internet of Things (IoT) device (e.g., a smart appliance or wearable device such as a smart watch, activity tracker, etc.) and a UE (e.g., a mobile phone or access point). In some cases, a UE may act as a gateway between an IoT device and another wireless node and / or network entity (e.g., a base station (e.g., Figure 1 That is, the UE can relay wireless communications between IoT devices and network entities, wherein such relay services can enable IoT devices to reduce their power consumption via low-power transmissions to or from the UE.

[0065] For example, a relay node (e.g., UE 120a or UE 120c) may reside within the cell coverage of a base station (e.g., BS 110a), and a UE (e.g., UE 120b, which may include an IoT device) may reside within or outside the cell coverage of the base station. In some aspects, the base station communicates with the relay node UE via a Uu (e.g., BS to UE or UE to BS) interface (DL, UL), and the relay node may communicate with the UE via a side link interface. In some cases, due to various conditions or factors, such as a long distance or obstruction between the UE and the base station, a weak reception capability of the UE, a low transmission power of the UE, or a limited battery capacity of the UE, it may be very power inefficient for the UE to communicate directly with the base station. In some aspects, a relay node may include a wireless communication device, such as a UE, an access point, a transmitting and receiving point, etc.

[0066] When communicating in mmWave spectrum (e.g., frequency range 2 of 5G NR), a relay node may have multiple transmit / receive antennas, enabling beamforming transmissions between the UE and the relay node. In some aspects, beamforming transmissions may extend coverage and reduce co-channel interference. In some cases, for example, if the number of transmit / receive antennas is large, a relay node may significantly extend coverage with narrow beams, albeit at the expense of a large number of beam directions and, in some cases, long delays to scan all beam directions.

[0067] In some cases, a relay node may switch the wireless communication relay service of the UE to another relay node. The switching of the relay service may also be referred to as relay switching here. When the source relay node (i.e., the current relay node that relays the communication between the UE and the base station) detects that a relay switching is about to occur (e.g., due to various factors, such as the mobility of the UE and / or the relay node, channel changes, changes in the battery state of the relay node, or changes in the load state), the source relay node may notify the UE to perform the relay switching. If the relay switching operation is performed only by the UE without any help from the source relay node, such as detecting and waking up the target relay node, the power consumption from the relay switching activity may significantly affect the battery life of the UE. In addition, if the bandwidth of the UE is less than the bandwidth of the relay node, the UE may perform inter-frequency measurements that may cause data transfer interruption to facilitate the relay switching.

[0068] In some cases of discovering and activating neighbor relay nodes, the source relay node may monitor certain spectrums to detect neighbor relay nodes, then exchange messages with the neighbor relay nodes to determine the availability of the neighbor relay UE, and finally instruct the neighbor to send a discovery signal to the UE. If the working spectrum is a high-frequency spectrum, such as a millimeter wave spectrum, beam management of the link between the source relay node and the neighbor relay node may be involved. If there are a large number of neighbors, discovering and activating each neighbor individually may increase the delay of the relay switching and consume high power in the source relay node. This relay switching process may affect the relay switching performance and the power consumption of the source relay node.

[0069] Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a relay node that helps a UE perform relay switching to reduce the power consumption of the UE and reduce the interruption time of the relay switching process, which can provide enhanced performance (e.g., improved latency and bandwidth) of the UE's wireless communication. In some aspects, a relay node can discover and activate one or more neighbors based on a beam, wherein a source relay node multicasts / broadcasts various signals across one or more beams to discover and activate neighbors. In other words, instead of performing discovery and activation on a per-neighbor basis, a source relay node can perform discovery and activation across a certain number of beams, wherein multiple neighbors can be located within the coverage of one or more beams. Therefore, the relay switching techniques described herein can reduce relay switching delays and reduce power consumption of a source relay and / or UE.

[0070] In some cases, the UE may enter sleep mode to save power. For example, when the UE is in sleep mode (e.g., a low power state such as an idle state or an inactive state), the UE may suspend receiving signals from the base station on the PDCCH and PDSCH. When in sleep mode, the UE may periodically monitor a wake-up signal (WUS) at a specific time-frequency resource unit (e.g., referred to as a WUS opportunity). When the UE successfully detects the WUS, the UE will wake up to receive the PDCCH and PDSCH. The WUS may be some easily detectable signal, such as a symbol sequence modulated with amplitude and phase-based modulation, which allows the UE to monitor the WUS with an effective power consumption (e.g., less than 1 mW) that is less than the power consumed to detect and decode the PDCCH and PDSCH. In some cases, the WUS is detectable when the UE is in a lower power state (e.g., sleep mode) and / or is detectable using certain low-power hardware.

[0071] In certain aspects, when in sleep mode, the relay UE may suspend reception of certain sidelink channels, such as PSCCH or PSSCH, in order to save power. The sleeping relay UE may periodically monitor the WUS, and when the relay UE successfully detects the WUS, the relay UE may wake up to receive transmissions on the PSCCH and / or PSSCH.

[0072] Figure 4 An example wireless communication network 400 is shown in which various aspects of the present disclosure may be performed. As shown, a source relay node (SRN) 120a (also referred to as a wireless relay node) may relay wireless communications between a UE 120b and a base station 110. In some cases, for example, due to a change in load state at the SRN 120a, the SRN 120a may initiate a remote relay handover. The SRN 120a may detect surrounding areas with a relay request signal via beams 402a-d to identify neighbor relay nodes (NRNs) for relay handover. In this example, the SRN 120a may communicate wirelessly with the NRNs 120c-g via beamforming transmissions (such as beams 402a-d), and beams 402a-d may represent transmit and / or receive beams of the SRN 120a and / or NRNs 120c-g. For example, NRNs 120c-g may be located within the coverage area of ​​beams 402a-d, and in some cases, multiple NRNs 120c, 120g may be located within the coverage area of ​​beam 402a. In some aspects, NRNs 120c-g may be able to detect beamformed transmissions from all or some of beams 402a-d, but a single beam may provide the best channel characteristics between NRNs 120c-g and SRN 120a. For example, beam 402a may provide the best channel characteristics between NRN 120c and SRN 120a.

[0073] The SRN 120a and the NRNs 120c-g may communicate various signals (such as relay request signals, confirmation signals, and control signals) via the beams 402a-d to discover and activate at least one of the NRNs 120c-g for relay handover, for example, as described herein with reference to Figure 5 Each of the signals transmitted via beams 402a-d may be transmitted at various times. As used herein, a transmission and / or reception opportunity may include certain radio resources, such as time-frequency resources and / or code division sequences.

[0074] For example, after identifying the NRN located in beam 402a as a candidate for relay handover, SRN 120a may send a control signal via beam 402a, which may be received by NRN 120c and NRN 120g, wherein the control signal instructs the NRNs to send a discovery signal to UE 120b. After performing a relay handover with UE 120b, NRN 120c may relay communications between UE 120b and base station 110. In some aspects, SRN 120a, UE 120b, and NRNs 120c-g may communicate with each other via a beamformed sidelink communication channel (e.g., PSDCH, PSCCH, PSSCH, and / or PSFCH).

