Augmented reality (XR) augmentation

Abstract

A first network node receives, from a second network node, a first message requesting establishment of a first flow and a second flow. The first network node sends a second message to the second network node, the second message indicating whether both the first flow and the second flow are admitted.

Description

[0001] Cross-reference to related applications

[0002] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 421,902, filed on November 2, 2022, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 422,301, filed on November 3, 2022, which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0003] Examples of several of the various embodiments of the present disclosure are described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0004] Figure 1A and Figure 1B An example mobile communications network is presented in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented.

[0005] Figure 2A and Figure 2B The New Radio (NR) user plane and control plane protocol stacks are shown separately.

[0006] Figure 3 Shown in Figure 2A Examples of services provided between the protocol layers of the NR user plane protocol stack.

[0007] Figure 4A Shows the flow Figure 2A Figure 2 shows an example downlink data flow of the NR user plane protocol stack.

[0008] Figure 4B Shows an example format of the MAC subheader in a MAC PDU.

[0009] Figure 5A and Figure 5B The mapping between logical channels, transport channels and physical channels for downlink and uplink respectively is shown.

[0010] Figure 6 is an example diagram showing RRC state transition of a UE.

[0011] Figure 7 An example configuration of an NR frame into which OFDM symbols are grouped is shown.

[0012] Figure 8 An example configuration of time slots in the time and frequency domain of an NR carrier is shown.

[0013] Figure 9 An example of bandwidth adaptation using three configured BWPs for an NR carrier is shown.

[0014] Figure 10A Three carrier aggregation configurations with two component carriers are shown.

[0015] Figure 10B An example is shown of how aggregated cells can be configured into one or more PUCCH groups.

[0016] Figure 11A An example of SS / PBCH block structure and location is shown.

[0017] Figure 11B An example of CSI-RS mapped in time and frequency domains is shown.

[0018] Figure 12A and Figure 12B Three examples of downlink and uplink beam management procedures are shown respectively.

[0019] Figure 13A 、 Figure 13B and Figure 13C A four-step contention-based random access procedure, a two-step contention-free random access procedure, and another two-step random access procedure are demonstrated respectively.

[0020] Figure 14A An example of CORESET configuration showing the bandwidth portion.

[0021] Figure 14B An example of CCE to REG mapping for DCI transmission on CORESET and PDCCH processing is shown.

[0022] Figure 15 An example of a wireless device communicating with a base station is shown.

[0023] Figure 16A 、 Figure 16B 、 Figure 16C and Figure 16D Example structures for uplink and downlink transmissions are shown.

[0024] Figure 17 is an exemplary diagram of an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0025] Figure 18 is an exemplary diagram of an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0026] Figure 19 is an exemplary diagram of an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0027] Figure 20 is an exemplary diagram of an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0028] Figure 21 is an exemplary diagram of an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0029] Figure 22A 、 Figure 22B 、 Figure 22C 、 Figure 22D is an exemplary diagram of an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0030] Figure 23 is an exemplary diagram of an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0031] Figure 24 is an exemplary diagram of an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0032] Figure 25 is an exemplary diagram of an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0033] Figure 26 is an exemplary diagram of an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0034] Figure 27 is an exemplary diagram of an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0035] Figure 28 is an exemplary diagram of an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0036] Figure 29 is an exemplary diagram of an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0037] Figure 30 is an exemplary diagram of one aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0038] Figure 31 is an exemplary diagram of one aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0039] Figure 32 is an exemplary diagram of one aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0040] Figure 33 is an exemplary diagram of one aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0041] Figure 34 is an exemplary diagram of one aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0042] Figure 35 is an exemplary diagram of one aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0043] Figure 36 is an exemplary diagram of one aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0044] Figure 37 is an example diagram of an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0045] Figure 38 is an exemplary diagram of aspects of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0046] Figure 39 is an example diagram of an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0047] In the present disclosure, various embodiments are presented in the form of examples of how the disclosed technology can be implemented and / or how the disclosed technology can be practiced in environments and scenarios. It will be apparent to those skilled in the relevant art that various changes in form and detail can be made therein without departing from the scope of the present invention. In fact, after reading the specification, it will be apparent to those skilled in the relevant art how to implement alternative embodiments. The embodiments of the present invention should not be limited by any described exemplary embodiments. The embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Limitations, features and / or elements from the disclosed example embodiments can be combined to create additional embodiments within the scope of the present disclosure. Any figures that highlight functionality and advantages are provided for illustrative purposes only. The disclosed architecture is sufficiently flexible and configurable so that it can be utilized in a manner different from that shown. For example, the actions listed in any flow chart can be reordered or only optionally used in certain embodiments.

[0048] Embodiments can be configured to operate as desired. For example, the disclosed mechanisms can be implemented when certain criteria are met in a wireless device, base station, radio environment, network, or combinations thereof. Example criteria can be based, at least in part, on, for example, wireless device or network node configuration, traffic load, initial system settings, packet size, traffic characteristics, or combinations thereof. When one or more of these criteria are met, various example embodiments can be applied. Thus, example embodiments that selectively implement the disclosed protocols can be implemented.

[0049] A base station may communicate with a mixture of wireless devices. A wireless device and / or base station may support multiple technologies and / or multiple versions of the same technology. A wireless device may have certain specific capabilities, depending on the wireless device class and / or capabilities. When the present disclosure refers to a base station communicating with multiple wireless devices, the present disclosure may refer to a subset of the total wireless devices in the coverage area. For example, the present disclosure may refer to multiple wireless devices of a given LTE or 5G version with given capabilities and in a given sector of a base station. The multiple wireless devices in the present disclosure may refer to a selected plurality of wireless devices, and / or a subset of the total wireless devices in the coverage area that perform according to the disclosed methods, etc. There may be multiple base stations or multiple wireless devices in the coverage area that may not comply with the disclosed methods, for example, these wireless devices or base stations may perform based on older versions of LTE or 5G technology.

[0050] In this disclosure, "a" and "an" and similar phrases will be interpreted as "at least one" and "one or more". Similarly, any term ending with the suffix "(s)" will be interpreted as "at least one" and "one or more". In this disclosure, the term "may" is to be interpreted as "may, for example". In other words, the term "may" indicates that the phrase following the term "may" is an example of one of a variety of suitable possibilities that may or may not be used in one or more of the various embodiments. As used herein, the terms "comprising" and "consisting of" list one or more components of the element being described. The terms "comprising" and "including" are interchangeable and do not exclude that unlisted components are included in the element being described. In contrast, "consisting of" provides a complete enumeration of the one or more components of the element being described. As used herein, the term "based on" should be interpreted as "based at least in part on" rather than, for example, "based only on". As used herein, the term "and / or" represents any possible combination of the listed elements. For example, "A, B and / or C" can mean A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; or A, B and C.

[0051] If A and B are sets, and every element of A is also an element of B, then A is called a subset of B. In this specification, only non-empty sets and subsets are considered. For example, the possible subsets of B = {cell1, cell2} are: {cell1}, {cell2}, and {cell1, cell2}. The phrase "based on" (or equivalently, "based at least on") indicates that the phrase following the term "based on" is an example of one of multiple suitable possibilities that may or may not be used in one or more different embodiments. The phrase "in response to" (or equivalently, "in response to at least") indicates that the phrase following the phrase "in response to" is an example of one of multiple suitable possibilities that may or may not be used in one or more different embodiments. The phrase "depending on" (or equivalently, "depending on at least") indicates that the phrase following the phrase "depending on" is an example of one of multiple suitable possibilities that may or may not be used in one or more different embodiments. The phrase "using / adopting" (or equivalently, "at least adopting / adopting") indicates that the phrase following the phrase "adopting / adopting" is an example of one of multiple suitable possibilities that may or may not be used in one or more different embodiments.

[0052] The term "configured" can refer to the capabilities of a device, whether the device is in an operational or non-operational state. "Configured" can refer to specific settings in a device that affect the operational characteristics of the device, whether the device is in an operational or non-operational state. In other words, hardware, software, firmware, registers, memory values, etc. can be "configured" within a device to provide specific characteristics to the device, whether the device is in an operational or non-operational state. Terms such as "a control message induced in a device" can mean that the control message has parameters that can be used to configure specific characteristics in the device or parameters that can be used to implement certain actions in the device, whether the device is in an operational or non-operational state.

[0053] In the present disclosure, a parameter (or equivalently referred to as a field or information element: IE) can contain one or more information objects, and an information object can contain one or more other objects. For example, if parameter (IE) N contains parameter (IE) M, and parameter (IE) M contains parameter (IE) K, and parameter (IE) K contains parameter (information element) J. Then, for example, N contains K, and N contains J. In an example embodiment, when one or more messages include multiple parameters, it means that the parameters of the multiple parameters are in at least one of the one or more messages, but not necessarily in every one of the one or more messages.

[0054] Many of the features set forth are described as optional, either through the use of "may" or by the use of parentheses. For the sake of brevity and readability, this disclosure does not explicitly recite every permutation that can be obtained by selecting from the set of optional features. This disclosure should be interpreted as explicitly disclosing all such permutations. For example, a system described as having three optional features can be embodied in seven different ways, namely, with only one of the three possible features, with any two of the three possible features, or with three of the three possible features.

[0055] Many elements described in the disclosed embodiments can be implemented as modules. A module is defined here as an element that performs a defined function and has a defined interface to other elements. The modules described in this disclosure can be implemented in hardware, software combined with hardware, firmware, wetware (e.g., hardware with biological elements), or a combination thereof, all of which can be behaviorally equivalent. For example, a module can be implemented as a software routine written in a computer language that is configured to be executed by a hardware machine (e.g., C, C++, Fortran, Java, Basic, Matlab, etc.) or a modeling / simulation program (e.g., Simulink, Stateflow, GNU Octave, or LabVIEW MathScript). It is possible to implement a module using physical hardware incorporating discrete or programmable analog, digital, and / or quantum hardware. Examples of programmable hardware include: computers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs); field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs); and complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs). Computers, microcontrollers, and microprocessors are programmed using languages ​​such as assembly, C, and C++. FPGAs, ASICs, and CPLDs are often programmed using a hardware description language (HDL), such as VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) or Verilog, which configures the connections between the smaller internal hardware blocks on the programmable device. The aforementioned techniques are often used in combination to achieve the desired functional blocks.

[0056] Figure 1A An example of a mobile communication network 100 is shown in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. The mobile communication network 100 may be, for example, a public land mobile network (PLMN) operated by a network operator. Figure 1A As shown, mobile communication network 100 includes a core network (CN) 102 , a radio access network (RAN) 104 , and wireless devices 106 .

[0057] The CN 102 may provide an interface to one or more data networks (DNs), such as public DNs (e.g., the Internet), private DNs, and / or intra-carrier DNs, for the wireless device 106. As part of the interface functionality, the CN 102 may establish an end-to-end connection between the wireless device 106 and the one or more DNs, authenticate the wireless device 106, and provide charging functionality.

[0058] The RAN 104 can connect the CN 102 to the wireless device 106 via radio communication over an air interface. As part of the radio communication, the RAN 104 can provide scheduling, radio resource management, and retransmission protocols. The direction of communication from the RAN 104 to the wireless device 106 over the air interface is referred to as downlink, while the direction of communication from the wireless device 106 to the RAN 104 over the air interface is referred to as uplink. Downlink transmissions can be separated from uplink transmissions using frequency division duplexing (FDD), time division duplexing (TDD), and / or some combination of the two duplexing techniques.

[0059] The term "wireless device" may be used throughout this disclosure to refer to and encompass any mobile or fixed (non-mobile) device that requires or can use wireless communication. For example, a wireless device can be a phone, a smartphone, a tablet, a computer, a laptop, a sensor, a meter, a wearable device, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a vehicle roadside unit (RSU), a relay node, an automobile, and / or any combination thereof. The term "wireless device" encompasses other terms including user equipment (UE), user terminal (UT), access terminal (AT), mobile station, handset, wireless transmit and receive unit (WTRU), and / or wireless communication device.

[0060] The RAN 104 may include one or more base stations (not shown). The term "base station" may be used throughout this disclosure to refer to and encompass: a Node B (associated with UMTS and / or 3G standards); an evolved Node B (eNB, associated with E-UTRA and / or 4G standards); a remote radio head (RRH); a baseband processing unit coupled to one or more RRHs; a forwarder node or relay node used to extend the coverage area of ​​a donor node; a next-generation evolved Node B (ng-eNB); a generation Node B (gNB, associated with NR and / or 5G standards); an access point (AP, associated with, for example, WiFi or any other suitable wireless communication standard); and / or any combination thereof. A base station may include at least one gNB central unit (gNB-CU) and at least one gNB distributed unit (gNB-DU).

[0061] The base stations included in the RAN 104 may include one or more sets of antennas for communicating with the wireless devices 106 over the air interface. For example, one or more of the base stations may include three sets of antennas to control three cells (or sectors) respectively. The size of a cell may be determined by the range at which a receiver (e.g., a base station receiver) can successfully receive transmissions from a transmitter (e.g., a wireless device transmitter) operating in the cell. Together, the cells of the base stations may provide radio coverage to the wireless devices 106 over a wide geographic area to support wireless device mobility.

[0062] In addition to three-sector sites, other implementations of base stations are possible. For example, one or more of the base stations in the RAN 104 can be implemented as a sectorized site with more or less than three sectors. One or more of the base stations in the RAN 104 can be implemented as an access point, a baseband processing unit coupled to several remote radio heads (RRHs), and / or a repeater or relay node for extending the coverage area of ​​a donor node. The baseband processing units coupled to the RRHs can be part of a centralized or cloud RAN architecture, where the baseband processing units can be centralized in a pool of baseband processing units or virtualized. The repeater node can amplify and rebroadcast the radio signals received from the donor node. The relay node can perform the same / similar functions as the repeater node, but can decode the radio signals received from the donor node to eliminate noise before amplifying and rebroadcasting the radio signals.

[0063] The RAN 104 can be deployed as a homogeneous network of macrocell base stations with similar antenna types and similar high-level transmit power. The RAN 104 can also be deployed as a heterogeneous network. In a heterogeneous network, small cell base stations can be used to provide small coverage areas, such as coverage areas that overlap with the relatively larger coverage area provided by macrocell base stations. Small coverage areas can be provided in areas with high data traffic (or so-called "hotspots") or in areas where macrocell coverage is weak. Examples of small cell base stations include, in descending order of coverage area: microcell base stations, picocell base stations, and femtocell base stations or home base stations.

[0064] The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) was established in 1998 to Figure 1A 100 in the mobile communication network 100 provides global specification standardization. To date, 3GPP has developed specifications for three generations of mobile networks: the third generation (3G) network known as the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), the fourth generation (4G) network known as the Long Term Evolution (LTE), and the fifth generation (5G) network known as the 5G System (5GS). The embodiments of the present disclosure are described with reference to the RAN of the 3GPP 5G network known as the Next Generation RAN (NG-RAN). These embodiments can be applied to the RAN of other mobile communication networks, such as Figure 1A The RAN 104 in 5G networks, the RANs of earlier 3G and 4G networks, and those of yet-to-be-specified future networks (e.g., 3GPP 6G networks). The NG-RAN implements the 5G radio access technology known as New Radio (NR) and may be configured to implement 4G radio access technology or other radio access technologies, including non-3GPP radio access technologies.

