Data forwarding process of relay wireless device

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a technology for performing relay communication by a relay wireless device in a wireless communication system. The relay wireless device may receive bearer configuration information from a network. Based on the bearer configuration information, the UE may establish a bearer with a remote wireless device. The relay wireless device may use the bearer to forward data to / from the remote wireless device.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to wireless communications, including data forwarding processes for relay wireless devices, remote wireless devices, base stations, and network elements in wireless communication systems. Background Art

[0002] The use of wireless communication systems is growing rapidly. In addition, wireless communication technology has evolved from voice communications only to also include the transmission of data such as the Internet and multimedia content.

[0003] Mobile electronic devices may take the form of smartphones or tablet computers that are commonly carried by users. Wearable devices (also referred to as accessory devices) are a newer form of mobile electronic devices, an example of which is a smart watch. In addition, low-cost, low-complexity wireless devices intended for static or dynamic deployment are also increasing rapidly as part of the development of the "Internet of Things". In other words, the complexity, capabilities, traffic patterns and other characteristics of the required devices are increasingly wide-ranging. In general, it is desirable to recognize and provide improved support for a wide range of required wireless communication characteristics. Therefore, improvements in the art are desired. Summary of the invention

[0004] Embodiments of systems, apparatus, and methods are presented herein for, among other things, performing a radio resource control connection procedure for a remote wireless device in a wireless communication system.

[0005] As described above, there are an increasing number of use cases for different kinds of wireless devices with widely varying capabilities and usage expectations. One direction for the expansion of possible use cases supported by wireless communication technologies may include increasing the use and number of low-cost and / or low-power wireless devices. Supporting the ability for such wireless devices to exchange data and gain access to cellular networks through intermediate relay wireless devices may increase the usefulness of such low-cost and / or low-power wireless devices.

[0006] Therefore, the technology described herein includes technologies for forwarding data between a remote device and a cellular network via a relay device, forwarding data between a remote device and a relay device, and forwarding data between multiple remote devices and relay devices. In various possibilities, the relay device and the remote device can implement forwarding according to control information received from the network.

[0007] The techniques described herein may be implemented in and / or used with a number of different types of devices, including but not limited to mobile phones or smartphones (e.g., iPhones TM , based on Android TM phones), tablets (e.g., iPad TM 、Samsung GalaxyTM ), portable gaming devices (e.g., Nintendo DS TM , PlayStation Portable TM 、Gameboy Advance TM , iPhone TM ), wearable devices (e.g., smart watches, smart glasses), laptops, PDAs, portable Internet devices, music players, data storage devices, other handheld devices, vehicles, automobiles, unmanned aerial vehicles (e.g., drones) and unmanned flight controllers, other cellular network infrastructure equipment, servers, and any of a variety of other computing devices.

[0008] This disclosure is intended to provide a brief overview of some of the topics described in this document. Therefore, it should be understood that the above features are only examples and should not be construed as narrowing the scope or essence of the topics described herein in any way. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the topics described herein will become apparent through the following detailed description, drawings, and claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] A better understanding of the present subject matter may be obtained when the following detailed description of the embodiments is considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0010] Figure 1 An exemplary wireless communication system including an accessory device according to some embodiments is shown;

[0011] Figure 2 An exemplary wireless communication system is shown in which two wireless devices can perform direct device-to-device communication according to some embodiments;

[0012] Figure 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example wireless device according to some embodiments;

[0013] Figure 4 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary base station according to some embodiments;

[0014] Figure 5 is a communication flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for performing relay communications in a wireless communication system according to some embodiments;

[0015] Figure 6 illustrates aspects of possible wireless communication relay between a remote UE, a relay UE, and a gNB according to some embodiments;

[0016] Figures 7 and 8illustrates exemplary aspects of a possible protocol stack architecture for user plane and control plane communications in a 3GPP based UE to network relay framework according to some embodiments;

[0017] Fig. 9 illustrates aspects of possible wireless communication relay between two remote UEs, a relay UE, and a gNB according to some embodiments;

[0018] Figures 10 to 12 illustrates aspects of normal forwarding mode according to some embodiments;

[0019] Figures 13 to 15 illustrates aspects of local path mode according to some embodiments; and

[0020] Figure 16 to Figure 17 Aspects of local forwarding mode according to some embodiments are shown.

[0021] Although the features described herein are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and described in detail herein. However, it should be understood that the drawings and detailed description thereof are not intended to limit this document to the specific forms disclosed, but on the contrary, their purpose is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives that fall within the spirit and scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0022] Acronyms

[0023] The following acronyms are used in this disclosure.

[0024] 3GPP: Third Generation Partnership Project

[0025] 3GPP2: Third Generation Partnership Project 2

[0026] GSM: Global System for Mobile Communications

[0027] UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

[0028] LTE: Long Term Evolution

[0029] IoT: Internet of Things

[0030] NB: Narrow Band

[0031] D2D: Device to Device

[0032] OOC: Out of Coverage

[0033] the term

[0034] The following are definitions of terms used in this disclosure:

[0035] Memory medium - any of various types of non-transitory memory devices or storage devices. The term "memory medium" is intended to include installation media, such as CD-ROM, floppy disk or tape devices; computer system memory or random access memory such as DRAM, DDR RAM, SRAM, EDO RAM, Rambus RAM, etc.; non-volatile memory such as flash memory, magnetic media, for example, hard disk drive or optical storage device; registers or other similar types of memory elements, etc. The memory medium may also include other types of non-transitory memory or a combination thereof. In addition, the memory medium may be located in the first computer system executing the program, or may be located in a different second computer system connected to the first computer system via a network such as the Internet. In the latter case, the second computer system may provide program instructions to the first computer for execution. The term "memory medium" may include two or more memory media that may reside in different locations in different computer systems connected, for example, via a network. The memory medium may store program instructions (e.g., in the form of a computer program) that may be executed by one or more processors.

[0036] Carrier Media—storage media as described above, and physical transmission media such as a bus, network, and / or other physical transmission media that transport signals such as electrical, electromagnetic, or digital signals.

[0037] Programmable hardware element - includes various hardware devices that include multiple programmable function blocks connected via programmable interconnects. Examples include FPGA (field programmable gate array), PLD (programmable logic device), FPOA (field programmable object array), and CPLD (complex PLD). Programmable function blocks can vary from fine-grained (combinational logic unit or lookup table) to coarse-grained (arithmetic logic unit or processor core). Programmable hardware elements may also be referred to as "configurable logic units".

[0038] Computer System—Any of various types of computing or processing systems, including a personal computer system (PC), a mainframe computer system, a workstation, a network appliance, an Internet appliance, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a television system, a grid computing system, or other devices or combinations of devices. In general, the term "computer system" can be broadly defined to encompass any device (or combination of devices) having at least one processor that executes instructions from a memory medium.

[0039] User Equipment (UE) (or "UE device") - any of various types of computer systems or devices that are mobile or portable and that perform wireless communications. Examples of UE devices include mobile phones or smart phones (e.g., iPhone TM , based on AndroidTM phones), tablets (e.g., iPad TM 、Samsung Galaxy TM ), portable gaming devices (e.g., Nintendo DS TM , PlayStation Portable TM 、Gameboy Advance TM , iPhone TM ), wearable devices (e.g., smart watches, smart glasses), laptops, PDAs, portable Internet devices, music players, data storage devices, other handheld devices, vehicles, cars, unmanned aerial vehicles (e.g., drones) and unmanned flight controllers, etc. In general, the term "UE" or "UE device" can be broadly defined to cover any electronic device, computing device, and / or telecommunication device (or combination of these devices) that is easily transportable by a user and capable of wireless communication.

[0040] Wireless Device—Any of various types of computer systems or devices that perform wireless communications. A wireless device may be portable (or mobile), or may be stationary or fixed at a certain location. A UE is an example of a wireless device.

[0041] Communication device - any of various types of computer systems or devices that perform communication, where the communication may be wired or wireless. A communication device may be portable (or mobile), or may be stationary or fixed at a location. A wireless device is an example of a communication device. A UE is another example of a communication device.

[0042] Base Station—The term “base station” has the full breadth of its ordinary meaning and includes at least a wireless communication station that is installed at a fixed location and used to communicate as part of a wireless communication system.

