Method and apparatus for wireless communication

Abstract

Various aspects relate to a layer 1 / layer 2 centric inter-cell mobility communication system in which measurement information from at least one user equipment (UE) is sent to a base station. Based on the information, the base station can select at least one of a remote radio head (RRH), a serving cell, or a cell assigned with a physical cell ID to serve a specific UE using one of layer 1 or layer 2 control signaling based on the received measurement information and the system serving cell configuration or operation mode. Additionally, an indication of whether the cell configurations of a target cell and a source cell for an inter-cell handover are the same can be provided, and the UE can utilize the same source cell configuration during the handover when connected to the target cell if these configurations match or at least partially match.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims priority to and the benefit of Non-Provisional Application No. 17 / 131,138 filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on December 22, 2020, Provisional Application No. 62 / 953,149 filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on December 23, 2019, Provisional Application No. 62 / 965,718 filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on January 24, 2020, and Provisional Application No. 62 / 969,496 filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on February 3, 2020, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth below and for all applicable purposes. Technical Field

[0003] The techniques discussed below relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly to operating modes for Layer 1 (L1) / Layer 2 (L2) centric inter-cell mobility.

[0004] introduction

[0005] In certain wireless technologies and standards, such as the evolving 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR) standard, certain high-frequency transmission waveforms and protocols and the use of multiple transmission / reception points (multiple TRPs) have been proposed. In addition, the 5G NR standard continues to provide enhancements for multi-beam operation, particularly for high-frequency transmissions (e.g., frequency range FR2, which covers substantially 6 GHz and above), and for multi-TRP deployments. Some further enhancements in 5G NR include improved inter-cell mobility, which is a procedure that ensures that a wireless user equipment (UE) can change or switch from one wireless cell to another whenever the UE detects an adjacent wireless cell with higher signal quality.

[0006] A brief overview of some examples

[0007] An overview of one or more aspects of the present disclosure is given below to provide a basic understanding of these aspects. This overview is not an exhaustive overview of all conceived features of the present disclosure, and is neither intended to identify the key or decisive elements of all aspects of the present disclosure nor to attempt to define the scope of any or all aspects of the present disclosure. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more aspects of the present disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to a more detailed description that will be given later.

[0008] According to one aspect, a method for wireless communication at a radio access network (RAN) entity in a communication system supporting inter-cell mobility is disclosed. The method includes: receiving a measurement report from at least one user equipment (UE), and determining reference information based on the measurement report. Additionally, the method includes: selecting at least one cell to serve the at least one UE based on the reference information and a serving cell configuration of the RAN entity. Further, the method includes: transmitting to the at least one UE one of layer 1 (L1) signaling or layer 2 (L2) signaling for identifying the selected at least one cell.

[0009] According to another aspect, a method for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system supporting inter-cell mobility is disclosed, the method comprising: transmitting an uplink reference signal including at least one of power and signal measurements to a radio access network (RAN) entity. The method further comprises receiving one of layer 1 (L1) signaling or layer 2 (L2) signaling from the RAN entity, the one of the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling identifying one or more selected serving cells for serving the UE based on the transmitted uplink reference signal. Additionally, the method comprises: selecting one or more serving cells during inter-cell mobility operations based on the received L1 or L2 layer signaling.

[0010] In yet another aspect, a radio access network (RAN) entity configured for wireless communication is disclosed, having a processor, a transceiver communicatively coupled to the processor, and a memory communicatively coupled to the processor. The processor and the memory are configured to: receive a measurement report from at least one user equipment (UE) via the transceiver; and determine reference information based on the measurement report. In addition, the processor and the memory are configured to: select at least one cell to serve the at least one UE based on the reference information and a serving cell configuration of the RAN entity. In addition, the processor and the memory are configured to: transmit one of layer 1 (L1) signaling or layer 2 (L2) signaling for identifying the selected at least one cell to the at least one UE via the transceiver.

[0011] In yet more aspects, a user equipment (UE) configured for wireless communication is disclosed, having a processor, a transceiver communicatively coupled to the processor, and a memory communicatively coupled to the processor. The processor and memory are configured to transmit an uplink reference signal including at least one of power and signal measurements to a radio access network (RAN) entity. Additionally, the processor and memory are configured to receive one of layer 1 (L1) signaling or layer 2 (L2) signaling from the RAN entity, one of the L1 signaling or L2 signaling identifying one or more selected serving cells for serving the UE based on the transmitted uplink reference signal. Furthermore, the processor and memory are configured to select one or more serving cells based on the received L1 layer signaling or L2 layer signaling during inter-cell mobility operations.

[0012] These and other aspects of the present invention will be more fully understood after reading the following detailed description. After reading the following description of specific exemplary embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, other aspects, features and embodiments will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. Although the various features may be discussed below with respect to certain embodiments and drawings, all embodiments may include one or more of the advantageous features discussed herein. In other words, although one or more embodiments may be discussed as having certain advantageous features, one or more such features may also be used according to the various embodiments discussed herein. In a similar manner, although the exemplary embodiments may be discussed below as device, system or method embodiments, it should be appreciated that such exemplary embodiments may be implemented in various devices, systems, and methods. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0014] Figure 1 is a schematic illustration of an example of a wireless communication system in accordance with some aspects.

[0015] Figure 2 is a conceptual illustration of an example of a radio access network in accordance with some aspects.

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

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

[0018] Figure 5 The radio protocol architecture for a UE and / or gNB in ​​which the disclosed aspects are operable is explained.

[0019] Figure 6is a flow chart illustrating a method for selecting a resource or cell to serve a UE in an inter-cell mobility communication system according to some aspects.

[0020] Figure 7 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for a Radio Access Network (RAN) entity employing a processing system in accordance with some aspects.

[0021] Figure 8

[0013] Methods for selecting a cell in a UE in an inter-cell mobility communication system according to some aspects are illustrated.

[0022] Fig. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for a UE employing a processing system in accordance with some aspects.

[0023] Fig.10 is a flow chart illustrating a method for selecting resources in a RAN entity that will serve a UE in an inter-cell mobility communication system according to some aspects.

[0024] Fig.11

[0013] A flow chart illustrating yet another method for selecting resources within a UE in an inter-cell mobility communication system in accordance with some aspects.

[0025] Fig.12 is an example call flow diagram illustrating handover signaling and procedures when a UE switches from a serving cell to a target cell according to some aspects.

[0026] Fig.13 is a flow chart illustrating a method for selecting handover resources in a RAN entity that will serve a UE in an inter-cell mobility communication system according to some aspects.

[0027] Fig.14

[0013] A flow chart illustrating yet another method for receiving handover resources within a UE in an inter-cell mobility communication system in accordance with some aspects.

[0028] Detailed Description

[0029] The detailed description set forth below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings is intended as a description of various configurations and is not intended to represent the only configurations in which the concepts described herein may be practiced. This detailed description includes specific details to provide a thorough understanding of the various concepts. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that these concepts may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known structures and components are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid diluting such concepts.

[0030] The electromagnetic spectrum is typically subdivided into various classes, bands, channels, etc. based on frequency / wavelength. In 5G NR, two initial operating bands have been identified as frequency range designations FR1 (410 MHz–7.125 GHz) and FR2 (24.25 GHz–52.6 GHz). It should be understood that although a portion of FR1 is greater than 6 GHz, FR1 is often (interchangeably) referred to as the "sub-6 GHz band" in various documents and articles. Similar naming issues sometimes arise with respect to FR2, which is often (interchangeably) referred to as the "millimeter wave" band in various documents and articles, although it is different from the extremely high frequency (EHF) band (30 GHz–300 GHz) identified as the "millimeter wave" band by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

[0031] Frequencies between FR1 and FR2 are generally referred to as mid-band frequencies. Recent 5G NR research has identified the operating bands of these mid-band frequencies as frequency range designation FR3 (7.125GHz–24.25GHz). The frequency bands falling within FR3 can inherit FR1 characteristics and / or FR2 characteristics, and therefore can effectively extend the features of FR1 and / or FR2 to mid-band frequencies. In addition, higher frequency bands are currently being explored to extend 5G NR operations to above 52.6GHz. For example, three higher operating bands have been identified as frequency range designations FR4-a or FR4-1 (52.6GHz–71GHz), FR4 (52.6GHz–114.25GHz), and FR5 (114.25GHz–300GHz). Each of these higher frequency bands falls within the EHF band.

[0032] In view of the above aspects, unless otherwise specifically stated, it should be understood that if used in this document, the term sub-"6GHz" and the like can broadly refer to frequencies that can be less than 6GHz, can be within FR1, or can include mid-band frequencies. In addition, unless otherwise specifically stated, it should be understood that if used in this document, the term "millimeter wave" and the like can broadly refer to frequencies that can include mid-band frequencies, can be within FR2, FR4, FR4-a or FR4-1 and / or FR5, or can be within the EHF band.

[0033] It is worth noting that for 5G NR systems, inter-cell mobility may be configured as layer 1 (i.e., L1 or PHY layer) or layer 2 (i.e., L2 or MAC layer) centric (i.e., L1 / L2 centric) rather than a higher level (e.g., RRC). Within the 5G NR framework, various operating modes for inter-cell mobility (such as L1 / L2 centric inter-cell mobility) may be possible for different operating scenarios, as will be further described herein. In some examples, the present disclosure provides receiving an uplink measurement report from at least one user equipment (UE) via a wireless communication system employing inter-cell mobility within a radio access network (RAN) entity (such as a base station). The RAN entity may then select, based on the received uplink measurement report and the system serving cell configuration, at least one of a physical cell site, a serving cell, or a cell that is associated with or assigned a physical cell ID (PCI) using one of layer 1 (L1) or layer 2 (L2) control to serve the at least one UE.

[0034] In some other examples, a plurality of remote radio heads (RRHs) or cells assigned with at least one physical cell ID (PCI) may be configured to transmit a set of synchronization signal block (SSB) IDs (SSB IDs) selected by a network entity (e.g., a RAN entity) to serve a UE. A respective frequency location for each RRH or cell assigned with at least one PCI among the plurality of RRHs or PCIs may have a corresponding set of SSB IDs that may be selected by the RAN entity for serving at least one user equipment (UE) in a communication system, wherein the selection uses one of layer 1 (L1) control signaling or layer 2 (L2) control signaling. Each respective frequency location of the SSBs (e.g., a frequency range within a frequency of available transmission resources where the SSBs may be located) may be transmitted to the at least one UE for each RRH or cell associated with a PCI among the plurality of RRHs or cells associated with the PCIs.

[0035] In yet other examples, a handover or handover (HO) command may be provided in a wireless communication system for a user equipment (UE) served by a source cell to switch to a target cell. The HO command includes a cell match indication indicating whether a target cell configuration of the target cell is the same as a source cell configuration of the source cell. The HO command is transmitted to the UE for switching the UE to the target cell, and the target cell performs the HO based on the included cell match indication, which allows the UE to determine whether the configuration from the source cell can be reused to save resources after switching to the target cell.

[0036] Although various aspects and features are described in this application by explaining some examples, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that additional implementations and use cases can be generated in many different arrangements and scenarios. The various aspects described herein can be implemented across many different platform types, devices, systems, shapes, sizes, and packaging arrangements. For example, various aspects and / or use cases can be generated via integrated chip devices and other devices based on non-module components (e.g., end-user devices, vehicles, communication equipment, computing equipment, industrial equipment, retail / shopping equipment, medical equipment, AI-enabled devices, etc.). Although some examples may or may not be specifically for each use case or application, the wide applicability of the described aspects may occur. The scope of each implementation can range from chip-level or module components to non-module, non-chip-level implementations, and further to the aggregation, distributed or OEM devices or systems that incorporate one or more aspects of the described aspects. In some practical environments, the equipment incorporating the various aspects and features described may also necessarily include additional components and features for implementing and practicing the claimed and described examples. For example, the transmission and reception of wireless signals necessarily include several components for analog and digital purposes (e.g., hardware components, including antennas, RF chains, power amplifiers, modulators, buffers, processors, interleavers, adders / summers, etc.). The various aspects described herein are intended to be practiced in a wide variety of devices, chip-level components, systems, distributed arrangements, end-user devices, etc., of various sizes, shapes, and configurations.

[0037] The various concepts presented throughout this disclosure may be implemented across a wide variety of telecommunication systems, network architectures, and communication standards. Figure 1 , a schematic illustration of a radio access network 100 is provided as an illustrative example and not a limitation. The RAN 100 may implement any one or several suitable wireless communication technologies to provide radio access. As an example, the RAN 100 may operate in accordance with the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) New Radio (NR) specifications, commonly referred to as 5G. As another example, the RAN 100 may operate under a mix of 5G NR and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (eUTRAN) standards, commonly referred to as LTE. 3GPP refers to this hybrid RAN as the Next Generation RAN, or NG-RAN. Of course, many other examples may be utilized within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0038] Turning to the drawings, the various concepts presented throughout this disclosure can be implemented across a wide variety of telecommunication systems, network architectures, and communication standards. Figure 1, various aspects of the present disclosure are explained with reference to a wireless communication system 100 as an illustrative example and not as a limitation. The wireless communication system 100 includes three interacting domains: a core network 102, a radio access network (RAN) 104, and a user equipment (UE) 106. By means of the wireless communication system 100, the UE 106 may be enabled to perform data communications with an external data network 110, such as, but not limited to, the Internet.

[0039] The RAN 104 may implement any suitable one or more wireless communication technologies to provide radio access to the UE 106. As an example, the RAN 104 may operate in accordance with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) New Radio (NR) specifications, commonly referred to as 5G. As another example, the RAN 104 may operate under a mix of 5G NR and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (eUTRAN) standards, commonly referred to as LTE. 3GPP refers to this hybrid RAN as the Next Generation RAN, or NG-RAN. Of course, many other examples may be utilized within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0040] As illustrated, the RAN 104 includes a plurality of base stations 108. Broadly speaking, a base station is a network element in a radio access network that is responsible for radio transmission and reception to or from a UE in one or more cellular cells. In different technologies, standards, or contexts, a base station may be referred to as a base transceiver station (BTS), a radio base station, a radio transceiver, a transceiver function, a basic service set (BSS), an extended service set (ESS), an access point (AP), a B node (NB), an evolved B node (eNB), a next generation B node (gNB), a transmission reception point (TRP), or some other suitable terminology by those skilled in the art. In some examples, a base station may include two or more TRPs that may be co-located or non-co-located. Each TRP may communicate on the same or different carrier frequencies in the same or different frequency bands.

[0041] The radio access network 104 is further illustrated as supporting wireless communications for multiple mobile devices. A mobile device may be referred to as a user equipment (UE) in the 3GPP standard, but may also be referred to as a mobile station (MS), a subscriber station, a mobile unit, a subscriber unit, a wireless unit, a remote unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, a wireless communication device, a remote device, a mobile subscriber station, an access terminal (AT), a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a remote terminal, a handset, a terminal, a user agent, a mobile client, a client, or some other suitable terminology by those skilled in the art. A UE may be a device (e.g., a mobile device) that provides a user with access to network services.

