Uplink hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) mode restriction for radio bearers for application layer measurement reporting

Abstract

A user equipment (UE) includes a transceiver and a processor. The processor is configured to receive, via the transceiver, a configuration for a radio bearer dedicated to reporting at least one application layer measurement or quality of experience (QoE) measurement to a network. The processor is configured to receive, via the transceiver, a configuration for a logical channel (LCH) corresponding to the radio bearer and a configuration for an uplink (UL) hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) mode restriction corresponding to the LCH. The processor is configured to report the at least one application layer measurement or QoE measurement to a network via the LCH and based on the HARQ mode restriction corresponding to the LCH. The base station may be in a non-terrestrial network (NTN), and the radio bearer may be a signalling radio bearer 4 (SRB4).

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application generally relates to wireless communication systems, including methods and systems for setting uplink Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) mode restrictions for radio bearers for uplink transmission of application layer measurement reports (or Quality of Experience (QoE) reports). Background Art

[0002] Wireless mobile communication technology uses various standards and protocols to transmit data between base stations and wireless communication devices. Wireless communication system standards and protocols may include, for example, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) (e.g., 4G), 3GPP New Radio (NR) (e.g., 5G), and the IEEE 802.11 standard for wireless local area networks (WLANs) (commonly referred to within industry organizations as WLANs). ).

[0003] As envisioned by 3GPP, different wireless communication system standards and protocols may use various radio access networks (RANs) to communicate between base stations of the RAN (which may also sometimes be referred to as RAN nodes, network nodes, or simply nodes) and wireless communication devices referred to as user equipment (UE). 3GPP RANs may include, for example, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) RAN (GERAN), Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), and / or Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN).

[0004] Each RAN may use one or more radio access technologies (RATs) to perform communications between base stations and UEs. For example, GERAN implements GSM and / or EDGE RAT, UTRAN implements Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) RAT or other 3GPP RAT, E-UTRAN implements LTE RAT (sometimes referred to as LTE), and NG-RAN implements NR RAT (sometimes referred to herein as 5G RAT, 5G NR RAT, or NR). In some deployments, E-UTRAN may also implement NR RAT. In some deployments, NG-RAN may also implement LTE RAT.

[0005] The base stations used by the RAN may correspond to the RAN. An example of an E-UTRAN base station is an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node B (also commonly denoted as an evolved Node B, enhanced Node B, eNodeB, or eNB). An example of an NG-RAN base station is a Next Generation Node B (sometimes also referred to as a g-Node B or gNB).

[0006] The RAN provides its communication services with external entities through its connection to the Core Network (CN). For example, E-UTRAN may utilize the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) while NG-RAN may utilize the 5G Core Network (5GC). BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0007] To easily identify the discussion of any particular element or action, the most significant digit(s) in a reference number refers to the drawing number that first introduces the element.

[0008] Figure 1 An example wireless communication system is shown in accordance with embodiments described herein.

[0009] Figure 2 An example flow diagram illustrating operations that may be performed by a UE according to the embodiments described herein.

[0010] Figure 3 Another example flow diagram illustrating operations that may be performed by a UE according to embodiments described herein.

[0011] Figure 4 An example flow diagram illustrating operations that may be performed by a base station according to embodiments described herein.

[0012] Figure 5 An example architecture of a wireless communication system according to the embodiments described herein is illustrated.

[0013] Figure 6 A system for performing signaling between a wireless device and a network device according to embodiments described herein is illustrated. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0014] In the present disclosure, various embodiments relate to systems and methods for setting uplink HARQ mode restrictions for radio bearers for uplink transmission of application layer measurement reports, which may be referred to as QoE reports hereinafter. Specifically, the embodiments described herein relate to configuring a UE to transmit a HARQ mode restriction of the QoE report to a base station using signaling radio bearer 4 (SRB4). The base station may be in a terrestrial network or a non-terrestrial network (NTN), and the QoE report may be visible to a radio access network (RAN) (e.g., RAN visible) or invisible to the RAN (e.g., RAN invisible). RAN visible QoE reports may be used by the RAN to optimize the RAN. RAN invisible QoE reports may be used by the network for various purposes, including but not limited to optimizing a core network or RAN, collecting statistical information for analysis, and the like. The network as described herein may also include a core network, such as a 5G core network, and the like.