[0043] Link budget limited—includes the full range of its ordinary meaning and includes at least the characteristics of a wireless device (e.g., UE) that exhibits limited communication capabilities or limited power relative to a device that is not link budget limited or relative to a device for which a radio access technology (RAT) standard has been developed. A link budget limited wireless device may experience relatively limited receive capabilities and / or transmit capabilities, which may be due to one or more factors, such as device design, device size, battery size, antenna size or design, transmit power, receive power, current transmission medium conditions, and / or other factors. Such devices may be referred to herein as "link budget limited" (or "link budget constrained") devices. A device may be inherently link budget limited due to the size of the device, battery power, and / or transmit / receive power. For example, a smart watch that communicates with a base station via LTE or LTE-A may be inherently link budget limited due to its reduced transmit / receive power and / or antenna reduction. Wearable devices such as smart watches are generally link budget limited devices. Alternatively, a device may not be inherently link budget limited, e.g., may have sufficient size, battery power, and / or transmit / receive power for normal communication over LTE or LTE-A, but may be temporarily link budget limited due to current communication conditions, e.g., a smartphone at a cell edge, etc. It is noted that the term "link budget limited" includes or encompasses power limitations, and thus a link-limited device may be considered a link budget limited device.

[0044] Processing element (or processor) - refers to various elements or combinations of elements that are capable of performing functions in a device (e.g., a user equipment device or a cellular network device). Processing elements may include, for example, processors and associated memory, portions or circuits of various processor cores, entire processor cores, separate processors, processor arrays, circuits such as ASICs (application specific integrated circuits), programmable hardware elements such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and any of the above various combinations.

[0045] Automatic—refers to an action or operation being performed by a computer system (e.g., software executed by a computer system) or a device (e.g., a circuit, a programmable hardware element, an ASIC, etc.) without the need for the action or operation to be directly specified or performed by a user input. Thus, the term "automatic" is in contrast to a user manually performing or specifying an action, wherein the user provides input to directly perform the action. An automatic process may be initiated by input provided by a user, but subsequent actions performed "automatically" are not specified by the user, i.e., are not performed "manually," wherein the user specifies each action to be performed. For example, a user filling out an electronic form by selecting each field and providing input specifying information (e.g., by typing in information, selecting checkboxes, radio selections, etc.) is manually filling out the form, even though the computer system must update the form in response to the user action. The form may be automatically filled out by a computer system, wherein the computer system (e.g., software executed on the computer system) analyzes the fields of the form and fills out the form without requiring any user input to specify the answers to the fields. As indicated above, a user may invoke automatic filling out of a form, but not participate in the actual filling out of the form (e.g., the user does not manually specify the answers to the fields but rather they are automatically completed). This specification provides various examples of operations that are automatically performed in response to actions taken by a user.

[0046] Configured to - Various components may be described as being "configured to" perform one or more tasks. In such environments, "configured to" is a broad statement that generally means "having a structure" that performs one or more tasks during operation. Thus, a component can be configured to perform a task even when the component is not currently performing the task (e.g., a set of electrical conductors can be configured to electrically connect a module to another module even when the two modules are not connected). In some contexts, "configured to" can be a broad statement that generally means "having a structure" that performs one or more tasks during operation. Thus, the component can be configured to perform a task even when the component is not currently turned on. Typically, the circuitry that forms the structure corresponding to "configured to" may include hardware circuitry.

[0047] For ease of description, various components may be described as performing one or more tasks. Such descriptions should be interpreted as including the phrase "configured to". The description of a component being configured to perform one or more tasks is expressly intended to not invoke the interpretation of the sixth paragraph of Section 112 of Title 35 of the United States Code on that component.

[0048] Figure 1 to Figure 2 —Wireless communication system

[0049] Figure 1 An example of a wireless cellular communication system is illustrated. It should be noted that Figure 1This represents one possibility among many, and the features of the present disclosure may be implemented by any of a variety of systems as desired.For example, the embodiments described herein may be implemented in any type of wireless device.

[0050] As shown, the exemplary wireless communication system includes a cellular base station 102 that communicates over a transmission medium with one or more wireless devices 106A, 106B, etc., and an accessory device 107. Wireless devices 106A, 106B, and 107 may be user devices, which may be referred to herein as "user equipment" (UE) or UE devices.

[0051] Base station 102 may be a base transceiver station (BTS) or a cell site and may include hardware and / or software that implements wireless communications with UE device 106A, UE device 106B, and UE device 107. If base station 102 is implemented in the context of LTE, it may be referred to as an "eNodeB" or "eNB". If base station 102 is implemented in the context of 5G NR, it may alternatively be referred to as a "gNodeB" or "gNB". Base station 102 may also be equipped to communicate with network 100 (e.g., a core network of a cellular service provider, a telecommunications network such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN), and / or the Internet, as well as a variety of possible networks). Thus, base station 102 may facilitate communications between UE device 106 and UE device 107 and / or communications between UE device 106 / 107 and network 100. Also as used herein, with respect to a UE, a base station may sometimes be considered to represent a network in light of uplink and downlink communications of the UE. Therefore, a UE communicating with one or more base stations in a network may also be understood as a UE communicating with the network.

[0052] In other embodiments, base station 102 may be configured to provide communications via one or more other wireless technologies, such as an access point supporting one or more WLAN protocols, such as 802.11a, b, g, n, ac, ad and / or ax, or LTE in an unlicensed band (LAA).

[0053] The communication area (or coverage area) of the base station 102 may be referred to as a “cell.” The base station 102 and the UE 106 / 107 may be configured to communicate over a transmission medium using any of various radio access technologies (RATs) or wireless communication technologies, such as GSM, UMTS (WCDMA, TDS-CDMA), LTE, Advanced LTE (LTE-A), NR, HSPA, 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), Wi-Fi, etc.

[0054] Thus, base station 102 and other similar base stations (not shown) operating according to one or more cellular communication technologies can be provided as a cell network that can provide continuous or near-continuous overlapping service to UE devices 106A-N and UE device 107 and similar devices within a geographic area via one or more cellular communication technologies.

[0055] Note that, at least in some cases, UE device 106 / 107 may be capable of communicating using any of a variety of wireless communication technologies. For example, UE device 106 / 107 may be configured to communicate using one or more of GSM, UMTS, CDMA2000, LTE, LTE-A, NR, WLAN, Bluetooth, one or more global navigation satellite systems (GNSS, such as GPS or GLONASS), one and / or more mobile television broadcast standards (e.g., ATSC-M / H), etc. Other combinations of wireless communication technologies (including more than two wireless communication technologies) are also possible. Similarly, in some cases, UE device 106 / UE device 107 may be configured to communicate using only a single wireless communication technology.

[0056] UE 106A and UE 106B may include handheld devices such as smart phones or tablets, and / or may include any of various types of devices with cellular communication capabilities. For example, one or more of UE 106A and UE 106B may be wireless devices intended for static or dynamic deployment, such as home appliances, measurement devices, control devices, etc. UE 106B may be configured to communicate with UE device 107, which may be referred to as accessory device 107. Accessory device 107 may be any of various types of wireless devices, which may generally be wearable devices with a small form factor and limited battery, output power and / or communication capabilities relative to UE 106. As a common example, UE 106B may be a smart phone carried by a user, and accessory device 107 may be a smart watch worn by the same user. UE 106B and accessory device 107 may communicate using any of various short-range communication protocols, such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. In some cases, UE 106B and accessory device 107 can utilize proximity services (ProSe) technology, for example, in a manner supported by a cellular base station to perform direct peer-to-peer communications. For example, such ProSe communications can be performed as part of a relay link to support a radio resource control connection between accessory device 107 and BS 102, such as according to various embodiments described herein.

[0057] UE 106B may also be configured to communicate with UE 106A. For example, UE 106A and UE 106B may be able to perform direct device-to-device (D2D) communications. D2D communications may be supported by cellular base station 102 (e.g., BS 102 may facilitate discovery, as well as various possible forms of assistance), or may be performed in a manner that is not supported by BS 102. For example, it may be possible that UE 106A and UE 106B may be able to arrange and perform D2D communications (e.g., including discovery communications) even when BS 102 and other cellular base stations have no coverage.

[0058] Figure 2 An exemplary BS 102 is shown communicating with a UE device 106, which in turn communicates with an accessory device 107. The UE device 106 and the accessory device 107 may be any of a mobile phone, a tablet or any other type of handheld device, a smart watch or other wearable device, a media player, a computer, a laptop, a UAV, an unmanned flight controller, a vehicle, or virtually any type of wireless device. In some embodiments, the accessory device may be a wireless device designed to have low cost and / or low power consumption, and may benefit from a relay link with the UE device 106 (and / or another companion device) to support communications with the BS 102. For example, in Figure 2 In the exemplary scenario of , a device that utilizes a relay link with another wireless device to communicate with a cellular base station may also be referred to herein as a remote wireless device, a remote device, or a remote UE device, and a wireless device that provides such a relay link may also be referred to herein as a relay wireless device, a relay device, or a relay UE device. According to some embodiments, such BS 102, UE 106, and accessory device 107 may be configured to perform radio resource control procedures for the remote wireless device according to the various techniques described herein.