[0065] Figure 1BAnother example mobile communication network 150 is shown in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. The mobile communication network 150 may be, for example, a PLMN operated by a network operator. Figure 1B As shown in FIG, the mobile communication network 150 includes a 5G core network (5G-CN) 152, an NG-RAN 154, and UEs 156A and 156B (collectively referred to as UE 156). Figure 1A Corresponding components are described as being implemented and operating in the same or similar manner.

[0066] 5G-CN 152 provides an interface to one or more DNs, such as a public DN (e.g., the Internet), a private DN, and / or an operator's internal DN, to UE 156. As part of the interface functionality, 5G-CN 152 can establish an end-to-end connection between UE 156 and the one or more DNs, authenticate UE 156, and provide charging functionality. Compared to the CN of a 3GPP 4G network, the basis of 5G-CN 152 can be a service-based architecture. This means that the architecture of the nodes that make up 5G-CN 152 can be defined as network functions that provide services to other network functions via interfaces. The network functions of 5G-CN 152 can be implemented in several ways, including as network elements on dedicated or shared hardware, as software instances running on dedicated or shared hardware, or as virtualized functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud-based platform).

[0067] like Figure 1B As shown, 5G-CN 152 includes an access and mobility management function (AMF) 158A and a user plane function (UPF) 158B, which are described in detail in the following sections for ease of illustration. Figure 1B In the figure, they are shown as one component AMF / UPF 158. UPF 158B can act as a gateway between NG-RAN 154 and the one or more DNs. UPF 158B can perform functions such as: packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection and user plane policy rule enforcement, service usage reporting, uplink classification to support routing of service flows to the one or more DNs, user plane quality of service (QoS) handling (e.g., packet filtering, gating, uplink / downlink rate enforcement and uplink service verification), downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF 158B can act as an anchor point for intra / inter-radio access technology (RAT) mobility, an external protocol (or packet) data unit (PDU) session point interconnected with the one or more DNs and / or a fulcrum to support multi-homed PDU sessions. UE 156 can be configured to receive services through a PDU session, which is a logical connection between the UE and the DN.

[0068] The AMF 158A may perform functions such as: non-access stratum (NAS) signaling termination, NAS signaling security, access stratum (AS) security control, inter-CN node signaling for mobility between 3GPP access networks, idle mode UE reachability (e.g., control and execution of paging retransmissions), registration area management, intra-system and inter-system mobility support, access authentication, access authorization including roaming rights verification, mobility management control (subscription and policy), network slicing support and / or session management function (SMF) selection. NAS may refer to a function operating between the CN and the UE, and AS may refer to a function operating between the UE and the RAN.

[0069] 5G-CN 152 may include for clarity Figure 1B One or more additional network functions not shown in the figure. For example, the 5G-CN 152 may include one or more of the following: a session management function (SMF), an NR repository function (NRF), a policy control function (PCF), a network exposure function (NEF), a unified data management (UDM), an application function (AF), and / or an authentication server function (AUSF).

[0070] The NG-RAN 154 can connect the 5G-CN 152 to the UE 156 via radio communications over the air interface. The NG-RAN 154 may include one or more gNBs, illustrated as gNB 160A and gNB 160B (collectively, gNB 160), and / or one or more ng-eNBs, illustrated as ng-eNB 162A and ng-eNB 162B (collectively, ng-eNB 162). The gNBs 160 and ng-eNB 162 may be more generally referred to as base stations. The gNBs 160 and ng-eNB 162 may include one or more antennas for communicating with the UE 156 over the air interface. For example, one or more gNBs in gNB 160 and / or one or more ng-eNBs in ng-eNB 162 may include three antennas to control three cells (or sectors), respectively. The cells of gNB 160 and ng-eNB 162 may together provide radio coverage to UE 156 over a wide geographic area to support UE mobility.

[0071] like Figure 1BAs shown in FIG, gNB 160 and / or ng-eNB 162 can be connected to 5G-CN 152 via an NG interface and connected to other base stations via an Xn interface. The NG and Xn interfaces can be established using direct physical connections and / or indirect connections through an underlying transport network (such as an Internet Protocol (IP) transport network). gNB 160 and / or ng-eNB 162 can be connected to UE 156 via a Uu interface. For example, Figure 1B As shown in FIG, gNB 160A can be connected to UE 156A via a Uu interface. The NG, Xn, and Uu interfaces are associated with protocol stacks. The protocol stack associated with the interface can be composed of Figure 1B The network elements in a network are used to exchange data and signaling messages and may include two planes: the user plane and the control plane. The user plane can handle data of interest to users. The control plane can handle signaling messages of interest to network elements.

[0072] The gNB 160 and / or ng-eNB 162 may be connected to one or more AMF / UPF functions of the 5G-CN 152, such as the AMF / UPF 158, via one or more NG interfaces. For example, the gNB 160A may be connected to the UPF 158B of the AMF / UPF 158 via an NG user plane (NG-U) interface. The NG-U interface may provide for delivery of user plane PDUs (e.g., non-guaranteed delivery) between the gNB 160A and the UPF 158B. The gNB 160A may be connected to the AMF 158A via an NG control plane (NG-C) interface. The NG-C interface may provide, for example, NG interface management, UE context management, UE mobility management, delivery of NAS messages, paging, PDU session management, and configuration delivery and / or warning message transmission.

[0073] The gNB 160 can provide NR user plane and control plane protocol termination to the UE 156 via a Uu interface. For example, the gNB 160A can provide NR user plane and control plane protocol termination to the UE 156A via a Uu interface associated with the first protocol stack. The ng-eNB 162 can provide Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) user plane and control plane protocol termination to the UE 156 via a Uu interface, where E-UTRA refers to a 3GPP 4G radio access technology. For example, the ng-eNB 162B can provide E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol termination to the UE 156B via a Uu interface associated with the second protocol stack.

[0074] The 5G-CN 152 is described as being configured to handle both NR and 4G radio access. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that it is possible for NR to be connected to a 4G core network in a mode known as "non-standalone operation." In non-standalone operation, the 4G core network is used to provide (or at least support) control plane functions (e.g., initial access, mobility, and paging). Although Figure 1B Only one AMF / UPF 158 is shown in the figure, but one gNB or ng-eNB can be connected to multiple AMF / UPF nodes to provide redundancy and / or load sharing across the multiple AMF / UPF nodes.

[0075] As discussed, Figure 1B The interfaces between network elements in a network (e.g., Uu, Xn, and NG interfaces) can be associated with a protocol stack used by the network elements to exchange data and signaling messages. The protocol stack can include two planes: the user plane and the control plane. The user plane can handle data of interest to users, while the control plane can handle signaling messages of interest to network elements.

[0076] Figure 2A and Figure 2B Examples of the NR user plane and NR control plane protocol stacks for the Uu interface between the UE 210 and the gNB 220 are shown, respectively. Figure 2A and Figure 2B The protocol stack shown in the can be used with e.g. Figure 1B The protocol stacks of the Uu interface between UE 156A and gNB 160A shown in FIG are the same or similar.

[0077] Figure 2A The NR user plane protocol stack is shown, comprising five layers implemented in the UE 210 and gNB 220. At the bottom of the protocol stack, the physical layers (PHY) 211 and 221 can provide transport services to higher layers of the protocol stack and can correspond to Layer 1 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. The next four protocols above PHY 211 and 221 include the media access control layer (MAC) 212 and 222, the radio link control layer (RLC) 213 and 223, the packet data convergence protocol layer (PDCP) 214 and 224, and the service data application protocol layer (SDAP) 215 and 225. Together, these four protocols can constitute Layer 2, or the data link layer, of the OSI model.

[0078] Figure 3 Shows examples of services provided between protocol layers of the NR user plane protocol stack. Figure 2A and Figure 3Starting from the top, SDAPs 215 and 225 can perform QoS flow handling. UE 210 can receive services via a PDU session, which can be a logical connection between UE 210 and a DN. A PDU session can have one or more QoS flows. The CN's UPF (e.g., UPF 158B) can map IP packets to the one or more QoS flows of the PDU session based on QoS requirements (e.g., in terms of latency, data rate, and / or error rate). SDAPs 215 and 225 can perform mapping / demapping between the one or more QoS flows and one or more data radio bearers. The mapping / demapping between QoS flows and data radio bearers can be determined by SDAP 225 at gNB 220. SDAP 215 at UE 210 can learn the mapping between QoS flows and data radio bearers through reflective mapping or control signaling received from gNB 220. For reflective mapping, the SDAP 225 at the gNB 220 may mark downlink packets with a QoS flow indicator (QFI), which may be observed by the SDAP 215 at the UE 210 to determine the mapping / de-mapping between QoS flows and data radio bearers.

[0079] PDCPs 214 and 224 can perform header compression / decompression to reduce the amount of data transmitted over the air interface, encryption / decryption to prevent unauthorized decoding of data transmitted over the air interface, and integrity protection to ensure that control messages originate from the intended source. PDCPs 214 and 224 can also perform retransmission of undelivered packets, in-sequence delivery and reordering of packets, and removal of duplicate packets received due to, for example, intra-gNB handovers. PDCPs 214 and 224 can also perform packet duplication to increase the likelihood of packet reception and remove any duplicate packets at the receiver. Packet duplication can be suitable for services requiring high reliability.

[0080] although Figure 3 Not shown, but PDCP 214 and 224 can perform mapping / demapping between split radio bearers and RLC channels in dual connectivity scenarios. Dual connectivity is a technology that allows a UE to be connected to two cells or more generally to two cell groups: a master cell group (MCG) and a secondary cell group (SCG). Split bearers are split bearers when a single radio bearer (such as one of the radio bearers provided by PDCP 214 and 224 as a service to SDAP 215 and 225) is handled by a cell group in dual connectivity. PDCP 214 and 224 can map / demapped split radio bearers between RLC channels belonging to a cell group.

[0081] RLC 213 and 223 can perform segmentation, retransmission via automatic repeat request (ARQ), and removal of duplicate data units received from MAC 212 and 222, respectively. RLC 213 and 223 can support three transmission modes: transparent mode (TM); unacknowledged mode (UM); and acknowledged mode (AM). Based on the transmission mode in which the RLC is operating, the RLC can perform one or more of the functions described. RLC configuration can be on a per-logical channel basis, independent of parameter sets and / or transmission time interval (TTI) durations. Figure 3 As shown in FIG, RLC 213 and 223 may provide RLC channels as services to PDCP 214 and 224, respectively.

[0082] MACs 212 and 222 may perform multiplexing / demultiplexing of logical channels and / or mapping between logical channels and transport channels. Multiplexing / demultiplexing may include multiplexing / demultiplexing data units belonging to one or more logical channels into / from transport blocks (TBs) delivered to / from PHYs 211 and 221. MAC 222 may be configured to perform scheduling, scheduling information reporting, and priority handling between UEs using dynamic scheduling. Scheduling may be performed in gNB 220 (at MAC 222) for both downlink and uplink. MACs 212 and 222 may be configured to perform error correction using hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) (e.g., one HARQ entity per carrier in the case of carrier aggregation (CA)), priority handling between logical channels of UE 210 using logical channel prioritization, and / or padding. MACs 212 and 222 may support one or more parameter sets and / or transmission timing. In one example, mapping restrictions in logical channel prioritization can control which parameter sets and / or transmission timings a logical channel can use. Figure 3 As shown in FIG, MAC 212 and 222 may provide logical channels as a service to RLC 213 and 223.

[0083] PHY 211 and 221 can perform mapping of transport channels to physical channels and digital and analog signal processing functions for sending and receiving information over the air interface. These digital and analog signal processing functions may include, for example, encoding / decoding and modulation / demodulation. PHY 211 and 221 can perform multi-antenna mapping. Figure 3 As shown in , PHYs 211 and 221 may provide one or more transport channels as a service to MACs 212 and 222 .

[0084] Figure 4A Shows an example downlink data flow through the NR user plane protocol stack. Figure 4AThe figure shows the downlink data flow of three IP packets (n, n+1, and m) flowing through the NR user plane protocol stack to generate two TBs at the gNB 220. The uplink data flow through the NR user plane protocol stack can be the same as Figure 4A The downlink data flow is similar to that depicted in .

[0085] Figure 4A The downlink data flow starts when the SDAP 225 receives three IP packets from one or more QoS flows and maps the three packets to a radio bearer. Figure 4A In the SDAP header (in Figure 4A The data unit from / to the higher protocol layer is called the service data unit (SDU) of the lower protocol layer, and the data unit to / from the lower protocol layer is called the protocol data unit (PDU) of the higher protocol layer. Figure 4A As shown in , the data units from SDAP 225 are SDUs of the lower protocol layer PDCP 224 and are PDUs of SDAP 225 .

[0086] Figure 4A The remaining protocol layers in the Figure 3 ), add the corresponding headers and forward their corresponding output to the next lower layer. For example, PDCP 224 may perform IP header compression and encryption and forward its output to RLC 223. RLC 223 may optionally perform segmentation (e.g., Figure 4A 2) and forwards its output to the MAC 222. The MAC 222 may multiplex many RLC PDUs and may append MAC subheaders to the RLC PDUs to form a transport block. In NR, MAC subheaders may be distributed throughout the MAC PDUs, as shown in FIG. Figure 4A In LTE, the MAC subheader can be located entirely at the beginning of the MAC PDU. The NR MAC PDU structure can reduce processing time and associated latency because the MAC PDU subheader can be calculated before assembling the complete MAC PDU.

[0087] Figure 4BAn example format of a MAC subheader in a MAC PDU is shown. The MAC subheader includes: an SDU Length field for indicating the length (e.g., in bytes) of the MAC SDU to which the MAC subheader corresponds; a Logical Channel Identifier (LCID) field for identifying the logical channel from which the MAC SDU originates to assist in the demultiplexing process; a Flag (F) for indicating the size of the SDU Length field; and a Reserved Bit (R) field for future use.

[0088] Figure 4B Further shown is a MAC Control Element (CE) inserted into a MAC PDU by a MAC (e.g., MAC 223 or MAC 222). For example, Figure 4B Two MAC CEs are shown inserted into a MAC PDU. Figure 4B ) and a MAC CE is inserted at the end of a MAC PDU for uplink transmission. MAC CEs may be used for in-band control signaling. Example MAC CEs include: scheduling-related MAC CEs, such as buffer status reporting and power headroom reporting; activation / deactivation MAC CEs, such as those used for PDCP duplicate detection, channel state information (CSI) reporting, sounding reference signal (SRS) transmission, and activation / deactivation of previously configured components; discontinuous reception (DRX)-related MAC CEs; timing advance MAC CEs; and random access-related MAC CEs. The MAC CE may be preceded by a MAC subheader having a format similar to that described with respect to the MAC SDU, and the MAC CE may be identified with a reserved value in the LCID field that indicates the type of control information included in the MAC CE.

