Adjusting User Equipment Activity Timings Based on Multiple Signal Sources for a Wireless Network

Abstract

A method includes determining an initial activity timing for a user equipment for each of a plurality of signal sources, wherein the activity timing for the user equipment with respect to a signal source indicates a timing of a user equipment activity to be performed by the user equipment with respect to the signal source; and determining an adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources such that a temporal order of user equipment activities performed by the user equipment with respect to the plurality of signal sources is arranged in time for the user equipment based on lengths of activity periods of the plurality of signal sources, wherein an activity period of a signal source includes a time period between consecutive user equipment activities of the signal source. Other example embodiments are provided.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This description relates to wireless communication. Background Art

[0002] A communication system can be a facility that enables communication between two or more nodes or devices, such as fixed or mobile communication devices. Signals can be carried on a wired or wireless carrier.

[0003] An example of a cellular communication system is an architecture standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The latest developments in this area are generally referred to as the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) radio access technology. E-UTRA (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access) is the air interface for the 3GPP's Long-Term Evolution (LTE) upgrade path for mobile networks. In LTE, a base station or access point (AP) is referred to as an evolved node AP (eNB), which provides wireless access within a coverage area or cell. In LTE, a mobile device or mobile station is referred to as a user equipment (UE). LTE includes several improvements or developments. Aspects of LTE are also constantly being improved.

[0004] The 5G New Radio (NR) development is part of the continuous mobile broadband evolution process to meet 5G requirements, similar to the early evolution of 3G and 4G wireless networks. In addition, 5G also targets emerging use cases beyond mobile broadband. One goal of 5G is to provide significant improvements in wireless performance, which can include higher levels of data rate, latency, reliability, and security. 5G NR can also be extended to effectively connect massive Internet of Things (IoT), and can provide new types of mission-critical services. For example, ultra-reliable and low-latency communication (URLLC) devices may require high reliability and extremely low latency. Summary of the Invention

[0005] According to an example embodiment, a method can include determining an initial activity timing for a user equipment for each of a plurality of signal sources, wherein the activity timing for the user equipment with respect to a signal source indicates: the timing of a user equipment activity to be performed by the user equipment with respect to the signal source; and determining an adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources such that the temporal order of user equipment activities performed by the user equipment for the plurality of signal sources is arranged in time for the user equipment based on the lengths of the activity periods for the plurality of signal sources, wherein the activity period for a signal source includes the time period between consecutive user equipment activities for the signal source.

[0006] According to an example embodiment, a method may include determining an initial paging timing for a user equipment for each of a plurality of paging sources, wherein the paging timing for the user equipment with respect to a paging source indicates the timing of a paging monitoring instance when the user equipment should monitor a paging message from the paging source; and determining an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources such that a chronological order of paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources is arranged based on lengths of paging cycles for the plurality of paging sources, wherein a paging cycle for a paging source includes a time period between consecutive paging monitoring instances for the paging source.

[0007] Other example embodiments are provided or described for each example method, including: components for performing any example method; a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, are configured to cause a computing system to perform any example method; and an apparatus including at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least perform any example method.

[0008] Details of one or more examples of embodiments are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] Figure 1 is a block diagram of a wireless network according to an example embodiment.

[0010] Figure 2 is a diagram illustrating paging monitoring instances for four SIMs or four paging sources according to an example embodiment, where the paging monitoring instances are not arranged based on paging cycles.

[0011] Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating paging monitoring instances for four SIMs or four paging sources according to an example embodiment, where the paging monitoring instances are arranged based on lengths of paging cycles.

[0012] Figure 4 is a diagram illustrating signal measurements during a time gap between paging monitoring instances for a plurality of paging sources according to an example embodiment.

[0013] Figure 5 is a flowchart illustrating a technique that can be used to determine when to adjust paging timing (or UE active periods) according to an example embodiment.

[0014] Figure 6It is a table that identifies four different combinations or sequences of paging monitoring instances for four paging sources (SIM1, SIM2, SIM3, and SIM4) according to an exemplary embodiment.

[0015] Figure 7 It is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a wireless node (e.g., a user equipment, UE, network node, BS, or gNB) according to an exemplary embodiment.

[0016] Figure 8 It is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a wireless node (e.g., a user equipment, UE, network node, BS, or gNB) according to another exemplary embodiment.

[0017] Figure 9 It is a block diagram of a wireless station, wireless node, or network entity (e.g., an AP, BS, gNB, UE, or user equipment, or other network node or network entity) according to an exemplary embodiment. Detailed Description

[0018] Figure 1 It is a block diagram of a wireless network 130 according to an exemplary embodiment. In Figure 1 the wireless network 130, user equipments 131, 132, 133, and 135, which may also be referred to as mobile stations (MSs) or user equipments (UEs), may be connected (and communicate) with a base station (BS) 134, which may also be referred to as an access point (AP), an enhanced Node B (eNB), or a network node. At least part of the functionality of the access point (AP), base station (BS), or (e)Node B (eNB) may also be performed by any node, server, or host operably coupled to a transceiver, such as a remote radio head. The BS (or AP) 134 provides wireless coverage within a cell 136, including wireless coverage for the user equipments 131, 132, 133, and 135. Although only four user equipments (or UEs) are shown as being connected or attached to the BS 134, any number of user equipments may be provided. The BS 134 is also connected to a core network 150 via an S1 interface 151. This is merely a simple example of a wireless network, and others may be used.

[0019] A user equipment (user terminal, user equipment (UE)) may refer to a portable computing device that includes a wireless mobile communication device that operates with or without a subscriber identification module (SIM). By way of example, it includes, but is not limited to, the following device types: mobile station (MS), mobile phone, cellular phone, smartphone, personal digital assistant (PDA), handset, device using a wireless modem (such as an alarm or measurement device), laptop computer and / or touchscreen computer, tablet computer, phablet, game console, notebook computer, vehicle, sensor, and multimedia device, or any other wireless device. It should be understood that the user equipment may also be an almost exclusively uplink-only device, an example of which is a camera or video camera that uploads images or video clips to the network.

[0020] In LTE (by way of example), the core network 150 may be referred to as the evolved packet core (EPC), which may include: a mobility management entity (MME) that can handle or assist the user equipment in moving / handoff between BSs, one or more gateways that can forward data and control signals between the BS and the packet data network or the Internet, and other control functions or blocks.

[0021] Furthermore, by way of illustrative example, the various example embodiments or techniques described herein may be applied to various types of user equipment or data service types, or may be applied to a user equipment that may have multiple applications running thereon, and these applications may be different data service types. The new radio (5G) development can support many different applications or multiple different data service types, such as, for example: machine type communication (MTC), enhanced machine type communication (eMTC), Internet of Things (IoT) and / or narrowband IoT user equipment, enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), and ultra-reliable and low-latency communication (URLLC).

[0022] IoT may refer to a growing group of objects that may have Internet or network connectivity such that these objects can send information to and receive information from other network devices. For example, many sensor-type applications or devices can monitor physical conditions or states and can, for example, send reports to a server or other network device when an event occurs. For example, machine type communication (MTC, or machine-to-machine communication) may be characterized by fully automatic data generation, exchange, processing, and actuation between intelligent machines, with or without human intervention. Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) can support higher data rates than in current LTE.

[0023] Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communication (URLLC) is a new type of data service or new usage scenario that can be supported by a New Radio (5G) system. This enables emerging new applications and services, such as industrial automation, autonomous driving, vehicle safety, e-health services, etc. As an illustrative example, 3GPP aims to provide connectivity with a reliability corresponding to a block error rate (BLER) of 10 -5 and a U-plane (user / data plane) latency of up to 1 ms. Thus, for example, a URLLC user equipment / UE may require a significantly lower block error rate and lower latency (with or without the requirement of high reliability simultaneously) than other types of user equipment / UE. Thus, for example, compared to an eMBB UE (or an eMBB application running on the UE), a URLLC UE (or a URLLC application on the UE) may require shorter latency.

[0024] Various example embodiments can be applied to a variety of wireless technologies or wireless networks, such as LTE, LTE-A, 5G, cmWave and / or mmWave band networks, IoT, MTC, eMTC, eMBB, URLLC, etc. or any other wireless network or wireless technology. These example networks, technologies, or data service types are provided only as illustrative examples.

[0025] Based on the timing for which such UE activity is indicated or scheduled (e.g., at a specific time, which can be indicated or scheduled, or it can even have a specific period or duration), there may be several activities that the UE can perform or can be requested to perform, such as, for example: the UE monitors paging monitoring instances (or paging opportunities) from one or more paging sources, the UE receives and / or measures reference signals from each of one or more reference signal sources, the UE sends a measurement report or other information to each of one or more signal sources or network nodes, or the UE receives data from each of one or more data sources. However, if individual UE activities are spaced quite a long time apart, this may require the UE to remain in an active state, which can be very power-inefficient as it may delay the time when the UE can transition to an idle state or a low-power state. Thus, according to an example embodiment, the UE power efficiency can be improved by determining an adjusted activity timing for the UE for at least one UE activity. As described in more detail, for example, to improve UE power savings, according to an example embodiment, the UE can obtain or determine an adjusted activity timing for at least one UE activity such that the temporal order of UE activities for (e.g., each of) multiple signal sources or network nodes can be arranged in time for the user equipment based on the length of the activity period (or activity cycle time) of the UE activities for the multiple signal sources or network nodes.

[0026] According to an example embodiment, a UE may perform multiple UE activities associated with different signal sources or associated with different network nodes. For example, the UE may wake up from a low-power state, perform activities for each (or one or more) of the multiple signal sources or associated with the multiple network nodes, and return to sleep (or idle or low-power state). According to an example embodiment, to improve power savings, it may be desirable to align (or group together) these multiple UE activities, or at least place or arrange these activities closer together to reduce the time period that the UE may need to be in a wake state to perform these UE activities for the multiple signal sources or network nodes. The multiple UE activities may include, for example, the UE: monitoring (multiple) paging monitoring instances for paging messages from each of the multiple paging sources; receiving and / or measuring reference signals from each of the multiple reference signal sources; sending measurement reports or other information to each of one or more signal sources or network nodes; or receiving data from each of one or more data sources (e.g., the UE receives data associated with different applications or services). For example, each signal source may be associated with a different network, a different radio access technology (RAT), or a different wireless carrier.

[0027] For each signal source or network node, each of these UE activities may have its own UE activity period (or active period), which may be the time period between consecutive UE activities for the signal source or network node for the user equipment. As an illustrative example, the active period for receiving data may be the time period between when the UE receives or expects to receive data (e.g., VoIP data or data associated with a particular application) from a data source. Thus, the UE may be receiving data for each of multiple applications (e.g., from different signal sources), including from signal source 1 (e.g., VoIP data), signal source 2 (email data), signal source 3 (e.g., web browser data), etc. Each of these signal sources or applications may generate or provide data at different time intervals or active periods. As described in more detail herein, if the timing or order of the UE activities is adjusted, the power efficiency or power savings of the UE may be improved such that the time order of the UE activities for the multiple signal sources is arranged based on the length of the active periods for the multiple signal sources. For example, by arranging the time order of the UE activities for the multiple signal sources, this may reduce (at least in some cases or for some time periods) the time period that the UE may typically need to stay in a wake (or active or full-power) state to perform the UE activities for the multiple signal sources (e.g., receive data from each of the multiple signal sources, or monitor paging monitoring instances for each of the multiple paging sources, or receive reference signals from each of the multiple reference signal sources).

[0028] Thus, according to an example embodiment, a method may include: determining an initial active timing for a UE for each of a plurality of signal sources, wherein the active timing for the UE with respect to a signal source indicates: the timing of a UE activity to be performed by the UE with respect to the signal source; determining an adjusted active timing for the UE for at least one of the plurality of signal sources such that the temporal order of UE activities performed by the UE for the plurality of signal sources is arranged in time for the UE based on the lengths of the active periods for the plurality of signal sources, wherein the active period for a signal source includes the time period between successive UE activities for the plurality of signal sources.

[0029] In an example embodiment, determining an adjusted active timing for a UE (or user equipment) for at least one of the plurality of signal sources may include: the UE sending a request for an adjusted active timing for the UE for at least one of the plurality of signal sources; and the UE receiving a response that includes information identifying the adjusted active timing for the UE for at least one of the plurality of signal sources.

[0030] Furthermore, in an example embodiment, the adjusted active timing for the UE may be determined such that the temporal order of UE activities for the plurality of signal sources will be arranged in descending order of the lengths of the active periods for the plurality of signal sources or in ascending order of the lengths of the active periods. Furthermore, for example, the adjusted active timing may be determined such that UE activities for the UE for the plurality of signal sources having the same active period length will be grouped together in time or adjacent to each other, with or without a time gap therebetween. In this illustrative example, by grouping or arranging UE activities according to the active periods or cycles of the UE activities (e.g., in ascending or descending order), this may reduce the time period during which the UE may be required to perform UE activities for the plurality of signal sources. For example, paging timing may be described herein as an illustrative example of a UE activity, but the timing of other UE activities may also be adjusted (e.g., the temporal order of UE activities for different signal sources may be arranged in time based on the active periods or cycles of the signal sources) to improve UE power efficiency.

[0031] According to the illustrative example, packet data traffic is often very bursty. For example, there are occasional periods of transmission activity, followed by longer silent periods. Instead of having the UE continuously monitor the downlink channel for downlink data (which would consume a large amount of UE power), the UE can use discontinuous reception (DRX) to reduce power consumption. According to an example embodiment, the monitoring can include receiving (or attempting to receive) and / or decoding downlink control information on a channel, and determining whether one or more specific signals have been received on the channel. For example, the monitoring can include receiving downlink control information on a channel and determining whether one or more specific signals have been received, which indicate the presence of downlink data on a downlink data channel or the presence of a UL transmission grant for use of an uplink data channel.

