Configuration of gap priority

Abstract

The invention relates to configuration of gap priority. There is provided a wireless device comprising: at least one antenna; at least one radio component, the at least one radio component being coupled to the at least one antenna; and a processor coupled to the at least one radio; wherein the processor is configured to: obtain a gap configuration that schedules operation of the wireless device according to a gap pattern, wherein the gap configuration comprises priority information related to a priority of each of a plurality of gap patterns; and performing an operation based on the gap patterns, wherein the operation is performed based on the priorities of the gap patterns.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application generally relates to wireless communications, including configuration of gap priorities in such wireless communications. Background Art

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

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

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

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

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

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

[0008] Embodiments are directed to apparatus, systems, and methods for providing improved gap priority configuration and associated operations, and in particular improved gap priority configuration and / or dynamic updating of gap priorities for a MUSIM.

[0009] According to the technology described in this document, a network-side device may provide a gap configuration to a wireless device, the gap configuration schedules the operation of the wireless device according to a gap pattern, and in particular, the gap configuration may define priority information of at least two gaps, the at least two gaps may be of the same or different types and some of them may overlap each other in the time domain. Therefore, the wireless device may perform operations according to the schedule based on the gap pattern. Specifically, in the event of a conflict between at least two gap opportunities, the wireless device may perform operations in the opportunity of the gap with the highest priority.

[0010] In one aspect, the improved gap configuration including priority information may be particularly applicable to MUSIM situations. In another aspect, in the gap configuration, the priority of at least one gap may be dynamically changed based on at least one specific event or state related to the gap.

[0011] The techniques described herein may be implemented in and / or used with a number of different types of devices, including, but not limited to, any of cellular telephones, tablet computers, wearable computing devices, portable media players, and a variety of other computing devices.

[0012] This summary is intended to provide a brief overview of some of the topics described in this document. Therefore, it should be understood that the above features are only examples and should not be construed as narrowing the scope or essence of the topics described herein in any way. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the topics described herein will become apparent through the following detailed description, drawings, and claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013] A better understanding of the present subject matter may be obtained when the following detailed description of various embodiments is considered in conjunction with the following drawings, in which:

[0014] Figure 1 An example architecture of a wireless communication system according to embodiments disclosed herein is illustrated.

[0015] Figure 2 A system for performing signaling between a wireless device and a network device according to embodiments disclosed herein is illustrated.

[0016] Figure 3 is a flow chart illustrating an example method on the wireless device side according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0017] Figure 4 is a flow chart illustrating an example method on the network device side according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0018] Figure 5 Exemplary operations on the wireless device side according to some embodiments of the present disclosure are schematically illustrated.

[0019] Figure 6 Exemplary operations on the network device side according to some embodiments of the present disclosure are schematically illustrated.

[0020] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating signaling between a network device side and a wireless device side according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0021] Although the features described herein are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and described in detail herein. However, it should be understood that the drawings and detailed description thereof are not intended to be limited to the specific forms disclosed, but on the contrary, are intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0022] To easily identify the discussion of any particular element or action, the most significant digit(s) in a reference number refers to the drawing number that first introduces the element.

[0023] the term

[0024] User Equipment (UE) (or "UE device") - any of various types of computer systems or devices that are mobile or portable and that perform wireless communications. Examples of UE devices include mobile phones or smart phones (e.g., iPhone TM , based on Android TM phones), portable gaming devices (e.g., Nintendo DS TM , PlayStation Portable TM 、Gameboy Advance TM , iPhone TM ), laptops, wearable devices (e.g., smart watches, smart glasses), PDAs, portable Internet devices, music players, data storage devices or other handheld devices, etc. In general, the term "UE" or "UE device" can be broadly defined to cover any electronic device, computing device and / or telecommunication device (or combination of devices) that can be easily transmitted by a user and capable of wireless communication.

[0025] Wireless Device—Any of various types of computer systems or devices that perform wireless communications. A wireless device may be portable (or mobile), or may be stationary or fixed at a location. A UE is an example of a wireless device.

[0026] Communication device - any of various types of computer systems or devices that perform communication, where the communication may be wired or wireless. A communication device may be portable (or mobile), or may be stationary or fixed at a location. A wireless device is an example of a communication device. A UE is another example of a communication device.

[0027] Base Station—The term “base station” has the full scope of its ordinary meaning and includes at least a wireless communication station installed at a fixed location and used to communicate as part of a wireless telephone system or a radio system. As an example, a base station may be, for example, an eNB in ​​the 4G communication standard, a gNB in ​​the 5G communication standard, a remote radio head, a wireless access point, a drone control tower, or a communication device performing a similar function.

[0028] Network Device—Any of various types of computer systems or devices that perform communications, particularly wireless communications with wireless devices, such as downlink communications to wireless devices in connection with downlink transmissions. A network device may be portable (or mobile), or may be stationary or fixed at a location. A base station is an example of a network device.

[0029] Processing element (or processor) - refers to various elements or combinations of elements that are capable of performing functions in a device, such as user equipment or a cellular network device. A processing element may include, for example, a processor and associated memory, portions or circuits of a separate processor core, an entire processor core, a separate processor, an array of processors, circuits such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable hardware element such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), and any of the above various combinations.

[0030] Memory medium—any of various types of non-transitory memory devices or storage devices. The term "memory medium" is intended to include installation media, such as CD-ROM, floppy disk, or tape devices; computer system memory or random access memory, such as DRAM, DDR RAM, SRAM, EDO RAM, Rambus RAM, etc.; non-volatile memory, such as flash memory, magnetic media, such as hard disk drives or optical storage devices; registers or other similar types of memory elements, etc. The memory medium may also include other types of non-transitory memory or combinations thereof. In addition, the memory medium may be located in a first computer system executing a program, or may be located in a different second computer system connected to the first computer system via a network such as the Internet. In the latter example, the second computer system may provide program instructions to the first computer for execution. The term "memory medium" may include two or more memory media, which may reside in different locations in different computer systems connected, for example, via a network. The memory medium may store program instructions (e.g., embodied as a computer program) that may be executed by one or more processors.

[0031] Carrier medium—storage media as described above, as well as physical transmission media such as a bus, network, and / or other physical transmission media that convey signals such as electrical, electromagnetic, or digital signals.

[0032] Programmable hardware element - includes various hardware devices that include multiple programmable function blocks connected via programmable interconnects. Examples include FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays), PLDs (programmable logic devices), FPOAs (field programmable object arrays), and CPLDs (complex PLDs). Programmable function blocks can range from fine-grained (combinational logic or lookup tables) to coarse-grained (arithmetic logic units or processor cores). Programmable hardware elements may also be referred to as "configurable logic units."

[0033] Concurrency - refers to parallel execution or implementation, where tasks, processes, or programs are executed in an at least partially overlapping manner. For example, concurrency can be achieved using "strong" or strict parallelism, where tasks are executed (at least partially) in parallel on respective computing elements, or using "weak parallelism", where tasks are executed in an interleaved manner (e.g., by time multiplexing of execution threads).

[0034] Configured to—Various components may be described as being “configured to” perform one or more tasks. In such contexts, “configured to” is a broad statement that generally means “having a structure” that performs one or more tasks during operation. Thus, a component may be configured to perform a task even when the component is not currently performing the task (e.g., a collection of electrical conductors may be configured to electrically connect a module to another module even when the two modules are not connected). In some contexts, “configured to” may be a broad statement that generally means “having a circuit” that performs one or more tasks during operation. Thus, a component may be configured to perform a task even when the component is not currently turned on. Typically, circuits that form a structure corresponding to “configured to” may include hardware circuits.

[0035] Figure 1 An example architecture of a wireless communication system 100 according to embodiments disclosed herein is illustrated. The description provided below is for an example wireless communication system 100 operating in conjunction with the LTE system standard and / or the 5G or NR system standard provided in the 3GPP technical specifications.

[0036] like Figure 1 As shown, wireless communication system 100 includes UE 102 and UE 104 (although any number of UEs may be used). In this example, UE 102 and UE 104 are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touch screen mobile computing devices capable of connecting to one or more cellular networks), but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device configured for wireless communication.

