Link quality monitoring over multiple candidate cell groups

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are provided for a user equipment (UE) to monitor link quality over a plurality of candidate cell groups (CGs) in a wireless network. The UE transmits, from the UE to a base station, a UE capability message indicating a number of the candidate CGs for which the UE supports at least one of simultaneous radio link monitoring (RLM) and simultaneous beam failure detection (BFD). The UE performs, at the UE, a configuration by the base station for measuring reference signals corresponding to a plurality of deactivated cells up to the number of candidate CGs indicated by the UE capability message. The UE measures the reference signals according to the configuration.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates generally to wireless communication systems, including link quality monitoring. Background Art

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

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

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

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

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

[0007] The frequency bands of 5G NR can be divided into two or more different frequency ranges. For example, frequency range 1 (FR1) may include frequency bands operating at frequencies below 6 GHz, some of which are available for use by previous standards and can potentially be expanded to cover new spectrum products from 410 MHz to 7125 MHz. Frequency range 2 (FR2) may include frequency bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. Note that in some systems, FR2 may also include frequency bands from 52.6 GHz to 71 GHz (or higher). The frequency bands in the millimeter wave (mmWave) range of FR2 may have smaller coverage than the frequency bands in FR1 but potentially higher available bandwidth. The skilled person will recognize that these frequency ranges, provided by way of example, may vary over time or from region to region. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] To easily identify the discussion of any particular element or action, the most significant digit(s) in a reference number refers to the drawing number that first introduces the element.

[0009] Figure 1 is a flowchart of a method for a UE to monitor link qualities on multiple candidate cell groups (CGs) in a wireless network according to one embodiment.

[0010] Figure 2 is a flow chart of a method for a base station in a wireless network according to one embodiment.

[0011] Figure 3A , Figure 3B and Figure 3C An example scaling of the evaluation period using the number of candidate primary secondary cells (PSCells) is illustrated according to one embodiment.

[0012] Figure 4A , Figure 4B and Figure 4C An example of prioritized scaling of evaluation periods is illustrated according to one embodiment.

[0013] Figure 5A , Figure 5B and Figure 5C An example of prioritized scaling of evaluation periods without increasing UE power consumption according to one embodiment is shown.

[0014] Figure 6It is a flowchart of a method for a UE to monitor multiple candidate CGs in a wireless network according to an exemplary embodiment.

[0015] Figure 7 is a flow chart of a method for a base station in a wireless network according to one embodiment.

[0016] Figure 8 An example architecture of a wireless communication system according to embodiments disclosed herein is illustrated.

[0017] Fig. 9 A system for performing signaling between a wireless device and a network device according to embodiments disclosed herein is illustrated. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0018] Various embodiments are described with respect to UE. However, reference to UE is provided for illustrative purposes only. The example embodiments may be used with any electronic component that can establish a connection with a network and is configured with hardware, software, and / or firmware for exchanging information and data with the network. Therefore, UE as described herein is used to represent any suitable electronic component.

[0019] Certain embodiments disclosed herein provide solutions for performing radio link monitoring (RLM) and beam failure detection (BFD) on multiple candidate secondary cell groups (SCGs).

[0020] In an NR communication system, support for multiple candidate SCGs may be provided for mobility enhancement. For example, NR-NR dual connectivity (NR-DC) with selective activation of cell groups (at least for SCGs) may include layer 3 (L3) enhancements to allow subsequent cell group changes after changing the carrier group (CG) without reconfiguration and re-initiation of conditional primary and secondary cell (PSCell) changes (CPC) and / or conditional PSCell additions (CPA). Enhancements may also include, for example, specifying a conditional handover (CHO) including a target primary cell group (MCG) and a target secondary cell group (SCG), specifying a CHO including a target MCG and a candidate SCG for CPC and / or CPA in NR-DC (e.g., a CHO including a target MCG and a target SCG used as a baseline), and / or specifying radio resource management (RRM) core requirements for inter-cell mobility and enhanced CHO configuration based on layer 1 and / or layer 2 (L1 / L2) as needed.

[0021] According to certain NR implementations, the UE supports only one active SCG even when multiple candidate SCGs can be configured. However, in such systems, it is unclear how to handle other candidate SCGs. For example, in the first option, all other candidate SCGs are considered to be deactivated serving CGs, which has the benefit that the deactivated SCGs can be quickly activated. In the second option, all other candidate SCGs are considered to be normal neighboring cells, which has the benefit of UE power saving. The difference between the first option and the second option is that the network can configure RLM and / or BFD on the deactivated PSCell to determine that there are no link quality issues when one of the candidate PSCells is activated. In addition, the UE RRM measurement requirements for the deactivated PSCell are different from the UE RRM measurement requirements for the neighboring cells.

[0022] Table 1 shows the RLM requirements based on an example synchronization signal block (SSB) for deactivating a PSCell. Specifically, Table 1 shows the evaluation period T for FR1 for various discontinuous reception (DRX) configurations. Evaluate_out_SSB and T Evaluate_in_SSB (where "Ceil" is a ceiling function, "out" refers to out-of-sync assessment, "in" refers to in-sync assessment, and "P" is the ratio of the total number of RLM-RS resource opportunities within the window (including RLM-RS resource opportunities overlapping with measurement gap opportunities within the window) to the number of RLM-RS resource opportunities that do not overlap with any measurement gap opportunities within the window). The UE is able to assess the Evaluate_out_SSB Whether the estimated downlink radio link quality on the configured RLM reference signal (RLM-RS) resources becomes better than T Evaluate_out_SSB The quality threshold Q within the evaluation period out_SSB In addition, the UE can evaluate the Evaluate_in_SSB Whether the estimated downlink radio link quality on the configured RLM-RS resources becomes better than T Evaluate_in_SSB The quality threshold Q within the evaluation period in_SSB good.

[0023] Table 1 corresponds to, for example, 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 38.133 Table 8.1.2.2-4. Similar examples can be found in 3GPP TS38.133, clauses 8.1.2 and 8.1.3, which are used for: SSB-based RLM for deactivated PSCells in FR2 (Table 8.1.2.2-5), Channel State Information (CSI)-Reference Signal (RS)-based RLM for deactivated PSCells in FR1 (Table 8.1.3.2-3), CSI-RS-based RLM for deactivated PSCells in FR2 (Table 8.1.3.2-4), SSB-based BFD for deactivated PSCells in FR1 (Table 8.5.2.2-4), SSB-based BFD for deactivated PSCells in FR2 (Table 8.5.2.2-5), CSI-RS-based BFD for deactivated PSCells in FR1 (Table 8.5.3.2-3), and CSI-RS-based BFD for deactivated PSCells in FR2 (Table 8.5.3.2-4).

[0024]

[0025] Table 1

[0026] Simultaneous RLM and BFD on multiple candidate / deactivated PSCells .

[0027] In certain embodiments, the UE performs RLM and BFD simultaneously on multiple candidate PSCells and / or deactivated PSCells. RLM and BFD may, for example, at least partially overlap in time. Thus, the efficiency and robustness of RLM and BFD may be improved. However, simultaneous RLM and BFD on multiple candidate and / or deactivated PSCells may increase UE power consumption.

[0028] In some NR systems, the measurement cycle length can be configured per measurement object (MO) (measCyclePSCell shown in Table 1). However, in some embodiments disclosed herein, the measurement cycle length is configured per cell. This allows the network to configure different parameters for different candidate PSCells.