[0075] Figure 5 1 is a call flow diagram illustrating example operations for performing beam-based relay node switching according to certain aspects of the present disclosure. In certain aspects, SRN 120a and SRN 120c may be configured with one or more associations between a relay request signal (RRS) opportunity and an acknowledgement signal (AS) opportunity, a control signal (CS) opportunity, a discovery signal (DS) opportunity, or at least one of a plurality of beams (e.g., beams 402a-d). SRN 120a and / or BS 110 may configure NRN 120c with an association between an RRS opportunity and the following AS opportunity, CS opportunity, and / or DS opportunity. In some cases, the association may be predetermined and known to SRN 120a and NRN 120c.

[0076] In some cases, a network entity such as BS 110 may control the configuration of wireless relay nodes such as SRN 120a and NRN 120c. For example, at 502, SRN 120a may receive a configuration indicating one or more associations from BS 110. In some aspects, the configuration may indicate which of NRNs 120c may be candidates for relay handover. Since BS 110 may control the configuration of associations between various opportunities, at 504b, NRN 120c may receive a configuration indicating one or more associations from BS 110.

[0077] In some cases, at 504a, the SRN 120a may send a broadcast signal (e.g., SS blocks and / or SS block bursts) to the NRN 120c indicating one or more associations for various occasions. In some aspects, at 504a, the SRN 120a may forward the configuration received at 502 to the NRN 120c. In some cases, the association sent at 504a may be determined by the SRN 120a without configuration from the BS 110.

[0078] In some aspects, the SRN 120a may broadcast an indication of the association, for example, via a beamformed sidelink-SS block (S-SSB). In some aspects, the SRN may configure the association to the NRN by having an indication of all opportunities. For example, a common indication of the association including all beams may be sent via all beams of the S-SSB.

[0079] In certain aspects, the association may be indicated to the NRN on a per-beam basis. For example, an indication of an association including only one beam may be sent in a beamformed S-SSB via the same beam as the RRS and / or CS beams.

[0080] In some aspects, association may be indicated via a beam covering multiple beams for discovering and activating neighbor wireless nodes. For example, an indication of association including multiple RRS beams may be sent via S-SSB on corresponding S-SSB beams corresponding to several RRS and / or CS beams.

[0081] Various opportunities may enable the NRN 120c to identify radio resources to confirm the relay handover request, receive control signals, and send discovery signals. In certain aspects, various opportunities may enable the SRN 120a to identify the beams to receive confirmation and the radio resources to send control signals that instruct the NRN to send discovery signals to the UE.

[0082] SRN 120a may relay wireless communications between UE 120b and BS 110. For example, at 506, UE 120b may send data to SRN 120a, which may forward the data to BS 110 via a Uu interface at 508.

[0083] At 510, SRN 120a may identify that relay switching is about to occur, for example, based on various factors or conditions (such as due to channel changes and / or mobility of the UE). At 512, SRN 120a may send a relay request signal to NRN 120c via multiple beams (e.g., beams 402a-d) at an RRS opportunity, wherein each relay request signal indicates a request to switch the relay service of UE 120b from SRN 120a to NRN 120c.

[0084] For example, at 514, NRN 120c may determine whether to perform relay switching as requested by SRN 120a. In some cases, when determining whether to perform relay switching, NRN 120c may consider various conditions or factors, such as the load state or battery life of NRN 120c. After determining to perform relay switching, NRN 120c may identify one of the SRN beams (e.g., beams 402a-d) to send a confirmation signal based on the attributes of the relay request signal. These attributes may include a channel quality indicator, a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), a signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR), a signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio (SNDR), and / or a received signal strength indicator (RSSI). In some cases, NRN 120c may identify one of the SRN beams that has the best channel quality compared to other beams. NRN 120c may identify a beam based on an association between a beam and an RRS opportunity. For example, each relay request signal may be sent via a different beam and a different RRS opportunity, which may enable the NRN 120c to identify the beam associated with the RRS opportunity.

[0085] At 516, the NRN 120c may send an acknowledgment signal to the SRN 120a at an AS opportunity, which may be associated with, for example, one of the RRS opportunities, as described herein with reference to Figure 6 Further described. NRN 120c monitors certain RRS opportunities and conditionally sends an AS at an associated AS opportunity to confirm the relay switch. If NRN 120c detects an RRS and agrees to perform a relay switch, NRN 120c selects one of the RRS opportunities with a detected RRS beam and sends an AS at an associated AS opportunity to confirm the relay switch, where the AS opportunity is associated with the RRS opportunity of the same beam. The AS opportunity for a beam can be unique, so multiple NRNs can send ASs without conflict. At the SRN, AS reception can only detect the presence of the transmitted AS, regardless of the number of transmitters. For example, the AS can be a certain symbol sequence, which is common to the AS opportunity (e.g., beam) or SRN. This configuration of the AS can enable the SRN to receive multiple ASs at one AS opportunity without compromising the detection success rate at the SRN.

[0086] After sending the AS, the NRN monitors the associated CS opportunities for possible CS reception. The CS opportunities may be associated with AS opportunities or RRS opportunities of the same beam, so multiple NRNs may receive the same signal simultaneously. For example, at 518, the SRN 120a may select at least one of the beams with the confirmed NRN, and at 520, the SRN 120a may send one or more control signals via the selected beam at one or more CS opportunities, which may be associated with the AS opportunities, for example, as described herein with reference to Figure 8 described.

[0087] In certain aspects, at 522, the SRN 120a may configure the UE 120b with a measurement configuration that instructs the UE 120c to discover various parameters of the NRN 120c via one or more discovery signals. For example, the measurement configuration may indicate the timing at which the UE 120b receives a discovery signal from the NRN 120c. In some aspects, the SRN 120a may send the measurement configuration via various control signals (e.g., sidelink control information).

[0088] At 524, the NRN 120c may send one or more discovery signals to the UE 120b at the DS occasion. If there are multiple NRNs 120c sending discovery signals, the UE 120b may select one of the NRNs 120c based on various attributes associated with the discovery signals, such as channel quality, SNR, SINR, SNDR, RSSI, etc. For example, the UE 120b may select one of the NRNs 120c that provides the best channel quality compared to the other discovery signals.

[0089] NRN 120a may relay wireless communications between UE 120b and BS 110. For example, at 526, UE 120b may send data to NRN 120c, where NRN 120c may forward the data to BS 110 via the Uu interface at 528.

[0090] In some aspects, the RRS opportunity (also referred to as the WUS opportunity) can be associated with the AS opportunity. For example, Figure 6 A schematic diagram is shown of SRN 120a sending a relay request signal via beams 602a-d at WUS opportunities 1-4, where NRNs 120c-f may be located within the coverage area of ​​each of beams 602a-d, respectively. As shown, SRN 120a may receive confirmation signals from NRNs 120c-f at corresponding AS opportunities 1-4 via beams 604a-d. In this example, WUS opportunity 1 is associated with beams 602a, 604a and AS opportunity 1; WUS opportunity 2 is associated with beams 602b, 604b and AS opportunity 2; and so on.

[0091] In some aspects, multiple relay nodes may be within the coverage area of ​​a beam such as RRS beam 602a. Figure 7 A schematic diagram of NRNs 120c and 120g responding to RRS via beam 604a is shown in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. In this example, both NRNs 120c and 120g transmit AS at AS opportunity 1, NRN 120d transmits AS at AS opportunity 2, and NRN 120e transmits AS at AS opportunity 3. Since SRN 120a may only know the number of ASs received at AS opportunities, SRN 120a may only know that at least one NRN is transmitted via beams of three AS opportunities, but SRN 120a may not know the number of NRNs at each beam. In some cases, NRN 120f may not transmit AS based on various conditions or factors, for example, due to the load status of the NRN.

