Method for handling beam switching initiated by user equipment and user equipment

Abstract

A method for handling a user equipment initiated beam handover in a wireless communication system and a user equipment are provided, where the method of the user equipment includes triggering or initiating a user equipment initiated beam handover associated with a cell, transmitting a beam handover indication associated with the cell in response to the user equipment initiated beam handover, and in response to considering that the beam handover initiated by the user equipment is unsuccessful or the timer expires, performing at least one of: cancelling the triggered beam handover initiated by the user equipment associated with the cell, and / or cancelling a scheduling request associated with the beam handover initiated by the user equipment, and / or stopping a random access procedure associated with beam switching initiated by the user equipment, and / or triggering beam failure recovery associated with the cell, and / or retransmitting a beam switching indication, and / or generating and transmitting a second beam switching indication.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 527,300, filed on July 17, 2023, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Technical Field

[0003] The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communication networks, and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for handling UE-initiated beam changes in wireless communication systems. Background Art

[0004] With the rapid growth of the demand for transmitting large amounts of data to and from mobile communication devices, traditional mobile voice communication networks have evolved into networks with Internet Protocol (IP) data packet communications, which can provide IP-bearing voice, multimedia, multicast and on-demand communication services to users of mobile communication devices.

[0005] An exemplary network structure is an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN). The E-UTRAN system can provide high data throughput to enable the above-mentioned IP-borne voice and multimedia services. Currently, the 3GPP standards organization is discussing new next-generation (e.g., 5G) radio technologies. Therefore, changes to the current body of 3GPP standards are currently being submitted and considered to evolve and complete the 3GPP standards. Summary of the invention

[0006] Provided are methods, systems and devices for measurement, switching and error handling of beam switching initiated by user equipment (UE).

[0007] In various embodiments, a method of a UE includes: triggering or initiating a UE-initiated beam switching associated with a cell, transmitting a beam switching indication associated with the cell in response to the UE-initiated beam switching, and performing at least one of the following in response to considering that the UE-initiated beam switching is unsuccessful or a timer expires: canceling the triggered UE-initiated beam switching associated with the cell, and / or canceling a scheduling request (SR) associated with the UE-initiated beam switching, and / or stopping a random access (RA) procedure associated with the UE-initiated beam switching, and / or triggering a beam failure recovery (BFR) associated with the cell, and / or retransmitting the beam switching indication, and / or generating and transmitting a second beam switching indication.

[0008] In various embodiments, a method of a UE includes: triggering or initiating a UE-initiated beam switching associated with a cell; receiving a beam change indication from a network before transmitting a beam switching indication associated with the cell in response to the UE-initiated beam switching; and canceling the triggered UE-initiated beam switching associated with the cell in response to receiving the beam change indication. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] Figure 1 A diagram showing a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0010] Figure 2 is a block diagram of a transmitter system (also referred to as an access network) and a receiver system (also referred to as a user equipment or UE) according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0011] Figure 3 is a functional block diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0012] Figure 4 According to an embodiment of the present invention Figure 3 Functional block diagram of the program code;

[0013] Figure 5 It is in 3GPP 38.321v17.4.0 Figure 6 .1.3.14-1: Reproduction of TCI state activation / deactivation of UE-specific PDSCH MAC CE;

[0014] Figure 6 It is in 3GPP 38.321v17.4.0 Figure 6 .1.3.15-1: Reproduction of TCI status indication of UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE;

[0015] Figure 7 It is in 3GPP 38.321v17.4.0 Figure 6 .1.3.18-1: Reproduction of PUCCH spatial relationship activation / deactivation MACCE;

[0016] Figure 8 It is in 3GPP 38.321v17.4.0 Figure 6 .1.3.24-1: Reproduction of enhanced TCI state activation / deactivation for UE-specific PDSCH MAC CE;

[0017] Fig. 9 It is in 3GPP 38.321v17.4.0 Figure 6 .1.3.25-1: Enhanced PUCCH spatial relation activation / deactivation of MAC CE rendition;

[0018] Fig.10 It is in 3GPP 38.321v17.4.0 Figure 6 .1.3.44-1: Reproduction of enhanced TCI status indication for UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE;

[0019] Fig.11 It is in 3GPP 38.321v17.4.0 Figure 6 .1.3.47-1: Unify the reappearance of TCI state activation / deactivation MACCE;

[0020] Fig.12 is a reproduction of the signalling procedures for LTM from Figure x of R2-2213332 38.300 Operational CR for introducing further mobility enhancements for NR;

[0021] Fig.13 is an example diagram showing current beam configuration and / or activation of DL or UL channels that a UE may utilize according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0022] Fig.14 is an example diagram showing that a UE may start a timer in response to a transmit beam switching indication according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0023] Fig.15 is an example diagram showing that a UE may consider a beam switching procedure unsuccessful in response to receiving a negative acknowledgement associated with a beam switching indication according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0024] Fig.16 is an example diagram showing that a UE (with pending, triggered and uncancelled beam switching) may receive a beam change indication from a network according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0025] Fig.17 is an example diagram showing that a UE is configured with a maximum number of transmissions for a beam switching indication according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0026] Fig.18 is an example diagram showing that a UE may trigger a (UE-initiated) beam switching associated with a cell in response to an event (e.g., a current beam quality is below a threshold) according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0027] Fig.19 is a flow chart of a method of a UE according to an embodiment of the present invention, comprising: generating a beam switching indication associated with a cell, starting a first timer in response to transmitting the beam switching indication to a network, and considering that the beam switching indication is not successfully transmitted in response to the first timer expiring;

[0028] Fig. 20is a flow chart of a method of a UE according to an embodiment of the present invention, comprising: generating a beam switching indication associated with a cell, transmitting the beam switching indication to a network, receiving a beam change indication associated with the cell from the network, and applying a second beam in the beam change indication on the cell;

[0029] Fig.21 is a flow chart of a method of a UE according to an embodiment of the present invention, comprising: triggering or initiating a UE-initiated beam switching associated with a cell, transmitting a beam switching indication associated with the cell in response to the UE-initiated beam switching, and performing at least one of the following in response to considering that the UE-initiated beam switching is unsuccessful or a timer expires: canceling the triggered UE-initiated beam switching associated with the cell, and / or canceling the SR associated with the UE-initiated beam switching, and / or stopping the RA procedure associated with the UE-initiated beam switching, and / or triggering a BFR associated with the cell, and / or retransmitting the beam switching indication, and / or generating and transmitting a second beam switching indication;

[0030] Fig. 22 It is a flowchart of a method of a UE according to an embodiment of the present invention, comprising: triggering or initiating a UE-initiated beam switching associated with a cell; receiving a beam change indication from a network before transmitting a beam switching indication associated with the cell in response to the UE-initiated beam switching; and canceling the triggered UE-initiated beam switching associated with the cell in response to receiving the beam change indication. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0031] The present invention described herein may be applied to or implemented in the exemplary wireless communication systems and devices described below. In addition, the present invention is primarily described in the context of the 3GPP architecture reference model. However, it should be understood that with the disclosed information, those skilled in the art can easily make adjustments to use and implement aspects of the present invention in the 3GPP2 network architecture as well as other network architectures.

[0032] The exemplary wireless communication systems and devices described below employ wireless communication systems that support broadcast services. Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communications, such as voice, data, etc. These systems can be based on code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless access, 3GPP Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) wireless access, 3GPP2 Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), WiMax, 3GPP New Radio (NR), or some other modulation technology.

[0033] Specifically, the exemplary wireless communication system apparatus described below may be designed to support one or more standards, such as those provided by an association named "3rd Generation Partnership Project" (referred to herein as 3GPP), including: [1] 3GPP 38.214v17.4.0; [2] 3GPP 38.321v17.4.0; [3] 3GPP 38.331v17.4.0; and [4] R2-2213332 38.300 Operational CR for introducing further mobility enhancements for NR. The standards and documents listed above are expressly and completely incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

[0034] Figure 1 A multiple access wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown. An access network 100 (AN) includes multiple antenna groups, one antenna group includes 104 and 106, another antenna group includes 108 and 110, and another antenna group includes 112 and 114. Figure 1, only two antennas are shown for each antenna group, but each antenna group may utilize more or fewer antennas. Access terminal (AT) 116 communicates with antennas 112 and 114, where antennas 112 and 114 transmit information to access terminal 116 via forward link 120 and receive information from AT 116 via reverse link 118. AT 122 communicates with antennas 106 and 108, where antennas 106 and 108 transmit information to AT 122 via forward link 126 and receive information from AT 122 via reverse link 124. In an FDD system, communication links 118, 120, 124, and 126 may use different frequencies for communication. For example, forward link 120 may use a different frequency than the frequency used by reverse link 118.

[0035] Each antenna group and / or the area in which they are designed to communicate is often referred to as a sector of the access network. In an embodiment, the antenna groups are each designed to communicate with access terminals in a sector of the area covered by the access network 100.

[0036] In communicating via forward links 120 and 126, the transmit antennas of access network 100 may utilize beamforming in order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the forward links for the different access terminals 116 and 122. Also, an access network that uses beamforming to transmit to access terminals randomly dispersed throughout the coverage area of ​​the access network will generally cause less interference to access terminals in neighboring cells than an access network that transmits to all of its access terminals via a single antenna.

[0037] AN can be a fixed station or base station for communicating with a terminal, and can also be referred to as an access point, Node B, base station, enhanced base station, eNodeB, or some other term. AT can also be referred to as user equipment (UE), a wireless communication device, a terminal, an access terminal, or some other term.

[0038] Figure 2 2 is a simplified block diagram of an embodiment of a transmitter system 210 (also referred to as an access network) and a receiver system 250 (also referred to as an access terminal (AT) or user equipment (UE)) in a MIMO system 200. At the transmitter system 210, traffic data for a number of data streams is provided from a data source 212 to a transmit (TX) data processor 214.

[0039] In one embodiment, each data stream is transmitted via a respective transmit antenna.TX data processor 214 formats, codes, and interleaves the traffic data for each data stream based on a particular coding scheme selected for that data stream to provide coded data.

[0040] The coded data for each data stream may be multiplexed with pilot data using OFDM techniques. The pilot data is typically a known data pattern that is processed in a known manner and may be used at the receiver system to estimate the channel response. The multiplexed pilot and coded data for each data stream are then modulated (e.g., symbol mapped) based on a particular modulation scheme (e.g., BPSK, QPSK, M-PSK, or M-QAM) selected for that data stream to provide modulation symbols. The data rate, coding, and modulation for each data stream may be determined by instructions executed by the processor 230. The memory 232 is coupled to the processor 230.

[0041] The modulation symbols for all data streams are then provided to a TX MIMO processor 220, which may further process the modulation symbols (e.g., for OFDM). The TX MIMO processor 220 then converts the N T The modulation symbol stream is provided to N T transmitters (TMTR) 222a through 222t. In certain embodiments, TX MIMO processor 220 applies beamforming weights to the symbols of the data streams and to the antenna from which the symbol is being transmitted.

[0042] Each transmitter 222 receives and processes a respective symbol stream to provide one or more analog signals, and further conditions (eg, amplifies, filters, and upconverts) the analog signals to provide a modulated signal suitable for transmission via the MIMO channel. T The antennas 224a to 224t transmit the N signals from the transmitters 222a to 222t. T a modulated signal.

[0043] At the receiver system 250, N R The transmitted modulated signals are received by each antenna 252a through 252r and the received signal from each antenna 252 is provided to a respective receiver (RCVR) 254a through 254r. Each receiver 254 conditions (e.g., filters, amplifies, and downconverts) a respective received signal, digitizes the conditioned signal to provide samples, and further processes the samples to provide a corresponding "received" symbol stream.

[0044] RX data processor 260 then extracts the N R The receiver 254 receives and processes N R receive symbol streams to provide N TThe RX data processor 260 then demodulates, deinterleaves, and decodes each detected symbol stream to recover the traffic data for the data stream. The processing by the RX processor 260 is complementary to that performed by the TX MIMO processor 220 and the TX data processor 214 at the transmitter system 210.

[0045] Processor 270 periodically determines which pre-coding matrix to use (discussed below). Processor 270 formulates a reverse link message comprising a matrix index portion and a rank value portion.

[0046] The reverse link message may include various types of information related to the communication link and / or the received data stream. The reverse link message is then processed by the TX data processor 238 (which also receives traffic data for a number of data streams from the data source 236), modulated by the modulator 280, conditioned by the transmitters 254a to 254r, and transmitted back to the transmitter system 210.

[0047] At the transmitter system 210, the modulated signal from the receiver system 250 is received by the antenna 224, conditioned by the receiver 222, demodulated by the demodulator 240, and processed by the RX data processor 242 to extract the reverse link message transmitted by the receiver system 250. The processor 230 then determines which precoding matrix to use to determine the beamforming weights and then processes the extracted message.

[0048] The memory 232 may be used to temporarily store some buffer / calculated data from 240 or 242 through the processor 230, store some buffer data from 212, or store some specific program codes. Also, the memory 272 may be used to temporarily store some buffer / calculated data from 260 through the processor 270, store some buffer data from 236, or store some specific program codes.

[0049] Steering Figure 3 , this figure shows an alternative simplified functional block diagram of a communication device according to one embodiment of the present invention. Figure 3 As shown in FIG. , the communication device 300 in the wireless communication system can be used to implement Figure 1UE (or AT) 116 and 122 in, and the wireless communication system is preferably an NR system. The communication device 300 may include an input device 302, an output device 304, a control circuit 306, a central processing unit (CPU) 308, a memory 310, a program code 312, and a transceiver 314. The control circuit 306 executes the program code 312 in the memory 310 through the CPU 308, thereby controlling the operation of the communication device 300. The communication device 300 can receive a signal input by a user through the input device 302 (for example, a keyboard or a keypad), and can output images and sounds through the output device 304 (for example, a display or a speaker). The transceiver 314 is used to receive and transmit wireless signals to pass the received signal to the control circuit 306 and wirelessly output the signal generated by the control circuit 306.

[0050] Figure 4 According to one embodiment of the present invention, Figure 3 4. In this embodiment, program code 312 includes application layer 400, layer 3 portion 402, and layer 2 portion 404, and is coupled to layer 1 portion 406. Layer 3 portion 402 generally performs radio resource control. Layer 2 portion 404 generally performs link control. Layer 1 portion 406 generally performs physical connectivity.

[0051] For LTE, LTE-A or NR systems, the layer 2 portion 404 may include a radio link control (RLC) layer and a medium access control (MAC) layer. The layer 3 portion 402 may include a radio resource control (RRC) layer.

[0052] Any two or more of the following paragraphs, (sub) bullet points, points, actions or claims described in each invention paragraph or section may be logically, reasonably and appropriately combined to form a specific method.

[0053] Any sentence, paragraph, (sub) bullet point, key point, action or claim described in each invention paragraph or section below can be implemented independently and individually to form a specific method or device. The dependency in the following invention disclosure (e.g., "based on", "more specifically", "example", etc.) is only a possible embodiment that does not limit a specific method or device.

