Method and apparatus for TCI state deactivation and activation

Abstract

A user equipment (UE) may receive, from a network entity, a configuration of one or more candidate cells for handover from a serving cell to. The UE may receive an indication from a network entity to deactivate all transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states associated with one or more indicated cells. Based at least in part on receiving the indication to deactivate all TCI states, the UE may deactivate all TCI states associated with the one or more indicated cells. One or more of the one or more candidate cells or serving cells may include one or more indicated cells.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Example embodiments relate generally to wireless communications and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to methods, apparatus, and computer program products for transmission configuration indicator state deactivation and activation. Background Art

[0002] Some wireless devices may be configured to communicate using one or more transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states. For example, a user equipment (UE) may be configured with a TCI state list for decoding physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) communications. The UE may then utilize one or more TCI states from the TCI state list to decode the PDSCH communications. Each TCI state may include one or more parameters for configuring a quasi-co-location (QCL) relationship of a downlink reference signaling portion and a demodulation reference signal portion of the PDSCH. When the UE is configured with or otherwise activates one or more TCI states, the UE may perform one or more operations that consume resources. For example, the UE may perform operations associated with reference signaling for each active TCI state. However, in some cases, the UE may not utilize one or more activated TCI states to communicate, but the UE may continue to perform one or more operations that consume resources, which may be undesirable. Summary of the invention

[0003] In one aspect, a method includes: receiving, by a user equipment (UE) from a network entity, a configuration of one or more candidate cells to switch to from a serving cell; receiving, by the UE from the network entity, an indication to deactivate all transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states associated with the one or more indicated cells; and deactivating, by the UE, all TCI states associated with the one or more indicated cells based at least in part on receiving the indication to deactivate all TCI states.

[0004] In one embodiment, one or more of (i) the one or more candidate cells or (ii) the serving cell include the one or more indicated cells. In one embodiment, the method includes: activating, by the UE at least in part based on receiving a command, one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell of the one or more candidate cells; switching from the serving cell to the candidate cell of the one or more candidate cells; and causing the UE to send one or more messages using the one or more activated TCI states associated with the candidate cell. In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes: receiving a bitmap including a plurality of bits corresponding to the one or more indicated cells, wherein a bit of the plurality of bits indicates that the UE is to deactivate all TCI states associated with a corresponding cell of the one or more indicated cells.

[0005] In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes: receiving a media access control control element including a bit for activating one or more TCI states or deactivating all TCI states associated with the one or more indicated cells. In one embodiment, the number of octets in the media access control control element is determined based at least in part on the value of the bit. In one embodiment, the method includes: determining, by the UE, at least in part on the value of the bit, whether to read one or more octets of the media access control control element. In one embodiment, the bit is also configured to activate one or more TCI states or deactivate all TCI states, wherein a cell identifier field of the media access control control element indicates the one or more indicated cells.

[0006] In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises: receiving a media access control control element comprising a logical channel identifier field for deactivating all TCI states. In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises: receiving a media access control control element comprising an indication to deactivate all TCI states and an indication to activate one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells. In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises: receiving a media access control control element comprising (i) a plurality of bits indicating a plurality of cell identifiers and (ii) a plurality of bits indicating whether corresponding previously activated TCI states are activated or deactivated.

[0007] In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes: receiving a media access control control element that activates one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells, wherein the UE deactivates all TCI states of one or more candidate cells not indicated by the media access control control element. In one embodiment, a bit of the media access control control element indicates that a previously activated TCI state is to be deactivated by the UE. In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes: receiving an indication of a beam for a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells. In one embodiment, the method includes: avoiding performing one or more operations associated with all TCI states based at least in part on the deactivation. In one embodiment, all TCI states are associated with a cell handover from a serving cell to a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells.

[0008] In one aspect, a method includes: causing a network entity to send, to a UE, a configuration of one or more candidate cells to which the UE is to switch from a serving cell; and causing, based at least in part on causing the configuration of the one or more candidate cells to be sent, causing the network entity to send, to the UE, an indication to deactivate all TCI states associated with one or more indicated cells. In one embodiment, one or more of (i) the one or more candidate cells or (ii) the serving cell includes the one or more indicated cells.

[0009] In one embodiment, the method includes: receiving one or more messages from the UE using one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells. In one embodiment, the method includes: receiving one or more messages from the UE using one or more TCI states associated with a serving cell. In one embodiment, causing sending an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes: causing sending a bitmap including a plurality of bits corresponding to the one or more indicated cells, wherein a bit in the plurality of bits indicates that the UE is to deactivate all TCI states associated with a corresponding cell in the one or more indicated cells.

[0010] In one embodiment, causing sending an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes causing sending a media access control control element including a bit for activating one or more TCI states or deactivating all TCI states associated with the one or more indicated cells. In one embodiment, the number of octets in the media access control control element is determined based at least in part on the value of the bit. In one embodiment, the bit is further configured to activate one or more TCI states or deactivate all TCI states, wherein a cell identifier field of the media access control control element indicates the one or more indicated cells.

[0011] In one embodiment, causing sending of an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises causing sending of a media access control control element comprising a logical channel identifier field for deactivating all TCI states. In one embodiment, causing sending of an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises causing sending of a media access control control element comprising an indication to deactivate all TCI states and an indication to activate one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells. In one embodiment, causing sending of an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises causing sending of a media access control control element comprising (i) a plurality of bits indicating a plurality of cell identifiers and (ii) a plurality of bits indicating whether corresponding previously activated TCI states are activated or deactivated.

[0012] In one embodiment, causing sending an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes: causing sending a media access control control element to activate one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells, wherein the UE deactivates all TCI states of one or more candidate cells not indicated by the media access control control element. In one embodiment, a bit of the media access control control element indicates that a previously activated TCI state is to be deactivated by the UE. In one embodiment, causing sending an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes: causing sending an indication of a beam for a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells. In one embodiment, all TCI states are associated with a cell handover from a serving cell to a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells.

[0013] In one aspect, a computing device includes a processor. The computing device also includes a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, configure the device to: receive, by a UE from a network entity, a configuration of one or more candidate cells to be switched from a serving cell; receive, by the UE from the network entity, an indication to deactivate all TCI states associated with one or more indicated cells; and deactivate, by the UE, all TCI states associated with the one or more indicated cells based at least in part on receiving the indication to deactivate all TCI states.

[0014] In one embodiment, one or more of (i) the one or more candidate cells or (ii) the serving cell include the one or more indicated cells. In one embodiment, the instructions further configure the device to: activate, by the UE at least in part based on receiving a command, one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell of the one or more candidate cells; switch from the serving cell to the candidate cell of the one or more candidate cells; and cause the UE to send one or more messages using the one or more activated TCI states associated with the candidate cell. In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes: receiving a bitmap including a plurality of bits corresponding to the one or more indicated cells, wherein a bit of the plurality of bits indicates that the UE is to deactivate all TCI states associated with a corresponding cell of the one or more indicated cells.

[0015] In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes: receiving a media access control control element including a bit for activating one or more TCI states or deactivating all TCI states associated with the one or more indicated cells. In one embodiment, the number of octets in the media access control control element is determined based at least in part on the value of the bit. In one embodiment, the instructions also configure the device to determine, by the UE at least in part on the value of the bit, whether to read one or more octets of the media access control control element. In one embodiment, the bit is also configured to activate one or more TCI states or deactivate all TCI states, wherein a cell identifier field of the media access control control element indicates one or more indicated cells.

[0016] In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises: receiving a media access control control element comprising a logical channel identifier field for deactivating all TCI states. In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises: receiving a media access control control element comprising an indication to deactivate all TCI states and an indication to activate one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells. In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises: receiving a media access control control element comprising (i) a plurality of bits indicating a plurality of cell identifiers and (ii) a plurality of bits indicating whether a corresponding previously activated TCI state is activated or deactivated.

[0017] In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes: receiving a media access control control element that activates one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells, wherein the UE deactivates all TCI states of one or more candidate cells not indicated by the media access control control element. In one embodiment, a bit of the media access control control element indicates that a previously activated TCI state is to be deactivated by the UE. In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes: receiving an indication of a beam for a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells. In one embodiment, the instructions further configure the device to avoid performing one or more operations associated with all TCI states based at least in part on deactivation. In one embodiment, all TCI states are associated with a cell switch from a serving cell to a candidate cell in one or more candidate cells.

[0018] In one aspect, a computing device includes a processor. The computing device also includes a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, configure the device to: cause a network entity to send a configuration of one or more candidate cells to which the UE is to switch from a serving cell to a UE; and cause the network entity to send an indication to the UE to deactivate all TCI states associated with one or more indicated cells based at least in part on causing the configuration of the one or more candidate cells to be sent. In one embodiment, one or more of (i) the one or more candidate cells or (ii) the serving cell include the one or more indicated cells.

[0019] In one embodiment, the instructions further configure the apparatus to receive one or more messages from the UE using one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell in one or more candidate cells. In one embodiment, the instructions further configure the apparatus to receive one or more messages from the UE using one or more TCI states associated with the serving cell. In one embodiment, causing the sending of an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises causing the sending of a bitmap comprising a plurality of bits corresponding to the one or more indicated cells, wherein a bit in the plurality of bits indicates that the UE is to deactivate all TCI states associated with a corresponding cell in the one or more indicated cells.

[0020] In one embodiment, causing sending an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes causing sending a media access control control element including a bit for activating one or more TCI states or deactivating all TCI states associated with the one or more indicated cells. In one embodiment, the number of octets in the media access control control element is determined based at least in part on the value of the bit. In one embodiment, the bit is further configured to activate one or more TCI states or deactivate all TCI states, wherein a cell identifier field of the media access control control element indicates the one or more indicated cells.

[0021] In one embodiment, causing sending of an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises causing sending of a media access control control element comprising a logical channel identifier field for deactivating all TCI states. In one embodiment, causing sending of an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises causing sending of a media access control control element comprising an indication to deactivate all TCI states and an indication to activate one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells. In one embodiment, causing sending of an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises causing sending of a media access control control element comprising (i) a plurality of bits indicating a plurality of cell identifiers and (ii) a plurality of bits indicating whether a corresponding previously activated TCI state is activated or deactivated.