[0092] Figure 7 It is also shown that the AS opportunity can be associated with the CS opportunity. As shown, after the SRN 120a receives the AS at AS opportunities 1, 2, and 3, the SRN 120a sends the CS at CS opportunities 1 and 2, where each of the AS opportunities and the CS opportunities is associated with one of the beams 706a-d. In this example, AS opportunity 1 is associated with beams 604a, 706a and CS opportunity 1; AS opportunity 2 is associated with beams 604b, 706b and CS opportunity 2, and so on.

[0093] After NRN 120c and NRN 120g send AS at AS Opportunity 1, NRN 120c and NRN 120g monitor CS Opportunity 1 and both receive the same CS from SRN 120a. After NRN 120d sends AS at AS Opportunity 2, NRN 120d monitors CS Opportunity 2 and receives CS from SRN 120a. After NRN 120e sends AS at AS Opportunity 3, NRN 120e monitors CS Opportunity 3, but does not receive any CS from SRN 120a. Since NRN 120f does not send AS, NRN 120f does not monitor CS Opportunity 4.

[0094] In some aspects, a CS opportunity may be associated with a DS opportunity. For example, Figure 8 A schematic diagram showing the association between CS opportunities and DS opportunities according to certain aspects of the present disclosure is shown. In this example, CS opportunity 1 is associated with beam 706a and DS opportunity 1; AS opportunity 2 is associated with beam 706b and CS opportunity 2, and so on.

[0095] In some aspects, after receiving the CS, the NRN may send a DS at the corresponding DS opportunity. Figure 8 , NRN 120c and NRN 120g use DS opportunity 1 (associated with CS opportunity 1) to send DS to UE 120b, and NRN 120d uses DS opportunity 2 (associated with CS opportunity 2) to send another DS to UE 120b. Under this scheme, mutual interference (called inter-beam interference) of DS transmissions performed by NRNs using different SRN beams can be mitigated. The use of Zadoff-Chu sequences can solve the mutual interference of DS transmissions performed by NRNs using the same SRN beam (called intra-beam). For example, in some cases, the DS waveform can be a Zadoff-Chu sequence (such as PSS) with different root values, and the DS waveforms of different NRNs can be distinguished by the UE. Different time-frequency resources can also be used at the DS opportunity to solve intra-beam interference. For example, the DS opportunity of an SRN beam can be associated with multiple time-frequency resources. Each confirmed NRN in the beam can select one of the resources for DS transmission to reduce the DS conflict rate.

[0096] Although for ease of understanding, Figure 6-8 The example depicted in FIG. 1 shows NRN 120g below NRN 120c, but aspects of the present disclosure are applicable to situations where NRN 120g is located in the same coverage area as NRN 120c with respect to various beams (e.g., beams 602a, 604a, and 706a) used for communication between SRN 120a and NRNs 120c, 120g, for example, as Figure 4 shown.

[0097] Fig. 9 900 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations 900 for wireless communications in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. Operations 900 may be performed, for example, by a wireless node (e.g., Figure 4 Operation 900 may be implemented as a processor (e.g., Figure 2 In addition, in operation 900, the wireless node may transmit and receive signals, for example, through one or more antennas (e.g., Figure 2 In some aspects, the transmission and / or reception of signals by the wireless node may be implemented via a bus interface of one or more processors (eg, controller / processor 280) that obtain and / or output signals.

[0098] Operations 900 may begin at 902, where a first wireless node (e.g., Figure 4 The SRN 120a of the UE (eg, Figure 4 UE 120b) and a network entity (e.g., Figure 4 At 904, the first wireless node may transmit a signal to one or more second wireless nodes (e.g., BS 110) via multiple beams (e.g., beams 402a-d) at a relay request signal opportunity. Figure 4 The first wireless node may switch the relay service of the UE to at least one of the one or more second wireless nodes.

[0099] In certain aspects, performing wireless communication relay services (also referred to as relay services) for a UE may include relaying wireless communications between the UE and a network entity.

[0100] In some aspects, the first wireless node may wirelessly communicate with the second wireless node via beamforming transmissions on the beam set. For example, sending the relay request signal at 904 may include sending each of the relay request signals via different beams in the plurality of beams at different relay request signal opportunities of the relay request signal opportunities. In some aspects, each of the beams may correspond to a different transmit direction (e.g., azimuth and / or elevation) and a different relay request opportunity.

[0101] In some aspects, the relay request signal may include one or more wake-up signals (WUS) detectable when the UE is in a lower power state (and / or detectable with certain low-power hardware). For example, the wake-up signal may include a symbol sequence detectable at low power consumption, such as less than 1 mW. In some cases, the wake-up signal may be modulated with amplitude and phase based modulation.

[0102] In some aspects, after sending the RRS at 904, the first wireless node may receive one or more confirmation signals from the second wireless node, for example, as described herein with reference to Figure 6 As described. As an example, switching the relay service at 906 may also include the first wireless node receiving one or more confirmation signals from at least one of the one or more second wireless nodes at one or more confirmation signal opportunities. In some aspects, each of the confirmation signal opportunities is respectively associated with one of the relay request signal opportunities, for example, as described herein with reference to Figure 6 As described.

[0103] After receiving the confirmation signal, the first wireless node may select a beam associated with at least one of the confirmation signals and send a CS to the second wireless node via the selected beam, for example, as described herein with reference to Figure 7 For example, switching the relay service at 906 may also include the first wireless node sending one or more control signals to at least one of the second wireless nodes via at least one of the plurality of beams at one or more control signal opportunities. In some aspects, each of the control signals may instruct the second wireless node to send one or more discovery signals at one or more discovery signal opportunities.

[0104] Each of the beams used to transmit the control signal may correspond to one of the plurality of beams associated with one of the relay request signals. For example, beam 706a may correspond to beam 602a, such that beam 706a is transmitted in the same direction (e.g., azimuth and / or elevation) as beam 602a, and in some aspects, beam 706a may have the same coverage area as beam 602a.

[0105] In some aspects, each of the control signal opportunities can be respectively associated with one of the relay request signal opportunities. Figure 7 The CS timing 1 can be Figure 6 In some aspects, for example, Figure 7 As shown, each of the control signal opportunities can be associated with one of the confirmation signal opportunities. In some aspects, each of the discovery signal opportunities can be associated with one of the relay request signal opportunities. For example, Figure 8 The DS timing 1 can be Figure 6In some aspects, for example, Figure 8 As shown, each of the discovery signal opportunities may be respectively associated with one of the control signal opportunities.

[0106] In some aspects, upon receiving the one or more acknowledgment signals, the first wireless node may identify one or more acknowledgment signal opportunities and determine one or more control signal opportunities associated with the identified acknowledgment signal opportunities. The first wireless node may transmit the one or more control signals via at least one of the beams at the one or more determined control signal opportunities.