[0059] Both UE 106 and accessory device 107 may include a device or integrated circuit called a cellular modem for facilitating cellular communication. The cellular modem may include one or more processors (processing elements) configured to execute program instructions stored in a memory and / or various hardware components described herein. UE 106 and / or accessory device 107 may each execute any of the method implementation schemes described herein by executing such stored instructions. Alternatively or in addition thereto, UE 106 and / or accessory device 107 may include a programmable hardware element configured to (e.g., individually or in combination) execute any of the method implementation schemes described herein or any part of any of the method implementation schemes described herein, such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array), an integrated circuit and / or any of various other possible hardware components. The cellular modem described herein may be used in a UE device as defined herein, a wireless device as defined herein, or a communication device as defined herein. The cellular modem described herein may also be used in a base station or other similar network side device.

[0060] UE 106 and / or accessory device 107 may include one or more antennas for communicating according to one or more RAT standards using one or more wireless communication protocols. In some embodiments, one or both of UE 106 or accessory device 107 may be configured to communicate using a single shared radio component. The shared radio may be coupled to a single antenna, or may be coupled to multiple antennas (e.g., for MIMO) for performing wireless communications. Typically, the radio component may include any combination of a baseband processor, analog radio frequency (RF) signal processing circuits (e.g., including filters, mixers, oscillators, amplifiers, etc.), or digital processing circuits (e.g., for digital modulation and other digital processing). Similarly, the radio component may use the aforementioned hardware to implement one or more receive chains and transmit chains.

[0061] Alternatively, UE 106 and / or accessory device 107 may include two or more radio components. For example, in some embodiments, UE 106 and / or accessory device 107 may include a separate transmit chain and / or receive chain (e.g., including separate antennas and other radio components) for each wireless communication protocol with which it is configured to communicate. As another possibility, UE 106 and / or accessory device 107 may include one or more radio components shared between multiple wireless communication protocols, and one or more radio components used uniquely by a single wireless communication protocol. For example, UE 106 and / or accessory device 107 may include a shared radio component for communicating using either LTE or CDMA2000 1xRTT (or LTE or NR, or LTE or GSM), and a shared radio component for communicating using Wi-Fi and BLUETOOTH. TM Each of the two devices communicates with a separate radio component. Other configurations are also possible.

[0062] Figure 3 —Block diagram of UE equipment

[0063] Figure 3 One possible block diagram of a UE device, such as UE device 106 or UE device 107, is shown. As shown, UE device 106 / 107 may include a system on chip (SOC) 300, which may include parts for various purposes. For example, as shown, SOC 300 may include a processor 302, which may execute program instructions for UE device 106 / 107, and display circuit 304, which may perform graphics processing and provide display signals to display 360. SOC 300 may also include motion sensing circuit 370, which may detect the motion of UE 106, for example, using any of a gyroscope, an accelerometer, and / or various other motion sensing components. Processor 302 may also be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 340, which may be configured to receive addresses from processor 302 and translate those addresses into locations in memory (e.g., memory 306, read-only memory (ROM) 350, flash memory 310) and / or other circuits or devices, such as display circuit 304, wireless communication circuit 330, I / F 320, and / or display 360. MMU 340 may be configured to perform memory protection and page table translation or setup. In some embodiments, MMU 340 may be included as part of processor 302.

[0064] As shown, the SOC 300 may be coupled to various other circuits of the UE 106 / 107. For example, the UE 106 / 107 may include various types of memory (e.g., including NAND flash memory 310), a connector interface 320 (e.g., for coupling to a computer system, a docking station, a charging station, etc.), a display 360, and wireless communication circuits 330 (e.g., for LTE, LTE-A, NR, CDMA2000, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NFC, GPS, etc.).

[0065] The UE device 106 / 107 may include at least one antenna and may include multiple antennas 335a and 335b for performing wireless communications with a base station and / or other devices in some embodiments. For example, the UE device 106 / 107 may use antennas 335a and 335b to perform wireless communications. As described above, the UE device 106 / 107 may be configured to use multiple wireless communication standards or radio access technologies (RATs) for wireless communications in some embodiments.

[0066] Wireless communication circuitry 330 may include Wi-Fi logic 332, cellular modem 334, and Bluetooth logic 336. Wi-Fi logic 332 is used to enable UE device 106 / 107 to perform Wi-Fi communications on an 802.11 network. Bluetooth logic 336 is used to enable UE device 106 / 107 to perform Bluetooth communications. Cellular modem 334 may be a lower power cellular modem capable of performing cellular communications according to one or more cellular communication technologies.

[0067] As described herein, UE 106 / 107 may include hardware components and software components for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, by executing program instructions stored on a storage medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium), the processor 302 of the UE device 106 / 107 may be configured to implement part or all of the methods described herein. In other embodiments, the processor 302 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or as an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). In addition, the processor 302 may be coupled to a processor such as a processor 106 / 107. Figure 3The other components shown and / or may interoperate with the other components to perform radio resource control processes for remote wireless devices according to various embodiments disclosed herein. The processor 302 may also implement various other applications and / or end-user applications running on the UE 106. Alternatively or in addition, one or more components of the wireless communication circuit 330 (e.g., cellular modem 334) of the UE device 106 / 107 may be configured as a processor that executes program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium), is configured as an FPGA (field programmable gate array) and / or uses a dedicated hardware component that may include an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) to implement part or all of the methods described herein.

[0068] Figure 4 —Block diagram of a base station

[0069] Figure 4 An exemplary block diagram of a base station 102 according to some embodiments is shown. Note that Figure 4 The base station of is only one example of a possible base station. As shown, the base station 102 may include a processor 404 that may execute program instructions for the base station 102. The processor 404 may also be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 440 or other circuit or device, which may be configured to receive addresses from the processor 404 and convert these addresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory 460 and read-only memory (ROM) 450).

[0070] The base station 102 may include at least one network port 470. Figure 1 and Figure 2 As described in , the network port 470 may be configured to couple to a telephone network and provide multiple devices, such as the UE devices 106 / 107 , with access to the telephone network.

[0071] The network port 470 (or an additional network port) may also be configured or alternatively configured to be coupled to a cellular network, such as a core network of a cellular service provider. The core network may provide mobility-related services and / or other services to multiple devices such as UE devices 106 / 107. For example, the core network may include, for example, a mobility management entity (MME) for providing mobility management services, a serving gateway (SGW) and / or a packet data network gateway (PGW) for providing external data connections such as to the Internet, and the like. In some cases, the network port 470 may be coupled to a telephone network via the core network, and / or the core network may provide a telephone network (e.g., between other UE devices served by the cellular service provider).

[0072] The base station 102 may include at least one antenna 434 and possibly multiple antennas. One or more antennas 434 may be configured to operate as a wireless transceiver and may be further configured to communicate with the UE device 106 / 107 via the radio component 430. The antenna 434 communicates with the radio component 430 via a communication chain 432. The communication chain 432 may be a receive chain, a transmit chain, or both. The radio component 430 may be configured to communicate via various wireless communication standards, including but not limited to LTE, LTE-A, NR, GSM, UMTS, CDMA2000, Wi-Fi, etc.

[0073] Base station 102 may be configured to communicate wirelessly using multiple wireless communication standards. In some cases, base station 102 may include multiple radios that enable base station 102 to communicate according to multiple wireless communication technologies. For example, as one possibility, base station 102 may include an LTE radio for performing communications according to LTE and a Wi-Fi radio for performing communications according to Wi-Fi. In such cases, base station 102 may be capable of operating as both an LTE base station and a Wi-Fi access point. As another possibility, base station 102 may include a multimode radio component capable of performing communications according to any of multiple wireless communication technologies (e.g., LTE and NR, LTE and Wi-Fi, LTE and UMTS, LTE and CDMA2000, UMTS and GSM, etc.).

[0074] As further described later herein, BS102 may include hardware and software components for implementing or supporting the specific implementation of the features described herein. According to some embodiments, the processor 404 of the base station 102 may be configured to implement part or all of the methods described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). Alternatively, the processor 404 may be configured as a programmable hardware element such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array), or as an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) or a combination thereof. Alternatively (or in addition thereto), in combination with one or more components in other components 430, 432, 434, 440, 450, 460, 470, the processor 404 of the BS102 may be configured to implement or support implementation of any of the various other features of the radio resource control process for remote wireless devices according to the various embodiments described herein, and / or the features described herein.

[0075] Figure 5 -Communication Flowchart

[0076] Figure 5is a communication flow diagram illustrating a method for performing a data forwarding process for a remote wireless device in a wireless communication system according to some embodiments. In various embodiments, some of the elements of the method illustrated may be performed simultaneously in an order different from the order illustrated, may be replaced by other method elements, or may be omitted. Additional method elements may also be performed as desired.