[0037] UE 102 and UE 104 may be configured to be communicatively coupled to RAN 106. In an embodiment, RAN 106 may be NG-RAN, E-UTRAN, etc. UE 102 and UE 104 utilize connections (or channels) (shown as connection 108 and connection 110, respectively) with RAN 106, where each connection (or channel) includes a physical communication interface. RAN 106 may include one or more base stations, such as base station 112 and base station 114, to implement connection 108 and connection 110.

[0038] In this example, connection 108 and connection 110 are the air interfaces that enable such communicative coupling and may conform to the RAT used by RAN 106 , such as, for example, LTE and / or NR.

[0039] In some embodiments, UE 102 and UE 104 may also directly exchange communication data via side link interface 116. UE 104 is shown as being configured to access an access point (shown as AP 118) via connection 120. By way of example, connection 120 may include a local wireless connection, such as a connection conforming to any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein AP 118 may include In this example, AP 118 may be connected to another network (eg, the Internet) without going through CN 124.

[0040] In an embodiment, UE 102 and UE 104 may be configured to communicate with each other or with base station 112 and / or base station 114 over a multi-carrier communication channel using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals according to various communication techniques, such as but not limited to orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communication) or single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communication), although the scope of the embodiment is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signal may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0041] In some embodiments, all or part of base station 112 or base station 114 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network. In addition, or in other embodiments, base station 112 or base station 114 may be configured to communicate with each other via interface 122. In an embodiment where wireless communication system 100 is an LTE system (e.g., when CN 124 is EPC), interface 122 may be an X2 interface. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more base stations (e.g., two or more eNBs, etc.) connected to EPC and / or between two eNBs connected to EPC. In an embodiment where wireless communication system 100 is an NR system (e.g., when CN 124 is 5GC), interface 122 may be an Xn interface. The Xn interface is defined between two or more base stations (e.g., two or more gNBs, etc.) connected to 5GC, between base station 112 (e.g., gNB) and eNB connected to 5GC, and / or between two eNBs connected to 5GC (e.g., CN 124).

[0042] The RAN 106 is shown as being communicatively coupled to the CN 124. The CN 124 may include one or more network elements 126 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., UE 102 and users of UE 104) connected to the CN 124 via the RAN 106. The components of the CN 124 may be implemented in one physical device or separate physical devices including components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium).

[0043] In an embodiment, CN 124 may be an EPC, and RAN 106 may be connected to CN 124 via an S1 interface 128. In an embodiment, S1 interface 128 may be divided into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface that carries service data between base station 112 or base station 114 and a serving gateway (S-GW); and an S1-MME interface that is a signaling interface between base station 112 or base station 114 and a mobility management entity (MME).

[0044] In an embodiment, CN 124 may be a 5GC, and RAN 106 may be connected to CN 124 via an NG interface 128. In an embodiment, NG interface 128 may be divided into two parts: an NG user plane (NG-U) interface that carries service data between base station 112 or base station 114 and a user plane function (UPF); and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface that is a signaling interface between base station 112 or base station 114 and an access and mobility management function (AMF).

[0045] Generally speaking, application server 130 may be an element that provides applications (e.g., packet-switched data services) that use Internet Protocol (IP) bearer resources with CN 124. Application server 130 may also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., VoIP sessions, group communication sessions, etc.) for UE 102 and UE 104 via CN 124. Application server 130 may communicate with CN 124 via IP communication interface 132.

[0046] Figure 2 A system 200 for performing signaling 234 between a wireless device 202 and a network device 218 according to an embodiment disclosed herein is illustrated. The system 200 may be part of a wireless communication system as described herein. The wireless device 202 may be, for example, a UE of a wireless communication system. The network device 218 may be, for example, a base station (e.g., an eNB or a gNB) of a wireless communication system.

[0047] The wireless device 202 may include one or more processors 204. The processor 204 may execute instructions to perform various operations of the wireless device 202, as described herein. The processor 204 may include one or more baseband processors implemented using, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a controller, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) device, another hardware device, a firmware device, or any combination thereof configured to perform the operations described herein.

[0048] The wireless device 202 may include a memory 206. The memory 206 may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions 208 (which may include, for example, instructions executed by the processor 204). The instructions 208 may also be referred to as program code or a computer program. The memory 206 may also store data used by the processor 204 and results calculated by the processor.

[0049] The wireless device 202 may include one or more transceivers 210, which may include radio frequency (RF) transmitter and / or receiver circuitry that uses an antenna 212 of the wireless device 202 to facilitate signaling (e.g., signaling 234) to and / or from the wireless device 202 and other devices (e.g., network device 218) according to a corresponding RAT.

[0050] The wireless device 202 may include one or more antennas 212 (e.g., one, two, four, or more). For embodiments with multiple antennas 212, the wireless device 202 may utilize the spatial diversity of such multiple antennas 212 to transmit and / or receive multiple different data streams on the same time-frequency resource. This behavior may be referred to as, for example, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) behavior (referring to multiple antennas used at each of the transmitting device and the receiving device to implement this aspect). MIMO transmission by the wireless device 202 may be implemented based on precoding (or digital beamforming) applied at the wireless device 202, which multiplexes the data streams across the antennas 212 based on known or assumed channel characteristics, so that each data stream is received at an appropriate signal strength relative to the other streams and at a desired location in the spatial domain (e.g., the location of the receiver associated with the data stream). Certain embodiments may use a single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO) approach (where the data streams are all directed to a single receiver) and / or a multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) approach (where separate data streams may be directed to separate (different) receivers in different locations in the spatial domain).

[0051] In certain embodiments with multiple antennas, the wireless device 202 may implement analog beamforming techniques whereby the phases of signals transmitted by the antennas 212 are relatively adjusted so that the (joint) transmissions of the antennas 212 can be directed (this is sometimes referred to as beam steering).

[0052] The wireless device 202 may include one or more interfaces 214. The interfaces 214 may be used to provide input to or output from the wireless device 202. For example, the wireless device 202 (UE) may include an interface 214, such as a microphone, a speaker, a touch screen, buttons, etc., to allow a user of the UE to provide input and / or output to the UE. Other interfaces of such a UE may consist of transmitters, receivers, and other circuits (e.g., in addition to the transceiver 210 / antenna 212 described above) that allow communication between the UE and other devices, and may be based on known protocols (e.g., etc.) to perform the operation.

[0053] The wireless device 202 may be used in various aspects of the present disclosure, in particular to obtain a gap configuration, in particular including gap priority information, and / or to perform operations according to the gap configuration, in particular based on the gap priority information. Such operations / functions may be implemented via hardware, software, or a combination thereof. For example, such operations / functions may be performed by specific components incorporated into the wireless device (e.g., a processor, circuitry that may be integrated into the processor 204 and / or the transceiver 210), and / or may be performed by software (such as instructions 208 stored in the memory 206 and executed by the processor 204). Specifically, such operations / functions may be implemented by a combination of software components (e.g., executed by a DSP or a general purpose processor) and hardware components (e.g., logic gates and circuits) within the processor 204 or the transceiver 210. Some implementations of such operations / functions will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0054] The network device 218 may include one or more processors 220. The processor 220 may execute instructions to perform various operations of the network device 218, as described herein. The processor 204 may include one or more baseband processors implemented using, for example, a CPU, a DSP, an ASIC, a controller, an FPGA device, another hardware device, a firmware device, or any combination thereof configured to perform the operations described herein.

[0055] The network device 218 may include a memory 222. The memory 222 may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions 224 (which may include, for example, instructions executed by the processor 220). The instructions 224 may also be referred to as program code or a computer program. The memory 222 may also store data used by the processor 220 and results calculated by the processor.

[0056] The network device 218 may include one or more transceivers 226, which may include RF transmitter and / or receiver circuitry that uses an antenna 228 of the network device 218 to facilitate signaling (e.g., signaling 234) to and / or from the network device 218 and other devices (e.g., wireless device 202) according to a corresponding RAT.

[0057] The network device 218 may include one or more antennas 228 (eg, one, two, four, or more). In embodiments with multiple antennas 228, the network device 218 may perform MIMO, digital beamforming, analog beamforming, beamsteering, etc. as described.