[0042] Within this document, a "mobile" device does not necessarily need to have mobile capabilities, and may be stationary. The term mobile device or mobile equipment refers broadly to a wide variety of devices and technologies. A UE may include several hardware structural components sized, shaped, and arranged to facilitate communication; such components may include antennas, antenna arrays, RF chains, amplifiers, one or more processors, and the like electrically coupled to each other. For example, some non-limiting examples of mobile devices include mobile devices, cellular (cell) phones, smart phones, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, laptops, personal computers (PCs), notebooks, netbooks, smartbooks, tablet devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and a wide variety of embedded systems, for example, corresponding to the "Internet of Things" (IoT). Additionally, the mobile device may be a car or other transportation vehicle, a remote sensor or actuator, a robot or robotic device, a satellite radio, a global positioning system (GPS) device, an object tracking device, a drone, a multicopter, a quadcopter, a remote control device, a consumer and / or wearable device (such as glasses), a wearable camera, a virtual reality device, a smart watch, a health or fitness tracker, a digital audio player (e.g., an MP3 player), a camera, a game console, etc. Additionally, the mobile device may be a digital home or smart home device, such as home audio, video and / or multimedia equipment, an appliance, a vending machine, a smart lighting device, a home security system, a smart meter, etc. Additionally, the mobile device may be a smart energy device, a security device, a solar panel or solar array, a municipal infrastructure device that controls power, lighting, water, etc. (e.g., a smart grid), an industrial automation and enterprise device, a logistics controller, etc. Still further, the mobile device may provide connected medical or telemedicine support, such as health care at a distance. Telehealth devices may include telehealth monitoring devices and telehealth supervisory devices, whose communications may be given priority or prioritized access over other types of information, for example in the form of prioritized access for critical service data transmission and / or associated QoS for critical service data transmission.

[0043] Wireless communication between RAN 104 and UE 106 may be described as utilizing an air interface. Transmissions over the air interface from a base station (e.g., base station 108) to one or more UEs (e.g., UE 106) may be referred to as downlink (DL) transmissions. According to certain aspects of the present disclosure, the term downlink may refer to a point-to-multipoint transmission originating at a scheduling entity (further described below; e.g., base station 108). Another way to describe this scheme may be to use the term broadcast channel multiplexing. Transmissions from a UE (e.g., UE 106) to a base station (e.g., base station 108) may be referred to as uplink (UL) transmissions. According to further aspects of the present disclosure, the term uplink may refer to a point-to-point transmission originating at a scheduled entity (further described below; e.g., UE 106).

[0044] In some examples, access to the air interface may be scheduled, wherein a scheduling entity (e.g., a base station 108) allocates resources for communication among some or all devices and equipment within its service area or cell. Within the present disclosure, as discussed further below, a scheduling entity may be responsible for scheduling, assigning, reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one or more scheduled entities. That is, for scheduled communications, a UE 106 (which may be a scheduled entity) may utilize resources allocated by the scheduling entity 108.

[0045] Base station 108 is not the only entity that may function as a scheduling entity. That is, in some examples, a UE may function as a scheduling entity, scheduling resources for one or more scheduled entities (eg, one or more other UEs).

[0046] like Figure 1 , the scheduling entity 108 may broadcast downlink traffic 112 to one or more scheduled entities 106. Broadly speaking, the scheduling entity 108 is a node or device responsible for scheduling traffic in the wireless communication network, including downlink traffic 112 and, in some examples, uplink traffic 116 from one or more scheduled entities 106 to the scheduling entity 108. On the other hand, the scheduled entity 106 is a node or device that receives downlink control information 114 (including but not limited to scheduling information (e.g., grants), synchronization or timing information), or other control information from another entity in the wireless communication network, such as the scheduling entity 108.

[0047] In general, the base stations 108 may include a backhaul interface for communicating with a backhaul portion 120 of the wireless communication system. The backhaul 120 may provide a link between the base stations 108 and the core network 102. Furthermore, in some examples, the backhaul network may provide interconnections between the respective base stations 108. Various types of backhaul interfaces may be employed, such as a direct physical connection using any suitable transport network, a virtual network, and the like.

[0048] The core network 102 may be part of the wireless communication system 100 and may be independent of the radio access technology used in the RAN 104. In some examples, the core network 102 may be configured according to a 5G standard (e.g., 5GC). In other examples, the core network 102 may be configured according to a 4G Evolved Packet Core (EPC), or any other suitable standard or configuration.

[0049] Now refer to Figure 2 , a schematic illustration of RAN 200 is provided by way of example and not limitation. In some examples, RAN 200 may be similar to that described above and in Figure 1 The geographic area covered by the RAN 200 may be divided into cellular regions (cells) that may be uniquely identified by a user equipment (UE) based on an identity broadcast from an access point or base station. Figure 2 Macro cells 202, 204, and 206 and small cells 208 are illustrated, each of which may include one or more sectors (not shown). A sector is a sub-area of ​​a cell. All sectors within one cell are served by the same base station. A radio link within a sector may be identified by a single logical identification belonging to the sector. In a cell divided into sectors, multiple sectors within a cell may be formed by antenna groups, where each antenna is responsible for communication with UEs in a portion of the cell.

[0050] exist Figure 2, two base stations 210 and 212 are shown in the cellular cells 202 and 204; and a third base station 214 is shown as controlling a remote radio head (RRH) 216 in the cellular cell 206. That is, the base station may have an integrated antenna, or may be connected to the antenna or RRH by a feed cable or optical fiber. In the illustrated example, the cellular cells 202, 204, and 126 may be referred to as macro cells because the base stations 210, 212, and 214 support cells with large sizes. In addition, the base station 218 is shown in a small cell 208 (e.g., a micro cell, a micro cell, a femto cell, a home base station, a home node B, a home evolved node B, etc.), which may overlap with one or more macro cells. In this example, the cellular cell 208 may be referred to as a small cell because the base station 218 supports a cell with a relatively small size. The cell size setting may be done according to the system design and component constraints. It should be noted that according to some aspects, RRH 216 can be a remote radio transceiver connected to an operator's radio control panel. Additionally, RRH 216 can contain the RF circuitry of the base station plus analog-to-digital / digital-to-analog converters and up / down converters. The RRH can also have operational and management processing capabilities and interfaces to the rest of the base station. Additionally, a cell (such as cell 206) can include multiple physical cell sites (e.g., multiple RRHs).

[0051] It is to be understood that the radio access network 200 may include any number of wireless base stations and cellular cells. In addition, relay nodes may be deployed to extend the size or coverage area of ​​a given cellular cell. Base stations 210, 212, 214, 218 provide wireless access points to the core network for any number of mobile devices. In some examples, base stations 210, 212, 214, and / or 218 may be similar to those described above and in Figure 1 The same as the base station / scheduling entity 108 illustrated in FIG.

[0052] Figure 2 Further included is a quadcopter or drone 220 that can be configured to act as a base station. That is, in some examples, the cell may not necessarily be stationary, and the geographic area of ​​the cell may move depending on the location of a mobile base station (such as a quadcopter 220).

[0053] Within the RAN 200, cells may include UEs that may be in communication with one or more sectors of each cell. In addition, each base station 210, 212, 214, 218, and 220 may be configured to provide a core network 102 (see FIG. 1 ) for all UEs in the corresponding cell. Figure 1) access point. For example, UEs 222 and 224 may be in communication with base station 210; UEs 226 and 228 may be in communication with base station 212; UEs 230 and 232 may be in communication with base station 214 via RRH 216; UE 234 may be in communication with base station 218; and UE 236 may be in communication with mobile base station 220. In some examples, UEs 222, 224, 226, 228, 230, 232, 234, 236, 238, 240, and / or 242 may be in communication with the mobile base station 220 described above and in Figure 1 The UE / scheduled entity 106 is the same as illustrated in FIG.

[0054] In some examples, a mobile network node (eg, quadcopter 220) can be configured to function as a UE. For example, quadcopter 220 can operate within cell 202 by communicating with base station 210.

[0055] In a further aspect of the RAN 200, sidelink signals may be used between UEs without having to rely on scheduling or control information from a base station. Sidelink communications may be used, for example, in device-to-device (D2D), peer-to-peer (P2P), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) networks, and / or vehicle-to-everything (V2X). For example, two or more UEs (e.g., UEs 238, 240, and 242) may communicate with each other using peer-to-peer (P2P) or sidelink signals 237 without relaying the communication through a base station. In some examples, UEs 238, 240, and 242 may each act as a scheduling entity or a transmitting sidelink device and / or a scheduled entity or a receiving sidelink device to schedule resources and communicate sidelink signals 237 therebetween without relying on scheduling or control information from a base station. In other examples, two or more UEs (e.g., UEs 226 and 228) within the coverage area of ​​a base station (e.g., base station 212) may also communicate sidelink signals 227 on a direct link (sidelink) without communicating the communication through base station 212. In this example, base station 212 may allocate resources to UEs 226 and 228 for sidelink communications.

[0056] In the radio access network 200, the ability of a UE to communicate independently of its location while moving is called mobility. The various physical channels between the UE and the radio access network are generally managed by an access and mobility management function (AMF, not illustrated, Figure 1 The AMF is established, maintained and released under the control of the core network 102 in the core network, which may include a security context management function (SCMF) that manages the security context of both the control plane and the user plane functionalities and a security anchor function (SEAF) that performs authentication.

[0057] In various aspects of the present disclosure, the radio access network 200 may utilize DL-based mobility or UL-based mobility to implement mobility and handover (i.e., the transfer of a UE's connection from one radio channel to another). In a network configured for DL-based mobility, during a call with a scheduling entity, or at any other time, the UE may monitor various parameters of the signal from its serving cell and various parameters of neighboring cells. Depending on the quality of these parameters, the UE may maintain communication with one or more neighboring cells. During this time, if the UE moves from one cell to another, or if the signal quality from a neighboring cell exceeds the signal quality from the serving cell for a given amount of time, the UE may perform a handover or handover from the serving cell to the neighboring (target) cell. For example, a UE 224 (illustrated as a vehicle, but any suitable form of UE may be used) may move from a geographic area corresponding to its serving cell 202 to a geographic area corresponding to a neighboring cell 206. When the signal strength or quality from a neighbor cell 206 exceeds the signal strength or quality of its serving cell 202 for a given amount of time, the UE 224 may transmit a report message indicating this condition to its serving base station 210. In response, the UE 224 may receive a handover command, and the UE may undergo a handover to the cell 206.

[0058] In a network configured for UL-based mobility, the UL reference signal from each UE may be used by the network to select a serving cell for each UE. In some examples, base stations 210, 212, and 214 / 216 may broadcast unified synchronization signals (e.g., unified primary synchronization signal (PSS), unified secondary synchronization signal (SSS), and unified physical broadcast channel (PBCH)). UEs 222, 224, 226, 228, 230, and 232 may receive the unified synchronization signals, derive carrier frequency and slot timing from these synchronization signals, and transmit uplink pilots or reference signals in response to the derived timing. The uplink pilot signal transmitted by a UE (e.g., UE 224) may be received concurrently by two or more cells (e.g., base stations 210 and 214 / 216) within the radio access network 200. Each of these cells may measure the strength of the pilot signal, and the radio access network (e.g., one or more of base stations 210 and 214 / 216 and / or a central node within a core network) may determine a serving cell for UE 224. As UE 224 moves in radio access network 200, the network may continue to monitor uplink pilot signals transmitted by UE 224. When the signal strength or quality of the pilot signal measured by a neighboring cell exceeds the signal strength or quality measured by the serving cell, network 200 may handover UE 224 from the serving cell to the neighboring cell with or without notifying UE 224.

[0059] Although the synchronization signal transmitted by base stations 210, 212 and 214 / 216 may be uniform, the synchronization signal may not identify a specific cell, but may identify a zone including multiple cells operating on the same frequency and / or having the same timing. The use of zones in a 5G network or other next generation communication network implements an uplink-based mobility framework and improves the efficiency of both the UE and the network because the number of mobility messages that need to be exchanged between the UE and the network can be reduced.

[0060] The air interface in the radio access network 200 may utilize one or more duplex algorithms. Duplex refers to a point-to-point communication link in which both endpoints can communicate with each other in two directions. Full-duplex means that both endpoints can communicate with each other at the same time. Half-duplex means that only one endpoint can send information to the other endpoint at a time. Time division duplex (TDD) is usually used to implement half-duplex simulation for wireless links. In TDD, transmissions in different directions on a given channel are separated from each other using time division multiplexing. That is, at some times, the channel is dedicated to transmission in one direction, and at other times, the channel is dedicated to transmission in the other direction, where the direction can change very quickly, for example, several times per time slot. In wireless links, full-duplex channels generally rely on physical isolation of transmitters and receivers, and suitable interference cancellation techniques. Full-duplex simulation is usually implemented for wireless links by utilizing frequency division duplex (FDD) or space division duplex (SDD). In FDD, transmissions in different directions can operate at different carrier frequencies (e.g., within a paired spectrum). In SDD, transmissions in different directions on a given channel are separated from each other using spatial division multiplexing (SDM). In other examples, full-duplex communication may be implemented within an unpaired spectrum (e.g., within a single carrier bandwidth), where transmissions in different directions occur within different sub-bands of the carrier bandwidth. This type of full-duplex communication may be referred to herein as sub-band full-duplex (SBFD), also known as flexible duplex.

[0061] The air interface in the radio access network 200 may utilize one or more multiplexing and multiple access algorithms to enable simultaneous communication of various devices. For example, the 5G NR specification utilizes orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with a cyclic prefix (CP) to provide multiple access for UL transmissions from UE 222 and 224 to base station 210, and multiplexing for DL ​​transmissions from base station 210 to one or more UEs 222 and 224. In addition, for UL transmissions, the 5G NR specification provides support for discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) with CP (also known as single carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA)). However, within the scope of the present disclosure, multiplexing and multiple access are not limited to the above schemes, and may be provided using time division multiple access (TDMA), code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), sparse code multiple access (SCMA), resource extension multiple access (RSMA), or other appropriate multiple access schemes. In addition, multiplexing of DL transmissions from base station 210 to UEs 222 and 224 may be provided using time division multiplexing (TDM), code division multiplexing (CDM), frequency division multiplexing (FDM), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), sparse code multiplexing (SCM), or other suitable multiplexing schemes.

[0062] In some aspects of the present disclosure, the scheduling entity and / or the scheduled entity may be configured for beamforming and / or multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques. Figure 3 An example of a wireless communication system 300 supporting MIMO is illustrated. In a MIMO system, a transmitter 302 includes multiple transmit antennas 304 (e.g., N transmit antennas), and a receiver 306 includes multiple receive antennas 308 (e.g., M receive antennas). Thus, there are N×M signal paths 310 from the transmit antennas 304 to the receive antennas 308. Each of the transmitter 302 and the receiver 306 may be implemented, for example, in the scheduling entity 108, the scheduled entity 106, or any other suitable wireless communication device.

[0063] The use of such multi-antenna techniques enables wireless communication systems to exploit the spatial domain to support spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and transmit diversity. Spatial multiplexing can be used to transmit different data streams (also referred to as layers) simultaneously on the same time-frequency resources. These data streams can be transmitted to a single UE to increase the data rate or to multiple UEs to increase the total system capacity, the latter being referred to as multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO). This is achieved by spatially precoding each data stream (i.e., multiplying the data streams by different weights and phase shifts) and then transmitting each spatially precoded stream through multiple transmit antennas on the downlink. The spatially precoded data streams arrive at the UE(s) with different spatial signatures, and these different spatial signatures enable each UE to recover one or more data streams intended for the UE. On the uplink, each UE transmits a spatially precoded data stream, which enables the base station to identify the source of each spatially precoded data stream.

