UE assistance information for dual connectivity

Abstract

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for signaling user equipment (UE) assistance information (UAI) specific to a particular cell group (CG), e.g., a secondary CG (SCG). For example, the techniques may be performed to generate a CG-specific UAI that may indicate configuration parameters for the UE when operating in a multi-radio dual connectivity (MR‑DC) mode. The UE may signal the UAI to a network entity along with an indication of the CG to which the UAI is to be applied.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims priority to U.S. Application No. 17 / 170,081, filed on February 8, 2021, which claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62 / 980,997, filed on February 24, 2020, all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Technical Field

[0003] Aspects of the present disclosure relate to wireless communications, and more particularly, to techniques for signaling user equipment (UE) assistance information (UAI) specific to a particular cell group (CG). Background Art

[0004] Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcast, etc. These wireless communication systems may employ multiple access technologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power, etc.). Examples of such multiple access systems include 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, Advanced LTE (LTE-A) systems, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems, Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) systems, and Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) systems, to name a few.

[0005] In some examples, a wireless multiple access communication system may include multiple base stations (BS), each of which is capable of simultaneously supporting communications for multiple communication devices (or referred to as user equipment (UE)). In an LTE or LTE-A network, a collection of one or more base stations may define an eNodeB (eNB). In other examples (e.g., in next generation, new radio (NR) or 5G networks), a wireless multiple access communication system may include multiple distributed units (DU) (e.g., edge units (EU), edge nodes (EN), radio heads (RH), smart radio heads (SRH), transmission reception points (TRP), etc.) communicating with multiple central units (CU) (e.g., central nodes (CN), access node controllers (ANC), etc.), wherein a group of one or more distributed units communicating with the central unit may define an access node (e.g., which may be referred to as a base station, a 5G NB, a next generation NodeB (gNB or gNodeB), a TRP, etc.). A base station (BS) or distributed unit may communicate with a set of UEs on downlink (DL) channels (eg, for transmissions from the base station or to the UE) and uplink (UL) channels (eg, for transmissions from the UE to the BS or DU).

[0006] These multiple access technologies are adopted in various telecommunication standards in order to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate at a city, country, region, and even global level. New Radio (NR) (e.g., fifth generation (5G)) is an example of an emerging telecommunication standard. NR is an enhancement set to the LTE mobile standard promulgated by 3GPP. NR aims to better support mobile broadband Internet access by improving spectrum efficiency, reducing costs, improving services, utilizing new spectrum, and using OFDMA with cyclic prefix (CP) on (DL) and (UL) to better integrate with other open standards. To this end, NR supports beamforming, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, and carrier aggregation.

[0007] However, as the demand for mobile broadband access continues to grow, there is a need for further improvements to NR and LTE technologies. Preferably, these improvements should be applicable to other multiple access technologies and the telecommunication standards that employ these technologies. Summary of the invention

[0008] The systems, methods, and devices of the present disclosure each have several aspects, no single aspect being solely responsible for its desirable attributes. Without limiting the scope of the present disclosure as expressed by the appended claims, some features will now be briefly discussed. After considering this discussion, and particularly after reading the section entitled "Detailed Description," one will understand how the features of the present disclosure provide advantages including improved and desired communications between a base station (BS) and a user equipment (UE) in a wireless network.

[0009] Certain aspects provide a method of wireless communication by a UE. The method generally includes generating a cell group (CG) specific UE assistance information (UAI), the UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter for the UE when operating in a multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC) mode; and signaling the UAI to a network entity together with an indication of the CG to which the UE assistance information is to be applied.

[0010] Certain aspects provide a method of wireless communication by a network entity. The method generally includes receiving a CG-specific UAI from a UE, the UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter for the UE when operating in MR-DC mode; determining a CG to which the UAI is to be applied; and applying the UAI based on the determination.

[0011] Certain aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus generally includes at least one processor and memory, and is configured to: generate a CG-specific UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter for a UE when operating in MR-DC mode; and signal the UAI to a network entity together with an indication of a CG to which the UAI is to be applied.

[0012] Certain aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus generally includes at least one processor and memory, and is configured to: receive a CG-specific UAI from a UE, the UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter for the UE when operating in MR-DC mode; determine a CG to which the UAI is to be applied; and apply the UAI based on the determination.

[0013] Certain aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus generally includes components for generating a CG-specific UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter for a UE when operating in MR-DC mode, and components for signaling the UAI to a network entity together with an indication of a CG to which the UAI is to be applied.

[0014] Certain aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. The apparatus generally includes components for receiving a CG-specific UAI from a UE, the UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter for the UE when operating in MR-DC mode; components for determining a CG to which the UAI is to be applied; and components for applying the UAI based on the determination.

[0015] Certain aspects of the subject matter described in the present disclosure may be implemented in a computer-readable medium having computer executable code stored thereon for wireless communication. The computer-readable medium includes code for generating a CG-specific UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter for a UE when operating in MR-DC mode; and code for signaling the UAI to a network entity together with an indication of the CG to which the UAI is to be applied.

[0016] Certain aspects of the subject matter described in the present disclosure may be implemented in a computer-readable medium having computer executable code stored thereon for wireless communication. The computer-readable medium includes code for receiving a CG-specific UAI from a UE, the UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter for the UE when operating in MR-DC mode; code for determining a CG to which the UAI is to be applied; and code for applying the UAI based on the determination.

[0017] To achieve the foregoing and related ends, one or more aspects include features fully described below and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description and the accompanying drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative features of one or more aspects. However, these features are only indicative of a few of the various ways in which the principles of the various aspects can be employed. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] In order to be able to understand in detail the manner in which the above features of the present disclosure are achieved, the above brief overview may be described in more detail by reference to various aspects (some of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings). However, it should be noted that the accompanying drawings only illustrate certain typical aspects of the present disclosure and therefore should not be considered as limiting the scope thereof, as the description may allow for other equally effective aspects.

[0019] Figure 1 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example telecommunications system in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0020] Figure 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example logical architecture of a distributed radio access network (RAN) in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0021] Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating an example physical architecture of a distributed RAN in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0022] Figure 4 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating designs of example base stations (BSs) and user equipment (UEs) in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0023] Figure 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a communication protocol stack for implementing certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0024] Figure 6 Illustrated is an example of a frame format for a New Radio (NR) system in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0025] Figure 7 is a call flow diagram illustrating an example of a UE providing assistance information in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0026] Figure 8 Illustrated are example operations for wireless communications performed by a UE in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0027] Fig. 9 Illustrated are example operations for wireless communications performed by a network entity in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0028] Fig.10 is a call flow diagram illustrating an example of a UE providing assistance information in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0029] Fig.11 A communications device according to aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated, which may include various components configured to perform operations of the techniques disclosed herein.

[0030] Fig.12 A communications device according to aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated, which may include various components configured to perform operations of the techniques disclosed herein.

[0031] To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures. It is contemplated that elements disclosed in one aspect may be beneficially utilized on other aspects without specific recitation. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0032] Aspects of the present disclosure provide apparatus, methods, processing systems, and computer-readable media for providing user equipment (UE) assistance information (UAI) specific to a specific cell group (CG) (e.g., a secondary CG (SCG)) to a network entity. For example, a UE may perform a technique to generate a CG-specific UAI that may indicate configuration parameters for the UE when operating in a multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC) mode. The UE may signal the UAI to the network entity together with an indication of the CG to which the UAI is to be applied.

