Wake-up signal supporting RRM measurement and tracking

Abstract

A communication device, a base station, and methods for the communication device and the base station are provided. A communication device includes a transceiver that receives a wireless signal. The communication device also includes circuitry to search for a supplemental synchronization signal (SS) in the wireless signal in a resource different from an occasion configured for a synchronization signal block (SSB), where the SSB includes a primary SS, a secondary SS, and a physical broadcast channel (PBCH).

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to the transmission and reception of signals in a communication system. Specifically, the present disclosure relates to methods and apparatuses for such transmission and reception. Background Art

[0002] The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is working on the technical specifications for the next generation of cellular technologies, also known as the 5th Generation (5G) including the "New Radio" (NR) Radio Access Technology (RAT), which operates in the frequency range up to 100 GHz. NR is a follower of the technologies represented by Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A).

[0003] For systems such as LTE, LTE-A, and NR, further modifications and options can facilitate the efficient operation of the communication system and specific devices related to the system. Summary of the Invention

[0004] A non-limiting and exemplary embodiment facilitates the efficient low-power operation of a communication device.

[0005] In an embodiment, the techniques disclosed herein are characterized by a user equipment including: a transceiver that receives a wireless signal in operation; and circuitry that in operation (i) detects the presence of a Wake-Up Signal (WUS) in the received wireless signal, (ii) determines wake-up information based on the WUS according to the received wireless signal, and (iii) determines to receive control information other than the WUS and the wake-up information based on the wake-up information.

[0006] It should be noted that a general or specific embodiment can be implemented as a system, a method, an integrated circuit, a computer program, a storage medium, or any selective combination thereof.

[0007] According to the description and the drawings, additional benefits and advantages of the disclosed embodiments will become apparent. The benefits and / or advantages can be obtained individually by various embodiments and features of the description and the drawings, and these embodiments and features do not all need to be provided to obtain one or more such benefits and / or advantages. Brief Description of the Drawings

[0008] Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments are described in more detail with reference to the drawings and the figures.

[0009] Figure 1 An exemplary architecture of a 3GPP NR system is shown;

[0010] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram showing the functional division between the NG-RAN and the 5GC,

[0011] Figure 3 is a sequence diagram of the RRC connection establishment / reconfiguration process,

[0012] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram showing usage scenarios of enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine type communication (mMTC), and ultra-reliable and low-latency communication (URLLC),

[0013] Figure 5 is a block diagram showing an exemplary 5G system architecture for non-roaming scenarios,

[0014] Figure 6 is a block diagram showing a base station and a communication device in a communication system having an embodiment of a wake-up signal including one or more blank resource elements,

[0015] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a wake-up signal represented by a sequence of silent and non-silent resource elements in the time domain,

[0016] Figure 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating a wake-up signal represented by a sequence of silent and non-silent resource elements in the frequency domain,

[0017] Figure 9 is a block diagram showing the functional structure of a WUS detection circuit,

[0018] Figure 10 is a block diagram showing the functional structure of a WUS generation circuit,

[0019] Figure 11 is a flowchart showing the steps of a communication method for a user equipment,

[0020] Figure 12 is a flowchart showing the steps of a communication method for a network node (base station),

[0021] Figure 13 is a block diagram showing a base station and a communication device in a communication system having an embodiment regarding two-part wake-up signaling,

[0022] Figure 14 is a block diagram showing the functional structure of a WUS / WUI detection circuit,

[0023] Figure 15 is a block diagram showing the functional structure of a WUS / WUI generation circuit,

[0024] Figure 16 is a schematic diagram illustrating the offset between a wake-up signal and wake-up information,

[0025] Figure 17 is a schematic diagram illustrating the offset between a wake-up signal and an SSB to be received,

[0026] Figure 18 It is a schematic diagram illustrating the offset between the wake-up signal or wake-up information and the PDCCH monitoring occasion to be received.

[0027] Figure 19 It is a flowchart showing the steps of a communication method for a user equipment, and

[0028] Figure 20 It is a flowchart showing the steps of a communication method for a network node.

[0029] Figure 21A It is a schematic diagram showing, for example, the SSB defined in NR.

[0030] Figure 21B It is a schematic diagram of a communication system for multi-beam communication between a gNB and two UEs.

[0031] Figure 22 It is a schematic diagram illustrating the temporal arrangement of supplementary synchronization signals between SSBs.

[0032] Figure 23 It is a block diagram showing a base station and a communication device in a communication system for an embodiment with supplementary synchronization signaling.

[0033] Figure 24 It is a schematic diagram showing the repetition of supplementary synchronization signals in time and frequency resources.

[0034] Figure 25 It is a schematic diagram illustrating the temporal arrangement of a supplementary synchronization signal including two signals.

[0035] Figure 26 It is a flowchart showing the steps for a UE to search for a supplementary synchronization signal at the occasion of the supplementary synchronization signal.

[0036] Figure 27 It is a schematic diagram showing mapping or skipping mapping of a supplementary synchronization signal to a corresponding occasion based on a first threshold.

[0037] Figure 28 It is a schematic diagram showing mapping or skipping mapping of a supplementary synchronization signal to a corresponding occasion based on a second threshold.

[0038] Figure 29 It is a schematic diagram of a WUS including supplementary synchronization signaling.

[0039] Figure 30A It is a schematic diagram showing supplementary synchronization signaling (SS) with additional signaling having multiple control signals to a UE group.

[0040] Figure 30BIt is a schematic diagram showing supplementary synchronization signaling with additional signaling having respective control signals to each of a plurality of UE groups.

[0041] Figure 30C It is a schematic diagram showing the alignment of the center frequencies of the SSB and the supplementary SS.

[0042] Figure 31 It is a schematic diagram showing that the frequency resource deviation between the SSB and the supplementary SS is less than a threshold.

[0043] Figure 32 It is a schematic diagram showing the frequency threshold for determining the frequency deviation between the SSB and the supplementary SS for whether to transmit the supplementary SS.

[0044] Figure 33 It is a schematic diagram showing the time threshold for following each SSB and determining whether the supplementary SS is mapped to a timing.

[0045] Figure 34 It is a flowchart showing the establishment of quasi - co - location (QCL) and channel state information (CSI) based on the supplementary SS.

[0046] Figure 35 It is a flowchart showing the execution of automatic gain control (AGC), radio resource measurement (RRM), and beam tracking based on the supplementary SS.

[0047] Figure 36 It is a flowchart showing the steps of a communication method for a user equipment, and

[0048] Figure 37 It is a flowchart showing the steps of a communication method for a network node. Detailed implementation

[0049] 5G NR system architecture and protocol stack

[0050] 3GPP has been working on the next version of the fifth - generation cellular technology (abbreviated as 5G), including the development of a new radio access technology (NR) operating in the frequency range up to 100 GHz. The first version of the 5G standard was completed at the end of 2017, which allows the continuation of 5G NR standard - compatible trials and commercial deployments for smartphones.

[0051] The overall system architecture assumptions include the NG-RAN (Next Generation Radio Access Network) of the gNB (gNodeB), etc., so as to provide the UE with the termination of the NG radio access user plane (SDAP / PDCP / RLC / MAC / PHY) and control plane (RRC, Radio Resource Control) protocols. The gNBs are interconnected with each other via the Xn interface. The gNB is also connected to the NGC (Next Generation Core) via the Next Generation (NG) interface. More specifically, it is connected to the AMF (Access and Mobility Management Function) (e.g., a specific core entity that executes the AMF) via the NG-C interface, and to the UPF (User Plane Function) (e.g., a specific core entity that executes the UPF) via the NG-U interface. The NG-RAN architecture is illustrated in Figure 1 See, for example, 3GPP TS 38.300 v15.6.0, Section 4).

[0052] The user plane protocol stack of NR (see, for example, 3GPP TS 38.300, Section 4.4.1) includes the PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol, see Section 6.4 of TS 38.300), RLC (Radio Link Control, see Section 6.3 of TS 38.300), and MAC (Medium Access Control, see Section 6.2 of TS 38.300) sublayers, which are terminated in the gNB on the network side. Additionally, a new access stratum (AS) sublayer (SDAP, Service Data Adaptation Protocol) is introduced above the PDCP (see, for example, Subclause 6.5 of 3GPP TS 38.300). A control plane protocol stack is also defined for NR (see, for example, TS 38.300, Section 4.4.2). An overview of the layer 2 functions is given in Subclause 6 of TS38.300. The functions of the PDCP, RLC, and MAC sublayers are listed in Sections 6.4, 6.3, and 6.2 of TS 38.300, respectively. The functions of the RRC layer are listed in Subclause 7 of TS 38.300.

[0053] For example, the Medium Access Control layer handles logical channel multiplexing and scheduling and scheduling-related functions, including handling different parameter sets.

[0054] The physical layer (PHY) is responsible for, for example, decoding, PHY HARQ processing, modulation, multi-antenna processing, and mapping of signals to appropriate physical time-frequency resources. It also handles the mapping of transport channels to physical channels. The physical layer provides services to the MAC layer in the form of transport channels. A physical channel corresponds to a set of time-frequency resources for the transmission of a specific transport channel, and each transport channel is mapped to a corresponding physical channel. For example, the physical channels are the PRACH (Physical Random Access Channel), PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared Channel), and PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) for the uplink, and the PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel), PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel), and PBCH (Physical Broadcast Channel) for the downlink.

[0055] The use cases / deployment scenarios of NR can include enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC), and / or massive machine type communication (mMTC), which have different requirements in terms of data rate, latency, and coverage. For example, eMBB is expected to support peak data rates (20 Gbps for the downlink and 10 Gbps for the uplink) and user experience data rates, which are approximately three times the data rates provided by IMT-Advanced. On the other hand, in the case of URLLC, more stringent requirements are imposed on ultra-low latency (0.5 ms for both UL and DL for user plane latency) and high reliability (1 - 10 -5 ) within 1 ms. Finally, mMTC may preferably require a high connection density (1,000,000 devices / km in urban environments 2 ), large coverage in harsh environments, and extremely long-life batteries (15 years) for low-cost devices.

[0056] Therefore, an OFDM parameter set suitable for one use case (e.g., subcarrier spacing, OFDM symbol duration, cyclic prefix (CP) duration, number of symbols per scheduling interval) may not be well-suited for another use case. For example, compared to mMTC services, low-latency services may preferably require shorter symbol durations (and thus larger subcarrier spacings) and / or fewer symbols per scheduling interval (also known as TTI). In addition, deployment scenarios with large channel delay spreads may preferably require longer CP durations than scenarios with short delay spreads. The subcarrier spacing should be optimized accordingly to maintain a similar CP overhead. NR can support more than one value of subcarrier spacing. Accordingly, subcarrier spacings of 15 kHz, 30 kHz, 60 kHz... are currently being considered. The symbol duration T u and the subcarrier spacing Δf are related by the formula Δf = 1 / T uIs directly related. In a similar manner to the LTE system, the term "resource element" can be used to represent the smallest resource unit consisting of a subcarrier of the length of one OFDM / SC-FDMA symbol.

[0057] In the new radio system 5G-NR, for each parameter set and carrier, a resource grid of subcarriers and OFDM symbols is defined for the uplink and downlink, respectively. Each element in the resource grid is called a resource element and is identified based on the frequency index in the frequency domain and the symbol position in the time domain (see 3GPP TS 38.211 v15.6.0).

[0058] In NR, a resource block (RB) is defined as 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain. Resource blocks are numbered upwards from zero in the frequency domain as common resource blocks for subcarrier spacing configuration. A physical resource block (PRB) is defined within a bandwidth part (a subset of consecutive common resource blocks), and each bandwidth part is numbered.

[0059] 5G NR functional split between NG-RAN and 5GC

[0060] Figure 2 Illustrates the functional split between NG-RAN and 5GC. The NG-RAN logical nodes are gNB or ng-eNB (next-generation eNB). 5GC has logical nodes AMF, UPF, and SMF.

[0061] In particular, gNB and ng-eNB host the following main functions:

[0062] - Functions for radio resource management, such as radio bearer control, radio access control, connection mobility control, dynamic resource allocation to the UE in both uplink and downlink (scheduling);

[0063] - IP header compression, encryption, and integrity protection of data;

[0064] - Select an AMF when attaching the UE when the route to the AMF cannot be determined from the information provided by the UE;

[0065] - Routing of user plane data to one or more UPFs;

[0066] - Routing of control plane information to the AMF;

[0067] - Connection establishment and release;

[0068] - Scheduling and transmission of paging messages;

[0069] - Scheduling and transmission of system broadcast information (originating from the AMF or OAM);

[0070] - Measurement and measurement report configuration for mobility and scheduling;

[0071] - Transport-level packet marking in the uplink;

[0072] - Session management;

[0073] - Support for network slicing;

[0074] - QoS flow management and mapping to data radio bearers;

[0075] - Support for UEs in the RRC_INACTIVE state;

[0076] - Distribution function for NAS (Non-Access Stratum) messages;

[0077] - Radio access network sharing;

[0078] - Dual connectivity;

[0079] - Tight interworking between NR and E-UTRA.

[0080] The Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) hosts the following main functions:

[0081] - Non-Access Stratum NAS signaling termination;

[0082] - NAS signaling security;

[0083] - Access Stratum AS security control;

[0084] - Internal Core Network CN node signaling for mobility between 3GPP access networks;

[0085] - Idle mode UE reachability (including control and execution of paging retransmission);

[0086] - Registration area management;

[0087] - Support for mobility within and between systems;

[0088] - Access authentication;

[0089] - Access authorization, including checking of roaming rights;

[0090] - Mobility management control (subscription and policy);

[0091] - Support for network slicing;

[0092] - Session Management Function SMF selection.

[0093] In addition, the User Plane Function UPF hosts the following main functions:

[0094] - Anchor points for in / inter-RAT mobility (when applicable);

[0095] - External PDU session points interconnected with the data network;

[0096] - Packet routing and forwarding;

[0097] - Packet inspection and user plane part for policy rule enforcement;

[0098] - Traffic usage reporting;

[0099] - Uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to the data network;

[0100] - Branch points to support multi-homed PDU sessions;

[0101] - QoS handling in the user plane, such as packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement;

[0102] - Uplink traffic verification (SDF to QoS flow mapping);

[0103] - Downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering.

[0104] Finally, the Session Management Function SMF hosts the following main functions:

[0105] - Session management;

[0106] - UE IP address allocation and management;

[0107] - Selection and control of the UP function;

[0108] - Configure traffic steering at the User Plane Function UPF to route traffic to the appropriate destination;

[0109] - Control part of policy enforcement and QoS;

[0110] - Downlink data notification.

[0111] RRC connection establishment and reconfiguration procedures

[0112] Figure 3 Illustrates some interactions between the UE, gNB, and AMF (5GC entities) in the context of the UE transitioning from RRC_IDLE to RRC_CONNECTED for the NAS part (see TS 38.300 v15.6.0).

[0113] RRC is a high-layer signaling (protocol) for UE and gNB configuration. Specifically, the transition involves the AMF preparing UE context data (including, for example, PDU session context, security keys, UE radio capabilities, and UE security capabilities, etc.), and sending it together with an Initial Context Setup Request to the gNB. Then, the gNB activates AS security with the UE, which is performed by the gNB sending a SecurityModeCommand message to the UE and the UE responding to the gNB with a SecurityModeComplete message. After that, the gNB performs reconfiguration to set up Signaling Radio Bearer 2 (SRB2) and one or more Data Radio Bearers (DRB) by sending an RRCReconfiguration message to the UE and receiving an RRCReconfigurationComplete from the UE as a response. For a signaling-only connection, the steps related to RRCReconfiguration are skipped because SRB2 and DRB are not set. Finally, the gNB notifies the AMF with an Initial Context Setup Response that the setup process is complete.

[0114] Thus, in the present disclosure, an entity of the 5th Generation Core (5GC) (e.g., AMF, SMF, etc.) is provided, which includes a control circuit and a transmitter. The control circuit establishes a Next Generation (NG) connection with a gNodeB in operation, and the transmitter sends an Initial Context Setup message to the gNodeB via the NG connection in operation to cause the establishment of a signaling radio bearer between the gNodeB and a User Equipment (UE). Specifically, the gNodeB sends Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling containing a resource allocation configuration information element to the UE via the signaling radio bearer. Then, the UE performs uplink transmission or downlink reception based on the resource allocation configuration.

[0115] Usage Scenarios of IMT from 2020 and Beyond

[0116] Figure 4 Illustrates some use cases of 5G NR. In the 3rd Generation Partnership Project New Radio (3GPP NR), three use cases that have been envisioned by IMT-2020 to support a variety of services and applications are being considered. The specification of Phase 1 of Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) has been included. In addition to further expanding eMBB support, current and future work will also involve the standardization of Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communication (URLLC) and Massive Machine-Type Communication. Figure 4 Illustrates some examples of the envisioned usage scenarios of IMT from 2020 and beyond (see, for example, ITU-R M.2083'sFigure 2 )。

[0117] URLLC use cases have strict requirements on capabilities such as throughput, latency, and availability, and have been envisioned as one of the enablers for future vertical applications (such as wireless control of industrial manufacturing or production processes, remote medical surgery, distribution automation in smart grids, transportation safety, etc.). The ultra-reliability of URLLC will be supported by identifying technologies that meet the requirements set in TR 38.913. For NR URLLC in Release 15, the key requirements include a target user plane latency of 0.5 ms for UL (uplink) and a target user plane latency of 0.5 ms for DL (downlink). The general URLLC requirement for a single transmission of a packet is a BLER (block error rate) of 1E-5 for a packet size of 32 bytes, where the user plane latency is 1 ms.

[0118] From a physical layer perspective, reliability can be improved in a variety of possible ways. The current scope for improving reliability involves defining a separate CQI table for URLLC, more compact DCI (downlink control information) formats, repetition of PDCCH, etc. However, as NR becomes more stable and evolves (for the key requirements of NR URLLC), the scope for achieving ultra-reliability may widen. Specific use cases of NR URLLC in Rel.15 include augmented reality / virtual reality (AR / VR), e-health, e-safety, and mission-critical applications.

[0119] In addition, the technology enhancements targeted at NR URLLC aim at latency improvement and reliability improvement. Technology enhancements for latency improvement include configurable parameter sets, non-slot-based scheduling with flexible mapping, grant-free (configured grant) uplink, slot-level repetition for data channels, and downlink preemption. Preemption means stopping a transmission that has been allocated resources, and the allocated resources are used for another transmission that has been requested later, but with lower latency / higher priority requirements. Therefore, an already authorized transmission is preempted by a later transmission. Preemption can be applied independently of the specific service type. For example, a transmission for service type A (URLLC) can be preempted by a transmission for service type B (such as eMBB). Technology enhancements for reliability improvement include dedicated CQI / MCS tables for a target BLER of 1E-5.

[0120] The use cases of mMTC (massive machine type communication) are characterized by a very large number of connected devices that typically send relatively small amounts of non-delay-sensitive data. The devices are required to be low-cost and have a very long battery life. From the perspective of NR, utilizing very narrow bandwidth portions is a possible solution for energy saving from the UE's perspective and achieving long battery life.

[0121] As described above, the range of desired reliability in NR is widened. A key requirement for all scenarios (especially necessary for URLLC and mMTC) is high reliability or ultra-reliability. From the radio perspective and the network perspective, several mechanisms can be considered to improve reliability. Generally, there are several key potential areas that can help improve reliability. These areas include compact control channel information, data / control channel repetition, and diversity in the frequency, time, and / or spatial domains. These areas are generally applicable to reliability regardless of the specific communication scenario.

[0122] For NR URLLC, other use cases with more stringent requirements have been identified, such as factory automation, the transportation industry, and power distribution. The more stringent requirements are higher reliability (up to 10 -6 -level), higher availability, packet sizes up to 256 bytes, time synchronization as low as on the order of a few μs, where the value can be 1 μs or a few μs depending on the frequency range, and short latency of approximately 0.5 to 1 ms depending on the use case, especially a target user plane latency of 0.5 ms.