[0058] The network device 218 may include one or more interfaces 230. The interfaces 230 may be used to provide input to or output from the network device 218. For example, the network device 218 (base station) may include an interface 230 consisting of a transmitter, a receiver, and other circuits (e.g., in addition to the transceiver 226 / antenna 228 already described) that enables the base station to communicate with other equipment in the core network and / or enables the base station to communicate with external networks, computers, databases, etc., for the purpose of performing operations, management, and maintenance of the base station or other equipment operably connected to the base station.

[0059] The network device 218 may be used for various aspects of the present disclosure, in particular to obtain or configure an appropriate gap configuration, in particular including gap priority information, and / or to provide the gap configuration to the wireless device so that the wireless device can perform operations according to the gap configuration, in particular based on the gap priority information. Such operations / functions may be implemented via hardware, software, or a combination thereof. For example, such operations / functions may be performed by specific components incorporated into the wireless device (e.g., a processor, circuitry that may be integrated into the processor 220 and / or the transceiver 226), and / or may be performed by software (such as instructions 224 stored in the memory 222 and executed by the processor 220). Specifically, such operations / functions may be implemented by a combination of software components (e.g., executed by a DSP or a general purpose processor) and hardware components (e.g., logic gates and circuits) within the processor 220 or the transceiver 226. Some embodiments of such operations / functions will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0060] Wireless communication technologies are constantly evolving to increase coverage, better serve a variety of needs and use cases, and for a variety of other reasons.

[0061] New cellular communication technologies are continually being developed to increase coverage, better meet various needs and use cases, and for various other reasons. One technology currently under development may include enhancing measurement operations through measurement gaps. As part of such development, it would be useful to provide improved measurement gap configurations and related operations.

[0062] Specifically, in wireless communication, when it is necessary to perform measurement operations for specific signals / parameters / indicators that may be, for example, performance-related (especially when such measurement operations should be performed at different frequency points) to handle possible inter-frequency measurements, measurement gaps are used. The concept of measurement gaps is to create small gaps during which neither transmission nor reception occurs, so that the wireless device can perform corresponding measurement operations in the measurement gaps and then switch back.

[0063] The measurement gap operation may include any type of measurement operation that can be performed through a measurement gap or any other type of gap / interruption. For example, the measurement operation may be performed during any appropriate type of wireless communication operation, including cell switching and / or access, carrier aggregation including at least carrier switching and management, load aggregation, etc., during any appropriate period / phase during wireless communication (including initialization, state transition, etc.), and may be used to measure any desired signal / parameter / indicator that may be, for example, performance-related, including, for example, SSB, PRS, etc.

[0064] In the present disclosure, the measurement operation may be performed based on a corresponding measurement gap configuration in any appropriate operating frequency segment, for example, based on a measurement gap pattern corresponding to the operating frequency segment. According to some embodiments, the operating frequency segment may be set according to an operating frequency level of wireless communication, and in particular, the level may be selected from a group including a UE level, a frequency range level, a band combination level, a band level, a component carrier (CC) level, and a bandwidth part (BWP) level.

[0065] The wireless device may be configured with multiple measurement gaps, which may include, for example, periodic gaps and / or aperiodic gaps. In some examples, the wireless device may be configured with two concurrent gaps. In some other examples, for the case of multi-user universal identity module (MUSIM) wireless communications, the wireless device may be configured with no more than three periodic MUSIM gap patterns and / or one aperiodic MUSIM gap pattern for the MUSIM. Note that the number of gaps described above is exemplary only and is not so limited.

[0066] When multiple gaps are configured, some gap opportunities from different gap patterns may overlap with each other in the time domain, and such gap overlap may cause operation conflicts to some extent.

[0067] However, it has not been specified how to handle conflicts when the UE is configured with MUSIM gaps. Therefore, it is still desirable to improve the configuration of MUSIM gaps to enhance operation in MUSIM situations.

[0068] In addition, in the concurrent gap design, the priority information may be predefined or set, such as during initialization or a specific time, and may remain unchanged. However, as wireless communication proceeds, the priority of the gap may not match the state or condition related to the operation to be performed at the gap, so that the desired operation that may be more critical cannot be performed in time. For example, in a case where the operation corresponding to the gap is more urgently required to be performed but such a gap still has a low priority, when a conflict occurs between two measurement gap opportunities, the operation corresponding to such an urgent gap cannot be performed in time. Therefore, it may be beneficial to introduce an improved solution to achieve dynamic update of the gap priority.

[0069] In addition, priority information may be set by a network device and provided to a wireless device, such as via RRC reconfiguration. However, the RRC procedure will take a considerable time (up to hundreds of milliseconds), and the priority of the measurement gap cannot be updated in time, so that the associated operation may be inefficient. In particular, conflicts cannot be handled efficiently. Therefore, it may be beneficial to introduce some dynamic solutions to achieve timely update of the gap priority.

[0070] In the following, some embodiments will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Wherein, the description may be mainly based on a specific gap type, namely, a measurement gap, however, the description and thus the concepts of the present disclosure may be equivalent to any other suitable gap type.

[0071] Figure 3 and Figure 4 is a flow chart of a method at a wireless device, and Figures 5 and 6 The example can be combined if necessary Figure 3 and Figure 4 However, it should be noted that Figures 5 and 6 The exemplary details illustrated in and described with respect to these figures are not intended to limit the disclosure as a whole: many variations and alternatives to the details provided below are possible and should be considered within the scope of the disclosure.

[0072] Figure 3 A flowchart illustrating an example method on the wireless device side according to at least some embodiments is illustrated. Figure 3Aspects of the method may be implemented by a wireless device (such as UE 106 illustrated in the various figures herein), and / or more generally, may be implemented in combination with any of the computer circuits, systems, devices, elements or components, etc. shown in the above figures as needed. For example, the processor (and / or other hardware) of such a device may be configured to cause the device to perform any combination of the illustrated method elements and / or other method elements. In various embodiments, some of the elements of the illustrated method may be performed simultaneously in an order different from the order shown, may be replaced by other method elements, or may be omitted. Additional elements may also be performed as needed.

[0073] As shown in the figure, Figure 3 The method can be operated as follows.

[0074] At step 302, the wireless device obtains a gap configuration that schedules operation of the wireless device according to a gap pattern, wherein the gap configuration includes priority information regarding a priority of each of a plurality of gaps.

[0075] According to some embodiments, the gap configuration may include information related to the gap pattern. In some embodiments, the gap pattern may indicate characteristics of a gap type that can be used to perform a specific operation. Specifically, the gap pattern may have corresponding gap characteristics, including at least one of a gap identifier, duration and periodicity of the gap, the start and end of the gap, the frequency segment in which the gap is located, operations or objects that conform to the gap pattern, etc. In general, "gap configuration" and "gap pattern" may be equivalent to a certain extent, and may be used interchangeably for a single gap in particular. Specifically, when there are multiple gaps, each gap may have a corresponding gap pattern, which may also be referred to as a gap configuration of the gap. On the other hand, all gap patterns may constitute an entire gap pattern, which may correspond to an entire gap configuration of the wireless device.

[0076] According to some embodiments, a priority may be set for a gap. In other words, the priority of a gap may be referred to as the priority of a gap pattern corresponding to the gap, which may actually indicate a priority for executing an operation to be performed at the gap when the gap conflicts with other gaps. In an embodiment, each gap or gap pattern may have its corresponding priority. In this context, "gap priority" may be used interchangeably with "gap pattern priority". For example, in the event of a conflict between two gap opportunities, the operation associated with the gap having a higher priority will be executed, and the operations of the other gaps will not be executed at the same time.

[0077] According to some embodiments, "gap-related operations" or "gap-specific operations" may refer to operations intended to be performed in the timing of the gap, such as in the duration and period of the gap. Therefore, in a sense, "gap" and "gap timing" are equivalent to a certain extent and can be used interchangeably.

[0078] In some embodiments, the priority can be given by any appropriate presentation such as a positive value, where the greater the value, the higher the priority. Of course, any other appropriate presentation or expression can be used to indicate the priority, as known in the art, and will not be described in detail herein.

[0079] In some embodiments, information about gap priorities may be associated with a gap pattern or gap configuration, such as being incorporated into a gap pattern of a gap configuration of a gap, for example constituting an item in a gap pattern or gap configuration, or may be outside of a gap pattern or gap configuration and associated therewith in any appropriate manner.

