Method and apparatus for dynamic compact measurement report resolution in a wireless system

Abstract

In one aspect of the present disclosure, a UE may be configured to: receive information indicating a reference point associated with at least one L1 measurement from a base station; determine a report value of the at least one L1 measurement based on a difference between the reference point and a measured value of the at least one L1 measurement; and transmit information indicating the report value to the base station.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application S / N. 63 / 025,942, filed on May 15, 2020, entitled “Dynamic Change Of Measurement Report Resolution,” U.S. Provisional Application S / N. 63 / 025,939, filed on May 15, 2020, entitled “Compact Layer 1 Report Using Reference Point,” and U.S. Patent Application No. 17 / 302,749, filed on May 11, 2021, entitled “Dynamic and Compact Measurement Report Resolution in Wireless Systems,” which are assigned to the assignee of the present application and are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. Technical Field

[0003] The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications and, more particularly, to layer 1 measurement reporting for beam-based communications. Background Art

[0004] Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide a variety of telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, and broadcasts. Typical wireless communication systems may employ multiple access technologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources. Examples of such multiple access technologies include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems.

[0005] These multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate at a city, country, region, and even global level. An example telecommunication standard is 5G New Radio (NR). 5G NR is part of the continuous mobile broadband evolution promulgated by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) to meet new requirements associated with latency, reliability, security, scalability (e.g., with the Internet of Things (IoT)) and other requirements. 5GNR includes services associated with enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine type communication (mMTC), and ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC). Some aspects of 5G NR may be based on the 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. There is a need for further improvements to 5G NR technology. These improvements may also be applicable to other multiple access technologies and telecommunication standards that employ these technologies. Summary of the invention

[0006] An overview of one or more aspects of the present disclosure is given below to provide a basic understanding of these aspects. This overview is not an exhaustive overview of all conceived features of the present disclosure, and is neither intended to identify the key or decisive elements of all aspects of the present disclosure, nor to attempt to define the scope of any or all aspects of the present disclosure. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more aspects of the present disclosure in a form as a preface to a more detailed description given later.

[0007] In various radio access networks (RANs), channel state information (CSI) reports are used for beam management between base stations and user equipment (UEs). In particular, CSI reports are important for beam reliability, which is used for unicast coverage in frequency range 2 (FR2). A CSI report may include a number of different fields, including, for example, a channel quality indicator (CQI), a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), a CSI reference signal (RS) resource indicator (CRI), a strongest layer indication (SLI), and / or a rank indication.

[0008] CSI reports may be periodic, semi-persistent, and / or aperiodic. For example, periodic and semi-persistent CSI reports may support a periodicity of 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, and / or 320 time slots. CSI reports may occur on an uplink control channel and / or an uplink data channel. For example, a periodic CSI report may be carried on a short physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a long PUCCH. Semi-persistent CSI reports may be carried on a long PUCCH or PUSCH, and resources and modulation and coding schemes (MCS) for semi-persistent CSI reports on PUSCH may be semi-persistently allocated via downlink control information (DCI). In addition, semi-persistent CSI reports may support type II with a minimum periodicity of 5 milliseconds (ms). However, for aperiodic CSI-RS, semi-persistent CSI reports may not be supported (although this may not exclude the carrying of one CSI report by multiple uplink reporting instances). Periodic CSI reports may be carried on the PUSCH with or without multiplexing with uplink data.

[0009] In some aspects, a CSI report may include layer 1 (L1) reference signal received power (RSRP) and / or L1 signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR). L1-RSRP and / or L1-SINR may be used for beam management. For example, L1-SINR may be used for beam selection taking into account interference (and L1-RSRP may have a similar format). Such L1 measurements may be relatively large (e.g., about 20 bits), which may result in poor coverage when carried on PUCCH. Thus, there is a need to improve the coverage of CSI reports that include L1 reports, for example, during transient periods where the current beam becomes weak and until a new beam is selected.

[0010] The present disclosure also provides various techniques and solutions for improving the reliability of L1 reporting. Specifically, the present disclosure provides efficient CSI reporting during transient periods by using compact L1 reporting. Compact L1 reporting can use fewer bits to convey L1 measurements from a UE to a base station.

[0011] In another aspect of the present disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus may be a UE, which is configured to: receive information indicating a reference point associated with at least one L1 measurement from a base station; determine a report value of the at least one L1 measurement based on a difference between the reference point and a measured value of the at least one L1 measurement; and transmit information indicating the report value to the base station.

[0012] In another aspect of the present disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus may be a base station, configured to: determine a reference point associated with at least one L1 measurement; transmit information indicating the reference point to a UE; receive information indicating a report value of the at least one L1 measurement from the UE, the report value being based on a difference between the reference point and a measured value of the at least one L1 measurement.

[0013] One aspect of the subject matter described in the present disclosure may be implemented in a method for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE). The method includes: receiving from a radio access network (RAN) entity an indication of a reduced measurement report resolution for beam measurements in a measurement report, the reduced measurement report resolution being less than a first measurement report resolution previously indicated for beam measurements. The method may also include: receiving a plurality of beams; performing measurements on the plurality of beams; and transmitting the measurement report to the RAN entity using the reduced measurement report resolution based on the beam measurements.

[0014] Another aspect of the subject matter described in the present disclosure can be implemented in a user equipment (UE). The UE includes a wireless transceiver, a memory, and a processor communicatively coupled to the wireless transceiver and the memory. The processor is configured to: receive an indication from a radio access network (RAN) entity to use a reduced measurement report resolution for beam measurements in a measurement report, the reduced measurement report resolution being less than a first measurement report resolution previously indicated for beam measurements. The processor is also configured to receive a plurality of beams; perform measurements on the plurality of beams; and transmit the measurement report to the RAN entity using the reduced measurement report resolution based on the beam measurements.

[0015] Another aspect of the subject matter described in the present disclosure can be implemented in a user equipment (UE). The UE includes means for receiving an indication from a radio access network (RAN) to use a reduced measurement reporting resolution for beam measurements in a means for reporting beam measurements. The UE also includes means for transmitting to the means for reporting beam measurements using the reduced measurement reporting resolution.

[0016] Another aspect of the subject matter described in the present disclosure can be implemented in a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable code, the computer-executable code including code for causing a user equipment (UE) to perform the following operations: receiving an indication from a radio access network (RAN) entity to use a reduced measurement report resolution for beam measurements in a measurement report, the reduced measurement report resolution being less than a first measurement report resolution previously indicated for beam measurements. The code can cause the UE to: receive a plurality of beams; perform measurements on the plurality of beams; and transmit the measurement report to the RAN entity using the reduced measurement report resolution based on the beam measurements.

[0017] In some implementations of the method and device, the method may include: receiving a report setting from the RAN entity before receiving the indication, the report setting indicating the first measurement report resolution and the content to be included in the measurement report. Thus, the device may be configured to: receive a report setting from the RAN entity before receiving the indication, the report setting indicating the first measurement report resolution and the content to be included in the measurement report.

[0018] In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the beam measurement comprises a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement or a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement. In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the plurality of beams comprises a first beam, a second beam, a third beam, and a fourth beam, and the first measurement reporting resolution has seven bits for reporting one or more measurements for the first beam, four bits for reporting one or more measurements for the second beam, four bits for reporting one or more measurements for the third beam, and four bits for reporting one or more measurements for the fourth beam.

[0019] In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the indication indicates a quantization level of beam measurements associated with a reduced measurement reporting resolution. In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the indication is received in a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), downlink control information (DCI) specific to a user equipment (UE), or a group common DCI.

[0020] In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the indication indicates that each of the one or more measurements of the beam measurement is to be reduced by a specific number of bits. In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the indication indicates a reduction in the number of bits to be used for a first beam measurement in the beam measurement, the method further comprising reducing the number of bits used for each of the one or more other measurements in the beam measurement based on the reduction in the number of bits to be used for the first beam measurement.

[0021] In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the beam measurement includes an absolute beam measurement of a first beam in the plurality of beams and a differential beam measurement of a second beam in the plurality of beams relative to the absolute beam measurement of the first beam. In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the measurement report is a physical layer measurement report.

[0022] In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the method includes receiving a second indication from the RAN entity to resume using the first measurement report resolution for beam measurements in a subsequent measurement report. In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the apparatus are configured to receive a second indication from the RAN entity to resume using the first measurement report resolution for beam measurements in a subsequent measurement report.

[0023] In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the method includes receiving a second indication from the RAN entity that the reduced measurement reporting resolution for beam measurements is to be further reduced in subsequent measurement reports. In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the apparatus are configured to receive a second indication from the RAN entity that the reduced measurement reporting resolution for beam measurements is to be further reduced in subsequent measurement reports.

[0024] One aspect of the subject matter described in the present disclosure may be implemented in a method for wireless communication at a radio access network (RAN) node. The method includes: transmitting to a user equipment (UE) an indication to use a reduced measurement report resolution for beam measurements in a measurement report, the reduced measurement report resolution being less than a first measurement report resolution previously indicated for beam measurements. The method also includes: transmitting a plurality of beams; and receiving the measurement report from the UE based on the beam measurements using the reduced measurement report resolution.

[0025] Another aspect of the subject matter described in the present disclosure can be implemented in a radio access network (RAN) node. The RAN node includes a wireless transceiver, a memory, and a processor communicatively coupled to the wireless transceiver and the memory. The processor is configured to: transmit to a user equipment (UE) an indication to use a reduced measurement report resolution for beam measurements in a measurement report, the reduced measurement report resolution being less than a first measurement report resolution previously indicated for beam measurements. The processor is also configured to: transmit a plurality of beams; and receive the measurement report from the UE based on the beam measurements using the reduced measurement report resolution.

[0026] Another aspect of the subject matter described in the present disclosure can be implemented in a radio access network (RAN) node. The RAN node includes: means for transmitting to a user equipment (UE) an indication to use a reduced measurement reporting resolution for beam measurements in a means for reporting beam measurements. The RAN node also includes means for transmitting a plurality of beams; and means for receiving from the means for reporting beam measurements using a reduced measurement reporting resolution.

[0027] Another aspect of the subject matter described in the present disclosure can be implemented in a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable code, the computer-executable code including code that causes a radio access network (RAN) node to perform the following operations: transmit an indication to a user equipment (UE) to use a reduced measurement report resolution for beam measurements in a measurement report, the reduced measurement report resolution being less than a first measurement report resolution previously indicated for beam measurements. The code also causes the RAN node to: transmit a plurality of beams; and receive the measurement report from the UE based on the beam measurements using the reduced measurement report resolution.

[0028] In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the method includes transmitting, from the RAN entity, a report setting prior to transmitting the indication, the report setting indicating a first measurement report resolution and content to be included in the measurement report. In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the apparatus are configured to transmit, from the RAN entity, a report setting prior to transmitting the indication, the report setting indicating a first measurement report resolution and content to be included in the measurement report.

[0029] In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the indication indicates a quantization level of beam measurements associated with the reduced measurement reporting resolution. In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the indication indicates that each of the one or more measurements of the beam measurements are to be reduced by a specific number of bits.

[0030] In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the indication indicates a reduction in the number of bits used for a first beam measurement in the beam measurement, and the method further includes reducing the number of bits used for each of one or more other measurements in the beam measurement based on the reduction in the number of bits to be used for the first beam measurement.

[0031] In some implementations of the methods and apparatus, one of the beam measurements includes an absolute beam measurement of a first beam of the plurality of beams and a differential beam measurement of a second beam of the plurality of beams relative to the absolute beam measurement of the first beam.

[0032] In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the method includes transmitting to the UE a second indication to resume using the first measurement report resolution for beam measurements in a subsequent measurement report. In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the apparatus is configured to transmit to the UE a second indication to resume using the first measurement report resolution for beam measurements in a subsequent measurement report.

[0033] In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the method includes transmitting to the UE a second indication that the reduced measurement report resolution for beam measurements is to be further reduced in subsequent measurement reports. In some implementations of the method and apparatus, the apparatus are configured to transmit to the UE a second indication that the reduced measurement report resolution for beam measurements is to be further reduced in subsequent measurement reports.

[0034] To achieve the foregoing and related ends, the one or more aspects include the features fully described below and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description and the accompanying drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative features of the one or more aspects. However, these features are merely indicative of several of the various ways in which the principles of the various aspects may be employed, and this description is intended to cover all such aspects and their equivalents. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0035] Figure 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a wireless communication system and an access network.

[0036] Figure 2A , 2B , 2C, and 2D are diagrams illustrating examples of a first 5G / NR frame, a DL channel within a 5G / NR subframe, a second 5G / NR frame, and a UL channel within a 5G / NR subframe, respectively.

[0037] Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a base station and a user equipment (UE) in an access network.

[0038] Figure 4 is a call flow diagram illustrating operations in an access network.

[0039] Figure 5 is a flow chart of a method for wireless communication by a UE.

[0040] Figure 6 is a flow chart of a method for performing wireless communication by a base station.

[0041] Figure 7 is a schematic illustration of a wireless communication system within which various aspects may be implemented.

[0042] Figure 8 is a conceptual illustration of an example of a Radio Access Network (RAN) within which various aspects may be implemented.

[0043] Fig. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a frame structure for use in a radio access network within which various aspects may be implemented.

[0044] Fig.10 is a block diagram illustrating a wireless communication system supporting beamforming and / or multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications within which various aspects may be implemented.

[0045] Fig.11 is a diagram illustrating an example of communication between a radio access network (RAN) node and a user equipment (UE) using beamforming in which various aspects may be implemented.

[0046] Fig.12 is a diagram illustrating an example of channel state information (CSI) resource mapping within which various aspects may be implemented.

[0047] Fig.13 is a diagram illustrating an example of signaling between a user equipment (UE) and a RAN node in accordance with some aspects.

[0048] Fig.14 is a diagram illustrating examples of various configurations of measurement reports in accordance with some aspects.

[0049] Fig.15A -C is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of an indication indicating reduced measurement reporting resolution in accordance with some aspects.

[0050] Fig.16 is a diagram illustrating an example of measurement reports sent over time in accordance with some aspects.

[0051] Fig.17 is a diagram illustrating another example of measurement reporting in accordance with some aspects.

[0052] Fig.18 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for a RAN node employing a processing system in accordance with some aspects.

[0053] Fig.19 is a flow chart of an example methodology for a RAN node to dynamically change measurement report resolution in accordance with some aspects.

[0054] Fig. 20 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for a UE employing a processing system in accordance with some aspects.

[0055] Fig.21 is a flow chart of an example method for a UE to dynamically change measurement reporting resolution in accordance with some aspects. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0056] The detailed description set forth below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings is intended as a description of various configurations and is not intended to represent the only configurations in which the concepts described herein may be practiced. This detailed description includes specific details to provide a thorough understanding of the various concepts. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that these concepts may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known structures and components are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid diluting such concepts.

[0057] Several aspects of telecommunication systems will now be presented with reference to various apparatus and methods. These apparatus and methods will be described in the following detailed description and illustrated in the accompanying drawings by various blocks, components, circuits, processes, algorithms, etc. (collectively referred to as "elements"). These elements may be implemented using electronic hardware, computer software, or any combination thereof. Whether such elements are implemented as hardware or software depends on the specific application and the design constraints imposed on the overall system.

[0058] As an example, an element, or any part of an element, or any combination of elements may be implemented as a "processing system" including one or more processors. Examples of processors include: microprocessors, microcontrollers, graphics processing units (GPUs), central processing units (CPUs), application processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors, systems on chip (SoCs), baseband processors, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), state machines, gating logic, discrete hardware circuits, and other suitable hardware configured to perform various functionalities described throughout this disclosure. One or more processors in a processing system may execute software. Software should be broadly interpreted as meaning instructions, instruction sets, codes, code segments, program codes, programs, subroutines, software components, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executables, threads of execution, procedures, functions, etc., whether it is described in software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or other terms.

[0059] Accordingly, in one or more example configurations, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, each function may be stored or encoded as one or more instructions or codes on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media include computer storage media. Storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. As an example and not limitation, such computer-readable media may include random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage, other magnetic storage devices, a combination of the above-mentioned types of computer-readable media, or any other medium that can be used to store computer-executable code in the form of instructions or data structures that can be accessed by a computer.

[0060] Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc. These systems may be able to support communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple access systems include fourth generation (4G) systems (such as long term evolution (LTE) systems, advanced LTE (LTE-A) systems, or LTE-A Pro systems), and fifth generation (5G) systems, which may be referred to as new radio (NR) systems. These systems may employ various technologies, such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), or discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-S-OFDM).

[0061] A wireless communication network may include numerous network nodes, including a core network, a base station in communication with the core network, and a user equipment (UE) served by the base station. Each base station and UE may be equipped with multiple antennas, which may be used to employ techniques such as transmit diversity, multiple input multiple output (MIMO), or beamforming. Beamforming is a technique for forming a unicast beam between network nodes (e.g., between a base station and a UE, between a base station and another base station, or between a UE and another UE), which may improve the performance of a wireless communication link between two network nodes. More specifically, beamforming refers to a signal processing technique that may be used at a transmitting device or a receiving device to shape or direct an energy beam along a spatial path between a transmitting device and a receiving device. Beamforming may be achieved by combining or adjusting signals transmitted via antenna elements of a multi-antenna array so that signals propagating in different orientations or directions relative to the antenna array experience constructive interference, while other signals experience destructive interference.