[0032] According to DRX, the UE monitors the downlink control signaling for paging messages only at specific time instants such as every 100 ms (e.g., according to the paging timing for the UE, or according to the DRX cycle for the UE) or other paging timings (e.g., where the paging timing defines or determines the paging time instants at which a paging message can be received by the UE). Thus, for example, a paging cycle (or DRX cycle) can be defined for the UE, where the UE can be in a dormant state for most of the time (e.g., turning off one or more of its circuits or turning off the receiver and / or transmitter of the UE or putting them in a low-power state), and only briefly wakes up (turning on its circuits, receiver, and / or transmitter) to monitor or receive the downlink control signaling to determine whether the network (e.g., CN or BS) has downlink data to be transmitted to the UE.

[0033] For example, after waking up from a sleep or low-power state, the UE may monitor (e.g., receive and / or decode) downlink control information (DCI) on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for the presence of a paging message. For example, the paging message may be (by way of example) information encrypted by a paging identifier, such as information encrypted with a paging radio network temporary identifier (P-RNTI). The presence of a paging message (e.g., which may be information encrypted with P-RNTI, for example) indicates that the network may have downlink data for delivery to the UE. For example, if the UE detects a paging message on the DCI (e.g., detects the P-RNTI), the UE may receive (decode) further control information (e.g., within the resources or resource blocks indicated by the paging message) to determine whether its UE identity is indicated or provided in this further control information. If the UE finds its UE identity, this indicates that the core network has downlink data to be delivered (transmitted) to the UE. After detecting its UE identity, the UE may perform a random access (RA or RACH) procedure with the cell or BS (or eNB / gNB) to establish a connection with the cell (for the UE to transition to the connected state), and the UE may then receive downlink data from the core network via the cell. After receiving the downlink data (and possibly sending / transmitting any data it may need to transmit), the UE may then, for example, re-enter or resume a sleep state or low-power state (which may be, for illustrative example, the DRX sleep state in an RRC connection, the DRX sleep state in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state, where RRC refers to radio resource control), and remain in this sleep state until the UE needs to wake up again from sleep (e.g., turn on its receiver and other circuitry) and check, for example, the next paging monitoring instance or paging occasion for a paging or scheduling message on the downlink control information (e.g., as indicated by the DRX cycle according to the paging pattern or PDCCH monitoring pattern for the UE).

[0034] The paging pattern or paging timing may include or may indicate one or more times (time instants or paging monitoring instances) at which the UE should wake up from sleep and check for a paging message, and then, for example, check for its UE identity in a resource block or channel if the paging message is detected.

[0035] Therefore, paging is a network technology that can be used to contact a UE when downlink traffic is to be delivered or transmitted to the UE. For an RRC idle and / or RRC inactive UE, this is typically implemented as a paging mechanism where the network and the UE have a common understanding of how and when the UE should monitor the channel for (a) paging message(s) from the network (core network). According to an example embodiment, to have a statistical distribution of UEs in the time domain, the time instants at which a UE will listen for or monitor paging messages can be distributed by an algorithm that defines a UE paging frame as a combined function of the UE (UE-unique or UE-specific, at least within the network) identity and the system timing. For LTE, the paging frame can be the radio frame in which the UE will listen for paging messages, and depending on the configuration, the UE can also have an assigned (still from the UE_ID) subframe within the paging frame. It is possible for the eNB / BS to configure paging-related DRX parameters to control the amount and / or distribution of UEs in the time / resource domain. This process may be similar for NR / 5G, and an inactive (e.g., RRC inactive) UE can listen for or monitor the channel for CN paging, calculate using the NR equivalent of IMSI (referred to as 5G-S-TMSI), and use the RRC inactive RNTI: I-RNTI for RAN paging. Additionally, in NR (5G), when multiple beams are used for paging transmission, the paging occasion (PO) can include a set of PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) monitoring occasions - one for each beam - and these PDCCH monitoring occasions are allocated in time. For these reasons, the table-based PO (paging occasion) configuration mechanism of LTE has been replaced by a mechanism based on paging search space in NR / 5G. These are just some illustrative examples of how a UE can determine or find its paging timing (such as its PF and / or PO). Additionally, these are some illustrative examples of the UE identities that can be used for a UE.

[0036] Therefore, according to an illustrative example embodiment, a UE can determine its paging timing by determining the paging frame (PF) and / or one or more paging occasions (PO) within the PF at which (when) the UE should monitor paging messages. According to an example embodiment, the paging frame (PF) can contain one or more POs. According to an example embodiment, the paging timing (e.g., it can be or can include the paging frame (PF) and / or paging occasion (PO), and / or other times of (a) paging monitoring instance(s)) can be determined based on the UE identity (e.g., UE_ID) for the UE, and the paging timing indicates when the UE should monitor the downlink control information for paging messages.

[0037] As noted, according to the illustrative example embodiments, a UE may use discontinuous reception (DRX) in both the RRC idle and RRC inactive states to reduce power consumption. The UE may, for example, monitor (e.g., receive downlink signals to detect paging messages) one or more paging occasions (POs) per DRX cycle. A PO may include a set of PDCCH monitoring occasions and / or may include multiple time slots (e.g., subframes or OFDM symbols) in which a paging message may be transmitted to the UE. Additionally, for example, a paging frame (PF) may be a radio frame and may include one or more POs or starting points of POs. The same paging message may be used for both RAN (radio access network or BS) - initiated paging and CN - initiated paging.

[0038] As an illustrative example, paging timing, e.g., which may include or may indicate one or more paging monitoring instances such as (multiple) PFs and / or (multiple) POs (e.g.), may be determined according to Equation 1, based on the UE_ID for the UE. The SFN (system frame number) for the PF (paging frame) may be determined for the UE based on Equation 1 as follows:

[0039] (SFN + PF_offset) mod T = (T div N) * (UE_ID mod N); (Equation 1)

[0040] The index Index (i_s), indicating the start of a set of PDCCH (physical downlink control channel) L0 monitoring occasions for a paging message, is determined by:

[0041] i_s = floor(UE_ID / N) mod Ns

[0042] For default association, Ns is 1 or 2. For Ns = 1, there is only one PO that starts at the PF. For Ns = 2, the PO is in the first half - frame (i_s = 0) or the second half - frame (i_s = 1) of the PF.

[0043] For non - default association (i.e., when using a paging - search space), the UE monitors the (i_s + 1)th PO, where the first PO starts in the PF.

[0044] Some example parameters may be used to determine the PF and PO based on Equation 1. T: The DRX cycle of the UE. N: The total number of paging frames in T; Ns: The number of paging occasions for the PF; PF_offset: The offset used for PF determination; UE_ID: The UE identifier, e.g., such as 5G - S - TMSI (temporary mobile subscriber identity) mod 1024;

[0045] The parameters N, Ns, first-PDCCH-MonitoringOccasionOfPO (monitoring occasion of the first-PDCCH-PO), PF_offset, and the length of the default DRX cycle can be transmitted or signaled by the BS / gNB in system information (such as in SIB1). Additionally, other techniques can be used to determine the paging timing for the UE.

[0046] In normal UE operation in the current network, the UE will have a "hard-coded" (or static or fixed) UE (UE-specific) identity towards the core network. As an example, a fixed or static International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) or a fixed or static (5G or NR) Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identifier (TMSI) can be assigned to the UE. The UE can use the IMSI in LTE and the 5G-S-TMSI in 5G / New Radio (NR) to determine the paging timing for the UE (e.g., the paging frame (PF)), such as indicating the exact time when the UE should monitor the network signaling (e.g., downlink control information) for paging messages. For example, the UE identifier can be transformed (or used) by the UE through an equation (such as Equation 1 as an example) to calculate or determine the paging frame (as an example, the paging timing) for the UE. One function of the existing paging mechanism is to distribute all devices connected to the network in a statistically fair manner such that there is an equal probability of having a given load on the available network resources (as an example, the paging frame). When considering a UE with a single identity and no need for network or UE control of the loading of the available resources, this mechanism provides a direct mapping.

[0047] Some examples of UE (UE-specific) identities can include the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) or the (5G or NR) Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identifier (TMSI). These are some examples of UE-specific (e.g., different UE identities assigned to each UE within the network) UE identities, and other (UE-specific) UE identities can be used.

[0048] Thus, at least in some cases, according to example embodiments, the paging timing for a UE can be associated with its UE identity (e.g., IMSI, TMSI, or other UE identity) assigned to the UE. For example, Equation 1 describes an example technique that a UE can (as an example) use to determine the paging timing associated with its UE identity (e.g., PF or one or more paging monitoring instances). For example, the paging timing regarding a paging source can indicate the timing of the paging monitoring instance (e.g., one or more times) when the UE should monitor for paging messages from the paging source. The paging source can include any network node or other source (e.g., BS, gNB, or other network node) that can transmit paging messages. The paging monitoring instance can be the (multiple) times when the UE can receive paging messages from the paging source (e.g., in some example embodiments, it can be indicated or associated with PF and / or PO). Thus, the UE can or should monitor a channel (e.g., PDCCH) for paging messages for one or more paging monitoring instances for the UE. Thus, as an illustrative example, the paging timing can indicate the time when the UE monitors or can receive (or the UE should monitor) downlink control information for paging messages, and / or the paging timing can indicate the time when the paging messages can be transmitted to the UE. In current networks, based on a fixed or static UE identity for the UE (e.g., fixed TMSI, IMSI), the paging timing for the UE will be fixed or static.

[0049] According to illustrative example embodiments, multiple UE identifiers or multiple UE identities (e.g., multiple IMSIs or multiple TMSIs) may be assigned to a UE, or the UE may monitor paging monitoring instances for (or from) multiple paging sources. For example, these multiple UE identities may be associated with (or assigned by) the same network or network operator, or may be associated with (or assigned by) different networks or different network operators or mobile networks and / or different radio access technologies (RATs). Similarly, for example, different paging sources may be associated with different wireless networks, different wireless or mobile network operators, and / or different radio access technologies (RATs). For example, a UE may have more than one active SIM card at a time (e.g., having different UE identities associated with each SIM card, and different paging timings for each UE identity in the UE identities, or the UE may have different paging timings for each of the multiple paging sources). As an illustrative example, a UE may support dual SIM in idle mode (e.g., each SIM card may belong to or may be associated with a different mobile operator / network operator). Since two SIM cards and two associated UE identities are assigned to the UE, this means that the UE should monitor the paging channels of two networks (and possibly different frequency resources of these two different paging channels) associated with different SIM cards (or different UE identities). This may allow the UE to monitor paging messages from multiple (e.g., two or more) network (mobile) operators. According to example embodiments, one or more electronic SIM cards (eSIMs) (e.g., SIMs that can be electronically assigned to the UE and do not require a physical SIM card to be installed in the UE) may also be assigned to the UE. Other techniques may be provided or used to assign additional UE identities to the UE. For example, the UE may receive a virtual UE identity (e.g., a virtual IMSI) or other assigned UE identities (which may or may not be associated with a SIM card or eSIM). These are several examples of how multiple UE identities may be assigned to a UE. Thus, in this way, one or more electronic or virtual UE identities may be assigned to the UE. For example, a network node associated with each UE identity assigned to the UE may be a paging source (e.g., may send one or more paging messages based on the paging timing). As noted, the paging timing for the UE may be associated with each UE identity, e.g., see Equation 1. Alternatively, for example, based on broadcast information associated with each paging source and / or based on control information from each paging source indicating the paging timing for the paging source, the UE may simply be assigned (or may determine) the paging timing for each of the multiple paging sources.

[0050] However, monitoring of (multiple) paging monitoring instances from each of multiple paging sources, such as, for example, by assigning multiple UE identities to a UE, may lead to one or more problems or challenges, including, for example: in some cases, there may be a significant time gap between paging monitoring instances (or paging occasions) for two (or more) UE identities (or paging sources) of a UE, which may result in significant power consumption, since the UE may need to remain on or active for a relatively long (or longer) period of time (e.g., thus delaying the transition of the UE to a sleep state, an idle state, or other low-power state), or the UE may need to separately power on again - or transition from a sleep state to a wake state - to monitor paging messages for the two UE identities (resulting in additional power consumption since this power-on of the UE's circuitry is performed for each of the two UE identities).

[0051] According to an example embodiment, there may be situations or applications where it may be beneficial to change or adjust the paging timing (or other UE activity timing) for a UE. For example, a UE may monitor (multiple) paging messages from each of multiple paging sources. In an illustrative example, each paging source may be associated with the same or different cell or BS / gNB, the same or different network, the same or different wireless carrier or mobile operator, and / or the same or different radio access technology (RAT). In one example embodiment, as an illustrative example, each of the multiple paging sources for a UE may be associated with a different wireless carrier or mobile network operator. As an illustrative example, a UE may have multiple UE identities assigned to the UE, for example, multiple SIMs may be assigned to the UE, where the SIM or UE identity is assigned to the UE from each of multiple wireless carriers or wireless networks. Each paging source (e.g., each network node or BS / gNB among multiple networks or among multiple wireless carriers) may transmit a paging message to the UE based on its own paging cycle (e.g., DRX cycle) (e.g., where the paging cycle or DRX cycle may be or may indicate the time period between consecutive paging occasions or paging monitoring instances for the paging source for the UE). In an illustrative example, the paging timing, e.g., the timing (or time) of a paging occasion or paging monitoring instance, may be determined based on (or associated with) the UE identity assigned to the UE and / or associated with the paging source. Thus, in some cases, a UE may obtain an adjusted paging timing for a paging source by requesting and / or obtaining a new or virtual UE identity for the paging source or regarding the paging source (or regarding the network or operator associated with the paging source). As an illustrative example, for example via Equation 1, the new UE identity (e.g., virtual IMSI (VIMSI)) may be mapped to the adjusted paging timing. In another embodiment, for example, in response to a UE's request, a paging timing (e.g., the (multiple) time or timing indicating a paging occasion or paging monitoring instance), such as an adjusted paging timing for a paging source, may be obtained by the user equipment from a network node, wireless carrier, or other entity of the network (e.g., BS / gNB). The UE may even indicate the requested paging timing and / or the requested new UE identity that will provide the desired adjusted paging timing for the paging source for the UE in its request for the new or adjusted paging timing.