[0080] Taking the R17 case as an example, an exemplary gap configuration may be as follows, such as the gap configuration in R17.

[0081]

[0082] It should be noted that the above example may refer to a gap configuration of a single gap, which may be referred to as a gap mode of the gap, and for such a single gap, its priority item / information is indicated as "gapPriority-r17", and the corresponding content / setting / attribute of the priority information is set / indicated in the corresponding field "GapPriority-r17". Of course, the gap configuration may also include other information / attributes related to the gap, such as the gap ID (measGapId-r17) of the gap, the gap type (gapType-r17), time and / or frequency attributes, such as duration, period, frequency segment, etc., which other information / attributes may be known in the art and will not be described in detail herein.

[0083] Therefore, when there are multiple gaps, there may be multiple gap configurations accordingly, that is, the number of priority configurations may be the same as the number of multiple gaps, each gap has a corresponding gap configuration, such as discussed above, and the corresponding gap configurations may have similar or different forms / items. For example, each gap configuration may also include a priority item, and alternatively, the configurations of some gaps may have priority items, while the configurations of other gaps may not have priority items.

[0084] In some embodiments, when there are multiple gaps and the entire gap configuration consisting of the corresponding gap pattern can be set, the priority of the corresponding gap can be included in the entire gap configuration in any appropriate manner (such as a list, table, mapping, etc.) indicating the gap ID and its corresponding priority, rather than being incorporated into the gap pattern or configuration of each gap. In some embodiments, the gap priority can be included in information other than the gap pattern or gap configuration, in particular the entire gap configuration, and the association between the priority and the gap pattern can be sent via other signaling or information at any appropriate time.

[0085] The above exemplary gap configurations specifically define the characteristics of the gaps, and when there are multiple gaps, the gap configurations may specifically define the characteristics of the respective gaps.Of course, the gap configurations of the multiple gaps may be in any other suitable form / format.

[0086] For example, the gap configuration may include a gap pattern index / indicator indicating the gap pattern, and based on the gap pattern index / indicator, the gap characteristics of the gap pattern may be directly derived. In this case, the gap configuration may indicate an association / mapping between the measurement gap pattern index / indicator and the operating frequency segment index / indicator. And when receiving the gap pattern index / indicator, the wireless device may obtain the gap characteristics of the gap pattern locally or from other appropriate parties.

[0087] According to the present disclosure, the wireless device may obtain the gap configuration in various ways. According to some embodiments, the gap configuration itself may be obtained from any appropriate party such as a network-side device, a control device in a wireless communication system, a TRP, etc. According to some embodiments, the gap configuration may be derived by the wireless device itself, for example, the wireless device may obtain any appropriate information indicating the gap configuration, such as an index of the gap configuration, other information that can be used to derive the configuration, etc., and the wireless device may derive the configuration based on the information, such as by looking up a table.

[0088] At step 304, the wireless device performs operations based on the gap configuration, wherein the operations are performed based on the gap priority indicated in the gap configuration.

[0089] Specifically, the wireless device may perform an operation based on the gap configuration, which may mean that the operation may be performed based on the gap pattern or gap characteristics indicated in the gap configuration. For a gap, the corresponding gap pattern may mean a characteristic of the gap, such as a duration, a period, a frequency attribute, etc. For example, for a gap, a corresponding operation may be performed according to the period of the gap and in particular in the duration of the opportunity of the gap.

[0090] According to some embodiments, the operation for the gap may include an operation depending on the type or characteristics of the gap. Specifically, depending on the type of the gap, the operations performed in the gap may be different from each other. For example, for the measurement gap, the measurement operation will be predetermined, such as the measurement object will be predetermined, and this measurement operation will be performed according to the measurement gap mode. In addition to the measurement gap, other types of gaps may include preconfigured measurement gaps (Pre-MG), network controlled small gaps (NCSG), non-terrestrial network gaps (NTN gaps), positioning gaps (PosGap), and for each type of gap, the corresponding operation may be predefined and performed in the gap opportunity.

[0091] According to some embodiments, when at least two of the plurality of gaps conflict, the wireless device may perform operations based on the gap configuration / pattern of the gap with the highest priority among the at least two gaps. For example, in the event of a conflict between two measurement gap opportunities, the UE should perform measurements in the opportunity of the measurement gap with the higher priority, and the opportunity of the measurement gap with the lower priority should be discarded.

[0092] According to some embodiments, the priority of the gap can be set / defined in any suitable manner. In some embodiments, the priority value of the gap can be initialized or predetermined at the beginning of the wireless communication, such as being set to a predetermined value (such as zero) or an empirical value (such as the weight or importance of the operation corresponding to the gap), and / or the priority value of the gap can remain unchanged or updated during the communication.

[0093] According to some embodiments, the priority of a gap may be updated based on a specific state or event related to the gap (in particular, a specific state or event related to an operation to be performed for the gap). Specifically, the state or event may involve triggering an operation to be performed for the gap, and may reflect the possibility that the operation is intended to be triggered to a certain extent. Therefore, when a state or event indicates that an operation is more likely to be performed (such as determining that a condition of the state or event is satisfied), the priority of the gap should be higher, so that when a gap conflict occurs, the operation for the gap will be prioritized, and when the state or event indicates that the operation is less likely to be performed, the priority of the gap should remain unchanged or be lower, so that when a gap conflict occurs, the operation for the gap can be relatively postponed. And similarly, events related to gaps may be equivalent to events related to gap patterns, and may be used interchangeably.

[0094] In some embodiments, information about gap-related events may be associated with a gap pattern or gap configuration, such as, incorporated into a gap pattern of a gap configuration of a gap, for example, constituting items in a gap pattern or gap configuration, or may be outside of a gap pattern or gap configuration and associated therewith in any appropriate manner, which may be similar to the case of the priority information described above and is therefore not described herein.

[0095] It should be noted that a specific state or event of the gap may be appropriately set, such as setting in consideration of the operational characteristics of the gap, setting in the initialization of the system, setting empirically, etc. For example, the UE may be configured with a MUSIM gap for RRM measurement on NW B, and the state or event related to such a gap may include the UE location, the UE mobility state, etc., and when it is checked that the UE is fairly stationary and in the center of the cell, the first gap for RRM measurement may be considered as a low priority because the UE is unlikely to trigger a handover. However, when the UE is moving to the edge of the cell, the high priority of the first gap needs to be considered.

[0096] According to some embodiments, for priority update, a specific state or event may be checked or detected to determine whether the inspection or detection result satisfies a certain specific condition, and when the condition is met, the priority may be updated accordingly, for example, increased, unchanged, or decreased. In an example, the inspection or detection result may be compared with a specific threshold, and when the inspection or detection result exceeds the threshold (which may mean a higher probability of triggering an operation), the priority may be set to a higher priority, such as set to a higher value corresponding to the threshold, or increased from a previous value, otherwise, the priority may remain unchanged or be set to a lower priority, such as set to a lower value corresponding to the threshold, or decreased from a previous value.

[0097] According to some embodiments, the priority of a gap may be defined in a predetermined range and may be updated stepwise. Specifically, for the priority of a gap, a specific range between a minimum value and a maximum value (including the minimum value and the maximum value) may be predefined, wherein a number of values ​​are interpolated between the minimum value and the maximum value at a specific interval, and the interval may correspond to a step size, so that during the priority update, the priority may be increased or decreased by the step size. For example, the gap priority may be between 0-15 and may be updated by increasing or decreasing by 1 each time.

[0098] In some embodiments, the above thresholds for updating the priority can be set in any suitable manner. In an example, there may be a single threshold for an event. In another example, there may be at least two thresholds for an event, and the priority may be set accordingly relative to each threshold, particularly based on a comparison with a corresponding threshold. For example, for an event, N thresholds from the lowest to the highest may be set for the event, N being an integer greater than 1, and thus (N+1) sub-priorities may be set for the event, wherein the corresponding priority may be set when it is below the lowest threshold, interposed between any two adjacent thresholds, or above the highest threshold.