[0015] Based on recent studies in 3GPP, the HARQ process can be configured to operate in one of two possible modes - HARQ Mode A and HARQ Mode B. In HARQ Mode A, the UE starts the drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerUL for the corresponding HARQ process in the first symbol after the first transmission (within the bundle) of the corresponding PUSCH transmission ends. HARQ Mode A is a traditional HARQ operation. In HARQ Mode B, the UE does not start the drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerUL for the corresponding HARQ process, and will not start the drx-RetransmissionTimerUL for the corresponding HARQ process either.

[0016] In some embodiments, when the UE communicates with a base station in an NTN, HARQ Mode B is preferred to cope with long round trip times (RTTs). Even though blind retransmissions may have been scheduled by the base station, the UE does not need to wait for a retransmission grant.

[0017] In some embodiments, the base station may configure LCH mapping restrictions regarding the HARQ mode for a logical channel (LCH). As described herein, the HARQ mode for the LCH may be preconfigured as one of HARQ mode A or HARQ mode B. As a non-limiting example, HARQ mode B may be preconfigured for radio bearers without a high reliability target. In addition, the LCH mapping restrictions regarding the HARQ mode may be configured using the allowedHARQ-mode included in the logicalChannelConfig as specified in the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Technical Specification (TS) 38.331Rel 17. The allowedHARQ-mode included in the logicalChannelConfig indicates the allowed HARQ mode mapped to the logical channel and applied to the HARQ process of SRB1, SRB2, and SRB3. As described herein, in some embodiments, the allowedHARQ-mode field of the logicalChannelConfig may be used to indicate the HARQ mode of the HARQ process using SRB4.

[0018] A QoE reporting framework is also defined based on recent research in 3GPP, namely application layer measurements (which are also referred to and referred to herein as QoE). The UE may be configured to perform application layer measurements corresponding to applications executed on the UE. The UE may receive measurement reports from the applications and generate application layer measurement reports or QoE reports to the network. In the present disclosure, application layer measurements may also refer to QoE measurements and vice versa, and application layer measurement reports may also refer to QoE reports and vice versa. In addition, the QoE report may be visible to a radio access network (RAN) (e.g., to a base station) and may be referred to herein as a RAN-visible QoE report. Alternatively, the QoE report may be invisible to the RAN and may be referred to herein as a RAN-invisible QoE report.

[0019] SRB4 may be used to send QoE reports to the network. SRB4 may be configured as defined in 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 38.331. Thus, in some embodiments, SRB4 is used for radio resource control (RRC) messages that include QoE reporting information. SRB4 may use a dedicated control channel (DCCH) logical channel. As a non-limiting example, SRB4 may be configured by the core network after access stratum (AS) security activation.

[0020] In some embodiments, SRB4 may be used to send QoE reports, and the reliability level of SRB4 may be configured by the network. For example, the reliability level of SRB4 may be configured by the network based on whether the network requires reliable QoE information for network optimization, statistics collection, and / or data analysis, etc.

[0021] As described above, the reliability of an SRB may be related to a HARQ mode, and currently the HARQ mode may be specified only for SRB1, SRB2, and SRB3. Therefore, various embodiments described in the present disclosure provide solutions for configuring or setting the reliability mode of SRB4, which may be used to send a QoE report to the network. As a non-limiting example, the QoE report may also be generated and / or applied in an NTN scenario.

[0022] Reference will now be made specifically to the representative embodiments / aspects illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The following description is not intended to limit the embodiments to a preferred embodiment. On the contrary, it is intended to cover alternatives, combinations, modifications and equivalents that may be included within the spirit and scope of the embodiments defined by the appended claims.

[0023] Figure 1 An example wireless communication system according to the embodiments described herein is shown. Figure 1As shown, the wireless communication system 100 may include base stations 104, 106 and / or 108 and UE 102. In some embodiments, base stations 104, 106 and / or 108 may be eNBs, eNodeBs, gNodeBs or access points (APs) in a radio access network (RAN), and may support one or more radio access technologies, such as 4G, 5G, 5G new radio (5G NR), etc. In addition, the RAN may be a terrestrial network (TN) or an NTN. For example, base stations 106 and 108 are in an NTN, and base station 104 is in a TN. A base station in an NTN may be on a satellite in Earth orbit, or may be on a drone or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). UE 102 may be a phone, a smart phone, a tablet computer, a smart watch, an Internet of Things (IoT), etc.