[0052] According to an example embodiment, paging (or other activity) timing can be adjusted for a UE for at least one of a plurality of paging sources of the UE (e.g., indicating the timing of a paging monitoring instance or paging occasion or (a) time when the UE should monitor paging messages for at least one of the plurality of paging sources), e.g., in order to reduce the power consumption of the UE. According to an example embodiment, the paging cycle (or the length of the paging cycle) for a paging source can be or can indicate the time period between consecutive (e.g., two) paging monitoring instances for the paging source for the UE. In an example embodiment, in order to reduce the UE power consumption, adjusted paging timing can be determined or obtained for at least one of the plurality of paging sources of the UE such that the time order of the (e.g., each) paging monitoring instance for the plurality of paging sources of the UE will be arranged in chronological order based on the length of the paging cycles for the plurality of paging sources.

[0053] For example, arranging the (a) paging monitoring instance(s) for a plurality of paging sources (e.g., for a UE, a paging monitoring instance for a first paging source, a paging monitoring instance for a second paging source, and a paging monitoring instance for a third paging source, etc.) based on or according to the length of the paging cycle (e.g., an increase or increment in the paging cycle length, or a decrease or decrement in the paging cycle length, or grouping together two or more paging monitoring instances of two paging sources having the same paging cycle length) can, at least in some cases or at least for a period of time, result in a more energy-efficient arrangement or grouping of the paging monitoring instances or paging occasions for the plurality of paging sources for the UE. For example, paging monitoring instances for paging sources having the same or similar (e.g., the same or within a threshold) length of paging cycle can thus be grouped together (adjacent to each other) in time, and e.g., by reducing the amount of time (e.g., in the idle mode) the UE spends being awake or in a wakeful state (e.g., by reducing the time gap between paging monitoring instances of different paging sources) and reducing the amount of time the UE can typically spend in a sleep (or low power) state and / or delaying when the UE can transition to a sleep or low power state, this can result in reducing the power consumption of the UE.

[0054] Thus, in an example embodiment, sorting the paging occasions or paging monitoring instances for a plurality of paging sources of a UE (in time) based on the length of the paging cycle, e.g., sorting the paging monitoring instances according to the (e.g., increasing or incrementing, or decreasing or decrementing) idle mode DRX cycle (or paging cycle) according to the SIM or UE identity (or the pre-empted network associated with the SIM) can provide the following benefits or advantages: The UE may be able to save power, e.g., by having shorter wakeful periods to monitor the paging monitoring instances for multiple SIM / UE identities or networks or multiple paging sources.

[0055] Figure 2FIG. illustrates a paging monitoring instance for four SIMs or four paging sources according to an example embodiment, where the paging monitoring instances are not arranged based on a paging cycle. In this example, a paging source is associated with each SIM. Thus, in this example, the four SIMs assigned to the UE result in 4 paging sources, each with its own paging cycle (e.g., the paging cycles of different paging sources can be of the same length or different lengths). As an illustrative example, as shown in the 4-SIM example of Figure 2 where two of the networks (or paging sources) among the networks have a paging (or DRX) cycle of 64 frames (SIM1 and SIM4), while the other two networks or SIMs (or paging sources) (SIM2, SIM3) have a paging (or DRX) cycle of 256 frames. When in the idle mode (or sleep state or low power state), for all networks, the UE only needs to perform paging reception (monitor the PDCCH with P-RNTI) from the networks (SIM2, SIM3) with a DRX cycle of 256 frames, and every fourth time it wakes up to receive paging reception from the other two networks (SIM1, SIM4).

[0056] As Figure 2As shown, the paging cycles for each SIM or paging source are shown, for example, including: the SIM1 paging cycle (DRX cycle) 210 (e.g., 64 frames), the SIM2 paging cycle 212 (e.g., 256 frames), the SIM3 paging cycle 214 (e.g., 256 frames), and the SIM4 paging cycle (e.g., 64 frames). Within a paging cluster (e.g., a group of paging monitoring instances within a window or threshold time period) 220, the initial order of the paging monitoring instances for 4 SIMs / 4 paging sources is: the paging monitoring instance 211 of SIM1; the paging monitoring instance 213 of SIM2; the paging monitoring instance 215 of SIM3; and the paging monitoring instance 217 of SIM4. Thus, initially, at the paging cluster 220, paging monitoring instances occur for all 4 SIMs (or all 4 paging sources), including in sequence paging monitoring instances 211, 213, 215 and then 217. For example, the initial order of the paging monitoring instances for these paging sources / SIMs can be arbitrary. However, initially, the order of the paging monitoring instances of the paging sources / SIMs is not sorted or arranged based on the paging cycles of these paging sources (and the UE can detect that the order of the paging monitoring instances of the paging sources / SIMs is not sorted or arranged based on the paging cycles of these paging sources). As a result, the paging clusters 222, 224, and 226 only include the paging monitoring instances from SIM1 and SIM4 (the SIMs / paging sources with the shorter paging cycle of 64 frames). For example, the paging cluster 222 includes the paging monitoring instance 221 (of SIM1) and the paging monitoring instance 223 (of SIM4). However, because these paging monitoring instances are not arranged based on the paging cycle, there are significant gaps in time between these two paging monitoring instances (with the same paging cycle) at the times when the paging monitoring instances of SIM2 and SIM3 exist, at least in some clusters. But because the paging cycles of SIM2 and SIM3 are longer than the paging cycles of SIM1 and SIM4, there is a time gap 230 between the paging monitoring instances 221 and 223, and the UE may need to stay awake (e.g., monitor the channel for the paging monitoring instance 223), resulting in power-inefficient performance of the UE. However, by arranging the paging monitoring instances based on (or according to) the length of the paging cycle, this can group or cluster together the paging monitoring instances with the same or similar (e.g., within a threshold length) paging cycles, thereby reducing the power consumption of the UE (e.g., by allowing the UE to stay in a low-power state or sleep state (e.g., idle mode) for a longer time, or to resume the low-power state or sleep state earlier, and avoiding or reducing the non-monitoring time gaps where the UE is awake for a long time but has not monitored the paging message, such as the time gap 230).

[0057] Figure 3FIG. is a diagram illustrating a paging monitoring instance for four SIMs or for four paging sources according to an example embodiment, where the paging monitoring instances are arranged based on the length of the paging cycle.

[0058] In this example, the UE may have requested and obtained adjusted paging timing for SIM4 (as an example), which results in the paging monitoring instance for SIM4 moving from paging monitoring instance 217( Figure 2 ) to paging monitoring instance 217A, such that the paging monitoring instances for 4 SIMs / 4 paging sources are arranged or sorted in time based on or according to the paging cycle (e.g., in decreasing paging cycle or increasing paging cycle, or otherwise grouping together paging monitoring instances having the same or substantially the same (e.g., within a threshold, such as plus or minus 10%) paging cycle in time). Thus, as shown in paging cluster 320, the paging monitoring instances within paging cluster 320 are grouped or sorted according to ascending (increasing) paging cycle, where those paging monitoring instances 217A (for SIM4) and 211 (for SIM1) are grouped together and occur first (both having a shorter paging cycle of 64 frames), and subsequently in time are the paging monitoring instances 213 (for SIM2) and 215 (for SIM3) grouped together (both having a longer paging cycle of 256 frames). Thus, at paging cycle 322, only paging monitoring instances 221A (for SIM4) and 223 (for SIM1) occur (both having a shorter paging cycle of 64 frames in this example), and are closer together than Figure 2 as shown in, e.g., there is no long time gap 230 (in contrast, compared to the longer time gap 230 in Figure 2 where the UE remains awake), a shorter time gap can be provided between paging monitoring instances 223A and 221 in paging cluster 322). In this way, by reducing the amount of time within paging cluster 322 that the UE has to remain awake (e.g., compared to Figure 2 the amount of time 230 that the UE in paging cluster 222 remains awake), this can reduce the power consumption of the UE. Generally, at least in some cases, time gaps may occur or exist between adjacent paging monitoring instances 217A, 211, 213, 215, etc., e.g., to allow the UE to switch beams and / or frequencies. Thus, for example, as Figure 3 shown in, after adjusting the paging timing for SIM4, between paging monitoring instances 217A and 223A( Figure 3There may be a (relatively) short time gap (e.g., significantly shorter than time gap 230) between, for example, to allow beam switching and / or frequency switching for monitoring paging from different paging sources (e.g., SIM4, SIM1). However, according to an example embodiment, at least in some cases, by arranging or sorting paging monitoring instances for multiple paging sources based on the paging cycle (e.g., arranging paging monitoring instances based on increasing lengths of paging cycles, decreasing lengths of paging cycles, and / or grouping or aggregating paging monitoring instances with the same (or similar, within a threshold) paging cycle length in time).

[0059] In Figure 3 SIM4 has moved in front of SIM1. Thus, as shown in Figure 3 the paging opportunities (POs) (or paging monitoring opportunities or paging monitoring instances) for SIM4 and SIM1 occur first in sequence for the UE. Alternatively, the PO for SIM1 may have moved after the PO for SIM4. Thus, for example, one goal or objective may be to reduce the amount of time the UE has to wake up to monitor POs or paging monitoring instances for multiple paging transmissions. Additionally, moving the PO (or paging monitoring instance) timing requires interaction with the BS and thus consumes UE power. Thus, in some cases, it may be desirable to adjust the active timing or paging timing to reduce or even minimize the number of active timing or paging timing adjustments or movements. For example, the UE can determine the PO (or paging monitoring instance) based on its IMSI and the periodicity (paging cycle) of the broadcast paging signal. Then, for example, based on the requested PO (or paging monitoring instance) timing offset, or based on a new UE identity (e.g., based on a new VIMSI assigned to the UE), the UE can adjust its paging timing or active timing (e.g., PO timing or paging monitoring instance timing) for that paging signal.

[0060] Thus, according to the example embodiments, paging monitoring instances (which may also be referred to as or may include POs) or other UE activities can be sorted or arranged in a manner that can improve power efficiency for the UE. Thus, for example, the UE can sort (array them, or order them chronologically) the POs or paging monitoring instances for each paging signal based on the paging / DRX cycle for each paging signal (or based on the length of the paging cycle). The order can be ascending, for example, the PO (or paging monitoring instance) with the shortest paging cycle is at the front within a time period, or in ascending order the PO (or paging monitoring instance) with the shortest paging cycle is at the end within a time period, or otherwise group together POs or paging monitoring instances having the same or similar (e.g., within a threshold) paging cycle length. By grouping together UE activities or PO / paging monitoring instances having paging (or other UE activity) cycles of the same or similar length, this can result (as shown in Figure 3 ) in POs or paging monitoring instances having short / shorter paging cycle lengths (e.g., 223A and 221, Figure 3 ) occurring or being adjacent to each other in time, which can reduce the time gaps between such POs (e.g., paging monitoring instances 223A, 221) having short paging cycle lengths (e.g., see the longer time gap 230 in Figure 2 ). Thus, for example, in this way, at least in some cases, POs / paging monitoring instances (or other UE activities) with short (or shorter) cycles will present themselves (or be grouped together) for monitoring by the UE, and thus, they should be closer together, for example, they can be adjusted to be adjacent to each other (e.g., this can thus advantageously arrange paging monitoring instances for different paging sources to avoid placing paging monitoring instances with longer paging cycles between paging monitoring instances with shorter paging cycles). Thus, adjusting the paging timing for different paging signals or adjusting the order of PO / paging monitoring instances can result in the POs for two or more paging signals being arranged adjacent to each other and possibly in order, in ascending order (from shortest to longest paging cycle length) or descending order (from longest to shortest paging cycle length), for example, this may be particularly applicable to PO / paging monitoring instances where there may be 3 or more paging cycles or paging signals / paging sources (or UE activities for 3 or more signal sources or network nodes that can be arranged in ascending or descending order, or those UE activities having the same or similar UE activity time periods that can be grouped together).

[0061] According to an example embodiment, the timing of a PO or paging monitoring occasion (or other UE activity) can be adjusted or rearranged to improve UE power efficiency. However, even after one or more POs or paging monitoring occasions (or other UE activities) may be adjusted or rearranged, there may still be time gaps between the POs or other UE activities.

[0062] According to an example embodiment, even if paging occasions or paging monitoring occasions (or other UE activities) are aligned or grouped together as much as possible, there may still be time gaps, for example, such as time gaps of one or more time slots between them (between POs, or between UE activities associated with different paging sources or signal sources) - because paging occasions or paging monitoring occasions may have a granularity of multiple time slots, for example, where one time slot may be multiple symbols. If there are such time gaps between POs or paging monitoring instances or between other UE activities, the UE may utilize these time gaps to perform inter-frequency measurements and / or inter-RAT measurements. According to an example embodiment, the UE can use these time gaps to perform signal measurements on one or more neighboring cells.

