Selection of a candidate cell to measured for mobility inter l1 / l2 cells

Abstract

Embodiments include a method for a user equipment (UE) configured to communicate with a radio access network (RAN) node via a serving cell. The method includes obtaining a configuration defining one or more conditions that trigger low-layer measurements of one or more candidate cells for inter-L1 / L2 cell mobility. The method includes performing one or more of the following measurements: a low layer measurement of the serving cell, a first L3 measurement of the serving cell, and a second L3 measurement of at least one of the candidate cells. The method comprises, based on detecting that the performed measurement satisfies at least one of the conditions, initiating a low-layer measurement of at least one candidate cell associated with the satisfied at least one condition, and sending a low-layer measurement report to the RAN node, the low-layer measurement report includes a result of performing a low-layer measurement on the at least one candidate cell.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates generally to the field of wireless networks, and more particularly to improving mobility of a user equipment (UE) between multiple cells in a wireless network, in particular mobility based on layer 1 (L1) and / or layer 2 (L2) procedures with less latency than conventional layer 3 mobility procedures. Background Art

[0002] Fifth generation (5G) cellular systems are currently being standardized within the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). 5G is being developed to allow for maximum flexibility to support a wide range of use cases, including enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), machine type communications (MTC), ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC), and sidelink device-to-device (D2D) communications.

[0003] Figure 1 A high-level view of an exemplary 5G network architecture is shown, which consists of a Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN, 199) and a 5G Core (5GC, 198). The NG-RAN may include one or more gNodeBs (gNBs) connected to the 5GC via one or more NG interfaces, such as gNBs (100, 150) connected via corresponding interfaces (102, 152). More specifically, the gNBs may be connected to one or more access and mobility management functions (AMFs) in the 5GC via corresponding NG-C interfaces, and to one or more user plane functions (UPFs) in the 5GC via corresponding NG-U interfaces. The 5GC may include various other network functions (NFs), such as a session management function (SMF).

[0004] Although not shown, in some deployments, the 5GC may be replaced by an evolved packet core (EPC), which has been traditionally used with long term evolution (LTE) evolved UMTS RAN (E-UTRAN). In such deployments, gNBs (e.g., 100, 150) may be connected to one or more mobility management entities (MMEs) in the EPC 198 via corresponding S1-C interfaces. Similarly, the gNBs may be connected to one or more serving gateways (SGWs) in the EPC via corresponding NG-U interfaces.

[0005] In addition, the gNBs may be connected to each other via one or more Xn interfaces (e.g., an Xn interface (140) between gNBs (100, 150)). The radio technology of NG-RAN is generally referred to as "New Radio" (NR). With respect to the NR interface with the UE, each gNB may support frequency division duplex (FDD), time division duplex (TDD), or a combination thereof. Each gNB may provide service for a geographic coverage area including one or more cells.

[0006] NG-RAN is layered into the Radio Network Layer (RNL) and the Transport Network Layer (TNL). The NG-RAN architecture (i.e., NG-RAN logical nodes and the interfaces between them) is defined as part of the RNL. For each NG-RAN interface (NG, Xn, F1), the relevant TNL protocols and functions are specified. TNL provides services for user plane transport and signaling transport.

[0007] Figure 1 The NG RAN logical nodes shown include a central unit (CU or gNB-CU, such as 110) and one or more distributed units (DU or gNB-DU, such as 120, 130). The CU is a logical node that hosts high-layer protocols and performs various gNB functions (e.g., controls the operation of the DU). The DU is a decentralized logical node that hosts low-layer protocols and may include various subsets of gNB functions depending on the functional split options. Therefore, each of the CU and DU may include various circuits required to perform its respective functions, including processing circuits, communication interface circuits (e.g., transceivers), and power supply circuits.

[0008] gNB-CU through the corresponding F1 logical interface (for example, Figure 1 The F1 interface is connected to one or more gNB-DUs (see interfaces 122 and 132). However, a gNB-DU can only be connected to a single gNB-CU. The gNB-CU and its connected gNB-DUs are visible to other gNBs and the 5GC as one gNB only. In other words, the F1 interface is not visible outside the gNB-CU.

[0009] In addition to providing coverage via "cells" as in LTE, NR networks also provide coverage via "beams". In general, a downlink (DL, i.e., network to UE) "beam" is a coverage area of ​​a network-sent reference signal (RS) that can be measured or monitored by the UE. To support beam management, the UE can be configured with a channel state information (CSI) measurement configuration that instructs the UE to monitor the CSI-RS and send various CSI reports to the RAN (e.g., NG-RAN). For example, for each type of CSI report that the UE is configured to send, the RAN indicates an explicit list of CSI resources to be monitored by the UE. Similar techniques can be used for beam management based on synchronization signal / PBCH block (SSB) RS sent by the network.

[0010] 3GPP Release 17 includes an inter-cell beam management feature where a UE can have multiple active transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states, including one TCI state associated with the physical cell identity (PCI) of its serving cell and up to M other TCI states associated with the PCI of other cells. For example, different PCIs may represent different transmission reception points (TRPs). For each of the N additional TCI states, the UE may be configured with a CSI resource (or resource set) to monitor inter-PCI (or inter-cell) beam management.

[0011] As specified in 3GPP document RP-213565, NR Release 18 includes work items on NR mobility enhancements, including the technical area of ​​L1 / L2-based inter-cell mobility. When a UE moves between the coverage areas of two cells, a serving cell change needs to be performed at some point in time. Currently, serving cell changes are triggered by Layer 3 (L3, such as RRC) measurements and involve radio resource control (RRC) signaling for changing PCell and / or PSCell (for example, when dual connectivity is configured) and releasing / adding SCell (for example, when CA is configured).

[0012] Currently, L3 inter-cell mobility involves a complete Layer 2 (L2) and Layer 1 (L1, i.e., PHY) reset, resulting in longer latency, increased signaling overhead, and longer outages (compared to intra-cell beam switching). Therefore, the goal of Release 18's L1 / L2 mobility enhancements is to facilitate serving cell changes via L1 / L2 signaling to address these issues and / or difficulties. Summary of the invention

[0013] According to Release 17, the UE may have configured CSI resources to monitor up to N = 7 additional PCI / TCI states for inter-cell beam management. However, due to complexity constraints, the UE may only be able to monitor CSI resources in a subset M (M < N) of the TCI states of other PCI configurations. This may pose various problems, challenges, and / or difficulties for the UE and the RAN. In addition, it is expected that these problems, challenges, and / or difficulties will become more pronounced for Release 18, as the UE may need to measure a larger number of other (e.g., neighboring) beams / cells to support L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility.

[0014] The aim of the embodiments of the present disclosure is to solve these and related problems, challenges, and / or difficulties, thereby facilitating inter-cell beam management in the UE and L1 / L2 mobility between cells in the RAN (e.g., NG-RAN).

[0015] Some embodiments of the present disclosure include a method (e.g., process) for a UE configured to communicate with a RAN node via a serving cell.

[0016] These exemplary methods include obtaining a configuration defining one or more conditions that trigger low-layer measurements on one or more candidate cells for L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility. These exemplary methods include performing one or more of the following measurements: low-layer measurements of the serving cell, first layer 3 "L3" measurements of the serving cell, and second L3 measurements of at least one of the candidate cells. These exemplary methods include: based on detecting that the performed measurements satisfy at least one of these conditions, initiating low-layer measurements on at least one candidate cell associated with the at least one satisfied condition. These exemplary methods include: sending a low-layer measurement report to the RAN node, the low-layer measurement report including the results of low-layer measurements performed on at least one candidate cell.

[0017] In some embodiments, detecting that the performed measurements satisfy at least one of these conditions includes: detecting one or more of the following:

[0018] - The result of the low-layer measurement of the serving cell is lower than a first threshold;

[0019] - The result of the L3 measurement of the serving cell is lower than a second threshold;

[0020] - The result of the L3 measurement of the candidate cell is lower than a third threshold;

[0021] - The result of the L3 measurement of the candidate cell is at least one offset greater than the result of the L3 measurement of the serving cell;

[0022] - The result of the L3 measurement of the serving cell is lower than a fourth threshold; and

[0023] - One or more highest values ​​of the plurality of low-layer measurements of the serving cell are lower than a seventh threshold.

[0024] In some of these embodiments, the plurality of low-layer measurements of the serving cell are measurements of a plurality of beams associated with the serving cell. In other of these embodiments, the offset is associated with a radio resource management (RRM) A3 event, and / or the second threshold is an S-measurement RRM threshold.

[0025] In some embodiments, the exemplary method may further include stopping or suspending low layer measurements of at least one candidate cell based on detecting that at least one of the following measurements satisfies another one or more of the conditions:

[0026] - low-layer measurements of at least one candidate cell,

[0027] - low-layer measurements of the serving cell,

[0028] - the first L3 measurement of the serving cell, and

[0029] - A second L3 measurement of at least one candidate cell.

[0030] In some of these embodiments, detecting that at least one measurement satisfies one or more other of these conditions comprises detecting any of the following:

[0031] -The result of L3 measurement of the serving cell is higher than the fifth threshold;

[0032] - the result of L3 measurement of at least one candidate cell is lower than a sixth threshold;

[0033] - one or more highest values ​​of the plurality of low-layer measurements of the serving cell are higher than an eighth threshold; and

[0034] - One or more highest values ​​of the plurality of low-layer measurements of at least one candidate cell are below a ninth threshold.

[0035] In some variants, the plurality of low-layer measurements of at least one candidate cell (eg, evaluated in relation to a ninth threshold) are measurements of a plurality of beams associated with the at least one candidate cell.

[0036] In some embodiments, the low-layer measurements of the serving cell and at least one candidate cell include one or more of the following items: synchronization signal / PBCH (SSB) reference signal received power (SS-RSRP), SSB reference signal received quality (SS-RSRQ), SSB signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SS-SINR), channel state information (CSI) reference signal received power (CSI-RSRP), CSI reference signal received quality (CSI-RSRQ), CSI signal-to-interference and noise ratio (CSI-SINR), L1-RSRP, L1-RSRQ and L1-SINR.

[0037] In some embodiments, one or more of the following applies: the L3 measurements of the serving cell and at least one candidate cell are L3 reference signal received power (L3-RSRP) measurements; and the L3 measurements of the serving cell and at least one candidate cell are associated with an L3 inter-cell mobility procedure (e.g., handover).

[0038] In some embodiments, the one or more candidate cells for L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility include a plurality of candidate cells. In these embodiments, detecting that the performed measurements satisfy at least one of the conditions comprises: determining that the plurality of candidate cells are associated with the at least one condition that is satisfied. In addition, initiating a low layer measurement of at least one candidate cell associated with the at least one condition that is satisfied, selecting a subset of the plurality of candidate cells based on results of corresponding second L3 measurements of the plurality of candidate cells. In this case, initiating a low layer measurement for the selected subset.

[0039] In some embodiments, the low layer measurement report is a beam measurement report and / or the low layer measurement report is sent via a low layer procedure on a PUCCH or PUSCH in a serving cell.

[0040] In some embodiments, obtaining the configuration comprises receiving a message from a RAN node, the message comprising the configuration or a portion thereof. In some of these embodiments, the message is an RRCReconfiguration message. In some embodiments, the configuration or a portion thereof is obtained from a memory of the UE.

[0041] In some embodiments, these exemplary methods may further include receiving a low-layer message from the RAN node, the low-layer message instructing the UE to perform an L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility procedure on one of the candidate cells whose measurement results are included in the low-layer measurement report. Based on the low-layer message, the UE may perform the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility procedure.

[0042] Other embodiments include a method (eg, process) for a RAN node configured to provide a serving cell to a UE.

[0043] These exemplary methods include sending a configuration defining one or more conditions to a UE, the one or more conditions triggering low-layer measurements of one or more candidate cells for L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility. These conditions are based on one or more of the following: low-layer measurements of the serving cell, first L3 measurements of the serving cell, and second L3 measurements of at least one candidate cell. These exemplary methods also include: based on satisfying at least one of these conditions, receiving a low-layer measurement report from the UE, the low-layer measurement report including results of performing low-layer measurements on at least one candidate cell.

[0044] In various embodiments, these conditions may include any corresponding conditions summarized above for the UE embodiments. In various embodiments, the low-layer measurements of the serving cell and at least one candidate cell may include any corresponding low-layer measurements summarized above for the UE embodiments.

[0045] In some embodiments, these exemplary methods may further include: based on the low-layer measurement report, selecting one of the candidate cells for the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility procedure for the UE, and sending a low-layer message to the UE, the low-layer message instructing the UE to perform the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility procedure to the selected candidate cell.

[0046] Other embodiments include a UE (e.g., a wireless device) and a RAN node (e.g., a base station, eNB, gNB, ng-eNB, etc. or its components (e.g., CU / DU)) configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the exemplary methods described herein. Other embodiments also include a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processing circuit, configure such a UE and a RAN node to perform operations corresponding to any of the exemplary methods described herein.

[0047] These and other embodiments described herein may provide various technical benefits and / or advantages. For example, compared to conventional techniques where the UE autonomously selects a subset M (M < N) of the configured candidate cells for measurement and reporting, the embodiments enable the UE to systematically select the best and / or preferred subset of candidate cells at any given time. In this way, the low-layer measurements reported by the UE are better and / or more relevant for beam management and / or L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility, while avoiding excessive UE power consumption due to unnecessary measurements. At a high level, the embodiments may improve UE mobility in the RAN.

[0048] These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent when reading the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings briefly described below. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0049] Figure 1A high-level view of an exemplary 5G network architecture is shown.

[0050] Figure 2 An exemplary configuration of the NR UP and CP protocol stacks is shown.

[0051] Figure 3 to Figure 4 Shows Figure 1 Logical architecture of a gNB arranged in a split CU / DU architecture as shown.

[0052] Figure 5 An exemplary ASN.1 data structure of the RRCCSI-MeasConfig information element (IE) for configuring CSI-RS resources for UE monitoring is shown.

[0053] Figure 6 An exemplary ASN.1 data structure of the RRCCSI-ReportConfig IE for configuring the UE for CSI reporting is shown.

[0054] Figure 7 An exemplary ASN.1 data structure of the RRCCSI-SSB-ResourceSet IE is shown.

[0055] Figure 8 Exemplary methods (eg, processes) for a UE according to various embodiments of the present disclosure are shown.

[0056] Fig. 9 Exemplary methods (eg, processes) for a RAN node according to various embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated.

[0057] Fig.10 A communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure is shown.

[0058] Fig.11 A UE according to various embodiments of the present disclosure is shown.