[0029] For example, the measurement cycle lengths in Table 2 are shown as having an index (i) (e.g., measCyclePSCell i ) to indicate that it corresponds to a deactivated PSCell iThe example in Table 2 is for SSB-based RLM for a deactivated PSCell in FR1. Similar changes may be made to, for example, 3GPP TS 38.133 Table 8.1.2.2-5, Table 8.1.3.2-3, Table 8.1.3.2-4, Table 8.5.2.2-4, Table 8.5.2.2-5, Table 8.5.3.2-3, and Table 8.5.3.2-4. Therefore, the RRM requirements for RLM and BFD are updated as required by the serving cell.

[0030]

[0031] Table 2

[0032] Alternatively, a new information element (IE) may be used to control the RLM and BFD evaluation periods (eg, RLM CyclePSCell and / or BFDCyclePSCell in RLM and BFD configurations). Thus, the network may configure different parameters for different candidate PSCells.

[0033] In certain embodiments, the base station signals to the UE that RLM and BFD are performed simultaneously on multiple candidate PSCells and / or deactivated PSCells. In one such embodiment, the base station transmits to the UE an indication that BFD and RLM are performed on the deactivated SCG as part of the candidate SCG selection, and reports candidate beam information using the candidate SCG selection process if configured. For example, the deactivated SCG configuration IE (DeactivatedSCG-Config) may include a parameter bfdRLM-ForSCG indicating to the UE that BFD and RLM are performed on the indicated SCG, and a reportBeams parameter indicating to the UE that candidate beam information is reported, as shown below:

[0034]

[0035] In another embodiment, the base station signals the cell-level measurement cycle length (measCyclePSCell) to the UE. For example, the deactivated SCG configuration IE (DeactivatedSCG-Config) may include a parameter measCyclePSCell configured per cell, as shown below:

[0036]

[0037] In another embodiment, the base station signals the cell-level BFD measurement cycle length (bfdMeasCycle) and / or the RLM measurement cycle length (rlmMeasCycle) to the UE. For example, the deactivated SCG configuration IE (DeactivatedSCG-Config) may include parameters bfdMeasCycle and rlmMeasCycle configured per cell, as shown below:

[0038]

[0039] Figure 1 is a flow chart of a method 100 for a user equipment (UE) to monitor link quality on multiple candidate cell groups (CGs) in a wireless network according to one embodiment. In box 102, the method 100 includes: transmitting a UE capability message from the UE to the base station, the UE capability message indicating the number of candidate CGs for which the UE supports at least one of simultaneous radio link monitoring (RLM) and simultaneous beam failure detection (BFD). In box 104, the method 100 includes: processing at the UE a configuration performed by the base station for measuring reference signals corresponding to a plurality of deactivated cells up to the number of candidate CGs indicated by the UE capability message. In box 106, the method 100 includes: measuring the reference signal according to the configuration.

[0040] In certain embodiments of method 100, configuring includes configuring the measurement cycle length value per cell of the plurality of out-of-service cells.

[0041] In certain embodiments of the method 100, the configuration includes a deactivated secondary cell group (SCG) configuration information element (IE) for each deactivated cell of the plurality of deactivated cells received by the UE from the base station.

[0042] In certain embodiments, the Deactivate SCG Configuration IE includes a first indication that the UE will perform BFD or RLM on the corresponding deactivate SCG as part of the candidate SCG selection process. The Deactivate SCG Configuration IE may also include a second indication that the UE will report candidate beam information for the corresponding deactivate SCG.

[0043] In certain embodiments, deactivating the SCG configuration IE includes deactivating a measurement cycle length of a primary secondary cell (PSCell).

[0044] In certain embodiments, deactivating the SCG configuration IE includes deactivating at least one of an RLM measurement cycle length and a BFD measurement cycle length of a primary secondary cell (PSCell).

[0045] In certain embodiments of the method 100, the configuration includes a deactivation master cell group (MCG) configuration information element (IE) for each deactivation cell of the plurality of deactivation cells received by the UE from the base station.

[0046] In certain embodiments, the Deactivate MCG Configuration IE includes a first indication that the UE will perform BFD or RLM on the corresponding deactivate MCG as part of the candidate MCG selection process. The Deactivate MCG Configuration IE may also include a second indication that the UE will report candidate beam information for the corresponding deactivate MCG.

[0047] In certain embodiments, deactivating the MCG configuration IE includes deactivating a measurement cycle length of a primary cell (PCell).

[0048] In certain embodiments, deactivating the MCG configuration IE includes deactivating at least one of an RLM measurement cycle length and a BFD measurement cycle length of a primary cell (PCell).

[0049] In certain embodiments of method 100, the UE capability message includes a single value for the number of candidate CGs for which the UE supports at least one of simultaneous RLM or simultaneous BFD.

[0050] In certain embodiments of the method 100, the UE capability message includes one of a per frequency range (FR) indication, a per frequency band indication, a per frequency band combination indication, and a per frequency band combination indication.

[0051] In certain embodiments, method 100 further includes: in response to determining that a relaxed measurement criterion is satisfied, multiplying an evaluation period for measuring a reference signal by a multiplication value, wherein the multiplication value comprises a predetermined value or a configuration value communicated by the base station to the UE.

[0052] Figure 2 2 is a flow chart of a method 200 for a base station in a wireless network according to one embodiment. In block 202, the method 200 includes: receiving a UE capability message from a user equipment (UE) at the base station, the UE capability message indicating the number of candidate cell groups (CGs) for which the UE supports at least one of simultaneous radio link monitoring (RLM) and simultaneous beam failure detection (BFD). In block 204, the method 200 includes: providing, by the base station, for the UE, a configuration for measuring reference signals corresponding to a plurality of deactivated cells up to the number of candidate CGs indicated by the UE capability message.

[0053] In certain embodiments of method 200, configuring includes configuring the measurement cycle length value per cell of the plurality of deactivated cells.

[0054] In certain embodiments of the method 200, the configuring includes configuring a deactivated secondary cell group (SCG) information element (IE) for each deactivated cell in the plurality of deactivated cells.

[0055] In certain embodiments, the Deactivate SCG Configuration IE includes a first indication that the UE will perform BFD or RLM on the corresponding deactivate SCG as part of the candidate SCG selection process. The Deactivate SCG Configuration IE may also include a second indication that the UE will report candidate beam information for the corresponding deactivate SCG.

[0056] In certain embodiments, deactivating the SCG configuration IE includes deactivating a measurement cycle length of a primary secondary cell (PSCell).

[0057] In certain embodiments, deactivating the SCG configuration IE includes deactivating at least one of an RLM measurement cycle length and a BFD measurement cycle length of a primary secondary cell (PSCell).

[0058] In certain embodiments of the method 200, the configuring includes deactivating a master cell group (MCG) configuration information element (IE) for each of the plurality of deactivated cells.

[0059] In certain embodiments, the Deactivate MCG Configuration IE includes a first indication that the UE will perform BFD or RLM on the corresponding deactivate MCG as part of the candidate MCG selection process. The Deactivate MCG Configuration IE may also include a second indication that the UE will report candidate beam information for the corresponding deactivate MCG.

[0060] In certain embodiments, deactivating the MCG configuration IE includes deactivating a measurement cycle length of a primary cell (PCell).

[0061] In certain embodiments, deactivating the MCG configuration IE includes deactivating at least one of an RLM measurement cycle length and a BFD measurement cycle length of a primary cell (PCell).

[0062] In certain embodiments of the method 200, the UE capability message includes a single value for the number of candidate CGs for which the UE supports at least one of simultaneous RLM or simultaneous BFD. The UE capability message may include one of a per frequency range (FR) indication, a per frequency band indication, a per frequency band combination indication, and a per frequency band combination band indication.