[0123] In addition, for NR URLLC, several technical enhancements from the physical layer perspective have been identified. These include PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) enhancements related to compact DCI, PDCCH repetition, and increased PDCCH monitoring. In addition, UCI (Uplink Control Information) enhancements are related to enhanced HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest) and CSI feedback enhancements. In addition, PUSCH enhancements related to micro-slot level hopping and retransmission / repetition enhancements have been identified. The term "micro-slot" refers to a transmission time interval (TTI) that includes a smaller number of symbols than a slot (including, for example, a slot of fourteen symbols).

[0124] In time-slot based scheduling or allocation, a time slot corresponds to the timing granularity (TTI - Transmission Time Interval) for scheduling allocation. Typically, the TTI determines the timing granularity for scheduling allocation. A TTI is the time interval during which a given signal is mapped to the physical layer. For example, conventionally, the TTI length can vary from 14 symbols (time-slot based scheduling) to 2 symbols (non-time-slot based scheduling). Downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) transmissions are specified to be organized into frames (10 ms duration) consisting of 10 sub-frames (1 ms duration). In time-slot based transmission, a sub-frame is further divided into time slots, and the number of time slots is defined by the parameter set / sub-carrier spacing. The specified values range from 10 time slots per frame (1 time slot per sub-frame) for a sub-carrier spacing of 15 kHz to 80 time slots per frame (8 time slots per sub-frame) for a sub-carrier spacing of 120 kHz. The number of OFDM symbols per time slot is 14 for a normal cyclic prefix and 12 for an extended cyclic prefix (see Sections 4.1 (General Frame Structure), 4.2 (Parameter Set), 4.3.1 (Frames and Sub-frames), and 4.3.2 (Time Slots) of 3GPP TS38.211 V15.3.0, Physical Channels and Modulation, September 2018). However, the assignment of time resources for transmission can also be non-time-slot based. Specifically, the TTI in non-time-slot based assignment can correspond to a mini-slot instead of a time slot. That is, one or more mini-slots can be allocated for the transmission of the requested data / control signaling. In non-time-slot based allocation, the minimum length of the TTI can be, for example, 1 or 2 OFDM symbols.

[0125] QoS control

[0126] The 5G QoS (Quality of Service) model is based on QoS flows and supports both QoS flows that require guaranteed flow bitrate (GBR QoS flows) and QoS flows that do not require guaranteed flow bitrate (non-GBR QoS flows). At the NAS level, a QoS flow is thus the finest granularity for QoS differentiation within a PDU session. A QoS flow is identified within a PDU session by the QoS Flow ID (QFI) carried in the encapsulation header on the NG-U interface.

[0127] For each UE, the 5GC establishes one or more PDU sessions. For each UE, the NG-RAN establishes at least one Data Radio Bearer (DRB) together with the PDU session and can subsequently configure additional DRBs (one or more) for the (one or more) QoS flows of that PDU session (depending on when the NG-RAN does so), e.g., as referred to above Figure 3As shown, the NG-RAN maps packets belonging to different PDU sessions to different DRBs. NAS-level packet filters in the UE and 5GC associate UL and DL packets with QoS flows, while AS-level mapping rules in the UE and NG-RAN associate UL and DL QoS flows with DRBs.

[0128] Figure 5 Illustrates the 5G NR non-roaming reference architecture (see TS23.501 v16.1.0, section 4.23). The application function (AF) (e.g., an external application server hosting 5G services) described exemplarily in Figure 4 interacts with the 3GPP core network to provide services, such as to support the impact of the application on traffic routing, the network exposure function (NEF), or to interact with the policy framework for policy control (see Policy Control Function, PCF), such as QoS control. Based on the operator deployment, application functions considered to be trusted by the operator may be allowed to directly interact with the relevant network functions. Application functions that are not allowed direct access to network functions interact with the relevant network functions via the NEF using the external exposure framework.

[0129] Figure 5 Shows other functional units of the 5G architecture, namely the Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF), the Network Repository Function (NRF), the Unified Data Management (UDM), the Authentication Server Function (AUSF), the Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), the Session Management Function (SMF), and the Data Network (DN), such as operator services, Internet access, or third-party services. All or part of the core network functions and application services may be deployed and run in a cloud computing environment.

[0130] Thus, in the present disclosure, there is provided an application server (e.g., the AF of the 5G architecture), the application server including a transmitter and a control circuit, the transmitter in operation sending a request including QoS requirements of at least one of URLLC, eMMB, and mMTC services to at least one of the functions (e.g., NEF, AMF, SMF, PCF, UPF, etc.) of the 5GC to establish a PDU session including a radio bearer between the gNodeB and the UE according to the QoS requirements, and the control circuit in operation using the established PDU session to execute services.

[0131] Control signal

[0132] In the present disclosure, the downlink control signal (information) related to the present disclosure may be a signal (information) sent through the PDCCH of the physical layer, or may be a signal (information) sent through a higher layer MAC control element (CE) or RRC. The downlink control signal may be a predefined signal (information).

[0133] The uplink control signal (information) related to the present disclosure may be a signal (information) transmitted through the PUCCH of the physical layer, or may be a signal (information) transmitted through the higher layer MAC CE or RRC. In addition, the uplink control signal may be a predefined signal (information). The uplink control signal may be replaced by uplink control information (UCI), first-phase sidelink control information (SCI), or second-phase SCI.

[0134] Reference signal

[0135] In the present disclosure, the reference signal is a signal known to both the base station and the mobile station, and each reference signal may be referred to as a reference signal (RS) or sometimes as a pilot signal. The reference signal may be any one of a demodulation RS (DMRS), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a tracking reference signal (TRS), a phase tracking reference signal (PTRS), a cell-specific reference signal (CRS), and a sounding reference signal (SRS).

[0136] Time interval

[0137] In the present disclosure, the time resource unit is not limited to one or a combination of time slots and symbols, and may be a time resource unit such as a frame, a superframe, a subframe, a time slot, a time slot sub-slot, a micro-slot, or a time resource unit such as a symbol, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol, a single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) symbol, or other time resource units. The number of symbols included in one time slot is not limited to any number of symbols exemplified in the described (one or more) embodiments, and may be other numbers of symbols.

[0138] Frequency band

[0139] The present disclosure may be applied to any one of an authorized frequency band and an unauthorized frequency band. Each frequency band may include one or more component carriers. Each component carrier constitutes a time-frequency resource grid including resource elements, and each resource element is defined by a sub-carrier in the frequency domain and a symbol in the time domain.

[0140] Communication

[0141] The present disclosure may also be applied to any network in a terrestrial network or a network other than a terrestrial network (NTN: Non-Terrestrial Network) using satellites or high-altitude pseudo-satellites (HAPS). In addition, the present disclosure may be applied to a network having a large cell size, and a terrestrial network having a large delay compared to the symbol length or the time slot length, such as an ultra-wideband transmission network.

[0142] Downlink control channel monitoring PDCCH DCI

[0143] Many functions operated by the UE involve monitoring the downlink control channel (e.g., PDCCH, see 3GPP TS38.300 v15.6.0, section 5.2.3) to receive, for example, specific control information or data destined for the UE.

[0144] A non-exhaustive list of these functions is given below:

[0145] - Paging message monitoring function,

[0146] - System information acquisition function,

[0147] - Signaling monitoring operation for discontinuous reception (DRX) function,

[0148] - Inactivity monitoring operation for discontinuous reception (DRX) function,

[0149] - Random access response reception for random access function,

[0150] - Reordering function of the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer.

[0151] As described above, PDCCH monitoring is performed by the UE in order to identify and receive information intended for the UE, such as control information and user traffic (e.g., DCI on the PDCCH and user data on the PDSCH indicated by the PDCCH).

[0152] The control information in the downlink (which may be referred to as downlink control information, DCI) has the same purpose in 5G NR as the DCI in LTE, i.e., a special set of control information for scheduling, for example, the downlink data channel (e.g., PDSCH) or the uplink data channel (e.g., PUSCH). In 5G NR, many different DCI formats have been defined (see section 7.3.1 of TS38.212 v15.6.0).

[0153] The DCI format represents a predefined format for forming and transmitting the corresponding information. In particular, DCI formats 0_1 and 1_1 are used to schedule the PUSCH and PDSCH in a cell, respectively.

[0154] The PDCCH monitoring for each of these functions is for a specific purpose and thus starts and ends accordingly. The PDCCH monitoring is generally controlled at least based on a timer operated by the UE. The timer has the purpose of controlling the PDCCH monitoring, for example, to limit the maximum amount of time for which the UE monitors the PDCCH. For example, the UE may not need to monitor the PDCCH indefinitely, but can stop monitoring after a certain period of time in order to be able to save energy.

[0155] As described above, one of the purposes of DCI on PDCCH is the dynamic scheduling of resources in the downlink, uplink, or even sidelink. In particular, some formats of DCI are provided to carry an indication of resources (resource allocation RA) assigned to data channels for a specific user. The resource allocation may include the specification of resources in the frequency domain and / or time domain.

[0156] The term

[0157] Hereinafter, UEs, base stations, and procedures will be described for the new radio access technology envisioned for 5G mobile communication systems, but these UEs, base stations, and procedures can also be used in LTE mobile communication systems or future mobile communication systems. Different embodiments and variations will also be explained. The following disclosure is facilitated by the discussions and findings as described above and can be based, for example, at least in part on them.

[0158] In general, it should be noted that many assumptions have been made herein in order to be able to explain the basic principles of the present disclosure in a clear, concise, and understandable manner. However, these assumptions should be understood as merely examples made herein for illustrative purposes, which are not necessarily essential for the present invention and should not, therefore, limit the scope of the present disclosure. Those skilled in the art will realize that the principles disclosed hereinafter, as well as the principles set forth in the claims, can be applied to different scenarios and in ways not explicitly described herein.

[0159] Furthermore, some of the terms for procedures, entities, layers, etc. used hereinafter are closely related to those used in the LTE / LTE-A systems or the current 3GPP 5G standardization, even though the specific terms used in the context of the new radio access technology for the next communication system have not been fully determined or may ultimately change. Therefore, the terms may change in the future without affecting the functionality of the embodiments. Thus, those skilled in the art realize that the embodiments and their scope of protection should not be limited to the specific terms used exemplarily herein due to the lack of updated or finally agreed terms, but should be understood more broadly in terms of the functions and concepts underlying the functions and principles constituting the present disclosure. Specifically:

[0160] User equipment

[0161] A terminal or user terminal or user equipment or mobile station or mobile node is referred to as a user equipment (UE) in LTE and NR. This can be a mobile device or a communication device / apparatus, such as a wireless phone, smartphone, tablet computer, or a USB (Universal Serial Bus) stick with the functionality of a user equipment. However, the term mobile device is not limited to this. Generally, a relay can also have the functionality of such a mobile device, and a mobile device can also be used as a relay. For example, a terminal is a physical entity (physical node) within a communication network. Further, the communication device can be any machine type communication device, such as an IoT device, etc. A node can have several functional entities. A functional entity refers to a software or hardware module that implements and / or provides a set of predetermined functions to the same node or another node or other functional entities of the network. A node can have one or more interfaces that attach the node to a communication facility or medium through which the node can communicate. Similarly, a network entity can have a logical interface that attaches a functional entity to a communication facility or medium through which the network entity can communicate with other functional entities or communication nodes.

[0162] Network node

[0163] In the present disclosure, the base station may be, for example, a transmission reception point (TRP), a cluster head, an access point, a remote radio head (RRH), an eNodeB (eNB), a gNodeB (gNB), a base station (BS), a base transceiver station (BTS), a base station unit, or a gateway. Additionally, in sidelink communication, a terminal may be employed instead of a base station. The base station may be a relay device that relays communication between a higher node and a terminal. The base station may also be a roadside unit. The base station may be a scheduling node or a network node, for example, forming part of a network for providing services to terminals. In particular, the base station may provide wireless access to terminals. The communication between a communication device (e.g., a UE or a terminal) and a scheduling device (e.g., a base station) is typically standardized and may be defined by different layers such as PHY, MAC, RRC, etc. (see also the discussion above). In LTE and NR, the radio interface protocol stack includes a physical layer, a medium access layer (MAC), and higher layers. In the control plane, a higher layer protocol radio resource control protocol is provided. Via RRC, the base station may control the configuration of the terminal, and the terminal may communicate with the base station to perform control tasks such as connection and bearer establishment, modification, etc., measurements, and other functions. The term used in LTE is eNB (or eNodeB), while the currently used term in 5G NR is gNB. The term "base station" or "radio base station" herein refers to a physical entity within a communication network. Similar to a mobile station, a base station may have several functional entities. A functional entity refers to a software or hardware module that implements and / or provides a predetermined set of functions to the same node or other functional entities of another node or network. The physical entity performs some control tasks regarding communication devices, including one or more of scheduling and configuration. Note that the base station functions and communication device functions may also be integrated within a single device. For example, a mobile terminal may also implement the functions of a base station for other terminals. The term used in LTE is eNB (or eNodeB), while the currently used term in 5G NR is gNB. Specifically, the base station may also be a gNB in a non-terrestrial network (NTN) NR system.

[0164] Energy saving

[0165] A new research project has been initiated in 3GPP to study and evaluate low-power wake-up receiver (LP-WUR) architectures and wake-up signal (LP-WUS) designs to support wake-up receivers. One of the objectives is to achieve significant UE energy saving gains. The report of this research project is available at www.3gpp.org and is titled "Low-power Wake-up Signal and Receiver for NR as a Rel.18 SI topic", with the manuscript number RP-221271 from the 3GPP TSG RAN meeting #96 held in Hungary from June 6th to 9th, 2022.

[0166] Therefore, the energy consumption depends on the configured length of the wake-up period (e.g., paging cycle). To meet the above battery life requirements, an eDRX (extended discontinuous reception) cycle with a larger value is expected to be used, resulting in high latency, which may not be suitable for such services that require both long battery life and low latency. Especially for latency-critical use cases, eDRX is not appropriate.

[0167] Currently, the UE needs to wake up periodically once per DRX cycle, which dominates the energy consumption during periods without signaling or data traffic. When monitoring paging messages, DRX is used in the RRC idle mode. Therefore, the UE does not have to monitor all PDCCH transmission opportunities, but only monitors the paging occasions, and thus can better conserve battery power. In the connected mode, DRX allows the UE to enter a "sleep" state during which the UE does not need to monitor the PDCCH. The UE wakes up periodically to monitor the PDCCH or send a scheduling request to initiate uplink data transmission. Therefore, the base station (gNB) needs to wait until the UE becomes active before sending data to it. The uplink is not delayed unless the base station configures the uplink scheduling request period according to the downlink DRX cycle.

[0168] The DRX cycle in the connected mode is configured by RRC. An inactivity timer is started after each PDCCH reception. After the inactivity timer expires, there can be an optional period of short DRX cycles before the regular (long) DRX cycle. The active period during which the UE reads the PDCCH is called the "OnDuration" or "DRX active" state. The sleep period during which the UE does not read the PDCCH is called the "OffDuration" or "DRX inactive" state. It is possible for the base station to send the UE to the DRX inactive mode at any time by using MAC signaling.

[0169] Since Release 16, the Wake-up Signal (WUS) has been provided by DCI format 2_6. DCI format 2_6 has been used to wake up the UE or indicate that the UE skips PDCCH monitoring before DRX. In particular, this DCI is used to notify energy saving information outside the DRX active time of one or more UEs. The DCI is scrambled by the PS-RNTI and carries:

[0170] - A wake-up indication of whether the UE is going to enter the dormant state or wake up from the dormant state; and

[0171] - An SCell dormancy indication, which is a bitmap where each bit corresponds to one of the (one or more) SCell groups configured by the higher layer (RRC), and the MSB to LSB of the bitmap corresponds to the first to the last configured SCell group.

[0172] - A cell group. This indicates to which SCell the wake-up indication applies.

[0173] More specifically, Section 7.3.1.3.7 of 3GPP TS 38.212 v17.2.0 defines format 2_6. Thus, DCI format 2_6 is used to notify energy saving information outside the DRX active time of one or more UEs. The following information is transmitted by DCI format 2_6 with a CRC scrambled by the PS-RNTI: block number 1, block number 2, …, block number N. The starting position of the block is determined by the parameter PSPositionDCI2-6 provided by the higher layer for the UE configured with this block. If the UE is configured with the higher layer parameters PS-RNTI and dci-Format2-6, one block is configured by the higher layer for the UE, and the following fields are defined for this block: a wake-up indication (1 bit), an SCell dormancy indication - 0 bits if the higher layer parameter Scell-groups-for-dormancy-outside-active-time is not configured; otherwise a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5-bit bitmap determined according to the higher layer parameter Scell-groups-for-dormancy-outside-active-time, where each bit corresponds to one of the (one or more) SCell groups configured by the higher layer parameter Scell-groups-for-dormancy-outside-active-time, and the MSB to LSB of the bitmap corresponds to the first to the last configured SCell group. The size of DCI format 2_6 is indicated by the higher layer parameter SizeDCI_2-6.

[0174] The UE can save energy by skipping unnecessary PDCCH monitoring periods using format 2_6 DCI. Dormancy can be configured and applied to UEs in the RRC_CONNECTED state.

[0175] In Release 17, the Paging Early Indication (PEI) design was introduced. It uses DCI format 2_7. DCI format 2_7 is used to indicate whether the UE needs to skip or monitor its paging occasion in each paging cycle. Therefore, compared with traditional paging detection that may require measuring more SSBs, the UE can save energy by reducing the synchronization signal block (SSB) measurement before detecting the PEI. The PEI can be configured in the SIB and applied to paging monitoring for both RRC-connected (RRC CONNECTED) and idle / inactive (IDLE / INACTIVE) UEs.

[0176] If UEs can wake up only when they are triggered (e.g., paged), the power consumption can be significantly reduced. This can be achieved by using a wake-up signal to trigger the main radio device and a separate receiver with the ability to monitor the wake-up signal with very low power consumption. The main radio can operate for data transmission and reception, and it can be turned off or set to deep sleep unless it is turned on. The power consumption of monitoring the wake-up signal depends on the wake-up signal design and the hardware module of the wake-up receiver for signal detection and processing.

[0177] To target low-power WUS / WUR to power-sensitive small devices including IoT use cases (such as industrial sensors, controllers) and wearable devices, signal design and transmitter / receiver operation must be carefully considered. Other use cases such as XR / smart glasses, smartphones, etc. are not excluded.

[0178] In other words, the Release 18 LP-WUS / WUR design is aimed at LP-WUS, which is friendly to more efficient receiver structures, e.g., a separate module for LP-WUS detection with relaxed requirements for time / frequency synchronization. The traditional design is basically DCI-based, which requires the UE to first measure one or more SSBs for AGC training and time / frequency synchronization before detection. The long active time for receiving and processing SSBs is the main source of power consumption.

[0179] Wake-up signal using silent resource elements

[0180] According to an embodiment, a signal (hereinafter referred to as the wake-up signal WUS) is provided, which includes one or more silent resource elements.

[0181] A resource element is a resource unit such as the smallest resource unit. In NR, as described above, a resource element is defined by a subcarrier in the frequency domain and a symbol (such as an OFDM symbol) in the time domain. However, the present disclosure is not limited to the resource element definition as currently in NR. Instead, it can be a resource element in other resource domains besides the time-frequency domain.

[0182] The term "silent" means that the transmitter does not transmit any power. Thus, a silent resource element is a resource element in which the transmitter does not transmit any power. Note that at the receiver, some power can be measured even in a silent resource element. Such power can be caused, for example, by interference.

[0183] Providing a WUS that includes one or more silent resource elements can provide some advantages. For example, the detection of silent resources only requires very low processing complexity. Thus, the UE can achieve more energy-saving gains. In some embodiments, the UE can include a dedicated WUS detection module while turning off (or at least not using) the remaining modules. For example, the dedicated module can only detect silent resource elements, that is, distinguish the received resource elements that are silent from the non-silent resource elements. Forward error correction (FEC) decoding and possible demodulation may not be necessary for the detection of silent resource elements, such that the corresponding modules can be turned off (or at least not needed to be used). In other words, a WUS signal including one or more silent resource elements is suitable for being detected at the physical layer with only very little physical layer processing at all.