[0107] In some aspects, the first wireless node may configure the UE with a discovery signal opportunity for receiving a discovery signal from the second wireless node (e.g., via sidelink control information). For example, the first wireless node may send a signal to the UE indicating a measurement configuration for the UE to discover one or more second wireless nodes via one or more discovery signals. In some aspects, the measurement configuration may indicate one or more discovery signal opportunities for receiving one or more discovery signals from the second wireless node.

[0108] In some aspects, the first wireless node may configure associations between various signals for discovering and activating neighbor wireless nodes, such as the second wireless node. For example, the configured associations may be provided by a network entity (e.g., a BS). In some cases, the first wireless node may configure at least one of the second wireless nodes with one or more associations between a relay request signal opportunity and at least one of an acknowledgement signal opportunity, a control signal opportunity, a discovery signal opportunity, or a plurality of beams.

[0109] In some aspects, the first wireless node may configure the association to the second wireless node via an indication common to all occasions. For example, the first wireless node may send at least one broadcast signal (e.g., one or more SS blocks) indicating one or more associations to at least one of the one or more second wireless nodes.

[0110] In some aspects, an association may be indicated to a second wireless device on a per-beam basis. For example, a first wireless node may send at least one broadcast signal to at least one of the one or more second wireless nodes via one of a plurality of beams, the broadcast signal indicating an association between one of the relay request signal opportunities and a confirmation signal opportunity, a control signal opportunity, a discovery signal opportunity, or at least one of a plurality of beams. In some aspects, the beam used to send the broadcast signal may correspond to a beam associated with various opportunities indicated by the broadcast signal, so that the beam used to send the broadcast signal may have the same transmission direction and / or cover the same area as the beam associated with various opportunities indicated by the broadcast signal. For example, an indication of an association may be sent via a sidelink-SS block using the same beam as an RRS beam and / or a CS beam.

[0111] In some aspects, an association may be indicated via a beam covering a plurality of beams used to discover and activate neighbor wireless nodes. For example, a first wireless node may transmit at least one broadcast signal to at least one of a second wireless node via a beam, the broadcast signal indicating an association between a set of relay request signal opportunities and at least one of an acknowledgement signal opportunity, a control signal opportunity, a discovery signal opportunity, or a set of multiple beams, wherein the beam may correspond to the set of beams indicated via the broadcast signal. A beam used to transmit a broadcast signal may correspond to a beam set associated with various opportunities indicated by the broadcast signal by having the same transmission direction and / or covering the same area as the beam set.

[0112] In some aspects, the network entity may configure the first wireless node with the association. For example, the first wireless node may receive a configuration (e.g., control signaling including downlink control information (DCI), a radio resource control (RRC) message, and / or a medium access control (MAC) control element) from the network entity that indicates one or more associations between a relay request signal opportunity and at least one of an acknowledgement signal opportunity, a control signal opportunity, or a discovery signal opportunity.

[0113] Fig.10 1 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations 1000 for wireless communications in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. Operations 1000 may be performed, for example, by a wireless node (e.g., Figure 4 Aspects of operation 1000 may supplement operation 900 performed by the first wireless node. Operation 1000 may be implemented as a process on one or more processors (e.g., Figure 2 In addition, in operation 1000, the wireless node may transmit and receive signals, for example, through one or more antennas (e.g., Figure 2In some aspects, the transmission and / or reception of signals by the wireless node may be implemented via a bus interface of one or more processors (eg, controller / processor 280) that obtain and / or output signals.

[0114] Operations 1000 may begin at 1002, where a second wireless node (e.g., Figure 4 The NRN 120c-g) may transmit a signal from a first wireless node (e.g., Figure 4 The SRN 120a of the embodiment receives one or more relay request signals. Each of the relay request signals indicates that the UE (eg, Figure 4 At 1004, the second wireless node may switch the wireless communication relay service of the UE from the first wireless node to the second wireless node. At 1006, after switching the wireless communication relay service, the second wireless node may relay the UE and the network entity (e.g., Figure 4 Communication between BS 110).

[0115] In certain aspects, performing wireless communication relay services (also referred to as relay services) for a UE may include relaying wireless communications between the UE and a network entity.

[0116] In some aspects, the second wireless node may wirelessly communicate with the first wireless node via beamforming transmissions on the beam set. For example, receiving the relay request signal at 1002 may include receiving each of the relay request signals via a different beam in the one or more beams at a different relay request signal opportunity in the one or more relay request signal opportunities. In some aspects, each of the beams may correspond to a different transmit direction (e.g., azimuth and / or elevation) and a different relay request opportunity.

[0117] In some aspects, the relay request signal may include one or more wake-up signals detectable when the UE is in a low power state (and / or detectable using certain low power hardware). For example, the wake-up signal may include a symbol sequence detectable at low power consumption, such as less than 1 mW. In some cases, the wake-up signal may be modulated with amplitude and phase based modulation.

[0118] According to the method of claim 21, after receiving the RRS at 1002, the second wireless node may send the AS to the first wireless node, for example, as described in reference to Figure 6Said. For example, the switching relay service may also include the second wireless node sending a confirmation signal to the first wireless node at a confirmation signal opportunity. In some aspects, the confirmation signal opportunity is associated with one of the relay request signal opportunities. In some aspects, the second wireless node may send a confirmation signal based on an attribute of one of the relay request signals received at one of the relay request signal opportunities associated with the confirmation signal opportunity. In some cases, the second wireless node may select one of the confirmation opportunities that is associated with an attribute of the relay request signal (such as channel quality, SNR, SINR, SNDR, RSSI, etc.). For example, the second wireless node may select a confirmation opportunity associated with one of the RRSs that provides the best channel quality compared to the RRS.

[0119] For example, as referenced in this article Figure 7 In some aspects, the handover relay service may further include the second wireless node receiving one or more control signals from the first wireless node via at least one of the plurality of beams at one or more control signal opportunities. In some aspects, each of the control signal opportunities is associated with one of the confirmation signal opportunities and instructs the second wireless node to send one or more discovery signals.

[0120] In some aspects, each of the control signal opportunities can be associated with at least one of the relay request signal opportunities. Figure 7 The CS timing 1 can be Figure 6 The WUS timing 1 is associated with this. Figure 7 As shown, each of the control signal opportunities may be associated with at least one of the confirmation signal opportunities.

[0121] Each of the beams used to transmit the control signal may correspond to one of the plurality of beams associated with one of the relay request signals. For example, beam 706a may correspond to beam 602a, such that beam 706a is transmitted in the same direction (e.g., azimuth and / or elevation) as beam 602a, and in some aspects, beam 706a may have the same coverage area as beam 602a.

[0122] After receiving the control signal, the second wireless node may send a discovery signal to the UE at the discovery signal opportunity. For example, switching the relay service may also include the second wireless node sending one or more discovery signals to the UE at the discovery signal opportunity. In some aspects, each of the discovery signals is associated with at least one of the control signals and indicates to the UE to switch the relay service.

[0123] In some aspects, the discovery signal opportunity can be associated with one of the relay request signal opportunities. Figure 8The DS timing 1 can be Figure 6 In some aspects, for example, Figure 8 As shown, a discovery signal opportunity may be associated with one of the control signal opportunities.