[0033] The following description provides an example of providing a CG-specific UAI for power saving in a wireless communication system. Without departing from the scope of the present disclosure, the functions and arrangements of the elements discussed may be changed. Various examples may appropriately omit, replace or add various programs or components. For example, the method may be performed in an order different from the order described, and various steps may be added, omitted or combined. In addition, the features described for some examples may be combined in some other examples. For example, any number of aspects set forth herein may be used to implement a device or implement a method. In addition, the scope of the present disclosure is intended to cover such a device or method that is practiced using other structures, functions, or structures and functions other than or different from the various aspects of the present disclosure set forth herein. It should be understood that any aspect of the present disclosure disclosed herein may be embodied by one or more elements of the claims. The word "exemplary" is used herein to mean "used as an example, instance or illustration". Any aspect described as "exemplary" herein is not necessarily to be interpreted as being preferred or superior to other aspects.

[0034] In general, any number of wireless networks may be deployed in a given geographic area. Each wireless network may support a specific radio access technology (RAT) and may operate on one or more frequencies. RAT may also be referred to as a radio technology, air interface, etc. Frequency may also be referred to as a carrier, subcarrier, frequency channel, tone, subband, etc. Each frequency may support a single RAT in a given geographic area to avoid interference between wireless networks of different RATs.

[0035] The technology described herein can be used for various wireless communication technologies, such as long term evolution (LTE), code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) and other networks. The terms "network" and "system" are often used interchangeably. A CDMA network can implement radio technologies such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), cdma2000, etc. UTRA includes Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and other CDMA variants. cdma2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. A TDMA network can implement radio technologies such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). An OFDMA network may implement a radio technology such as New Radio (NR) (e.g., 5G RA), Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDMA, etc. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS).

[0036] NR is an emerging wireless communication technology being developed with the 5G Technology Forum (5GTF). 3GPP LTE and Advanced LTE (LTE-A) are versions of UMTS that use E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A, and GSM are described in documents from an organization called the "3rd Generation Partnership Project" (3GPP). cdma2000 and UMB are described in documents from an organization called the "3rd Generation Partnership Project 2" (3GPP2). The technology described herein can be used for the wireless networks and radio technologies mentioned above as well as other wireless networks and radio technologies. For clarity, although terms commonly associated with 3G and / or 4G wireless technologies may be used herein to describe various aspects, various aspects of the present disclosure may be applied to other generation-based communication systems, such as 5G and later technologies, including NR technologies.

[0037] NR access (e.g., 5G technology) can support various wireless communication services, such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) for wide bandwidth (e.g., 80 MHz or higher), millimeter wave (mmW) for high carrier frequency (e.g., 25 GHz or higher), massive machine type communication MTC (mMTC) for non-backward compatible MTC technology, and / or mission critical ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC). These services may include latency and reliability requirements. These services may also have different transmission time intervals (TTIs) to meet their respective quality of service (QoS) requirements. In addition, these services may coexist in the same subframe.

[0038] 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 to 7.125 GHz) and FR2 (24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz). Frequencies between FR1 and FR2 are sometimes referred to as mid-band frequencies. 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 to 300 GHz) identified as the "millimeter wave" band by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

[0039] In view of the above, unless otherwise specifically stated, it should be understood that if the term "sub-6 GHz" or the like is used herein, it can be broadly referred to as a frequency that may be less than 6 GHz, may be within FR1, or may include mid-band frequencies. In addition, unless otherwise specifically stated, it should be understood that if the term "millimeter wave" or the like is used herein, it can be broadly referred to as a frequency that may include mid-band frequencies, may be within FR2, or may be within the EHF band.

[0040] NR supports beamforming and the beam direction can be dynamically configured. Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission with precoding can also be supported. MIMO configuration in the downlink (DL) can support up to 8 transmit antennas, with multi-layer DL transmission up to 8 streams and up to 2 streams per UE. Multi-layer transmission with up to 2 streams per UE can be supported. Aggregation of multiple cells with up to 8 serving cells can be supported.

[0041] Example Wireless Communication System

[0042] Figure 1An example wireless communication network 100 is illustrated in which aspects of the present disclosure may be performed. For example, according to certain aspects, the wireless communication network 100 may include a base station (BS) 110 and / or a user equipment (UE) 120 configured to provide cell group (CG) specific UE assistance information (UAI). Figure 1 As shown, UE 120a includes a UAI manager 122 for Figure 8 The operation 800 generates and signals the UAI. The BS 110a includes a UAI manager 112, which may be configured to perform Fig. 9 Operation 900 of receiving and processing UAI (performed by Figure 8 The UE of operation 800 provides).

[0043] The wireless communication network 100 may be a new radio (NR) system (e.g., a fifth generation (5G) NR network). Figure 1 As shown, the wireless communication network 100 can communicate with the core network. The core network can communicate with BSs 110a-z (each also individually referred to herein as BS 110 or collectively referred to as BS 110) and / or UEs 120a-y (each also individually referred to herein as UE 120 or collectively referred to as UE 120) in the wireless communication network 100 via one or more interfaces.

[0044] like Figure 1 As shown, the wireless communication network 100 may include multiple BS 110 and other network entities. BS 110 may be a station for communicating with a UE. Each BS 110 may provide communication coverage for a specific geographic area. In 3GPP, the term "cell" may refer to the coverage area of ​​a Node B (NB) and / or a Node B subsystem serving the coverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used. In the NR system, the term "cell" and the next generation Node B (gNB or gNodeB), NR BS, 5GNB, access point (AP), or transmission reception point (TRP) may be used interchangeably. In some examples, the cell may not necessarily be fixed, and the geographic area of ​​the cell may move according to the location of the mobile BS 110. In some examples, the base station may be interconnected to each other and / or to one or more other base stations or network nodes (not shown) in the wireless communication network 100 through various types of backhaul interfaces (such as direct physical connections, wireless connections, virtual networks, or analogs using any suitable delivery network).

[0045] Typically, any number of wireless networks can be deployed in a given geographic area. Each wireless network can support a specific radio access technology (RAT) and can operate on one or more frequencies. RAT can also be referred to as radio technology, air interface, etc. Frequency can also be referred to as carrier, subcarrier, frequency channel, frequency modulation, subband, etc. Each frequency can support a single RAT in a given geographic area to avoid interference between wireless networks of different RATs. In some cases, NR or 5G RAT networks can be deployed.

[0046] The BS may provide communication coverage for macro cells, pico cells, femto cells, and / or other types of cells. A macro cell may cover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., a radius of several kilometers) and may allow unrestricted access to UEs 120 with service subscriptions. A pico cell may cover a relatively small geographic area and may allow unrestricted access to UEs 120 with service subscriptions. A femto cell may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home) and may allow restricted access to UEs 120 associated with the femto cell (e.g., UEs in a closed subscriber group (CSG), UEs 120 of users in a home, etc.). A BS 110 for a macro cell may be referred to as a macro BS. A BS 110 for a pico cell may be referred to as a pico BS. A BS 110 for a femto cell may be referred to as a femto BS or a home BS. In Figure 1 In the example shown, BSs 110a, 110b, and 110c may be macro BSs for macro cells 102a, 102b, and 102c, respectively. BS 110x may be a pico BS for pico cell 102x. BSs 110y and 110z may be femto BSs for femto cells 102y and 102z, respectively. BS 110 may support one or more (e.g., three) cells.

[0047] The wireless communication network 100 may also include a relay station. A relay station is a station that receives transmissions of data and / or other information from an upstream station (e.g., BS 110 or UE 120) and transmits transmissions of data and / or other information to a downstream station (e.g., UE 120 or BS 110). A relay station may also be a UE 120 that relays transmissions for other UEs 120. Figure 1 In the illustrated example, a relay station 110r may communicate with a BS 110a and a UE 120r to facilitate communication between the BS 110a and the UE 120r. A relay station may also be referred to as a relay BS, a relay, or the like.

[0048] The wireless communication network 100 may be a heterogeneous network including different types of BSs 110, such as a macro BS, a pico BS, a femto BS, a repeater, etc. These different types of BSs 110 may have different transmission power levels, different coverage areas, and different effects on interference in the wireless communication network 100. For example, a macro BS may have a high transmission power level (e.g., 20 watts), while a pico BS, a femto BS, and a repeater may have a lower transmission power level (e.g., 1 watt).