[0054] In 38.214 ([1] 3GPP 38.214v17.4.0), beam reporting and channel state information reporting are introduced:

[0055] 5.2 UE Procedure for Reporting Channel State Information (CSI)

[0056] 5.2.1 Channel State Information Framework

[0057] The procedures for aperiodic CSI reporting described in this section assume that the CSI reporting is triggered by DCI format 0_1, but they are equally applicable to CSI reporting triggered by DCI format 0_2 by applying the higher layer parameter reportTriggerSizeDCI-0-2 instead of reportTriggerSize.

[0058] The UE can use time and frequency resources to report CSI controlled by the gNB. CSI can consist of Channel Quality Indicator (CQI), precoding matrix indicator (PMI), CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI), SS / PBCH block resource indicator (SSBRI), layer indicator (LI), rank indicator (RI), L1-RSRP, L1-SINR or CapabilityIndex.

[0059] For CQI, PMI, CRI, SSBRI, LI, RI, L1-RSRP, L1-SINR, Capability[Set]Index, the UE is configured by the higher layers with: N≥1 CSI-ReportConfig report settings, M≥1 CSI-ResourceConfig resource settings, and one or two trigger state lists (given by the higher layer parameters CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList and CSI-SemiPersistentOnPUSCH-TriggerStateList). Each trigger state in the CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList contains a list of associated CSI-ReportConfigs for the channel and optionally for the interference indication resource set ID.

[0060] Each trigger state in CSI-SemiPersistentOnPUSCH-TriggerStateList contains an associated

[0061] CSI-ReportConfig.

[0062] 5.2.1.1 Report Settings

[0063] Each reporting configuration CSI-ReportConfig is associated to a single downlink BWP (indicated by the higher layer parameter BWP-Id) given in the associated CSI-ResourceConfig for channel measurement and contains parameters for one CSI reporting band: codebook configuration including codebook subset restrictions, time domain behavior, frequency granularity for CQI and PMI, measurement restriction configuration, and CSI related quantities to be reported by the UE, such as Layer Indicator (LI), L1-RSRP, L1-SINR, CRI and SSBRI (SSB Resource Indicator) and CapabilityIndex.

[0064] The time domain behavior of CSI-ReportConfig is indicated by the higher layer parameter reportConfigType and can be set to 'aperiodic', 'semiPersistentOnPUCCH', 'semiPersistentOnPUSCH' or 'periodic'. For 'periodic' and 'semiPersistentOnPUCCH' / 'semiPersistentOnPUSCH' CSI reports, the configured periodicity and time slot offset apply in the base parameters of the UL BWP on which the CSI report is configured to be transmitted. The higher layer parameter reportQuantity indicates the CSI-related, L1-RSRP-related, L1-SINR-related or CapabilityIndex-related quantity to be reported. reportFreqConfiguration indicates the reporting granularity in the frequency domain, including the CSI reporting band and whether the PMI / CQI report is wideband or subband. The timeRestrictionForChannelMeasurements parameter in CSI-ReportConfig can be configured to enable time domain restrictions for channel measurements, and timeRestrictionForInterferenceMeasurements can be configured to enable time domain restrictions for interference measurements. CSI-ReportConfig may also contain CodebookConfig, which contains configuration parameters for Type I, Type II, Enhanced Type II CSI or Further Enhanced Type II port selection including codebook subset restriction (if applicable), and configuration for group-based reporting. If reportConfigType is set to "aperiodic", it is not expected that the UE is configured with CSI reporting settings associated with dormant DL BWP.

[0065] 5.2.1.4 Report Configuration

[0066] The UE shall calculate the CSI parameters (if reported) assuming the following dependencies between them:

[0067] - LI should be calculated conditional on reported CQI, PMI, RI and CRI

[0068] - CQI should be calculated conditional on reported PMI, RI and CRI

[0069] - PMI should be calculated conditional on reported RI and CRI

[0070] - The RI should be calculated conditioned on the reported CRI.

[0071] The reporting configuration for CSI can be aperiodic (using PUSCH), periodic (using PUCCH), or semi-static (using PUSCH activated by PUCCH and DCI). CSI-RS resources can be periodic, semi-static, or aperiodic. Table 5.2.1.4-1 shows the supported combinations of CSI reporting configurations and CSI-RS resource configurations and how CSI reporting is triggered for each CSI-RS resource configuration. Periodic CSI-RS is configured by higher layers. Semi-static CSI-RS is activated and deactivated as described in Section 5.2.1.5.2. Aperiodic CSI-RS is configured and triggered / activated as described in Section 5.2.1.5.1.

[0072] Table 5.2.1.4-1: Triggering / activation of CSI reporting for possible CSI-RS configurations

[0073]

[0074] 5.2.1.4.2 Report volume configuration

[0075] The UE may be configured to use CSI-ReportConfig with the higher layer parameter reportQuantity set to 'none', 'cri-RI-PMI-CQI', 'cri-RI-i1', 'cri-RI-i1-CQI', 'cri-RI-CQI', 'cri-RSRP', 'cri-SINR', 'ssb-Index-RSRP', 'ssb-Index-SINR', 'cri-RI-LI-PMI-CQI', 'cri-RSRP-Index', 'ssb-Index-RSRP-Index', 'cri-SINR-Index' or 'ssb-Index-SINR-Index'.

[0076] …

[0077] 5.2.1.4.3L1-RSRP Report

[0078] For L1-RSRP calculation

[0079] - When applicable, when quasi-co-located with 'typeC' and 'typeD' on a resource-by-resource basis, the UE may be configured to use CSI-RS resources, SS / PBCH block resources, or both CSI-RS and SS / PBCH block resources.

[0080] - A UE may be configured to use a CSI-RS resource configuration with a maximum of 16 CSI-RS resource sets, with a maximum of 64 resources in each set. The total number of different CSI-RS resources across all resource sets does not exceed 128.

[0081] For L1-RSRP reporting, if the higher layer parameter nrofReportedRS in CSI-ReportConfig is configured to one, then the reported L1-RSRP value is defined as a 7-bit value in the range [-140, -44] dBm with a step size of 1 dB, if the higher layer parameter nrofReportedRS is configured to be greater than one, or if the higher layer parameter groupBasedBeamReporting is configured to 'enabled', or if the higher layer parameter groupBasedBeamReporting-r17 is configured, then the UE shall use differential L1-RSRP based reporting, where the maximum measured value of L1-RSRP is quantized to a 7-bit value in the range [-140, -44] dBm with a step size of 1 dB, and the differential L1-RSRP is quantized to a 4-bit value. The differential L1-RSRP value is calculated with reference to the maximum measured L1-RSRP value using a 2 dB step size, which is part of the same L1-RSRP reporting instance. The mapping between reported L1-RSRP values ​​and measured quantities is described in [11, TS 38.133].

[0082] When the higher layer parameter groupBasedBeamReporting-r17 in CSI-ReportConfig is configured, the UE shall indicate the CSI resource set associated with the maximum measured value of L1-RSRP, and for each group, the CRI or SSBRI of the indicated CSI resource set is present first.

[0083] If the higher-layer parameter timeRestrictionForChannelMeasurements in CSI-ReportConfig is set to "notConfigured", the UE shall derive channel measurements for calculating the L1-RSRP value reported in uplink timeslot n only based on the SS / PBCH or NZP CSI-RS (defined in TS 38.211 [4]) associated with the CSI resource configuration that is no later than the CSI reference resource.

[0084] If the higher-layer parameter timeRestrictionForChannelMeasurements in CSI-ReportConfig is set to "Configured", the UE shall derive channel measurements for calculating the L1-RSRP reported in uplink timeslot n only based on the SS / PBCH or NZP CSI-RS (defined in [4, TS 38.211]) associated with the CSI resource configuration no later than the latest timing of the CSI reference resource.

[0085] When the UE is configured with SSB-MTC-AdditionalPCI, the CSI-SSB-ResourceSet configured for L1-RSRP reporting includes an SSB index set and a PCI index set, where each SSB index is associated with a PCI index.

[0086] When the UE is configured with CSI-ReportConfig and the higher layer parameter reportQuantity is set to 'cri-RSRP-Index' or 'ssb-Index-RSRP-Index', the index of the UE capability value set indicating the maximum number of supported SRS antenna ports, and the pair of SSBRI / CRI and L1-RSRP are reported.

[0087] 5.2.1.4.4 L1-SINR Report

[0088] For L1-SINR calculation, for channel measurement, the UE can be configured to use NZP CSI-RS resources and / or SS / PBCH block resources, and for interference measurement, the UE can be configured to use NZP CSI-RS or CSI-IM resources.

[0089] - For channel measurement, the UE may be configured to use a CSI-RS resource setting with up to 16 resource sets, for a total of up to 64 CSI-RS resources or up to 64 SS / PBCH block resources.

[0090] For L1-SINR reporting, if the higher layer parameter nrofReportedRS in CSI-ReportConfig is configured to one, then the reported L1-SINR value is defined as a 7-bit value in the range [-23, 40] dB with a step size of 0.5 dB, and if the higher layer parameter nrofReportedRS is configured to be greater than one, or if the higher layer parameter groupBasedBeamReporting is configured to 'enabled', then the UE shall use differential L1-SINR based reporting, where the maximum measured value of L1-SINR is quantized to a 7-bit value in the range [-23, 40] dB with a step size of 0.5 dB, and the differential L1-SINR is quantized to a 4-bit value. The differential L1-SINR is calculated with reference to the maximum measured L1-SINR value using a 1 dB step size, which is part of the same L1-SINR reporting instance. When NZP CSI-RS is configured for channel measurement and / or interference measurement, the reported L1-SINR value shall not be compensated by the power offset given by the higher layer parameters powerControOffsetSS or powerControlOffset.

[0091] In 38.321 ([2] 3GPP 38.321 v17.4.0), the scheduling request and medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) for (de)activation of beams, reference signals or TCI states are introduced:

[0092] 5.4.4 Scheduling Request

[0093] The Scheduling Request (SR) is used to request UL-SCH resources for new transmission.

[0094] The MAC entity can be configured with zero, one or more SR configurations. An SR configuration consists of a set of PUCCH resources for SR across different BWPs and cells. For logical channels or for SCell beam failure recovery (see section 5.17), and for consistent LBT failure recovery (see section 5.21), each BWP is configured with at most one PUCCH resource for SR. For logical channels serving radio bearers configured with SDT, the PUCCH resources for SR are not configured for SDT. For beam failure recovery of the BFD-RS set of the serving cell, each BWP is configured with at most two PUCCH resources for SR. For positioning measurement gap activation / deactivation requests, a dedicated SR configuration is configured.

[0095] Each SR configuration corresponds to one or more logical channels and / or SCell beam failure recovery and / or consistent LBT failure recovery and / or beam failure recovery of a BFD-RS set and / or positioning measurement gap activation / deactivation request. Each logical channel, SCell beam failure recovery, beam failure recovery of a BFD-RS set and consistent LBT failure recovery can be mapped to zero or one SR configuration configured by RRC. The SR configuration of the logical channel that triggered the BSR (Section 5.4.5) or SCell beam failure recovery or beam failure recovery of a BFD-RS set or consistent LBT failure recovery (Section 5.21) (if this configuration exists) or positioning measurement gap activation / deactivation request (Section 5.25) is regarded as the corresponding SR configuration of the triggered SR. Any SR configuration can be used for an SR triggered by a preemptive BSR (Section 5.4.7) or a time advance report (Section 5.4.8).

[0096] The RRC configures the following parameters for the scheduling request procedure:

[0097] -sr-ProhibitTimer (according to SR configuration);

[0098] -sr-TransMax (according to SR configuration).

[0099] The following UE variables are used for the scheduling request procedure:

[0100] -SR_COUNTER (according to SR configuration).

[0101] If a SR is triggered and there is no other SR pending corresponding to the same SR configuration, the MAC entity sets the SR_COUNTER of the corresponding SR configuration to 0.

[0102] When a SR is triggered, it will be considered pending until it is canceled.

[0103] All pending SRs for a BSR triggered according to the BSR procedure (Section 5.4.5) prior to MAC PDU assembly shall be cancelled and each corresponding sr-ProhibitTimer shall be stopped upon transmission of a MAC PDU containing a Long or Short BSR MAC CE containing the buffer status up to and including the last event triggering a BSR prior to MAC PDU assembly (see Section 5.4.5). All pending SRs for a BSR triggered according to the BSR procedure (Section 5.4.5) shall be cancelled and each corresponding sr-ProhibitTimer shall be stopped when the UL grant can accommodate all pending data available for transmission.

[0104] For each pending SR that is not triggered according to the BSR procedure (Section 5.4.5) for the serving cell, the MAC entity shall:

[0105] 1> if this SR is triggered by the Preemptive BSR procedure (see section 5.4.7) before MAC PDU assembly, and a MAC PDU containing an associated Preemptive BSR MAC CE is transmitted; or

[0106] 1> if this SR is triggered by beam failure recovery of an SCell (see Section 5.17) and a MAC PDU is transmitted, and this PDU contains a MAC CE for a BFR containing beam failure recovery information for this SCell; or

[0107] 1> if this SR is triggered by beam failure recovery for the BFD-RS set for the serving cell (see Section 5.17) and a MAC PDU is transmitted, and this PDU includes an enhanced BFR MAC CE or a truncated enhanced BFR MAC CE containing beam failure recovery information for this BFD-RS set for the serving cell; or

[0108] 1> If this SR is triggered by beam failure recovery of an SCell (see Section 5.17) and this SCell is deactivated (see Section 5.9); or

[0109] 1> if this SR is triggered by beam failure recovery of the BFD-RS set for the SCell (see Section 5.17) and this SCell is deactivated (see Section 5.9); or

[0110] 1> If the SR is triggered by a Positioning Measurement Gap Activation / Deactivation Request (see clause 5.25), and the Positioning Measurement Gap Activation / Deactivation Request MAC CE that triggered the SR has been cancelled; or

[0111] 1> if this SR is triggered by consistent LBT failure recovery of the SCell (see Section 5.21) and a MAC PDU is transmitted, and the MAC PDU includes an LBT failure MAC CE indicating consistent LBT failure of this SCell; or

[0112] 1> If this SR is triggered by a consistent LBT failure recovery of the SCell (see Section 5.21), and all triggered consistent LBT failures of this SCell are cancelled; or

[0113] 1> If this SR is triggered by a Time Advance Report (see Section 5.4.8) and all triggered Time Advance Reports are cancelled:

[0114] 2>Cancel the pending SR and stop the corresponding sr-ProhibitTimer (if it is running).

[0115] Only the PUCCH resources on the BWP that are active at the time of the SR transmission opportunity are considered valid.

[0116] As long as at least one SR is pending, for each pending SR, the MAC entity shall:

[0117] 1> If the MAC entity is not configured with valid PUCCH resources for the pending SR:

[0118] 2> Initiate a random access procedure on the SpCell (see Section 5.1) and cancel the pending SR.