[0022] In one embodiment, causing sending an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes: causing sending a media access control control element to activate one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells, wherein the UE deactivates all TCI states of one or more candidate cells not indicated by the media access control control element. In one embodiment, a bit of the media access control control element indicates that a previously activated TCI state is to be deactivated by the UE. In one embodiment, causing sending an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes: causing sending an indication of a beam for a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells. In one embodiment, all TCI states are associated with a cell handover from a serving cell to a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells.

[0023] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium includes instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to: receive, by a UE from a network entity, a configuration of one or more candidate cells to be switched from a serving cell; receive, by the UE from the network entity, an indication to deactivate all TCI states associated with one or more indicated cells; and deactivate, by the UE, all TCI states associated with the one or more indicated cells based at least in part on receiving the indication to deactivate all TCI states.

[0024] In one embodiment, one or more of (i) the one or more candidate cells or (ii) the serving cell include the one or more indicated cells. In one embodiment, the instructions further configure the computer to: activate, by the UE at least in part based on receiving a command, one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell of the one or more candidate cells; switch from the serving cell to the candidate cell of the one or more candidate cells; and cause the UE to send one or more messages using the one or more activated TCI states associated with the candidate cell. In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes: receiving a bitmap including a plurality of bits corresponding to the one or more indicated cells, wherein a bit of the plurality of bits indicates that the UE is to deactivate all TCI states associated with a corresponding cell of the one or more indicated cells.

[0025] In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes: receiving a media access control control element including a bit for activating one or more TCI states or deactivating all TCI states associated with the one or more indicated cells. In one embodiment, the number of octets in the media access control control element is determined based at least in part on the value of the bit. In one embodiment, the instructions also configure the computer to determine, by the UE at least in part on the value of the bit, whether to read one or more octets of the media access control control element. In one embodiment, the bit is also configured to activate one or more TCI states or deactivate all TCI states, wherein a cell identifier field of the media access control control element indicates one or more indicated cells.

[0026] In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises: receiving a media access control control element comprising a logical channel identifier field for deactivating all TCI states. In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises: receiving a media access control control element comprising an indication to deactivate all TCI states and an indication to activate one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells. In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises: receiving a media access control control element comprising (i) a plurality of bits indicating a plurality of cell identifiers and (ii) a plurality of bits indicating whether a corresponding previously activated TCI state is activated or deactivated.

[0027] In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes: receiving a media access control control element that activates one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells, wherein the UE deactivates all TCI states of one or more candidate cells not indicated by the media access control control element. In one embodiment, a bit of the media access control control element indicates that a previously activated TCI state is to be deactivated by the UE. In one embodiment, receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes: receiving an indication of a beam for a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells. In one embodiment, the instructions also configure the computer to avoid performing one or more operations associated with all TCI states based at least in part on deactivation. In one embodiment, all TCI states are associated with a cell handover from a serving cell to a candidate cell in one or more candidate cells.

[0028] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium includes instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to: cause a network entity to send, to a UE, a configuration of one or more candidate cells to which the UE is switched from a serving cell; and cause the network entity to send, to the UE, an indication to deactivate all TCI states associated with one or more indicated cells, based at least in part on causing the configuration of the one or more candidate cells to be sent. In one embodiment, one or more of (i) the one or more candidate cells or (ii) the serving cell include the one or more indicated cells.

[0029] In one embodiment, the instructions further configure the computer to receive one or more messages from the UE using one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell in one or more candidate cells. In one embodiment, the instructions further configure the computer to receive one or more messages from the UE using one or more TCI states associated with a serving cell. In one embodiment, causing the sending of an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises causing the sending of a bitmap comprising a plurality of bits corresponding to the one or more indicated cells, wherein a bit in the plurality of bits indicates that the UE is to deactivate all TCI states associated with a corresponding cell in the one or more indicated cells.

[0030] In one embodiment, causing sending an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes causing sending a media access control control element including a bit for activating one or more TCI states or deactivating all TCI states associated with the one or more indicated cells. In one embodiment, the number of octets in the media access control control element is determined based at least in part on the value of the bit. In one embodiment, the bit is further configured to activate one or more TCI states or deactivate all TCI states, wherein a cell identifier field of the media access control control element indicates the one or more indicated cells.

[0031] In one embodiment, causing sending of an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises causing sending of a media access control control element comprising a logical channel identifier field for deactivating all TCI states. In one embodiment, causing sending of an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises causing sending of a media access control control element comprising an indication to deactivate all TCI states and an indication to activate one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells. In one embodiment, causing sending of an indication to deactivate all TCI states comprises causing sending of a media access control control element comprising (i) a plurality of bits indicating a plurality of cell identifiers and (ii) a plurality of bits indicating whether a corresponding previously activated TCI state is activated or deactivated.

[0032] In one embodiment, causing the sending of an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes: causing the sending of a media access control control element that activates one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells, wherein the UE deactivates all TCI states of one or more candidate cells not indicated by the media access control control element. In one embodiment, a bit of the media access control control element indicates that a previously activated TCI state is to be deactivated by the UE. In one embodiment, causing the sending of an indication to deactivate all TCI states includes: causing the sending of an indication of a beam for a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells. In one embodiment, all TCI states are associated with a cell switch from a serving cell to a candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells. Although some examples described herein may refer to specific combinations of operations performed together, any combination of the operations described herein may be performed. For example, the example embodiments may include any combination of the operations described herein. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0033] Having generally described certain exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and in which:

[0034] Figure 1A signal flow diagram providing an example of signaling associated with activation and deactivation of a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state is shown;

[0035] Figure 2 shows a message format for techniques supporting TCI state activation and deactivation according to examples described herein;

[0036] Figure 3 An example of a wireless communication system supporting techniques for TCI state activation and deactivation according to the examples described herein is shown;

[0037] Figure 4 is an example of an apparatus supporting techniques for TCI state activation and deactivation according to the examples described herein;

[0038] Figures 5 to 8 An example of a message format that supports techniques for TCI state activation and deactivation according to examples described herein is shown; and

[0039] Figures 9 and 10 is a flow diagram of operations in accordance with certain example embodiments, such as may be implemented by the apparatus described herein. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0040] Some embodiments of the present invention will now be described more fully below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some but not all embodiments of the present invention are shown. In fact, various embodiments of the present invention may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; on the contrary, these embodiments are provided so that the present disclosure satisfies applicable legal requirements. The same reference numerals always refer to the same elements. As used herein, the terms "data", "content", "information" and similar terms may be used interchangeably to refer to data that can be sent, received and / or stored according to certain embodiments of the present invention. Therefore, the use of any such terms should not be considered to limit the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present invention.

[0041] In addition, as used herein, the term "circuit" refers to (a) a hardware-only circuit implementation (e.g., implemented in analog circuits and / or digital circuits); (b) a combination of a circuit and (one or more) computer program products, the computer program products including software and / or firmware instructions stored on one or more computer-readable memories, which work together to cause the device to perform one or more functions described herein; and (c) a circuit, such as (one or more) microprocessors or a portion of (one or more) microprocessors, which requires software or firmware to operate, even if the software or firmware is not physically present. This definition of "circuit" applies to all uses of the term herein, including in any claims. As a further example, as used herein, the term "circuit" also includes an implementation that includes one or more processors and / or (one or more) portions thereof and accompanying software and / or firmware. As another example, as used herein, the term "circuit" also includes, for example, a baseband integrated circuit or an application processor integrated circuit for a mobile phone or similar integrated circuits in a server, cellular network equipment, other network equipment (such as a core network device), a field programmable gate array, and / or other computing devices.

[0042] As used herein, the term "computer-readable medium" refers to non-transitory storage hardware, non-transitory storage device, or non-transitory computer system memory that can be accessed by a controller, microcontroller, computing system, or module of a computing system to encode computer-executable instructions or software programs thereon. The non-transitory "computer-readable medium" can be accessed by a computing system or module of a computing system to retrieve and / or execute computer-executable instructions or software programs encoded on the medium. Examples of non-transitory computer-readable media may include, but are not limited to, one or more types of hardware memory, non-transitory tangible media (e.g., one or more magnetic storage disks, one or more optical disks, one or more USB flash drives), computer system memory, or random access memory (such as DRAM, SRAM, EDO RAM), etc.

[0043] Figure 1An example of a signal flow diagram 100 supporting transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state deactivation and activation according to the examples described herein is shown. The signal flow diagram 100 may include a user equipment (UE) 105, a cell 115-a (e.g., cell A), and a cell 115-b (e.g., cell B). Each cell 115 may be associated with a next generation node B (gNB) (e.g., a base station, a network entity). In some cases, the cell 115-a and the cell 115-b may be cells 115 of the same gNB. In some other cases, each cell 115 may correspond to a different gNB. Some examples described herein referring to various cells 115 may also implicitly refer to the corresponding gNB. For example, a UE 105 communicating with a cell 115 may be understood as communicating with a gNB corresponding to the cell 115 (e.g., a gNB to which the cell 115 belongs).

[0044] Signal flow diagram 100 may provide an illustrative example of an order or sequence for the operations described herein, however, any order or sequence may be used. In some cases, one or more operations of signal flow diagram 100 may not be performed or may be otherwise omitted. Additionally or alternatively, UE 105 and cell 115 (e.g., a gNB corresponding to cell 115) may perform operations not shown in signal flow diagram 100. For example, UE 105 may receive an indication from a gNB (e.g., a network entity) to deactivate one or more (e.g., all) TCI states for one or more cells (e.g., one or more cells indicated by the gNB). Although in Figure 1 105 may receive the signaling described in step 3, and may not receive the signaling described in step 5, and other examples.