[0062] Adjustment of the signal transmitted via the corresponding antenna element may include applying amplitude and phase offsets to the signal to generate a beam. The amplitude and phase offset may be determined by performing measurements on a reference signal and estimating the channel based on these measurements. For example, in order to select one or more beams for communication between a base station and a UE, the base station may transmit reference signals, such as synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) or channel state information (CSI) reference signals (CSI-RS), on multiple beams in a beam sweeping manner. The UE may perform one or more measurements on the received beam and return a layer 1 (L1) measurement report including beam measurements obtained for one or more measured beams. For example, beam measurements may include reference signal received power (RSRP) or signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR).

[0063] Various aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to reducing the size of measurement reports, particularly layer 1 (L1) measurement reports that report beam measurements, such as reference signal received power (RSRP) or signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR). In many scenarios, such as weak coverage or critical coverage scenarios, reliability may be more important than resolution. In such scenarios, radio resource control (RRC) signaling may indicate to a user equipment (UE) that the measurement report will be transmitted with a reduced resolution. The configuration of the measurement report, commonly referred to as a report setting, may indicate the number of bits and resource indicators used to report the beam measurements. The RRC signaling may indicate that the beam measurements reported in the measurement report associated with a particular report setting will have a lower resolution. For example, a radio access network (RAN) node may indicate to the UE that the length or size of the beam measurements reported in the L1-SINR measurement report is to be reduced by two bits. For example, the L1-SINR measurement report may report four beam measurements, of which seven bits are used for the first beam and four bits are used for the remaining beams, for a total of 19 bits. The reduced resolution L1-SINR measurement report may report four beam measurements, with five bits used for the first beam and two bits used for the remaining beams, for a total of 11 bits, a 42% reduction from 19. At a later time, when reduced resolution reporting is no longer desired, RRC signaling may indicate to the UE that reduced resolution measurement reports should no longer be sent.

[0064] Certain aspects of the subject matter described in this disclosure may be implemented to achieve one or more of the following potential advantages. In some aspects, the disclosed techniques may be used to reduce the size of measurement reports by reducing the size of their payloads. When the size of measurement reports is reduced, more measurement reports may be reliably sent. In some aspects, smaller payloads in beam measurement reports result in more reliable delivery in situations where coverage is weak and in situations where coverage is critical.

[0065] The electromagnetic spectrum is often subdivided into different categories, bands, channels, etc. based on frequency / wavelength by different authors or entities. For example, in 5G NR, two initial operating bands have been identified as frequency range designations FR1 (410 MHz-7125 MHz) and FR2 (24250 MHz – 52600 MHz). FR1 is often (interchangeably) referred to as the sub-6 GHz band in various documents and articles on the subject of 5G NR, even though a portion of FR1 is greater than 6 GHz (> 6000 MHz). Similar naming issues sometimes arise regarding FR2 in various documents and articles on the subject of 5G NR. FR2 is often (interchangeably) referred to as the millimeter wave band, even though a portion of FR2 is less than 30 GHz (<30000 MHz). However, some authors / entities prefer to define wireless signals with wavelengths between 1-10 mm as falling within the millimeter wave band (30 GHz – 300 GHz).

[0066] With the above examples in mind, unless specifically stated otherwise, it should be understood that the term "sub-6 GHz," if used as an example herein, may refer to all or a portion of FR1 for 5G NR. Additionally, unless specifically stated otherwise, it should be understood that the term "millimeter wave," as used as an example herein, may refer to all or a portion of FR2 for 5G NR and / or all or a portion of the 30 GHz-300 GHz band. It should also be understood that the terms "sub-6 GHz" and "millimeter wave" are intended to represent modifications to such example frequency bands that may occur as a result of decisions by the author / entity for wireless communications, for example, as given by example herein.

[0067] It should be understood that the above examples are not necessarily intended to limit the claimed subject matter. For example, unless specifically stated, the claimed subject matter related to wireless communications is not necessarily intended to be limited to frequency bands defined by any particular author / entity, etc.

[0068] In addition, although various aspects and configurations are described in this application by explanation of some examples, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that additional implementations and use cases may be generated in many different arrangements and scenarios. The innovations described herein may be implemented across many different platform types, devices, systems, shapes, sizes, and packaging arrangements. For example, each configuration and / or use may be generated via an integrated chip configuration and other devices based on non-module components (e.g., end-user devices, vehicles, communication devices, computing devices, industrial equipment, retail / shopping devices, medical devices, AI-enabled devices, etc.). Although some examples may or may not be specifically for each use case or application, the wide applicability of the described innovation may occur. The scope of each implementation may range from chip-level or module components to non-module, non-chip-level implementations, and further to aggregated, distributed or OEM devices or systems incorporating one or more aspects of the described innovation. In some practical environments, the devices incorporating the various aspects and features described may also necessarily include additional components and features for implementing and practicing the configuration claimed and described. For example, the transmission and reception of wireless signals necessarily include several components for analog and digital purposes (e.g., hardware components, including antennas, RF chains, power amplifiers, modulators, buffers, processors, interleavers, adders / summers, etc.). The innovations described herein are intended to be practiced in a wide variety of devices, chip-level components, systems, distributed arrangements, end-user devices, etc., of various sizes, shapes, and configurations.

[0069] Figure 1 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a wireless communication system and access network 100. The wireless communication system (also referred to as a wireless wide area network (WWAN)) includes a base station 102, a UE 104, an evolved packet core (EPC) 160, and another core network 190 (e.g., a 5G core (5GC)). The base station 102 may include a macro cell (a high-power cellular base station) and / or a small cell (a low-power cellular base station). A macro cell includes a base station. A small cell includes a femto cell, a pico cell, and a micro cell.

[0070] The base station 102 configured for 4G LTE (collectively referred to as the Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN)) can interface with the EPC 160 via a first backhaul link 132 (e.g., an S1 interface). The base station 102 configured for 5G NR (collectively referred to as the Next Generation RAN (NG-RAN)) can interface with the core network 190 via a second backhaul link 184. Among other functions, the base station 102 can also perform one or more of the following functions: delivery of user data, radio channel encryption and decryption, integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection establishment and release, load balancing, distribution of non-access stratum (NAS) messages, NAS node selection, synchronization, radio access network (RAN) sharing, multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS), subscriber and equipment tracking, RAN information management (RIM), paging, positioning, and delivery of alert messages. The base stations 102 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (eg, through the EPC 160 or the core network 190) over a third backhaul link 134 (eg, an X2 interface). The first backhaul link 132, the second backhaul link 184, and the third backhaul link 134 may be wired or wireless.

[0071] Base stations 102 may communicate wirelessly with UEs 104. Each base station 102 may provide communication coverage for a respective geographic coverage area 110. There may be overlapping geographic coverage areas 110. For example, a small cell 102' may have a coverage area 110' that overlaps with the coverage area 110 of one or more macro base stations 102. A network that includes both small cells and macro cells may be referred to as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include a home evolved Node B (eNB) (HeNB), which may provide services to a restricted group referred to as a closed subscriber group (CSG). A communication link 120 between a base station 102 and a UE 104 may include an uplink (UL) (also known as a reverse link) transmission from the UE 104 to the base station 102 and / or a downlink (DL) (also known as a forward link) transmission from the base station 102 to the UE 104. The communication link 120 may use multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, including spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and / or transmit diversity. These communication links may be over one or more carriers. The base station 102 / UE 104 may use spectrum of up to Y MHz (e.g., 5, 10, 15, 20, 100, 400 MHz, etc.) bandwidth for each carrier allocated in a carrier aggregation for a total of up to Yx MHz (x component carriers) for transmission in each direction. The carriers may or may not be adjacent to each other. The allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to DL and UL (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated to DL compared to UL). The component carrier may include a primary component carrier and one or more secondary component carriers. The primary component carrier may be referred to as a primary cell (PCell) and the secondary component carrier may be referred to as a secondary cell (SCell).

[0072] Certain UEs 104 may communicate with each other using a device-to-device (D2D) communication link 158. The D2D communication link 158 may use DL / UL WWAN spectrum. The D2D communication link 158 may use one or more sidelink channels, such as a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH), a physical sidelink discovery channel (PSDCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), and a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH). D2D communications may be through a variety of wireless D2D communication systems, such as, for example, WiMedia, Bluetooth, ZigBee, Wi-Fi based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard, LTE, or NR.

[0073] The wireless communication system may further include a Wi-Fi access point (AP) 150 in communication with a Wi-Fi station (STA) 152 in the 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum via a communication link 154. When communicating in the unlicensed spectrum, the STA 152 / AP 150 may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) prior to communication to determine whether the channel is available.

[0074] The small cell 102' may operate in a licensed and / or unlicensed spectrum. When operating in an unlicensed spectrum, the small cell 102' may employ NR and use the same 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum as used by the Wi-Fi AP 150. The small cell 102' employing NR in the unlicensed spectrum may boost the coverage of the access network and / or increase the capacity of the access network.

[0075] Whether a small cell 102' or a large cell (e.g., a macro base station), the base station 102 may include and / or be referred to as an eNB, a g B node (gNB), or another type of base station. Some base stations (such as gNB 180) may operate in traditional sub-6 GHz spectrum, millimeter wave (mmW) frequencies, and / or near mmW frequencies to communicate with UE 104. When gNB 180 operates in mmW or near mmW frequencies, gNB 180 may be referred to as a mmW base station. Extremely high frequency (EHF) is part of the RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF has a range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz and a wavelength between 1 mm and 10 mm. Radio waves in this band may be referred to as millimeter waves. Near mmW may extend down to 3 GHz frequencies with a wavelength of 100 mm. The super high frequency (SHF) band extends between 3 GHz and 30 GHz, which is also referred to as centimeter waves. The frequency range bands include frequency range 1 (FR1), which includes frequency bands below 7.225 GHz, and frequency range 2 (FR2), which includes frequency bands above 24.250 GHz. Communications using mmW / near mmW radio frequency (RF) bands (e.g., 3 GHz – 300 GHz) have extremely high path loss and short range. The base station / UE may operate within one or more frequency range bands. The mmW base station 180 may utilize beamforming 182 with the UE 104 to compensate for the extremely high path loss and short range. The base station 180 and the UE 104 may each include multiple antennas, such as antenna elements, antenna panels, and / or antenna arrays to facilitate beamforming.

[0076] The base station 180 may transmit beamformed signals in one or more transmit directions 182' to the UE 104. The UE 104 may receive beamformed signals from the base station 180 in one or more receive directions 182". The UE 104 may also transmit beamformed signals to the base station 180 in one or more transmit directions. The base station 180 may receive beamformed signals from the UE 104 in one or more receive directions. The base station 180 / UE 104 may perform beam training to determine the best receive direction and transmit direction for each of the base station 180 / UE 104. The transmit direction and receive direction of the base station 180 may be the same or may be different. The transmit direction and receive direction of the UE 104 may be the same or may be different.

[0077] The EPC 160 may include a mobility management entity (MME) 162, other MMEs 164, a serving gateway 166, a multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) gateway 168, a broadcast multicast service center (BM-SC) 170, and a packet data network (PDN) gateway 172. The MME 162 may be in communication with a home subscriber server (HSS) 174. The MME 162 is a control node that handles signaling between the UE 104 and the EPC 160. In general, the MME 162 provides bearer and connection management. All user Internet Protocol (IP) packets are delivered through the serving gateway 166, which itself is connected to the PDN gateway 172. The PDN gateway 172 provides UE IP address allocation and other functions. The PDN gateway 172 and the BM-SC 170 are connected to IP services 176. The IP services 176 may include the Internet, an intranet, an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS), a PS streaming service, and / or other IP services. The BM-SC 170 may provide functionality for MBMS user service provisioning and delivery. The BM-SC 170 may serve as an entry point for content provider MBMS transmissions, may be used to authorize and initiate MBMS bearer services within a public land mobile network (PLMN), and may be used to schedule MBMS transmissions. The MBMS Gateway 168 may be used to distribute MBMS traffic to base stations 102 belonging to a multicast broadcast single frequency network (MBSFN) area that broadcasts a specific service, and may be responsible for session management (start / stop) and for collecting eMBMS-related charging information.

[0078] The core network 190 may include an access and mobility management function (AMF) 192, other AMFs 193, a session management function (SMF) 194, and a user plane function (UPF) 195. The AMF 192 may be in communication with a unified data management (UDM) 196. The AMF 192 is a control node that handles signaling between the UE 104 and the core network 190. In general, the AMF 192 provides QoS flow and session management. All user Internet Protocol (IP) packets are delivered through the UPF 195. The UPF 195 provides UE IP address allocation and other functions. The UPF 195 is connected to an IP service 197. The IP service 197 may include the Internet, an intranet, an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS), a packet switching (PS) streaming (PSS) service, and / or other IP services.

[0079] A base station may include and / or be referred to as a gNB, a Node B, an eNB, an access point, a base transceiver station, a radio base station, a radio transceiver, a transceiver function, a basic service set (BSS), an extended service set (ESS), a transmission reception point (TRP), or some other suitable term. The base station 102 provides an access point to the EPC 160 or the core network 190 for the UE 104. Examples of UE 104 include a cellular phone, a smart phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a laptop, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a satellite radio, a global positioning system, a multimedia device, a video device, a digital audio player (e.g., an MP3 player), a camera, a game console, a tablet device, a smart device, a wearable device, a vehicle, an electric meter, a gas pump, a large or small kitchen appliance, a health care device, an implant, a sensor / actuator, a display, or any other similar functional device. Some UEs 104 may be referred to as IoT devices (e.g., parking meters, gas pumps, ovens, vehicles, heart monitors, etc.). UE 104 may also be referred to as a station, a mobile station, a subscriber station, a mobile unit, a subscriber unit, a wireless unit, a remote unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, a wireless communication device, a remote device, a mobile subscriber station, an access terminal, a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a remote terminal, a handset, a user agent, a mobile client, a client, or some other suitable terminology.

[0080] Although the present disclosure may focus on 5G NR, the concepts and various aspects described herein may be applicable to other similar areas such as LTE, Advanced LTE (LTE-A), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), or other wireless / radio access technologies.

[0081] Refer again Figure 1In certain aspects, the base station 102 / 180 may be configured to determine a reference point associated with at least one layer 1 (L1) measurement. The base station 102 / 180 may transmit information indicating the reference point to the UE 104. The base station 102 / 180 may then receive information indicating a report value of the at least one L1 measurement from the UE 104, the report value being based on a difference between the reference point and a measured value of the at least one L1 measurement, that is, the base station 102 / 180 may receive an L1 measurement report (198) from the UE 104 indicating at least one report value based on the reference point.

[0082] Accordingly, the UE 104 may be configured to receive information indicating a reference point associated with at least one L1 measurement from the base station 102 / 180. The UE 104 may determine a report value for the at least one L1 measurement based on a difference between the reference point and a measured value of the at least one L1 measurement. The UE 104 may then transmit information indicating the report value to the base station 102 / 180. That is, the UE 104 may transmit an L1 measurement report (198) indicating at least one report value based on a reference point configured by the base station 102 / 180.

[0083] Figure 2A 200 is a diagram illustrating an example of a first subframe within a 5G / NR frame structure. Figure 2B FIG230 is a diagram illustrating an example of DL channels within a 5G / NR subframe. Figure 2C 250 is a diagram illustrating an example of a second subframe within a 5G / NR frame structure. Figure 2D 280 is a diagram illustrating an example of UL channels within a 5G / NR subframe. The 5G / NR frame structure can be frequency division duplex (FDD), where for a particular set of subcarriers (carrier system bandwidth), subframes within that subcarrier set are dedicated to either DL or UL; or can be time division duplex (TDD), where for a particular set of subcarriers (carrier system bandwidth), subframes within that subcarrier set are dedicated to both DL and UL. Figure 2A , 2CIn the example provided, the 5G / NR frame structure is assumed to be TDD, where subframe 4 is configured with slot format 28 (mostly DL) and subframe 3 is configured with slot format 34 (mostly UL), where D is DL, U is UL, and F is for flexible use between DL / UL. Although subframes 3 and 4 are shown as having slot formats 34 and 28, respectively, any particular subframe may be configured with any of the various available slot formats 0-61. Slot formats 0 and 1 are full DL and full UL, respectively. Other slot formats 2-61 include a mix of DL, UL, and flexible symbols. The UE is configured with a slot format (dynamically configured through DL control information (DCI) or semi-statically / statically configured through radio resource control (RRC) signaling) through the received slot format indicator (SFI). Note that the following description also applies to the 5G / NR frame structure for TDD.

[0084] Other wireless communication technologies may have different frame structures and / or different channels. A frame (10 ms) may be divided into 10 equally sized subframes (1 ms). Each subframe may include one or more slots. A subframe may also include mini-slots, which may include 7, 4, or 2 symbols. Each slot may include 7 or 14 symbols, depending on the slot configuration. For slot configuration 0, each slot may include 14 symbols, while for slot configuration 1, each slot may include 7 symbols. The symbols on the DL may be cyclic prefix (CP) OFDM (CP-OFDM) symbols. The symbols on the UL may be CP-OFDM symbols (for high throughput scenarios) or discrete Fourier transform (DFT) spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) symbols (also known as single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) symbols) (for power-limited scenarios; limited to single stream transmission). The number of slots within a subframe is based on the slot configuration and parameter design. For slot configuration 0, different parameter designs µ of 0 to 4 allow 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 slots per subframe, respectively. For slot configuration 1, different parameter designs 0 to 2 allow 2, 4, and 8 slots per subframe, respectively. Accordingly, for slot configuration 0 and parameter design µ, there are 14 symbols per slot and 2 per subframe. µ time slots. The subcarrier spacing and symbol length / duration vary depending on parameter design. The subcarrier spacing can be equal to 2 µ * 15 kHz, where µ is parameter design 0 to 4. Thus, parameter design µ=0 has a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz, while parameter design µ=4 has a subcarrier spacing of 240 kHz. Figures 2A-2DAn example is provided for slot configuration 0 with 14 symbols per slot and parameter design µ=2 with 4 slots per subframe. The slot duration is 0.25 ms, the subcarrier spacing is 60 kHz, and the symbol duration is approximately 16.67 μs. Within a frame set, there may be one or more different bandwidth parts (BWPs) that are frequency division multiplexed (see Figure 2B ). Each BWP may have a specific parameter design.

