User Equipment, Computer-Readable Storage Medium, and Method for Generating a Filtering Result in a Lower-Layer Triggered Handover Triggered by User Equipment

Abstract

Performing UE-triggered lower-layer-based handover may include performing measurements on source gNB CSI-RS samples associated with the source gNB. Measurements on target gNB CSI-RS samples associated with the target gNB may be performed, where the CSI-RS samples associated with the source gNB and the CSI-RS samples associated with the target gNB are transmitted in a burst structure. A subset of the source gNB CSI-RS samples and the target gNB CSI-RS samples may be filtered using a layer 1 or layer 2 filter. Filtering results may be generated for each of the subset of the source gNB CSI-RS samples and the subset of the target gNB CSI-RS samples. Based on the generated filtering results for each of the subset of the source gNB CSI-RS samples and the subset of the target gNB CSI-RS samples, it is determined whether a handover from the source gNB to the target gNB will occur.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application generally relates to wireless communication systems and, more particularly, to generating filtering results in handovers within a 5G New Radio network. Background Art

[0002] Wireless mobile communication technologies use various standards and protocols to transfer data between a base station and a wireless mobile device. Wireless communication system standards and protocols may include the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) (e.g., 4G) or New Radio (NR) (e.g., 5G); the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 standard, which is commonly referred to by industry organizations as Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX); and the IEEE 802.11 standard for wireless local area networks (WLAN), which is commonly referred to by industry organizations as Wi-Fi. In the 3GPP radio access network (RAN) of an LTE system, a base station may include RAN nodes such as evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) Node B (also commonly denoted as evolved Node B, enhanced Node B, eNodeB or eNB) and / or a radio network controller (RNC) in E-UTRAN, which communicates with a wireless communication device known as a user equipment (UE). In a fifth generation (5G) wireless RAN, the RAN nodes may include 5G nodes, NR nodes (also known as next generation Node B or g Node B (gNB)).

[0003] The RAN uses radio access technology (RAT) to communicate between the RAN nodes and the UE. The RAN may include Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution (EDGE) RAN (GERAN), Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) and / or E-UTRAN, which provides access to communication services through a core network. Each RAN in the RAN operates according to a specific 3GPP RAT. For example, GERAN implements GSM and / or EDGE RAT, UTRAN implements Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) RAT or other 3GPP RAT, E-UTRAN implements LTE RAT, and NG-RAN implements 5G RAT. In some deployments, E-UTRAN may also implement 5G RAT.

[0004] The frequency bands of 5G NR can be divided into two different frequency ranges. Frequency Range 1 (FR1) includes frequency bands below 6 GHz, some of which may be used by previous standards but can potentially be extended to cover potential new spectrum products from 410 MHz to 7125 MHz. Frequency Range 2 (FR2) includes frequency bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. The frequency bands in the millimeter-wave (mmWave) range of FR2 have a shorter range but higher available bandwidth than those in FR1. Those skilled in the art will recognize that these frequency ranges provided by way of example may vary over time or by region. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0005] To facilitate easy identification of the discussion of any particular element or action, one or more of the most significant digits in the reference numerals refer to the drawing number in which the element was first introduced.

[0006] Figure 1 A process according to one embodiment is shown.

[0007] Figure 2 A process according to one embodiment is shown.

[0008] Figure 3 A process according to one embodiment is shown.

[0009] Figure 4 A process according to one embodiment is shown.

[0010] Figure 5 A flowchart of a method according to one embodiment is shown.

[0011] Figure 6 A system according to one embodiment is shown.

[0012] Figure 7 An infrastructure device according to one embodiment is shown.

[0013] Figure 8 A platform according to one embodiment is shown.

[0014] Figure 9 A device according to one embodiment is shown.

[0015] Figure 10 An exemplary interface according to one embodiment is shown.

[0016] Figure 11 A component according to one embodiment is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0017] As described in 3GPP Release 15 (Rel-15) and Release 16 (Rel-16), radio resource control (RRC) signaling can be used to perform handovers. Specifically, a first option includes a handover triggered by a gNodeB (gNB) using RRC signaling. Alternatively, under Rel-15 / Rel-16, a handover can be triggered based on one or more conditions from layer 3 (L3) measurement results.

[0018] In contrast, 3GPP Release 17 (Rel-17) can support handovers based on lower layers (i.e., layer 1 and / or layer 2). It is worth noting that a user equipment (UE) can be configured with a large number of transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states, and the gNB can be configured to trigger a handover procedure based on some layer 1 (L1) and / or layer 2 (L2) signaling (e.g., media access control (MAC) control element (CE) for TCI indication). Compared with RRC signaling, L1 / L2 signaling can reduce latency and signaling overhead.

[0019] To support UE-triggered L1 / L2-based handovers, there may be the following outstanding issues: 1. Conditions for the UE to trigger L1 / L2-based handovers; 2. Determining the metrics for L1 / L2-based handovers (L3-based metrics may result in significant latency); and 3. Procedures and control signaling for UE-triggered L1 / L2-based handovers.

[0020] Figure 1 A general procedure 100 for performing a UE-triggered handover is shown. As shown, procedure 100 includes a UE 102, a source gNB 104, and a target gNB 106. Additionally, procedure 100 includes measurements at block 108 (e.g., reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), etc.), triggering of the handover procedure at block 110, and the handover procedure itself from the source gNB 104 to the target gNB 106 at block 112.

[0021] For UE-triggered L1 / L2-based handovers, the UE can trigger an L1 / L2 handover based on at least one of the following conditions: 1. When the quality of the target cell is greater than a specified threshold (e.g., a threshold configured by RRC signaling based on a range of RSRP / RSRQ / SINR); or 2. When the quality of the target cell is greater than the quality of the source cell plus a specified offset (e.g., an offset with a range of {-30, 30} dB configured by RRC signaling). It is worth noting that the quality of a cell can be measured based on one or more of the following metrics: 1. RSRP; 2. RSRQ; and / or 3. SINR. Such metrics can be generated using an L1 / L2 filter. Additionally, the conditions and / or metrics can be configured by RRC signaling and / or based on UE capabilities.

[0022] Figure 2 Illustrates an exemplary process 200 for generating a filtering result. As shown, Figure 2 Includes a sample set 202, sample signals 204 to 212 (i.e., synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) or channel state information reference signals (CSI-RSs)), filtering results 214 to 218, and sample subsets 220 to 224. In particular, Figure 2 Illustrates that the filtering result can be based on averaging the results from the latest N samples for the SSB / CSI-RS, or averaging the results from a time window. More specifically, a filtering result 214 is generated based on sample signals 204 to 208 (i.e., time window 220 or sample subset 220), a filtering result 216 is generated based on sample signals 206 to 210 (i.e., time window 222 or sample subset 222), and a filtering result 218 is generated based on sample signals 208 to 212 (i.e., time window 224 or sample subset 224).

[0023] It is worth noting that the value of N or the duration of the time window can be configured by higher layer signaling and / or determined by the capabilities of a given UE. Additionally, the results measured in the averaging window can be from the same UE beam.

[0024] Furthermore, at least two options for performing the L1 / L2 filter can be utilized as follows: 1. Execute the filter according to the SSB / CSI-RS resources; or 2. Execute the filter based on the averaged results from multiple SSB / CSI-RS resources.

[0025] To improve the measurement accuracy, one of the following constraints or limitations can be defined for the CSI-RS used for L1 / L2 filtering measurements: 1. The periodicity of the CSI-RS can be no more than x milliseconds (ms). In one example, x can be no more than 20 ms; 2. The CSI-RS can be a 1-port RS; 3. The minimum frequency density can be D resource elements / resource block (RE / RB). In one example, D can be at least 3; 4. The bandwidth of the CSI-RS should be at least min{N_RB_max, N1}, where N_RB_max indicates the maximum number of RBs in the current bandwidth part, and N1 can be predefined or reported by the UE capabilities; 5. The CSI-RS can be transmitted in a burst data structure. For each transmission moment, the CSI-RS can employ at least Y symbols (e.g., Y = 4), where Y symbols can be allocated for the CSI-RS resource or for a set of one CSI-RS resource among Y CSI-RS resources with quasi-co-location or from the same antenna port.

[0026] The following two options can be used for UE-triggered L1 / L2-based handover: 1. The UE sends a request to the source gNB, and any handover decision is made by the control signaling of the source gNB. For example, the control signaling of the gNB for handover can be MAC CE or DCI; 2. The UE directly starts synchronizing to the target cell without input from the source gNB. In such cases, the UE can still send a report on such a handover to the target gNB to the source gNB.

[0027] Figure 3 Procedure 300 for UE-triggered L1 / L2-based handover under the above first option is shown. As shown, procedure 300 includes UE 302, source gNB 304, and target gNB 306. Additionally, procedure 300 includes measurements (e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, SINR, etc.) at block 308, triggering of the handover procedure at block 310, and a handover request 312 from UE 302 to source gNB 304.

