Techniques for uplink gap triggering and operation

Abstract

The present application relates to devices and components including apparatuses, systems, and methods for triggering and using uplink gaps in cellular networks. A method of one implementation includes sending an indication of a preference or uplink (UL) gap capability of a UE for body proximity sensing (BPS) or transceiver calibration to a base station; activating a UL gap configuration based on an activation command received from the network; and performing operations for BPS or transceiver calibration within a UL gap defined by the UL gap configuration.

Description

Background Technology

[0001] The 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) 5G New Radio (NR) provides communication between User Equipment (UE) and base stations (e.g., Next Generation Node B (gNB)). The operation and coordination of these network devices are defined through Technical Specifications (TS) periodically released by 3GPP. Attached Figure Description

[0002] Figure 1 A network environment according to some implementation schemes is shown.

[0003] Figure 2 An example of a DL / UL schedule illustrating the parameters of uplink gap periodicity and length, based on some implementation schemes, is shown.

[0004] Figure 3 This is a message diagram illustrating the activation of network-triggered uplink gap configuration according to some implementation schemes.

[0005] Figure 4 This is another message diagram illustrating the activation of network-triggered uplink gap configuration according to some implementation schemes.

[0006] Figure 5 This is a message diagram illustrating the activation of uplink gap configuration triggered by a UE according to some implementation schemes.

[0007] Figure 6 The operational flow / algorithm structure according to some implementation schemes is shown.

[0008] Figure 7 Another operational flow / algorithm structure according to some implementation schemes is shown.

[0009] Figure 8 Another operational flow / algorithm structure according to some implementation schemes is shown.

[0010] Figure 9 User equipment according to some implementation schemes is shown.

[0011] Figure 10 A base station according to some implementation schemes is shown. Detailed Implementation

[0012] The following detailed description relates to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numerals may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, specific details, such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, technologies, etc., are set forth for illustrative and non-limiting purposes to provide a thorough understanding of various aspects of the various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various aspects of the various embodiments may be practiced in other embodiments departing from these specific details. In some cases, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods have been omitted so as not to obscure the description of the various embodiments with unnecessary detail. For the purposes of this document, the phrase "A or B" refers to (A), (B), or (A and B).

[0013] The following is a glossary of terms that may be used in this disclosure.

[0014] As used herein, the term "circuit" refers to, is part of, or includes: hardware components such as electronic circuits, logic circuits, processors (shared, dedicated, or grouped) or memories (shared, dedicated, or grouped), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable devices (FPDs) (e.g., field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), structured ASICs, programmable system-on-a-chip (SoCs)), or digital signal processors (DSPs) configured to provide said functions. In some embodiments, the circuit may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of said functions. The term "circuit" may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements and program code for performing the functions (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system). In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuit.

[0015] As used herein, the term "processor circuit" means, is part of, or includes the following: a circuit capable of sequentially and automatically performing a series of arithmetic or logical operations or recording, storing, or transmitting digital data. The term "processor circuit" may also refer to an application processor, baseband processor, central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit, single-core processor, dual-core processor, triple-core processor, quad-core processor, or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions (such as program code, software modules, and / or functional procedures).

[0016] As used herein, the term "interface circuit" refers to, is part of, or includes a circuit that enables the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term "interface circuit" can refer to one or more hardware interfaces, such as a bus, I / O interface, peripheral component interface, or network interface card.

[0017] As used herein, the term "user equipment" or "UE" refers to a device of a remote user that has radio communication capabilities and can describe network resources in a communication network. The term "user equipment" or "UE" may be considered synonymous with and may be referred to as a client, mobile terminal, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, or reconfigurable mobile device. Furthermore, the term "user equipment" or "UE" can include any type of wireless / wired device or any computing device that includes a wireless communication interface.

[0018] As used herein, the term "resource" refers to physical or virtual devices, physical or virtual components within a computing environment, or physical or virtual components within a particular device, such as computer equipment, mechanical equipment, memory space, processor / CPU time, processor / CPU utilization, processor and accelerator load, hardware time or utilization, power supply, input / output operations, port or network sockets, channel / link allocation, throughput, memory utilization, storage, network, database, and application or workload units. "Hardware resource" can refer to computing, storage, or networking resources provided by physical hardware components. "Virtualized resource" can refer to computing, storage, or networking resources provided by virtualized infrastructure to applications, devices, or systems. The terms "network resource" or "communication resource" can refer to resources that can be accessed or utilized by a computer device / system via a communication network. The term "system resource" can refer to any kind of shared entity providing a service and can include computing or network resources. System resources can be considered as a coherent set of functions, network data objects, or services accessible through a server, wherein such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable.

[0019] As used herein, the term "channel" refers to any tangible or intangible transmission medium used for transmitting data or data streams. The term "channel" may be synonymous or equivalent with "communication channel," "data communication channel," "transmission channel," "data transmission channel," "access channel," "data access channel," "link," "data link," "carrier," "radio frequency carrier," or any other similar term indicating a path or medium through which data is transmitted. Additionally, as used herein, the term "link" refers to a connection between two devices used for transmitting and receiving information.

[0020] As used in this article, the terms "instantiate" and "instantiate" refer to the creation of an instance. "Instance" also refers to the concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during the execution of program code.

[0021] The term "connection" can mean that two or more elements at a common communication protocol layer have an established signaling relationship with each other through a communication channel, link, interface, or reference point.

[0022] As used herein, the term "network element" refers to physical or virtualized equipment or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term "network element" may be considered synonymous with or referred to as a networked computer, network hardware, network equipment, network node, or virtualized network function.

[0023] The term "information element" refers to a structural element that contains one or more fields. The term "field" refers to the individual content of an information element, or the data element that contains that content. An information element may include one or more additional information elements.

[0024] Figure 1 A network environment 100 according to some embodiments is illustrated. Network environment 100 may include a UE 104 and a base station 108. Base station 108 may provide one or more radio access cells, such as 3GPP NR cells, through which UE 104 communicates with base station 108. In some aspects, base station 108 is a gNB providing 3GPP New Radio (NR) cells. The air interface through which UE 104 communicates with base station 108 may be 3GPP TS compatible, such as those defining 5G NR system standards, and may occupy frequency bands within frequency range 1 (FR1) (e.g., below 7.225 GHz), frequency range 2 (FR2) (e.g., 24.250 GHz and above, also known as millimeter wave), or higher frequency bands (e.g., between 52.6 GHz and 71 GHz or between 114.25 GHz).

[0025] It may be desirable to enhance coverage, signal quality, or UE performance in frequency ranges above FR1. For example, it may be desirable to improve power efficiency or overall system throughput. Some FR2 enhancements may involve operations that should be performed during runtime but may not be compatible with the transmission or reception of data or control signals. Due to unavoidable hardware sharing, various identified FR2 enhancements may rely on and benefit from periodic uplink (UL) gaps during which the UE can perform these operations (e.g., air interface or via internal loop) without interrupting transmission / reception. Examples of these operations include: power amplifier (PA) efficiency and power consumption operations; transceiver calibration operations; and UL Tx power management operations. Other self-calibration or monitoring operations are not excluded.

[0026] It can perform PA efficiency and power consumption operations to calibrate the PA. These operations may include performing periodic measurements of one or more characteristics of the PA, including, for example, gain and linearity.