[0085] A resource grid may be used to represent the frame structure. Each slot includes a resource block (RB) (also called a physical RB (PRB)) extending over 12 consecutive subcarriers. The resource grid is divided into a number of resource elements (REs). The number of bits carried by each RE depends on the modulation scheme.

[0086] like Figure 2A As illustrated in FIG. 1 , some REs carry reference (pilot) signals (RS) for UEs. RSs may include demodulation RSs (DM-RSs) for channel estimation at the UE (indicated as R for one specific configuration). x , where 100x is the port number, but other DM-RS configurations are possible) and a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS). The RS may also include a beam measurement RS (BRS), a beam refinement RS (BRRS), and a phase tracking RS (PT-RS).

[0087] Figure 2BAn example of various DL channels within a subframe of a frame is illustrated. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries DCI within one or more control channel elements (CCEs), each CCE including 9 RE groups (REGs), each REG including 4 consecutive REs in an OFDM symbol. The PDCCH within one BWP may be referred to as a control resource set (CORESET). Additional BWPs may be located at higher and / or lower frequencies across the channel bandwidth. The primary synchronization signal (PSS) may be within symbol 2 of a particular subframe of a frame. The PSS is used by the UE 104 to determine subframe / symbol timing and physical layer identity. The secondary synchronization signal (SSS) may be within symbol 4 of a particular subframe of a frame. The SSS is used by the UE to determine the physical layer cell identity group number and radio frame timing. Based on the physical layer identity and the physical layer cell identity group number, the UE may determine the physical cell identifier (PCI). Based on the PCI, the UE may determine the location of the aforementioned DM-RS. The physical broadcast channel (PBCH) carrying the master information block (MIB) can be logically grouped with the PSS and SSS to form a synchronization signal (SS) / PBCH block (also referred to as an SS block (SSB)). The MIB provides the number of RBs in the system bandwidth, and the system frame number (SFN). The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) carries user data, broadcast system information not transmitted over the PBCH (such as the system information block (SIB)), and paging messages.

[0088] As in Figure 2C As explained in , some REs carry DM-RSs for channel estimation at the base station (indicated as R for one specific configuration, but other DM-RS configurations are possible). The UE may transmit DM-RSs for the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and DM-RSs for the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). The PUSCH DM-RS may be transmitted in the first or first two symbols of the PUSCH. The PUCCH DM-RS may be transmitted in different configurations depending on whether a short PUCCH or a long PUCCH is transmitted and on the specific PUCCH format used. The UE may transmit a sounding reference signal (SRS). The SRS may be transmitted in the last symbol of the subframe. The SRS may have a comb tooth structure, and the UE may transmit the SRS on one of the comb teeth. The SRS may be used by the base station for channel quality estimation to enable frequency-dependent scheduling on the UL.

[0089] Figure 2DAn example of various UL channels within a subframe of an illustration frame. The PUCCH may be located at a position as indicated in one configuration. The PUCCH carries uplink control information (UCI), such as scheduling requests, channel quality indicator (CQI), precoding matrix indicator (PMI), rank indicator (RI), and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) ACK / NACK feedback. The PUSCH carries data and may additionally be used to carry a buffer status report (BSR), a power headroom report (PHR), and / or UCI.

[0090] Figure 3 3 is a block diagram of a base station 310 in communication with a UE 350 in an access network. In the DL, IP packets from the EPC 160 may be provided to the controller / processor 375. The controller / processor 375 implements layer 3 and layer 2 functionality. Layer 3 includes a radio resource control (RRC) layer, and layer 2 includes a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a media access control (MAC) layer. The controller / processor 375 provides RRC layer functionality associated with broadcasting of system information (e.g., MIB, SIB), RRC connection control (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), inter-radio access technology (RAT) mobility, and measurement configuration of UE measurement reports; PDCP layer functionality associated with header compression / decompression, security (ciphering, ciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification), and handover support functions; RLC layer functionality associated with delivery of upper layer packet data units (PDUs), error correction through ARQ, concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC service data units (SDUs), re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto transport blocks (TBs), demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through HARQ, priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0091] The transmit (TX) processor 316 and the receive (RX) processor 370 implement layer 1 functionality associated with various signal processing functions. Layer 1, including the physical (PHY) layer, may include error detection on the transmission channel, forward error correction (FEC) decoding / decoding of the transmission channel, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to the physical channel, modulation / demodulation of the physical channel, and MIMO antenna processing. The TX processor 316 handles the mapping to the signal constellation based on various modulation schemes (e.g., binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), M-phase shift keying (M-PSK), M-quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM)). The decoded and modulated codewords can then be split into parallel streams. Each stream can then be mapped to an OFDM subcarrier, multiplexed with a reference signal (e.g., pilot) in the time domain and / or frequency domain, and then combined together using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) to produce a physical channel carrying a time domain OFDM codeword stream. The OFDM stream is spatially precoded to generate multiple spatial streams. Channel estimates from a channel estimator 374 may be used to determine coding and modulation schemes and for spatial processing. The channel estimates may be derived from reference signals and / or channel condition feedback transmitted by the UE 350. Each spatial stream may then be provided to a different antenna 320 via a separate transmitter 318TX. Each transmitter 318TX may modulate an RF carrier with a corresponding spatial stream for transmission.

[0092] At the UE 350, each receiver 354RX receives a signal through its corresponding antenna 352. Each receiver 354RX recovers the information modulated onto the RF carrier and provides the information to a receive (RX) processor 356. The TX processor 368 and the RX processor 356 implement layer 1 functionality associated with various signal processing functions. The RX processor 356 can perform spatial processing on the information to recover any spatial stream destined for the UE 350. If there are multiple spatial streams destined for the UE 350, they can be combined into a single OFDM symbol stream by the RX processor 356. The RX processor 356 then transforms the OFDM symbol stream from the time domain to the frequency domain using a fast Fourier transform (FFT). The frequency domain signal includes a separate OFDM symbol stream for each subcarrier of the OFDM signal. The symbol on each subcarrier and the reference signal are recovered and demodulated by determining the signal constellation point most likely to be transmitted by the base station 310. These soft decisions can be based on the channel estimate calculated by the channel estimator 358. These soft decisions are then decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data and control signals originally transmitted on the physical channel by the base station 310. These data and control signals are then provided to the controller / processor 359 which implements layer 3 and layer 2 functionality.

[0093] The controller / processor 359 may be associated with a memory 360 that stores program codes and data. The memory 360 may be referred to as a computer readable medium. In the UL, the controller / processor 359 provides demultiplexing between transport channels and logical channels, packet reassembly, cipher interpretation, header decompression, and control signal processing to recover IP packets from the EPC 160. The controller / processor 359 is also responsible for error detection using ACK and / or NACK protocols to support HARQ operations.

[0094] Similar to the functionality described in conjunction with DL transmissions performed by the base station 310, the controller / processor 359 provides RRC layer functionality associated with system information (e.g., MIB, SIB) acquisition, RRC connection, and measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionality associated with header compression / decompression, and security (ciphering, cipher decoding, integrity protection, integrity verification); RLC layer functionality associated with delivery of upper layer PDUs, error correction through ARQ, concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs, re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, demultiplexing MAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through HARQ, priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

[0095] Channel estimates derived by a channel estimator 358 from a reference signal or feedback transmitted by the base station 310 may be used by a TX processor 368 to select the appropriate coding and modulation schemes, and to facilitate spatial processing. The spatial streams generated by the TX processor 368 may be provided to different antennas 352 via separate transmitters 354TX. Each transmitter 354TX may modulate an RF carrier with a corresponding spatial stream for transmission.

[0096] UL transmissions are processed at the base station 310 in a manner similar to that described in conjunction with the receiver functionality at the UE 350. Each receiver 318RX receives a signal through its respective antenna 320. Each receiver 318RX recovers information modulated onto an RF carrier and provides the information to a RX processor 370.

[0097] The controller / processor 375 may be associated with a memory 376 that stores program codes and data. The memory 376 may be referred to as a computer readable medium. In the UL, the controller / processor 375 provides demultiplexing between transport channels and logical channels, packet reassembly, cipher decoding, header decompression, control signal processing to recover IP packets from the UE 350. The IP packets from the controller / processor 375 may be provided to the EPC 160. The controller / processor 375 is also responsible for error detection using ACK and / or NACK protocols to support HARQ operations.

[0098] In some aspects, at least one of the TX processor 368, the RX processor 356, and the controller / processor 359 may be configured to perform operations related to Figure 1 (198) All aspects of the combination.

[0099] According to some other aspects, at least one of the TX processor 316, the RX processor 370, and the controller / processor 375 may be configured to perform operations related to Figure 1 The 198 combined aspects.

[0100] Reference Figure 4-6 , CSI reports are used for beam management between the base station and the UE. Specifically, CSI reports are important for beam reliability, which is used for unicast coverage in FR2. A CSI report may include multiple different fields, for example, including CQI, PMI, CRI, SLI, and / or rank indication.

[0101] CSI reports can be periodic, semi-persistent, and / or aperiodic. For example, periodic and semi-persistent CSI reports can support a periodicity of 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, and / or 320 time slots. CSI reports can occur on uplink control channels and / or uplink data channels. For example, periodic CSI reports can be carried on short PUCCH or long PUCCH. Semi-persistent CSI reports can be carried on long PUCCH or PUSCH, and resources and modulation and coding schemes (MCS) for semi-persistent CSI reports on PUSCH can be semi-persistently allocated via DCI. In addition, semi-persistent CSI reports can support type II with a minimum periodicity of 5 milliseconds (ms). However, for aperiodic CSI-RS, semi-persistent CSI reports may not be supported (although this may not exclude the carrying of one CSI report by multiple uplink reporting instances). Periodic CSI reports can be carried on PUSCH with or without uplink data multiplexing.

[0102] In some aspects, the CSI report may include L1 reference signal received power (RSRP) and / or L1 signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR). L1-RSRP and / or L1-SINR may be used for beam management. For example, L1-SINR may be used for beam selection taking into account interference (and L1-RSRP may have a similar format). Such L1 measurements may be relatively large (e.g., about 20 bits), which may result in poor coverage when carried on PUCCH.

[0103] In a CSI report including L1 measurements, up to 4 beams may be reported per configured report. An absolute SINR value (or RSRP value) may be reported for the first beam, which may be the beam with the highest SINR (or RSRP). However, for the remaining beams, differential SINR values ​​(or differential RSRP values) may be reported, that is, the differential SINR value (or differential RSRP value) may be calculated relative to the highest SINR value (or highest RSRP value).

[0104] Table 1 illustrates some configurations of CSI reporting according to various aspects.

[0105]

[0106] Table 1

[0107] According to various aspects of the present disclosure, a smaller payload for L1 reporting can help enhance the coverage of CSI reporting. In coverage-critical situations, having reliable L1 reporting may be more important than the resolution and / or thoroughness of the L1 reporting. Furthermore, in some scenarios, coverage enhancement of L1 reporting may be needed only in transient periods (e.g., when the current beam becomes weak until a new beam is selected).

[0108] In the L1-RSRP and / or L1-SINR report, in addition to the index of the beam, 7 bits may be assigned for the RSRP (or SINR) of the best beam, and 4 bits may be assigned for each of the remaining beams (e.g., for differential values). For example, reporting the RSRP of 4 beams (out of 16 beams) may use 33 bits: 7 bits for the best beam + 4 bits for beam #2 + 4 bits for beam #3 + 4 bits for beam #4 + 4 bits for the best beam index + 4 bits for beam #2 index + 4 bits for beam #3 index + 4 bits for beam #4 index = 33 bits, of which almost half of the bits are used for the reported RSRP (or SINR) value and half for the index.

[0109] If compact L1 reporting is activated only for a short period of time, it is very likely that the best beam is among the set of initial k best beams included in the compact L1 reporting (it is unlikely that the beam that becomes the best beam is not among the initial k best beams).

[0110] To configure compact L1 reporting, the base station may indicate a reference point for the reported values ​​of the L1 report. The reference point may be reported for one UE or a group of UEs. The indication of the reference point for the L1 report may be via semi-static configuration (e.g., RRC signaling) and / or dynamic indication. This may affect L1-RSRP and / or L1-SINR reporting.

[0111] The reference point may be used by the UE to report the best beam. For example, if -70 decibel-milliwatt (dBm) is indicated as the reference point, the reported RSRP (or SINR) may be reported as a differential value of the RSRP (or SINR) of the best beam compared to -70 dBm, with a default step size (e.g., 1 dBm). Reporting of other beams may be differential relative to the best beam (e.g., similar to CSI reporting with L1 reporting described above). Dynamic indication of the reference point for L1 reporting may be via a MAC control element (CE), a UE-specific DCI, or a group-common DCI. The reference point for L1 reporting values ​​may be indicated along with a resolution for L1 reporting and / or a step size for L1 reporting and / or an indication of a compact resolution for L1 reporting. For example, the default step size and / or resolution for L1 reporting may be preconfigured (e.g., defined in a standard or specification promulgated by 3GPP) or configured by a base station (e.g., gNB), for example, for a case where a reference point for L1 reporting is indicated.

[0112] Figure 4 4 is a call flow diagram of operations in an access network including a base station 402 (e.g., a gNB) and a UE 404. The base station 402 may determine 422 a reference point associated with at least one L1 measurement. The at least one L1 measurement may be L1-RSRP and / or L1-SINR. For example, the base station 402 may determine the reference point based on one or more other L1-RSRP and / or L1-SINR values ​​received from the UE 404, e.g., via an earlier CSI report.

[0113] Base station 402 may transmit information indicating reference point 424 to UE 404. According to various aspects, base station 402 may transmit information indicating reference point 424 in at least one of an RRC signaling message, a MAC CE, a DCI specific to UE 404, and / or a DCI configured for a group of UEs including UE 404.

[0114] In some further aspects, the base station 402 may indicate at least one of the step size and / or the number of bits in a message including information indicating the reference point 424. The step size and / or the number of bits may be used for L1 measurement reporting by the UE 404, for example, to determine a reported value and / or a resolution of the reported value. However, in some other aspects, at least one of the step size and / or the number of bits may be preconfigured (e.g., defined by a standard and / or specification).

[0115] The base station 402 may determine 426 a transient period in which a current beam used for communicating with the UE 404 is failing. For example, the base station 402 may determine that the signal quality on the current beam used for communicating with the UE 404 falls below a threshold and / or that an error rate associated with communicating with the UE 404 on the current beam meets and / or exceeds another threshold.

[0116] Accordingly, base station 402 may determine that compact L1 reporting should be used by UE 404. Thus, base station 412 may send instruction 428 to UE 404 to use compact L1 reporting, e.g., based on determination 426 of transient period. In some aspects, instruction 428 may be a message that also includes information indicating reference point 424.

[0117] Accordingly, UE 404 may receive information indicating reference point 424. Additionally, UE 414 may receive instruction 428 and / or the UE may determine that a transient period is occurring during which a current beam used to communicate with base station 402 is failing. In response, UE 404 may determine that UE 404 should use compact L1 reporting.

[0118] The base station 402 may transmit a reference signal set 430 to the UE 404. The reference signal 430 may be, for example, an SSB and / or a CSI-RS. Each of the reference signals 430 may be transmitted on a corresponding beam that may be used for communication between the base station 402 and the UE 404, and may correspond to an index of the corresponding beam.

[0119] The UE 404 may receive the reference signal 430, and based thereon, the UE 404 may measure 432 a set of observations of L1 measurements. For example, the UE 404 may measure a respective RSRP and / or a respective SINR value for each of the reference signals 430 received via beams that may be used for communication between the base station 402 and the UE 404. The UE 404 may then select k best observations, which may correspond to the k beams with the highest RSRP and / or highest SINR (potentially, k may be equal to 1).

[0120] The UE 404 may then determine 434 at least one reported value of at least one L1 measurement based on the at least one reference point 424. For example, the UE 404 determines the at least one reported value as a differential value that is a difference between the reference point 424 and an observed value.

[0121] In some aspects, the UE 404 may determine 434 at least one reported value based on a step size (e.g., 1 dB, 2 dB, etc.). For example, the UE 404 may determine at least one reported value by quantizing the observed value such that the UE 404 determines a difference between the reference point 424 and the observed value, and then determines a number of steps (of the step size) corresponding to the difference. For example, if the UE 404 measures an observed value of -65 dBm for the best beam and the reference point is equal to -70 dBm, the UE 404 may determine that the difference is 5 dBm, and when the step size corresponds to 2 dB, the UE 404 may determine that the reported value for the best beam should be 3 steps or (5 dBm) / (2 dB) equals 2.5, rounded up to 3.