[0119] 1> Otherwise, for the SR configuration corresponding to the pending SR:

[0120] 2> When the MAC entity has an SR transmission opportunity for the configured SR on a valid PUCCH resource; and

[0121] 2> If sr-ProhibitTimer is not running at the time of SR transmission; and

[0122] 2> If the PUCCH resources used for SR transmission opportunity do not overlap with the measurement gap:

[0123] …

[0124] 4> Treat SR transmission as prioritized SR transmission.

[0125] 4> Treat other overlapping uplink grants (if any) as deprioritized uplink grants, except for overlapping uplink grants that are allowed to be transmitted simultaneously by the configuration of simultaneousPUCCH-PUSCH or simultaneousPUCCH-PUSCH-SecondaryPUCCHgroup or simultaneousSR-PUSCH-diffPUCCH-Groups;

[0126] 4> If the deprioritized uplink grant is a configured uplink grant with autonomousTx whose PUSCH has started:

[0127] 5> Stop the configuredGrantTimer of the corresponding HARQ process used to de-prioritize uplink grants;

[0128] 5> Stop the cg-RetransmissionTimer of the corresponding HARQ process used to deprioritize uplink grants.

[0129] 4>If SR_COUNTER <sr-TransMax:

[0130] 5> Instruct the physical layer to transmit the SR on a valid PUCCH resource for SR;

[0131] 5> If no LBT fault indication is received from the lower layer:

[0132] 6>Increase SR_COUNTER by 1;

[0133] 6>Start sr-ProhibitTimer.

[0134] 5> Otherwise if lbt-FailureRecoveryConfig is not configured:

[0135] 6>Increase SR_COUNTER by 1.

[0136] 4> Otherwise:

[0137] 5> Notify RRC to release PUCCH for all serving cells;

[0138] 5> Notify RRC to release SRS for all serving cells;

[0139] 5> Clear any configured downlink assignments and uplink grants;

[0140] 5> Clear any PUSCH resources used for semi-static CSI reporting;

[0141] 5> Initiate a random access procedure on the SpCell (see Section 5.1) and cancel all pending SRs.

[0142] 3> Otherwise:

[0143] 4> Treat SR transmission as de-prioritized SR transmission.

[0144] …

[0145] The MAC entity may stop (if any) the ongoing random access procedure due to a pending SR for BSR initiated by the MAC entity before MAC PDU assembly and without a configured valid PUCCH resource, if:

[0146] - when a MAC PDU is transmitted using an UL grant other than the UL grant provided by a Random Access Response or an UL grant determined for transmission of an MSGA payload as specified in section 5.1.2a, and this PDU contains a BSR MAC CE, the BSR MAC CE contains the buffer status up to and including the last event that triggered a BSR (see section 5.4.5) prior to assembly of the MAC PDU; or

[0147] - The UL grant may accommodate all pending data available for transmission.

[0148] Due to a pending SR for SL-BSR and / or SL-CSI reporting and / or SL-DRX command indication initiated by the MAC entity before sidelink MAC PDU assembly and without configured valid PUCCH resources, the MAC entity may stop (if any) the ongoing random access procedure, if:

[0149] - a MAC PDU is transmitted using an UL grant other than the UL grant provided by the Random Access Response or an UL grant determined for transmission of an MSGA payload as specified in section 5.1.2a, and this PDU contains a SL-BSR MAC CE containing the buffer status up to and including the last event that triggered the SL-BSR (see section 5.22.1.6) prior to assembly of the MAC PDU; or

[0150] - The SL grant may accommodate all pending data and / or SL-CSI reporting MAC CEs and / or SL-DRX command indications available for transmission.

[0151] The MAC entity may stop (if any) the ongoing random access procedure due to a pending SR for BFR of a SCell with no configured valid PUCCH resources, if:

[0152] - a MAC PDU is transmitted using an UL grant other than the UL grant provided by the random access response or an UL grant determined for transmission of the MSGA payload as specified in section 5.1.2a, and this PDU contains a MAC CE for BFR containing beam failure recovery information for the SCell; or

[0153] - The SCell is deactivated (as specified in Section 5.9) and all triggered BFRs for the SCell are cancelled.

[0154] The MAC entity may stop (if any) the ongoing random access procedure due to a pending SR for a BFR of the BFD-RS set of a serving cell that does not have a configured valid PUCCH resource, if:

[0155] - A MAC PDU is transmitted using an UL grant other than the UL grant provided by the random access response or an UL grant determined for transmission of the MSGA payload as specified in section 5.1.2a, and this PDU contains an enhanced BFR MAC CE or a truncated enhanced BFR MAC CE including beam failure recovery information for the BFD-RS set of the serving cell.

[0156] Due to a pending SR for consistent LBT failure recovery without a configured valid PUCCH resource, the MAC entity may stop (if any) the ongoing random access procedure, if:

[0157] - A MAC PDU is transmitted using an UL grant other than the UL grant provided by the Random Access Response or an UL grant determined for transmission of the MSGA payload as specified in section 5.1.2a, and this PDU contains an LBT Failure MAC CE indicating a consistent LBT failure for all SCells for which a consistent LBT failure was triggered; or

[0158] - All SCells that triggered consistent LBT failure recovery are deactivated (see Section 5.9).

[0159] Due to a pending SR for positioning measurement gap activation / deactivation request with no configured valid PUCCH resources, the MAC entity may stop (if any) the ongoing random access procedure, if:

[0160] - The positioning measurement gap activation / deactivation request MAC CE that triggered the SR corresponding to the random access procedure has been cancelled.

[0161] The MAC entity may stop (if any) the ongoing random access procedure due to a pending SR for timing advance reporting without a configured valid PUCCH resource, if:

[0162] - A MAC PDU is transmitted using an UL grant other than the UL grant provided by the Random Access Response or an UL grant determined for transmission of the MSGA payload as specified in section 5.1.2a, and this PDU contains a Timing Advance Report MAC CE (see section 5.4.8).

[0163] 5.18.4 Activation / deactivation of UE-specific PDSCH TCI state

[0164] The network may activate and deactivate the configured TCI state of the PDSCH of a serving cell or a group of serving cells configured in simultaneousTCI-UpdateList1 or simultaneousTCI-UpdateList2 by sending the TCI state activation / deactivation of the UE-specific PDSCH MAC CE described in section 6.1.3.14. The network may activate and deactivate the configured TCI state of the code point of the DCI transmission configuration indication field specified in TS 38.212 [9] of the PDSCH of the serving cell by sending the enhanced TCI state activation / deactivation for the UE-specific PDSCH MAC CE described in section 6.1.3.24. The configured TCI state of the PDSCH is first deactivated when (re)configured by the upper layer and after reconfiguration with synchronization.

[0165] The MAC entity will:

[0166] 1> If the MAC entity receives TCI state activation / deactivation of UE-specific PDSCH MAC CE on the serving cell:

[0167] 2>Indicates to lower layers information about TCI state activation / deactivation of UE-specific PDSCH MAC CE.

[0168] 1> If the MAC entity receives an enhanced TCI state activation / deactivation for a UE-specific PDSCH MAC CE on the serving cell:

[0169] 2> Indicates to lower layers information about enhanced TCI state activation / deactivation of UE-specific PDSCH MAC CE.

[0170] 5.18.5 Indication of TCI status of UE-specific PDCCH

[0171] The network may indicate the TCI state for PDCCH reception of a serving cell or a CORESET of a group of serving cells configured in simultaneousTCI-UpdateList1 or simultaneousTCI-UpdateList2 by sending the TCI state indication of the UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE described in Section 6.1.3.15. The network may also indicate two TCI states for PDCCH reception of a serving cell or a CORESET of a group of serving cells configured in simultaneousTCI-UpdateList1 or simultaneousTCI-UpdateList2 by sending the enhanced TCI state indication for UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE described in Section 6.1.3.44.

[0172] The MAC entity will:

[0173] 1> If the MAC entity receives a TCI status indication of a UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE on the serving cell:

[0174] 2>Indicates to lower layers information about the TCI status indication of the UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE.

[0175] 1> If the MAC entity receives an enhanced TCI status indication of a UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE on the serving cell:

[0176] 2>Indicates to the lower layer information about the enhanced TCI status indication of the UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE.

[0177] 5.18.6 Activation / deactivation of semi-static CSI reporting on PUCCH

[0178] The network may activate and deactivate configured semi-static CSI reporting on the PUCCH of the serving cell by sending SPCSI reports on the PUCCH activation / deactivation MAC CE described in section 6.1.3.16. After (re)configuration by upper layers and after synchronization is reconfigured, the configured semi-static CSI reporting on the PUCCH is first deactivated.

[0179] The MAC entity will:

[0180] 1> If the MAC entity receives an SP CSI report on PUCCH activation / deactivation MAC CE on the serving cell:

[0181] 2> Indicates to lower layers information about SP CSI reporting of PUCCH activation / deactivation of MAC CE.

[0182] 5.18.7 Activation / deactivation of semi-static SRS and indication of spatial relationship of SP / AP SRS

[0183] The network may activate and deactivate the configured semi-static SRS resource set of the serving cell by sending the SP SRS activation / deactivation MAC CE described in section 6.1.3.17. The network may also activate and deactivate the configured semi-static SRS resource set of the serving cell by sending the enhanced SP / AP SRS spatial relationship indication MAC CE described in section 6.1.3.26. The network may also activate and deactivate the configured semi-static SRS resource set of the serving cell by sending the SP / AP SRS TCI status indication MAC CE described in section 6.1.3.59. After (re)configuration by the upper layer and after synchronization is reconfigured, the configured semi-static SRS resource set is first deactivated. The network may indicate the spatial relationship information of the SP / AP SRS resource set of the serving cell by sending the enhanced SP / AP SRS spatial relationship indication MAC CE described in section 6.1.3.26.

[0184] The MAC entity will:

[0185] 1> If the MAC entity receives the SP SRS activation / deactivation MAC CE on the serving cell:

[0186] 2> Indicates information about SP SRS activation / deactivation MAC CE to lower layers.

[0187] 1> If the MAC entity receives the enhanced SP / AP SRS spatial relationship indication MAC CE on the serving cell:

[0188] 2> Indicates to the lower layer the information about the enhanced SP / AP SRS spatial relationship indication MAC CE.

[0189] 1> If the MAC entity receives the SP / AP SRS TCI status indication MAC CE on the serving cell:

[0190] 2>Indicates information about the SP / AP SRS TCI status indication MAC CE to the lower layer.

[0191] 5.18.8 Activation / deactivation of spatial relationship of PUCCH resources

[0192] The network may activate and deactivate the spatial relationship of the PUCCH resources of the serving cell by sending the PUCCH spatial relationship activation / deactivation MAC CE described in section 6.1.3.18. The network may also activate and deactivate the spatial relationship of the PUCCH resources or PUCCH resource groups of the serving cell by sending the enhanced PUCCH spatial relationship activation / deactivation MAC CE described in section 6.1.3.25. The configured spatial relationship of the PUCCH resources is first deactivated when (re)configured by the upper layer and after reconfiguration with synchronization. The network may also activate and deactivate two spatial relationships of the PUCCH resources or PUCCH resource groups of the serving cell by sending the PUCCH spatial relationship activation / deactivation for multiple TRPPUCCH repetition MAC CE described in section 6.1.3.45.

[0193] The MAC entity will:

[0194] 1> If the MAC entity receives the PUCCH spatial relation activation / deactivation MAC CE on the serving cell:

[0195] 2>Indicates to the lower layer the information about PUCCH spatial relationship activation / deactivation of MAC CE.

[0196] 1> If the MAC entity receives enhanced PUCCH spatial relation activation / deactivation MAC CE on the serving cell:

[0197] 2> Indicates to the lower layer information about the enhanced PUCCH spatial relationship activation / deactivation of MAC CE.

[0198] 1> If the MAC entity receives PUCCH spatial relation activation / deactivation for multiple TRP PUCCH repeated MAC CEs on the serving cell:

[0199] 2> Indicates to the lower layer information about PUCCH spatial relationship activation / deactivation for multiple TRP PUCCH repeated MAC CE.

[0200] 5.18.23 Unified TCI status activation / deactivation of MAC CE

[0201] The network may activate and deactivate the configured unified TCI state of a serving cell or a group of serving cells configured in simultaneousU-TCI-UpdateList1, simultaneousU-TCI-UpdateList2, simultaneousU-TCI-UpdateList3 or simultaneousU-TCI-UpdateList4 by sending the unified TCI state activation / deactivation MAC CE described in section 6.1.3.47. The configured unified TCI state is first deactivated when (re)configured by the upper layer and after reconfiguration with synchronization.

[0202] The MAC entity will:

[0203] 1> If the MAC entity receives a unified TCI state activation / deactivation MAC CE on the serving cell:

[0204] 2> Indicates to the lower layer information about unified TCI state activation / deactivation of MAC CE.

[0205] 6.1.3.14 TCI state activation / deactivation for UE-specific PDSCH MAC CE

[0206] The TCI state activation / deactivation of the UE-specific PDSCH MAC CE is identified by a MAC subheader with an LCID as specified in Table 6.2.1-1. It has a variable size and consists of the following fields:

[0207] - Serving Cell ID: This field indicates the identity of the serving cell to which the MAC CE applies. The length of the field is 5 bits. If the indicated serving cell is configured as part of simultaneousTCI-UpdateList1 or simultaneousTCI-UpdateList2 as specified in TS 38.331 [5], then this MAC CE applies to all serving cells configured in the set simultaneousTCI-UpdateList1 or simultaneousTCI-UpdateList2 respectively;

[0208] - BWP ID: This field indicates the DL BWP to which the MAC CE applies as the code point of the DCI bandwidth part indicator field as specified in TS 38.212 [9]. The length of the BWP ID field is 2 bits. If this MAC CE applies to a group of serving cells, this field is ignored;

[0209] -T i: If there is a TCI state with TCI-StateId i as specified in TS 38.331 [5], this field indicates the activation / deactivation status of the TCI state with TCI-StateId i, otherwise the MAC entity shall ignore TCI-StateId i. i Field. i This field is set to 1 to indicate that the TCI state with TCI-StateId i is to be activated and maps to the code point of the DCI Transmission Configuration Indication field as specified in TS 38.214 [7]. i The field is set to 0 to indicate that the TCI state with TCI-StateId i is to be deactivated and is not mapped to the code point of the DCI Transmission Configuration Indication field. The code point to which the TCI state is mapped is determined by its TCI-StateId i. i The ordinal position among all TCI states where the field is set to 1 is determined, i.e., T i The first TCI state with the field set to 1 will map to code point value 0, T i The second TCI state with the field set to 1 will map to code point value 1, and so on. The maximum number of activated TCI states is 8. An activated TCI state can be associated with at most one PCI at a time that is different from the serving cell PCI;

[0210] - CORESET Pool ID: This field indicates that the mapping between the activated TCI state and the code point indicated by the DCI transmission configuration set by field Ti is specific to the ControlResourceSetId configured with the CORESET Pool ID as specified in TS 38.331 [5]. This field set to 1 indicates that this MAC CE shall apply to DL transmissions scheduled by a CORESET with a CORESET Pool ID equal to 1, otherwise, this MAC CE shall apply to DL transmissions scheduled by a CORESET Pool ID equal to 0. If coresetPoolIndex is not configured for any CORESET, then the MAC entity shall ignore the CORESET Pool ID field in this MAC CE when a MAC CE is received. If the serving cell in the MAC CE is configured in a cell list containing more than one serving cell, then the CORSET Pool ID field shall be ignored when a MAC CE is received.