[0077] Figure 5 Various aspects of the method may be implemented by a wireless device and / or a cellular base station (such as UE 106A-106B or 107 and / or BS 102 shown in and described with respect to the figures), or more generally, may be implemented as needed in combination with any of the computer systems, circuits, elements, components, or devices shown in the figures, in addition to other devices. For example, one or more processors (or processing elements) (in various possibilities, for example, processors 302, 404, baseband processors, processors associated with communication circuits such as 330, 430, or 432, processors associated with various core network elements, etc.) may cause the UE, network element, and / or BS to perform some or all of the elements of the method shown. It should be noted that although the method is described in a manner involving the use of communication techniques and / or features associated with LTE, NR, and / or 3GPP specification documents, Figure 5 At least some elements of the method, but this description is not intended to limit the present disclosure and can be used in any suitable wireless communication system as needed Figure 5 Aspects of the method. As shown, the method can be operated as follows.

[0078] At 502, the network 100 (eg, via the cellular base station 102) may establish communications with one or more wireless devices 106 and / or 107 according to some embodiments.

[0079] In the illustrated example, the one or more wireless devices may include a UE configured to perform relay transmissions (e.g., a "relay UE", which may be an example of wireless device 106, for example) and two remote UEs associated with the relay UE (e.g., a "remote UE", which may be an example of accessory wireless device 107, for example). It should be understood that any number of relay UEs and / or remote UEs may be included, and the relay UEs and / or remote UEs may be any of various types of wireless devices. For example, the remote UE may be any type of wireless device capable of performing wireless communications with a cellular base station indirectly via an intermediate relay UE or other wireless device (but it may also be configured to communicate directly with the cellular base station). As one possibility, the remote UE may be an accessory device, such as a smart watch or other wearable device configured as a low-cost and / or low-power wireless device. As another example, the relay UE may be any of various types of wireless devices that can support wireless communications between a remote UE or other wireless device and a cellular base station by acting as an intermediate relay wireless device. As one possibility, the relay UE may be a smart phone capable of acting as a companion device for a remote wireless device. Many other types of wireless devices may also serve as remote UEs and / or relay UEs. The cellular base station may be any of a variety of types of base stations capable of indirectly performing wireless communications with a remote wireless device through an intermediate relay wireless device and capable of providing access to a cellular network. As one possibility, the cellular base station may be a 3GPP 5G NR gNB. Alternatively (or in addition), the cellular base station may be capable of operating in accordance with any of a variety of other possible cellular communication standards.

[0080] In 504, according to some embodiments, the network 100 (e.g., via the cellular base station 102) may provide control information (e.g., "bearer configuration information") to one or more wireless devices (e.g., relay UE 106 and / or remote UEs 107a and 107b). The bearer configuration information may include configurations for communication between individual wireless devices in the one or more wireless devices 106 and / or 107. In some embodiments, the bearer configuration information may also include configurations for communication between individual wireless devices in the one or more wireless devices 106 and / or 107 and the base station 102.

[0081] The bearer configuration information may configure one or more wireless devices, such as the relay UE 106 and / or the remote UEs 107a and 107b, to perform data forwarding according to one or more modes. According to the normal forwarding mode, the relay UE may forward data between the base station and one or more remote UEs. According to the local path mode, the relay UE may exchange data directly with the remote UE (e.g., without forwarding to the base station, etc.). According to the local forwarding mode, the relay UE may forward data between multiple remote UEs (e.g., which may be linked or connected to the relay UE).

[0082] The bearer configuration information may configure one or more bearers according to a mode for forwarding data. The bearer may be a data radio bearer (DRB). Different DRBs may be configured for different segments of a connection. For example, a remote UE may be connected to a relay UE via a remote DRB, and the relay UE may be connected to a base station using a relay DRB (e.g., via a Uu interface). Thus, in normal forwarding mode, data may be exchanged between a remote UE and a base station using a remote DRB in combination with a relay DRB.

[0083] In some embodiments, some or all of the bearers may be operated (e.g., partially or fully) as sidelink (SL) communications, e.g., in accordance with a cellular communication standard such as NR, although other standards (or combinations thereof) are also contemplated, such as other cellular standards, Bluetooth TM , wireless local area network (WLAN), etc.

[0084] In some embodiments, the relay DRB may reuse / reapply the Uu link configuration information. For example, a first portion of the bearer configuration information may be provided at a first time to configure the Uu link between the relay UE and the base station. A second portion of the bearer configuration information may be provided at a second time, for example, to configure a remote DRB between the relay UE and the remote UE. The relay UE may apply (e.g., reuse) the first portion of the bearer configuration information to relay communications between the remote UE and the base station. In some embodiments, the second portion of the bearer configuration information may (e.g., explicitly or implicitly) indicate that the relay UE should apply the first portion of the bearer configuration information to relay communications between the remote UE and the base station.

[0085] Any bearer can be configured to operate in acknowledged mode (AM) or unacknowledged mode (UM). In AM, acknowledgements (ACK) and negative acknowledgements (NACK) can be used to indicate whether a transmission was received, e.g., whether a retransmission is requested. In unacknowledged mode, such feedback may not be used.

[0086] The bearer configuration information may identify peer entities at various layers in various devices (e.g., remote UEs, relay UEs, base stations, and / or various core network entities). A pair of corresponding peer entities may perform corresponding functions for transmitting and receiving devices. For example, a PHY entity at a transmitter may have a peer entity that is a PHY entity at a receiver. For example, the bearer configuration information may identify that a lower layer (e.g., layer 1 and / or 2) peer entity of a remote UE is in a relay UE, and an upper layer peer (e.g., layer 3) entity of a remote UE is in a possibly different device (e.g., a base station for normal forwarding mode, a different remote UE for local forwarding mode, or a relay device for local path mode). For example, a remote DRB may connect lower layer peer entities, and a remote DRB in conjunction with a relay DRB may connect upper layer peer entities.

[0087] In normal forwarding mode, an upper layer peer entity of one or more remote UEs may be associated with a base station, and a lower layer peer entity of the remote UE may be associated with a relay UE. The relay UE and the base station may perform routing of packets to / from the remote UE based on an identifier of the remote UE (e.g., a remote UE-ID), which may be attached to or associated with the packet. Packet scheduling may be performed based on a first-in-first-out (FIFO) or priority-based scheme.

[0088] In local path mode, upper and lower layer peer entities of the remote UE may be associated with the relay UE. A bearer ID (e.g., and / or logical channel (LCH) ID) may be used to route packets. The bearer ID may be associated with the remote DRB.

[0089] In local forwarding mode, an upper layer peer entity of a first remote UE (e.g., wireless device 107a) may be associated with a second remote UE (e.g., wireless device 107b), and a lower layer peer entity of the first remote UE may be associated with a relay UE. The bearer may be configured with a remote UE-ID for the first remote UE and the second remote UE.

[0090] It should be understood that multiple data forwarding modes (e.g., and / or multiple bearers) can be configured simultaneously (e.g., in the same bearer configuration information or subsequent bearer configuration information). For example, the bearer configuration information can configure a first data forwarding mode associated with a first service, application, data type, stream, etc. and a second data forwarding mode associated with a second service, application, data type, stream, etc. For example, the bearer configuration information can configure the relay UE to route or otherwise process packets to / from a specific remote UE differently based on the service, application, data type, stream, etc. of the packet (e.g., to different destinations and / or using different bearers). Similarly, the bearer configuration information can configure the remote UE to process packets associated with different services differently, such as by associating the packets with different destination IDs, bearer IDs, LCH IDs, etc. Therefore, routing and processing can be specific to the device and / or service associated with each packet. In addition, it should be understood that, according to some embodiments, the remote UE can be configured to operate in a non-forwarding mode for some services, and packets associated with such services can be transmitted directly to the base station. For example, the remote UE may be configured to transmit data for a fitness application to the relay UE using a local path mode bearer, and to transmit data for a gaming application to the network using a normal forwarding mode bearer; the relay UE may process / forward these different types of data differently based on the bearer configuration information associated with the bearer. As another example, a first remote UE may transmit audio data to a second remote UE (e.g., using a first local forwarding mode DRB), and may transmit data related to the location or movement of the first UE to a third remote UE (e.g., using a second local forwarding mode DRB). Similarly, the relay UE may process / forward these different types of data differently based on the bearer configuration information associated with different bearers.

[0091] For example, one remote UE operating in normal forwarding mode may have multiple remote DRBs configured for different modes, for example. For example, DRB #1 of the remote UE may be configured for normal forwarding mode, and DRB #2 of the remote UE may be configured for local path mode. The network may configure the relay UE to forward these different DRBs differently, for example based on different DRB IDs of different DRBs, and the relay UE may forward according to different modes.

[0092] The bearer configuration information may be provided by upper layer signaling. For example, in various possibilities, the bearer configuration information may be provided by one or more RRC messages (such as one or more RRC reconfiguration messages).