[0184] In the present disclosure, the UE operation that requires the UE to monitor the WUS but not any other channels will be referred to as low-power (LP) operation. The difference between LP operation and LP-WUS and the sleep indication at the DCI level is that the reception of LP-WUS only requires the detection of one or more silent resource elements. In contrast, DCI detection requires demodulation and decoding and possibly further physical layer processing, such as beamforming the PDCCH or monitoring in a way that descrambles the CRC with an appropriate RNTI. The difference between LP operation and DRX is that DRX is based on a preconfigured DRX cycle (via RRC or SIB), such that the network node (base station) cannot flexibly command the UE to enter the inactive mode. The possibility of doing so at the MAC layer involves the complexity of processing MAC signaling at both the MAC layer and the physical layer.

[0185] Specifically, embodiments will be discussed in which the UE monitors a signal (LP-WUS) that consists of one or more blank and silent resource elements or symbols mapped in the configured resources. In some more specific embodiments, the UE can monitor a WUS that consists of one or more sequences of silent / non-silent resource elements or symbols mapped to the resource elements or symbols in the configured resources. Based on the information obtained by detecting the WUS, the UE can determine whether to continue receiving / transmitting (one or more) signals other than the WUS. The information can be based on one or more of the following:

[0186] - the detected (one or more) resource locations of the silent (blank) resources

[0187] - Detected resource location(s) of non - silent (non - blank) resources

[0188] In the case of a WUS for a sequence including both silent and non - silent resources, a sequence ID or index can be used to indicate some additional information. There may be some information bits modulated by the sequence.

[0189] More detailed exemplary embodiments of such LP WUS, as well as devices and methods for generating or detecting a WUS, will be provided below. The present disclosure provides a network node (e.g., a base station) and a user equipment. The present disclosure also provides a system including a network node and a user equipment, as well as corresponding methods and programs.

[0190] An example of such a communication system is illustrated in Figure 6 Communication system 600 may be a wireless communication system according to the technical specifications of 5G, particularly an NR communication system. However, the present disclosure is not limited to 3GPP NR terrestrial networks (TN), and can also be applied to NTN or other wireless or cellular systems.

[0191] Figure 6 A general, simplified, and exemplary block diagram of a communication device 610 (exemplarily assumed here to be a UE) and a network node 660 (exemplarily assumed here to be located in a base station, e.g., in an LTE eNB (alternatively referred to as ng - eNB) or a gNB in 5G NR) is illustrated. However, generally, in the case of a sidelink connection between two terminals, the network node can also be a terminal. Additionally, particularly with respect to use cases of URLLC, eMBB, and mMTC, UE 610 can also be a sensor device, a wearable device, or a controller of a connected vehicle, or an automated machine in an industrial factory. Further, UE 610 is capable of acting as a relay between a base station and another communication device (e.g., the present disclosure is not limited to a communication "terminal" or a user "terminal").

[0192] As Figure 6 shown, UE 610 and network node 660 (eNB / gNB) can communicate with each other via a (wireless) physical channel 650 using their transceivers 620 (UE side) and 670 (network side), respectively. Network node 660 and UE 610 together form communication system 600. Communication system 600 may also include other entities, such as Figure 1 、 Figure 2 or Figure 5 those shown in

[0193] As Figure 6As shown in (the left - hand side), the UE 610 may include a transceiver 620 and a circuit (or more specifically, a processing circuit) 630. The network node 660 may include a transceiver 670 and a (processing) circuit 680. The transceiver may in turn include and / or function as a receiver and / or a transmitter. In other words, in this disclosure, the term "transceiver" is used to refer to the hardware and software components that allow a communication device or a base station, respectively, to send and / or receive radio signals over a wireless channel. Thus, the transceiver corresponds to a receiver, a transmitter, or a combination of a receiver and a transmitter. Generally, it is assumed that the base station and the UE are capable of sending and receiving radio signals. However, particularly for some applications related to eMBB, mMTC, and URLLC (smart home, smart city, industrial automation, etc.), it is conceivable that a device such as a sensor only receives signals. Additionally, the term "circuit" includes a processing circuit formed by one or more processors or processing units or other hardware (such as an FPGA, an ASIC, or other components). The circuits mentioned herein may also form an integrated circuit or be implemented on a single chip.

[0194] The transmitter may be responsible for performing the transmission process and other processes associated therewith. The receiver may be responsible for performing the reception process and other processes associated therewith, such as monitoring the channel.

[0195] The circuit or processing circuit may be one or more hardware components, such as one or more processors or any LSI. There may be input / output points (or nodes) between the transceiver and the processing circuit, through which the processing circuit can control the transceiver during operation, that is, control the receiver and / or the transmitter and exchange received / sent data. The transceiver, as both a transmitter and a receiver, may include an RF (radio frequency) front - end, which includes one or more antennas, amplifiers, RF modulators / demodulators, etc. The processing circuit may implement control tasks, such as controlling the transceiver to send user data and control data provided by the processing circuit and / or receive user data and control data to be further processed by the processing circuit. The processing circuit may also be responsible for performing other processes, such as determining, deciding, calculating, measuring, etc. For example, baseband processing including demodulation and decoding may be performed by the circuit.

[0196] The UE 610 may be a UE capable of detecting the above - mentioned WUS. Specifically, according to an exemplary embodiment, the UE 610 includes a transceiver 620 configured to receive wireless signals. In a pre - configured resource including the resource elements mentioned below.

[0197] In addition, the UE 610 includes a circuit 630 configured to:

[0198] - Detect whether there is a pre - configured wake - up signal WUS in the received wireless signal, where the WUS includes one or more of the silent resource elements;

[0199] - In the case where a Wake - Up Signal (WUS) is detected, determine that the user equipment will receive a control signal different from the WUS.

[0200] For the above - described function of detecting the WUS, the circuit 630 of the UE may include a corresponding WUS detection circuit 635.

[0201] Note that the detection can be performed when the UE is in a low - power (LP) state. The LP state means that the UE does not monitor the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and / or the synchronization channel. More strictly, in some embodiments, this may mean that the UE 610 does not monitor any other control or data channels except the WUS. Therefore, determining that the UE will receive a control signal different from the WUS may correspond to the decision to leave the low - power state.

[0202] The WUS can be pre - configured in any way. For example, the WUS can be defined in a standard and thus pre - configured at the UE, or configured by a network node using system information or using Radio Resource Control (RRC). The pre - configuration can be a mixture of these configuration means. For example, the form of the WUS can be defined in a standard, but the WUS timing can be configured per cell or per UE group in the System Information Block (SIB) and / or indicated to the UE by RRC. RRC can be used to indicate to the UE the UE - specific WUS timing configuration. Such a WUS timing configuration specifies, for example, in which resources the UE should monitor the WUS, i.e., the resources in which the UE 610 is to detect the presence or absence of the WUS.

[0203] The detection of the WUS can include measuring the power within a resource element at a pre - configured location that can carry the WUS. Such a pre - configured location can be a pre - configured WUS timing. For example, the detection can involve comparing the power received within the resource element and deciding whether the resource element is silent based on whether the received power is below a certain threshold. The threshold can be defined by a standard, or configurable by a network node, or determined by the UE based on some signaled rules or indications.

[0204] For example, measure the power received in one Resource Element (RE) pre - configured to potentially carry the WUS. If the measurement result exceeds the threshold, the UE should not wake up. However, if the power is less than the threshold, the UE should wake up. To make the WUS detection more reliable, there can be more than one location of the resource element that is silent, and the UE is to measure the power at these locations and infer whether they are silent. Only when all the measured resource elements are measured as silent can the wake - up be performed. However, the present disclosure is not limited to this method, and generally, any number of resource elements configured to carry the WUS and measured as silent can be sufficient to wake up the UE.

[0205] UE 610 is capable of deciding whether or at which time to leave the LP state after detecting the presence of a WUS. In this way, the UE can adapt the timing of leaving the LP state to its own implementation, for example, to the delay required to restart modules that have been turned off (or not used) during the LP state and will be used by the UE when not in the LP state.

[0206] Figure 6 The network node 660 includes circuitry 680 configured to:

[0207] - Determine whether a user equipment UE will receive a control signal different from a preconfigured wake-up signal WUS;

[0208] - In the case of determining that the UE will receive the control signal, include the WUS in a radio signal, where the WUS includes one or more of the silent resource elements.

[0209] In addition, the network node includes a transceiver 870 configured to transmit a radio signal.

[0210] Determining whether the UE will receive other signals in addition to the WUS can be performed by the network node based on the traffic currently available for transmission to the UE, based on UE capabilities, based on the resource management policy of the network node, based on the channel quality and interference level, etc. In other words, the network node can select the UEs to be woken up and send them the WUS accordingly.

[0211] As described above, the WUS can be dedicated to a UE or group-common, i.e., common to a group of UEs. Alternatively, the WUS can be common to all UEs in a cell.

[0212] Regarding the WUS, in an exemplary embodiment, the WUS includes a predefined sequence of one or more silent resource elements and one or more non-silent resource elements. Detecting a sequence with silent and non-silent resource elements can facilitate increased detection robustness compared to detecting isolated non-silent elements. In addition, the setting of the sequence can allow, for example, carrying some information in the selection of the sequence and / or accommodating multiple, e.g., orthogonal sequences for corresponding UEs or groups of UEs, etc. in the same resource.

[0213] Generally, the WUS sequence can be carried by corresponding resource elements in any domain of the communication system. In a specific example of OFDM, the sequence can be carried by preconfigured resource elements (resource elements in preconfigured positions), which may or may not be contiguous in the time domain. For one time instance, the WUS can be defined on one or more subcarriers (e.g., contiguous subcarriers). A time instance here corresponds to a symbol - a symbol can be considered a time instance in some communication systems because it is the smallest time unit carrying data and corresponds to the resource element definition.

[0214] In the following, specific examples of the WUS sequence in the time domain (a) and the WUS sequence in the frequency domain (b) are discussed.

[0215] a. WUS sequence in the time domain

[0216] In this specific example, the WUS includes a predefined sequence of silent and non - silent resource elements in the time domain of the time - frequency resource grid.

[0217] This is shown in Figure 7 FIG. Figure 7 FIG. LP - WUS 710 is shown, the structure of which consists of silent symbols that can be represented by "0" in some symbols and non - silent symbols that can be represented by "1" in other symbols, thus forming the bit sequence "1100111010". This is shown in the upper part of Figure 7 FIG., where the horizontal axis t corresponds to time and the vertical axis 720 corresponds to the amplitude of the signal. Note that the amplitude of the non - silent signal (corresponding to the power of the non - silent part of the transmitted WUS) can be pre - configured either by a standard or by signaling from the network node 660 to the UE 610. This signaling can be a direct signaling of the power to be transmitted, or a signaling of the ratio between the WUS power and the power of another signal (such as a synchronization signal or a reference signal, etc.) that is known (e.g., has been pre - configured) at the UE and the network node. In the example of Figure 7 FIG., the sequence is carried by consecutive symbols (resource elements) in the time domain.

[0218] In the example of Figure 7 FIG., the WUS thus includes a predefined sequence of silent and non - silent symbols in the time domain. Each of the symbols corresponds to a plurality of resource elements associated with the same time, and specifically corresponds to a plurality of sub - carriers in the time - frequency resource grid of an orthogonal frequency division system. This is shown at the bottom of Figure 7 FIG. Specifically, Figure 7 the bottom of FIG. has a horizontal time axis t and a vertical axis 730 as the frequency axis. Thus, "1" is represented by a non - silent symbol 750 in the time domain, which corresponds to one time instance in the time domain and a plurality of sub - carriers.

[0219] For example, the plurality of sub - carriers in one symbol correspond to all those sub - carriers that are transformed through an orthogonal transform to form the symbol in the time domain. In other words, the number of sub - carriers of a symbol is given by the size of the transform that applies to convert the plurality of sub - carriers into a time - domain symbol and the inverse transform that converts the time - domain symbol into a plurality of sub - carriers. As in an OFDM system, the sub - carriers can be orthogonal. In other words, Figure 7An example is illustrated in which the WUS is carried by a sequence of silent OFDM symbols and non-silent OFDM symbols. Although NR is based on OFDM, the present disclosure is not limited to OFDM and is applicable to other systems such as SC-FDM, S-DCT-FDM, etc.

[0220] Note that a non-silent symbol (e.g., a non-silent OFDM symbol) does not necessarily mean that all resource elements (sub-carriers) must be non-silent. It is sufficient that one or more sub-carriers of the symbol are non-silent. Even if one sub-carrier is non-silent, it is possible to detect whether the symbol is silent or non-silent. The spectral shape of the symbol (which sub-carriers will be silent and which sub-carriers will not be silent) can be configured by a standard or by signaling or a combination of both.

[0221] Using all sub-carriers of a component carrier belonging to a time-domain symbol to indicate the WUS can provide some additional advantages for a system in which information is carried in the sub-carriers that are (inversely) transformed into a time-domain symbol. For example, the distinction between a silent symbol and a non-silent symbol can be performed without having to perform a transformation to the frequency (sub-carrier) domain at the receiver. Specifically, the WUS can be detected particularly efficiently - with low complexity and thus low power cost. For example, the detection can be based on evaluating the received power of each symbol in the time domain. As described above, the detection can be performed by comparing with a pre-configured threshold.

[0222] Although it may be advantageous to make an entire symbol silent / non-silent in the time domain of a component carrier, the present disclosure is not limited to this exemplary implementation. In this exemplary implementation, one WUS will occupy one or more entire symbols. To improve resource utilization efficiency, the WUS can be multiplexed only in the frequency domain with, for example, data or control information or reference signals related to other UEs. In this case, only one or more sub-carriers of the component carrier rather than all sub-carriers will be used for the WUS. Although in this case the UE may have to perform a transformation to the frequency domain in order to extract the power level of the resource elements carrying the WUS, processing complexity and power can still be saved because no demodulation or decoding or other processing is required. In the case where multiplexing with other data is performed only in non-silent resources and not in silent resources, it is even possible to distinguish between silent resources and non-silent resources and thus detect the WUS without a transformation.

[0223] One of the benefits of detecting a sequence of silent / non-silent resource elements is the possibility of embedding some additional information into the sequence.

[0224] The UE monitors preconfigured resources to look for the occurrence of WUS. For example, the UE determines whether to start receiving other signals (e.g., SSB, PDCCH) based on the information detected from the LP-WUS. The information obtained through detection can be the resource locations of '0' and / or non-'0' bits (silent and / or non-silent resource elements or symbols). Whether the UE only detects the locations of silent elements, only detects the locations of non-silent elements, or both can be left to the UE implementation. For higher robustness, the WUS sequence detection can include the correlation between the preconfigured WUS sequence and the received signal (the signal received in the preconfigured resource elements or symbols for monitoring WUS).

[0225] If the presence of WUS is positively confirmed (e.g., by detecting all or most of the silent resource elements at the expected locations of the system resources), the UE can wake up, e.g., start receiving signals other than WUS, i.e., monitor other synchronization or control resources other than the WUS occasion. For example, after the UE has positively detected the presence of WUS, the next step can be to monitor the SSB and / or PDCCH.

[0226] In addition, the WUS sequence can carry additional information, such as the ID of the detected sequence or some bits assigned to the sequence or the corresponding silent / non-silent level. For example, different UEs can use different sequences. The information carried by the WUS sequence can be some control information, as will be described in more detail later.

[0227] Some advantages of signaling WUS in the time domain sequence can be that the receiving UE can save energy by detecting the 0 / non-0 positions using only energy detection and / or low-complexity sequence correlation in the time domain. This is friendly to the low-power receiver design with a structure that supports a dedicated module for LP-WUS detection.

[0228] b. WUS Sequence in the Frequency Domain

[0229] In a specific example, WUS includes a predefined sequence of silent and non-silent resource elements in the frequency domain of the time-frequency resource grid.

[0230] This is illustrated in Figure 8 Specifically, Figure 8 shows the horizontal frequency axis, on which the subcarriers are shown by solid or dashed lines. In the example of Figure 8 , all subcarriers are within the same symbol, i.e., associated with the same time instance. The solid lines indicate non-silent resource elements (subcarriers with transmitted non-zero signals), and the dashed lines indicate silent resource elements (subcarriers with transmitted zero signals). In this example, the silent and non-silent resource elements (continuous in the frequency domain) form one or more WUS sequences.

[0231] Although in this specific example, the WUS sequence(s) is mapped to silent and non-silent resource elements in the frequency domain instead of the time domain, the UE behavior can be similar to that described above with reference to the WUS sequence in the time domain. For example, the UE can determine to wake up and start receiving other signals (e.g., SSB, PDCCH) or not wake up based on the detected information from the LP-WUS. The detected information can be the presence or absence of the WUS sequence that can be detected by detecting the resource positions of '0' and / or non-'0' bits (e.g., the comb positions corresponding to silent subcarriers and non-silent subcarriers). Some UEs can detect the WUS sequence by only detecting the presence and / or absence of power (energy) in the subcarriers of the WUS occasion. Some UEs can perform the correlation of a preconfigured WUS sequence with the power (energy) detected in the subcarriers of the received symbols related to the WUS occasion. The detected WUS sequence can carry information such as the sequence ID of the WUS sequence or the modulation bits (bits modulated by the WUS sequence) as described above for the time domain. The positions of the silent and non-silent resource elements in the frequency domain can be defined in the standard and / or preconfigured by signaling from the network node to the UE (e.g., according to RRC or system information). The WUS sequence can be common for all UEs in the cell, or common for a group of UEs or UE-specific.

[0232] Silence in the frequency domain can reduce inter-symbol interference and improve coverage performance. This can also relax the time synchronization requirements of the receiver, which may be beneficial for lower power receiver designs with architectures that support dedicated modules for LP-WUS detection.

[0233] Reference Figure 7 and Figure 8 The above specific examples described are not intended to limit the present disclosure. Note that it is generally not necessary to provide WUS that is continuous in the time domain and / or frequency domain. The WUS can be carried in resource elements scattered in the time-frequency resources of the component carrier.

[0234] As described above, regardless of whether the WUS sequence is located in the time domain and / or frequency domain, the WUS sequence can be used to carry some information. In some exemplary embodiments, such information is modulated into the silent / non-silent elements. For example, the silent element corresponds to bit '0', the non-silent element corresponds to bit '1', and vice versa, etc. However, the information can also be carried by the identity of the sequence.

[0235] For example, a predefined sequence is one corresponding to the WUS among a plurality of predefined sequences. Each of the plurality of predefined sequences is associated with a corresponding content of control information.

[0236] For example, each of multiple sequences can be associated with a sequence identifier (sequence ID). One sequence ID can be assigned to the first UE, and another sequence ID can be assigned to the second UE, and so on. In other words, by using the WUS sequence with a specific sequence ID, the corresponding UE to which the sequence ID is assigned can detect the presence of the sequence and determine wake-up accordingly. Other UEs assigned different sequences will detect the absence of the sequences assigned to them and will not wake up.

[0237] In an exemplary embodiment, the multiple sequences are orthogonal to each other. In this case, they can be transmitted in the same resource (e.g., symbol and / or subcarrier). For example, three different and orthogonal WUS sequences can be transmitted to three corresponding different UEs in the same resource element to wake them up. Each UE can detect whether its assigned WUS sequence exists in the resource element by correlating the assigned WUS sequence with the power (energy) received in the resource element. The multiple sequences used to indicate WUS to one or more UEs can be a subset of all or all possible orthogonal sequences.

[0238] Note that the WUS sequence (WUS sequence ID) does not have to be assigned to the corresponding UE as described above. In some exemplary embodiments, the WUS sequence is assigned to a cell or a group of UEs. In other words, there can be an association between the WUS sequence (WUS sequence ID) and the cell ID, or there can be an association between the WUS sequence (WUS sequence ID) and the group ID. The group ID identifies a specific group of UEs.