[0064] The number of data streams or layers corresponds to the rank of the transmission. In general, the rank of the MIMO system 300 is limited to the lower of the number of transmit or receive antennas 304 or 308. In addition, the channel conditions at the UE and other considerations (such as the available resources at the base station) may also affect the transmission rank. For example, the rank (and therefore, the number of data streams) assigned to a specific UE on the downlink can be determined based on a rank indicator (RI) transmitted from the UE to the base station. The RI can be determined based on the antenna configuration (e.g., the number of transmit and receive antennas) and the measured signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) on each receive antenna. The RI can indicate, for example, the number of layers that can be supported under the current channel conditions. The base station can use the RI together with resource information (e.g., available resources and the amount of data to be scheduled for the UE) to assign a transmission rank to the UE.

[0065] In a time division duplex (TDD) system, UL and DL are reciprocal, each using different time slots of the same frequency bandwidth. Therefore, in a TDD system, the base station may assign a rank for DL ​​MIMO transmission based on UL SINR measurements (e.g., based on a sounding reference signal (SRS) or other pilot signal transmitted from the UE). Based on the assigned rank, the base station may then transmit a CSI-RS using a separate C-RS sequence for each layer to provide multi-layer channel estimation. Based on the CSI-RS, the UE may measure the channel quality across layers and resource blocks and feed back CQI and RI values ​​to the base station for use in updating the rank and assigning REs for future downlink transmissions.

[0066] In the simplest case, Figure 3 , a rank 2 spatial multiplexing transmission on a 2x2 MIMO antenna configuration will transmit one data stream from each transmit antenna 304. Each data stream arrives at each receive antenna 308 along a different signal path 310. The receiver 306 can then reconstruct the data streams using the signals received from each receive antenna 308.

[0067] Various aspects of the present disclosure utilize OFDM waveforms, examples of which are Figure 4 Schematically shown in FIG. Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that various aspects of the present disclosure may be applied to DFT-s-OFDMA waveforms in substantially the same manner as described below. That is, while some examples of the present disclosure may focus on OFDM links for clarity, it will be appreciated that the same principles may also be applied to DFT-s-OFDMA waveforms.

[0068] In this disclosure, a frame refers to a 10 ms duration used for wireless transmission, where each frame includes 10 subframes of 1 ms each. On a given carrier, there may be one set of frames in the UL and another set of frames in the DL. Now referring to Figure 4 , illustrates an expanded view of an exemplary DL subframe 402 showing an OFDM resource grid 404. However, as will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art, the PHY transmission structure for any particular application may differ from the examples described herein depending on any number of factors. Here, time is in the horizontal direction in units of OFDM symbols; and frequency is in the vertical direction in units of subcarriers or tones.

[0069] Resource grid 404 can be used to schematically represent the time-frequency resources for a given antenna port. That is, in a MIMO implementation with multiple antenna ports available, there may be corresponding multiple resource grids 404 available for communication. Resource grid 404 is divided into multiple resource elements (REs) 406. RE (which is 1 subcarrier × 1 symbol) is the smallest discrete part of the time-frequency grid and contains a single complex value representing data from a physical channel or signal. Depending on the modulation utilized in a particular implementation, each RE may represent one or more information bits. In some examples, a block of REs may be referred to as a physical resource block (PRB) or more simply a resource block (RB) 408, which contains any suitable number of consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain. In one example, an RB may include 12 subcarriers, which number is independent of the parameter set used. In some examples, depending on the parameter set, an RB may include any suitable number of consecutive OFDM symbols in the time domain. Within the present disclosure, it is assumed that a single RB (such as RB 408) corresponds entirely to a single communication direction (transmission or reception for a given device).

[0070] Scheduling of a UE (e.g., a scheduled entity) for downlink or uplink transmission typically involves scheduling one or more resource elements 406 within one or more subbands or bandwidth parts (BWPs). Thus, the UE typically utilizes only a subset of the resource grid 404. In some examples, an RB may be the smallest resource unit that may be allocated to a UE. Thus, the more RBs scheduled for a UE and the higher the modulation scheme selected for the air interface, the higher the data rate for the UE.

[0071] In this illustration, RB 408 is shown as occupying less than the entire bandwidth of subframe 402, with some subcarriers illustrated above and below RB 408. In a given implementation, subframe 402 may have a bandwidth corresponding to any number of one or more RBs 408. Furthermore, in this illustration, RB 408 is shown as occupying less than the entire duration of subframe 402, but this is merely one possible example.

[0072] Each 1 ms subframe 402 may include one or more adjacent time slots. Figure 4In the example shown in , a subframe 402 includes four time slots 410. In some examples, a time slot may be defined according to a specified number of OFDM symbols with a given cyclic prefix (CP) length. For example, a time slot may include 7 or 14 OFDM symbols with a nominal CP. Additional examples may include mini-slots (sometimes referred to as shortened transmission time intervals (TTIs)) with shorter durations (e.g., one to three OFDM symbols). In some cases, these mini-slots or shortened transmission time intervals (TTIs) may occupy resources scheduled for ongoing time slot transmissions for the same or different UEs to transmit. Any number of resource blocks may be utilized within a subframe or time slot.

[0073] An expanded view of one of the time slots 410 illustrates that the time slot 410 includes a control region 412 and a data region 414. In general, the control region 412 may carry control channels, while the data region 414 may carry data channels. Of course, a time slot may contain full DL, full UL, or at least one DL portion and at least one UL portion. Figure 4 The structure illustrated in is merely exemplary in nature, and different slot structures may be utilized and may include one or more for each of the control region and the data region.

[0074] In some examples, time slot 410 may be used for broadcast or unicast communication. For example, broadcast, multicast, or groupcast communication may refer to point-to-multipoint transmission by one device (e.g., a base station, UE, or other similar device) to other devices. Here, broadcast communication is delivered to all devices, while multicast communication is delivered to multiple intended recipient devices. Unicast communication may refer to point-to-point transmission by one device to a single other device.

[0075] In an example of cellular communication on a cellular carrier via a Uu interface, for DL ​​transmission, a scheduling entity (e.g., a base station) may allocate one or more REs 406 (e.g., within a control region 412) to carry DL control information including one or more DL control channels (such as a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH)) to one or more scheduled entities (e.g., UEs). The PDCCH carries downlink control information (DCI), including but not limited to power control commands (e.g., one or more open-loop power control parameters and / or one or more closed-loop power control parameters) for DL ​​and UL transmissions, scheduling information, grants, and / or RE assignments. The PDCCH may further carry HARQ feedback transmissions, such as an acknowledgment (ACK) or a negative acknowledgment (NACK). HARQ is a well-known technique to those of ordinary skill in the art, wherein for accuracy, the integrity of packet transmissions may be checked at the receiving side, for example, using any suitable integrity check mechanism (such as a checksum or a cyclic redundancy check (CRC)). If the integrity of the transmission is confirmed, an ACK may be transmitted, and if it is not confirmed, a NACK may be transmitted. In response to the NACK, the transmitting device may send a HARQ retransmission, which may enable chase combining, incremental redundancy, and the like.

[0076] The base station may further allocate one or more REs 406 (e.g., in the control region 412 or the data region 414) to carry other DL signals, such as a demodulation reference signal (DMRS); a phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS); a channel state information (CSI) reference signal (CSI-RS); a primary synchronization signal (PSS); and a secondary synchronization signal (SSS). The UE may utilize the PSS and SSS to achieve radio frame, subframe, time slot, and symbol synchronization in the time domain, identify the center of the channel (system) bandwidth in the frequency domain, and identify the physical cell identity (PCI) of the cell. The synchronization signals PSS and SSS, and in some examples, the PBCH and PBCH DMRS may be transmitted in a synchronization signal block (SSB). The PBCH may further include: a master information block (MIB), which includes various system information, together with parameters for decoding a system information block (SIB). The SIB may be, for example, a system information type 1 (SystemInformationType1) (SIB1), which may include various additional system information. Examples of system information transmitted in the MIB may include, but are not limited to, subcarrier spacing, system frame number, configuration of a PDCCH control resource set (CORESET) (e.g., PDCCH CORESET0), and search space for SIB1. Examples of additional system information transmitted in SIB1 may include, but are not limited to, random access search space, downlink configuration information, and uplink configuration information. MIB and SIB1 together provide minimum system information (SI) for initial access.

[0077] In UL transmission, the scheduled entity (e.g., UE) may utilize one or more REs 406 to carry UL control information (UCI) to the scheduling entity, which includes one or more UL control channels, such as a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH). UCI may include various packet types and categories, including pilots, reference signals, and information configured to implement or assist in decoding uplink data transmission. Examples of uplink reference signals may include sounding reference signals (SRS) and uplink DMRS. In some examples, UCI may include a scheduling request (SR), i.e., a request for the scheduling entity to schedule uplink transmission. Here, in response to the SR transmitted on the UCI, the scheduling entity may transmit downlink control information (DCI), which may schedule resources for uplink packet transmission. UCI may also include HARQ feedback, channel state feedback (CSF) (such as CSI report), or any other suitable UCI.

[0078] In addition to control information, one or more REs 406 (e.g., within the data region 414) may also be allocated for data traffic. Such data traffic may be carried on one or more traffic channels, such as a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) for DL ​​transmissions or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) for UL transmissions. In some examples, one or more REs 406 within the data region 414 may be configured to carry other signals, such as one or more SIBs and DMRS.

[0079] In an example of sidelink communication on a sidelink carrier via a PC5 interface, the control region 412 of the time slot 410 may include a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), which includes sidelink control information (SCI) transmitted by an initiator (transmitter) sidelink device (e.g., V2X or other sidelink device) toward a set of one or more other receiver sidelink devices. The data region 414 of the time slot 410 may include a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), which includes sidelink data traffic transmitted by the transmitter sidelink device within resources reserved by the initiator (transmitter) sidelink device via SCI on the sidelink carrier. Other information may be further transmitted on each RE 406 within the time slot 410. For example, HARQ feedback information may be transmitted from the receiver sidelink device to the transmitter sidelink device in a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) within the time slot 410. In addition, one or more reference signals, such as a sidelink SSB and / or a sidelink CSI-RS, may be transmitted within the time slot 410.

[0080] Described above and in Figure 1 and Figure 4 The channels or carriers illustrated in the figure are not necessarily all channels or carriers that can be utilized between the scheduling entity 108 and the scheduled entity 106, and a person of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that other channels or carriers may be utilized in addition to those illustrated, such as other traffic, control, and feedback channels.

[0081] These physical channels are generally multiplexed and mapped to transport channels for handling by the medium access control (MAC) layer. The transport channels carry information blocks, which are called transport blocks (TBs). The transport block size (TBS), which may correspond to the number of information bits, may be a controlled parameter based on the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and the number of RBs in a given transmission.

[0082] about Figure 2For example, the enhancements for multi-beam operation in 5G NR target the FR2 band but are also applicable to the FR1 band. These enhancements have been provided to facilitate more efficient (i.e., lower latency and overhead) DL / UL beam management to support higher intra-cell mobility and L1 / L2-centric inter-cell mobility, as well as a larger number of configured transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states. These enhancements can be achieved by providing shared beams for data and control transmission / reception for DL ​​and UL, especially shared beams for intra-band carrier aggregation (CA). Moreover, the enhancements can be generated using a unified TCI framework for DL ​​and UL beam indications. In addition, enhancements to the signaling mechanisms for these features can improve latency and efficiency by making greater use of dynamic control signaling rather than RRC signaling. Enhancements for multi-beam operation may be based on identifying and specifying features to facilitate UL beam selection for UEs equipped with multiple panels, taking into account UL coverage loss mitigation due to maximum permitted exposure (MPE) limitations, and UL beam indication with a unified TCI framework for UL fast panel selection.

[0083] Other enhancements may be for supporting multiple transmission / reception point (multi-TRP) deployments including targeting both FR1 and FR2 bands. Specifically, enhancements may focus on identifying and specifying features to use multiple TRPs or multiple panels to improve the reliability and robustness of channels other than PDSCH (i.e., PDCCH, PUSCH, and PUCCH), with 3GPP Release 16 reliability features as a baseline. Additionally, assuming multiple PDSCH reception based on multiple DCIs, enhancements may be about identifying and specifying enhancements related to quasi-co-location / transmission configuration indicators (QCL / TCI) to enable multi-TRP operation between cellular cells. In addition, enhancements related to beam management for simultaneous multi-TRP transmission in the case of multi-panel reception may be provided. Still further, with respect to multi-TRP deployments, enhancements to support high-speed train single frequency network (HST-SFN) deployment scenarios may be provided, such as solutions for identifying and specifying QCL assumptions for DMRS (e.g., multiple QCL assumptions for the same DMRS port(s), targeting DL-only transmission, or specifying QCL / quasi-QCL relationships between DL and UL signals (including applicable types(s) and associated requirements)) by reusing a unified TCI framework.

[0084] It should be further noted that, according to certain aspects, the methodologies disclosed herein can be implemented at both the layer 1 (L1) and layer 2 (L2) levels. Figure 5, a general radio protocol architecture for a gNB or UE (but not limited thereto) is shown as having three layers: Layer 1, Layer 2, and Layer 3. Layer 1 501 is the lowest layer and implements various physical layer signal processing functions, and in the case of a gNB, a remote radio head (RRH). Layer 1 will be referred to herein as the physical layer 502 or PHY layer. Layer 2 (L2 layer) 504 is above the physical layer 501 and is responsible for the link between the UE and the gNB above the physical layer 501.

[0085] In the user plane and control plane, L2 layer 504 includes a medium access control (MAC) sublayer 506, a radio link control (RLC) sublayer 508, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) 510 sublayer, which terminate at the eNB on the network side. Although not shown, the gNB or UE may have several upper layers above layer 2 504, including a network layer (e.g., IP layer) on the network side, and an application layer that terminates at the other end of the connection (e.g., a remote UE, a server, etc.).

[0086] The PDCP sublayer 510 provides multiplexing between different radio bearers and logical channels. The PDCP sublayer 510 also provides header compression for upper layer data packets to reduce radio transmission overhead, provides security by encrypting data packets, and provides support for UE switching between eNBs. The RLC sublayer 508 provides segmentation and reassembly of upper layer data packets, retransmission of lost data packets, and reordering of data packets to compensate for out-of-order reception due to hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ). The MAC sublayer 506 provides multiplexing between logical channels and transport channels. The MAC sublayer 506 is also responsible for allocating various radio resources (e.g., resource blocks) in a cellular cell between UEs. The MAC sublayer 506 is also responsible for HARQ operations.

[0087] In the control plane, the radio protocol architecture for the UE and gNB is basically the same for the physical L1 layer 501 and L2 layer 504, except that there is no header compression function for the control plane. The control plane may also include a radio resource control (RRC) sublayer 516 in layer 3 518. The RRC sublayer 516 is responsible for obtaining radio resources (i.e., radio bearers) and for configuring the lower layers using RRC signaling between the gNB and the UE.