[0124] In some cases, since multiple NRNs may receive control signals associated with discovery signal opportunities, discovery signals sent by NRNs may conflict at the same discovery signal opportunity. To reduce interference from these NRNs, discovery signals may be sent based on Zadoff-Chu sequences. In some aspects, the discovery signal opportunity may be selected from multiple time-frequency resources associated with the discovery signal opportunity. For example, Figure 8 NRN 120c may select a different time-frequency resource than NRN 120g to send a discovery signal at a corresponding discovery signal opportunity. In some aspects, each of the time-frequency resources may be associated with a different relay request signal opportunity or a different control signal opportunity, which may be associated with a discovery signal opportunity.

[0125] In some aspects, the second wireless node may be configured to monitor and respond to associations between various signals for discovering and activating neighbor relay nodes. For example, the second wireless node may configure one or more associations between a relay request signal opportunity and at least one of an acknowledgement signal opportunity, a control signal opportunity, a discovery signal opportunity, or a plurality of beams.

[0126] In some aspects, the first wireless node may configure an association to the second wireless node via an indication that is common to all occasions. For example, the second wireless node may receive at least one broadcast signal indicating one or more associations from the first wireless node, and the second wireless node may configure the association based on the indication in the at least one broadcast signal.

[0127] In some aspects, an association may be indicated to a second wireless device on a per-beam basis. In some cases, the second wireless node may receive at least one broadcast signal from the first wireless node via one of a plurality of beams, the broadcast signal indicating an association between one of the relay request signal opportunities and a confirmation signal opportunity, a control signal opportunity, a discovery signal opportunity, or at least one of a plurality of beams. The second wireless node may configure the association based on an indication in at least one broadcast signal. In some aspects, the beam used to send the broadcast signal may correspond to a beam associated with various opportunities indicated by the broadcast signal, so that the beam used to send the broadcast signal may have the same transmission direction and / or cover the same area as the beam associated with various opportunities indicated by the broadcast signal. For example, an indication of an association may be received via a sidelink-SS block using the same beam as an RRS beam and / or a CS beam.

[0128] In some aspects, the association may be indicated via a beam covering a plurality of beams used to discover and activate neighbor wireless nodes. In some cases, the second wireless node may receive at least one broadcast signal from the first wireless node via a beam, the broadcast signal indicating an association between a set of relay request signal opportunities and at least one of a confirmation signal opportunity, a control signal opportunity, a discovery signal opportunity, or a set of multiple beams, wherein the beam may correspond to the beam set indicated via the broadcast signal. The second wireless node may configure the association based on the indication in the at least one broadcast signal. The beam used to transmit the broadcast signal may correspond to the beam set by having the same transmission direction and / or covering the same area as the beam set associated with the various opportunities indicated by the broadcast signal.

[0129] In some aspects, the network entity may configure the first wireless node with the associations. For example, the second wireless node may receive a configuration (e.g., control signaling including a DCI, an RRC message, and / or a MAC control element) from the network entity, the configuration indicating one or more associations between the relay request signal opportunity and at least one of the confirmation signal opportunity, the control signal opportunity, or the discovery signal opportunity. The second wireless node may configure the association based on the configuration.

[0130] Fig.11 1 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations 1100 for wireless communication in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. Operations 1100 may be performed, for example, by a UE (e.g., Figure 4 Operation 1100 may supplement operation 900 performed by the first wireless node and / or operation 1000 performed by the second wireless node. Operation 1100 may be implemented as a processor (e.g., Figure 2 In addition, in operation 1100, the UE may transmit and receive signals, for example, through one or more antennas (e.g., Figure 2 In some aspects, the transmission and / or reception of signals by the UE may be implemented via a bus interface of one or more processors (eg, controller / processor 280) that obtain and / or output signals.

[0131] Operations 1100 may begin at 1102, where a UE communicates with a first wireless node (e.g., Figure 4 The first wireless communication between the SRN 120a and the network entity (eg, Figure 4At 1104, the UE receives one or more discovery signals from one or more second wireless nodes at one or more discovery signal opportunities. At 1106, the UE switches from the first wireless node to at least one second wireless node to communicate with the network entity based on the received discovery signals. At 1108, the UE communicates with the network entity via a second wireless communication with at least one of the second wireless nodes.

[0132] In some aspects, the UE may be configured with a measurement configuration that indicates a discovery opportunity for discovering the NRN. For example, the UE may receive a signal from a first wireless node indicating a measurement configuration for the UE to discover one or more second wireless nodes via one or more discovery signals, and receiving the one or more discovery signals at 1104 may include receiving the one or more discovery signals based on the measurement configuration. In some aspects, the measurement configuration indicates one or more discovery signal opportunities for receiving the one or more discovery signals.

[0133] Fig.12 1 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations 1200 for wireless communication in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. Operations 1200 may be performed, for example, by a network entity (e.g., Figure 4 Operation 1200 may supplement operation 900 performed by the first wireless node and / or operation 1000 performed by the second wireless node. Operation 1200 may be implemented as a processor (e.g., Figure 2 In addition, in operation 1200, the network entity may transmit and receive signals, for example, through one or more antennas (e.g., Figure 2 In some aspects, the transmission and / or reception of signals by the network entity may be implemented via a bus interface of one or more processors (eg, controller / processor 240) that obtain and / or output signals.

[0134] Operations 1200 may begin at 1202, where a network entity communicates with a UE via a first wireless communication with a first wireless node. At 1204, the network entity configures the first wireless node with one or more associations between a relay request signal opportunity and at least one of a confirmation signal opportunity, a control signal opportunity, a discovery signal opportunity, or a plurality of beams for switching a relay service of the UE from the first wireless node to one or more second wireless nodes. At 1206, the network entity communicates with the UE via a second wireless communication with the one or more second wireless nodes.

[0135] In some aspects, configuring the first wireless node at 1204 may include the network entity sending a signal (eg, control signaling including a DCI, an RRC message, and / or a MAC control element) to the first wireless node indicating one or more associations.

[0136] In some aspects, the network entity may configure the one or more second wireless nodes with one or more associations. For example, the network entity may send a signal (e.g., control signaling including a DCI, an RRC message, and / or a MAC control element) to the one or more second wireless nodes indicating the one or more associations.

[0137] Although the examples provided herein are described for a wireless relay node that relays wireless communications between a UE and a network entity (such as a base station) for ease of understanding, aspects of the present disclosure may also be applied to a wireless relay node that relays wireless communications between a UE and another UE (such as a base station). Figure 1 and Figure 4 A wireless relay node for wireless communication between UE 120c).

[0138] Fig.13 A communication device 1300 (eg, SRN 120a, UE 120b, or NRN 120c) is shown, which may include various components (eg, corresponding to means-plus-function components) configured to perform operations of the techniques disclosed herein, such as Fig. 9 , Fig.10 and / or Fig.11 1300. The communication device 1300 includes a processing system 1302 coupled to a transceiver 1308 (e.g., a transmitter and / or a receiver). The transceiver 1308 is configured to transmit and receive signals, such as various signals as described herein, for the communication device 1300 via an antenna 1310. The processing system 1302 may be configured to perform processing functions for the communication device 1300, including processing signals received and / or to be transmitted by the communication device 1300.