[0239] This association between a specific WUS sequence and the UE ID or cell ID or group ID can be understood as the WUS sequence carrying control information, i.e., information corresponding to the UE ID, cell ID, or group ID. This disclosure is not limited to this control information.

[0240] Instead, as a supplement or alternative to the UE ID and / or cell ID and / or group ID, the WUS sequence can be used to indicate one or both of the following:

[0241] - The offset after which the user equipment will monitor signals other than WUS; and

[0242] - The user equipment will start monitoring the system synchronization signal and / or the physical downlink control channel PDCCH.

[0243] For example, the first specific sequence may indicate that the UE is to monitor the SSB, the second specific sequence may indicate that the UE is to monitor the PDCCH, and the third specific sequence may indicate that the UE is to monitor both the SSB and the PDCCH. If the sequences are orthogonal, the third specific sequence may be unnecessary because the third specific sequence can be indicated by transmitting the first sequence and the second sequence simultaneously. This is only a possible example. In another example, there is one specific sequence that signals to the UE to detect both the SSB and the PDCCH, and there is no sequence that would allow for discrimination between detecting the SSB and detecting the PDCCH.

[0244] The offset may be an offset in the time domain. It may be specified in any suitable unit, e.g., in terms of a number of symbols or time slots or subframes, etc. It is contemplated that the (one or more) frequency resources on which another signal is expected are also indicated. The frequency resources may indicate any bandwidth part, such as a carrier, subcarriers, etc.

[0245] It is possible to include additional or alternative control information. Note that the WUS sequence does not have to carry additional information and may be used only for detecting whether to wake up.

[0246] In any of the foregoing examples, the one or more silent resource elements among the resource elements corresponding to the WUS or the WUS sequence may be configured in the system information or configured by a message received by the user equipment within a radio resource control (RRC) protocol message. For example, the WUS configuration common to all UEs in a cell or the WUS configuration common to a UE group may be signaled in the system information (e.g., in one of the system information blocks (SIBs)). The WUS configuration specific to a UE may be signaled to the UE via an RRC protocol message. However, the RRC message may also include the cell-common or group-common WUS configuration. The WUS configuration may include the configuration of the WUS occasion, e.g., in which resource elements the (one or more) UEs are to detect the presence or absence of the WUS. This may be done by specifying the periodic time interval after which the UE will perform the detection of the WUS and / or by specifying the frequency resources (component carriers, cells, subcarriers, etc.) to be monitored.

[0247] In the above example, the UE detects whether the pre-configured WUS is present in the pre-configured resources (resource elements). If present, the UE wakes up (leaves the LP state). If not present, the UE does not wake up (does not leave the LP state). However, the present disclosure is not limited to waking up by detecting the presence of the WUS. It is contemplated that if the absence of the WUS is detected, the UE wakes up. It is also contemplated that if a first specific WUS is detected, the UE wakes up, and if a second specific WUS is detected, the UE does not wake up. The term "specific WUS" refers to a specific pre-configured sequence of one or more silent resource elements or silent / non-silent resource elements as described above.

[0248] As described above, control signals different from the WUS may include synchronization signals and / or system information and / or PDCCH. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and the WUS may indicate that the UE will monitor only certain information in the PDCCH (detect DCI using a certain subset of all configured RNTIs), etc. Alternatively or additionally, the WUS may indicate that the UE will transmit a certain signal (such as a sounding reference signal, etc.) or a scheduling request, etc.

[0249] The presence of non-silent elements in any of the above examples can be used for interference measurement. For example, circuit 630 may be configured to perform:

[0250] - Measurement of interference based on the power received in the one or more silent resource elements, and / or

[0251] - Measurement of reference signal received power (RSRP) or reference signal received quality (RSRQ) using one or more non-silent resource elements as reference signals.

[0252] The measurement of interference may be the interference part of the channel state information (CSI) report or received signal strength indicator (RSSI), for example, as defined in Section 5.2 of 3GPP TS 38.214 (e.g., v17.2.0) and particularly Section 5.2.2.4 for CSI, and in Sections 5.1.3, 5.1.4, 5.1.12, or 5.1.16 of 3GPP TS 38.215 (e.g., v17.1.0) for NR.

[0253] In the above examples, the focus has been given to the WUS design and semantics. Such WUS design and semantics can enable various power-efficient implementations of the UE and corresponding implementations of the base station.

[0254] UE 610 includes circuit 630. Circuit 630 may include a WUS detection circuit 635 as Figure 6 shown. This circuit may operate with lower complexity and power consumption. Additionally, in an exemplary UE implementation, the WUS detection circuit 635 may operate independently and perform WUS detection (corresponding to the LP state). Circuit 630 may include Figure 9 a separate control / data processing circuit 637 as shown therein, which implements the physical layer to demodulate and possibly decode control signals and / or user data (physical layer payload). The control / data processing circuit 637 may be turned off (not perform any processing) in the LP state. When the WUS detection circuit 635 detects the WUS, it may be turned on. Since it is expected that the control / data processing circuit 637 has a greater energy consumption (and higher processing complexity) than the WUS detection circuit 635, energy savings can be achieved.

[0255] Note that the LP state and WUS detection as described above can coexist with any existing power reduction method (such as DRX or formats 2_6 or 2_7 of the DCI mentioned above). Specifically, the WUS detection is located at a lower position on the physical layer: in the LP state, the PDCCH is not monitored, such that formats 2_6 or 2_7 of the DCI can only be monitored when not in the LP state. Different from DRX, in the LP state, there is also no need to monitor the paging occasion, and in order to read the paging occasion, it is still necessary to read the synchronization channel and the PDCCH. In the LP state, only the WUS needs to be monitored (perform detection to find out whether the WUS exists). As in some embodiments, the WUS is a physical layer signal that does not need to be demodulated or at least decoded as part of the baseband processing, with power reduction expected. When demodulation is mentioned herein, it means the demodulation of the signal in the resource element. Processing based on OFDM or other transforms can still be performed in some embodiments, but does not have to be performed in other embodiments as discussed above.

[0256] The network node 660 includes circuitry 680, and the circuitry 680 may further include a WUS generation circuitry 685 configured to generate one or more WUS signals for one or more UEs. Note that in addition to the WUS generation circuitry 685, the circuitry 680 may further include control / data processing circuitry 687 as Figure 10 shown, for performing physical layer processing, such as baseband processing of the received signal for detection (e.g., demodulation and decoding) or baseband processing of the signal to be sent to one or more UEs (e.g., modulation and encoding).

[0257] Note that the WUS signal can be sent without beamforming. Alternatively, the WUS signal can be sent with beamforming (e.g., carrying a beam index). In some embodiments, the WUS is different for different radio cells or for each UE or UE group.

[0258] The present disclosure also provides methods corresponding to the above actions performed by the circuitry 630 and transceiver 620 of the UE and the above actions performed by the circuitry 680 and transceiver 670 of the network node.

[0259] For example, a method for performing at a user equipment (UE) is provided. The method includes obtaining a wireless signal. Specifically, the wireless signal can be wirelessly received by the transceiver of the UE and provided as Figure 11Input to method 1110 as shown. Method 1110 monitors resources for a WUS. Specifically, the monitoring includes step 1120 of detecting whether a preconfigured wake-up signal WUS is present in the received wireless signal. The WUS includes one or more of the silent resource elements. In the case where the WUS is detected as present (after fork 1130, "yes"), the method includes determining that the user equipment will receive a control signal different from the WUS. After this determination, the method may include the actual reception 1140 of the control signal different from the transmission of the WUS and / or the signal. As described above, the WUS may include the specification of the signal to be received / transmitted. In the case where the WUS is detected as absent (after fork 1130, "no"), the method returns to monitoring the WUS.

[0260] Similarly, a method for execution at a network node is provided. The method is shown in Figure 12 and includes determining 1210 whether a user equipment UE will receive a control signal different from a preconfigured wake-up signal WUS. Additionally, the method includes, in the case where it is determined (in step 1210, "yes") that the UE will receive the control signal, including 1220 the WUS in the wireless signal, where the WUS includes one or more of the silent resource elements. This step may also include the actual transmission 1230 of the wireless signal carrying the WUS.

[0261] In the case where it is determined (in step 1210, "no") that the UE does not receive the control signal, the method returns to step 1210. Note that the method may also include, after transmitting 1230 the WUS to the UE, transmitting 1240 the control signal to the UE.

[0262] Two-part wake-up signaling

[0263] The disadvantages of the existing power reduction mechanisms described in the "energy saving" section can be solved as described in the above embodiment "wake-up signal using silent resource elements" and / or with an embodiment regarding two-part wake-up signaling as described in more detail below. Some combinations of the two embodiments may also be advantageous.

[0264] To provide an efficient energy saving mechanism, in this embodiment, two-part wake-up signaling is provided, which includes a wake-up signal WUS followed in the time domain by wake-up information WUI in case the WUS indicates that the UE will receive control data different from the WUS and the WUI. Note that the WUS in this embodiment may have the characteristics as described in the embodiment "wake-up signal using silent resource elements", but it does not have to have them. In other words, the WUS in this embodiment is not necessarily a signal including one or more silent resource elements.

[0265] Compared with the possibility of the above-mentioned WUS carrying additional information, adding a second part (WUI) to the wake-up signal can increase the control information capacity. In addition, the benefits of UE energy saving and friendliness to dedicated low-power receivers can be maintained.

[0266] The two-part wake-up signaling is applicable to Figure 13 the communication system 1300 shown. The communication system 1300 can be a wireless communication system such as NR, similar to Figure 6 the system 600. The communication system 1300 includes a UE 1310 and a network node 1360 that communicate with each other via a wireless channel 1350. The UE 1310 has a structure similar to that of the UE 610 described above with reference to Figure 6 the UE 610.

[0267] The UE 1310 is different from the UE 610 specifically in that the WUS / WUI detection circuit 1335 is included in the circuit 1330 instead of the WUS detection circuit 635 included in the circuit 630. The structure of the transceiver 1320 can be similar to that of the transceiver 620. Specifically, the user equipment 1310 includes a transceiver 1320 configured to receive wireless signals. This configuration can be implemented by a transceiver including one or more antennas, amplifiers, and possibly a modulator and / or a digital-to-analog converter from the baseband to the desired carrier (similar to the case of the transceiver 620). The specific hardware structure can vary with the specific UE implementation and the characteristics of the wireless communication system.

[0268] The UE 1310 further includes a circuit 1330 configured to (in operation):

[0269] - Detect the presence of the wake-up signal WUS in the received wireless signal;

[0270] - Based on the WUS, determine the wake-up information according to the received wireless signal;

[0271] - Based on the wake-up information, determine to receive control information other than the WUS and the wake-up information.

[0272] The circuit 1330 can include a corresponding WUS / WUI detection circuit 1335 that performs the detection of the above-mentioned WUS, the determination of the WUI, and the determination of receiving additional signals.

[0273] A UE that only monitors the WUS can be considered to be in a low-power (LP) state. Once the UE starts to receive signals other than the WUS and the WUI, the UE can be considered to leave the LP state. The reception of the WUI can also be considered to be related to the LP state.

[0274] As described for the foregoing embodiments, detection of the WUS can be performed within resources preconfigured for the WUS (e.g., in resources configured at the UE before the UE enters the LP state). Such resources can be periodic or regular. The LP state is a state in which the UE only reads the WUS and possibly the WUI without reading other signals and in particular without reading the PDCCH or another signaling.

[0275] Examples of determining wake-up information based on the WUS (from the received radio signal) include determination based on location and / or based on the content of the WUS.

[0276] Hereinafter, the WUS part of the wake-up signaling can be referred to as part 1 signaling, and the WUI part of the wake-up signaling can be referred to as part 2 signaling.

[0277] Network node 1360 has a structure similar to that of network node 660 described above with reference to Figure 6 The network node (base station) 1360 differs from network node 660 specifically in that the circuit 1380 includes a WUS / WUI generation circuit 1385 instead of the circuit 680 including a WUS detection circuit 685. The structure of the transceiver 1370 can be similar to that of the transceiver 670.

[0278] Specifically, a network node 1360 is provided, which includes a circuit 1380 that, in operation:

[0279] - determines whether a user equipment UE will receive control information different from a preconfigured wake-up signal WUS and wake-up information; and

[0280] - in the case of determining that the UE will receive the control information, includes the WUS followed by wake-up information in the radio signal.

[0281] In addition, the network node 1360 includes a transceiver 1370 that, in operation, transmits a radio signal. For example, when the network node 1360 determines that the UE should wake up (e.g., because there is data to be received by the UE or the conditions change such that the UE should receive some new configuration or synchronization, etc.), the circuit 1380 generates the WUS and controls the transmitter 1370 to transmit the WUS in resources preconfigured for monitoring the WUS in the LP state. Then, the circuit 1380 generates the WUI and controls the transmitter 1370 to transmit the WUI in resources that can be determined based on (e.g., relative to) the location of the WUS, as will be described later.

[0282] On the UE side, the UE monitors preconfigured resources to find the WUS (which is also preconfigured). Based on the detection result of the WUS, the UE decides whether to further detect the WUI. Specifically, if the WUS is detected (indicating that the UE should wake up), the UE will receive the WUI in the resources determined based on the content or location of the WUS.

[0283] The structure of WUS part #1 can be the same as that described in the foregoing embodiments, i.e., the WUS can include at least one silent resource element. However, this embodiment is not limited to such a WUS structure. The WUS can be any preconfigured signal that does not have to have any silent part. As described above, when referring to "preconfigured", it means being configured before the UE enters the LP state, i.e., before the UE stops receiving or monitoring control channels and data channels other than the WUS (and WUI). The WUS can be defined by power level and / or phase, and can be mapped on multiple WUS timing resource elements, which may or may not be adjacent in the time domain and / or frequency domain. For example, the WUS can be an OFDM symbol sequence with a preconfigured signal power level and / or shape, etc.

[0284] Figure 16 An example is shown of determining the wake-up information (WUI) including determining the position of the resource carrying the wake-up information based on a preconfigured first offset (offset_a) relative to the WUS in the time domain.

[0285] Specifically, Figure 16 OFDM symbol 1610 that can carry the WUS (wake-up signaling, part 1 to be monitored in the LP state) is shown. In this example, the WUS is mapped to an OFDM symbol sequence. However, as described above, generally the WUS can be mapped to resource elements that are not necessarily adjacent in the time domain and / or frequency domain. After offset_a, the resource carrying the WUI 1620 is shown. Note that in this example, offset_a is measured in the time domain from the end of the WUS resource to the start of the WUI resource. However, the present disclosure is not limited to such an embodiment. Generally, the first offset can be defined between the start of the WUS and the start of the WUI or in any other way. One of the advantages of defining the first offset is to reduce signaling to find the WUI. This advantage is maintained regardless of how precisely the first offset is defined.

[0286] The time-domain gap offset_a between part 1 and part 2 of the wake-up signaling can be fixed (e.g., by a standard) or configurable (e.g., by higher-layer signaling such as RRC or by system information SIB). It can be configurable for each cell and common to all UEs of the cell, or common to each group of UEs of the cell, or individual for the UE.

[0287] Note that when the UE is not in the LP state, it is not necessary to perform monitoring of WUS / WUI. In other words, once the UE starts monitoring other control signals (SSB, PDCCH, etc.) or receives a data signal, the UE can stop monitoring WUS. This corresponds to leaving the LP state.

[0288] The transmission power level of WUS and / or WUI can be adapted to the conditions in the communication system. To efficiently indicate the transmission power level, the transmission power level can be indicated as a ratio to a power level that has already been indicated. For example, one or both of the following can be preconfigured:

[0289] - The ratio of the energy per resource element (RE) carrying WUS to the energy per RE carrying a reference signal that can be used to demodulate the wake-up information;

[0290] - The ratio of the energy per RE carrying the wake-up information to the energy per RE carrying a reference signal that can be used to demodulate the wake-up information.

[0291] When referring to "the ratio of X and Y" herein, it means the ratio X / Y or the ratio Y / X. The energy per resource element can be abbreviated as EPRE and indicates the power of a resource element (RE). This can be used for any channel (e.g., synchronization signal, reference signal, PDSCH, etc.). This value does not change with the system bandwidth or the number of RBs. However, the present disclosure is not limited to indicating the transmission power level in this way. Other metrics and corresponding ratios can be used. Thus, providing a ratio relative to WUS can improve the reception robustness of WUI reference and / or data and possibly other signals.

[0292] Generally, the SSB will be used for the reference energy level (e.g., in NR, the primary synchronization signal and / or the secondary synchronization signal). However, in the LP mode, the UE may not need to receive the synchronization signal.

[0293] The preconfiguration can be performed by the radio resource control (RRC) protocol (the network node sends a configuration message to the UE) or obtained from the system information. However, generally, the ratio of the WUS part 1 EPRE and the WUS part 2 DMRS EPRE can also be fixed. Variations are possible, for example, there may be a fixed number of possible ratios in the standard, and the configurability may be limited to signaling which one of them will be applicable. It is conceivable that, in addition to or instead of preconfiguring WUS before the UE enters the LP state, signaling the power ratio within WUS. Thus, the UE can measure the power in WUS (part 1 WUS signaling) and then apply the preconfigured ratio to obtain the DMRS EPRE of WUI.

[0294] The ratio of WUI_EPRE (for non-DMRS resource elements) to WUI_DMRS EPRE is fixed (e.g., one or more values defined by the standard) and / or configurable (e.g., via SIB or RRC). Thus, the UE can measure WUI DMRS and apply the ratio to receive data. Note that these are only some examples that do not limit the present disclosure. In general, other ratios can be fixed and / or pre-configured. For example, the ratio of WUS (part 1 wake-up signaling) and WUI information (data sent within WUI rather than reference signals such as DMRS) can be used. Reference signals other than DMRS can be used in the ratio instead of DMRS mentioned in the above examples.

[0295] The setting of the two-part signal can facilitate some additional power efficiency gains. For example, detecting the presence of WUS (part 1 of the wake-up signaling) does not include demodulating and forward error correction (FEC) decoding of the signal in the corresponding resource element. Additionally or alternatively, the determination of the wake-up information (part 2 of the wake-up signaling) includes demodulating and / or FEC decoding.

[0296] In other words, in this example, WUS is a physical signal that can be detected only by measuring the received power, without any more complex baseband physical layer processing (and without any higher layers), such as MAC, RLC, etc. This WUS provides the advantage that the processing at the UE can be greatly simplified, thus saving energy. Accordingly, when one or more UEs are to be woken up, the network node can easily generate such a signal and embed such a signal into the system resources pre-configured for carrying WUS. To use the transmission power efficiently, WUS can be repeatedly transmitted with a beam sequence having mutually different directivities.

[0297] On the other hand, the WUI carries information (control data). To reliably and resource-efficiently transmit the control data, it may be desirable to apply some physical layer processing, such as modulation or FEC or beamforming, etc. Thus, in this example, the WUI is a modulated and possibly also encoded signal. Beamforming, precoding, or space-time decoding can be applied to the WUI. Note that when modulation and demodulation are mentioned herein, it means the modulation of data mapped to a resource element (subcarrier, symbol). For example, the WUI can be modulated by BPSK, QPSK, or generally QAM of any order, or by another type of modulation. Before modulation, the information to be sent in the WUI can be FEC encoded or repeated, etc. Since the WUI is only sent when the WUS indicates that the UE or UEs are to leave the LP state, the increase in power consumption caused by the physical layer processing is limited. If needed, providing information within the WUI can accelerate the wake-up and enable the UE to quickly acquire synchronization and establish a connection for data transmission. For example, if the UE detects the WUS and the subsequent WUI, based on the WUI payload (the information carried by the WUI), the UE can determine whether and where to receive other signals (e.g., SSB and / or PDCCH).