[0089] Before describing the NR control plane protocol stack, we first describe the mapping between logical channels, transport channels, and physical channels, as well as channel types. One or more of these channels can be used to perform functions associated with the NR control plane protocol stack described later below.

[0090] Figure 5A and Figure 5BThe mapping between logical channels, transport channels and physical channels is shown for downlink and uplink respectively. Information is passed through channels between RLC, MAC and PHY of the NR protocol stack. Logical channels can be used between RLC and MAC and can be classified as control channels that carry control and configuration information in the NR control plane, or as traffic channels that carry data in the NR user plane. Logical channels can be classified as dedicated logical channels dedicated to a specific UE, or as common logical channels that can be used by more than one UE. Logical channels can also be defined by the type of information they carry. The set of logical channels defined by NR includes, for example:

[0091] - Paging Control Channel (PCCH), which is used to carry paging messages used to page UEs whose locations are unknown to the network at the cell level;

[0092] - Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH), which is used to carry system information messages in the form of a Master Information Block (MIB) and several System Information Blocks (SIBs), which can be used by UEs to obtain information about how a cell is configured and how it operates within the cell;

[0093] - Common Control Channel (CCCH), which is used to carry control messages and random access;

[0094] - a dedicated control channel (DCCH), which is used to carry control messages to / from a specific UE to configure that UE; and

[0095] - Dedicated Traffic Channel (DTCH), which is used to carry user data to / from a specific UE.

[0096] Transport channels are used between the MAC layer and the PHY layer and can be defined by how the information they carry is transmitted over the air interface. The set of transport channels defined by NR includes, for example:

[0097] - Paging Channel (PCH), which is used to carry paging messages originating from PCCH;

[0098] - Broadcast Channel (BCH), which is used to carry the MIB from the BCCH;

[0099] - Downlink Shared Channel (DL-SCH), which is used to carry downlink data and signaling messages, including SIBs from BCCH;

[0100] - Uplink Shared Channel (UL-SCH), which is used to carry uplink data and signaling messages; and

[0101] - Random Access Channel (RACH), which is used to allow a UE to contact the network without any previous scheduling.

[0102] The PHY may use physical channels to pass information between processing levels of the PHY. A physical channel may have a set of associated time-frequency resources for carrying information for one or more transport channels. The PHY may generate control information to support the low-level operation of the PHY and provide control information to the lower levels of the PHY via physical control channels (referred to as L1 / L2 control channels). The set of physical channels and physical control channels defined by NR includes, for example:

[0103] - Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), which is used to carry the MIB from the BCH;

[0104] - Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), which is used to carry downlink data and signaling messages from DL-SCH and paging messages from PCH;

[0105] - Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), which is used to carry downlink control information (DCI), which may include downlink scheduling commands, uplink scheduling grants, and uplink power control commands;

[0106] - Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), which is used to carry uplink data and signaling messages from the UL-SCH, and in some cases uplink control information (UCI) as described below;

[0107] - Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), which is used to carry UCI, which may include HARQ acknowledgment, channel quality indicator (CQI), precoding matrix indicator (PMI), rank indicator (RI), and scheduling request (SR); and

[0108] - Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), which is used for random access.

[0109] Similar to the physical control channel, the physical layer generates physical signals to support the low-level operations of the physical layer. Figure 5A and Figure 5B As shown in [1], the physical layer signals defined by NR include: Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS), Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS), Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS), Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS), Sounding Reference Signal (SRS), and Phase Tracking Reference Signal (PT-RS). These physical layer signals will be described in more detail below.

[0110] Figure 2B An example NR control plane protocol stack is shown. Figure 2B As shown in FIG, the NR control plane protocol stack may use the same / similar first four protocol layers as the example NR user plane protocol stack. These four protocol layers include PHY 211 and 221, MAC 212 and 222, RLC 213 and 223, and PDCP 214 and 224. Instead of having SDAP 215 and 225 at the top of the stack as in the NR user plane protocol stack, the NR control plane protocol stack instead has radio resource control (RRC) 216 and 226 and NAS protocols 217 and 237 at the top of the NR control plane protocol stack.

[0111] The NAS protocols 217 and 237 may provide control plane functionality between the UE 210 and the AMF 230 (e.g., AMF 158A), or more generally between the UE 210 and the CN. The NAS protocols 217 and 237 may provide control plane functionality between the UE 210 and the AMF 230 via signaling messages known as NAS messages. There is no direct path between the UE 210 and the AMF 230 through which NAS messages may be transmitted. NAS messages may be transmitted using the AS of the Uu and NG interfaces. The NAS protocols 217 and 237 may provide control plane functionality such as authentication, security, connection setup, mobility management, and session management.

[0112] RRCs 216 and 226 may provide control plane functionality between UE 210 and gNB 220, or more generally, between UE 210 and the RAN. RRCs 216 and 226 may provide control plane functionality between UE 210 and gNB 220 via signaling messages, referred to as RRC messages. RRC messages may be transported between UE 210 and the RAN using signaling radio bearers and the same / similar PDCP, RLC, MAC, and PHY protocol layers. MAC may multiplex control plane and user plane data into the same transport block (TB). The RRC 216 and 226 may provide control plane functions such as: broadcast of system information related to the AS and NAS; paging initiated by the CN or RAN; establishment, maintenance, and release of an RRC connection between the UE 210 and the RAN; security functions including key management; establishment, configuration, maintenance, and release of signaling radio bearers and data radio bearers; mobility functions; QoS management functions; UE measurement reporting and control of such reporting; detection of radio link failure (RLF) and recovery from radio link failure; and / or NAS message delivery. As part of establishing an RRC connection, the RRC 216 and 226 may establish an RRC context, which may involve configuring parameters for communication between the UE 210 and the RAN.

[0113] Figure 6is an example diagram showing the RRC state transition of the UE. The UE can Figure 1A The wireless device 106 depicted in Figure 2A and Figure 2B The UE 210 depicted in FIG or any other wireless device described in this disclosure is the same or similar. Figure 6 As shown in , the UE may be in at least one of three RRC states: RRC connected 602 (eg, RRC_CONNECTED), RRC idle 604 (eg, RRC_IDLE), and RRC inactive 606 (eg, RRC_INACTIVE).

[0114] In RRC connection 602, the UE has an established RRC context and may have at least one RRC connection with a base station. The base station may be similar to one of the following: Figure 1A The one or more base stations included in the RAN 104 depicted in FIG; Figure 1B One of the gNB 160 or ng-eNB 162 depicted in FIG; Figure 2A and Figure 2B ; or any other base station described in the present disclosure. A base station connected to a UE may have an RRC context for the UE. The RRC context, referred to as the UE context, may contain parameters used for communication between the UE and the base station. These parameters may include, for example: one or more AS contexts; one or more radio link configuration parameters; bearer configuration information (e.g., relating to data radio bearers, signaling radio bearers, logical channels, QoS flows, and / or PDU sessions); security information; and / or PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP, and / or SDAP layer configuration information. While in RRC connection 602, the UE's mobility may be managed by a RAN (e.g., RAN 104 or NG-RAN 154). The UE may measure signal levels (e.g., reference signal levels) from a serving cell and neighboring cells and report these measurements to the base station currently serving the UE. The UE's serving base station may request handover to a cell of one of the neighboring base stations based on the reported measurements. The RRC state may transition from RRC connected 602 to RRC idle 604 via a connection release procedure 608 , or to RRC inactive 606 via a connection deactivation procedure 610 .

[0115] In RRC Idle 604, an RRC context may not be established for the UE. In RRC Idle 604, the UE may not have an RRC connection with a base station. While in RRC Idle 604, the UE may be in a sleep state for most of the time (e.g., to conserve battery power). The UE may periodically wake up (e.g., once per discontinuous reception cycle) to monitor for paging messages from the RAN. The UE's mobility may be managed by the UE through a procedure known as cell reselection. The RRC state may transition from RRC Idle 604 to RRC Connected 602 through a connection establishment procedure 612, which may involve a random access procedure, as discussed in more detail below.

[0116] In RRC Inactive 606, the previously established RRC context is maintained in the UE and the base station. This allows for a quick transition to RRC Connected 602 with reduced signaling overhead compared to the transition from RRC Idle 604 to RRC Connected 602. While in RRC Inactive 606, the UE may be in a sleep state, and the UE's mobility may be managed by the UE through cell reselection. The RRC state may transition from RRC Inactive 606 to RRC Connected 602 via a Connection Resumption Procedure 614, or to RRC Idle 604 via a Connection Release Procedure 616, which may be the same as or similar to the Connection Release Procedure 608.

[0117] The RRC state can be associated with mobility management mechanisms. In RRC Idle 604 and RRC Inactive 606, mobility is managed by the UE through cell reselection. The purpose of mobility management in RRC Idle 604 and RRC Inactive 606 is to allow the network to notify the UE of events via paging messages without having to broadcast paging messages across the entire mobile communications network. The mobility management mechanisms used in RRC Idle 604 and RRC Inactive 606 can allow the network to track the UE at a cell group level, so that paging messages can be broadcast to cells in the cell group in which the UE is currently residing, rather than across the entire mobile communications network. The mobility management mechanisms used in RRC Idle 604 and RRC Inactive 606 track the UE at a cell group level. These mobility management mechanisms can do so using groupings of different granularities. For example, there can be three levels of cell grouping granularity: individual cells; cells within a RAN area identified by a RAN Area Identifier (RAI); and cells within a group of RAN areas, known as tracking areas and identified by a Tracking Area Identifier (TAI).

[0118] Tracking areas can be used to track UEs at the CN level. The CN (e.g., CN 102 or 5G-CN 152) can provide the UE with a list of TAIs associated with the UE's registration area. If the UE moves to a cell associated with a TAI that is not included in the list of TAIs associated with the UE's registration area through cell reselection, the UE can perform a registration update on the CN to allow the CN to update the UE's location and provide the UE with a new UE registration area.

[0119] RAN areas can be used to track UEs at the RAN level. For a UE in the RRC Inactive 606 state, a RAN notification area can be assigned to the UE. A RAN notification area can include one or more cell identifiers, a list of RAIs, or a list of TAIs. In one example, a base station can belong to one or more RAN notification areas. In another example, a cell can belong to one or more RAN notification areas. If a UE moves to a cell not included in the RAN notification area assigned to the UE through cell reselection, the UE can perform a notification area update on the RAN to update the UE's RAN notification area.

[0120] The base station that stores the RRC context for the UE or the last serving base station of the UE may be referred to as the anchor base station. The anchor base station may maintain the RRC context for the UE at least for the period of time that the UE remains in the RAN notification area of ​​the anchor base station and / or for the period of time that the UE remains in RRC inactivity 606.

[0121] gNB, such as Figure 1B The gNB 160 in the NB-LTE network can be divided into two parts: a central unit (gNB-CU) and one or more distributed units (gNB-DUs). The gNB-CU can be coupled to one or more gNB-DUs using the F1 interface. The gNB-CU can include RRC, PDCP, and SDAP. The gNB-DU can include RLC, MAC, and PHY.

[0122] In NR, physical signals and physical channels (about Figure 5A and Figure 5BDiscussed) can be mapped onto orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols. OFDM is a multi-carrier communication scheme that transmits data over F orthogonal subcarriers (or tones). Before transmission, the data can be mapped to a series of complex symbols called source symbols (e.g., M-quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM) symbols or M-phase shift keying (M-PSK) symbols) and divided into F parallel symbol streams. The F parallel symbol streams can be treated as if they were in the frequency domain and used as input to an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) block that transforms them into the time domain. The IFFT block can take F source symbols at a time (one source symbol from each of the F parallel symbol streams) and use each source symbol to modulate the amplitude and phase of one of the F sinusoidal basis functions corresponding to the F orthogonal subcarriers. The output of the IFFT block can be F time domain samples representing the sum of the F orthogonal subcarriers. The F time domain samples can form a single OFDM symbol. After some processing (e.g., addition of a cyclic prefix) and up-conversion, the OFDM symbols provided by the IFFT block can be transmitted over the air interface at the carrier frequency. The F parallel symbol streams can be mixed using the FFT block before being processed by the IFFT block. This operation produces discrete Fourier transform (DFT) precoded OFDM symbols that can be used by the UE in the uplink to reduce the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). The FFT block can be used to perform inverse processing on the OFDM symbols at the receiver to recover the data mapped to the source symbols.

[0123] Figure 7 An example configuration of an NR frame into which OFDM symbols are grouped is shown. An NR frame may be identified by a system frame number (SFN). The SFN may repeat with a period of 1024 frames. As shown, an NR frame may have a duration of 10 milliseconds (ms) and may include 10 subframes of 1 ms duration. A subframe may be divided into slots, each of which may include, for example, 14 OFDM symbols.

[0124] The duration of a timeslot may depend on the parameter set used for the OFDM symbol of the timeslot. In NR, flexible parameter sets are supported to accommodate different cell deployments (e.g., cells with carrier frequencies below 1 GHz, up to cells with carrier frequencies in the mmWave range). Parameter sets may be defined in terms of subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix duration. For parameter sets in NR, the subcarrier spacing may be scaled up by powers of two from a baseline subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz, and the cyclic prefix duration may be scaled down by powers of two from a baseline cyclic prefix duration of 4.7 microseconds. For example, NR defines parameter sets with the following subcarrier spacing / cyclic prefix duration combinations: 15 kHz / 4.7 microseconds; 30 kHz / 2.3 microseconds; 60 kHz / 1.2 microseconds; 120 kHz / 0.59 microseconds; and 240 kHz / 0.29 microseconds.

[0125] A slot may have a fixed number of OFDM symbols (eg, 14 OFDM symbols). Parameter sets with higher subcarrier spacing have shorter slot durations and correspondingly more slots per subframe. Figure 7 The transmission structure of the slot duration and slot per subframe associated with the parameter set is shown (for ease of illustration, Figure 7 (The numerology with 240kHz subcarrier spacing is not shown in the figure). The subframe in NR can be used as a time reference independent of the numerology, while the slot can be used as the unit for scheduling uplink and downlink transmissions. To support low latency, scheduling in NR can be decoupled from the slot duration and start at any OFDM symbol and continue to transmit as many symbols as needed. These partial slot transmissions can be called mini-slots or sub-slot transmissions.

[0126] Figure 8 An example configuration of time slots in the time and frequency domains of an NR carrier is shown. The time slots consist of resource elements (REs) and resource blocks (RBs). REs are the smallest physical resources in NR. REs span one OFDM symbol in the time domain over one subcarrier in the frequency domain, as shown in Figure 2. Figure 8 As shown in . RB spans twelve consecutive REs in the frequency domain, as Figure 8 As shown in . The NR carrier can be limited to a width of 275 RBs or 275×12=3300 subcarriers. If this restriction is used, the NR carrier can be limited to 50MHz, 100MHz, 200MHz and 400MHz for subcarrier spacing of 15kHz, 30kHz, 60kHz and 120kHz, respectively, where the 400MHz bandwidth can be set based on the 400MHz bandwidth limit per carrier.