[0063] In certain embodiments, method 200 further includes configuring the UE to perform at least one of relaxed RLM and relaxed BFD by multiplying an evaluation period for measuring a reference signal by a multiplication value when relaxed measurement criteria are met, wherein the multiplication value comprises a predetermined value or a configuration value signaled by the base station to the UE.

[0064] Scaling the evaluation period by the number of PSCells .

[0065] In some embodiments, the UE is configured to scale the RLM and / or BFD evaluation period based on the number of candidate PSCells. Increasing the RLM and / or BFD evaluation period based on the number of candidate PSCells may result in almost no additional UE power consumption. However, in some specific implementations, there may potentially be a degradation in RLM and / or BFD efficiency and robustness.

[0066] For example, the evaluation period (T Evaluate_out_SSB and T Evaluate_in_SSB ) is scaled by an integer N, which is the number of PSCells on which the UE is configured to perform RLM. The example in Table 3 is for SSB-based RLM for deactivated PSCells in FR1. Similar changes may be made to, for example, 3GPP TS 38.133 Table 8.1.2.2-5, Table 8.1.3.2-3, Table 8.1.3.2-4, Table 8.5.2.2-4, Table 8.5.2.2-5, Table 8.5.3.2-3, and Table 8.5.3.2-4.

[0067]

[0068] Table 3

[0069] Figure 3A , Figure 3B and Figure 3C An example scaling of the evaluation period using the number of candidate PSCells according to one embodiment is illustrated. To simplify the discussion of the examples illustrated herein, the unscaled evaluation period is given as 100 milliseconds (ms). However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and a skilled person will recognize that shorter or longer RLM and / or BFD evaluation periods may be used. Thus, in Figure 3A , the UE evaluates a single candidate PSCell A every 100 ms (for illustration, "A" is shown every 100 ms), for example to determine whether the downlink radio link quality on the configured RLM-RS resources estimated within the last evaluation period has become worse than a quality threshold within the evaluation period).

[0070] exist Figure 3B In the example shown, the UE evaluates both candidate PSCell A and another candidate PSCell B. Since there are two PSCells for RLM and / or BFD evaluation, the UE will scale the evaluation period by N=2. Therefore, the evaluation period for both candidate PSCells A and B is increased from 100ms to 200ms (i.e., "A" is shown every 200ms and "B" is shown every 200ms). Compare Figure 3A and Figure 3BIn the example of , the UE performs the same number of evaluations over time, so that no additional UE power is consumed. However, there is a potential degradation of RLM and / or BFD performance because there may be an increased delay before the UE determines that the downlink radio link quality has degraded.

[0071] The potential degradation of RLM and / or BFD performance becomes worse as the number of candidate PSCells increases. Figure 3C In the example, the UE evaluates four candidate PSCells A, B, C, and D by scaling the evaluation period by N = 4. Therefore, the evaluation period of the candidate PSCell increases from 100 ms to 800 ms (i.e., "A" is shown every 400 ms, "B" is shown every 400 ms, "C" is shown every 800 ms, and "D" is shown every 800 ms), which may further increase the delay in detecting degradation of downlink radio quality.

[0072] Prioritize RLM / BFD on some PSCells .

[0073] In some embodiments, the UE is configured to prioritize RLM and / or BFD on one or more PSCells. The prioritized PSCell may be referred to herein as the anchor PSCell. In some such embodiments, there may not be a significant increase in UE power consumption (or there may be only an acceptable amount of increased UE power consumption) while maintaining RLM and / or BFD performance on the target or prioritized PSCell.

[0074] For example, the evaluation period (T Evaluate_out_SSB and T Evaluate_in_SSB ) is scaled by an integer N. For the anchor PSCell, N=1. For other PSCells, N is the number of non-anchor PSCells on which the UE is configured to perform RLM. The example in Table 4 is for SSB-based RLM for a deactivated PSCell in FR1. Similar changes may be made to, for example, 3GPP TS 38.133 Table 8.1.2.2-5, Table 8.1.3.2-3, Table 8.1.3.2-4, Table 8.5.2.2-4, Table 8.5.2.2-5, Table 8.5.3.2-3, and Table 8.5.3.2-4.

[0075]

[0076] Table 4

[0077] Figure 4A , Figure 4B and Figure 4C Examples of prioritized scaling of evaluation periods according to one embodiment are illustrated. In these examples, the unscaled evaluation period is given as 100ms.

[0078] Figure 4A An example of priority scaling is shown for PSCell A (prioritized or anchor cell), PSCell B, and PSCell C. As the anchor PSCell, for PSCell A, N=1. Therefore, the UE evaluates PSCell A every 1×100ms=100ms (for illustration, "A" is shown every 100ms). Since there are two non-anchor PSCells, for PSCell B and PSCell C, N=2, which corresponds to a scaled evaluation period of 2×100ms=200ms (i.e., "B" and "C" are shown every 200ms). Therefore, the UE maintains RLM and / or BFD performance for PSCell A (i.e., no scaling), while maintaining reduced RLM and / or BFD performance for PSCell B and PSCell C. With FIG. 3A to FIG. 3C Compared to the example shown in Figure 4A In the example shown, the UE doubles the number of evaluations in the illustrated time (ie, from every 100 ms to every 50 ms), which may be an acceptable increase in UE power consumption in certain embodiments.

[0079] Figure 4B An example of priority scaling is shown for PSCell A (prioritized or anchor cell), PSCell B, PSCell C, PSCell D, and PSCell E. As the anchor PSCell, for PSCell A, N=1. Therefore, the UE evaluates PSCell A every 1×100ms=100ms (i.e., "A" is shown every 100ms). Since there are four non-anchor PSCells, N=4 for PSCell B, PSCell C, PSCell D, and PSCell E, which corresponds to a scaled evaluation period of 4×100ms=400ms (i.e., "B", "C", "D", and "E" are shown every 400ms). Therefore, the UE maintains RLM and / or BFD characteristics for PSCell A (i.e., no scaling) while providing even further reduced RLM and / or BFD performance for PSCell B, PSCell C, PSCell D, and PSCell E. However, by comparison Figure 4A and Figure 4B In the example in FIG. 5 , the UE power consumption for RLM and / or BFD does not change significantly when increasing from three PSCells to five PSCells because the UE performs the same number of evaluations in the illustrated time.

[0080] In some embodiments, the UE may prioritize more than one PSCell (i.e., more than one anchor PSCell). In some such embodiments, for each of the anchor cells, N=1. For example, Figure 4C An example of priority scaling for five PSCells is shown, with two anchor PSCells (PSCell A1 and PSCell A2) and three non-anchor PSCells (PSCell B, PSCell C, and PSCell D). For anchor PSCell A1 and anchor PSCell A2, N=1. Therefore, the UE evaluates PSCell A1 and PSCell A2 every 1×100ms=100ms (i.e., "A1" and "A2" are shown every 100ms). Since there are three non-anchor PSCells, N=3 for PSCell B, PSCell C, and PSCell D, which corresponds to a scaled evaluation period of 3×100ms=300ms (i.e., "B", "C", and "D" are shown every 300ms). Therefore, the UE maintains RLM and / or BFD performance for PSCell A1 and PSCell A2 (i.e., no scaling) while providing reduced RLM and / or BFD performance for PSCell B, PSCell C, and PSCell D. However, unlike Figure 4A and Figure 4B Compared to the example shown, the UE performs more evaluations in the time illustrated.