[0298] Figure 14 and Figure 15 illustrates the functional structure of the corresponding circuit 1330 of the UE and the circuit 1380 of the network node. Specifically, the circuit 1330 of the UE includes a WUS detection circuit 1335a and a WUI detection circuit 1335b, both of which can be considered to be Figure 13 a part of the WUS / WUI detection circuit 1335 shown. The WUS detection circuit 1335a implements the simple power level detection as described above, while the WUI detection circuit 1335b can implement at least a part of the physical layer processing for the control / user data processing performed by the control / data processing circuit 1337. The control / data processing circuit 1337 is also part of the circuit 1330. Note that this functional structure is only exemplary. It is conceivable that the WUI detection involves processing similar to that applied to the user / control data, such that the control / data processing circuit 1337 can also be used to process (detect) the WUI.

[0299] Accordingly, the circuit 1380 of the network node includes a WUS generation circuit 1385a and a WUI generation circuit 1385b, both of which can be considered to be Figure 13A portion of the WUS / WUI generation circuit 1385 as shown. As described above, the WUS generation circuit 1385a implements the generation of power levels mapped to preconfigured resource elements, while the WUI generation circuit 1385b can implement at least a part of the physical layer processing for control / user data processing performed by the control / data processing circuit 1387. The control / data processing circuit 1387 is also part of the circuit 1380. Note that this functional structure is merely exemplary. It is conceivable that WUI generation involves processing similar to that applied to user / control data generation, such that the control / data processing circuit 1387 can also be used to process (generate) the WUI.

[0300] Compared to the setting with only WUS as described only in the foregoing embodiments, adding a second part (WUI) to the WUS can increase the control information capacity. In addition to this, the benefits of UE energy saving and friendliness to dedicated low-power receivers are maintained. For example, the detection of WUS only requires a small amount of processing and thus only a small amount of battery power. During WUS monitoring, the control / data processing circuit 1337 can be inactive or even turned off. Similarly, the WUI detection circuit 1335b can be inactive or at least turned off until the presence of WUS is confirmed (detected). Once WUS is detected, the control / data processing circuit 1337 and the WUI detection circuit 1335b can be turned on or activated again.

[0301] Figure 17 Illustrates an exemplary implementation that can be used with any of the above examples of this embodiment (two-part wake-up signaling) or the foregoing embodiments (WUS including silent resource elements).

[0302] Therefore, the wake-up information includes an indication of a second offset (offset_b) in the time domain. The second offset indicates one of the following:

[0303] - The offset between the wake-up information and the resource including the control information, or

[0304] - The minimum offset at which the user equipment is to start monitoring the resource including the control information.

[0305] In other words, offset_b can be defined as the actual offset or the minimum offset. The actual offset may be beneficial for energy saving due to less search work. The minimum offset may be beneficial for requirement design and implementation flexibility.

[0306] Figure 17 Shows an exemplary WUS1700 and a synchronization signal (SSB 1730) that follows the WUS1700 in the time domain and represents control information. In Figure 17Among them, the offset is between the end of WUS 1700 and the start of SSB 1730. As described above for offset_a, offset_b does not have to be measured in this way. Instead, it can be defined between the start or end of WUS and SSB, or defined in any other way. offset_b can be defined between WUI and. However, generally, offset_b can be defined between WUS (or WUI) and control information. The control information is, for example, a synchronization signal (such as synchronization signal block SSB) or a physical downlink control channel PDCCH, etc.

[0307] Figure 17 It is only schematic. WUI is not shown in the figure.

[0308] Regarding UE operation, circuit 1330 determines in operation to receive control information other than WUS and receive wake-up information according to a second offset. As described above, the second offset indicates the offset between the wake-up information and the resource including the control information or the minimum offset for the user equipment to start monitoring the resource including the control information. The second offset is fixed, pre-configured, or received within the wake-up information, or a combination thereof.

[0309] After the UE decides to continue receiving other DL signals based on the received WUS, the UE can start receiving SSB, where it leaves at least a time offset (offset_b) after WUS. However, the UE can decide in other ways: for example, the UE may not be able to start receiving SSB and may need more time to boot the electronics, etc. In other words, some UEs can wake up after receiving WUS and after waiting for the duration of offset_b.

[0310] offset_b can be fixed or configurable (e.g., via SIB or RRC). As also described for offset_a, offset_b can be configured for each cell, each UE group, or each individual UE.

[0311] The reception of the said control information corresponds to leaving the low-power operation state. However, it can be considered that the UE has left the LP state when receiving WUI.

[0312] After being woken up by WUS and having a minimum time offset (offset_b) before receiving SSB, the UE can have enough time to turn on modules other than the possible dedicated module for receiving WUS. This can correspond to the necessary ramp-up time for an efficient low-power receiver design that conforms to UE capabilities.

[0313] The wake-up information (WUI) can include one or more of the following:

[0314] - PDCCH search space configuration (e.g., defining the resources in which the UE is to monitor (blind detect) the PDCCH for receiving control information such as DCI),

[0315] - Discontinuous reception DRX configuration (e.g., configuration of DCI period and / or configuration of short / long DCI period),

[0316] - Bandwidth part BWP configuration (e.g., for receiving and / or transmitting control or payload data),

[0317] - Beam index configuration (e.g., for receiving or transmitting control information or user data (payload)),

[0318] - Channel state information reference signal CSI-RS configuration (e.g., the position of CSI-RS in resources and / or the transmission power level of CSI-RS; alternatively or additionally to CSI-RS, other types of reference signals may be configured by control information),

[0319] - Number of MIMO layers for transmitting or receiving data (control and / or payload),

[0320] - Ratio of the energy per resource element RE carrying WUS to the energy per RE carrying the reference signal available for demodulation of the PDCCH;

[0321] — Ratio of the energy per RE carrying the synchronization signal to the energy per RE carrying the reference signal available for demodulation of the PDCCH.

[0322] The above control information can help the UE quickly start transmitting or receiving. Note that the present disclosure is not limited to the above parameters. Some of the above parameters may be signaled via DCI (within the PDCCH) or configured via RRC, except for WUI in the case of waking up from LP.

[0323] It may not be necessary to indicate all this data within the WUI. Some configurations and additional control information may be received via the PDCCH. The UE may start reading the PDCCH after receiving the WUS or after offset_c after receiving the WUI. This is shown in Figure 18 In Figure 18 Wake-up signaling 1800 is shown. For example, wake-up signaling 1800 is WUS (part 1), which is applicable to the foregoing embodiments (WUS with silent REs), but may also be applied to this embodiment. Alternatively, wake-up signaling 1800 is WUI (part 2), which is applicable to this embodiment. As Figure 18As shown, after receiving the wake-up signaling 1800, the UE starts to receive (monitor) the PDCCH monitoring occasion 1840. The PDCCH monitoring occasion (e.g., search space configuration) can be pre-configured (configured before the UE enters the LP state) or can be configured by the WUI.

[0324] offset_c can be the same as or different from offset_b in value. In addition, instead of signaling both offset_b and offset_c, it is conceivable to signal only a single offset offset_bc after which the UE starts to receive both the synchronization and the PDCCH. In this case, offset_bc can be defined as the minimum offset after which the UE starts to receive the synchronization signal (e.g., SSB) and the PDCCH.

[0325] Similar to offset_b, offset_c can be defined as the actual offset or the minimum offset. For example, after the UE decides to continue receiving other downlink signals (in addition to WUS and WUI), the UE starts to receive the PDCCH, where the PDCCH has at least a time offset offset_c after WUS (or WUI). offset_c can be fixed or configurable. The corresponding offset_c configuration can be provided by the system information (e.g., SIB) or by the higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC) or provided within the WUI or WUS. Signaling the actual offset can be beneficial for power saving due to less search work, and the UE will not need to monitor many PDCCH occasions. The minimum offset is beneficial for the requirement design and implementation flexibility of the UE implementation. Generally, in the case of having a time offset after being woken up by LP-WUS and before receiving the PDCCH, the UE may have enough time to turn on other modules in addition to the possible dedicated module for LP-WUS. For a proper low-power receiver design, some UEs may need this time to ramp up.

[0326] Some systems (such as LTE-A and NR) provide the UE with the possibility to operate on multiple component carriers, i.e., support the multi-band operation of the UE. Here, the component carrier can generally be understood as the carrier of the frequency band used to perform the orthogonal transformation (such as FFT for OFDM or DFT for some systems, etc.) for transforming the symbols carrying data in the sub-carriers of the frequency band into the time domain on the transmitting side.

[0327] To further save some power, for example, the detection of the presence of WUS is performed on a pre-configured subset of the configured system component carriers. The configured system component carriers can correspond to the cells in the cell list or the PCI (Physical Cell ID) list (as in NR).

[0328] In other words, the WUS is sent only in a single component carrier or in a limited set of component carriers (meaning less than all component carriers). The single carrier or the carriers from the limited set can be in different frequency bands. These frequency bands can serve different cell sizes. Thus, IDLE mode UEs in different frequency bands / carriers can be aggregated by camping on the cell (carrier) that sends the WUS. The cell / carrier that sends the WUS signal can be configured by the system information. In other words, the UE can read the system information of the cell to determine whether the cell supports LP operation, in particular whether the cell sends the WUS. Then, in order to utilize the LP operation - so as to be able to enter the LP state and monitor the WUS, the UE can select the cell that sends the WUS (and, for example, camp on the cell in the idle mode).

[0329] Transmitting the WUS only in a limited set of component carriers helps with some resource savings compared to signaling the WUS in all cells. Thus, in this case, a larger guard band can be reserved between the WUS and other channels / signals in the resource grid. This larger guard band can help with the robust detection of the WUS.

[0330] After receiving the WUS, the UE can move to a specific carrier for normal operation in the IDLE / INACTIVE (or CONNECTED) state. For example, the UE starts receiving / sending other signals. The specific carrier for normal operation can correspond to the carrier on which the WUS is received, but not necessarily. The specific carrier for normal operation can be pre-configured (configured before entering the LP state) or can be indicated in the WUS or WUI. The specific carrier for normal operation can be selected after the UE wakes up based on the received control information (such as system information or other control information).

[0331] By sending the WUS only in a limited subset of the component carriers, relatively less overhead is required, although slightly more complex UE behavior and specification impacts can be expected.

[0332] The present disclosure is not limited to the case of sending the WUS on one or a limited number of component carriers. In an example, the detection of the presence of the WUS is performed on all configured system component carriers.

[0333] Thus, the WUS is configured and sent for each component carrier (frequency band). Thus, the component carrier of the WUS and the component carrier of the normal operation can be the same. Thus, no additional optimization of mobility needs to be performed. The UE can camp on the best cell because each cell supports LP operation and thus sends the WUS. Compared to the above example, a relatively smaller guard band can be reserved for the efficiency of the WUS. Thus, a larger control overhead can be expected but less complex UE behavior and specification impacts.

[0334] As described above, the WUS can be implemented as a sequence of predefined (e.g., silent and non - silent) resource elements. For different cells (component carriers), the WUS can be different, i.e., the WUS sequence can be associated with the cell ID (or component carrier ID).

[0335] The present disclosure provides methods corresponding to the steps (actions) previously described as being performed by the UE and / or network nodes.

[0336] For example, a method for performing at a user equipment (UE) is provided. The method is illustrated by the flowchart of Figure 19 and includes the following steps:

[0337] - Receive a wireless signal in step 1910.

[0338] - Detect the presence of a wake - up signal WUS in the received wireless signal in 1920.

[0339] - Based on the WUS, determine wake - up information WUI 1930 according to the received wireless signal. For example, in the case where the WUS is detected ( "yes" in step 1920), receive the WUI. In some examples, the WUI can be received in a resource that the UE can determine based on the location and / or content of the WUS.

[0340] - Based on the wake - up information (WUI), determine 1940 to receive control information other than the WUS and the wake - up information.

[0341] The method may further include actually receiving the control information. "No" in step 1920 means that in the case where the WUS is not detected in the pre - configured resource (WUS occasion), the UE remains in the LP mode and continues to monitor only the WUS, as described above with reference to Figures 13 - 18 already described for this embodiment.

[0342] Figure 20 An example of a method for performing at a network node is illustrated. The method includes:

[0343] - Determine 2010 whether a user equipment UE will receive control information different from a pre - configured wake - up signal WUS and different from the wake - up information (WUI). This corresponds to the wake - up of the UE from the LP state.

[0344] - Include the WUS 2020 in the wireless signal, and then, in the case where it is determined that the UE will receive the control information ( "yes" in step 2010), include the wake - up information 2030 in the wireless signal;

[0345] - Transmit the wireless signal (transmit the WUS in step 2020 and transmit the WUI in step 2030)

[0346] - Include control information 2040 into the radio signal to be sent to the UE and send the radio signal.

[0347] "No" in step 2010 indicates that the base station (network node) returns to determine step 2010, that is, regularly checks whether to wake up the UE (or UEs). For example, in the case where there is some data to be exchanged (sent to the UE or received from the UE), etc., the UE can be woken up. Specific reasons may vary depending on the implementation of network node functions (such as scheduling and resource management functions, etc.).

[0348] A two-part wake-up signal, where part 1 includes one or more silent resources

[0349] Two embodiments have been described above, each with multiple examples: the WUS including one or more silent resource elements and the two-part wake-up signaling including the WUS and the WUI.

[0350] The above two embodiments and their corresponding exemplary implementations can be combined. Several examples of such combinations are provided below. However, the present disclosure is not limited to those combinations.

[0351] In an example, the WUS including at least one silent resource element or symbol can carry additional information. In an exemplary implementation, determining that the user equipment will receive a control signal different from the WUS includes receiving control information (which is the above-mentioned wake-up information WUI) in a resource determined based on the position of the WUS via the transceiver 620, and this control information indicates whether and / or in which resources to receive one or more of the synchronization signal, system information, and PDCCH.

[0352] In other words, the WUS having at least one blank resource element (for example, the WUS including a sequence of silent and non-silent elements) is followed by the WUI, which indicates to one UE or multiple UEs in which resources (or from which time point) the UE should receive the SSB or SIB or PDCCH. Note that the WUS and the WUI can both be common to the UEs in the same cell, or both be common to the UEs in a predetermined UE group, or both be UE-specific. However, the present disclosure is not limited to such examples. For example, the WUS can be UE-common (cell or group), while the WUI can be UE-specific (for example, carrying the UE ID, etc.).

[0353] As described above, the resource carrying the WUI can be located within a preconfigured time-domain offset relative to the position of the WUS. Generally, the WUI can be designed according to any example discussed in the two-part wake-up signaling embodiment.

[0354] Thus, the WUS may include one or more of the silent resource elements and be followed by a WUI. For example, the WUS includes a predefined sequence of one or more silent resource elements and one or more non-silent resource elements, and at least one of the following applies:

[0355] - The WUS includes a predefined sequence of silent and non-silent resource elements in the time domain of the time-frequency resource grid;

[0356] - The WUS includes a predefined sequence of silent and non-silent symbols in the time domain, and each of the symbols corresponds to a plurality of resource elements associated with the same time and a plurality of subcarriers in the time-frequency resource grid of the orthogonal frequency division system;

[0357] - The WUS includes a predefined sequence of silent and non-silent resource elements in the frequency domain of the time-frequency resource grid.

[0358] The WUS and the WUI may carry some additional control information as described above. Specifically, the control information that can help the UE quickly start sending / receiving data may be distributed to the WUS and the WUI such that a part of the information is carried by the WUS and another part is carried by the WUI.

[0359] Some variations of the embodiments

[0360] Note that although some examples herein show that the synchronization signal is not received in the LP state, embodiments in which the synchronization signal is monitored but the PDCCH is not monitored are conceivable.

[0361] The above embodiments are not limited to NR but are easily applicable to NR. For example, the SCS (subcarrier spacing) used in any of the above solutions may be 3.75 kHz, 7.5 kHz, or 15 kHz, although any number may be used compared to other time / frequency resources without limitation.

[0362] To increase the robustness of WUS detection, repetition of the same signal / sequence may be used in any of the above solutions. For example, the WUS may include one or more repetitions of a preconfigured sequence. The sequence may carry some additional information such as beam index, cell index, UE index, UE group index, frequency, etc. Alternatively or additionally, the information carried by the WUI may be repeated in the WUI.

[0363] The WUS sequence may be one of a plurality of orthogonal or quasi-orthogonal sequences such as Zadoff-Chu (ZC) sequences, golden sequences, hadamard codes, or walsh codes. It is advantageous if the sequence has a maximum autocorrelation at shift 0 and may have low (e.g., 0) correlation at any other shift.

[0364] The sequence for forming the silent resources and / or non-silent resources of WUS can be pre-configured via SIB / RRC, or calculated by the UE based on the cell ID, based on the beam index, or based on the frequency resource index (e.g., BWP index), or used for UE blind detection. For example, when the UE knows the cell ID, it can determine the sequence to search in the pre-configured resource elements. Similarly, once the UE knows the current beam index and / or BWP index when they are associated with the sequence, the UE can determine the sequence and check whether it exists in the pre-configured resources.

[0365] In the case where the sequence has no explicit association or no association with the parameters known to the UE, the UE can blindly attempt the sequences in the pre-configured sequence set, that is, check whether they exist in the pre-configured WUS resources. When there is one such sequence, it is interpreted as WUS, and the UE can decide to wake up. In other words, the WUS sent to the UE can be any one in the sequence pool (set).

[0366] By measuring the signal through the sequence (non-silent part), the UE is able to obtain measurements for mobility and / or radio link monitoring, such as reference signal received power (RSRP) and / or reference signal received quality (RSRQ). In other words, WUS can be used as a reference signal for some measurement purposes.

[0367] By measuring the received power via the blank / silent resources, the UE can obtain interference measurements, such as the interference level of CSI and / or the RSSI for mobility.

[0368] In the solution where the UE detects WUS to determine the next-step behavior, additionally or alternatively to receiving the downlink signal (e.g., SSB and PDCCH), the behavior can include sending other uplink signals. Such uplink signals can be sounding reference signals, PUCCH, PUSCH, PRACH, etc.

[0369] Supplementary synchronization signaling.

[0370] The disadvantages of the existing power reduction mechanisms described in the "Power Saving" section can be solved as described in the above embodiments "Wake-up Signal Using Silent Resource Elements" and / or as described in the above embodiments regarding the two-part wake-up signaling. In addition, a method of using supplementary synchronization signals to support wake-up signaling and power saving will be described in more detail below. Some combinations with the first and / or second embodiments can also be advantageous.

[0371] NR has introduced the so-called Synchronization Signal Block (SSB), which includes the Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS), the Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS), and the Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) (actually PBCH DMRS and PBCH data). The UE can use the PSS and SSS to find, synchronize with, and identify the network. The PBCH carries a minimal amount of system information, which includes an indication of where to send the remaining broadcast system information.

[0372] In LTE, these three signals, PSS, SSS, and PBCH, are also used, although not referred to as SSB. The three SSB components are always transmitted together in NR. For example, they have the same periodicity. A given SSB can be repeated within an SS burst set, which can potentially be used for gNB beam scanning transmission. The SS burst set can be restricted to a specific time period, such as a 5 ms window (half-frame). For initial cell selection, the UE can assume a default SS burst set period of 20 ms.

[0373] The 5G NR PSS is a physical layer specific signal used to identify radio frame boundaries and is of the m-sequence type. The 5G NR SSS is also a physical layer specific signal used to identify subframe boundaries and is also an m-sequence. The PSS / SSS sequences consist of complex values used by each element / sample of the sequence. Information on current exemplary 5G implementations of the PSS and SSS can be obtained from Sections 7.4.2.2 and 7.4.2.3 of 3GPP TS 38.211 v17.4.0, including the corresponding sequence generation and mapping to physical resources.

[0374] The time-frequency structure of the SS / PBCH block carrying the SSS is described in Section 7.4.3.1 of TS 38.211. In such an exemplary 5G implementation, in the time domain, the SS / PBCH block consists of 4 OFDM symbols, numbered in increasing order from 0 to 3. The distribution of the PSS, SSS, and PBCH signals within the SS / PBCH block is defined by Table 7.4.3.1-1.