[0099] According to some embodiments, the priority of the gap may be set taking into account a specific event corresponding to the gap. Specifically, when at least one event may correspond to a gap, the gap priority may be set or updated based on the state or condition of each event in the at least one event. In some embodiments, when the gap has one corresponding event, the gap priority may also be updated based on the inspection or detection of the event. In some other embodiments, when the gap has at least two corresponding events, for each event, the corresponding priority value (which may be referred to as the priority of the event, or sub-priority) may be updated based on the inspection or detection of the event, and then the gap priority may be obtained by combining the updated priorities of all events, in particular the statistical values ​​of the sub-priorities of the corresponding events (such as the sum of the sub-priorities of the corresponding events). It should be noted that the sub-priority update of the event may be performed in any appropriate manner, such as the manner discussed above. Specifically, the threshold for the sub-priority update of the event may be a single threshold or at least two thresholds, and thus the sub-priority of the event may be updated in any appropriate manner, such as the manner discussed above. For example, there may be at least one event for a gap, such as N events, and for each event, there may be M sub-priorities available, so the priority of the gap may be set or defined from N×M priorities, each priority corresponding to the sum of the corresponding sub-priorities of each event, between a minimum value (corresponding to the sum of the minimum sub-priorities of each event) and a maximum value (corresponding to the sum of the maximum sub-priorities of each event).

[0100] According to some embodiments, priority updates may be performed in any suitable manner. Specifically, priority updates may be performed periodically or upon request, and / or checks or detections of states or events may be performed periodically or upon request. In some embodiments, the period of priority updates may be the same or different from the period of gaps. And when their periods are the same, the priority may be updated first, and then for at least two gaps that conflict, the gap with the highest priority may be applied. And when their periods are different, the gap priority may be updated and the priority may be temporarily stored and used for the gap. In some other embodiments, checks or detections of states or events may be performed in a period that may be the same as the period of priority updates and / or gaps, or may be different from each of the priority updates and / or gaps. For example, checks or detections of states or events may be performed, and then the results of the checks or detections may be temporarily stored, and then the results of the checks or detections may be utilized in priority updates, and then the updated priorities may be used for gap modes, particularly for operations to be performed in the timing of gaps.

[0101] According to some embodiments, the priority update may be performed by any appropriate entity in the system. In some embodiments, the wireless device may dynamically perform a priority update of a gap in a plurality of gaps based on a detection result of a specific event corresponding to the gap, so that in operation, the priority may be updated in a timely manner and the operation may be performed more efficiently. Specifically, in some embodiments, the wireless device may detect a specific state or event corresponding to a gap in a plurality of gaps, and dynamically update the priority of the gap when a condition in the specific event is detected to be met. On the other hand, when it is detected that the condition in the specific event is not met, the priority of the gap is set to a specific priority value or the priority of the gap is not changed, wherein the specific priority value is a default priority value or a previous priority value. Figure 5 The updating of the gap priority such as is done in particular on the wireless side is exemplarily illustrated.

[0102] According to some embodiments, optionally, the updated gap priority as obtained in any suitable manner such as discussed above may be provided by the wireless device to any other suitable entity in the system, in particular a network device in the system.

[0103] Thus, according to at least some embodiments, a wireless device may use Figure 3 Method to perform improved gap priority configuration and / or updating.

[0104] Figure 4 A flow chart illustrating an example method on the network device side according to at least some embodiments is illustrated. Figure 4 Aspects of the method may be implemented by a network-side device such as a base station (such as BS102 illustrated in the various figures herein), and / or more generally, may be implemented in combination with any of the computer circuits, systems, devices, elements or components, etc. shown in the above figures as needed. For example, a processor (and / or other hardware) of such a device may be configured to cause the device to perform any combination of the illustrated method elements and / or other method elements. In various embodiments, some of the elements of the method shown may be performed simultaneously in an order different from the order shown, may be replaced by other method elements, or may be omitted. Additional elements may also be performed as needed.

[0105] As shown in the figure, Figure 4 The method can be operated as follows.

[0106] At step 402, the network device obtains a gap configuration for scheduling operation of a wireless device according to a gap pattern, wherein the gap configuration includes priority information regarding a priority of each of a plurality of gaps.

[0107] According to some embodiments, the gap configuration may be generated / established by any suitable device in the wireless communication system. In an embodiment, the gap configuration may be generated / established by the network device itself, and in another embodiment, the gap configuration may be generated / established by any suitable device in the system and then provided to the network device periodically or upon request from the network device.

[0108] According to some embodiments, the gap configuration may be in any suitable form or format, and in particular, when multiple gaps may be present, the gap configuration may include information related to each gap, including basic gap information and its priority information, as described above.

[0109] According to some embodiments, a network device may configure events and corresponding gap priorities for multiple gaps in a gap configuration. In some embodiments, such a gap configuration may be in any appropriate form, such as a list, table, etc., and wherein, for each gap, an item indicating its associated items and corresponding priorities (including but not limited to the priority corresponding to each event or the priority corresponding to the gap) may be combined in the gap configuration, as described above. For example, when there are two or more events associated with a gap, the priority of such a gap may include sub-priorities for each event, so that the priority of such a gap may be calculated from these sub-priorities, as discussed above. In another example, only the priority of such a gap may be combined into the gap configuration and may be calculated, as discussed above. In yet another example, for a gap, both the priority of the associated event and the priority of the gap may be combined into the gap configuration.

[0110] According to some embodiments, the priority update may be performed on the network device side. For example, the network device may obtain a detection result of a specific event corresponding to a gap, such as from a wireless device or other appropriate entity, and then dynamically perform a priority update of a gap in a plurality of gaps based on the detection result, and then provide the updated priority to the wireless device. The manner of the priority update may be performed as discussed above, and therefore will not be described herein. Figure 6 The updating of gap priorities such as, in particular, network-side devices is exemplarily illustrated.

[0111] At step 404, the network-side device may provide gap configuration information to the wireless device, so that the wireless device may perform operations based on the gap configuration information.

[0112] In some embodiments, the network device may obtain, in particular generate, a gap configuration including an initial gap priority, and then provide the gap configuration to the wireless device. In some embodiments, when the gap priority can be updated, the network device may obtain the updated gap priority. In some embodiments, the updated gap priority may be obtained on the wireless device side and then provided to the network device. On the one hand, the wireless device may perform an operation corresponding to the gap according to the gap configuration in the timing of the gap, and on the other hand, the wireless device may further update the gap priority in the gap configuration information, as described above. In some embodiments, the gap priority may be updated on the network device side.

[0113] Thus, at least according to some embodiments, Figure 4 The method can be used by network-side devices such as base stations to schedule improved gap configuration and related operations.

[0114] Hereinafter, some exemplary embodiments according to the present disclosure will be described, wherein the exemplary embodiments relate to gap configuration and related operations, including such as gap priority update. It should be noted that the exemplary embodiments are mainly described based on measurement gaps, but this description is not restrictive, and the concepts of the present disclosure can be equally applied to other types of gaps.

[0115] First embodiment

[0116] Hereinafter, a first embodiment according to the present disclosure will be described, and in this embodiment, an improved gap configuration is provided, especially for the MUSIM case. Specifically, priority information is set, especially newly incorporated into the gap configuration, to implement the MUSIM gap configuration.

[0117] For example, the improved MUSIM gap configuration may be as follows:

[0118]

[0119] Among them, MUSIM-Gap-r18 is an exemplary gap configuration for the MUSIM case, wherein priority information (ie, musim-GapPriority-r18) is newly incorporated into the gap configuration according to the present disclosure.

[0120] According to some embodiments, the priority information musim-GapPriority-r18 may be in any suitable format or form. In an example, it may have the same format or form as the configuration parameter GapPriority-r17 that has been specified or set in R17. Specifically, when there may be at least two gaps available, the parameter GapPriority-r17 may include parameters for each gap, and the parameters for each gap may include multiple parameters, such as a gap ID, a gap priority level, etc.

[0121] It should be noted that, except for the newly combined priority information musim-GapPriority-r18, other information included in the MUSIM gap configuration may be the same as or similar to the information in the conventional gap configuration, such as musim-Gap-R18 may be MUSIM-Gap-r17 as in R17, which may include any appropriate information, for example, musim-GapIN-r17 indicating a gap ID, musim-Gapinfo-r17 indicating or including gap information as shown in Table 1 above.

[0122] In an example, MUSIM-Gap-r18 may be a configuration corresponding to a gap, and thus when there may be at least two gaps, there may be at least two corresponding MUSIM-Gap-r18 that may together constitute an entire gap configuration of the MUSIM gap.