[0211] Figure 5 It is in 3GPP 38.321v17.4.0 Figure 6 .1.3.14-1: Reproduction of TCI state activation / deactivation of UE-specific PDSCH MAC CE.

[0212] 6.1.3.15 UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE TCI status indication

[0213] The TCI status indication of the UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE is identified by a MAC subheader with an LCID as specified in Table 6.2.1-1. It has a fixed size of 16 bits and has the following fields:

[0214] - Serving Cell ID: This field indicates the identity of the serving cell to which the MAC CE applies. The length of the field is 5 bits. If the indicated serving cell is configured as part of simultaneousTCI-UpdateList1 or simultaneousTCI-UpdateList2 as specified in TS 38.331 [5], then this MAC CE applies to all serving cells in the set simultaneousTCI-UpdateList1 or simultaneousTCI-UpdateList2, respectively;

[0215] -CORESET ID: This field indicates the control resource set identified by ControlResourceSetId specified in TS 38.331 [5], indicating its TCI status. In the case where the value of the field is 0, the field refers to the control resource set that has been configured by controlResourceSetZero as specified in TS38.331 [5]. The length of the field is 4 bits;

[0216] -TCI State ID: This field indicates the TCI state applicable to the control resource set identified by the CORESET ID field, identified by the TCI-StateId as specified in TS 38.331 [5]. If the field of CORESET ID is set to 0, this field indicates the TCI-StateId for the TCI state among the first 64 TCI states that have been configured by tci-StatesToAddModList and tci-StatesToReleaseList in PDSCH-Config in the active BWP or by dl-OrJoint-TCI-State-ToAddModList and dl-OrJoint-TCI-State-ToReleaseList in PDSCH-Config in the active BWP or reference BWP. If the field of CORESET ID is set to a value other than 0, this field indicates the TCI-StateId that has been configured by tci-StatesPDCCH-ToAddList and tci-StatesPDCCH-ToReleaseList in the controlResourceSet identified by the indicated CORESET ID. The length of the field is 7 bits.

[0217] Figure 6 It is in 3GPP 38.321v17.4.0 Figure 6 .1.3.15-1: Reproduction of TCI status indication of UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE.

[0218] 6.1.3.18 PUCCH Spatial Relationship Activation / Deactivation MAC CE

[0219] The PUCCH spatial relation activation / deactivation MAC CE is identified by a MAC subheader with an LCID as specified in Table 6.2.1-1. It has a fixed size of 24 bits and has the following fields:

[0220] -Serving Cell ID: This field indicates the identity of the serving cell to which the MAC CE applies. The length of this field is 5 bits;

[0221] - BWP ID: This field indicates the UL BWP used by the MAC CE as the code point of the DCI bandwidth part indicator field, as specified in TS 38.212 [9]. The length of the BWP ID field is 2 bits;

[0222] -PUCCH Resource ID: This field contains the identifier of the PUCCH resource ID identified by PUCCH-ResourceId, as specified in TS 38.331 [5]. The length of this field is 7 bits;

[0223] -S i : If in the PUCCH-Config in which the PUCCH resource ID is configured, there is PUCCH spatial relationship information with PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfoId configured for the uplink bandwidth part indicated by the BWPID field, as specified in TS 38.331 [5], then S i Indicates the activation status of the PUCCH spatial relationship information, where PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfoId is equal to i+1, otherwise the MAC entity will ignore this field. i The field is set to 1, indicating that the PUCCH spatial relationship information where PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfoId is equal to i+1 will be activated. i The field is set to 0, indicating that the PUCCH spatial relationship information where PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfoId is equal to i+1 will be deactivated. Only a single PUCCH spatial relationship information can be used by a PUCCH resource at a time;

[0224] -R: Reserved bit, set to 0.

[0225] Figure 7 It is in 3GPP 38.321v17.4.0 Figure 6 .1.3.18-1: Reproduction of PUCCH spatial relationship activation / deactivation of MACCE.

[0226] 6.1.3.24 Enhanced TCI state activation / deactivation for UE-specific PDSCH MAC CE

[0227] The enhanced TCI state activation / deactivation of the UE-specific PDSCH MAC CE is identified by the MAC PDU subheader with the eLCID as specified in Table 6.2.1-1b. It has a variable size and consists of the following fields:

[0228] - Serving Cell ID: This field indicates the identity of the serving cell to which the MAC CE applies. The length of the field is 5 bits. If the indicated serving cell is configured as part of simultaneousTCI-UpdateList1 or simultaneousTCI-UpdateList2 as specified in TS 38.331 [5], then this MAC CE applies to all serving cells configured in the set simultaneousTCI-UpdateList1 or simultaneousTCI-UpdateList2 respectively;

[0229] -BWP ID: This field indicates the DL BWP applied by the MAC CE as the code point of the DCI bandwidth part indicator field as specified in TS 38.212 [9]. The length of the BWP ID field is 2 bits;

[0230] -C i : This field indicates whether there is a TCI status ID i,2 If this field is set to "1", then there is a TCI status ID i,2 If this field is set to 0, then there is no TCI status ID. i,2 octet;

[0231] -TCI Status ID i,j : This field indicates the TCI state identified by TCI-StateId as specified in TS 38.331 [5], where i is the index of the code point of the DCI Transmission Configuration Indication field as specified in TS 38.212 [9] and TCI State ID i,j Indicates the jth TCI state indicated by the i-th code point in the DCI transmission configuration indication field. The TCI code point to which the TCI state is mapped is represented by a plurality of groups of TCI state IDs. i,j Its ordinal position among all TCI code points of the field is determined, i.e. it has a TCI status ID 0,1 and TCI Status ID 0,2 The first TCI code point will be mapped to code point value 0, with TCI state ID 1,1 and TCI Status ID 1,2 The second TCI code point will be mapped to code point value 1, and so on. TCI State ID i,2 C-based i The indication of the field is optional. The maximum number of activated TCI code points is 8, and the maximum number of TCI states mapped to a TCI code point is 2.

[0232] -R: Reserved bit, set to 0.

[0233] Figure 8 It is in 3GPP 38.321v17.4.0 Figure 6 .1.3.24-1: Reproduction of enhanced TCI state activation / deactivation for UE-specific PDSCH MAC CE.

[0234] 6.1.3.25 Enhanced PUCCH Spatial Relationship Activation / Deactivation MAC CE

[0235] The enhanced PUCCH spatial relation activation / deactivation MAC CE is identified by a MAC subheader with an eLCID as specified in Table 6.2.1-1b. It has a variable size and has the following fields:

[0236] -Serving Cell ID: This field indicates the identity of the serving cell to which the MAC CE applies. The length of this field is 5 bits;

[0237] - BWP ID: This field indicates the UL BWP used by the MAC CE as the code point of the DCI bandwidth part indicator field, as specified in TS 38.212 [9]. The length of the BWP ID field is 2 bits;

[0238] - PUCCH Resource ID: This field contains the identifier of the PUCCH resource ID identified by PUCCH-ResourceId, as specified in TS 38.331 [5], which will be indicated with the spatial relation activation indication by the Spatial Relation Information ID field in the subsequent octet. The length of this field is 7 bits. If the indicated PUCCH resource ID is contained in the PUCCH resource group of the indicated UL BWP (configured via resourceGroupToAddModList as specified in TS 38.331 [5]), then no other PUCCH resources within the same PUCCH resource group are indicated in the MAC CE and this MAC CE applies to all PUCCH resources in the PUCCH resource group;

[0239] - Spatial Relation Information ID: This field contains PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfoId-1, where PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfoId is the identifier of the PUCCH spatial relation information in the PUCCH-Config in which the PUCCH resource ID is configured, as specified in TS 38.331 [5]. The length of this field is 6 bits;

[0240] -R: Reserved bit, set to 0.

[0241] Fig. 9It is in 3GPP 38.321v17.4.0 Figure 6 .1.3.25-1: Reproduction of enhanced PUCCH spatial relation activation / deactivation MAC CE.

[0242] 6.1.3.44 Enhanced TCI status indication for UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE

[0243] The enhanced TCI status indication for UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE is identified by a MAC PDU subheader with an eLCID as specified in Table 6.2.1-1b. It has a fixed size of 24 bits and has the following fields:

[0244] - Serving Cell ID: This field indicates the identity of the serving cell to which the MAC C applies. The length of the field is 5 bits. If the indicated serving cell is configured as part of simultaneousTCI-UpdateList1 or simultaneousTCI-UpdateList2 as specified in TS 38.331 [5], then this MAC CE applies to all serving cells configured in the set simultaneousTCI-UpdateList1 or simultaneousTCI-UpdateList2 respectively;

[0245] - CORESET ID: This field indicates the control resource set identified by ControlResourceSetId as specified in TS 38.331 [5], where the TCI state is indicated. In case the value of this field is 0, this field refers to the control resource set configured via controlResourceSetZero as specified in TS 38.331 [5]. The length of this field is 4 bits;

[0246] -TCI State IDi: This field indicates the TCI state identified by TCI-StateId as specified in TS38.331 [5] applicable to the control resource set identified by the CORESET ID field. If the field of CORESET ID is set to a non-zero value, then this field indicates the TCI-StateId configured via tci-StatesPDCCH-ToAddList and tci-StatesPDCCH-ToReleaseList in the controlResourceSet identified by the indicated CORESET ID. The length of the field is 7 bits.

[0247] NOTE 1: If a CORESET is configured with different CORESETPoolindex values ​​in a BWP, the enhanced TCI status indication for the UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE is not applicable to any of the configured CORESETs in the BWP.

[0248] NOTE 2: Enhanced TCI status indication for UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE applies only when sfnSchemePdcch is configured.

[0249] NOTE 3: If a CORESET is associated with a search space configured by pdcch-ConfigSIB1 in the MIB or searchSpaceSIB1, searchSpaceZero, searchSpaceOtherSystemInformation or pagingSearchSpace in PDCCH-ConfigCommon, the enhanced TCI status indication for the UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE is not applicable for the CORESET configured by controlResourceSetZero.

[0250] Fig.10 It is in 3GPP 38.321v17.4.0 Figure 6 .1.3.44-1: Reproduction of enhanced TCI status indication for UE-specific PDCCH MAC CE.

[0251] 6.1.3.47 Unified TCI status activation / deactivation of MAC CE

[0252] The unified TCI state activation / deactivation MAC CE is identified by a MAC subheader with the eLCID as specified in Table 6.2.1-1b. It has a variable size and consists of the following fields:

[0253] - Serving Cell ID: This field indicates the identity of the serving cell in which the MAC CE applies. The field length is 5 bits. If the indicated serving cell is configured as part of simultaneousU-TCI-UpdateList1, simultaneousU-TCI-UpdateList2, simultaneousU-TCI-UpdateList3 or simultaneousU-TCI-UpdateList4, as specified in TS 38.331 [5], then this MAC CE applies to all serving cells in the set simultaneousU-TCI-UpdateList1, simultaneousU-TCI-UpdateList2, simultaneousU-TCI-UpdateList3 or simultaneousU-TCI-UpdateList4, respectively;

[0254] -DL BWP ID: This field indicates the DL BWP used by the MAC CE as the code point of the DCI bandwidth part indicator field, as specified in TS 38.212 [9]. The length of the BWP ID field is 2 bits;

[0255] -UL BWP ID: This field indicates the UL BWP used by the MAC CE as the code point of the DCI bandwidth part indicator field, as specified in TS 38.212 [9]. If the value of the unifiedTCI-StateType of the serving cell indicated by the serving cell ID is unified, then this field is considered reserved. The length of the BWP ID field is 2 bits;

[0256] -P i : This field indicates whether each TCI code point has multiple TCI states or a single TCI state. i The P field is set to 1, then it indicates that the ith TCI code point contains both DL TCI status and UL TCI status. i If the field is set to 0, then it indicates that the ith TCI code point contains only DL / Joint TCI state or UL TCI state. The code point to which the TCI state is mapped is determined by its ordinal position among all TCI state ID fields;

[0257] -D / U: This field indicates whether the TCI State ID in the same octet is for the joint / downlink or uplink TCI state. If this field is set to 1, then the TCI State ID in the same octet is for the joint / downlink. If this field is set to 0, then the TCI State ID in the same octet is for the uplink;

[0258] -TCI State ID: This field indicates the TCI state identified by TCI-StateId, as specified in TS 38.331 [5]. If D / U is set to 1, a 7-bit length TCI State ID, i.e., TCI-StateId, is used, as specified in TS 38.331 [5]. If D / U is set to 0, the most significant bit of the TCI State ID is considered a reserved bit, and the remaining 6 bits indicate TCI-UL-State-Id, as specified in TS 38.331 [5]. The maximum number of activated TCI states is 16;

[0259] -R: Reserved bit, set to 0.

[0260] Fig.11 It is in 3GPP 38.321v17.4.0 Figure 6 .1.3.47-1: Unified TCI state activation / deactivation of MACCE reproduction.

[0261] In 38.331 ([3] 3GPP 38.331v17.4.0), the TCI state configuration for uplink and downlink is introduced:

[0262] -PDSCH-Config

[0263] PDSCH-Config IE is used to configure UE-specific PDSCH parameters. …

[0264] PDSCH-Config Information Element

[0265]

[0266]

[0267] -ControlResourceSet

[0268] IE ControlResourceSet is used to configure the time / frequency control resource set (CORESET) in which to search for downlink control information (see TS 38.213

[13] , section 10.1). …

[0269] ControlResourceSet Information Element

[0270]

[0271]

[0272]

[0273] -BWP-UplinkDedicated IE BWP-UplinkDedicated is used to configure dedicated (UE-specific) parameters of uplink BWP.

[0274] BWP-UplinkDedicated Information Element

[0275]

[0276]

[0277]

[0278] -TCI-State

[0279] IE TCI-State associates one or two DL reference signals with the corresponding quasi-colocation (QCL) type.

[0280] TCI-State Information Element

[0281]

[0282]

[0283]

[0284]

[0285]

[0286] -TCI-StateIdIE TCI-StateId is used to identify a TCI-State configuration.