[0045] In some cases, the UE 105 may switch between cells 115. For example, the UE 105 may switch (e.g., be handed over) from cell 115-a to cell 115-b. In some cases, the UE 105 may switch from cell 115-a to cell 115-b based on (e.g., by the UE 105, by a network entity) determining that the UE 105 has left or is about to leave the coverage area of ​​cell 115-a and enter the coverage area of ​​cell 115-b. In some cases, the UE 105 may switch from cell 115-a to cell 115-b based on (e.g., by the UE 105, by a network entity) determining that the quality of service (QoS) or reference signal received power (RSRP) of cell 115-a fails to meet a threshold (e.g., is below a threshold). In some cases, operations and signaling associated with switching between cells 115 may be performed according to a low layer triggered mobility (LTM) framework. For example, the LTM framework may enable the UE 105 to switch from the cell 115-a to the cell 115-b based on one or more determinations made at or regarding lower layers of the network protocol stack.

[0046] UE 105 may communicate (e.g., with cell 115) using one or more TCI states. A TCI state may be a configuration or may otherwise indicate one or more communication configurations. For example, a TCI state (or one or more reference signals included in or otherwise associated with a TCI state) may correspond to or otherwise indicate a quasi-co-location (QCL) relationship of communication. A TCI state may be associated with a cell 115. For example, a UE 105 may communicate via a cell 115 using one or more TCI states (e.g., using one or more parameters / reference signals indicated by or otherwise corresponding to a TCI state). In some cases, a TCI state may be used for uplink communication, downlink communication, or both. A TCI state for uplink communication and downlink communication may be referred to as a joint TCI state. A TCI state for uplink communication or downlink communication may be referred to as a separate TCI state.

[0047] In some cases, the UE 105 may receive an indication of one or more TCI states from the gNB and activate the one or more TCI states based on receiving the indication. In some cases, the TCI state may be configured or otherwise transmitted according to one or more protocols or frameworks (e.g., a unified TCI state framework). According to the unified TCI state framework, the TCI state may be transmitted using one or more media access control elements (MAC CEs). In some cases, the unified TCI state framework may be used for LTM scenarios. The following operations may include one or more examples of transmitting and activating TCI states during a cell handover process.

[0048] Prior to step 1, the UE 105 may be in a radio resource control (RRC) connected state. For example, the UE 105 may have previously established one or more communication links with a gNB (e.g., with the cell 115 of the gNB). The RRC connected state may enable the UE 105 to perform communications with the gNB. Additionally or alternatively, the UE 105 may perform one or more operations based on being in the RRC connected state, such as monitoring communications. In some cases, the UE 105 may be connected to a gNB to which the cell 115-a belongs (e.g., associated, corresponding). In some other cases, the UE 105 may be connected to one or more other gNBs (not shown).

[0049] In step 1, the UE 105 may receive signaling (e.g., a message) from the gNB to which the cell 115-a belongs. The signaling may be RRC signaling (e.g., an RRC reconfiguration message, a configuration of one or more candidate cells for handover). In some cases, the signaling may include a TCI state list for one or more other cells 115 (e.g., cell 115-b). In some cases, the TCI state list may refer to an LTM-specific TCI state list. In some cases, the signaling may include or otherwise indicate to the UE 105 a timing advance (TA) acquisition configuration. The TA acquisition configuration may include all RRC configuration information for the UE 105 to send a random access (RA) preamble to the gNB to which the cell 115-b belongs. In this case (e.g., when the UE 105 sends a RA preamble), the gNB to which the cell 115-b belongs may calculate the TA value used by the UE 105 (e.g., when an LTM cell handover process is performed and the UE 105 is handed over to the cell 115-b). The TA acquisition configuration may include information for one or more cells 115. One or more cells 115 may be candidate cells 115 for the UE 105 (eg, cells 115 for which the UE 105 performs a TA acquisition procedure).

[0050] In step 2, UE 105 may send a message to the gNB to which cell 115-a belongs in response to receiving signaling from the gNB in ​​step 1. The message sent by UE 105 in step 2 may indicate that the RRC reconfiguration operation is complete (e.g., an RRCReconfigurationComplete message). UE 105 may send the message based on determining that the TCI state list is successfully received from the gNB to which cell 115-a belongs. Additionally or alternatively, UE 105 may send the message based on determining that the TA acquisition configuration has been successfully received.

[0051] In step 3, the UE 105 may receive an indication (e.g., a command) to activate one or more TCI states. The indication may be sent by the A gNB to which the cell 115-a belongs. The indication may be received in a MAC CE and may instruct the UE 105 to activate one or more TCI states (e.g., any combination of one or more joint TCI states and one or more individual TCI states). The one or more indicated TCI states may be for one or more candidate cells 115 (e.g., for cell 115-b, among other examples). Additionally or alternatively, the gNB to which the cell 115-a belongs may send a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) command message to the UE 105 to initiate a TA acquisition process with the cell 115-b. The PDCCH command message may include information for sending an RA preamble to the gNB described in the cell 115-b.

[0052] In step 4, UE 105 may send (e.g., cause to send) an RA preamble to the gNB to which cell 115-b belongs. UE 105 may send the RA preamble so that the gNB to which cell 115-b belongs can estimate the TA value to be used by UE 105 (e.g., if an LTM cell switching process is triggered to switch UE 105 to cell 115-b). In some cases, the gNB to which cell 115-a belongs may indicate a retransmission of the RA preamble for TA acquisition if the TA is not acquired (e.g., the gNB to which cell 115-a belongs). Additionally or alternatively, UE 105 may activate one or more TCI states for cell 115-b. UE 105 may activate one or more TCI states for cell 115-b in response to receiving an indication to activate the one or more TCI states from the gNB to which cell 115-a belongs.

[0053] In step 5, UE 105 may receive a cell switching command from the gNB to which cell 115-a belongs. The cell switching command may instruct the UE to switch from cell 115-a to cell 115-b. In some cases (e.g., if not performed prior to receiving the cell switching command), the cell switching command may indicate or otherwise activate one or more TCI states for the target cell (e.g., cell 115-b). Additionally or alternatively, early TCI state activation may be performed prior to step 5, and in some cases, the gNB to which cell 115-a belongs may provide a TA value calculated by the gNB to which cell 115-b belongs during the TA acquisition process (e.g., in an LTM cell switching command MAC CE that initiates a cell switch to cell 115-b). As Figure 1 As shown, the dotted line shown in step 5 may indicate that the corresponding signaling or a part of the corresponding signaling is optional.

[0054] After activating one or more TCI states, UE 105 may perform one or more operations associated with the one or more TCI states. For example, UE 105 may transmit and measure one or more reference signals for each activated TCI state. Additionally or alternatively, UE 105 may perform one or more operations to track (e.g., monitor, store, update) timing information for each activated TCI state. In this case, the time tracking or time and frequency tracking operations performed by UE 105 may be based on the downlink reference signal corresponding to the TCI state. As described herein, performing one or more operations associated with one or more active TCI states may be referred to as tracking or monitoring one or more TCI states.

[0055] In some cases, it may not be necessary for UE 105 to monitor one or more TCI states (e.g., one or more activated TCI states), which may consume too many resources at UE 105. For example, UE 105 may receive a MAC CE for activating multiple TCI states for a potential cell switching process. However, the cell switching process may not occur (e.g., if UE 105 reverses direction, or if the communication quality on the serving cell improves, and other examples), and UE 105 may continue to monitor one or more TCI states. In some other cases, TCI states for multiple candidate cells (e.g., cell 115 considering potential cell switching) may be activated at UE 105, and UE 105 may subsequently switch to a single candidate cell among the multiple candidate cells. In this case, even if UE 105 only utilizes one or more TCI states for a single candidate cell, UE 105 may continue to monitor TCI states for all candidate cells. In this case, monitoring unutilized TCI states may consume power and resources at UE 105, which may be undesirable.

[0056] According to one or more examples described herein, the UE 105 may deactivate or otherwise avoid monitoring one or more TCI states based on receiving an indication from a gNB (e.g., a network entity) to deactivate one or more TCI states, which may save resources of the UE 105. The indication to deactivate one or more TCI states may be based on (e.g., by the UE 105, by the network entity) determining that the UE 105 is not utilizing or is not expected to utilize the one or more TCI states. In some cases, the indication may indicate deactivation of all TCI states for one or more cells 115. In some examples, the deactivated TCI state may be a TCI state dedicated to LTM cell switching / beam indication. In some cases, the indication may be sent to the UE 105 by the gNB to which the cell 115-a belongs, the gNB to which the cell 115-b belongs, or both. As further described in detail herein, the indication may be transmitted using various formats (e.g., various types of messages, various message formats). Additionally or alternatively, any communication described in the signal flow diagram 100 may include the indication. Although some examples described herein relate to deactivation of one or more TCI states, the indication may also indicate that one or more TCI states should be activated.

[0057] Figure 2An example of a message format 200 supporting TCI state deactivation and activation according to the examples described herein is shown. The message format 200 may be an example of a MAC CE (e.g., a MAC CE format), which may include one or more elements 205. For example, element 205-a, element 205-b, element 205-c, element 205-d, and element 205-e may each correspond to or be an example of a reserved bit (e.g., a vacant bit, a bit that is not currently used). Element 205-f may indicate or otherwise correspond to a candidate cell ID. Element 205-g, element 205-h, element 205-i, element 205-j, element 205-k, element 205-l, element 205-m, and element 205-n may each indicate or otherwise correspond to a TCI state quantity field (e.g., P1 to P8, which may indicate whether each TCI code point has multiple TCI states or a single TCI state). Element 205-o, element 205-q and element 205-s can each indicate or otherwise correspond to the communication direction field (e.g., indicating downlink, uplink, or both for the TCI state ID in the corresponding octet). Element 205-p, element 205-r and element 205-t can each indicate or otherwise correspond to the TCI state identifier (ID). Each element 205 can correspond to an octet (e.g., octet 1 to octet N+3), which can include the element 205 of the corresponding row. Each element 205 can include or otherwise correspond to a certain number of bits. For example, element 205-a can include one bit, and element 205-f can include three bits.