[0088] As mentioned above, certain enhancements in 5G NR for multi-beam or multi-TRP operations may include L1 / L2 centralized inter-cell mobility, which may be a MIMO enhancement feature. Therefore, control (e.g., handover) for affecting UE mobility between cells is implemented through the L1 layer and / or L2 layer rather than control and / or signaling in higher layers above the L2 layer, and is therefore L1 / L2 "centralized." According to various aspects of the present invention, operating modes or characteristics of such L1 / L2 centralized inter-cell mobility are disclosed. Broadly speaking, various aspects of the present disclosure relate to operations of inter-cell mobility, wherein at least one serving cell in a communication system is configured with one or more physical cell IDs (PCIs) according to a particular selected operating mode using signaling or settings for a physical (PHY) layer or a media access control (MAC) layer. In addition, based on this operation mode, the remote radio head (RRH) will serve at least one user equipment (UE) based on power information received from the at least one UE (e.g., reference signal received power (RSRP) information, which is a linear average over the power contributions of resource elements (REs) carrying a cell-specific reference signal within a considered measurement frequency bandwidth).

[0089] In one particular operational aspect, each serving cell may be configured to have one PCI but may have multiple physical cell sites (such as sites corresponding to base stations) and / or one or more remote radio heads (RRHs). Each RRH may transmit a different set of SSB IDs but have the same single PCI for the serving cell. According to several examples, the selection may be accomplished through L1 signaling using downlink control information (DCI) in the layer 1 (L1) PHY layer or MAC-CE in the L2 MAC layer. Specifically, the DCI or MAC-CE is used to implement the selection of which RRH(s) or corresponding SSB(s) will serve the UE based on the RSRP per reported SSB ID. It should be noted here that MAC-CE (which is media access control - control element) is, for example, a MAC structure used to carry MAC layer control information between a gNB and a UE. According to some aspects, the MAC-CE structure may be implemented as a special bit string in the logical channel ID (LCID) field of the MAC header.

[0090] On the other hand, each serving cell may be configured with multiple PCIs instead of just one PCI. Here, each RRH of a serving cell may use one PCI configured for the corresponding serving cell and may transmit a full set of SSB IDs. The selection of which RRH(s) or corresponding PCI and / or SSB to serve the UE may be done through DCI / MAC-CE and also based on the RSRP per reported SSB ID per reported PCI.

[0091] In yet another aspect, each serving cell may have one PCI, but the DCI / MAC-CE may select which serving cell(s) or corresponding serving cell IDs will serve the UE based on the RSRP per reported SSB ID per reported PCI.

[0092] The different operating options described above are not necessarily limited to SSB IDs, but may generally be applied to any cell-defined RS, such as CSI-RS or positioning reference signals (PRS) as examples. According to other aspects, it should be noted that for different operating options, DCI / MAC-CE-based cell selection may be applied only to certain cell types. For example, applicable cell types may include any combination of a primary cell (PCell), a secondary cell (SCell), and a primary secondary cell (PSCell), the PSCell being the primary cell of a secondary cell group. In some aspects, the DCI / MAC-CE may be configured to select or deselect only the SCell or PSCell for the UE instead of the PCell because the PCell is the primary cell.

[0093] Figure 6 A flow chart illustrating an exemplary method 600 for selecting a resource or cell to serve a UE in an inter-cell mobility communication system according to some aspects. As described below, some or all of the illustrated features may be omitted in certain implementations within the scope of the present disclosure, and some of the illustrated features may not be required to implement all embodiments. In some examples, the method 600 may be performed by Figure 7 Executed by the RAN entity 700 illustrated in FIG. 1 (which will be discussed below), or by the RAN entity 700 in combination with Figure 8 800 is performed by the UE 800 illustrated in (which will also be discussed further below). In other examples, the method 600 may be performed by any suitable device or apparatus for implementing the functions or algorithms described below.

[0094] At block 602, method 600 includes communicating with a user via a communication system such as Figure 1 System 100 or Figure 2 The system 200 in the present invention receives reference signal information, measurements, or measurement reports (collectively referred to as "measurement reports" for brevity, but not limited thereto) from at least one user equipment (UE). In an aspect, the measurement report can be communicated from the UE to the RAN entity through any of a variety of signaling on the UL, and in some aspects can be transmitted within the PUCCH or PUSCH. In addition, the measurement report can include a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement, but is not limited thereto, and can alternatively be a SINR measurement, an RSRQ measurement, or some other power or channel quality measurement.

[0095] The method 600 may further include determining reference information in the RAN entity based on the received measurement report, as shown in block 604. In an example, the measurement information may include RSRP, SINR, or RSRQ measurements or some other power or channel quality measurement according to each synchronization signal block (SSB) ID or PCI reported by at least one UE. The reference information is then determined based on the received information and may be the same measurement information (i.e., without further processing or formatting) or processed into some other form or format based on the measurement report.

[0096] Additionally, the method 600 may include selecting at least one cell to serve the at least one UE based on the reference information and the serving cell configuration of the RAN entity, as shown in block 606. In one aspect, the at least one cell may be a cell site, a serving cell, or a cell assigned a physical cell ID (PCI). In another aspect, the process of block 606 implements inter-cell mobility operations, wherein an indication is made to the UE to switch or handover to a selected physical cell site, a serving cell, or a PCI as directed by the RAN entity, but is not limited thereto, and the determination to switch or handover may also be made partially or entirely by the UE.

[0097] In some examples, the serving cell configuration of the RAN entity may include one of the operating modes discussed above. Specifically, the serving cell configuration may include: each serving cell in the communication system has a PCI and multiple physical cell sites associated with or assigned to the one PCI, wherein each physical cell site is configured to transmit a different set of cell-defined reference signals. Additionally, L1 layer signaling or L2 layer signaling may be configured to select a physical cell site to serve the UE based on the reference information.

[0098] In another example, the serving cell configuration may include: each serving cell in the communication system has multiple PCIs and associated multiple physical cell sites, wherein each physical cell site is configured to utilize one of the multiple PCIs and is configured to transmit a full set of cell-defining reference signals. In this example, L1 or L2 layer signaling may also be configured to: select a physical cell site to serve the UE based on the uplink reference signal for each PCI reported via an uplink reference signal or a measurement report. In yet another example, the serving cell configuration may include: each serving cell in the communication system has one PCI, wherein L1 layer signaling or L2 layer signaling is configured to select a serving cell from one or more serving cells or a serving cell ID corresponding to the selected serving cell based on the uplink reference signal for each PCI reported by the uplink reference signal.

[0099] Further, the method 600 includes transmitting one of layer 1 (L1) control signaling or layer 2 (L2) control signaling identifying the selected at least one cell to the at least one UE, as shown in block 608. In certain aspects, the L1 signaling may include DCI and the L2 signaling may include MAC-CE.

[0100] According to further aspects, it should be noted that the system serving cell configuration in the process of block 604 may include: each serving cell is configured to have a PCI and multiple remote radio heads (RRHs), wherein each RRH is configured to transmit a different set of reference signal IDs but has the same PCI for each serving cell. In this case, the selection process of block 604 may then include: selecting which of the at least one RRH or corresponding SSB will serve the at least one UE. In addition, the reference signal ID may include at least one of a synchronization signal block (SSB), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), or a positioning reference signal (PRS).

[0101] According to yet other aspects, the system service cell configuration in box 604 may instead include: each service cell is configured to have multiple PCIs configured for each service cell and each service cell is configured to be able to transmit a full set of reference signal IDs. Here, the selection of using L1 control or L2 control may then include: selecting which at least one RRH or corresponding PCI or SSB will serve the at least one UE. In another aspect, the system service cell configuration in box 604 may include: each service cell is configured to have one PCI configured for each service cell and the ability to transmit a full set of reference signal IDs. In this scenario, the selection of using L1 signaling or L2 signaling may be configured to convey which service cell or corresponding service cell ID will serve the at least one UE.

[0102] The method 600 may also include selectively applying the selection process in block 606 to specific cell types. Specifically, the selection using L1 signaling or L2 signaling (e.g., DCI / MAC-CE) may be applied only to (i.e., select or deselect) certain cell types of serving cells, including one or more of a secondary cell (SCell), a primary cell (PCell), and a primary secondary cell (PSCell). In a further aspect, the selection or deselection of a serving cell may be constrained such that a PCell may not be deselected.

[0103] In yet a further aspect, since the selection made in method 600 is in the context of an inter-cell mobility system, method 600 may further include: after the selection and transmission in blocks 606 and 608, the UE switches from the current serving cell to the selected remote radio head (RRH), at least one serving cell, or physical cell ID (PCI). It should be noted that the switching may be made in the context of an inter-cell mobility handover from the current cell to one or more of the selected cell, RRH, or PCI. Furthermore, it should be noted that the processes of blocks 602-608 may be implemented in a RAN entity as mentioned above, which may include a scheduling entity such as Figure 1 Base station 108, gNB or Figure 7 700 in the RAN entity). Furthermore, as an example, the specific selection made in block 606 may be communicated from the RAN entity to one or more UEs via a DL channel such as a PDCCH or a PDSCH.

[0104] Figure 7 714 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation of a RAN entity 700 employing a processing system 714. For example, the scheduling entity 700 may be such as Figure 1 , 2In another example, the RAN entity 700 may be a base station, a gNB, or a scheduling entity as described in any one or more of 3. Figure 1 , 2 , or a UE acting as a scheduling entity as illustrated in any one or more of 3.

[0105] The RAN entity 700 may be implemented with a processing system 714 including one or more processors 704. Examples of the processor 704 include a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a digital signal processor (DSP), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a state machine, a gated logic, a discrete hardware circuit, and other suitable hardware configured to perform the various functionalities described throughout this disclosure. In various examples, the RAN entity 700 may be configured to perform any one or more of the functions described herein. That is, the processor 704 as utilized in the RAN entity 700 may be used to implement the functions described above and in Figure 6 The method 600 disclosed in and discussed later Fig.10 and 13 Any one or more of the processes and procedures explained in the method.

[0106] In this example, the processing system 714 can be implemented with a bus architecture generally represented by bus 702. Depending on the specific application and overall design constraints of the processing system 714, the bus 702 can include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges. The bus 702 communicatively couples various circuits including one or more processors (generally represented by processor 704), memory 705, and computer-readable media (generally represented by computer-readable media 706). The bus 702 can also link various other circuits, such as timing sources, peripherals, regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art and therefore will not be described further. The bus interface 708 provides an interface between the bus 702 and the transceiver 710. The transceiver 710 provides a communication interface or device for communicating with various other devices through a transmission medium (e.g., an air interface). Depending on the characteristics of the device, a user interface 712 (e.g., a keypad, a display, a speaker, a microphone, a joystick) may also be provided. Of course, such user interface 712 is optional and may be omitted in some examples (such as for a gNB or base station).

[0107] The processor 704 is responsible for managing the bus 702 and general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium 706. The software, when executed by the processor 704, causes the processing system 714 to perform the various functions described below for any particular device. The computer-readable medium 706 and memory 705 may also be used to store data manipulated by the processor 704 when executing the software.

[0108] One or more processors 704 in the processing system can execute software. Software should be broadly interpreted to mean instructions, instruction sets, codes, code segments, program codes, programs, subroutines, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executables, threads of execution, procedures, functions, etc., whether described in software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or other terms. The software may reside on a computer-readable medium 706.

[0109] The computer readable medium 706 may be a non-transient computer readable medium. As an example, a non-transient computer readable medium includes a magnetic storage device (e.g., a hard disk, a floppy disk, a magnetic tape), an optical disk (e.g., a compact disk (CD) or a digital versatile disk (DVD)), a smart card, a flash memory device (e.g., a card, a stick, or a key-type drive), a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable ROM (PROM), an erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), a register, a removable disk, and any other suitable medium for storing software and / or instructions that can be accessed and read by a computer. The computer readable medium 706 may reside in the processing system 714, outside the processing system 714, or distributed across multiple entities including the processing system 714. The computer readable medium 706 may be implemented in a computer program product. As an example, a computer program product may include a computer readable medium in a packaging material. Those skilled in the art will recognize how to best implement the described functionality given throughout this disclosure depending on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the overall system.

[0110] In some aspects of the present disclosure, the processor 704 may include a circuit system configured for various functions. For example, the processor 704 may include a reference information circuit system 740, which is configured to receive measurement information (e.g., measurement reports, measurements, etc.) from a UE in a communication system, wherein the information may also be received in coordination with the transceiver 710, and in some examples, the reference information is determined by further processing of the information based on the received measurement information, but is not necessarily limited to this. In one aspect, the measurement information may be received via a PUCCH or PUSCH transmission. In addition, the measurement information may be received from the UE in the form of reference signaling, and may include reference signal received power (RSRP) measurements, SINR measurements, RSRQ measurements, or other power or channel quality measurements. In some examples, the reference information circuit system 740 may be configured to: may be further configured to execute a reference information instruction 752 (e.g., software) stored in a computer-readable medium 706 to implement one or more functions described herein.

[0111] In a further aspect, the processor 704 may include a selection circuit system 742, wherein the selection circuit system 742 affects the selection of an RRH, a PCI, or at least one serving cell for serving a UE in an L1 / L2 centric inter-cell mobility system, such as previously described in conjunction with Figure 6 As discussed in box 606 in .

[0112] Additionally, it should be noted that the selection circuit system 742 may be configured to operate according to various configurations including a serving cell configuration of a RAN entity, the serving cell configuration including a single PCI of one or more PCIs corresponding to a plurality of cell sites. This may further include functionality to transmit a different set of reference signal IDs for each of the plurality of cell sites, and may involve coordination of the transceiver 710. The reference signal IDs may each include at least one of a synchronization signal block (SSB), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), or a positioning reference signal (PRS).

[0113] In another aspect, the selection circuit system 742 may be configured to operate according to a serving cell configuration of a RAN entity, wherein each serving cell is configured to have a plurality of PCIs configured for each serving cell in a communication system and each serving cell is configured to transmit a full set of reference signal IDs. In this aspect, the selection circuit system 742 may further implement identifying at least one physical cell site or a corresponding PCI or reference signal (RS) serving at least one UE by transmitting L1 signaling or L2 signaling. In addition, the serving cell configuration of the RAN entity may include: a plurality of cell sites including the at least one cell site, and a plurality of PCIs including one or more PCIs, each of the plurality of PCIs corresponding to a different cell site in the plurality of cell sites. In this aspect, the selection circuit system 742 may be configured to cause a plurality of reference signal IDs to be transmitted from each of the plurality of cell sites, wherein each of the plurality of reference signal IDs corresponds to a corresponding one of the plurality of cell sites.

[0114] In yet another aspect, the selection circuit system 742 may be configured to operate according to a serving cell configuration of a RAN entity, wherein the serving cell configuration of the RAN entity includes a single PCI from one or more PCIs. In this case, the selection circuit system 742 may enable transmission of a serving cell ID signal for the selected at least one cell site.

[0115] In yet a further aspect, the selection circuitry 742 may be configured to enable a configuration of a cell site with multiple remote radio heads (RRHs) or to transmit a synchronization signal block (SSB) ID (SSB ID) set using multiple cells with associated PCIs, as will be discussed later with reference to Fig.10 and 11 Discussed in more detail. In this case, the selection circuit system 742 may be configured to select, for each RRH in the multiple RRHs associated with a PCI in the multiple PCIs or a cellular cell associated with a PCI in the multiple PCIs, a corresponding frequency location in which a corresponding SSB ID set is to be transmitted for serving at least one UE. Additionally, the circuit system 742 may enable the use of one of L1 or L2 signaling in coordination with the transceiver 710 to transmit each corresponding frequency location for each RRH or PCI in the multiple RRHs or PCIs to at least one UE. In some examples, the selection circuit system 742 may be configured to: may be further configured to execute selection instructions 754 (e.g., software) stored in the computer-readable medium 706 to implement one or more functions described herein.