[0375] In the frequency domain, the SS / PBCH block consists of 240 consecutive subcarriers, indexed from 0 to 239. The exact subcarriers used for each of the PSS, SSS, and PBCH signals within the SS / PBCH block are also defined by Table 7.4.3.1-1.

[0376] In Figure 21A an example, a simplified and exemplary illustration of the SSB defined above is shown, Figure 21A with the PSS, SSS, and PBCH shown in the time domain and frequency domain at the bottom.

[0377] The timing (OFDM symbols) of the SS block transmitted by the gNB (see Figure 21A) can be defined differently. Specifically, the first symbol index at which a candidate SSB starts (within each half-frame with an SSB) is determined according to Section 4.1, "Cell Search" of 3GPP 38.213 v17.4.0. Figure 21A An example set of SSBs is shown in Figure 21A , assuming starting OFDM symbols 2, 8, 16, 22, 30, 36, 44, and 50 (for the case of SCS = 30 kHz and frequency >), where the relevant OFDM symbol numbers start from 0 in the half-frame. The number of SSBs in the SSB set can also be restricted to a maximum Lmax. In one example, the SSB set can include 4, 8, or 64 SSBs.

[0378] Candidate SS / PBCH blocks in a half-frame (e.g., referred to as an SSB set) are indexed in ascending order from 0 to Lmax - 1 in time. Accordingly, each SSB within the SSB set is assigned a unique number (starting from 0 and incrementing by 1).

[0379] Figure 21A The SSB set shown in shows the case where all possible candidate SSBs are indeed sent by the base station. However, it is not required to send all SSBs. Instead, the gNB can select only some of those SSBs within the SSB set based on some requirements and send those SSBs. The SSBs actually sent by the SSB can be referred to as an SSB pattern. The SSB pattern has substantially the same characteristics as the corresponding SSB set, including periodicity.

[0380] The gNB notifies the UE of the SSB pattern, e.g., which SSBs are actually sent and which are not. This can be done, for example, by the gNB sending an SSB bitmap that defines the SSB pattern, where each bit of the SSB bitmap is associated with an SSB and identifies whether the SSB is sent. The length of the SSB bitmap depends on the applicable SSB set, e.g., 4, 8, or 64 bits.

[0381] In short, the set of candidate SSBs is configured to be used by the gNB in the cell. Furthermore, among the candidate SSB set, the gNB can then select all or fewer candidate SSBs to actually send, which is called an SSB pattern.

[0382] All SSBs can be sent with all the beams in the system. Alternatively, for example when SSB beamforming is enabled, SSBs can be sent in different beams. In that case, each SSB is sent on a different spatial beam, as Figure 21B shown. Similar to Figure 21AFor an exemplary hypothesis, there are 8 SSBs (0 - 7) that can be transmitted in different beams respectively, and each beam is transmitted in a different beam direction. Thus, a beam scanning transmission form of SSB is achieved; in other words, the scanning transmission of the beam (and SSB) is time - division multiplexed and occurs at different times. Two UEs (UE1 and UE2) will receive different SSBs at different times. Each beam has a beam index. For example, the beam index corresponds to the SSB index transmitted via the beam.

[0383] UEs use SSBs in different mechanisms, especially SSB signals (e.g., PSS, SSS, PBCH), such as for serving cell measurement, time / frequency synchronization, etc.

[0384] To provide an efficient energy - saving mechanism, according to this embodiment, supplementary synchronization signaling (SS) that can be signaled in the time resource between two SSBs is provided. Specifically, supplementary SS can be provided in the time - frequency resources not allocated to SSBs. The physical time - frequency resources can correspond to OFDM symbols and sub - carriers within the OFDM symbol. The minimum physical time - frequency resource can consist of one sub - carrier in one OFDM symbol, which is called a resource element. Transmission can be scheduled in a group of 12 sub - carriers called a physical resource block (PRB).

[0385] As discussed above, SSBs can be transmitted periodically, and any occasion in the time - frequency resources configured for SSB transmission can be an SSB occasion. An SSB occasion can be an occasion at the same frequency resource and according to the time pattern as described above. Similarly, the term occasion is used hereinafter for the time - frequency resources in which a specific signal or group of signals is transmitted according to a pattern. Such a group of signals can also include a group of signals of the same type.

[0386] This supplementary synchronization signaling can improve the ability and efficiency of LP - WUR to determine relevant information for synchronization and further information for communication (such as, for example, beam attributes and wake - up signaling at appropriate timing).

[0387] The supplementary synchronization signaling is applicable to Figure 23 the communication system 2300 shown. The communication system 2300 can be a wireless communication system similar to Figure 6 system 600 or Figure 13 system 1300, such as NR, etc. The communication system 2300 includes UEs 2310 and network nodes 2360 that communicate with each other via a wireless channel 2350. UE 2310 has a structure similar to the UE 610 described above with reference to Figure 6 and the UE 1310 described above with reference to Figure 13

[0388] The user equipment 2310 according to the present embodiment includes: a transceiver 2320 that receives a wireless signal in time-frequency resources during operation; and a circuit 2330 that searches for a supplementary synchronization signal 2210 in the wireless signal in resources different from the timing configured for the SSB during operation. As described above, the SSB includes a primary SS, a secondary SS, and a physical broadcast channel PBCH.

[0389] The user equipment 2310 according to the present embodiment may also perform time / frequency tracking / synchronization, AGC training, RRM measurements for serving cells and / or neighboring cells, and / or beam tracking based on the received supplementary synchronization signal during operation.

[0390] Also as described above, the timing configured for the SSB may include time-frequency resources configured implicitly or explicitly (via signaling) for receiving the SSB. Specifically, the timing configured for the SSB may be periodically scheduled resources. For example, Figure 22 Two timings 2201 and 2202 configured for the SSB are shown. In Figure 22 the SSB is transmitted in each of the timings 2201 and 2202.

[0391] To establish or maintain synchronization, the UE may receive the SSB in the timings 2201 and 2202 shown in Figure 22 .

[0392] In the above embodiments related to LP-WUS and two-part LP-WUS, the UE may monitor the LP-WUS and start observing the resources of the SSB based on the reception of the LP-WUS. Alternatively, the UE may observe the SSB at regular intervals. As described above, this may include signaling monitoring operations for discontinuous reception DRX, and specifically may include connected-mode DRX and idle-mode DRX.

[0393] The UE 2310 according to the present embodiment may observe additional resources for a supplementary synchronization signal (supplementary SS) 2210 to derive information about synchronization and / or some beam and / or cell attributes.

[0394] The UE may observe the additional resources for the supplementary SS periodically or before receiving the LP-WUS.

[0395] Generally, more SS resources can be beneficial for LP-WUR energy saving with a shorter active time.

[0396] Figure 23 The network node 2360 shown in Figure 6 has the same as that described above with reference to Figure 13A network node 1360 with a similar structure is described. The network node (base station) 2360 is different from the network node 660 and the network node 1360 in that the circuit 2323 includes a supplementary synchronization signal generation circuit 2385, rather than the circuit 680 including a WUS detection circuit 685 or the circuit 1380 including a WUS / WUI generation circuit 1385. The structure of the transceiver 2370 may be similar to that of the transceiver 670 and the transceiver 1370.

[0397] The supplementary SS 2210 can be implemented without being accompanied by the PBCH. In other words, the supplementary SS can carry signals for synchronization, and no resources are dedicated to the PBCH within and / or in adjacent symbols of the supplementary SS. However, in an exemplary embodiment, the supplementary SS can also be accompanied by the PBCH, as described later.

[0398] Additional signaling can also accompany the supplementary SS, such as LP-WUS, two-part WUS, or other WUS. These can be located in the same time-frequency resources or different frequency resources, as discussed later.

[0399] Figure 22 Exemplarily shown is a single composite signal forming the supplementary SS, which can be mapped to one or more adjacent symbols. However, the supplementary SS 2210 can include multiple signals, and the multiple signals can each be mapped to one or more symbols, as also discussed in more detail later. The multiple signals can be mapped in consecutive symbols, or can be mapped such that one or more symbols are located between one symbol carrying a signal as part of the supplementary SS and another symbol carrying a signal as part of the supplementary SS.

[0400] According to one aspect of this embodiment, the supplementary SS 2210, which can be composed of a single signal or multiple signals, can be repeated in other time resources, as Figure 24 shown as signal 2211 in A.

[0401] Therefore, the circuit 2330 according to this aspect searches for the time-domain repetition 2211 of the supplementary SS2210 in resources different from and between two adjacent timing instants 2201 and 2202 configured for the SSB.

[0402] Figure 24 A exemplarily shows repetitions in non-adjacent symbols. However, the supplementary SS can also be repeated in adjacent symbols. Specifically, the circuit 2330 searches for the time-domain repetition of the supplementary SS in resources different from and between two adjacent timing instants configured for the SSB.

[0403] Time domain repetition may be beneficial for the reliability of LP-WUR and shorter reception time for energy savings. This is especially true when LP-WUR may need to receive more than one synchronization signal. In this case, receiving more synchronization signaling each time can reduce the active time. Time domain repetition can also facilitate beam operation.

[0404] According to another aspect of this embodiment, as Figure 24 shown in B, the supplementary SS 2010 can be replicated and transmitted in the same time resource (same symbol) but in two different frequency resource blocks.

[0405] Specifically, the circuit 2330 according to this aspect searches for the frequency domain replication of the supplementary SS in a resource different from the timing configured for the SSB during operation.

[0406] Figure 24 Exemplarily, the transmission of two supplementary SSs 2210 and 2215 at the same time (in the same symbol) at different and non-adjacent frequency resources is shown. However, the two supplementary SSs can also be in adjacent frequency resources.

[0407] The replication of the supplementary SS in the frequency domain can increase reliability and shorten the reception time of LP-WUR.

[0408] Although not shown in Figure 24 , the repetition of the supplementary SS can also be mapped to different frequency resources in different symbols or time resources.

[0409] Figure 25 An example of a supplementary synchronization signal composed of two different signals is shown. In this case, the term "supplementary synchronization signal" refers to multiple signals summarized as one supplementary synchronization signal. Such multiple signals can contribute to establishing synchronization and related tasks in a complementary manner.

[0410] According to one aspect of this embodiment, the supplementary SS includes a supplementary primary SS including a first sequence and a supplementary secondary SS including a second sequence, where the second sequence is different from the first sequence.

[0411] According to this aspect, the two signals can include pseudo-random sequences. For example, the supplementary primary SS and the supplementary secondary SS can be different in the type of sequence they use and can include Zadoff-Chu sequences and / or Gold sequences.

[0412] According to an example of this aspect, the supplementary primary SS and the supplementary secondary SS can include signals similar to or the same as the primary SS (PSS) and the secondary SS (SSS) defined in NR and as described above. However, alternatively, different signals can be used.

[0413] For example, two synchronization signals can be sequences of 127 BPSK symbols. A supplementary primary SS can be generated by applying one of three cyclic shifts (0, 43, and 86) to the sequence of 127 BPSK symbols. The supplementary secondary SS can be generated as the product of two sequences.

[0414] Figure 25 Figure A shows an example where the supplementary primary SS and the supplementary secondary SS are mapped to resources that are not adjacent to each other in time. For example, the supplementary primary SS and the supplementary secondary SS can be separated by one symbol. In other words, the supplementary primary SS and the supplementary secondary SS are located in time-domain symbols with exactly one symbol between them. This corresponds to the mapping pattern of the PSS and SSS in the SSB in NR. Signals of the same or different types as the PSS and SSS in NR can be used.

[0415] However, according to an example of this embodiment, the mapping of the supplementary SS composed of two different signals may deviate from the mapping in the conventional SSB. For example, as Figure 25 shown in Figure B, the two signals can be mapped to two adjacent symbols.

[0416] Using a mapping pattern different from that of the conventional SS can avoid affecting conventional UE receivers. It may be beneficial to avoid conventional UE receivers receiving the supplementary SS, as receiving the supplementary SS by conventional UE receivers may cause errors and unnecessary power consumption.

[0417] To achieve this, any other mapping different from the conventional PSS+SSS mapping can be used, such as mapping to symbols with more than one other symbol between them.

[0418] According to one aspect, the timing for the supplementary SS can be configured, for example, via SIB / RRC. Another dedicated signaling can also be used to signal the timing, or the timing can be predetermined.

[0419] Figure 26 Figure shows an example for a user equipment to determine 2610 and search 2620 for the timing of the supplementary SS. The supplementary SS can be sent in each timing, or only in some timings or not in any timing.

[0420] The UE can determine whether the supplementary SS is mapped to the timing based on system parameters based on signaling, or the UE can determine whether the supplementary SS is mapped to the timing based on the timing of other signals.

[0421] According to an exemplary aspect, when the time difference between the supplementary SS occasion and the closest previous SSB is greater than a first threshold, the circuit searches for the supplementary SS in the resources related to the supplementary SS occasion according to the configuration, and when the time difference between the supplementary SS occasion and the closest previous SSB is not greater than the first threshold, it skips searching for the supplementary SS in the resources related to the supplementary SS occasion according to the configuration.

[0422] The closest previous SSB can be the SSB or SSB occasion that is closest in time to the supplementary SS occasion and before it. The UE can skip searching for the supplementary SS at an occasion where the time difference from the closest previous SSB or SSB occasion is less than or equal to the first threshold.

[0423] According to a variant, depending on whether the LP-WUS or the supplementary SS is configured for a UE in RRC connection or a UE that is idle / inactive, the LP-WUS part #1 / supplementary SS may be available / configured only for idle / inactive UEs, or different LP-WUS part 1 / supplementary SS periodicities may be configured for UEs in RRC connection and idle / inactive UEs.

[0424] According to another variant, if any part of the LP-WUS / supplementary SS overlaps with the SSB, a part or all of the LP-WUS / supplementary SS is skipped or punctured.

[0425] Figure 27 The occasion of SSB 2701, the occasion of supplementary SS2710, and another message 2702 which can be, for example, WUS or WUS-related signaling are shown. In addition, a second threshold 2750 is shown as T. The second threshold is a time threshold and can be configured by the gNB and / or depends on the periodicity of the SSB.

[0426] In Figure 27 A, the time difference between the occasion of supplementary SS2710 and SSB 2701 is greater than the first threshold 2750. Therefore, the supplementary SS is mapped to the supplementary SS occasion 2710. The UE determines the existence of the supplementary SS based on this time difference and searches for the supplementary SS at the occasion 2710.

[0427] In Figure 27 B, the time difference between the occasion of supplementary SS2711 and SSB 2701 is less than the first threshold 2750. Therefore, no supplementary SS is mapped to the supplementary SS occasion 2711. The UE determines the non-existence of the supplementary SS based on this time difference and searches for the supplementary SS at the occasion 2711, and avoids searching for the supplementary SS at the occasion 2711.

[0428] Advantages of this aspect can include an improved balance among system overhead, interference, network power consumption, and UE energy saving gain.

[0429] To achieve more UE energy saving gain, the timing gap between the supplementary SS and other message 2702 should be small enough, that is, the supplementary SS / LP-WUS part 1 and part 2 are always close in time and transmitted for one-to-one or one-to-many mapping. Here, in one-to-one mapping, the SS / LP-WUS part 1 is related to, for example, one other message received by one UE. One-to-many mapping means that one SS / LP-WUS part 1 is related to, for example, multiple UEs receiving multiple messages or one UE receiving multiple messages.

[0430] However, too many resources configured for part #1 may lead to more system overhead, interference, and network energy consumption. If the WUS and / or supplementary SS are close enough to the SSB, the LP-WUR can reuse the SSB without the gNB sending another supplementary SS. Otherwise, send the supplementary SS.

[0431] According to an exemplary aspect, in operation, when the period of the configured timing for the SSB is greater than a second threshold, the circuit searches for the supplementary SS in the resources related to the supplementary SS timing according to the configuration, and when the period of the configured timing for the SSB is not greater than the second threshold, skips searching for the supplementary SS in the resources related to the supplementary SS timing according to the configuration.

[0432] As an example of this aspect, Figure 28 A shows a first SSB timing 2801 and a second SSB timing 2802. In addition, a supplementary SS timing 2810 is shown between the two SSB timings 2801 and 2802. In Figure 28 A, the time difference between the timings 2801 and 2802 is greater than the second threshold 2850. Therefore, the supplementary SS is mapped to the supplementary SS timing 2810 between the two SSBs 2801 and 2802. The UE determines the existence of the supplementary SS based on this time difference and searches for the supplementary SS at the timing 2810.

[0433] Figure 28 B exemplarily shows the timing of the supplementary SS2811 between two SSBs 2803 and 2804 that are closer to each other in time than the second threshold as the time threshold. Therefore, no supplementary SS is mapped to the supplementary SS timing 2810 between the two SSBs 2803 and 2804. The UE determines the non-existence of the supplementary SS based on this time difference and searches for the supplementary SS at the timing 2810.

[0434] In the above two aspects, the time difference can be measured starting from the end of the SSB, as Figure 27 and Figure 28 exemplarily shown in. Alternatively, the time difference can also be measured from the start of the SSB or from the middle time position of the SSB.

[0435] In addition, it can be measured toFigure 27 the start of the supplementary SS2701 or 2711 therein or up to Figure 28 the difference to the start of the second SSB2802 in

[0436] In the above aspects, the UE can skip some of the opportunities in the opportunity (not search for supplementary SS therein), and monitor other opportunities (search for SS in other opportunities). Similarly, the eNB or network node can avoid mapping the supplementary SS to some opportunities, and can map the supplementary SS to other locations.

[0437] According to one aspect, the supplementary SS is part of the wake-up signal (WUS). The UE according to this aspect can determine in operation that the user equipment will receive control signals other than the WUS when receiving the WUS.

[0438] Examples including the WUS can be the LP-WUS as described in the first embodiment of the present application or the two-part LP-WUS as described in the second embodiment of the present application. Alternatively, the supplementary SS can be included in the WUS having any other format (such as DCI format 2_6). Specifically, according to this aspect, the supplementary SS can be included in any WUS that notifies the UE to receive other messages.

[0439] Figure 29 Exemplarily shows an LP-WUS using on / off keying to indicate the wake-up of the UE.

[0440] In the center, Figure 29 shows the symbol sequence 2910 as an example of this aspect. The symbol sequence 2910 forms an LP-WUS using OOK while carrying the supplementary SS. The left signal 2901 can be an SSB or any other signal. The signal 2902 on the right can be, for example, another SSB or WUI or any other signal related to the WUS.

[0441] In this example, the signal 2911 is one of the symbols used in OOK and can carry, for example, the supplementary primary SS. The signal 2912 is also one of the symbols used in the OOK of the LP-WUS and carries the supplementary secondary SS.

[0442] However, other WUS signals can include supplementary synchronization signals. An example can be an FSK-based LP-WUS.

[0443] In Figure 29 the shown example, the first and third symbols of the OOK are used for the supplementary primary SS and the supplementary secondary SS. This corresponds to the mapping mode of the PSS and SSS in the SSB.

[0444] However, other symbols can be used. Specifically, this aspect is not limited to the traditional SSS / PSS mapping and is not limited to mapping the primary supplementary SS and the secondary supplementary SS to the first symbol of the WUS. For example, the primary supplementary SS and the secondary supplementary SS can be mapped to two consecutive symbols.

[0445] Which symbols carry the SS can be implicitly defined. An example can be mapping the primary supplementary SS and the secondary supplementary SS to the first two active symbols. Alternatively, the primary supplementary SS and the secondary supplementary SS can be mapped to the first two active symbols with one symbol turned off between them, or the first two adjacent symbols that are turned on. Alternatively, each combination in OOK that meets a predetermined condition (such as but not limited to two adjacent symbols or two symbols with one symbol turned off between them) can be used for the repetition of the primary supplementary SS and the secondary supplementary SS. Or the configuration of this mapping can be signaled by the eNB.