[0027] Transceiver calibration operations can be performed to compensate for performance variations caused by factors such as temperature fluctuations. It may be desirable to perform transceiver calibration periodically during operation to compensate for transceiver failures. Calibration networks can also help maximize the beamforming gain of the antenna array, thereby improving FR2 system performance. Typical use cases for transceiver calibration include any one or more of the following: PA calibration (Tx), I / Q imbalance (Tx / Rx), local oscillator (LO) leakage (Tx), and DC offset (Rx).

[0028] UL Tx power management operation allows the UE to adaptively and efficiently adjust its output power to improve UL coverage or throughput while maintaining regulatory compliance. Transmission power management can benefit from periodic monitoring of information from the surrounding environment (e.g., physical proximity).

[0029] At least some of the aforementioned self-calibration and monitoring mechanisms can be summarized into a basic scheme in which UE 104 transmits and receives calibration signals via the air interface or via another internal loop between the transmit (Tx) hardware and the receive (Rx) hardware. Since the hardware used for UL transmission is partially shared through self-calibration and monitoring, UL transmission can be temporarily interrupted through such operations. It may be desirable to minimize such interruptions by providing pre-configured UL gaps during which the UE can perform operations for FR2 RF enhancement, such as calibration and / or measurements (e.g., transceiver calibration and Tx power management). While some implementations are described as improvements to FR2 operation, they can also be applied to other frequency ranges, including those above FR2.

[0030] UE 104 may have a UL gap configuration that specifies values ​​such as gap length, gap periodicity, and / or gap position (e.g., offset). The offset can define the exact position within each periodicity. For example, when the periodicity (ULgap_periodicity) and the offset (ULgapStartOffset) are defined in milliseconds (ms), the exact subframe position at the start of the UL gap can be calculated as a subframe that satisfies the following condition: [(SFN*10) + subframe number] mod(ULgap_periodicity) == (ULgapStartOffset) mod(ULgap_periodicity), where SFN is the system frame number.

[0031] If periodicity and offset are defined by time slots, depending on the subcarrier spacing and assuming the SCS is 120kHz, then the UL gap can begin at a time slot index that satisfies the following condition: [(SFN*10)+subframe number)*8+(slotIndex within the subframe)]mod(ULgap_periodicity)==(ULgapStartOffset)mod(ULgap_periodicity)

[0032] The UL gap configuration can be UE-specific and can be provided by the base station 108 using Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling or Media Access Control-Control Element (MAC-CE).

[0033] Figure 2 An example of a DL / UL schedule 200 according to some implementations is shown, which illustrates the parameters of UL gap periodicity and UL gap length (duration) in the context of a time series of DL / UL cycles.

[0034] The UL gap length can be defined as a certain number of consecutive UL time slots. Depending on the DL / UL configuration, the UL time slots can be consecutive or discontinuous. Consider, for example, a UL gap length defined as three consecutive UL time slots. In UL gap sequence 208 including a DDDSU DL / UL configuration, fifteen time slots can be included in the UL gap to accommodate three consecutive UL time slots (shown by diagonal crosshairs). In UL gap sequence 212 including a DDDSU configuration, nine time slots can be included in the UL gap to accommodate three consecutive UL time slots (shown by diagonal crosshairs).

[0035] In some implementations, the UL gap length can be defined as 1, 2, 4 or 8 consecutive UL time slots, and the gap periodicity can be 20ms, 40ms, 80ms or 160ms.

[0036] To mitigate the impact on UL scheduling and throughput performance, it may be desirable to impose one or more restrictions on the parameters of the UL gap or on the operation of UE 104 during the UL gap. In one example, it may be desirable to maintain the UL gap length as a certain percentage X less than the slot length (e.g., less than or no more than X%). In another example, the output power of UE 104 during the UL gap may be limited. For example, any transmissions made by UE 104 via the air interface during the UL gap may be limited, or the maximum relevant output power of UE 104 during the UL gap may be limited by a value Y, which may be indicated, for example, in dBm / MHz. To avoid UE coexistence issues, it may be desirable to refer to the spurious emissions and UE coexistence requirements specified in 3GPP TS 38.101-3v16.5.0 (2020-11).

[0037] Two different types of UL gaps can be used. Type 1 UL gaps may not have UL grants, while Type 2 UL gaps may have UL grants. Type 2 UL gaps can be used when radiated power is transmitted via the air interface during the UL gap. Examples of operations to be performed within a Type 2 UL gap may include PA calibration, LO leakage measurement, or DC offset measurement. Measuring LO leakage or DC offset with air interface transmission may be less expensive than without air interface transmission. Type 1 UL gaps can be used when the UE does not transmit via the air interface during the UL gap (e.g., via internal loop calibration). Examples of operations to be performed within a gap without UL grants may include measuring LO leakage or DC offset (which is often a more expensive solution than transmitting via the air interface) and obtaining measurements of body proximity sensing (BPS) (e.g., for Tx power management or beam management).

[0038] As described in this article, UL gaps used for BPS can be very beneficial when UE 104 is located at the cell edge or includes a relatively large amount of UL traffic. UL gaps can be dynamically activated or deactivated to reduce network overhead, scheduling constraints, etc.

[0039] Various implementations describe the dynamic activation / deactivation of Type 1 UL gaps. For example, via base station 108, the network can activate / deactivate Type 1 UL gaps using MAC CE or DCI triggering. Furthermore, in some implementations, UE 104 can detect events that trigger a request for a Type 1 UL gap. Multiple UL gap mode configurations can be customized for different use cases. Implementations also describe the fallback behavior of UE 104 when UL gaps are unavailable.

[0040] Figure 3 This is message diagram 300 between UE 104 and base station 108, which illustrates the activation of network-triggered UL gap configuration using MAC CE according to some implementation schemes.

[0041] At position 304, UE 104 can transmit UL gap capability reports and gap preference reports. These reports can be included in one or more messages.

[0042] The UL gap capability report provides an indication of UE 104's ability to perform BPS or transceiver calibration within a UL gap. For example, the UL gap capability report indicates whether UE 104 is capable of performing BPS / transceiver calibration operations within a UL gap. In some implementations, UE capabilities may be based on gap type. For example, for a type 1 gap, the UE may provide capability information for both BPS and transceiver calibration. In some implementations, UE capabilities may be based on usage. For example, the UE may provide capability information for either BPS or transceiver calibration.

[0043] The UE gap preference report may include indications of parameters preferred for UL gap configuration. These parameters may include gap periodicity, length, or gap type. The gap type may be a type 1 gap, a type 2 gap, an autonomous gap (where the UE selects the gap to perform operations according to its autonomy), or some combination of these gaps.

[0044] At 308, base station 108 can provide UE 104 with configuration information for one or more UL gap configurations. The configuration information can be provided via RRC signaling and includes RRC information elements that define the periodicity, offset, and length associated with the UL gap configuration.

[0045] At position 312, UE 104 and base station 108 can participate in ongoing DL / UL services. Assuming no UL gap configuration is activated at this time, service switching can be performed without considering uplink gaps.

[0046] At 314, UE 104 can perform measurements, and at 316, it can transmit a report including the measurement results to base station 108. The measurements can be periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic Layer 1 (L1) or Layer 3 (L3) reference signal received power (RSRP) or reference signal received quality (RSRP) measurements.

[0047] At 320, UE 104 can transmit a scheduling request and a buffer status report (BSR) to base station 108. The scheduling request requests the allocation of resources to UE 104 for the purpose of transmitting uplink traffic. The BSR provides an indication of the amount of uplink traffic that UE 104 must currently transmit.