[0024] Figure 2 An example flow chart of operations that can be performed by a UE according to an embodiment described herein is illustrated. In some embodiments, a HARQ mode of a HARQ process corresponding to the transmission of a QoE report using SRB4 on an LCH can be configured by a base station. Thus, as shown in flowchart 200, at 202, the UE can receive, via a transceiver of the UE, a configuration corresponding to a radio bearer dedicated to reporting at least one application layer measurement or QoE measurement to a network. As a non-limiting example, the radio bearer can be SRB4. As a non-limiting example, a configuration corresponding to a radio bearer for reporting QoE measurements to a network can be received by the UE from a base station and / or from the network via the base station. The configuration corresponding to the radio bearer can indicate that the UE can generate a QoE report or an application layer measurement report and transmit it using a radio bearer. The configuration corresponding to the radio bearer can also indicate whether the UE needs to segment the QoE report if the size of the QoE report exceeds a threshold byte size (e.g., 9000 bytes).

[0025] At 204, the UE may receive a configuration of a logical channel (LCH) corresponding to a radio bearer (e.g., SRB4). Additionally or alternatively, the UE may also receive a configuration of an uplink (UL) HARQ mode restriction corresponding to the LCH. The LCH may be used for and / or allocated for transmission of a QoE report. The UL HARQ mode restriction for the LCH may be set to HARQ Mode A or HARQ Mode B. HARQ Mode A and HARQ Mode B are described above in the present disclosure, so those details are not repeated for brevity. As a non-limiting example, a configuration for the LCH and / or a configuration for the UL HARQ mode restriction corresponding to the LCH may be received by the UE from a base station and / or from a core network via the base station.

[0026] At 206, the UE may report at least one application layer measurement or QoE measurement to the network via the LCH and based on the HARQ mode restriction corresponding to the LCH as received in the configuration at 204. The UE may perform a HARQ process based on the UL HARQ mode restriction as set or configured for the LCH channel for transmission of the QoE report. In other words, the UE may map SRB4 data (e.g., QoE report) to radio resources using the HARQ process of the configured UL HARQ mode. As described herein, the QoE report and / or QoE measurement may correspond to an application that requires a reliability that is at least higher than a specific value or a predetermined threshold or lower than a specific value or a predetermined threshold. As a non-limiting example, for an application layer measurement or QoE measurement corresponding to an application or application target that requires a reliability that is at least higher than a specific value or a predetermined threshold, the HARQ mode restriction may be set to HARQ mode A; in other aspects, the HARQ mode restriction may be set to HARQ mode B.

[0027] In some embodiments, HARQ mode restrictions or specific HARQ modes for LCH used to transmit QoE reports using SRB4 may not be specified in the allowedHARQ-mode field of the above-mentioned logicalChannelConfig, or in any other configuration that can be used to set HARQ mode restrictions for LCH used to transmit QoE reports using SRB4.

[0028] exist Figure 2 In the embodiment, HARQ mode restriction is set at the UE based on the configuration received from the network and / or the base station. The HARQ mode restriction in the configuration may be set by the network and / or the base station according to, for example, RTT, the expected reliability of the application target or the application, etc.

[0029] Alternatively or additionally, the HARQ mode restriction for the LCH used to transmit the QoE report using SRB4 may be selected or determined by the UE based on the content of the RRC message carrying the QoE report information (e.g., SRB4), as described below using Figure 3 Described in detail.

[0030] Figure 3 Another example flow chart of operations that may be performed by a UE according to embodiments described herein is illustrated. As shown in flow chart 300, at 302, the UE may perform application layer measurements or QoE measurements for applications executed on the UE. The UE may perform QoE measurements periodically or aperiodically (e.g., on demand). QoE measurements may be related to bit rate (e.g., transmission capacity), delay, continuity, data loss, etc. Thus, QoE measurements may collect measurement data corresponding to the application layer of the UE protocol stack.

[0031] At 304, the UE may prepare or construct an RRC signaling message for reporting the QoE measurement to the network and / or base station. The RRC signaling message may be sent on a radio bearer (e.g., SRB4), as described herein according to some embodiments. Thus, the QoE measurement report may be transmitted to the network and / or base station using SRB4. The QoE report may be a RAN visible QoE report and / or a RAN invisible QoE report, as described herein.

[0032] At 306, the UE may determine the content of the RRC signaling message (e.g., a QoE report to be transmitted by a radio bearer, which may include SRB4). As a non-limiting example, the UE may determine that the content includes an identification of an application layer measurement or a QoE measurement, a type of the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement. The UE may also determine whether the QoE measurement corresponds to a RAN-visible QoE report or a RAN-visible QoE measurement, or a RAN-invisible QoE report or a RAN-invisible QoE measurement. In some embodiments, the UE may determine whether the content of the SRB4 is based on or associated with a quality of service (QoS) flow that is mapped to a data radio bearer for a communication service for an application associated with the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement.