[0028] One of the following options can be used to transmit the handover request: 1. The handover request is carried by a MAC CE. In this case, the gNB can configure a dedicated scheduling request (SR) for the UE to request uplink resources for the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) to transmit the MAC CE. Alternatively, the UE can use the normal SR procedure to request uplink resources; 2. The handover request is carried by the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH). In this case, the gNB can configure N PUCCH resources for the UE. Then, the UE can select a specific resource for transmitting the handover request. The handover request can include one or more of the following information: 1. The physical cell ID of the target gNB; 2. The measurement results of the target gNB; and 3. The measurement results of the source gNB.

[0029] Additionally, procedure 300 includes a handover command 314 from source gNB 304 to UE 302. After N time slots after the UE sends the handover request, the UE can start monitoring for a response (handover command) from the gNB. Such a response can be carried by a MAC CE or DCI. A dedicated search space and / or control resource set (CORESET) can be configured to schedule / transmit this response.

[0030] Additionally, the UE can start a timer for the handover request. If the timer expires before the UE receives a response, the UE can retransmit the handover request. If alternatively, the UE receives a response before the timer expires, the timer can be reset. It is worth noting that the duration of the timer can be configured by RRC signaling. The gNB can also configure the maximum number of allowed retransmissions of the handover request. If the number of retransmissions of the handover request reaches the maximum number, the UE can declare a radio link failure.

[0031] Finally, process 300 includes the UE synchronizing to the target gNB 316 after receiving a handover command from the gNB to complete the handover process.

[0032] In option 2 associated with UE-triggered L1 / L2-based handover described above, the UE can directly start synchronizing to the target cell without a handover command from the gNB, as Figure 4 shown. As shown, process 400 includes UE 402, source gNB 404, and target gNB 406. Additionally, process 400 includes measurements (e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, SINR, etc.) at block 408, triggering of the handover process at block 410, and a handover notification 412 from UE 402 to source gNB 404.

[0033] In some embodiments, the handover notification 412 can include identity information, which can be carried by a dedicated PUCCH resource (e.g., like a scheduling request) or by PUSCH / PRACH. In other embodiments, the handover notification 412 can include multi-bit information. In such embodiments, for example, the UE can report the physical cell ID of the target gNB. In such cases, the handover notification 412 can be carried by PUCCH or MAC CE.

[0034] Finally, process 400 includes synchronizing to the target gNB 414 based on one or more configured resources to complete the handover process. In some embodiments, for example, one or more PRACH resources can be configured. In such cases, different resources can be associated with different beams, allowing the UE to select the beam with the best beam quality (e.g., best RSRP) to communicate with the target gNB. In other embodiments, the UE can select a PRACH resource and start communicating with the target gNB in a contention-based manner.

[0035] Figure 5A flowchart of a method 500 for performing UE-triggered lower layer-based handover is shown. At block 502, method 500 performs measurements on a plurality of source gNodeB (gNB) channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) samples associated with a source gNB, wherein the CSI-RS samples associated with the source gNB are transmitted in a first burst structure. At block 504, method 500 performs measurements on a plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples associated with a target gNB, wherein the CSI-RS samples associated with the target gNB are transmitted in a second burst structure. At block 506, method 500 filters at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples using a layer 1 or layer 2 filter and filters at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples using a layer 1 or layer 2 filter. At block 508, method 500 generates a filtered result for each of at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples and at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples. At block 510, method 500 determines whether a handover from the source gNB to the target gNB will occur based on the generated filtered subsets for each of at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples and at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples.

[0036] Figure 6 An exemplary architecture of a network system 600 according to various embodiments is shown. The following description is provided for an example system 600 operating in accordance with the LTE system standard and the 5G or NR system standard provided in conjunction with 3GPP technical specifications. However, the exemplary embodiments are not limited in this regard, and the embodiments may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems (e.g., sixth generation (6G) systems), IEEE 802.16 protocols (e.g., WMAN, WiMAX, etc.), and the like.

[0037] As Figure 6As shown, system 600 includes UE 602 and UE 604. In this example, UE 602 and UE 604 are shown as smart phones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices that can connect to one or more cellular networks), but can also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as consumer electronic devices, mobile phones, smart phones, feature phones, tablets, wearable computing devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handheld devices, desktop computers, laptop computers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-vehicle entertainment (ICE) devices, instrument clusters (IC), head-up display (HUD) devices, on-board diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashtop mobile equipment (DME), mobile data terminals (MDT), electronic engine management systems (EEMS), electronic / engine electronic control units (ECU), electronic / engine electronic control modules (ECM), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems (EMS), networked or "smart" home appliances, MTC devices, M2M, IoT devices, etc.

[0038] In some embodiments, UE 602 and / or UE 604 can be IoT UEs, which can include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. IoT UEs can utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC to exchange data with MTC servers or devices via a PLMN, ProSe, or D2D communication, a sensor network, or an IoT network. M2M or MTC data exchange can be machine-initiated data exchange. The IoT network describes interconnected IoT UEs, which can include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure) with short-lived connections. IoT UEs can execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate connections to the IoT network.

[0039] UE 602 and UE 604 can be configured to connect to an access node or radio access node (shown as (R)AN 616), e.g., communicatively coupled. In an embodiment, (R)AN 616 can be an NG RAN or an SG RAN, an E-UTRAN, or a legacy RAN, such as a UTRAN or a GERAN. As used herein, the term "NG RAN" etc. can refer to (R)AN 616 operating in an NR or SG system, and the term "E-UTRAN" etc. can refer to (R)AN 616 operating in an LTE or 4G system. UE 602 and UE 604 utilize connections (or channels) (shown as connection 606 and connection 608, respectively), each connection including a physical communication interface or layer (discussed in further detail below).

[0040] In this example, connections 606 and 608 are air interfaces to achieve communication coupling and may be consistent with cellular communication protocols such as GSM protocol, CDMA network protocol, PTT protocol, POC protocol, UMTS protocol, 3GPP LTE protocol, SG protocol, NR protocol, and / or any other communication protocol discussed herein. In an implementation, UE 602 and UE 604 may also directly exchange communication data via ProSe interface 610. ProSe interface 610 may alternatively be referred to as a sidelink (SL) interface 110 and may include one or more logical channels including, but not limited to, PSCCH, PSSCH, PSDCH, and PSBCH.

[0041] UE 604 is shown as being configured to access AP 612 (also referred to as a “WLAN node”, “WLAN”, “WLAN terminal”, “WT”, etc.) via connection 614. Connection 614 may include a local wireless connection such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, where AP 612 will include a Wi-Fi router. In this example, AP 612 may be connected to the Internet without being connected to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various implementations, UE 604, (R)AN 616, and AP 612 may be configured to utilize LWA operation and / or LWIP operation. LWA operation may involve UE 604 in RRC_CONNECTED that is configured by RAN node 618 or RAN node 620 to utilize radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operation may involve UE 604 using WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 614) via an IPsec protocol tunnel to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent through connection 614. IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packet.

[0042] (R) AN 616 may include one or more nodes that implement connection 606 and connection 608, such as RAN node 618 and RAN node 620. As used herein, terms such as "access node", "access point", etc. may describe equipment that provides radio baseband functionality for data and / or voice connections between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, or TRP, etc., and may include a terrestrial station (e.g., a terrestrial access point) or a satellite station that provides coverage within a geographical area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, terms such as "NG RAN node" etc. may refer to a RAN node (e.g., gNB) operating in an NR or SG system, while terms such as "E-UTRAN node" etc. may refer to a RAN node (e.g., eNB) operating in an LTE or 4G system 600. According to various embodiments, RAN node 618 or RAN node 620 may be implemented as one or more of a dedicated physical device such as a macrocell base station and / or a low-power (LP) base station for providing a femtocell, picocell, or other similar cell with a smaller coverage area, a smaller user capacity, or a higher bandwidth compared to a macrocell.

[0043] In some embodiments, all or part of RAN node 618 or RAN node 620 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer, as part of a virtual network that may be referred to as a CRAN and / or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these embodiments, the CRAN or vBBUP may implement RAN function partitioning, such as PDCP partitioning, where the RRC and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, while other L2 protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes (e.g., RAN node 618 or RAN node 620); MAC / PHY partitioning, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes (e.g., RAN node 618 or RAN node 620); or "lower PHY" partitioning, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers, and the upper part of the PHY layer are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the lower part of the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes. This virtualization framework allows the idle processor cores of RAN node 618 or RAN node 620 to execute other virtualized applications. In some specific implementations, each RAN node may represent a connection via each F1 interface ( Figure 6Each gNB-DU (not shown) connected to the gNB-CU. In these specific implementations, the gNB-DU may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs, and the gNB-CU may be operated by a server (not shown) located in the (R)AN 616 or by a server pool in a manner similar to CRAN / vBBUP. In addition or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 618 or 620 may be a next-generation eNB (ng-eNB), which is a RAN node that provides E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminations to the UEs 602 and 604 and is connected to the SGC via the NG interface (discussed below). In a V2X scenario, one or more of the RAN nodes 618 or 620 may be an RSU or act as an RSU.