[0063] In addition, the timing of paging occasions or paging monitoring instances or other UE activities may drift (or change) over time, for example, due to non-synchronized networks and the changing positions of mobile UEs. Different paging occasions or paging monitoring instances or other UE activities may drift independently because they are from different networks. Therefore, paging occasions / paging monitoring instances or other UE activities may need to be realigned or adjusted or rearranged from time to time. When realigning paging occasions or other UE activities, they can be sorted again, for example, according to or based on the paging cycle or the length of the UE activity period (e.g., between multiple paging sources or signal sources for the UE). In addition, if the UE moves to other cells in the network where different configurations for IDLE mode DRX may be used, the UE may correspondingly need to realign its paging settings.

[0064] In addition, for example, when the UE is moving around in the idle mode, it may move from one cell to another, attempt to measure the signal strengths from different cells, and perform cell reselection if the cell in which the UE is currently camped becomes weak. These measurements of the signal strengths (e.g., RSSP / RSSI) from the respective neighboring cells can use the signals received near the PO / paging monitoring instance, so that the UE does not have to wake up twice. For example, neighbor discovery for discovering other cells generally may include the UE receiving and measuring reference signals (e.g., SSB, CSI-RS, PTRS) from other cells. For example, the UE may receive a broadcast signal from the serving cell, which indicates a list of neighboring cells that the UE should monitor and measure the signals of (e.g., measure the synchronization signal block (SSB) and / or the channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) or other signals), and report these signal measurements (e.g., RSSI or RSSP or other signal measurements) back to the serving cell / BS. Such measurements can be used, for example, for the handover or cell reselection decision of the UE. According to an example embodiment, the UE may perform signal measurements of neighboring cells during a time gap between paging monitoring instances of multiple paging sources or during a time gap between UE activities for different signal sources.

[0065] Figure 4 is a diagram illustrating signal measurements during a time gap between paging monitoring instances for multiple paging sources according to an example embodiment. Figure 4 Illustrates four cases, including cases 4A), 4B), 4C), and 4D). In Figure 4 it, paging monitoring instances for three SIMs (or three paging sources, e.g., different network nodes) are shown, for example, including SIM1, SIM2, and SIM3. In this illustrative example, SIM1 and SIM3 have short (or shorter) paging cycles (DRX cycles), while SIM2 has a long (or longer) paging cycle (DRX cycle). At 4A), an example paging monitoring instance for SIM1 may include an establishment time 410 (e.g., adjusting the transceiver frequency and / or applying beamforming weights, etc. to transmit or receive signals) and a paging monitoring instance 412. Later, a SIM2 paging monitoring instance 413 occurs. At 414, the UE may perform neighboring cell signal (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS) measurements during the time gap (414) between the SIM1 paging monitoring instance 412 and the SIM2 paging monitoring instance 413. Thus, for example, at 414, the UE may measure neighboring cells with respect to SIM1 (or paging source 1 or network node 1) and with respect to SIM2 (or paging source 2 or network node 2). These neighboring cell measurement values may be reported back by the UE to the corresponding paging source or network node. As Figure 4As shown in case 4A) therein, the SIM3 paging monitoring instance moves from position 416 to position 418 at the end of paging cluster 419, which may be a non-optimal position or paging timing because the paging timings for both SIM1 and SIM3 have short paging cycles, and SIM2 has a long paging cycle. Thus, the position of the SIM3 paging monitoring instance 418 is not optimal because it may create a large (or unnecessarily large) time gap between the end of the SIM1 paging monitoring instance 412 and the start of the SIM3 paging monitoring instance 418 when the SIM2 paging monitoring instance 413 is absent (due to having a longer paging cycle). Figure 4 Case 4B) therein shows an example where the SIM2 paging monitoring instance is not shown and SIM2 measurements are not performed by the UE, and thus there is an unnecessary time gap between the SIM1 paging monitoring instance and the SIM3 paging monitoring instance. Thus, when SIM1 and SIM3 need to monitor paging while SIM2 does not, an unnecessary gap (1B) will occur.

[0066] In another example, as shown in case 4C), the SIM3 paging monitoring instance moves between the SIM1 paging monitoring instance and the SIM2 paging monitoring instance, which can allow the UE to transition to a sleep or low-power state earlier (or spend this time performing signal measurements) compared to case 4B) when the SIM2 paging monitoring instance is absent. The SIM3 paging opportunity moves between the paging opportunities of SIM1 and SIM2 (4C), and this allows the UE to enter the sleep state earlier (or sooner) when only SIM1 and SIM3 have paging opportunities (4D). As shown in case 4D), the UE can perform SIM3 signal measurements at 430, for example, when the SIM2 paging monitoring instance is absent.

[0067] Figure 5 is a flowchart illustrating a technique according to an example embodiment that can be used to determine when to adjust paging timing (or UE active period). Figure 5 The techniques described therein are example techniques and other techniques or methods can be used.

[0068] The different parameters in the decision algorithm are explained below:

[0069] t meas : The time required for all measurements from all SIMs except paging reception.

[0070] t threshold_min_distance : The minimum time between pagings (or between paging monitoring instances) including margin.

[0071] t gap_shortest : The shortest gap between any paging monitoring instances.

[0072] t gap_accumulated : The cumulative gap time between all paging monitoring instances.

[0073] Figure 5 's decision algorithm can be used to trigger a realignment or adjustment process (514) for the paging timing of one or more paging sources. For example, the algorithm determines (510) whether the shortest gap between any paging (or paging monitoring instance) has become less than t threshold_min_distance , or (512) whether the total gap duration exceeds the time required for all cell measurements. For example, one or even both of these conditions can be triggered by the timing drift of the network, and in that case, the realignment or adjustment of the paging timing or the timing of the paging monitoring instance can be triggered (or caused to be executed).

[0074] In an example embodiment, the paging timing adjustment or realignment process can start by sorting the paging monitoring instances (or paging sources) according to the DRX (or paging) cycle length. Paging monitoring instances with the same paging (or DRX) cycle length may be aligned in multiple different orders (or grouped together or grouped adjacent to each other), so this means that there may be multiple valid combinations when sorting the list of paging monitoring instances. To decide which list (or which order of paging monitoring instances) to select, the list (or the order of paging monitoring instances) can be associated with a cost function. In an illustrative example, the cost function can be the number of paging monitoring instance adjustments that need to be performed to transfer from the original order of the paging monitoring instances to the new order. The list with the lowest cost is the list selected for rearranging the PO.

[0075] An example process can include:

[0076] 1. Find the valid combinations of multiple (even all) paging monitoring instances (or paging timings) sorted according to the length of the paging or DRX cycle. Paging timings with the same paging cycle length will generate multiple valid combinations.

[0077] 2. Select a combination (or one of the combinations) of paging timings among the multiple paging sources that minimizes the number of paging timing or paging monitoring instance adjustments or realignments.

[0078] 3. Ensure that all time gaps between paging monitoring instances have a duration exceeding t threshold_min_distance 's duration.

[0079] To illustrate the process, consider Figure 2The example depicted. For example, it may be assumed that one of the trigger conditions for adjusting or realigning the process has been satisfied. The actual adjustment or realignment process will start by finding all combinations of paging timings or paging monitoring instances (for multiple paging sources) with a valid and potentially optimal (lowest cost) ordering according to the length of the paging (or DRX) cycle. Since SIM1 and SIM4 have the same paging cycle length (e.g., short), while SIM2 and SIM3 have a longer paging cycle length, there will be 4 valid combinations, as Figure 6 illustrated by the table illustrated in the example of Figure 6 is a table identifying four different combinations or orders of paging monitoring instances for four paging sources (SIM1, SIM2, SIM3, and SIM4) according to an example embodiment.

[0080] As Figure 6 shown in the table of Figure 6 the original order of the paging monitoring instances in the table of Figure 2The combination or order of paging monitoring instances shown in [description] is the same (SIM1, SIM2, SIM3, SIM4). As pointed out, there are four different valid combinations or orders of paging monitoring instances. For example, they group together paging monitoring instances of two short (or shorter) paging cycles (SIM1, SIM4) and group together paging monitoring instances of two long (or longer) paging cycles (SIM2, SIM3), and / or the order of paging monitoring instances can be provided in ascending or descending order of paging cycle length (as some examples of valid or ideal combinations). A cost (or cost function) is shown for each combination or order of paging monitoring instances. In this illustrative example, the cost is the number of adjustments required to provide a valid combination or order of paging monitoring instances. Combination 1 (order of SIM1, SIM4, SIM2, SIM3) has a cost of 2 (requires 2 paging monitoring instance timing adjustments) and provides an order of paging monitoring instances with increasing (or ascending) paging cycle lengths (within a time period). Combination 2 (order of SIM1, SIM4, SIM3, SIM2) has a cost of 2 and provides an order of paging monitoring instances with increasing or ascending paging cycle lengths (within a time period). Combination 3 (order of SIM4, SIM1, SIM2, SIM3) has a cost of 1 (lowest cost) and provides increasing or ascending paging cycle lengths (grouping together the paging monitoring instances of SIM1 and SIM4, and then grouping together the paging monitoring instances of SIM2 and SIM3). Combination 4 (order of SIM4, SIM1, SIM3, SIM2) has a cost of 3 (requires 3 paging monitoring instance timing adjustments) and provides increasing or ascending paging cycle lengths (grouping together the paging monitoring instances of SIM1 and SIM4, and then grouping together the paging monitoring instances of SIM2 and SIM3). Although each of these four combinations or orders of paging monitoring instances will provide a valid one (e.g., providing reduced time gaps between paging monitoring instances, e.g., using ascending or descending paging cycle lengths, and / or grouping together paging monitoring instances with the same or similar (within a threshold) paging cycle lengths), combination 3 (with a cost of 1 because it only requires the paging timing for only one paging source to be adjusted or rearranged) has the lowest cost among these four combinations or orders of paging monitoring instances. Thus, according to the example embodiment, the UE and / or the network can select a combination or order of paging monitoring instances among multiple paging sources and then request or obtain one or more adjusted paging (or active) timings for that combination, e.g., this can reduce the cost and / or minimize the cost (e.g., where the cost can be any cost function or include any cost function, such as for example the number of paging timing / active timing adjustments that may be required).

[0081] According to some aspects, the subject matter of the independent claims is provided. Some additional aspects are defined in the dependent claims. Embodiments that do not fall within the scope of the claims are to be construed as examples useful for understanding the present disclosure.

[0082] Some additional example embodiments are now described.

[0083] Example 1. Figure 7 is a flowchart illustrating operations according to an example embodiment. The operations may be performed at a UE, user equipment, or a BS / gNB or other network node or other wireless node. Figure 7 The operation 710 includes determining an initial paging timing for a user equipment for each of a plurality of paging sources, wherein the paging timing for the user equipment with respect to a paging source indicates the timing of a paging monitoring instance when the user equipment should monitor a paging message from the paging source. The operation 720 includes determining an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources such that the chronological order of the paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources is arranged based on the length of the paging cycle for the plurality of paging sources, wherein the paging cycle of a paging source includes the time period between consecutive paging monitoring instances for the paging source.

[0084] Example 2. The method according to Example 1, wherein, at least for paging purposes, a user equipment identity has been assigned or reassigned to the user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources.

[0085] Example 3. The method according to any one of Examples 1-2, wherein each of the plurality of paging sources is associated with at least one of the following: a different wireless network; a different wireless carrier; or a different radio access technology (RAT).

[0086] Example 4. The method according to any one of Examples 1-3, wherein determining the initial paging timing includes determining, based on at least one of system information associated with the respective paging source or the user equipment identity that has been assigned to the user equipment for the respective paging source, the initial paging timing for the user equipment for each of the plurality of paging sources.

[0087] Example 5. The method according to any one of Examples 1-4, wherein the adjusted paging timing is determined such that the chronological order of the paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources will be arranged in descending order of the length of the paging cycles for the plurality of paging sources or in ascending order of the length of the paging cycles.

[0088] Example 6. The method according to any one of Examples 1 - 5, wherein the adjusted paging timing is determined such that paging monitoring instances for a plurality of paging sources for a user equipment having the same paging cycle length will be grouped together in time or adjacent to each other, with or without a time gap therebetween.

[0089] Example 7. The method according to any one of Examples 1 - 6, wherein determining the adjusted paging timing for at least one paging source of the plurality of paging sources for a user equipment includes: sending, by the user equipment, a request for the adjusted paging timing for at least one paging source of the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment, such that the time order of the paging monitoring instances for the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment will be arranged based on the lengths of the paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources; and receiving, by the user equipment in response to the request, a response from the network node, the response including information identifying the adjusted paging timing for at least one paging source of the paging sources for the user equipment.

[0090] Example 8. The method according to Example 7, wherein sending the request includes: sending, by the user equipment, a request for the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for a first paging source of the plurality of paging sources, wherein the request includes at least one of: the requested paging timing for the user equipment for the first paging source; and / or information indicating the initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more paging sources of the plurality of paging sources or information at least related to the initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more paging sources of the plurality of paging sources.

[0091] Example 9. The method according to any one of Examples 1 - 8, including: monitoring, by the user equipment, one or more radio channels for paging messages from one or more paging sources of the plurality of paging sources based on the adjusted paging timing.

[0092] Example 10. The method according to any one of Examples 1 - 9, wherein the plurality of paging sources includes at least a first paging source having a first paging cycle, a second paging source having a second paging cycle different from the first paging cycle, and a third paging source having the same first paging cycle as the first paging source, and determining the adjusted paging timing includes at least: sending, by the user equipment, a request for the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least the first paging source, such that the adjusted order of the paging monitoring instances for the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment will include the paging monitoring instance for the first paging source that is adjacent in time to or grouped together with the paging monitoring instance for the third paging source.

[0093] Example 11. The method according to Example 10: wherein based on the adjusted paging timing, there is a time gap between the paging monitoring instance for the third paging source and the adjusted paging monitoring instance for the first paging source; and wherein, based on the adjusted paging timing, no paging monitoring instance for the second paging source is provided between the paging monitoring instance for the first paging source and the paging monitoring instance for the third paging source.