[0048] At 322, UE 104 can transmit a Power Management - Maximum Power Reduction (P-MPR) report. As described below, the P-MPR report can be part of the UL power control report and can provide information related to managing uplink transmission power at UE 104.

[0049] Although Figure 3While certain operations are shown at specific times, it should be understood that they may be performed at other / alternative times. For example, ongoing DL / UL operations 312, measurement execution 314, measurement reporting 316, and scheduling requests and buffer status reports 320 may be completed at times other than those specifically shown.

[0050] At 324, base station 108 can determine that a UL gap should be activated. In some implementations, based on detected cell edge conditions, service conditions, or P-MPR conditions for UE 104, base station 108 can determine that a UL gap configuration for BPS measurement should be activated.

[0051] Base station 108 can detect cell edge conditions based on the L1 / L3 RSRP or L1 / L3 RSRQ results transmitted in measurement report 316. Generally, when the measurement results indicate a low RSRP / RSRQ value, UE 104 can be positioned far from base station 108, such as at the cell edge. When located at the cell edge, UE 104 may want to use a focused beam with relatively high UL transmission power. To enable this operation, UE 104 may need to perform BPS to ensure it is using acceptable transmission power and direction.

[0052] Base station 108 can detect UE service conditions based on BSR. These service conditions can indicate that UE 104 has a relatively large number of UL services to be transmitted. Therefore, activating the UL gap configuration can facilitate efficient transmission of UL services. In some implementations, if the BSR is higher than a predetermined threshold, there may be UE service conditions that are potentially high-performing. The predetermined threshold can be statically defined by 3GPP TS or dynamically configured, for example, by base station 108.

[0053] In another example, base station 108 may determine that the UE supports power management-maximum power reduction (P-MPR) reporting to ensure that the maximum permissible exposure (MPE) is not exceeded. In some implementations, this UE capability may be provided to base station 108 in a capability report, such as a capability report transmitted at 304. This capability may be indicated by the MAC parameter tdd-MPE-P-MPR-Reporting. If base station 108 detects that UE 104 has determined that P-MPR needs to satisfy MPE, base station 108 may activate UL gap configuration to facilitate power management operation.

[0054] The P-MPR report is a dynamic report that is part of the UL power control report. UEs without BPS may not know if a target is nearby and may need to apply P-MPR based on Output Effective Radiated Power (EIRP) and UL duty cycle to meet MPE regulation requirements. Therefore, this P-MPR report is implicitly related to UL traffic and peak EIRP as a prerequisite. When UL gaps are configured, the UE can determine whether a target is nearby, rather than always assuming a worst-case scenario where a target is present.

[0055] At 328, base station 108 can transmit a MAC CE to UE 104 to activate the UL gap configuration. The MAC CE may include an activation command and can be transmitted in the PDSCH transmission. In some implementations, if more than one UL gap configuration is provided at 308, the MAC CE may be able to activate multiple UL gap configurations at 328.

[0056] UE 104 can decode the PDSCH transmission to obtain the activation command in the MAC CE. At 332, UE 104 can transmit an acknowledgment of the PDSCH transmission. This provides base station 108 with an indication that UE 104 has successfully received the activation command.

[0057] The UL gap configuration can be activated until UE 104 receives a deactivation command. Therefore, at 336, UE 104 and base station 108 can participate in ongoing DL / UL services where a Type 1 UL gap configuration is activated. For example, the activated UL gap configuration can provide services with features such as reference... Figure 2 The periodicity and length of the UL gap.

[0058] At 340, base station 108 can determine that the UL gap configuration should be disabled. If, for example, at 324, the detected triggering condition no longer exists at base station 108, then base station 108 can determine that the UL gap configuration should be disabled. For example, if base station 108 detects that cell edge conditions no longer exist (based on updated L1 / L3 RSRP / RSRQ values) or that UE service conditions no longer exist based on updated BSR, then the base station can determine that the UL gap configuration should be disabled.

[0059] After determining at point 340 that the UL gap configuration should be disabled, base station 108 may transmit a MAC CE to UE 104 to disable the UL gap configuration at point 344. The MAC CE may include a disable command and may be transmitted in the PDSCH transmission. In some embodiments, base station 108 may transmit the disable command in the DCI.

[0060] UE 104 can decode the PDSCH transmission to obtain a deactivation command from the MAC CE. At 348, UE 104 can transmit an acknowledgment of the PDSCH transmission. This provides base station 108 with an indication that UE 104 has successfully received the deactivation command.

[0061] At 352, UE 104 and base station 108 can participate in ongoing DL / UL services in which type 1 UL gap configuration is disabled. This is similar to the ongoing DL / UL services described above with reference to 312.

[0062] In some implementations, when the UL gap configuration is not activated, the fallback behavior of UE 104 may be based on one of two options. In the first option, UE 104 may fall back to 3GPP Version 16 behavior (e.g., not performing BPS). In the second option, UE 104 may autonomously find a gap to perform BPS or transceiver calibration. With this option, base station 108 may have little or no information about when UE 104 is performing BPS or transceiver calibration.

[0063] Figure 4 This is message diagram 400 between UE 104 and base station 108, which illustrates a network-triggered UL gap configuration using DCI according to some implementation schemes.

[0064] Message diagram 400 includes operations and messages with similar naming conventions to those described with reference to message diagram 300. However, UE 104 may transmit a DCI at 428 to activate the UL gap configuration instead of transmitting a MAC CE. The activating DCI may be a scheduled DCI, for example, a DCI format 0_1 ​​or 0_2 for scheduled PUSCH transmissions. Assuming that a large amount of UL traffic is expected to typically enable the UL gap, a scheduled DCI may be used as the activating DCI. However, other implementations may additionally / optionally use a non-scheduled DCI.

[0065] Activating DCI may include additional bits for enabling UL gap activation. For example, the activation bit can be set to "1" to indicate activation and set to "0" to indicate deactivation.

[0066] In implementations where more than one UL gap configuration is provided at 408, multiple UL gap configurations can be activated by using a bitmap in the activated DCI. Each bit of the bitmap indicates whether the corresponding UL gap configuration is activated or deactivated.

[0067] If the UE 104 is configured with multiple UL gap configurations (config#), the DCI can include the log2 (config#) bit to trigger only one configuration at a time.

[0068] The UE can process the activation DCI and transmit the scheduled PUSCH transmission at 432. This provides the base station 108 with an indication that the UE 104 has successfully received the activation command in the activation DCI.

[0069] At 444, base station 108 can disable the UL gap configuration by sending a MAC CE or a DCI. If base station 108 uses a DCI to transmit the disable command, the DCI can be a scheduled DCI (e.g., DCI format 0_1 ​​or 0_2) or an unscheduled DCI.

[0070] If a scheduling DCI is used to transmit a deactivation command, the base station 108 may send a scheduling DCI with a deactivation bit enabled for the last PUSCH scheduled before the BSR is zero.

[0071] The unscheduled DCI used for disabling UL gap configurations can be similar to semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) or configuration grant (CG) type 2 deactivation / release. In some implementations, UE 104 can verify the deactivation command in the unscheduled DCI in a manner similar to that described in Section 10.2 of 3GPP TS 38.213v16.4.0 (2020-12) for PDCCH verification of DL SPS and type 2 UL grants. In some implementations, the Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) used to scramble the Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) bits of the unscheduled DCI can be the Cell-RNTI (C-RNTI) instead of the configured Scheduling-RNTI (CS-RNTI), which is used to verify the PDCCH carrying the DL SPS allocation or the configured type 2 UL grant. For example, UE 104 can verify the deactivation command if: the CRC is scrambled with the CS-RNTI; the New Data Indicator field is set to “0”; and the DFI Flag field (if present) is set to “0”.