[0059] Fig.12 A network node according to various embodiments of the present disclosure is shown.

[0060] Fig.13 A host computing system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure is shown.

[0061] Fig.14 is a block diagram of a virtualization environment that may virtualize functionality implemented by some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0062] Fig.15 Communications between a host computing system, a network node, and a UE via multiple connections, at least one of which is wireless, are shown according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0063] The embodiments briefly summarized above will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. These descriptions are provided by way of example to illustrate the subject matter to those skilled in the art and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the subject matter to only the embodiments described herein. More specifically, examples illustrating the operation of various embodiments according to the above advantages are provided below.

[0064] In general, unless clearly defined and / or implied different meanings in the context of use, all terms used herein are interpreted according to their usual meaning for those of ordinary skill in the relevant technical field. Unless otherwise clearly stated or clearly implied from the context of use, all references to "one / an / element, equipment, component, device, step, etc." should be openly interpreted as referring to at least one instance in an element, equipment, component, device, step, etc. Unless an operation is clearly described as after or before another operation and / or an operation must be after or before another operation implicitly, the operation of any method and / or process disclosed herein does not have to be performed in the exact order disclosed. Where appropriate, any feature of any embodiment disclosed herein may be applicable to any other disclosed embodiment. Similarly, where appropriate, any advantage of any embodiment described herein may be applicable to any other disclosed embodiment.

[0065] Furthermore, the following terms are used throughout the description given below:

[0066] -Radio access node: As used herein, a "radio access node" (or equivalently a "radio network node", "radio access network node" or "RAN node") may be any node in a radio access network (RAN) for wirelessly sending and / or receiving signals. Some examples of radio access nodes include, but are not limited to, base stations (e.g., gNBs in 3GPP 5G / NR networks or enhanced NodeBs or eNBs in 3GPP LTE networks), base station distributed components (e.g., CUs and DUs), high power or macro base stations, low power base stations (e.g., micro, pico, femto or home base stations, etc.), integrated access backhaul (IAB) nodes, transmission points (TPs), transmission reception points (TRPs), remote radio units (RRUs or RRHs), and relay nodes.

[0067] -Core network node: As used herein, a "core network node" is any type of node in the core network. Some examples of core network nodes include, for example, mobility management entity (MME), serving gateway (SGW), PDN gateway (P-GW), policy and charging rules function (PCRF), access and mobility management function (AMF), session management function (SMF), user plane function (UPF), charging function (CHF), policy control function (PCF), authentication server function (AUSF), location management function (LMF), etc.

[0068] -Wireless device: As used herein, a "wireless device" (or "WD" for short) is any type of device capable of, configured, arranged and / or operable to wirelessly communicate with a network node and / or other wireless devices. Wireless communication may include sending and / or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves and / or other types of signals suitable for transmitting information through the air. Unless otherwise specified, the term "wireless device" is used interchangeably herein with the term "user equipment" ("UE" for short), and both terms have different meanings from the term "network node".

[0069] - Radio node: As used herein, a "radio node" may be a "radio access node" (or equivalent terms) or a "wireless device".

[0070] - Network node: As used herein, a "network node" is any node that is part of a radio access network (e.g., a radio access node or equivalent term) or part of a core network (e.g., the core network node discussed above) of a cellular communication network. Functionally, a network node is a device that is capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate, directly or indirectly, with a wireless device and / or with other network nodes or devices in a cellular communication network to enable and / or provide wireless access to a wireless device, and / or to perform other functions (e.g., management) in the cellular communication network.

[0071] -Node: As used herein, the term "node" (without a prefix) may be any type of node capable of operating in or with a wireless network (including a RAN and / or a core network), including a radio access node (or equivalent terms), a core network node, or a wireless device. However, the term "node" may be limited to a specific type (e.g., a radio access node, an IAB node) based on its specific characteristics in any given context.

[0072] The above definitions are not meant to be exclusive. In other words, various terms in the above terms may be explained and / or described using the same or similar terms elsewhere in this disclosure. However, if other explanations and / or descriptions conflict with the above definitions, the above definitions shall prevail.

[0073] Note that the description given herein focuses on 3GPP cellular communication systems, and therefore 3GPP terminology or terminology similar to 3GPP terminology is often used. However, the concepts disclosed herein are not limited to 3GPP systems, but can be applied to any system that can benefit from the concepts, principles and / or embodiments described herein.

[0074] Figure 2 An exemplary configuration of the NR user plane (UP) and control plane (CP) protocol stacks between the UE (210), gNB (220) and AMF (230) is shown. The physical (PHY), medium access control (MAC), radio link control (RLC) and packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layers between the UE and gNB are common to the UP and CP. The PDCP layer provides ciphering / deciphering, integrity protection, sequence numbering, reordering and duplicate detection for both the CP and UP. In addition, PDCP also provides header compression and retransmission for UP data.

[0075] On the UP side, Internet Protocol (IP) packets arrive at the PDCP layer as Service Data Units (SDUs), and PDCP creates Protocol Data Units (PDUs) for delivery to the RLC. The Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) layer handles Quality of Service (QoS), including mapping between QoS flows and Data Radio Bearers (DRBs) and marking QoS Flow Identifiers (QFIs) in UL and DL packets. The RLC transmits PDCP PDUs to the MAC over a logical channel (LCH). The RLC provides error detection / correction, concatenation, segmentation / reassembly, sequence numbering, reordering of data transmitted to / from upper layers. The MAC provides mapping between LCH and PHY transport channels, LCH priority, multiplexing or demultiplexing of transport blocks (TBs), hybrid ARQ (HARQ) error correction, and dynamic scheduling (on the gNB side). The PHY provides transport channel services to the MAC and handles transmission over the NR radio interface, for example, via modulation, coding, antenna mapping, and beamforming.

[0076] On the CP side, the non-access stratum (NAS layer) is between the UE and the AMF and handles UE / gNB authentication, mobility management, and security control. The RRC is located below the NAS in the UE, but terminates at the gNB instead of the AMF. The RRC controls the communication between the UE and the gNB at the radio interface and the mobility of the UE between cells in the NG-RAN. The RRC also broadcasts system information (SI) and performs the establishment, configuration, maintenance, and release of DRBs and signaling radio bearers (SRBs) used by the UE. In addition, the RRC controls the addition, modification, and release of carrier aggregation (CA) and dual connectivity (DC) configurations of the UE, and performs various security functions such as key management.

[0077] After the UE is powered on, it will be in the RRC_IDLE state until an RRC connection is established with the network, at which point the UE will transition to the RRC_CONNECTED state (e.g., data transfer can occur). The UE must perform a Random Access (RA) procedure to move from the RRC_IDLE state to the RRC_CONNECTED state, where the cell serving the UE is known and an RRC context is established for the UE in the serving gNB so that the UE and gNB can communicate. As part of (or in conjunction with) the RA procedure, the UE also sends an RRCSetupRequest message to the serving gNB.

[0078] Figure 3 A gNB (e.g., Figure 1 The logical architecture of the gNB 100 in FIG. 100 is shown in FIG. 101 . The logical architecture separates the CU into a CP function and an UP function, which are referred to as CU-C and CU-U, respectively. In addition, each of the NG, Xn, and F1 interfaces is split into a CP interface (e.g., NG-C) and a UP interface (e.g., NG-U). Note that Figure 3 The terms "central entity" and "distributed entity" in this document refer to physical network nodes.

[0079] Figure 4Another exemplary gNB logical architecture is shown, which includes two gNB-DUs, one gNB-CU-CP, and multiple gNB-CU-UPs. The gNB-CU-CP may be connected to the gNB-DU via an F1-C interface, and the gNB-CU-UP may be connected to the gNB-DU via an F1-U interface and to the gNB-CU-CP via an E1 interface. Each gNB-DU may be connected to only one gNB-CU-CP, and each gNB-CU-UP may be connected to only one gNB-CU-CP. One gNB-DU may be connected to multiple gNB-CU-UPs controlled by the same gNB-CU-CP. In addition, one gNB-CU-UP may be connected to multiple DUs controlled by the same gNB-CU-CP. When reference is made herein to an operation performed by a "CU", it should be understood that, unless otherwise stated, the operation may be performed by any entity within the CU (e.g., CU-CP, gNB-CU-CP).

[0080] As briefly described above, to support beam management, the UE may be configured with a channel state information (CSI) measurement configuration that instructs the UE to monitor the CSI-RS and send various CSI reports to the NG-RAN. For example, for each type of CSI report that the UE is configured to send, the NG-RAN indicates an explicit list of CSI resources to be monitored by the UE. In a split gNB architecture, the UE is configured by a DU and sends CSI reports to the DU, which provides the UE's serving cell. Similar techniques can be used for beam management based on SSBs sent by the DU in the serving cell.

[0081] Figure 5 Figure 1 shows an example ASN.1 data structure of the RRCCSI-MeasConfig information element (IE) used to configure RS resources for UE to monitor / measure CSI reports. This IE is configured for each UE serving cell. Within the ServingCellConfig IE, the ServingCellConfig IE associates the serving cell with the corresponding CSI report. For each type of CSI report that the UE needs to send, the network Figure 5 The nzp-CSI-RS-ResourceSetList field shown in the figure indicates an explicit list of CSI resources to be monitored. The network can provide a list of up to maxNrofNZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSetsPerConfig CSI resource sets to each serving cell of the UE (including the UE's PCell / SpCell and any configured SCell). The following Table 1 further defines Figure 5 Some of the fields contained in the data structure shown.

[0082] Table 1

[0083]

[0084] RS resources configured for UE monitoring in this manner may also be associated with a CSI reporting configuration. Figure 6 An exemplary ASN.1 data structure of the RRCCSI-ReportConfig IE for configuring the UE for CSI reporting is shown. The UE CSI reporting configured in this manner can assist the RAN in beam management operations, such as beam switching, activating / deactivating beams to send data and / or control channels to the UE, etc.

[0085] In 5G NR terminology, beams may also be referred to as transmission configuration indication (TCI) states. Each TCI state includes parameters that define a quasi-co-location (QCL) relationship between one or more source DL reference signals (RS, such as SSBs) and one or more other DL RSs (e.g., DM-RS ports of a physical DL shared channel (PDSCH) or a physical DL control channel (PDCCH), or a channel state information RS (CSI-RS) port of a DL CSI-RS resource). In general, different DL RSs in a base station transmitter may have a QCL relationship when the corresponding antenna ports of the different DL RSs satisfy the following condition: the properties of the channel transmitting the symbols on one antenna port can be inferred from the channel transmitting the symbols on another antenna port.

[0086] Figure 6 The CSI-ReportConfig IE in the IE may configure periodic or semi-persistent CSI reports to be sent on the PUCCH in the cell including the CSI-ReportConfig IE, or semi-persistent or aperiodic CSI reports to be sent on the PUSCH triggered by downlink control information (DCI) received in the cell including the CSI-ReportConfig IE (i.e., the cell in which the report sent is determined by the received DCI). Specifically, Figure 6 The reportConfigType field in UL_PORT_CONFIG_SCHEMA_01 indicates the UL channel on which the report is sent and the time domain reporting behavior (ie, whether the report is periodic, aperiodic, or semi-persistent, and related parameters such as periodicity).

[0087] 3GPP Release 17 includes an inter-cell beam management feature where a UE can have multiple active TCI states (or beams), including one TCI state associated with the physical cell identity (PCI) of its serving cell and up to M other TCI states associated with the PCIs of other cells. For example, different PCIs may represent different transmission reception points (TRPs). For each of the N additional TCI states, the UE may be configured with an RS resource (or resource set) to monitor inter-PCI (or inter-cell) beam management.

[0088] Figure 7 An exemplary ASN.1 data structure of an RRC CSI-SSB-ResourceSet IE for configuring a UE for multi-PCI CSI monitoring is shown. The field servingAdditionalPCIList indicates the PCI of the SSBs in the csi-SSB-ResourceList. If present, the list has the same number of entries as the csi-SSB-ResourceList. The first entry of the list indicates the PCI value of the first entry of the csi-SSB-ResourceList, the second entry of the list indicates the PCI value of the second entry of the csi-SSB-ResourceList, and so on. If the value of the list entry is zero, the PCI is the PCI of the serving cell that defines the CSI-SSB-ResourceSet. Otherwise, the value is the additionalPCIIndex-r17 of the SSB-MTC-AdditionalPCI-r17 subfield in the additionalPCIList-r17 field of the ServingCellConfig IE (as described above), and PCI is the contents of the additionalPCI-r17 field in the SSB-MTC-AdditionalPCI-r17 subfield.

[0089] In general, the time domain CSI reporting behavior for Release 17 multi-TRP remains the same as previous releases, i.e., CSI reporting can be periodic, aperiodic, or semi-persistent.

[0090] As specified in 3GPP document RP-213565, NR Release 18 includes work items on NR mobility enhancements, including the technical area of ​​L1 / L2-based inter-cell mobility. When a UE moves between the coverage areas of two cells, a serving cell change needs to be performed at some point in time. Currently, serving cell changes are triggered by layer 3 (L3, such as RRC) measurements and involve RRC signaling for changing PCell and PSCell (for example, when dual connectivity is configured) and releasing / adding SCell (for example, when CA is configured).

[0091] Currently, all inter-cell mobility involves a complete Layer 2 (L2) and Layer 1 (L1, i.e., PHY) reset, resulting in longer latency, increased signaling overhead, and longer interruptions (compared to in-cell beam switching). Therefore, the high-level objective of the L1 / L2 mobility enhancements in Release 18 is to enable serving cell changes via L1 / L2 signaling to address these issues and / or difficulties. Some more specific objectives include:

[0092] - Configuration and maintenance of multiple candidate cells to allow for rapid application of the candidate cell configuration;

[0093] - A dynamic handover mechanism between candidate serving cells (including SpCell and SCell) for potentially applicable scenarios based on L1 / L2 signaling;

[0094] - L1 enhancements for inter-cell beam management (including L1 measurement and reporting) and beam indication;

[0095] - Timing advance management; and

[0096] - CU-DU interface signaling to support L1 / L2 mobility (if needed).

[0097] These L1 / L2 mobility enhancements in Release 18 must also take into account Figure 1 and Figure 3 to Figure 4 the split CU / DU architectures shown, including the split CU / DU architectures for in-DU and inter-DU / intra-CU cell changes. In the inter-DU / intra-CU scenario, the candidate cells for L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility are the cells served by the neighbor DUs of the DU (serving or source) that currently provides the UE's PCell (or PSCell for SCG changes in DC).