[0044] The term "road side unit" or "RSU" may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity for V2X communication. The RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE, where the RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU", the RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU", the RSU implemented in or by a gNB may be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU", and so on. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled to a radio frequency circuit located on the road side, which provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs (vUEs). The RSU may also include an internal data storage circuit for storing intersection map geometries, traffic statistics, media, and applications / software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate in the 5.9 GHz direct short-range communication (DSRC) frequency band to provide extremely low-latency communication required for high-speed events, such as collision avoidance, traffic warnings, etc. In addition or alternatively, the RSU may operate in the cellular V2X frequency band to provide the aforementioned low-latency communication and other cellular communication services. In addition or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot (2.4 GHz frequency band) and / or provide connectivity to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communication. Some or all of the computing device and the radio frequency circuit of the RSU may be encapsulated in a weather-resistant package suitable for outdoor installation and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller and / or a backhaul network.

[0045] RAN node 618 and / or RAN node 620 may terminate the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for UEs 602 and 604. In some embodiments, RAN node 618 and / or RAN node 620 may perform various logical functions of (R)AN 616, including but not limited to the functions of a radio network controller (RNC), such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[0046] In an embodiment, UEs 602 and 604 may be configured to communicate with each other or with RAN node 618 and / or RAN node 620 over a multi-carrier communication channel using OFDM communication signals according to various communication technologies, such as but not limited to OFDMA communication technology (e.g., for downlink communication) or SC-FDMA communication technology (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communication), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard. The OFDM signal may include a plurality of orthogonal sub-carriers.

[0047] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmission from RAN node 618 and / or RAN node 620 to UEs 602 and 604, and uplink transmission may utilize a similar technique. The grid may be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or a time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each time slot. For an OFDM system, such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practice, which makes radio resource allocation intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to an OFDM symbol and an OFDM sub-carrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one time slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is represented as a resource element. Each resource grid includes a plurality of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block includes a set of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the smallest amount of resources that can be currently allocated. Such resource blocks are used to transmit several different physical downlink channels.

[0048] According to various embodiments, UEs 602 and 604, and RAN node 618 and / or RAN node 620 transmit (e.g., transmit and receive) data over a licensed medium (also referred to as "licensed spectrum" and / or "licensed band") and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as "unlicensed spectrum" and / or "unlicensed band"). The licensed spectrum may include channels operating in a frequency range of approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, while the unlicensed spectrum may include the 5 GHz band.

[0049] To operate in unlicensed spectrum, UE 602 and UE 604, and RAN node 618 or RAN node 620 may operate using LAA, eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms. In these embodiments, UE 602 and UE 604, and RAN node 618 or RAN node 620 may perform one or more known medium sensing operations and / or carrier sensing operations to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied before transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium / carrier sensing operations may be performed according to the listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0050] LBT is a mechanism by which devices (such as UE 602 and UE 604, RAN node 618, or RAN node 620, etc.) sense the medium (such as a channel or carrier frequency) and transmit when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a particular channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include CCA, which uses at least ED to determine whether there are other signals on the channel to determine whether the channel is occupied or idle. This LBT mechanism allows cellular / LAA networks to coexist with existing systems in the unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED may include sensing RF energy on the expected transmission band for a period of time and comparing the sensed RF energy with a predefined or configured threshold.

[0051] Typically, existing systems in the 5 GHz band are WLANs based on IEEE 802.11 technology. WLANs employ a contention-based channel access mechanism called CSMA / CA. Here, when a WLAN node (such as a mobile station (MS) like UE 602, AP612, etc.) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmission. Additionally, in the case where more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits simultaneously, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid collisions. The backoff mechanism may be a counter randomly introduced within the CWS, which exponentially increases in the event of a collision and is reset to the minimum value upon successful transmission. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to CSMA / CA of WLAN. In some embodiments, the LBT process for DL or UL transmission bursts (including PDSCH or PUSCH transmissions) may have an LAA contention window of variable length between X and Y ECCA slots, where X and Y are the minimum and maximum values of the CWS of LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for LAA transmission may be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWS and MCOT (such as the transmission burst) may be based on government regulatory requirements.

[0052] The LAA mechanism is built on the CA technology of the LTE-Advanced system. In CA, each aggregated carrier is called a CC. A CC can have a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, or 20 MHz, and up to five CCs can be aggregated, so the maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100 MHz. In an FDD system, for DL and UL, the number of aggregated carriers can be different, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or lower than the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, individual CCs can have different bandwidths from other CCs. In a TDD system, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC are usually the same for DL and UL.

[0053] CA also includes individual serving cells to provide individual CCs. The coverage of serving cells can be different. For example, because CCs on different frequency bands will experience different path losses. The primary serving cell or PCell can provide the PCC for both UL and DL, and can handle activities related to RRC and NAS. Other serving cells are called SCell, and each SCell can provide individual SCCs for both UL and DL. SCCs can be added and removed as needed, while changing the PCC may require the UE 602 to undergo a handover. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCell can operate in the unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA SCell"), and the LAA SCell is assisted by the PCell operating in the licensed spectrum. When the UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE can receive UL authorization on the configured LAA SCell, indicating different PUSCH start positions within the same subframe.

[0054] The PDSCH carries user data and higher layer signaling to the UE 602 and UE 604. Among other information, the PDCCH carries information about the transport format and resource allocation related to the PDSCH channel. It can also notify the UE 602 and UE 604 about the transport format, resource allocation, and HARQ information related to the uplink shared channel. Generally, downlink scheduling (allocating control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE604 within the cell) can be performed at either the RAN node 618 or the RAN node 620 based on the channel quality information fed back from either the UE 602 or the UE 604. Downlink resource allocation information can be sent on the PDCCH for each of the UE602 and UE 604 (e.g., allocated to).

[0055] The PDCCH uses CCEs to transmit control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols can first be organized into quadruples, and then a sub-block interleaver can be used to permute them for rate matching. One or more of these CCEs can be used to transmit each PDCCH, where each CCE can correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements, called REGs. Four quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols can be mapped to each REG. Depending on the size of the DCI and the channel conditions, one or more CCEs can be used to transmit the PDCCH. There can be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L = 1, 2, 4, or 8).

[0056] Some embodiments can use the concept of resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above concept. For example, some embodiments can utilize the EPDCCH that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. One or more ECCEs can be used to transmit the EPDCCH. Similar to the above, each ECCE can correspond to nine sets including four physical resource elements, called EREGs. In some cases, the ECCE can have other numbers of EREGs.

[0057] The RAN node 618 or the RAN node 620 can be configured to communicate with each other via the interface 622. In an embodiment where the system 600 is an LTE system (e.g., when the CN 630 is an EPC), the interface 622 can be an X2 interface. The X2 interface can be defined between two or more RAN nodes (e.g., two or more eNBs, etc.) connected to the EPC, and / or between two eNBs connected to the EPC. In some specific implementations, the X2 interface can include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U can provide a flow control mechanism for user packets transmitted through the X2 interface, and can be used to convey information about the delivery of user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U can provide specific sequence number information about user data transmitted from the MeNB to the SeNB; information about the successful in-sequence delivery of PDCP PDUs from the SeNB to the UE 602 for user data; information about PDCP PDUs not delivered to the UE 602; information about the current minimum expected buffer size at the SeNB for transmitting user data to the UE; and so on. The X2-C can provide access mobility functions within LTE, including context transfer from the source eNB to the target eNB, user plane transmission control, etc.; load management functions; and inter-cell interference coordination functions.

[0058] In an embodiment where the system 600 is an SG or NR system (e.g., when the CN 630 is an SGC), the interface 622 can be an Xn interface. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes connected to the SGC (e.g., two or more gNBs, etc.), between the RAN node 618 (e.g., gNB) connected to the SGC and an eNB, and / or between two eNBs connected to the 5GC (e.g., CN 630). In some specific implementations, the Xn interface can include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U can provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support / provide data forwarding and traffic control functions. The Xn-C can provide management and error handling functions for managing the functions of the Xn-C interface; mobility support for the UE 602 in the connected mode (e.g., CM connection) includes functions for managing the UE mobility in the connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 618 or RAN nodes 620. Mobility support can include context transfer from the old (source) serving RAN node 618 to the new (target) serving RAN node 620; and control of the user plane tunnel between the old (source) serving RAN node 618 and the new (target) serving RAN node 620. The protocol stack of the Xn-U can include a transport network layer built on the Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer for carrying user plane PDUs on top of the UDP and / or IP layer. The Xn-C protocol stack can include an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as the Xn application protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer built on SCTP. SCTP can be on top of the IP layer and can provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer, point-to-point transmission is used to deliver signaling PDUs. In other specific implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and / or the Xn-C protocol stack can be the same as or similar to the user plane and / or control plane protocol stacks shown and described herein.

[0059] (R)AN 616 is shown communicatively coupled to a core network - in this embodiment, communicatively coupled to CN630. CN 630 may include one or more network elements 632 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UEs 602 and 604) connected to CN 630 via (R)AN 616. Components of CN 630 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes and include components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, NFV may be used to virtualize any or all of the above network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media (described in further detail below). A logical instance of CN630 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instance of a portion of CN 630 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. The NFV architecture and infrastructure may be used to virtualize one or more network functions onto physical resources that include a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches (alternatively performed by proprietary hardware). In other words, the NFV system may be used to perform a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more EPC components / functions.