[0122] In some further aspects, UE 404 may determine 434 the at least one report value based on the number of bits. For example, UE 404 may determine a resolution of the report value based on the number of bits. Illustratively, UE 404 may have three bits or four bits as a resolution for conveying the report value. UE 404 may receive the step size and / or the number of bits from base station 402, for example, in a message including reference point 424, in a message including instruction 428, and / or in one or more separate messages. In some other aspects, at least one of the step size and / or the number of bits may be preconfigured in UE 404 (e.g., based on a standard and / or specification).

[0123] The UE 404 may then transmit the at least one reporting value 436 to the base station 402, which may be associated with the index of the beam (e.g., also indicated by the at least one reporting value 436). For example, the UE 404 may transmit a compact L1 report for CSI reporting that indicates the at least one reporting value 436 (e.g., on a PUCCH or PUSCH).

[0124] The base station 402 may receive at least one report value 436, and the base station 402 may recover the L1 measurement value communicated by the UE 404 based on the reference point 424, the step size, and / or the number of bits based on which the UE 404 determines the at least one report value 436. The base station 402 may then select a beam for communicating with the UE 404 based on the at least one report value 436. For example, the base station 402 may select a beam corresponding to a highest or best report value in the at least one report value 436. The base station 402 may then configure the selected beam for communicating with the UE 404.

[0125] Figure 5 5 is a flow chart of a wireless communication method 500. The method 500 may be performed by a UE (e.g., UE 104, 350, 404). At 502, the UE may receive information indicating a reference point associated with at least one L1 measurement from a base station. The at least one L1 measurement may be at least one of L1-RSRP and / or L1-SINR. The reference point may be received in one of an RRC signaling message, a MAC CE, a DCI specific to the UE, or a DCI configured for a group of UEs. In some aspects, the UE may further receive an instruction to use a reference point, and potentially, the instruction may include information indicating the reference point. For example, the instruction may be associated with a transient period in which a current beam used to communicate with a base station is failing.

[0126] At 504, the UE may determine a report value for the at least one L1 measurement based on a difference between the reference point and a measured value of the at least one L1 measurement. In some aspects, the UE may further determine the report value based on a step size and / or a number of bits configured for the information indicating the report value. For example, at least one of the step size and / or the number of bits may be preconfigured, or at least one of the step size and / or the number of bits may be received in a message that also includes the information indicating the reference point.

[0127] At 506, the UE may transmit information indicating the report value to the base station. In some aspects, the information indicating the report value may include information indicating a respective beam index corresponding to at least one report value.

[0128] Figure 6 6 is a flow chart of a wireless communication method 600. The method 600 may be performed by a base station (eg, base station 102 / 180, 310, 402). At 602, the base station may determine a reference point associated with at least one L1 measurement. The at least one L1 measurement may be at least one of L1-RSRP and / or L1-SINR.

[0129] At 604, the base station may transmit information indicating the reference point to the UE. For example, the base station may transmit the information indicating the reference point in one of an RRC signaling message, a MAC CE, a DCI specific to the UE, or a DCI configured for a group of UEs. In some aspects, the base station may further transmit an instruction to the UE to use the reference point, and potentially the instruction may include the information indicating the reference point. For example, the instruction may be associated with a transient period in which a current beam used for communication with the base station is failing.

[0130] At 606, the base station may receive information indicating a report value of the at least one L1 measurement from the UE, and the report value may be based on a difference between the reference point and a measured value of the at least one L1 measurement. In some aspects, the report value may be further based on a step size and / or a number of bits configured for the information indicating the report value. For example, at least one of the step size and / or the number of bits may be preconfigured, or at least one of the step size and / or the number of bits may be transmitted by the base station to the UE in a message also including information indicating a reference point. In some aspects, the information indicating the report value may include information indicating a corresponding beam index corresponding to the at least one report value. The base station may select a beam for communicating with the UE based on the at least one report value, for example, during a transient period.

[0131] Figure 7 700 , a wireless communication system 700 in which various aspects may be implemented. Various concepts presented throughout this disclosure may be implemented across a wide variety of telecommunication systems (such as wireless communication system 700), network architectures, and communication standards. Wireless communication system 700 includes three interacting domains: a core network 702, a radio access network (RAN) 704, and a user equipment (UE) 706. Wireless communication system 700 may enable UE 706 to perform data communications with an external data network 710 (such as, but not limited to, the Internet).

[0132] The RAN 704 may implement any suitable one or more wireless communication technologies to provide radio access to the UE 706. As an example, the RAN 704 may operate in accordance with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) New Radio (NR) specifications, commonly referred to as 5G. As another example, the RAN 704 may operate under a mix of 5G NR and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (eUTRAN) standards, commonly referred to as LTE. 3GPP refers to this hybrid RAN as the Next Generation RAN, or NG-RAN. Of course, many other examples may be utilized within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0133] As illustrated, the RAN 704 includes a plurality of base stations 708. Broadly, as described above, a base station is a network element in a radio access network that is responsible for radio transmission and reception to or from a UE in one or more cells. In different technologies, standards, or contexts, a base station may be referred to differently by those skilled in the art as a scheduling entity, a RAN entity, or a RAN node, a base transceiver station (BTS), a radio base station, a radio transceiver, a transceiver function, a basic service set (BSS), an extended service set (ESS), an access point (AP), a Node B (NB), an evolved Node B (eNB), a g Node B (gNB), or some other suitable terminology.

[0134] The radio access network 704 is further illustrated as supporting wireless communications for multiple mobile devices. Mobile devices may be referred to as user equipment (UE) in the 3GPP standard, but may also be referred to as mobile stations (MS), subscriber stations, mobile units, subscriber units, wireless units, remote units, mobile devices, wireless devices, wireless communication devices, remote devices, mobile subscriber stations, access terminals (AT), mobile terminals, wireless terminals, remote terminals, handsets, terminals, user agents, mobile clients, clients, or some other suitable terminology by those skilled in the art. UE 706 may be a device that provides access to network services to users.

[0135] Within this document, a "mobile" device does not necessarily need to have mobile capabilities and can be stationary. The term mobile device or mobile device refers to a wide variety of devices and technologies. UE 706 may include several hardware structural components that are sized, shaped, and arranged to facilitate communication; such components may include antennas, antenna arrays, RF chains, amplifiers, one or more processors, etc. that are electrically coupled to each other. For example, some non-limiting examples of mobile devices include mobile devices, cellular (cell) phones, smart phones, session initiation protocol (SIP) phones, laptops, personal computers (PCs), notebooks, netbooks, smart books, tablet devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and a wide variety of embedded systems, for example, corresponding to the "Internet of Things" (IoT). Additionally, the mobile device may be a car or other transportation vehicle, a remote sensor or actuator, a robot or robotic device, a satellite radio, a global positioning system (GPS) device, an object tracking device, a drone, a multicopter, a quadcopter, a remote control device, a consumer and / or wearable device (such as glasses), a wearable camera, a virtual reality device, a smart watch, a health or fitness tracker, a digital audio player (e.g., an MP3 player), a camera, a game console, etc. Additionally, the mobile device may be a digital home or smart home device, such as home audio, video, and / or multimedia equipment, an appliance, a vending machine, a smart lighting device, a home security system, a smart meter, etc. Additionally, the mobile device may be a smart energy device, a security device, a solar panel or solar array, a municipal infrastructure device that controls power, lighting, water, etc. (e.g., a smart grid); industrial automation and enterprise devices; logistics controllers; agricultural equipment, etc. Still further, the mobile device may provide connected medical or telemedicine support, i.e., health care at a distance. Telehealth devices may include telehealth monitoring devices and telehealth supervisory devices, whose communications may be given priority or prioritized access over other types of information, for example in the form of prioritized access for critical service data transmission and / or associated QoS for critical service data transmission.

[0136] As mentioned above, the NR network supports communications between the base station 708 and the high-end UE 706 for a variety of different use cases, including, for example, enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC). In massive machine type communications (mMTC) use cases, the NR network can further support communications between the base station and the low-end UE 706. In some examples, LTE-M or narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) technology can be used to meet the requirements of mMTC.

[0137] In addition to providing services to high-end UE 706 (e.g., via eMMB and / or URLLC) and low-end UE 702 (e.g., via mMTC), the NR network may further provide services to reduced capability UE 706. The service requirements for reduced capability UE may be less than those for high-end UE, but greater than those for low-end UE. For example, use cases for reduced capability UE may include not only URLLC services with high requirements, but also low-end services to accommodate smaller form factors and longer battery life. Examples of reduced capability UE may include, but are not limited to, industrial wireless sensors, surveillance cameras, and wearable devices (e.g., smart watches, bracelets, electronic health-related devices, and medical monitoring devices). In general, compared to high-end UE, reduced capability UE has a device design with a compact form factor and reduced complexity. For example, a reduced capability UE may have a reduced number of transmit / receive antennas, a reduced device bandwidth (e.g., a reduced operating bandwidth of the UE), a relaxed processing time, and / or a relaxed processing capability. In a delay-tolerant use case, the reduced capability UE may be further configured for power saving and battery life enhancement.

[0138] The specific services provided to a UE (e.g., eMBB / URLLC / mMTC / reduced capabilities) may be determined based on the UE category of the UE. UE category information is used to enable a base station to communicate efficiently with each UE served by the base station. For example, a UE category may identify the uplink and downlink performance capabilities of a UE. As an example, a UE category may specify the maximum data rate supported by the UE, the number of component carriers and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers supported by the UE, and / or the highest modulation supported by the UE. The examples of UE category distinguishing factors presented herein are merely exemplary, and it should be understood that any suitable differences between UE features (whether hardware or software) may be used to distinguish between UE categories.

[0139] Wireless communication between RAN 704 and UE 706 may be described as utilizing an air interface. Transmissions over the air interface from a base station (e.g., base station 708) to one or more UEs (e.g., UE 706) may be referred to as downlink (DL) transmissions. According to certain aspects of the present disclosure, the term downlink may refer to point-to-multipoint transmissions originating at a scheduling entity (further described below; e.g., base station 708). Another way to describe this scheme may be to use the term broadcast channel multiplexing. Transmissions from a UE (e.g., UE 706) to a base station (e.g., base station 708) may be referred to as uplink (UL) transmissions. According to further aspects of the present disclosure, the term uplink may refer to point-to-point transmissions originating at a scheduled entity (further described below; e.g., UE 706).

[0140] In some examples, access to the air interface may be scheduled, where a scheduling entity (e.g., a base station 708) allocates resources for communication among some or all devices and equipment within its service area or cell. Within the present disclosure, as discussed further below, a scheduling entity may be responsible for scheduling, assigning, reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one or more scheduled entities. That is, for scheduled communications, a UE 706 (which may be a scheduled entity) may utilize resources allocated by the scheduling entity 708.

[0141] The base station 708 is not the only entity that can be used as a scheduling entity. That is, in some examples, a UE can be used as a scheduling entity, thereby scheduling resources for one or more scheduled entities (e.g., one or more other UEs). And as discussed further below, a UE can communicate directly with other UEs in a device-to-device (D2D) manner and / or in a relay configuration.

[0142] like Figure 7 , the scheduling entity 708 may broadcast downlink traffic 712 to one or more scheduled entities 706. Broadly, the scheduling entity 708 is a node or device responsible for scheduling traffic in the wireless communication network, including downlink traffic 712 and, in some examples, uplink traffic 716 from one or more scheduled entities 706 to the scheduling entity 708. On the other hand, the scheduled entity 706 is a node or device that receives downlink control information 714 (including but not limited to scheduling information (e.g., grants), synchronization or timing information), or other control information from another entity in the wireless communication network, such as the scheduling entity 708.

[0143] Additionally, uplink and / or downlink control information and / or traffic information may be divided into frames, subframes, time slots, and / or symbols in time. As used herein, a symbol may refer to a time unit in which each subcarrier carries one resource element (RE) in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) waveform. A time slot may carry 7 or 14 OFDM symbols. A subframe may refer to a duration of 1 ms. Multiple subframes or time slots may be grouped together to form a single frame or radio frame. Of course, these definitions are not required, and any appropriate scheme may be utilized to organize the waveform, and the various time divisions of the waveform may have any appropriate duration.

[0144] In general, the base stations 708 may include a backhaul interface for communicating with a backhaul portion 720 of the wireless communication system. The backhaul 720 may provide a link between the base stations 708 and the core network 702. In addition, in some examples, the backhaul network may provide interconnections between the respective base stations 708. Various types of backhaul interfaces may be employed using any suitable transport network, such as a direct physical connection, a virtual network, and the like.

[0145] The core network 702 may be part of the wireless communication system 700 and may be independent of the radio access technology used in the RAN 704. In some examples, the core network 702 may be configured according to a 5G standard (e.g., 5GC). In other examples, the core network 702 may be configured according to a 4G Evolved Packet Core (EPC), or any other suitable standard or configuration.

[0146] Figure 8 800 is a conceptual illustration of an example of a radio access network (RAN) 800 in which various aspects may be implemented. The schematic illustration of the RAN 800 is provided by way of example and not limitation. In some examples, the RAN 800 may be similar to those described above and in Figure 7 The geographic area covered by the RAN 800 may be divided into cellular areas (cells) that may be uniquely identified by user equipment (UE) based on an identity broadcast from an access point or base station. Figure 8 Macro cells 802, 804, and 806, and small cells 808 are illustrated, each of which may include one or more sectors (not shown). A sector is a sub-area of ​​a cell. All sectors within one cell are served by the same base station. A radio link within a sector may be identified by a single logical identifier belonging to the sector. In a cell divided into sectors, multiple sectors within a cell may be formed by antenna groups, where each antenna is responsible for communication with UEs in a portion of the cell.

[0147] Various base station arrangements can be used. Figure 8, two base stations 810 and 812 are shown in the cellular cells 802 and 804, and a third base station 814 is shown as controlling a remote radio head (RRH) 816 in the cellular cell 806. That is, the base station may have an integrated antenna, or may be connected to the antenna or RRH by a feeder cable. In the illustrated example, the cellular cells 802, 804, and 806 may be referred to as macro cells because the base stations 810, 812, and 814 support cellular cells with large sizes. In addition, the base station 818 is shown in a small cell 808 (e.g., a micro cell, a micro cell, a femto cell, a home base station, a home node B, a home evolved node B, etc.), which may overlap with one or more macro cells. In this example, the cellular cell 808 may be referred to as a small cell because the base station 818 supports a cellular cell with a relatively small size. The cellular cell size setting may be completed according to the system design and component constraints.

[0148] It is to be understood that the radio access network 800 may include any number of wireless base stations and cellular cells. In addition, relay nodes may be deployed to extend the size or coverage area of ​​a given cellular cell. Base stations 810, 812, 814, 818 provide wireless access points to the core network for any number of mobile devices. In some examples, base stations 810, 812, 814, and / or 818 may be similar to those described above and in Figure 7 The same as the base station / scheduling entity 708 illustrated in FIG.

[0149] Within the RAN 800, cells may include UEs that may be in communication with one or more sectors of each cell. In addition, each base station 810, 812, 814, and 818 may be configured to provide a core network 102 (see FIG. 1 ) for all UEs in the corresponding cell. Figure 1 ) access point. For example, UEs 822 and 824 may be in communication with base station 810; UEs 826 and 828 may be in communication with base station 812; UEs 830 and 832 may be in communication with base station 814 via RRH 816; and UE 834 may be in communication with base station 818. In some examples, UEs 822, 824, 826, 828, 830, 832, 834, 838, 840, and / or 842 may be in communication with the base stations described above and in Figure 7 The UE / scheduled entity 706 is the same as explained in .

[0150] In some examples, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) 820 (which may be a drone or a quadcopter) may be a mobile network node and may be configured to function as a UE. For example, UAV 820 may operate within cell 802 by communicating with base station 810.

[0151] In a further aspect of RAN 800, sidelink signals may be used between UEs without having to rely on scheduling or control information from a base station. Sidelink communications may be used, for example, in device-to-device (D2D), peer-to-peer (P2P), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) networks, and / or vehicle-to-everything (V2X). For example, two or more UEs (e.g., UEs 826 and 828) within the coverage area of ​​a serving base station 812 may communicate with each other using sidelink signals 827 without relaying the communication through a base station. In this example, one or both of the base station 812 or UEs 826 and 828 may serve as a scheduling entity to schedule sidelink communications between UEs 826 and 828. In some examples, the sidelink signal 827 includes sidelink traffic and sidelink control. In a further example, UEs outside the coverage area of ​​a base station may communicate on a sidelink carrier. For example, UE 838 is illustrated as communicating with UEs 840 and 842. Here, UE 838 may serve as a scheduling entity or a transmitting-side link device, and UEs 840 and 842 may each serve as a scheduled entity or a receiving-side link device.

[0152] In the RAN 800, the ability of a UE to communicate independently of its location while moving is called mobility. Each physical channel between the UE and the RAN is generally managed by an access and mobility management function (AMF, not explained, Figure 7 The AMF is established, maintained and released under the control of the core network 702 in the core network 702. In some scenarios, the AMF may include a security context management function (SCMF) and a security anchor function (SEAF) that performs authentication. The SCMF may manage the security context of both the control plane and the user plane functionalities in whole or in part.