[0127] Figure 8A single numerology set is shown for use across the entire bandwidth of an NR carrier. In other example configurations, multiple numerology sets may be supported on the same carrier.

[0128] NR can support wide carrier bandwidths (e.g., up to 400 MHz for a 120 kHz subcarrier spacing). Not all UEs may be able to receive the full carrier bandwidth (e.g., due to hardware limitations). Moreover, receiving the full carrier bandwidth may be prohibitive in terms of UE power consumption. In one example, to reduce power consumption and / or for other purposes, the UE can adapt the size of the UE's receive bandwidth based on the amount of traffic the UE plans to receive. This is called bandwidth adaptation.

[0129] NR defines bandwidth parts (BWPs) to support UEs that cannot receive the full carrier bandwidth and to support bandwidth adaptation. In an example, a BWP can be defined by a subset of contiguous RBs on a carrier. The UE can be configured (e.g., via the RRC layer) with one or more downlink BWPs and one or more uplink BWPs per serving cell (e.g., up to four downlink BWPs and up to four uplink BWPs per serving cell). At a given time, one or more of the configured BWPs for a serving cell can be active. The one or more BWPs can be referred to as the active BWPs of the serving cell. When a serving cell is configured with a secondary uplink carrier, the serving cell can have one or more first active BWPs in the uplink carrier and one or more second active BWPs in the secondary uplink carrier.

[0130] For unpaired spectrum, a downlink BWP from the set of configured downlink BWPs may be linked with an uplink BWP from the set of configured uplink BWPs if the downlink BWP index of the downlink BWP is the same as the uplink BWP index of the uplink BWP. For unpaired spectrum, the UE may expect the center frequency of the downlink BWP to be the same as the center frequency of the uplink BWP.

[0131] For a downlink BWP in the set of configured downlink BWPs on a primary cell (PCell), the base station can configure the UE with one or more control resource sets (CORESETs) for at least one search space. A search space is a set of locations in the time and frequency domain where a UE can search for control information. A search space can be a UE-specific search space or a common search space (potentially usable by multiple UEs). For example, the base station can configure a common search space for a UE on a PCell or a primary supplementary cell (PSCell) in an active downlink BWP.

[0132] For an uplink BWP in the set of configured uplink BWPs, the BS may configure one or more resource sets for the UE for one or more PUCCH transmissions. The UE may receive downlink transmissions (e.g., PDCCH or PDSCH) in the downlink BWP based on the configured parameter set for the downlink BWP (e.g., subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix duration). The UE may transmit uplink transmissions (e.g., PUCCH or PUSCH) in the uplink BWP based on the configured parameter set (e.g., subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix length of the uplink BWP).

[0133] One or more BWP indicator fields may be provided in downlink control information (DCI). The value of the BWP indicator field may indicate which BWP in a set of configured BWPs is the active downlink BWP for one or more downlink receptions. The value of the one or more BWP indicator fields may indicate the active uplink BWP for one or more uplink transmissions.

[0134] The base station may semi-statically configure a default downlink BWP for the UE within the set of configured downlink BWPs associated with the PCell. If the base station does not provide a default downlink BWP to the UE, the default downlink BWP may be the initial active downlink BWP. The UE may determine which BWP is the initial active downlink BWP based on the CORESET configuration obtained using the PBCH.

[0135] The base station may configure the BWP inactivity timer value for the PCell for the UE. The UE may start or restart the BWP inactivity timer at any appropriate time. For example, the UE may start or restart the BWP inactivity timer in the following circumstances: (a) when the UE detects a DCI indicating an active downlink BWP other than the default downlink BWP for paired spectrum operation; or (b) when the UE detects a DCI indicating an active downlink BWP or an active uplink BWP other than the default downlink BWP or uplink BWP for unpaired spectrum operation. If the UE does not detect the DCI within a time interval (e.g., 1 ms or 0.5 ms), the UE may run the BWP inactivity timer towards expiration (e.g., incrementing the BWP inactivity timer value from zero to, or decrementing the BWP inactivity timer value from zero). When the BWP inactivity timer expires, the UE may switch from the active downlink BWP to the default downlink BWP.

[0136] In one example, the base station may semi-statically configure the UE with one or more BWPs. The UE may switch the active BWP from the first BWP to the second BWP in response to receiving a DCI indicating that the second BWP is the active BWP and / or in response to expiration of a BWP inactivity timer (e.g., when the second BWP is the default BWP).

[0137] Downlink and uplink BWP switching can be performed independently in paired spectrum (where BWP switching refers to switching from the currently active BWP to the non-currently active BWP). In unpaired spectrum, downlink and uplink BWP switching can be performed simultaneously. Switching between configured BWPs can occur based on RRC signaling, DCI, expiration of the BWP inactivity timer, and / or initiation of random access.

[0138] Figure 9 An example of bandwidth adaptation using three configured BWPs of an NR carrier is shown. A UE configured with the three BWPs can switch from one BWP to another at a switching point. Figure 9 In the example shown, the BWPs include: BWP 902, which has a bandwidth of 40 MHz and a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz; BWP 904, which has a bandwidth of 10 MHz and a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz; and BWP 906, which has a bandwidth of 20 MHz and a subcarrier spacing of 60 kHz. BWP 902 may be the initial active BWP, and BWP 904 may be the default BWP. The UE may switch between BWPs at a switching point. Figure 9 In the example shown in FIG. 1 , the UE may switch from BWP 902 to BWP 904 at switch point 908. The switch at switch point 908 may occur for any suitable reason, such as in response to expiration of a BWP inactivity timer (indicating a switch to a default BWP) and / or in response to receiving a DCI indicating that BWP 904 is the active BWP. The UE may switch from active BWP 904 to BWP 906 at switch point 910 in response to receiving a DCI indicating that BWP 906 is the active BWP. The UE may switch from active BWP 906 to BWP 904 at switch point 912 in response to expiration of a BWP inactivity timer and / or in response to receiving a DCI indicating that BWP 904 is the active BWP. The UE may switch from active BWP 904 to BWP 902 at switch point 914 in response to receiving a DCI indicating that BWP 902 is the active BWP.

[0139] If the UE is configured for a secondary cell with a default downlink BWP and timer values ​​from the set of configured downlink BWPs, the UE procedures for switching the BWP on the secondary cell may be the same / similar to those on the primary cell. For example, the UE may use the timer values ​​and default downlink BWP for the secondary cell in the same / similar manner as the UE would use these values ​​for the primary cell.

[0140] To provide higher data rates, carrier aggregation (CA) can be used to aggregate two or more carriers and transmit them simultaneously to / from the same UE. The aggregated carriers in CA may be referred to as component carriers (CCs). When CA is used, there are many serving cells for the UE, one for each CC. CCs can have three configurations in the frequency domain.

[0141] Figure 10A Three CA configurations with two CCs are shown. In the intra-band contiguous configuration 1002, the two CCs are aggregated in the same frequency band (Band A) and located directly adjacent to each other within the band. In the intra-band non-contiguous configuration 1004, the two CCs are aggregated in the same frequency band (Band A) and separated by a gap within the band. In the inter-band configuration 1006, the two CCs are located in frequency bands (Band A and Band B).

[0142] In one example, up to 32 CCs can be aggregated. Aggregated CCs can have the same or different bandwidths, subcarrier spacing, and / or duplexing schemes (TDD or FDD). A serving cell for a UE using CA can have downlink CCs. For FDD, one or more uplink CCs can optionally be configured for the serving cell. For example, when a UE has more data traffic in the downlink than in the uplink, the ability to aggregate more downlink carriers than uplink carriers can be useful.

[0143] When CA is used, one of the aggregated cells for a UE may be referred to as a primary cell (PCell). The PCell may be the serving cell to which the UE initially connects at RRC connection establishment, re-establishment, and / or handover. The PCell may provide NAS mobility information and security input to the UE. The UE may have different PCells. In the downlink, the carrier corresponding to the PCell may be referred to as a downlink primary CC (DL PCC). In the uplink, the carrier corresponding to the PCell may be referred to as an uplink primary CC (UL PCC). Other aggregated cells for the UE may be referred to as secondary cells (SCells). In one example, the SCell may be configured after the PCell is configured for the UE. For example, the SCell may be configured through an RRC connection reconfiguration procedure. In the downlink, the carrier corresponding to the SCell may be referred to as a downlink secondary CC (DL SCC). In the uplink, the carrier corresponding to the SCell may be referred to as an uplink secondary CC (UL SCC).

[0144] The configured SCell for a UE can be activated and deactivated based on, for example, traffic and channel conditions. Deactivation of an SCell can mean stopping PDCCH and PDSCH reception on the SCell, and stopping PUSCH, SRS, and CQI transmission on the SCell. Figure 4B The configured SCells may be activated and deactivated using a MAC CE. For example, the MAC CE may use a bitmap (e.g., one bit per SCell) to indicate which SCells (e.g., a subset of configured SCells) are activated or deactivated for the UE. The configured SCells may be deactivated in response to the expiration of an SCell deactivation timer (e.g., one SCell deactivation timer per SCell).

[0145] The downlink control information of a cell (such as scheduling assignments and scheduling grants) can be transmitted on the cell corresponding to the assignment and grant, which is called self-scheduling. The DCI of a cell can be transmitted on another cell, which is called cross-carrier scheduling. The uplink control information for the aggregated cell (for example, HARQ confirmation and channel state feedback such as CQI, PMI and / or RI) can be transmitted on the PUCCH of the PCell. For a large number of aggregated downlink CCs, the PUCCH of the PCell may become overloaded. The cell can be divided into multiple PUCCH groups.

[0146] Figure 10B An example of how aggregated cells can be configured into one or more PUCCH groups is shown. PUCCH group 1010 and PUCCH group 1050 may each include one or more downlink CCs. Figure 10B In the example of FIG, PUCCH group 1010 includes three downlink CCs: PCell 1011, SCell 1012, and SCell 1013. PUCCH group 1050 in this example includes three downlink CCs: PCell 1051, SCell 1052, and SCell 1053. One or more uplink CCs may be configured as PCell 1021, SCell 1022, and SCell 1023. One or more other uplink CCs may be configured as primary Scell ​​(PSCell) 1061, SCell 1062, and SCell 1063. Uplink control information (UCI) related to the downlink CCs of PUCCH group 1010 (shown as UCI 1031, UCI 1032, and UCI 1033) may be transmitted in the uplink of PCell 1021. Uplink control information (UCI) related to the downlink CCs of PUCCH group 1050 (shown as UCI 1071, UCI 1072, and UCI 1073) may be transmitted in the uplink of PSCell 1061. In one example, if Figure 10B If the aggregated cell depicted in FIG is not divided into PUCCH group 1010 and PUCCH group 1050, a single uplink PCell transmits UCI associated with the downlink CC, and the PCell may become overloaded. Overload can be prevented by dividing the transmission of UCI between PCell 1021 and PSCell 1061.

[0147] A physical cell ID and a cell index may be assigned to a cell comprising a downlink carrier and an optional uplink carrier. The physical cell ID or cell index may identify the downlink carrier and / or uplink carrier of the cell, for example, depending on the context in which the physical cell ID is used. The physical cell ID may be determined using a synchronization signal transmitted on a downlink component carrier. The cell index may be determined using an RRC message. In the present disclosure, the physical cell ID may be referred to as a carrier ID, and the cell index may be referred to as a carrier index. For example, when the present disclosure relates to a first physical cell ID of a first downlink carrier, the present disclosure may mean that the first physical cell ID is used for a cell comprising the first downlink carrier. The same / similar concepts may apply, for example, to carrier activation. When the present disclosure indicates that a first carrier is activated, the present specification may mean that a cell comprising the first carrier is activated.

[0148] In carrier aggregation, the multi-carrier nature of the PHY can be exposed to the MAC. In one example, the HARQ entity can operate on the serving cell. Transport blocks can be generated based on the assignment / grant of each serving cell. Transport blocks and potential HARQ retransmissions of the transport blocks can be mapped to the serving cell.

[0149] In the downlink, the base station may transmit (e.g., unicast, multicast, and / or broadcast) one or more reference signals (RS) to the UE (e.g., PSS, SSS, CSI-RS, DMRS, and / or PT-RS, such as Figure 5A In the uplink, the UE may transmit one or more RSs to the base station (e.g., DMRS, PT-RS, and / or SRS, as shown in FIG. Figure 5B ). The PSS and SSS may be transmitted by a base station and used by a UE to synchronize the UE with the base station. The PSS and SSS may be provided in a synchronization signal (SS) / physical broadcast channel (PBCH) block that includes the PSS, SSS, and PBCH. The base station may periodically transmit bursts of SS / PBCH blocks.

[0150] Figure 11A An example of the structure and location of SS / PBCH blocks is shown. A burst of SS / PBCH blocks may include one or more SS / PBCH blocks (e.g., 4 SS / PBCH blocks, such as Figure 11A ). The burst may be transmitted periodically (e.g., every 2 frames or 20 ms). The burst may be limited to half a frame (e.g., the first half frame having a duration of 5 ms). It will be understood that Figure 11A are examples, and these parameters (number of SS / PBCH blocks per burst, periodicity of the burst, position of the burst within the frame) can be configured based on, for example: the carrier frequency of the cell in which the SS / PBCH blocks are transmitted; the parameter set or subcarrier spacing of the cell; configuration by the network (e.g., using RRC signaling); or any other suitable factors. In one example, the UE can assume the subcarrier spacing of the SS / PBCH blocks based on the carrier frequency being monitored unless the radio network configures the UE to assume a different subcarrier spacing.

[0151] SS / PBCH blocks may span one or more OFDM symbols in the time domain (e.g., 4 OFDM symbols, e.g., Figure 11A) and may span one or more subcarriers in the frequency domain (e.g., 240 consecutive subcarriers). The PSS, SSS, and PBCH may have a common center frequency. The PSS may be transmitted first and may span, for example, 1 OFDM symbol and 127 subcarriers. The SSS may be transmitted after the PSS (e.g., two symbols later) and may span 1 OFDM symbol and 127 subcarriers. The PBCH may be transmitted after the PSS (e.g., spanning the next 3 OFDM symbols) and may span 240 subcarriers.

[0152] The UE may not know the location of the SS / PBCH blocks in the time and frequency domains (for example, when the UE is searching for a cell). In order to find and select a cell, the UE may monitor the carrier of the PSS. For example, the UE may monitor the frequency position within the carrier. If no PSS is found after a certain duration (for example, 20ms), the UE may search for the PSS at different frequency positions within the carrier, as indicated by the synchronization raster. If the PSS is found at a certain position in the time and frequency domains, the UE may determine the location of the SSS and PBCH based on the known structure of the SS / PBCH block, respectively. The SS / PBCH block may be a cell definition SS block (CD-SSB). In one example, the primary cell may be associated with the CD-SSB. The CD-SSB may be located on the synchronization raster. In one example, cell selection / search and / or reselection may be based on the CD-SSB.