[0094] Example 12. The method according to any one of Examples 1 - 11, wherein determining the adjusted paging timing for a user equipment for at least one paging source among a plurality of paging sources includes: the user equipment receiving, based on at least one of the following, the adjusted paging timing for at least one paging source among the plurality of paging sources: the user equipment receiving a new user equipment identity regarding at least one paging source among the plurality of paging sources, the new user equipment identity providing or being associated with the adjusted paging timing for at least one of the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment; or the user equipment receiving information indicating the adjusted paging timing for at least one paging source among the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment.

[0095] Example 13. The method according to any one of Examples 1 - 12, further comprising: the user equipment performing reference signal measurements on reference signals received from one or more cells during the time gap between paging monitoring instances of a plurality of paging sources.

[0096] Example 14. The method according to any one of Examples 1 - 6: wherein determining the adjusted paging timing for a user equipment for at least one paging source among a plurality of paging sources includes: the network node receiving, from the user equipment, a request for the adjusted paging timing for at least one paging source among the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment; the network node determining the adjusted paging timing for at least one paging source among the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment such that the time order of the paging monitoring instances for the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment will be arranged based on the lengths of the paging cycles for the plurality of paging sources; and the network node sending, in response to the request, a response to the user equipment, the response including information identifying the adjusted paging timing for at least one paging source among the paging sources for the user equipment.

[0097] Example 15. The method according to Example 14, wherein receiving the request comprises: a network node receiving from a user equipment a request for an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for a first paging source among a plurality of paging sources, wherein the request comprises at least one of the following: the requested paging timing for the user equipment for the first paging source; and / or information indicating an initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources or at least information related to the initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources.

[0098] Example 16. The method according to any one of Examples 1-6 and 14-15: wherein determining the initial paging timing comprises determining, based on one or more of the following, an initial paging timing for the user equipment for each of the plurality of paging sources: the requested paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources indicated in a request received from the user equipment; and / or information indicating an initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources or at least information related to the initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources.

[0099] Example 17. The method according to any one of Examples 1-6 and 14-16, wherein determining the adjusted paging timing comprises: a network node determining an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources such that the chronological order of paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources will be arranged based on the lengths of the paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources.

[0100] Example 18. The method according to Example 14, wherein the request comprises at least one of the following: the requested paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the paging sources; or

[0101] current paging timing information for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources.

[0102] Example 19. The method according to any one of Examples 1-6 and 14-18, further comprising: a network node sending to the user equipment a response regarding at least one of the paging sources, wherein the response comprises information identifying the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the paging sources.

[0103] Example 20. An apparatus comprising components for performing the method according to any one of Examples 1-19.

[0104] Example 21. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, are configured to cause a computing system to perform the method of any one of Examples 1-19.

[0105] Example 22. An apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least perform the method of any one of Examples 1-19.

[0106] Example 23. A method, comprising determining an initial paging timing for a user equipment for each of a plurality of paging sources, wherein the paging timing for the user equipment with respect to a paging source indicates the timing of a paging monitoring instance when the user equipment should monitor for paging messages from the paging source; and determining an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources such that the chronological order of the paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources is arranged based on the lengths of the paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources, wherein the paging cycle for a paging source includes the time period between consecutive paging monitoring instances for the paging source.

[0107] Example 24. The method according to Example 23, wherein the user equipment identity has been assigned or reassigned to the user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources, at least for paging purposes.

[0108] Example 25. The method according to Example 23, wherein each of the plurality of paging sources is associated with at least one of: a different radio network; a different wireless carrier; or a different radio access technology (RAT).

[0109] Example 26. The method according to any one of Example 23, wherein determining the initial paging timing includes determining, based on at least one of system information associated with the respective paging source or the user equipment identity assigned to the user equipment for the respective paging source, the initial paging timing for the user equipment for each of the plurality of paging sources.

[0110] Example 27. The method according to Example 23, wherein the adjusted paging timing is determined such that the chronological order of the paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources will be arranged in descending order or ascending order of the lengths of the paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources.

[0111] Example 28. The method of Example 23, wherein the adjusted paging timing is determined such that paging monitoring instances for a plurality of paging sources for a user equipment having the same paging cycle length will be grouped together in time or adjacent to each other, with or without a time gap therebetween.

[0112] Example 29. The method according to Example 23, wherein determining the adjusted paging timing for a user equipment for at least one paging source among the plurality of paging sources includes: sending, by the user equipment, a request for the adjusted paging timing for a user equipment for at least one paging source among the plurality of paging sources, such that the time order of paging monitoring instances for a user equipment for the plurality of paging sources will be arranged based on the lengths of the paging cycles for the plurality of paging sources; and receiving, by the user equipment in response to the request, a response from the network node, the response including information identifying the adjusted paging timing for a user equipment for at least one paging source among the paging sources.

[0113] Example 30. The method according to Example 29, wherein sending the request includes: sending, by the user equipment, a request for the adjusted paging timing for a user equipment for a first paging source among the plurality of paging sources, wherein the request includes at least one of the following: the requested paging timing for a user equipment for the first paging source; and / or information indicating the initial paging timing for a user equipment for one or more paging sources among the plurality of paging sources or information at least related to the initial paging timing for a user equipment for one or more paging sources among the plurality of paging sources.

[0114] Example 31. Method Example 23, including: monitoring, by the user equipment, one or more radio channels for paging messages from one or more paging sources among the plurality of paging sources based on the adjusted paging timing.

[0115] Example 32. The method of Example 23, wherein the plurality of paging sources includes at least a first paging source having a first paging cycle, a second paging source having a second paging cycle different from the first paging cycle, and a third paging source having the same first paging cycle as the first paging source, and determining the adjusted paging timing includes at least: sending, by the user equipment, a request for the adjusted paging timing for a user equipment for at least the first paging source, such that the adjusted order of paging monitoring instances for a user equipment for the plurality of paging sources will include a paging monitoring instance for the first paging source that is adjacent in time to or grouped together with the paging monitoring instance for the third paging source.

[0116] Example 33. The method according to Example 32: wherein based on the adjusted paging timing, there is a time gap between the paging monitoring instance for the third paging source and the adjusted paging monitoring instance for the first paging source; and wherein, based on the adjusted paging timing, no paging monitoring instance for the second paging source is provided between the paging monitoring instance of the first paging source and the paging monitoring instance of the third paging source.

[0117] Example 34. The method according to Example 23, wherein determining the adjusted paging timing for a user equipment for at least one of a plurality of paging sources includes: the user equipment receiving the adjusted paging timing for at least one of the plurality of paging sources based on at least one of: the user equipment receiving a new user equipment identity for at least one of the plurality of paging sources, the new user equipment identity providing or being associated with the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources; or the user equipment receiving information indicating the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources.

[0118] Example 35. The method according to Example 23, further comprising: the user equipment performing a reference signal measurement on a reference signal received from one or more cells during a time gap between paging monitoring instances of a plurality of paging sources.

[0119] Example 36. The method according to Example 23: wherein determining the adjusted paging timing for a user equipment for at least one of a plurality of paging sources includes: the network node receiving a request for the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources from the user equipment; the network node determining the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources such that the time order of the paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources will be arranged based on the lengths of the paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources; and in response to the request, the network node sending a response to the user equipment, the response including information identifying the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the paging sources.

[0120] Example 37. The method according to example 36, wherein receiving the request comprises: a network node receiving from a user equipment a request for an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for a first paging source among a plurality of paging sources, wherein the request comprises at least one of the following: the requested paging timing for the user equipment for the first paging source; and / or information indicating an initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources or at least information related to an initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources.

[0121] Example 38. The method according to example 23: wherein determining the initial paging timing comprises determining, based on one or more of the following, an initial paging timing for each paging source among a plurality of paging sources for the user equipment: the requested paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources indicated in a request received from the user equipment; and / or information indicating an initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources or at least information related to an initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources.

[0122] Example 39. The method according to example 23, wherein determining the adjusted paging timing comprises: a network node determining an adjusted paging timing for at least one of a plurality of paging sources for the user equipment such that a chronological order of paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources will be arranged based on the lengths of the paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources.

[0123] Example 40. The method according to example 39, wherein the request comprises at least one of the following: the requested paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the paging sources; or, current paging timing information for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources.

[0124] Example 41. The method according to example 40, further comprising: a network node sending to the user equipment a response regarding at least one of the paging sources, wherein the response comprises information identifying the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the paging sources.

[0125] Example 42. An apparatus comprising components for performing the method of example 23.

[0126] Example 43. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, are configured to cause a computing system to perform the method of example 23.

[0127] Example 44. An apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least perform the method of Example 23.

[0128] Example 45. An apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least: determine an initial paging timing for a user equipment for each of a plurality of paging sources, wherein the paging timing for the user equipment with respect to a paging source indicates the timing of a paging monitoring instance when the user equipment should monitor for paging messages from the paging source, and determine an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources such that the chronological order of the paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources is arranged based on the length of the paging cycle for the plurality of paging sources, wherein the paging cycle for a paging source includes the time period between consecutive paging monitoring instances for the paging source.

[0129] Example 46. The apparatus according to Example 45, wherein for at least paging purposes, a user equipment identity has been assigned or re - assigned to the user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources.

[0130] Example 47. The apparatus according to Example 45, wherein each of the plurality of paging sources is associated with at least one of the following: a different radio network; a different wireless carrier; or a different radio access technology (RAT).

[0131] Example 48. The apparatus according to Example 45, wherein causing the apparatus to determine the initial paging timing includes: causing the apparatus to determine, based on at least one of system information associated with the respective paging source or the user equipment identity that has been assigned to the user equipment for the respective paging source, the initial paging timing for the user equipment for each of the plurality of paging sources.

[0132] Example 49. The apparatus according to Example 45, wherein the adjusted paging timing is determined such that the chronological order of the paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources will be arranged in descending order or ascending order of the length of the paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources.

[0133] Example 50. The apparatus according to Example 45, wherein the adjusted paging timing is determined such that the paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources having the same paging cycle length will be grouped together in time or adjacent to each other, with or without a time gap therebetween.

[0134] Example 51. The apparatus according to Example 45, wherein causing the apparatus to determine an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources includes causing the apparatus to: send, by the user equipment, a request for an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources to a network node, such that the chronological order of the paging monitoring instances for the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment will be arranged based on the length of the paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources; and receive, by the user equipment in response to the request, a response from the network node, the response including information identifying the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the paging sources.

[0135] Example 52. The apparatus according to Example 51, wherein causing the apparatus to send the request includes causing the apparatus to: send, by the user equipment, a request for an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for a first paging source of the plurality of paging sources, wherein the request includes at least one of the following: the requested paging timing for the user equipment for the first paging source; and / or information indicating the initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources or information at least related to the initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources.

[0136] Example 53. The apparatus according to Example 45, including causing the apparatus to: monitor, by the user equipment, one or more radio channels for paging messages from one or more of the plurality of paging sources based on the adjusted paging timing.

[0137] Example 54. The apparatus according to Example 45, wherein the plurality of paging sources includes at least a first paging source having a first paging cycle, a second paging source having a second paging cycle different from the first paging cycle, and a third paging source having the same first paging cycle as the first paging source, and causing the apparatus to determine the adjusted paging timing includes causing the apparatus to at least: send, by the user equipment, a request for an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least the first paging source to a network node, such that the adjusted order of the paging monitoring instances for the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment will include the paging monitoring instance of the first paging source that is adjacent in time to the paging monitoring instance of the third paging source or grouped together with the paging monitoring instance of the third paging source.

[0138] Example 55. The apparatus according to Example 54: wherein there is a time gap between the paging monitoring instance for the third paging source and the adjusted paging monitoring instance for the first paging source based on the adjusted paging timing; and wherein, based on the adjusted paging timing, the paging monitoring instance for the second paging source is not provided between the paging monitoring instance of the first paging source and the paging monitoring instance of the third paging source.

[0139] Example 56. The apparatus according to example 45, wherein causing the apparatus to determine an adjusted paging timing for a user equipment for at least one paging source among a plurality of paging sources includes causing the apparatus to: receive, by the user equipment, an adjusted paging timing for at least one paging source among a plurality of paging sources based on at least one of: receiving, by the user equipment, a new user equipment identity for at least one paging source among a plurality of paging sources, the new user equipment identity providing or being associated with an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among a plurality of paging sources; or receiving, by the user equipment, information indicating an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among a plurality of paging sources.

[0140] Example 57. The apparatus according to example 45, further including causing the apparatus to: perform, by the user equipment, a reference signal measurement on a reference signal received from one or more cells during a time gap between paging monitoring instances of a plurality of paging sources.

[0141] Example 58. The apparatus according to example 45: wherein causing the apparatus to determine an adjusted paging timing for a user equipment for at least one paging source among a plurality of paging sources includes causing the apparatus to: receive, by a network node, a request for an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among a plurality of paging sources from the user equipment; determine, by the network node, an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among a plurality of paging sources such that a time order of paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for a plurality of paging sources will be arranged based on lengths of paging cycles for the plurality of paging sources; and in response to the request, send, by the network node, a response to the user equipment, the response including information identifying an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among the paging sources.

[0142] Example 59. The apparatus according to example 58, wherein causing the apparatus to receive the request includes causing the apparatus to: receive, by the network node, a request for an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for a first paging source among a plurality of paging sources from the user equipment, wherein the request includes at least one of: a requested paging timing for the user equipment for the first paging source; and / or information indicating an initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more paging sources among a plurality of paging sources or information at least related to an initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more paging sources among a plurality of paging sources.