[0081] To determine the anchor or prioritized PSCell, in one embodiment, signaling from the network to the UE is used to indicate on which PSCell or PSCells to prioritize RLM and / or BFD. For example, the special cell configuration (SpCellConfig) IE used for signaling from the base station to the UE may include an anchor SCG parameter (anchorSCG) to indicate the selected anchor PSCell on which the UE will prioritize RLM and / or BFD, as shown below:

[0082]

[0083]

[0084] As another example, the deactivated SCG configuration IE (DeactivatedSCG-Config) for signaling from the base station to the UE may include an anchor SCG parameter (anchorSCG) to indicate the selected anchor PSCell on which the UE will prioritize RLM and / or BFD, as shown below:

[0085]

[0086]

[0087] To determine the anchor PSCell or prioritized PSCell, in other embodiments, the UE autonomously determines the anchor PSCell to use (ie, without signaling from the network). In addition, the UE may report the selected PSCell for which BFD and / or RLM is performed and is above a threshold.

[0088] In a first example implementation of UE-autonomous determination of an anchor PSCell or a prioritized PSCell, the UE autonomously determines the anchor PSCell based on RRM measurements on each candidate PSCell. For example, the UE periodically performs RRM measurements on the candidate PSCells and considers the best PSCell as the anchor PSCell. The measurement metric may include at least one of SSB-based reference signal received power (RSRP), SSB-based reference signal received quality (RSRQ), SSB-based signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), CSI-RS-based RSRP, CSI-RS-based RSRQ, and / or CSI-RS-based SINR.

[0089] In a second example implementation of UE-autonomous determination based on the anchor PSCell or prioritized PSCell, the UE selects the prioritized PSCell from among those cells that are suitable (i.e., satisfying the S criterion) or have a cell quality greater than or equal to a quality threshold. The quality threshold may be preconfigured by the network. In certain embodiments, the first example implementation based on UE-autonomous determination and the second example implementation based on UE-autonomous determination may be combined.

[0090] In addition, or in other embodiments, to determine the anchor PSCell or the prioritized PSCell, both signaling from the network and UE-based autonomous determination may be used. For example, the special cell configuration (SpCellConfig) IE used for signaling from the base station to the UE may include a UE autonomous anchor SCG change flag (UEautonomousAnchorSCGChange) to instruct the UE to perform autonomous determination of the anchor PSCell, as shown below:

[0091]

[0092]

[0093] In certain embodiments of UE-autonomous determination of an anchor PSCell or a prioritized PSCell, the network prepares the serving cell in the SCG to assume the role of the PSCell. The UE's selection of which serving cell to select for the PSCell may be based on a random access channel (RACH) on that serving cell in the candidate SCG. The network may configure the serving cell in the candidate SCG with PSCell handling related configurations. Configuration parameters may include, but are not limited to, a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) and a common configuration of the cell. The UE may apply the configuration parameters before performing a RACH procedure in the UE's selected serving cell as the PSCell.

[0094] Certain embodiments prioritize RLM and / or BFD on some PSCells (e.g., on one or more anchor PSCells) with little increase in UE power consumption. In one such embodiment, for example, 50% of the measurement resources or sampling opportunities are assigned to the anchor PSCell, and the other 50% of the measurement resources or sampling opportunities are shared among non-anchor PSCells.

[0095] For example, the evaluation period (T Evaluate_out_SSB and T Evaluate_in_SSB ) is scaled by 2x N. For a single anchor PSCell, N=1. In certain embodiments with multiple anchor cells, n=k, where k is the number of anchor cells. For other PSCells, N is the number of non-anchor PSCells on which the UE is configured to perform RLM. The example in Table 5 is for SSB-based RLM for a deactivated PSCell in FR1. Similar changes may be made to, for example, 3GPP TS 38.133 Tables 8.1.2.2-5, 8.1.3.2-3, 8.1.3.2-4, 8.5.2.2-4, 8.5.2.2-5, 8.5.3.2-3, and 8.5.3.2-4.

[0096]

[0097]

[0098] Table 5

[0099] Figure 5A , Figure 5B and Figure 5C Examples of prioritizing scaling of evaluation periods without increasing UE power consumption according to one embodiment are shown. In these examples, the non-scaling evaluation period is given as 100 ms.

[0100] Figure 5AAn example of priority scaling for PSCell A (prioritized or anchor cell), PSCell B, and PSCell C is shown. As the anchor PSCell, for PSCell A, N=1. Therefore, the UE evaluates PSCell A every 2×1×100ms=200ms (for illustration, "A" is shown every 200ms). Since there are two non-anchor PSCells, for PSCell B and PSCell C, N=2, which corresponds to a scaled evaluation period of 2×2×100ms=400ms (i.e., "B" and "C" are shown every 400ms). Therefore, in this example, the sampling opportunities of PSCell A (the anchor PSCell) are reduced by 50% (i.e., from every 100ms to every 200ms), and the other 50% of the sampling opportunities are shared between PSCell B and PSCell C. With FIG. 3A to FIG. 3C Compared to the example shown, Figure 5A The example shown also includes an evaluation (or sampling opportunity) of only every 100 ms. Thus, the UE provides RLM and / or BFD for the anchor PSCell and two non-anchor PSCells without increasing UE power consumption.

[0101] Figure 5B An example of priority scaling is shown for PSCell A (prioritized or anchor cell), PSCell B, PSCell C, PSCell D, and PSCell E. As the anchor PSCell, N=1 for PSCell A. Therefore, the UE evaluates PSCell A every 2×1×100ms=200ms (i.e., "A" is shown every 200ms). Since there are four non-anchor PSCells, N=4 for PSCell B, PSCell C, PSCell D, and PSCell E, which corresponds to a scaled evaluation period of 2×4×100ms=800ms (i.e., "B", "C", "D", and "E" are shown every 800ms). Compare Figure 5A and Figure 5B In the example of FIG. 4 , when increasing from three PSCells to five PSCells, the UE maintains the RLM and / or BFD performance for PSCell A without increasing the UE power consumption because the UE performs the same number of evaluations within the illustrated time.

[0102] As discussed above, the UE may prioritize more than one PSCell (i.e., more than one anchor PSCell). In some such embodiments, for each of the anchor cells, N=k. For example, Figure 5CAn example of priority scaling for five PSCells is shown, with two anchor PSCells (PSCell A1 and PSCell A2) and three non-anchor PSCells (PSCell B, PSCell C, and PSCell D). For anchor PSCell A1 and anchor PSCell A2, N=k=2. Therefore, the UE evaluates PSCell A1 and PSCell A2 every 2×2×100ms=400ms (i.e., "A1" and "A2" are shown every 200ms). Since there are three non-anchor PSCells, N=3 for PSCell B, PSCell C, and PSCell D, which corresponds to a scaled evaluation period of 2×3×100ms=600ms (i.e., "B", "C", and "D" are shown every 600ms). Therefore, in this example, 50% of the sampling opportunities are shared between the anchor PSCells (PSCell A1 and PSCell A2), and the other 50% of the sampling opportunities are shared between the non-anchor PSCells (PSCell B, PSCell C, and PSCell D). However, the UE only continues to perform evaluation every 100ms, so UE power consumption does not increase.

[0103] UE Capabilities .