[0049] The wireless communication network 100 may support synchronous or asynchronous operation. For synchronous operation, the BS 110 may have similar frame timing, and transmissions from different BSs may be approximately aligned over time. For asynchronous operation, the BS 110 may have different frame timing, and transmissions from different BSs 110 may not be aligned over time. The techniques described herein may be used for both synchronous and asynchronous operation.

[0050] A network controller 130 may be coupled to a set of BSs 110 and may provide coordination and control for these BSs 110. The network controller 130 may communicate with the BSs 110 via a backhaul. The BSs 110 may also communicate with each other (eg, directly or indirectly) via a wireless or wired backhaul.

[0051] UE 120 (e.g., 120x, 120y, etc.) may be dispersed throughout the wireless communication network 100, and each UE 120 may be fixed or mobile. UE may also be referred to as a mobile station, terminal, access terminal, subscriber unit, station, customer premises equipment (CPE), cellular phone, smart phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), wireless modem, wireless communication device, handheld device, laptop computer, cordless phone, wireless local loop (WLL) station, tablet computer, camera, gaming device, netbook, smartbook, ultrabook, appliance, medical device or medical equipment, biosensor / device, wearable device (such as smart watch, smart clothing, smart glasses, smart wristband, smart jewelry (e.g., smart ring, smart bracelet, etc.)), entertainment device (e.g., music device, video device, satellite radio, etc.), vehicle component or sensor, smart meter / sensor, industrial manufacturing equipment, global positioning system device, or any other suitable device configured to communicate via wireless or wired medium. Some UEs may be considered as machine type communication (MTC) devices or evolved MTC (eMTC) devices. MTC and eMTC UEs include, for example, robots, drones, remote devices, sensors, meters, monitors, location tags, etc. that can communicate with a BS, another device (e.g., a remote device), or some other entity. For example, a wireless node can provide connectivity to or to a network (e.g., a wide area network such as the Internet or a cellular network) via a wired or wireless communication link. Some UEs can be considered Internet of Things (IoT) devices, which can be narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) devices.

[0052] Some wireless networks (e.g., LTE) utilize orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) on the downlink (DL) and single carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink (UL). OFDM and SC-FDM divide the system bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers, which are also commonly referred to as tones, bins, etc. Each subcarrier can be modulated with data. Typically, modulation symbols are transmitted in the frequency domain using OFDM and in the time domain using SC-FDM. The spacing between adjacent subcarriers can be fixed, and the total number of subcarriers (K) can be dependent on the system bandwidth. For example, the spacing between subcarriers can be 15kHz, and the minimum resource allocation (called a "resource block" (RB)) can be 12 subcarriers (or 180kHz). Thus, for a system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 megahertz (MHz), the nominal fast Fourier transform (FFT) size may be equal to 128, 256, 512, 1024, or 2048, respectively. The system bandwidth may also be partitioned into subbands. For example, a subband may cover 1.8 MHz (i.e., 6 resource blocks), and there may be 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 subbands for a system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 MHz, respectively.

[0053] Although aspects of the examples described herein may be associated with LTE technology, aspects of the present disclosure may be applicable to other wireless communication systems, such as NR. NR may utilize OFDM with cyclic potential (CP) on UL and DL, and include support for half-duplex operation using TDD. Beamforming may be supported and the beam direction may be dynamically configured. Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmissions with precoding may also be supported. MIMO configurations in the DL may support up to 8 transmit antennas, with up to 8 streams for multi-layer DL transmission and up to 2 streams per UE. Aggregation of multiple cells with up to 8 serving cells may be supported.

[0054] In some examples, access to the air interface may be scheduled, wherein a scheduling entity (e.g., BS 110) allocates resources for communications between some or all devices and equipment within its service area or cell. The scheduling entity may be responsible for scheduling, allocating, reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one or more subordinate entities. That is, for scheduled communications, the subordinate entity utilizes the resources allocated by the scheduling entity. BS 110 is not the only entity that can act as a scheduling entity. In a certain example, UE 120 may act as a scheduling entity and may schedule resources for one or more subordinate entities (e.g., one or more other UE 120), and other UE 120 may use the resources scheduled by UE 120 for wireless communications. In some examples, UE 120 may act as a scheduling entity in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network and / or a mesh network. In a mesh network example, in addition to communicating with the scheduling entity, UE 120 may also communicate directly with each other.

[0055] exist Figure 1 , a solid line with double arrows indicates desired transmissions between a UE 120 and a serving BS 110, which is a BS 110 designated to serve the UE 120 on the DL and / or UL. A thin dashed line with double arrows indicates interfering transmissions between the UE 120 and the BS 110.

[0056] Figure 2 An example logical architecture of a distributed radio access network (RAN) 200 is shown, which may be Figure 1 200. The 5G access node 206 may include an access node controller (ANC) 202. The ANC 202 may be a central unit (CU) of the distributed RAN 200. The backhaul interface to the next generation core network (NG-CN) 204 may be terminated at the ANC 202. The backhaul interface to the adjacent next generation access node (NG-AN) 210 may be terminated at the ANC 202. The ANC 202 may include one or more TRPs 208 (e.g., cells, BSs, gNBs, etc.).

[0057] The TRP 208 may be a distributed unit (DU). The TRP 208 may be connected to a single ANC (e.g., ANC 202) or more than one ANC (not shown). For example, for RAN sharing, Radio as a Service (RaaS), and service-specific AND deployments, the TRP 208 may be connected to more than one ANC. The TRPs 208 may each include one or more antenna ports. The TRPs 208 may be configured to serve traffic to the UE individually (e.g., dynamically selected) or jointly (e.g., joint transmission).

[0058] The logical architecture of the distributed RAN 200 may support fronthaul solutions across different deployment types. For example, the logical architecture may be based on the transmitting network capabilities (eg, bandwidth, latency, and / or jitter).

[0059] The logical architecture of the distributed RAN 200 may share features and / or components with LTE. For example, the next generation access node (NG-AN) 210 may support dual connectivity with NR and may share a common fronthaul for LTE and NR.

[0060] The logical architecture of the distributed RAN 200 may enable collaboration between TRPs 208, for example, within and / or across TRPs via the ANC 202. An inter-TRP interface may not be used.

[0061] Logical functions can be dynamically distributed in the logical architecture of the distributed RAN 200. Figure 5 As described in more detail, the radio resource control (RRC) layer, the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, the radio link control (RLC) layer, the medium access control (MAC) layer, and the physical (PHY) layer can be adaptively placed at the DU (e.g., TRP 208) or the CU (e.g., ANC 202).

[0062] Figure 3 An example physical architecture of a distributed radio access network (RAN) 300 according to aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated. A centralized core network unit (C-CU) 302 may host core network functions. The C-CU 302 may be centrally deployed. C-CU 302 functionality may be offloaded (e.g., to Advanced Wireless Services (AWS)) in an attempt to handle peak capacity.

[0063] A centralized RAN unit (C-RU) 304 may host one or more ANC functions. Optionally, the C-RU 304 may host core network functions locally. The C-RU 304 may have a distributed deployment. The C-RU 304 may be close to the network edge.

[0064] The DU 306 may host one or more TRPs (edge ​​nodes (EN), edge units (EU), radio heads (RH), smart radio heads (SRH), etc.) The DU may be located at the edge of the network with radio frequency (RF) functionality.

[0065] Figure 4 BS 110a and UE 120a (eg, in Figure 1 Example components of the wireless communication network 100).

[0066] At BS 110, transmit processor 420 may receive data from data source 412 and control information from controller / processor 440. The control information may be for a physical broadcast channel (PBCH), a physical control format indicator channel (PCFICH), a physical hybrid ARQ indicator channel (PHICH), a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), a group common PDCCH (GC PDCCH), etc. The data may be for a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), etc. A medium access control (MAC)-control element (MAC-CE) is a MAC layer communication structure that may be used for control command exchange between wireless nodes. The MAC-CE may be carried in a shared channel, such as a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), or a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH).