[0143] Example 60. The apparatus according to Example 45, wherein causing the apparatus to determine an initial paging timing includes causing the apparatus to: determine, based on one or more of the following, an initial paging timing for each of a plurality of paging sources for a user equipment: a requested paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources indicated in a request received from the user equipment; and / or information indicating an initial paging timing for one or more of the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment or at least information related to an initial paging timing for one or more of the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment.

[0144] Example 61. The apparatus according to Example 45, wherein causing the apparatus to determine an adjusted paging timing includes causing the apparatus to: determine, by a network node, an adjusted paging timing for at least one of the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment such that a chronological order of paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources will be arranged based on lengths of paging cycles for the plurality of paging sources.

[0145] Example 62. The apparatus according to Example 58, wherein the request includes at least one of the following: a requested paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the paging sources; or current paging timing information for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources.

[0146] Example 63. The apparatus according to Example 45, further including causing the apparatus to: send, by a network node, a response regarding at least one of the paging sources to the user equipment, wherein the response includes information identifying an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the paging sources.

[0147] Example 64. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, are configured to cause a computing system to determine an initial paging timing for each of a plurality of paging sources for a user equipment, wherein the paging timing for the user equipment regarding a paging source indicates a timing of a paging monitoring instance when the user equipment should monitor for paging messages from the paging source; and determine an adjusted paging timing for at least one of the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment such that a chronological order of paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources is arranged based on lengths of paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources, wherein a paging cycle of a paging source includes a time period between consecutive paging monitoring instances of the paging source.

[0148] Example 65. Figure 8 is a flowchart illustrating operations according to an example embodiment. It can be executed at a UE, a user equipment, or a BS / gNB or other network node or other wireless node Figure 8Embodiment. Operation 810 includes determining an initial activity timing for a user equipment for each of a plurality of signal sources, where the activity timing for the user equipment with respect to a signal source indicates: the timing of a user equipment activity to be performed by the user equipment with respect to the signal source. And, operation 820 includes determining an adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources such that the chronological order of the user equipment activities performed by the user equipment for the plurality of signal sources is arranged in time for the user equipment based on the lengths of the activity periods of the plurality of signal sources, where the activity period of a signal source includes the time period between consecutive user equipment activities of the signal source.

[0149] Example 66. The method according to example 65, wherein the user equipment activities to be performed by the user equipment with respect to a signal source include the user equipment performing at least one of the following: monitoring (a plurality of) paging monitoring instances for paging messages from each of one or more paging sources; receiving and / or measuring reference signals from each of one or more reference signal sources; sending a measurement report or other information from the user equipment to each of one or more signal sources or network nodes; or receiving data from each of one or more data sources.

[0150] Example 67. The method according to any one of examples 65-66, wherein the initial activity timing for the user equipment for each of the plurality of signal sources includes at least one of the following: the initial paging timing for the user equipment for each of the plurality of paging sources; the initial timing of measurement of reference signals from each of the plurality of reference signal sources; the initial timing of reporting signal measurements to each of the plurality of signal sources or network nodes; or the initial timing of receiving data from each of the plurality of data sources.

[0151] Example 68. The method according to any one of examples 65-67, wherein determining the adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources includes: the user equipment sending a request for the adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources; and the user equipment receiving a response that includes information identifying the adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources.

[0152] Example 69. The method according to any one of examples 65-68, wherein the adjusted activity timing for the user equipment is determined such that the chronological order of the user equipment activities for the plurality of signal sources for the user equipment will be arranged in descending order or ascending order of the lengths of the activity periods of the plurality of signal sources.

[0153] Example 70. The method according to any one of Examples 65 - 69, wherein the adjusted activity timing is determined such that user equipment activities for multiple signal sources having the same activity period length will be grouped together in time or adjacent to each other, with or without a time gap therebetween.

[0154] Example 71. The method according to any one of Examples 65 - 70, comprising: estimating a power saving that the user equipment will obtain based on the adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the multiple signal sources. This operation of Example 71 can be performed, for example, by the UE / user equipment, the gNB / BS, or another node or external entity. As an example, before requesting a specific adjusted activity timing for one or more signal sources or from one or more signal sources, the UE, the gNB / BS, or other node or entity can determine or estimate the power saving that may be brought to the UE based on this requested adjusted activity timing. The estimated power saving can be estimated for one or more adjusted activity timings, and then the UE can request (or the gNB / BS can provide to the UE) the adjusted activity timing for one or more signal sources such that the UE will obtain the estimated power saving. Thus, the adjusted activity timing that can provide a higher (or even the highest) power saving to the UE can be selected. Further, for example, the UE / user equipment or the BS / gNB or other node can estimate the net power saving that the UE / user equipment will (or has) obtained over a period of time. For example, this can take into account the additional power cost (cost function) for the user equipment / UE to determine or obtain the adjusted activity timing for at least one of the signal sources - compared to the power saving for the UE / user equipment based on the new time arrangement of the user equipment activities for the multiple signal sources. Thus, the estimated power saving can be determined in advance before obtaining and / or using the adjusted activity timing, or can be based on the actual activity or power usage or power saving of the UE measured over time, where the actual activity or power usage or power saving of the UE is based on the (multiple) adjusted activity timing.

[0155] Example 72. The method according to any one of claims 65-71, wherein: determining an initial activity timing for a user equipment for each of a plurality of signal sources includes: determining an initial paging timing for a user equipment for each of a plurality of paging sources, wherein the paging timing for a user equipment with respect to a paging source indicates the timing of a paging monitoring instance when the user equipment should monitor paging messages from the paging source; and determining an adjusted activity timing for a user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources includes: determining an adjusted paging timing for a user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources such that the chronological order of paging monitoring instances for a user equipment for the plurality of paging sources is arranged based on the length of the paging period for the plurality of paging sources, wherein the paging period of a paging source includes the time period between consecutive paging monitoring instances for the paging source.

[0156] Example 73. The method according to Example 72, wherein for at least paging purposes, a user equipment identity has been assigned or reassigned to a user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources.

[0157] Example 74. The method according to any one of Examples 72-73, wherein each of the plurality of paging sources is associated with at least one of the following: a different radio network; a different wireless carrier; or a different radio access technology (RAT).

[0158] Example 75. The method according to any one of Examples 72-74, wherein determining the initial paging timing includes: determining an initial paging timing for a user equipment for each of the plurality of paging sources based on at least one of system information associated with the corresponding paging source or the user equipment identity that has been assigned to the user equipment for the corresponding paging source.

[0159] Example 76. The method according to any one of Examples 72-75, wherein the adjusted paging timing is determined such that the chronological order of paging monitoring instances for a user equipment for the plurality of paging sources will be arranged in descending order or ascending order of the length of the paging periods of the plurality of paging sources.

[0160] Example 77. The method according to any one of Examples 72-76, wherein the adjusted paging timing is determined such that paging monitoring instances for a user equipment for the plurality of paging sources having the same paging period length will be grouped together in time or adjacent to each other, with or without a time gap therebetween.

[0161] Example 78. The method according to any one of Examples 72-77, wherein determining an adjusted paging timing for a user equipment for at least one paging source among the plurality of paging sources includes: the user equipment sending a request for the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among the plurality of paging sources to a network node, such that the chronological order of paging monitoring instances for the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment will be arranged based on the lengths of the paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources; and the user equipment receiving a response from the network node in response to the request, the response including information identifying the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among the paging sources.

[0162] Example 79. The method according to Example 78, wherein sending the request includes: the user equipment sending a request for the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for a first paging source among the plurality of paging sources, wherein the request includes at least one of the following: the requested paging timing for the user equipment for the first paging source; and / or information indicating the initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more paging sources among the plurality of paging sources, or information at least related to the initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more paging sources among the plurality of paging sources.

[0163] Example 80. The method according to any one of Examples 72-79, including: the user equipment monitoring one or more radio channels for paging messages from one or more paging sources among the plurality of paging sources based on the adjusted paging timing.

[0164] Example 81. The method according to any one of Examples 72-80, wherein the plurality of paging sources includes at least a first paging source having a first paging cycle, a second paging source having a second paging cycle different from the first paging cycle, and a third paging source having the same first paging cycle as the first paging source, and determining the adjusted paging timing at least includes: the user equipment sending a request for the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least the first paging source to a network node, such that the adjusted order of paging monitoring instances for the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment will include paging monitoring instances of the first paging source that are adjacent in time to the paging monitoring instance of the third paging source or grouped together with the paging monitoring instance of the third paging source.

[0165] Example 82. The method according to Example 81: wherein there is a time gap between the paging monitoring instance for the third paging source and the adjusted paging monitoring instance for the first paging source based on the adjusted paging timing; and wherein, based on the adjusted paging timing, no paging monitoring instance for the second paging source is provided between the paging monitoring instance of the first paging source and the paging monitoring instance of the third paging source.

[0166] Example 83. The method according to any one of Examples 65 - 82, wherein determining an adjusted paging timing for a user equipment for at least one paging source among a plurality of paging sources includes: receiving, by the user equipment, an adjusted paging timing for at least one paging source among the plurality of paging sources based on at least one of: receiving, by the user equipment, a new user equipment identity for at least one paging source among the plurality of paging sources, the new user equipment identity providing an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources, or being associated with an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources; or receiving, by the user equipment, information indicating an adjusted paging timing for at least one paging source among the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment.

[0167] Example 84. The method according to any one of Examples 65 - 83, further comprising: performing, by the user equipment, a reference signal measurement on a reference signal received from one or more cells during a time gap between paging monitoring instances of a plurality of paging sources.

[0168] Example 85. The method according to any one of Examples 65 - 77: wherein determining an adjusted paging timing for a user equipment for at least one paging source among a plurality of paging sources includes: receiving, by a network node, a request for an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among the plurality of paging sources from the user equipment; determining, by the network node, an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among the plurality of paging sources such that a time order of paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources will be arranged based on lengths of paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources; and sending, by the network node in response to the request, a response to the user equipment, the response including information identifying the adjusted paging timing for at least one paging source among the paging sources for the user equipment.

[0169] Example 86. The method according to Example 85, wherein receiving the request includes: receiving, by the network node, a request for an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for a first paging source among the plurality of paging sources from the user equipment, wherein the request includes at least one of: a requested paging timing for the user equipment for the first paging source; and / or information indicating an initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more paging sources among the plurality of paging sources, or information at least related to an initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more paging sources among the plurality of paging sources.

[0170] Example 87. The method according to any one of Examples 85 - 86, wherein determining the adjusted paging timing comprises: a network node determining an adjusted paging timing for at least one paging source out of a plurality of paging sources for a user equipment, such that a chronological order of paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources will be arranged based on lengths of paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources.

[0171] Example 88. The method according to claim 87, wherein the request comprises at least one of the following: a requested paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source out of the paging sources; or current paging timing information for the user equipment for at least one paging source out of the plurality of paging sources.

[0172] Example 89. An apparatus, comprising means for performing the method according to any one of Examples 65 - 88.

[0173] Example 90. A non - transitory computer - readable storage medium, comprising instructions stored thereon, which instructions, when executed by at least one processor, are configured to cause a computing system to perform the method according to any one of Examples 65 - 88.

[0174] Example 91. An apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; at least one memory, comprising computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, together with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least perform the method according to any one of Examples 65 - 88.

[0175] Example 92. A method may comprise: determining an initial activity timing for a user equipment for each of a plurality of signal sources, wherein the activity timing for the user equipment with respect to a signal source indicates: the timing of a user equipment activity to be performed by the user equipment with respect to the signal source; and determining an adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources, such that a chronological order of user equipment activities performed by the user equipment for the plurality of signal sources is arranged in time for the user equipment based on lengths of activity periods of the plurality of signal sources, wherein the activity period for a signal source comprises a time period between consecutive user equipment activities for the signal source.

[0176] Example 93. The method according to Example 92, wherein the user equipment activity to be performed by the user equipment with respect to a signal source comprises the user equipment performing at least one of the following: monitoring (multiple) paging monitoring instances for paging messages from each of one or more paging sources; receiving and / or measuring reference signals from each of one or more reference signal sources; sending a measurement report or other information by the user equipment to each of one or more signal sources or network nodes; or receiving data from each of one or more data sources.

[0177] Example 94. The method according to Example 92, wherein the initial active timing for the user equipment for each of the plurality of signal sources includes at least one of the following: the initial paging timing for the user equipment for each of the plurality of paging sources; the initial timing of the measurement of the reference signal from each of the plurality of reference signal sources; the initial timing of reporting the signal measurement to each of the plurality of signal sources or network nodes; or the initial timing of receiving data from each of the plurality of data sources.

[0178] Example 95. The method according to Example 92, wherein determining the adjusted active timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources includes: the user equipment sending a request for the adjusted active timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources; and the user equipment receiving a response that includes information identifying the adjusted active timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources.

[0179] Example 96. The method according to Example 92, wherein the adjusted active timing for the user equipment is determined such that the chronological order of the user equipment activities for the plurality of signal sources for the user equipment will be arranged in descending order or ascending order of the lengths of the active periods for the plurality of signal sources.

[0180] Example 97. The method according to Example 92, wherein the adjusted active timing is determined such that the user equipment activities for the plurality of signal sources for the user equipment having the same active period length will be grouped together in time or adjacent to each other, whether or not there is a time gap therebetween.