[0116] According to another aspect, the processor 704 may include a handover or handover (HO) circuit system 744, which is configured to perform a handover process, such as will be later combined with Figures 12 to 14 Those processes described. In one example, the HO circuit system 744 may be configured to configure a handover (HO) command to cause at least one UE being served by a source cell to switch to a target cell. The HO circuit system 744 may be configured to configure the HO command to include a cell match indication, which indicates whether the target cell configuration of the target cell is the same as the source cell configuration of the source cell. In addition, the HO circuit system 744 may be configured to transmit the HO command to at least one UE for the at least one UE to switch to the target cell, wherein the HO command is one of L1 signaling or L2 signaling. In some examples, the HO circuit system 744 may be configured to: may be further configured to execute HO instructions 756 (e.g., software) stored in the computer-readable medium 706 to implement one or more functions described herein.

[0117] In one configuration, the RAN entity 700 includes a Figure 6 , 10 and / or various functions and processes described in 13. In one aspect, the aforementioned device may be Figure 7 The processor 704 shown in the figure is configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means. On the other hand, the aforementioned means may be a circuit or any device configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means.

[0118] Of course, in the above examples, the circuit system included in the processor 704 is provided only as an example, and other means for performing the described functions may be included in various aspects of the present disclosure, including but not limited to instructions stored in the computer-readable storage medium 706, or in Figure 1-3 Any of the descriptions and using, for example, Figure 6 , 10 and / or any other suitable apparatus or device for implementing the processes and / or algorithms described in 13.

[0119] Figure 8 Yet another method 800 for selecting a cell in a UE that will serve the UE in an inter-cell mobility communication system according to some aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated. The method 800 includes transmitting an uplink reference signal to a RAN entity, the uplink reference signal including at least one of a power or signal measurement, as shown in block 802. In addition, the method 800 includes receiving one of layer 1 (L1) signaling or layer 2 (L2) signaling from the base station, the one of the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling identifying one or more selected serving cells serving the UE based on the transmitted uplink reference signal, as shown in block 804. Additionally, the method 800 includes selecting one or more serving cells based on the received L1 layer signaling or L2 layer signaling during inter-cell mobility operations, as shown at block 806.

[0120] According to yet another aspect, method 800 may include further aspects, including: utilizing different SSB frequency positions for each RRH or physical cell site. In this method, each serving cell may have multiple RRHs, each of which may transmit a full set of SSB IDs, but transmit at different SSB frequency positions for each corresponding RRH. Similar to the methodology discussed above, the SSB frequency position may be selected using layer 1 (L1) signaling and / or layer 2 (L2) signaling. In a further aspect, it should be noted that the SSB frequency position may be selected to be above the SSB grid. It should be noted that the SSB grid is a synchronization signal block grid, which is a predefined set of frequency carrier assignments used to transmit synchronization signal blocks. The frequency position selection is made to comply with the frequency position or frequency band above the SSB frequency grid (e.g., at a set center frequency of 17 MHz, 34 MHz, 51 MHz, etc.). In other aspects, the SSB frequency position may be a combination or mixture of frequency positions, some of which are above the grid and others are not above the grid. In yet a further aspect, the SSB frequency positions can be restricted such that only frequency positions that are not on the SSB grid (non-grid positions) are selected, thereby avoiding selection of grid frequencies.

[0121] In certain aspects, the DCI (e.g., L1 control or signaling) or MAC-CE (i.e., L2 control or signaling) may be configured to select which SSB frequency locations are assigned to the corresponding RRHs of the serving UE. In certain aspects, indexes may be used to reference the selected SSB frequency locations, and these indexes are indicated in the DCI or MAC-CE control. It should be noted that the process of selecting the frequency location may be performed after the UE completes the initial access process via at least one RRH of the serving cell. In this case, the serving cell may be configured to send or indicate the SSB frequency location and corresponding index to the UE only after the UE completes the initial access.

[0122] According to yet other aspects, to facilitate UE initial access in a scheme that selects an SSB frequency location, the communication system may be configured such that in scenarios utilizing both grid locations and non-grid locations, at least one RRH of the serving cell will transmit SSBs on the SSB grid in addition to any SSB transmissions outside of the SSB grid. This may be accomplished according to at least two options.

[0123] In a first option for the initialization scenario, upon UE initialization, one RRH (or one cell assigned with at least one PCI) may be configured to transmit the full set of SSB IDs at frequency locations above the SSB grid. In a second option for the initialization scenario, multiple RRHs (or PCIs) may be configured to transmit the full set of SSB IDs over the SSB grid, with each RRH (or cell assigned with at least one PCI) transmitting only a subset of the full set of SSB IDs. It should be noted that these options are temporary or provisional during UE initialization to better ensure that initialization is performed quickly and optimally. That is, in normal operation, each RRH is configured to transmit the full set of SSB IDs, but at different SSB frequency locations, while during initialization, the selection of frequency locations for the SSB ID set is maintained as a transmission within the SSB grid, either from one RRH or by dividing the SSB IDs into multiple frequency locations all over the SSB grid.

[0124] In yet other aspects, it is noted that the RRH or gNB may select a frequency location based on a qualitative measurement received in an uplink measurement report. The measurement report may include one or more of a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement signal, a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement signal, or a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) measurement signal. Still further, the RRH or gNB may be configured to select a frequency location.

[0125] Fig. 9904. UE 900 may be implemented as in the example of a hardware implementation of an exemplary UE 900 employing a processing system 914. According to various aspects of the present disclosure, an element, or any portion of an element, or any combination of elements may be implemented with a processing system 914 including one or more processors 904. For example, UE 900 may be implemented as in Figure 1 , 2 , 3, and / or 12 in any one or more of the user equipment (UE).

[0126] Processing system 914 can be used with Figure 7 The processing system 714 illustrated in FIG. 1 is substantially the same as that in FIG. 1 , including a bus interface 908, a bus 902, a memory 905, a processor 904, and a computer-readable medium 906. In addition, the UE 900 may include the same as that in FIG. Figure 7 That is, the processor 904 as utilized in the UE 900 may be used to implement the following in conjunction with the user interface 912 and the transceiver 910 described in the accompanying drawings. Figure 8 The method system disclosed in and described later in Fig.11 and 14 One or more of the processes described in the method system.

[0127] In some aspects of the present disclosure, the processor 904 may include measurement / reference information transmission circuitry 940 configured for various functions including, for example, transmitting reference information to a RAN entity (e.g., the RAN entity 700). For example, the reference information transmission circuitry 940 may be configured to implement the following functions: determining or obtaining a power measurement (such as RSRP) and then causing it to be transmitted to a RAT entity, gNB, or base station via the transceiver 910. In other aspects, the computer-readable storage medium 906 may include reference information transmission instruction software 952 configured for various functions disclosed herein including, for example, determining or obtaining a power measurement (such as RSRP) and then causing it to be transmitted to a RAT entity, gNB, or base station via the transceiver 910.

[0128] In other aspects of the present disclosure, the processor 904 may also include an inter-cell mobility exchange circuit system 942 configured for various functions, including enabling the UE 900 to communicate with the mobile terminal based on the mobile terminal provided by the mobile terminal. Figure 7 The circuit system 742 shown in FIG. 1 is executed and further Figure 6Specifically, the inter-cell mobility exchange circuit system 942 may be configured to receive one of layer 1 (L1) signaling or layer 2 (L2) signaling from the RAN entity, one of the L1 signaling or L2 signaling identifying one or more selected serving cells for serving the UE based on the transmitted uplink reference signal, and then select one or more serving cells during the inter-cell mobility operation based on the received L1 layer signaling or L2 layer signaling. In one or more examples, the computer-readable storage medium 906 may include inter-cell mobility exchange instruction software 954 configured for various functions, including, for example, enabling the UE 900 to perform an inter-cell mobility operation based on the received L1 layer signaling or L2 layer signaling. Figure 7 The circuit system 740 shown in FIG. 1 is executed and further Figure 6 The selection shown in block 606 in FIG. 8 is to switch from the current serving cell to the selected cell.

[0129] Of course, in the above examples, the circuit system included in the processor 904 is provided only as an example, and other devices for performing the functions may be included in various aspects of the present disclosure, including but not limited to those stored in the computer-readable storage medium 906 or in the computer-readable storage medium 906. Figure 1 , 2 , 3 and / or 12 and any other suitable device or apparatus described in any of the foregoing Figure 8 Instructions for the described processes and / or algorithms.

[0130] In one configuration, the UE 900 includes a Figure 8 , 11 and / or 14. In one aspect, the aforementioned means may be Fig. 9 The processor 904 shown in the figure is configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means. On the other hand, the aforementioned means may be a circuit or any device configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means.

[0131] Of course, in the above examples, the circuit system included in the processor 904 is provided only as an example, and other means for performing the described functions may be included in various aspects of the present disclosure, including but not limited to instructions stored in the computer-readable storage medium 906, or in Figure 1-3 and / or any of 12 and using, for example, the present invention with respect to Figure 8 , 11 and / or any other suitable apparatus or device for implementing the processes and / or algorithms described in 14.

[0132] In other configurations, the apparatus 700 and / or 900 for wireless communication includes means for receiving reference information from at least one user equipment (UE) via a communication system, and means for selecting a remote radio head (RRH) associated with a physical cell ID (PCI), at least one serving cell, or at least one of a cell based on the received reference information and a serving cell configuration using one of layer 1 (L1) control or layer 2 (L2) control, the at least one serving cell, or a cell that serves the at least one user equipment (UE). In one aspect, the aforementioned means may be Figure 7 and 9 The processor(s) 704 and / or 904 shown in the figure are configured to perform the functions described by the aforementioned means.

[0133] Fig.10 A flow chart illustrating a method 1000 for selecting resources to serve a UE in an inter-cell mobility communication system according to some aspects of the present disclosure is shown. In various aspects, the method 1000 may be implemented in a RAN entity (e.g., a base station or gNB), such as illustrated by, for example, the RAN entity 700. The method 1000 includes configuring a plurality of remote radio heads (RRHs) or cells having one or more assigned physical cell IDs (PCIs) to transmit a synchronization signal block (SSB) ID (SSB ID) set, as shown at block 1002. Further, the method 1000 includes selecting, for each RRH or cell associated with a PCI among a plurality of RRHs or cells associated with the PCIs, a corresponding SSB ID set to be transmitted in the corresponding frequency position for serving at least one user equipment (UE) (e.g., Figure 8 ), wherein the selection uses one of layer 1 (L1) control or layer 2 (L2) control, as shown at block 1004. The method 1000 also includes transmitting each respective frequency position for each RRH or cell associated with a PCI among a plurality of RRHs or cells associated with PCIs, as shown at block 1006.

[0134] In a further aspect, the method 1000 may include transmitting at least one index via L1 control or L2 control, wherein the at least one index indicates at least one selected SSB frequency position. Additionally, the method 1000 may include selecting a respective frequency position for each RRH or cell assigned with or associated with a PCI based on the SSB frequency grid, wherein each respective frequency position is set to one of a plurality of frequency positions on the SSB grid.

[0135] In yet other aspects, method 1000 may include selecting a corresponding frequency position for each RRH or cell assigned with or associated with a PCI based on an SSB frequency grid, wherein at least one corresponding frequency position is set to one of a plurality of frequency positions on the SSB grid and at least one other corresponding frequency position is set to a frequency position outside the SSB grid. In another example, method 1000 may include selecting a corresponding frequency position for each RRH or cell assigned with or associated with a PCI based on an SSB frequency grid, wherein each corresponding frequency position is set to a frequency position outside the SSB grid.

[0136] The method 1000 may also include determining whether the at least one UE has completed initial access with the serving cell. The method of transmitting to the at least one UE each corresponding frequency position for each RRH or cell assigned or associated with a PCI in a plurality of RRHs or cells assigned or associated with PCIs after the at least one UE may be suspended or modified until the UE has completed initial access. In addition, the method 1000 may include transmitting at least one index via L1 control or L2 control after the at least one UE has completed initial access, wherein the at least one index indicates at least one selected SSB frequency position.

[0137] Similar to the methods described earlier, method 1000 may also determine the selection of the SSB frequency position based on an uplink measurement report. Thus, method 1000 may include receiving an uplink measurement report from at least one UE, and then selecting a corresponding frequency position based in part on the received uplink measurement report and other parameters (such as whether the frequency position is above or outside the grid, or whether the frequency position has been allocated). As previously discussed, the uplink measurement report may include a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement signal, a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement signal, or a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) measurement signal.

[0138] Additionally, method 1000 may include modified operations or different operations during initialization of the UE with the serving cell. Thus, method 1000 may include transmitting a set of SSB IDs (e.g., a full set of SSB IDs in the SSB frequency grid) using one RRH or cell assigned with or associated with a PCI at a frequency position on the SSB frequency grid during a period in which the serving cell is initially accessed by at least one UE. After the initial access period, the method may then change to allow the SSB ID set to be transmitted using one or more of the multiple RRHs or cells assigned with or associated with multiple PCIs at a frequency position on or outside the SSB frequency grid after the initial access period. In another option, method 1000 may include transmitting only a corresponding subset of the SSB ID set using a corresponding one of the multiple RRHs or cells associated with the PCIs and assigned or associated with a PCI at a corresponding frequency position on the SSB frequency grid during a period in which the serving cell is initially accessed by at least one UE. According to one aspect, the totality of the corresponding subsets will collectively constitute the full set of SSB IDs on the SSB frequency grid. After the initial access period, the process in method 1100 may then be changed to allow the SSB ID set to be transmitted using one or more of the multiple RRHs or cells assigned or associated with the PCIs at a frequency position on or outside the SSB frequency grid after the period of initial access.

[0139] Fig.11 A flow chart illustrating yet another method 1100 for selecting resources in a UE in an inter-cell mobility communication system according to some aspects of the present disclosure. Figure 8 In a method 1100 implemented within a scheduled entity 800 in a UE, a transmission including a synchronization signal block (SSB) ID (SSB ID) set is received in a UE from at least one remote radio head (RRH) or a cell assigned with or associated with a physical cell ID (PCI) in at least one serving cell, wherein the SSB ID is selectively located at a corresponding frequency position for each RRH or cell assigned with or associated with a PCI in a plurality of RRHs or cells associated with a plurality of PCIs, and the corresponding frequency position is selectively located using layer 1 (L1) control or layer 2 (L2) control, as shown in block 1102. In addition, the method 1100 includes performing a wireless transmission between the UE and the at least one serving cell using the received SSB ID, as shown in block 1104.

[0140] According to yet another aspect, another method may be used for an L1 / L2-centric inter-cell mobility system in which each serving cell has a physical cell ID (PCI) and its own serving cell ID. Specifically, for L1 / L2-based handover (e.g., DCI- or MAC-CE-based handover) (such as a PSCell change), for example, a handover (HO) command issued by a source cell may be used to indicate to a UE that a target cell has the same or matching configuration as the source cell (also referred to herein as a "cell match indication"). In this case, the UE may reuse the configuration from the source cell when switching from the source cell to the target cell, thereby saving resources and achieving improved efficiency. In one aspect, the cell match indication in the HO command may constitute a single bit field, wherein the bit state indicates to the UE whether the target cell configuration matches the source cell. For example, a bit value of "1" may indicate a match in the cell configuration, while a bit value of "0" would indicate a difference in the cell configuration. Furthermore, the field in the HO command carrying the cell match indication may be a new field, or alternatively an existing field that is reused or repurposed to provide a cell match indication.It should be noted that these methods may be applied to handovers in systems using PCell, PSCell and / or SCell.