[0072] At 448, UE 104 can transmit an acknowledgment that the deactivation command has been successfully received. The form of the acknowledgment can be based on the message used to transmit the deactivation command. For example, if MAC CE is used to transmit the deactivation command, the acknowledgment can be an ACK used to acknowledge the PDSCH including the MAC CE. If a scheduled DCI is used to transmit the deactivation command, UE 104 can transmit a PUSCH transmission scheduled by the scheduled DCI to acknowledge successful reception of the deactivation command. If an unscheduled DCI is used to transmit the deactivation command, UE 104 can transmit an ACK consistent with the HARQ-ACK codebook generation procedure.

[0073] Figure 5 This is message diagram 500 between UE 104 and base station 108, which illustrates the activation of an event-triggered UL gap configuration detected by the UE according to some implementation schemes.

[0074] Message diagram 500 includes operations and messages with similar names to those described with reference to message diagrams 300 and 400. However, in this embodiment, UE 104 may initiate the activation / deactivation of the UL gap configuration.

[0075] At 514, UE 104 performs an event evaluation to detect events that trigger an activation operation. One or more of the following triggering events can be used as the basis for implementing the activation operation.

[0076] The triggering event can be when a P-MPR reduction is needed to meet MPE requirements. Based on the peak effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) associated with uplink traffic, UL duty cycle, UL buffer state, link conditions, and power control algorithm, UE 104 can determine when a P-MPR reduction is needed.

[0077] A triggering event can be a significant temperature drift caused by the activities of UE 104 or environmental factors. The degree of temperature drift considered a triggering event, or the temperature of the UE itself, can be defined by 3GPP TS or configured by base station 108. In such cases, UE 104 may request activation of the UL gap configuration to facilitate transceiver calibration.

[0078] If a triggering event is detected at event assessment 514, UE 104 may transmit a UL gap activation request at 520. In some implementations, the UL gap activation request may include information about: the intended use of the UL gap (e.g., BPS operation or transceiver calibration operation), identification of one or more specific UL gap configurations, or identification of the desired size or frequency of the UL gap.

[0079] UL gap activation requests can be transmitted via PUCCH or PUSCH transmissions. If the UL gap activation request will be transmitted via PUSCH transmission, UE 104 can use an existing PUSCH configuration, for example, through configuration granting or dynamic granting. In some implementations, the activation request can be transmitted via a random access channel (RACH). For example, the RACH sequence pool can be partitioned to carry dedicated UL gap activation requests. Additionally / alternatively, RACH can be used as a scheduling request, where the activation request is sent in a PUSCH transmission within the scheduled resource.

[0080] Upon receiving a UL gap activation request, base station 108 may determine whether one or more UL gap configurations should be activated. Base station 108 may activate a specific UL gap configuration identified in the UL gap activation request or other UL gap configurations that meet the desired objective. For example, if the request includes identification of a desired size or frequency of the UL gap, base station 108 may select to provide a combination of UL gap configurations that collectively provide the desired size or frequency.

[0081] At 528, base station 108 can provide an activation command to activate the selected UL gap configuration by transmitting MAC CE or DCI, and UE 104 can be similar to reference Figure 3 or Figure 4 The method described above confirms the successful receipt of the activation command at point 532.

[0082] After participating in an ongoing DL / UL service where a Type 1 UL gap is activated at point 536, UE 104 can perform an event assessment at point 540 and determine that no triggering event exists. For example, a P-MPR reduction is no longer required to meet MPE, or the temperature drift is below a threshold temperature drift. After determining that no triggering event exists, UE 104 can transmit a UL gap deactivation request at point 542. The UL gap deactivation request can identify one or more activated UL gap configurations for which deactivation is requested. The deactivation request may have a format similar to the activation request transmitted at point 520.

[0083] Upon receiving a UL gap deactivation request, base station 108 may transmit a deactivation command at position 544. The deactivation command may be transmitted at position 544 and transmitted at position 548 in a manner similar to that described above. Figure 3 or Figure 4 Confirmation is performed in the manner described above.

[0084] In some implementations, the network may provide a UL gap configuration for all use cases, such as BPS or transceiver calibration. UE 104 may send UL gap configuration preferences by gap type. For example, UE 104 may indicate a preference for a Type 1 UL gap configuration for BPS and transceiver calibration; and may also indicate a preference for a Type 2 UL gap configuration for PA calibration or coherent ULMIMO calibration.

[0085] Base station 108 may provide one or more UL gap configurations for UE 104 according to gap type. Thereafter, base station 108 may activate / deactivate one or more UL gap configurations. For example, base station 108 may provide UE 104 with a first UL gap configuration and a second UL gap configuration for a Type 1 UL gap used for BPS or transceiver calibration, and may provide UE 104 with a third UL gap configuration and a fourth UL gap configuration for a Type 2 UL gap used for PA calibration or coherent UL MIMO calibration. If base station 108 wishes to provide UE 104 with a Type 1 UL gap for BPS or transceiver calibration, it may send an activation command to activate the first UL gap configuration or the second UL gap configuration. Similarly, if base station 108 wishes to provide UE 104 with a Type 2 UL gap for PA calibration or coherent UL MIMO calibration, it may send an activation command to activate the third UL gap configuration or the fourth UL gap configuration.

[0086] In some implementations, UE 104 may send UL gap configuration preferences based on usage scenarios. For example, UE 104 may transmit in a preference report an indication that it prefers a first UL gap configuration for a first usage scenario (e.g., BPS) and an indication that it prefers a second UL gap configuration for a second usage scenario (e.g., transceiver calibration). In response, base station 108 may activate one or more UL gap configurations that correspond to the indicated preferred UL gap configuration or other configurations.

[0087] Figures 6 to 8 Several operational flows / algorithm structures according to various aspects of this disclosure are illustrated. These operational flows / algorithm structures describe multiple operations within a specific sequence. However, the sequences shown are not limiting. That is, these operations can be performed in sequences other than those specifically shown.

[0088] Figure 6 An operational flow / algorithm structure 600 according to some implementation schemes is shown. The operational flow / algorithm structure 600 may be executed or implemented by a UE such as, for example, UE 104 or 900 or its components such as baseband processor circuitry 904A.

[0089] Operational flow / algorithm structure 600 may include at 604 an indication of UE capabilities regarding uplink gaps for BPS or transceiver calibration or UE preferences for UL gap configuration parameters (e.g., periodicity or length).

[0090] Regarding capabilities, the UE can indicate whether it is able to perform BPS / transceiver calibration operations within the UL gap, and if so, indicate the duration / period required to perform the operation.

[0091] Regarding preferences, the UE may indicate desired parameters in the UL gap configuration. These parameters may include, for example, periodicity, length, or gap type. In some embodiments, preferences may be transmitted after multiple UL gap configurations have been provided to the UE. In these embodiments, preferences may identify a specific UL gap configuration. In some embodiments, a specific preferred UL gap configuration may be identified for a single UL gap type.

[0092] Some implementations may include transmitting UL gap capability or UL gap preference. Other implementations may include transmitting both UL gap capability and UL gap preference. In these implementations, UL gap capability and UL gap preference may be transmitted in the same message or in different messages at different times.