[0093] In some embodiments, the bearer configuration information provided to different UEs in the relay UE and / or remote UE may be different, for example, the bearer configuration information may be specific to each individual UE. For example, the base station or network may provide supplementary bearer configuration information to different UEs. For example, the bearer configuration information for the relay UE may specify that a specific remote UE (or potentially multiple remote UEs) identified by a remote UE-ID may use a specific DRB (identified by a bearer ID or LCH ID, etc.) for a specific forwarding mode for transmission, and may identify the destination (e.g., a specific layer within the relay UE or another device for data). Similarly, the bearer configuration information for the relay UE may specify corresponding information for transmission to a specific remote UE (e.g., identified by a remote UE-ID) using a specific DRB for a specific forwarding mode.

[0094] In some embodiments, the bearer configuration information may be based on data identification, for example, instead of or in addition to DRB identification. For example, a relay UE may identify different types of data based on QoS flow information and / or IP flow information, and may use this information to route data on various bearers. Such data identification information may be used instead of or in addition to DRB ID.

[0095] It should be understood that the bearer configuration information of 504 may be different from various other types of control information transmitted by the base station. For example, the UE-specific bearer configuration information of 504 may be different from broadcast control information, such as may be used for device-to-device (D2D) discovery communication, which may not be UE-specific.

[0096] In 506, according to some embodiments, one or more wireless devices 106 and / or 107 and / or network 100 (e.g., via cellular base station 102) may exchange data according to the bearer configuration information. The three data forwarding modes discussed above are shown separately, however, as described above, the three modes may operate separately, simultaneously, or sequentially.

[0097] 506a shows a normal forwarding mode. As shown, wireless device 107a (e.g., remote UE) can exchange data with network 100 / base station 102 via wireless device 106 (e.g., relay UE). Relay UE can relay data between remote UE and base station using a bearer configured by the base station. Packets to / from remote UE can be identified by remote UE-ID.

[0098] 506b shows a local path mode. As shown, wireless device 107a (e.g., remote UE) can exchange data with wireless device 106 (e.g., relay UE). Data can be exchanged between two wireless devices according to the local path mode without being exchanged with the base station. It should be noted that according to some embodiments, other data (e.g., different services) can be exchanged with the base station according to different data forwarding modes.

[0099] 506c shows a local forwarding mode. As shown, wireless device 107a (e.g., a first remote UE) can exchange data with wireless device 107b (e.g., a second remote UE) via wireless device 106 (e.g., a relay UE). The solid arrows can indicate two remote UEs as endpoints of the data exchange, and the dotted arrows can indicate the data path via the relay UE. Data can be exchanged between two remote UEs according to the local forwarding mode without being exchanged with the base station. It should be noted that according to some embodiments, other data (e.g., of different services) can be exchanged with the base station according to different data forwarding modes.

[0100] It should be understood that the remote wireless device and the relay wireless device can establish a connection at any time (e.g., a direct connection between the remote UE and the relay UE). For example, the remote UE and the relay UE can be connected before or at the same time as establishing a connection with the base station (e.g., before or at the same time as 502), after establishing a connection with the base station (e.g., between 502 and 504), or after receiving the bearer configuration information (e.g., after 504). In some embodiments, the connection between the wireless devices can be established in response to the bearer configuration information. In some embodiments, the existing connection between the wireless devices can be modified based on the bearer configuration information. For example, according to the bearer configuration information of the cellular DRB for relay communication, the previous non-cellular connection can be replaced by a cellular connection.

[0101] Figures 6 to 17 and additional information

[0102] supply Figures 6 to 17 and the following additional information, which illustrates the Figure 5 Further considerations and possible specific implementation details of the method are not intended to limit the present disclosure as a whole. Various variations and alternatives to the details provided below are possible and should be considered to fall within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0103] 3GPP 5G NR cellular communications technology is being developed for a variety of uses, including enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC), and massive machine type communications (mMTC). mMTC use cases may include widespread deployment of wireless devices designed to have relatively low cost and / or low power consumption. Such devices may include wearable devices, devices, process control devices, measurement devices, and / or any of a variety of other types of devices. In at least some embodiments (e.g., in some cases, wearable devices), it may be the case that such devices may typically be relatively close to another wireless device (e.g., in some cases, a smart phone) that can be used as a relay for communicating with a cellular network. Therefore, in at least some embodiments, it is advantageous to support a UE to NW communication relay framework, for example to help support the operation of low cost and / or low power wireless devices that can benefit from such a framework. For example, Figure 6 Aspects of one possible exemplary wireless communication relay between a remote UE 602, a relay UE 604, and a cellular base station 606 are shown. As shown, in the illustrated scenario, the remote UE 602 can communicate with the cellular base station 606 via a relay link between the remote UE 602 and the relay UE 604 and a Uu link between the relay UE 604 and the cellular base station 606. In some embodiments, the remote UE 602 can also connect to the base station 606 using a direct connection (not shown).

[0104] According to various implementations, there may be multiple possible types of UE to NW relay frameworks. As one possibility, at least in some cases, a layer 3 (L3) relay may be used that may be implemented without affecting the access layer communication layer. As another possibility, among various possibilities, a layer 2 (L2) relay may be used, for example, by establishing and maintaining a radio resource control connection that terminates between a remote UE and a cellular base station. Figures 7 and 8 Exemplary aspects of a possible protocol stack architecture for user plane and control plane communications in a 3GPP based UE to network relay framework, where communication relay is implemented at Layer 2, according to some embodiments.

[0105] More specifically, Figure 7 A user plane radio protocol stack for a layer 2 UE to a network relay is shown, which utilizes a PC5 interface between a remote UE 702 and a relay UE 704 to provide a communication link between the remote UE 702 and a base station 706, and provides a communication link to a core network (CN) 708 that provides access to the base station 706. It should be noted that different layers may have peer entities in different devices. For example, the peer entity of the remote UE's RLC layer is in the relay UE, the peer entity of the remote UE's PDCP layer is in the base station, and the peer entity of the remote UE's IP layer is in the core network.

[0106] Similarly, Figure 8 A control plane radio protocol stack for a layer 2 UE to network relay is shown, which utilizes a PC5 interface between a remote UE 802 and a relay UE 804 to provide a communication link between the remote UE 802 and a base station 806, and provides a communication link to a core network 808 that provides access to the base station 806. As shown, the relay may be performed above the RLC sublayer. The Uu PDCP and RRC links may terminate between the remote UE and the base station, while the RLC, MAC and PHY and non-3GPP transport layers terminate in each link (e.g., the link between the remote UE and the relay UE, and the link between the relay UE and the base station).

[0107] In some embodiments, an RRC connection procedure may be performed between a UE and a network via a direct connection over a Uu interface, e.g., in accordance with 3GPP-based cellular communications. For an RRC connection procedure between remote UEs, where peer RRC entities terminate at the remote UE and at the network, RRC message transmissions may be forwarded via a relay UE, e.g., so that in addition to the Uu link between the relay UE and the network, an additional relay link may exist between the relay UE and the remote UE. Since the Uu link and the relay link may be maintained independently, the remote RRC procedure may fail due to interruption of the relay link or the Uu link. Therefore, it may be important to carefully design the RRC procedure framework to support the ability of the remote UE to perform the RRC procedure.

[0108] According to some embodiments, RRC message delivery of a remote UE via a Uu link may be performed via a relay signaling radio bearer (SRB) established between the network and the relay UE. The network may be able to establish one or more relay SRBs. It may be the case that all relay SRBs are configured in radio link control (RLC) acknowledged mode (AM).

[0109] In some embodiments, the relay UE may support data forwarding functionality, such as forwarding data of a remote UE to / from the network via a relay link via a Uu link. The network may establish one or more relay data radio bearers (DRBs). Such relay DRBs may be configured as RLC AM mode or UM mode. The network may provide Uu link scheduling, such as the network may perform scheduling at the relay DRB level. For example, the network may use a Uu link (e.g., a relay DRB) to schedule relay services. The remote UE and the relay UE may use remote DRBs to schedule relay services.

[0110] In some embodiments, a relay DRB may carry data from / to multiple remote UEs. In order to distinguish data for different remote UEs within a relay DRB, each data packet of the remote UE may be transmitted with an identifier of the remote UE (e.g., a remote UE-ID). The remote UE-ID may be included in a header of the packet, for example, in an adaptation layer (AL) header, or otherwise attached to or associated with the packet. The remote UE-ID may identify the remote UE using an index such as a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI), a cell RNTI (C-RNTI), a temporary RNTI (T-RNTI), or other naming conventions.

[0111] Normal forwarding mode

[0112] Among the various possibilities, the remote UE-ID is useful in normal forwarding mode. In normal forwarding mode, according to some embodiments, the relay UE can forward data between one or more remote UEs and the base station, for example, Fig. 9 As shown. As shown, the base station 102 can establish a connection with two (e.g., or any number of) remote UEs via a relay UE. A first DRB (e.g., having a first identifier, such as DRB#1) can connect the base station and the first remote UE; a second DRB (e.g., DRB#2) can connect the base station and the second remote UE. The two DRBs can use a link (910, such as a Uu interface) between the relay UE and the base station. The DRB can use a link (e.g., 902, 904, respectively) between the remote UE and the relay UE. Links 902, 904 can be sidelink (SL) links and / or can operate according to a cellular standard such as NR. Packets associated with different remote UEs (e.g., to or from different remote UEs) can be associated with corresponding remote UE-IDs.