[0033] At 308, a HARQ mode may be determined or selected by the UE for a HARQ process associated with an LCH for transmitting the QoE report to a base station and / or a network using SRB4, based on the content of the QoE report to be transmitted on SRB4 as determined at 306. As a non-limiting example, the UE may determine the HARQ mode based on an identification of an application layer measurement or QoE measurement or a type of application layer measurement or QoE measurement as determined by the UE at 306. The HARQ mode to be selected by the UE corresponding to the identification of the application layer measurement or QoE measurement or the type of application layer measurement or QoE measurement may be pre-configured at the UE, for example, by the base station and / or the core network.

[0034] In some embodiments, and as a non-limiting example, for RAN-visible QoE measurements or RAN-visible QoE reporting, or RAN-invisible QoE measurements or RAN-invisible QoE reporting, the UE may select HARQ mode A for the HARQ process associated with the LCH for transmitting QoE reports using SRB4.

[0035] In some embodiments, for RAN-invisible QoE measurement or RAN-invisible QoE reporting, the UE may select HARQ Mode B for the HARQ process associated with the LCH used to transmit QoE reports using SRB4.

[0036] In some embodiments, the HARQ mode may be determined based on the QoS flows determined above at 306. For QoS flows associated with reliability that requires reliability above a predetermined reliability threshold, HARQ Mode A may be selected; in other aspects, HARQ Mode B may be selected.

[0037] Figure 4 An example flow chart illustrating operations that may be performed by a base station according to embodiments described herein. As shown in flow chart 400, at 402, the base station may transmit to the UE and via a transceiver of the base station a configuration corresponding to SRB4 for reporting QoE measurements to the network. The configuration corresponding to SRB4 may indicate whether the UE may generate a QoE report or an application layer measurement report and transmit it using SRB4. The configuration corresponding to SRB4 may also indicate whether the UE needs to segment the QoE report if the size of the QoE report exceeds a threshold byte size (e.g., 9000 bytes).

[0038] At 404, the base station may transmit a configuration for a logical channel (LCH) to the UE. Additionally or alternatively, the base station may also transmit a configuration for an uplink (UL) HARQ mode restriction corresponding to the LCH. The LCH may be used for and / or allocated for transmission of a QoE report. The UL HARQ mode restriction for the LCH may be set to HARQ mode A or HARQ mode B. HARQ mode A and HARQ mode B are described above in the present disclosure, so those details are not repeated for brevity. In some embodiments, the base station may not specify a HARQ mode, and the UE may determine the HARQ mode, as described herein according to some embodiments. The base station may determine which HARQ mode to use and include the HARQ mode in the configuration based on the reliability associated with the application executed on the UE corresponding to the application layer measurement or QoE measurement, the identification of the application layer measurement or QoE measurement, and / or the type of the application layer measurement or QoE measurement.

[0039] Embodiments contemplated herein include an apparatus having means for performing one or more elements of methods 200, 300, or 400. In the context of methods 200 or 300, the apparatus may be, for example, an apparatus of a UE (such as wireless device 602 as a UE, as described herein). In the context of method 400, the apparatus may be, for example, an apparatus of a base station (such as network device 620 as a base station, as described herein).

[0040] Embodiments contemplated herein include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of methods 200, 300, or 400. In the context of methods 200 or 300, the non-transitory computer-readable medium may be, for example, a memory of a UE (such as memory 606 of wireless device 602 as a UE, as described herein). In the context of method 400, the non-transitory computer-readable medium may be, for example, a memory of a base station (such as memory 624 of network device 620 as a base station, as described herein).

[0041] Embodiments contemplated herein include an apparatus having logical components, modules, or circuits for performing one or more elements of methods 200, 300, or 400. In the context of methods 200 or 300, the apparatus may be, for example, an apparatus of a UE (such as wireless device 602 as a UE, as described herein). In the context of method 400, the apparatus may be, for example, an apparatus of a base station (such as network device 620 as a base station, as described herein).

[0042] Embodiments contemplated herein include an apparatus having one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media that use or store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform one or more elements of methods 200, 300, or 400. In the context of methods 200 or 300, the apparatus may be, for example, an apparatus of a UE (such as wireless device 602 as a UE, as described herein). In the context of method 600, the apparatus may be, for example, an apparatus of a base station (such as network device 620 as a base station, as described herein).