[0098] As briefly described above, in Release 17, beam management for serving cells (e.g., the PCell and SCell of the primary cell group). The UE can be configured with CSI resources to monitor up to N = 7 additional PCIs in addition to the PCI associated with the serving cell. The value of N corresponds to Figure 7 the maxNrofAdditionalPCI parameter in

[0099] Since the UE monitors only a subset M of N additional PCIs at any given time, the RAN may need to frequently reconfigure the CSI resource sets to be monitored. This problem may be more severe in Release 18, in which the UE may need to be configured with more than N additional beams or cells to enable L1-L2 inter-cell mobility and / or inter-cell beam management. In such a case, the RAN needs to perform multiple RRC reconfigurations to configure N (N>M) additional beams or cells for the UE, which increases the RRC signaling overhead and processing requirements.

[0100] In addition, when the UE is configured with N candidate cells but can only measure a subset M (M<N) at any given time, it is not clear which subset M (M<N) the UE should measure. In other words, which M (M<7) of the N = 7 configured additional PCIs the UE measures and reports to the RAN to enable L1-L2 inter-cell mobility and / or inter-cell beam management depends entirely on the UE implementation.

[0101] Even though Release 18 requires the UE to simultaneously measure multiple beams (e.g., SSBs) from multiple L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cells to support L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility, it is expected that this requirement will significantly increase the UE power consumption. In addition, these measurements may often be unnecessary, e.g., when the beam of the serving cell used to transmit control and data channels is in very good radio conditions, i.e., when the QCL source RS (e.g., SSB) of the activated TCI state is in very good radio conditions.

[0102] In addition, in general, from the UE's perspective, CSI measurements may be more expensive than RRM measurements. This may be due to factors such as an increased number of samples, higher accuracy requirements, and the need to measure finer beams. Therefore, the number of cells for which the UE can perform concurrent CSI measurements may be less than the number of cells for which the UE can perform concurrent RRM measurements.

[0103] Embodiments of the present disclosure solve these and other problems, difficulties, and / or challenges by providing flexible and efficient techniques for a UE configured with one or more L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cells to limit the number of low-layer measurements (e.g., CSI measurements, L1 RSRP, SS-RSRP, etc.) of these L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cells. Various embodiments include different events, triggers, and / or conditions for initiating low-layer measurements of one or more L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cells, and when the relevant events, triggers, and / or conditions are not met, the UE avoids initiating such measurements.

[0104] Embodiments can be summarized as follows. Some embodiments include a method for a UE configured to communicate with a RAN node via a serving cell. The UE may receive a message (e.g., an RRC message) from the RAN node, the message including a configuration for low-layer (e.g., beam) measurements. The configuration includes one or more events, triggers, and / or thresholds (collectively referred to as "conditions") for initiating low-layer measurements on one or more first candidate cells (e.g., for L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility). The one or more conditions may be based on results of measurements performed by the UE on the serving cell and / or a second candidate cell. When the UE detects that the one or more conditions are met, the UE initiates low-layer measurements on the one or more first candidate cells and reports the results of these low-layer measurements to the RAN node (e.g., in a measurement report based on a reporting configuration previously received from the RAN node).

[0105] Other embodiments include a method for a RAN node configured to provide a serving cell to one or more UEs. The RAN node sends a message (e.g., an RRC message) to the UE, the message including a configuration for low-layer (e.g., beam) measurements to be performed by the UE. The configuration includes one or more events, triggers, and / or thresholds (collectively referred to as "conditions") for initiating low-layer measurements on one or more first candidate cells (e.g., for L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility). The one or more conditions may be based on results of measurements performed by the UE on the serving cell and / or a second candidate cell. Subsequently, the RAN node may receive, based on the one or more conditions being met, the results of low-layer measurements performed by the UE on the one or more first candidate cells. For example, the low-layer measurement results may be received in a measurement report based on a reporting configuration previously sent to the UE.

[0106] Embodiments can provide various benefits and / or advantages. For example, compared to conventional techniques where the UE autonomously selects a subset M (M < N) of candidate cells for measurement and reporting, embodiments enable the UE to systematically select the best and / or preferred subset of candidate cells at any given time. In this way, the low-layer measurements reported by the UE are better and / or more relevant for beam management and / or L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility, while avoiding excessive UE power consumption due to unnecessary measurements. At a high level, embodiments can improve UE mobility in the RAN.

[0107] In this disclosure, the following terms may be used interchangeably: "L1 / L2-based inter-cell mobility" (as used in 3GPP work items), "L1 / L2 mobility", "L1 mobility", "L1-based mobility", "L1 / L2-centric inter-cell mobility", "L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility", "inter-cell beam management", and "inter-DU L1 / L2-based inter-cell mobility". These terms refer to scenarios where a UE receives low layer (i.e., lower than L3 / RRC, such as MAC or PHY) signaling from the network, which instructs the UE to change its serving cell (e.g., PCell) from a source cell to a target cell. Exemplary low layer signaling includes L1 DL Control Information (DCI) and L2 MAC Control Element (CE). Compared to conventional RRC signaling, low layer signaling reduces processing time and interruption time during mobility, and may also improve mobility robustness because the network can respond more quickly to changes in the UE's channel conditions.

[0108] Another relevant aspect in L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility is that a cell may be associated with multiple SSBs (or beams), with different SSBs being transmitted in different spatial directions during a half-frame, thus spanning the coverage area of ​​the cell. A cell may also be associated with multiple CSI-RS resources, which may be transmitted in different spatial directions. Therefore, in L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility, receiving low-layer signaling instructing the UE to change from one beam in its serving cell to another beam in a (candidate) neighbor cell also involves changing the serving cell.

[0109] In the present disclosure, the term "L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cell" refers to a non-serving cell configured for a UE, on which the UE can perform an L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility operation when receiving low-layer signaling instructing the UE to do so. The terms "candidate cell", "candidate", "mobility candidate", "non-serving cell" and "additional cell" may be used interchangeably with "L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cell" and the like.

[0110] Therefore, when configured, the UE performs low-layer measurements (e.g., CSI measurements) in the candidate cells and reports the results of the low-layer measurements, based on which the RAN can make mobility decisions, such as selecting beams (e.g., TCI states) and / or cells to switch the UE from the current serving cell / beam. The candidate cell can be a candidate for the primary cell (PCell) of a cell group, or a candidate for the secondary cell (SCell) of a cell group, and the cell group includes a primary cell group (MCG) or a secondary cell group (SCG). Therefore, the RS resources configured for UE measurement and reporting can be used for a candidate PCell or candidate SCell of an MCG, or a candidate PSCell or candidate SCell of an SCG.

[0111] In the present disclosure, the term "CSI resource configuration" refers to the configuration of one or more RS resources (specifically resources of L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cells) to be measured by the UE for CSI reporting, the configuration for the one or more RS resources, and / or the configuration associated with the one or more RS resources. A "resource" may be one or more SSBs, one or more CSI-RSs, etc. The configured resources may be associated with a specific candidate cell by any appropriate identifier, identification, index, etc. included in the CSI resource configuration.

[0112] In the present disclosure, the term “reference signal” (abbreviated as “RS”) includes any signal with known content or pattern that can be measured by a UE, including but not limited to CSI-RS, DM-RS, synchronization signal (SS, such as SSB), etc.

[0113] In the present disclosure, the term "low-layer measurement" refers to measurements performed on RSs ("RS resources") transmitted by a cell at a lower layer of the UE protocol stack (i.e., below L3 / RRC, such as MAC or PHY). For example, if the measured RS is an SSB, the low-layer measurement may be one or more of SSB reference signal received power (SS-RSRP), SSB reference signal received quality (SS-RSRQ), SSB signal to interference and noise ratio (SS-SINR), L1-RSRP, L1-RSRQ, and L1-SINR. Similarly, if the measured RS is a CSI-RS, the low-layer measurement may be one or more of CSI reference signal received power (CSI-RSRP), CSI reference signal received quality (CSI-RSRQ), CSI signal to interference and noise ratio (CSI-SINR), L1-RSRP, L1-RSRQ, and L1-SINR. Other exemplary RS-based low-layer measurements include channel quality indicator (CQI), precoding matrix indicator (PMI), CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI), SSB resource indicator (SSBRI), layer indicator (LI), and rank indicator (RI).

[0114] RS for low-layer measurements may be sent along a certain spatial direction (e.g., a beam) using beamforming techniques. Since the low-layer measurements are performed on beams, they may be referred to as "beam measurements". In this sense, the low-layer measurements may indicate, for example, the quality of a beam that is able to serve the UE before or after L1 / L2 mobility. In general, the low-layer measurements may be reported to the RAN in any appropriate form (e.g., in a CSI report), which assists the RAN in making decisions regarding L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility or beam management of the UE, such as determining whether the UE needs to switch to a beam (or TCI state) of a candidate cell during L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility.

[0115] In the present context, low layer measurements are distinct from RRM measurements reported in the RRC Measurement Report message defined in 3GPP TS 38.331. For example, RRM measurements are configured by the RRC measurement configuration (MeasConfigIE in the RRCReconfiguration message), are L3 filtered, are used as input to trigger RRC measurement reports, and once reported, are typically used by the network (e.g., CU) through a L3 (RRC) procedure known as synchronization reconfiguration to determine whether the UE needs to be handed over to another cell. Therefore, the term "L3 measurements" may be used interchangeably with "RRM measurements" in this document. L3 measurements may be performed on serving cells (e.g., PCell, PSCell, SCell) and / or candidate cells (including candidate cells for L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility).

[0116] Some embodiments include a method for a UE configured to communicate with a RAN node via a serving cell. The UE may receive a message (e.g., an RRC message) from the RAN node that includes a configuration for low-layer (e.g., beam) measurements. The configuration includes (e.g., by definition) one or more events, triggers, and / or conditions (collectively referred to as "conditions") that trigger low-layer measurements of one or more candidate cells (e.g., for L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility). The one or more conditions may be based on the results of performing RRM or low-layer measurements on the serving cell and / or based on the results of performing RRM measurements on the candidate cells. When the UE detects that one or more conditions are met, the UE initiates low-layer measurements of the one or more candidate cells and reports the results of these low-layer measurements to the RAN node (e.g., in a measurement report based on a reporting configuration previously received from the RAN node).

[0117] In various embodiments, the one or more conditions may be based on or related to one or more of the following:

[0118] - Low layer measurements performed on a serving cell (e.g., PCell, PSCell, SCell), such as L1-RSRP performed on an RS (e.g., SSB and / or CSI-RS) configured as a QCL source for an active TCI state of the serving cell or on a beam used to transmit data and / or control channels in the serving cell;

[0119] -L3 measurements performed on the serving cell, such as L3-RSRP of PCell based on SSB, L3-RSRP of PCell based on CSI-RS, etc.

[0120] -L3 measurements performed on L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cells, such as L3-RSRP of candidate cells based on SSB, L3-RSRP of candidate cells based on CSI-RS, etc.

[0121] In various embodiments, the configured conditions may apply to a single candidate cell (ie, one set of conditions per candidate cell), all candidate cells, or a specific frequency (eg, SSB frequency) of all candidate cells (ie, one set of conditions per frequency).

[0122] In some embodiments, the configured conditions may apply to a single type of RS (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS) or all types of RS (e.g., SSB and CSI-RS). In the former case, different conditions may be configured for each type of RS (e.g., a first group configured for SSB, a second group configured for CSI-RS, etc.).

[0123] In some embodiments, the configuration defining one or more conditions may be a CSI measurement configuration (e.g., CSI-MeasConfig IE) or an RRC measurement configuration (e.g., MeasConfig IE). Alternatively, some conditions may be defined by a configuration stored in a UE memory. For example, a portion of the configuration may be included in the message, while another portion of the configuration may be obtained from the UE memory. In some embodiments, the message including the configuration (or a portion thereof) may be an RRCReconfiguration message.

[0124] Some embodiments are described below based on example conditions.

[0125] In some embodiments, when the low layer measurement performed on the serving cell is lower than a first threshold, the UE initiates low layer measurement on the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cell.

[0126] For example, when the SS-RSRP of the SSB used as the QCL source of the activated TCI state of the serving cell (e.g., PCell) is lower than the first threshold, the UE initiates low-layer measurement of the candidate cell. As a more specific example, if the SSB used as the QCL source in the serving cell is at a first frequency (e.g., ARFCN), the UE may initiate low-layer measurement of the candidate cell at the first frequency. Alternatively, the UE may initiate low-layer measurement of the candidate cell at a second frequency different from the first frequency.

[0127] As another example, the UE performs low layer measurements on all configured serving cells of the cell group (e.g., PCell and SCell of MCG, PSCell and SCell of SCG), but the condition for initiating low layer measurements on L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cells is that the low layer measurements of PCell are below a first threshold. In any event, when this condition is triggered, the UE initiates low layer measurements of the candidate cells at the same frequency as all cells in the cell group (e.g., the frequency of PCell and SCell of MCG).

[0128] In some embodiments, when the RRM measurement performed on the serving cell is lower than a second threshold, the UE initiates low-layer measurement of the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cell. As an example, the second threshold may correspond to an s-measurement threshold, which is typically used for measurements configured on the MCG. In these embodiments, the s-measurement threshold is also used as a condition for initiating low-layer measurement of the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cell.

[0129] As a more specific example, when the UE's RRM measurement (e.g., RSRP) of the serving PCell is lower than a second threshold, the UE initiates RRM measurement of neighbor cells at the frequency identified in the RRC measurement configuration, and initiates low-layer measurement of one or more configured L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cells. Conversely, when the PCell RSRP is higher than the s-measurement, the UE does not initiate RRM measurement of neighbor cells or low-layer measurement of L1 / L2 mobility candidate cells.

[0130] As another specific example, when the UE's RRM measurement (eg, RSRP) of the serving cell at frequency Fx is lower than a second threshold, the UE initiates low layer measurement of one or more configured L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cells at the same frequency Fx.

[0131] In some embodiments, when the RRM measurement performed on the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cell is above a third threshold, the UE initiates low layer measurement on the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cell. In some variants, the candidate cell on which the low layer measurement is initiated is the same as the candidate cell for which the RRM measurement exceeds the third threshold.

[0132] In one example, the UE performs RRM measurements (e.g., L3-RSRP) on the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cells. If the measured L3-RSRP is above a third threshold, the UE initiates low-layer measurements on the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cells. In a variant, the second threshold discussed above can be used to initiate UE RRM measurements on the configured L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cells. In contrast, the third threshold is used to initiate low-layer measurements (which are more expensive than RRM measurements in terms of processing and energy consumption) on the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cells. In other words, the UE only performs low-layer measurements on the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cells with sufficiently good cell quality, so that the RAN is only informed of the beams of the candidate cells that are sufficient to achieve L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility.