[0139] The processing system 1302 includes a processor 1304 coupled to a computer readable medium / memory 1312 via a bus 1306. In some aspects, the computer readable medium / memory 1312 is configured to store instructions (e.g., computer executable code) that, when executed by the processor 1304, cause the processor 1304 to perform Fig. 9 , Fig.10 and / or Fig.11, or for performing other operations for performing various techniques for performing relay node switching discussed herein. In some aspects, the computer-readable medium / memory 1312 stores codes 1314 for receiving, codes 1316 for sending, codes 1318 for switching, codes 1320 for relaying, and / or codes for communication (which may include codes 1314 for receiving and / or codes 1316 for sending). In some aspects, the processor 1304 has a circuit configured to implement the code stored in the computer-readable medium / memory 1312. The processor 1304 includes a circuit 1322 for receiving, a circuit 1324 for sending, a circuit 1326 for switching, a circuit 1328 for relaying, and / or a circuit for communication (which may include a circuit 1322 for receiving and / or a circuit 1324 for sending).

[0140] Fig.14 A communication device 1400 (eg, BS 110) is shown, which may include various components (eg, corresponding to means plus function components) configured to perform operations of the techniques disclosed herein, such as Fig.12 The communication device 1400 includes a processing system 1402 coupled to a transceiver 1408 (e.g., a transmitter and / or a receiver). The transceiver 1408 is configured to transmit and receive signals, such as the various signals described herein, for the communication device 1400 via an antenna 1410. The processing system 1402 may be configured to perform processing functions for the communication device 1400, including processing signals received and / or to be transmitted by the communication device 1400.

[0141] The processing system 1402 includes a processor 1404 coupled to a computer-readable medium / memory 1412 via a bus 1406. In some aspects, the computer-readable medium / memory 1412 is configured to store instructions (e.g., computer-executable code) that, when executed by the processor 1404, cause the processor 1404 to perform Fig.12, or for performing other operations for performing various techniques for configuring relay node switching discussed herein. In some aspects, the computer-readable medium / memory 1412 stores code 1414 for receiving, code 1416 for sending, code 1418 for configuring, and / or code for communicating (which may include code 1414 for receiving and / or code 1416 for sending). In some aspects, the processor 1404 has a circuit configured to implement the code stored in the computer-readable medium / memory 1412. The processor 1404 includes a circuit 1422 for receiving, a circuit 1424 for sending, a circuit 1426 for configuring, and / or a circuit for communicating (which may include a circuit 1422 for receiving and / or a circuit 1424 for sending).

[0142] The techniques described herein can be used for various wireless communication technologies such as NR (e.g., 5G NR), 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-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 (SCFDMA), Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA), and other networks. The terms "network" and "system" are often used interchangeably. A CDMA network can implement radio technologies such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), cdma2000, and the like. UTRA includes Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) and other variants of CDMA. cdma2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95, and IS-856 standards. A TDMA network 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 (WiFi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDMA, etc. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). LTE and LTE-A are versions of UMTS that use EUTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A, and GSM are described in documents from an organization named "3rd Generation Partnership Project" (3GPP). cdma2000 and UMB are described in documents from an organization named "3rd Generation Partnership Project 2" (3GPP 2). NR is an emerging wireless communication technology under development.

[0143] The techniques described herein can be used for the above wireless networks and radio technologies as well as other wireless networks and radio technologies. For clarity, although terms commonly associated with 3G, 4G and / or 5G wireless technologies may be used herein to describe various aspects, various aspects of the present disclosure may be applied to other generation-based communication systems.

[0144] In 3GPP, the term "cell" can refer to the coverage area of ​​a Node B (NB) and / or a NB subsystem serving the coverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used. In NR systems, the terms "cell" and BS, next-generation NodeB (gNB or gNodeB), access point (AP), distributed unit (DU), carrier or transmit receive point (TRP) can be used interchangeably. The BS can provide communication coverage for macro cells, pico cells, femto cells and / or other types of cells. A macro cell can cover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., a radius of several kilometers) and can allow unrestricted access to UEs with service subscriptions. A pico cell can cover a relatively small geographic area and can allow unrestricted access to UEs with service subscriptions. A femto cell can cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home) and can allow UEs associated with the femto cell (e.g., UEs in a closed subscriber group (CSG), UEs of users in a home, etc.) to have restricted access. The BS of a macro cell can be called a macro BS. The BS of a pico cell can be called a pico BS. The BS of a femto cell can be called a femto BS or a home BS.

[0145] UE may also be referred to as a mobile station, terminal, access terminal, subscriber unit, station, customer premises equipment (CPE), cellular phone, smart phone, 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 facility, biosensor / device, wearable device (such as smart watch, smart clothes, 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, global positioning system device, or any other suitable device configured to communicate via wireless or wired medium. Some UEs may be considered as machine type communication (MTC) devices or evolved MTC (eMTC) devices. MTC and eMTC UEs include robots, drones, remote devices, sensors, meters, monitors, location tags, etc. that can communicate with a BS, another device (e.g., a remote device), or some other entity. For example, a wireless node can provide connectivity to a network (e.g., a wide area network such as the Internet or a cellular network) via a wired or wireless communication link. Some UEs can be considered Internet of Things (IoT) devices, which can be narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) devices.

[0146] Some wireless networks (e.g., LTE) utilize orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) on the downlink and single carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink. OFDM and SC-FDM divide the system bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers, which are also commonly referred to as tones, frequency bins, etc. Each subcarrier can be modulated with data. In general, modulation symbols are sent in the frequency domain using OFDM and in the time domain using SC-FDM. The spacing between adjacent subcarriers can be fixed, and the total number of subcarriers (K) can depend on the system bandwidth. For example, the spacing of the subcarriers can be 15kHz, and the minimum resource allocation (called a "resource block" (RB)) can be 12 subcarriers (or 180kHz). Therefore, for system bandwidths of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 megahertz (MHz), the nominal fast Fourier transform (FFT) size can be equal to 128, 256, 512, 1024, or 2048, respectively. The system bandwidth can also be divided into subbands. For example, a subband may cover 1.08 MHz (eg, 6 RBs), and there may be 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 subbands for system bandwidths of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 MHz, respectively.In LTE, the basic transmission time interval (TTI) or packet duration is a subframe of 1 ms.

[0147] NR can utilize OFDM with CP on both the uplink and downlink, and includes support for half-duplex operation using TDD. In NR, the subframe is still 1ms, but the basic TTI is called a time slot. Depending on the subcarrier spacing, the subframe contains a variable number of time slots (e.g., 1, 2, 4, 8, 16...time slots). NR RB is 12 consecutive frequency subcarriers. NR can support a basic subcarrier spacing of 15KHz, and other subcarrier spacings, such as 30kHz, 60kHz, 120kHz, 240kHz, etc., can be defined relative to the basic subcarrier spacing. Symbol and time slot lengths are proportional to the subcarrier spacing. The CP length also depends on the subcarrier spacing. Beamforming can be supported, and the beam direction can be dynamically configured. MIMO transmission with precoding can also be supported. In some examples, the MIMO configuration in DL can support up to 8 transmit antennas, with up to 8 streams of multi-layer DL transmission and up to 2 streams per UE. In some examples, multi-layer transmission of up to 2 streams per UE can be supported. Aggregation of multiple cells up to 8 serving cells can be supported.