[0043] Embodiments contemplated herein include a signal as described in or associated with one or more elements of methods 200 , 300 , or 400 .

[0044] Embodiments contemplated herein include a computer program or computer program product having instructions, wherein when the program is executed by a processor, the processor is caused to perform one or more elements of the method 200, 300, or 400. In the context of the method 200 or 300, the processor may be a processor of a UE (such as the processor 604 of the wireless device 602 as a UE, as described herein), and the instructions may be located, for example, in the processor and / or on a memory of the UE (such as the memory 606 of the wireless device 602 as a UE, as described herein). In the context of the method 400, the processor may be a processor of a base station (such as the processor 622 of the network device 620 as a base station, as described herein), and the instructions may be located, for example, in the processor and / or on a memory of the base station (such as the memory 624 of the network device 620 as a base station, as described herein).

[0045] Figure 5 An example architecture of a wireless communication system according to the embodiments described herein is illustrated. The description provided below is for an exemplary wireless communication system 500 operating in conjunction with the LTE system standard and / or the 5G or NR system standard provided in the 3GPP technical specifications.

[0046] like Figure 5 As shown, wireless communication system 500 includes UE 502 and UE 504 (however, any number of UEs may be used). In this example, UE 502 and UE 504 are shown as smartphones (e.g., handheld touch screen mobile computing devices capable of connecting to one or more cellular networks), but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device configured for wireless communication.

[0047] UE 502 and UE 504 may be configured to be communicatively coupled to RAN 506. In an embodiment, RAN 506 may be NG-RAN, E-UTRAN, etc. UE 502 and UE 504 utilize connections (or channels) (shown as connection 508 and connection 510, respectively) with RAN 506, each of which includes a physical communication interface. RAN 506 may include one or more base stations, such as base station 512 and base station 514, that enable connection 508 and connection 510.

[0048] In this example, connection 508 and connection 510 are the air interfaces used to enable such communicative coupling and may conform to the RAT used by RAN 506, such as, for example, LTE and / or NR.

[0049] In some embodiments, UE 502 and UE 504 may also directly exchange communication data via side link interface 516. UE 504 is illustrated as being configured to access an access point (illustrated as AP 518) via connection 520. As an example, connection 520 may include a local wireless connection, such as any connection conforming to the IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein AP 518 may include In this example, AP 518 can connect to another network (eg, the Internet) without going through CN 524.

[0050] In an embodiment, UE 502 and UE 504 may be configured to communicate with each other or with base station 512 and / or base station 514 over a multi-carrier communication channel using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals according to various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communication) or single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communication), although the scope of the embodiment is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signal may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0051] In some embodiments, all or part of the base station 512 or the base station 514 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network. In addition, or in other embodiments, the base station 512 or the base station 514 may be configured to communicate with each other via the interface 522. In an embodiment where the wireless communication system 500 is an LTE system (e.g., when the CN 524 is an EPC), the interface 522 may be an X2 interface. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more base stations (e.g., two or more eNBs, etc.) connected to the EPC and / or between two eNBs connected to the EPC. In an embodiment where the wireless communication system 500 is an NR system (e.g., when the CN 524 is a 5GC), the interface 522 may be an Xn interface. The Xn interface is defined between two or more base stations (e.g., two or more gNBs, etc.) connected to the 5GC, between the base station 512 (e.g., gNB) and the eNB connected to the 5GC, and / or between two eNBs connected to the 5GC (e.g., CN 524).

[0052] RAN 506 is illustrated as being communicatively coupled to CN 524. CN 524 may include one or more network elements 526 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., UE 502 and users of UE 504) connected to CN 524 via RAN 506. Components of CN 524 may be implemented in one physical device or separate physical devices including components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium).

[0053] In an embodiment, CN 524 may be an EPC, and RAN 506 may be connected to CN 524 via an S1 interface 528. In an embodiment, S1 interface 528 may be divided into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface, which carries communication traffic data between base station 512 or base station 514 and a serving gateway (S-GW); and an S1-MME interface, which is a signaling interface between base station 512 or base station 514 and a mobility management entity (MME).

[0054] In an embodiment, CN 524 may be a 5GC, and RAN 506 may be connected to CN 524 via an NG interface 528. In an embodiment, NG interface 528 may be divided into two parts: an NG user plane (NG-U) interface, which carries communication service data between base station 512 or base station 514 and a user plane function (UPF); and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface, which is a signaling interface between base station 512 or base station 514 and an access and mobility management function (AMF).