[0153] The SS / PBCH block can be used by the UE to determine one or more parameters of the cell. For example, the UE can determine the physical cell identifier (PCI) of the cell based on the sequence of the PSS and SSS, respectively. The UE can determine the location of the cell's frame boundary based on the location of the SS / PBCH block. For example, the SS / PBCH block can indicate that it has been transmitted according to a transmission pattern in which the SS / PBCH block is a known distance from the frame boundary.

[0154] The PBCH may use QPSK modulation and forward error correction (FEC). The FEC may use polarity coding. One or more symbols spanned by the PBCH may carry one or more DMRS for demodulating the PBCH. The PBCH may include an indication of the current system frame number (SFN) of the cell and / or an SS / PBCH block timing index. These parameters may facilitate time synchronization between the UE and the base station. The PBCH may include a master information block (MIB) for providing one or more parameters to the UE. The MIB may be used by the UE to locate the remaining minimum system information (RMSI) associated with the cell. The RMSI may include a system information block type 1 (SIB1). SIB1 may contain information required for the UE to access the cell. The UE may use one or more parameters of the MIB to monitor the PDCCH that may be used to schedule the PDSCH. The PDSCH may include SIB1. SIB1 may be decoded using the parameters provided in the MIB. The PBCH may indicate that SIB1 does not exist. Based on the PBCH indicating that SIB1 does not exist, the UE may point to a frequency. The UE may search for SS / PBCH blocks at the frequency to which the UE is pointed.

[0155] The UE may assume that one or more SS / PBCH blocks transmitted with the same SS / PBCH block index are quasi-co-located (QCLed) (e.g., having the same / similar Doppler spread, Doppler shift, average gain, average delay, and / or spatial Rx parameters). The UE may not assume QCL for SS / PBCH blocks transmitted with different SS / PBCH block indices.

[0156] SS / PBCH blocks (e.g., those within a half-frame) may be transmitted in spatial directions (e.g., using different beams across the coverage area of ​​the cell). In one example, a first SS / PBCH block may be transmitted in a first spatial direction using a first beam, and a second SS / PBCH block may be transmitted in a second spatial direction using a second beam.

[0157] In one example, a base station may transmit multiple SS / PBCH blocks within a frequency range of a carrier. In one example, a first PCI of a first SS / PBCH block in the multiple SS / PBCH blocks may be different from a second PCI of a second SS / PBCH block in the multiple SS / PBCH blocks. The PCIs of SS / PBCH blocks transmitted in different frequency locations may be different or the same.

[0158] The CSI-RS may be transmitted by a base station and used by a UE to obtain channel state information (CSI). The base station may configure the UE with one or more CSI-RS for channel estimation or any other suitable purpose. The base station may configure the UE with one or more of the same / similar CSI-RS. The UE may measure the one or more CSI-RS. The UE may estimate the downlink channel state and / or generate a CSI report based on the measurement of the one or more downlink CSI-RS. The UE may provide the CSI report to the base station. The base station may use the feedback provided by the UE (e.g., the estimated downlink channel state) to perform link adaptation.

[0159] The base station can semi-statically configure the UE with one or more CSI-RS resource sets. CSI-RS resources can be associated with positions and periodicity in the time and frequency domains. The base station can selectively activate and / or deactivate CSI-RS resources. The base station can indicate to the UE that CSI-RS resources in a CSI-RS resource set are activated and / or deactivated.

[0160] The base station can configure the UE to report CSI measurement values. The base station can configure the UE to provide CSI reports periodically, aperiodically, or semi-persistently. For periodic CSI reporting, the UE can be configured with the timing and / or period of multiple CSI reports. For aperiodic CSI reporting, the base station can request a CSI report. For example, the base station can command the UE to measure the configured CSI-RS resources and provide a CSI report related to the measurement value. For semi-persistent CSI reporting, the base station can configure the UE to transmit periodically and selectively activate or deactivate periodic reporting. The base station can configure the UE with a CSI-RS resource set and CSI reporting using RRC signaling.

[0161] The CSI-RS configuration may contain one or more parameters indicating, for example, up to 32 antenna ports. The UE may be configured to use the same OFDM symbol for the downlink CSI-RS and control resource set (CORESET) when the downlink CSI-RS and CORESET are spatially QCLed and the resource elements associated with the downlink CSI-RS are outside the physical resource blocks (PRBs) configured for the CORESET. The UE may be configured to use the same OFDM symbol for the downlink CSI-RS and the SS / PBCH block when the downlink CSI-RS and the SS / PBCH block are spatially QCLed and the resource elements associated with the downlink CSI-RS are outside the PRBs configured for the SS / PBCH block.

[0162] Downlink DMRS can be transmitted by the base station and used by the UE for channel estimation. For example, the downlink DMRS can be used for consistent demodulation of one or more downlink physical channels (e.g., PDSCH). The NR network can support one or more variable and / or configurable DMRS patterns for data demodulation. At least one downlink DMRS configuration can support a frontload DMRS pattern. The frontload DMRS can be mapped on the one or more OFDM symbols (e.g., one or two adjacent OFDM symbols). The base station can semi-statically configure the UE with the number (e.g., maximum number) of frontload DMRS symbols for PDSCH. The DMRS configuration can support one or more DMRS ports. For example, for single-user MIMO, the DMRS configuration can support up to eight orthogonal downlink DMRS ports per UE. For multi-user MIMO, the DMRS configuration can support up to four orthogonal downlink DMRS ports per UE. The radio network can (e.g., at least for CP-OFDM) support a common DMRS structure for downlink and uplink, where the DMRS position, DMRS pattern and / or scrambling sequence can be the same or different. The base station may use the same precoding matrix to transmit the downlink DMRS and the corresponding PDSCH. The UE may use the one or more downlink DMRSs to perform consistent demodulation / channel estimation on the PDSCH.

[0163] In one example, a transmitter (e.g., a base station) may use a precoder matrix for a portion of the transmission bandwidth. For example, the transmitter may use a first precoder matrix for a first bandwidth and a second precoder matrix for a second bandwidth. The first precoder matrix and the second precoder matrix may be different based on the first bandwidth being different from the second bandwidth. The UE may assume that the same precoding matrix is ​​used across a set of PRBs. The set of PRBs may be denoted as a precoding resource block group (PRG).

[0164] The PDSCH may contain one or more layers. The UE may assume that at least one symbol with DMRS is present on a layer in the one or more layers of the PDSCH. Higher layers may configure up to three DMRS for the PDSCH.

[0165] The downlink PT-RS may be transmitted by the base station and used by the UE for phase noise compensation. The presence or absence of the downlink PT-RS may depend on the RRC configuration. The presence and / or type of the downlink PT-RS may be configured on a UE-specific basis using a combination of RRC signaling and / or association with one or more parameters that may be indicated by the DCI for other purposes (e.g., modulation and coding scheme (MCS)). When configured, the dynamic presence of the downlink PT-RS may be associated with one or more DCI parameters including at least the MCS. NR networks may support multiple PT-RS densities defined in the time and / or frequency domain. When present, the frequency domain density may be associated with at least one configuration of the scheduled bandwidth. The UE may use the same precoding for both DMRS ports and PT-RS ports. The number of PT-RS ports may be less than the number of DMRS ports in the scheduled resources. The downlink PT-RS may be restricted to the scheduled time / frequency duration of the UE. The downlink PT-RS may be transmitted on a symbol to facilitate phase tracking at the receiver.

[0166] The UE may transmit an uplink DMRS to the base station for channel estimation. For example, the base station may use the uplink DMRS to uniformly demodulate one or more uplink physical channels. For example, the UE may transmit an uplink DMRS with a PUSCH and / or a PUCCH. The uplink DM-RS may span a frequency range similar to the frequency range associated with the corresponding physical channel. The base station may configure the UE with one or more uplink DMRS configurations. At least one DMRS configuration may support a frontload DMRS pattern. The frontload DMRS may be mapped on one or more OFDM symbols (e.g., one or two adjacent OFDM symbols). One or more uplink DMRS may be configured to be transmitted at one or more symbols of the PUSCH and / or PUCCH. The base station may semi-statically configure the UE with the number (e.g., maximum number) of frontload DMRS symbols for the PUSCH and / or PUCCH, and the UE may use the frontload DMRS symbols to schedule single-symbol DMRS and / or double-symbol DMRS. NR networks may support a common DMRS structure for downlink and uplink (e.g., for cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM)), where the DMRS position, DMRS pattern, and / or scrambling sequence of the DMRS may be the same or different.

[0167] The PUSCH may contain one or more layers, and the UE may transmit at least one symbol having a DMRS present on a layer in the one or more layers of the PUSCH. In one example, a higher layer may configure up to three DMRSs for the PUSCH.

[0168] Depending on the RRC configuration of the UE, the uplink PT-RS (which can be used by the base station for phase tracking and / or phase noise compensation) may or may not be present. The presence and / or type of the uplink PT-RS can be configured based on the UE specific configuration through a combination of RRC signaling and / or one or more parameters indicated by the DCI for other purposes (e.g., modulation and coding scheme (MCS)). When configured, the dynamic presence of the uplink PT-RS can be associated with one or more DCI parameters including at least the MCS. The radio network can support multiple uplink PT-RS densities defined in the time / frequency domain. When present, the frequency domain density can be associated with at least one configuration of the scheduled bandwidth. The UE can use the same precoding for DMRS ports and PT-RS ports. The number of PT-RS ports can be less than the number of DMRS ports in the scheduled resources. For example, the uplink PT-RS can be restricted to the scheduled time / frequency duration of the UE.

[0169] The UE may transmit an SRS to the base station for channel state estimation to support uplink channel-dependent scheduling and / or link adaptation. The SRS transmitted by the UE may allow the base station to estimate the uplink channel state at one or more frequencies. The scheduler at the base station may use the estimated uplink channel state to assign one or more resource blocks for uplink PUSCH transmission from the UE. The base station may semi-statically configure the UE with one or more SRS resource sets. For an SRS resource set, the base station may configure the UE with one or more SRS resources. The applicability of the SRS resource set may be configured by a higher layer (e.g., RRC) parameter. For example, when the higher layer parameter indicates beam management, the SRS resources in the one or more SRS resource sets (e.g., having the same / similar time domain behavior, periodic, aperiodic, etc.) may be transmitted at a certain time (e.g., at the same time). The UE may transmit one or more SRS resources in the SRS resource set. The NR network may support aperiodic, periodic, and / or semi-persistent SRS transmission. The UE may transmit SRS resources based on one or more trigger types, wherein the one or more trigger types may include higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC) and / or one or more DCI formats. In one example, at least one DCI format may be used for the UE to select at least one configured SRS resource set from one or more configured SRS resource sets. SRS trigger type 0 may refer to SRS triggered based on higher layer signaling. SRS trigger type 1 may refer to SRS triggered based on one or more DCI formats. In one example, when PUSCH and SRS are transmitted in the same time slot, the UE may be configured to transmit SRS after the transmission of PUSCH and the corresponding uplink DMRS.

[0170] The base station can semi-statically configure the UE using one or more SRS configuration parameters indicating at least one of the following: an SRS resource configuration identifier; the number of SRS ports; the time domain behavior of the SRS resource configuration (e.g., an indication of periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic SRS); time slot, mini-slot, and / or subframe level periodicity; time slot of periodic and / or aperiodic SRS resources; the number of OFDM symbols in the SRS resources; the starting OFDM symbol of the SRS resources; the SRS bandwidth; the frequency hopping bandwidth; the cyclic shift; and / or the SRS sequence ID.

[0171] Antenna ports are defined such that the channel over which one symbol on the antenna port is communicated can be inferred from the channel over which another symbol on the same antenna port is communicated. If a first symbol and a second symbol are transmitted on the same antenna port, the receiver can infer the channel (e.g., fading gain, multipath delay, etc.) used to communicate the second symbol on the antenna port from the channel used to communicate the first symbol on the antenna port. If one or more large-scale properties of the channel over which the first symbol on the first antenna port is communicated can be inferred from the channel over which the second symbol on the second antenna port is communicated, the first antenna port and the second antenna port can be referred to as quasi-co-located (QCLed). The one or more large-scale properties can include at least one of the following: delay spread; Doppler spread; Doppler shift; average gain; average delay; and / or spatial receive (Rx) parameters.

[0172] Channels using beamforming require beam management. Beam management may include beam measurement, beam selection, and beam indication. A beam may be associated with one or more reference signals. For example, a beam may be identified by one or more beamforming reference signals. The UE may perform downlink beam measurements and generate beam measurement reports based on downlink reference signals (e.g., channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS)). After establishing an RRC connection with a base station, the UE may perform a downlink beam measurement procedure.

[0173] Figure 11B An example of channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) mapped in time and frequency domain is shown. Figure 11BThe squares shown in the figure may represent resource blocks (RBs) within the bandwidth of the cell. The base station may transmit one or more RRC messages containing CSI-RS resource configuration parameters indicating one or more CSI-RSs. One or more of the following parameters may be configured for the CSI-RS resource configuration via higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC and / or MAC signaling): CSI-RS resource configuration identity, number of CSI-RS ports, CSI-RS configuration (e.g., symbol and resource element (RE) positions in a subframe), CSI-RS subframe configuration (e.g., subframe position, offset, and periodicity in a radio frame), CSI-RS power parameters, CSI-RS sequence parameters, code division multiplexing (CDM) type parameters, frequency density, transmission comb, quasi co-location (QCL) parameters (e.g., QCL-scramblingidentity, crs-portscount, mbsfn-subframeconfiglist, csi-rs-configZPid, qcl-csi-rs-configNZPid), and / or other radio resource parameters.

[0174] Figure 11B The three beams shown may be configured for the UE in a UE-specific configuration. Figure 11B Three beams (beam #1, beam #2, and beam #3) are shown in FIG, and more or fewer beams may be configured. CSI-RS 1101 may be allocated to beam #1, which may be transmitted in one or more subcarriers in the RB of the first symbol. CSI-RS 1102 may be allocated to beam #2, which may be transmitted in one or more subcarriers in the RB of the second symbol. CSI-RS 1103 may be allocated to beam #3, which may be transmitted in one or more subcarriers in the RB of the third symbol. By using frequency division multiplexing (FDM), a base station may use other subcarriers in the same RB (e.g., those subcarriers not used to transmit CSI-RS 1101) to transmit another CSI-RS associated with a beam of another UE. By using time domain multiplexing (TDM), a beam for a UE may be configured such that the beam for the UE uses symbols from beams of other UEs.