[0141] In a further aspect, if there are differences in the cell configurations, the HO command may be further configured to communicate different fragments or portions of the target cell configuration to the UE. In this case, the UE may reuse those portions of the cell configuration that are shared by the source cell and the target cell, and then use the further communicated configuration information about the target cell configuration provided in the HO command.

[0142] According to certain aspects, the serving cell or gNB may be configured to provide, pre-determine, or establish a default cell configuration in advance. Additionally, in an L1 / L2 based HO or cell change command, the serving cell or gNB may signal any cell configuration differences from the default cell configuration.

[0143] In still other aspects, it should be noted that the differences in cell configurations may include different physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resources that may be due to differences in the number of served UEs in the cells. Other examples of differences in cell configurations may include different PDSCHs due to differences in the number of served UEs in the respective cells.

[0144] Fig.12A timing diagram 1200 illustrating handover signaling and procedures when a UE switches from a serving cell to a target cell is illustrated. In one aspect, the handover illustrated in diagram 1200 may be an L1 / L2 based handover, for example, via DCI and / or MAC-CE signaling. As illustrated, timing diagram 1200 shows a UE 1202 switching from a source cell or gNB 1204 to a target cell or gNB 1206. Specifically, timing diagram 1200 illustrates that for initiation of a UE handover, the source cell 1204 may first send a handover (HO) request 1208 to the target cell 1206. The target cell 1206 then performs an admission control process 1210 to determine whether the HO request is accepted or granted. If so, the target cell 1206 sends an acknowledgment signal HO ACK 1212 to the source cell 1204.

[0145] After receiving the acknowledgement signal 1212 from the target cell 1206, the source cell 1204 then issues a HO command signal 1214 to the UE 1202. It should be noted that the HO command 1214 can be one of L1 or L2 signaling and includes a cell match indication in the command 1214, which can be at least one bit field as discussed above, but is not limited thereto in cases where it is desired to convey more information in addition to just a binary difference or no difference indication. It should be noted that in the case where the source cell and the target cell have different cell configurations, the source cell 1204 can configure the HO command signal 1214 to further include cell configuration information about different fragments or different parts of the configuration of the target cell, which different fragments or different parts of the configuration can be utilized by the UE when switching to the target cell 1206.

[0146] After the UE 1202 receives the HO command 1214, the UE initiates a switch to the target cell, as shown by process 1216. In some aspects, process 1216 may include a switch based on a cell match indication, as will be described with reference to Fig.13 and 14 After process 1216, UE 1202 may then initiate communication with target cell 1206, and this is indicated by HO complete signal 1218 in this diagram.

[0147] Fig.131300 is a flow chart illustrating a method 1300 for selecting handover resources to serve a UE in an inter-cell mobility communication system according to some aspects of the present disclosure. It should be noted that the method 1300 can be implemented by a base station or a gNB, or in other aspects by a UE acting as a scheduling entity. As illustrated, the method 1300 includes: configuring a handover (HO) command that causes a user equipment (UE) being served by a source cell to handover to a target cell, wherein the HO command includes a cell match indication indicating whether a target cell configuration of the target cell is the same as a source cell configuration of the source cell, as shown in block 1302.

[0148] In an alternative aspect, the method 1300 may further include configuring the HO command with information about a portion of the cell configuration that is different between the source cell and the target cell, as illustrated in block 1304. Furthermore, the method 1300 includes transmitting the HO command to the UE for handing over the UE to the target cell, as shown in block 1306.

[0149] In a further aspect of the method 1300, it is noted that the HO command is one of a layer 1 (L1) signal or a layer 2 (L2) signal. In addition, the L1 signal includes at least one downlink control information (DCI), and the L2 signaling includes at least one medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE).

[0150] In still other aspects, the method 1300 may include setting a default cell configuration to be transmitted to the UE, and subsequently also configuring the HO command and the cell match indication to indicate whether the target cell configuration deviates from the default cell configuration.

[0151] According to other aspects, it is noted that the cell match indication may constitute at least one bit field in the HO command. Furthermore, the at least one bit field may be located in one of: a field added to the HO command, or a diverted existing field in the HO command.

[0152] Fig.14A flow chart illustrating yet another method 1400 for receiving handover resources in a UE in an inter-cell mobility communication system according to some aspects of the present disclosure. In one aspect, the method 1400 may be implemented in a UE or a scheduled device. In the method 1400, block 1402 indicates first receiving a handover (HO) command from a source cell to switch to a target cell. The HO command includes a cell match indication indicating whether a target cell configuration of the target cell is the same as a source cell configuration of the source cell. The process may then proceed to decision block 1404, where a determination is made in the UE whether the cell match indication indicates the same configuration. If the target configuration as determined at block 1404 is the same as the source configuration, the process proceeds to block 1406, where the UE switches or is switched to the target cell based on the HO command, including using a portion or all of the source cell configuration that matches the target cell configuration for communication with the target cell.

[0153] In another alternative, it should be noted that if the source cell and the target cell do not match as determined in block 1404, the flow may proceed to block 1408. In this case, it is assumed that the received HO command is further configured to include information about a portion of the target cell configuration that is different between the source cell configuration and the target cell configuration. Thus, the method 1400 may further include determining or receiving information about the different portion between the target cell configuration and the source cell configuration based on the information in the HO command at block 1408. After the determination, the UE is then switched or handed over to the target cell using at least the portion of the target cell configuration that is different between the source cell configuration and the target cell configuration and the portion of the source cell configuration that is the same between the source cell configuration and the target cell configuration, as shown in block 1410.

[0154] The following provides an overview of various aspects of the disclosure:

[0155] Aspect 1: A method for performing wireless communications at a radio access network (RAN) entity in a communication system supporting inter-cell mobility, the method comprising: receiving a measurement report from at least one user equipment (UE); determining reference information based on the measurement report; selecting at least one cell to serve the at least one UE based on the reference information and a serving cell configuration of the RAN entity; and transmitting to the at least one UE one of layer 1 (L1) signaling or layer 2 (L2) signaling for identifying the selected at least one cell.

[0156] Aspect 2: The method of aspect 1, wherein the at least one cell comprises: at least one of a cell site, a serving cell, or a cell assigned with a physical cell ID (PCI).

[0157] Aspect 3: A method as in Aspect 1 or 2, wherein the service cell configuration of the RAN entity includes using a single PCI among one or more PCIs, the single PCI being associated with a plurality of cell sites including the at least one cell site, and the method further includes: transmitting a different set of reference signal IDs for each of the plurality of cell sites.

[0158] Aspect 4: A method as in any one of Aspects 1 to 3, wherein: the reference signal IDs each include at least one of a synchronization signal block (SSB) ID, a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), or a positioning reference signal (PRS).

[0159] Aspect 5: A method as in any one of Aspects 1 to 4, wherein: the service cell configuration of the RAN entity includes: each service cell is configured to have multiple PCIs configured for each service cell in the communication system and each service cell is configured to transmit a full set of reference signal IDs, and the method further includes: identifying at least one physical cell site or a corresponding PCI or reference signal (RS) associated with at least one physical cell site serving the at least one UE by transmitting L1 signaling or L2 signaling.

[0160] Aspect 6: A method as in any one of Aspects 1 to 5, wherein: the service cell configuration of the RAN entity includes a plurality of cell sites including the at least one cell site, and further includes a plurality of PCIs including the one or more PCIs, each of the plurality of PCIs corresponding to a different cell site among the plurality of cell sites, and the method further includes: transmitting a plurality of reference signal IDs from each of the plurality of cell sites, each of the plurality of reference signal IDs corresponding to a corresponding one of the plurality of cell sites; wherein receiving the measurement report includes receiving different uplink reference signals at corresponding cell sites among the plurality of cell sites; wherein determining the reference information includes determining reference information corresponding to each of the plurality of cell sites based on the different uplink reference signals received at the corresponding cell sites; and wherein the selection includes selecting which cell site among the plurality of cell sites will serve the at least one UE.

[0161] Aspect 7: A method as in any one of Aspects 1 to 6, wherein: the serving cell configuration of the RAN entity includes a single PCI from one or more PCIs, and the method further comprises: transmitting a serving cell ID signal for at least one selected cell site.

[0162] Aspect 8: A method as in any one of Aspects 1 to 7, further comprising: configuring a cell site to transmit a synchronization signal block (SSB) ID (SSB ID) set, the cell site having a plurality of remote radio heads (RRHs) associated with a plurality of PCIs or at least one cell associated with a plurality of PCIs; selecting, for each of the plurality of RRHs associated with the plurality of PCIs or at least one cell associated with the plurality of PCIs, a corresponding frequency position in a transmission resource in which a corresponding SSB ID set is to be transmitted for serving the at least one UE; and using one of L1 signaling or L2 signaling to transmit, to the at least one UE, each corresponding frequency position for each of the plurality of RRHs associated with a PCI in the plurality of PCIs or at least one cell associated with a PCI in the plurality of PCIs.

[0163] Aspect 9: The method of aspect 8 further comprises: transmitting at least one index via L1 signaling or L2 signaling, wherein the at least one index indicates at least one selected SSB frequency position.

[0164] Aspect 10: The method of Aspect 8 further includes: selecting a corresponding frequency position for each RRH associated with the PCI or for the at least one cellular cell associated with the PCI based on the SSB frequency grid, wherein each corresponding frequency position is set to one of a plurality of frequency positions on the SSB grid.

[0165] Aspect 11: The method of Aspect 8 further includes: selecting a corresponding frequency position for each RRH associated with the PCI or for at least one cellular cell associated with the PCI based on the SSB frequency grid, wherein the at least one corresponding frequency position is set to a frequency position among multiple frequency positions above the SSB grid, and at least one other corresponding frequency position is set to a frequency position outside the SSB grid.

[0166] Aspect 12: The method of aspect 8, further comprising: selecting a corresponding frequency position for each RRH or PCI based on a SSB frequency grid, wherein each corresponding frequency position is set to a frequency position outside the SSB grid.

[0167] Aspect 13: The method as in Aspect 8, further comprising: during a period in which the serving cell is initially accessed by the at least one UE, using one RRH among the multiple RRHs associated with the PCI among the multiple PCIs or at least one cell associated with the PCI among the multiple PCIs at a frequency position above the SSB frequency grid to transmit the SSB ID set, wherein the SSB ID set is the full set of SSB IDs on the SSB frequency grid; and after the period of initial access, allowing the use of at least one of the frequency positions above or outside the SSB frequency grid to transmit the SSB ID set using the multiple RRHs associated with the multiple PCIs or one or more of the one or more cells associated with the multiple PCIs.

[0168] Aspect 14: The method as in Aspect 8, further comprising: during a period of time in which the serving cell is initially accessed by the at least one UE, transmitting a corresponding subset of the SSB ID set at a corresponding frequency position on the SSB frequency grid using a corresponding one of the multiple RRHs associated with a PCI among the multiple PCIs or a cell associated with a PCI among the multiple PCIs, wherein the corresponding subsets as a whole include the full set of SSB IDs on the SSB frequency grid; and after the period of initial access, allowing the use of at least one of the frequency positions above or outside the SSB frequency grid to transmit the SSB ID set using the multiple RRHs associated with a PCI among the multiple PCIs or one or more of the one or more cells associated with a PCI among the multiple PCIs.

[0169] Aspect 15: The method as in any one of Aspects 1 to 14, further comprising: configuring a handover (HO) command to cause at least one UE being served by a source cell to switch to a target cell, wherein the HO command includes a cell match indication, the cell match indication indicating whether a target cell configuration of the target cell is the same as a source cell configuration of the source cell; and transmitting the HO command to the at least one UE for the at least one UE to switch to the target cell, wherein the HO command is one of L1 signaling or L2 signaling.

[0170] Aspect 16: A method as in any one of Aspects 1 to 15, wherein: the measurement report comprises one of: a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement signal, a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement signal, or a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) measurement signal.

[0171] Aspect 17: The method of any one of Aspects 1 to 16, wherein: the L1 signaling includes at least downlink control information (DCI), and the L2 signaling includes at least one MAC control element (MAC-CE).

[0172] Aspect 18: A method for performing wireless communications at a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system supporting inter-cell mobility, the method comprising: transmitting an uplink reference signal including at least one of power and signal measurements to a radio access network (RAN) entity; receiving one of layer 1 (L1) signaling or layer 2 (L2) signaling from the RAN entity, wherein the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling identifies one or more selected serving cells for serving the UE based on the transmitted uplink reference signal; and selecting one or more serving cells during inter-cell mobility operations based on the received L1 layer signaling or the L2 layer signaling.

[0173] Aspect 19: The method of aspect 18 further includes: the UE is configured to operate according to at least one of a plurality of operation modes of the wireless communication system, the operation mode including one of the following: (1) each serving cell in the wireless communication system has a PCI and a plurality of physical cell sites, wherein each physical cell site is configured to transmit a different set of cell-defined reference signals and the L1 layer signaling or L2 layer signaling is configured to select a physical cell site to serve the UE based on the uplink reference signal; (2) each serving cell in the communication system has a plurality of PCIs and a plurality of physical cell sites, wherein each physical cell site is configured to transmit a different set of cell-defined reference signals and the L1 layer signaling or L2 layer signaling is configured to select a physical cell site to serve the UE based on the uplink reference signal; The point is configured to utilize a PCI among the multiple PCIs and is configured to transmit a full set of cell-defined reference signals, and the L1 layer signaling or L2 layer signaling is configured to select a physical cell site to serve the UE based on the uplink reference signal for each PCI reported by the uplink reference signal; or (3) each serving cell in the communication system has a PCI, wherein the L1 layer signaling or L2 layer signaling is configured to select a serving cell among the one or more serving cells or a serving cell ID corresponding to the selected serving cell based on the uplink reference signal for each PCI reported by the uplink reference signal.

[0174] Aspect 20: A method as in Aspect 18 or 19, wherein the L1 control or L2 control includes at least one of downlink control information (DCI) or MAC control element (MAC-CE); and wherein the uplink reference signal includes one of a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement signal, a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement signal, or a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) measurement signal.

[0175] Aspect 21: The method of any one of Aspects 18 to 20 further includes: receiving a transmission including a synchronization signal block (SSB) ID (SSB ID) set from a remote radio head (RRH) associated with one of a plurality of physical cell IDs (PCIs) or at least one cell associated with one of a plurality of PCIs among a plurality of remote radio heads (RRHs) in at least one serving cell, wherein the SSB ID is selectively positioned at a corresponding frequency position for each of the plurality of RRHs associated with the plurality of PCIs or for each cell associated with the plurality of PCIs, and the corresponding frequency position is selectively positioned by using layer 1 (L1) signaling or layer 2 (L2) signaling; and performing wireless transmission between the UE and the at least one serving cell using the received SSBID set.

[0176] Aspect 22: The method of Aspect 21 further comprises: receiving at least one index in the transmission via L1 control or L2 control, wherein the at least one index indicates at least one selected SSB frequency position.

[0177] Aspect 23: In the method of Aspect 21, selectively positioning the SSB ID in a corresponding frequency position for each RRH associated with a PCI or for each cellular cell associated with a PCI is based on an SSB frequency grid, wherein each corresponding frequency position is set to one of multiple frequency positions on the SSB grid.