[0133] In other embodiments, when the RRM measurement performed on the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cell is at least one offset greater than the RRM measurement of the UE's serving cell (e.g., PCell, PSCell, or SCell), the UE initiates low-layer measurement of the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cell. This can be regarded as an RRM "A3 event".

[0134] For example, the UE performs RRM measurements (e.g., SSB-based RSRP) on the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cell and the serving cell. If the candidate cell RSRP value is at least an offset greater than the RSRP value of the serving cell, the UE performs and reports low-layer measurements on the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cell. Traditionally, L3-based mobility (e.g., handover) is triggered in the RAN based on UE measurements associated with A3-type events. By initiating the performance and reporting of low-layer measurements based on A3-type events, the UE will cause the RAN to trigger L1 / L2 mobility instead of L3 mobility.

[0135] In some embodiments, when the RRM measurement performed on the serving cell is lower than a fourth threshold, the UE initiates low layer measurement of the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cell.

[0136] In some embodiments, when the UE is configured with the s-measurement threshold in the RRCMeasConfig IE, the UE performs low layer measurements on neighbor cells configured as L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidates even if the PCellL3-RSRP is higher than the s-measurement threshold.

[0137] In some embodiments, when the RRM measurement performed on the serving cell is higher than a fifth threshold, the UE stops or suspends ongoing low layer measurements on the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cell.

[0138] In some embodiments, when the RRM measurements performed on a candidate cell are below a sixth threshold, the UE stops or pauses the ongoing low-layer measurements on the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cell. In some variants, the UE may initiate low-layer measurements on another candidate cell in this way while stopping or pausing the low-layer measurements in the candidate cell.

[0139] In some embodiments, when one or more of the highest (or most favorable) low-layer measurements (e.g., beam measurements) in the serving cell are below a seventh threshold, the UE initiates low-layer measurements (e.g., beam measurements) on the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cell. As an example, this may occur when the L1-RSRP measurement of the strongest beam is less than the seventh threshold. As another example, this may occur when the L1-RSRP measurements of K (K>1) strongest beams are less than the seventh threshold.

[0140] In some embodiments, when one or more of the highest (or most favorable) low-layer measurements (e.g., beam measurements) in the candidate cell are above an eighth threshold, the UE stops or pauses the ongoing low-layer measurements on the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cell. As an example, this may occur when the L1-RSRP measurement value of the strongest beam is greater than the eighth threshold. As another example, this may occur when the L1-RSRP measurement values of K (K>1) strongest beams are greater than the eighth threshold.

[0141] In some embodiments, when one or more of the highest (or most favorable) low-layer measurements (e.g., beam measurements) in the candidate cell are below a ninth threshold, the UE stops or pauses the ongoing low-layer measurements on the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility candidate cell. As an example, this may occur when the L1-RSRP measurement value of the strongest beam is less than the ninth threshold. As another example, this may occur when the L1-RSRP measurement values of K (K>1) strongest beams are less than the ninth threshold.

[0142] In some embodiments, when the conditions for initiating measurements in P (P>1) candidate cells are met, the UE initiates measurements in a subset M (M<P) of the candidate cells. The number M may be based on UE capabilities and UE performance requirements. The UE may select the subset M (M<P) based on the corresponding L3 measurement results of the P candidate cells.

[0143] In some embodiments, the UE reports the results of the low layer measurements in the candidate cells to the RAN node in a low layer measurement report (e.g., a beam measurement report). The low layer measurement report may be sent via a low layer (e.g., PHY) process on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) in the serving cell. The low layer measurement report may include a single measurement report in a single message or multiple measurement reports in corresponding multiple messages.

[0144] Other embodiments include a method for a RAN node configured to provide a serving cell to one or more UEs. The RAN node sends a message (e.g., an RRC message) to the UE, the message including a configuration of low-layer (e.g., beam) measurements to be performed by the UE. The configuration includes one or more conditions for initiating low-layer measurements of one or more candidate cells (e.g., for L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility). The one or more conditions may be based on results of RRM or low-layer measurements performed by the UE on the serving cell and / or based on results of RRM measurements performed by the UE on the candidate cell, including any of the conditions discussed above with respect to the UE embodiment.

[0145] Subsequently, the RAN node may receive, from the UE, results of low layer measurements performed by the UE on one or more candidate cells based on satisfying the one or more conditions. For example, the low layer measurement results may be received in a low layer measurement report based on a report configuration previously provided to the UE. Based on the low layer measurement report, the RAN node may decide to initiate an L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility procedure for the UE to one of the candidate cells, and send a low layer message to the UE, the low layer message instructing the UE to perform an L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility procedure for the UE to the selected candidate cell.

[0146] You can refer to Figures 8 to 9 To further illustrate the above embodiment, Figures 8 to 9 Depicted are exemplary methods (eg, processes) for UE and RAN nodes, respectively. In other words, the various features of the operations described below correspond to the various embodiments described above. Figures 8 to 9 The exemplary methods described herein are provided to provide benefits, advantages, and / or solutions to the problems described herein. Figures 8 to 9 The exemplary method is shown by specific blocks in a specific order, but the operations corresponding to the blocks can be performed in an order different from the order shown, and can be combined and / or divided into blocks and / or operations with different functions than shown. Optional blocks or operations are indicated by dashed lines.

[0147] More specifically, Figure 8 Exemplary methods (eg, procedures) for a UE configured to communicate with a RAN node via a serving cell according to various embodiments of the present disclosure are shown. Figure 8The illustrated exemplary methods may be performed by a UE (eg, a wireless device), such as described elsewhere herein.

[0148] The exemplary method may include the operation of block 810, wherein the UE may obtain a configuration defining one or more conditions that trigger low layer measurements of one or more candidate cells for L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility. The exemplary method may also include the operation of block 820, wherein the UE may perform one or more of the following measurements: a low layer measurement of a serving cell, a first layer 3 (L3) measurement of a serving cell, and a second L3 measurement of at least one candidate cell. The exemplary method may also include the operations of blocks 830 to 840, wherein, based on detecting that the performed measurements satisfy at least one of the conditions, the UE may initiate low layer measurements of at least one candidate cell associated with the satisfied at least one condition. The exemplary method may also include the operation of block 870, wherein the UE may send a low layer measurement report to the RAN node, the low layer measurement report including results of the low layer measurements performed on the at least one candidate cell.

[0149] In some embodiments, detecting that the performed measurement satisfies at least one condition in block 830 includes detecting one or more of the following:

[0150] -The result of the low-layer measurement of the serving cell is lower than the first threshold;

[0151] -The result of the L3 measurement of the serving cell is lower than the second threshold;

[0152] -The result of L3 measurement of the candidate cell is lower than the third threshold;

[0153] - The L3 measurement result of the candidate cell is at least an offset greater than the L3 measurement result of the serving cell;

[0154] - the result of the L3 measurement of the serving cell is lower than a fourth threshold; and

[0155] - One or more highest values ​​of the plurality of low-layer measurements of the serving cell are lower than a seventh threshold.

[0156] In some of these embodiments, the plurality of low-layer measurements of the serving cell are measurements of a plurality of beams associated with the serving cell. In other of these embodiments, the offset is associated with a radio resource management (RRM) A3 event, and / or the second threshold is an S-measurement RRM threshold.

[0157] In some embodiments, the example method may further include the operations of blocks 850 to 860, wherein the UE may stop or suspend low layer measurements of at least one candidate cell based on detecting that at least one of the following measurements satisfies another one or more of the conditions:

[0158] - low-layer measurements of at least one candidate cell,

[0159] - low-layer measurements of the serving cell,

[0160] - the first L3 measurement of the serving cell, and

[0161] - A second L3 measurement of at least one candidate cell.

[0162] In some of these embodiments, detecting that at least one measurement satisfies one or more other of the conditions in block 850 includes detecting any of the following:

[0163] -The result of L3 measurement of the serving cell is higher than the fifth threshold;

[0164] - the result of L3 measurement of at least one candidate cell is lower than a sixth threshold;

[0165] - one or more highest values ​​of the plurality of low-layer measurements of the serving cell are higher than an eighth threshold; and

[0166] - One or more highest values ​​of the plurality of low-layer measurements of at least one candidate cell are below a ninth threshold.

[0167] In some variants, the plurality of low-layer measurements of at least one candidate cell (eg, evaluated in relation to a ninth threshold) are measurements of a plurality of beams associated with the at least one candidate cell.

[0168] In some embodiments, the low-layer measurements of the serving cell and at least one candidate cell include one or more of the following items: synchronization signal / PBCH (SSB) reference signal received power (SS-RSRP), SSB reference signal received quality (SS-RSRQ), SSB signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SS-SINR), channel state information (CSI) reference signal received power (CSI-RSRP), CSI reference signal received quality (CSI-RSRQ), CSI signal-to-interference and noise ratio (CSI-SINR), L1-RSRP, L1-RSRQ and L1-SINR.

[0169] In some embodiments, one or more of the following applies: the L3 measurements of the serving cell and at least one candidate cell are L3 reference signal received power (L3-RSRP) measurements; and the L3 measurements of the serving cell and at least one candidate cell are associated with an L3 inter-cell mobility procedure (e.g., handover).

[0170] In some embodiments, the one or more candidate cells for L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility include a plurality of candidate cells. In such embodiments, detecting that the performed measurements satisfy at least one of the conditions in block 830 includes operations of sub-block 831, wherein the UE may determine that the plurality of candidate cells are associated with the at least one condition that is satisfied. Additionally, initiating low layer measurements of at least one candidate cell associated with the at least one condition that is satisfied in block 840 includes operations of sub-block 841, wherein the UE may select a subset of the plurality of candidate cells based on results of corresponding second L3 measurements of the plurality of candidate cells. In this case, low layer measurements are initiated for the selected subset.

[0171] In some embodiments, the low layer measurement report is a beam measurement report and / or the low layer measurement report is sent via a low layer procedure on a PUCCH or PUSCH in a serving cell.

[0172] In some embodiments, obtaining the configuration in block 810 includes operations of subblock 811, wherein the UE may receive a message including the configuration or a portion thereof from a RAN node. In some of these embodiments, the message is an RRCReconfiguration message. In some embodiments, the configuration or a portion thereof is obtained from a UE memory.

[0173] In some embodiments, the exemplary method may further include the operation of block 880, wherein the UE may receive a low layer message from the RAN node, the low layer message instructing the UE to perform an L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility procedure on one of the candidate cells whose measurement results are included in the low layer measurement report. Based on the low layer message, the UE may perform the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility procedure.

[0174] also, Fig. 9 Exemplary methods (eg, procedures) for a RAN node configured to provide a serving cell to one or more UEs according to various embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated. Fig. 9 The exemplary method shown may be performed by, for example, a CU as described elsewhere herein.

[0175] The exemplary method may include the operation of block 910, wherein the RAN node may send a configuration defining one or more conditions to the UE, the one or more conditions triggering low layer measurements of one or more candidate cells for L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility. The conditions are based on one or more of the following: a low layer measurement of a serving cell, a first layer 3 (L3) measurement of the serving cell, and a second L3 measurement of at least one candidate cell. The exemplary method may also include the operation of block 920, wherein the RAN node may receive a low layer measurement report from the UE based on satisfying at least one of the conditions, the low layer measurement report including results of performing low layer measurements on at least one candidate cell.

[0176] In some embodiments, these conditions include one or more of the following:

[0177] -The result of the low-layer measurement of the serving cell is lower than the first threshold;

[0178] -The result of the L3 measurement of the serving cell is lower than the second threshold;

[0179] -The result of L3 measurement of the candidate cell is lower than the third threshold;

[0180] - The L3 measurement result of the candidate cell is at least an offset greater than the L3 measurement result of the serving cell;

[0181] - the result of the L3 measurement of the serving cell is lower than a fourth threshold; and

[0182] - One or more highest values ​​of the plurality of low-layer measurements of the serving cell are lower than a seventh threshold.

[0183] In some of these embodiments, the plurality of low-layer measurements of the serving cell are measurements of a plurality of beams associated with the serving cell. In other of these embodiments, the offset is associated with an RRM A3 event, and / or the second threshold is an S-measurement RRM threshold.

[0184] In some of these embodiments, the conditions include one or more of the following related to stopping or suspending low layer measurements of at least one candidate cell:

[0185] -The result of L3 measurement of the serving cell is higher than the fifth threshold;

[0186] - the result of L3 measurement of at least one candidate cell is lower than a sixth threshold;

[0187] - one or more highest values ​​of the plurality of low-layer measurements of the serving cell are higher than an eighth threshold; and

[0188] - One or more highest values ​​of the plurality of low-layer measurements of at least one candidate cell are below a ninth threshold.

[0189] In some variants, the plurality of low-layer measurements of at least one candidate cell (eg, evaluated in relation to a ninth threshold) are measurements of a plurality of beams associated with the at least one candidate cell.

[0190] In some embodiments, the low-layer measurements of the serving cell and at least one candidate cell include one or more of the following: SS-RSRP, SS-RSRQ, SS-SINR, CSI-RSRP, CSI-RSRQ, CSI-SINR, L1-RSRP, L1-RSRQ and L1-SINR.

[0191] In some embodiments, one or more of the following applies: the L3 measurements of the serving cell and at least one candidate cell are L3 reference signal received power (L3-RSRP) measurements; and the L3 measurements of the serving cell and at least one candidate cell are associated with an L3 inter-cell mobility procedure (e.g., handover).

[0192] In some embodiments, the low layer measurement report is a beam measurement report and / or the low layer measurement report is received via a low layer procedure on a PUCCH or PUSCH in a serving cell.In some embodiments, the message including the configuration is a RRCReconfiguration message.

[0193] In some embodiments, the exemplary method may further include operations of boxes 930 to 940, wherein, based on the low layer measurement report, the RAN node may select one of the candidate cells for the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility procedure for the UE (i.e., having measurement results in the low layer measurement report), and send a low layer message to the UE, which instructs the UE to perform the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility procedure to the selected candidate cell.

[0194] Although various embodiments are described above in terms of methods, techniques and / or processes, a person of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that such methods, techniques and / or processes may be embodied in various combinations of hardware and software, communication devices, computing devices, control devices, apparatuses, non-transitory computer-readable media, computer program products, etc., in various systems.