[0287] TCI-StateId Information Element

[0288]

[0289]

[0290]

[0291]

[0292] -TCI-UL-StateId

[0293] IE TCI-UL-StateId is used to identify a TCI-UL-State configuration.

[0294] In the 3GPP specification 38.300 Operation CR introducing further mobility enhancements for NR (e.g., [4] R2-2213332 38.300 Operation CR introducing further mobility enhancements for NR), L1 / L2 Triggered Mobility (LTM) is introduced:

[0295] 9.2.3.x L1 / L2 Triggered Mobility

[0296] 9.2.3.x.1 Overview

[0297] LTM is a procedure where the gNB receives L1 measurement reports from the UE and based on them, the gNB changes the serving cell of the UE via MAC CE. The gNB prepares one or more candidate cells and provides the candidate cell configurations to the UE via RRC messages. Then, LTM cell switching is triggered by the gNB selecting one of the candidate configurations as the target configuration for LTM. Candidate cell configurations can only be added, modified and released by the network via RRC signaling.

[0298] Editor's note: Whether some optimizations such as release should be applied later is for further study.

[0299] Editor's Note: Current options for configuring LTM candidate cells:

[0300] a. An RRCReconfiguration message for a candidate target cell

[0301] b. One CellGroupConfig IE for each candidate target cell

[0302] The following principles apply to LTM:

[0303] -Candidate cell configurations may be provided as delta configurations on top of the reference configuration. The reference configuration is managed separately and the UE stores the reference configuration as a separate configuration.

[0304] - The user plane is continuous whenever possible (e.g., within a DU) without the need for reset to avoid data loss and additional delays in data recovery.

[0305] - Security is not updated in LTM.

[0306] - Subsequent LTM between candidates can be performed (ie, the UE does not release other candidate cell configurations after LTM triggering) without RRC reconfiguration.

[0307] LTM supports both intra-gNB-DU and intra-gNB-CU inter-gNB-DU mobility. LTM also supports inter-frequency mobility, including mobility to an inter-frequency cell other than the current serving cell. The following scenarios are supported:

[0308] - PCell change in non-CA scenario,

[0309] - PCell change in CA scenario without SCell change,

[0310] -PCell change and SCell change in CA scenario, including the following cases:

[0311] a) Target PCell / target SCell is not the current serving cell (CA to CA scenario with PCell change)

[0312] b) The target PCell is the current SCell

[0313] c) The target SCell is the current PCell.

[0314] - Dual connectivity scenarios, at least for PSCell change cases without MN participation, ie intra-SN.

[0315] Inter-cell beam management is also supported, but it is not considered a prerequisite for using LTM.

[0316] Editor's note: The design based on intra-DU and inter-DU L1 / L2 mobility should share as much commonality as possible. Which aspects need to be different is for further study.

[0317] Editor's note: Whether ASN.1 decoding and validity / compliance checking of the candidate cell configuration is performed after receiving it and whether this needs to be specified is for further study.

[0318] 9.2.3.x.2C Plane Disposal

[0319] The cell handover trigger information containing at least the candidate configuration index is transmitted in the MAC CE. The cell specific, radio bearer and measurement configurations may be part of the LTM candidate cell configuration.

[0320] Editor's note: Whether the MAC CE can indicate the TCI status (or other beam information) to be activated for the target cell is for further study.

[0321] Editor's note: Whether it should be possible to perform SCell activation / deactivation (in SC cells associated with the candidate configuration) at the same time as LTM triggers MAC CE is for further study.

[0322] The UE may perform CBRA or CFRA at cell handover. If the UE does not need to acquire the TA of the target cell during cell handover, the UE may also skip the random access procedure. RACH resources for CFRA are provided in the RRC configuration.

[0323] Editor's Note: Whether CFRA resources can be provided via MAC CE is for further study.

[0324] The overall procedure of LTM is shown in Figure x below. Subsequent LTMs are completed by repeating the early synchronization, LTM execution, and LTM completion steps without releasing other candidates after each LTM is completed.

[0325] Fig.12 This is a reproduction of the signalling procedures for LTM from Figure x of R2-2213332 38.300 Operating CR for introducing further mobility enhancements for NR.

[0326] The LTM procedure is as follows.

[0327] 1.UE sends a MeasurementReport message to the gNB. The gNB decides to use LTM and initiates LTM candidate preparation.

[0328] The gNB transmits an RRCReconfiguration message containing the configuration of one or more LTM candidate target cells to the UE.

[0329] 3. The UE stores the configuration of the LTM candidate target cell and sends an RRCReconfigurationComplete message to the gNB.

[0330] 4. The UE may perform DL synchronization and TA acquisition of candidate target cells before receiving the LTM cell handover command.

[0331] Editor's note: Support for DL ​​synchronization of candidate cells prior to cell handover command, at least based on SSB. The required mechanisms are for further study.

[0332] Editor's note: At least based on PDCCH ordered RACH, support for TA acquisition of candidate cells before LTM cell handover command, where PDCCH command is only triggered by the source cell. The detailed mechanism is for further study.

[0333] 5. The UE performs L1 measurements on the configured LTM candidate target cells and transmits a lower layer measurement report to the gNB.

[0334] 6. The gNB decides to perform LTM cell handover to the target cell and transmits a MAC CE triggering LTM cell handover with a candidate configuration index of the target cell. The UE switches to the configuration of the LTM candidate target cell.

[0335] Editor's Note: How beam pointing is accomplished is for further study.

[0336] 7. If TA is not available, the UE performs a random access procedure towards the target cell.

[0337] 8. The UE indicates successful completion of the LTM cell handover towards the target cell.

[0338] An uplink signal or message after the UE has switched to the target cell is used to indicate the successful completion of the LTM cell handover.

[0339] 9.2.3.x.3U plane handling

[0340] In LTM, whether the UE performs a partial or full MAC reset, re-establishes the RLC, and performs data recovery of the PDCP during cell handover is explicitly controlled by the network.

[0341] Editor's Note: Regarding determining whether to reset L2: Two options on the table:

[0342] 1) The UE determines whether the handover is an intra-DU handover or an inter-DU handover, and follows different rules or configurations for the two cases to control whether to reset. The determination may be based on the configuration (e.g., DU ID, cell group id, etc.)

[0343] 2) The UE receives a command to reset or not reset via MAC CE.

[0344] In New Radio (NR), in order to perform communication (on a high frequency band) while maintaining a wide communication range, beamforming and beam communication are introduced. The network and user equipment (UE) perform communication via a beam (e.g., a synchronization signal block (SSB) or a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) or associated with a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state). The UE may be configured with one or more TCI states for beam communication. The UE may be (instructed to) activate a TCI state or beam to perform downlink (DL) communication (e.g., physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) / physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH)) or uplink (UL) communication (e.g., physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) / physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)). The UE may be configured with a measurement configuration for a beam. The UE may monitor and / or measure the SSB or CSI-RS and perform L1 reporting (e.g., L1 reference signal received power (RSRP) or L1 signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) reporting) to the network to indicate beam quality. The network may determine whether to perform a beam change of the UE based at least on the L1 report. The measurement may be a periodic measurement report or an aperiodic measurement report triggered / requested by the network. In the case of fast or unexpected beam changes, the network may not be able to confirm the beam change in time through periodic / aperiodic beam reporting.

[0345] In order to reduce the latency in beam updates for fast beam changes, UE-initiated beam reporting and / or beam switching / updates may be used. For example, the UE may determine to trigger a beam report based on beam quality (e.g., (activated) beam quality is below a threshold). The beam report may be or may indicate a request for a beam update. The beam report may contain or indicate a (candidate) beam with a beam quality above a threshold (e.g., a beam with the highest quality between configured / measured beams). Additionally and / or alternatively, the UE may determine to perform beam switching (e.g., update its (activated) beam) based at least on the beam quality. Additionally and / or alternatively, the UE may update and / or change its (activated) beam in response to transmitting a (UE-initiated) beam report. Although UE-initiated beam reporting and beam switching / updates may have reduced the latency of beam changes, a possible problem may occur when the beam update status is not synchronized between the network and the UE or the beam update status is not successfully indicated to the network. For example, the UE may indicate a beam report / switch to the network while the network indicates a beam update at the same time, or the network does not receive or confirm the beam report / switch initiated by the UE.

[0346] The present invention introduces and solves the error handling and conflict resolution methods regarding UE-initiated beam reporting and beam switching.

[0347] One concept of the present invention is that the UE can determine whether the UE-initiated beam switching procedure (associated with the cell) is successful based on whether the beam switching indication (of the cell) (triggered / generated by the UE-initiated beam switching) is successfully received by the network (or successfully transmitted to the network). If the beam switching indication (of the cell) (of the DL or UL channel) is successfully received by the network (or successfully transmitted to the network) or when the beam switching indication (of the cell) (of the DL or UL channel) is successfully received by the network (or successfully transmitted to the network), the UE can consider that the UE-initiated beam switching procedure (of the cell) (of the DL or UL channel) is successful. If the beam switching indication (of the cell) (of the DL or UL channel) associated with the UE-initiated beam switching procedure is not successfully received by the network (or not successfully transmitted to the network) or when the beam switching indication (of the cell) (of the DL or UL channel) associated with the UE-initiated beam switching procedure is not successfully received by the network (or not successfully transmitted to the network), the UE can consider that the UE-initiated beam switching procedure (of the cell) (of the DL or UL channel) has failed or is unsuccessful.

[0348] Additionally and / or alternatively, the UE may perform UE-initiated beam switching based on whether a beam switching indication (associated with the UE-initiated beam switching) is successfully received by the network (or (successfully) transmitted to the network). For example, the UE may perform UE-initiated beam switching to the first beam after successfully transmitting the beam switching indication (indicating the first beam) (e.g., after a configured or fixed time period). The first beam may be a beam selected by the UE (based on beam quality).

[0349] Additionally and / or alternatively, the UE may perform UE-initiated beam switching based on whether the UE-initiated beam switching procedure is successfully completed.

[0350] The UE may trigger a UE-initiated beam switching (procedure) (of a cell) (of a DL or UL channel) in response to the beam quality of the current (activated) beam (of the cell) (of a DL or UL channel) being less than or equal to a threshold. The UE may perform a UE-initiated beam switching during or after a UE-initiated beam switching procedure. The UE-initiated beam switching procedure may contain the UE transmitting a beam switching indication to the network. When the UE-initiated beam switching procedure is successfully completed or the beam switching indication is successfully transmitted to the network or if the UE-initiated beam switching procedure is successfully completed or the beam switching indication is successfully transmitted to the network, the UE may cancel the triggered UE-initiated switching trigger. When performing a UE-initiated beam switching (during or after the UE-initiated beam switching procedure), the UE may apply the (UE-selected) beam or change the (activated) beam of the DL and / or UL channel to a selected beam. The selected beam may be indicated in the beam switching indication transmitted to the network. When a beam is applied (on a DL or UL channel), the UE may activate the beam (of the DL or UL channel), and the UE may deactivate one or more current (or previous) beams (of the DL or UL channel) (that were activated and not deactivated before the beam was applied). The UE-initiated beam switching procedure may contain a configuration for the UE to switch to a L1 / L2 triggered mobility (LTM) candidate cell. The UE-initiated beam switching procedure may contain: in response to transmitting a beam switching indication associated with the LTM candidate cell to the network, the UE switches to a configuration of the LTM candidate cell. The UE may perform an LTM cell switching to the LTM candidate cell in response to transmitting the beam switching indication or in response to successfully completing a UE-initiated beam switching procedure including transmitting the beam switching indication. The UE may be configured with measurement resources and / or measurement configuration associated with the LTM candidate cell. In response to beam quality or when the L1 measurement on the LTM candidate cell is higher than or equal to a threshold (and in response to beam quality or when the L1 measurement of the primary cell (PCell) or special cell (SpCell) is less than or equal to a threshold), the UE may trigger transmission of a beam switching indication associated with the LTM candidate cell.

[0351] The UE may perform LTM cell switching to the LTM candidate cell without a network indication (eg, a cell switching command). Alternatively, the UE may perform LTM cell switching to the LTM candidate cell in response to a network indication (eg, a positive feedback of a beam switching indication).

[0352] Additionally and / or alternatively, the beam switching indication associated with the LTM candidate cell may contain or indicate a candidate configuration associated with the LTM candidate cell (e.g., a candidate configuration index). Additionally and / or alternatively, the beam switching indication associated with the LTM candidate cell may not indicate a beam or beam quality associated with the LTM candidate cell.

[0353] Additionally and / or alternatively, the beam switching indication may be transmitted to the LTM candidate cell. Additionally and / or alternatively, the beam switching indication may be transmitted to the SpCell or the source cell or the UE.

[0354] The beam switching indication may indicate a beam of a candidate cell (associated with a candidate configuration of the LTM). Alternatively, the beam switching indication may not indicate a beam that is not associated with a serving cell.

[0355] ACK / timer based

[0356] Additionally and / or alternatively, the UE may determine whether the beam switching indication is successfully received by the network (or (successfully) transmitted to the network) based on feedback from the network. The UE may determine whether the beam switching procedure is successfully completed based on feedback from the network. If (positive) feedback associated with the beam switching indication is received from the network or when (positive) feedback associated with the beam switching indication is received from the network, the UE may deem the beam switching procedure initiated by the UE to be successful. If (negative) feedback associated with the beam switching indication is received from the network or when (negative) feedback associated with the beam switching indication is received from the network, the UE may deem the beam switching procedure initiated by the UE to be successful. Alternatively, if negative feedback associated with the beam switching indication is received from the network or when negative feedback associated with the beam switching indication is received from the network, the UE may deem the beam switching procedure initiated by the UE to be unsuccessful.

[0357] The feedback may be a (positive (ACK) or negative (NACK)) confirmation associated with the beam switching indication. Additionally and / or alternatively, the feedback may not be a negative confirmation. The feedback may be PDCCH signaling or PDSCH signaling. Additionally and / or alternatively, the feedback may be uplink control information (UCI). When the UE receives (positive) feedback or if the UE receives (positive) feedback, the UE may consider that the beam switching indication is successfully received by the network. When the UE receives negative feedback or if the UE receives negative feedback, the UE may consider that the beam switching indication is not successfully received by the network. When the UE does not receive (positive) feedback or does not receive negative feedback or if the UE does not receive (positive) feedback or does not receive negative feedback, the UE may consider that the beam switching indication is successfully received by the network. When the UE does not receive (positive) feedback or does not receive negative feedback or if the UE does not receive (positive) feedback or does not receive negative feedback, the UE may consider that the beam switching indication is not successfully received by the network or may consider that the beam switching indication transmission fails or is unsuccessful. Additionally and / or alternatively, the UE may perform beam switching in response to receiving (positive) feedback. Additionally and / or alternatively, the UE may not perform beam switching (to the selected beam in the beam switching indication) in response to not receiving (positive) feedback or in response to receiving negative feedback. Additionally and / or alternatively, if negative feedback is received for a beam switching indication that is not associated with a cell or is not associated with a channel or when negative feedback is received for a beam switching indication that is not associated with a cell or is not associated with a channel, the UE may not consider that the UE-initiated beam switching procedure for the cell or channel was unsuccessful.