[0446] Figure 29 The signal 2902 in can also be any other type of message or can be data for submission.

[0447] According to Figure 30A One aspect of the present embodiment exemplarily shown in, the control signal includes a plurality of control messages 3061 to 3064 for a user equipment group including user equipment. The user equipment group can include multiple UEs. Alternatively, the UE group can exactly include one UE. The control signal can be the control signal according to the previous aspect, which describes the supplementary SS as part of the WUS, and the WUS reference UE should receive the control signal. Figure 30A The signal 3051 in can be the supplementary SS or the WUS including the supplementary SS. According to this aspect, the supplementary SS can be shared by multiple messages to different UEs.

[0448] According to Figure 30B One aspect of the present embodiment exemplarily shown in, the control signal includes control messages for each of a plurality of user equipment groups, where one user equipment group in the user equipment groups includes user equipment. In Figure 30B In, each of the messages 3071 to 3072 is assigned to one user equipment group in the user equipment groups. Figure 30B The signal 3052 in can be the supplementary SS or the WUS including the supplementary SS. According to this aspect, the supplementary SS can be shared by multiple messages configured for the same UE.

[0449] The UE according to the present embodiment can determine, based on the control signal, the message among the multiple messages that is assigned to the UE group related to the UE. This UE group can also include only one UE. In addition, the UE can receive this message.

[0450] The advantages of the last two aspects may include balancing system overhead and UE energy saving gain.

[0451] According to one aspect of this embodiment, as Figure 30C exemplarily shown in, the supplementary SS 3010 may be located in a frequency resource having the same center frequency 3050 as the center frequencies of the SSB occasions 3001 and 3002 or the frequency resources for SSB transmission. The center frequency may be the center of the frequency range of the transmitted signal. The frequency resource may be defined in bandwidth, carrier, and / or subcarrier.

[0452] The user equipment according to this aspect accordingly searches for the supplementary SS in a frequency resource having the same center frequency position as the center frequency position of the occasion configured for the SSB.

[0453] Aligning the frequency resources of the SSB and the supplementary SS can use the supplementary SS to provide optimal frequency tracking performance because the reference center frequency is provided by the position of the SSB.

[0454] According to another aspect, as Figure 31 exemplarily shown in, the center frequencies are not necessarily the same, but differ by less than a third threshold 3151, where the third threshold is a frequency difference threshold that defines, for example, the maximum number of carriers or subcarriers. The threshold may be predefined or signaled from the eNB.

[0455] The UE according to this aspect can search for the supplementary SS 3110 in a frequency resource having a center frequency position that differs from the center frequency position 3150 of the occasions configured for the SSB 3101 and 3102 by less than the third threshold.

[0456] This can facilitate UE frequency tracking by restricting the frequency gap between the SSB and the supplementary synchronization signal. A larger gap generally means greater difficulty in using LP-WUS for frequency tracking. It can relax UE performance requirements and balance performance and UE complexity.

[0457] According to Figure 32 another aspect, as exemplarily shown in, the supplementary SS occasion is in a frequency resource different from the SSB, and whether to include / exist the supplementary SS is determined by the gNB and the UE respectively based on whether the difference between the center frequency position 3260 of the supplementary SS occasion and the center frequency position 3250 of the SSB occasion is greater than a predetermined fourth threshold 3251. The fourth threshold 3251 is a frequency difference threshold that defines, for example, the maximum number of carriers or subcarriers. The threshold may be predefined or signaled from the eNB.

[0458] A user equipment according to this aspect searches for supplementary SS in frequency resources having a center frequency position different from the center frequency position of the timing configured for the SSB during operation, and determines that the supplementary SS will be present in each configured supplementary SS timing when the difference between the center frequency position 3260 of the supplementary SS timings 3210, 3211 and the center frequency position 3250 of the SSB timings 3201, 3202 is greater than a predetermined fourth threshold 3251.

[0459] If the frequency gap between the WUS and the SSB is too large, the frequency tracking performance may be affected. Therefore, in this case, transmitting the supplementary SS / part 1 of the LP-WUS (which may include the supplementary SS) can guarantee the frequency tracking performance.

[0460] According to one aspect, when the time difference between a control signal different from the WUS associated with the supplementary SS timing and the most recent previous SSB is greater than the fourth threshold, the supplementary SS is included in the resources related to the supplementary SS timing, and when the time difference between a control signal different from the WUS associated with the supplementary SS timing and the most recent previous SSB is not greater than the fourth threshold as a time threshold, the supplementary SS is not included in the resources related to the supplementary SS timing.

[0461] This is shown in Figure 33 Signal 3301 is the most recent previous SSB. The fourth threshold is shown as 3350. Figure 33 Timing 3310 in A and Figure 33 Timing 3311 in B can be the timing for the supplementary SS or the LP-WUS part 1, and Figure 33 Signal 3302 in A and Figure 3 Signal 3303 in B can be the signal related to the supplementary SS or the LP-WUS part 1. For example, signals 3302 and 3303 can be the LP-WUS part 2 (or WUI) or other control signals. Alternatively, 3302 and 3303 can be the WUS following the supplementary SS in timings 3310 and 3011.

[0462] In Figure 33 A, signal 3302 is further in time than the fourth threshold. Therefore, the supplementary SS or other signals as described above are transmitted in timing 3310. Therefore, after determining that signal 3302 is further in time than the fourth threshold, the gNB maps the corresponding signal to timing 3310. And after the same determination, the UE searches for the corresponding signal in this timing and receives the signal.

[0463] In Figure 33In B, signal 3303 is closer to SSB 3301 than the fourth threshold, and accordingly does not transmit a signal in occasion 3311, and the UE skips receiving the corresponding signal in occasion 3311.

[0464] According to Figure 34 In another aspect of the present embodiment exemplarily shown in, the user equipment receives supplementary SS 3401 during operation, and obtains the quasi co-location QCL associated with the SSB (see 3402) and / or the channel state information reference signal CSI-RS (see 3412) based on the supplementary SS.

[0465] Transmission Configuration Indicator Status and Quasi Co-location

[0466] According to 3GPP TS 38.214: "Physical layer procedures for data (17th version)", v.17.3.0, September 2022, two reference signals can have a quasi co-location QCL relationship. If the attributes of the channel on which the symbols on one antenna port are transmitted can be inferred from the channel on which the symbols on another antenna port are transmitted, the two antenna ports are said to be quasi co-located.

[0467] In the 5G NR system, the transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state is used to establish a quasi co-location (QCL) connection between the target reference signal (RS) and the source RS. The antenna port QCL types are defined as follows:

[0468] Type Description

[0469] QCL-Type A Doppler frequency shift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread

[0470] QCL-Type B Doppler frequency shift, Doppler spread

[0471] QCL-Type C Doppler frequency shift, average delay

[0472] QCL-Type D Spatial Rx parameters

[0473] The TCI state is configured for PDCCH, PDSCH, and Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) to convey the QCL indication for the corresponding RS. In Frequency Range 1 (FR1, below 7.125 GHz), QCL types A - C are applicable and in Frequency Range 2 (FR2, above 24.250 GHz), QCL types A - D are applicable. The QCL type D for FR2 indicates that the PDCCH / PDSCH / CSI-RS is transmitted using the same spatial filter as the reference signal associated with this TCI. In FR2, the network can indicate a transmission beam change of the PDSCH or PDCCH by switching the TCI state.

[0474] Each TCI state may contain a TCI state identifier, a TCI state ID, and an RS set, or one or more individual RSs for QCL reference. Each RS within the TCI state can be associated with a set of one or more Tx (transmission) and / or Rx (reception) beams.

[0475] Using SSB, the beam index is determined by the PBCH DMRS and the PBCH payload together. If the LP-WUR only receives in a limited bandwidth of 30 kHz SCS (e.g., 5 MHz), the bandwidth of the PBCH exceeds 5 MHz, although the PSS / SSS is still within this bandwidth. Therefore, relying solely on SSB for beam operation is not always feasible for LP-WURs with limited bandwidth.

[0476] According to this aspect, the UE can obtain the supplementary SS / LP-WUS QCL association with the SSB and / or CSI-RS based on RRC or SIB configuration, for example, through the time-domain resource allocation of the supplementary SS / LP-WUS where the SSB index is mapped to the LP-WUS occasion.

[0477] Alternatively, the supplementary SS or LP-WUS can explicitly carry the beam index, for example, through the sequence index used by any part of the LP-WUS, through the time position of a part or the whole of the supplementary SS or LP-WUS, or through including the beam index in the LP-WUS signal or in the message content related to the LP-WUS signal.

[0478] According to an aspect of this embodiment, the UE performs at least one of automatic gain control (AGC) (see 3411), radio resource management (RRM) (see 3422), measurement of serving and / or neighboring cells, and beam tracking based on the supplementary SS or based on WUS or based on another control signal determined by WUS (see 3423) during operation after receiving the 3411 supplementary SS.

[0479] Beam Management

[0480] Beam management is a set of Layer 1 (PHY) and Layer 2 (MAC) processes to establish and retain the best beam pair for a good connection. A beam pair consists, for example, of a transmit beam and a corresponding receive beam in one link direction.

[0481] Before a UE can communicate with the network, it must perform cell search and selection procedures and obtain initial cell synchronization and system information. The first step in this process is to acquire frame synchronization, find the cell identity, and decode the MIB and SIB1.

[0482] In the case of a multi-antenna system transmitting multiple beams, detecting the beams from the gNB is also part of the initial procedure (e.g., where the UE typically detects all beams in the search space).

[0483] Beam management can be divided into three main processes:

[0484] · Initial beam establishment,

[0485] · Beam adjustment (also known as beam tracking and refinement), and

[0486] · Beam failure recovery

[0487] These procedures will be briefly described below.

[0488] Initial beam establishment includes, for example, the processes and functions for initially establishing beam pairs in the downlink (DL) and uplink transmission (UL) directions when establishing a connection. In the current 5G NR standard, this is done via beam scanning, where different SSBs associated with different transmit Tx beams are transmitted in different OFDM symbols.

[0489] During beam scanning, the gNB transmits beams in all directions in bursts at regularly defined intervals. Whenever the UE is synchronized with the network, it reads the synchronization signal block SSB and extracts the primary synchronization signal PSS, secondary synchronization signal SSS, physical broadcast channel PBCH, and demodulation reference signal DMRS.

[0490] As discussed above, a single SSB spans four OFDM symbols in time and 240 subcarriers (20 resource blocks) in frequency (see Figure 6 ). Each SSB corresponds to a specific beam beamformed in a different direction. A set of SSBs forms an SS burst set spanning a 5 ms window. The SS bursts are repeated periodically with a period of 20 ms, where the maximum number of SS blocks in an SS burst set depends on the operating frequency range.

[0491] Then, the UE can search for the strongest DL Tx beam, for example, by adjusting the corresponding DL receive Rx beam on the UE side, and then report the selection to the gNB via the corresponding RACH opportunity and preamble. In this way, an initial beam pair is established, which can remain valid after the connection is established until the UE receives a new beam indication.

[0492] After the initial beam pair has been established, the beam pair can be continuously adjusted to account for UE movement and / or changes in the environment. This can be referred to as beam adjustment. Additionally, beam management can also include refining the beam shape, for example, using a narrower CSI-RS beam compared to the relatively wide SSB beam used for initial beam establishment.

[0493] The UE measures the beam intensity by measuring the received signal power. In the idle mode, it is based on the synchronization signal, and in the connected mode, it can be based on the channel state information reference signal CSI-RS in the DL and the sounding reference signal SRS in the UL. The UE periodically searches for the best beam using a predefined threshold criterion defined by the gNB and identifies the beam with the highest reference signal received power RSRP. Then, the UE can perform a beam reporting procedure.

[0494] Since beam adjustment does not occur simultaneously at the gNB and the UE, one beam (identified by their index) for each process is the result that can be used for UL or DL communication. The gNB can use the information and recommendations from the UE to enhance beam adjustment. The transmission of control signaling and data can benefit from the beam selected in this process, as beam adjustment aims to improve the link quality based on changing radio channel conditions. The gNB is responsible for deciding which UL Rx and DL Tx beams it will use and for indicating them to the UE. Knowing the beams the gNB is using, the UE is able to select its own UL Tx and DL Rx beams.

[0495] Using supplementary synchronization signals in addition to SSB can provide advanced beam tracking in additional time resources.

[0496] In a communication system according to LTE, radio resource management (RRM) encompasses a wide range of technologies and processes, including power control, scheduling, cell search, cell reselection, handover, radio link or connection monitoring, and connection establishment and reconstruction. Cell search within E-UTRAN (LTE) is one of the most fundamental aspects of mobility and enables the UE to acquire the carrier frequency, timing, and physical cell identity (PCI).

[0497] Furthermore, the RRM-related actions taken by the UE can be broadly divided into actions related to the RRC-IDLE state and actions related to the RRC-CONNECTED state.

[0498] Measurements of the serving cell and any neighbouring cells are typically performed by the UE in a conventional manner. This may also involve the transmission of measurement reports from the UE to its serving eNB.

[0499] In NR, RRM may be based on the PSS and SSS included in the periodically transmitted SSB.

[0500] According to this aspect, for example, similar to the PSS and SSS in NR, supplementary primary SS and supplementary secondary SS may be adopted in RRM measurements.

[0501] For each of the above aspects of this embodiment, a network node or gNB is provided, which includes the corresponding signals in the radio signals consistent with these aspects.

[0502] The present disclosure provides methods corresponding to the steps (actions) previously described as being performed by the UE and / or network nodes.

[0503] For example, a method for performing at a user equipment (UE) is provided. The method is Figure 36 illustrated by the flow chart of, and includes the following steps:

[0504] Receive a 3601 radio signal;

[0505] Search for a 3601 supplementary synchronization signal SS in a resource different from the timing configured for the synchronization signal block SSB in the radio signal, where the SSB includes a primary SS, a secondary SS, and a physical broadcast channel PBCH. Figure 37 An exemplary method for performing at a network node is illustrated. The method includes including a supplementary synchronization signal SS in a radio signal in a resource different from the resource configured for the synchronization signal block SSB, where the SSB includes a primary SS, a secondary SS, and a physical broadcast channel PBCH; and transmitting the radio signal.

[0506] The hardware and software implementations of the present disclosure

[0507] The present disclosure can be implemented by software, hardware, or software in cooperation with hardware. Each functional block used in the description of each of the above embodiments can be partially or entirely implemented by an LSI such as an integrated circuit, and each process described in each embodiment can be partially or entirely controlled by the same LSI or a combination of LSIs. The LSI can be formed as a single chip, or can be formed as one chip to include a part or all of the functional blocks. The LSI can include data input and output coupled thereto. Depending on the difference in the degree of integration, the LSI here can be referred to as an IC, a system LSI, a super LSI, or an ultra LSI. However, the technology for implementing integrated circuits is not limited to LSI, and can be implemented by using dedicated circuits, general-purpose processors, or dedicated processors. In addition, an FPGA (field programmable gate array) that can be programmed after the LSI is manufactured, or a reconfigurable processor that can reconfigure the connection and setting of circuit units inside the LSI can be used. The present disclosure can be implemented as digital processing or analog processing. If, as a result of the progress of semiconductor technology or other derivative technologies, future integrated circuit technology replaces LSI, then future integrated circuit technology can be used to integrate the functional blocks. Biotechnology can also be applied.

[0508] The present disclosure can be implemented by any kind of device, apparatus, or system having a communication function, referred to as a communication device.

[0509] The communication device can include a transceiver and a processing / control circuit. The transceiver can include and / or serve as a receiver and a transmitter. As a transmitter and a receiver, the transceiver can include an RF (radio frequency) module and one or more antennas, and the RF module includes an amplifier, an RF modulator / demodulator, etc.

[0510] Some non-limiting examples of such communication devices include telephones (e.g., cellular (cell) phones, smart phones), tablet computers, personal computers (PCs) (e.g., laptop computers, desktop computers, netbooks), cameras (e.g., digital still / video cameras), digital players (digital audio / video players), wearable devices (e.g., wearable cameras, smart watches, tracking devices), game consoles, digital book readers, remote health / telemedicine (remote health and medical) devices, and transportation vehicles that provide communication functions (e.g., cars, airplanes, ships), and various combinations thereof.

[0511] The communication device is not limited to being portable or movable, and can also include any kind of non-portable or fixed device, apparatus, or system, such as smart home devices (e.g., appliances, lighting, smart meters, control panels), vending machines, and any other "things" in the network of the "Internet of Things (IoT)".

[0512] Communication may include exchanging data via, for example, cellular systems, wireless LAN systems, satellite systems, etc. and various combinations thereof.

[0513] A communication device may include devices such as a controller or a sensor, which are coupled to a communication device that performs the communication functions described in the present disclosure. For example, a communication device may include a controller or a sensor that generates a control signal or a data signal used by a communication device that performs the communication functions of the communication device.

[0514] The communication device may further include infrastructure such as a base station, an access point, and any other device, apparatus, or system that communicates with or controls the devices such as those in the above non-limiting examples.

[0515] In addition, various embodiments may also be implemented by means of software modules, which are executed by a processor or directly in hardware. Combinations of software module and hardware implementations are also possible. The software modules may be stored on any kind of computer-readable storage medium. Specifically, according to another embodiment, a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium is provided. The recording medium stores a program that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of the method according to the present disclosure.

[0516] By way of example and not limitation, such computer-readable storage media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, flash memory, or any other medium that can be used to store the desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. In addition, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if instructions are transmitted using coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave from a website, server, or other remote source, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of the medium. However, it should be understood that computer-readable storage media and data storage media do not include connections, carrier waves, signals, or other transitory media, but rather are actually directed to non-transitory tangible storage media. As used herein, disk and optical disk include compact disk (CD), laser disk, optical disk, digital versatile disk (DVD), floppy disk, and Blu-ray disk, where disks typically reproduce data magnetically, while optical disks reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0517] It should also be noted that the various features of different embodiments can be taken individually or in any combination as the subject matter of another embodiment. Those skilled in the art will understand that many changes and / or modifications can be made to the present disclosure as shown in the specific embodiments. Therefore, this embodiment is considered illustrative rather than restrictive in all respects.

[0518] Other aspects

[0519] The aspects of the first embodiment are summarized as follows.

[0520] According to a first aspect, there is provided a user equipment UE. The UE includes: a transceiver that receives wireless signals in operation; and circuitry that in operation (i) detects whether a preconfigured wake-up signal WUS is present in the received wireless signals, where the WUS includes one or more silent resource elements, and (ii) determines, in the case where the presence of the WUS is detected, that the user equipment is to receive a control signal different from the WUS.

[0521] According to a second aspect provided in addition to the first aspect, the WUS includes a predefined sequence of one or more silent resource elements and one or more non-silent resource elements.

[0522] According to a third aspect provided in addition to the second aspect, the WUS includes a predefined sequence of silent and non-silent resource elements in the time domain of a time-frequency resource grid.

[0523] According to a fourth aspect provided in addition to one of the second or third aspects, the WUS includes a predefined sequence of silent and non-silent symbols in the time domain, and each of the symbols corresponds to a plurality of resource elements associated with the same time and a plurality of subcarriers in the time-frequency resource grid of an orthogonal frequency division system.

[0524] According to a fifth aspect provided in addition to one of the second to fourth aspects, the WUS includes a predefined sequence of silent and non-silent resource elements in the frequency domain of a time-frequency resource grid.

[0525] According to a sixth aspect provided in addition to one of the second to fifth aspects, the predefined sequence is one of a plurality of predefined sequences corresponding to the WUS; and each of the plurality of predefined sequences is associated with a respective content of control information.

[0526] According to a seventh aspect provided in addition to the sixth aspect, the control information indicates one or more of the following:

[0527] - Cell ID,

[0528] - UE group ID,

[0529] - UE ID,

[0530] - The user equipment will subsequently monitor the offset of signals other than the WUS;

[0531] - The user equipment will start monitoring the system synchronization signal and / or the physical downlink control channel PDCCH.