[0123] Therefore, through this new configuration related to the priority for the MUSIM case, the priority of each MUSIM slot in two or more MUSIM slots can be appropriately configured, so that in communication, especially when the slots conflict, the slot priority can be considered to perform operations such as those related to the slots. More specifically, this slot configuration can include priority information related to each MUSIM slot in at least two MUSIM slots for the MUSIM case, so that in the event of a conflict between at least two MUSIM slot opportunities, the wireless device can perform operations in the opportunity of the slot with the highest priority. Therefore, the MUSIM slot configuration and related operations can be improved.

[0124] Hereinafter, a second embodiment according to the present disclosure will be described. In such an embodiment, the priority of each gap can be dynamically updated. Although in this embodiment, the priority update is described by taking the MUSIM gap as an example, this update can be equally applied to any type of gap.

[0125] Specifically, the updating of the gap priority may be performed taking into account any appropriate factors (particularly at least one specific state or event related to the gap, as discussed above, such as at least one specific event associated with the operation to be performed for the gap). In an example, the updating of the gap priority may be based on event detection, which may be referred to as triggering the updating of the gap priority by an event. More specifically, a specific event is detected, and it is determined that the priority of the gap corresponding to the event will be updated based on the event detection result, such as an increase or decrease. Specifically, when the detection result indicates that the operation is more likely to be performed, the priority may be increased, and when the detection result indicates that the operation is less likely to be performed, the priority may be decreased or unchanged, as described above.

[0126] The event detection result may be in any suitable form. In one example, the detection result may be a direct detection result itself, such as a performance parameter or object obtained by detecting an event related to the gap, and compared with a corresponding threshold. Specifically, when the event detection result exceeds the threshold, it may be determined that the corresponding gap priority should be changed. And when the detected event does not exceed the threshold, the corresponding gap priority will not change, or will be changed to a predetermined value (such as a default value) or a previous value. In some other examples, the detection result may be an indirect result, in particular an indicator obtained by comparing the detected event object or parameter with a threshold. In particular, such a detection result may correspond to a comparison result between the detection result and a predefined threshold, for example, an indicator or information about whether the event result is greater than a threshold.

[0127] According to some embodiments, the event related to the gap may be various events. For example, the event may be at least one of the following:

[0128] Measurement configuration with measurement result thresholds

[0129] Qin and / or Qout thresholds in RLM and / or BFD

[0130] Low mobility assessment, such as that defined in TS 38.331

[0131] Cell edge assessment, such as that defined in TS 38.331

[0132] Note that the above exemplary events are merely exemplary, and more or fewer events related to triggering of operations on a gap are possible and may be detected or checked in any suitable manner (such as as discussed above) for updating the priority of the gap.

[0133] In the following, reference will be made to Figure 7 Describes the process of updating gap priorities based on event detection, Figure 7is a flow chart illustrating such a process.

[0134] First, information or configuration about the event may be obtained.

[0135] Specifically, events can be configured in any appropriate manner. Specifically, events can be configured during initialization of the system or can be confirmed periodically or upon request during communication. And the configured events can be configured by any appropriate setting in the system, in particular by a network device (such as a base station) or by a wireless device (such as a UE) or even by any other relevant device in the system.

[0136] Specifically, the event may be combined by the network side device into the relevant configuration information associated or corresponding to the gap priority, and then provided to the wireless device. For example, the NW configures the event and the corresponding gap priority in MUSIM-GapConfig, and then sends MUSIM-GapConfig to the UE. The gap configuration may be as follows.

[0137]

[0138] As shown above, the item "musim-GapPriorityEvent" specifies or defines an event that can be associated with a gap and can be used for updating the gap priority, and its content or presentation can be shown in "GapPriorityEvent-R18" (which defines at least one event associated with a gap and specifications related to the corresponding event). In some embodiments, for an event, its corresponding specification can define some content related to the triggering of an operation for a gap, such as the need to detect or measure a parameter or object or feature index, the corresponding evaluation method or threshold, the condition of the event or related processing, so that in the process, such content can be used to judge the condition or state of the event.

[0139] For example, the event "MeasObjectNR" and its related specification "MeasObjectNR" are included, and the specification "MeasObjectNR" may include a measurement object and measurement parameters, such as the location of the UE, the distance between the UE and a reference. For the event "lowMobilityEvaluation", its corresponding specification "relaxedMeasurement-r16" may define the mobility of the UE as the detection object, and the relevant mobility threshold for evaluating whether the mobility is low. For the event "cellEdgeEvaluation", its corresponding specification "cellEdgeEvaluation-r16" may define the cell edge or the relative distance to the cell edge as the detection target, and the relevant threshold for evaluating whether it is close to the cell edge.

[0140] Events may then be checked / detected according to the event configuration as described above (eg, the event configuration provided in MUSIM-GapConfig as described above).

[0141] Specifically, according to the event configuration, for a gap, its associated event may be detected or measured. Specifically, for an event, the relevant parameter or object or characteristic index indicated in the event configuration as described above may be detected or measured. For example, for the event "LowMobilityEvalution", mobility will be detected or measured.

[0142] Then, it is determined whether the detection or measurement result satisfies a predetermined condition, and once the condition in the event is met, the priority of the associated gap can be dynamically updated. On the other hand, the priority of the associated gap can remain unchanged or be set to any appropriate value. For example, the information "musim-GapPriority-R18" can be processed accordingly according to the detection or measurement result of the event indicated in the information "musim-GapPriorityEvent".

[0143] For example, for the event "MeasObjectNR" that may involve NR handover, the relevant parameters or objects or characteristic indices that are intended to be detected may include what may reflect the possibility of handover, such as the location of the wireless device in the cell or the distance from the wireless device to the cell edge, etc., and then such detected parameters or indices may be used to determine whether the handover will be triggered. Specifically, the distance may be compared with a distance threshold, and if the distance is less than the distance threshold, this means that the wireless device is too close to the cell edge and is intended to perform a handover, and therefore the gap priority associated with the event will be increased. Otherwise, the gap priority may remain unchanged, or be set to another priority.

[0144] For example, an alternative MUSIM-GapConfig may be as follows.

[0145]

[0146] Among them, for the event indicated in the information "musim-GapPriorityEvent", the gap priority associated with the event can be updated based on the detection or measurement result of the event, and depending on whether the detection or measurement result of the event meets a specific condition, the gap priority can be set to a different value, such as indicated in "musim-GapPriorityEvent-r18" or "musim-GapPriorityDefault-r18". For example, when the condition in GapPriorityEvent is not met, the priority is equal to musim-GapPriorityDefault-r18, and when the condition in GapPriorityEvent is met, the priority is equal to musim-GapPriorityEvent-r18.

[0147] In another example, the thresholds for comparison may include at least one threshold, and for each threshold, a corresponding priority may be set. For example, for the distance to be measured for the above event "MeasObjectNR", there may be at least two thresholds, and the measured distance may be compared with each threshold to determine which threshold the distance is closest to and less than, and then the priority of the gap is set accordingly.

[0148] It should be noted that the above MUSIM-CapConfig is only an example, and such MUSIM-CapConfig may be in any other appropriate format, for example, may also include some other information, or the information therein (such as GapPriorityEvent) may include more or fewer elements. For example, GapPriorityEvent may only include one event depending on the 3GPP process, such as any of the events described above.

[0149] According to some embodiments of the present application, priority updates may be performed periodically or upon request. In one embodiment, event detection or measurement as described above may be performed periodically, and whenever event detection or measurement is performed, the gap priority will be updated based on the event detection or measurement result, such as when a condition in the event is met, the gap priority may change, such as increase or decrease, otherwise, the gap priority may remain unchanged, or be set to a specific value. It should be noted that the periodicity of the priority update may be the same as or different from the periodicity of the gap. And when their periodicities are different, after updating the gap priority, the updated priority may be temporarily stored and then the updated priority will be used in the following gap opportunity to improve the operation in the gap. And when their periodicities are the same, the gap priority may be updated first, and then the updated priority may be used in the current gap opportunity to improve the operation in the gap.