[0058] Message format 200 (e.g., MAC CE) can be an illustrative example of a MAC CE for activating or deactivating one or more TCI states. Message format 200 can be transmitted (e.g., by a network entity, by UE 105) to activate, request activation, or indicate activation of one or more TCI states for one or more cells (e.g., one or more candidate cells). As described herein, the term "candidate cell" can refer to a cell (e.g., cell 115) to which UE 105 can switch (e.g., during LTM cell switching). In some cases, UE 105 can be provided with a certain number (e.g., a group, a plurality of) candidate cells and can switch to one or more candidate cells.

[0059] As shown, the message format 200 may include one or more reserved bits (e.g., elements 205-a to 205-e), one or more candidate cell ID fields (e.g., element 205-f), one or more TCI state quantity fields (e.g., elements 205-g to 205-n), one or more communication direction fields (e.g., element 205-o, element 205-q, element 205-s), one or more TCI state ID fields (e.g., element 205-p, element 205-r, and element 205-t), and one or more other fields (not shown), which may be used to indicate information for deactivating or activating one or more TCI states. The message format 200 may be identified by a subheader (e.g., a MAC subheader) (not shown) or otherwise include a subheader (e.g., a MAC subheader). The subheader may include one or more elements 205 (e.g., one or more bits) indicating information associated with the message format 200. For example, the subheader may include one or more logical channel identifier (LCID) fields and one or more extended logical channel identifier ((e)LCID) fields, or other examples. Additionally, message format 200 may be configurable (eg, may be of a variable size, may have a variable number of bits).

[0060] The candidate cell ID field may indicate one or more IDs for one or more cells to which the message format 200 is applied (e.g., to which the information in the message format 200 is applied). In some cases, the candidate cell ID field may indicate one or more LTM candidate cells for the UE 105. The TCI state quantity field (e.g., P1 to P8) may indicate whether each TCI code point (e.g., corresponding to each TCI state ID) has multiple TCI states or a single TCI state. If the TCI state quantity field is set to "1", the corresponding TCI code point may include a joint / downlink TCI state and an uplink TCI state. If the TCI state quantity field is set to "0", the corresponding TCI code point may only include a joint / downlink TCI state or an uplink TCI state. The code point to which the TCI state is mapped may be determined by its sequential position in all TCI state ID fields. For example, field P1 may be mapped to TCI state ID field 1, field P2 may be mapped to TCI state ID field 2, and so on.

[0061] The communication direction field (e.g., D / U field) may indicate whether the corresponding TCI state ID field (e.g., TCI state ID field in the same octet) is used for joint / downlink TCI state or uplink TCI state. For example, if the communication direction field is set to "1", the TCI state ID in the same octet is used for joint or downlink communication. If the communication direction field is set to "0", the TCI state ID in the same octet is used for uplink communication. The TCI state ID field indicates the TCI state. The TCI state may be identified by TCI-StateId or TCI-UL-StateId. The corresponding communication direction field may identify or otherwise control which variable (e.g., TCI-StateId or TCI-UL-StateId) is used. For example, if the communication direction field (e.g., D / U field in the same octet) is set to "1", a 7-bit length TCI state ID (e.g., TCI-StateId) is used. If D / U is set to "0", the most significant bit of the TCI state ID is used as a reserved bit (e.g., unused, reserved), and the remaining 6 bits can indicate the TCI state (e.g., using TCI-UL-StateId). The maximum number of activated TCI states (e.g., maximum amount) can be 16 TCI states.

[0062] According to one or more examples described herein, a UE 105 may deactivate or otherwise avoid monitoring one or more TCI states based on receiving an indication from a gNB (e.g., a network entity) to deactivate the one or more TCI states, which may save resources of the UE 105. The indication may be transmitted by the gNB via a message format 200. For example, the message format 200 may include one or more bits indicating one or more TCI states to be deactivated by the UE 105. For example, a reserved bit (e.g., element 205-a) of the message format 200 may indicate that the one or more TCI states should be deactivated. Although one example of a TCI state deactivation indication includes using a reserved bit to indicate that one or more TCI states should be deactivated, other types of indications and other message formats may be utilized (e.g., alone or in combination), which will be described in further detail herein.

[0063] Figure 3An example of a wireless communication system 300 supporting TCI state deactivation and activation according to the examples described herein is shown. In some embodiments, the wireless communication system 300 may include one or more UEs 105 and one or more gNBs 110 (e.g., base stations) of a RAN (e.g., of a RAN 120), which may communicate with each other. Although some examples described herein may refer to operations performed by a gNB 110, such operations may additionally or alternatively be performed by any network entity, such as an access point or node of a RAN (e.g., a Node B, a gNB), etc. In some cases, the UE 105 and / or the RAN (e.g., a gNB 110 of the RAN) may communicate with a core network including one or more network nodes of the core network. As shown, the gNB 110 of the exemplary embodiment may include one or more centralized units (CUs) 303 and one or more distributed units (DUs) 301. In addition, each gNB 110 may provide coverage for one or more cells or otherwise support one or more cells (e.g., one or more coverage areas).

[0064] As an example, the wireless communication system 300 may be deployed within a radio access architecture based on Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-Advanced, LTE-A) and / or New Radio (NR, 5G). However, the system may be deployed in other network architectures, including within other communication networks, including, for example, other communication networks developed in the future, such as sixth generation (6G) networks, and any of many existing networks, including Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Radio Access Network (UTRAN or E-UTRAN), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN or Wi-Fi), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Personal Communications Service (PCS), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), systems using Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology, sensor networks, mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), and Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), or any combination thereof.

[0065] UE 105 can be any type of user terminal, terminal device, node (e.g., network node), element (e.g., network element), etc. that can be allocated and assigned resources on the air interface. For example, UE 105 can be a portable computing device, such as a wireless mobile communication device, including but not limited to the following types of devices: mobile station (mobile phone), smart phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile phone, equipment using wireless modem (alarm or measurement equipment, etc.), laptop and / or touch screen computer, tablet computer, game console, notebook computer, multimedia device, car, truck, drone, airplane and other types of vehicles. As a non-exhaustive list of some examples, UE 105 can also be called a subscriber unit, mobile station, network unit, remote terminal, access terminal, or user terminal.

[0066] In some cases, the UE 105 and the gNB 110 may perform one or more beam management operations, which may include activating various TCI states. For intra-cell (serving cell) or inter-cell beam management, once a TCI state (e.g., a unified TCI state) has been activated, deactivation of a previously activated TCI state may not be performed. For serving cell beam management within the unified TCI state framework, deactivation of TCI states may not occur. For LTM, the UE 105 may receive one or more activation commands to activate one or more TCI states for one or more LTM candidate cells. In some cases, one or more activation commands may be received via a MAC CE prior to a cell handover command for one or more candidate cells. In some cases, other types of signaling may be used to activate the TCI state. In some cases, the UE 105 may continue to monitor the activated TCI state (e.g., until the UE 105 is reconfigured or until a cell handover occurs). This may enable the UE 105 to monitor a TCI state that is no longer relevant for cell handover purposes (e.g., the network may prefer another cell for cell handover, or determine that the UE 105 will not switch cells). Therefore, in LTM, there is no existing technique that enables the UE 105 to deactivate the TCI state (eg, deactivate all TCI states for one or more candidate cells).

[0067] According to one or more examples described herein, a UE 105 may receive one or more indications from a gNB 110 (e.g., a network entity) to deactivate one or more (e.g., all) TCI states for one or more indicated cells (e.g., of gNB 110-a, gNB 110-b), which may improve resource utilization at the UE 105. The one or more indicated cells may include one or more candidate cells, one or more serving cells (e.g., one or more cells that previously served the UE 105), or any combination thereof. The UE 105 may then deactivate one or more TCI states (e.g., all TCI states) for the one or more indicated cells based on receiving the one or more indications to deactivate the one or more TCI states. The one or more indications may be transmitted using one or more types of signaling (e.g., using one of a plurality of message formats), which are described in more detail herein. The signaling type used for the one or more indications may be selected by the UE 105 or the gNB 110. In some other cases, the signaling type may be preconfigured. As described herein, the indication of the deactivated TCI state can enable the UE 105 to save communication resources and reduce power consumption. The techniques described herein can also provide more efficient signaling compared to other techniques. In some cases, the techniques described herein can provide scheduling flexibility for the network, which can enable increased throughput.

[0068] In some cases, UE 105 may receive a configuration of one or more candidate cells (e.g., for a cell switching operation). The configuration may be received before receiving an indication of deactivating one or more TCI states. In some cases, the configuration may be received simultaneously with an indication of deactivating one or more TCI states. Any type of signaling (e.g., MAC CE or RRC signaling) may be used to send the configuration to UE 105. The configuration may indicate one or more candidate cells for UE 105. In some cases, UE 105 may perform cell switching. For example, UE 105 may switch from a serving cell to a candidate cell in one or more candidate cells. In this case, receiving an indication of deactivating the TCI state may be based on UE 105 performing cell switching. In some other cases, UE 105 may not perform cell switching, and receiving an indication of deactivating the TCI state may be based on UE 105 not performing cell switching. Additionally or alternatively, receiving an indication of deactivating the TCI state may be based on receiving a configuration of one or more candidate cells and / or receiving a configuration of one or more TCI states (e.g., LTM TCI states) associated with one or more candidate cells.

[0069] Figure 4An example of an apparatus 400 supporting TCI state deactivation and activation according to the examples described herein is shown. The apparatus 400 may be embodied by or may include a UE 105 or a gNB 110 configured to perform a communication to deactivate or request deactivation of a TCI state. Figure 4 As shown, the device 400 may include, be associated with, or communicate with, a processing circuit 405 (e.g., one or more processors), a memory 410, and a communication interface 415. The processing circuit 405 may communicate with the memory 410 via a bus for transferring information between components of the device 400. The memory 410 may be non-temporary and may include, for example, one or more volatile and / or non-volatile memories. In other words, for example, the memory 410 may be an electronic storage device (e.g., a computer-readable storage medium) including a storage component that is configured to store data (e.g., bits) that can be retrieved by a machine (e.g., a computing device similar to the processing circuit 405). The memory 410 may be configured to store information, data, content, applications, instructions, etc. for enabling the device 400 to perform various functions according to the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. Additionally or alternatively, the memory 410 may be configured to store instructions for execution by the processing circuit 405.