[0067] The transmit processor 420 may process (e.g., encode and symbol map) data and control information to obtain data symbols and control symbols, respectively. The processor 420 may also generate reference signals (e.g., for primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondary synchronization signals (SSS), and cell-specific reference symbols (CRS)). The transmit MIMO processor 430 may perform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on ​​data symbols, control symbols, and / or reference symbols (if applicable), and may provide output symbol streams to modulators (MODs) 432a to 432t in the transceiver. Each MOD 432 in the transceiver may process a corresponding output symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain an output sample stream. Each MOD 432 in the transceiver may also process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and up-convert) the output sample stream to obtain a DL signal. The DL signals from the MODs 432a to 432t in the transceiver may be transmitted via antennas 434a to 434t, respectively.

[0068] At UE 120a, antennas 452a to 452r can receive DL signals from BS 110 and can provide received signals to demodulators (DEMODs) 454a to 454r in the transceiver (or receiver), respectively. Each DEMOD 454 in the transceiver can adjust (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) the corresponding received signal to obtain input samples. Each DEMOD 454 in the transceiver can also process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. The MIMO detector 456 can obtain received symbols from all DEMODs 454a to 454r in the transceiver, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols (if applicable), and provide detected symbols. The receive processor 458 can process (e.g., demodulate, deinterleave, and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for UE 120 to the data sink 460, and provide decoded control information to the controller / processor 480.

[0069] On the UL, at the UE 120a, a transmit processor 464 may receive and process data from a data source 462 (e.g., for a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)) and control information from a controller / processor 480 (e.g., for a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH)). The transmit processor 464 may also generate reference symbols for reference signals (e.g., for a sounding reference signal (SRS)). The symbols from the transmit processor 464 may be precoded by a transmit MIMO processor 466 (if applicable), further processed by DEMODs 454a to 454r in the transceiver (e.g., for SC-FDM, etc.), and transmitted to the BS 110. At the BS 110, the UL signal from the UE 120 may be received by the antenna 434, processed by the MOD 432 in the transceiver, detected by the MIMO detector 436 (if applicable), and further processed by the receive processor 438 to obtain decoded data and control information transmitted by the UE 120. The receive processor 438 may provide decoded data to a data sink 439 and decoded control information to a controller / processor 440 .

[0070] Controllers / processors 440 and 480 may direct the operation at BS 110a and UE 120a, respectively. Processor 440 and / or other processors and modules at BS 110a may perform or direct the execution of processes for the techniques described herein. Memories 442 and 482 may store data and program codes for BS 110a and UE 120a, respectively. Scheduler 444 may schedule UEs for data transmission on the DL and / or UL.

[0071] The antennas 452, processors 466, 458, 464 and / or controller / processor 480 of the UE 120a and / or the antennas 434, processors 420, 430, 438 and / or controller / processor 440 of the BS 110a may be used to perform the various techniques and methods described herein. Figure 4 As shown, the controller / processor 440 of BS 110a has a UAI manager 441, which can be configured to perform Fig. 9 The operations illustrated and other operations disclosed herein. Figure 4 As shown, according to aspects of the present disclosure, the controller / processor 480 of the UE 120a has a UAI manager 481, which can be configured to perform Figure 8 The illustrated operations are among other operations disclosed herein. Although illustrated at the controller / processor, other components of the UE 120a and BS 110a may be used to perform the operations described herein.

[0072] Figure 5 A diagram 500 is illustrated showing an example of a communication protocol stack for implementing aspects of the present disclosure. The communication protocol stack shown can be implemented by a device operating in a wireless communication system, such as a 5G system, (e.g., a system supporting uplink-based mobility). Figure 500 illustrates a communication protocol stack including a radio resource control (RRC) layer 510, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer 515, a radio link control (RLC) layer 520, a medium access control (MAC) layer 525, and a physical (PHY) layer 530. In various examples, the layers of the protocol stack can be implemented as separate modules of software, parts of a processor or ASIC, parts of a non-co-located device connected by a communication link, or various combinations thereof. For example, co-located and non-co-located implementations can be used in, for example, a protocol stack for a network access device (e.g., AN, CU, and / or DU) or a UE.

[0073] The first option 505-a illustrates a split implementation of the protocol stack, wherein the implementation of the protocol stack is performed on a centralized network access device (e.g., Figure 2 ANC 202 in the system) and distributed network access equipment (e.g., Figure 2 In the first option 505-a, the RRC layer 510 and the PDCP layer 515 may be implemented by a central unit, and the RLC layer 520, the MAC layer 525, and the PHY layer 530 may be implemented by a DU. In various examples, the CU and the DU may be co-located or non-co-located. The first option 505-a may be useful in macro cell, micro cell, or pico cell deployments.

[0074] The second option 505-b shows a unified implementation of the protocol stack, wherein the protocol stack is implemented in a single network access device. In the second option, the RRC layer 510, the PDCP layer 515, the RLC layer 520, the MAC layer 525, and the PHY layer 530 can each be implemented by an AN. The second option 505-b can be useful in a femtocell deployment.

[0075] Regardless of whether the network access device implements part or all of the protocol stack, the UE can implement the entire protocol stack as shown in 505-c (e.g., RRC layer 510, PDCP layer 515, RLC layer 520, MAC layer 525, and PHY layer 530).

[0076] In LTE, the basic transmission time interval (TTI) or packet duration is a 1ms subframe. In NR, the subframe is still 1ms, but the basic TTI is called a time slot. Depending on the subcarrier spacing, the subframe contains a variable number of time slots (e.g., 1, 2, 4, 8, 16... time slots). NR RB is 12 consecutive frequency subcarriers. NR can support a basic subcarrier spacing of 15KHz, and other subcarrier spacings can be defined relative to the basic subcarrier spacing (e.g., 30kHz, 60kHz, 120kHz, 240kHz, etc.). Symbol and time slot lengths scale with the subcarrier spacing. The CP length also depends on the subcarrier spacing.

[0077] Figure 6 600 for NR. The transmission timeline of each of DL and UL can be divided into units of radio frames. Each radio frame can have a predetermined duration (e.g., 10 ms) and can be divided into 10 subframes with indices 0 to 9, each subframe being 1 ms. Each subframe can include a variable number of slots, depending on the subcarrier spacing. Each slot can include a variable number of symbol periods (e.g., 7, 12, or 14 symbols), depending on the subcarrier spacing. An index can be assigned to the symbol period in each slot. A microslot, which can be referred to as a subslot structure, refers to a transmission time interval (e.g., 2, 3, or 4 symbols) having a duration less than a slot.

[0078] Each symbol in a slot may indicate a link direction (e.g., DL, UL, or flexible) for data transmission, and the link direction for each subframe may be switched dynamically. The link direction may be based on the slot format. Each slot may include DL / UL data and DL / UL control information.

[0079] In NR, a synchronization signal (SS) block is transmitted. The SS block includes PSS, SSS, and dual-symbol PBCH. The SS block can be transmitted in a fixed time slot position, such as Figure 6Symbols 0-3 shown in . The UE can use PSS and SSS for cell search and acquisition. PSS can provide half-frame timing, and SS can provide CP length and frame timing. PSS and SSS can provide cell identification. PBCH carries some basic system information, such as DL system bandwidth, timing information within a radio frame, SS burst set periodicity, system frame number, etc. SS blocks can be organized into SS bursts to support beam scanning. Other system information such as remaining minimum system information (RMSI), system information block (SIB), other system information (OSI) can be sent on PDSCH in certain subframes.