[0060] In general, application server 634 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). Application server 634 may also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social network services, etc.) for UEs 602 and 604 via the EPC. Application server 634 may communicate with CN 630 via an IP communication interface 636.

[0061] In an embodiment, CN 630 may be an SGC, and (R)AN 116 may be connected to CN 630 via an NG interface 624. In an embodiment, the NG interface 624 may be divided into two parts: an NG user plane (NG-U) interface 626 that carries traffic data between RAN node 618 or RAN node 620 and the UPF; and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 628 that is a signaling interface between RAN node 618 or RAN node 620 and the AMF.

[0062] In an embodiment, CN 630 can be an SG CN, while in other embodiments, CN 630 can be an EPC. In the case where CN 630 is an EPC, the (R)AN 116 can be connected to CN 630 via the S1 interface 624. In an embodiment, the S1 interface 624 can be divided into two parts: the S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 626, which carries traffic data between the RAN node 618 or the RAN node 620 and the S-GW; and the S1-MME interface 628, which is a signaling interface between the RAN node 618 or the RAN node 620 and the MME.

[0063] Figure 7 An example of infrastructure equipment 700 according to various embodiments is shown. The infrastructure equipment 700 can be implemented as a base station, a radio headend, a RAN node, an AN, an application server, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. In other examples, the infrastructure equipment 700 can be implemented in or by a UE.

[0064] The infrastructure equipment 700 includes an application circuit 702, a baseband circuit 704, one or more radio front-end modules 706 (RFEMs), a memory circuit 708, a power management integrated circuit (shown as PMIC 710), a power triple circuit 712, a network controller circuit 714, a network interface connector 720, a satellite positioning circuit 716, and a user interface circuit 718. In some embodiments, the infrastructure equipment 700 can include additional elements such as a memory / storage device, a display, a camera, a sensor, or an input / output (I / O) interface. In other embodiments, these components can be included in more than one device. For example, the circuits can be separately included in more than one device for CRAN, vBBU, or other similar implementations. The application circuit 702 includes, but is not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), a cache memory, and one or more low-dropout regulators (LDOs) in the low-dropout regulator, an interrupt controller, a serial interface such as SPI, l 2C or a general-purpose programmable serial interface module, a real-time clock (RTC), timer-counters including interval timers and watchdog timers, general-purpose input / output (I / O or IO), a memory card controller such as a Secure Digital (SD) Multimedia Card (MMC) or similar product, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, a Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) interface, and a Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) test access port. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 702 may be coupled to or may include a memory / storage element and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage device to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the infrastructure equipment 700. In some specific embodiments, the memory / storage element may be an on-chip memory circuit that may include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, and / or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

[0065] The processor of the application circuit 702 may include, for example, one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors, one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISC Machine (ARM) processors, one or more Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC) processors, one or more Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuit 702 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating according to the various embodiments herein. As an example, the processor of the application circuit 702 may include one or more Intel or processors; Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) processors, Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), or processors; ARM-based processors licensed by ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A series processors provided by Cavium (TM), Inc. and MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as the MIPS Warrior P-class processors; and so on. In some embodiments, the infrastructure equipment 700 may not utilize the application circuit 702 and, instead, may include a dedicated processor / controller to process, for example, IP data received from the EPC or 5GC.

[0066] In some specific implementations, the application circuit 702 may include one or more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, etc. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and / or deep learning (DL) accelerators. For example, the programmable processing device may be one or more field programmable devices (FPDs), such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), etc.; programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), etc.; ASICs, such as structured ASICs, etc.; programmable system-on-chips (PSoCs); and so on. In such specific implementations, the circuit of the application circuit 702 may include logic blocks or logic architectures, as well as other interconnected resources that can be programmed to perform various functions such as the processes, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuit of the application circuit 702 may include memory units (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memories (EPROMs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs), flash memories, static memories (e.g., static random access memories (SRAMs), antifuse, etc.)) for storing logic blocks, logic architectures, data, etc. in look-up tables (LUTs), etc. The baseband circuit 704 may be implemented as, for example, a soldered-in substrate that includes one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to the main circuit board, or a multi-chip module that includes two or more integrated circuits.

[0067] The user interface circuit 718 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable a user to interact with the infrastructure device 700 or the peripheral component interface, which is designed to enable peripheral components to interact with the infrastructure device 700. The user interface may include, but is not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., reset buttons), one or more indicators (e.g., light-emitting diodes (LEDs)), physical keyboards or keypads, mice, touchpads, touchscreens, speakers or other audio emitting devices, microphones, printers, scanners, headsets, display screens or display devices, etc. The peripheral component interface may include, but is not limited to, non-volatile memory ports, universal serial bus (USB) ports, audio jacks, power interfaces, etc.

[0068] The radio front end module 706 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) radio front end module (RFEM) and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separated from the millimeter wave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays, and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical radio front end module 706 that combines both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0069] The memory circuit 708 may include one or more of the following: a volatile memory including a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and / or a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM); and a non-volatile memory (NVM) including a high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as “flash memory”), a phase change random access memory (PRAM), a magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc., and may be combined with and The memory circuit 708 may be implemented as one or more of: a solder-in package integrated circuit, a socket memory module, and a plug-in memory card.

[0070] The PMIC 710 may include a voltage regulator, a surge protector, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power sources, such as a battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of a brownout (undervoltage) and a surge (overvoltage) condition. The power tee circuit 712 may provide power extracted from a network cable to provide both power and data connections for the infrastructure equipment 700 using a single cable.

[0071] The network controller circuit 714 may provide a connection to the network using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet, Ethernet based on a GRE tunnel, Ethernet based on a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. A physical connection may be used to provide a network connection to / from the infrastructure equipment 700 via a network interface connector 720, which may be an electrical connection (commonly referred to as a "copper interconnect"), an optical connection, or a wireless connection. The network controller circuit 714 may include one or more dedicated processors and / or FPGAs for communicating using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some specific implementations, the network controller circuit 714 may include multiple controllers for providing connections to other networks using the same or different protocols.

[0072] The positioning circuit 716 includes circuitry for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcast by a positioning network of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include the Global Positioning System (GPS) of the United States, the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) of Russia, the Galileo system of the European Union, the Beidou Navigation Satellite System of China, regional navigation systems, or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., for navigation using the Indian Constellation (NAVIC), the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) of Japan, the Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) of France, etc.). The positioning circuit 716 includes various hardware components (e.g., including hardware devices for facilitating OTA communication such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc.) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuit 716 may include a Microtechnology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (Micro-PNT) IC that uses a primary timing clock to perform position tracking / estimation in the absence of GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 716 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 704 and / or the radio front-end module 706 to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit 716 may also provide position data and / or time data to the application circuit 702, which may use this data to synchronize operations with various infrastructures, etc. Figure 7 The components shown may communicate with each other using an interface circuit, which may include any number of bus and / or interconnect (IX) technologies such as Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), Extended ISA (EISA), Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), Peripheral Component Interconnect Extended (PCix), PCI Express (PCie), or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX may be a proprietary bus, e.g., used in an SoC-based system. Other bus / IX systems may be included, such as 2 I2C interface, SPI interface, point-to-point interface, and power bus, etc.

[0073] Figure 8 An example of a platform 800 is shown according to various embodiments. In an embodiment, the computer platform 800 may be adapted to be used as a UE, an application server, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. The platform 800 may include any combination of the components shown in the example. The components of the platform 800 may be implemented as an integrated circuit (IC), a portion of an IC, discrete electronic devices, or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or combinations thereof adapted within the computer platform 800, or as components otherwise incorporated within the chassis of a larger system. Figure 8 The block diagram is intended to show a high-level view of the components of the computer platform 800. However, some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components may be present, and different arrangements of the shown components may occur in other specific implementations.

[0074] The application circuit 802 includes circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more of an LDO, an interrupt controller, a serial interface (such as SPI), an I 2 C or a general-purpose programmable serial interface module, an RTC, timers (including interval timers and watchdog timers), general-purpose I / O, a memory card controller (such as an SD MMC or a similar controller), a USB interface, a MIPI interface, and a JTAG test access port. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 802 may be coupled to or may include a memory / storage element and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage element to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the platform 800. In some embodiments, the memory / storage element may be an on-chip memory circuit that may include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, and / or any other type of memory device technology such as those discussed herein.

[0075] The processor of the application circuit 802 may include, for example, one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one or more GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, one or more CISC processors, one or more DSPs, one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, a multi-threaded processor, an ultra-low voltage processor, an embedded processor, some other known processing elements, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuit 802 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating in accordance with the various embodiments herein.

[0076] As an example, the processor of the application circuit 802 may include a processor based on Architecture TM such as Quark TM , Atom TM , i3, i5, i7, or an MCU-class processor, or another such processor available from Corporation. The processor of the application circuit 802 may also be one or more of the following: an Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) processor or an accelerated processing unit (APU); an AS-A9 processor from Inc., a Snapdragon from Technologies, Inc.TM Processor, Texas Instruments, OpenMultimedia Applications Platform (OMAP) TM Processors; MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as MIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors; ARM-based designs licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as ARM Cortex-A, Cortex-R, and Cortex-M series processors; etc. In some particular implementations, application circuitry 802 can be part of a system-on-chip (SoC), where application circuitry 802 and other components are formed as a single integrated circuit or a single package, such as Edison from Corporation TM or Galileo TM SoC board.