[0195] Fig.10An example of a communication system 1000 according to some embodiments is shown. In this example, the communication system 1000 includes a telecommunications network 1002, which includes an access network 1004 (e.g., RAN) and a core network 1006, which includes one or more core network nodes 1008. The access network 1004 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes 1010a to 1010b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 1010), or any other similar 3GPP access nodes or non-3GPP access points. The network node 1010 facilitates direct or indirect connection of UEs, such as connecting UEs 1012a to 1012d (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 1012) to the core network 1006 via one or more wireless connections.

[0196] Example wireless communications via wireless connections include sending and / or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and / or other types of signals suitable for transmitting information without using wiring, cables, or other material conductors. In addition, in different embodiments, the communication system 1000 may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, UEs, and / or any other components or systems that can facilitate or participate in the communication of data and / or signals (whether via a wired connection or via a wireless connection). The communication system 1000 may include any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and / or other similar type of system, and / or be connected to any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and / or other similar type of system interface.

[0197] UE 1012 may be any of a variety of communication devices, including wireless devices that are arranged, configured and / or operable to wirelessly communicate with network node 1010 and other communication devices. Similarly, network node 1010 is arranged, capable, configured and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with UE 1012 and / or with other network nodes or devices in telecommunication network 1002 to enable and / or provide network access (such as wireless network access) and / or to perform other functions (such as management) in telecommunication network 1002.

[0198] In the depicted example, the core network 1006 connects the network node 1010 to one or more hosts (such as the host 1016). These connections may be direct connections or indirect connections via one or more intermediate networks or devices. In other examples, the network node may be directly coupled to the host. The core network 1006 includes one or more core network nodes (e.g., 1008) composed of hardware and software components. The features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the UE, the network node, and / or the host, so that their descriptions are generally applicable to the corresponding components of the core network node 1008. The example core network node includes the functions of one or more of the following items: a mobile switching center (MSC), a mobility management entity (MME), a home subscriber server (HSS), an access and mobility management function (AMF), a session management function (SMF), an authentication server function (AUSF), a subscription identifier cancellation function (SIDF), a unified data management (UDM), a security edge protection agent (SEPP), a network open function (NEF), and / or a user plane function (UPF).

[0199] The host 1016 may be owned or under the control of a service provider other than the operator or provider of the access network 1004 and / or the telecommunications network 1002, and may be operated by or on behalf of the service provider. The host 1016 may host a variety of applications to provide one or more services. Examples of such applications include real-time and pre-recorded audio / video content, data collection services (e.g., retrieving and compiling data about various environmental conditions detected by multiple UEs), analysis functions, social media, functions for controlling or otherwise interacting with remote devices, functions for alarm and monitoring centers, or any other such functions performed by a server.

[0200] As a whole, Fig.10 The communication system 1000 implements the connection between UE, network node and host. In this sense, the communication system can be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures such as a specific standard, which includes but is not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE) and / or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G standards, or any applicable future generation standards (e.g., 6G); Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard (WiFi); and / or any other suitable wireless communication standards, such as Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, LiFi, and / or any Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) standards such as LoRa and Sigfox.

[0201] In some examples, the telecommunication network 1002 is a cellular network implementing 3GPP standardized features. Therefore, the telecommunication network 1002 can support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices connected to the telecommunication network 1002. For example, the telecommunication network 1002 can provide ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) services to some UEs, while providing enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and / or providing massive machine type communication (mMTC) / massive IoT services to yet other UEs.

[0202] In some examples, UE 1012 is configured to send and / or receive information without direct human interaction. For example, the UE may be designed to send information to the access network 1004 according to a predetermined plan when triggered by an internal or external event or in response to a request from the access network 1004. In addition, the UE may be configured to operate in a single RAT mode or a multi-RAT mode or a multi-standard mode. For example, the UE may operate using any one or a combination of Wi-Fi, NR (New Radio), and LTE, i.e., configured for multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC), such as E-UTRAN (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) New Radio-Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).

[0203] In this example, the hub 1014 communicates with the access network 1004 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., 1012c and / or 1012d) and a network node (e.g., 1010b). In some examples, the hub 1014 may be a controller, a router, a content source and an analyzer, or any other communication device described herein with respect to the UE. For example, the hub 1014 may be a broadband router that enables the UE to access the core network 1006. As another example, the hub 1014 may be a controller that sends commands or instructions to one or more actuators in the UE. The commands or instructions may be received from the UE, the network node 1010, or received through executable code, scripts, processes, or other instructions in the hub 1014. As another example, the hub 1014 may be a data collector that acts as a temporary storage device for UE data, and in some embodiments, analysis or other processing of the data may be performed. As another example, the hub 1014 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR headset, display, speaker, or other media delivery device, the hub 1014 can retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, and then the hub 1014 provides it directly to the UE, provides it to the UE after performing local processing, and / or provides it to the UE after adding additional local content. In yet another example, the hub 1014 acts as a proxy server or coordinator for the UE, especially if one or more of the UEs are low-energy IoT devices.

[0204] The hub 1014 may have a continuous / persistent or intermittent connection with the network node 1010b. The hub 1014 may also allow different communication schemes and / or scheduling between the hub 1014 and the UE (e.g., UE 1012c and / or UE 1012d) and between the hub 1014 and the core network 1006. In other examples, the hub 1014 is connected to the core network 1006 and / or one or more UEs via a wired connection. In addition, the hub 1014 may be configured to be connected to an M2M service provider through the access network 1004, and / or to another UE through a direct connection. In some scenarios, the UE may establish a wireless connection with the network node 1010 while still being connected through the hub 1014 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, hub 1014 may be a dedicated hub - i.e., a hub whose primary function is to route communications from network node 1010b to UE / route communications from UE to network node 1010b. In other embodiments, hub 1014 may be a non-dedicated hub - i.e., a device that is operable to route communications between UE and network node 1010b but additionally is capable of operating as a communications origin and / or endpoint for certain data channels.

[0205] Fig.11 A UE 1100 according to some embodiments is shown. Examples of UEs include, but are not limited to, smart phones, mobile phones, cellular phones, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, desktop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), wireless cameras, game consoles or devices, music storage devices, playback devices, wearable terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, tablet computers, laptop computers, laptop embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), smart devices, wireless client equipment (CPE), vehicle-mounted or vehicle-embedded / integrated wireless devices, etc. Other examples include any UE identified by 3GPP, including narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) UEs, machine type communication (MTC) UEs, and / or enhanced MTC (eMTC) UEs.

[0206] The UE may, for example, support device-to-device (D2D) communications by implementing 3GPP standards for sidelink communications, dedicated short-range communications (DSRC), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), or vehicle-to-everything (V2X). In other examples, the UE may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and / or operates the associated device. Alternatively, the UE may represent a device that is intended to be sold to or operated by a human user but may not or may not initially be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, the UE may represent a device that is not intended to be sold to or operated by an end user but may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter).

[0207] UE 1100 includes a processing circuit 1102, which is operatively coupled to an input / output interface 1106, a power supply 1108, a memory 1110, a communication interface 1112, and / or any other components or any combination thereof via a bus 1104. Some UEs may utilize Fig.11 All or a subset of the components shown. The level of integration between components may vary from UE to UE. In addition, some UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

[0208] The processing circuit 1102 is configured to process instructions and data, and may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operable to execute instructions stored in the memory 1110 as a machine-readable computer program. The processing circuit 1102 may be implemented as: one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., implemented in discrete logic, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored computer programs, general-purpose processors (e.g., microprocessors or digital signal processors (DSPs)) together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuit 1102 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs).

[0209] In this example, the input / output interface 1106 can be configured to provide one or more interfaces to an input device, an output device, or one or more input and / or output devices. Examples of output devices include speakers, sound cards, video cards, displays, monitors, printers, actuators, transmitters, smart cards, another output device, or any combination thereof. An input device can allow a user to capture information into the UE 1100. Examples of input devices include touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive displays, cameras (e.g., digital cameras, digital video cameras, web cameras, etc.), microphones, sensors, mice, trackballs, directional keyboards, trackpads, rollers, smart cards, etc. The presence-sensitive display can include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. The sensor can be, for example, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, a biometric sensor, etc., or any combination thereof. The output device can use the same type of interface port as the input device. For example, a universal serial bus (USB) port can be used to provide input devices and output devices.

[0210] In some embodiments, the power supply 1108 is configured as a battery or a battery pack. Other types of power supplies may be used, such as an external power supply (e.g., a power outlet), a photovoltaic device, or a battery. The power supply 1108 may also include a power supply circuit for delivering power from the power supply 1108 itself and / or an external power supply to various parts of the UE 1100 via an input circuit or an interface such as a power cable. The delivered power may be used, for example, to charge the power supply 1108. The power supply circuit may perform any formatting, conversion, or other modification on the power from the power supply 1108 so that the power is suitable for the various components of the UE 1100 to which it is powered.

[0211] The memory 1110 may be or be configured to include a memory, such as a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a hard disk, a removable tape, a flash drive, etc. In one example, the memory 1110 includes one or more application programs 1114, such as an operating system, a web browser application, a gadget, a gadget engine, or other applications, and corresponding data 1116. The memory 1110 may store any one or a combination of operating systems used by the UE 1100.

[0212] The memory 1110 may be configured to include a plurality of physical drive units, such as a redundant array of independent disks (RAID), a flash memory, a USB flash drive, an external hard drive, a thumb drive, a pen drive, a key drive, a high-density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical drive, a built-in hard drive, a Blu-ray optical drive, a holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical drive, an external mini dual in-line memory module (DIMM), a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), an external micro DIMM SDRAM, a smart card memory (e.g., a tamper-proof module in the form of a universal integrated circuit card (UICC), including one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs), such as USIM and / or ISIM), other memories, or any combination thereof. The UICC may be, for example, an embedded UICC (eUICC), an integrated UICC (iUICC), or a removable UICC commonly referred to as a “SIM card”. The memory 1110 may allow the UE 1100 to access instructions, applications, etc. stored on a temporary or non-temporary storage medium to offload data or upload data. An article of manufacture, such as an article of manufacture utilizing a communication system, may be tangibly embodied as or in memory 1110 , which may be or include a device-readable storage medium.

[0213] The processing circuit 1102 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network using a communication interface 1112. The communication interface 1112 may include one or more communication subsystems and may include an antenna 1122 or be communicatively coupled to the antenna 1122. The communication interface 1112 may include one or more transceivers for communication (e.g., by communicating with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another UE or a network node in an access network)). Each transceiver may include a transmitter 1118 and / or a receiver 1120 suitable for providing network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocation, etc.). In addition, the transmitter 1118 and the receiver 1120 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., 1122) and may share circuit components, software, or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.

[0214] In the illustrated embodiment, the communication functionality of the communication interface 1112 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short-range communication such as Bluetooth, near field communication, location-based communication (e.g., using a global positioning system (GPS) to determine location), another type of communication functionality, or any combination thereof. Communication may be implemented according to one or more communication protocols and / or standards such as IEEE 802.11, code division multiple access (CDMA), wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, new radio (NR), UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, transmission control protocol / Internet protocol (TCP / IP), synchronous optical network (SONET), asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), QUIC, hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), etc.

[0215] Regardless of the type of sensor, the UE may provide an output of data captured by its sensor through its communication interface 1112 via a wireless connection to a network node. The data captured by the UE's sensor may be transmitted via a wireless connection to a network node, via another UE. The output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reports the sensed temperature), random (e.g., to balance the load of reports from several sensors), in response to a trigger event (e.g., sending an alarm when humidity is detected), in response to a request (e.g., a user-initiated request), or a continuous stream (e.g., a live video feed of a patient).

[0216] As another example, the UE includes an actuator, motor, or switch associated with a communication interface configured to receive wireless input from a network node via a wireless connection. In response to the received wireless input, the state of the actuator, motor, or switch can change. For example, the UE can include a motor that adjusts a control surface or rotor of a drone in flight based on the received input, or adjusts a robotic arm performing a medical procedure based on the received input.

[0217] When the UE is in the form of an Internet of Things (IoT) device, the UE can be a device used in one or more application areas, including but not limited to urban wearable technology, extended industrial applications, and healthcare. Non-limiting examples of such IoT devices are the following devices or devices embedded in the following devices: connected refrigerators or freezers, televisions, connected lighting devices, electricity meters, robotic vacuum cleaners, voice-controlled smart speakers, home security cameras, motion detectors, thermostats, smoke detectors, door and window sensors, flood / humidity sensors, electronic door locks, connected doorbells, air conditioning systems (such as heat pumps), autonomous vehicles, monitoring systems, weather monitoring devices, vehicle parking monitoring devices, electric vehicle charging stations, smart watches, fitness trackers, head-mounted displays for augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR), wearable devices for tactile enhancement or sensory enhancement, sprinklers, animal tracking or item tracking devices, sensors for monitoring plants or animals, industrial robots, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and any kind of medical equipment (such as heart rate monitors or teleoperated surgical robots). In addition to the above, Fig.11 In addition to the other components depicted in the illustrated UE 1100 , a UE in the form of an IoT device may include circuitry and / or software depending on the intended application of the IoT device.

[0218] As yet another specific example, in an IoT scenario, a UE may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and / or measurement and sends the results of such monitoring and / or measurement to another UE and / or a network node. In this case, the UE may be an M2M device, which may be referred to as an MTC device in the 3GPP context. As a specific example, the UE may implement the 3GPP NB-IoT standard. In other scenarios, a UE may represent a vehicle (e.g., a car, bus, truck, ship, and airplane) or other device that is capable of monitoring and / or reporting its operating status or other functions associated with its operation.

[0219] In fact, for a single use case, any number of UEs may be used together. For example, a first UE may be a drone or integrated in a drone and provide the drone's speed information (obtained via a speed sensor) to a second UE, which is a remote controller operating the drone. When the user makes changes from the remote controller, the first UE may adjust the throttle on the drone (e.g., by controlling an actuator) to increase or decrease the drone's speed. The first UE and / or the second UE may also include more than one of the above functions. For example, a UE may include a sensor and an actuator and handle data communications for both the speed sensor and the actuator.

[0220] Fig.12 A network node 1200 according to some embodiments is shown. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (eg, radio access points) and base stations (eg, radio base stations, NodeBs, eNBs, and gNBs).

[0221] Base stations may be classified based on the amount of coverage they provide (or in other words, their transmit power level), and thus may be referred to as femto, pico, micro or macro base stations, depending on the amount of coverage provided. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node that controls a relay. A network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station, such as a centralized digital unit and / or a remote radio unit (RRU), sometimes referred to as a remote radio head (RRH). These remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna-integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS).