[0080] In some cases, two or more slave entities (e.g., UEs) can communicate with each other using side link signals. Real-life applications of such side link communications may include public safety, proximity services, UE-to-network relay, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, Internet of Everything (IoE) communications, IoT communications, mission-critical mesh networks, and / or various other appropriate applications. Generally, a side link signal may refer to a signal transmitted from one slave entity (e.g., UE1) to another slave entity (e.g., UE2) without the need for the communication to be relayed through a scheduling entity (e.g., UE or BS), even though the scheduling entity may be used for scheduling and / or control purposes. In some examples, licensed spectrum may be used to transmit side link signals (unlike wireless local area networks that typically use unlicensed spectrum).

[0081] The UE may operate in various radio resource configurations, including a configuration associated with sending a pilot using a dedicated resource set (e.g., RRC dedicated state, etc.), or a configuration associated with sending a pilot using a common resource set (e.g., RRC common state, etc.). When operating in the RRC dedicated state, the UE may select a dedicated resource set for sending a pilot signal to the network. When operating in the RRC common state, the UE may select a common resource set for sending a pilot signal to the network. In either case, the pilot signal sent by the UE may be received by one or more network access devices (such as an AN or DU or a portion thereof). Each receiving network access device may be configured to receive and measure pilot signals sent on a common resource set, and also receive and measure pilot signals sent on a dedicated resource set allocated to a UE, for which the network access device is a member of a network access device monitoring set for the UE. One or more of the receiving network access devices, or (a plurality of) CUs receiving measurements to which the network access device sends a pilot signal, may use these measurements to identify a serving cell for the UE, or to initiate a change of a serving cell for one or more of the UEs.

[0082] Example UE assistance information

[0083] In certain wireless communication systems (e.g., fifth generation (5G) New Radio (NR)), a user equipment (UE) may be configured to provide UE assistance information (UAI) to the network, such as Figure 7 The UAI may inform the network of various parameters, such as the UE delay budget report carrying the expected increment / decrement of the Uu air interface delay, the connected mode discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle length, or overheat assistance information.

[0084] In some cases, a UE capable of providing delay budget reporting in a radio resource control (RRC) state such as the RRC_CONNECTED state may initiate a procedure for providing UAI in several cases. For example, the UE may initiate the procedure when configured to provide delay budget reporting and when a delay budget preference changes. As another example, if the UE is configured to provide overheat assistance information in the RRC_CONNECTED state upon detecting an internal overheat or upon detecting that the UE is no longer experiencing an overheat condition, the UE may initiate the procedure.

[0085] Example UE assistance information in a multi-radio dual connectivity configuration

[0086] In certain wireless communication systems (e.g., 5th Generation (5G) New Radio (NR)), a user equipment (UE) may be configured to communicate with multiple cell groups, such as a primary cell group (MCG) and a secondary cell group (SCG), which is referred to as dual connectivity. Depending on the resource budget allocated to each cell group, dual connectivity may enable the network to provide more bandwidth to the UE. Due to the influx of connected UEs, the MCG may be limited in its resource budget. The network may configure one of the UEs for dual connectivity with the SCG, thereby offloading some of the bandwidth consumed by the UE. In other cases, dual connectivity may enable the network to provide a low-latency radio bearer to the UE via one of the cell groups (such as the SCG) and allow other services to flow through the MCG.

[0087] Aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for signaling UE assistance information (UAI) in various multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC) configurations. For example, the techniques described herein can be used for Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) New Radio-Dual Connectivity (EN-DC), which involves Long Term Evolution (LTE) and New Radio (NR) or NR-Dual Connectivity (NR-DC) (with two NR radios).

[0088] In the NR-DC scenario, each cell group can have its own radio resource control (RRC) entity and medium access control (MAC) entity. However, conventionally, all uplink (UL) control signals are usually routed through the RRC entity in the MCG. For example, in NR Rel-15 / 16, if the UE is overheated, the UE sends its overheat indication to the RRC entity of the MCG, and the RRC entity of the MCG then decides how to reduce the UE radio resource configuration in the MCG and / or SCG.

[0089] Aspects of the present disclosure provide apparatus, methods, processing systems, and computer-readable media for providing a cell group (CG) specific UAI. For example, power saving related parameters may be signaled via a CG specific UAI. It makes sense to make power saving parameters CG specific in this way (rather than per UE) because power saving is more relevant to business activity and MAC layer configuration (e.g., secondary cell (SCell) configuration).

[0090] Figure 8 8 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations 800 for wireless communications in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. Operations 800 may be performed, for example, by a UE (e.g., such as UE 120a in wireless communication network 100) for signaling UAI in a New Radio Dual Connectivity (NR-DC) scenario. Operations 800 may be implemented as a processor (e.g., Figure 4 In addition, the software components executed and run on the controller / processor 480 of the system can be transmitted through, for example, one or more antennas (e.g., Figure 4 The antenna 452 of the UE is used to implement the transmission and reception of signals by the UE in operation 800. In some aspects, the transmission and / or reception of signals by the UE can be implemented via a bus interface of one or more processors (e.g., controller / processor 480) to obtain and / or output signals.

[0091] Operations 800 begin at block 802 by generating a CG-specific UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter for the UE when operating in MR-DC mode. At 804, the UE signals a network entity with UE assistance information and an indication of a CG to which the UE assistance information is to be applied.

[0092] Fig. 9 is a diagram that can be considered as Figure 8 800. For example, operation 900 may be performed by a network entity (e.g., such as BS 110a in wireless communication network 100) to receive and process CG-specific UAI (e.g., by executing Figure 8Operation 900 may be a supplement to operation 800 performed by the UE. Operation 900 may be implemented as a processor (e.g., Figure 4 In addition, the software components executed and run on the controller / processor 440 of the system can be transmitted through, for example, one or more antennas (e.g., Figure 4 The antenna 434 of the BS implements the transmission and reception of signals by the BS in operation 900. In some aspects, the transmission and / or reception of signals by the BS may be implemented via a bus interface of one or more processors (e.g., controller / processor 440) to obtain and / or output signals.

[0093] Operations 900 begin at block 902 by receiving a CG-specific UAI from a UE, the UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter for the UE when operating in MR-DC mode. At 904, the network entity determines the CG to which the UAI is to be applied. At 906, the network entity applies the UAI in accordance with the determination.

[0094] As noted above, providing a CG-specific UAI may allow parameters to be updated for a specific CG (e.g., MCG, SCG, or both), rather than automatically applying the updates across all CGs based on the UE.

[0095] An example of a CG-specific UAI should include all power saving related parameters agreed for Rel-16. Such parameters include, for example, drx-Preference, maxBW-Preference, maxCC-Preference, maxMIMO-LayerPreference, and minSchedulingOffsetPreference. However, in this case, it may be desirable that the CG-specific UAI for power saving does not include UE requests for SCG configuration and release or UE requests for RRC connection release.

[0096] like Fig.10 As shown, in some cases, a CG-specific UAI (e.g., an SCG-specific UAI) can be signaled to the MCG (via the UAI information element using the RRC entity), and the MCG can then forward the SCG-specific UAI to the SCG (RRC entity).

[0097] In some aspects, a CG-specific UAI may be explicitly signaled. In some cases, the specific signaling mechanism may depend on the type of MR-DC configuration.

[0098] For example, for EN-DC, a UAI information element or UAI for a radio access technology (RAT) may be extended to include CG-specific parameters. For example, the LTE UAI may be extended to include an optional new UAI information element that contains parameters in the NR power saving UAI (such as those listed above). For example, the UAI information element may be named "UAI-NR-power_saving-v16xx" or a similar name.

[0099] For NR-DC, the current UAI may be extended to include a new field that indicates whether the power save UAI information element in the UAI is for MCG, SCG, or both.

[0100] In some aspects, depending on the type of DC configuration, the UE may choose to send enhanced LTE UAI (in case of EN-DC) or enhanced NR UAI (in case of NR-DC) to the RRC entity in the MCG.