[0175] CSI-RS, such as Figure 11BThose shown in (e.g., CSI-RS 1101, 1102, 1103) may be transmitted by a base station and used by a UE for one or more measurement values. For example, the UE may measure the reference signal received power (RSRP) of the configured CSI-RS resource. The base station may configure the UE with a reporting configuration, and the UE may report the RSRP measurement value to the network (e.g., via one or more base stations) based on the reporting configuration. In an example, the base station may determine one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states including multiple reference signals based on the reported measurement results. In an example, the base station may indicate one or more TCI states to the UE (e.g., via RRC signaling, MAC CE and / or DCI). The UE may receive a downlink transmission having a receive (Rx) beam determined based on the one or more TCI states. In an example, the UE may or may not have beam correspondence capability. If the UE has beam correspondence capability, the UE may determine the spatial domain filter of the transmit (Tx) beam based on the spatial domain filter of the corresponding Rx beam. If the UE does not have beam-matching capability, the UE may perform an uplink beam selection procedure to determine the spatial domain filter for the Tx beam. The UE may perform the uplink beam selection procedure based on one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources configured for the UE by the base station. The base station may select and instruct the UE on an uplink beam based on measurements of one or more SRS resources transmitted by the UE.

[0176] In the beam management procedure, the UE may assess (e.g., measure) the channel quality of one or more beam pair links, a beam pair link comprising a transmit beam transmitted by a base station, and a receive beam received by the UE. Based on the assessment, the UE may transmit a beam measurement report indicating one or more beam pair quality parameters, the one or more beam pair quality parameters comprising, for example, one or more beam identifiers (e.g., beam index, reference signal index, etc.), RSRP, precoding matrix indicator (PMI), channel quality indicator (CQI), and / or rank indicator (RI).

[0177] Figure 12AThree examples of downlink beam management procedures are shown: P1, P2, and P3. Procedure P1 can enable UE measurements of transmit (Tx) beams of a transmit reception point (TRP) (or multiple TRPs), for example to support selection of one or more base station Tx beams and / or UE Rx beams (shown as ovals in the top and bottom rows of P1, respectively). Beamforming at the TRP can include Tx beam sweeping for a set of beams (shown as ovals rotating in a counterclockwise direction indicated by dashed arrows in the top rows of P1 and P2). Beamforming at the UE can include Rx beam sweeping for a set of beams (shown as ovals rotating in a clockwise direction indicated by dashed arrows in the bottom rows of P1 and P3). Procedure P2 can be used to enable UE measurements of Tx beams of the TRPs (shown as ovals rotating in a counterclockwise direction indicated by dashed arrows in the top row of P2). The UE and / or base station may perform procedure P2 using a smaller beam set than the beam set used in procedure P1, or using a narrower beam than the beam used in procedure P1. This may be referred to as beam refinement. The UE may perform procedure P3 for Rx beam determination by using the same Tx beam at the base station and sweeping the Rx beam at the UE.

[0178] Figure 12B Three examples of uplink beam management procedures are shown: U1, U2, and U3. Procedure U1 can be used to enable a base station to perform measurements on a UE's Tx beam, for example, to support selection of one or more UE Tx beams and / or base station Rx beams (shown as ovals in the top and bottom rows of U1, respectively). Beamforming at the UE can include, for example, Tx beam sweeping from a set of beams (shown as ovals rotating in a clockwise direction indicated by dashed arrows in the bottom rows of U1 and U3). Beamforming at the base station can include, for example, Rx beam sweeping from a set of beams (shown as ovals rotating in a counterclockwise direction indicated by dashed arrows in the top rows of U1 and U2). When the UE uses a fixed Tx beam, procedure U2 can be used to enable the base station to adjust its Rx beam. The UE and / or base station can perform procedure U2 using a smaller beam set than the beam set used in procedure P1, or using a narrower beam than the beam used in procedure P1. This may be referred to as beam refinement. The UE may perform procedure U3 to adjust its Tx beam when the base station uses a fixed Rx beam.

[0179] The UE may initiate a beam failure recovery (BFR) procedure based on detecting a beam failure. The UE may transmit a BFR request (e.g., preamble, UCI, SR, MAC CE, etc.) based on the initiation of the BFR procedure. The UE may detect a beam failure based on a determination that the quality of the beam-pair link of the associated control channel is unsatisfactory (e.g., having an error rate above an error rate threshold, a received signal power below a received signal power threshold, expiration of a timer, etc.).

[0180] The UE may measure the quality of a beam-pair link using one or more reference signals (RS), the one or more reference signals including one or more SS / PBCH blocks, one or more CSI-RS resources and / or one or more demodulation reference signals (DMRS). The quality of a beam-pair link may be based on one or more of the following: a block error rate (BLER), an RSRP value, a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) value, a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) value and / or a CSI value measured on an RS resource. The base station may indicate that the RS resource is quasi-co-located (QCLed) with one or more DM-RSs of a channel (e.g., a control channel, a shared data channel, etc.). When the channel characteristics (e.g., Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread, spatial Rx parameters, fading, etc.) from the transmission to the UE via the RS resource are similar or identical to the channel characteristics from the transmission to the UE via the channel, the RS resource and the one or more DMRSs of the channel may be QCLed.

[0181] The network (e.g., gNB and / or ng-eNB of the network) and / or the UE may initiate a random access procedure. A UE in RRC_IDLE state and / or RRC_INACTIVE state may initiate a random access procedure to request connection setup to the network. The UE may initiate a random access procedure from the RRC_CONNECTED state. The UE may initiate a random access procedure to request uplink resources (e.g., uplink transmission for SR when there are no available PUCCH resources) and / or to acquire uplink timing (e.g., when the uplink synchronization state is not synchronized). The UE may initiate a random access procedure to request one or more system information blocks (SIBs) (e.g., other system information such as SIB2, SIB3, etc.). The UE may initiate a random access procedure for a beam failure recovery request. The network may initiate a random access procedure for handover and / or for establishing time alignment for SCell addition.

[0182] Figure 13A A four-step contention-based random access procedure is shown. Before initiating the procedure, the base station may transmit a configuration message 1310 to the UE. Figure 13AThe illustrated procedure involves the transmission of four messages: Msg 1 1311, Msg 2 1312, Msg 3 1313, and Msg 4 1314. Msg 1 1311 may include and / or be referred to as a preamble (or random access preamble). Msg 2 1312 may include and / or be referred to as a random access response (RAR).

[0183] The configuration message 1310 may be transmitted, for example, using one or more RRC messages. The one or more RRC messages may indicate one or more random access channel (RACH) parameters to the UE. The one or more RACH parameters may include at least one of the following: general parameters for one or more random access procedures (e.g., RACH-configGeneral); cell-specific parameters (e.g., RACH-ConfigCommon); and / or dedicated parameters (e.g., RACH-configDedicated). The base station may broadcast or multicast the one or more RRC messages to one or more UEs. The one or more RRC messages may be UE-specific (e.g., dedicated RRC messages transmitted to the UE in the RRC_CONNECTED state and / or the RRC_INACTIVE state). The UE may determine the time-frequency resources and / or uplink transmission power for transmitting Msg 1 1311 and / or Msg 3 1313 based on the one or more RACH parameters. Based on the one or more RACH parameters, the UE may determine the reception timing and downlink channel for receiving Msg 2 1312 and Msg 4 1314.

[0184] The one or more RACH parameters provided in the configuration message 1310 may indicate one or more physical RACH (PRACH) opportunities that may be used to transmit Msg 11311. The one or more PRACH opportunities may be predefined. The one or more RACH parameters may indicate one or more available sets of one or more PRACH opportunities (e.g., prach-ConfigIndex). The one or more RACH parameters may indicate an association between: (a) one or more PRACH opportunities, and (b) one or more reference signals. The one or more RACH parameters may indicate an association between: (a) one or more preambles, and (b) one or more reference signals. The one or more reference signals may be SS / PBCH blocks and / or CSI-RS. For example, the one or more RACH parameters may indicate the number of SS / PBCH blocks mapped to the PRACH opportunity and / or the number of preambles mapped to the SS / PBCH block.

[0185] The one or more RACH parameters provided in the configuration message 1310 may be used to determine the uplink transmission power of Msg 1 1311 and / or Msg 3 1313. For example, the one or more RACH parameters may indicate a reference power for preamble transmission (e.g., a received target power and / or an initial power for preamble transmission). One or more power offsets may be present as indicated by the one or more RACH parameters. For example, the one or more RACH parameters may indicate: a power ramp step size; a power offset between an SSB and a CSI-RS; a power offset between transmissions of Msg 1 1311 and Msg 3 1313; and / or a power offset value between preamble groups. The one or more RACH parameters may indicate one or more thresholds based on which the UE may determine at least one reference signal (e.g., an SSB and / or a CSI-RS) and / or an uplink carrier (e.g., a normal uplink (NUL) carrier and / or a supplementary uplink (SUL) carrier).

[0186] Msg 1 1311 may include one or more preamble transmissions (e.g., a preamble transmission and one or more preamble retransmissions). The RRC message may be used to configure one or more preamble groups (e.g., group A and / or group B). A preamble group may contain one or more preambles. The UE may determine the preamble group based on the path loss measurement value and / or the size of Msg 3 1313. The UE may measure the RSRP of one or more reference signals (e.g., SSB and / or CSI-RS) and determine at least one reference signal having an RSRP greater than an RSRP threshold (e.g., rsrp-ThresholdSSB and / or rsrp-ThresholdCSI-RS). For example, if the association between the one or more preambles and the at least one reference signal is configured by an RRC message, the UE may select at least one preamble associated with the one or more reference signals and / or the selected preamble group.

[0187] The UE may determine the preamble based on the one or more RACH parameters provided in the configuration message 1310. For example, the UE may determine the preamble based on a path loss measurement, an RSRP measurement, and / or the size of Msg 3 1313. As another example, the one or more RACH parameters may indicate: a preamble format; a maximum number of preamble transmissions; and / or one or more thresholds for determining one or more preamble groups (e.g., Group A and Group B). The base station may use the one or more RACH parameters to configure an association between one or more preambles and one or more reference signals (e.g., SSB and / or CSI-RS) for the UE. If the association is configured, the UE may determine the preamble included in Msg 1 1311 based on the association. Msg 1 1311 may be transmitted to the base station via one or more PRACH opportunities. The UE may use one or more reference signals (e.g., SSB and / or CSI-RS) to select a preamble and to determine a PRACH opportunity. One or more RACH parameters (eg, ra-ssb-OccasionMskIndex and / or ra-OccasionList) may indicate an association between a PRACH opportunity and the one or more reference signals.

[0188] If no response is received after the preamble transmission, the UE may perform a preamble retransmission. The UE may increase the uplink transmission power for the preamble retransmission. The UE may select the initial preamble transmission power based on the path loss measurement and / or the target received preamble power configured by the network. The UE may determine to retransmit the preamble and may ramp up the uplink transmission power. The UE may receive one or more RACH parameters (e.g., PREAMBLE_POWER_RAMPING_STEP) indicating the ramp-up step size for preamble retransmission. The ramp-up step size may be the amount of incremental increase in the uplink transmission power for retransmission. If the UE determines the same reference signal (e.g., SSB and / or CSI-RS) as the previous preamble transmission, the UE may ramp up the uplink transmission power. The UE may count the number of preamble transmissions and / or retransmissions (e.g., PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNTER). For example, if the number of preamble transmissions exceeds a threshold configured by the one or more RACH parameters (eg, preambleTransMax), the UE may determine that the random access procedure is not successfully completed.

[0189] Msg 2 1312 received by the UE may include a RAR. In some scenarios, Msg 2 1312 may include multiple RARs corresponding to multiple UEs. Msg 2 1312 may be received after or in response to the transmission of Msg 1 1311. Msg 2 1312 may be scheduled on the DL-SCH and indicated on the PDCCH using a random access RNTI (RA-RNTI). Msg 2 1312 may indicate that Msg 1 1311 was received by the base station. Msg 2 1312 may include a time alignment command that the UE may use to adjust the UE's transmission timing, a scheduling grant for transmitting Msg 3 1313, and / or a temporary cell RNTI (TC-RNTI). After transmitting the preamble, the UE may initiate a time window (e.g., a RA-ResponseWindow) to monitor the PDCCH for Msg 2 1312. The UE may determine when to start the time window based on the PRACH opportunity that the UE uses to transmit the preamble. For example, the UE may start a time window of one or more symbols after the last symbol of the preamble (e.g., at the first PDCCH opportunity starting from the end of the preamble transmission). The one or more symbols may be determined based on a parameter set. The PDCCH may be in a common search space (e.g., Type1-PDCCH common search space) configured by an RRC message. The UE may identify the RAR based on a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI). The RNTI may be used depending on one or more events that initiate a random access procedure. The UE may use a random access RNTI (RA-RNTI). The RA-RNTI may be associated with the PRACH opportunity in which the UE transmits the preamble. For example, the UE may determine the RA-RNTI based on: an OFDM symbol index; a time slot index; a frequency domain index; and / or a UL carrier indicator of a PRACH opportunity. Examples of RA-RNTI may be as follows:

[0190] RA-RNTI=1+s_id+14×t_id+14×80×f_id+14×80×8×ul_carrier_id

[0191] Where s_id may be the index of the first OFDM symbol of the PRACH opportunity (e.g., 0≤s_id<14), t_id may be the index of the first time slot of the PRACH opportunity in the system frame (e.g., 0≤t_id<80), f_id may be the index of the PRACH opportunity in the frequency domain (e.g., 0≤f_id<8), and ul_carrier_id may be the UL carrier used for preamble transmission (e.g., 0 for the NUL carrier and 1 for the SUL carrier).

[0192] The UE may transmit Msg 3 1313 in response to successfully receiving Msg 2 1312 (e.g., using the resources identified in Msg 2 1312). Msg 3 1313 may be used, for example, Figure 13A 1314 ). Contention resolution in the contention-based random access procedure presented in . In some scenarios, multiple UEs may transmit the same preamble to the base station, and the base station may provide RARs corresponding to the UEs. If the multiple UEs interpret the RARs as corresponding to themselves, a collision may occur. Contention resolution (e.g., using Msg 3 1313 and Msg 4 1314) may be used to increase the likelihood that a UE does not mistakenly use the identity of another UE. To perform contention resolution, the UE may include a device identifier in Msg 3 1313 (e.g., the TC-RNTI included in Msg 2 1312 and / or any other suitable identifier if a C-RNTI is assigned).

[0193] Msg 4 1314 may be received after or in response to the transmission of Msg 3 1313. If a C-RNTI is included in Msg 3 1313, the base station will use the C-RNTI to address the UE on the PDCCH. If the UE's unique C-RNTI is detected on the PDCCH, the random access procedure is determined to have successfully completed. If a TC-RNTI is included in Msg 3 1313 (e.g., if the UE is in the RRC_IDLE state or is not otherwise connected to the base station), Msg 4 1314 will be received using the DL-SCH associated with the TC-RNTI. If the MAC PDU is successfully decoded and the MAC PDU contains a UE contention resolution identity MAC CE that matches or otherwise corresponds to the CCCH SDU sent (e.g., transmitted) in Msg 3 1313, the UE may determine that contention resolution is successful and / or the UE may determine that the random access procedure is successfully completed.