[0222] Other examples of network nodes include a multi-transmission point (multi-TRP) 5G access node, a multi-standard radio (MSR) device (e.g., an MSR BS), a network controller (e.g., a radio network controller (RNC) or a base station controller (BSC)), a base transceiver station (BTS), a transmission point, a transmission node, a multi-cell / multicast coordination entity (MCE), an operation and maintenance (O&M) node, an operation support system (OSS) node, a self-organizing network (SON) node, a positioning node (e.g., an evolved serving mobile location center (E-SMLC)), and / or a minimization of drive tests (MDT).

[0223] The network node 1200 includes a processing circuit 1202, a memory 1204, a communication interface 1206, and a power supply 1208. The network node 1200 may be composed of multiple physically separated components (e.g., a NodeB component and an RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may have their own corresponding components. In certain scenarios where the network node 1200 includes multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components may be shared between multiple network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeBs. In such a scenario, each unique "NodeB and RNC pair" may be considered as a single separate network node in some cases. In some embodiments, the network node 1200 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such an embodiment, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memories 1204 for different RATs), and some components may be reused (e.g., the same antenna 1210 may be shared by different RATs). The network node 1200 may also include multiple sets of the various components shown for different wireless technologies (e.g., GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, Zigbee, Z-wave, LoRaWAN, radio frequency identification (RFID), or Bluetooth wireless technologies) integrated into the network node 1200. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chips or chipsets and other components within the network node 1200.

[0224] The processing circuit 1202 may include a combination of one or more of the following: a microprocessor, a controller, a microcontroller, a central processing unit, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and / or encoded logic that is operable to provide network node 1200 functionality alone or in combination with other network node 1200 components (e.g., memory 1204).

[0225] In some embodiments, processing circuitry 1202 includes a system on a chip (SOC). In some embodiments, processing circuitry 1202 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1212 and baseband processing circuitry 1214. In some embodiments, RF transceiver circuitry 1212 and baseband processing circuitry 1214 may be on separate chips (or chipsets), boards, or units (e.g., a radio unit and a digital unit). In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 1212 and baseband processing circuitry 1214 may be on the same chip or chipset, board, or unit set.

[0226] The memory 1204 may include any form of volatile or non-volatile computer-readable memory, including but not limited to permanent storage devices, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (e.g., hard disk), removable storage media (e.g., flash drive, compact disk (CD) or digital video disk (DVD)), and / or any other volatile memory or non-volatile, non-transitory device readable and / or computer-executable memory device, which stores information, data and / or instructions that can be used by the processing circuit 1202. The memory 1204 may store any suitable instructions, data or information, including computer programs, software, applications including one or more of logic, rules, codes, tables, and / or other instructions that can be executed by the processing circuit 1202 and used by the network node 1200 (collectively referred to as computer programs 1204a, which may be in the form of a computer program product). The memory 1204 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuit 1202 and / or any data received via the communication interface 1206. In some embodiments, the processing circuit 1202 and the memory 1204 are integrated together.

[0227] The communication interface 1206 is used for wired or wireless communication of signaling and / or data between network nodes, access networks and / or UEs. As shown, the communication interface 1206 includes a port / terminal 1216 for sending data to the network and receiving data from the network, for example, via a wired connection. The communication interface 1206 also includes a radio front-end circuit 1218, which can be coupled to the antenna 1210, or in some embodiments, coupled to a part of the antenna 1210. The radio front-end circuit 1218 includes a filter 1220 and an amplifier 1222. The radio front-end circuit 1218 can be connected to the antenna 1210 and the processing circuit 1202. The radio front-end circuit can be configured to adjust the signal transmitted between the antenna 1210 and the processing circuit 1202. The radio front-end circuit 1218 can receive digital data to be sent to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection. The radio front-end circuit 1218 can use a combination of a filter 1220 and / or an amplifier 1222 to convert the digital data into a radio signal having suitable channel and bandwidth parameters. The radio signal can then be sent via the antenna 1210. Similarly, when receiving data, antenna 1210 may collect radio signals, which may then be converted to digital data by radio front end circuitry 1218. The digital data may be passed to processing circuitry 1202. In other embodiments, the communication interface may include different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0228] In certain alternative embodiments, the network node 1200 does not include a separate radio front end circuit 1218, instead the processing circuit 1202 includes the radio front end circuit and is connected to the antenna 1210. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuit 1212 is part of the communication interface 1206. In yet another embodiment, the communication interface 1206 includes one or more ports or terminals 1216, the radio front end circuit 1218, and the RF transceiver circuit 1212 as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 1206 communicates with the baseband processing circuit 1214, which is part of the digital unit (not shown).

[0229] Antenna 1210 may include one or more antennas or antenna arrays configured to send and / or receive wireless signals. Antenna 1210 may be coupled to radio front end circuit 1218 and may be any type of antenna capable of wirelessly sending and receiving data and / or signals. In some embodiments, antenna 1210 is separate from network node 1200 and may be connected to network node 1200 via an interface or port.

[0230] Antenna 1210, communication interface 1206 and / or processing circuit 1202 may be configured to perform any receiving operation and / or certain obtaining operations performed by a network node as described herein. Any information, data and / or signal may be received from a UE, another network node and / or any other network device. Similarly, antenna 1210, communication interface 1206 and / or processing circuit 1202 may be configured to perform any sending operation performed by a network node as described herein. Any information, data and / or signal may be sent to a UE, another network node and / or any other network device.

[0231] The power supply 1208 provides power to the various components of the network node 1200 in a form suitable for the various components (e.g., at the voltage and current levels required by each corresponding component). The power supply 1208 may also include power management circuitry or be coupled to power management circuitry to supply power to the components of the network node 1200 for performing the functions described herein. For example, the network node 1200 may be connected to an external power source (e.g., a power grid, a power outlet) via an input circuit or interface (e.g., a cable), whereby the external power source supplies power to the power circuit of the power supply 1208. As another example, the power supply 1208 may include a power source in the form of a battery or a battery pack, which is connected to the power circuit or integrated in the power circuit. If the external power source fails, the battery can provide backup power.

[0232] Embodiments of network node 1200 may include beyond Fig.12Additional components to the components shown are used to provide certain aspects of the functionality of the network node (including any functionality described herein and / or any functionality required to support the subject matter described herein). For example, the network node 1200 may include a user interface device to allow information to be input into the network node 1200 and to allow information to be output from the network node 1200. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other management functions for the network node 1200.

[0233] Fig.13 is a block diagram of a host 1300 according to various aspects described herein, which host 1300 may be Fig.10 As used herein, host 1300 may be or include various combinations of hardware and / or software (including processing resources in a standalone server, blade server, cloud-implemented server, distributed server, virtual machine, container, or server cluster). Host 1300 may provide one or more services to one or more UEs.

[0234] Host 1300 includes processing circuitry 1302, which is operably coupled to input / output interface 1306, network interface 1308, power supply 1310, and memory 1312 via bus 1304. Other components may be included in other embodiments. The features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the previous figures (e.g., Fig.11 and Fig.12 ) so that its description is generally applicable to corresponding components of the host 1300.

[0235] The memory 1312 may include one or more computer programs including data 1316 and one or more host applications 1314, which may include user data, such as data generated by a UE for the host 1300, or data generated by the host 1300 for the UE. An embodiment of the host 1300 may utilize only a subset or all of the components shown. The host application 1314 may be implemented in a container-based architecture and may provide support for video codecs (e.g., Versatile Video Coding (VVC), High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), Advanced Video Coding (AVC), MPEG, VP9) and audio codecs (e.g., FLAC, Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), MPEG, G.711), including transcoding for a variety of different categories, types, or implementations of UE (e.g., mobile phones, desktop computers, wearable display systems, head-up display systems). The host application 1314 may also provide user authentication and permission checks, and may periodically report health status, routing, and content availability to a central node (such as a device in a core network or a device on the edge of a core network). Thus, the host 1300 can select and / or indicate to the UE a different host for an over-the-top service. The host application 1314 can support various protocols, such as HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) protocol, Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH), etc.

[0236] Fig.14 1400 is a block diagram showing a virtualized environment 1400 in which the functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In this context, virtualization means creating a virtual version of an apparatus or device that may include a virtualized hardware platform, storage device, and network resources. As used herein, virtualization may be applied to any device or component thereof described herein, and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functions are implemented as one or more virtual components. Some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtual environments 1400 hosted by one or more of a hardware node (e.g., a hardware computing device operating as a network node, UE, core network node, or host). In addition, in embodiments where a virtual node does not require a radio connection (e.g., a core network node or host), the node may be fully virtualized.

[0237] An application 1402 (which may alternatively be referred to as a software instance, a virtual appliance, a network function, a virtual node, a virtual network function, etc.) runs in the virtualized environment 1400 to implement some features, functions, and / or benefits of some embodiments disclosed herein.

[0238] The hardware 1404 includes processing circuitry, memory storing software and / or instructions (collectively referred to as computer program 1404a, which may be in the form of a computer program product) executable by the hardware processing circuitry, and / or other hardware devices described herein (e.g., network interfaces, input / output interfaces, etc.). The software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers 1406 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs 1408a and 1408b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs 1408), and / or perform any of the functions, features, and / or benefits described in connection with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer 1406 may present a virtual operating platform to the VMs 1408 that appears to be network hardware.

[0239] VM 1408 includes virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual network or interface, and virtual storage, and can be run by corresponding virtualization layer 1406. Different embodiments of virtual device 1402 can be implemented on one or more VMs 1408, and these implementations can be made in different ways. In some contexts, virtualization of hardware is referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV can be used to unify numerous network device types onto industry standard high-capacity server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage that can be located in data centers and customer premises equipment (CPE).

[0240] In the context of NFV, each VM 1408 can be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executed on a physical, non-virtualized machine. Each VM 1408 and the portion of the hardware 1404 on which it executes (whether it is hardware dedicated to the VM and / or hardware shared by the VM with other VMs) form a separate virtual network element. Still in the context of NFV, a virtual network function is responsible for handling a specific network function that runs in one or more VMs 1408 on the hardware 1404 and corresponds to an application 1402.

[0241] Hardware 1404 may be implemented in a standalone network node with general or specific components. Hardware 1404 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 1404 may be part of a larger hardware cluster (e.g., in a data center or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed by management and orchestration 1410, which oversees, among other things, the lifecycle management of application 1402. In some embodiments, hardware 1404 is coupled to one or more radio units, each of which includes one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that may be coupled to one or more antennas. The radio unit may communicate directly with other hardware nodes via one or more appropriate network interfaces, and may be used in conjunction with virtual components to provide radio capabilities to virtual nodes (e.g., radio access nodes or base stations). In some embodiments, some signaling may be provided by using a control system 1412, which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.

[0242] Fig.15 A communication diagram is shown in which a host 1502 communicates with a UE 1506 via a network node 1504 over a partially wireless connection according to some embodiments. Fig.15 Describe the UE discussed in the previous paragraphs (e.g., Fig.10 UE 1012a and / or Fig.11 UE 1100), network node (e.g., Fig.10 The network node 1010a and / or Fig.12 network node 1200) and a host (e.g., Fig.10 Host 1016 and / or Fig.13 An example implementation of a host 1300 according to various embodiments.

[0243] Similar to the host 1300, an embodiment of the host 1502 includes hardware, such as a communication interface, a processing circuit, and a memory. The host 1502 also includes software that is stored in the host 1502 or can be accessed by the host 1502 and can be executed by the processing circuit. The software includes a host application that is operable to provide services to a remote user, such as a UE 1506 connected via an over-the-top (OTT) connection 1550 extending between the UE 1506 and the host 1502. When providing services to the remote user, the host application can provide user data sent using the OTT connection 1550.

[0244] The network node 1504 includes hardware that enables it to communicate with the host 1502 and the UE 1506. The connection 1560 can be a direct connection or through a core network (such as Fig.10The core network 1006 of the present invention) and / or one or more other intermediate networks (eg, one or more public, private, or managed networks). For example, the intermediate network may be a backbone network or the Internet.

[0245] UE 1506 includes hardware and software that is stored in or accessible by UE 1506 and can be executed by the processing circuitry of the UE. The software includes a client application (e.g., a web browser or an operator-specific "app") that is operable to provide services to a human or non-human user via UE 1506 with the support of host 1502. In host 1502, an executing host application can communicate with an executing client application via an OTT connection 1550, which terminates at UE 1506 and host 1502. When providing services to a user, the client application of the UE can receive request data from the host application of the host and provide user data in response to the request data. The OTT connection 1550 can transmit both request data and user data. The client application of the UE can interact with the user to generate user data provided to the host application via the OTT connection 1550.

[0246] The OTT connection 1550 may extend via a connection 1560 between the host 1502 and the network node 1504 and via a wireless connection 1570 between the network node 1504 and the UE 1506 to provide connectivity between the host 1502 and the UE 1506. The connection 1560 and the wireless connection 1570 through which the OTT connection 1550 may be provided have been drawn abstractly to illustrate communications between the host 1502 and the UE 1506 via the network node 1504 without explicitly involving any intermediate devices and the precise routing of messages via those devices.

[0247] As an example of sending data via OTT connection 1550, in step 1508, host 1502 provides user data, which can be performed by executing a host application. In some embodiments, the user data is associated with a specific human user who interacts with UE 1506. In other embodiments, the user data is associated with UE 1506, which shares data with host 1502 without explicit human interaction. In step 1510, host 1502 initiates a transmission to UE 1506, which carries the user data. Host 1502 may initiate the transmission in response to a request sent by UE 1506. The request may be caused by human interaction with UE 1506 or by the operation of a client application executed on UE 1506. According to the teachings of the embodiments described throughout the present disclosure, the transmission may be transmitted via network node 1504. Thus, in step 1512, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout the present disclosure, network node 1504 sends the user data carried in the transmission initiated by host 1502 to UE 1506. In step 1514, UE 1506 receives the user data carried in the transmission, which may be performed by a client application executing on UE 1506 that is associated with a host application executed by host 1502.

[0248] In some examples, UE 1506 executes a client application that provides user data to host 1502. User data may be provided as a reaction or response to data received from host 1502. Therefore, in step 1516, UE 1506 may provide user data, which may be performed by executing the client application. In providing the user data, the client application may also take into account user input received from a user via an input / output interface of UE 1506. Regardless of how the user data is provided, in step 1518, UE 1506 initiates a transmission of the user data to host 1502 via network node 1504. In step 1520, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout the present disclosure, network node 1504 receives user data from UE 1506 and initiates a transmission of the received user data to host 1502. In step 1522, host 1502 receives the user data carried in the transmission initiated by UE 1506.