[0077] In addition or alternatively, application circuitry 802 can include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more field programmable devices (FPDs) such as FPGAs, etc.; programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), etc.; ASICs, such as structured ASICs, etc.; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); etc. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry 802 can include logic blocks or logic architectures, as well as other interconnect resources that can be programmed to perform various functions such as the processes, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry 802 can include memory units (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), antifuse, etc.)) for storing logic blocks, logic architectures, data, etc. in look-up tables (LUTs), etc.

[0078] Baseband circuitry 804 can be implemented as, for example, a soldered-in substrate that includes one or more integrated circuits, a single-package integrated circuit soldered to the main circuit board, or a multi-chip module that includes two or more integrated circuits.

[0079] The radio front-end module 806 may include a millimeter-wave (mmWave) radio front-end module (RFEM) and one or more sub-millimeter-wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some embodiments, the one or more sub-millimeter-wave RFICs may be physically separated from the millimeter-wave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays, and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In an alternative embodiment, the radio functions of both millimeter-wave and sub-millimeter-wave may be implemented in the same physical radio front-end module 806 that combines millimeter-wave antennas and sub-millimeter-waves.

[0080] The memory circuit 808 may include any number and type of memory devices for providing a given amount of system memory. For example, the memory circuit 808 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory, which includes random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), and / or synchronous dynamic RAM (SD RAM); and non-volatile memory (NVM), which includes high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc. The memory circuit 808 may be developed according to Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) low-power double data rate (LPDDR)-based designs such as LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, etc. The memory circuit 808 may be implemented as one or more of the following: a soldered-in package integrated circuit, a single-die package (SDP), a dual-die package (DDP), or a quad-die package (Q17P), a socketed memory module, a dual in-line memory module (DIMM) (including micro-DIMM or mini-DIMM and / or soldered to a motherboard via a ball grid array (BGA)). In low-power embodiments, the memory circuit 808 may be on-chip memory or registers associated with the application circuit 802. To provide persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems, etc., the memory circuit 808 may include one or more mass storage devices, which may particularly include solid-state disk drives (SSDDs), hard disk drives (HDDs), micro-HDDs, resistive change memories, phase change memories, holographic memories, or chemical memories, etc. For example, the computer platform 800 may incorporate 3D cross-point (XPOINT) memory obtained from and ...

[0081] The removable memory circuit 814 may include a device, circuit, housing / case, port, or socket, etc. for coupling a portable data storage device to the platform 800. These portable data storage devices may be used for mass storage and may include, for example, flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, micro SD cards, xD Picture Cards, etc.), as well as USB flash drives, optical discs, external HDDs, etc.

[0082] The platform 800 may also include interface circuitry (not shown) for connecting external devices to the platform 800. External devices connected to the platform 800 via this interface circuitry include the sensor 810 and electromechanical components (shown as EMC 812), as well as a removable memory device coupled to the removable memory 814.

[0083] The sensor 810 includes a device, module, or subsystem aimed at detecting an event or change in its environment and sending information (sensor data) about the detected event to some other device, module, subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors particularly include: an inertial measurement unit (IMU) including an accelerometer, gyroscope, and / or magnetometer; a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) or nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) including a three-axis accelerometer, three-axis gyroscope, and / or magnetometer; a liquid level sensor; a flow sensor; a temperature sensor (e.g., a thermistor); a pressure sensor; a barometric pressure sensor; a gravimeter; an altimeter; an image capture device (e.g., a camera or a lensless aperture); a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor; a proximity sensor (e.g., an infrared radiation detector, etc.), a depth sensor, an ambient light sensor, an ultrasonic transceiver; a microphone or other similar audio capture device; etc.

[0084] The EMC 812 includes devices, modules, or subsystems that are intended to enable the platform 800 to change its state, position, and / or orientation, or to move or control mechanisms or (sub)systems. Additionally, the EMC 812 can be configured to generate messages / signaling and send messages / signaling to other components of the platform 800 to indicate the current state of the EMC 812. Examples of the EMC 812 include one or more power switches, relays (including electromechanical relays (EMRs) and / or solid-state relays (SSRs)), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), audible sound generators, visual warning devices, motors (e.g., DC motors, stepper motors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks, and / or other similar electromechanical components. In an embodiment, the platform 800 is configured to operate one or more EMC 812s based on one or more capture events and / or instructions or control signals received from service providers and / or various clients. In some specific implementations, the interface circuit can connect the platform 800 to the positioning circuit 822. The positioning circuit 822 includes circuitry for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcast by the positioning network of GNSS. Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) can include GPS of the United States, GLONASS of Russia, Galileo system of the European Union, Beidou Navigation Satellite System of China, regional navigation systems, or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., NAVIC, QZSS of Japan, DORIS of France, etc.). The positioning circuit 822 includes various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices for facilitating OTA communication such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc.) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuit 822 can include a micro PNT IC that uses the primary timing clock to perform position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 822 can also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 804 and / or the radio front-end module 806 to communicate with the nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit 822 can also provide position data and / or time data to the application circuit 802, which can use this data to synchronize operations with various infrastructures (e.g., radio base stations) for turn-by-turn navigation applications, etc.

[0085] In some embodiments, the interface circuit may couple platform 800 to a near field communication circuit (shown as NFC circuit 820). NFC circuit 820 is configured to provide contactless short-range communication based on radio frequency identification (RFID) standards, where magnetic field sensing is used to enable communication between NFC circuit 820 and an NFC-enabled device external to platform 800 (e.g., an “NFC contact point”). NFC circuit 820 includes an NFC controller coupled to an antenna element and a processor coupled to the NFC controller. The NFC controller may be a chip / IC that provides NFC functionality to NFC circuit 820 by executing NFC controller firmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack may be executed by the processor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmware may be executed by the NFC controller to control the antenna element to transmit short-range RF signals. The RF signals may power a passive NFC tag (e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transfer stored data to NFC circuit 820, or initiate data transfer between NFC circuit 820 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smart phone or an NFC-enabled POS terminal) in proximity to platform 800.

[0086] Driver circuit 824 may include software elements and hardware elements for controlling specific devices embedded in, attached to, or otherwise communicatively coupled to platform 800. Driver circuit 824 may include various drivers, thereby allowing other components of platform 800 to interact with or control various input / output (I / O) devices that may be present within or connected to the platform. For example, driver circuit 824 may include a display driver for controlling and allowing access to a display device, a touch screen driver for controlling and allowing access to the touch screen interface of platform 800, a sensor driver for obtaining sensor readings from sensor 810 and controlling and allowing access to sensor 810, an EMC driver for obtaining the actuator position of EMC 812 and / or controlling and allowing access to EMC 812, a camera driver for controlling and allowing access to an embedded image capture device, and an audio driver for controlling and allowing access to one or more audio devices.

[0087] A power management integrated circuit (shown as PMIC 816) (also referred to as a “power management circuit”) may manage the power provided to various components of platform 800. Specifically, relative to baseband circuit 804, PMIC 816 may control power selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion. When platform 800 is capable of being powered by battery 818, e.g., when the device is included in a UE, PMIC 816 is typically included.

[0088] In some embodiments, the PMIC 816 may control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms of the platform 800. For example, if the platform 800 is in the RRC_Connected state, in which the platform remains connected to the RAN node because it expects to receive traffic soon, then after a period of inactivity, the platform may enter a state called discontinuous reception mode (DRX). During this state, the platform 800 may power down for short intervals, thus saving power. If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, the platform 800 may transition to the RRC_Idle state, in which the platform is disconnected from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The platform 800 enters a very low power state and performs paging, in which the platform wakes up periodically to listen for the network and then powers down again. The platform 800 may not receive data in this state; to receive data, the platform must transition back to the RRC_Connected state. Additional power saving modes may allow the device to be out of network reach for longer than the paging interval (ranging from a few seconds to several hours). During this time, the device is completely unable to connect to the network and may be powered down completely. Any data sent during this time will incur a significant delay, and it is assumed that the delay is acceptable.

[0089] The battery 818 may power the platform 800, but in some examples, the platform 800 may be installed in a fixed location and may have a power source coupled to the electrical grid. The battery 818 may be a lithium-ion battery, a metal-air battery such as a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, etc. In some specific implementations, such as in V2X applications, the battery 818 may be a typical lead-acid automotive battery.

[0090] In some specific implementations, the battery 818 may be a "smart battery" that includes or is coupled to a battery management system (BMS) or a battery monitoring integrated circuit. The BMS may be included in the platform 800 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 818. The BMS may be used to monitor other parameters of the battery 818, such as the state of health (SoH) and state of function (SoF) of the battery 818 to provide fault prediction. The BMS may communicate information about the battery 818 to the application circuit 802 or other components of the platform 800. The BMS may also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter that allows the application circuit 802 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 818 or the current from the battery 818. The battery parameters may be used to determine actions that the platform 800 may perform, such as transmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, etc.