[0358] A positive feedback may indicate a successful reception or decoding of a beam switching indication. Additionally and / or alternatively, a positive feedback may indicate network agreement / confirmation that the UE switches (activated) beams (to the selected beam in the beam switching indication) in response to the beam switching procedure. A negative feedback may indicate an unsuccessful reception or decoding of a beam switching indication. Additionally and / or alternatively, a negative feedback may indicate network disagreement / non-confirmation that the UE switches (activated) beams (to the selected beam in the beam switching indication) in response to the beam switching procedure.

[0359] The positive feedback may be a positive confirmation associated with the beam switching indication or downlink feedback information (indicating a positive confirmation). The (positive) feedback may be transmitted via the beam indicated in the beam switching indication. The negative feedback may be a negative confirmation or downlink feedback information. The negative feedback may indicate a second beam different from the beam indicated in the beam switching indication. The feedback may be a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) (e.g., a beam activation / deactivation MAC CE). The (positive) feedback may indicate (one of) the beams indicated in the beam switching indication. The feedback may be downlink control information (DCI) indicating the beam to be used (e.g., one or more of the beams indicated in the beam switching indication). The (positive) feedback may be a UL grant or a DL assignment. The (positive) feedback may be a UL grant or a DL assignment associated with a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process for transmitting the beam switching indication or scheduling the HARQ process. The (positive) feedback may be a DL assignment or UL grant associated with or indicating the beam indicated in the beam switching indication (or transmitted / scheduled via the beam). Alternatively, the feedback may be transmitted / scheduled via the previous beam (activated and not deactivated before the UE communicates the beam switching indication).

[0360] Additionally and / or alternatively, the UE may perform beam switching in response to transmitting the beam switching indication. For example, the UE may perform beam switching after transmitting the beam switching indication.

[0361] Timer-based

[0362] Additionally and / or alternatively, the UE may determine whether the beam switching indication is successfully received by the network based on the first timer. The UE may determine whether the beam switching procedure is successfully completed based on the first timer. The UE may start or restart the first timer in response to (re)transmitting the beam switching indication. The UE may start or restart the first timer in response to receiving a retransmitted UL grant indicating the beam switching indication. If the first timer expires and the UE does not receive (positive or negative) feedback associated with the beam switching indication from the network or when the first timer expires and the UE does not receive (positive or negative) feedback associated with the beam switching indication from the network, the UE may consider that the beam switching indication is not successfully received by the network (or is not successfully transmitted to the network). Additionally and / or alternatively, the UE may consider that the beam switching (procedure) initiated by the UE of the cell fails or is unsuccessful in response to the expiration / expiration of the first timer. Alternatively, if the first timer expires or when the first timer expires, the UE may consider that the beam switching indication is successfully received by the network (or that the beam switching procedure is successfully completed). The UE may stop the first timer in response to receiving (positive or negative) feedback of the beam switching indication or in response to successful completion of the associated beam switching procedure. The UE may cancel the triggered UE-initiated beam switching associated with the beam switching indication in response to expiration of the first timer. The UE may cancel the triggered scheduling request (SR) associated with the beam switching indication in response to expiration of the first timer. The UE may stop or cancel the random access procedure associated with the UE-initiated beam switching procedure in response to expiration of the first timer.

[0363] Additionally and / or alternatively, the UE may determine whether the beam switching indication is successfully received by the network based on a fourth timer. The UE may determine whether the beam switching procedure is successfully completed based on the fourth timer. The UE may start or restart the first timer in response to triggering or initiating the UE-initiated beam switching (procedure). If the fourth timer expires and the UE does not receive (positive or negative) feedback associated with the beam switching indication from the network or when the fourth timer expires and the UE does not receive (positive or negative) feedback associated with the beam switching indication from the network, the UE may consider that the beam switching indication is not successfully received by the network (or is not successfully transmitted to the network). Alternatively, if the fourth timer expires or when the fourth timer expires, the UE may consider that the beam switching indication is successfully received by the network (or that the beam switching procedure is successfully completed). The UE may stop the fourth timer in response to receiving (positive or negative) feedback of the beam switching indication or in response to the successful completion of the associated beam switching procedure. The UE may cancel the triggered UE-initiated beam switching associated with the beam switching indication in response to the expiration of the fourth timer. The UE may cancel the triggered SR associated with the beam switching indication in response to the expiration of the fourth timer. The UE may stop or cancel the random access procedure associated with the beam switching procedure initiated by the UE in response to the expiration of the fourth timer.

[0364] Apply selected beams based on a timer or fixed time period

[0365] Additionally and / or alternatively, the UE may determine when to apply the selected beam (associated with the cell) indicated in the beam switching indication based on a first timer (associated with the cell). If the first timer expires and the UE does not receive negative feedback associated with the beam switching indication from the network or when the first timer expires and the UE does not receive negative feedback associated with the beam switching indication from the network, the UE may deem that the beam switching indication is successfully received by the network. The UE may apply the selected beam in response to the expiration of the first timer. Additionally and / or alternatively, the UE may apply the selected beam after a fixed or configured amount of time (after transmitting the beam switching indication).

[0366] Additionally and / or alternatively, the UE may apply the selected beam to the DL or UL channel in response to transmitting a beam switching indication or in response to receiving feedback or in response to successful completion of the beam switching procedure or in response to a triggered beam switching (corresponding to the DL or UL channel) being canceled.

[0367] If the beam switching indication is not transmitted due to no available resources

[0368] In addition and / or alternatively, the UE may determine whether the UE-initiated beam switching procedure is successful based on a third timer. The UE may start or restart the third timer in response to triggering or initiating the UE-initiated beam switching (procedure). When the beam switching indication (success) of the triggered UE-initiated beam switching (procedure) is transmitted or if the beam switching indication (success) of the triggered UE-initiated beam switching (procedure) is transmitted, the UE may stop the third timer. When an UL grant is received (and the UL grant can accommodate or be used to transmit the beam switching indication) or if an UL grant is received (and the UL grant can accommodate or be used to transmit the beam switching indication), the UE may stop the third timer. The UE may consider the UE-initiated beam switching procedure to have failed or been unsuccessful in response to the expiration of the third timer. The UE may cancel the triggered UE-initiated beam switching associated with the beam switching indication in response to the expiration of the third timer. The UE may cancel the triggered SR associated with the beam switching indication in response to the expiration of the third timer. The UE may stop or cancel the random access procedure associated with the UE-initiated beam switching procedure in response to expiration of the third timer.

[0369] Examples in Fig.13As shown in . The UE may utilize the current beam configuration and / or activation of the DL or UL channel. The UE may perform beam measurements and determine that the beam quality of the current beam is less than a threshold. The UE may trigger beam switching (and initiate a beam switching procedure). As long as the beam switching (of the DL or UL channel) is triggered (and not canceled), the UE may generate and transmit a beam switching indication to the network. The UE may select a new beam to apply to the DL or UL channel (for example, based on the measurement results). The beam switching indication may indicate the selected beam and / or the beam to be changed for the DL or UL channel. The UE may receive a confirmation associated with the beam switching indication from the network. If or when a positive confirmation of the beam switching indication is received, the UE may cancel the triggered beam switching and / or consider the beam switching procedure to be successfully completed. The UE may apply the selected beam to the DL or UL channel in response to transmitting a beam switching indication or in response to receiving a confirmation or in response to the beam switching procedure being successfully completed or in response to the triggered beam switching (corresponding to the DL or UL channel) being canceled. The UE may monitor confirmation or feedback from the network via the selected beam (if the UE switches to or applies the selected beam before the beam switching is successfully completed or when the UE switches to or applies the selected beam before the beam switching is successfully completed). Alternatively, the UE may monitor confirmation or feedback from the network via the current beam. The UE may apply the selected beam after receiving confirmation or feedback from the network (for a period of time).

[0370] Another example in Fig.14 The UE may start a timer in response to transmitting a beam switching indication. The UE may consider the beam switching procedure to have failed in response to the timer expiring (and not receiving a positive confirmation of the beam switching indication while the timer is running).

[0371] Another example in Fig.15 The UE may consider the beam switching procedure unsuccessful in response to receiving a negative confirmation associated with the beam switching indication.

[0372] Network (NW)-UE indication conflict

[0373] Additionally and / or alternatively, if the UE receives a beam change indication (of a channel) associated with a cell from the network (before the UE-initiated beam switching procedure is successfully completed) or when the UE receives a beam change indication (of a channel) associated with a cell from the network (before the UE-initiated beam switching procedure is successfully completed), the UE may consider that the UE-initiated beam switching procedure of the cell (of a channel) is unsuccessful. The UE may receive the beam change indication before transmitting the beam switching indication (and after triggering or initiating the UE-initiated beam switching (procedure)). The UE may receive the beam change indication after transmitting the beam switching indication (and before the UE-initiated beam switching procedure is successfully completed). If the UE receives the beam change indication from the network before receiving (positive) feedback associated with the beam switching indication or when the UE receives the beam change indication from the network before receiving (positive) feedback associated with the beam switching indication, the UE may consider that the UE-initiated beam switching procedure is unsuccessful. If or when a beam change indication (associated with a cell and / or a channel) is received, the UE may cancel the triggered UE-initiated beam switching (associated with a cell and / or a channel). The UE may cancel the triggered SR associated with the beam switching indication in response to receiving the beam change indication. The UE may stop or cancel the random access procedure associated with the UE-initiated beam switching procedure in response to receiving the beam change indication.

[0374] If or when a beam change indication not associated with a cell and / or a channel is received, the UE may not cancel a triggered UE-initiated beam switching associated with the cell and / or the channel. The UE may not cancel a triggered SR associated with a beam switching indication associated with the cell and / or the channel in response to receiving a beam change indication not associated with the cell and / or the channel. The UE may not stop or cancel a random access procedure associated with a UE-initiated beam switching procedure associated with the cell and / or the channel in response to receiving a beam change indication not associated with the cell and / or the channel.

[0375] The beam change indication from the network may be a MAC CE (e.g., a TCI state activation / deactivation MAC CE or an LTM cell switching MAC CE). The beam change indication from the network may indicate cell switching trigger information (to a candidate cell of a candidate configuration). The beam change indication from the network may be a radio resource control (RRC) message (e.g., PDSCH-config, ControlResourceSet (CORESET), bandwidth part (BWP)-UplinkDedicated). The RRC message may contain TCI state addition information (e.g., a list of TCI states to be added) or TCI state release information (e.g., indicating a list of TCI states to be released). The beam change indication from the network may be a DCI. The DCI may indicate TCI code points associated with one or more (activated) beams or TCI states that are different from the current (activated) beam or TCI state of the UL or DL ​​channel. The beam change indication may indicate or contain a beam different from the beam indicated in the beam switching indication. The beam change indication may indicate or contain a cell different from the cell indicated in the beam switching indication. The beam change indication may not indicate or contain the beam indicated in the beam switching indication.

[0376] Examples in Fig.16 . A UE (with pending, triggered and uncancelled beam switching) may receive a beam change indication from the network. The beam change indication may be received before or after the beam switching indication is generated. The beam change indication may be received before or after the UE applies or switches to the selected beam. The UE may consider the beam switching procedure (of a DL or UL channel) to have failed or been unsuccessful in response to receiving the beam change indication (of at least a DL or UL channel).

[0377] Additionally and / or alternatively, when the (cell's) (channel's) beam switching indication associated with the UE-initiated beam switching procedure has reached the maximum (re)transmission number or if the (cell's) (channel's) beam switching indication associated with the UE-initiated beam switching procedure has reached the maximum (re)transmission number, the UE may consider that the (cell's) (channel's) UE-initiated beam switching procedure has failed or is unsuccessful. When the beam switching indication has been transmitted the maximum number of times, the UE may not receive positive feedback for the UE-initiated beam switching procedure.

[0378] Error handling

[0379] When the UE considers that the (UE-initiated) beam switching procedure (of the DL channel or UL channel or sounding reference signal (SRS) of the cell) has failed or is unsuccessful, the UE may perform one or more (or parts) of the following actions (for the DL / UL channel or SRS of the cell). Additionally and / or alternatively, the UE may perform one or more (or parts) of the following actions (for the DL / UL channel of the cell) in response to the beam switching indication (associated with the DL / UL channel of the cell) not being successfully received by the network (or not being successfully transmitted to the network).

[0380] Additionally and / or alternatively, when the UE considers that the (UE-initiated) beam switching procedure of a cell (of a DL channel or UL channel or SRS) has failed or is unsuccessful, the UE may not perform one or more of the following actions (for another DL / UL channel or SRS) of (the cell or) another cell.

[0381] Retransmission based on a second timer or based on a negative ACK (NACK)

[0382] One action may be that the UE may perform (re)transmission of the beam switching indication to the network. The UE may determine to perform retransmission of the (cell's) (channel's) beam switching indication based at least on negative feedback (from the network) of the (cell's) (channel's) beam switching indication. The UE may be configured with one or more (re)transmission resources for the beam switching indication. The one or more (re)transmission resources may be PUSCH resources or PUCCH resources. For example, the UE may (re)transmit the beam switching indication on the (first available) (re)transmission resource (or UL, PUSCH or PUCCH resource) after receiving negative feedback (associated with the beam switching indication) from the network. The UE may (re)transmit the beam switching indication on the (first available) (re)transmission resource (or UL, PUSCH or PUCCH resource) after not receiving positive feedback from the network (after expiration of the first timer or the second timer).

[0383] Additionally and / or alternatively, another action may be that the UE may trigger UE-initiated beam switching.

[0384] Additionally and / or alternatively, another action may be that the UE may generate and transmit a second beam switching indication to the network. The UE may determine to perform the transmission of the second beam switching indication (of the cell) based at least on negative feedback (from the network) of the beam switching indication (of the cell). The UE may be configured with one or more (re)transmission resources for the second beam switching indication. The one or more (re)transmission resources may be PUSCH resources or PUCCH resources. For example, the UE may (re)transmit the second beam switching indication on the (first available) (re)transmission resource (or UL, PUSCH or PUCCH resource) after receiving negative feedback from the network. The UE may (re)transmit the second beam switching indication on the (first available) (re)transmission resource (or UL, PUSCH or PUCCH resource) after not receiving positive feedback from the network (after the expiration of the first timer or the second timer). The second beam switching indication may contain beam information and / or beam quality information different from the beam switching indication. The second beam switching indication may be based at least on beam measurement after the beam switching indication is transmitted.

[0385] The UE may be configured with an SR configuration for a beam switching indication. The UE may trigger an SR for a beam switching indication if or when there are no available resources to (re)transmit a beam switching indication.