[0249] One or more of the various embodiments improve the performance of the OTT service provided to UE 1506 using the OTT connection 1550, in which the wireless connection 1570 forms the last part. More specifically, compared to the conventional technique in which the UE autonomously selects a subset M (M < N) of candidate cells configured for measurement and reporting, the embodiments enable the UE to systematically select the best and / or preferred subset of candidate cells at any given time. In this way, the low-layer measurements reported by the UE are better and / or more relevant for beam management and / or L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility, while avoiding excessive UE power consumption due to unnecessary measurements. By improving the operation of the UE and the RAN in this way, the embodiments increase the value of the OTT service delivered via the RAN to both the UE, the end user, and the service provider.

[0250] In an example scenario, the host 1502 may collect and analyze factory status information. As another example, the host 1502 may process audio and video data that may have been retrieved from the UE for creating a map. As another example, the host 1502 may collect and analyze real-time data to help control vehicle congestion (e.g., control traffic lights). As another example, the host 1502 may store the monitoring video uploaded by the UE. As another example, the host 1502 may store or control access to media content such as video, audio, VR, or AR, which may be broadcast, multicast, or unicast to the UE. As other examples, the host 1502 may be used for energy pricing, remote control of non-time-critical electrical loads to balance power generation demand, location services, rendering services (e.g., compiling charts, etc. based on data collected from remote devices), or any other function of collecting, retrieving, storing, analyzing, and / or sending data.

[0251] In some examples, a measurement process may be provided for monitoring data rate, latency, and other factors that are the object of improvement of one or more embodiments. There may also be an optional network function for reconfiguring the OTT connection 1550 between the host 1502 and the UE 1506 in response to changes in the measurement results. The measurement process and / or the network function for reconfiguring the OTT connection may be implemented in the software and hardware of the host 1502 and / or the UE 1506. In some embodiments, sensors (not shown) may be deployed in other devices through which the OTT connection 1550 passes, or associated with the other devices; the sensors may participate in the measurement process by providing the values ​​of the monitoring quantities exemplified above or providing the values ​​of other physical quantities from which the software can calculate or estimate the monitoring quantities. Reconfiguring the OTT connection 1550 may include message formats, retransmission settings, preferred routes, etc.; reconfiguration does not require direct changes to the operation of the network node 1504. Such processes and functions may be known and practiced in the art. In some embodiments, the measurement may involve proprietary UE signaling that facilitates the host 1502 to measure throughput, propagation time, latency, etc. Measurements can be made by software using the OTT connection 1550 to send messages (particularly empty or "dummy" messages) while monitoring propagation times, errors, etc.

[0252] The above merely illustrates the principles of the present disclosure. In view of the teachings herein, various modifications and changes to the described embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, it should be understood that those skilled in the art will be able to design many systems, arrangements and programs that, although not explicitly shown or described herein, embody the principles of the present disclosure and therefore can be used within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. As will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art, the various embodiments can be used together or interchangeably.

[0253] The term unit as used herein may have a conventional meaning in the field of electronics, electrical devices and / or electronic devices, and may include, for example, electrical and / or electronic circuits, devices, modules, processors, memories, logical solid-state and / or discrete devices, computer programs or instructions for performing various tasks, processes, calculations, output and / or display functions, etc., such as those described herein.

[0254] Any suitable steps, methods, features, functions or benefits disclosed herein may be performed by one or more functional units or modules of one or more virtual devices. Each virtual device may include multiple of these functional units. These functional units may be implemented by processing circuits, which may include one or more microprocessors or microcontrollers and other digital hardware (which may include digital signal processors (DSPs), dedicated digital logic, etc.). The processing circuit may be configured to execute program codes stored in a memory, which may include one or more types of memory, such as read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), cache memory, flash memory device, optical storage device, etc. The program code stored in the memory includes program instructions for executing one or more telecommunications and / or data communication protocols and instructions for executing one or more technologies described herein. In some implementations, the processing circuit may be used to cause each functional unit to perform a corresponding function according to one or embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0255] As described herein, a device and / or apparatus may be represented by a semiconductor chip, a chipset, or a (hardware) module including such a chip or chipset; however, this does not exclude the possibility that the functionality of the device or apparatus is not implemented by hardware but is implemented as a software module (e.g., a computer program or computer program product including an executable software code portion for execution or operation on a processor). In addition, the functionality of the device or apparatus may be implemented by any combination of hardware and software. A device or apparatus may also be considered as a combination of multiple devices and / or apparatuses, whether they functionally cooperate with each other or are independent of each other. In addition, as long as the functionality of the device or apparatus is retained, the device and apparatus may be implemented in a distributed manner throughout the system. This principle and similar principles are considered to be known to technicians.

[0256] In addition, the functions performed by a wireless device or network node described herein may be distributed across multiple wireless devices and / or network nodes. In other words, it is contemplated that the functions of the network nodes and wireless devices described herein are not limited to being performed by a single physical device and may in fact be distributed across several physical devices.

[0257] In addition, certain terms used in this disclosure (including the specification and the drawings) may be used synonymously in certain instances (e.g., "data" and "information"). It should be understood that although these terms and / or their terms that may be synonymous with each other may be used synonymously herein, there may be instances where such words may not be intended to be used synonymously.

[0258] The techniques and devices described herein include, but are not limited to, the following examples:

[0259] A1. A method for a user equipment (UE), the user equipment (UE) being configured to communicate with a radio access network (RAN) node via a serving cell, the method comprising:

[0260] receiving a message from a RAN node, the message comprising configuration of low layer measurements to be performed by the UE, wherein the configuration comprises one or more conditions for low layer measurements on one or more candidate cells for L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility;

[0261] performing one or more of the following measurements: a low layer measurement of the serving cell, a first layer 3 (L3) measurement of the serving cell, and a second L3 measurement of at least one of the candidate cells;

[0262] Based on detecting that the performed measurements satisfy at least one of the conditions, initiating low layer measurements of at least one candidate cell associated with the satisfied at least one condition; and

[0263] A low layer measurement report is sent to the RAN node, the low layer measurement report including results of performing low layer measurements on at least one candidate cell.

[0264] A2. The method of embodiment A1, wherein detecting that the performed measurement satisfies at least one of the conditions comprises detecting one or more of the following:

[0265] A result of a low-layer measurement of the serving cell is lower than a first threshold;

[0266] The result of L3 measurement of the serving cell is lower than a second threshold;

[0267] The result of L3 measurement of the candidate cell is lower than a third threshold;

[0268] The result of the L3 measurement of the candidate cell is at least an offset greater than the result of the L3 measurement of the serving cell;

[0269] A result of L3 measurement of the serving cell is lower than a fourth threshold; and

[0270] One or more highest values ​​of the plurality of low-layer measurements of the serving cell are lower than a seventh threshold.

[0271] A3. A method according to embodiment A2, wherein the multiple low-layer measurements of the serving cell are measurements of multiple beams associated with the serving cell.

[0272] A3a. The method of embodiment A2, wherein one or more of the following applies:

[0273] The offset is associated with a Radio Resource Management (RRM) A3 event; and

[0274] The second threshold is the S-measurement RRM threshold.

[0275] A4. The method according to any one of embodiments A1 to A3a, further comprising stopping or suspending low-layer measurements of at least one candidate cell based on detecting that at least one of the following measurements satisfies another one or more of these conditions:

[0276] Low-level measurements of at least one candidate cell,

[0277] Low-level measurements of the serving cell,

[0278] The first L3 measurement of the serving cell, and

[0279] Second L3 measurement of at least one candidate cell

[0280] A5. The method of embodiment A4, wherein detecting that at least one measurement satisfies one or more of the other conditions comprises detecting any of the following:

[0281] The result of L3 measurement of the serving cell is higher than a fifth threshold;

[0282] The result of L3 measurement of at least one candidate cell is lower than a sixth threshold;

[0283] One or more highest values ​​of the plurality of low-layer measurements of the serving cell are higher than an eighth threshold; and

[0284] One or more highest values ​​of the plurality of low-layer measurements of at least one candidate cell are below a ninth threshold.

[0285] A5a. The method of embodiment A5, wherein the multiple low-layer measurements of at least one candidate cell are measurements of multiple beams associated with the at least one candidate cell.

[0286] A6. A method according to any one of embodiments A1 to A5a, wherein the low-layer measurements of the serving cell and at least one candidate cell include one or more of the following items: synchronization signal / PBCH (SSB) reference signal received power (SS-RSRP), SSB reference signal received quality (SS-RSRQ), SSB signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SS-SINR), channel state information CSI reference signal received power (CSI-RSRP), CSI reference signal received quality (CSI-RSRQ), CSI signal-to-interference and noise ratio (CSI-SINR), L1-RSRP, L1-RSRQ, and L1-SINR.

[0287] A7. The method of any one of embodiments A1 to A6, wherein one or more of the following applies:

[0288] The L3 measurement of the serving cell and the at least one candidate cell is a L3 reference signal received power (L3-RSRP) measurement; and

[0289] The L3 measurements of the serving cell and at least one candidate cell are associated with the L3 inter-cell mobility procedure.

[0290] A8. The method of any one of embodiments A1 to A7, wherein:

[0291] The one or more candidate cells for L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility include a plurality of candidate cells;

[0292] The method further includes:

[0293] determining that a plurality of candidate cells are associated with at least one condition being satisfied;

[0294] selecting a subset of the plurality of candidate cells based on results of respective second L3 measurements of the plurality of candidate cells; and

[0295] Initiate low-level measurements for the selected subset.

[0296] A9. The method of any one of embodiments A1 to A8, wherein one or more of the following applies:

[0297] The low layer measurement reports are beam measurement reports; and

[0298] The low layer measurement reports are sent via low layer procedures on the Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) or the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) in the serving cell.

[0299] A10. A method according to any one of embodiments A1 to A9, wherein the message including the configuration is an RRCReconfiguration message.

[0300] A11. The method according to any one of embodiments A1 to A10 further includes receiving a low layer message from the RAN node, the low layer message instructing the UE to perform an L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility procedure on one of the candidate cells whose measurement results are included in the low layer measurement report.

[0301] B1. A method for a radio access network (RAN) node, the radio access network node being configured to provide a serving cell to a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:

[0302] sending a message to a UE, the message comprising a configuration of low layer measurements to be performed by the UE, wherein the configuration comprises one or more conditions for low layer measurements of one or more candidate cells for L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility, wherein the conditions are based on one or more of: a low layer measurement of a serving cell, a first layer 3 (L3) measurement of the serving cell, and a second L3 measurement of at least one candidate cell; and

[0303] Based on satisfying at least one of the conditions, a low layer measurement report is received from the UE, the low layer measurement report including a result of performing low layer measurement on at least one candidate cell.

[0304] B2. The method of embodiment B1, wherein the conditions include one or more of the following:

[0305] A result of a low-layer measurement of the serving cell is lower than a first threshold;

[0306] The result of L3 measurement of the serving cell is lower than a second threshold;

[0307] The result of L3 measurement of the candidate cell is lower than a third threshold;

[0308] The result of the L3 measurement of the candidate cell is at least an offset greater than the result of the L3 measurement of the serving cell;

[0309] A result of L3 measurement of the serving cell is lower than a fourth threshold; and

[0310] One or more highest values ​​of the plurality of low-layer measurements of the serving cell are lower than a seventh threshold.

[0311] B3. A method according to embodiment B2, wherein the multiple low-layer measurements of the serving cell are measurements of multiple beams associated with the serving cell.

[0312] B4. The method of embodiment B2, wherein one or more of the following applies:

[0313] The offset is associated with the A3 RRM event; and

[0314] The second threshold is the S measurement radio resource management (RRM) threshold.

[0315] B5. A method according to any one of embodiments B1 to B4, wherein the conditions include one or more of the following items related to stopping or suspending low-layer measurements of at least one candidate cell:

[0316] The result of L3 measurement of the serving cell is higher than a fifth threshold;

[0317] The result of L3 measurement of at least one candidate cell is lower than a sixth threshold;

[0318] One or more highest values ​​of the plurality of low-layer measurements of the serving cell are higher than an eighth threshold; and

[0319] One or more highest values ​​of the plurality of low-layer measurements of at least one candidate cell are below a ninth threshold.

[0320] B5a. A method according to embodiment B5, wherein the multiple low-layer measurements of at least one candidate cell are measurements of multiple beams associated with the at least one candidate cell.

[0321] B6. A method according to any one of embodiments B1 to B5a, wherein the low-layer measurements of the serving cell and at least one candidate cell include one or more of the following items: synchronization signal / PBCH (SSB) reference signal received power (SS-RSRP), SSB reference signal received quality (SS-RSRQ), SSB signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SS-SINR), channel state information CSI reference signal received power (CSI-RSRP), CSI reference signal received quality (CSI-RSRQ), CSI signal-to-interference and noise ratio (CSI-SINR), L1-RSRP, L1-RSRQ, and L1-SINR.

[0322] B7. The method of any one of embodiments B1 to B6, wherein one or more of the following applies:

[0323] The L3 measurement of the serving cell and the at least one candidate cell is a L3 reference signal received power (L3-RSRP) measurement; and

[0324] The L3 measurements of the serving cell and at least one candidate cell are associated with the L3 inter-cell mobility procedure.

[0325] B8. The method of any one of embodiments B1 to B7, wherein one or more of the following applies:

[0326] The low layer measurement reports are beam measurement reports; and

[0327] The low layer measurement reports are received via low layer procedures on the Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) or the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) in the serving cell.

[0328] B9. A method according to any one of embodiments B1 to B8, wherein the message including the configuration is an RRCReconfiguration message.

[0329] B10. The method according to any one of embodiments B1 to B9, further comprising:

[0330] Selecting one of the candidate cells for the L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility procedure of the UE based on the low layer measurement reports; and

[0331] A low layer message is sent to the UE, where the low layer message instructs the UE to perform an L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility procedure on the selected candidate cell.

[0332] C1. A user equipment (UE) configured to communicate with a radio access network (RAN) node via a serving cell, the UE comprising:

[0333] a communication interface circuit configured to communicate with a RAN node via a serving cell; and

[0334] The processing circuit is operably coupled to the communication interface circuit, wherein the processing circuit and the communication interface circuit are further configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods described according to embodiments A1 to A10.

[0335] C2. A user equipment (UE) configured to communicate with a radio access network (RAN) node via a serving cell, the UE being further configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods described in embodiments A1 to A10.

[0336] C3. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions which, when executed by a processing circuit of a user equipment (UE), configure the UE to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods described in embodiments A1 to A10, wherein the user equipment is configured to communicate with a radio access network (RAN) node via a serving cell.