[0091] A power block or other power source coupled to the power grid can be coupled to the BMS to charge the battery 818. In some examples, the power block can be replaced with a wireless power receiver to wirelessly obtain power, for example, via a loop antenna in the computer platform 800. In these examples, the wireless battery charging circuit can be included in the BMS. The specific charging circuit selected can depend on the size of the battery 818 and thus on the current required. Charging can be performed using the aviation fuel standards published by the Aviation Fuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standard published by the Wireless Power Consortium, or the Rezence charging standard published by the Wireless Power Consortium.

[0092] The user interface circuit 826 includes various input / output (I / O) devices present within or connected to the platform 800 and includes one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the platform 800 and / or a peripheral component interface designed to enable interaction with peripheral components of the platform 800. The user interface circuit 826 includes input device circuitry and output device circuitry. The input device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for accepting input, particularly including one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, a microphone, a scanner, a headset, etc. The output device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for displaying information or otherwise conveying information (such as sensor readings, actuator positions, or other similar information). The output device circuitry can include any number and / or combination of audio or visual displays, particularly including one or more simple visual outputs / indicators such as binary state indicators (e.g., light-emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-character visual outputs, or more complex outputs such as a display device or a touchscreen (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD), an LED display, a quantum dot display, a projector, etc.), where the output of characters, graphics, multimedia objects, etc. is generated or produced by the operation of the platform 800. The output device circuitry can also include a speaker or other audio emitting device, a printer, etc. In some embodiments, the sensor 810 can be used as input device circuitry (e.g., an image capture device, a motion capture device, etc.) and one or more EMCs can be used as output device circuitry (e.g., an actuator for providing haptic feedback, etc.). In another example, an NFC circuit can be included to read an electronic tag and / or connect to another NFC-enabled device, the NFC circuit including an NFC controller and a processing device coupled to an antenna element. The peripheral component interface can include, but is not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a USB port, an audio jack, a power interface, etc.

[0093] Although not shown, components of platform 800 may communicate with each other using suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technology, which may include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCix, PCie, Time-Triggered Protocol (TTP) systems, FlexRay systems, or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX may be a proprietary bus / IX, such as used in a System-on-Chip (SoC)-based system. Other bus / IX systems may be included, such as 2 I2C interfaces, SPI interfaces, point-to-point interfaces, and power buses, among others.

[0094] Figure 9 Exemplary components of device 900 are shown in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, device 900 may include at least application circuitry 902, baseband circuitry 904, radio frequency (RF) circuitry (shown as RF circuitry 920), front-end module (FEM) circuitry (shown as FEM circuitry 930), one or more antennas 932, and power management circuitry (PMC) (shown as PMC 934) coupled together as shown. The illustrated components of device 900 may be included in a UE or a RAN node. In some embodiments, device 900 may include fewer elements (e.g., a RAN node may not utilize application circuitry 902 but may include a processor / controller to process IP data received from the EPC). In some embodiments, device 900 may include additional elements, such as memory / storage, a display, a camera, sensors, or input / output (I / O) interfaces. In other embodiments, the following components may be included in more than one device (e.g., the circuitry may be separately included in more than one device for a Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementation).

[0095] Application circuitry 902 may include one or more application processors. For example, application circuitry 902 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The one or more processors may include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). These processors may be coupled to memory / storage or may include memory / storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage such that various applications or operating systems can run on device 900. In some embodiments, the processors of application circuitry 902 may process IP data packets received from the EPC.

[0096] The baseband circuit 904 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuit 904 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic components to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuit 920 and generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 920. The baseband circuit 904 may interact with the application circuit 902 to generate and process baseband signals and control the operation of the RF circuit 920. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuit 904 may include a third-generation (3G) baseband processor (3G baseband processor 906), a fourth-generation (4G) baseband processor (4G baseband processor 908), a fifth-generation (5G) baseband processor (5G baseband processor 910), or other baseband processors 912 of other existing generations, generations under development, or generations to be developed in the future (e.g., second-generation (2G), sixth-generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuit 904 (e.g., one or more of the baseband processors) may process various radio control functions for implementing communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuit 920. In other embodiments, some or all of the functions of the illustrated baseband processor may be included in modules stored in the memory 918 and executed via a central processing unit (CPU 914). The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation / demodulation, encoding / decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, the modulation / demodulation circuit of the baseband circuit 904 may include fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping / demapping functions. In some embodiments, the encoding / decoding circuit of the baseband circuit 904 may include convolutional, tail-biting convolutional, turbo, Viterbi, or low-density parity-check (LDPC) encoder / decoder functions. Embodiments of the modulation / demodulation and encoder / decoder functions are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functions in other embodiments.

[0097] In some embodiments, the baseband circuit 904 may include a digital signal processor (DSP), such as one or more audio DSPs 916. The one or more audio DSPs 916 may include elements for compression / decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. In some embodiments, the components of the baseband circuit may be appropriately combined on a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuit 904 and the application circuit 902 may be implemented together, such as on a system-on-chip (SOC).

[0098] In some embodiments, baseband circuit 904 may provide communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuit 904 may support communication with evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area network (WMAN), wireless local area network (WLAN), wireless personal area network (WPAN). Embodiments in which baseband circuit 904 is configured to support radio communication of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuits.

[0099] RF circuit 920 may communicate with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, RF circuit 920 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate communication with the wireless network. RF circuit 920 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry for down-converting an RF signal received from FEM circuit 930 and providing a baseband signal to baseband circuit 904. RF circuit 920 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry for up-converting a baseband signal provided by baseband circuit 904 and providing an RF output signal for transmission to FEM circuit 930.

[0100] In some embodiments, the receive signal path of RF circuit 920 may include mixer circuit 922, amplifier circuit 924, and filter circuit 926. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of RF circuit 920 may include filter circuit 926 and mixer circuit 922. RF circuit 920 may also include synthesizer circuit 928 for synthesizing frequencies for use by mixer circuit 922 of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 922 of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert an RF signal received from FEM circuit 930 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuit 928. Amplifier circuit 924 may be configured to amplify the down-converted signal, and filter circuit 926 may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or a band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuit 904 for further processing. In some embodiments, although not required, the output baseband signal may be a zero-frequency baseband signal. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 922 of the receive signal path may include a passive mixer, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard.

[0101] In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 922 of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert an input baseband signal based on a synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 928 to generate an RF output signal for the FEM circuit 930. The baseband signal may be provided by the baseband circuit 904 and may be filtered by the filter circuit 926.

[0102] In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 922 of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 922 of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 922 of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 922 of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 922 of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 922 may be arranged for direct down-conversion and direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 922 of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 922 of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

[0103] In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the RF circuit 920 may include an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuit, and the baseband circuit 904 may include a digital baseband interface for communicating with the RF circuit 920.

[0104] In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuit may be provided to process signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard.

[0105] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 928 may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N / N+1 synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard since other types of frequency synthesizers may also be suitable. For example, the synthesizer circuit 928 may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0106] The synthesizer circuit 928 may be configured to synthesize an output frequency based on a frequency input and a frequency divider control input for use by the mixer circuit 922 of the RF circuit 920. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 928 may be a fractional N / N+1 synthesizer.

[0107] In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although this is not required. The divider control input may be provided by the baseband circuit 904 or the application circuit 902 (such as an application processor) according to the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on the channel indicated by the application circuit 902.

[0108] The synthesizer circuit 928 of the RF circuit 920 may include a divider, a delay locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide an input signal by N or N + 1 (e.g., based on a carry) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a cascade of tunable delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a set of D-type flip-flops. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to divide the VCO period into Nd equal phase bins, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO period.

[0109] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 928 may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and may be used with an in-phase / quadrature (IQ) generator and a divider circuit to generate multiple signals having multiple different phases relative to each other at that carrier frequency. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be the local oscillator frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit 920 may include an IQ / polarity converter.

[0110] The FEM circuit 930 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 932, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to the RF circuit 920 for further processing. The FEM circuit 930 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify transmit signals provided by the RF circuit 920 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 932. In various embodiments, amplification through the transmit or receive signal path may be accomplished only in the RF circuit 920, only in the FEM circuit 930, or in both the RF circuit 920 and the FEM circuit 930.

[0111] In some embodiments, the FEM circuit 930 may include a TX / RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operations. The FEM circuit 930 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuit 930 may include an LNA to amplify the received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuit 920). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuit 930 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify the input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuit 920), and one or more filters to generate an RF signal for subsequent transmission (e.g., via one or more of the one or more antennas 932).

[0112] In some embodiments, the PMC 934 may manage the power provided to the baseband circuit 904. Specifically, the PMC 934 may control power selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion. When the device 900 is capable of being powered by a battery, e.g., when the device 900 is included in a UE, the PMC 934 is typically included. The PMC 934 may improve power conversion efficiency while providing the desired implementation size and thermal characteristics.

[0113] Figure 9 The PMC 934 is shown coupled only to the baseband circuit 904. However, in other embodiments, the PMC 934 may additionally or alternatively be coupled to other components (such as but not limited to the application circuit 902, the RF circuit 920, or the FEM circuit 930) and perform similar power management operations for those components.