[0070] In some embodiments, the device 400 may be embodied in various computing devices as described above. However, in some embodiments, the device 400 may be implemented as a chip or a chipset. In other words, the device 400 may include one or more physical packages (e.g., chips) that include materials, components, and / or wiring on a structural assembly (e.g., a substrate). The structural assembly may provide physical strength, size savings, and / or limitations on electrical interactions for the component circuits included thereon. Therefore, in some cases, the device 400 may be configured to implement an embodiment of the present invention on a single chip, or as a single "system on a chip". Therefore, in some cases, a chip or a chipset may constitute a device for performing one or more operations to provide the functionality described herein.

[0071] The processing circuit 405 can be embodied in a variety of different ways. For example, the processing circuit 405 can be embodied as one or more of various hardware processing devices, such as a coprocessor, a microprocessor, a controller, a digital signal processor (DSP), a processing element with or without an attached DSP, or various other circuits including integrated circuits (), such as ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits), FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays), microcontroller units (MCUs), hardware accelerators, special-purpose computer chips, etc. Thus, in some embodiments, the processing circuit 405 may include one or more processing cores configured to execute independently. Multi-core processing circuits can implement multi-processing within a single physical package. Additionally or alternatively, the processing circuit 405 may include one or more processors configured in series via a bus to enable independent execution of instructions, pipelines, and / or multi-threading.

[0072] In an example embodiment, the processing circuit 405 may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory 410 or otherwise accessible to the processing circuit 405. Additionally or alternatively, the processing circuit 405 may be configured to execute hard-coded instructions. In this way, whether configured by hardware or software methods, or by a combination thereof, the processing circuit 405 may represent an entity (e.g., physically embodied in a circuit) that is capable of performing operations according to embodiments of the present disclosure when configured accordingly. Thus, for example, when the processing circuit 405 is embodied as an ASIC, FPGA, etc., the processing circuit 405 may be hardware specifically configured to perform the operations described herein. Alternatively, as another example, when the processing circuit 405 is embodied as an executor of instructions, the instructions may specifically configure the processing circuit 405 to perform the algorithms and / or operations described herein when the instructions are executed. However, in some cases, the processing circuit 405 may be a processor of a specific device (e.g., an image or video processing system) that is configured to employ embodiments of the present invention by further configuring the processing circuit 405 by instructions for performing the algorithms and / or operations described herein. The processing circuit 405 may include, among other things, a clock, an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), and logic gates configured to support the operation of the processing circuit 405 .

[0073] The communication interface 415 can be any device, such as a device or circuit implemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and software, which is configured to receive and / or send data, including media content in the form of video or image files, one or more audio tracks, etc. In this regard, the communication interface 415 may include, for example, an antenna (or multiple antennas) and supporting hardware and / or software for implementing communication with a wireless communication network. Additionally or alternatively, the communication interface 415 may include one or more antennas to cause the reception of signals sent via one or more antennas or processing received via one or more antennas. In some environments, the communication interface 415 may alternatively or also support wired communication. Thus, for example, the communication interface 415 may include a communication modem and / or other hardware / software for supporting communication via a cable, a digital subscriber line (DSL), a universal serial bus (USB) or other mechanisms.

[0074] In some cases, the device 400 may perform one or more operations to improve resource utilization of another device 400. For example, according to one or more examples described herein, the device 400 (e.g., UE 105) may receive one or more indications from another device 400 (e.g., gNB 110) to deactivate one or more (e.g., all) TCI states for one or more indicated cells (e.g., of gNB 110-a, gNB 110-b), which may improve resource utilization of the device 400. The one or more indicated cells may include one or more candidate cells, one or more serving cells (e.g., one or more cells that previously served UE 105), or any combination thereof. The device 400 may then deactivate one or more TCI states (e.g., all TCI states) based on receiving the one or more indications to deactivate the one or more TCI states for the one or more indicated cells. The one or more indications may be transmitted using one or more types of signaling (e.g., using one of a plurality of message formats), which are described in more detail herein. The signaling type for the one or more indications may be selected by the device 400. In some other cases, the signaling type may be pre-configured.

[0075] Figure 5An example of a message format 500 for supporting TCI state deactivation and activation according to the examples described herein is shown. Message format 500 can be an example of a bitmap, which can be transmitted via MAC CE (e.g., using message format 200) or any other type of signaling (e.g., any other type of message). The bitmap may include one or more elements 505. For example, the bitmap may include element 505-a (e.g., LTM ID1), element 505-b (e.g., LTM ID2), element 505-c (e.g., LTM ID3), element 505-d (e.g., LTM ID4), element 505-e (e.g., LTM ID5), element 505-f (e.g., LTM ID6), element 505-g (e.g., LTM ID7), and element 505-h (e.g., LTM ID8). Each element 505 may include or otherwise correspond to a certain number of bits. For example, element 505-a may include one bit. In some cases, each element 505 of the bitmap may include one bit. As described herein, each element 505 may correspond to or otherwise indicate an LTM candidate cell ID (e.g., an LTM candidate cell configuration ID). In some examples, the bitmap may include bit positions associated with one or more configured candidate cells in ascending order of the candidate cell configuration identifier. As an example, the first bit position (e.g., LTM ID1) of the bitmap may be associated with the lowest candidate cell configuration identifier. The second bit position (LTM ID2) may be associated with the second lowest candidate cell configuration identifier, and so on. In another example, if the UE is configured with candidate cell identifiers 0, 1, 3 (e.g., if the ID space can range from 0 to 7), the candidate cell identifier may be mapped to an LTM ID bit position (e.g., 1, 2, 3). In an alternative example, the bit position may be associated with a candidate cell configuration identifier in a specific bit position of its candidate ID. As an example, if the UE is configured with candidate cell identifiers 0, 1, 3, the candidate cell identifier may be mapped to an LTM ID bit position (e.g., 1, 2, 4).

[0076] Message format 500 (e.g., a bitmap) can be an illustrative example of a bitmap (e.g., part of a MAC CE) for deactivating one or more TCI states. Message format 500 can be transmitted (e.g., by a network entity, by a UE 105) to deactivate, request deactivation, or indicate deactivation of one or more TCI states (e.g., all TCI states) for one or more cells (e.g., one or more candidate cells). For example, UE 105 can deactivate or otherwise avoid monitoring one or more TCI states based on receiving an indication to deactivate one or more TCI states from gNB 110 (e.g., a network entity), which can save resources of UE 105. The indication can be transmitted by the gNB via message format 500.

[0077] If a bit of the message format 500 (e.g., corresponding to the corresponding element 505) is set to a value of "1" or another value indicating deactivation, the UE 105 may deactivate all TCI states corresponding to the corresponding one or more cells (e.g., one or more LTM candidate cells) indicated by the corresponding bit. For example, if the bit corresponding to the element 505-a is set to a value of "1" (e.g., a first logical state), the UE 105 may deactivate all TCI states for the cell associated with the bit position of LTM ID1. If a bit of the message format 500 is set to a value of "0" (e.g., a second logical state), the UE 105 may avoid deactivating one or more TCI states (e.g., all TCI states) corresponding to the corresponding one or more cells. For example, if the bit is set to a value of "0", if the TCI state is already active, the UE 105 may avoid deactivating the TCI state corresponding to the corresponding one or more cells associated with the bit (e.g., bit position). In some cases, the candidate cell IDs may be mapped to the bit positions in the message format 500 in ascending order from right to left. For example, the lowest configured candidate cell ID may be mapped to element 505-a (e.g., the first position in message format 500). The lowest configured candidate cell ID may be the candidate cell ID that is configured first in chronological order when compared to other candidate cell IDs, or the candidate cell ID with the lowest ID value (e.g., if three bits are used, the ID range may vary from 0 to 7). In some cases, message format 500 may include an LCID (not shown) that identifies message format 500. For example, the LCID may indicate that message format 500 is being used (e.g., as an alternative to other message formats).

[0078] Figure 6An example of a message format 600 supporting TCI state deactivation and activation according to the examples described herein is shown. Message format 600 may be an example of a MAC CE (e.g., a MAC CE format), which may include one or more elements 605. For example, element 605-a, element 605-b, element 605-c, and element 605-d may each correspond to or otherwise be an example of a reserved bit (e.g., a vacant bit, a bit that may not be currently used). Element 605-e may correspond to or otherwise be an example of a deactivation bit. Element 605-f may indicate or otherwise correspond to a candidate cell ID. Element 605-g, element 605-h, element 605-i, element 605-j, element 605-k, element 605-l, element 605-m, and element 605-n may each indicate or otherwise correspond to a TCI state quantity field (e.g., P1 to P8). Element 605-o, element 605-q and element 605-s may each indicate or otherwise correspond to a communication direction field (e.g., indicating downlink, uplink or both for the TCI state ID in the corresponding octet). Element 605-p, element 605-r and element 605-t may each indicate or otherwise correspond to a TCI state identifier ID. Each element 605 may correspond to an octet (e.g., octet 1 to octet N+3), which may include the element 605 of the corresponding row. Each element 605 may include or otherwise correspond to a certain number of bits. For example, element 605-a may include one bit, and element 605-f may include three bits.

[0079] Message format 600 (e.g., MAC CE) can be an illustrative example of a MAC CE for activating or deactivating one or more TCI states. Message format 600 can be transmitted (e.g., by a network entity, by UE 105) to activate, request activation, or indicate activation of one or more TCI states for one or more cells (e.g., one or more candidate cells). As shown, message format 600 may include one or more deactivation bits (e.g., one or more elements 605-e), which can be used to indicate information for deactivating one or more TCI states. Message format 600 can be identified by a subheader (e.g., MAC subheader) (not shown). The subheader may include one or more elements 605 (e.g., one or more bits) indicating information associated with message format 600. For example, the subheader may include one or more LCID fields and one or more (e) LCID fields, or other examples. In addition, message format 600 may be configurable (e.g., may have a variable size, may have a variable number of bits).