[0386] In addition and / or alternatively, the UE may determine whether to perform (re)transmission of the beam switching indication or the second beam switching indication based on the state of the second timer. The second timer may be configured by the network (for each DL or UL or for each channel). The UE may start or restart the second timer in response to the (re)transmission of the beam switching indication or the second beam switching indication. The UE may determine to (re)transmit the beam switching indication or the second beam switching indication in response to the expiration of the second timer. The second timer and the first timer may be the same or different timers. The UE may consider the (re)transmission of the beam switching indication to be unsuccessful in response to the expiration of the second timer. When the second timer expires and the UE has transmitted the beam switching indication the maximum number of times, the UE may consider the beam switching procedure initiated by the UE to have failed or been unsuccessful. When (positive) feedback associated with the beam switching indication is received, the UE may stop the second timer.

[0387] Examples in Fig.17As shown in . The UE is configured with a maximum number of transmissions of a beam switching indication. The UE may trigger beam switching and / or initiate a beam switching procedure in response to a current beam having a beam quality below a threshold. The UE may generate and transmit a beam switching indication to the network. The UE may start a timer (e.g., a second timer) in response to transmitting the beam switching indication. The UE may apply to a newly selected beam in response to initiating a procedure or transmitting an indication. In response to the expiration of the timer (and the UE does not receive feedback associated with the indication), the UE may retransmit the beam switching indication to the network at the first available (re)transmission resource for the beam switching indication (or transmit a second beam switching indication). The resources may be scheduled or configured by the network. The resources may be PUSCH or PUCCH resources. If no resources are available for transmission or when no resources are available for transmission, the UE may trigger an SR to request resources from the network. The UE may start a timer (e.g., a second timer) in response to the (re)transmission of the indication. In response to the expiration of the timer and the maximum number of (re)transmissions (and no feedback of the indication is received), the UE may consider the beam switching procedure to have failed or been unsuccessful. The UE may fall back to the current beam (if the newly selected beam has been applied), and / or the UE may perform a beam failure recovery procedure in response to a failure of a (UE-initiated) beam switching.

[0388] Apply the beam in the beam change indication

[0389] Additionally and / or alternatively, an action may be that the UE may apply or activate the beam indicated in the beam change indication (for the cell indicated by the network) in response to receiving the beam change indication. The UE may cancel one (or all) triggered UE-initiated beam switching triggers (of the DL channel or UL channel or SRS of the cell) in response to receiving the beam change indication (associated with the DL channel or UL channel or SRS of the cell) from the network. The beam change indication may not be feedback associated with the beam switching indication (initiated by the UE) transmitted to the network. The cell may be indicated in the beam change indication. The cell may be the (activated) serving cell of the UE (before the beam switching procedure initiated by the UE is triggered). The cell may be associated with a candidate configuration (before the beam switching procedure initiated by the UE is triggered). Alternatively, the cell may not be associated with the candidate configuration.

[0390] Additionally and / or alternatively, an action may be that the UE may ignore or discard a beam change indication (associated with a cell or associated with a DL / UL channel of a cell) from the network during a UE-initiated beam switching procedure (of a cell or a DL / UL channel of a cell) (and after transmitting a beam switching indication associated with the UE-initiated beam switching procedure). The UE may not apply or activate a beam indicated in a beam change indication (associated with a cell or associated with a DL / UL channel of a cell) from the network (when receiving the beam change indication) during a UE-initiated beam switching procedure (associated with a cell or associated with a DL / UL channel of a cell) (and after selecting a beam and / or generating a beam switching indication).

[0391] Fall back to previous beam

[0392] Additionally and / or alternatively, an action may be that the UE may fall back to a previous beam. The UE may fall back to the previous beam in response to the expiration of the first timer (while no positive feedback is received from the network while the first timer is running). The UE may fall back to the previous beam in response to receiving negative feedback associated with the beam switching indication from the network. The UE performs communication (on a DL or UL channel) via the previous beam before initiating or triggering a beam switching (procedure) (associated with a DL or UL channel). The previous beam may be a (current) beam that has been activated and not deactivated before the UE transmits the beam switching indication.

[0393] When falling back to the previous beam (on the DL or UL channel of the cell), the UE may deactivate the current (selected) beam (on the DL or UL channel of the cell) (which has been activated or applied by the UE in response to the beam switching procedure or in response to the triggered beam switching) and activate the previous beam (on the DL or UL channel of the cell). The UE may deactivate the current (selected) beam associated with the (new) serving cell and activate the (previous) beam associated with the (previous) serving cell. The previous serving cell may be the (activated) serving cell before the (UE-initiated) beam switching procedure was triggered or completed.

[0394] Triggering Beam Failure Recovery (BFR)

[0395] Additionally and / or alternatively, an action may be that the UE may trigger a BFR (associated with the cell) (or initiate a beam failure recovery procedure). The UE may trigger the BFR in response to the expiration of a first timer (while no positive feedback is received from the network while the first timer is running). In response to the UE believing that the (UE-initiated) beam switching procedure (of the BFD-reference signal (RS) set) of the cell has failed or is unsuccessful, the UE may trigger the BFR of the (BFD-RS set) of the cell. In response to the triggered and uncancelled BFR, the UE may generate and transmit a BFR MAC CE to the network to indicate the selected beam (or other beams) to the network. The cell may be the UE's (associated with the (UE-initiated) beam switching procedure) serving cell. The cell may be the UE's (not associated with the (UE-initiated) beam switching procedure) (previous) serving cell before the (UE-initiated) beam switching procedure is triggered or completed.

[0396] Trigger upper layer message or beam report

[0397] Additionally and / or alternatively, an action may be that the UE may generate or trigger generation of an upper layer message to the network. The UE may generate an upper layer message in response to unsuccessful completion of a (UE initiated) beam failover. The upper layer message may be a BFR MAC CE. Additionally or alternatively, an action may be that the UE may trigger or generate a beam report. The beam report may be a L1-RSRP or L1-SINR report of a cell. The upper layer message may be a radio link failure (RLF) message or indicate RLF of a cell.

[0398] Additionally and / or alternatively, another example is Fig.18 As shown in . The UE may trigger a (UE-initiated) beam switching associated with a cell in response to an event (e.g., the current beam quality is below a threshold). The UE may select a new beam based on the (L1) measurement of the cell. The UE may receive at least a beam change indication associated with the cell (e.g., a beam / TCI state activation / deactivation MAC CE) before generating and / or transmitting a beam switching indication (indicating a new beam) to the network. The UE may cancel the triggered (UE-initiated) beam switching and / or cancel the triggered SR and / or stop the random access procedure initiated for the UE-initiated beam switching in response to the beam change indication. The beam change indication may indicate a second beam different from the new beam (selected by the UE).

[0399]

[00106] With respect to the embodiments, examples and concepts detailed above and herein, the following aspects and embodiments are possible.

[0400] The beams mentioned herein may be associated with or replaced by a (DL or UL) TCI state. Additionally and / or alternatively, the beams mentioned herein may be associated with or replaced by an SRS resource set. Additionally and / or alternatively, the beams mentioned herein may be associated with or replaced by spatial relationship information. Additionally and / or alternatively, the beams mentioned herein may be associated with or replaced by SSB or CSI-RS.

[0401] The beam switching indication may be or contain a beam report. Additionally and / or alternatively, the beam switching indication may be signaling / message different from the beam report. The beam switching indication may be generated / initiated / triggered by the UE. The beam switching indication may contain or indicate, for example, a beam whose beam quality is greater than or equal to a threshold. Additionally and / or alternatively, the beam switching indication may contain or indicate more than one beam whose beam quality is greater than or equal to a threshold. Additionally and / or alternatively, the beam switching indication may contain or indicate a beam that the UE intends or will or wishes to switch to or apply / activate. The beam switching indication may contain or indicate the quality of the indicated beam. The beam switching indication may be a notification. The beam switching indication may be a MAC CE. The beam switching indication may be PUCCH signaling (e.g., UCI). The beam switching indication may indicate a cell (e.g., a cell index).

[0402] The beam change indication may come from the network. The beam change indication may not be generated by the UE. The beam change indication may be a TCI state activation / deactivation MAC CE. The beam change indication may be an RRC message. The beam change indication may be a DCI.

[0403] The beam switching procedure may be a beam switching procedure initiated by the UE. When the beam switching procedure is considered to have failed, the UE may consider the beam switching procedure to be unsuccessful or unsuccessfully completed. The beam switching procedure and / or the triggering of the beam switching may be for each channel (e.g., PDCCH, PUCCH, PDSCH, PUSCH and / or SRS) or for each UE. The beam switching procedure and / or the triggering of the beam switching may be for UL or for DL, or for both DL and UL. When the quality of the (activated) beam (associated with the DL or UL or channel) is lower than a threshold or if the quality of the (activated) beam (associated with the DL or UL or channel) is lower than a threshold, the UE may trigger the beam switching (associated with the DL or UL or channel).

[0404] The beam switching indication and the beam change indication may be associated with (the cell's) PDCCH, PUCCH, PDSCH, PUSCH and / or SRS.

[0405] The UE may determine (generate and) transmit a beam switching indication based on the beam measurement results.

[0406] The beam switching indication may be associated with a DL or UL channel or SRS of a cell. The triggering of the beam switching may be associated with a DL or UL channel or SRS of a cell. When there is no triggered beam switching for the DL or UL channel of a cell, the UE may not generate a beam switching indication for the DL or UL channel of the cell.

[0407] The beam quality may be (L1-)RSRP or (L1-)reference signal received quality (RSRQ) or (L1-)SINR.

[0408] The beam measurement may be an L1 beam measurement. The beam measurement may be L1-RSRP or L1-SINR. The beam switching indication may be transmitted by the UE (and received by the network).

[0409] Additionally and / or alternatively, the UE may determine (generate and) transmit a beam switching indication based on a trigger or a procedure being triggered. The trigger may be associated with a beam report initiated by the UE. Additionally and / or alternatively, the UE may determine (generate and) transmit a beam switching indication based on an L1 beam measurement result (or beam quality) associated with the current beam of the cell being less than or equal to a threshold (and a beam measurement result or beam quality of a candidate beam or a selected beam being greater than or equal to a threshold).

[0410] The selected beam may be a beam indicated in a beam switching indication. The selected beam may be a candidate beam (configured for (DL or UL channel of) the UE) with a beam quality greater than or equal to a threshold. The selected beam may be a beam selected by the UE in a (UE initiated) beam switching procedure. The selected beam may be a beam associated with a serving cell of the UE or a candidate cell (e.g., a candidate PCell) of a candidate configuration of an LTM associated to the UE.

[0411] (Positive) feedback may be transmitted or received via the selected beam.

[0412] The UE initiated beam switching procedure may be triggered or initiated for each cell or for each DL / UL channel of a cell. The beam switching indication may be associated with a (serving) cell and / or associated with a DL / UL channel of a (serving) cell.

[0413] The UE-initiated beam switching procedure, triggered UE-initiated beam switching, triggered BFR, triggered SR, beam switching indication, beam change indication, first timer, second timer, third timer and / or fourth timer may be associated with the same channel and / or the same cell.

[0414] The DL or UL channel may be a PDCCH, a PDSCH, a PUCCH and / or a PUSCH.

[0415] The first, second, third and fourth timers may be configured or maintained for each cell or each channel or each UE.

[0416] It should be noted that any of the methods, alternatives, examples and embodiments described above and herein may be combined in whole or in part, or applied simultaneously or individually.

[0417] Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described below.

[0418] refer to Fig.19 , through this and other concepts, systems and methods of the present invention, a method 1000 for a UE includes: generating a beam switching indication associated with a cell (step 1002); in response to transmitting the beam switching indication to a network, starting a first timer (step 1004); and in response to expiration of the first timer, deeming that the beam switching indication was not successfully transmitted (step 1006).

[0419] In various embodiments, the beam switching indication is associated with a serving cell of the UE.

[0420] In various embodiments, the beam switching indication is associated with a DL or UL channel of the UE.

[0421] In various embodiments, the DL or UL channel may be a PDCCH, a PDSCH, a PUCCH and / or a PUSCH.

[0422] In various embodiments, the beam switching indication indicates a candidate beam or a selected beam for the UE.

[0423] In various embodiments, the selected beam is a beam having a beam quality greater than or equal to a threshold.

[0424] In various embodiments, the beam quality is L1-RSRP or L1-SINR.

[0425] In various embodiments, the UE deems the beam switching procedure failed or unsuccessful in response to the expiration of the first timer.

[0426] In various embodiments, the UE retransmits the beam switching indication in response to expiration of the first timer.

[0427] In various embodiments, the UE starts a first timer in response to a retransmission of a beam switching indication.

[0428] In various embodiments, the UE generates a beam switch indication in response to a triggered and uncancelled beam switch.

[0429] In various embodiments, the UE switches to or applies the selected beam indicated in the beam switching indication in response to transmitting the beam switching indication.

[0430] In various embodiments, the UE switches to or applies a previous beam in response to expiration of a first timer, wherein the UE performed communications via the previous beam on a cell before the UE switched the selected beam.

[0431] In various embodiments, the method further includes deeming the beam switching indication as successfully received by the network in response to receiving positive feedback associated with the beam switching indication.

[0432] In various embodiments, the feedback may be downlink feedback information.

[0433] In various embodiments, the feedback may be a DCI or a MAC CE.

[0434] Return to reference Figure 3 and Figure 4 In one or more embodiments from the perspective of the UE, the apparatus 300 includes a program code 312 stored in a memory 310 of the transmitter. The CPU 308 may execute the program code 312 to perform the following operations: (i) generate a beam switching indication associated with a cell; (ii) in response to transmitting the beam switching indication to the network, start a first timer; and (iii) in response to the first timer expiring, consider that the beam switching indication was not successfully transmitted. In addition, the CPU 308 may execute the program code 312 to perform all of the actions, steps, and methods described above, below, or otherwise herein.

[0435] refer to Fig. 20 , through this and other concepts, systems and methods of the present invention, a method 1010 for a UE includes: generating a beam switching indication associated with a cell (step 1012); transmitting the beam switching indication to a network, wherein the beam switching indication indicates a first beam associated with the cell (step 1014); receiving a beam change indication associated with the cell from the network (step 1016); and applying a second beam in the beam change indication on the cell (step 1018).

[0436] In various embodiments, the beam switching indication is associated with a serving cell of the UE.

[0437] In various embodiments, the beam switching indication is associated with a DL or UL channel of the UE.

[0438] In various embodiments, the DL or UL channel may be a PDCCH, a PDSCH, a PUCCH and / or a PUSCH.

[0439] In various embodiments, the beam switching indication indicates a candidate beam or a selected beam for the UE.

[0440] In various embodiments, the selected beam is a beam having a beam quality greater than or equal to a threshold.

[0441] In various embodiments, the beam quality is L1-RSRP or L1-SINR.

[0442] In various embodiments, the UE applies the first beam on the cell in response to transmitting a beam switching indication.

[0443] In various embodiments, the UE receives the beam change indication prior to receiving feedback associated with the beam switching indication from the network.