[0093] The operation flow / algorithm structure 600 may also include, at 608, receiving information to configure one or more UL gap configurations. This information may be transmitted by the base station using RRC signaling. A single UL gap configuration may be associated with parameters such as periodicity, offset, and length. These parameters define the presence and location of the UL gap when the corresponding UL gap configuration is activated. The information provided at 608 may be an initial list of UL gap configurations or an update to a previously configured list of UL gap configurations.

[0094] The operation flow / algorithm structure 600 may also include, at 612, activating the UL gap configuration based on an activation command. Activating the UL gap configuration may include adjusting uplink and downlink operations to accommodate the UL gaps defined by the parameters of the UL gap configuration. The activation command may be a MAC CE or DCI transmission, which identifies one or more UL gap configurations for which configuration information is provided at 608.

[0095] The activation command can be provided by the same base station that has received the UE capability / preference report and configured the UL gap configuration, or by another base station. For example, the UE can receive information from a first base station to configure the UL gap configuration. If the UE is handed over to a second base station, the second base station can be the base station that provided the activation command. The state of the UL gap configuration configured for the UE and the capabilities / preferences associated with a specific UE can be stored by the network in the UE context and passed from the first base station to the second base station during handover.

[0096] In some implementations, the UE may provide an acknowledgment to the base station to confirm that it has successfully received the activation command. The format of the acknowledgment may be based on the format of the message that transmits the activation command, as described elsewhere herein.

[0097] The operation process / algorithm structure 600 may also include, at 616, performing BPS or transceiver calibration operations within the UL gap defined by the activated UL gap configuration.

[0098] The UE can participate in ongoing uplink / downlink communication that is activated within the UL gap configuration, thereby performing BPS or transceiver calibration operations as needed / desired until a deactivation command is received from the network.

[0099] Figure 7 An operational flow / algorithm structure 700 according to some embodiments is shown. The operational flow / algorithm structure 700 may be executed or implemented by a base station such as, for example, base station 108 or 1000 or its components such as baseband processor 1004A.

[0100] The operation flow / algorithm structure 700 may include, at 704, receiving an indication of the UE's UL gap capability for BPS or transceiver calibration operations, or a UE preference for UL gap configuration parameters (e.g., periodicity or length). The UL gap capability or preference may be received after the base station has transmitted a specific request for the capability / preference, or may be received as part of a (re)connection process. The UL gap capability / preference may include similar content as described elsewhere herein and may be transmitted in a similar manner.

[0101] The operation flow / algorithm structure 700 may also include, at 708, transmitting information to configure one or more UL gap configurations. In some embodiments, one or more UL gap configurations may be provided for a specific gap type / purpose. The one or more UL gap configurations provided to the UE may be based on capability / preference information received from the UE at 704. In other embodiments, the UL gap configurations provided to the UE may not necessarily be specifically tailored to the UE's capabilities or preferences.

[0102] The operation flow / algorithm structure 700 may also include, at 712, transmitting an activation command to activate one or more UL gap configurations. The transmission of the activation command can be triggered by measurement / BSR / power management reports received from the UE. The base station can detect triggering conditions at the UE based on these reports. Triggering conditions can be conditions where there is a high probability that the UE needs a UL gap to perform BPS / transceiver calibration operations. For example, triggering conditions could be that the UE is located at the cell edge, is in or expected to enter a high-traffic state, or is reducing transmission power to comply with transmit limits.

[0103] In some implementations, the triggering condition detected by the base station can be an activation request received from the UE. For example, the UE may detect a condition that has a high probability of requiring a UL gap and may send an activation request to the base station.

[0104] The activation command can be transmitted via MAC CE or DCI communication. The activation command can identify one or more UL gap configurations.

[0105] Based on the capability / preference information received from the UE at 704, the base station may select the UL gap configuration to activate. In some implementations, the base station may additionally / alternatively select the UL gap configuration based on information received in the activation request (e.g., usage information).

[0106] Figure 8 An operational flow / algorithm structure 800 according to some implementation schemes is shown. The operational flow / algorithm structure 800 may be executed or implemented by a UE such as, for example, UE 104 or 900 or its components such as baseband processor circuitry 904A.

[0107] The operation flow / algorithm structure 800 may include, at 804, a triggering item detection. The triggering item indicates the conditions under which the UE will benefit from the UL gap to perform BPS / transceiver calibration operations. These conditions may involve: the UE being located at the cell edge (or otherwise experiencing signal quality degradation); being in or expected to enter a high-traffic state; or needing to reduce transmission power to comply with transmit limits. These conditions can be detected by monitoring measurements performed at the UE, the buffer state at the UE, etc. In some implementations, the triggering item may be based on: determining whether P-MPR reduction is needed to meet MPE; the UE's temperature has risen above a predetermined threshold; or channel conditions have decreased below a predetermined threshold.

[0108] The operation flow / algorithm structure 800 may also include, at 808, transmitting a UL gap activation request based on a trigger. The UL gap activation request can be transmitted in a PUCCH transmission or a PUSCH transmission. If the UE will use a PUSCH transmission, it can identify the uplink resources used for that transmission based on configuration grant or dynamic grant.

[0109] The operation flow / algorithm structure 800 may also include receiving an activation command at 812. The activation command may be received in a MAC CE or DCI transmission. In some implementations, the UE may transmit an acknowledgment to the base station to provide an indication that the UE has successfully received the activation command.

[0110] The operation flow / algorithm structure 800 may also include, at 816, activating the UL gap configuration based on an activation command. After activating the UL gap configuration, the UE can perform BPS / transceiver calibration operations within the UL gap defined by the UL gap configuration. The UE can continue UL / DL services in which the UL gap configuration is activated until a deactivation command is received from the base station.

[0111] Figure 9 UE 900 is shown according to some implementation schemes. UE 900 may be similar to UE 104 and is substantially interchangeable with it.

[0112] UE 900 can be any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as, for example, a mobile phone, computer, tablet, industrial wireless sensor (e.g., microphone, carbon dioxide sensor, pressure sensor, humidity sensor, thermometer, motion sensor, accelerometer, laser scanner, fluid level sensor, inventory sensor, voltmeter / ammeter, or actuator), video surveillance / monitoring device (e.g., camera), wearable device (e.g., smartwatch), or Internet of Things device.

[0113] UE 900 may include a processor 904, RF interface circuitry 908, memory / storage device 912, user interface 916, sensor 920, drive circuitry 922, power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 924, antenna structure 926, and battery 928. Components of UE 900 may be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), portions of integrated circuits, discrete electronic devices or other modules, logic components, hardware, software, firmware, or combinations thereof. Figure 9 The block diagram is intended to show a high-level view of some of the components of the UE 900. However, some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components may be present, and different arrangements of the components shown may occur in other specific implementations.

[0114] The components of UE 900 can be coupled to various other components via one or more interconnects 932, which can represent any type of interface, input / output, bus (local, system, or extension), transmission line, trace, optical connector, etc., allowing various circuit components (on common or different chips or chipsets) to interact with each other.

[0115] Processor 904 may include processor circuitry such as baseband processor circuitry (BB) 904A, central processing unit circuitry (CPU) 904B, and graphics processing unit circuitry (GPU) 904C. Processor 904 may include any type of circuitry or processor circuitry that executes or otherwise operates computer-executable instructions (such as program code, software modules, or functional processes from memory / storage device 912) to cause UE 900 to perform the operations described herein.