[0194] The UE may be configured with a supplementary uplink (SUL) carrier and a normal uplink (NUL) carrier. Initial access (e.g., a random access procedure) may be supported in the uplink carrier. For example, the base station may configure two separate RACH configurations for the UE: one for the SUL carrier and the other for the NUL carrier. For random access in a cell configured with a SUL carrier, the network may indicate which carrier (NUL or SUL) to use. For example, if the measured quality of one or more reference signals is below a broadcast threshold, the UE may determine the SUL carrier. The uplink transmissions (e.g., Msg 1 1311 and / or Msg 3 1313) for the random access procedure may remain on the selected carrier. In one or more cases, the UE may switch uplink carriers during the random access procedure (e.g., between Msg 1 1311 and Msg 3 1313). For example, the UE may determine and / or switch an uplink carrier for Msg 1 1311 and / or Msg 3 1313 based on channel clarity assessment (eg, listen before talk).

[0195] Figure 13B A two-step contention-free random access procedure is presented. Figure 13A Similar to the illustrated four-step contention-based random access procedure, the base station may transmit a configuration message 1320 to the UE before the procedure is initiated. The configuration message 1320 may be similar to the configuration message 1310 in some aspects. Figure 13B The procedure shown involves the transmission of two messages: Msg 1 1321 and Msg 2 1322. Msg 1 1321 and Msg 2 1322 may be similar in some respects to Figure 13A The displayed Msg 1 1311 and Msg 2 1312. Figure 13A and Figure 13B It will be appreciated that the contention-free random access procedure may not include messages similar to Msg 3 1313 and / or Msg 4 1314 .

[0196] Can be initiated for beam failure recovery, other SI requests, SCell addition and / or handover Figure 13B For example, the base station may indicate or assign to the UE a preamble to be used for Msg 1 1321. The UE may receive an indication of the preamble (eg, ra-PreambleIndex) from the base station via PDCCH and / or RRC.

[0197] After transmitting the preamble, the UE may start a time window (e.g., ra-ResponseWindow) to monitor the PDCCH for the RAR. In the case of a beam failure recovery request, the base station may configure the UE with a separate time window and / or a separate PDCCH in the search space indicated by the RRC message (e.g., recoverySearchSpaceId). The UE may monitor PDCCH transmissions addressed to the Cell RNTI (C-RNTI) on the search space. Figure 13B In the illustrated contention-free random access procedure, the UE may determine that the random access procedure has successfully completed after or in response to the transmission of Msg 1 1321 and the reception of the corresponding Msg 2 1322. For example, if the PDCCH transmission is addressed to the C-RNTI, the UE may determine that the random access procedure has successfully completed. For example, if the UE receives a RAR including a preamble identifier corresponding to a preamble transmitted by the UE and / or the RAR includes a MAC sub-PDU with the preamble identifier, the UE may determine that the random access procedure has successfully completed. The UE may determine that the response is an indication of an acknowledgement of the SI request.

[0198] Figure 13C Another two-step random access procedure is presented. Figure 13A and Figure 13B Similar to the random access procedure shown, the base station may transmit a configuration message 1330 to the UE before the procedure is initiated. Configuration message 1330 may be similar to configuration message 1310 and / or configuration message 1320 in some aspects. Figure 13C The procedure shown involves the transmission of two messages: Msg A 1331 and Msg B 1332.

[0199] Msg A 1331 may be transmitted by the UE in an uplink transmission. Msg A 1331 may include one or more transmissions of a preamble 1341 and / or one or more transmissions of a transport block 1342. The transport block 1342 may include the Figure 13A The content of the transmission block 1342 may be similar and / or identical to the content of the illustrated Msg 3 1313. The transmission block 1342 may include UCI (e.g., SR, HARQ ACK / NACK, etc.). The UE may receive Msg B 1332 after or in response to the transmission of Msg A 1331. Msg B 1332 may include the same Figure 13A and Figure 13B The displayed Msg 2 1312 (e.g., RAR) and / or Figure 13A The content of Msg 41314 displayed is similar and / or equivalent.

[0200] The UE can initiate a call for licensed spectrum and / or unlicensed spectrum. Figure 13C The UE may determine whether to initiate a two-step random access procedure based on one or more factors. The one or more factors may include: the radio access technology being used (e.g., LTE, NR, etc.); whether the UE has a valid TA; the cell size; the RRC state of the UE; the type of spectrum (e.g., licensed vs. unlicensed); and / or any other suitable factors.

[0201] The UE may determine the radio resources and / or uplink transmission power of the preamble 1341 and / or transport block 1342 included in Msg A 1331 based on the two-step RACH parameters included in the configuration message 1330. The RACH parameters may indicate the modulation and coding scheme (MCS), time-frequency resources, and / or power control of the preamble 1341 and / or transport block 1342. The time-frequency resources (e.g., PRACH) used for transmission of the preamble 1341 and the time-frequency resources (e.g., PUSCH) used for transmission of the transport block 1342 may be multiplexed using FDM, TDM, and / or CDM. The RACH parameters may enable the UE to determine the reception timing and downlink channel used for monitoring and / or receiving Msg B 1332.

[0202] Transport block 1342 may include data (e.g., delay-sensitive data), an identifier of the UE, security information, and / or device information (e.g., an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI)). The base station may transmit Msg B 1332 in response to Msg A 1331. Msg B 1332 may include at least one of the following: a preamble identifier; a timing high-level command; a power control command; an uplink grant (e.g., a radio resource assignment and / or MCS); a UE identifier for contention resolution; and / or an RNTI (e.g., a C-RNTI or TC-RNTI). The UE may determine that the two-step random access procedure is successfully completed if: the preamble identifier in Msg B 1332 matches the preamble transmitted by the UE; and / or the UE identifier in Msg B 1332 matches the UE identifier in Msg A 1331 (e.g., transport block 1342).

[0203] The UE and the base station may exchange control signaling. The control signaling may be referred to as L1 / L2 control signaling and may originate from the PHY layer (e.g., Layer 1) and / or the MAC layer (e.g., Layer 2). The control signaling may include downlink control signaling transmitted from the base station to the UE and / or uplink control signaling transmitted from the UE to the base station.

[0204] Downlink control signaling may include: downlink scheduling assignments; uplink scheduling grants indicating uplink radio resources and / or transport formats; time slot format information; preemption indications; power control commands; and / or any other suitable signaling. The UE may receive downlink control signaling in a payload transmitted by the base station on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). The payload transmitted on the PDCCH may be referred to as downlink control information (DCI). In some scenarios, the PDCCH may be a group common PDCCH (GC-PDCCH) common to a group of UEs.

[0205] The base station may attach one or more cyclic redundancy check (CRC) parity bits to the DCI to facilitate detection of transmission errors. When the DCI is intended for a UE (or group of UEs), the base station may scramble the CRC parity bits with the UE's identifier (or the UE group's identifier). Scrambling the CRC parity bits with the identifier may include a Modulo-2 addition (or an exclusive OR operation) of the identifier value and the CRC parity bits. The identifier may include a 16-bit value of a Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI).

[0206] DCI can be used for different purposes. The purpose can be indicated by the type of RNTI used to scramble the CRC parity bits. For example, a DCI with CRC parity bits scrambled with a paging RNTI (P-RNTI) can indicate paging information and / or system information change notification. The P-RNTI can be predefined as "FFFE" in hexadecimal. A DCI with CRC parity bits scrambled with a system information RNTI (SI-RNTI) can indicate a broadcast transmission of system information. The SI-RNTI can be predefined as "FFFF" in hexadecimal. A DCI with CRC parity bits scrambled with a random access RNTI (RA-RNTI) can indicate a random access response (RAR). A DCI with CRC parity bits scrambled with a cell RNTI (C-RNTI) can indicate a dynamically scheduled unicast transmission and / or the triggering of a PDCCH ordered random access. A DCI with CRC parity bits scrambled with a temporary cell RNTI (TC-RNTI) can indicate contention resolution (e.g., similar to Figure 13AThe displayed Msg 3 is Msg 3 of 1313). Other RNTIs configured by the base station to the UE may include: the configured scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI), transmit power control PUCCH RNTI (TPC-PUCCH-RNTI), transmit power control PUSCH RNTI (TPC-PUSCH-RNTI), transmit power control SRS RNTI (TPC-SRS-RNTI), interruption RNTI (INT-RNTI), slot format indication RNTI (SFI-RNTI), semi-persistent CSI RNTI (SP-CSI-RNTI), modulation and coding scheme cell RNTI (MCS-C-RNTI), etc.

[0207] Depending on the purpose and / or content of the DCI, the base station may transmit DCI with one or more DCI formats. For example, DCI format 0_0 may be used for scheduling PUSCH in a cell. DCI format 0_0 may be a fallback DCI format (e.g., with a compact DCI payload). DCI format 0_1 ​​may be used for scheduling PUSCH in a cell (e.g., with a larger DCI payload than DCI format 0_0). DCI format 1_0 may be used for scheduling PDSCH in a cell. DCI format 1_0 may be a fallback DCI format (e.g., with a compact DCI payload). DCI format 1_1 may be used for scheduling PDSCH in a cell (e.g., with a larger DCI payload than DCI format 1_0). DCI format 2_0 may be used to provide a slot format indication to a UE group. DCI format 2_1 may be used to notify a UE group of physical resource blocks and / or OFDM symbols, where the UE may assume that no transmission to the UE is expected. DCI format 2_2 may be used to transmit a transmit power control (TPC) command for PUCCH or PUSCH. DCI formats 2_3 can be used to transmit a set of TPC commands for SRS transmission by one or more UEs. DCI formats for new functions may be defined in future releases. DCI formats can have different DCI sizes or can share the same DCI size.

[0208] After scrambling the DCI with the RNTI, the base station can process the DCI with channel coding (e.g., polarity coding), rate matching, scrambling and / or QPSK modulation. The base station can map the coded and modulated DCI on resource elements used for and / or configured for PDCCH. Based on the payload size of the DCI and / or the coverage of the base station, the base station can transmit the DCI via a PDCCH occupying multiple consecutive control channel elements (CCEs). The number of consecutive CCEs (referred to as the aggregation level) can be 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and / or any other suitable number. CCE can include the number of resource element groups (REGs) (e.g., 6). REG can include resource blocks in an OFDM symbol. The mapping of the coded and modulated DCI on the resource elements can be based on the mapping of CCEs and REGs (e.g., CCE to REG mapping).

[0209] Figure 14A An example of a CORESET configuration for a bandwidth portion is shown. The base station may transmit DCI via PDCCH on one or more control resource sets (CORESETs). A CORESET may contain time-frequency resources in which the UE attempts to decode the DCI using one or more search spaces. The base station may configure the CORESET in the time-frequency domain. Figure 14A In the example shown in FIG1 , first CORESET 1401 and second CORESET 1402 appear at the first symbol in a time slot. First CORESET 1401 overlaps with second CORESET 1402 in the frequency domain. Third CORESET 1403 appears at the third symbol in a time slot. Fourth CORESET 1404 appears at the seventh symbol in a time slot. CORESETs can have different numbers of resource blocks in the frequency domain.

[0210] Figure 14B An example of CCE to REG mapping for DCI transmission on a CORESET and PDCCH processing is shown. The CCE to REG mapping can be an interleaved mapping (e.g., for the purpose of providing frequency diversity) or a non-interleaved mapping (e.g., for the purpose of facilitating interference coordination and / or frequency selective transmission of control channels). The base station can perform different or the same CCE to REG mapping for different CORESETs. A CORESET can be associated with the CCE to REG mapping through RRC configuration. A CORESET can be configured with an antenna port quasi co-location (QCL) parameter. The antenna port QCL parameter can indicate the QCL information of the demodulation reference signal (DMRS) used for PDCCH reception in the CORESET.

[0211] The base station may transmit an RRC message containing configuration parameters of one or more CORESETs and one or more search space sets to the UE. The configuration parameters may indicate the association between the search space set and the CORESET. The search space set may contain a set of PDCCH candidates formed by CCEs at a given aggregation level. The configuration parameters may indicate: the number of PDCCH candidates to be monitored per aggregation level; the PDCCH monitoring period and the PDCCH monitoring type; one or more DCI formats to be monitored by the UE; and / or whether the search space set is a common search space set or a UE-specific search space set. The set of CCEs in the common search space set may be predefined and known to the UE. The set of CCEs in the UE-specific search space set may be configured based on the identity of the UE (e.g., C-RNTI).

[0212] like Figure 14B As shown in , the UE may determine the time-frequency resources of the CORESET based on an RRC message. The UE may determine the CCE to REG mapping of the CORESET based on the configuration parameters of the CORESET (e.g., interleaving or non-interleaving and / or mapping parameters). The UE may determine the number of search space sets configured on the CORESET based on the RRC message (e.g., up to 10). The UE may monitor a set of PDCCH candidates based on the configuration parameters of the search space set. The UE may monitor a set of PDCCH candidates in one or more CORESETs for detecting one or more DCIs. Monitoring may include decoding one or more PDCCH candidates in the set of PDCCH candidates based on the monitored DCI format. Monitoring may include decoding DCI content of one or more PDCCH candidates, which have possible (or configured) PDCCH positions, possible (or configured) PDCCH formats (e.g., the number of CCEs, the number of PDCCH candidates in the common search space, and / or the number of PDCCH candidates in the UE-specific search space), and possible (or configured) DCI formats. Decoding may be referred to as blind decoding. The UE may determine that the DCI is valid for the UE in response to a CRC check (e.g., scrambled bits of the CRC parity bits of the DCI matching the RNTI value). The UE may process the information contained in the DCI (e.g., scheduling assignments, uplink grants, power control, slot format indication, downlink preemption, etc.).

[0213] The UE may transmit uplink control signaling (e.g., uplink control information (UCI)) to the base station. The uplink control signaling transmission may include a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgment for the received DL-SCH transport block. The UE may transmit the HARQ acknowledgment after receiving the DL-SCH transport block. The uplink control signaling may include channel state information (CSI) indicating the channel quality of the physical downlink channel. The UE may transmit the CSI to the base station. Based on the received CSI, the base station may determine the transport format parameters for downlink transmission (e.g., including multiple antennas and beamforming schemes). The uplink control signaling may include a scheduling request (SR). The UE may transmit the SR indicating that uplink data is available for transmission to the base station. The UE may transmit UCI (e.g., HARQ acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK), CSI report, SR, etc.) via a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). The UE may transmit uplink control signaling via the PUCCH using one of several PUCCH formats.