[0148] In some examples, access to the air interface can be scheduled. A scheduling entity (e.g., BS) allocates resources for communications between some or all devices and facilities within its service area or cell. A scheduling entity may be responsible for scheduling, allocating, reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one or more subordinate entities. That is, for scheduled communications, subordinate entities utilize resources allocated by the scheduling entity. The base station is not the only entity that can serve as a scheduling entity. In some examples, a UE may act as a scheduling entity and may schedule resources for one or more subordinate entities (e.g., one or more other UEs), and other UEs may utilize the resources scheduled by the UE for wireless communications. In some examples, a UE may act as a scheduling entity in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network and / or a mesh network. In a mesh network example, in addition to communicating with a scheduling entity, UEs may also communicate directly with each other.

[0149] The method disclosed herein includes one or more steps or actions for implementing the method. Without departing from the scope of the claims, the method steps and / or actions can be interchangeable with each other. In other words, unless a specific order of steps or actions is specified, the order and / or use of specific steps and / or actions can be modified without departing from the scope of the claims.

[0150] As used herein, a phrase referring to "at least one of" a list of items refers to any combination of those items, including single members. For 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 of multiples of the same elements (e.g., aa, aaa, aab, aac, abb, acc, bb, bb, bbb, bbc, cc, and ccc, or any other order of a, b, c).

[0151] As used herein, the term "determining" encompasses a wide variety of actions. For example, "determining" may include calculating, computing, processing, deriving, investigating, searching (e.g., searching in a table, a database, or another data structure), ascertaining, etc. In addition, "determining" may include receiving (e.g., receiving information), accessing (e.g., accessing data in a memory), etc. In addition, "determining" may include resolving, selecting, choosing, establishing, etc.

[0152] The foregoing description is provided to enable those skilled in the art to practice the various aspects described herein. It will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications to these aspects are to be made, and the general principles defined herein may be applicable to other aspects. Therefore, the claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein, but to conform to the full scope consistent with the language of the claims, wherein, unless otherwise stated, the singular element is not intended to represent "one and only one", but to represent "one or more". Unless otherwise specified, the term "some" refers to one or more. All structural and functional equivalents of the elements of the various aspects described in this disclosure known or to be known by those of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be included by the claims. In addition, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the public, regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly stated in the claims. Any claim element shall not be interpreted according to the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 112 (f), unless the element is explicitly described using the phrase "a component for...", or in the case of a method claim, the element is described using the phrase "a step for...".

[0153] The various operations of the above method can be performed by any suitable component that can perform the corresponding function. The component may include various hardware and / or software components and / or modules, including but not limited to circuits, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or processors. Generally, in the case of operations shown in the figure, those operations can have corresponding corresponding parts plus functional components with similar numbers.

[0154] The various exemplary logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in conjunction with the present disclosure may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a 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. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but alternatively, the processor may be any commercially available processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, such as a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, a combination of one or more microprocessors and a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0155] If implemented in hardware, an example hardware configuration may include a processing system in a wireless node. The processing system may be implemented using a bus architecture. Depending on the specific application and overall design constraints of the processing system, the bus may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges. The bus may link various circuits together, including a processor, a machine-readable medium, and a bus interface. The bus interface may be used to connect a network adapter, etc., to the processing system via the bus. The network adapter may be used to implement the signal processing functions of the PHY layer. In the user terminal 120 (see Figure 1 ), a user interface (e.g., keyboard, display, mouse, joystick, etc.) may also be connected to the bus. The bus may also link various other circuits, such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, power management circuits, etc., which are well known in the art and are not described further. The processor may be implemented using one or more general and / or special purpose processors. Examples include microprocessors, microcontrollers, DSP processors, and other circuits that can execute software. Those skilled in the art will recognize how to best implement the described functionality of the processing system based on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the entire system.

[0156] If implemented in software, these functions may be stored or transmitted as one or more instructions or codes on a computer-readable medium. Software should be broadly interpreted as instructions, data, or any combination thereof, whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or other. Computer-readable media include computer storage media and communication media, including any media that facilitates the transfer of computer programs from one place to another. The processor may be responsible for managing the bus and general processing, including executing software modules stored on a machine-readable storage medium. A computer-readable storage medium may be coupled to a processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. Alternatively, the storage medium may be integrated into the processor. For example, a machine-readable medium may include a transmission line, a carrier modulated by data, and / or a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that is separated from a wireless node, all of which may be accessed by the processor through a bus interface. Alternatively or additionally, a machine-readable medium or any portion thereof may be integrated into a processor, such as in the case of a cache and / or a general register file. For 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, magnetic disks, optical disks, hard drives, or any other suitable storage media, or any combination thereof. Machine-readable media may be embodied in a computer program product.

[0157] A software module may include a single instruction or multiple instructions, and may be distributed over several different code segments, distributed in different programs, and across multiple storage media. A computer-readable medium may include multiple software modules. A software module includes instructions that, when executed by a device such as a processor, cause a processing system to perform various functions. A software module may include a sending module and a receiving module. Each software module may reside in a single storage device, or may be distributed in multiple storage devices. For example, when a triggering event occurs, a software module may be loaded from a hard disk into a RAM. During the execution of a software module, a processor may load some of the instructions into a cache to increase access speed. Then, one or more cache lines may be loaded into a general register file for execution by the processor. When the functions of a software module are mentioned below, it will be understood that such functions are implemented by the processor when executing instructions from the software module.

[0158] Likewise, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared (IR), radio and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio and microwave are included in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, as used herein, include compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and Optical disks, where magnetic disks typically reproduce data magnetically, and optical disks reproduce data optically with lasers. Thus, in some aspects, computer-readable media may include non-transitory computer-readable media (e.g., tangible media). Additionally, for other aspects, computer-readable media may include transitory computer-readable media (e.g., signals). Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0159] Thus, certain aspects may include a computer program product for performing the operations presented herein. For example, such a computer program product may include a computer-readable medium having instructions stored (and / or encoded) thereon, the instructions being executable by one or more processors to perform the operations described herein, for example, for performing the operations described herein and Fig. 9 , Fig.10 , Fig.11 and / or Fig.12 Instructions for the operations shown.

[0160] In addition, it should be understood that the modules and / or other appropriate components for performing the methods and techniques described herein can be downloaded and / or otherwise obtained by the user terminal and / or base station where applicable. For example, such a device can be coupled to a server to facilitate the transfer of components for performing the methods described herein. Alternatively, the various methods described herein can be provided via a storage component (e.g., RAM, ROM, a physical storage medium such as a compact disk (CD) or a floppy disk, etc.), so that the user terminal and / or base station can obtain the various methods when the storage device is coupled or provided to the device. In addition, any other suitable technology for providing the methods and techniques described herein to the device can be utilized.