[0337] C4. A computer program product comprising computer executable instructions which, when executed by a processing circuit of a user equipment (UE), configure the UE to perform operations corresponding to any method described in embodiments A1 to A10, wherein the user equipment is configured to communicate with a radio access network (RAN) node via a serving cell.

[0338] D1. A radio access network (RAN) node configured to provide a serving cell to a user equipment (UE), the RAN node comprising:

[0339] a communication interface circuit configured to communicate with the UE via a serving cell; and

[0340] The processing circuit is operably coupled to the communication interface circuit, whereby the processing circuit and the communication interface circuit are configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods described according to embodiments B1 to B10.

[0341] D2. A radio access network (RAN) node, configured to provide a serving cell to a user equipment (UE), the RAN node being further configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods described according to embodiments B1 to B8.

[0342] D3. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions which, when executed by a processing circuit of a radio access network (RAN) node, configure the RAN node to perform operations corresponding to any method described in embodiments B1 to B8, wherein the radio access network (RAN) node is configured to provide a serving cell to a user equipment (UE).

[0343] D4. A computer program product comprising computer executable instructions which, when executed by a processing circuit of a radio access network (RAN) node, configure the RAN node to perform operations corresponding to any method described in embodiments B1 to B8, wherein the radio access network (RAN) node is configured to provide a serving cell to a user equipment (UE).

Claims

1. A method for a user equipment UE, the user equipment UE being configured to communicate with a radio access network RAN ​​node via a serving cell, the method comprising: obtaining (810) a configuration defining one or more conditions that trigger low layer measurements of one or more candidate cells for layer 1 / layer 2 inter-cell mobility; performing (820) one or more of the following measurements: a low layer measurement on the serving cell, a first layer 3 (L3) measurement on the serving cell, and a second L3 measurement on at least one of the candidate cells; Based on detecting (830) that the performed measurements satisfy at least one of the conditions, initiating (840) low layer measurements of at least one candidate cell associated with the satisfied at least one condition; as well as A low layer measurement report is sent (870) to the RAN node, the low layer measurement report comprising results of performing low layer measurements on the at least one candidate cell.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein: Detecting (830) that the performed measurement satisfies at least one of the conditions includes detecting one or more of: A result of low-layer measurement of the serving cell is lower than a first threshold, The result of L3 measurement of the serving cell is lower than a second threshold, The result of L3 measurement of the candidate cell is lower than the third threshold, The result of the L3 measurement of the candidate cell is at least an offset greater than the result of the L3 measurement of the serving cell, A result of L3 measurement of the serving cell is lower than a fourth threshold, and One or more highest values ​​of the plurality of low-layer measurements of the serving cell are lower than a seventh threshold.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein: The plurality of low-layer measurements on the serving cell are measurements on a plurality of beams associated with the serving cell.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein: One or more of the following applies: The offset is associated with a Radio Resource Management, RRM A3, event; and The second threshold is an S-measurement RRM threshold.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising: Based on detecting (850) that at least one of the following measurements satisfies one or more other of the conditions, stopping or suspending (860) low layer measurements on the at least one candidate cell: low layer measurements of the at least one candidate cell, low layer measurements of the serving cell, a first L3 measurement of the serving cell, and A second L3 measurement of the at least one candidate cell.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein: Detecting (850) that at least one measurement satisfies one or more other of the conditions includes detecting any of the following: The result of L3 measurement of the serving cell is higher than a fifth threshold, A result of L3 measurement of the at least one candidate cell is lower than a sixth threshold, One or more highest values ​​of a plurality of low-layer measurements of the serving cell are higher than an eighth threshold, and One or more highest values ​​of the plurality of low-layer measurements for the at least one candidate cell are below a ninth threshold.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein: The plurality of low-layer measurements for the at least one candidate cell are measurements for a plurality of beams associated with the at least one candidate cell.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein: The low-layer measurements of the serving cell and of the at least one candidate cell include one or more of the following items: synchronization signal / PBCH "SSB" reference signal received power SS-RSRP; SSB reference signal received quality SS-RSRQ; SSB signal to interference and noise ratio SS-SINR; channel state information CSI reference signal received power CSI-RSRP; CSI reference signal received quality CSI-RSRQ; CSI signal to interference and noise ratio CSI-SINR; L1-RSRP; L1-RSRQ; and L1-SINR.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein: One or more of the following applies: The L3 measurement of the serving cell and of the at least one candidate cell is an L3 reference signal received power L3-RSRP measurement; as well as The L3 measurements on the serving cell and on the at least one candidate cell are associated with an L3 inter-cell mobility procedure.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein: The one or more candidate cells for L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility include a plurality of candidate cells; Detecting (830) that the performed measurements satisfy at least one of the conditions comprises determining (831) that a plurality of candidate cells are associated with the at least one condition that is satisfied; as well as A low layer measurement is initiated (840) on at least one candidate cell associated with the at least one condition being met, and a subset of the plurality of candidate cells is selected (841) based on results of respective second L3 measurements on the plurality of candidate cells, wherein the low layer measurement is initiated for the selected subset.

11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein: One or more of the following applies: The low layer measurement report is a beam measurement report; and The low layer measurement report is sent via a low layer procedure on a physical uplink control channel PUCCH or a physical uplink shared channel PUSCH in the serving cell.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein: Obtaining the configuration comprises receiving a message comprising the configuration or a part thereof from the RAN node.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein: The message is an RRCReconfiguration message.

14. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, wherein: The configuration or a part thereof is obtained from a memory of the UE.

15. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 14, further comprising: A low layer message is received (880) from the RAN node, the low layer message instructing the UE to perform an L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility procedure on one of the candidate cells whose measurement results are included in the low layer measurement report.

16. A method for a radio access network RAN ​​node, the RAN node being configured to provide a serving cell to a user equipment UE, the method comprising: A configuration defining one or more conditions that trigger low layer measurements of one or more candidate cells for layer 1 / layer 2 (L1 / L2) inter-cell mobility is sent (910) to a UE, wherein the conditions are based on one or more of the following: low layer measurements of the serving cell; performing layer 3 (L3) measurements on the serving cell; and a second L3 measurement of at least one candidate cell; and Based on satisfying at least one of the conditions, a low layer measurement report is received (920) from the UE, the low layer measurement report including results of performing low layer measurements on the at least one candidate cell.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein: The conditions include one or more of the following: A result of low-layer measurement of the serving cell is lower than a first threshold, The result of L3 measurement of the serving cell is lower than a second threshold, The result of L3 measurement of the candidate cell is lower than the third threshold, The result of the L3 measurement of the candidate cell is at least an offset greater than the result of the L3 measurement of the serving cell, A result of L3 measurement of the serving cell is lower than a fourth threshold, and One or more highest values ​​of the plurality of low-layer measurements of the serving cell are lower than a seventh threshold.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein: The multiple low-layer measurements on the serving cell are measurements on multiple beams associated with the serving cell.

19. The method according to claim 17, wherein: One or more of the following applies: The offset is associated with a Radio Resource Management, RRM A3, event; and The second threshold is an S-measurement RRM threshold.

20. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 19, wherein: The condition comprises one or more of the following items related to stopping or suspending low-layer measurement of at least one candidate cell: The result of L3 measurement of the serving cell is higher than a fifth threshold, A result of L3 measurement of the at least one candidate cell is lower than a sixth threshold, One or more highest values ​​of a plurality of low-layer measurements of the serving cell are higher than an eighth threshold, and One or more highest values ​​of the plurality of low-layer measurements for the at least one candidate cell are below a ninth threshold.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein: The plurality of low-layer measurements for the at least one candidate cell are measurements for a plurality of beams associated with the at least one candidate cell.

22. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 21, wherein: The low-layer measurements of the serving cell and of the at least one candidate cell include one or more of the following items: synchronization signal / PBCH "SSB" reference signal received power SS-RSRP; SSB reference signal received quality SS-RSRQ; SSB signal to interference and noise ratio SS-SINR; channel state information CSI reference signal received power CSI-RSRP; CSI reference signal received quality CSI-RSRQ; CSI signal to interference and noise ratio CSI-SINR; L1-RSRP; L1-RSRQ; and L1-SINR.

23. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 22, wherein: One or more of the following applies: The L3 measurement of the serving cell and of the at least one candidate cell is an L3 reference signal received power L3-RSRP measurement; as well as The L3 measurements on the serving cell and on the at least one candidate cell are associated with an L3 inter-cell mobility procedure.

24. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 23, wherein: One or more of the following applies: The low layer measurement report is a beam measurement report; and The low layer measurement report is received via a low layer procedure on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) in the serving cell.

25. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 24, wherein: The configuration is included in an RRCReconfiguration message sent to the UE.

26. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 25, further comprising: selecting (930) one of the candidate cells for a L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility procedure of the UE based on the low layer measurement report; as well as A low layer message is sent (940) to the UE, the low layer message instructing the UE to perform an L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility procedure to the selected candidate cell.

27. A user equipment UE (210, 1012, 1100, 1506), configured to communicate with a radio access network RAN ​​node (100, 150, 220, 1010, 1200, 1402, 1504) via a serving cell, the UE comprising: A communication interface circuit (1112) configured to communicate with the RAN node via the serving cell; as well as A processing circuit (1102) is operably coupled to the communication interface circuit, whereby the processing circuit and the communication interface circuit are configured to: Obtaining a configuration defining one or more conditions that trigger low layer measurements of one or more candidate cells for layer 1 / layer 2 (L1 / L2) inter-cell mobility; performing one or more of the following measurements: a low layer measurement on the serving cell, a first layer 3 (L3) measurement on the serving cell, and a second L3 measurement on at least one of the candidate cells; Based on detecting that the performed measurements satisfy at least one of the conditions, initiating low layer measurements of at least one candidate cell associated with the satisfied at least one condition; as well as A low layer measurement report is sent to the RAN node, where the low layer measurement report includes a result of performing low layer measurement on the at least one candidate cell.

28. The UE according to claim 27, wherein: The processing circuit and the communication interface circuit are further configured to perform operations corresponding to any one of the methods according to claims 2 to 15.

29. A user equipment UE (210, 1012, 1100, 1506), configured to communicate with a radio access network RAN ​​node (100, 150, 220, 1010, 1200, 1402, 1504) via a serving cell, the UE being further configured to: Obtaining a configuration defining one or more conditions that trigger low layer measurements of one or more candidate cells for layer 1 / layer 2 (L1 / L2) inter-cell mobility; performing one or more of the following measurements: a low layer measurement on the serving cell, a first layer 3 (L3) measurement on the serving cell, and a second L3 measurement on at least one of the candidate cells; Based on detecting that the performed measurements satisfy at least one of the conditions, initiating low layer measurements of at least one candidate cell associated with the satisfied at least one condition; as well as A low layer measurement report is sent to the RAN node, where the low layer measurement report includes a result of performing low layer measurement on the at least one candidate cell.

30. The UE according to claim 29, further configured to perform operations corresponding to any one of the methods according to claims 2 to 15.

31. A non-transitory computer-readable medium (1110) storing computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by a processing circuit (1102) of a user equipment (UE) (210, 1012, 1100, 1506), configure the UE to perform operations corresponding to any one of the methods according to claims 1 to 15, wherein: The user equipment UE (210, 1012, 1100, 1506) is configured to communicate with a radio access network RAN ​​node (100, 150, 220, 1010, 1200, 1402, 1504) via a serving cell.

32. A computer program product (1114) comprising computer executable instructions, which, when executed by a processing circuit (1102) of a user equipment (UE) (210, 1012, 1100, 1506), configures the UE to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods according to claims 1 to 15, wherein: The user equipment UE (210, 1012, 1100, 1506) is configured to communicate with a radio access network RAN ​​node (100, 150, 220, 1010, 1200, 1402, 1504) via a serving cell.

33. A radio access network RAN ​​node (100, 150, 220, 1010, 1200, 1402, 1504), configured to provide a serving cell to a user equipment UE (210, 1012, 1100, 1506), the RAN node comprising: A communication interface circuit (1206, 1404) configured to communicate with the UE via the serving cell; as well as A processing circuit (1202, 1404) operably coupled to the communication interface circuit, whereby the processing circuit and the communication interface circuit are configured to: Sending a configuration to a UE defining one or more conditions that trigger low layer measurements of one or more candidate cells for layer 1 / layer 2 (L1 / L2) inter-cell mobility, wherein the conditions are based on one or more of the following: low layer measurements of the serving cell; performing layer 3 (L3) measurements on the serving cell; and a second L3 measurement of at least one candidate cell; and Based on satisfying at least one of the conditions, a low layer measurement report is received from the UE, the low layer measurement report including a result of performing low layer measurement on the at least one candidate cell.

34. The RAN node according to claim 33, wherein: The processing circuit and the communication interface circuit are further configured to perform operations corresponding to any one of the methods according to claims 17 to 26.

35. A radio access network RAN ​​node (100, 150, 220, 1010, 1200, 1402, 1504), configured to provide a serving cell to a user equipment UE (210, 1012, 1100, 1506), the RAN node being further configured to: Sending a configuration to a UE defining one or more conditions that trigger low layer measurements of one or more candidate cells for layer 1 / layer 2 (L1 / L2) inter-cell mobility, wherein: The conditions are based on one or more of the following: low layer measurements of the serving cell; performing layer 3 (L3) measurements on the serving cell; and a second L3 measurement of at least one candidate cell; and Based on satisfying at least one of the conditions, a low layer measurement report is received from the UE, the low layer measurement report including a result of performing low layer measurement on the at least one candidate cell.

36. The RAN node according to claim 35, further configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods according to claims 17 to 26.

37. A non-transitory computer readable medium (1204, 1404) storing computer executable instructions which, when executed by a processing circuit (1202, 1404) of a Radio Access Network RAN ​​node (100, 150, 220, 1010, 1200, 1402, 1504), configure the RAN node to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods according to claims 16 to 26, wherein: The radio access network RAN ​​node (100, 150, 220, 1010, 1200, 1402, 1504) is configured to provide a serving cell to a user equipment UE (210, 1012, 1100, 1506).

38. A computer program product (1204a, 1404a) comprising computer executable instructions which, when executed by a processing circuit (1202, 1404) of a Radio Access Network RAN ​​node (100, 150, 220, 1010, 1200, 1402, 1504), configure the RAN node to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods according to claims 16 to 26, wherein The radio access network RAN ​​node (100, 150, 220, 1010, 1200, 1402, 1504) is configured to provide a serving cell to a user equipment UE (210, 1012, 1100, 1506).

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