[0532] According to an eighth aspect provided other than any one of the first to seventh aspects, the control signal different from the WUS includes a synchronization signal and / or system information and / or PDCCH.

[0533] According to a ninth aspect provided other than any one of the first aspect to the eighth aspect, determining that the user equipment will receive a control signal different from the WUS includes: receiving control information in a resource determined based on the position of the WUS via the transceiver, and the control information indicates whether and / or in which resources to receive one or more of the synchronization signal, system information, and PDCCH.

[0534] According to a tenth aspect provided other than the ninth aspect, the resource carrying the control information is within a preconfigured time-domain offset relative to the position of the WUS.

[0535] According to an eleventh aspect provided other than any one of the first to tenth aspects, the circuit performs in operation: (i) measuring interference based on the power received in the one or more silent resource elements, and / or (ii) measuring the reference signal received power RSRP or the reference signal received quality RSRQ using one or more non-silent resource elements as reference signals.

[0536] According to a twelfth aspect provided other than any one of the first aspect to the eleventh aspect, the WUS is different for different radio cells.

[0537] According to a thirteenth aspect, a network node is provided, the network node includes: a circuit that determines in operation whether a user equipment UE will receive a control signal different from a preconfigured wake-up signal WUS, and includes the WUS in the radio signal when determining that the UE will receive the control signal, where the WUS includes one or more silent resource elements; and a transceiver that transmits the radio signal in operation.

[0538] According to a fourteenth aspect, a method performed at a user equipment UE is provided, the method includes: receiving a radio signal, detecting whether there is a preconfigured wake-up signal WUS in the received radio signal, where the WUS includes one or more silent resource elements; and determining that the user equipment will receive a control signal different from the WUS when detecting the presence of the WUS.

[0539] According to a fifteenth aspect, there is provided a method performed at a network node, the method comprising: determining whether a user equipment UE will receive a control signal different from a preconfigured wake-up signal WUS; in the case of determining that the UE will receive the control signal, including the WUS in a radio signal, wherein the WUS includes one or more silent resource elements; and transmitting the radio signal.

[0540] There is provided an integrated circuit IC (for a user equipment UE). The IC circuit is configured to (i) detect the presence of a preconfigured wake-up signal WUS in a received radio signal, wherein the WUS includes one or more silent resource elements, and (ii) in the case of detecting the presence of the WUS, determine that the user equipment will receive a control signal different from the WUS. Note that the reception of the radio signal may correspond to the reception at the input of the IC.

[0541] There is also provided an IC (for a network node), the IC being configured to determine whether a user equipment UE will receive a control signal different from a preconfigured wake-up signal WUS, and in the case of determining that the UE will receive the control signal, include the WUS in a radio signal, wherein the WUS includes one or more silent resource elements.

[0542] Aspects of the second embodiment are summarized as follows.

[0543] According to a first aspect, there is provided a user equipment UE. The UE includes: a transceiver that receives a radio signal in operation; and a circuit that in operation (i) detects the presence of a wake-up signal WUS in the received radio signal; (ii) determines wake-up information based on the WUS according to the received radio signal; and (iii) determines to receive control information and wake-up information other than the WUS based on the wake-up information.

[0544] According to a second aspect provided in addition to the first aspect, determining the wake-up information includes: determining the position of a resource carrying the wake-up information based on a preconfigured first time-domain offset with respect to the position of the WUS.

[0545] According to a third aspect provided in addition to the first aspect or the second aspect, at least one of the following is preconfigured: (i) the ratio of the energy per resource element RE carrying the WUS to the energy per RE carrying a reference signal available for demodulating the wake-up information, and (ii) the ratio of the energy per RE carrying the wake-up information to the energy per RE carrying a reference signal available for demodulating the wake-up information.

[0546] According to a fourth aspect provided in addition to the third aspect or the second aspect, the preconfiguration is performed by a radio resource control RRC protocol or obtained from system information.

[0547] According to a fifth aspect provided in addition to any of the first to fourth aspects, detecting the presence of a WUS does not include demodulating signals in respective resource elements and forward error correction FEC decoding, and / or determining wake-up information includes demodulating FEC decoding.

[0548] According to a sixth aspect provided in addition to any of the first to fifth aspects, the wake-up information includes an indication of a second offset in the time domain, and the second offset indicates one of the following: an offset between the wake-up information and a resource including control information, or a minimum offset at which a user equipment starts monitoring a resource including control information.

[0549] Specifically, the circuit determines in operation to receive control information and wake-up information other than the WUS according to the second offset; and the second offset indicates one of the following: (i) an offset between the wake-up information and a resource including control information, or (ii) a minimum offset at which the user equipment starts monitoring a resource including control information; and the second offset is preconfigured or received within the wake-up information.

[0550] According to a seventh aspect provided in addition to any of the first to sixth aspects, the control information is a system synchronization block SSB or a physical downlink control channel PDCCH.

[0551] According to an eighth aspect provided in addition to any of the first to seventh aspects, the wake-up information includes one or more of the following:

[0552] - PDCCH search space configuration,

[0553] - Discontinuous reception DRX configuration,

[0554] - Bandwidth part BWP configuration,

[0555] - Beam index configuration,

[0556] - Channel state information reference signal CSI-RS configuration,

[0557] - Number of MIMO layers for transmitting or receiving data,

[0558] - Ratio of energy per resource element RE carrying the WUS to energy per RE of a reference signal available for demodulation of the PDCCH;

[0559] — Ratio of energy per RE carrying a synchronization signal to energy per RE of a reference signal available for demodulation of the PDCCH.

[0560] According to a ninth aspect provided in addition to any of the first to eighth aspects, detecting the presence of a WUS is performed on a preconfigured subset of a configured system component carrier.

[0561] According to a tenth aspect provided in addition to any of the first to eighth aspects, detection of the presence of WUS is performed on all configured system component carriers.

[0562] According to an eleventh aspect provided in addition to any of the first to tenth aspects, the WUS includes one or more of the silent resource elements.

[0563] According to a twelfth aspect provided in addition to the twelfth aspect, the WUS includes a predefined sequence of one or more silent resource elements and one or more non-silent resource elements, and at least one of the following applies: (i) the WUS includes a predefined sequence of silent resource elements and non-silent resource elements in the time domain of the time-frequency resource grid; (ii) the WUS includes a predefined sequence of silent symbols and non-silent symbols in the time domain, and each of the symbols corresponds to a plurality of resource elements associated with the same time and a plurality of subcarriers in the time-frequency resource grid of the orthogonal frequency division system; (iii) the WUS includes a predefined sequence of silent and non-silent resource elements in the frequency domain of the time-frequency resource grid.

[0564] According to a thirteenth aspect, a network node including circuitry is provided, which in operation: (i) determines whether a user equipment UE will receive control information different from a preconfigured wake-up signal WUS and wake-up information; and (ii) in the case where it is determined that the UE will receive the control information, includes the wake-up information after the WUS in a radio signal, and a transceiver transmits the radio signal in operation.

[0565] According to a fourteenth aspect, a method for execution at a user equipment UE is provided, the method including: receiving a radio signal; detecting the presence of a wake-up signal WUS in the received radio signal; determining wake-up information based on the WUS according to the received radio signal, and determining to receive control information other than the WUS and the wake-up information based on the wake-up information.

[0566] According to a fifteenth aspect, a method for execution at a network node is provided, the method including: determining whether a user equipment UE will receive control information different from a preconfigured wake-up signal WUS and wake-up information based on the wake-up information; and in the case where it is determined that the UE will receive the control information, including the WUS and the wake-up information in a radio signal and transmitting the radio signal.

[0567] According to another aspect, an integrated circuit is provided, which is configured to: (i) detect the presence of a wake-up signal WUS in a received radio signal; (ii) determine wake-up information based on the WUS according to the received radio signal; and (iii) determine to receive control information other than the WUS and wake-up information based on the wake-up information. Such an IC can implement the circuitry 1330 of the UE mentioned above.

[0568] According to another aspect, there is provided an integrated circuit configured to: (i) determine whether a user equipment UE will receive control information different from a preconfigured wake-up signal WUS and wake-up information; and (ii) include the WUS and the wake-up information in a radio signal in case it is determined that the UE will receive the control information. The IC may implement the circuit 1380 of the network node mentioned above.

[0569] There is also provided an integrated circuit configured to control a communication device to perform the method according to the fifteenth aspect, and an integrated circuit for controlling a base station to perform the communication method according to the sixteenth aspect.

[0570] In addition, there is provided a non-transitory medium storing program instructions which, when executed on a processing circuit such as a general-purpose processor, cause the processing circuit to perform all steps of the above method embodiments or aspects.

[0571] Aspects of the third embodiment are summarized as follows.

[0572] According to a first aspect, there is provided a user equipment. The user equipment includes a transceiver and a circuit. The transceiver receives a radio signal in a time-frequency resource in operation, and the circuit searches for a supplementary synchronization signal SS in the radio signal in a resource different from the occasion configured for a synchronization signal block SSB in operation, where the SSB includes a primary SS, a secondary SS, and a physical broadcast channel PBCH.

[0573] According to a second aspect provided in addition to the first aspect, the circuit searches for a time-domain repetition of the supplementary SS in a resource different from two adjacent occasions configured for the SSB and between them in operation, and / or where the circuit searches for a frequency-domain replication of the supplementary SS in a resource different from the occasion configured for the SSB in operation.

[0574] According to a third aspect provided in addition to the first or second aspect, the supplementary SS includes a supplementary primary SS containing a first sequence and a supplementary secondary SS containing a second sequence, where the second sequence is different from the first sequence.

[0575] According to a fourth aspect provided in addition to any one of the first to third aspects, the circuit determines, in operation, a configuration of a resource of a supplementary SS occasion for carrying the supplementary SS according to system information and / or RRC configuration, and searches for the supplementary SS in a resource related to the supplementary SS occasion according to the configuration.

[0576] According to an alternative fourth aspect provided in addition to the third aspect, the supplementary primary SS and the supplementary secondary SS are located in time-domain symbols with exactly one symbol between them.

[0577] According to a second alternative fourth aspect provided in addition to the third aspect, the supplementary primary SS and the supplementary secondary SS are located in adjacent symbols.

[0578] According to a third alternative fourth aspect provided in addition to any one of the first to third aspects or in addition to the alternative fourth aspect, a first sequence included in the supplementary primary SS is the same as a sequence in the primary SS included in the SSB, and a second sequence included in the supplementary secondary SS is the same as a sequence in the secondary SS included in the SSB.

[0579] According to a fourth alternative fourth aspect provided in addition to any one of the first to third aspects or in addition to any one of the first to third alternative fourth aspects, the supplementary SS is sequence-based, and the sequence used in the supplementary SS is different from the sequence used in the primary SS included in the SSB and is also different from the sequence used in the secondary SS included in the SSB.

[0580] According to a fifth aspect provided in addition to the fourth aspect, when the period of the configured occasion for the SSB is greater than a second threshold, the circuit searches for the supplementary SS in resources related to the supplementary SS occasion according to the configuration, and when the period of the configured occasion for the SSB is not greater than the second threshold, it skips searching for the supplementary SS in resources related to the supplementary SS occasion according to the configuration.

[0581] According to an alternative fifth aspect provided in addition to the fourth aspect, in operation, when the time difference between the supplementary SS occasion and the closest previous SSB is greater than a first threshold, the circuit searches for the supplementary SS in resources related to the supplementary SS occasion according to the configuration, and when the time difference between the supplementary SS occasion and the closest previous SSB is not greater than the first threshold, it skips searching for the supplementary SS in resources related to the supplementary SS occasion according to the configuration.

[0582] According to a sixth aspect provided in addition to any one of the first to fifth aspects or in addition to the alternative fourth aspect, the supplementary SS is part of a wake-up signal WUS, and in operation, the circuit determines that the user equipment will receive control signals other than the WUS when receiving the WUS.

[0583] According to a seventh aspect provided in addition to the sixth aspect, the control signal includes a plurality of control messages for a group of user equipment including the user equipment.

[0584] According to an alternative seventh aspect provided in addition to the sixth aspect, in operation, when the time difference between a control signal different from the WUS associated with the supplementary SS occasion and the most recent previous SSB is greater than a fourth threshold, the circuit searches for the supplementary SS in the resources related to the supplementary SS occasion, and when the time difference between a control signal different from the WUS associated with the supplementary SS occasion and the most recent previous SSB is not greater than the fourth threshold, the circuit skips searching for the supplementary SS in the resources related to the supplementary SS occasion.

[0585] According to an eighth aspect provided in addition to the sixth aspect, the control signal includes a control message for each of a plurality of user equipment groups, where one of the user equipment groups includes a user equipment.

[0586] According to a ninth aspect provided in addition to any one of the first to eighth aspects or in addition to any alternative aspect, in operation, the circuit searches for the supplementary SS in a frequency resource having a center frequency position the same as the center frequency position of the occasion configured for the SSB.

[0587] According to a tenth aspect provided in addition to any one of the first or eighth aspects or in addition to any alternative aspect, in operation, the circuit searches for the supplementary SS in a frequency resource where the difference between the center frequency position and the center frequency position of the occasion configured for the SSB is less than a third threshold.

[0588] According to an eleventh aspect provided in addition to any one of the first to tenth aspects or in addition to any alternative aspect, in operation, the circuit obtains quasi - co - location QCL association with the SSB and / or channel state information reference signal CSI - RS based on the supplementary SS.

[0589] According to an alternative eleventh aspect provided in addition to any one of the fourth to eighth aspects or in addition to the fifth or seventh alternative aspects, in operation, the circuit searches for the supplementary SS in a frequency resource having a center frequency position different from the center frequency position of the occasion configured for the SSB, and when the difference between the center frequency position of the supplementary SS occasion and the center frequency position of the SSB occasion is greater than a predetermined fourth threshold, determines that the supplementary SS will be present in each configured supplementary SS occasion.

[0590] According to a twelfth aspect provided in addition to any one of the first to eleventh aspects or in addition to any alternative aspect, in operation, the circuit performs at least one of automatic gain control AGC, radio resource management RRM, measurement of serving cells and / or neighboring cells, and beam tracking based on the supplementary SS.

[0591] According to a thirteenth aspect, a network node is provided. The network node includes a circuit and a transceiver. The circuit includes a supplementary synchronization signal SS in a resource different from the timing configured for a synchronization signal block SSB in operation, where the SSB includes a primary SS, a secondary SS, and a physical broadcast channel PBCH. The transceiver transmits the wireless signal in operation.

[0592] According to a fourteenth aspect, a method performed at a user equipment UE is provided. The method includes: receiving a wireless signal, and searching for a supplementary synchronization signal SS in the wireless signal in a resource different from the timing configured for a synchronization signal block SSB, where the SSB includes a primary SS, a secondary SS, and a physical broadcast channel PBCH.

[0593] According to a fifteenth aspect, a method performed at a network node is provided. The method includes: including a supplementary synchronization signal SS in a wireless signal in a resource different from the resource configured for a synchronization signal block SSB, where the SSB includes a primary SS, a secondary SS, and a physical broadcast channel PBCH, and transmitting the wireless signal.

[0594] According to another aspect, an integrated circuit is provided, which is configured to search for a supplementary synchronization signal SS in a wireless signal in a resource different from the timing configured for a synchronization signal block SSB, where the SSB includes a primary SS, a secondary SS, and a physical broadcast channel PBCH. Such an IC can implement the circuit 2330 of the UE mentioned above.

[0595] According to another aspect, an integrated circuit is provided, which is configured to include a supplementary synchronization signal SS in a wireless signal in a resource different from the timing configured for a synchronization signal block SSB, where the SSB includes a primary SS, a secondary SS, and a physical broadcast channel PBCH. The IC can implement the circuit 2380 of the network node mentioned above.

[0596] An integrated circuit configured to control a communication device to perform the method according to the fourteenth aspect and an integrated circuit for controlling a base station to perform the communication method according to the fifteenth aspect are also provided.

[0597] In addition, a non-transitory medium storing program instructions is provided, which when executed on a processing circuit such as a general-purpose processor causes the processing circuit to perform all steps of the above method embodiments or aspects.

Claims

1. A user equipment, comprising: a transceiver that receives a wireless signal in time-frequency resources; and a circuit that searches for a supplementary synchronization signal SS in the wireless signal in resources different from the timing configured for a synchronization signal block SSB, wherein the SSB includes a primary SS, a secondary SS, and a physical broadcast channel PBCH.

2. The user equipment according to claim 1, wherein the circuit searches for a time-domain repetition of the supplementary SS in resources different from two adjacent timings configured for the SSB and in the resources therebetween, and / or wherein the circuit searches for a frequency-domain copy of the supplementary SS in resources different from the timing configured for the SSB.

3. The user equipment according to any one of claims 1 or 2, wherein the supplementary SS includes a supplementary primary SS containing a first sequence and a supplementary secondary SS containing a second sequence, wherein the second sequence is different from the first sequence.

4. The user equipment according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the circuit determines a configuration of resources for a supplementary SS timing for carrying the supplementary SS according to system information and / or RRC configuration; searches for the supplementary SS in resources related to the supplementary SS timing according to the configuration.

5. The user equipment according to claim 4, wherein the circuit when the period of the timing configured for the SSB is greater than a second threshold, searches for the supplementary SS in resources related to the supplementary SS timing according to the configuration; when the period of the timing configured for the SSB is not greater than the second threshold, skips searching for the supplementary SS in the resources related to the supplementary SS timing according to the configuration.

6. The user equipment according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the supplementary SS is part of a wake-up signal WUS; and the circuit when receiving the WUS, determines that the user equipment will receive a control signal other than the WUS.

7. The user equipment according to claim 6, wherein the control signal includes a plurality of control messages for a group of user equipments including the user equipment.

8. The user equipment according to claim 6, wherein the control signal includes control messages for each of a plurality of groups of user equipments, wherein one of the groups of user equipments includes the user equipment.

9. The user equipment according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the circuit searches for the supplementary SS in frequency resources having a center frequency position the same as the center frequency position of the timing configured for the SSB.

10. The user equipment according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein, the circuit searches for the supplementary SS in frequency resources having a center frequency position that differs from the center frequency position of the timing configured for the SSB by less than a third threshold.

11. The user equipment according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the circuit obtains based on the supplementary SS: - associated with the quasi-co-location QCL of the SSB, and / or - a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS.

12. The user equipment according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein the circuit performs at least one of the following based on the supplementary SS automatic gain control (AGC); radio resource management (RRM) measurements of a serving cell and / or neighboring cells; and beam tracking.

13. A network node, comprising: a circuit that includes a supplementary synchronization signal (SS) in a wireless signal in a resource different from the occasion configured for a synchronization signal block (SSB), wherein the SSB includes a primary SS, a secondary SS, and a physical broadcast channel (PBCH); and a transceiver that transmits the wireless signal.

14. A method for execution at a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: receiving a wireless signal; and and searching for a supplementary synchronization signal (SS) in the wireless signal in a resource different from the occasion configured for a synchronization signal block (SSB), wherein the SSB includes a primary SS, a secondary SS, and a physical broadcast channel (PBCH).

15. A method for execution at a network node, the method comprising: including a supplementary synchronization signal (SS) in a wireless signal in a resource different from the resource configured for a synchronization signal block (SSB), wherein the SSB includes a primary SS, a secondary SS, and a physical broadcast channel (PBCH); and and transmitting the wireless signal.

16. An integrated circuit that causes a terminal device to perform the following steps: receiving a wireless signal; and searching for a supplementary synchronization signal (SS) in the wireless signal in a resource different from the occasion configured for a synchronization signal block (SSB), wherein the SSB includes a primary SS, a secondary SS, and a physical broadcast channel (PBCH).

17. An integrated circuit that causes a base station to perform the following steps: including a supplementary synchronization signal (SS) in a wireless signal in a resource different from the resource configured for a synchronization signal block (SSB), wherein the SSB includes a primary SS, a secondary SS, and a physical broadcast channel (PBCH); and transmitting the wireless signal.

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