[0113] In some embodiments, the lower layer peer entity may correspond to between the relay UE and the remote UE, and the upper layer peer entity may correspond to between the base station and the remote UE. For example, the peer entity of the Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) layer and the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) for the remote UE may be located in the base station. The RLC layer, the Media Access Control (MAC) layer, and the physical (PHY or L1) layer of the remote UE may have a peer entity in the relay UE.

[0114] In normal forwarding mode, when the network provides bearer configuration information (e.g., in 504), the network may provide the bearer configuration (e.g., of the relay DRB and / or one or more remote DRBs) to the remote UE. The bearer configuration information may be provided to the remote UE directly (e.g., via a direct link from a base station) and / or via a relay UE (e.g., using a relay SRB). The network may also provide the remote UE's DRBs and the relay UE's DRB mapping configuration to the relay UE. The network may provide the relay UE with the bearer forwarding mode of the remote UE. For example, the bearer configuration information may indicate to the relay UE the DRB configuration, the remote UE-ID of the remote UE, and that the remote UE is configured to use a normal forwarding mode for its data (e.g., via the relay UE and the DRB).

[0115] Fig.10 An exemplary bearer configuration for normal forwarding mode is shown in accordance with some embodiments. Fig.10 shows an example using Fig. 9 A normal forwarding mode DRB configuration of a wireless communication system including protocol stack information.

[0116] As shown, bearers with corresponding bearer / DRBID values ​​may be established between a remote UE and a network (e.g., via a relay UE). For 3GPP SL connections 902 and 904, the bearer configuration may reuse Uu information. For example, DRB #1 and #2 may have separate SL components (902 and 904), but share Uu information (e.g., connecting the relay UE with the base station 102 and the core network 100).

[0117] For example, to transmit packets using DRB#1, remote UE#1 may generate data at an Internet Protocol (IP) layer that may have a peer entity in core network 100. The SDAP and PDCP layers of remote UE#1 may process data for a corresponding peer entity in base station 102. The data may be mapped to DRB#1 by the SDAP layer. The RLC layer of the remote UE may form the data into service data units (SDUs), such as RLC SDU#1 and #2 for a peer entity (e.g., SL) in a relay UE. The MAC layer and PHY layer of the remote UE may transmit SDU#1 and #2 to the relay UE via link 902.

[0118] The PHY layer of the relay UE (e.g., the SL portion of the PHY layer) may receive SDU#1 and #2 via link 902. The MAC layer and the RLC layer (e.g., the SL portion) may process the SDU. The intermediate layer (e.g., the adaptation layer) of the relay UE may determine that the SDU is mapped to DRB#1 of the remote UE#1. In response, the intermediate layer may determine to relay SDU#1 and #2 to the base station 102 along with the remote UE-ID of the remote UE#1 (e.g., instead of providing the SDU to the upper layer of the relay UE). Thus, the RLC layer, MAC layer, and PHY layer (e.g., the Uu portion) of the relay UE may process SDU#1 and SDU#2 and transmit them to the base station 102 along with the additional remote UE-ID via the (e.g., Uu) interface 910. It should be understood that the RLC SDUs may be sorted based on a first-in, first-out (FIFO) system or based on a priority system. These systems are further described below. The illustrated example shows FIFO sorting (1016).

[0119] The base station may receive SDU#1 and SDU#2 and provide them to the core network 100. Although this example has been described in the uplink direction, it should be understood that a similar process may be applied in the downlink direction. For example, data for remote UE#1 may be provided to the base station 102 by the network 100 in the form of one or more SDUs addressed to the remote UE#1. The base station may attach the remote UE-ID of the remote UE#1, map the SDU to DRB#1, and transmit the SDU to the relay UE via the mapped relay DRB. The relay UE may receive the SDU via an interface. The relay UE may determine to relay the SDU to the remote UE (e.g., at an adaptation layer or other intermediate layer) based on the remote UE ID. The relay UE may transmit the SDU to the remote UE#1 via link 902.

[0120] Thus, the relay UE may forward the RLC SDU from the relay link to / from the (e.g., Uu) link with the base station. For the SDU from the relay link to the Uu link, the relay UE may include the remote UE-ID together with the RLC SDU of the remote UE in the RLC protocol data unit (PDU) and may transmit it to the base station via the mapped relay DRB. For the SDU from the base station (e.g., Uu link) to the remote UE (e.g., relay link), the relay UE may identify the owner of the RLC SDU via the remote UE-ID and forward it to the appropriate remote UE (e.g., using an appropriate relay link, such as 902 or 904).

[0121] Fig.11is a communication flow diagram that provides more details about FIFO processing according to some embodiments. In 1110, the base station and the relay UE can establish an RRC connection and can configure the relay DRB. The relay DRB can be used for data services of remote UEs #1 and #2. In some embodiments, the relay DRB can also be used for data services of the relay UE. The base station can also provide the relay UE with bearer configuration information of the remote DRB associated with the remote UE.

[0122] Bearer configuration information provided from the base station to the relay UE (and possibly the remote UE) may indicate that a FIFO ordering scheme will be used for relay data on, for example, a remote DRB and / or a relay DRB. In 1112, the remote UE #1 may transmit two RLC SDUs to the relay UE. The relay UE may add the SDUs to its buffer for transmission to the base station on the relay DRB. In 1114, the remote UE #2 may transmit two RLC SDUs to the relay UE. The relay UE may add the SDUs to its buffer for transmission to the base station on the relay DRB. The SDUs of the remote UE #1 may be first in buffer 1126 because they are received by the relay UE before the SDUs of the remote UE #2. In 1116, the base station may transmit a grant to the relay UE. The grant may be transmitted on the SRB. The grant may include uplink and / or downlink resources that can be applied to the relay DRB.

[0123] In response to available uplink resources, the relay UE may transmit the RLC SDUs of remote UEs #1 and #2 to the base station via the relay DRB in 1118. The SDUs may be transmitted in the order in which they were received by the relay UE (e.g., FIFO). The respective SDUs may each be transmitted with the remote UE-ID of the remote UE from which they were received.

[0124] In 1120, the base station may transmit downlink SDUs to the relay UE for relay transmission to remote UEs #1 and #2. The respective SDUs may each be transmitted together with the remote UE-ID of the remote UE to which they are intended to arrive, and the relay UE may forward the SDUs on the respective remote DRBs according to the UE-ID. The relay UE may relay the SDUs to the remote UEs in the order in which the SDUs are received from the base station (e.g., FIFO). Thus, when the SDUs for remote UE #1 are received first, they may be transmitted first (1122). The SDUs for remote UE #2 may be transmitted second (1124).

[0125] Fig.12is a communication flow chart that provides more details about prioritization processing according to some embodiments. In 1210, the base station and the relay UE can establish an RRC connection, and the relay DRB and possible remote DRB can be configured, for example, as discussed above with respect to 1110. The bearer configuration information provided from the base station to the relay UE (and possible remote UE) can indicate that a prioritization scheme will be used for relay transmission. In addition, the bearer configuration information can indicate the relative priority of the remote UE. For example, among various possibilities, the bearer configuration information can indicate that the remote UE#1 has a lower priority than the remote UE#2. In 1212, the remote UE#1 can transmit two RLC SDUs to the relay UE. The relay UE can add the SDUs to its buffer for transmission to the base station on the relay DRB. In 1214, the remote UE#2 can transmit two RLC SDUs to the relay UE. The relay UE can add the SDUs to its buffer for transmission to the base station on the relay DRB. Because the priority of remote UE #2 is higher than that of remote UE #1, the SDU of remote UE #2 may be first in buffer 1226. In 1216, the base station may transmit a grant to the relay UE. The grant may be transmitted on an SRB. The grant may include uplink and / or downlink resources that can be applied to the relay DRB.

[0126] In response to the available uplink resources, the relay UE may transmit the RLC SDUs of the remote UEs #1 and #2 on the relay DRBs at 1218. The SDUs may be transmitted in the order in which they are stored in the buffer by the relay UE (e.g., based on a priority scheme). The respective SDUs may each be transmitted along with the remote UE-ID of the remote UE from which they were received.

[0127] In 1220, the base station may transmit downlink SDUs to the relay UE for relay transmission to remote UEs #1 and #2. The corresponding SDUs may each be transmitted together with the remote UE-ID of the remote UE to which they are intended to arrive, and the relay UE may forward these SDUs according to the UE-ID, for example, on the corresponding remote DRB. The relay UE may relay the SDUs to the remote UEs in a prioritized order (1221). Therefore, since the SDUs for remote UE #2 are higher priority, they may be transmitted first (1222), even if they are received by the relay UE after the packet for remote UE #1. The SDUs for remote UE #1 may be transmitted second (1224).