[0116] In some implementations, the baseband processor circuitry 904A can access the communication protocol stack 936 in the memory / storage device 912 to communicate over a 3GPP-compliant network. Generally, the baseband processor circuitry 904A can access the communication protocol stack to perform user plane functions at the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, and PDU layers; and control plane functions at the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC, and non-access layers. In some implementations, PHY layer operations may additionally / optionally be performed by components of the RF interface circuitry 908.

[0117] The baseband processor circuit 904A can generate or process baseband signals or waveforms carrying information in a 3GPP-compliant network. In some implementations, the waveforms used for NR can be based on cyclic prefix OFDM (CP-OFDM) in the uplink or downlink, and Discrete Fourier Transform Extended OFDM (DFT-S-OFDM) in the uplink.

[0118] The memory / storage device 912 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media, including instructions (e.g., a communication protocol stack 936) that can be executed by one or more processors in processor 904 to cause the UE 900 to perform the various operations described herein. The memory / storage device 912 may also store UL gap configuration parameters and capability / preference information as described elsewhere.

[0119] The memory / storage device 912 includes any type of volatile or non-volatile memory that can be distributed throughout the UE 900. In some embodiments, some of the memory / storage devices 912 may be located on the processor 904 itself (e.g., L1 cache and L2 cache), while other memory / storage devices 912 may be located external to the processor 904 but accessible via a memory interface. The memory / storage device 912 may include any suitable volatile or non-volatile memory, such as, but not limited to, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid-state memory, or any other type of memory device technology.

[0120] RF interface circuitry 908 may include transceiver circuitry and a radio frequency front-end module (RFEM), which allows UE 900 to communicate with other devices via a radio access network. RF interface circuitry 908 may include various components arranged in the transmit or receive path. These components may include, for example, switches, mixers, amplifiers, filters, synthesizer circuitry, and control circuitry.

[0121] In the receiving path, the RFEM can receive the radiated signal from the air interface via antenna structure 926 and continue to filter and amplify the signal (using a low-noise amplifier). This signal can be provided to the receiver of the transceiver, which downconverts the RF signal into a baseband signal that is provided to the baseband processor of processor 904.

[0122] In the transmission path, the transceiver's transmitter upconverts the baseband signal received from the baseband processor and provides the RF signal to the RFEM. The RFEM amplifies the RF signal using a power amplifier before it is radiated across the air interface via antenna 926.

[0123] In various implementations, the RF interface circuit 908 can be configured to transmit / receive signals in a manner compatible with NR access technology.

[0124] Antenna 926 may include antenna elements to convert electrical signals into radio waves to travel through the air and to convert received radio waves back into electrical signals. These antenna elements may be arranged in one or more antenna panels. Antenna 926 may have omnidirectional, directional, or combinations thereof antenna panels to enable beamforming and multiple-input / multiple-output communication. Antenna 926 may include a microstrip antenna, a printed antenna fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards, a patch antenna, or a phased array antenna. Antenna 926 may have one or more panels designed for a specific frequency band (including bands in FR1 or FR2).

[0125] User interface circuitry 916 includes various input / output (I / O) devices designed to enable users to interact with UE 900. User interface circuitry 916 includes input device circuitry and output device circuitry. Input device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for accepting input, including, for example, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, a microphone, a scanner, or a headset. Output device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for displaying information or otherwise conveying information, such as sensor readings, actuator positions, or other similar information. Output device circuitry may include any number or combination of audio or visual displays, including, for example, one or more simple visual outputs / indicators (e.g., binary status indicators such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and multi-character visual outputs) or more complex outputs, such as display devices or touchscreens (e.g., liquid crystal displays, LED displays, quantum dot displays, or projectors), where the output of characters, graphics, multimedia objects, etc., is generated or produced by the operation of UE 900.

[0126] Sensor 920 may include devices, modules, or subsystems designed to detect events or changes in their environment and transmit information about the detected events (sensor data) to other devices, modules, subsystems, etc. Examples of such sensors include: inertial measurement units including accelerometers, gyroscopes, or magnetometers; microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) or nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) including triaxial accelerometers, triaxial gyroscopes, or magnetometers; level sensors; flow sensors; temperature sensors (e.g., thermistors); pressure sensors; barometric pressure sensors; gravimeters; altimeters; image capture devices (e.g., cameras or lensless aperture sensors); light detection and ranging sensors; proximity sensors (e.g., infrared radiation detectors, etc.); depth sensors; ambient light sensors; ultrasonic transceivers; and microphones.

[0127] The driving circuitry 922 may include software and hardware elements for controlling specific devices embedded in, attached to, or otherwise communicatively coupled to the UE 900. The driving circuitry 922 may include various drivers that allow other components to interact with or control various input / output (I / O) devices that may exist within or be connected to the UE 900. For example, the driving circuitry 922 may include: a display driver for controlling and allowing access to a display device; a touchscreen driver for controlling and allowing access to a touchscreen interface; a sensor driver for obtaining sensor readings from sensor circuitry 920 and controlling and allowing access to sensor circuitry 920; a driver for obtaining actuator positions of electromechanical components or controlling and allowing access to these electromechanical components; a camera driver for controlling and allowing access to an embedded image capture device; and an audio driver for controlling and allowing access to one or more audio devices.

[0128] The PMIC 924 manages the power supplied to various components of the UE 900. Specifically, relative to the processor 904, the PMIC 924 controls power selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion.

[0129] Battery 928 can power UE 900, but in some examples, UE 900 may be mounted in a fixed location and may have a power source coupled to the mains. Battery 928 may be a lithium-ion battery, a metal-air battery such as a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, etc. In some specific implementations, such as in vehicle-based applications, battery 928 may be a typical lead-acid automotive battery.

[0130] Figure 10 A base station 1000 according to some embodiments is shown. The base station 1000 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with the base station 108.

[0131] The base station 1000 may include a processor 1004, an RF interface circuit 1008, a core network (CN) interface circuit 1012, a memory / storage device circuit 1016, and an antenna structure 1026.

[0132] The components of base station 1000 can be coupled to various other components via one or more interconnects 1028.

[0133] The processor 1004, RF interface circuit 1008, memory / storage device circuit 1016 (including communication protocol stack 1010), antenna structure 1026, and interconnect 1028 can be similar to those described above. Figure 9 Similar named elements are shown and described.

[0134] The CN interface circuit 1012 can provide connectivity to a core network (e.g., a 5GC using a 5G core network (5GC) compatible network interface protocol (such as Carrier Ethernet) or some other suitable protocol). Network connectivity can be provided to / from base station 1000 via fiber optic or wireless backhaul. The CN interface circuit 1012 may include one or more dedicated processors or FPGAs for communicating using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some implementations, the CN controller circuit 1012 may include multiple controllers for providing connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

[0135] As is widely recognized, the use of personally identifiable information should comply with privacy policies and practices that are generally accepted to meet or exceed industry or governmental requirements for protecting user privacy. Specifically, personally identifiable information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of authorized use should be clearly explained to users.

[0136] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components shown in one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, or methods as described in the Examples section below. For example, the baseband circuitry described above in conjunction with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples below. Similarly, circuitry associated with the UE, base station, network element, etc., described above in conjunction with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples shown in the Examples section below.

[0137] Example

[0138] Further exemplary implementations are provided in the following sections.

[0139] Example 1 includes a method of operating a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: transmitting an indication of uplink (UL) gap capability or UE preference for body proximity sensing (BPS) or transceiver calibration to a base station; activating a UL gap configuration based on an activation command received from a network; and performing operations for BPS or transceiver calibration within a UL gap defined by the UL gap configuration.