[0101] In some aspects, a CG-specific UAI may be implicitly signaled, e.g., based on resource selection for signaling or specific parameter values ​​for signaling.

[0102] According to the first option, the network can configure a specific signaling radio bearer (e.g., SRB3) between the UE and the RRC entity in the SCG. In this case, the UE can send UAI specific to the NR SCG to the RRC entity in the SCG through SRB3. In this case, the UE can send other UAI (not specific to the NR SCG) to the RRC entity in the MCG through different SRBs (e.g., SRB1 / 2).

[0103] According to the second option, when the UE sends an SCG-specific UAI, the UE may send the UAI in a transparent container (e.g., a transparent RRC container) to the RRC entity of the MCG. In this case, when the MCG RRC entity receives the transparent RRC container, the MCG RRC entity may forward the transparent RRC container to the SCG RRC entity for processing.

[0104] Both the first and second options may be applicable to either NR-DC or EN-DC MR-DC configurations.

[0105] Fig.11 A communication device 1100 is illustrated, which may include devices configured to perform operations for the techniques disclosed herein (such as Figure 8The communication device 1100 includes various components (e.g., corresponding to means plus functional components) coupled to a transceiver 1108. The transceiver 1108 is configured to transmit and receive signals for the communication device 1100, such as various signals as described herein, via an antenna 1110. The processing system 1102 is configured to perform processing functions for the communication device 1100, including processing signals received and / or to be transmitted by the communication device 1100.

[0106] The processing system 1102 includes a processor 1104 coupled to a computer-readable medium / memory 1112 via a bus 1106. In certain aspects, the computer-readable medium / memory 1112 is configured to store instructions (e.g., computer-executable code) that, when executed by the processor 1104, cause the processor 1104 to perform Figure 8 The illustrated operations or other operations for performing various techniques discussed herein. In certain aspects, the computer-readable medium / memory 1112 stores code 1114 for generating and code 1116 for signaling. The code 1114 for generating may include code for generating a CG-specific UAI, which indicates at least one configuration parameter for the UE when operating in MR-DC mode. The code 1116 for signaling may include code for signaling the UAI and an indication of the CG to which the UE assistance information is to be applied to a network entity.

[0107] Processor 1104 may include circuitry configured to implement code stored in computer-readable medium / memory 1112, such as for executing Figure 8 The illustrated operations and other operations for performing various techniques discussed herein. For example, the processor 1104 includes a circuit 1118 for generating and a circuit 1120 for signaling. The circuit 1118 for generating may include a circuit for generating a CG-specific UAI, which indicates at least one configuration parameter for the UE when operating in MR-DC mode. The circuit 1120 for signaling may include a circuit for signaling the UAI and an indication of the CG to which the UE assistance information is to be applied to a network entity.

[0108] Fig.12 A communication device 1200 is illustrated, which may include devices configured to perform operations for the techniques disclosed herein (such as Fig. 9The communication device 1200 includes various components (e.g., corresponding to means plus functional components) of the communication device 1200. The communication device 1200 includes a processing system 1202 (e.g., a transmitter and / or a receiver) coupled to a transceiver 1208. The transceiver 1208 is configured to transmit and receive signals for the communication device 1200 via an antenna 1210, such as various signals as described herein. The processing system 1202 is configured to perform processing functions for the communication device 1200, including processing signals received and / or to be transmitted by the communication device 1200.

[0109] The processing system 1202 includes a processor 1204 coupled to a computer-readable medium / memory 1212 via a bus 1206. In some aspects, the computer-readable medium / memory 1212 is configured to store instructions (e.g., computer-executable code) that, when executed by the processor 1204, cause the processor 1204 to perform Fig. 9 The illustrated operations or other operations for performing various techniques discussed herein. In certain aspects, the computer-readable medium / memory 1212 stores code 1214 for receiving, code 1216 for determining, and code 1218 for applying. The code 1214 for receiving may include code for receiving a CG-specific UAI from the UE, the UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter for the UE when operating in MR-DC mode. The code 1216 for determining may include code for determining the CG to which the UAI is to be applied. The code 1218 for applying may include code for applying the UAI based on the determination.

[0110] Processor 1204 may include circuitry configured to implement code stored in computer-readable medium / memory 1212, such as for executing Fig. 9 The illustrated operations and other operations for performing various techniques discussed herein. For example, the processor 1204 includes a circuit 1220 for receiving, a circuit 1222 for determining, and a circuit 1224 for applying. The circuit 1220 for receiving may include a circuit for receiving a CG-specific UAI from the UE, the UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter for the UE when operating in MR-DC mode. The circuit 1222 for determining may include a circuit for determining the CG to which the UAI is to be applied. The circuit 1224 for applying may include a circuit for applying the UAI based on the determination.

[0111] Example aspects

[0112] Examples of implementations are described in the following numbered aspects:

[0113] In a first aspect, a method for wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE), comprises: generating cell group (CG)-specific UE assistance information (UAI), the UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter for the UE when operating in a multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC) mode; and signaling the UAI together with an indication of the CG to which the UE assistance information is to be applied to a network entity.

[0114] In a second aspect, alone or in combination with the first aspect, the UAI indicates one or more power saving related parameters.

[0115] In a third aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first and second aspects, the one or more power saving related parameters include a preference regarding at least one of: discontinuous reception (DRX), maximum aggregate bandwidth (BW), maximum number of component carriers (CCs), maximum number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers, or minimum scheduling offset.

[0116] In a fourth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to third aspects, the MR-DC mode involves at least a first radio access technology (RAT) and a second RAT; UE assistance information is applied to a CG involving the second RAT; and the UE assistance information is signaled via a UAI information element of the first RAT.

[0117] In a fifth aspect, either alone or in combination with one or more of aspects 1 to 4, the MR-DC mode involves a primary CG (MCG) and a secondary CG (SCG) of at least a common radio access technology (RAT); and UE assistance information is signaled via a UAI information element including a field indicating whether the UAI is applied to the MCG, the SCG or both.

[0118] In a sixth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to fifth aspects, the MR-DC mode involves at least a primary CG (MCG) and a secondary CG (SCG); and the UE signals a UAI specific to the SCG via a first signal radio bearer.

[0119] In a seventh aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to sixth aspects, a first signaling radio bearer is established between the UE and a radio resource control (RRC) entity in the SCG.

[0120] In an eighth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to seventh aspects, the UE signals other UAI not specific to the SCG via a second signaling radio bearer established between the UE and an RRC entity in the MCG.

[0121] In a ninth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to eighth aspects, wherein the MR-DC mode involves at least a primary CG (MCG) and a secondary CG (SCG); and the UE signals a UAI specific to the SCG via a transparent container.

[0122] In a tenth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first to ninth aspects, the transparent container corresponds to a transparent radio resource control (RRC) container, and wherein the UE sends the transparent RRC container to an RRC entity in the MCG.

[0123] In an eleventh aspect, a method for wireless communication by a network entity comprises: receiving cell group (CG)-specific UE assistance information (UAI) from a user equipment (UE), the UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter for the UE when operating in a multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC) mode; determining the CG to which the UAI is to be applied; and applying the UAI based on the determination.

[0124] In a twelfth aspect, alone or in combination with the eleventh aspect, the UAI indicates one or more power saving related parameters.

[0125] In the thirteenth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the eleventh aspect and the twelfth aspect, the one or more power saving-related parameters include a preference regarding at least one of the following items: discontinuous reception (DRX), maximum aggregate bandwidth (BW), maximum number of component carriers (CCs), maximum number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers, or minimum scheduling offset.

[0126] In the fourteenth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of aspects eleven to thirteen, the MR-DC mode involves at least a first radio access technology (RAT) and a second RAT; UAI is applied to a CG involving the second RAT; and the UAI is signaled via a UE auxiliary information element (IE) of the first RAT.