[0153] In some examples, the RAN 800 may implement mobility and handover (i.e., the transfer of a UE's connection from one radio channel to another). For example, during a call with a scheduling entity, or at any other time, the UE may monitor various parameters of the signal from its serving cell and various parameters of neighboring cells. Depending on the quality of these parameters, the UE may maintain communication with one or more neighboring cells. During this time, if the UE moves from one cell to another, or if the signal quality from a neighboring cell exceeds the signal quality from the serving cell for a given amount of time, the UE may perform a handover or handover from the serving cell to the neighboring (target) cell. For example, a UE 824 (illustrated as a vehicle, but any suitable form of UE may be used) may move from a geographic area corresponding to its serving cell 802 to a geographic area corresponding to a neighboring cell 806. When the signal strength or quality from a neighboring cell 806 exceeds the signal strength or quality of its serving cell 802 for a given amount of time, the UE 824 may transmit a report message indicating this condition to its serving base station 810. In response, UE 824 may receive the handover command and the UE may undergo a handover to cell 806 .

[0154] The air interface in the radio access network 800 may utilize one or more multiplexing and multiple access algorithms to enable simultaneous communication of various devices. For example, the 5G NR specification utilizes orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with a cyclic prefix (CP) to provide multiple access for UL transmissions from UEs 822 and 824 to base stations 810, and multiplexing for DL ​​transmissions from base stations 810 to one or more UEs 822 and 824. In addition, for UL transmissions, the 5G NR specification provides support for discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) with CP (also known as single carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA)). However, within the scope of the present disclosure, multiplexing and multiple access are not limited to the above schemes, and may be provided using time division multiple access (TDMA), code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), sparse code multiple access (SCMA), resource extension multiple access (RSMA), or other appropriate multiple access schemes. Furthermore, multiplexing of DL transmissions from base station 810 to UEs 822 and 824 may be provided using time division multiplexing (TDM), code division multiplexing (CDM), frequency division multiplexing (FDM), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), sparse code multiplexing (SCM), or other suitable multiplexing schemes.

[0155] The air interface in the radio access network 800 may further utilize one or more duplex algorithms. Duplex refers to a point-to-point communication link in which both endpoints can communicate with each other in two directions. Full-duplex means that both endpoints can communicate with each other at the same time. Half-duplex means that only one endpoint can send information to the other endpoint at a time. In a wireless link, a full-duplex channel generally relies on the physical isolation of the transmitter and the receiver, and suitable interference cancellation techniques. Full-duplex simulation is usually implemented for a wireless link by utilizing frequency division duplex (FDD) or time division duplex (TDD). In FDD, transmissions in different directions operate at different carrier frequencies. In TDD, transmissions in different directions on a given channel are separated from each other using time division multiplexing. That is, at some times, the channel is dedicated to transmissions in one direction, and at other times, the channel is dedicated to transmissions in another direction, where the direction can change very quickly, for example, several times per time slot.

[0156] Fig. 9 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a frame structure for use in a radio access network within which various aspects may be implemented. An expanded view of an exemplary DL subframe 902 is illustrated, showing an OFDM resource grid. However, as will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art, the PHY transmission structure for any particular application may differ from the examples described herein depending on any number of factors. Here, time is in the horizontal direction in units of OFDM symbols; and frequency is in the vertical direction in units of subcarriers.

[0157] Resource grid 904 can be used to schematically represent the time-frequency resources for a given antenna port. That is, in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) implementation with multiple antenna ports available, there may be a corresponding multiple number of resource grids 904 available for communication. Resource grid 904 is divided into multiple resource elements (REs) 906. RE (which is 1 subcarrier × 1 symbol) is the smallest discrete part of the time-frequency grid and contains a single complex value representing data from a physical channel or signal. Depending on the modulation utilized in a particular implementation, each RE may represent one or more information bits. In some examples, a block of REs may be referred to as a physical resource block (PRB) or resource block (RB) 908, which contains any suitable number of consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain. In one example, an RB may include 12 subcarriers, which number is independent of the parameter design used. In some examples, depending on the parameter design, an RB may include any suitable number of consecutive OFDM symbols in the time domain. In the present disclosure, it is assumed that a single RB (such as RB 908) corresponds entirely to a single communication direction (transmission or reception for a given device).

[0158] Scheduling a UE (e.g., a scheduled entity) for downlink or uplink transmission typically involves scheduling one or more resource elements 906 within one or more subbands or bandwidth parts (BWPs). Thus, the UE typically utilizes only a subset of the resource grid 904. In some examples, an RB may be the smallest resource unit that may be allocated to a UE. Thus, the more RBs scheduled for a UE and the higher the modulation scheme selected for the air interface, the higher the data rate for the UE.

[0159] In this illustration, RB 908 is shown as occupying less than the entire bandwidth of subframe 902, with some subcarriers illustrated above and below RB 908. In a given implementation, subframe 902 may have a bandwidth corresponding to any number of one or more RBs 908. Furthermore, in this illustration, RB 908 is shown as occupying less than the entire duration of subframe 902, but this is merely one possible example.

[0160] Each 1 ms subframe 902 may include one or more adjacent time slots. Fig. 9 In the example shown in , a subframe 902 includes four time slots 910. In some examples, a time slot may be defined according to a specified number of OFDM symbols with a given cyclic prefix (CP) length. For example, with a nominal CP, a time slot may include 7 or 14 OFDM symbols. Additional examples may include mini-slots (sometimes referred to as shortened transmission time intervals (TTIs)) with shorter durations (e.g., one to three OFDM symbols). In some cases, these mini-slots or shortened transmission time intervals (TTIs) may occupy resources scheduled for ongoing time slot transmissions for the same or different UEs to transmit. Any number of resource blocks may be utilized within a subframe or time slot.

[0161] An expanded view of one of the time slots 910 illustrates that the time slot 910 includes a control region 912 and a data region 914. In general, the control region 912 may carry control channels, while the data region 914 may carry data channels. Of course, a time slot may contain full DL, full UL, or at least one DL portion and at least one UL portion. Fig. 9 The structure illustrated in is merely exemplary in nature, and different slot structures may be utilized and may include one or more for each of the control region and the data region.

[0162] Although not in Fig. 9908, but each RE 906 within the RB 908 may be scheduled to carry one or more physical channels, including a control channel, a shared channel, a data channel, etc. Other REs 906 within the RB 908 may carry pilot or reference signals. These pilot or reference signals may be used by the receiving device to perform channel estimation on the corresponding channel, which may enable coherent demodulation / detection of the control and / or data channels within the RB 908.

[0163] In some examples, time slot 910 may be used for broadcast or unicast communication. For example, broadcast, multicast, or groupcast communication may refer to point-to-multipoint transmission by one device (e.g., a base station, UE, or other similar device) to other devices. Here, broadcast communication is delivered to all devices, while multicast communication is delivered to multiple intended recipient devices. Unicast communication may refer to point-to-point transmission by one device to a single other device.

[0164] In an example of cellular communication on a cellular carrier via a Uu interface, for DL ​​transmission, a scheduling entity (e.g., a base station) may allocate one or more REs 906 (e.g., within a control region 912) to carry DL control information including one or more DL control channels (such as a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH)) to one or more scheduled entities (e.g., UEs). The PDCCH carries downlink control information (DCI), including, but not limited to, power control commands (e.g., one or more open-loop power control parameters and / or one or more closed-loop power control parameters) for DL ​​and UL transmissions, scheduling information, grants, and / or RE assignments. The PDCCH may further carry HARQ feedback transmissions, such as acknowledgments (ACKs) or negative acknowledgments (NACKs). HARQ is a well-known technique to those of ordinary skill in the art, wherein for accuracy, the integrity of packet transmissions may be verified at the receiving side using, for example, any suitable integrity check mechanism (such as a checksum or a cyclic redundancy check (CRC)). If the integrity of the transmission is confirmed, an ACK may be transmitted, and if it is not confirmed, a NACK may be transmitted. In response to the NACK, the transmitting device may send a HARQ retransmission, which may enable chase combining, incremental redundancy, and the like.

[0165] The base station may further allocate one or more REs 906 (e.g., in the control region 912 or the data region 914) to carry other DL signals, such as a demodulation reference signal (DMRS); a phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS); a channel state information (CSI) reference signal (CSI-RS); a primary synchronization signal (PSS); and a secondary synchronization signal (SSS). The UE may utilize the PSS and SSS to achieve radio frame, subframe, time slot, and symbol synchronization in the time domain, identify the center of the channel (system) bandwidth in the frequency domain, and identify the physical cell identity (PCI) of the cell. The synchronization signals PSS and SSS, as well as the PBCH and PBCH DMRS in some examples, may be transmitted in a synchronization signal block (SSB). The PBCH may further include: a master information block (MIB), which includes various system information, together with parameters for decoding a system information block (SIB). The SIB may be, for example, a system information type 1 (SystemInformationType1) (SIB1), which may include various additional system information. Examples of system information transmitted in the MIB may include, but are not limited to, subcarrier spacing, system frame number, configuration of a PDCCH control resource set (CORESET) (e.g., PDCCH CORESET0), and search space for SIB1. Examples of additional system information transmitted in SIB1 may include, but are not limited to, random access search space, downlink configuration information, and uplink configuration information. MIB and SIB1 together provide minimum system information (SI) for initial access.

[0166] In UL transmission, the scheduled entity (e.g., UE) may utilize one or more REs 906 to carry UL control information (UCI) to the scheduling entity, which includes one or more UL control channels, such as a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH). UCI may include various packet types and categories, including pilots, reference signals, and information configured to enable or assist in decoding uplink data transmission. Examples of uplink reference signals may include sounding reference signals (SRS) and uplink DMRS. In some examples, UCI may include a scheduling request (SR), i.e., a request for the scheduling entity to schedule uplink transmission. Here, in response to the SR transmitted on the UCI, the scheduling entity may transmit downlink control information (DCI), which may schedule resources for uplink packet transmission. UCI may also include HARQ feedback, channel state feedback (CSF) (such as CSI report), or any other suitable UCI.

[0167] In addition to control information, one or more REs 906 (e.g., within the data region 914) may also be allocated for data traffic. Such data traffic may be carried on one or more traffic channels, such as a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) for DL ​​transmissions or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) for UL transmissions. In some examples, one or more REs 906 within the data region 914 may be configured to carry other signals, such as one or more SIBs and DMRS.

[0168] In an example of sidelink communication on a sidelink carrier via a PC5 interface, the control region 912 of the time slot 910 may include a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), which includes sidelink control information (SCI) transmitted by an initiator (transmitter) sidelink device (e.g., V2X or other sidelink device) toward a set of one or more other receiver sidelink devices. The data region 914 of the time slot 910 may include a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), which includes sidelink data traffic transmitted by the transmitter sidelink device within resources reserved by the initiator (transmitter) sidelink device via SCI on the sidelink carrier. Other information may be further transmitted on each RE 906 within the time slot 910. For example, HARQ feedback information may be transmitted from the receiver sidelink device to the transmitter sidelink device in a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) within the time slot 910. In addition, one or more reference signals, such as a sidelink SSB and / or a sidelink CSI-RS, may be transmitted within the time slot 910.

[0169] These physical channels are generally multiplexed and mapped to transport channels for handling by the medium access control (MAC) layer. Transport channels carry blocks of information, which are called transport blocks (TBs). The transport block size (TBS), which may correspond to the number of information bits, may be a controlled parameter based on the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and the number of RBs in a given transmission.

[0170] Combination of the above Figure 7-9 The channels or carriers described in are not necessarily all channels or carriers that can be utilized between the scheduling entity and the scheduled entity, and a person of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that other channels or carriers may be utilized in addition to those channels or carriers illustrated, such as other traffic, control, and feedback channels.

[0171] Fig.101 is a block diagram illustrating a wireless communication system supporting beamforming and / or multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications in which various aspects may be implemented. In some aspects of the present disclosure, a scheduling entity and / or a scheduled entity may be configured for beamforming and / or multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology. In a MIMO system, a transmitter 1002 includes multiple transmit antennas 1004 (e.g., N transmit antennas), and a receiver 1006 includes multiple receive antennas 1008 (e.g., M receive antennas). Thus, there are N×M signal paths 1008 from the transmit antenna 1004 to the receive antenna 1010. Each of the transmitter 1002 and the receiver 1006 may be implemented, for example, within a scheduling entity, a scheduled entity, or any other suitable UE.

[0172] The use of such multi-antenna technology enables wireless communication systems to exploit the spatial domain to support spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and transmit diversity. Spatial multiplexing can be used to transmit different data streams (also called layers) simultaneously on the same time-frequency resources. These data streams can be transmitted to a single UE to increase the data rate or to multiple UEs to increase the total system capacity, the latter of which is called multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO). This is achieved by spatially precoding each data stream (i.e., multiplying the data streams by different weights and phase shifts) and then transmitting each spatially precoded stream through multiple transmit antennas on the downlink. The spatially precoded data streams arrive at the UE with different spatial signatures, which enable each UE to recover one or more data streams intended for the UE. On the uplink, each UE transmits a spatially precoded data stream, which enables the base station to identify the source of each spatially precoded data stream.

[0173] The number of data streams or layers corresponds to the rank of the transmission. In general, the rank of the MIMO system 1000 is limited to the lower of the number of transmit or receive antennas 1004 or 1008. Additionally, the channel conditions at the UE and other considerations (such as the available resources at the base station) may also affect the transmission rank. For example, the rank (and therefore the number of data streams) assigned to a specific UE on the downlink may be determined based on a rank indicator (RI) transmitted from the UE to the base station. The RI may be determined based on the antenna configuration (e.g., the number of transmit and receive antennas) and the measured signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) on each receive antenna. The RI may indicate, for example, the number of layers that can be supported under the current channel conditions. The base station may use the RI together with resource information (e.g., available resources and the amount of data to be scheduled for the UE) to assign a transmission rank to the UE.

[0174] In one example, if Fig.10As shown in , rank 2 spatial multiplexing transmission on a 2x2 MIMO antenna configuration will transmit one data stream from each transmit antenna 1004. Each data stream arrives at each receive antenna 1010 along a different signal path 1008. The receiver 1006 can then reconstruct the data streams using the signals received from each receive antenna 1008.

[0175] Beamforming is a signal processing technique that may be used at a transmitter 1002 or a receiver 1006 to shape or direct an antenna beam (e.g., a transmit beam or a receive beam) along a spatial path between the transmitter 1002 and the receiver 1006. Beamforming may be achieved by combining signals communicated via antennas 1004 or 1008 (e.g., antenna elements of an antenna array module) so that some of these signals experience constructive interference and other signals experience destructive interference. In order to create the desired constructive / destructive interference, the transmitter 1002 or the receiver 1006 may apply an amplitude and / or phase offset to the signal transmitted or received from each of the antennas 1004 or 1008 associated with the transmitter 1002 or the receiver 1006.

[0176] A base station (e.g., a gNB) is typically capable of communicating with a UE using beams of different beam widths. For example, a base station may be configured to utilize a wider beam when communicating with a UE in motion and a narrower beam when communicating with a stationary UE. In some examples, in order to select a specific beam for communicating with the UE, the base station may transmit a reference signal, such as an SSB or a CSI-RS, on each of a plurality of beams in a beam sweeping manner. In some examples, the SSB may be transmitted on a wider beam and the CSI-RS may be transmitted on a narrower beam. The UE may measure a reference signal received power (RSRP) or a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) on each beam and transmit a beam measurement report (e.g., a layer 1 (L1) measurement report) to the base station indicating the RSRP or SINR of one or more measured beams. The base station may then select a specific beam for communicating with the UE based on the L1 measurement report. In other examples, when the channel is reciprocal, the base station may derive a specific beam for communicating with the UE based on uplink measurements of one or more uplink reference signals, such as a sounding reference signal (SRS).

[0177] In 5G New Radio (NR) systems, especially for systems above 6 GHz or mmWave, beamformed signals can be used for most downlink channels, including the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH). In addition, broadcast control information (such as SSB, Slot Format Indicator (SFI), and paging information) can be transmitted in a beam-sweeping manner so that all scheduled entities (UEs) in the coverage area of ​​the Transmit and Receive Point (TRP) (e.g., gNB) can receive the broadcast control information. In addition, for UEs configured with beamforming antenna arrays, beamformed signals can also be used for uplink channels (including the Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) and the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH)). However, it should be understood that beamformed signals can also be used by enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) gNBs for sub-6 GHz systems.

[0178] Fig.11 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of communication between a radio access network (RAN) node 1104 and a user equipment (UE) 1102 using beamforming in which various aspects may be implemented. The RAN node 1104 may be Figure 7 and 8 Any of the base stations or scheduling entities illustrated in , and UE 1102 may be Figure 7 and 8 104. The RAN node 1104 may transmit more or fewer beams distributed in all directions (e.g., 360 degrees).

[0179] exist Fig.11In the example shown in , the beam set includes eight different beams 1121, 1122, 1123, 1124, 11211, 1126, 1127, 1128, each beam being associated with a different beam direction. In some examples, the RAN node 1104 may be configured to sweep or transmit each of the beams 1121, 1122, 1123, 1124, 1125, 1126, 1127, 1128 during a synchronization time slot. For example, the RAN node 1104 may transmit a reference signal (such as an SSB or CSI-RS) on each beam in a different beam direction during a synchronization time slot. Transmission of beam reference signals may occur periodically (e.g., as configured by the gNB via radio resource control (RRC) signaling), semi-persistently (e.g., as configured by the gNB via RRC signaling and activated / deactivated via medium access control-control element (MAC-CE) signaling), or aperiodically (e.g., as triggered by the gNB via downlink control information (DCI)).