[0114] In some embodiments, the PMC 934 may control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms of the device 900. For example, if the device 900 is in the RRC_Connected state, where the device remains connected to the RAN node because it expects to receive traffic immediately, after a period of inactivity, the device may enter a state known as discontinuous reception mode (DRX). During this state, the device 900 may power down for short intervals, thus saving power.

[0115] If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, the device 900 may transition to the RRC_Idle state, where the device is disconnected from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The device 900 enters a very low power state and performs paging, where the device wakes up periodically again to listen for the network and then powers down again. The device 900 cannot receive data in this state, and in order to receive data, the device must transition back to the RRC_Connected state.

[0116] An additional power saving mode can cause the device to be unable to use the network for a time exceeding the paging interval (ranging from a few seconds to several hours). During this period, the device is completely unable to connect to the network and can be completely powered off. Any data sent during this period will incur a significant delay, and it is assumed that the delay is acceptable.

[0117] The processor of the application circuit 902 and the processor of the baseband circuit 904 can be used to execute elements of one or more instances of the protocol stack. For example, the processor of the baseband circuit 904 can be used, either alone or in combination, to execute layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processor of the application circuit 902 can utilize the data received from these layers (e.g., packet data) and further execute layer 4 functions (e.g., Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) layers). As mentioned herein, layer 3 can include the Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 2 can include the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, the Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, and the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 1 can include the physical (PHY) layer of the UE / RAN node, which will be described in further detail below.

[0118] Figure 10 An exemplary interface 1000 of the baseband circuit according to some embodiments is shown. As described above, Figure 9 the baseband circuit 904 can include a 3G baseband processor 906, a 4G baseband processor 908, a 5G baseband processor 910, other baseband processors 912, a CPU 914, and a memory 918 used by the processors. As shown, each of these processors can include a corresponding memory interface 1002 to send data to / from the memory 918.

[0119] The baseband circuit 904 can also include one or more interfaces to communicatively couple to other circuits / devices, such as a memory interface 1004 (e.g., an interface for sending / receiving data to / from a memory external to the baseband circuit 904), an application circuit interface 1006 (e.g., an interface for sending / receiving data to / from Figure 9 the application circuit 902), an RF circuit interface 1008 (e.g., an interface for sending / receiving data to / from Figure 9 the RF circuit 920), a wireless hardware connection interface 1010 (e.g., for sending / receiving data to / from a Near Field Communication (NFC) component, components (e.g., low power), an interface for sending / receiving data to / from the component and other communication components), and a power management interface 1012 (e.g., an interface for sending / receiving power or control signals to / from the PMC 934).

[0120] Figure 11 is a block diagram showing a component 1100 that can read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and can execute any one or more of the methods discussed herein. Specifically, Figure 11 shows a graphical representation of hardware resources 1102 including one or more processors 1112 (or processor cores), one or more memory / storage devices 1118, and one or more communication resources 1120, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1122. For embodiments in which node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1104 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1102.

[0121] The processor 1112 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) (such as a baseband processor), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, processors 1114 and 1116.

[0122] The memory / storage device 1118 may include a main memory, a disk memory, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 1118 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid state storage devices, etc.

[0123] The communication resource 1120 may include an interconnect or network interface component or other suitable device to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1106 or one or more databases 1108 via a network 1110. For example, the communication resource 1120 may include a wired communication component (e.g., for coupling via a universal serial bus (USB)), a cellular communication component, an NFC component, a component (e.g., low power consumption), a component and other communication components.

[0124] Instruction 1124 may include software, a program, an application, an applet, an application, or other executable code for causing at least any one of processors 1112 to execute any one or more of the method sets discussed herein. Instruction 1124 may reside, in whole or in part, in at least one of processors 1112 (e.g., within a cache memory of the processor), memory / storage device 1118, or any suitable combination thereof. Additionally, any portion of Instruction 1124 may be transferred from any combination of peripheral devices 1106 or database 1108 to hardware resources 1102. Accordingly, the memory of processor 1112, memory / storage device 1118, peripheral devices 1106, and database 1108 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0125] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components shown in one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to perform one or more of the operations, techniques, processes, and / or methods described in the following example section. For example, the baseband circuitry described above in connection with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the following examples. As another example, the circuitry associated with the UE, base station, network element, etc. described above in connection with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples shown in the following example section.

[0126] Example section

[0127] The following examples relate to additional embodiments.

[0128] Embodiment 1A may include an apparatus of a user equipment (UE), the apparatus including: one or more processors configured to: perform measurements on a plurality of source gNodeB (gNB) channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) samples associated with a source gNB, wherein the CSI-RS samples associated with the source gNB are transmitted in a first burst structure; perform measurements on a plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples associated with a target gNB, wherein the CSI-RS samples associated with the target gNB are transmitted in a second burst structure; filter at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples using a layer 1 or layer 2 filter and filter at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples using the layer 1 or layer 2 filter; generate a filtering result for each of the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples and the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples; and determine whether a handover from the source gNB to the target gNB will occur based on the generated filtering results for each of the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples and the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples; and a memory configured to store information associated with performing a UE-triggered lower layer-based handover.

[0129] Embodiment 2A may include the apparatus of Embodiment 1A, wherein determining whether a handover from the source gNB to the target gNB will occur includes identifying one or more conditions associated with determining that the handover from the source gNB to the target gNB will occur.

[0130] Embodiment 3A may include the apparatus of Embodiment 2A, wherein the one or more conditions include at least one of the following: determining whether the quality of the generated filtering result for the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples is greater than a first specified offset, and determining whether the quality of the generated filtering result for the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples is greater than the quality of the generated filtering result for the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples plus a second specified offset.

[0131] Embodiment 4A may include the apparatus of Embodiment 3A, wherein the quality of the generated filtering result includes one of reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), and signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR).

[0132] Example 5A may include the apparatus of Example 1A, wherein generating a filtering result for each of at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples includes averaging each sample of the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples, and generating a filtering result for each of at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples includes averaging each sample of the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples.

[0133] Example 6A may include the apparatus of Example 1A, wherein transmitting the source gNB CSI-RS samples in the first burst structure and transmitting the target gNB CSI-RS samples in the second burst structure includes transmitting each of the source gNB CSI-RS samples and the target gNB CSI-RS samples using a plurality of quasi-co-located symbols.

[0134] Example 7A may include the apparatus of Example 1A, wherein the periodicity of both the CSI-RS associated with the source gNB and the CSI-RS associated with the target gNB does not exceed 20 milliseconds (ms).

[0135] Example 8A may include a computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processor of a user equipment (UE) configured to perform a layer-based handover triggered by the UE, cause the processor to: perform measurements of a plurality of source gNB channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) samples associated with a source gNodeB (gNB), wherein the CSI-RS samples associated with the source gNB are transmitted in a first burst structure; perform measurements of a plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples associated with a target gNB, wherein the CSI-RS samples associated with the target gNB are transmitted in a second burst structure; filter at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples using a layer 1 or layer 2 filter and filter at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples using a layer 1 or layer 2 filter; generate a filtering result for each of at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples and at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples; and determine whether a handover from the source gNB to the target gNB will occur based on the generated filtering results for each of at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples and at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples.

[0136] Example 9A may include the computer-readable storage medium of Example 8A, wherein determining whether a handover will occur from the source gNB to the target gNB includes identifying one or more conditions associated with determining that the handover will occur from the source gNB to the target gNB.

[0137] Example 10A may include the computer-readable storage medium of Example 9A, wherein the one or more conditions include at least one of the following: determining whether the quality of the generated filtering result for the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples is greater than a first specified offset, and determining whether the quality of the generated filtering result for the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples is greater than the quality of the generated filtering result for the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples plus a second specified offset.

[0138] Example 11A may include the computer-readable storage medium of Example 10A, wherein the quality of the generated filtering result includes one of reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), and signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR).

[0139] Example 12A may include the computer-readable storage medium of Example 8A, wherein generating a filtering result for each of the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples includes averaging each sample in the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples, and generating a filtering result for each of the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples includes averaging each sample in the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples.

[0140] Example 13A may include the computer-readable storage medium of Example 8A, wherein the timing window associated with each of the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples and each of the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples includes three source gNB CSI-RS samples and three target gNB CSI-RS samples.

[0141] Example 14A may include the computer-readable storage medium of Example 13A, wherein the duration of the timing window is determined based on one or more capabilities of the UE.

[0142] Embodiment 15A may include a method for performing UE-triggered lower-layer-based handover, the method including: performing measurements on a plurality of source gNodeB (gNB) channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) samples associated with a source gNB, wherein the CSI-RS samples associated with the source gNB are transmitted in a first burst structure; performing measurements on a plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples associated with a target gNB, wherein the CSI-RS samples associated with the target gNB are transmitted in a second burst structure; filtering at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples using a layer 1 or layer 2 filter and filtering at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples using the layer 1 or layer 2 filter; generating a filtering result for each of the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples and the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples; and determining whether a handover from the source gNB to the target gNB will occur based on the generated filtering results for each of the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples and the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples.