[0104] Because the UE may perform RLM and / or BFD on multiple candidate or deactivated PSCells simultaneously, additional UE baseband resources may be used. For example, when there are a large number of candidate or deactivated PSCells, additional UE baseband resources may be useful. Therefore, in one embodiment, a UE capabilities message from the UE to the base station may indicate the number of candidate or deactivated PSCells for which the UE is capable of supporting simultaneous RLM and / or BFD on N candidate SCGs. In another embodiment, the UE capabilities message indicates the number of candidate or deactivated PSCells on which the UE can be configured to perform RLM and / or BFD on N candidate SCGs.

[0105] The UE capabilities may be per UE. In such embodiments, each UE indicates a number to the network, and the network does not configure RLM and / or BFD on more than the indicated number of candidate or disabled PSCells. In other embodiments, the UE capabilities may be per FR (where the UE indicates different numbers in different frequency ranges (FR1 and FR2)), per band (where the UE indicates different numbers of cells in different bands), per band combination (where the UE indicates different numbers of cells in different band combinations), or per band combination band (where the UE indicates different numbers for each band in a given band combination).

[0106] Other Example Implementations .

[0107] Although certain embodiments disclosed herein relate to multiple candidate SCGs, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. For example, the embodiments disclosed herein may also apply to multiple candidate MCGs. In such embodiments, there may be an indication from the network to the UE regarding the length of the RLM and / or BFD-RS sampling cycle for the deactivated primary cell (PCell) (e.g., measCycleDeactivatedPCell). Therefore, in the example embodiments disclosed herein, measCyclePSCell may be replaced by measCycleDeactivatedPCell.

[0108] Certain embodiments disclosed herein may be combined with relaxed RLM and / or BFD, where longer evaluations (m*T evaluate ). The multiplier m may be predefined in a specification or standard (e.g., m=1.5), or selected by the network and explicitly configured to the UE (e.g., m{1.5, 2, 3, 4.5, ...}). The network may determine that relaxed RLM and / or BFD is allowed for certain cells (e.g., for the non-anchor cells discussed herein).

[0109] The conditions for using relaxed RLM and / or BFD may be, for example, those described in 3GPP TS 38.133, clause 8.1.1.1, Requirement on Radio Link Monitoring for UE Configured with RelaxedMeasurement Criteria, or those described in 3GPP TS 38.133, clause 8.5.1.1, Requirement on Link Recovery Procedures for UE Configured with RelaxedMeasurement Criteria.

[0110] Figure 6It is a flowchart of a method 600 for a user equipment (UE) to monitor multiple candidate cell groups (CGs) in a wireless network according to one embodiment. In box 602, the method 600 includes: determining one or more evaluation periods for the UE to monitor the link quality on multiple deactivated cells in the candidate CGs. In box 604, the method 600 includes: determining the number of multiple deactivated cells for which the UE is configured to monitor the link quality. In box 606, the method 600 includes: scaling one or more evaluation periods based on the number of deactivated cells. In box 608, the method 600 includes: measuring reference signals corresponding to multiple deactivated cells based on the scaling of the one or more evaluation periods.

[0111] In certain embodiments of method 600, monitoring link quality includes performing at least one of radio link monitoring (RLM) and beam failure detection (BFD) on a candidate primary cell group (MCG) or a candidate secondary cell group (SCG) in the wireless network.

[0112] In certain embodiments of method 600, the number of multiple outage cells includes a total number of multiple outage cells for which the UE is configured to monitor link quality, and wherein scaling the one or more evaluation periods includes multiplying the configured evaluation period by the total number of multiple outage cells.

[0113] In some embodiments, the method 600 further includes: selecting one or more anchor cells among the plurality of deactivated cells for prioritized monitoring of link quality, wherein the number of the plurality of deactivated cells includes a first number of the one or more anchor cells among the plurality of deactivated cells and a second number of non-anchor cells.

[0114] In some embodiments, scaling one or more evaluation periods includes: determining a first evaluation period, the first evaluation period comprising a configured evaluation period for one or more anchor cells without scaling; and determining a second evaluation period for non-anchor cells, the second evaluation period comprising the configured evaluation period multiplied by a second number of non-anchor cells.

[0115] In some embodiments, scaling the one or more evaluation periods includes: determining a first evaluation period for one or more anchor cells, the first evaluation period comprising a configured evaluation period multiplied by a first number of anchor cells; and determining a second evaluation period for non-anchor cells, the second evaluation period comprising a configured evaluation period multiplied by a second number of non-anchor cells. In some such embodiments, the method 600 may also include: multiplying the first evaluation period and the second evaluation period by a value to apportion a percentage of sampling opportunities for measuring reference signals to be shared among the one or more anchor cells and apportioning a remaining percentage of sampling opportunities for measuring reference signals to be shared among the non-anchor cells.

[0116] In some embodiments, selecting one or more anchor cells includes: receiving a signal from a base station at the UE indicating one or more anchor cells for prioritized monitoring of link quality among a plurality of deactivated cells. In some such embodiments, the signal includes an anchor flag in a cell configuration or a deactivated cell configuration.

[0117] In some embodiments, selecting one or more anchor cells includes autonomously determining the one or more anchor cells based on cell measurements at the UE without input from the base station. The cell measurements may include one or more radio resource management (RRM) measurements selected from the group consisting of: reference signal received power (RSRP) based on synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), reference signal received quality (RSRQ) based on SSBs, signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) based on SSBs, RSRP based on channel state information (CSI)-reference signal (RS), RSRQ based on CSI-RS, and SINR based on CSI-RS.

[0118] In some embodiments, the method 600 further includes: selecting one or more anchor cells when the corresponding cell characteristic or quality exceeds a threshold; and reporting from the UE to the base station the one or more anchor cells having the corresponding cell characteristic or quality exceeding the threshold.

[0119] In some embodiments, the cell configuration includes a flag indicating that autonomous anchor cell selection is allowable for the UE.

[0120] In some embodiments, the method 600 further includes: in response to determining that relaxed measurement criteria are met for the non-anchor cell, multiplying an evaluation period for measuring a reference signal of the non-anchor cell by a multiplication value, wherein the multiplication value comprises a predetermined value or a configuration value communicated by the base station to the UE.

[0121] In some embodiments, the method 600 further includes: transmitting a UE capability message from the UE to the base station, the UE capability message indicating that the UE can be configured to perform at least one of radio link monitoring (RLM) and beam failure detection (BFD) on multiple candidate primary cell groups (MCGs) or candidate secondary cell groups (SCGs) in the wireless network. In some such embodiments, the UE capability message includes one of the following: per UE indication, per frequency range (FR) indication, per frequency band indication, per frequency band combination indication, and per frequency band combination per frequency band indication.

[0122] Embodiments contemplated herein include an apparatus comprising means for performing one or more elements of method 100 and / or method 600. The apparatus may be, for example, an apparatus that is a UE (such as wireless device 902 that is a UE, as described herein).

[0123] Embodiments contemplated herein include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media including instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of method 100 or method 600. The non-transitory computer-readable medium may be, for example, a memory of a UE (such as memory 906 of a wireless device 902 that is a UE, as described herein).

[0124] Embodiments contemplated herein include an apparatus comprising logical components, modules, or circuits for performing one or more elements of method 100 and / or method 600. The apparatus may be, for example, an apparatus of a UE (such as wireless device 902 that is a UE, as described herein).

[0125] Embodiments contemplated herein include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform one or more elements of method 100 and / or method 600. The apparatus may be, for example, an apparatus of a UE (such as wireless device 902 that is a UE, as described herein).

[0126] Embodiments contemplated herein include a signal as described in or associated with one or more elements of method 100 or method 600 .