[0180] UE 1102 searches for and identifies a beam based on the beam reference signal. UE 1102 then performs beam measurements (e.g., RSRP, SINR, RSRQ, etc.) on the beam reference signal to determine the corresponding beam quality of each beam. In an example where UE 1102 is in an RRC connected state, UE 1102 may generate and transmit an L1 measurement report to RAN node 1104, the L1 measurement report including corresponding beam identifiers (beam indexes) and beam measurements for one or more beams of beams 1121-1128. RAN node 1104 may then determine a downlink beam (e.g., beam 1124) on which to transmit unicast downlink control information and / or user data traffic to UE 1102. In some examples, the selected downlink beam has the highest gain from the L1 measurement report. The transmission of L1 measurement reports may occur periodically (e.g., as configured by the gNB via RRC signaling), semi-persistently (e.g., as configured by the gNB via RRC signaling and activated / deactivated via MAC-CE signaling), or aperiodically (e.g., triggered by the gNB via DCI).

[0181] In other examples, when the channel is reciprocal (e.g., the downlink and uplink channel qualities are the same), the RAN node 1104 can derive the downlink beam. The derivation of the downlink beam can be based on uplink measurements performed by the RAN node 1104, such as by measuring the received power, quality, or other variables of a sounding reference signal (SRS) or other uplink reference signal transmitted by the UE 1102. In some examples, the RAN node 1104 can derive the downlink beam based on a combination of L1 measurement reports and uplink measurements.

[0182] In an example where UE 1102 is in an RRC idle state, UE 1102 may use beam measurements to select a downlink beam on which to receive broadcast communications from RAN node 1104. Broadcast communications may, for example, include paging messages transmitted from RAN node 1104 to UE 1102 when new data arrives at the network for UE 1102. In some examples, paging messages may be broadcast on multiple downlink beams by RAN node 1104. The paging message may then be received by UE 1102 on the selected downlink beam.

[0183] In addition to the L1 measurement report, the UE 1102 may further utilize the beam reference signal to estimate the channel quality of the channel between the RAN node 1104 and the UE 1104. For example, the UE may measure the SINR of each received CSI-RS and generate a CSI report based on the measured SIRR. The CSI report may include, for example, a channel quality indicator (CQI), a rank indicator (RI), a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), and / or a layer indicator (LI). The scheduling entity may use the CSI report to select a rank for the scheduled entity, together with a precoding matrix and an MCS for future downlink transmissions to the scheduled entity. The MCS may be selected from one or more MCS tables, each MCS table being associated with a specific type of coding (e.g., polar coding, LDPC, etc.) or modulation (e.g., binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), 64 QAM, 256 QAM, etc.). The LI may be used to indicate which column of the precoding matrix of the reported PMI corresponds to the strongest layer codeword corresponding to the reported maximum wideband CQI.

[0184] The RAN node 1104 and the UE 1102 may support different types of CSI reports (including L1 measurement reports) and / or different types of measurements. For example, self-contained CSI (e.g., CSI is transmitted back to the RAN node 1104 in the same time slot as the time slot in which the CSI-RS is transmitted from the RAN node) or non-self-contained CSI (e.g., CSI is transmitted back to the RAN node 1104 in a time slot later than the time slot in which the CSI-RS is transmitted from the RAN network) may be supported. In order to distinguish between different report / measurement types and measurement configurations, the CSI-RS pilot may be mapped to specific resource elements (REs) and ports for each of the report / measurement type and report / measurement configuration.

[0185] Fig.1212 is a diagram illustrating an example of a channel state information (CSI) resource mapping within which various aspects may be implemented. An example CSI resource mapping 1200 may be used to support different reporting / measurement configurations. The CSI resource mapping includes a CSI report setting 1202, a CSI resource setting 1204, a CSI resource set 1206, and a CSI resource 1208. Each CSI resource setting 1204 includes one or more CSI resource sets 1206, and each CSI resource set 1206 includes one or more CSI-resources 1208. Fig.12 In the example shown in , a single CSI resource setting (eg, CSI resource setting 0) is illustrated. However, it should be understood that any suitable number of CSI resource settings 1204 may be supported.

[0186] Each CSI report setting 1202 may include a report quality (reportQuantity), which indicates, for example, specific CSI parameters and their granularity to be included in the CSI report (e.g., wideband / subband CQI, PMI, RI, LI, etc.) or L1 parameters (e.g., L1-RSRP, L1-SINR). The CSI report setting 1202 may further indicate the periodicity of the CSI report. For example, the CSI report setting 1202 may indicate that the report should be generated periodically, aperiodically, or semi-persistently. For an aperiodic CSI report setting, the CSI report may be sent on the PUSCH. For a periodic CSI report setting, the CSI report may be sent on the PUCCH. For a semi-persistent CSI report setting, the CSI report may be sent on the PUCCH or the PUSCH. For example, a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE) may be used to activate or deactivate a semi-persistent CSI report sent on the PUCCH. Sending of semi-persistent CSI reports on PUSCH may be triggered using downlink control information (DCI) scrambled with a semi-persistent CSI (SP-CP) radio network temporary identifier (SP-CP-RNTI).CSI report settings 1202 may also include corresponding priorities and other suitable parameters.

[0187] Each CSI report setting 1202 may be linked to a CSI resource setting 1204. Each CSI resource setting 1204 may be associated with a specific time domain behavior of a reference signal. For example, each CSI resource setting 1204 may include periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic CSI resources 1208. For periodic and semi-persistent CSI resource settings 1204, the number of configured CSI resource sets 1206 may be limited to one. In general, a CSI resource setting 1204 that may be linked to a specific CSI report setting 1202 may be limited by the time domain behavior of the CSI resource setting 1204 and the CSI report setting 1202. For example, an aperiodic CSI report setting 1202 may be linked to a periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic CSI resource setting 1204. However, a semi-persistent CSI report setting 1202 may be linked to a periodic or semi-persistent CSI resource setting 1204 only. In addition, a periodic CSI report setting 1202 may be linked to a periodic CSI resource setting 1204 only.

[0188] Each CSI resource set 1206 may be associated with a CSI resource type. For example, a CSI resource type may include a non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS resource, an SSB resource, or a channel state information interference measurement (CSI-IM) resource. Thus, each CSI resource set 1206 includes a list of CSI resources 1208 of a specific CSI resource type. In addition, each CSI resource set 1206 may be further associated with one or more of a frequency resource set (e.g., bandwidth and / or OFDM symbol(s) within a time slot), a specific port set, power, or other suitable parameters.

[0189] Each CSI resource 1208 indicates a specific beam (e.g., port), frequency resource, and OFDM symbol on which the UE can measure a reference signal. For example, each CSI-RS resource 1208 may indicate REs on which a CSI-RS pilot or SSB transmitted from a specific set of ports (e.g., on a specific beam) may be measured. Fig.12 In the example shown in , CSI-RS resource set 0.1 includes four CSI-RS resources (CSI-RS resource 0.10, CSI-RS resource 0.11, CSI-RS resource 0.12, and CSI-RS resource 0.13). Each CSI resource 1208 may be further indexed by a corresponding beam identifier (ID). The beam ID may not only identify a specific beam (e.g., a port), but may also identify a resource on which a reference signal may be measured. For example, the beam ID may include a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI) or an SSB resource indicator (SSBRI).

[0190] The RAN node may configure the UE with one or more CSI reporting settings 1202 and CSI resource settings 1204 via, for example, radio resource control (RRC) signaling. For example, the RAN node may configure the UE with a list of periodic CSI reporting settings 1202 indicating associated CSI resource sets 1206 that the UE may utilize to generate periodic CSI reports. As another example, the RAN node may configure the UE with a list of aperiodic CSI reporting settings in CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList. Each trigger state in CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList may include a list of aperiodic CSI reporting settings 1202 indicating associated CSI resource sets 1206 for channel (and optionally for interference) measurements. As another example, the RAN node may configure the UE with a list of semi-persistent CSI reporting settings in CSI-SemiPersistentOnPUSCH-TriggerStateList. Each trigger state in CSI-SemiPersistentOnPUSCH-TriggerStateList may include one CSI reporting setting 1202 indicating an associated CSI resource set 1206. The RAN node may then use, for example, DCI to trigger one or more of the aperiodic or semi-persistent trigger states. As indicated above, MAC-CE may be used to activate or deactivate the semi-persistent CSI reporting setting 1202 for sending CSI reports on the PUCCH.

[0191] For L1-RSRP measurement reporting, the UE may be configured with a CSI resource setting 1204 having up to 16 CSI resource sets 1206. Each CSI resource set 1206 may include up to 64 CSI resources 1208 in each set. The total number of different CSI resources 1208 across all CSI resource sets 1206 may not exceed 128. For L1-SINR measurement reporting, the UE may be configured with a CSI resource setting 1204 that may include up to 64 CSI resources 1208 (e.g., up to 64 CSI-RS resources or up to 64 SSB resources). In an example where the UE includes two antenna panels and is therefore capable of measuring two beams at a time, the UE may be configured for group-based beam reporting, where the UE may measure beams from different transmit and receive points (TRPs). In this example, a single L1 measurement report may include measurements from both TRPs (e.g., the best beam (highest RSRP or SINR) from the first TRP and the best beam from the second TRP). Here, different CSI-RS or SSB beams from each TRP can be received and measured simultaneously.

[0192] Various aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to reducing the size of measurement reports, particularly layer 1 (L1) measurement reports that report beam measurements, such as reference signal received power (RSRP) or signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR). In many scenarios, such as weak coverage or critical coverage scenarios, reliability may be more important than resolution. In such scenarios, radio resource control (RRC) signaling may indicate to a user equipment (UE) that the measurement report will be transmitted with a reduced resolution. The configuration of the measurement report, commonly referred to as a report setting, may indicate the number of bits and resource indicators used to report the beam measurements. The RRC signaling may indicate that the beam measurements reported in the measurement report associated with a particular report setting will have a lower resolution. For example, a radio access network (RAN) node may indicate to the UE that the length or size of the beam measurements reported in the L1-SINR measurement report is reduced by two bits. For example, the L1-SINR measurement report may report four beam measurements, of which seven bits are used for the first beam and four bits are used for the remaining beams, for a total of 19 bits. The reduced resolution L1-SINR measurement report may report four beam measurements, with five bits used for the first beam and two bits used for the remaining beams, for a total of 11 bits, a 42% reduction from 19. At a later time, when reduced resolution reporting is no longer desired, RRC signaling may indicate to the UE that reduced resolution measurement reports should no longer be sent.

[0193] Certain aspects of the subject matter described in this disclosure may be implemented to achieve one or more of the following potential advantages. In some aspects, the disclosed techniques may be used to reduce the size of measurement reports by reducing the size of the payload of the measurement reports. When the size of the measurement reports is reduced, more measurement reports may be reliably sent. In some aspects, in cases where coverage is weak and in cases where coverage is critical, smaller payloads in beam measurement reports result in more reliable delivery.

[0194] Fig.13 1304 and 1305. Figure 1 , 2, 4 and / or 5. In addition, the RAN node 1304 may correspond to any of the UEs or scheduled entities shown in FIG. Figure 1 , any of the base stations (e.g., gNB, eNB, or TRP) or scheduling entities shown in 2, 4, and / or 5.

[0195] At 1306 and 1308, the RAN node 1304 may transmit one or more CSI resource settings and one or more CSI reporting settings to the UE 1302 to configure the UE with the one or more CSI reporting settings and associated CSI resource settings. In some examples, the CSI reporting setting(s) and the associated CSI resource settings may be transmitted to the UE via RRC signaling.

[0196] In the example where the CSI report settings include periodic L1 measurement report settings, the UE may utilize the periodic L1 measurement report settings to generate corresponding measurement reports. In the example where the CSI report settings include aperiodic or semi-persistent L1 measurement report settings, at 1310, the RAN node 1304 may trigger the aperiodic or semi-persistent L1 measurement report settings via, for example, DCI or MAC-CE.

[0197] At 1312, the RAN node 1304 may perform beam sweeping to transmit a reference signal (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS) on each of the plurality of beams to the UE 1302. At 1314, the UE 1302 identifies and measures RSRP or SINR of corresponding beam reference signals on one or more configured beams (e.g., based on CSI resources associated with the CSI reporting setting in the CSI resource set(s)).

[0198] At 1316, the UE 1302 may transmit a measurement report (e.g., L1-RSRP or L1-SINR for SSB or CSI-RS) to the RAN node 1304 according to the CSI reporting setting(s). For a particular CSI reporting setting, up to four L1 measurements (e.g., up to four different beams) may be included in the measurement report. The maximum measured value may be quantized to seven bits and may be absolute. Absolute means that the quantized measured value is reported. For L-RSRP or L1-SINR measurement reports, or if group-based beam reporting is enabled, each of the other measurements (up to three measurements) included in the measurement report may be a differential measurement (relative to the maximum measured value) quantized to a four-bit value. Beam measurements for multiple CSI reporting settings may be sent in a single PUCCH / PUSCH payload (e.g., a single L1 measurement report). However, the number of CSI reporting settings may be limited by the PUCCH / PUSCH payload size. For example, if the payload size is not sufficient to carry all CSI reporting settings, the CSI reporting setting with the lowest priority may be discarded.

[0199] However, for stationary reduced capability devices (such as industrial sensors and video surveillance cameras), channel conditions may not change frequently. Therefore, the beam(s) and beam order in the measurement report(s) may not change frequently. Various aspects of the present disclosure are directed to reducing the payload size of measurement reports. Reduction in measurement report payload size can improve reporting coverage by maximizing the number of CSI report settings that can be sent in a PUCCH / PUSCH payload. In addition, reducing the measurement report payload size can achieve a reduction in the amount of repeated information (e.g., CRI / SSBRI) included in each measurement report.

[0200] At 1318, the RAN node indicates to the UE that a reduced measurement report resolution should be used for beam measurement reports. For example, the CSI-RS reporting settings for the measurement report may indicate that a first measurement report resolution for a beam (such as the best beam) in the measurement report is 7 bits. The resolution may be reduced by using fewer bits. Thus, the reduced measurement report resolution for the beam may be 5 bits, which is a two-bit reduction in resolution.

[0201] At 1320, the RAN node 1304 may trigger a measurement report using a reduced measurement report resolution via, for example, a DCI or a MAC-CE. At 1322, the RAN node 1304 may perform beam sweeping to transmit a reference signal on each of a plurality of beams to the UE 1302. At 1324, the UE 1302 identifies and measures the RSRP or SINR of the corresponding beam reference signal on one or more configured beams. At 1326, the UE 1302 may transmit a measurement report to the RAN node 1304 using the reduced measurement report resolution.

[0202] Fig.14 is a diagram illustrating examples of various configurations of measurement reports in accordance with some aspects. Fig.14 In the example shown in , the measurement report configuration 1402a uses a first measurement report resolution indicated for a previously specified or configured L1 measurement report. The measurement report configuration 1402b shows the previously specified or configured measurement report configuration 1402a being reconfigured to use a reduced measurement report resolution. The measurement report may be specified or configured via a CSI-RS report setting, as discussed above. Alternatively, the measurement report may be specified or configured by setting the report configuration in some other manner, such as by loading the configuration into a non-volatile memory during manufacture of the UE or at some other point in the supply chain for delivery of the UE to a user. The measurement report is previously specified or configured because the configuration was stored in the UE before the UE was instructed to use a reduced measurement report resolution for the measurement report.

[0203] The measurement report configuration 1402a may provide measurement data for four beam measurements. CRI 804 is specified to have four bits, and thus each CRI may indicate one of the 16 beams. CRI 1 is the CRI for the beam with the reported value in measurement 1 1406a. CRI 2 is the CRI for the beam with the reported value in measurement 2 1408a. CRI 3 is the CRI for the beam with the reported value in measurement 3 1410a. CRI 4 is the CRI for the beam with the reported value in measurement 4 1412a.

[0204] The beam measurements in the measurement report configuration 1402a may use a first measurement report resolution. Fig.14 In a non-limiting example, the first measurement report resolution is specified as follows: Fig.14As shown in , seven bits are used for the first beam 1406a, four bits are used for the second beam 1408a, four bits are used for the third beam 1410a, and four bits are used for the fourth beam 1412a. The seven-bit integer can have one of 127 values, while the four-bit integer can have one of 16 integer values. Beam measurements reported using seven bits can be a seven-bit integer value multiplied by a quantization level. In general, beam measurements reported using N bits can be an N-bit integer value multiplied by a quantization level. For L-RSRP or L1-SINR measurement reports, the quantization level can be expressed in decibels (dB).

[0205] The first reported beam measurement 1406a in configuration 1402a is specified as a seven-bit reported absolute beam measurement. The second reported beam measurement 1408a, the third reported beam measurement 1410a, and the fourth reported beam measurement 1412a in configuration 1402a are specified as four-bit reported differential beam measurements with reference to the first reported beam measurement 1406a. In a non-limiting example of SINR measurement using a 0.5 dB quantization level, the first reported beam measurement 1406a is "0000111" and the second reported beam measurement 1408a is "0000011". In this example, "0000111" has an integer value of 7, while "0000011" has an integer value of 3. The first reported beam measurement 1406a is therefore 7 * 0.5db = 3.5dB SINR. The second reported beam measurement 1408a is therefore (7-3)*0.5db = 2.0 db. The first reported beam measurement 1406a typically reports the highest beam measurement (often referred to as the best beam), with the remaining reported measurements being second highest, third highest, etc. in order.