[0080] In some cases, the message format 600 may include one or more elements 605, which may be references to Figure 2 Examples of the elements 205 described. For example, the reserved bit, the candidate cell ID field, the TCI state quantity field, the communication direction field, and the TCI state ID field may be referenced. Figure 2 Examples of the various bits and fields described. The message format 600 may also include an element 605-e (e.g., a deactivation bit, an activation / deactivation bit). The element 605-e may indicate whether one or more TCI states (e.g., all TCI states) for one or more cells indicated by the element 605-f are deactivated or activated. For example, if the element 605-e (e.g., a bit corresponding to the element 605-e) is set to a value of "1", the UE 105 may deactivate all TCI states for one or more cells indicated by the element 605-f (e.g., indicated by one or more bits corresponding to the element 605-f). If the element 605-e is set to a value of "0", the UE 105 may avoid deactivating all TCI states for one or more cells indicated by the element 605-f. When deactivation is avoided based on the element 605-e, the UE 105 may determine that the TCI state provided by the MAC CE will be activated. Thus, element 605-e may be used to deactivate a previously activated TCI state (if any) or to activate one or more TCI states.

[0081] Element 605-e may also control the formatting of message format 600. For example, if element 605-e is set to a value indicating deactivation (e.g., "1"), one or more (or all) remaining octets (e.g., octet 2 to octet N+3) of message format 600 may be omitted from message format 600 or otherwise set to zero. Thus, UE 105 may avoid reading the remaining octets, which may save processing resources. In some other cases, if element 605-e is set to a value indicating deactivation, a portion of the remaining octets may be omitted from message format 600. For example, the octets containing the TCI state ID (e.g., octet 3 to octet N+3) may be omitted. In some cases, the network (e.g., gNB 110) may configure UE 105 based on element 605 to deactivate one or more (e.g., all) TCI states for all candidate cells. In some cases, the UE 105 may determine (e.g., without being configured by the network) that element 605-e deactivates one or more TCI states (e.g., all TCI states) for all candidate cells. For example, element 605-e set to a value indicating deactivation may indicate that TCI states for a portion of the candidate cells should be deactivated or that TCI states for all candidate cells should be deactivated.

[0082] In some cases, element 605-e may deactivate one or more TCI states for a cell (e.g., a candidate cell) not indicated by the candidate cell ID field. For example, a MAC CE (e.g., message format 600) may activate a TCI state for one or more cells indicated by the candidate cell ID field, and deactivate one or more TCI states for all other cells. If element 605-e is not set or is set to a value indicating activation (e.g., "0"), UE 105 may avoid deactivating any TCI state. In some cases, the deactivation of one or more TCI states may be implicitly indicated by the length field of message format 600 (e.g., MAC CE). The length field may indicate the length of message format 600 (e.g., the number of octets, the number of rows). In this case, UE 105 may receive a message that does not include element 605-e, wherein element 605-e is a reserved bit, or wherein element 605-e is set to a value of "0". The UE 105 may then determine, based on the length of the message (e.g., based on the omission of eight bits comprising the TCI state ID field), that one or more TCI states should be deactivated (e.g., all previously activated TCI states should be deactivated, or TCI states for cells not indicated by the candidate cell ID field should be deactivated).

[0083] In some cases, after receiving the configuration of one or more TCI states for LTM for one or more LTM candidate cells, the UE 105 may determine (by default) that one or more TCI states configured for LTM are deactivated (i.e., not activated). In an example, the UE 105 determines that the TCI state for LTM is deactivated (i.e., not activated) until it is activated. In some cases, the UE 105 may receive a TCI state activation for one or more LTM TCI states. In some examples, if the activation message does not explicitly provide a BWP (identifier), the UE 105 may determine the BWP of the LTM candidate cell for which one or more TCI states are activated. The TCI state activation of the BWP of the candidate cell to which the TCI state activation is applied may be determined as the default BWP of the target candidate cell. Alternatively, the BWP of the LTM candidate cell for which the TCI state is activated may be determined by the UE 105 as the BWP that is configured as the first active downlink BWP (and / or uplink BWP) of the candidate cell (e.g., given in the candidate cell configuration). In yet another alternative, the BWP of the LTM candidate cell for which the TCI state is activated may be determined by the UE 105 to be a dedicated BWP for the candidate cell (e.g., a dedicated BWP with the lowest BWP ID). The first active BWP may represent the BWP (for uplink and / or downlink) that the UE 105 assumes to be active after a cell handover. The TCI state activation of the BWP of the candidate cell to which the TCI state activation is applied is determined to be the default BWP of the target cell. The UE 105 may determine the BWP for which the TCI state is activated after applying a cell handover command or before a cell handover command.

[0084] In some cases, a new bit or field MAC CE (e.g., in addition to element 605-e) may be used to indicate deactivation of one or more TCI states. For example, an (e)LCID field (e.g., a new (e)LCID field that identifies the MAC CE as being specifically for LTM TCI state deactivation) may be used to indicate deactivation of one or more (e.g., all) TCI states. In some cases, the (e)LCID field may indicate that all TCI states associated with one or more cells should be deactivated. The one or more cells may include all candidate cells that should be deactivated (e.g., all candidate cells indicated by one or more candidate cell ID fields that have an activated TCI state).

[0085] Figure 7An example of a message format 700 supporting TCI state deactivation and activation according to the examples described herein is shown. The message format 700 may be an example of a MAC CE (e.g., a MAC CE format), which may include one or more elements 705. For example, element 705-a, element 705-b, element 705-c, element 705-d, element 705-g, element 705-h, element 705-i, element 705-j, element 705-m, element 705-n, element 705-o, and element 705-p may each correspond to or otherwise be an example of a reserved bit (e.g., a vacant bit, a bit that may not be currently used). Element 705-e, element 705-k, and element 705-q may each correspond to or otherwise be an example of an activation / deactivation bit (e.g., a bit indicating activation or deactivation). Element 705-f, element 705-l, and element 705-r may each indicate or otherwise correspond to a candidate cell ID field. The number of candidate cell ID fields can be variable in MAC CE format, or be configured / fixed in the format. Element 705-s, element 705-t, element 705-u, element 705-v, element 705-w, element 705-x, element 705-y and element 705-z can each indicate or otherwise correspond to TCI state quantity field (e.g., P1 to P8). Element 705-aa, element 705-cc and element 705-ee can each indicate or otherwise correspond to communication direction field (e.g., for TCI state ID in corresponding octet indicating downlink, uplink or both). Element 705-bb, element 705-dd and element 705-ff can each indicate or otherwise correspond to TCI state identifier ID. Each element 705 can correspond to octet, which can include element 705 of corresponding row. Each element 705 can include or otherwise correspond to a certain number of bits. For example, element 705 - a may include one bit, while element 705 - f may include three bits.

[0086] The message format 700 (e.g., MAC CE) can be an illustrative example of a MAC CE for activating or deactivating one or more TCI states. The message format 700 can be transmitted (e.g., by a network entity, by UE 105) to activate, request activation, or indicate activation of one or more TCI states for one or more cells (e.g., one or more candidate cells). As shown, the message format 700 may include one or more activation / deactivation bits (e.g., element 705-e, element 705-k, element 705-q), which can be used to indicate information for deactivating or activating one or more TCI states corresponding to the corresponding candidate cell ID (e.g., the same octet as the corresponding activation / deactivation bit). The message format 700 can be identified by a subheader (e.g., MAC subheader) (not shown). The subheader may include one or more elements 705 (e.g., one or more bits) indicating information associated with the message format 700. For example, the subheader may include one or more LCID fields and one or more eLCID fields, or other examples. Additionally, message format 700 may be configurable (eg, may be of a variable size, may have a variable number of bits).

[0087] In some cases, the message format 700 may include one or more elements 705, which may be references to Figure 2 Examples of the elements 205 described. For example, the reserved bit, the candidate cell ID field, the TCI state quantity field, the communication direction field, and the TCI state ID field may be referenced. Figure 2 and Figure 6 Examples of the various bits and fields described. Message format 700 may also include an activation / deactivation bit.

[0088] The activation / deactivation bit may indicate whether one or more TCI states (e.g., all TCI states) for one or more cells indicated by the corresponding candidate cell ID field are deactivated or activated. For example, if element 705-e (e.g., if the bit corresponding to element 705-e) is set to a value of "1", the UE 105 may activate all TCI states for one or more cells indicated by element 705-f (e.g., indicated by one or more bits corresponding to element 705-f). If element 705-e is set to a value of "0", the UE 105 may deactivate all TCI states for one or more cells indicated by element 705-f. Figure 7 The illustrated message format 700 may illustrate one example of a scenario in which the TCI status for candidate cell ID1 and candidate cell ID2 is deactivated and the TCI status for candidate cell ID3 is activated.

[0089] Figure 8An example of a message format 800 for supporting TCI state deactivation and activation according to the examples described herein is shown. Message format 800 may be an example of a MAC CE (e.g., a MAC CE format), which may include one or more elements 805. For example, element 805-a, element 805-b, element 805-c, element 805-d, element 805-e, element 805-f, element 805-h, element 805-I, element 805-j, element 805-k, element 805-l, and element 805-m may each correspond to or otherwise be an instance of a reserved bit (e.g., a vacant bit, a bit that may not be currently used). Element 805-g and element 805-n may each correspond to or otherwise be an example of a bandwidth part (BWP) bit. Each BWP bit may indicate information associated with the configuration of a bandwidth part. For example, element 805-g may indicate one or more BWPs for downlink communication, and element 805-n may indicate one or more BWPs for uplink communication.