[0055] In general, the application server 530 may be an element that provides applications that use Internet Protocol (IP) bearer resources with the CN 524 (e.g., packet-switched data services). The application server 530 may also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., VoIP sessions, group communication sessions, etc.) for the UE 502 and UE 504 via the CN 524. The application server 530 may communicate with the CN 524 via an IP communication interface 532.

[0056] Figure 6 A system 600 for performing signaling 638 between a wireless device 602 and a network device 620 according to an embodiment described herein is illustrated. The system 600 may be part of a wireless communication system as described herein. The wireless device 602 may be, for example, a UE of a wireless communication system. The network device 620 may be, for example, a base station (e.g., an eNB or a gNB) of a wireless communication system.

[0057] The wireless device 602 may include one or more processors 604. The processor 604 may execute instructions to perform various operations of the wireless device 602 as described herein. The processor 604 may include one or more baseband processors implemented using, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a controller, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) device, another hardware device, a firmware device, or any combination thereof configured to perform the operations described herein.

[0058] The wireless device 602 may include a memory 606. The memory 606 may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions 608 (which may include, for example, instructions executed by the processor 604). The instructions 608 may also be referred to as program code or a computer program. The memory 606 may also store data used by the processor 604 and results calculated by the processor.

[0059] The wireless device 602 may include one or more transceivers 610, which may include radio frequency (RF) transmitter and / or receiver circuitry that uses an antenna 612 of the wireless device 602 to facilitate signaling (e.g., signaling 638) to and / or from the wireless device 602 with other devices (e.g., network device 620) in accordance with a corresponding RAT.

[0060] The wireless device 602 may include one or more antennas 612 (e.g., one, two, four, or more). For embodiments with multiple antennas 612, the wireless device 602 may utilize the spatial diversity of such multiple antennas 612 to transmit and / or receive multiple different data streams on the same time-frequency resources. This behavior may be referred to as, for example, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) behavior (referring to the multiple antennas used at each of the transmitting device and the receiving device to implement this aspect). MIMO transmission by the wireless device 602 may be implemented based on precoding (or digital beamforming) applied to the wireless device 602, which multiplexes the data streams between the antennas 612 based on known or assumed channel characteristics, so that each data stream is received with appropriate signal strength relative to the other streams and at a desired location in the spatial domain (e.g., the location of the receiver associated with the data stream). Some embodiments may use a single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO) approach (where data streams are all directed to a single receiver) and / or a multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) approach (where separate data streams may be directed to separate (different) receivers in different locations in the spatial domain).

[0061] In some embodiments with multiple antennas, wireless device 602 may implement analog beamforming techniques whereby the phases of signals transmitted by antennas 612 are relatively adjusted so that the (joint) transmissions of antennas 612 may be directed (this is sometimes referred to as beam steering).

[0062] The wireless device 602 may include one or more interfaces 614. The interfaces 614 may be used to provide input to or output from the wireless device 602. For example, a wireless device 602 that is a UE may include an interface 614, such as a microphone, a speaker, a touch screen, buttons, etc., to allow a user of the UE to provide input and / or output to the UE. Other interfaces of such a UE may be composed of transmitters, receivers, and other circuits (e.g., in addition to the transceiver 610 / antenna 612 described above), which allow the UE to communicate with other devices and may communicate according to known protocols (e.g., etc.) to perform the operation.

[0063] The wireless device 602 may include a QoE measurement module 616. The QoE measurement module 616 may be implemented via hardware, software, or a combination thereof. For example, the QoE measurement module 616 may be implemented as a processor, circuit, and / or instructions 608 stored in the memory 606 and executed by the processor 604. In some examples, the QoE measurement module 616 may be integrated within the processor 604 and / or the transceiver 610. For example, the QoE measurement module 616 may be implemented by a combination of software components (e.g., executed by a DSP or general purpose processor) and hardware components (e.g., logic gates and circuits) within the processor 604 or the transceiver 610.

[0064] From the perspective of the UE, the QoE measurement module 616 may be used in various aspects of the present disclosure, for example, Figures 2 to 4 all aspects.

[0065] The network device 620 may include one or more processors 622. The processor 622 may execute instructions to perform various operations as described herein for the network device 620. The processor 622 may include one or more baseband processors implemented using, for example, a CPU, a DSP, an ASIC, a controller, an FPGA device, another hardware device, a firmware device, or any combination thereof configured to perform the operations described herein.