[0181] Example 98. The method according to Example 92 includes: estimating the power savings that the user equipment will obtain based on the adjusted active timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources. This operation of Example 98 can be performed, for example, by the UE / user equipment, the gNB / BS, or another node or external entity. As an example, before requesting a specific adjusted active timing for one or more signal sources or from one or more signal sources, the UE, the gNB / BS, or other node or entity can determine or estimate the power savings that may be brought to the UE based on this requested adjusted active timing. The estimated power savings can be estimated for one or more adjusted active timings, and then the UE can request (or the gNB / BS can provide to the UE) the adjusted active timing for one or more signal sources so that the UE will obtain the estimated power savings. Thus, the adjusted active timing that can provide higher (or even the highest) power savings to the UE can be selected. Additionally, for example, the UE / user equipment or the BS / gNB or other node can estimate the net power savings that the UE / user equipment will obtain (or has obtained) over a period of time. For example, compared to the power savings for the UE / user equipment based on the new time arrangement of the user equipment activities for the plurality of signal sources, this can take into account the additional power cost (cost function) of the user equipment / UE to determine or obtain the adjusted active timing for at least one of the signal sources for the user equipment. Thus, the estimated power savings can be predetermined before obtaining and / or using the adjusted active timing, or can be based on the actual activities or power usage or power savings of the UE measured over time, where the actual activities or power usage or power savings of the UE are based on the (multiple) adjusted active timings.

[0182] Example 99. The method according to Example 92, wherein: determining the initial active timing for the user equipment for each of the plurality of signal sources includes: determining the initial paging timing for the user equipment for each of the plurality of paging sources, where the paging timing for the user equipment regarding the paging source indicates the timing of the paging monitoring instance when the user equipment should monitor paging messages from the paging source; and determining the adjusted active timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources includes: determining the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources such that the chronological order of the paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources is arranged based on the length of the paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources, where the paging cycle of the paging source includes the time period between consecutive paging monitoring instances of the paging source.

[0183] Example 100. The method according to Example 99, wherein, at least for paging purposes, a user equipment identity has been assigned or reassigned to the user equipment for one or more of a plurality of paging sources.

[0184] Example 101. The method according to Example 99, wherein each of the plurality of paging sources is associated with at least one of the following: a different radio network; a different wireless carrier; or a different radio access technology (RAT).

[0185] Example 102. The method according to Example 99, wherein determining an initial paging timing includes: determining, for each of the plurality of paging sources, an initial paging timing for the user equipment based on at least one of system information associated with the corresponding paging source or the user equipment identity that has been assigned to the user equipment for the corresponding paging source.

[0186] Example 103. The method according to Example 99, wherein an adjusted paging timing is determined such that the chronological order of paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources will be arranged in descending order or ascending order of the lengths of the paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources.

[0187] Example 104. The method according to Example 99, wherein an adjusted paging timing is determined such that paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources having the same paging cycle length will be grouped together in time or adjacent to each other, whether or not there is a time gap therebetween.

[0188] Example 105. The method according to Example 99, wherein determining an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources includes: the user equipment sending a request to a network node for an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources such that the chronological order of paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources will be arranged based on the lengths of the paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources; and the user equipment receiving, in response to the request, a response from the network node, the response including information identifying the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the paging sources.

[0189] Example 106. The method according to Example 105, wherein sending the request comprises: sending, by a user equipment, a request for an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for a first paging source among a plurality of paging sources, wherein the request comprises at least one of the following: the requested paging timing for the user equipment for the first paging source; and / or information indicating an initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources or information at least related to the initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources.

[0190] Example 107. The method according to Example 99, comprising: monitoring, by a user equipment, one or more radio channels for paging messages from one or more paging sources among a plurality of paging sources based on the adjusted paging timing.

[0191] Example 108. The method according to Example 99, wherein the plurality of paging sources at least comprises a first paging source having a first paging period, a second paging source having a second paging period different from the first paging period, and a third paging source having the same first paging period as the first paging source, and determining the adjusted paging timing at least comprises: sending, by the user equipment, a request for an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least the first paging source to a network node, such that the adjusted order of paging monitoring instances for the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment will comprise a paging monitoring instance of the first paging source that is adjacent in time to a paging monitoring instance of the third paging source or grouped together with the paging monitoring instance of the third paging source.

[0192] Example 109. The method according to Example 108: wherein there is a time gap between a paging monitoring instance of the third paging source and an adjusted paging monitoring instance of the first paging source based on the adjusted paging timing; and wherein, based on the adjusted paging timing, a paging monitoring instance for the second paging source is not provided between the paging monitoring instance of the first paging source and the paging monitoring instance of the third paging source.

[0193] Example 110. The method according to Example 99, wherein determining an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among a plurality of paging sources comprises: receiving, by the user equipment, an adjusted paging timing for at least one paging source among a plurality of paging sources based on at least one of the following: the user equipment receives a new user equipment identity for at least one paging source among a plurality of paging sources, the new user equipment identity providing an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among a plurality of paging sources or associated with the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among a plurality of paging sources; or the user equipment receives information indicating an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among a plurality of paging sources.

[0194] Example 111. The method according to Example 99 further includes: performing, by a user equipment, a reference signal measurement on a reference signal received from one or more cells during a time gap between paging monitoring instances of multiple paging sources.

[0195] Example 112. The method according to Example 99, wherein determining an adjusted paging timing for a user equipment for at least one paging source among multiple paging sources includes: receiving, by a network node, a request from the user equipment for an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among the multiple paging sources; determining, by the network node, an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among the multiple paging sources such that a time order of paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the multiple paging sources will be arranged based on lengths of paging cycles of the multiple paging sources; and sending, by the network node in response to the request, a response to the user equipment, the response including information identifying the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among the paging sources.

[0196] Example 113. The method according to Example 112, wherein receiving the request includes: receiving, by the network node, a request from the user equipment for an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for a first paging source among the multiple paging sources, wherein the request includes at least one of the following: a requested paging timing for the user equipment for the first paging source; and / or information indicating an initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more paging sources among the multiple paging sources, or information at least related to the initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more paging sources among the multiple paging sources.

[0197] Example 114. The method according to Example 112, wherein determining the adjusted paging timing includes: determining, by the network node, an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among the multiple paging sources such that a time order of paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the multiple paging sources will be arranged based on lengths of paging cycles for the multiple paging sources.

[0198] Example 115. The method according to claim 114, wherein the request includes at least one of the following: a requested paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among the paging sources; or current paging timing information for the user equipment for at least one paging source among the multiple paging sources.

[0199] Example 116. An apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least: determine an initial activity timing for a user equipment for each of a plurality of signal sources, wherein the activity timing for the user equipment with respect to a signal source indicates: the timing of a user equipment activity to be performed by the user equipment with respect to the signal source; and determine an adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources such that the temporal order of user equipment activities performed by the user equipment for the plurality of signal sources is arranged in time for the user equipment based on the lengths of activity periods of the plurality of signal sources, wherein the activity period for a signal source includes the time period between consecutive user equipment activities for the signal source.

[0200] Example 117. The apparatus according to Example 116, wherein the user equipment activity to be performed by the user equipment with respect to a signal source includes the user equipment performing at least one of the following: monitoring (a plurality of) paging monitoring instances for paging messages from each of one or more paging sources; receiving and / or measuring reference signals from each of one or more reference signal sources; transmitting a measurement report or other information from the user equipment to each of one or more signal sources or network nodes; or receiving data from each of one or more data sources.

[0201] Example 118. The apparatus according to Example 116, wherein the initial activity timing for the user equipment for each of the plurality of signal sources includes at least one of the following: the initial paging timing for the user equipment for each of the plurality of paging sources; the initial timing of measurement of a reference signal from each of the plurality of reference signal sources; the initial timing of reporting signal measurements to each of the plurality of signal sources or network nodes; or the initial timing of receiving data from each of the plurality of data sources.

[0202] Example 119. The apparatus according to Example 116, wherein being configured to cause the apparatus to determine an adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources includes: being configured to cause the apparatus: to transmit, by the user equipment, a request for an adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources; and to receive, by the user equipment, a response that includes information identifying the adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources.

[0203] Example 120. The apparatus according to Example 116, wherein an adjusted activity timing for a user equipment is determined such that a time order of user equipment activities for a plurality of signal sources for the user equipment will be arranged in a descending order of lengths of active periods of the plurality of signal sources or in an ascending order of lengths of active periods.

[0204] Example 121. The apparatus according to Example 116, wherein the adjusted activity timing is determined such that user equipment activities for a plurality of signal sources for the user equipment having the same length of active period will be grouped together in time or adjacent to each other, whether or not there is a time gap therebetween.

[0205] Example 122. The apparatus according to Example 116, comprising: being configured to enable the apparatus to estimate power savings that the user equipment will obtain based on the adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources.

[0206] Example 123. The apparatus according to Example 116, wherein: being configured to enable the apparatus to determine an initial activity timing for the user equipment for each of the plurality of signal sources includes being configured to enable the apparatus to: determine an initial paging timing for the user equipment for each of the plurality of paging sources, wherein the paging timing for the user equipment with respect to a paging source indicates the timing of a paging monitoring instance when the user equipment should monitor a paging message from the paging source; and being configured to enable the apparatus to determine an adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources includes being configured to enable the apparatus to: determine an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources such that a time order of paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources is arranged based on lengths of paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources, wherein a paging cycle of a paging source includes a time period between consecutive paging monitoring instances of the paging source.

[0207] Example 124. The apparatus according to Example 123, wherein a user equipment identity has been assigned or reassigned to the user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources, at least for paging purposes.

[0208] Example 125. The apparatus according to Example 123, wherein each of the plurality of paging sources is associated with at least one of the following: a different radio network; a different wireless carrier; or a different radio access technology (RAT).

[0209] Example 126. The apparatus according to Example 123, wherein the apparatus configured to cause the apparatus to determine an initial paging timing includes being configured to cause the apparatus to: determine, for each of a plurality of paging sources, an initial paging timing for the user equipment based on at least one of system information associated with the respective paging source or a user equipment identity assigned to the user equipment for the respective paging source.

[0210] Example 127. The apparatus according to Example 123, wherein an adjusted paging timing is determined such that the chronological order of paging monitoring instances for a plurality of paging sources for the user equipment will be arranged in descending order or ascending order of the lengths of the paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources.

[0211] Example 128. The apparatus according to Example 123, wherein an adjusted paging timing is determined such that paging monitoring instances for a plurality of paging sources for the user equipment having the same paging cycle length will be grouped together in time or adjacent to each other, with or without a time gap therebetween.

[0212] Example 129. The apparatus according to any one of Examples 123, wherein the apparatus configured to cause the apparatus to determine an adjusted paging timing for at least one of a plurality of paging sources for the user equipment includes being configured to cause the apparatus to: send, by the user equipment to a network node, a request for an adjusted paging timing for at least one of a plurality of paging sources for the user equipment, such that the chronological order of paging monitoring instances for a plurality of paging sources for the user equipment will be arranged based on the lengths of the paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources; and being configured to cause the apparatus to: receive, by the user equipment in response to the request, a response from the network node, the response including information identifying an adjusted paging timing for at least one of the paging sources for the user equipment.

[0213] Example 130. The apparatus according to Example 129, wherein the apparatus configured to cause the apparatus to send the request includes being configured to cause the apparatus to: send, by the user equipment, a request for an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for a first paging source among the plurality of paging sources, wherein the request includes at least one of the following: the requested paging timing for the user equipment for the first paging source; and / or information indicating an initial paging timing for one or more of the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment, or information at least related to an initial paging timing for one or more of the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment.

[0214] Example 131. The apparatus according to Example 123, including being configured to cause the apparatus to: monitor, by the user equipment, one or more radio channels for paging messages from one or more of a plurality of paging sources based on the adjusted paging timing.

[0215] Example 132. The apparatus according to Example 123, wherein the plurality of paging sources at least includes a first paging source having a first paging period, a second paging source having a second paging period different from the first paging period, and a third paging source having the same first paging period as the first paging source, and is configured to cause the apparatus to determine that the adjusted paging timing includes at least being configured to cause the apparatus to: send, by a user equipment, a request for the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least the first paging source to a network node, such that the adjusted order of the paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources will include the paging monitoring instance of the first paging source that is adjacent in time to the paging monitoring instance of the third paging source or grouped together with the paging monitoring instance of the third paging source.

[0216] Example 133. The apparatus according to Example 132: wherein based on the adjusted paging timing, there is a time gap between the paging monitoring instance of the third paging source and the adjusted paging monitoring instance of the first paging source; and wherein, based on the adjusted paging timing, the paging monitoring instance of the second paging source is not provided between the paging monitoring instance of the first paging source and the paging monitoring instance of the third paging source.

[0217] Example 134. The apparatus according to Example 123, wherein being configured to cause the apparatus to determine the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among the plurality of paging sources includes being configured to cause the apparatus to: receive, by the user equipment, the adjusted paging timing for at least one paging source among the plurality of paging sources based on at least one of the following: the user equipment receives a new user equipment identity for at least one paging source among the plurality of paging sources, and the new user equipment identity provides or is associated with the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources; or the user equipment receives information indicating the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one paging source among the plurality of paging sources.

[0218] Example 135. The apparatus according to Example 123, further including being configured to cause the apparatus to: perform, by the user equipment, a reference signal measurement on a reference signal received from one or more cells during a time gap between paging monitoring instances of the plurality of paging sources.

[0219] Example 136. The method according to Example 123: wherein the means configured to cause the apparatus to determine an adjusted paging timing for a user equipment for at least one of a plurality of paging sources includes means configured to cause the apparatus: to receive, by a network node, a request from the user equipment for an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources; means configured to cause the apparatus to determine, by the network node, an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources such that a chronological order of paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources will be arranged based on lengths of paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources; and means configured to cause the apparatus to send, in response to the request, by the network node, a response to the user equipment, the response including information identifying the adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the paging sources.