[0178] Aspect 24: A method as in Aspect 21, wherein selectively positioning the SSB ID in a corresponding frequency position for each RRH associated with a PCI or for each cellular cell associated with a PCI is based on an SSB frequency grid, wherein at least one corresponding frequency position is set to one of a plurality of frequency positions above the SSB grid and at least one other corresponding frequency position is set to a frequency position outside the SSB grid.

[0179] Aspect 25: A method as in Aspect 21, wherein selectively positioning the SSB ID in a corresponding frequency position for each RRH associated with a PCI or for each cellular cell associated with a PCI is based on an SSB frequency grid, wherein each corresponding frequency position is set to a frequency position outside the SSB grid.

[0180] Aspect 26: The method of Aspect 21 further includes: during a period of time in which the serving cell is initially accessed by the at least one UE, transmitting the SSB ID set at a frequency position on the SSB frequency grid using one RRH among the multiple RRHs associated with one PCI among the multiple PCIs or for a cell associated with one PCI among the multiple PCIs, wherein the SSB ID set is the full set of SSB IDs on the SSB frequency grid, and wherein after the period of initial access, transmitting the SSB ID set based on one or more of the multiple RRHs or PCIs using at least one of the frequency positions above or outside the SSB frequency grid is permitted.

[0181] Aspect 27: The method of any one of Aspects 18 to 26 further includes: receiving a handover (HO) command for switching from a source cell to a target cell in a user equipment (UE), wherein the HO command includes a cell match indication, and the cell match indication indicates whether the target cell configuration of the target cell is the same as the source cell configuration of the source cell; and switching to the target cell based on the HO command in the UE includes: using a part of the source cell configuration that matches the target cell configuration in the source cell configuration to communicate with the target cell, wherein the HO command is one of a layer 1 (L1) signal or a layer 2 (L2) signal.

[0182] Aspect 28: A method as in any one of Aspects 18 to 27, further comprising: the HO command is configured to include information about a portion of the target cell configuration that is different between the source cell configuration and the target cell configuration; determining whether the cell match indication indicates a difference between the source cell configuration and the target cell configuration; and in the case of indicating the difference, switching to the target cell using at least the portion of the target cell configuration that is different between the source cell configuration and the target cell configuration and the portion of the source cell configuration that is the same between the source cell configuration and the target cell configuration.

[0183] Aspect 29: A radio access network (RAN) entity configured for wireless communication, the RAN entity comprising: a processor, a transceiver communicatively coupled to the processor, and a memory coupled to the processor, the processor and the memory being configured to perform the method of any one of Aspects 1 to 17.

[0184] Aspect 30: A user equipment (UE) configured for wireless communication, the UE comprising: a processor, a transceiver communicatively coupled to the processor, and a memory coupled to the processor, the processor and the memory being configured to perform the method of any one of aspects 18 to 28.

[0185] Aspect 31: An apparatus configured for wireless communication, the apparatus comprising at least one means for performing the method of any one of aspects 1 to 17 or alternatively aspects 17 to 28.

[0186] Aspect 32: A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer executable code, the computer executable code comprising code for causing an apparatus to perform the method of any one of aspects 1 to 17 or alternatively aspects 18 to 28.

[0187] Several aspects of wireless communication networks have been presented with reference to various exemplary implementations. As those skilled in the art will readily appreciate, the various aspects described throughout this disclosure may be extended to other telecommunication systems, network architectures, and communication standards.

[0188] As an example, various aspects may be implemented within other systems defined by 3GPP, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), Evolved Packet System (EPS), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), and / or Global System for Mobile (GSM). Various aspects may also be extended to systems defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), such as CDMA2000 and / or Evolution Data Optimized (EV-DO). Other examples may be implemented within systems employing IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Ultra Wideband (UWB), Bluetooth, and / or other suitable systems. The actual telecommunication standard, network architecture, and / or communication standard employed will depend on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the system.

[0189] Within the present disclosure, the wording "exemplary" is used to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration". Any implementation or aspect described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as superior or superior to other aspects of the present disclosure. Likewise, the term "aspect" does not require that all aspects of the present disclosure include the features, advantages, or modes of operation discussed. The term "coupled" is used herein to refer to a direct or indirect coupling between two objects. For example, if object A physically contacts object B, and object B contacts object C, objects A and C may still be considered to be coupled to each other - even if they are not in direct physical contact with each other. For example, a first object may be coupled to a second object, even if the first object never directly contacts the second object physically. The terms "circuit" and "circuitry" are used broadly and are intended to include both hardware implementations of electronic devices and conductors and software implementations of information and instructions, which, when connected and configured, enable the functions described in the present disclosure to be performed without limitation on the type of electronic circuits, which, when executed by a processor, enable the functions described in the present disclosure to be performed.

[0190] Figures 1 to 14 One or more of the components, steps, features, and / or functions described herein may be rearranged and / or combined into a single component, step, feature, or function, or implemented in several components, steps, or functions. Additional elements, components, steps, and / or functions may also be added without departing from the novel features disclosed herein. Figures 1 to 14 The apparatus, devices and / or components illustrated in the can be configured to perform one or more methods, features or steps described herein. The novel algorithms described herein can also be efficiently implemented in software and / or embedded in hardware.

[0191] It should be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the disclosed methods is an illustration of an exemplary process. Based on design preferences, it should be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in these methods can be rearranged. The attached method claims present elements of the various steps in a sample order and are not meant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented unless specifically stated herein.

[0192] The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the various aspects described herein. Various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the universal principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to the various aspects shown herein, but should be granted the full scope consistent with the language of the claims, wherein the singular reference to the element is not intended to mean "there is and only one" - unless specifically stated, but intended to mean "one or more". Unless specifically stated otherwise, the term "some / some" refers to one or more. The phrase "at least one" of a list of items refers to any combination of these items, including a single member. As an example, "at least one of a, b or c" is intended to cover: a; b; c; a and b; a and c; b and c; and a, b and c. The elements of the various aspects described throughout this disclosure are all structurally and functionally equivalent solutions currently or hereafter known to those of ordinary skill in the art, and are expressly incorporated herein by reference, and are intended to be covered by the claims. In addition, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be donated to the public, regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recorded in the claims.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication at a radio access network (RAN) entity in a communication system supporting inter-cell mobility, the method comprising: receiving at least one measurement report from at least one user equipment (UE); determining reference information based on the at least one measurement report; selecting at least one cell to serve the at least one UE based on the reference information and a serving cell configuration of the RAN entity; as well as transmitting one of layer 1 (L1) signaling or layer 2 (L2) signaling identifying the selected at least one cell to the at least one UE, wherein the serving cell configuration of the RAN entity corresponds to at least one of a plurality of operating modes of the communication system, the plurality of operating modes comprising one of: (1) a first operation mode, wherein each serving cell in the communication system has a physical cell ID (PCI) and a first plurality of physical cell sites, wherein each physical cell site in the first plurality of physical cell sites is configured to transmit a different set of cell-defining reference signals, and the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling is configured to select a first physical cell site in the first plurality of physical cell sites to serve the at least one UE based on the reference information; or (2) a second operation mode, wherein each serving cell in the communication system has a plurality of PCIs and a second plurality of physical cell sites, wherein each physical cell site in the second plurality of physical cell sites is configured to utilize a PCI in the plurality of PCIs and is configured to transmit a full set of cell-defining reference signals, and the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling is configured to select, for each PCI reported by the at least one measurement report, a second physical cell site in the second plurality of physical cell sites to serve the at least one UE based on the reference information; or (3) A third operation mode, wherein each serving cell in the communication system has a PCI, and wherein the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling is configured to select a first serving cell in the at least one cell or a serving cell ID corresponding to the first serving cell for each PCI reported by the at least one measurement report based on the reference information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one cell comprises: At least one of a cell site, a serving cell, or a cell is assigned a physical cell ID (PCI).

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein for the first mode of operation, the serving cell configuration of the RAN entity comprises using a single PCI of one or more PCIs, the single PCI being associated with a plurality of cell sites including the at least one cell, and the method further comprising: A different set of reference signal IDs is transmitted for each cell site in the plurality of cell sites.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the different reference signal ID sets for each of the plurality of cell sites each include at least one of a synchronization signal block (SSB) ID, a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), or a positioning reference signal (PRS).

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein for the second operation mode, the serving cell configuration of the RAN entity comprises: Each serving cell in the communication system is configured to transmit a full set of reference signal IDs, and the method further comprises: At least one physical cell site of the second plurality of physical sites or a corresponding PCI or reference signal (RS) associated with the at least one cell is identified by transmitting the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein for the second operation mode, the serving cell configuration of the RAN entity comprises: a plurality of cell sites comprising the at least one cell, and each PCI in the plurality of PCIs corresponds to a different cell site in the plurality of cell sites, and the method further comprises: transmitting a plurality of reference signal IDs from each of the plurality of cell sites, each of the plurality of reference signal IDs corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of cell sites; wherein receiving the at least one measurement report comprises receiving different uplink reference signals at respective cell sites among the plurality of cell sites; wherein determining the reference information comprises: determining reference information corresponding to each of the plurality of cell sites based on the different uplink reference signals received at the corresponding cell sites; and Wherein the selecting comprises selecting which cell site of the plurality of cell sites will serve the at least one UE.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein for the third operation mode, the serving cell configuration of the RAN entity comprises: A single PCI from the one or more PCIs, and the method further comprises: A serving cell ID signal is transmitted for the selected at least one cell.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: configuring a cell site having a plurality of remote radio heads (RRHs) associated with the plurality of PCIs or at least one first cell associated with the plurality of PCIs to transmit a set of synchronization signal block (SSB) IDs (SSB IDs); selecting, for each RRH of the plurality of RRHs associated with a first PCI of the plurality of PCIs or for the at least one first cell associated with the first PCI of the plurality of PCIs, a respective frequency location in transmission resources in which a corresponding set of SSB IDs is to be transmitted for serving the at least one UE; as well as Each respective frequency location for each RRH of the plurality of RRHs associated with the first PCI of the plurality of PCIs or for the at least one first cell associated with the first PCI of the plurality of PCIs is transmitted to the at least one UE using one of the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: At least one index is transmitted via the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling, wherein the at least one index indicates at least one selected SSB frequency position.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising: A corresponding frequency position for each RRH in the plurality of RRHs associated with the first PCI or for the at least one first cellular cell associated with the first PCI is selected based on an SSB frequency grid, wherein each corresponding frequency position is set to one of a plurality of frequency positions on the SSB frequency grid.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising: A corresponding frequency position for each RRH associated with the first PCI among the multiple RRHs or for the at least one first cellular cell associated with the first PCI is selected based on the SSB frequency grid, wherein at least one corresponding frequency position is set to one of a plurality of frequency positions above the SSB frequency grid and at least one other corresponding frequency position is set to a frequency position outside the SSB frequency grid.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising: A corresponding frequency position for each RRH of the plurality of RRHs associated with the first PCI or for the at least one first cell associated with the first PCI is selected based on an SSB frequency grid, wherein each corresponding frequency position is set to a frequency position outside the SSB frequency grid.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising: transmitting the set of SSB IDs using one of the plurality of RRHs associated with the first one of the plurality of PCIs or at least one first cell associated with the first one of the plurality of PCIs at a frequency location on an SSB frequency grid during a period in which the serving cell is initially accessed by the at least one UE, wherein the set of SSB IDs is a full set of SSB IDs on the SSB frequency grid; as well as After the period of initial access, permission is granted to transmit the SSB ID set using at least one of the frequency locations above or outside the SSB frequency grid using the multiple RRHs associated with the multiple PCIs or one or more of the one or more cellular cells associated with the multiple PCIs.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising: transmitting a corresponding subset of the set of SSB IDs at a corresponding frequency position on an SSB frequency grid using a corresponding one of the plurality of RRHs associated with a first PCI of the plurality of PCIs or a cell associated with the first PCI of the plurality of PCIs during a period in which the serving cell is initially accessed by the at least one UE, wherein the population of the corresponding subsets includes the full set of SSB IDs on the SSB frequency grid; as well as After the period of initial access, permission is granted to use at least one of the frequency positions above or outside the SSB frequency grid to transmit the SSBID set using the multiple RRHs associated with the first PCI among the multiple PCIs or one or more of the one or more cellular cells associated with the first PCI among the multiple PCIs.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising: configuring a handover (HO) command to cause the at least one UE being served by the source cell to hand over to a target cell, wherein the HO command includes a cell match indication indicating whether a target cell configuration of the target cell is the same as a source cell configuration of the source cell; as well as The HO command is transmitted to the at least one UE for the at least one UE to switch to the target cell, wherein the HO command is one of the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference information comprises one of: a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement signal, a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement signal, or a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) measurement signal.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the L1 signaling includes at least downlink control information (DCI), and the L2 signaling includes at least one MAC control element (MAC-CE).

18. A method for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) in a communication system supporting inter-cell mobility, the method comprising: transmitting an uplink reference signal comprising at least one of power and signal measurements to a radio access network (RAN) entity; receiving one of layer 1 (L1) signaling or layer 2 (L2) signaling from the RAN entity, the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling identifying one or more selected serving cells to serve the UE based on the transmitted uplink reference signal; as well as selecting one or more serving cells based on received L1 signaling or L2 signaling during inter-cell mobility operations, wherein the UE is configured to operate according to at least one of a plurality of operation modes of the communication system, the plurality of operation modes comprising one of: (1) each serving cell in the communication system has a physical cell ID (PCI) and a first plurality of physical cell sites, wherein each physical cell site in the first plurality of physical cell sites is configured to transmit a different set of cell-defining reference signals, and the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling is configured to select a first physical cell site in the first plurality of physical cell sites to serve the UE based on the uplink reference signal; or (2) each serving cell in the communication system has a plurality of PCIs and a second plurality of physical cell sites, wherein each physical cell site in the second plurality of physical cell sites is configured to utilize a PCI in the plurality of PCIs and is configured to transmit a full set of cell-defining reference signals, and the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling is configured to select a second physical cell site in the second plurality of physical cell sites to serve the UE for each PCI reported by the uplink reference signal based on the uplink reference signal; or (3) Each serving cell in the communication system has a PCI, wherein the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling is configured to select a first serving cell among the one or more serving cells or a serving cell ID corresponding to the first serving cell for each PCI reported by the uplink reference signal based on the uplink reference signal.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling comprises at least one of downlink control information (DCI) or a MAC control element (MAC-CE); and The uplink reference signal includes one of the following: a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement signal, a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement signal, or a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) measurement signal.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising: receiving a transmission including a set of synchronization signal block (SSB) IDs (SSB IDs) from one of a plurality of remote radio heads (RRHs) in the one or more serving cells associated with one of the plurality of PCIs or at least one cell associated with one of the plurality of PCIs, wherein the SSB IDs are selectively located at respective frequency locations for each of the plurality of RRHs associated with the plurality of PCIs or for each cell associated with the plurality of PCIs, and the respective frequency locations are selectively located using layer 1 (L1) signaling or layer 2 (L2) signaling; as well as Wireless transmissions are performed between the UE and the one or more serving cells using the received set of SSB IDs.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising: At least one index is received in the transmission via the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling, wherein the at least one index indicates at least one selected SSB frequency position.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein selectively positioning the SSB ID in the corresponding frequency position for each RRH in the plurality of RRHs associated with a PCI in the plurality of PCIs or for each cellular cell associated with a PCI in the plurality of PCIs is based on an SSB frequency grid, wherein each corresponding frequency position is set to one of a plurality of frequency positions on the SSB frequency grid.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein selectively positioning the SSB ID in the corresponding frequency position for each RRH in the plurality of RRHs associated with a PCI in the plurality of PCIs or for each cellular cell associated with a PCI in the plurality of PCIs is based on an SSB frequency grid, wherein at least one corresponding frequency position is set to one of a plurality of frequency positions above the SSB frequency grid and at least one other corresponding frequency position is set to a frequency position outside the SSB frequency grid.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein selectively positioning the SSB ID in the corresponding frequency position for each RRH associated with one of the multiple PCIs or each cellular cell associated with one of the multiple PCIs in the multiple RRHs is based on an SSB frequency grid, wherein each corresponding frequency position is set to a frequency position outside the SSB frequency grid.