[0161] It is to be understood that the claims are not limited to the precise configuration and components described above. Various modifications, changes and variations may be made in the arrangement, operation and details of the methods and apparatus described above without departing from the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication by a first wireless node, wherein the first wireless node is a source relay node, comprising: Relaying wireless communications between a user equipment UE and a network entity, wherein the network entity is a base station; transmitting a relay request signal to one or more second wireless nodes via a plurality of beams at a relay request signal opportunity, wherein the one or more second wireless nodes are neighboring relay nodes, wherein each of the plurality of beams corresponds to a different transmission direction and a different relay request signal opportunity, wherein each of the relay request signals indicates a request to switch a relay service of the UE from the first wireless node to the one or more second wireless nodes; and The relay service of the UE is handed over to at least one of the one or more second wireless nodes.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein: Transmitting the relay request signal includes transmitting each of the relay request signals via a different beam of the plurality of beams at different ones of the relay request signal opportunities. The method of claim 1 , wherein the relay request signal comprises one or more wake-up signals. 4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein switching the relay service further comprises receiving one or more confirmation signals from at least one of the one or more second wireless nodes at one or more confirmation signal opportunities.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein: Each of the confirmation signal opportunities is respectively associated with one of the relay request signal opportunities.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein switching the relay service further comprises: transmitting, at one or more control signal opportunities, one or more control signals to at least one of the one or more second wireless nodes via at least one of the plurality of beams; Each of the control signals instructs at least one of the one or more second wireless nodes to send one or more discovery signals at one or more discovery signal opportunities.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein: Each of the control signal opportunities is respectively associated with one of the relay request signal opportunities.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein each of the control signal opportunities is respectively associated with one of the confirmation signal opportunities.

9. The method according to claim 6, wherein: Each of the discovery signal opportunities is respectively associated with one of the relay request signal opportunities.

10. The method according to claim 6, wherein: Each of the discovery signal opportunities is respectively associated with one of the control signal opportunities.

11. The method according to claim 7, wherein: Each beam of at least one of the plurality of beams corresponds to one of the plurality of beams associated with one of the relay request signals.

12. The method according to claim 6, further comprising: upon receiving the one or more confirmation signals, identifying the one or more confirmation signal opportunities; determining one or more control signal opportunities associated with the identified acknowledgement signal opportunities, wherein each of the control signal opportunities is respectively associated with one of the acknowledgement signal opportunities; and Wherein sending one or more control signals comprises sending the one or more control signals via at least one of the plurality of beams at one or more determined control signal opportunities.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a signal to the UE indicating a measurement configuration for the UE to discover the one or more second wireless nodes via one or more discovery signals.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein: The measurement configuration indicates one or more discovery signal occasions for receiving the one or more discovery signals.

15. The method according to any of the preceding claims further includes configuring at least one of the one or more second wireless nodes using one or more associations between the relay request signal timing and a confirmation signal timing, a control signal timing, a discovery signal timing, or at least one of the multiple beams.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein configuring comprises sending at least one broadcast signal indicating the one or more associations to at least one of the one or more second wireless nodes.

17. The method according to claim 11, wherein the configuration includes sending at least one broadcast signal to at least one of the one or more second wireless nodes via one of the multiple beams, and the at least one broadcast signal indicates an association between one of the relay request signal timings and a confirmation signal timing, a control signal timing, a discovery signal timing, or at least one of the multiple beams.

18. The method according to claim 11, wherein the configuration includes sending at least one broadcast signal to at least one of the one or more second wireless nodes via a beam, the at least one broadcast signal indicating an association between the set of relay request signal timings and at least one of a confirmation signal timing, a control signal timing, a discovery signal timing, or a set of the multiple beams, wherein the beam covers the same area as the set of the multiple beams.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a configuration from the network entity, the configuration indicating one or more associations between the relay request signal opportunity and at least one of an acknowledgement signal opportunity, a control signal opportunity, or a discovery signal opportunity.

20. A method for wireless communication by a second wireless node, wherein the second wireless node is a source relay node, comprising: receiving one or more relay request signals from a first wireless node via one or more beams at one or more relay request signal opportunities, wherein the first wireless node is a source relay node, wherein each of the plurality of beams corresponds to a different transmission direction and a different relay request signal opportunity, wherein each of the relay request signals indicates a request to switch a wireless communication relay service of a user equipment UE from the first wireless node to a second wireless node; Switching the wireless communication relay service of the UE to a second wireless node; and After handing over the wireless communication relay service, the communication between the UE and a network entity is relayed, wherein the network entity is a base station.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein receiving the relay request signal comprises receiving each of the relay request signals via a different beam among the one or more beams at a different relay request signal opportunity among the one or more relay request signal opportunities.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the relay request signal comprises one or more wake-up signals.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein switching the relay service further comprises sending an acknowledgment signal to the first wireless node at an acknowledgment signal opportunity.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein: The acknowledgement signal opportunity is associated with one of the relay request signal opportunities.

25. The method according to claim 23, wherein: Sending the acknowledgment signal is based on a property of one of the relay request signals received at one of the relay request signal occasions associated with the acknowledgment signal occasion.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein switching the relay service further comprises: receiving one or more control signals from a first wireless node via at least one of the plurality of beams at one or more control signal opportunities; in, Each of the control signal opportunities is associated with one of the confirmation signal opportunities and instructs the second wireless node to transmit one or more discovery signals.

27. The method according to claim 26, wherein: Each of the control signal opportunities is associated with at least one of the relay request signal opportunities.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein each of the control signal opportunities is associated with at least one of the acknowledgement signal opportunities.

29. The method according to claim 26, wherein: Each beam of at least one of the plurality of beams corresponds to one beam of the plurality of beams associated with the relay request signal.

30. The method of claim 26, wherein switching the relay service further comprises: sending one or more discovery signals to the UE at a discovery signal opportunity; Each of the discovery signals is associated with at least one of the control signals and indicates to the UE to switch the relay service.

31. The method according to claim 30, wherein: The discovery signal opportunity is associated with one of the relay request signal opportunities.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein: The discovery signal opportunity is associated with one of the control signal opportunities.

33. The method of claim 30, wherein: The discovery signal is sent based on a Zadoff-Chu sequence.

34. The method of claim 30, wherein: The discovery signal opportunity is selected from a plurality of time-frequency resources, wherein each of the plurality of time-frequency resources is associated with a different relay request signal opportunity or a different control signal opportunity.

35. The method according to any of the preceding claims, further comprising configuring one or more associations between the relay request signal opportunity and an acknowledgement signal opportunity, a control signal opportunity, a discovery signal opportunity, or at least one of the plurality of beams.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein configuring comprises: receiving at least one broadcast signal from the first wireless node indicating the one or more associations; and The association is configured based on an indication in the at least one broadcast signal.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein configuring comprises: receiving at least one broadcast signal from a first wireless node via one of the plurality of beams, the at least one broadcast signal indicating an association between one of the relay request signal opportunities and at least one of an acknowledgement signal opportunity, a control signal opportunity, a discovery signal opportunity, or one of the plurality of beams; and The association is configured based on an indication in the at least one broadcast signal.

38. The method of claim 35, wherein configuring comprises: receiving at least one broadcast signal from a first wireless node via a beam, the at least one broadcast signal indicating an association between the set of relay request signal opportunities and at least one of an acknowledgement signal opportunity, a control signal opportunity, a discovery signal opportunity, or the set of the plurality of beams, wherein the beam covers the same area as the set of the plurality of beams; and The association is configured based on an indication in the at least one broadcast signal.

39. The method of claim 35, wherein configuring comprises: receiving a configuration indicating the one or more associations from a network entity; and The association is configured based on the configuration.

40. An apparatus comprising a communication interface and a processor, configured to perform any one of the methods contained in claims 1-39.

41. An apparatus comprising one or more means for performing any of the methods contained in claims 1-39.

42. A computer readable medium comprising code configured to be executed by a processor to implement any one of the methods contained in claims 1-39.

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