[0128] In some embodiments, the SDUs of the remote UE may be transmitted together with the SDUs of the relay UE (in the uplink and / or downlink direction). In a FIFO system, all SDUs may be ordered for transmission according to the order in which they were received (e.g., by the RLC of the relay UE in the case of uplink packets or by the base station in the case of downlink packets). In a prioritized ordering system, packets may be ordered for transmission according to, for example, the priority of the packet or the priority of the UE associated with the packet.

[0129] In some embodiments, the bearer configuration information may explicitly or implicitly indicate an ordering scheme to be used (eg, FIFO, prioritization, etc.) In some embodiments, the relay UE may select the ordering scheme, eg, autonomously.

[0130] It should be understood that although Fig.11 and Fig.12 The example of shows buffering of uplink transmissions, but buffering of downlink transmissions may also occur. For example, a relay UE may receive multiple downlink data packets for one or more remote UEs and may store these downlink data packets in a buffer until resources are available for transmission to the remote UEs. Scheduling of such downlink packets may be based on FIFO and / or priority sorting.

[0131] Local path mode

[0132] Fig.13 A local path mode is shown. In the local path mode, a relay UE (e.g., UE 106) may terminate data from a remote UE (e.g., accessory device 107) and may not forward the data to the network (e.g., or base station 102). For example, data to / from the remote UE may not be transmitted to / from the network via the relay UE; instead, the remote UE and the relay UE may exchange data between them. It should be understood that the crossedout path (e.g., Uu link) between the relay UE and the base station indicates that no relay data is transmitted. The relay UE may still communicate with the base station for various purposes. For example, the base station may provide bearer configuration information for configuring a local path mode DRB between the remote UE and the relay UE. Similarly, the bearer configuration information may be relayed to / from the remote UE by the relay UE, for example, using an SRB. It should be noted that, according to some embodiments, either or both of the relay UE and / or the remote UE may exchange data separately with the base station / network using a direct connection.

[0133] Fig.14 shows an example of an example of a protocol stack with more details according to some embodiments Fig.13A communication system. The peer entities of both the upper layer and the lower layer of the remote UE may be in the relay UE. For example, the SDAP layer and the PDCP layer of the remote UE may have peer entities in the relay UE. In addition, the RLC layer, MAC layer, and L1 (e.g., PHY) layer peer entities of the remote UE may be in the relay UE.

[0134] For user plane operation of a local path DRB, data of the local path DRB may generally follow the path indicated by 1410 within the relay UE. For example, the relay UE may (e.g., at an adaptation layer or other intermediate layer) identify the remote UE and the bearer in local path mode. For example, data received from the remote UE on the local path DRB may be forwarded by the application layer to a linked PDCP entity (e.g., within the relay UE, e.g., based on bearer configuration information). Similarly, an adaptation layer or other intermediate layer of the relay UE may transfer data from a PDCP entity in local path mode to an RLC entity in its relay link protocol stack (e.g., a SL RLC entity).

[0135] During the operation of the relay UE for the bearer of the remote UE in the local path mode, when the relay UE receives data from the remote UE via the relay link, the relay UE can identify the bearer in the local path mode according to the corresponding RLC bearer ID / LCH ID. Based on the identification that the data is associated with the local path, the relay UE can forward the data of the bearer to the corresponding PDCP layer based on the RLC bearer ID. When the relay UE transmits data (e.g., from the application layer or other upper layer of the relay UE) to the remote UE via the relay link, the relay UE PDCP layer can deliver its data to the corresponding RLC entity in the relay link and forward the data via the relay link.

[0136] Fig.15 is a diagram showing that according to some embodiments Fig.14A communication flow chart of the operation of a local path DRB. The base station may provide configuration (e.g., control plane) information related to the local path mode to the relay UE (1508). For example, the network may provide bearer configuration information (e.g., in 504) regarding the DRB configuration of the relay UE in the local path mode. The bearer configuration information may identify the corresponding PDCP entity (e.g., PDCP Uu entity) in the remote UE and the relay UE. The network may configure the relay UE to implement the bearer in the local path mode, and may optionally configure the mapped relay DRB in the Uu link. The network may configure the PDCP / SDAP layer of the relay UE using information about the mapped RLC bearer ID or logical channel (LCH) ID or other mapping information. For example, the bearer configuration information may indicate that bearer ID DRB#1 may correspond to a local path mode data transmission with the remote UE#1, and the PDCP instance #1 (e.g., Uu) of the relay UE may be used. Similarly, the bearer configuration information may indicate that SDAP instance #1 may also be used for the local path (e.g., DRB#1).

[0137] The network may provide the bearer configuration to the remote UE (1510). The bearer configuration information may be provided by an RRC message (e.g., RRC reconfiguration) or other higher layer signaling. It should be understood that the illustrated sequence of 1508 and 1510 is exemplary. The bearer configuration information may be provided to the UE in any order or simultaneously.

[0138] The remote UE may transmit data (e.g., two RLC SDUs) to the relay UE via the DRB (1512). The relay UE may determine, based on receiving data from DRB #1, that the data is associated with the local path mode (1514). Thus, the relay UE may transmit the data via the SL instance at the lower layer, as shown in 1516. The adaptation layer or other intermediate layer of the relay UE may route the data according to the local path on the upper layers (e.g., PDCP and SDAP Uu instances and higher layers) within the relay UE.

[0139] Similarly, for data from upper layers of a relay UE, an adaptation layer or other intermediate layer may route the data through a SL instance at a lower layer (1518) for transmission to a remote UE (1520).

[0140] Local forwarding mode

[0141] Fig.16A local forwarding mode according to some embodiments is shown. In the local forwarding mode, a relay UE (e.g., UE 106) may relay data between two remote UEs (e.g., two accessory devices 107) and may not forward the data to the network (e.g., or base station 102). It should be understood that either or both of the relay UE and / or the remote UE may still communicate with the base station for various purposes. For example, the base station may provide bearer configuration information for configuring a local forwarding mode DRB between the remote UE and the relay UE. Similarly, the bearer configuration information may be relayed to / from the remote UE by the relay UE, for example, using one or more SRBs. It should be noted that according to some embodiments, either or both of the relay UE and / or the remote UE may exchange data separately with the base station / network using a direct connection.

[0142] The lower layer peer entity of each remote UE can be in the relay UE, and the upper layer peer entity can be in another remote UE. For example, for the remote UE, the SDAP layer and PDCP layer peer entities can be in other remote UEs. The peer entities of the RLC layer, MAC layer, and L1 (PHY) layer of the remote UE can be in the relay UE. As shown in the figure, one bearer (DRB#1) can correspond to the transmission between the remote UE 1 and the relay UE (1606). The second bearer (DRB#2) can correspond to the transmission between the remote UE 2 and the relay UE (1608). Therefore, packets transmitted from one UE to another UE can, for example, use two bearers sequentially. In some embodiments, a single DRB can be used for transmission in both directions.

[0143] Fig.17 is a diagram showing that according to some embodiments Fig.16 A communication flow chart of the operation of a local forwarding DRB. The base station may provide configuration (e.g., control plane) information related to the local forwarding mode to the relay UE (1710). For example, the network may provide bearer configuration information to the relay UE (e.g., in 504), which configures the relay UE with respect to the DRB used in the local forwarding mode. For example, the bearer configuration information may identify the source and target peer remote UE-IDs of the mapped bearers, such as the remote DRB between the relay UE and the corresponding remote DRB. According to some embodiments, the network may configure the mapped relay DRB in the Uu link.

[0144] The base station may further configure the remote UE to use the corresponding DRB, for example, remote UE #1 may be configured to transmit data to remote UE #2 using DRB #1 (in 1712), and remote UE #2 may be configured to transmit data to remote UE #1 using DRB #2 (in 1714). The bearer configuration information may be provided by an RRC message (e.g., RRC reconfiguration) or other higher layer signaling. It should be understood that the illustrated sequence of 1710-1714 is exemplary. The bearer configuration information may be provided to the UE in any order or simultaneously.

[0145] In 1716, remote UE #1 may transmit data (e.g., RLC SDU) using DRB #1. The relay UE may receive the data at a lower layer entity (e.g., a PHY entity associated with the SL function). An intermediate layer (e.g., an adaptation layer) may determine (e.g., based on a bearer ID, an LCH ID, or other indication that the data is mapped to DRB #1) that the data is associated with DRB #1 for local forwarding to remote UE 2 (1718). In response, the intermediate layer may not provide the data to any upper layer of the relay UE and may cause the lower layer to transmit the data to remote UE #2 on DRB #1 (1720).