25. The method of claim 20, further comprising: During a period of time in which a service cell among the one or more service cells is initially accessed by the UE, the SSB ID set is transmitted at a frequency position on the SSB frequency grid using one RRH among the multiple RRHs associated with one PCI among the multiple PCIs or one cell associated with one PCI among the multiple PCIs, wherein the SSB ID set is a full set of SSB IDs on the SSB frequency grid, wherein after the period of initial access, it is permitted to use at least one of the frequency positions on or outside the SSB frequency grid to transmit the SSB ID set based on one or more of the multiple RRHs or PCIs.

26. The method of claim 18, further comprising: receiving, in a user equipment (UE), a handover (HO) command from a source cell to handover to a target cell, wherein the HO command includes a cell match indication indicating whether a target cell configuration of the target cell is the same as a source cell configuration of the source cell; as well as Switching in the UE to the target cell based on the HO command includes communicating with the target cell using a portion of the source cell configuration that matches the target cell configuration, wherein the HO command is one of a layer 1 (L1) signal or a layer 2 (L2) signal.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising: The HO command is configured to include information about a first portion of the target cell configuration that is different between the source cell configuration and the target cell configuration; determining whether the cell match indication indicates a difference between the source cell configuration and the target cell configuration; as well as In case the difference is indicated, switching to the target cell is performed using at least the first portion of the target cell configuration that is different between the source cell configuration and the target cell configuration and the second portion of the source cell configuration that is the same between the source cell configuration and the target cell configuration.

28. A Radio Access Network (RAN) entity configured for wireless communication, comprising: processor; a transceiver communicatively coupled to the processor; as well as a memory communicatively coupled to the processor; wherein the processor and the memory are configured to: receiving, via the transceiver, at least one measurement report from at least one user equipment (UE); determining reference information based on the at least one measurement report; selecting at least one cell to serve the at least one UE based on the reference information and a serving cell configuration of the RAN entity; as well as transmitting, via the transceiver, to the at least one UE, one of layer 1 (L1) signaling or layer 2 (L2) signaling for identifying the selected at least one cell, wherein the serving cell configuration of the RAN entity corresponds to at least one of a plurality of operating modes of a communication system, the plurality of operating modes comprising one of: (1) a first operation mode, wherein each serving cell in the communication system has a physical cell ID (PCI) and a first plurality of physical cell sites, wherein each physical cell site in the first plurality of physical cell sites is configured to transmit a different set of cell-defining reference signals, and the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling is configured to select a first physical cell site in the first plurality of physical cell sites to serve the at least one UE based on the reference information; or (2) a second operation mode, wherein each serving cell in the communication system has a plurality of PCIs and a second plurality of physical cell sites, wherein each physical cell site in the second plurality of physical cell sites is configured to utilize a PCI in the plurality of PCIs and is configured to transmit a full set of cell-defining reference signals, and the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling is configured to select, for each PCI reported by the at least one measurement report, a second physical cell site in the second plurality of physical cell sites to serve the at least one UE based on the reference information; or (3) A third operation mode, wherein each serving cell in the communication system has a PCI, and wherein the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling is configured to select a first serving cell in the at least one cell or a serving cell ID corresponding to the first serving cell for each PCI reported by the at least one measurement report based on the reference information.

29. The RAN entity of claim 28, wherein the at least one cell comprises: At least one of a cell site, a serving cell, or a cell is assigned a physical cell ID (PCI).

30. The RAN entity of claim 28, wherein for the first mode of operation, the serving cell configuration of the RAN entity comprises using a single PCI of one or more PCIs, the single PCI being associated with a plurality of cell sites including the at least one cell, and the processor and the memory are further configured to: A different set of reference signal IDs is transmitted for each cell site in the plurality of cell sites.

31. The RAN entity of claim 30, wherein the different reference signal ID sets for each of the plurality of cell sites each include at least one of a synchronization signal block (SSB) ID, a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), or a positioning reference signal (PRS).

32. The RAN entity of claim 28, wherein for the second operation mode, the serving cell configuration of the RAN entity comprises: The communication system is configured to transmit each serving cell of a full set of reference signal IDs, and the processor and the memory are further configured to: At least one physical cell site of the second plurality of physical sites or a corresponding PCI or reference signal (RS) associated with the at least one cell is identified by transmitting the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling.

33. The RAN entity of claim 32, wherein for the second operation mode, the serving cell configuration of the RAN entity comprises: a plurality of cell sites comprising the at least one cell, and each of the plurality of PCIs corresponds to a different cell site of the plurality of cell sites, and the processor and the memory are further configured to: transmitting a plurality of reference signal IDs from each of the plurality of cell sites, each of the plurality of reference signal IDs corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of cell sites; wherein receiving the at least one measurement report comprises receiving different uplink reference signals at respective cell sites among the plurality of cell sites; wherein determining the reference information comprises: determining reference information corresponding to each of the plurality of cell sites based on the different uplink reference signals received at the corresponding cell sites; and Wherein the selecting comprises selecting which cell site of the plurality of cell sites will serve the at least one UE.

34. The RAN entity of claim 28, wherein for the third operation mode, the serving cell configuration of the RAN entity comprises: a single PCI from the one or more PCIs, and the processor and the memory are further configured to: A serving cell ID signal is transmitted for the selected at least one cell.

35. The RAN entity of claim 28, wherein the processor and the memory are further configured to: configuring a cell site having a plurality of remote radio heads (RRHs) associated with the plurality of PCIs or at least one first cell associated with the plurality of PCIs to transmit a set of synchronization signal block (SSB) IDs (SSB IDs); selecting, for each RRH of the plurality of RRHs associated with a first PCI of the plurality of PCIs or for the at least one first cell associated with the first PCI of the plurality of PCIs, a respective frequency location in transmission resources in which a corresponding set of SSB IDs is to be transmitted for serving the at least one UE; as well as Each respective frequency location for each RRH of the plurality of RRHs associated with the first PCI of the plurality of PCIs or for the at least one first cell associated with the first PCI of the plurality of PCIs is transmitted to the at least one UE using one of the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling.

36. The RAN entity of claim 35, wherein the processor and the memory are further configured to: At least one index is transmitted via the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling, wherein the at least one index indicates at least one selected SSB frequency position.

37. The RAN entity of claim 35, wherein the processor and the memory are further configured to: A corresponding frequency position for each RRH in the plurality of RRHs associated with the first PCI or for the at least one first cellular cell associated with the first PCI is selected based on an SSB frequency grid, wherein each corresponding frequency position is set to one of a plurality of frequency positions on the SSB frequency grid.

38. The RAN entity of claim 35, wherein the processor and the memory are further configured to: A corresponding frequency position for each RRH associated with the first PCI among the multiple RRHs or for the at least one first cellular cell associated with the first PCI is selected based on the SSB frequency grid, wherein at least one corresponding frequency position is set to one of a plurality of frequency positions above the SSB frequency grid and at least one other corresponding frequency position is set to a frequency position outside the SSB frequency grid.

39. The RAN entity of claim 35, wherein the processor and the memory are further configured to: A corresponding frequency position for each RRH of the plurality of RRHs associated with the first PCI or for the at least one first cell associated with the first PCI is selected based on an SSB frequency grid, wherein each corresponding frequency position is set to a frequency position outside the SSB frequency grid.

40. The RAN entity of claim 35, wherein the processor and the memory are further configured to: transmitting the set of SSB IDs using one of the plurality of RRHs associated with the first of the plurality of PCIs or at least one first cell associated with the first of the plurality of PCIs at a frequency location on an SSB frequency grid during a period in which the serving cell is initially accessed by the at least one UE, wherein the set of SSB IDs is a full set of SSB IDs on the SSB frequency grid; and After the period of initial access, permission is granted to transmit the SSB ID set using at least one of the frequency locations above or outside the SSB frequency grid using the multiple RRHs associated with the multiple PCIs or one or more of the one or more cellular cells associated with the multiple PCIs.

41. The RAN entity of claim 35, wherein the processor and the memory are further configured to: transmitting a corresponding subset of the set of SSB IDs at a corresponding frequency position on an SSB frequency grid using a corresponding one of the plurality of RRHs associated with a first PCI of the plurality of PCIs or a cell associated with the first PCI of the plurality of PCIs during a period in which the serving cell is initially accessed by the at least one UE, wherein the population of the corresponding subsets includes the full set of SSB IDs on the SSB frequency grid; and After the period of initial access, permission is granted to use at least one of the frequency positions above or outside the SSB frequency grid to transmit the SSBID set using the multiple RRHs associated with the first PCI among the multiple PCIs or one or more of the one or more cellular cells associated with the first PCI among the multiple PCIs.

42. The RAN entity of claim 28, wherein the processor and the memory are further configured to: configuring a handover (HO) command to cause the at least one UE being served by the source cell to hand over to a target cell, wherein the HO command includes a cell match indication indicating whether a target cell configuration of the target cell is the same as a source cell configuration of the source cell; and The HO command is transmitted to the at least one UE for the at least one UE to switch to the target cell, wherein the HO command is one of the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling.

43. The RAN entity of claim 28, wherein the reference information comprises one of: a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement signal, a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement signal, or a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) measurement signal.

44. The RAN entity of claim 28, wherein the L1 signaling comprises at least downlink control information (DCI), and the L2 signaling comprises at least one MAC control element (MAC-CE).

45. A user equipment (UE) configured for wireless communication, comprising: processor; a transceiver communicatively coupled to the processor; as well as a memory communicatively coupled to the processor; wherein the processor and the memory are configured to: transmitting an uplink reference signal comprising at least one of power and signal measurements to a radio access network (RAN) entity; receiving one of layer 1 (L1) signaling or layer 2 (L2) signaling from the RAN entity, the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling identifying one or more selected serving cells for serving the UE based on the transmitted uplink reference signal; as well as selecting one or more serving cells based on received L1 signaling or L2 signaling during inter-cell mobility operations, wherein the UE is configured to operate according to at least one of a plurality of operation modes of a communication system, the plurality of operation modes comprising one of: (1) each serving cell in the communication system has a physical cell ID (PCI) and a first plurality of physical cell sites, wherein each physical cell site in the first plurality of physical cell sites is configured to transmit a different set of cell-defining reference signals, and the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling is configured to select a first physical cell site in the first plurality of physical cell sites to serve the UE based on the uplink reference signal; or (2) each serving cell in the communication system has a plurality of PCIs and a second plurality of physical cell sites, wherein each physical cell site in the second plurality of physical cell sites is configured to utilize a PCI in the plurality of PCIs and is configured to transmit a full set of cell-defining reference signals, and the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling is configured to select a second physical cell site in the second plurality of physical cell sites to serve the UE for each PCI reported by the uplink reference signal based on the uplink reference signal; or (3) Each serving cell in the communication system has a PCI, wherein the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling is configured to select a first serving cell among the one or more serving cells or a serving cell ID corresponding to the first serving cell for each PCI reported by the uplink reference signal based on the uplink reference signal.

46. ​​The UE according to claim 45, wherein the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling comprises at least one of downlink control information (DCI) or a MAC control element (MAC-CE); and The uplink reference signal includes one of the following: a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement signal, a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement signal, or a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) measurement signal.

47. The UE of claim 45, wherein the processor and the memory are further configured to: receiving a transmission including a set of synchronization signal block (SSB) IDs (SSB IDs) from one of a plurality of remote radio heads (RRHs) in the one or more serving cells associated with one of the plurality of PCIs or at least one cell associated with one of the plurality of PCIs, wherein the SSB IDs are selectively located at respective frequency locations for each of the plurality of RRHs associated with the plurality of PCIs or for each cell associated with the plurality of PCIs, and the respective frequency locations are selectively located using layer 1 (L1) signaling or layer 2 (L2) signaling; and Wireless transmissions are performed between the UE and the one or more serving cells using the received set of SSB IDs.

48. The UE of claim 47, wherein the processor and the memory are further configured to: At least one index is received in the transmission via the L1 signaling or the L2 signaling, wherein the at least one index indicates at least one selected SSB frequency position.

49. A UE as described in claim 47, wherein the SSB ID is selectively positioned in the corresponding frequency position for each RRH associated with a PCI among the multiple PCIs or for each cellular cell associated with a PCI among the multiple PCIs is based on an SSB frequency grid, wherein each corresponding frequency position is set to one of a plurality of frequency positions above the SSB frequency grid.

50. A UE as described in claim 47, wherein the selective positioning of the SSB ID in the corresponding frequency position for each RRH associated with a PCI among the multiple PCIs or for each cellular cell associated with a PCI among the multiple PCIs is based on an SSB frequency grid, wherein at least one corresponding frequency position is set to one of a plurality of frequency positions above the SSB frequency grid and at least one other corresponding frequency position is set to a frequency position outside the SSB frequency grid.

51. A UE as described in claim 47, wherein the SSB ID is selectively positioned in the corresponding frequency position for each RRH associated with a PCI among the multiple PCIs or for each cellular cell associated with a PCI among the multiple PCIs is based on an SSB frequency grid, wherein each corresponding frequency position is set to a frequency position outside the SSB frequency grid.

52. The UE of claim 47, wherein the processor and the memory are further configured to: During a period of time in which a service cell among the one or more service cells is initially accessed by the UE, the SSB ID set is transmitted at a frequency position on the SSB frequency grid using one RRH among the multiple RRHs associated with one PCI among the multiple PCIs or one cell associated with one PCI among the multiple PCIs, wherein the SSB ID set is a full set of SSB IDs on the SSB frequency grid, wherein after the period of initial access, it is permitted to use at least one of the frequency positions on or outside the SSB frequency grid to transmit the SSB ID set based on one or more of the multiple RRHs or PCIs.

53. The UE of claim 45, wherein the processor and the memory are further configured to: receiving, in a user equipment (UE), a handover (HO) command from a source cell to handover to a target cell, wherein the HO command includes a cell match indication indicating whether a target cell configuration of the target cell is the same as a source cell configuration of the source cell; and Switching in the UE to the target cell based on the HO command includes communicating with the target cell using a portion of the source cell configuration that matches the target cell configuration, wherein the HO command is one of a layer 1 (L1) signal or a layer 2 (L2) signal.

54. The UE according to claim 53, wherein the HO command is configured to include information about a first portion of the target cell configuration that is different between the source cell configuration and the target cell configuration, and the processor and the memory are further configured to: determining whether the cell match indication indicates a difference between the source cell configuration and the target cell configuration; and In case the difference is indicated, switching to the target cell is performed using at least the first portion of the target cell configuration that is different between the source cell configuration and the target cell configuration and the second portion of the source cell configuration that is the same between the source cell configuration and the target cell configuration.

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