[0143] Embodiment 16A may include the method of Embodiment 15A, wherein determining whether a handover from the source gNB to the target gNB will occur includes identifying one or more conditions associated with determining that the handover from the source gNB to the target gNB will occur.

[0144] Embodiment 17A may include the method of Embodiment 16A, wherein the one or more conditions include at least one of the following: determining whether the quality of the generated filtering result for the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples is greater than a first specified offset, and determining whether the quality of the generated filtering result for the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples is greater than the quality of the generated filtering result for the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples plus a second specified offset.

[0145] Embodiment 18A may include the method of Embodiment 17A, wherein the quality of the generated filtering result includes one of reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), and signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR).

[0146] Example 19A may include the method of Example 15A, wherein generating a filtering result for each of at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples includes averaging each sample in the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples, and generating a filtering result for each of at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples includes averaging each sample in the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples.

[0147] Example 20A may include the method of Example 15A, wherein the timing window associated with each of at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples and each of at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples includes three source gNB CSI-RS samples and three target gNB CSI-RS samples.

[0148] Example 1B may include an apparatus, the apparatus including components for performing one or more elements of the methods described in any of the above embodiments or related thereto or any other method or process described herein.

[0149] Example 2B may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media, the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media including instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of the methods described in any of the above embodiments or related thereto or any other method or process described herein.

[0150] Example 3B may include an apparatus, the apparatus including logic components, modules or circuits for performing one or more elements of the methods described in any of the above embodiments or related thereto or any other method or process described herein.

[0151] Example 4B may include the methods, techniques or processes described in any of the above embodiments or related thereto or parts or components thereof.

[0152] Example 5B may include an apparatus, the apparatus including: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media, the one or more computer-readable media including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the methods, techniques or processes described in any of the above embodiments or related thereto or parts thereof.

[0153] Example 6B may include the signals described in any of the above embodiments or related thereto or parts or components thereof.

[0154] Example 7B may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message, or a portion or component thereof, described in or related to any of the above embodiments, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[0155] Example 8B may include a signal encoded with data, or a portion or component thereof, described in or related to any of the above embodiments, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[0156] Example 9B may include a signal encoded with a datagram, packet, frame, segment, PDU, or message, or a portion or component thereof, described in or related to any of the above embodiments, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[0157] Example 10B may include an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors will cause the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process, or a portion thereof, described in or related to any of the above embodiments.

[0158] Example 11B may include a computer program that includes instructions, wherein execution of the program by a processing element will cause the processing element to perform a method, technique, or process, or a portion thereof, described in or related to any of the above embodiments.

[0159] Example 12B may include a signal in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0160] Example 13B may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0161] Example 14B may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[0162] Example 15B may include an apparatus for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[0163] Unless otherwise explicitly stated, any of the above embodiments may be combined with any other embodiment (or combination of embodiments). The foregoing description of one or more specific embodiments provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings, or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

[0164] Embodiments and implementations of the systems and methods described herein may include various operations, which may be embodied in machine-executable instructions to be executed by a computer system. The computer system may include one or more general-purpose or special-purpose computers (or other electronic devices). The computer system may include hardware components that include specific logic components for performing the operations, or may include a combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware.

[0165] It should be recognized that the systems described herein include a description of specific embodiments. These embodiments may be combined into a single system, partially incorporated into other systems, divided into multiple systems, or otherwise partitioned or combined. Additionally, it is contemplated that the parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. of one embodiment may be used in another embodiment. For clarity, these parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. are described in only one or more embodiments, and it should be recognized that, unless specifically stated herein, these parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. may be combined with or substituted for the parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. of another embodiment.

[0166] It is well known that the use of personally identifiable information should follow privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized to meet or exceed industry or government requirements for maintaining user privacy. Specifically, personally identifiable information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of inadvertent or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of authorized use should be clearly explained to users.

[0167] Although the foregoing has been described in considerable detail for purposes of clarity, it will be apparent that certain changes and modifications may be made without departing from the principles of the invention. It should be noted that there are many alternative ways of implementing both the processes and apparatuses described herein. Accordingly, the embodiments of the invention are to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive, and the specification is not limited to the details given herein but may be modified within the scope and equivalents of the appended claims.

Claims

1. An apparatus of a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: one or more processors configured to: perform measurements of a plurality of source gNodeB (gNB) channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) samples associated with a source gNB, wherein the CSI-RS samples associated with the source gNB are transmitted in a first burst structure; perform measurements of a plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples associated with a target gNB, wherein the CSI-RS samples associated with the target gNB are transmitted in a second burst structure; filter at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples using a layer 1 or layer 2 filter and filter at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples using the layer 1 or layer 2 filter; generate a filtering result for each of the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples and the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples, wherein generating a filtering result for each of the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples includes averaging each sample of the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples, and generating a filtering result for each of the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples includes averaging each sample of the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples; and based on the generated filtering results for each of the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples and the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples, determine whether a handover from the source gNB to the target gNB will occur; and a memory configured to store information associated with performing a UE-triggered lower layer-based handover.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein determining whether a handover from the source gNB to the target gNB will occur includes identifying one or more conditions associated with determining that the handover from the source gNB to the target gNB will occur.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the one or more conditions include at least one of the following: determining whether the quality of the generated filtering result for the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples is greater than a first specified offset, and determining whether the quality of the generated filtering result for the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples is greater than the quality of the generated filtering result for the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples plus a second specified offset.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the quality of the generated filtering result comprises one of a reference signal received power (RSRP), a reference signal received quality (RSRQ), and a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR).

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein transmitting the source gNB CSI-RS samples in the first burst structure and transmitting the target gNB CSI-RS samples in the second burst structure comprises transmitting each of the source gNB CSI-RS samples and the target gNB CSI-RS samples using a plurality of quasi co-located symbols.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the periodicity of both the CSI-RS associated with the source gNB and the CSI-RS associated with the target gNB does not exceed 20 milliseconds (ms).

7. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor of a user equipment (UE) configured to perform a layer-based handover triggered by the UE, cause the processor to: perform measurements of a plurality of source gNodeB (gNB) channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) samples associated with a source gNB, wherein the CSI-RS samples associated with the source gNB are transmitted in a first burst structure; perform measurements of a plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples associated with a target gNB, wherein the CSI-RS samples associated with the target gNB are transmitted in a second burst structure; filter at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples using a layer 1 or layer 2 filter and filter at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples using the layer 1 or the layer 2 filter; generate a filtering result for each of the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples and the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples, wherein generating a filtering result for each of the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples comprises averaging each sample in the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples, and generating a filtering result for each of the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples comprises averaging each sample in the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples; and determine whether a handover from the source gNB to the target gNB will occur based on the generated filtering results for each of the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples and the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples.

8. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 7, wherein determining whether a handover from the source gNB to the target gNB will occur includes identifying one or more conditions associated with determining that the handover from the source gNB to the target gNB will occur.

9. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 8, wherein the one or more conditions include at least one of the following: determining whether the quality of the generated filtering result for at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples is greater than a first specified offset, and determining whether the quality of the generated filtering result for at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples is greater than the quality of the generated filtering result for at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples plus a second specified offset.

10. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 9, wherein the quality of the generated filtering result includes one of reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), and signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR).

11. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 7, wherein the timing window associated with each of at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples and each of at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples includes three source gNB CSI-RS samples and three target gNB CSI-RS samples.

12. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 11, wherein the duration of the timing window is determined based on one or more capabilities of the UE.

13. A method for performing UE-triggered lower-layer-based handover, the method comprises: performing measurements on a plurality of source gNodeB (gNB) channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) samples associated with a source gNB, wherein the CSI-RS samples associated with the source gNB are transmitted in a first burst structure; performing measurements on a plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples associated with a target gNB, wherein the CSI-RS samples associated with the target gNB are transmitted in a second burst structure; filtering at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples using a layer 1 or layer 2 filter and filtering at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples using the layer 1 or layer 2 filter; Generate a filtering result for each of the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples and the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples, where generating a filtering result for each of the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples includes averaging each sample in the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples, and generating a filtering result for each of the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples includes averaging each sample in the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples; And Based on the generated filtering results for each of the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples and the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples, determine whether a handover from the source gNB to the target gNB will occur.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein determining whether a handover from the source gNB to the target gNB will occur includes identifying one or more conditions associated with determining that the handover from the source gNB to the target gNB will occur.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the one or more conditions include at least one of the following: determining whether the quality of the generated filtering result for the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples is greater than a first specified offset, and determining whether the quality of the generated filtering result for the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples is greater than the quality of the generated filtering result for the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples plus a second specified offset.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the quality of the generated filtering result includes one of reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), and signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR).

17. The method according to claim 13, wherein the timing window associated with each of the at least one subset of the plurality of source gNB CSI-RS samples and the at least one subset of the plurality of target gNB CSI-RS samples includes three source gNB CSI-RS samples and three target gNB CSI-RS samples.

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