[0150] In an example, when there is at least one gap, there may be at least one priority update each corresponding to one gap, and the periodicity of the priority update may be the same as or different from the periodicity of the corresponding gap. In another example, even when there is at least one gap, one priority update process is common to all gaps.

[0151] It should be noted that the above-mentioned update of the gap priority can be performed by any appropriate object in the system. Specifically, the above-mentioned update of the gap priority can be updated by a network side device (such as a base station), and / or can be dynamically changed by a wireless device (such as a terminal side device, such as a UE) and / or other devices in the system.

[0152] According to some embodiments, an event may be detected by a wireless device, in particular a UE, and the detection result may be reported to a network side device so that the network side device may change the priority of each gap at an appropriate time. For example, the network layer device may perform such a priority change periodically or upon request (such as when receiving a detection result).

[0153] According to some embodiments, an event is detected by a wireless device, in particular a UE, and then the UE may change the gap priority based on the event detection result. More specifically, once the event detection result exceeds a threshold, the UE may change the gap priority. In another example, the UE may change the gap priority periodically (such as at a predetermined interval). In this case, if the time to change the gap priority has not yet arrived, the event detection result will be stored, and when the time is reached, the latest event detection result included in the stored detection results will be used to determine whether the gap priority will be changed.

[0154] Finally and optionally, the updated slot priority may be communicated in the system, and in particular, the entity updating the slot priority may inform other associated entities in the system of the updated priority through any suitable communication protocol or signaling.

[0155] It is noted that the above-described embodiments related to gap priority change according to the present disclosure are merely exemplary, and the concept of the present disclosure may be equally applied to other kinds of gaps.

[0156] For example, the above embodiments may be extended to cover other types of gaps, including but not limited to preconfigured measurement gaps (Pre-MG), network controlled small gaps (NCSG), non-terrestrial network gaps (NTN gaps), positioning gaps (PosGaps), etc. And for each type of gap, its corresponding gap configuration may be set and its gap priority may be updated, as discussed above, which will not be described in detail herein.

[0157] According to some embodiments, information indicating whether the update of the gap priority can be supported can be set and sent in the system. Specifically, such information can be set separately and independently for each type of gap or set jointly for all types of gaps. In an example, such information can be set at any appropriate stage in the communication (such as initialization, at cell switching / access, at state transition, start of measurement operation, etc.), and can be reported to the network device and / or the wireless device via any appropriate signaling (such as RRC signaling). In another example, such support information can be set by default, such as during initialization.

[0158] According to some embodiments, the support information and / or the gap configuration and / or the updated priority information may be transmitted between the network side device and the wireless device in various ways. In an example, such communication may be performed via RRC signaling, for example, the measurement gap pattern support information and / or the gap (MG) configuration may be transmitted via the RRC layer.

[0159] Embodiments contemplated herein include an apparatus including means for performing one or more elements of a method for configuring and / or updating gap priorities on a wireless device side. The apparatus may be, for example, an apparatus of a UE (such as wireless device 202 (UE), as described herein).

[0160] The embodiments contemplated herein include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media, which include instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of the method on the wireless device side according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The non-transitory computer-readable medium can be, for example, a memory of a UE (such as the memory 206 of the wireless device 202 (UE), as described herein).

[0161] Embodiments contemplated herein include an apparatus including logic, modules, or circuits for performing one or more elements of a method on a wireless device side according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The apparatus may be, for example, an apparatus of a UE (such as a wireless device 202 (UE), as described herein).

[0162] Embodiments contemplated herein include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media, the one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform one or more elements of a method on a wireless device side according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The apparatus may be, for example, an apparatus of a UE (such as a wireless device 202 (UE), as described herein).

[0163] The embodiments contemplated herein include signals as described in or related to one or more elements of a method on the wireless device side according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0164] The embodiments contemplated herein include a computer program or computer program product including instructions, wherein the program is executed by a processor to cause the processor to perform one or more elements of the method on the wireless device side according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The processor may be a processor of a UE (such as the processor 204 of the wireless device 202 (UE), as described herein). These instructions may be located, for example, in a processor and / or on a memory of the UE (such as the memory 206 of the wireless device 202 (UE), as described herein).

[0165] Embodiments contemplated herein include an apparatus including means for performing one or more elements of a method for configuring and / or updating gap priorities of a network device according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The apparatus may be, for example, an apparatus of a base station (such as network device 218 (base station), as described herein).

[0166] The embodiments contemplated herein include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media that include instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of a method of a network device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The non-transitory computer-readable medium may be, for example, a memory of a base station (such as the memory 222 of the network device 218 (base station), as described herein).

[0167] The embodiments contemplated herein include an apparatus including logic, modules or circuits for performing one or more elements of the method of the network device according to the embodiments of the present disclosure. The apparatus may be, for example, an apparatus of a base station (such as network device 218 (base station), as described herein).

[0168] Embodiments contemplated herein include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media, the one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform one or more elements of a method of a network device according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The apparatus may be, for example, an apparatus of a base station (such as network device 218 (base station), as described herein).

[0169] Embodiments contemplated herein include signals as described in or related to one or more elements of a method on the network device side according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0170] The embodiments contemplated herein include a computer program or computer program product including instructions, wherein the execution of the program by a processing element is to cause the processing element to perform one or more elements of a method of a network device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The processor may be a processor of a base station (such as processor 220 of network device 218 (base station), as described herein). These instructions may be located, for example, in a processor and / or on a memory of a UE (such as memory 222 of network device 218 (base station), as described herein).

[0171] In the following, further exemplary embodiments are provided.

[0172] A set of embodiments may include a wireless device comprising: at least one antenna; at least one radio component, the at least one radio component coupled to the at least one antenna; and a processor, the processor coupled to the at least one radio component; wherein the processor is configured to: obtain a gap configuration for scheduling operations of the wireless device according to a gap pattern, wherein the gap configuration includes priority information related to a priority of each of a plurality of gaps; and perform operations based on the gap patterns, wherein the operations are performed based on the priorities of the gap patterns.

[0173] According to some embodiments, the processor is further configured to: when at least two of the plurality of gaps conflict, perform an operation based on a gap pattern of a gap having a highest priority among the at least two gaps.

[0174] According to some embodiments, the processor is further configured to dynamically perform a priority update of a gap among the plurality of gaps based on a detection result of a specific event corresponding to the gap.

[0175] According to some embodiments, the processor is further configured to: send an updated result of the priority of the gap to the network device.

[0176] According to some embodiments, the processor is further configured to detect a specific event corresponding to a gap in the plurality of gaps, and dynamically update the priority of the gap when it is detected that a condition in the specific event is satisfied.

[0177] According to some embodiments, the processor is further configured to: when it is detected that the condition in the specific event is not satisfied, set the priority of the gap to a specific priority value or do not change the priority of the gap.

[0178] According to some embodiments, the particular priority value is a default priority value or a previous priority value.

[0179] According to some embodiments, the processor is further configured to perform event detection periodically or upon request.

[0180] According to some embodiments, the processor is also configured to: detect a specific event corresponding to a gap among the multiple gaps, and send a detection result of the specific event to a network device, and receive an updated priority from the network device, wherein the updated priority is obtained by updating the priority of the gap when a condition in the event is met.

[0181] According to some embodiments, the gap configuration is related to a MUSIM gap.

[0182] Another set of embodiments may include a network device comprising: at least one antenna; at least one radio component coupled to the at least one antenna; and a processor coupled to the at least one radio component; wherein the processor is configured to: obtain a gap configuration for scheduling operation of the wireless device according to a gap pattern, wherein the gap configuration includes priority information related to a priority of each gap in a plurality of gaps, and provide the gap configuration information to the wireless device.

[0183] According to some embodiments, the processor is further configured to: configure the events of the plurality of gaps and the corresponding gap priorities in the gap configuration.

[0184] According to some embodiments, the processor is further configured to receive an updated priority of the gap from the wireless device, the updated priority being obtained by updating the priority of the gap when a condition in an event corresponding to the gap is met.

[0185] According to some embodiments, the processor is also configured to: receive a detection result of a specific event corresponding to the gap from the wireless device, dynamically update the priority of the gap when it is detected that the condition in the specific event is met, and send the updated priority to the wireless device.

[0186] According to some embodiments, the gap configuration is related to a MUSIM gap.