[0220] Example 137. The apparatus according to Example 136, wherein the means configured to cause the apparatus to receive the request includes means configured to cause the apparatus: to receive, by a network node, a request from the user equipment for an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for a first paging source of the plurality of paging sources, wherein the request includes at least one of the following: a requested paging timing for the user equipment for the first paging source; and / or information indicating an initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources, or information at least related to the initial paging timing for the user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources.

[0221] Example 138. The apparatus according to Example 136, wherein the means configured to cause the apparatus to determine the adjusted paging timing includes means configured to cause the apparatus: to determine, by a network node, an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources such that a chronological order of paging monitoring instances for the user equipment for the plurality of paging sources will be arranged based on lengths of paging cycles of the plurality of paging sources.

[0222] Example 139. The apparatus according to claim 138, wherein the request includes at least one of the following: a requested paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the paging sources; or current paging timing information for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources.

[0223] Example 140. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium includes instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, are configured to cause a computing system to determine an initial activity timing for a user equipment for each of a plurality of signal sources, wherein the activity timing for the user equipment with respect to a signal source indicates: the timing of a user equipment activity to be performed by the user equipment with respect to the signal source; and determine an adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources such that the temporal order of user equipment activities performed by the user equipment for the plurality of signal sources is arranged in time for the user equipment based on the length of the activity periods for the plurality of signal sources, wherein the activity period of a signal source includes the time period between consecutive user equipment activities of the signal source.

[0224] Figure 9 is a block diagram of a wireless station or wireless node (e.g., AP, BS, gNB, user equipment, UE, or other network node or wireless node) 1000 according to an example embodiment. The wireless station 1000 may include, for example, one or two RF (radio frequency) or wireless transceivers 1002A, 1002B, where each wireless transceiver includes a transmitter for transmitting signals and a receiver for receiving signals. The wireless station also includes a processor or control unit / entity (controller) 1004 for executing instructions or software and controlling the transmission and reception of signals, and a memory 1006 for storing data and / or instructions.

[0225] The processor 1004 may also make decisions or determinations, generate frames, packets, or messages for transmission, decode received frames or messages for further processing, and other tasks or functions described herein. For example, the processor 1004 may be a baseband processor that may generate messages, packets, frames, or other signals for transmission via the wireless transceiver 1002 (1002A or 1002B). The processor 1004 may control the transmission of signals or messages over a wireless network and may control the reception of signals or messages, etc., via the wireless network (e.g., after being down-converted by the wireless transceiver 1002). The processor 1004 may be programmable and capable of executing software or other instructions stored in a memory or other computer medium to perform the various tasks and functions described above, such as one or more of the tasks or methods described above. The processor 1004 may be (or may include) for example, hardware, programmable logic, a programmable processor executing software or firmware, and / or any combination of these. For example, using other terms, the processor 1004 and the transceiver 1002 may be considered together as a wireless transmitter / receiver system.

[0226] In addition, referring to Figure 9 , the controller (or processor) 1008 may execute software and instructions and may provide overall control for the station 1000 and may be forFigure 9 Other systems not shown provide control, such as controlling input / output devices (e.g., a display, a keypad), and / or software that may execute one or more applications that may be provided on the wireless station 1000, such as, for example, an email program, an audio / video application, a word processor, an Internet protocol voice application, or other applications or software.

[0227] In addition, a storage medium including stored instructions may be provided, which when executed by a controller or processor, may cause the processor 1004 or other controller or processor to perform one or more of the above functions or tasks.

[0228] According to another example embodiment, the (multiple) RF or wireless transceivers 1002A / 1002B may receive signals or data and / or transmit or send signals or data. The processor 1004 (and possibly the transceivers 1002A / 1002B) may control the RF or wireless transceiver 1002A or 1002B to receive, send, broadcast, or transmit signals or data.

[0229] However, the embodiments are not limited to the systems given as examples, but those skilled in the art may apply the solutions to other communication systems. Another example of a suitable communication system is the 5G concept. It is assumed that the network architecture in 5G will be very similar to advanced LTE. 5G may use multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas, many more base stations or nodes than LTE (the so-called small cell concept), including macro sites operating in cooperation with small base stations, and may also employ various radio technologies to achieve better coverage and higher data rates.

[0230] It should be understood that future networks will likely utilize network function virtualization (NFV), which is a network architecture concept that proposes virtualizing network node functions into "building blocks" or entities that can be operably connected or linked together to provide services. Virtualized network functions (VNFs) may include one or more virtual machines that run computer program code using standard or common types of servers instead of custom hardware. Cloud computing or data storage may also be utilized. In radio communications, this may mean that node operations may be performed at least in part in a server, host, or node operably coupled to a remote radio head. Node operations may also be distributed among multiple servers, nodes, or hosts. It should also be understood that the labor distribution between core network operations and base station operations may be different from that of LTE or may not even exist.

[0231] Embodiments of the various techniques described herein may be implemented in digital electronic circuitry or in computer hardware, firmware, software, or combinations thereof. Embodiments may be implemented as a computer program product, i.e., a computer program tangibly embodied in an information carrier, e.g., in a machine-readable storage device or in a propagated signal, for execution by, or to control the operation of, data processing apparatus, e.g., a programmable processor, a computer, or multiple computers. Embodiments may also be provided on a computer-readable medium or computer-readable storage medium, which may be a non-transitory medium. Embodiments of the various techniques may also include embodiments provided via transient signals or media, and / or program and / or software embodiments downloadable via the Internet or other network(s) (wired network and / or wireless network). Additionally, embodiments may be provided via machine type communication (MTC) and may also be provided via the Internet of Things (IoT).

[0232] A computer program may be in the form of source code, object code, or some intermediate form, and it may be stored in some carrier, distribution medium, or computer-readable medium, which may be any entity or device capable of carrying the program. For example, such carriers include recording media, computer memories, read-only memories, optoelectronic and / or electrical carrier signals, telecommunication signals, and software distribution packages. Depending on the required processing power, a computer program may be executed in a single electronic digital computer, or it may be distributed among multiple computers.

[0233] Furthermore, embodiments of the various techniques described herein may use cyber-physical systems (CPS) (systems of collaborative computing elements that control physical entities). CPS may enable the realization and utilization of a large number of interconnected ICT devices (sensors, actuators, processor microcontrollers, etc.) embedded in physical objects at different locations. Mobile cyber-physical systems (where the physical systems under discussion have inherent mobility) are a subcategory of cyber-physical systems. Examples of mobile physical systems include mobile robots and electronic devices carried by humans or animals. The popularity of smart phones has increased the interest in the field of mobile cyber-physical systems. Thus, various embodiments of the techniques described herein may be provided via one or more of these techniques.

[0234] A computer program, such as the computer programs described above, may be written in any form of programming language, including compiled or interpreted languages, and may be deployed in any form, including as a stand-alone program or as a module, component, subroutine, or other unit, or a part thereof, suitable for use in a computing environment. A computer program may be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computers at one site or distributed among multiple sites and interconnected by a communication network.

[0235] The method steps can be executed by one or more programmable processors that execute a computer program or portions of a computer program to perform functions by operating on input data and generating output. The method steps can also be executed by dedicated logic circuitry, and the apparatus can be implemented as dedicated logic circuitry, such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) or an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit).

[0236] Processors suitable for executing a computer program include, by way of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors, and any one or more processors of any kind of digital computer, chip, or chipset. Generally, a processor will receive instructions and data from a read only memory or a random access memory or both. Elements of a computer may include at least one processor for executing instructions and one or more memory devices for storing instructions and data. Generally, a computer may also include or be operatively coupled to receive data from, or transfer data to, or both, one or more mass storage devices for storing data, such as magnetic, magneto-optical disks, or optical disks. Information carriers suitable for embodying computer program instructions and data include all forms of non-volatile memory, including by way of example semiconductor memory devices, such as EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks or removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CDROM and DVD-ROM disks. The processor and the memory may be supplemented by, or incorporated in, dedicated logic circuitry.

[0237] To provide interaction with a user, embodiments may be implemented on a computer having a display device (e.g., a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) or LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) monitor) for displaying information to the user and a user interface such as a keyboard and a pointing device (e.g., a mouse or a trackball) by which the user can provide input to the computer. Other types of devices may also be used to provide interaction with the user; for example, feedback provided to the user may be any form of sensory feedback, such as visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback; and input from the user may be received in any form, including sound, voice, or tactile input.

[0238] Embodiments may be implemented in a computing system that includes a backend component (e.g., as a data server), or includes a middleware component (e.g., an application server), or includes a frontend component (e.g., a client computer having a graphical user interface or a web browser through which a user can interact with the embodiments), or any combination of such backend, middleware, or frontend components. The components may be interconnected by any form or medium of digital data communication, such as a communication network. Examples of communication networks include a local area network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN), such as the Internet.

[0239] Although certain features of the described embodiments have been illustrated as described herein, many modifications, substitutions, changes, and equivalents will now occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and variations that fall within the true spirit of the various embodiments.

Claims

1. A device for communication, comprising: means for determining an initial activity timing for a user equipment for each of a plurality of signal sources, wherein the signal sources are associated with different networks, different radio access technologies, or different wireless carriers, and wherein the activity timing for the user equipment with respect to a signal source indicates: the timing of user equipment activities to be performed by the user equipment with respect to the signal source; and means for determining an adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources such that the chronological order of user equipment activities performed by the user equipment for the plurality of signal sources is arranged in time for the user equipment based on the lengths of the activity periods for the plurality of signal sources, wherein the activity period for a signal source includes the time period between consecutive user equipment activities for the signal source, and wherein the means for determining the adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources comprises: means for the user equipment to send a request for the adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources; and means for the user equipment to receive a response, the response including information identifying the adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the initial activity timing for the user equipment for each of the plurality of signal sources comprises at least one of the following: the initial paging timing for the user equipment for each of a plurality of paging sources; the initial timing of measurements of reference signals from each of a plurality of reference signal sources; the initial timing of reporting signal measurements to each of a plurality of signal sources or network nodes; or the initial timing of receiving data from each of a plurality of data sources.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein the adjusted activity timing for the user equipment is determined such that the chronological order of the user equipment activities for the plurality of signal sources for the user equipment will be arranged in descending order of the lengths of the activity periods for the plurality of signal sources, or in ascending order of the lengths of the activity periods.

4. The device according to any one of claims 1-3, wherein the adjusted activity timing is determined such that user equipment activities for the plurality of signal sources for the user equipment having the same activity period length will be grouped together in time or adjacent to each other, whether or not there is a time gap therebetween.

5. The device according to claim 1, wherein: the means for determining an initial activity timing for the user equipment for each of the plurality of signal sources comprises: A component for determining an initial paging timing for a user equipment for each of a plurality of paging sources, wherein the paging timing for the user equipment with respect to a paging source indicates: the timing of a paging monitoring instance when the user equipment should monitor a paging message from the paging source; and A component for determining an adjusted active timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources includes: A component for determining an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources, such that the time order of paging monitoring instances for the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment is arranged based on the length of the paging cycle of the plurality of paging sources, wherein the paging cycle of a paging source includes a time period between consecutive paging monitoring instances of the paging source.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein, at least for the purpose of paging, a user equipment identity has been assigned or reassigned to the user equipment for one or more of the plurality of paging sources.

7. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the component for determining the initial paging timing includes: A component for determining an initial paging timing for the user equipment for each of the plurality of paging sources based on at least one of system information associated with a corresponding paging source or a user equipment identity that has been assigned to the user equipment for the corresponding paging source.

8. The apparatus according to claim 5: wherein the adjusted paging timing is determined such that the time order of paging monitoring instances for the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment will be arranged in descending order of the length of the paging cycles for the plurality of paging sources, or in ascending order of the length of the paging cycles; or wherein the adjusted paging timing is determined such that paging monitoring instances for the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment having the same paging cycle length will be grouped together in time or adjacent to each other, with or without a time gap therebetween.

9. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the component for determining an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources includes: A component for the user equipment to send a request for an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of paging sources to a network node, such that the time order of paging monitoring instances for the plurality of paging sources for the user equipment will be arranged based on the length of the paging cycles for the plurality of paging sources; and A component for the user equipment to receive a response from the network node in response to the request, the response including information identifying an adjusted paging timing for the user equipment for at least one of the paging sources.

10. The apparatus according to any one of claims 5-9, further comprising: A component for performing reference signal measurements on reference signals received from one or more cells during a time gap between paging monitoring instances of the plurality of paging sources by the user equipment.

11. A method for communication, comprising: Determining an initial activity timing for a user equipment for each of a plurality of signal sources, wherein the signal sources are associated with different networks, different radio access technologies, or different wireless carriers, and wherein the activity timing for the user equipment with respect to a signal source indicates the timing of user equipment activities to be performed by the user equipment with respect to the signal source; And Determining an adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources such that the temporal order of user equipment activities performed by the user equipment for the plurality of signal sources is arranged in time for the user equipment based on the lengths of the activity periods for the plurality of signal sources, wherein the activity period for a signal source includes the time period between consecutive user equipment activities for the signal source, and wherein determining the adjusted activity timing for the user equipment includes: The user equipment sending a request for the adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources; And The user equipment receiving a response, the response including information identifying the adjusted activity timing for the user equipment for at least one of the plurality of signal sources.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, comprising instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, are configured to cause a computing system to perform the method according to claim 11.

13. A device for communication, comprising: At least one processor; And At least one memory including computer program code; The at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, together with the at least one processor, cause the device to at least perform the method according to claim 11.

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