[0090] Element 805-o, element 805-p, element 805-q, element 805-r, element 805-s, element 805-t, element 805-u, and element 805-v may correspond to or otherwise be instances of LTM candidate cell ID bits. Element 805-w, element 805-x, element 805-y, element 805-z, element 805-aa, element 805-bb, element 805-cc, and element 805-dd may correspond to or otherwise be instances of activation / deactivation bits (e.g., bits indicating activation or deactivation of one or more TCI states). Element 805-ee, element 805-ff, element 805-gg, element 805-hh, element 805-ii, element 805-jj, element 805-kk, and element 805-ll may each indicate or otherwise correspond to a TCI state quantity field (e.g., P1 to P8). Element 805-mm, element 805-oo and element 805-qq can each indicate or otherwise correspond to the communication direction field (e.g., indicating downlink, uplink, or both for the TCI state ID in the corresponding eight-bit byte). Element 805-nn, element 805-pp and element 805-rr can each indicate or otherwise correspond to the TCI state identifier ID. Each element 805 can correspond to an eight-bit byte, which can include the element 805 of the corresponding row. Each element 805 can include or otherwise correspond to a certain number of bits. For example, element 805-a can include one bit, and element 805-g can include two bits.

[0091] Message format 800 (e.g., MAC CE) can be an illustrative example of a MAC CE for activating or deactivating one or more TCI states. Message format 800 can be transmitted (e.g., by a network entity, by UE 105) to activate, request activation, or indicate activation of one or more TCI states for one or more cells (e.g., one or more candidate cells). As shown, message format 800 may include one or more activation / deactivation bits, which can be used to indicate information for deactivating or activating one or more TCI states corresponding to one or more corresponding LTM candidate cell bits. Message format 800 can be identified by a subheader (e.g., MAC subheader) (not shown). The subheader may include one or more elements 805 (e.g., one or more bits) indicating information associated with message format 800. For example, the subheader may include one or more LCID fields and one or more eLCID fields, or other examples. In addition, message format 800 may be configurable (e.g., may have a variable size, may have a variable number of bits). For example, the message format 800 may be configured to include only the TCI state ID field for the LTM cell ID corresponding to the activation / deactivation bit indicating a first logic value (eg, corresponding to activation).

[0092] In some cases, the message format 800 may include one or more elements 805, which may be references to Figure 2 , Figure 5 and Figure 7 Examples of the various elements 205, 505, and 705 described. For example, the reserved bit, TCI status amount field, communication direction field, TCI status ID field, LTM cell ID bit, and activation / deactivation bit can be referenced. Figure 2 , Figure 5 and Figure 7 Examples of the various bits and fields described. The activation / deactivation bit may indicate whether one or more TCI states (e.g., all TCI states) for one or more cells indicated by the corresponding LTM candidate cell ID bit are deactivated or activated. For example, if element 805-w (e.g., bit A / D8) is set to a value of "1", the UE 105 may activate all TCI states for one or more cells indicated by element 805-o (e.g., LTM ID8). If element 805-w is set to a value of "0", the UE 105 may deactivate all TCI states for one or more cells indicated by element 805-o, as Figure 8 The illustrated message format 800 may illustrate one example of a scenario in which the TCI states for LTM ID1 to LTM ID2 are activated, and therefore, the message format 800 includes corresponding TCI state ID fields (eg, TCI state ID 1 to TCI state ID N).

[0093] In any example embodiments herein, a message to deactivate (and in some cases activate) one or more TCI states for one or more candidate cells may include a field relating to a particular bandwidth part (BWP). In an example, the deactivation of one or more TCI states may apply to the BWP indicated by the deactivation message.

[0094] In some cases, the gNB 110 may send (e.g., cause to be sent) a MAC CE to the UE 105. The MAC CE may indicate a candidate cell to which the UE 105 is to switch. The UE 105 may then deactivate all TCI states for other candidate cells (e.g., all cells not indicated by the MAC CE). In some cases, the UE 105 may perform deactivation based on a configuration for implicit deactivation of TCI states not indicated by the gNB. In some cases, the cells not indicated by the MAC CE may include one or more cells previously activated by the UE 105. In some cases, the MAC CE sent by the gNB 110 may include a global deactivation bit. If the global deactivation bit is set to a first value (e.g., "1"), the UE 105 may deactivate the TCI states of all cells not indicated by the MAC CE. In some cases, the beam indication may result in the deactivation of one or more TCI states. For example, the beam indication may be sent by the gNB 110 to the UE 105 (e.g., before a cell switching command). Based on receiving the beam indication or based on the information indicated by the beam indication, the UE 105 may deactivate one or more TCI states. In some cases, the beam indication may correspond to or otherwise indicate a specific TCI state for a cell. In this case, the UE 105 receiving the beam indication may deactivate all TCI states for all cells not indicated by the beam indication (i.e., the beam indication indicates one or more TCI states associated with a specific cell). In some cases, the configuration may indicate whether the UE 105 deactivates one or more cells based on the beam indication. Some of the examples described herein refer to "TCI states," which may be examples of LTM-specific TCI states (e.g., TCI states for LTM operations). In some cases, the UE 105 may receive or may otherwise be configured with one or more serving cell TCI states (e.g., a serving cell TCI state list) and one or more LTM TCI states (e.g., an LTM TCI state list)

[0095] In one case, the UE 105 may indicate a capability or preference for a maximum number of TCI states (e.g., M TCI states or M code points) that can be activated. As an example, the UE 105 may have a limit on how many TCI states it can track / monitor, and therefore, it may limit the number of activated TCI states for the UE 105. The limit M may be the number of code points, where each code point corresponds to a joint downlink and uplink TCI or a separate TCI state (e.g., one code point may be mapped to one joint TCI state. Alternatively, the code point may refer to a separate downlink TCI state and an uplink TCI state (i.e., two TCI states). The maximum number may be applied across all configured candidate cells. In another example, the UE 105 may only keep the most recent M TCI states (or code points) activated, which may include TCI states from more than one candidate cell. In one example, the UE 105 may maintain up to the M most recently activated TCI states as active. If M=8, and the first MAC-CE activates 8 TCI states for the first candidate cell, and the second MAC-CE activates 4 TCI states for the second candidate cell, the UE 105 may determine to keep the 4 TCI states of candidate cell 2 and only the 4 TCI states of candidate cell 1 activated. The UE 105 may further determine to deactivate the four TCI states for the first candidate cell. The deactivation selection may be based on the activation order of the TCI states (TCI states corresponding to the code points) or based on L1 measurements (eg, the most recently measured / reported).

[0096] Fig. 9 An example of a flowchart 900 showing operations performed by an apparatus (eg, apparatus 400), such as may be embodied by UE 105 or the like, as shown in FIG. Figure 1-Figure 8 as described.

[0097] As indicated at block 905, the apparatus may include means, such as the processing circuit 405, the communication interface 415, etc., for receiving, by the UE 105 from a network entity, a configuration of one or more candidate cells to which to switch from a serving cell.

[0098] As shown in box 910, the device may include a component, such as a processing circuit 405, a communication interface 415, etc., for receiving an indication from a network entity by the UE105 to deactivate all TCI states associated with one or more indicated cells based on receiving a configuration of one or more candidate cells.

[0099] As indicated by block 915, the apparatus may include means, such as processing circuit 405, for deactivating, by UE 105, all TCI states based on receiving an indication to deactivate all TCI states associated with one or more indicated cells. According to the examples described herein, any described operation may be performed multiple times or independently of other operations described herein.

[0100] Fig.10 An example of a flowchart 1000 of operations performed by an apparatus (e.g., apparatus 400), which may be embodied by a network entity (e.g., gNB 110), etc., as shown in FIG. Figure 1-Figure 9 as described.

[0101] As indicated at block 1005, the apparatus may include means, such as processing circuit 405, communication interface 415, etc., for causing a network entity to send to a UE a configuration of one or more candidate cells for the UE to handover from a serving cell.

[0102] As shown in block 1010, the apparatus may include means for causing a network entity to send an indication to the UE to deactivate all TCI states associated with one or more indicated cells based on the configuration causing the sending of one or more candidate cells, such as processing circuit 405, communication interface 415, etc. It should be noted that any operation described herein may be performed multiple times or independently of other operations described herein.

[0103] Figure 9-10A flow chart and a signal flow chart depicting a method according to an example embodiment are shown. It will be understood that each box or signal and a combination of boxes and signals can be implemented by various means, such as hardware, firmware, processors, circuits, and / or other communication devices associated with the execution of software including one or more computer program instructions. For example, one or more processes described above can be embodied by computer program instructions. At this point, the computer program instructions embodying the processes described above can be stored by the memory 410 of the device 400 using the example embodiment and executed by the processing circuit 405. As will be understood, any such computer program instructions can be loaded onto a computer or other programmable device (e.g., hardware) to produce a machine so that the resulting computer or other programmable device implements the functions specified in the flowchart box. These computer program instructions can also be stored in a computer-readable memory, which can guide a computer or other programmable device to work in a specific manner so that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce a product, the execution of which implements the functions specified in the flowchart box. Computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable apparatus to cause a series of operations to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer-implemented process, so that the instructions executed on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide operations for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart blocks.

[0104] Therefore, the blocks of the flowchart support a combination of means for performing the specified functions and a combination of operations for performing the specified functions. It will also be understood that one or more blocks of the flowchart and a combination of blocks in the flowchart can be implemented by a computer system based on special-purpose hardware that performs the specified functions or a combination of special-purpose hardware and computer instructions.

[0105] Benefiting from the teachings presented in the foregoing description and the associated drawings, those skilled in the art to which the present invention belongs will think of many modifications and other embodiments of the invention set forth herein. Therefore, it should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments disclosed, and modifications and other embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. In addition, although the foregoing description and the associated drawings describe exemplary embodiments in the context of certain exemplary combinations of elements and / or functions, it should be understood that different combinations of elements and / or functions can be provided by alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended claims. At this point, for example, combinations of elements and / or functions different from those elements and / or functions explicitly described above are also expected to be set forth in some of the appended claims. Although specific terms are used herein, they are used only in a general and descriptive sense, not for the purpose of limitation.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication, comprising: Receiving, by a user equipment UE, from a network entity, configuration of one or more candidate cells to be handed over from a serving cell; Receiving, by the UE from the network entity, a medium access control MAC control element MAC CE, the MAC CE activating one or more transmission configuration indicator TCI states associated with at least one candidate cell indicated by the one or more candidate cells; as well as The UE deactivates all TCI states of one or more candidate cells not indicated by the MAC CE.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein: One or more of (i) the one or more candidate cells or (ii) the serving cell include the one or more indicated candidate cells.