[0187] Yet another set of embodiments may include an apparatus comprising: a processor configured to cause a wireless device to: obtain a gap configuration that schedules operation of the wireless device according to a gap pattern, wherein the gap configuration includes priority information related to a priority of each of a plurality of gaps; and perform operations based on the gap patterns, wherein the operations are performed based on the priorities of the gap patterns.

[0188] According to some embodiments, the processor may cause the wireless device to implement any or all parts of any of the preceding embodiments / examples.

[0189] Yet another set of embodiments may include an apparatus comprising: a processor configured to cause a network device to obtain a gap configuration for scheduling operation of the wireless device according to a gap pattern, wherein the gap configuration includes priority information related to a priority of each of a plurality of gaps, and provide the gap configuration information to the wireless device.

[0190] According to some embodiments, the processor may cause the network device to implement any or all portions of any of the foregoing embodiments / examples.

[0191] Yet another set of embodiments may include a method for a wireless device, the method comprising: obtaining a gap configuration that schedules operation of the wireless device according to a gap pattern, wherein the gap configuration includes priority information related to a priority of each of a plurality of gaps; and performing operations based on the gap patterns, wherein the operations are performed based on the priorities of the gap patterns.

[0192] According to some embodiments, the method may be further executed by the wireless device to implement any or all parts of any of the preceding embodiments / examples.

[0193] Yet another set of embodiments may include a method for a network device, the method comprising: obtaining a gap configuration for scheduling operation of the wireless device according to a gap pattern, wherein the gap configuration includes priority information related to a priority of each gap in a plurality of gaps, and providing the gap configuration information to the wireless device.

[0194] According to some embodiments, the method may be further executed by a network device to implement any or all parts of any of the foregoing embodiments / examples.

[0195] Yet another set of embodiments may include an apparatus comprising: a processor and a computer-readable storage medium having program instructions stored thereon, the program instructions, when executed, causing the processor to implement any or all portions of any of the foregoing method embodiments.

[0196] Yet another set of embodiments may include a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon program instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to perform any or all portions of any of the foregoing method embodiments.

[0197] Yet another set of embodiments may include a computer program product comprising program instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform any or all portions of any of the foregoing method embodiments.

[0198] Yet another set of embodiments may include a computer program comprising program instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform any or all portions of any of the foregoing method embodiments.

[0199] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth in one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and / or methods as described herein. For example, a baseband processor as described herein in conjunction with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples set forth herein. For another example, a circuit system associated with a UE, a base station, a network element, etc. as described above in conjunction with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples set forth herein.

[0200] Unless otherwise expressly stated, any of the above embodiments may be combined with any other embodiment (or combination of embodiments). The foregoing description of one or more specific implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limit the scope of the embodiments to the precise form disclosed. In view of the above teachings, modifications and variations are possible, or modifications and variations can be obtained from the practice of various embodiments.

[0201] Embodiments and implementations of the systems and methods described herein may include various operations that may be embodied in machine executable instructions to be executed by a computer system. A computer system may include one or more general or special purpose computers (or other electronic devices). A computer system may include hardware components that include specific logic components for performing operations; or may include a combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware.

[0202] It should be appreciated that the systems described herein include descriptions of specific embodiments. These embodiments may be combined into a single system, partially combined into other systems, separated into multiple systems, or otherwise divided or combined. In addition, it is contemplated that parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. of another embodiment may be used in one embodiment. For clarity, these parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. are described only in one or more embodiments, and it should be appreciated that these parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. may be combined with or substituted for parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. of another embodiment unless expressly stated herein.

[0203] It is understood that the use of personally identifiable information should be subject to privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized to meet or exceed industry or government requirements for maintaining user privacy. Specifically, personally identifiable information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of the authorized use should be clearly stated to users.

[0204] Although the foregoing has been described in considerable detail for the sake of clarity, it will be apparent that certain changes and modifications may be made without departing from the principles of the invention. It should be noted that there are many alternative ways to implement both the processes and the apparatus described herein. Therefore, the embodiments of the present invention should be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive, and the specification is not limited to the details given herein, but may be modified within the scope and equivalents of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A wireless device, comprising: at least one antenna; at least one radio component coupled to the at least one antenna; as well as a processor coupled to the at least one radio; The processor is configured to: obtaining a gap configuration for scheduling operation of the wireless device according to a gap pattern, wherein the gap configuration includes priority information regarding a priority of each gap pattern in a plurality of gap patterns, and An operation is performed based on the gap pattern, wherein the operation is performed based on the priority of the gap pattern.

2. The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to: When at least two of the plurality of slots collide, an operation is performed based on a slot pattern of a slot having a highest priority among the at least two slots.

3. The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to: The priority update of the gap pattern is dynamically performed based on a detection result of a specific event corresponding to a gap pattern among the plurality of gap patterns.

4. The wireless device of claim 3, wherein the processor is further configured to: The update result of the priority of the gap is sent to the network device.

5. The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to: detecting a specific event corresponding to a gap pattern in the plurality of gap patterns, and The priority of the gap pattern is dynamically updated when it is detected that a condition in the specific event is met.

6. The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to: When it is detected that the condition in the specific event is not satisfied, the priority of the slot is set to a specific priority value or the priority of the slot is not changed. The wireless device of claim 6 , wherein the specific priority value is a default priority value or a previous priority value.

8. The wireless device according to any one of claims 3 to 7, wherein the processor is further configured to: Event detection is performed periodically or upon request.

9. The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to: detecting a specific event corresponding to a gap pattern in the plurality of gap patterns, and sending the detection result of the specific event to the network device, and An updated priority is received from the network device, the updated priority being obtained by updating the priority of the slot when the condition in the event is met.

10. The wireless device of any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the gap configuration is related to a MUSIM gap.

11. A network device, comprising: at least one antenna; at least one radio component coupled to the at least one antenna; as well as a processor coupled to the at least one radio; The processor is configured to: obtaining a gap configuration for scheduling operation of the wireless device according to the gap pattern, wherein the gap configuration includes priority information indicating a priority of each of a plurality of gaps, and The gap configuration is provided to the wireless device.

12. The network device according to claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: Events of the plurality of gap patterns and corresponding gap pattern priorities are configured in the gap configuration.

13. The network device according to claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: An updated priority of a gap pattern is received from the wireless device, the updated priority being obtained by updating the priority of the gap pattern when a condition in an event corresponding to the gap pattern is satisfied.

14. The network device of claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to: acquiring a detection result of a specific event corresponding to a gap pattern from the wireless device, dynamically updating the priority of the gap pattern when it is detected that the condition in the specific event is met, and The updated priority is sent to the wireless device.

15. The network device according to any one of claims 11 to 14, wherein the gap configuration is related to a MUSIM gap.

16. A device, comprising: A processor configured to cause the wireless device to: obtaining a gap configuration for scheduling operation of the wireless device according to a gap pattern, wherein the slot configuration includes priority information regarding a priority of each slot in the plurality of slots, and An operation is performed based on the gap pattern, wherein the operation is performed based on the priority of the gap pattern.

17. A device, comprising: A processor configured to enable the network device to: obtaining a gap configuration for scheduling operation of the wireless device according to the gap pattern, wherein the gap configuration includes priority information regarding a priority of each gap pattern in a plurality of gap patterns, and The gap configuration is provided to the wireless device.

18. A method for a wireless device, the method comprising: obtaining a gap configuration for scheduling operation of the wireless device according to a gap pattern, wherein the gap configuration includes priority information regarding a priority of each gap pattern in a plurality of gap patterns, and An operation is performed based on the gap pattern, wherein the operation is performed based on the priority of the gap pattern.

19. A method for a network device, the method comprising: obtaining a gap configuration for scheduling operation of the wireless device according to the gap pattern, wherein the gap configuration includes priority information regarding a priority of each gap pattern in a plurality of gap patterns, and The gap configuration is provided to the wireless device.

20. A device, comprising: processor, and A computer-readable storage medium having program instructions stored thereon, which when executed cause the processor to perform the method according to claim 18 or 19.

21. A computer-readable storage medium having program instructions stored thereon, which when executed cause the processor to perform the method according to claim 18 or 19.

22. A computer program product comprising program instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method according to claim 18 or 19.

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