[0140] Example 2 includes the method according to Example 1 or some other embodiments herein, the method further comprising: receiving an activation command in a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) or Downlink Control Information (DCI).

[0141] Example 3 includes the method according to Example 2 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the activation command is received in the MAC CE, and the method further includes: transmitting an acknowledgment of physical downlink shared channel transmission of the MAC CE to the base station to acknowledge receipt of the activation command.

[0142] Example 4 includes the method according to Example 2 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the activation command is received in the DCI, and the method further includes: transmitting a physical uplink shared channel transmission scheduled by the DCI to the base station to confirm the receipt of the activation command.

[0143] Example 5 includes the method according to Example 1 or some other embodiments herein, the method further comprising: disabling the UL gap configuration based on a deactivation command received from the network.

[0144] Example 6 includes the method according to Example 5 or some other embodiments herein, the method further comprising: receiving a deactivation command in a Medium Access Control (MAC) control element (CE) for Physical Downlink Shared Channel transmission; and transmitting an acknowledgment of the PDSCH transmission to the base station to indicate that the deactivation command has been successfully received.

[0145] Example 7 includes the method described according to Example 5 or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: receiving a deactivation command in downlink control information (DCI) that schedules the transmission of the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH); and transmitting the PDSCH transmission to the base station to indicate that the deactivation command has been successfully received.

[0146] Example 8 includes the method described according to Example 5 or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: receiving a deactivation command in downlink control information (DCI) transmitted without scheduling the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH); and transmitting a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) acknowledgment to the base station to indicate that the deactivation command has been successfully received.

[0147] Example 9 includes the method according to Example 1 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the method further includes receiving radio resource control (RRC) signaling from a base station to configure parameters of UL gap configuration, including UL gap periodicity, length, or offset.

[0148] Example 10 includes the method according to Example 9 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the parameters include a periodicity (ULgap_periodicity) and an offset (ULgapStartOffset) defined in milliseconds, wherein the UL gap begins in a subframe with a subframe number that satisfies the following condition: ((SFN*10)+subframe number]mod(ULgap_periodicity)==(ULgapStartOffset)mod(ULgap_periodicity), where SFN is the system frame number.

[0149] Example 11 includes the method according to Example 9 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the parameters include a periodicity (ULgap_periodicity) and an offset (ULgapStartOffset) defined by time slots, wherein the UL gap within a subframe with a subframe number begins with a time slot having a slot index (slotIndex) that satisfies the following condition: [(SFN*10)+subframe number)*8+(slotIndex within the subframe)]mod(ULgap_periodicity)==(ULgapStartOffset)mod(ULgap_periodicity), where SFN is the system frame number.

[0150] Example 12 includes the method according to Example 9 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the parameters include the length of a number of consecutive uplink time slots defined as such, wherein the number is 1, 2, 4 or 8.

[0151] Example 13 includes the method according to Example 9 or some other examples herein, wherein parameters include UL gap periodicity of 20 milliseconds, 40 milliseconds, 80 milliseconds, or 160 milliseconds.

[0152] Example 14 includes a method of operating a base station, the method comprising: receiving from a user equipment (UE) an indication of uplink (UL) gap capability for uplink gaps used for body proximity sensing (BPS) or transceiver calibration operations or an indication of UE preferences for UL gap configuration parameters; transmitting information to the UE to configure one or more UL gap configurations based on the indication of UL gap capability or UE preferences; and transmitting an activation command to the UE to activate one or more UL gap configurations.

[0153] Example 15 includes the method according to Example 14 or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: receiving a measurement report from the UE; detecting cell edge conditions based on the measurement report; and transmitting an activation command based on the detection of the cell edge conditions.

[0154] Example 16 includes the method according to Example 14 or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: receiving a buffer state report from the UE; detecting service conditions at the UE based on the buffer state report; and transmitting an activation command based on the detection of the service conditions.

[0155] Example 17 includes the method according to Example 14 or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: receiving a power management-maximum power reduction (P-MPR) report from the UE; detecting power conditions at the UE based on the P-MPR report; and transmitting an activation command based on the detection of the power conditions.

[0156] Example 18 includes the method according to Example 14 or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: transmitting an activation command in a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) or Downlink Control Information (DCI).

[0157] Example 19 includes the method according to Example 18 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the activation command is transmitted in the MAC CE, and the method further includes: receiving from the UE an acknowledgment of physical downlink shared channel transmission of the MAC CE; and determining based on the acknowledgment that the UE has successfully received the activation command.

[0158] Example 20 includes the method according to Example 18 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the activation command is transmitted by one or more bits in the DCI that schedule the transmission of the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH).

[0159] Example 21 includes the method according to Example 20 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the method further includes: receiving a PUSCH transmission from the UE; and determining, based on the reception of the PUSCH transmission, that the UE has successfully received an activation command.

[0160] Example 22 includes the method according to Example 18 or some other embodiments herein, wherein the activation command is transmitted by one or more bits of the DCI that are not scheduled for transmission of the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), and the method further includes scrambling the Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) bits of the DCI with a Cell-Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI).

[0161] Example 23 includes the method according to Example 14 or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: transmitting an activation command to activate a plurality of UL gap configurations including the UL gap configuration.

[0162] Example 24 includes the method according to Example 10 or some other embodiments herein, wherein one or more UL gap configurations are configured for a first gap type, and the method further includes: transmitting information to the UE to configure one or more second UL gap configurations for a second gap type.

[0163] Example 25 includes a method for operating a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: detecting a trigger; transmitting an uplink (UL) gap activation request to a base station based on the detection of the trigger; receiving an activation command; and activating the UL gap configuration based on the activation command.

[0164] Example 26 includes the method according to Example 25 or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: detecting a trigger based on determining that the required maximum power reduction (P-MPR) of power management meets the maximum permissible exposure (MPE) requirement.

[0165] Example 27 includes the method described according to Example 25 or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: determining the required P-MPR to meet MPE requirements based on peak effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) associated with uplink traffic, UL duty cycle, UL buffer state, link conditions, or power control algorithms.

[0166] Example 28 includes the method according to Example 25 or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: determining that the temperature of the UE is greater than a predetermined threshold; and detecting a trigger based on the determination that the temperature is greater than the predetermined threshold.

[0167] Example 29 includes the method according to Example 25 or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: transmitting a UL gap activation request in a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) transmission.

[0168] Example 30 includes the method according to Example 25 or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: transmitting a UL gap activation request in a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission.

[0169] Example 31 includes the method according to Example 30 or some other embodiments herein, further comprising: identifying uplink resources based on configuration grant or dynamic grant; and transmitting PUSCH transmissions in the uplink resources.

[0170] Example 32 may include an apparatus comprising means for performing one or more elements of the method described or associated with any of Examples 1 to 31 or any other method or process described herein.

[0171] Example 33 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media, which include instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of the method or any other method or process described herein according to any one of Examples 1 to 31.

[0172] Example 34 may include an apparatus comprising one or more elements of a logic component, module, or circuit for performing a method or process described or associated with any of Examples 1 to 31 or any other method or process described herein.

[0173] Example 35 may include the methods, techniques or processes described or associated with any one of Examples 1 to 31 or any part or component thereof.

[0174] Embodiment 36 may include an apparatus comprising one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media, the one or more computer-readable media including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process described or associated with any one or a portion thereof according to Embodiments 1 to 31.

[0175] Example 37 may include signals described or associated with any one of Examples 1 to 31 or any part or component thereof.