[0444] In various embodiments, the triggered beam switching and the beam switching indication are associated with a UE initiated beam switching procedure.

[0445] In various embodiments, the UE considers the beam switching procedure to be successfully completed in response to positive feedback associated with the beam switching indication.

[0446] In various embodiments, the UE cancels the triggered beam switch in response to positive feedback associated with the beam switch indication.

[0447] In various embodiments, the beam change indication is a MAC CE that activates and / or deactivates a beam associated with a channel of the cell.

[0448] In various embodiments, the beam is SSB or CSI-RS.

[0449] In various embodiments, a beam is associated with a UL or DL ​​TCI state.

[0450] In various embodiments, the beam switching indication is associated with or indicates a DL or UL channel of the cell.

[0451] In various embodiments, the beam switching indication is PUCCH signaling or PUSCH signaling.

[0452] Return to reference Figure 3 and Figure 4 In one or more embodiments from the perspective of the UE, the apparatus 300 includes program code 312 stored in a memory 310 of the transmitter. The CPU 308 can execute the program code 312 to perform the following operations: (i) generate a beam switching indication associated with a cell; (ii) transmit the beam switching indication to the network, wherein the beam switching indication indicates a first beam associated with the cell; (iii) receive a beam change indication associated with the cell from the network; and (iv) apply the second beam in the beam change indication on the cell. In addition, the CPU 308 can execute the program code 312 to perform all of the actions, steps, and methods described above, below, or otherwise herein.

[0453] refer to Fig.21Through this and other concepts, systems and methods of the present invention, a method 1020 for a UE includes: triggering or initiating a UE-initiated beam switching associated with a cell (step 1022); transmitting a beam switching indication associated with the cell in response to the UE-initiated beam switching (step 1024); and performing at least one of the following in response to considering that the UE-initiated beam switching is unsuccessful or a timer expires: canceling the triggered UE-initiated beam switching associated with the cell, and / or canceling the SR associated with the UE-initiated beam switching, and / or stopping the RA procedure associated with the UE-initiated beam switching, and / or triggering a BFR associated with the cell, and / or retransmitting the beam switching indication, and / or generating and transmitting a second beam switching indication (step 1026).

[0454] In various embodiments, the UE starts or restarts the timer in response to transmission of a beam switching indication, retransmission of a beam switching indication, or triggering or initiation of a UE-initiated beam switching.

[0455] In various embodiments, the UE stops the timer in response to receiving feedback associated with the beam switching indication from the network.

[0456] In various embodiments, the feedback is negative feedback indicating that the network disagrees or does not confirm that the UE will switch to the selected beam indicated in the beam switching indication.

[0457] In various embodiments, the beam switching indication is associated with a beam of the UE's PDCCH, PDSCH, PUCCH and / or PUSCH, and / or the beam switching indication indicates a candidate beam or a selected beam of the UE, and / or the beam switching indication is MAC CE or PUCCH signaling (e.g., UCI), and / or the beam switching indication is associated with an LTM candidate cell.

[0458] In various embodiments, in response to considering that the UE-initiated beam switching is successful, the UE performs at least one of the following: beam switching to a candidate beam or a selected beam, and / or LTM cell switching to an LTM candidate cell.

[0459] In various embodiments, the UE triggers a BFR associated with a cell in response to the number of (re)transmissions of a beam switching indication reaching a maximum number.

[0460] Return to reference Figure 3 and Figure 4In one or more embodiments from the perspective of the UE, the apparatus 300 includes program code 312 stored in a memory 310 of the transmitter. The CPU 308 can execute the program code 312 to perform the following operations: (i) trigger or initiate a UE-initiated beam switch associated with a cell; (ii) in response to the UE-initiated beam switch, transmit a beam switch indication associated with the cell; and (iii) in response to the UE-initiated beam switch being considered unsuccessful or the timer expiring, perform at least one of the following: cancel the triggered UE-initiated beam switch associated with the cell, and / or cancel the SR associated with the UE-initiated beam switch, and / or stop the RA procedure associated with the UE-initiated beam switch, and / or trigger the BFR associated with the cell, and / or retransmit the beam switch indication, and / or generate and transmit a second beam switch indication. In addition, the CPU 308 can execute the program code 312 to perform all of the actions, steps and methods described above, below or otherwise herein.

[0461] refer to Fig. 22 , through this and other concepts, systems and methods of the present invention, a method 1030 for a UE includes: triggering or initiating a UE-initiated beam switch associated with a cell (step 1032); receiving a beam change indication from a network before transmitting a beam switch indication associated with the cell in response to the UE-initiated beam switch (step 1034); and canceling the triggered UE-initiated beam switch associated with the cell in response to receiving the beam change indication (step 1036).

[0462] In various embodiments, the beam change indication is a MAC CE that activates and / or deactivates a beam associated with a channel of the cell.

[0463] In various embodiments, the beam switching indication is associated with a beam of the UE's PDCCH, PDSCH, PUCCH and / or PUSCH, and / or the beam switching indication indicates a candidate beam or a selected beam of the UE, and / or the beam switching indication is MAC CE or PUCCH signaling (e.g., UCI), and / or the beam switching indication is associated with an LTM candidate cell.

[0464] In various embodiments, the UE cancels the SR associated with the UE-initiated beam switching in response to receiving the beam change indication, and / or the UE stops the RA procedure associated with the UE-initiated beam switching in response to receiving the beam change indication.

[0465] In various embodiments, the UE applies the beam indicated in the beam change indication in response to receiving the beam change indication.

[0466] Return to reference Figure 3 and Figure 4In one or more embodiments from the perspective of the UE, the apparatus 300 includes program code 312 stored in a memory 310 of the transmitter. The CPU 308 may execute the program code 312 to perform the following operations: (i) trigger or initiate a UE-initiated beam switch associated with a cell; (ii) receive a beam change indication from the network before transmitting a beam switch indication associated with the cell in response to the UE-initiated beam switch; and (iii) cancel the triggered UE-initiated beam switch associated with the cell in response to receiving the beam change indication. In addition, the CPU 308 may execute the program code 312 to perform all of the actions, steps, and methods described above, below, or otherwise herein.

[0467] Any combination of the concepts or teachings above or here can be combined or formed into new embodiments in whole or in part. The disclosed details and embodiments can be used to solve at least (but not limited to) the problems mentioned above and here.

[0468] It should be noted that any of the methods, alternatives, steps, examples and embodiments presented herein may be applied independently, individually and / or in combination with multiple methods, alternatives, steps, examples and embodiments.

[0469] Various aspects of the present disclosure have been described above. It should be clear that the teachings herein can be implemented in a wide variety of forms, and any specific structure, function, or both disclosed herein are only representative. Based on the teachings herein, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the aspects disclosed herein can be implemented independently of any other aspects, and two or more of these aspects can be combined in various ways. For example, any number of aspects set forth herein can be used to implement a device or practice method. In addition, by using other structures, functionality, or structures and functionality other than one or more aspects of the aspects set forth herein or different from one or more aspects of the aspects set forth herein, this device can be implemented or this method can be practiced. As an example of some of the above concepts, in some aspects, parallel channels can be established based on pulse repetition frequency. In some aspects, parallel channels can be established based on pulse position or offset. In some aspects, parallel channels can be established based on time hopping sequences. In some aspects, parallel channels can be established based on pulse repetition frequency, pulse position or offset, and time hopping sequences.

[0470] Those skilled in the art will understand that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the above description may be represented by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

[0471] Those of ordinary skill in the art will further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, processors, components, circuits, and algorithm steps described in conjunction with the various aspects disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware (e.g., a digital implementation, an analog implementation, or a combination of the two, which may be designed using source decoding or some other technique), and various forms of programs or design code with instructions (which may be referred to herein as "software" or "software modules" for convenience), or a combination of the two. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, the various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether this functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends on the specific application and the design constraints imposed on the overall system. Those of ordinary skill in the art may implement the described functionality in different ways for each specific application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0472] In addition, the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in conjunction with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented within or performed by an integrated circuit ("IC"), an access terminal, or an access point. An IC may include a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, electrical components, optical components, mechanical components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein, and may execute code or instructions residing within the IC, outside the IC, or both. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, for example, a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a combination of multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in combination with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0473] It should be understood that any specific order or hierarchy of steps in any disclosed process is an example of an exemplary method. It should be understood that based on design preferences, the specific order or hierarchy of steps in a process can be rearranged while remaining within the scope of the present disclosure. The accompanying method claims present elements of the various steps in an exemplary order, but are not meant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented.

[0474] The steps of the method or algorithm described in conjunction with the various aspects disclosed herein can be implemented directly with hardware, with a software module executed by a processor, or with a combination of the two. Software modules (e.g., including executable instructions and related data) and other data may reside in a data memory, such as a RAM memory, a flash memory, a ROM memory, an EPROM memory, an EEPROM memory, a register, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of computer-readable storage medium known in the art. An example storage medium may be coupled to a machine such as a computer / processor (for convenience, the machine may be referred to as a "processor" in this article) so that the processor can read information (e.g., code) from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. An example storage medium may be integrated with the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user device. In an alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside in a user device as discrete components. In addition, in some aspects, any suitable computer program product may include a computer-readable medium, and the computer-readable medium includes a code related to one or more aspects of the present disclosure. In some aspects, a computer program product may include packaging materials.

[0475] Although the present invention has been described in conjunction with various aspects and examples, it will be appreciated that the present invention is capable of further modifications. This application is intended to cover any changes, uses or adaptations of the present invention, which generally follow the principles of the present invention and include such deviations from the present disclosure, which are within the scope of known and customary practice in the technical field to which the present invention belongs.

Claims

1. A method for user equipment, for handling beam switching initiated by user equipment, characterized in that: The method comprises: triggering or initiating beam switching initiated by a user equipment associated with the cell; In response to the beam switching initiated by the user equipment, transmitting a beam switching indication associated with the cell; and In response to considering that the beam switching initiated by the user equipment is unsuccessful or the timer expires, performing at least one of the following: canceling the beam switching initiated by the user equipment and triggered in association with the cell; canceling a scheduling request associated with the beam switching initiated by the user equipment; Stopping a random access procedure associated with beam switching initiated by the user equipment; triggering beam failure recovery associated with the cell; retransmitting the beam switching indication; or A second beam switching indication is generated and transmitted.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The user equipment starts or restarts the timer in response to the transmission of the beam switching indication, the retransmission of the beam switching indication, or the triggering or initiation of the beam switching initiated by the user equipment.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The user equipment stops the timer in response to receiving feedback associated with the beam switching indication from a network.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that The feedback is negative feedback indicating that the network does not agree or confirm that the user equipment will switch to the selected beam indicated in the beam switching indication.

5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The beam switching indication is associated with a beam of a physical downlink control channel, a physical downlink shared channel, a physical uplink control channel or a physical uplink shared channel of the user equipment, The beam switching indication indicates a candidate beam or a selected beam of the user equipment, The beam switching indication is a medium access control control element or a physical uplink control channel signaling, or The beam switching indication is associated with an L1 or L2 triggered mobility candidate cell.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that In response to considering that the beam switching initiated by the user equipment is successful, the user equipment performs at least one of the following: beam switching to the candidate beam or the selected beam, or L1 or L2 triggered mobility cell switching to the L1 or L2 triggered mobility candidate cell.

7. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The user equipment triggers the beam failure recovery associated with the cell in response to the number of transmissions or retransmissions of the beam switching indication reaching a maximum number.

8. A method for user equipment, for handling beam switching initiated by user equipment, characterized in that: The method comprises: triggering or initiating beam switching initiated by a user equipment associated with the cell; receiving a beam change indication from a network before transmitting a beam switching indication associated with the cell in response to the beam switching initiated by the user equipment; and In response to receiving the beam change indication, canceling the triggered beam switching initiated by the user equipment associated with the cell.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that The beam change indication is a medium access control element that activates or deactivates a beam associated with a channel of the cell.

10. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that: The beam switching indication is associated with a beam of a physical downlink control channel, a physical downlink shared channel, a physical uplink control channel or a physical uplink shared channel of the user equipment, The beam switching indication indicates a candidate beam or a selected beam of the user equipment, The beam switching indication is a medium access control control element or a physical uplink control channel signaling, or The beam switching indication is associated with an L1 or L2 triggered mobility candidate cell.

11. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that: The user equipment cancels a scheduling request associated with the beam switching initiated by the user equipment in response to receiving the beam change indication, and / or The user equipment stops a random access procedure associated with the beam switching initiated by the user equipment in response to receiving the beam change indication.

12. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that In response to receiving the beam change indication, the user equipment applies the beam indicated in the beam change indication.

13. A user equipment, used for handling beam switching initiated by the user equipment, characterized in that: The user equipment comprises: Memory; and a processor operatively coupled to the memory, wherein the processor is configured to execute program code to: triggering or initiating beam switching initiated by a user equipment associated with the cell; In response to the beam switching initiated by the user equipment, transmitting a beam switching indication associated with the cell; and In response to considering that the beam switching initiated by the user equipment is unsuccessful or the timer expires, performing at least one of the following: canceling the beam switching initiated by the user equipment and triggered in association with the cell; canceling a scheduling request associated with the beam switching initiated by the user equipment; Stopping a random access procedure associated with beam switching initiated by the user equipment; triggering beam failure recovery associated with the cell; retransmitting the beam switching indication; or A second beam switching indication is generated and transmitted.

14. The user equipment according to claim 13, characterized in that The user equipment starts or restarts the timer in response to the transmission of the beam switching indication, the retransmission of the beam switching indication, or the triggering or initiation of the beam switching initiated by the user equipment.

15. The user equipment according to claim 13, characterized in that The user equipment stops the timer in response to receiving feedback associated with the beam switching indication from a network.

16. The user equipment according to claim 15, characterized in that The feedback is negative feedback indicating that the network does not agree or confirm that the user equipment will switch to the selected beam indicated in the beam switching indication.

17. The user equipment according to claim 13, characterized in that: The beam switching indication is associated with a beam of a physical downlink control channel, a physical downlink shared channel, a physical uplink control channel or a physical uplink shared channel of the user equipment, The beam switching indication indicates a candidate beam or a selected beam of the user equipment, The beam switching indication is a medium access control control element or a physical uplink control channel signaling, or The beam switching indication is associated with an L1 or L2 triggered mobility candidate cell.

18. The user equipment according to claim 17, characterized in that: In response to determining that the beam switching initiated by the user equipment is successful, the user equipment performs beam switching to the candidate beam or the selected beam.

19. The user equipment according to claim 17, characterized in that In response to considering that the beam switching initiated by the user equipment is successful, the user equipment performs an L1 or L2 triggered mobility cell switching to the L1 or L2 triggered mobility candidate cell.

20. The user equipment according to claim 13, characterized in that The user equipment triggers the beam failure recovery associated with the cell in response to the number of transmissions or retransmissions of the beam switching indication reaching a maximum number.

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