3. The method according to any one of claims 1 or 2, further comprising: activating, by the UE based at least in part on receiving the command, one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell of the one or more candidate cells; Switching from the serving cell to the candidate cell among the one or more candidate cells; as well as causing one or more messages to be sent by the UE using one or more activated TCI states associated with the candidate cell.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: The MAC CE includes: A bitmap comprising a plurality of bits corresponding to the one or more indicated cells, wherein a bit in the plurality of bits indicates that the UE is to deactivate all TCI states associated with a corresponding cell in the one or more indicated cells.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: The MAC CE includes: A bit used to activate one or more TCI states or to deactivate all TCI states associated with the one or more indicated cells.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein: A number of octets in the MAC CE is determined based at least in part on the value of the bit.

7. The method according to any one of claims 5 or 6, further comprising: A determination is made by the UE whether to read one or more octets of the MAC CE based at least in part on the value of the bit.

8. The method according to any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein: The bit is also configured to activate one or more TCI states or deactivate all TCI states, wherein the cell identifier field of the MAC CE indicates the one or more indicated cells.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: The MAC CE includes: The Logical Channel Identifier field is used to deactivate all TCI states.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein: The MAC CE includes: Deactivate the indication of all TCI states, and activate the indication of one or more TCI states associated with the candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells.

11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: The MAC CE includes: (i) a plurality of bits indicating a plurality of cell identifiers, and (ii) a plurality of bits indicating whether a corresponding previously activated TCI state is activated or deactivated.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The bit of the medium access control control element indicates that the previously activated TCI state will be deactivated by the UE.

13. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: The MAC CE includes: An indication of a beam for a candidate cell among the one or more candidate cells.

14. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, further comprising: Based at least in part on the deactivation, one or more operations associated with the all TCI states are avoided.

15. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 14, wherein: The all TCI states are associated with a cell handover from the serving cell to a candidate cell among the one or more candidate cells.

16. A method for wireless communication, comprising: causing a network entity to send, to a user equipment UE, a configuration of one or more candidate cells to which the UE is to switch from a serving cell; as well as causing the network entity to send a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC CE) to the UE, the MAC CE activating one or more transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states associated with at least one candidate cell indicated by the one or more candidate cells; The UE deactivates all TCI states of one or more candidate cells not indicated by the MAC CE.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein: One or more of (i) the one or more candidate cells or (ii) the serving cell include the one or more indicated candidate cells.

18. The method according to any one of claims 16 or 17, further comprising: One or more messages are received from the UE using one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell of the one or more candidate cells.

19. The method according to any one of claims 16 or 17, further comprising: One or more messages are received from the UE using one or more TCI states associated with the serving cell.

20. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 19, wherein: The MAC CE includes: A bitmap comprising a plurality of bits corresponding to the one or more indicated cells, wherein a bit in the plurality of bits indicates that the UE is to deactivate all TCI states associated with a corresponding cell in the one or more indicated cells.

21. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 19, wherein: The MAC CE includes: A bit used to activate one or more TCI states or to deactivate all TCI states associated with the one or more indicated cells.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein: A number of octets in the MAC CE is determined based at least in part on the value of the bit.

23. The method according to any one of claims 21 or 22, wherein: The bit is also configured to activate one or more TCI states or deactivate all TCI states, wherein the cell identifier field of the MAC CE indicates the one or more indicated cells.

24. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 19, wherein: The MAC CE includes: The Logical Channel Identifier field is used to deactivate all TCI states.

25. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 19, wherein: The MAC CE includes: Deactivate indications of all the TCI states, and activate indications of one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell among the one or more candidate cells.

26. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 19, wherein: The MAC CE includes: (i) a plurality of bits indicating a plurality of cell identifiers, and (ii) a plurality of bits indicating whether a corresponding previously activated TCI state is activated or deactivated.

27. The method of claim 16, wherein: The bit in the MAC CE indicates that the previously activated TCI state will be deactivated by the UE.

28. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 19, wherein: The MAC CE includes: An indication of a beam for a candidate cell among the one or more candidate cells.

29. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 28, wherein: The all TCI states are associated with a cell handover from the serving cell to a candidate cell among the one or more candidate cells.

30. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising: at least one processor; as well as at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least perform: Receiving, by a user equipment UE, from a network entity, configuration of one or more candidate cells to be handed over from a serving cell; Receiving, by the UE from the network entity, a medium access control MAC control element MAC CE, the MAC CE activating one or more transmission configuration indicator TCI states associated with at least one candidate cell indicated by the one or more candidate cells; as well as The UE deactivates all TCI states of one or more candidate cells not indicated by the MAC CE.

31. The device according to claim 30, wherein One or more of (i) the one or more candidate cells or (ii) the serving cell include the one or more indicated candidate cells.

32. The device according to any one of claims 30 or 31, wherein The instructions further configure the apparatus to: activating, by the UE based at least in part on receiving the command, one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell of the one or more candidate cells; Switching from the serving cell to the candidate cell among the one or more candidate cells; as well as causing one or more messages to be sent by the UE using one or more activated TCI states associated with the candidate cell.

33. The device according to any one of claims 30 to 32, wherein: The MAC CE includes: A bitmap comprising a plurality of bits corresponding to the one or more indicated cells, wherein a bit in the plurality of bits indicates that the UE is to deactivate all TCI states associated with a corresponding cell in the one or more indicated cells.

34. The device according to any one of claims 30 to 32, wherein: The MAC CE includes: A bit used to activate one or more TCI states or to deactivate all TCI states associated with the one or more indicated cells.

35. The device according to claim 34, wherein A number of octets in the MAC CE is determined based at least in part on the value of the bit.

36. The device according to any one of claims 34 or 35, wherein The instructions further configure the apparatus to: A determination is made by the UE whether to read one or more octets of the MAC CE based at least in part on the value of the bit.

37. The device according to any one of claims 34 to 36, wherein: The bit is also configured to activate one or more TCI states or deactivate all TCI states, wherein the cell identifier field of the MAC CE indicates the one or more indicated cells.

38. The device according to any one of claims 30 to 32, wherein: The MAC CE includes: The Logical Channel Identifier field is used to deactivate all TCI states.

39. The device according to any one of claims 30 to 38, wherein: The MAC CE includes: Deactivate the indication of all TCI states, and activate the indication of one or more TCI states associated with the candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells.

40. The device according to any one of claims 30 to 32, wherein: The MAC CE includes: (i) a plurality of bits indicating a plurality of cell identifiers, and (ii) a plurality of bits indicating whether a corresponding previously activated TCI state is activated or deactivated.

41. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein: The bit in the MAC CE indicates that the previously activated TCI state will be deactivated by the UE.

42. The device according to any one of claims 30 to 32, wherein: The MAC CE includes: An indication of a beam for a candidate cell among the one or more candidate cells.

43. The device according to any one of claims 30 to 42, wherein: The instructions further configure the apparatus to: Based at least in part on the deactivation, one or more operations associated with the all TCI states are avoided.

44. The device according to any one of claims 30 to 43, wherein: The all TCI states are associated with a cell handover from the serving cell to a candidate cell among the one or more candidate cells.

45. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising: at least one processor; as well as at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least perform: causing a network entity to send, to a user equipment UE, a configuration of one or more candidate cells to which the UE is to switch from a serving cell; as well as causing the network entity to send a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC CE) to the UE, the MAC CE activating one or more transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states associated with at least one candidate cell indicated by the one or more candidate cells; The UE deactivates all TCI states of one or more candidate cells not indicated by the MAC CE.

46. ​​The device according to claim 45, wherein One or more of (i) the one or more candidate cells or (ii) the serving cell include the one or more indicated candidate cells.

47. The device according to any one of claims 45 or 46, wherein The instructions further configure the apparatus to: One or more messages are received from the UE using one or more TCI states associated with a candidate cell of the one or more candidate cells.

48. The device according to any one of claims 45 or 46, wherein The instructions further configure the apparatus to: One or more messages are received from the UE using one or more TCI states associated with the serving cell.

49. The device according to any one of claims 45 to 48, wherein The MAC CE includes: A bitmap comprising a plurality of bits corresponding to the one or more indicated cells, wherein a bit in the plurality of bits indicates that the UE is to deactivate all TCI states associated with a corresponding cell in the one or more indicated cells.

50. The device according to any one of claims 45 to 48, wherein The MAC CE includes: A bit used to activate one or more TCI states or to deactivate all TCI states associated with the one or more indicated cells.

51. The apparatus of claim 50, wherein: A number of octets in the MAC CE is determined based at least in part on the value of the bit.

52. The device according to any one of claims 50 or 51, wherein The bit is also configured to activate one or more TCI states or deactivate all TCI states, wherein the cell identifier field of the MAC CE indicates the one or more indicated cells.

53. The device according to any one of claims 45 to 48, wherein: The MAC CE includes: The Logical Channel Identifier field is used to deactivate all TCI states.

54. The device according to any one of claims 45 to 48, wherein: The MAC CE includes: Deactivate the indication of all TCI states, and activate the indication of one or more TCI states associated with the candidate cell in the one or more candidate cells.

55. The device according to any one of claims 45 to 48, wherein: The MAC CE includes: (i) a plurality of bits indicating a plurality of cell identifiers, and (ii) a plurality of bits indicating whether a corresponding previously activated TCI state is activated or deactivated.

56. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein: The bit of the MAC CE indicates that the previously activated TCI state is to be deactivated by the UE.

57. The device according to any one of claims 45 to 48, wherein The MAC CE includes: An indication of a beam for a candidate cell among the one or more candidate cells.

58. The device according to any one of claims 45 to 57, wherein The all TCI states are associated with a cell handover from the serving cell to a candidate cell among the one or more candidate cells.

59. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising program instructions stored thereon, the program instructions being configured to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 29.

Images