[0066] The network device 620 may include a memory 624. The memory 624 may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions 626 (which may include, for example, instructions executed by the processor 622). The instructions 626 may also be referred to as program code or a computer program. The memory 624 may also store data used by the processor 622 and results calculated by the processor.

[0067] The network device 620 may include one or more transceivers 628, which may include RF transmitter and / or receiver circuitry that uses an antenna 630 of the network device 620 to facilitate signaling (e.g., signaling 638) transmitted or received by the network device 620 with other devices (e.g., wireless device 602) according to a corresponding RAT.

[0068] The network device 620 may include one or more antennas 630 (e.g., one, two, four, or more). In embodiments with multiple antennas 630, the network device 620 may perform MIMO, digital beamforming, analog beamforming, beamsteering, etc. as described above.

[0069] The network device 620 may include one or more interfaces 632. The interface 632 may be used to provide input to or output from the network device 620. For example, the network device 620 as a base station may include an interface 632 composed of a transmitter, a receiver, and other circuits (e.g., in addition to the transceiver 628 / antenna 630 described above), which enables the base station to communicate with other equipment in the core network and / or enables the base station to communicate with external networks, computers, databases, etc., in order to achieve the purpose of performing operations, management, and maintenance of the base station or other equipment operably connected to the base station.

[0070] The network device 620 may include a QoE measurement operation module 634. The UE measurement module 634 may be implemented via hardware, software, or a combination thereof. For example, the QoE measurement module 634 may be implemented as a processor, circuit, and / or instructions 626 stored in the memory 624 and executed by the processor 622. In some examples, the QoE measurement module 634 may be integrated within the processor 622 and / or the transceiver 628. For example, the QoE measurement module 634 may be implemented by a combination of software components (e.g., executed by a DSP or a general purpose processor) and hardware components (e.g., logic gates and circuits) within the processor 622 or the transceiver 628.

[0071] From the perspective of the base station, the QoE measurement module 634 may be used in various aspects of the present disclosure, for example, Figures 2 to 4 all aspects.

[0072] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth in one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and / or methods as described herein. For example, a baseband processor as described herein in conjunction with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples set forth herein. For another example, circuits associated with a UE, a base station, a network element, etc. as described above in conjunction with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples set forth herein.

[0073] Unless otherwise explicitly stated, any of the above embodiments may be combined with any other embodiment (or combination of embodiments). The foregoing description of one or more specific implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limit the scope of the embodiments to the precise form described. In view of the above teachings, modifications and variations are possible, or modifications and variations can be obtained from the practice of various embodiments.

[0074] Embodiments and implementations of the systems and methods described herein may include various operations that may be embodied in machine executable instructions to be executed by a computer system. A computer system may include one or more general or special purpose computers (or other electronic devices). A computer system may include hardware components that include specific logic components for performing operations; or may include a combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware.

[0075] The systems described herein relate to specific embodiments, but are provided as examples. These embodiments may be combined into a single system, partially combined into other systems, divided into multiple systems, or otherwise divided or combined. In addition, it is contemplated that parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. of another embodiment may be used in one embodiment. For clarity, these parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. are described only in one or more embodiments, and it should be recognized that unless explicitly stated herein, these parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. may be combined with or substituted for parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. of another embodiment.

[0076] It is understood that the use of personally identifiable information should be subject to privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized to meet or exceed industry or government requirements for maintaining user privacy. Specifically, personally identifiable information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of the authorized use should be clearly stated to users.

[0077] Although the foregoing has been described in considerable detail for the sake of clarity, it will be apparent that changes and modifications may be made without departing from the principles of the invention. It should be noted that there are many alternative ways to implement both the processes and the apparatus described herein. Therefore, the embodiments of the present invention should be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive, and the specification is not limited to the details given herein, but may be modified within the scope and equivalents of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A user equipment (UE), the user equipment (UE) comprising: Transceiver; and A processor, the processor being configured to: receiving, via the transceiver, a configuration for a radio bearer dedicated to reporting at least one application layer measurement or quality of experience (QoE) measurement to a network; receiving, via the transceiver, a configuration for a logical channel (LCH) corresponding to the radio bearer and an uplink (UL) corresponding to the LCH Configuration of Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) mode restrictions; as well as The at least one application layer measurement or quality of experience (QoE) measurement is reported to the network via the LCH and based on the HARQ mode restriction corresponding to the LCH.