[0206] Measurement report configuration 1402b is a reduced measurement report resolution reconfiguration of measurement report configuration 1402a. The first reported beam measurement 1406b in configuration 1402b is specified as a five-bit reported absolute beam measurement. The second reported beam measurement 1408b, the third reported beam measurement 1410b, and the fourth reported beam measurement 1412b in configuration 1402b are specified as two-bit reported differential beam measurements with reference to the first reported beam measurement 1406b. The indication sent by the RAN to the UE may indicate that the measurement report previously specified to use configuration 1402a is to reduce the resolution by using two fewer bits for each reported value. As such, the measurement report is sent using configuration 1402b.

[0207] Fig.15A -C is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of reduced measurement report resolution according to some aspects. Fig.15A, the indication 1502a may be sent in a MAC CE 1504a. The indication 1502a instructs the UE to reduce the reported beam measurement by two bits for a specified configuration 1508a in the L1 measurement report 1 1506a. The specified configuration may be a configuration specified in a standard, such as a 3GPP standard. The indication 1502a also instructs the UE to set the quantization level to 1 dB 1512a in the L1 measurement report 1510a.

[0208] exist Fig. 15B , indication 1502b may be sent in a UE-specific DCI 1504b. A UE-specific DCI is a DCI for a specific UE. Instruction 1502b instructs the UE to reduce the reported beam measurement by two bits for the configuration 1508b stored in L1 measurement report 2 1506b. Instruction 1502a also instructs the UE to set the quantization level to 0.5dB 1512b in the L1 measurement report 1510b.

[0209] exist Fig. 15C , the indication 1502c may be sent in a group common DCI 1504c. The group common DCI is sent to many UEs. The indication 1502c instructs the UE to reduce the reported beam measurement by one bit for the configuration 1508c stored in L1 measurement report 1 1506c. The indication 1502c also instructs the UE to set the quantization level to 2dB 1512c in L1 measurement report 2 910c.

[0210] Fig.16 is a diagram illustrating an example of measurement reports sent over time in accordance with some aspects. Fig.16 In the example shown in , two L1 measurement reports 1602a and 1602b are illustrated. The first L1 measurement report 1602a may be sent at a first time (t1), and the second L1 measurement report 1602b may be sent at a second time (t2). Thus, the first L1 measurement report 1602a may be considered a previous L1 measurement report compared to the second L1 measurement report 1602b.

[0211] Each L1 measurement report 1602a and 1602b may be a periodic L1 measurement report, a semi-persistent L1 measurement report, or a transient L1 measurement report. In addition, each L1 measurement report 1602a and 1602b may include a corresponding beam measurement 1608a and 1608b associated with a corresponding CSI report setting 1604a and 1604b. In some examples, the CSI report settings 1604a and 1604b may be the same or different. It should be understood that multiple CSI report settings may be included in each L1 measurement report 1602a and 1602b.

[0212] In some examples, the beam measurements 1608a in the first L1 measurement report 1602a can be arranged in an order that can be configured based on the beam measurement values. For example, the first beam measurement in the first L1 measurement report 1602a can have the highest value, the second beam measurement in the first L1 measurement report 1602a can have the second highest value, and so on.

[0213] Fig.17 1702 according to some aspects. The report setting may have configured the measurement report to have content including four SINR beam measurements 1704 and four RSRP beam measurements 1706, each having Figure 8 802a of . Thus, the measurement report resolution previously indicated for both the SINR measurement report portion 1704 and the RSRP measurement report portion 706 may have used seven bits for the first beam, four bits for the second beam, four bits for the third beam, and four bits for the fourth beam. The indication from the RAN may have indicated that a reduced measurement report resolution is to be used for the SINR portion 1704, for example, by explicitly indicating that five bits are used for the first beam, two bits are used for the second beam, two bits are used for the third beam, and two bits are used for the fourth beam. The same or a different indication from the RAN may have indicated that a reduced measurement report resolution is to be used for the RSRP portion 1706 by indicating that the resolution for the first beam is reduced by 1 bit. The UE may be configured to reduce the reported resolution for each of the other beams based on the reduction in the number of bits to be used for the first beam measurement. As such, the RSRP portion 1706 is illustrated as using six bits for the first beam, three bits for the second beam, three bits for the third beam, and three bits for the fourth beam.

[0214] Fig.18 18 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation of a RAN node 1800 employing a processing system 1814 according to some aspects. For example, the RAN node 1800 may be such as Figure 1 , a base station (e.g., a gNB) or other scheduling entity illustrated in any one or more of , 2, 4, 5 and / or 7.

[0215] The RAN node 1800 may be implemented with a processing system 1804 including one or more processors 1814. Examples of the processor 1804 include a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a digital signal processor (DSP), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a state machine, a gated logic, a discrete hardware circuit, and other suitable hardware configured to perform various functionalities described throughout this disclosure. In various examples, the RAN node 1800 may be configured to perform any one or more of the functions described herein. That is, the processor 1800 as utilized in the RAN node 1804 may be used to implement any one or more of the following processes. In some instances, the processor 1804 may be implemented via a baseband or modem chip, while in other implementations, the processor 1804 itself may include a number of devices that are distinct and different from the baseband or modem chip (e.g., in such scenarios, may work together to achieve the configurations discussed herein). And as mentioned above, various hardware arrangements and components outside of the baseband modem processor may be used in implementations, including RF chains, power amplifiers, modulators, buffers, interleavers, adders / summers, etc.

[0216] In this example, the processing system 1814 can be implemented with a bus architecture generally represented by bus 1802. Depending on the specific application and overall design constraints of the processing system 1814, the bus 1802 may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges. The bus 1802 communicatively couples various circuits including one or more processors (generally represented by processor 1804), memory 1805, and computer-readable media (generally represented by computer-readable media 1806). The bus 1802 may also link various other circuits, such as timing sources, peripherals, regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art and therefore will not be further described. The bus interface 1808 provides an interface between the bus 1802, the transceiver 1810, and the antenna array 1820. The antenna array 1820 may be a single-panel antenna array or a multi-panel antenna array. The transceiver 1810 provides a means for communicating with various other devices through a transmission medium (e.g., an air interface). A user interface 1812 (eg, a keypad, display, touch screen, speaker, microphone, control knob, etc.) may also be provided. Of course, such a user interface 1812 is optional and may be omitted in some examples.

[0217] The processor 1804 is responsible for managing the bus 1802 and general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium 1806. The software, when executed by the processor 1804, causes the processing system 1814 to perform the various functions described below for any particular device. The computer-readable medium 1806 and memory 1805 may also be used to store data manipulated by the processor 1804 when executing the software.

[0218] One or more processors 1804 in the processing system can execute software. Software should be broadly interpreted to mean instructions, instruction sets, codes, code segments, program codes, programs, subroutines, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executables, threads of execution, procedures, functions, etc., whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or other terms. The software may reside on a computer-readable medium 1806.

[0219] Computer-readable medium 1806 may be a non-transient computer-readable medium. As an example, non-transient computer-readable media include magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disks, floppy disks, magnetic tapes), optical disks (e.g., compact disks (CDs) or digital versatile disks (DVDs)), smart cards, flash memory devices (e.g., card, stick, or key-type drives), random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), registers, removable disks, and any other suitable medium for storing software and / or instructions that can be accessed and read by a computer. As an example, computer-readable media may also include carrier waves, transmission lines, and any other suitable medium for transmitting software and / or instructions that can be accessed and read by a computer. Computer-readable medium 1806 may reside in processing system 1814, be external to processing system 1814, or be distributed across multiple entities including processing system 1814. Computer-readable medium 1806 may be implemented in a computer program product. In some examples, computer readable medium 1806 may be part of memory 1805. As an example, a computer program product may include a computer readable medium in packaging materials. Those skilled in the art will recognize how to best implement the described functionality presented throughout this disclosure depending on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the overall system.

[0220] In some aspects of the present disclosure, processor 1804 may include circuitry configured for various functions. For example, processor 1804 may include resource assignment and scheduling circuitry 1842 configured to generate, schedule, and modify resource assignments or grants for time-frequency resources. For example, resource assignment and scheduling circuitry 1842 may schedule time-frequency resources within multiple sub-bands or BWPs of one or more subframes or time slots to carry user data traffic and / or control information to and / or from multiple UEs.

[0221] In various aspects of the present disclosure, the resource assignment and scheduling circuit system 1842 may be configured to schedule resources for transmitting one or more RRC messages to one or more UEs, including one or more resource settings 1815 (e.g., CSI resource settings) and one or more report settings 1816 (e.g., CSI report settings) for configuring corresponding resource settings and corresponding report settings on each UE. The resource settings 1815 and the report settings 1816 may be maintained, for example, in the memory 1805. The resource assignment and scheduling circuit system 1842 may be further configured to schedule resources for transmitting an activation or deactivation message (e.g., via MAC-CE) to the UE to activate or deactivate a semi-persistent reporting setting associated with a PUCCH report. In addition, the resource assignment and scheduling circuit system 1842 may be configured to schedule resources for transmitting a trigger message (e.g., via DCI) to the UE to trigger an aperiodic or semi-persistent reporting setting associated with a PUSCH report. In addition, the resource assignment and scheduling circuit system 1842 can be configured to schedule resources for transmitting reporting information associated with the non-periodic reporting setting to the UE (e.g., via a DCI including a trigger message or a different message) to indicate a list and / or order of beam measurements to be included in the non-periodic L1 measurement report.

[0222] The resource assignment and scheduling circuit system 1842 may be further configured to schedule resources for transmitting multiple reference signals periodically, aperiodically, and / or semi-persistently on multiple beams. For example, the reference signal may include SSB and / or RS. The resource assignment and scheduling circuit system 1842 may be further configured to schedule resources for transmitting one or more uplink L1 measurement reports 1818 on one or more PUCCH or PUSCH. The received uplink L1 measurement report 1818 received from the UE may be stored in, for example, the memory 1805. The resource assignment and scheduling circuit system 1842 may be further configured to execute resource assignment and scheduling software 1852 stored in the computer-readable medium 1806 to implement one or more of the functions described herein.

[0223] Processor 1804 may further include communication and processing circuitry 1844 configured to communicate with the UE on the carrier frequency. In some examples, communication and processing circuitry 1844 may include one or more hardware components that provide a physical structure for performing processes related to wireless communication (e.g., signal reception and / or signal transmission) and signal processing (e.g., processing received signals and / or processing signals for transmission).

[0224] In some examples, the communication and processing circuit system 1844 may be configured to generate and transmit one or more RRC messages to one or more UEs via the transceiver 1810, which include one or more resource settings 1815 and one or more reporting settings 1816. The communication and processing circuit system 1844 may be further configured to generate and transmit to the UE via the transceiver 1810 an activation or deactivation message (e.g., via MAC-CE) to activate or deactivate a semi-persistent reporting setting associated with a PUCCH report. In addition, the communication and processing circuit system 1844 may be configured to generate and transmit to the UE via the transceiver 1810 a trigger message (e.g., via DCI) to trigger an aperiodic or semi-persistent reporting setting associated with a PUSCH report. In addition, the communication and processing circuit system 1844 may be configured to generate and transmit to the UE via the transceiver 1810 reporting information associated with the aperiodic reporting setting (e.g., via DCI containing a trigger message or a different message) to indicate a list and / or order of beam measurements to be included in the aperiodic L1 measurement report.

[0225] The communication and processing circuit system 1844 may be further configured to generate and transmit multiple reference signals (SSB and / or -RS) on multiple beams using the antenna array 1820 and the transceiver 1810. The communication and processing circuit system 1844 may be further configured to receive one or more uplink L1 measurement reports 1818 from one or more UEs on one or more PUCCHs or PUSCHs. The communication and processing circuit system 1844 may be further configured to execute the communication and processing software 1854 stored in the computer-readable medium 1806 to implement one or more of the functions described herein.

[0226] Processor 1804 may further include reporting configuration circuitry 1846 configured to select at least one resource setting 1815 and at least one reporting setting 1816 for the UE. In some examples, reporting configuration circuitry 1846 may be further configured to select reduced measurement reporting resolution 1817 for one or more reporting settings 1816. In some examples, reporting configuration circuitry 1846 may be further configured to enable reduced measurement reporting resolution for one or more reporting settings 1816 to allow the UE to use the reduced measurement reporting resolution in the L1 measurement report associated with the reporting setting 1816. In some examples, reporting configuration circuitry 1846 may be further configured to enable use of reduced measurement reporting resolution per reporting setting (e.g., multiple information types may be sent in a single L1 measurement report) or per L1 measurement report (e.g., all reporting settings have the same information type in a single L1 measurement report).

[0227] In some examples, the report configuration circuit system 1846 may be further configured to select report information or a non-periodic L1 measurement report for a non-periodic reporting setting. For example, the report configuration circuit system 1846 may be configured to select a list and / or order of beam IDs to be included in the L1 measurement report or in all L1 measurement reports associated with a particular reporting setting. In some examples, the list and / or order may be selected to be the same order as the last reporting setting used by the UE to generate an L1 measurement report for the same or different reporting setting or the last L1 measurement report. The report configuration circuit system 1846 may be further configured to execute the report configuration software 1856 stored in the computer-readable medium 1806 to implement one or more of the functions described herein.

[0228] The processor 1804 may further include an L1 measurement report processing circuit system 1848 configured to receive and process an L1 measurement report 1818 received from a UE. The L1 measurement report 1818 may include beam measurement information, which includes beam measurements (e.g., RSRP or SINR), each beam measurement corresponding to a corresponding beam ID. The beam ID may be, for example, a CRI or SSBRI, which identifies a specific beam (e.g., port), frequency resource, and OFDM codeword on which a reference signal (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS) may be measured by the UE. The L1 measurement report 1818 may include up to four beam IDs and corresponding beam measurements, as configured in the associated report settings 1816. In some examples, the L1 measurement report 1818 may use a previously indicated measurement report resolution or a reduced measurement report resolution.

[0229] Fig.191900 is a flow chart of a method for receiving L1 measurement reports using reduced measurement report resolution. As described below, some or all of the illustrated features may be omitted in certain implementations within the scope of the present disclosure, and some of the illustrated features may not be required to implement all configurations. In some examples, the method may be described above and in Fig.18 The RAN node 1800 illustrated in the accompanying drawings is executed by a processor or a processing system, or by any suitable means for performing the described functions.

[0230] At block 1902, the RAN node may transmit a report setting from a RAN entity prior to transmitting the indication, the report setting indicating a first measurement report resolution and content to be included in the measurement report. The content may be SINR or RSRP beam measurements. The first measurement report resolution may be the number of bits used to report the beam measurement. The report configuration circuitry 1846 may be combined with the above Fig.18 The communication and processing circuitry 1844 and transceiver 1810 together are shown and described as being operable to communicate at least one reporting setting.

[0231] At block 1904, the RAN node may transmit an indication to a user equipment (UE) that a reduced measurement report resolution is to be used for beam measurements in a measurement report. The measurement report may be a measurement report configured via the report settings transmitted at block 1902, or may be any other previously configured measurement report (such as a measurement report specified by a standard that may be installed or stored during manufacturing, software installation, or at some other time). Upon receiving the indication transmitted by the RAN at block 1904, the UE may use the reduced measurement report resolution when sending measurement reports to the RAN. As described above with respect to Fig.14 As discussed, the measurement report resolution may be set to use a specific number of bits for each beam measurement.The reduced measurement report resolution may use fewer bits than the first measurement report resolution previously indicated for reported beam measurements.

[0232] At block 1906, the RAN node transmits a plurality of beams. The RAN node may transmit a reference signal, such as an SSB or a CSI-RS, on each of the plurality of beams in a beam sweeping manner. In some examples, the RAN node may transmit a reference signal on each of the plurality of beams. In some examples, the SSB may be transmitted on a wider beam and the CSI-RS may be transmitted on a narrower beam. The UE may measure a reference signal received power (RSRP) or a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) on each beam.

[0233] At block 1908, the RAN node receives the measurement report from the UE based on beam measurements using a reduced measurement report resolution. The L1 measurement report may include beam measurement information including beam measurements, each beam measurement corresponding to one of a plurality of beams used to communicate with the UE. Each respective beam may be associated with a respective beam identifier. The respective beam identifier may include a respective reference signal resource indicator associated with a reference signal and a respective beam. In some examples, the reference signal may include an SSB or a CSI-RS. In some examples, the first beam measurement information includes a respective reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement for each of the plurality of beams or a respective signal to interference plus noise (SINR) measurement for each of the plurality of beams. The RAN node receives the measurement report using the reduced measurement report resolution indicated at block 1904.

[0234] Fig. 20 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation of a UE 2000 employing a processing system 2014 according to some aspects. For example, the UE 2000 may correspond to the above referenced Figure 7 , 8 , 10, 11 and / or 13 show and describe any of the UEs or scheduled entities.

[0235] According to various aspects of the present disclosure, an element, or any portion of an element, or any combination of elements may be implemented using a processing system 2014 including one or more processors 2004. The processing system 2014 may be used with Fig.18 The processing system 1814 illustrated in FIG. 1 is substantially the same as that in FIG. 1 , including a bus interface 2008, a bus 2002, a memory 2005, a processor 2004, and a computer-readable medium 2006. In addition, the UE 2000 may include the same as that in FIG. Fig.18 The user interface 2012, transceiver 2010, and antenna array 2020 are substantially similar to those described in UE 2000. That is, the processor 2004 as utilized in UE 2000 may be used to implement any one or more of the following processes.