[0127] Embodiments contemplated herein include a computer program or computer program product including instructions, wherein execution of the program by a processor causes the processor to perform one or more elements of method 100 or method 600. The processor may be a processor of a UE (such as processor 904 of a wireless device 902 that is a UE, as described herein). These instructions may be located, for example, in a processor of a UE and / or on a memory (such as memory 906 of a wireless device 902 that is a UE, as described herein).

[0128] Figure 7 7 is a flow chart of a method 700 for a base station in a wireless network according to one embodiment. In block 702, the method 700 includes: configuring a user equipment (UE) to monitor link quality on a plurality of out-of-cells in a candidate cell group (CG). In block 704, the method 700 includes: transmitting from the base station to the UE an indication to scale one or more evaluation periods based on the number of out-of-cells. The one or more evaluation periods are for the UE to monitor link quality on the number of out-of-cells.

[0129] In certain embodiments of method 700, configuring the UE to monitor link quality includes configuring the UE to perform at least one of radio link monitoring (RLM) and beam failure detection (BFD) on a candidate primary cell group (MCG) or a candidate secondary cell group (SCG) in the wireless network.

[0130] In certain embodiments of method 700, the number of deactivated cells comprises a total number of deactivated cells for which the UE is configured to monitor link quality, and wherein the indication to scale one or more evaluation periods comprises instructions to multiply the configured evaluation period by the total number of deactivated cells.

[0131] In some embodiments, method 700 further includes: indicating from the base station to the UE one or more anchor cells among the deactivated cells for prioritized monitoring of link quality, wherein the number of deactivated cells includes a first number of the one or more anchor cells among the deactivated cells and a second number of non-anchor cells.

[0132] In some embodiments, the indication for scaling one or more evaluation periods includes instructions for the UE to: determine a first evaluation period, the first evaluation period comprising a configured evaluation period for one or more anchor cells without scaling; and determine a second evaluation period for non-anchor cells, the second evaluation period comprising the configured evaluation period multiplied by a second number of non-anchor cells.

[0133] In some embodiments, the instructions for scaling one or more evaluation periods include instructions for the UE to determine a first evaluation period for one or more anchor cells, the first evaluation period comprising a configured evaluation period multiplied by a first number of anchor cells; and determine a second evaluation period for non-anchor cells, the second evaluation period comprising a configured evaluation period multiplied by a second number of non-anchor cells. In some such embodiments, the instructions further provide for the UE to multiply the first evaluation period and the second evaluation period by a value to apportion a percentage of sampling opportunities for measuring reference signals to be shared among the one or more anchor cells and to apportion a remaining percentage of sampling opportunities for measuring reference signals to be shared among the non-anchor cells.

[0134] In some embodiments, indicating one or more anchor cells includes setting an anchor flag in a cell configuration or a deactivated cell configuration.

[0135] In some embodiments, the method 700 further includes: instructing the UE from the base station to autonomously select one or more anchor cells for prioritized monitoring of link quality among the deactivated cells based on the cell measurement.

[0136] In some embodiments, the cell measurement may include one or more radio resource management (RRM) measurements selected from the group consisting of: reference signal received power (RSRP) based on a synchronization signal block (SSB), reference signal received quality (RSRQ) based on SSB, signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) based on SSB, RSRP based on a channel state information (CSI)-reference signal (RS), RSRQ based on CSI-RS, and SINR based on CSI-RS.

[0137] In some embodiments, method 700 further includes: transmitting from the base station to the UE a threshold for the UE to compare with the corresponding cell characteristic or cell quality; and receiving at the base station from the UE a report that one or more anchor cells include a corresponding cell characteristic or cell quality exceeding the threshold.

[0138] In certain embodiments, the UE is instructed to autonomously select one or more anchor cells for which a UE autonomous selection flag is set in a cell configuration or a deactivated cell configuration.

[0139] In certain embodiments, the method 700 further includes transmitting, from the base station to the UE, a multiplication value for use by the UE when relaxed measurement criteria are met to further scale the one or more evaluation periods for the non-anchor cell.

[0140] In some embodiments, the method 700 further includes: receiving, at the base station, a UE capability message from the UE, the UE capability message indicating a number of deactivated cells on which the UE can be configured to perform at least one of radio link monitoring (RLM) and beam failure detection (BFD). In some such embodiments, the UE capability message includes one of: a per-UE indication, a per-frequency range (FR) indication, a per-frequency band indication, a per-frequency band combination indication, and a per-frequency band combination frequency band indication.

[0141] Embodiments contemplated herein include an apparatus comprising means for performing one or more elements of method 200 or method 700. The apparatus may be, for example, an apparatus that is a base station (such as network device 918 that is a base station, as described herein).

[0142] Embodiments contemplated herein include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media including instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of method 200 or method 700. The non-transitory computer-readable medium may be, for example, a memory of a base station (such as memory 922 of network device 918 that is a base station, as described herein).

[0143] Embodiments contemplated herein include an apparatus comprising logical components, modules, or circuits for performing one or more elements of method 200 and / or method 700. The apparatus may be, for example, an apparatus of a base station (such as network device 918 that is a base station, as described herein).

[0144] Embodiments contemplated herein include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform one or more elements of method 200 and / or method 700. The apparatus may be, for example, an apparatus that is a base station (such as network device 918 that is a base station, as described herein).

[0145] Embodiments contemplated herein include a signal as described in or associated with one or more elements of method 200 or method 700 .

[0146] Embodiments contemplated herein include a computer program or computer program product including instructions, wherein execution of the program by a processing element causes the processing element to perform one or more elements of method 200 or method 700. The processor may be a memory of a base station (such as processor 920 of network device 918 being a base station, as described herein). These instructions may be located, for example, in a processor and / or on a memory of a base station (such as memory 922 of network device 918 being a base station, as described herein).

[0147] Figure 8 An example architecture of a wireless communication system 800 according to embodiments disclosed herein is illustrated. The description provided below is for an example wireless communication system 800 operating in conjunction with the LTE system standard and / or the 5G or NR system standard provided in the 3GPP technical specifications.

[0148] like Figure 8 As shown, wireless communication system 800 includes UE 802 and UE 804 (although any number of UEs may be used). In this example, UE 802 and UE 804 are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touch screen mobile computing devices capable of connecting to one or more cellular networks), but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device configured for wireless communication.

[0149] UE 802 and UE 804 may be configured to be communicatively coupled to RAN 806. In an embodiment, RAN 806 may be NG-RAN, E-UTRAN, etc. UE 802 and UE 804 utilize connections (or channels) (shown as connection 808 and connection 810, respectively) with RAN 806, where each connection (or channel) includes a physical communication interface. RAN 806 may include one or more base stations (such as base station 812 and base station 814) to implement connection 808 and connection 810.

[0150] In this example, connection 808 and connection 810 are air interfaces that enable such communicative coupling and may conform to the RAT used by the RAN 806 , such as, for example, LTE and / or NR.

[0151] In some embodiments, UE 802 and UE 804 may also directly communicate data via side link interface 816. UE 804 is shown as being configured to access an access point (shown as AP 818) via connection 820. For example, connection 820 may include a local wireless connection, such as a connection conforming to any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein AP 818 may include In this example, AP 818 may not be connected to another network (eg, the Internet) through CN 824.