[0176] Example 38 may include datagrams, information elements, data packets, frames, segments, PDUs or messages described or associated with any one of Examples 1 to 31 or any part or component thereof, or otherwise described in this disclosure.

[0177] Example 39 may include data-encoded signals described or associated with any one of Examples 1 to 31 or any part or component thereof, or otherwise described in this disclosure.

[0178] Example 40 may include signals encoded in datagrams, IEs, packets, frames, segments, PDUs or messages as described or associated with any one of Examples 1 to 31 or any part or component thereof, or otherwise described in this disclosure.

[0179] Example 41 may include an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors will cause one or more processors to perform a method, technique or process described or associated with any one or a portion thereof according to Examples 1 to 31.

[0180] Example 42 may include a computer program comprising instructions, wherein execution of the program by a processing element will cause the processing element to perform a method, technique, or process described or associated with any one or a portion thereof according to Examples 1 to 31.

[0181] Example 43 may include signals in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0182] Example 44 may include a method for communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0183] Example 45 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[0184] Example 46 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[0185] Unless otherwise expressly stated, any of the embodiments described above may be combined with any other embodiment (or combination of embodiments). The foregoing description of one or more specific embodiments provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. In view of the teachings above, modifications and variations are possible, or modifications and variations may be obtained from the practice of various embodiments.

[0186] Although the above embodiments have been described in considerable detail, many variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once the disclosure is fully understood. This disclosure is intended to render the following claims as encompassing all such variations and modifications.

Claims

1. An apparatus for implementation in a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: A memory for storing UL gap configurations; as well as Processing circuitry, coupled to the memory, is used for: Generate an uplink (UL) gap preference report to be sent to the base station, the UL gap preference report including indications of one or more parameters for preferred UL gap configuration associated with frequency range 2 (FR2) UL gaps; Send a UL gap capability report to the base station to indicate the ability to perform body proximity sensing (BPS) within the FR2 UL gap; Process the configuration information received from the base station for configuring the UL gap; The UL gap configuration is activated based on the activation command received from the base station; as well as BPS operation is performed according to the UL gap configuration.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: Detect trigger items; A deactivation request will be sent to the base station based on the trigger item; Receive a deactivation command from the base station based on the deactivation request; as well as The UL gap configuration is disabled based on the disable command.

3. The apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: Receive the UL gap configuration in Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling; and The UL gap configuration is stored in the memory.

4. A method for operating a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: Generate an uplink (UL) gap preference report to be sent to the base station, the UL gap preference report including indications of one or more parameters preferred for UL gap configuration associated with frequency range 2 (FR2) UL gaps; Generate a UL gap capability report to indicate the ability to perform body proximity sensing (BPS) within the FR2 UL gap; Process the configuration information received from the base station for configuring the UL gap; The UL gap configuration is activated based on an activation command received from the network; and BPS operation is performed according to the UL gap configuration.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising: The activation command is received in the Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) or Downlink Control Information (DCI).

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the activation command is received in a MAC CE, and the method further comprises: An acknowledgment of the physical downlink shared channel transmission of the MAC CE or the physical uplink shared channel transmission scheduled by the DCI is sent to the base station to confirm receipt of the activation command.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the UL gap capability report is used to request activation of the UL gap configuration.

8. The method according to claim 4, further comprising: Detect trigger items; Based on the trigger, a deactivation request will be sent to the network; Receive a deactivation command from the network based on the deactivation request; as well as The UL gap configuration is disabled based on the disable command.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: The deactivation command is received in the Media Access Control (MAC) control element (CE) transmitted on the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH); as well as An acknowledgment of the PDSCH transmission is sent to the base station to indicate that the deactivation command has been successfully received.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising: The deactivation command is received in the downlink control information (DCI) that schedules the transmission of the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH); as well as The PUSCH is transmitted to the base station to indicate that the deactivation command has been successfully received.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising: The deactivation command is received in downlink control information (DCI) that does not schedule physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions; as well as A Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) acknowledgment is sent to the base station to indicate that the deactivation command has been successfully received.

12. The method according to any one of claims 4 to 11, wherein the configuration information is received via radio resource control (RRC) signaling and is used to configure parameters of the UL gap configuration, the parameters including UL gap periodicity, length, or offset.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the parameters include a periodicity (ULgap_periodicity) and an offset (ULgapStartOffset) defined in milliseconds, wherein the UL gap is to begin in a subframe with a subframe number that satisfies the following condition: ((SFN) 10) + subframe number] mod (ULgap_periodicity) == (ULgapStartOffset)mod (ULgap_periodicity), where SFN is the system frame number.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the parameters include a slot-defined periodicity (ULgap_periodicity) and an offset (ULgapStartOffset), wherein the UL gap within a subframe having a subframe number begins in a slot having a slot index (slotIndex) that satisfies the following condition: ((SFN) 10) + subframe number) 8 + (slotIndex within the subframe) mod (ULgap_periodicity) = (ULgapStartOffset) mod (ULgap_periodicity), where SFN is the system frame number.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the parameter includes the length of a number of consecutive uplink time slots, wherein the number is 1, 2, 4 or 8.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the parameter includes a UL gap periodicity of 20 milliseconds, 40 milliseconds, 80 milliseconds, or 160 milliseconds.

17. One or more computer-readable media having instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a base station to perform the following operations: Instructions for processing uplink (UL) gap preference reports received from user equipment (UE), wherein the UL gap preference reports include instructions for one or more parameters preferred for UL gap configuration associated with frequency range 2 (FR2) UL gaps; Process a UL gap capability report received from the UE, wherein the UL gap capability report indicates the ability to perform body proximity sensing (BPS) within the FR2 UL gap; Send information to the UE to configure one or more UL gap configurations; and An activation command is sent to the UE to activate the UL gap configuration in one or more UL gap configurations. The base station sends the information based on the UL gap preference report and the UL gap capability report to configure the one or more UL gap configurations or the activation command.

18. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the base station to: Receive measurement reports from the UE; Detect cell edge conditions based on the measurement report; and The activation command is sent based on the detection of the cell edge conditions.

19. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the base station to: Receive buffer status report from the UE; Based on the buffer status report, detect the service conditions at the UE; and The activation command is sent based on the detection of the aforementioned business conditions.

20. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the base station to: Receive a power management-maximum power reduction (P-MPR) report from the UE; The power conditions at the UE are detected based on the P-MPR report; as well as The activation command is sent based on the detection of the power conditions.

21. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the base station to: send the activation command in a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) or Downlink Control Information (DCI).

22. One or more computer-readable media of claim 21, wherein the base station sends the activation command in a MAC CE, and the instruction, when executed, further causes the base station to: Receive from the UE an acknowledgment of the physical downlink shared channel transmission conveying the MAC CE; and Based on the confirmation, it is determined that the UE has successfully received the activation command.

23. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 21, wherein the activation command is transmitted by one or more bits in the DCI that schedule the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission, and the instruction, when executed, further causes the base station to: Receive the PUSCH transmission from the UE; and The UE is determined to have successfully received the activation command based on the reception of the PUSCH transmission.

24. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 21, wherein the activation command is transmitted by one or more bits in the DCI that do not schedule Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmissions, and the instruction, when executed, also causes the base station to: The cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits of the DCI are scrambled using the Cell-Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI).

25. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the base station to: Send the activation command to activate multiple UL gap configurations, including the UL gap configuration.

26. The method of claim 4, wherein the UL gap preference report indicates a preferred UL gap configuration among a plurality of UL gap configurations.

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