[0127] In the fifteenth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the eleventh to fourteenth aspects, the MR-DC mode involves a primary CG (MCG) and a secondary CG (SCG) of at least a common radio access technology (RAT); and the UAI is signaled via a UAI information element, which includes a field indicating whether the UAI is applied to the MCG, the SCG, or both.

[0128] In a sixteenth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of aspects eleven to fifteen, the MR-DC mode involves at least a primary CG (MCG) and a secondary CG (SCG); and the UE signals a UAI specific to the SCG via a first signal radio bearer.

[0129] In a seventeenth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the eleventh to sixteenth aspects, a first signaling radio bearer is established between the UE and a radio resource control (RRC) entity in the SCG.

[0130] In an eighteenth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the eleventh to seventeenth aspects, the UE signals other UAI not specific to the SCG via a second signaling radio bearer established between the UE and an RRC entity in the MCG.

[0131] In a nineteenth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the eleventh to eighteenth aspects, the MR-DC mode involves at least a primary CG (MCG) and a secondary CG (SCG); and the UE signals a UAI specific to the SCG via a transparent container.

[0132] In the twentieth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the eleventh to nineteenth aspects, the transparent container corresponds to a transparent radio resource control (RRC) container; the UE sends the transparent RRC container to the RRC entity in the MCG; and the RRC entity in the MCG forwards the UAI to the RRC entity in the SCG for processing.

[0133] A device for wireless communication, comprising: at least one processor; and a memory coupled to the at least one processor, the memory comprising code executable by the at least one processor to enable the device to perform any one of the methods of the first aspect to the twentieth aspect.

[0134] An apparatus comprises components for executing the method according to any one of the first to twentieth aspects.

[0135] A computer-readable medium having computer executable code stored thereon for wireless communication, the computer executable code, when executed by at least one processor, causes an apparatus to perform the method of any one of the first aspect to the twentieth aspect.

[0136] Additional considerations

[0137] The method disclosed herein includes one or more steps or actions for implementing the method. Without departing from the scope of the claims, the method steps and / or actions can be interchangeable with each other. In other words, unless a specific order of steps or actions is specified, the order and / or use of specific steps and / or actions can be modified without departing from the scope of the claims.

[0138] As used herein, a phrase referring to "at least one of" a list of items refers to any combination of those items, including single members. As an example, "at least one of a, b, or c" is intended to cover a, b, c, ab, ac, bc, and abc, as well as any combination with multiples of the same element (e.g., aa, aaa, aab, aac, abb, acc, bb, bbb, bbc, cc, and ccc or any other order of a, b, and c).

[0139] As used herein, the term "determining" includes a variety of actions. For example, "determining" may include calculating, computing, processing, deriving, investigating, searching (e.g., searching in a table, a database, or another data structure), ascertaining, etc. In addition, "determining" may include receiving (e.g., receiving information), accessing (e.g., accessing data in a memory), etc. In addition, "determining" may include resolving, selecting, choosing, establishing, allocating, etc.

[0140] 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 apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general 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 given a full scope consistent with the language of the claims, wherein, unless explicitly stated, the elements mentioned in the singular are not intended to mean "one and only one", but "one or more". Unless otherwise explicitly stated, the term "some" refers to one or more. All structural and functional equivalents of the elements of the various aspects described throughout the present disclosure, which are known or will be known to those of ordinary skill in the art, are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be covered by the claims. Moreover, regardless of whether the content disclosed herein is explicitly stated in the claims, it is not intended to be disclosed to the public. According to the provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 112 (f), unless the element is explicitly stated using the phrase "parts for...", or in the case of a method claim, the element is stated using the phrase "step for...".

[0141] The various operations of the method described above can be performed by any suitable component capable of performing the corresponding function. The component may include various hardware and / or (multiple) software components and / or (multiple) modules, including but not limited to circuits, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or processors. Typically, where there are operations illustrated in the figure, those operations may have corresponding components plus functional components with similar numbers.

[0142] The various illustrative logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in conjunction with the present disclosure may be implemented or executed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device (PLD), discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. The general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but as an alternative, the processor may be any commercially available processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, for example, a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors combined with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0143] If implemented in hardware, an example hardware configuration may include a processing system in a wireless node. The processing system may be implemented using a bus architecture. Depending on the specific application and overall design constraints of the processing system, the bus may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges. The bus may link together various circuits including a processor, a machine-readable medium, and a bus interface. Among other things, the bus interface may be used to connect a network adapter to the processing system via the bus. The network adapter may be used to implement signal processing functions at the PHY layer. In a user equipment (UE) 120 (see Figure 1 ), a user interface (e.g., keyboard, display, mouse, joystick, etc.) may also be connected to the bus. The bus may also link various other circuits such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, power management circuits, etc., which are well known in the art and therefore will not be described further. The processor may be implemented using one or more general and / or special purpose processors. Examples include microprocessors, microcontrollers, DSP processors, and other circuits that can execute software. Those skilled in the art will recognize how to best implement the functionality described for the processing system depending on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the entire system.

[0144] If implemented in software, the function may be stored on or sent via a computer-readable medium as one or more instructions or codes. Whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language or otherwise, software should be broadly interpreted as meaning instructions, data or any combination thereof. Computer-readable media include both computer storage media and communication media, and communication media include any media that facilitates the delivery of a computer program from one place to another. The processor may be responsible for managing the bus and general processing, including the execution of software modules stored on a machine-readable storage medium. A computer-readable storage medium may be coupled to a processor so that the processor may read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. Alternatively, a storage medium may be integrated into a processor. For example, the machine-readable medium may include a transmission line, a carrier modulated by data, and / or a computer-readable storage medium on which instructions separated from a wireless node are stored, all of which may be accessed by a processor via a bus interface. Alternatively or additionally, the machine-readable medium or any portion thereof may be integrated into a processor, such as a cache and / or a general register file. By way of example, examples of machine-readable storage media may include, for example, RAM (random access memory), flash memory, ROM (read only memory), PROM (programmable read only memory), EPROM (erasable programmable read only memory), EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read only memory), registers, magnetic disks, optical disks, hard drives, or any other suitable storage media, or any combination thereof. The machine-readable medium may be included in a computer program product.

[0145] A software module may include a single instruction or multiple instructions, and may be distributed over several different code segments, between different programs, and across multiple storage media. The computer-readable medium may include multiple software modules. A software module includes instructions that, when executed by a device such as a processor, cause a processing system to perform various functions. The software module may include a sending module and a receiving module. Each software module may reside in a single storage device, or may be distributed across multiple storage devices. By way of example, when a triggering event occurs, a software module may be loaded from a hard drive into a RAM. During the execution of a software module, a processor may load some instructions into a cache to increase access speed. One or more cache lines may then be loaded into a general register file for execution by the processor. When the functions of a software module are mentioned below, it will be understood that such functions are implemented by a processor when executing instructions from the software module.

[0146] Moreover, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technology (such as infrared (IR), radio and microwave), then the definition of medium includes the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technology such as infrared (IR), radio and microwave. Disk and disc, as used herein, include compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and Optical disks, where magnetic disks typically reproduce data magnetically, and optical disks reproduce data optically via lasers. Thus, in some aspects, computer readable media may include non-transitory computer readable media (e.g., tangible media). Additionally, for other aspects, computer readable media may include transitory computer readable media (e.g., signals). Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer readable media.

[0147] Thus, certain aspects may include a computer program product for performing the operations presented herein. For example, such a computer program product may include a computer-readable medium having instructions stored (and / or encoded) thereon, the instructions being executable by one or more processors to perform the operations described herein (e.g., for performing the operations described herein and Figure 8 and 9 ).