[0236] In some aspects of the present disclosure, the processor 2004 may include circuitry configured for various functions. For example, the processor 2004 may include a communication and processing circuitry 2042 configured to communicate with a RAN node (e.g., a base station such as a gNB) via the transceiver 2010. The communication and processing circuitry 2042 may include one or more hardware components that provide a physical structure for performing processes associated with wireless communication (e.g., signal reception and / or signal transmission) and signal processing (e.g., processing received signals and / or processing signals for transmission). For example, the communication and processing circuitry 2042 may be configured to exchange control information and data with a RAN node via one or more subframes, time slots, and / or mini-time slots.

[0237] In some examples, the communication and processing circuit system 2042 can be configured to receive one or more RRC messages including one or more resource settings 2015 (e.g., CSI resource settings) and one or more report settings 2016 (e.g., CSI report settings) from the serving RAN node via the transceiver 2010. The resource setting(s) 2015 and the report setting(s) 2016 can be maintained, for example, in the memory 2005 for subsequent use thereof.

[0238] The communication and processing circuit system 2042 may be further configured to receive an activation or deactivation message (e.g., via MAC-CE) from the RAN node via the transceiver 2010 to activate or deactivate a semi-persistent reporting setting associated with the PUCCH report. In addition, the communication and processing circuit system 2042 may be configured to receive a trigger message (e.g., via DCI) from the RAN node via the transceiver 2010 to trigger an aperiodic or semi-persistent reporting setting associated with the PUSCH report. In addition, the communication and processing circuit system 2042 may be configured to receive reporting information associated with the aperiodic reporting setting from the RAN node via the transceiver 2010 (e.g., via DCI containing the trigger message or a different message), which indicates a list and / or order of beam measurements to be included in the aperiodic L1 measurement report.

[0239] The communication and processing circuit system 2042 may be further configured to receive multiple reference signals (SSB and / or -RS) on multiple beams using the antenna array 2020 and the transceiver 2010. The communication and processing circuit system 2042 may be further configured to transmit an uplink L1 measurement report including beam measurement information (BMI) 2018 to the RAN node on the PUCCH or PUSCH. The communication and processing circuit system 2042 may be further configured to execute the communication and processing software 2052 stored in the computer-readable medium 2006 to implement one or more of the functions described herein.

[0240] The processor 2004 may further include a beam search and measurement circuit system 2044 configured to control the antenna array 2020 and the transceiver 2010 to search for and identify multiple beams during downlink beam sweeping. The beam search and measurement circuit system 2044 may be further configured to receive a corresponding reference signal (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS) and measure a corresponding RSRP, SINR, or other suitable beam measurement of the corresponding reference signal on each beam in the set of multiple beams identified in the report setting 2016 and the associated resource setting 2015. For example, the report setting 2016 may be associated with the resource setting 2015, and the resource setting 2015 includes a configuration of one or more resource sets, each resource set including a plurality of beam IDs indicating a beam set and associated reference signal resources on which beam measurements are obtained. The obtained beam measurements may be stored as BMI 2018, for example, in the memory 2005 for use in generating an L1 measurement report including the BMI 2018. The beam searching and measurement circuitry 2044 may be further configured to execute beam searching and measurement software 2054 stored in the computer readable medium 2006 to implement one or more of the functions described herein.

[0241] The processor 2004 may also include an L1 measurement report generation circuit system 2046, which is configured to generate an L1 measurement report (e.g., a current L1 measurement report) based on the report settings 2016 and the corresponding resource settings 2015 for obtaining the BMI 2018. The L1 measurement report generation circuit system 2046 may also operate with the communication and processing circuit system 2042 and the transceiver 2010 to transmit the current L1 measurement report to the RAN node. The current L1 measurement report may include a BMI 2018, which includes beam measurements (e.g., RSRP or SINR), each beam measurement corresponding to a corresponding beam ID. The beam ID may be, for example, a CRI or SSBRI, which identifies a specific beam (e.g., port), frequency resource, and OFDM codeword on which a reference signal (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS) is measured. The current L1 measurement report may include up to four beam IDs and corresponding beam measurements, as configured in the report settings 2016.

[0242] The processor 2004 may further include a reporting configuration circuitry 2046 configured to select at least one resource setting 2015 and at least one reporting setting 2016 for the UE. In some examples, the reporting configuration circuitry 2046 may be further configured to select a reduced measurement reporting resolution 2016 for one or more reporting settings 2017. In some examples, the reporting configuration circuitry 2046 may be further configured to enable the reduced measurement reporting resolution for one or more reporting settings 2016 to allow the UE to use the reduced measurement reporting resolution in the L1 measurement report associated with the reporting setting 2016. In some examples, the reporting configuration circuitry 2046 may be further configured to enable the use of the reduced measurement reporting resolution per reporting setting (e.g., multiple information types may be sent in a single L1 measurement report) or per L1 measurement report (e.g., all reporting settings have the same information type in a single L1 measurement report).

[0243] Fig.21 2100 is a flowchart of an exemplary method for a UE to dynamically change measurement report resolution according to some aspects. As described below, some or all of the illustrated features may be omitted in certain implementations within the scope of the present disclosure, and some of the illustrated features may not be required to implement all configurations. In some examples, the method may be described above and in Fig. 20 The UE 2000 illustrated in the figure is executed by a processor or a processing system, or by any suitable means for performing the described functions.

[0244] At block 2102, the UE may receive a report setting from a RAN entity prior to receiving an indication at block 2104 discussed below. The report setting may indicate a first measurement report resolution and content to be included in the measurement report. The content may be SINR or RSRP beam measurements. The first measurement report resolution may be the number of bits used to report the beam measurements. The report configuration circuitry 2046 may be combined with the above Fig. 20 The communication and processing circuitry 2044 and transceiver 2010 together are shown and described as being operable to communicate at least one reporting setting.

[0245] At block 2104, the RAN node may transmit an indication to a user equipment (UE) that a reduced measurement report resolution is to be used for beam measurements in a measurement report. The measurement report may be a measurement report configured via the report settings transmitted at step 2102, or may be any other previously configured measurement report (such as a measurement report specified by a standard that may be installed or stored during manufacturing, software installation, or at some other time). Upon receiving the indication transmitted by the RAN at block 2104, the UE may use the reduced measurement report resolution when sending measurement reports to the RAN. As described above with respect to Figure 8As discussed, the measurement report resolution may be set to use a specific number of bits for each beam measurement. A reduced measurement report resolution may use fewer bits for one or more reported beam measurements.

[0246] At block 2106, the UE receives a plurality of beams transmitted by the RAN node. The RAN node may transmit a reference signal, such as an SSB or a CSI-RS, on each of the plurality of beams in a beam sweeping manner. In some examples, the RAN node may transmit a reference signal on each of the plurality of beams. In some examples, the SSB may be transmitted on a wider beam and the CSI-RS may be transmitted on a narrower beam. The UE may measure a reference signal received power (RSRP) or a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) on each beam.

[0247] At block 2108, the UE performs measurements on the plurality of beams. As discussed above, the processor 2004 may further include a beam search and measurement circuit system 2044 configured to control the antenna array 2020 and the transceiver 2010 to search for and identify a plurality of beams during a downlink beam sweep. The beam search and measurement circuit system 2044 may be further configured to receive a corresponding reference signal (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS) and measure a corresponding RSRP, SINR, or other suitable beam measurement of the corresponding reference signal on each beam in the set of the plurality of beams identified in the report setting 2016 and the associated resource setting 2015.

[0248] At block 2110, the UE node transmits the measurement report to the RAN node using a reduced measurement report resolution based on the beam measurement. The L1 measurement report may include beam measurement information including beam measurements, each beam measurement corresponding to one of a plurality of beams used to communicate with the UE. Each respective beam may be associated with a respective beam identifier. The respective beam identifier may include a respective reference signal resource indicator associated with the reference signal and the respective beam. In some examples, the reference signal may include an SSB or a CSI-RS. In some examples, the first beam measurement information includes a respective reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement for each of the plurality of beams or a respective signal to interference plus noise (SINR) measurement for each of the plurality of beams. The UE transmits the measurement report using the reduced measurement report resolution indicated at block 2104, thereby reducing the payload of the L1 measurement report.

[0249] Several aspects of wireless communication networks have been presented with reference to exemplary implementations. As those skilled in the art will readily appreciate, the various aspects described throughout this disclosure may be extended to other telecommunication systems, network architectures and communication standards.

[0250] As an example, various aspects may be implemented within other systems defined by 3GPP, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), Evolved Packet System (EPS), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), and / or Global System for Mobile (GSM). Various aspects may also be extended to systems defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), such as CDMA2000 and / or Evolution Data Optimized (EV-DO). Other examples may be implemented within systems employing IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Ultra Wideband (UWB), Bluetooth, and / or other suitable systems. The actual telecommunication standard, network architecture, and / or communication standard employed will depend on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the system.

[0251] Within the present disclosure, the wording "exemplary" is used to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration". Any implementation or aspect described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as superior or superior to other aspects of the present disclosure. Likewise, the term "aspect" does not require that all aspects of the present disclosure include the features, advantages, or modes of operation discussed. The term "coupled" is used herein to refer to a direct or indirect coupling between two objects. For example, if object A physically contacts object B, and object B contacts object C, objects A and C may still be considered to be coupled to each other - even if they are not in direct physical contact with each other. For example, a first object may be coupled to a second object, even if the first object never directly contacts the second object physically. The terms "circuit" and "circuitry" are used broadly and are intended to include both hardware implementations of electronic devices and conductors and software implementations of information and instructions, which, when connected and configured, enable the functions described in the present disclosure to be performed without limitation on the type of electronic circuits, which, when executed by a processor, enable the functions described in the present disclosure to be performed.

[0252] Figure 1-21 One or more of the components, steps, features and / or functions illustrated in the accompanying drawings may be rearranged and / or combined into a single component, step, feature or function, or implemented in several components, steps or functions. Additional elements, components, steps, and / or functions may also be added without departing from the features disclosed herein. The devices, equipment, and / or components illustrated in the accompanying drawings may be configured to perform one or more methods, features, or steps described herein. The algorithms described herein may also be efficiently implemented in software and / or embedded in hardware.

[0253] It should be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the disclosed methods is an illustration of an exemplary process. Based on design preferences, it will be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in these methods can be rearranged. The attached method claims present elements of the various steps in a sample order and are not meant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented unless specifically stated herein.

[0254] The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the various aspects described herein. Various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the universal principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to the various aspects shown herein, but should be granted the full scope consistent with the language of the claims, wherein the singular reference to the element is not intended to mean "there is and only one" - unless specifically stated, but intended to mean "one or more". Unless specifically stated otherwise, the term "some / some" refers to one or more. The phrase "at least one of" a list of items refers to any combination of these items, including a single member. As an example, "at least one of a, b or c" is intended to cover: a; b; c; a and b; a and c; b and c; and a, b and c. The elements of the various aspects described throughout this disclosure are all structurally and functionally equivalent solutions currently or hereafter known to those of ordinary skill in the art, and are expressly incorporated herein by reference, and are intended to be covered by the claims. In addition, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be donated to the public, regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recorded in the claims.

Claims

1. A user equipment UE, comprising: Wireless transceiver; Memory; as well as one or more processors, the one or more processors being communicatively coupled to the wireless transceiver and the memory, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute instructions stored in the memory so that the UE: receiving, prior to receiving the indication, a reporting setting from a radio access network RAN ​​entity, the reporting setting indicating a first measurement report resolution and beam measurements to be included in the measurement report; receiving, via the wireless transceiver, an indication from the RAN entity, the indication instructing the UE to use a reduced measurement reporting resolution for the beam measurements in the measurement report by indicating that each of one or more reported measurements in the beam measurements is to be reduced by a specific number of bits, the reduced measurement reporting resolution having the reported beam measurements being lower than a first measurement reporting resolution previously indicated for the beam measurements, the indication further instructing the UE to set a quantization level in the measurement report; receiving a plurality of beams via the wireless transceiver; performing measurements on the plurality of beams; and The measurement report including the beam measurement using the reduced measurement reporting resolution multiplied by the quantization level is transmitted to the RAN entity via the wireless transceiver.

2. The UE of claim 1, wherein the first measurement report resolution comprises a number of bits to be used for reporting beam measurements.

3. The UE of claim 1, wherein the beam measurement comprises a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement.

4. The UE of claim 1, wherein the beam measurement comprises a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) measurement.

5. The UE as claimed in claim 1, wherein the multiple beams include a first beam, a second beam, a third beam and a fourth beam, and the first measurement report resolution has seven bits for reporting one or more measurements for the first beam, four bits for reporting one or more measurements for the second beam, four bits for reporting one or more measurements for the third beam, and four bits for reporting one or more measurements for the fourth beam.

6. The UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to receive the indication in a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), downlink control information (DCI) specific to a user equipment (UE), or a group common DCI.

7. A UE as described in claim 1, wherein the indication indicates a reduction in the number of bits to be used for a first beam measurement in the beam measurement, and wherein the instruction, when executed by the one or more processors, further causes the UE to reduce the number of bits used for each of one or more other measurements in the beam measurement based on the reduction in the number of bits to be used for the first beam measurement.

8. The UE of claim 1, wherein the beam measurement comprises an absolute beam measurement of a first beam of the plurality of beams and a differential beam measurement of a second beam of the plurality of beams relative to the absolute beam measurement of the first beam.

9. The UE of claim 1, wherein the measurement report is a physical layer measurement report.

10. The UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: A second indication is received from the RAN entity to resume using the first measurement reporting resolution for the beam measurements in a subsequent measurement report.

11. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: receiving, from the RAN entity, a second indication that the reduced measurement reporting resolution for the beam measurements is to be further reduced in subsequent measurement reports.

12. A radio access network RAN ​​node, comprising: Wireless transceiver; Memory; as well as one or more processors communicatively coupled to the wireless transceiver and the memory, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute instructions stored in the memory so that the RAN node: transmitting, prior to receiving the indication, a reporting setting to the user equipment UE, the reporting setting indicating a first measurement report resolution and beam measurements to be included in the measurement report; transmitting, via the wireless transceiver, an indication to the UE, the indication instructing the UE to use a reduced measurement reporting resolution for the beam measurements in the measurement report by indicating that each of one or more reported measurements in the beam measurements is to be reduced by a specific number of bits, the reduced measurement reporting resolution having the reported beam measurements being lower than a first measurement reporting resolution previously indicated for the beam measurements, the indication further instructing the UE to set a quantization level in the measurement report; transmitting a plurality of beams via the wireless transceiver; as well as The measurement report including the beam measurement using the reduced measurement reporting resolution multiplied by the quantization level is received from the UE via the wireless transceiver.

13. A method for wireless communication by a user equipment UE, the method comprising: receiving, prior to receiving the indication, a reporting setting from a radio access network RAN ​​entity, the reporting setting indicating a first measurement report resolution and beam measurements to be included in the measurement report; receiving an indication from the RAN entity, the indication instructing the UE to use a reduced measurement reporting resolution for the beam measurements in the measurement report by indicating that each of one or more reported measurements in the beam measurements is to be reduced by a specific number of bits, the reduced measurement reporting resolution having the reported beam measurements being lower than a first measurement reporting resolution previously indicated for the beam measurements, the indication further instructing the UE to set a quantization level in the measurement report; Receive multiple beams; performing measurements on the plurality of beams; and The measurement report comprising the beam measurement using the reduced measurement reporting resolution multiplied by the quantization level is transmitted to the RAN entity.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first measurement report resolution comprises a number of bits to be used for reporting beam measurements.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the beam measurement comprises a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the beam measurements include signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) measurements.

17. A method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the multiple beams include a first beam, a second beam, a third beam and a fourth beam, and the first measurement report resolution has seven bits for reporting one or more measurements for the first beam, four bits for reporting one or more measurements for the second beam, four bits for reporting one or more measurements for the third beam, and four bits for reporting one or more measurements for the fourth beam.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising: The indication is received in a medium access control MAC control element CE, downlink control information DCI specific to a user equipment UE, or a group common DCI.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the indication indicates a reduction in the number of bits to be used for a first beam measurement in the beam measurements, the method further comprising: The number of bits used for each of one or more other ones of the beam measurements is reduced based on the reduction in the number of bits to be used for the first beam measurement.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the beam measurement comprises an absolute beam measurement of a first beam of the plurality of beams and a differential beam measurement of a second beam of the plurality of beams relative to the absolute beam measurement of the first beam.

21. The method of claim 13, wherein the measurement report is a physical layer measurement report.

22. The method of claim 13, further comprising: A second indication is received from the RAN entity to resume using the first measurement reporting resolution for the beam measurements in a subsequent measurement report.

23. The method of claim 13, further comprising: receiving, from the RAN entity, a second indication that the reduced measurement reporting resolution for the beam measurements is to be further reduced in subsequent measurement reports.

24. A method for wireless communication by a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, the method comprising: transmitting, prior to receiving the indication, a reporting setting to the user equipment UE, the reporting setting indicating a first measurement report resolution and beam measurements to be included in the measurement report; transmitting an indication to the UE, the indication instructing the UE to use a reduced measurement reporting resolution for the beam measurements in the measurement report by indicating that each of one or more reported measurements in the beam measurements is to be reduced by a specific number of bits, the reduced measurement reporting resolution having the reported beam measurements being lower than a first measurement reporting resolution previously indicated for the beam measurements, the indication further instructing the UE to set a quantization level in the measurement report; transmitting multiple beams; as well as The measurement report including the beam measurement using the reduced measurement reporting resolution multiplied by the quantization level is received from the UE.

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