[0152] In an embodiment, UE 802 and UE 804 may be configured to communicate with each other or with base station 812 and / or base station 814 over a multi-carrier communication channel using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals according to various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communications) or single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signal may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0153] In some embodiments, all or part of the base station 812 or the base station 814 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network. In addition, or in other embodiments, the base station 812 or the base station 814 may be configured to communicate with each other via the interface 822. In an embodiment where the wireless communication system 800 is an LTE system (e.g., when the CN 824 is an EPC), the interface 822 may be an X2 interface. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more base stations (e.g., two or more eNBs, etc.) connected to the EPC and / or between two eNBs connected to the EPC. In an embodiment where the wireless communication system 800 is an NR system (e.g., when the CN 824 is a 5GC), the interface 822 may be an Xn interface. The Xn interface is defined between two or more base stations (e.g., two or more gNBs, etc.) connected to the 5GC, between the base station 812 (e.g., gNB) and the eNB connected to the 5GC, and / or between two eNBs connected to the 5GC (e.g., CN 824).

[0154] RAN 806 is shown communicatively coupled to CN 824. CN 824 may include one or more network elements 826 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UE 802 and UE 804) connected to CN 824 via RAN 806. The components of CN 824 may be implemented in one physical device or separate physical devices including means for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium).

[0155] In an embodiment, CN 824 may be an EPC, and RAN 806 may be connected to CN 824 via an S1 interface 828. In an embodiment, S1 interface 828 may be divided into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface, which carries service data between base station 812 or base station 814 and a serving gateway (S-GW); and an S1-MME interface, which is a signaling interface between base station 812 or base station 814 and a mobility management entity (MME).

[0156] In an embodiment, CN 824 may be a 5GC, and RAN 806 may be connected to CN 824 via an NG interface 828. In an embodiment, NG interface 828 may be divided into two parts: an NG user plane (NG-U) interface, which carries service data between base station 812 or base station 814 and a user plane function (UPF); and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface, which is a signaling interface between base station 812 or base station 814 and an access and mobility management function (AMF).

[0157] In general, the application server 830 may be an element that provides applications (e.g., packet-switched data services) that use Internet Protocol (IP) bearer resources with the CN 824. The application server 830 may also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., VoIP sessions, group communication sessions, etc.) for the UE 802 and UE 804 via the CN 824. The application server 830 may communicate with the CN 824 via an IP communication interface 832.

[0158] Fig. 9 A system 900 for performing signaling 934 between a wireless device 902 and a network device 918 according to embodiments disclosed herein is illustrated. The system 900 may be part of a wireless communication system as described herein. The wireless device 902 may be, for example, a UE of a wireless communication system. The network device 918 may be, for example, a base station (e.g., an eNB or a gNB) of a wireless communication system.

[0159] The wireless device 902 may include one or more processors 904. The processor 904 may execute instructions to perform various operations of the wireless device 902, as described herein. The processor 904 may include one or more baseband processors implemented using, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a controller, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) device, another hardware device, a firmware device, or any combination thereof configured to perform the operations described herein.

[0160] The wireless device 902 may include a memory 906. The memory 906 may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions 908 (which may include, for example, instructions executed by the processor 904). The instructions 908 may also be referred to as program code or a computer program. The memory 906 may also store data used by the processor 904 and results calculated by the processor.

[0161] The wireless device 902 may include one or more transceivers 910, which may include radio frequency (RF) transmitter and / or receiver circuitry that uses an antenna 912 of the wireless device 902 to facilitate signaling (e.g., signaling 934) sent or received by the wireless device 902 with other devices (e.g., network device 918) according to a corresponding RAT.

[0162] The wireless device 902 may include one or more antennas 912 (e.g., one, two, four, or more). For implementations with multiple antennas 912, the wireless device 902 may take full advantage of the spatial diversity of these multiple antennas 912 to transmit and / or receive multiple different data streams on the same time-frequency resources. This behavior may be referred to as, for example, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) behavior (referring to multiple antennas used at each of the transmitting device and the receiving device to implement this aspect). The MIMO transmission performed by the wireless device 902 may be implemented based on precoding (or digital beamforming) applied to the wireless device 902, and the wireless device 902 multiplexes the data streams between the antennas 912 based on known or assumed channel characteristics, so that each data stream is received with appropriate signal strength relative to other streams and at a desired location in the spatial domain (e.g., the location of the receiver associated with the data stream). Certain embodiments may use a single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO) approach (where data streams are all directed to a single receiver) and / or a multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) approach (where separate data streams may be directed to separate (different) receivers in different locations in the spatial domain).

[0163] In certain embodiments with multiple antennas, the wireless device 902 may implement analog beamforming techniques whereby the phases of signals transmitted by the antennas 912 are relatively adjusted such that the (joint) transmissions of the antennas 912 are directional (this is sometimes referred to as beam steering).

[0164] The wireless device 902 may include one or more interfaces 914. The interface 914 may be used to provide input to or output from the wireless device 902. For example, a wireless device 902 that is a UE may include an interface 914, such as a microphone, a speaker, a touch screen, buttons, etc., to allow a user of the UE to input and / or output to the UE. Other interfaces of such a UE may be composed of transmitters, receivers, and other circuits (e.g., in addition to the transceiver 910 / antenna 912 described above), which allow the UE to communicate with other devices and may communicate according to known protocols (e.g., etc.) to perform the operation.

[0165] The wireless device 902 may include a link quality monitoring module 916. The link quality monitoring module 916 may be implemented via hardware, software, or a combination thereof. For example, the link quality monitoring module 916 may be implemented as a processor, circuit, and / or instructions 908 stored in the memory 906 and executed by the processor 904. In some examples, the link quality monitoring module 916 may be integrated within the processor 904 and / or the transceiver 910. For example, the link quality monitoring module 916 may be implemented by a combination of software components (e.g., executed by a DSP or a general purpose processor) and hardware components (e.g., logic gates and circuits) within the processor 904 or the transceiver 910.

[0166] The link quality monitoring module 916 may be used in various aspects of the present disclosure, for example, Figure 1 and Figure 6 all aspects.

[0167] The network device 918 may include one or more processors 920. The processor 920 may execute instructions to perform various operations of the network device 918, as described herein. The processor 920 may include one or more baseband processors implemented using, for example, a CPU, a DSP, an ASIC, a controller, an FPGA device, another hardware device, a firmware device, or any combination thereof configured to perform the operations described herein.

[0168] The network device 918 may include a memory 922. The memory 922 may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions 924 (which may include, for example, instructions executed by the processor 920). The instructions 924 may also be referred to as program code or a computer program. The memory 922 may also store data used by the processor 920 and results calculated by the processor.

[0169] The network device 918 may include one or more transceivers 926, which may include RF transmitter and / or receiver circuits that use an antenna 928 of the network device 918 to facilitate signaling (e.g., signaling 934) sent or received by the network device 918 with other devices (e.g., wireless device 902) according to the corresponding RAT.

[0170] The network device 918 may include one or more antennas 928 (e.g., one, two, four, or more). In embodiments with multiple antennas 928, the network device 918 may perform MIMO, digital beamforming, analog beamforming, beam steering, etc. as described.

[0171] The network device 918 may include one or more interfaces 930. The interface 930 may be used to provide input to or output from the network device 918. For example, a network device 918 that is a base station may include an interface 930 consisting of a transmitter, a receiver, and other circuits (e.g., in addition to the transceiver 926 / antenna 928 described above) that enables the base station to communicate with other equipment in the core network and / or enables the base station to communicate with external networks, computers, databases, etc., for the purpose of performing operations, management, and maintenance of the base station or other equipment operably connected thereto.