[0148] In addition, it should be understood that the modules and / or other suitable components for performing the methods and techniques described herein can be downloaded and / or otherwise obtained by a user terminal and / or base station when applicable. For example, such a device can be coupled to a server to facilitate the delivery of components for performing the methods described herein. Alternatively, the various methods described herein can be provided via a storage component (e.g., RAM, ROM, a physical storage medium such as a compact disk (CD) or a floppy disk, etc.), so that the user terminal and / or base station can obtain the various methods when the storage component is coupled or provided to the device. In addition, any other suitable technology for providing the methods and techniques described herein to the device can be utilized.

[0149] It is to be understood that the present claims are not limited to the precise configuration and components described above. Various modifications, changes and variations may be made in the arrangement, operation and details of the methods and apparatus described above without departing from the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication by a user equipment (UE), comprising: generating cell group (CG) specific UE assistance information (UAI), the UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter including a preference for a length of a discontinuous reception (DRX) mode for the UE when operating in a multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC) mode involving at least a primary CG (MCG) of a radio access technology (RAT) and a secondary CG (SCG) of the RAT; as well as The UAI is signaled to a network entity along with an indication of whether the UAI is to be applied to the MCG, the SCG, or both.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The UAI indicates one or more power saving related parameters.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein: The one or more power saving related parameters include a preference regarding at least one of: Maximum aggregate bandwidth (BW), maximum number of component carriers (CCs), maximum number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers, or minimum scheduling offset.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The MR-DC mode involves at least a first radio access technology (RAT) and a second RAT; The UAI is applied to a CG involving the second RAT; and The UAI is signaled via a UAI information element of the first RAT.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The RAT corresponds to New Radio (NR); and The UAI is signaled via a UAI information element, which includes a field indicating whether the UAI is applied to the MCG, the SCG, or both.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The UE signals the UAI specific to the SCG via a first signaling radio bearer.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein: The first signaling radio bearer is established between the UE and a radio resource control (RRC) entity in the SCG.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein: The UE signals other UAI that is not specific to the SCG via a second signaling radio bearer established between the UE and an RRC entity in the MCG.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The UE signals the UAI specific to the SCG via a transparent container.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein: The transparent container corresponds to a transparent radio resource control (RRC) container, and wherein the UE sends the transparent RRC container to an RRC entity in the MCG.

11. A method for wireless communication by a network entity, comprising: receiving, from a user equipment (UE), cell group (CG) specific UE assistance information (UAI), the UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter including a preference for a length of a discontinuous reception (DRX) mode for the UE when operating in a multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC) mode involving at least a primary CG (MCG) of a radio access technology (RAT) and a secondary CG (SCG) of the RAT; determining a CG to which the UAI is to be applied based on the at least one configuration parameter indicating whether the UAI is to be applied to the MCG, the SCG, or both; as well as The UAI is applied based on the determination.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein: The UAI indicates one or more power saving related parameters.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein: The one or more power saving related parameters include a preference regarding at least one of: Maximum aggregate bandwidth (BW), maximum number of component carriers (CCs), maximum number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers, or minimum scheduling offset.

14. The method according to claim 11, wherein: The MR-DC mode involves at least a first radio access technology (RAT) and a second RAT; The UAI is applied to a CG involving the second RAT; and The UAI is signaled via a UE assistance information element (IE) of the first RAT.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein: The RAT corresponds to New Radio (NR); and The UAI is signaled via a UAI information element, which includes a field indicating whether the UAI is applied to the MCG, the SCG, or both.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein: The UE signals the UAI specific to the SCG via a first signaling radio bearer.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein: The first signaling radio bearer is established between the UE and a radio resource control (RRC) entity in the SCG.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein: The UE signals other UAI that is not specific to the SCG via a second signaling radio bearer established between the UE and an RRC entity in the MCG.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein: The UE signals the UAI specific to the SCG via a transparent container.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein: The transparent container corresponds to a transparent radio resource control (RRC) container; The UE sends the transparent RRC container to the RRC entity in the MCG; and The RRC entity in the MCG forwards the UAI to the RRC entity in the SCG for processing.

21. An apparatus for wireless communication by a user equipment (UE), comprising: a memory including instructions; and a processor configured to execute the instructions and cause the UE to: generating cell group (CG) specific UE assistance information (UAI), the UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter including a preference for a length of a discontinuous reception (DRX) mode for the UE when operating in a multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC) mode involving at least a primary CG (MCG) of a radio access technology (RAT) and a secondary CG (SCG) of the RAT; as well as The UAI is signaled to a network entity along with an indication of whether the UAI is to be applied to the MCG, the SCG, or both.

22. The device according to claim 21, wherein The processor is further configured to execute the instructions and cause the UE to: The UAI specific to the SCG is signaled via a first signaling radio bearer.

23. The device according to claim 22, wherein: The processor is configured to execute the instructions and cause the UE to establish the first signaling radio bearer between the UE and a radio resource control (RRC) entity in the SCG.

24. The device according to claim 21, wherein The processor is configured to execute the instructions and cause the UE to: The UAI specific to the SCG is signaled via a transparent container.

25. The device according to claim 24, wherein: The transparent container corresponds to a transparent radio resource control (RRC) container, and wherein the processor is configured to execute the instructions and cause the UE to send the transparent RRC container to an RRC entity in the MCG.

26. An apparatus for wireless communication by a network entity, comprising: a memory including instructions; and a processor configured to execute the instructions and cause the network entity to: receiving, from a user equipment (UE), cell group (CG) specific UE assistance information (UAI), the UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter including a preference for a length of a discontinuous reception (DRX) mode for the UE when operating in a multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC) mode involving at least a primary CG (MCG) of a radio access technology (RAT) and a secondary CG (SCG) of the RAT; determining a CG to which the UAI is to be applied based on the at least one configuration parameter indicating whether the UAI is to be applied to the MCG, the SCG, or both; as well as The UAI is applied based on the determination.

27. An apparatus for wireless communication by a user equipment (UE), comprising: means for generating cell group (CG) specific UE assistance information (UAI), the UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter including a preference for a length of a discontinuous reception (DRX) mode for the UE when operating in a multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC) mode involving at least a primary CG (MCG) of a radio access technology (RAT) and a secondary CG (SCG) of the RAT; as well as Means for signaling the UAI to a network entity along with an indication of whether the UAI is to be applied to the MCG, the SCG, or both.

28. An apparatus for wireless communication by a network entity, comprising: means for receiving, from a user equipment (UE), cell group (CG) specific UE assistance information (UAI), the UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter including a preference for a length of a discontinuous reception (DRX) mode for the UE when operating in a multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC) mode involving at least a primary CG (MCG) of a radio access technology (RAT) and a secondary CG (SCG) of the RAT; means for determining a CG to which the UAI is to be applied based on the at least one configuration parameter indicating whether the UAI is to be applied to the MCG, the SCG, or both; as well as Means for applying the UAI based on the determination.

29. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), the instructions being executable by a processor to: generating cell group (CG) specific UE assistance information (UAI), the UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter including a preference for a length of a discontinuous reception (DRX) mode for the UE when operating in a multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC) mode involving at least a primary CG (MCG) of a radio access technology (RAT) and a secondary CG (SCG) of the RAT; and The UAI is signaled to a network entity along with an indication of whether the UAI is to be applied to the MCG, the SCG, or both.

30. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions for wireless communication at a network entity, the instructions being executable by a processor to: receiving, from a user equipment (UE), cell group (CG) specific UE assistance information (UAI), the UAI indicating at least one configuration parameter including a preference for a length of a discontinuous reception (DRX) mode for the UE when operating in a multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC) mode involving at least a primary CG (MCG) of a radio access technology (RAT) and a secondary CG (SCG) of the RAT; determining a CG to which the UAI is to be applied based on the at least one configuration parameter indicating whether the UAI is to be applied to the MCG, the SCG, or both; as well as The UAI is applied based on the determination.

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