[0146] Similarly, in 1722, remote UE #2 may transmit data (e.g., RLC SDU) using DRB #1. The relay UE may receive the data at a lower layer entity (e.g., a PHY entity associated with the SL function). An intermediate layer (e.g., an adaptation layer) may determine (e.g., based on a bearer ID, an LCH ID, or other indication that the data is mapped to DRB #2) that the data is associated with DRB #2 for local forwarding to remote UE #1 (1724). In response, the intermediate layer may not provide the data to any upper layer of the relay UE and may cause the lower layer to transmit the data to remote UE #1 on DRB #2 (1726).

[0147] Therefore, the operation of the relay UE (e.g., user plane) for the bearer of the remote UE in the local forwarding mode can be described as follows. When the relay UE receives data from the source UE (e.g., remote UE#1) via the relay link, the relay UE can determine that the bearer is in the local forwarding mode. The relay UE can forward the data of the bearer to the corresponding target remote UE (e.g., remote UE#2). Similar operations can be applied in the opposite direction.

[0148] It should be understood that the transmission in different directions between remote UEs can occur in any sequence and / or simultaneously. In some embodiments, more than two remote UEs can be connected via a relay UE. For example, multiple remote UEs can be transmitted to each other using unicast, multicast, groupcast and / or broadcast messaging techniques.

[0149] In some embodiments, FIFO and / or priority-based sorting schemes may be applied to any of the above modes, either individually or in combination. For example, a relay UE may be configured to prioritize local forwarding transmissions from one UE over other forwardings (e.g., according to local path mode and / or normal forwarding mode). In addition, the relay UE may be configured to use FIFO sorting within each priority group (e.g., FIFO may be applied in a group of local forwarding transmissions, and similarly in a group of local path mode and / or normal forwarding mode transmissions, FIFO may be applied when there are no local forwarding transmissions to be transmitted in the buffer).

[0150] In some embodiments, the relay UE may maintain any number of transmission buffers associated with pending transmissions to the base station and / or to various remote UEs. The FIFO and / or priority system may be applied to schedule transmission of packets from any buffer or any combination of buffers.

[0151] In some embodiments, the cellular base station may perform resource allocation (eg, provide grants) for transmissions between a relay UE and one or more remote UEs, for example, using sidelink cellular communications.

[0152] Yet another example embodiment may include a method, comprising: performing, by a wireless device: any or all of the foregoing examples.

[0153] Another exemplary embodiment may include a wireless device comprising: an antenna; a radio component coupled to the antenna; and a processing element operably coupled to the radio component, wherein the device is configured to implement any or all portions of the foregoing examples.

[0154] Another example embodiment may include an apparatus comprising: a processing element configured to cause a wireless device to implement any or all of the foregoing examples.

[0155] Another exemplary set of embodiments may include a non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium including program instructions that, when executed at a device, cause the device to implement any or all portions of any of the foregoing examples.

[0156] Another exemplary set of embodiments may include a computer program comprising instructions for performing any or all portions of any of the foregoing examples.

[0157] Another exemplary set of embodiments may include an apparatus including means for performing any or all of the elements of any of the preceding examples.

[0158] By interpreting each message / signal X received by a user equipment (UE) in the downlink as a message / signal X transmitted by the base station, and interpreting each message / signal Y transmitted by the UE in the uplink as a message / signal Y received by the base station, any of the methods for operating a UE described herein may become the basis for the corresponding method for operating a base station.

[0159] In addition to the exemplary embodiments described above, more embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in any of a variety of forms. For example, some embodiments may be implemented as computer-implemented methods, computer-readable storage media, or computer systems. Other embodiments may be implemented using one or more custom-designed hardware devices such as ASICs. Other embodiments may be implemented using one or more programmable hardware elements such as FPGAs.

[0160] In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may be configured such that it stores program instructions and / or data, wherein if executed by a computer system, the program instructions cause the computer system to perform a method, such as any one of the method embodiments described herein, or any combination of the method embodiments described herein, or any subset of any of the method embodiments described herein or any combination of such subsets.

[0161] In some embodiments, a device (e.g., UE 106 or 107) may be configured to include a processor (or a group of processors) and a memory medium, wherein the memory medium stores program instructions, wherein the processor is configured to read and execute the program instructions from the memory medium, wherein the program instructions may be executed to implement any of the various method implementations described herein (or any combination of the method implementations described herein, or any subset of any method implementations described herein or any combination of such subsets). The device may be implemented in any of various forms.

[0162] It is understood that the use of personally identifiable information should be subject to privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized to meet or exceed industry or government requirements for maintaining user privacy. Specifically, personally identifiable information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of the authorized use should be clearly stated to users.

[0163] Although the above embodiments have been described in considerable detail, numerous variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated. It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to encompass all such variations and modifications.

Claims

1. A device for wireless communication, the device comprising: A processor configured to perform operations when executing instructions stored in the memory, the operations comprising: establishing a first connection with a cellular base station; Establishing a second connection with a remote user equipment device UE; receiving first bearer configuration information of the remote UE from the cellular base station; receiving second bearer configuration information from the cellular base station, the second bearer configuration information including configuration of a bearer connecting the relay UE and the remote UE, wherein the second bearer configuration information sets an upper layer of the relay UE to a local path, wherein data is exchanged between the remote UE and the relay UE without using a cellular network; determining an identifier of the remote UE (remote UE-ID); and Data is exchanged between the remote UE and the cellular base station using the remote UE-ID, wherein the exchanged data includes one or more of the following: a) receiving a first packet from the remote UE, appending the remote UE-ID to the first packet, and transmitting the first packet with the remote UE-ID to the cellular base station; or b) receiving a second packet from the cellular base station, determining that the remote UE-ID is appended to the second packet, and transmitting the second packet to the remote UE based on determining that the remote UE-ID is appended to the second packet.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise: establishing a third connection with a second remote UE; receiving second bearer configuration information of the second remote UE from the cellular base station; determining a second remote UE-ID associated with the second remote UE; as well as Data is exchanged between the second remote UE and the cellular base station using the second remote UE-ID.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the operations further comprise: Scheduling of packets exchanged between the remote UE and / or the second remote UE and the cellular base station is performed according to a first-in-first-out (FIFO) system.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the operations further comprise: Scheduling of packets exchanged between the remote UE and / or the second remote UE and the cellular base station is performed according to a priority system. 5 . The apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the first bearer configuration information and / or the second bearer configuration information indicates a relative priority of the remote UE and the second remote UE.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the appending the remote UE-ID to the first packet comprises adding the remote UE-ID to an adaptation layer header of the first packet.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the remote UE-ID comprises a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI).

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the exchanging data comprises communicating with the remote UE using a cellular data radio bearer.

9. A method of operating a relay user equipment (UE), the method comprising: At the relay UE: establishing a first connection with a cellular base station; receiving bearer configuration information from the cellular base station, the bearer configuration information including configuration of a remote data radio bearer (DRB) connecting the relay UE and a remote UE, wherein a lower layer peer entity of the remote UE is in the relay UE for the remote DRB; as well as Data is transmitted to and / or from the remote UE using the remote DRB.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the bearer configuration information indicates that the lower layer peer entity of the remote UE is in the relay UE for the remote DRB.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein an upper layer peer entity of the remote UE is in the cellular base station for the remote DRB.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the bearer configuration information indicates that an upper layer peer entity of the remote UE is in the relay UE for the remote DRB.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising performing transmission scheduling for the remote DRB.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the upper layer peer entity of the remote UE is in a second remote UE.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising establishing a second remote DRB connecting the remote UE and the second remote UE.

16. A relay user equipment (UE), comprising: Radio components; as well as a processor operatively connected to the radio component and configured to cause the relay UE to: establishing a first connection with a cellular base station; receiving bearer configuration information from the cellular base station, the bearer configuration information including configuration of a remote bearer connecting the relay UE and a remote UE, the configuration of the remote bearer connecting the relay UE and the remote UE including setting an upper layer of the relay UE to a local path, wherein data is exchanged between the remote UE and the relay UE without using a cellular network; as well as Data is forwarded to and / or from the remote UE using the remote bearer.

17. The relay UE according to claim 16, wherein: To forward data to and / or from the remote UE, the processor is further configured to cause the relay UE to schedule a plurality of data packets according to a first-in-first-out system, wherein a subset of the plurality of data packets is associated with a local path pattern.

18. The relay UE according to claim 16, wherein: Forwarding data to and / or from the remote UE includes identifying data for the remote UE based on a logical channel ID.

19. The relay UE according to claim 16, wherein: In order to forward data to and / or from the remote UE, the processor is further configured to cause the relay UE to store data received from the remote UE in a buffer before transmitting to the cellular base station.

20. The relay UE according to claim 16, wherein: Forwarding data to and / or from the remote UE comprises operating in a local forwarding mode, wherein the local forwarding mode comprises forwarding the data from and / or to a second remote UE.

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