[0172] The network device 918 may include a link quality monitoring module 932. The link quality monitoring module 932 may be implemented via hardware, software, or a combination thereof. For example, the link quality monitoring module 932 may be implemented as a processor, circuit, and / or instructions 924 stored in the memory 922 and executed by the processor 920. In some examples, the link quality monitoring module 932 may be integrated within the processor 920 and / or the transceiver 926. For example, the link quality monitoring module 932 may be implemented by a combination of software components (e.g., executed by a DSP or general purpose processor) and hardware components (e.g., logic gates and circuits) within the processor 920 or the transceiver 926.

[0173] The link quality monitoring module 932 may be used in various aspects of the present disclosure, for example, Figure 2 and Figure 7 all aspects.

[0174] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth in one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and / or methods as described herein. For example, a baseband processor as described herein in conjunction with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples set forth herein. For another example, circuits associated with a UE, a base station, a network element, etc. as described above in conjunction with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples set forth herein.

[0175] Unless otherwise expressly stated, any of the above embodiments may be combined with any other embodiment (or combination of embodiments). The foregoing description of one or more specific implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the embodiments to the precise form disclosed. In view of the above teachings, modifications and variations are possible or can be obtained from the practice of various embodiments.

[0176] Embodiments and implementations of the systems and methods described herein may include various operations that may be embodied in machine executable instructions to be executed by a computer system. A computer system may include one or more general or special purpose computers (or other electronic devices). A computer system may include hardware components that include specific logic components for performing operations; or may include a combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware.

[0177] It should be appreciated that the systems described herein include descriptions of specific embodiments. These embodiments may be combined into a single system, partially combined into other systems, separated into multiple systems, or otherwise divided or combined. In addition, it is contemplated that parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. of another embodiment may be used in one embodiment. For clarity, these parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. are described only in one or more embodiments, and it should be appreciated that these parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. may be combined with or substituted for parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. of another embodiment unless expressly stated herein.

[0178] It is well known that the use of personally identifiable information should be subject to privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized to meet or exceed industry or government requirements for maintaining user privacy. Specifically, personally identifiable information data should be managed and disposed of to minimize the risk of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of authorized use should be clearly indicated to users.

[0179] Although the foregoing has been described in considerable detail for the sake of clarity, it will be apparent that certain changes and modifications may be made without departing from the principles of the invention. It should be noted that there are many alternative ways to implement both the processes and the apparatus described herein. Therefore, the embodiments of the present invention should be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive, and the specification is not limited to the details given herein, but may be modified within the scope and equivalents of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method for a user equipment (UE) to monitor link quality on a plurality of candidate cell groups (CGs) in a wireless network, the method comprising: transmitting, from the UE to a base station, a UE capability message indicating a number of the candidate CGs for which the UE supports at least one of simultaneous radio link monitoring (RLM) and simultaneous beam failure detection (BFD); processing, at the UE, configuration by the base station for measuring reference signals corresponding to a plurality of deactivated cells up to the number of the candidate CGs indicated by the UE capability message; as well as The reference signal is measured according to the configuration. 2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the configuration comprises a measurement cycle length value configured per cell in the plurality of deactivated cells.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration comprises a deactivated secondary cell group (SCG) configuration information element (IE) for each of the plurality of deactivated cells received by the UE from the base station.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the deactivation SCG configuration IE includes a first indication that the UE will perform the BFD or the RLM on the corresponding deactivation SCG as part of a candidate SCG selection process.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the deactivate SCG configuration IE also includes a second indication that the UE will report candidate beam information for the corresponding deactivated SCG.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the deactivating the SCG configuration IE comprises deactivating a measurement cycle length of a primary secondary cell (PSCell).

7. The method according to claim 3, wherein the deactivation of the SCG configuration IE comprises deactivating at least one of an RLM measurement cycle length and a BFD measurement cycle length of a primary secondary cell (PSCell).

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration comprises a deactivation master cell group (MCG) configuration information element (IE) for each of the plurality of deactivation cells received by the UE from the base station.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the deactivation MCG configuration IE comprises a first indication that the UE will perform the BFD or the RLM on a corresponding deactivation MCG as part of a candidate MCG selection process.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the deactivate MCG configuration IE further includes a second indication that the UE will report candidate beam information for the corresponding deactivate MCG.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the deactivating the MCG configuration IE comprises deactivating a measurement cycle length of a primary cell (PCell).

12. The method according to claim 8, wherein the deactivating the MCG configuration IE comprises deactivating at least one of an RLM measurement cycle length and a BFD measurement cycle length of a primary cell (PCell).

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the UE capability message comprises a single value for the number of candidate CGs for which the UE supports at least one of the simultaneous RLM or the simultaneous BFD.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the UE capability message comprises one of a per frequency range (FR) indication, a per frequency band indication, a per frequency band combination indication, and a per frequency band combination indication.

15. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: In response to determining that a relaxed measurement criterion is satisfied, an evaluation period for measuring the reference signal is multiplied by a multiplication value, wherein the multiplication value comprises a predetermined value or a configuration value communicated by the base station to the UE.

16. A method for a base station in a wireless network, the method comprising: receiving, at the base station, from a user equipment (UE) a UE capability message indicating a number of candidate cell groups (CGs) for which the UE supports at least one of simultaneous radio link monitoring (RLM) and simultaneous beam failure detection (BFD); as well as The base station provides, for the UE, a configuration for measuring reference signals corresponding to a plurality of deactivated cells corresponding to up to the number of the candidate CGs indicated by the UE capability message. 17 . The method according to claim 16 , wherein the configuration comprises a measurement cycle length value configured per cell in the plurality of deactivated cells.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the configuration comprises a deactivated secondary cell group (SCG) configuration information element (IE) for each deactivated cell in the plurality of deactivated cells.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the deactivation SCG configuration IE comprises a first indication that the UE will perform the BFD or the RLM on a corresponding deactivation SCG as part of a candidate SCG selection process.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the deactivate SCG configuration IE further includes a second indication that the UE will report candidate beam information for the corresponding deactivated SCG.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the deactivating the SCG configuration IE comprises deactivating a measurement cycle length of a primary secondary cell (PSCell).

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the deactivating the SCG configuration IE comprises deactivating at least one of an RLM measurement cycle length and a BFD measurement cycle length of a primary secondary cell (PSCell).

23. The method of claim 16, wherein the configuration comprises a deactivation master cell group (MCG) configuration information element (IE) for each of the plurality of deactivation cells.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the deactivation MCG configuration IE comprises a first indication that the UE will perform the BFD or the RLM on a corresponding deactivation MCG as part of a candidate MCG selection process.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the deactivate MCG configuration IE further includes a second indication that the UE will report candidate beam information for the corresponding deactivate MCG.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the deactivating the MCG configuration IE comprises deactivating a measurement cycle length of a primary cell (PCell).

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the deactivating the MCG configuration IE comprises deactivating at least one of an RLM measurement cycle length and a BFD measurement cycle length of a primary cell (PCell).

28. The method of claim 16, wherein the UE capability message comprises a single value for the number of candidate CGs for which the UE supports at least one of the simultaneous RLM or the simultaneous BFD.

29. The method of claim 16, wherein the UE capability message comprises one of a per frequency range (FR) indication, a per frequency band indication, a per frequency band combination indication, and a per frequency band combination indication.

30. The method of claim 16, further comprising: The UE is configured to perform at least one of relaxed RLM and relaxed BFD by multiplying an evaluation period for measuring the reference signal by a multiplication value when relaxed measurement criteria are met, wherein the multiplication value comprises a predetermined value or a configuration value signaled to the UE by the base station.

31. An apparatus comprising means for performing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 30.

32. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 30.

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