2. The UE of claim 1, wherein the base station is in a non-terrestrial network (NTN).

3. The UE according to claim 1, wherein: The UL HARQ mode restriction corresponds to HARQ Mode A; and The processor is configured to start a drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerUL timer for the HARQ process in a first symbol after a first transmission of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) for the application layer measurement or the quality of experience (QoE) measurement ends. 4 . The UE of claim 1 , wherein the radio bearer dedicated to reporting at least application layer measurements of the QoE measurements to the network is a signaling radio bearer 4 (SRB4).

5. The UE according to claim 1, wherein: The UL HARQ mode restriction corresponds to HARQ Mode B; and The processor is configured to refrain from starting a drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerUL timer for the HARQ process after a first transmission of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) for the application layer measurement or the quality of experience (QoE) measurement ends. 6 . The UE of claim 5 , wherein the processor is configured to refrain from starting a drx-RetransmissionTime UL timer for the HARQ process. 7 . The UE of claim 1 , wherein the configuration of the UL HARQ mode restriction corresponding to the LCH indicates that there is no HARQ mode restriction associated with the LCH.

8. A user equipment (UE), the user equipment (UE) comprising: Transceiver; and A processor, the processor being configured to: performing application layer measurements or quality of experience (QoE) measurements for applications executed on the UE; preparing a radio resource control (RRC) signaling message for reporting the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement to a base station or a network via the transceiver using a radio bearer; Determining the content of the RRC signaling message; as well as Based on the determination of the content of the RRC signaling message, a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) mode corresponding to the radio bearer for reporting the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement is determined.

9. The UE according to claim 8, wherein the content of the RRC signaling message includes an identifier of the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement or a type of the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement.

10. The UE according to claim 9, wherein the HARQ mode corresponding to the radio bearer for reporting the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement is pre-configured at the UE by the base station or the network corresponding to the identification of the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement or the type of the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement.

11. The UE according to claim 8, wherein: the content of the RRC signaling message comprising the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement visible to a radio access network (RAN); The determined HARQ mode corresponds to HARQ Mode A; and The processor is configured to start a drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerUL timer for a HARQ process in a first symbol after a first transmission of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) using the radio bearer to transmit at least one of the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement ends.

12. The UE according to claim 8, wherein: the content of the RRC signaling message comprising the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement that is not visible to a radio access network (RAN); The determined HARQ mode corresponds to HARQ Mode A; and The processor is configured to start a drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerUL timer for a HARQ process in a first symbol after a first transmission of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) conveying at least one of the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement ends.

13. The UE according to claim 8, wherein: the content of the RRC signaling message comprising the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement that is not visible to a radio access network (RAN); The determined HARQ mode corresponds to HARQ mode B; and The processor is configured to refrain from starting a drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerUL timer for a HARQ process after a first transmission of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) conveying at least one of the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement ends.

14. The UE of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to refrain from starting a drx-RetransmissionTimeUL timer for the HARQ process.

15. The UE according to claim 8, wherein: The processor is configured to: determining the content of the RRC signaling message based on a quality of service (QoS) flow mapped to a data radio bearer for a communication service of an application associated with the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement; as well as The HARQ mode is determined based on reporting the QoS flow of the application associated with the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement using the radio bearer.

16. The UE of claim 8, wherein the base station is in a non-terrestrial network (NTN).

17. The UE of claim 8, wherein the radio bearer is a signaling radio bearer 4 (SRB4).

18. A base station, comprising: Transceiver; and A processor, the processor being configured to: transmitting to a user equipment (UE) and via the transceiver a configuration for a signaling radio bearer 4 (SRB4) for reporting application layer measurements or quality of experience (QoE) measurements to a core network or the base station; as well as A configuration for a logical channel (LCH) corresponding to the SRB4 and a configuration of an uplink (UL) hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) mode restriction corresponding to the LCH are transmitted to the UE and via the transceiver.

19. The base station according to claim 18, wherein: The UL HARQ mode restriction corresponds to HARQ mode A, HARQ mode B, or neither; and The UL HARQ mode restriction is determined based on a reliability associated with an application executed on the UE corresponding to the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement.

20. The base station according to claim 18, wherein: The UL HARQ mode restriction corresponds to an identifier of the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement or a type of the application layer measurement or the QoE measurement.

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