[0214] There may be five PUCCH formats, and the UE may determine the PUCCH format based on the size of the UCI (e.g., the number of uplink symbols for UCI transmission and the number of UCI bits). PUCCH format 0 may have a length of one or two OFDM symbols and may include two or fewer bits. If the transmission exceeds one or two symbols and the number of HARQ-ACK information bits (HARQ-ACK / SR bits) with positive or negative SR is one or two, the UE may use PUCCH format 0 to transmit UCI in the PUCCH resource. PUCCH format 1 may occupy between four and fourteen OFDM symbols and may include two or fewer bits. If four or more symbols are transmitted and the number of HARQ-ACK / SR bits is one or two, the UE may use PUCCH format 1. PUCCH format 2 may occupy one or two OFDM symbols and may include more than two bits. If the transmission exceeds one or two symbols and the number of UCI bits is two or more, the UE may use PUCCH format 2. PUCCH format 3 may occupy between four and fourteen OFDM symbols and may include more than two bits. If four or more symbols are transmitted, the number of UCI bits is two or more, and the PUCCH resources do not include orthogonal cover codes, the UE may use PUCCH format 3. PUCCH format 4 may occupy between four and fourteen OFDM symbols and may include more than two bits. If four or more symbols are transmitted, the number of UCI bits is two or more, and the PUCCH resources include orthogonal cover codes, the UE may use PUCCH format 4.

[0215] The base station may transmit configuration parameters of multiple PUCCH resource sets to the UE using, for example, an RRC message. The multiple PUCCH resource sets (e.g., up to four sets) may be configured on the uplink BWP of the cell. The PUCCH resource set may be configured with: a PUCCH resource set index; multiple PUCCH resources having PUCCH resources identified by a PUCCH resource identifier (e.g., pucch-Resourceid); and / or multiple (e.g., maximum number) UCI ​​information bits that the UE may transmit using one of the multiple PUCCH resources in the PUCCH resource set. When multiple PUCCH resource sets are configured, the UE may select one PUCCH resource set (e.g., HARQ-ACK, SR, and / or CSI) from the multiple PUCCH resource sets based on the total bit length of the UCI information bits. If the total bit length of the UCI information bits is two or less, the UE may select the first PUCCH resource set with a PUCCH resource set index equal to "0". If the total bit length of the UCI information bits is greater than two and less than or equal to the first configured value, the UE may select a second PUCCH resource set having a PUCCH resource set index equal to "1". If the total bit length of the UCI information bits is greater than the first configured value and less than or equal to the second configured value, the UE may select a third PUCCH resource set having a PUCCH resource set index equal to "2". If the total bit length of the UCI information bits is greater than the second configured value and less than or equal to a third value (e.g., 1406), the UE may select a fourth PUCCH resource set having a PUCCH resource set index equal to "3".

[0216] After determining a PUCCH resource set from a plurality of PUCCH resource sets, the UE may determine the PUCCH resources for UCI (HARQ-ACK, CSI, and / or SR) transmission from the PUCCH resource set. The UE may determine the PUCCH resources based on a PUCCH resource indicator in a DCI received on a PDCCH (e.g., a DCI format 1_0 or a DCI for 1_1). The three-bit PUCCH resource indicator in the DCI may indicate one of eight PUCCH resources in the PUCCH resource set. Based on the PUCCH resource indicator, the UE may use the PUCCH resource indicated by the PUCCH resource indicator in the DCI to transmit UCI (HARQ-ACK, CSI, and / or SR).

[0217] Figure 15 An example of a wireless device 1502 communicating with a base station 1504 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. The wireless device 1502 and the base station 1504 may be part of a mobile communication network, such as Figure 1A The mobile communication network 100 is shown. Figure 1B The mobile communication network 150 shown or any other communication network. Figure 15 Only one wireless device 1502 and one base station 1504 are shown in FIG. 1 , but it should be understood that a mobile communication network may include more than one UE and / or more than one base station with the same Figure 15 The same or similar configurations as those shown.

[0218] Base station 1504 can connect wireless device 1502 to a core network (not shown) via radio communication over an air interface (or radio interface) 1506. The direction of communication from base station 1504 to wireless device 1502 over air interface 1506 is referred to as downlink, while the direction of communication from wireless device 1502 to base station 1504 over the air interface is referred to as uplink. Downlink transmissions can be separated from uplink transmissions using FDD, TDD, and / or some combination of the two duplexing techniques.

[0219] In the downlink, data to be transmitted from base station 1504 to wireless device 1502 may be provided to processing system 1508 of base station 1504. The data may be provided to processing system 1508 via, for example, a core network. In the uplink, data to be transmitted from wireless device 1502 to base station 1504 may be provided to processing system 1518 of wireless device 1502. Processing system 1508 and processing system 1518 may implement layer 3 and layer 2 OSI functions to process data for transmission. Layer 2 may include, for example, information about Figure 2A 、 Figure 2B 、 Figure 3 and Figure 4A The SDAP layer, PDCP layer, RLC layer and MAC layer. Layer 3 may include Figure 2B RRC layer.

[0220] After processing by processing system 1508, data to be transmitted to wireless device 1502 may be provided to transmission processing system 1510 of base station 1504. Similarly, after processing by processing system 1518, data to be transmitted to base station 1504 may be provided to transmission processing system 1520 of wireless device 1502. Transmission processing system 1510 and transmission processing system 1520 may implement layer 1 OSI functions. Layer 1 may include information about Figure 2A 、 Figure 2B 、 Figure 3 and Figure 4A For transmission processing, the PHY layer may perform, for example, forward error correction coding of transport channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping of transport channels to physical channels, modulation of physical channels, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) or multi-antenna processing, and the like.

[0221] At base station 1504, receive processing system 1512 may receive uplink transmissions from wireless device 1502. At wireless device 1502, receive processing system 1522 may receive downlink transmissions from base station 1504. Receive processing system 1512 and receive processing system 1522 may implement layer 1 OSI functions. Layer 1 may include information about Figure 2A 、 Figure 2B 、 Figure 3 and Figure 4A For receive processing, the PHY layer may perform, for example, error detection, forward error correction decoding, deinterleaving, demapping of transport channels to physical channels, demodulation of physical channels, MIMO or multi-antenna processing, and the like.

[0222] like Figure 15 As shown in FIG, wireless device 1502 and base station 1504 may include multiple antennas. The multiple antennas may be used to implement one or more MIMO or multi-antenna techniques, such as spatial multiplexing (e.g., single-user MIMO or multi-user MIMO), transmit / receive diversity, and / or beamforming. In other examples, wireless device 1502 and / or base station 1504 may have a single antenna.

[0223] Processing system 1508 and processing system 1518 may be associated with memory 1514 and memory 1524, respectively. Memory 1514 and memory 1524 (e.g., one or more non-transitory computer-readable media) may store computer program instructions or code that may be executed by processing system 1508 and / or processing system 1518 to perform one or more of the functions discussed herein. Figure 15 Not shown, transmit processing system 1510, transmit processing system 1520, receive processing system 1512, and / or receive processing system 1522 may be coupled to a memory (e.g., one or more non-transitory computer-readable media) storing computer program instructions or code that may be executed to perform one or more of their respective functions.

[0224] The processing system 1508 and / or the processing system 1518 may include one or more controllers and / or one or more processors. The one or more controllers and / or one or more processors may include, for example, a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a microcontroller, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and / or other programmable logic device, discrete gate and / or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, on-board units, or any combination thereof. The processing system 1508 and / or the processing system 1518 may perform at least one of signal encoding / processing, data processing, power control, input / output processing, and / or any other functionality that may enable the wireless device 1502 and the base station 1504 to operate in a wireless environment.

[0225] The processing system 1508 and / or the processing system 1518 can be connected to one or more peripheral devices 1516 and one or more peripheral devices 1526, respectively. The one or more peripheral devices 1516 and the one or more peripheral devices 1526 can include software and / or hardware that provides features and / or functionality, such as a speaker, a microphone, a keyboard, a display, a touchpad, a power supply, a satellite transceiver, a universal serial bus (USB) port, a hands-free headset, a frequency modulation (FM) radio unit, a media player, an Internet browser, an electronic control unit (e.g., for a motor vehicle), and / or one or more sensors (e.g., an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a temperature sensor, a radar sensor, a lidar sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, a light sensor, a camera, etc.). The processing system 1508 and / or the processing system 1518 can receive user input data from the one or more peripheral devices 1516 and / or the one or more peripheral devices 1526 and / or provide user output data to the one or more peripheral devices. The processing system 1518 in the wireless device 1502 can receive power from a power source and / or can be configured to distribute power to other components in the wireless device 1502. The power source can include one or more power sources, such as batteries, solar cells, fuel cells, or any combination thereof. The processing system 1508 and / or the processing system 1518 can be connected to the GPS chipset 1517 and the GPS chipset 1527, respectively. The GPS chipset 1517 and the GPS chipset 1527 can be configured to provide geographic location information of the wireless device 1502 and the base station 1504, respectively.

[0226] Figure 16AAn example structure for uplink transmission is shown. The baseband signal representing the physical uplink shared channel can perform one or more functions. The one or more functions may include at least one of the following: scrambling; modulating scrambled bits to generate complex-valued symbols; mapping complex-valued modulated symbols to one or several transmission layers; transform precoding to generate complex-valued symbols; precoding of complex-valued symbols; mapping of precoded complex-valued symbols to resource elements; generating complex-valued time-domain single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) or CP-OFDM signals for antenna ports, etc. In one instance, when transform precoding is enabled, an SC-FDMA signal for uplink transmission can be generated. In one instance, when transform precoding is not enabled, the SC-FDMA signal can be generated by Figure 16A Generates a CP-OFDM signal for uplink transmission. These functions are shown as examples, and it is contemplated that other mechanisms may be implemented in various embodiments.

[0227] Figure 16B An example structure is shown for modulating and upconverting a baseband signal to a carrier frequency. The baseband signal can be a complex-valued SC-FDMA or CP-OFDM baseband signal for an antenna port and / or a complex-valued physical random access channel (PRACH) baseband signal. Filtering can be applied before transmission.

[0228] Figure 16C An example structure for downlink transmission is presented. A baseband signal representing a physical downlink channel can perform one or more functions. These functions may include: scrambling coded bits in a codeword to be transmitted on a physical channel; modulating the scrambled bits to generate complex-valued modulation symbols; mapping the complex-valued modulation symbols onto one or more transmission layers; precoding the complex-valued modulation symbols on the layers for transmission on antenna ports; mapping the complex-valued modulation symbols for the antenna ports to resource elements; and generating a complex-valued time-domain OFDM signal for the antenna ports. These functions are presented as examples, and it is contemplated that other mechanisms may be implemented in various embodiments.

[0229] Figure 16D Another example structure for modulating and up-converting a baseband signal to a carrier frequency is shown. The baseband signal can be a complex-valued OFDM baseband signal at the antenna port. Filtering can be applied before transmission.

[0230] A wireless device may receive one or more messages (e.g., RRC messages) from a base station that include configuration parameters for multiple cells (e.g., a primary cell, a secondary cell). The wireless device may communicate with at least one base station (e.g., two or more base stations in dual connectivity) via the multiple cells. The one or more messages (e.g., as part of the configuration parameters) may include parameters for configuring the wireless device at the physical layer, MAC layer, RLC layer, PCDP layer, SDAP layer, or RRC layer. For example, the configuration parameters may include parameters for configuring physical layer and MAC layer channels, bearers, etc. For example, the configuration parameters may include parameters indicating values ​​of timers for the physical layer, MAC layer, RLC layer, PCDP layer, SDAP layer, RRC layer, and / or communication channels.

[0231] Once started, a timer can begin running and continue running until it is stopped or expires. If a timer is not running, it can be started, or if it is running, it can be restarted. A timer can be associated with a value (e.g., a timer can start or restart at a certain value, or can start at zero and expire once it reaches that value). The duration of a timer may not be updated until the timer is stopped or expires (e.g., due to a BWP switch). A timer can be used to measure a time period / window of a procedure. When the description refers to embodiments and procedures related to one or more timers, it should be understood that there are various ways to implement the one or more timers. For example, it should be understood that one or more of the various ways of implementing a timer can be used to measure a time period / window of a procedure. For example, a random access response window timer can be used to measure the time window for receiving a random access response. In one example, instead of the start and expiration of the random access response window timer, the time difference between two timestamps can be used. When the timer is restarted, the time window measurement process can be restarted. Other example embodiments can be provided to restart the measurement of the time window.

[0232] Figure 17 An example of a Quality of Service (QoS) model for differentiated data exchange is presented. Figure 17 In the QoS model of FIG7 , there are UE 1701, RAN 1702, and UPF 1705. The QoS model facilitates prioritization of certain packets or protocol data units (PDUs) (also referred to as packets). For example, higher priority packets can be switched faster and / or more reliably than lower priority packets. The network can devote more resources to switching high QoS packets.

[0233] exist Figure 17In the example of FIG17 , a PDU session 1710 is established between UE 1701 and UPF 1705. PDU session 1710 may be a logical connection that enables UE 1701 to exchange data with a specific data network (e.g., the Internet). UE 1701 may request to establish PDU session 1710. When establishing PDU session 1710, UE 1701 may identify the target data network based on its data network name (DNN), for example. PDU session 1710 may be managed, for example, by a session management function (SMF, not shown). To facilitate the exchange of data associated with PDU session 1710 between UE 1701 and the data network, the SMF may select UPF 1705 (and optionally, one or more other UPFs, not shown).

[0234] One or more applications associated with UE 1701 may generate uplink packets 1712A-1712E associated with PDU session 1710. To operate within the QoS model, UE 1701 may apply QoS rules 1714 to uplink packets 1712A-1712E. QoS rules 1714 may be associated with PDU session 1710 and may be determined and / or provided to UE 1701 when establishing and / or modifying PDU session 1710. Based on QoS rules 1714, UE 1701 may classify uplink packets 1712A-1712E, map each of uplink packets 1712A-1712E to a QoS flow, and / or mark uplink packets 1712A-1712E with a QoS flow indicator (QFI). As the packet travels through the network, potentially intermingled with other packets from other UEs of potentially different priority, the QFI indicates how the packet should be handled according to the QoS model. In the current illustration, uplink packets 1712A, 1712B are mapped to QoS flow 1716A, uplink packet 1712C is mapped to QoS flow 1716B, and the remaining packets are mapped to QoS flow 1716C.

[0235] QoS flows can be the finest granularity of QoS differentiation within a PDU session. In the figure, three QoS flows 1716A-1716C are shown. However, it should be understood that any number of QoS flows can exist. Some QoS flows may be associated with a guaranteed bit rate (GBR QoS flow), while other QoS flows may have a non-guaranteed bit rate (non-GBR QoS flow). QoS flows can also be subject to per-UE and per-session aggregate bit rates. One of the QoS flows may be a default QoS flow. QoS flows can have different priorities. For example, QoS flow 1716A may have a higher priority than QoS flow 1716B, which may have a higher priority than QoS flow 1716C. Different priorities can be reflected by different QoS flow characteristics. For example, a QoS flow can be associated with a flow bit rate. A specific QoS flow can be associated with a guaranteed flow bit rate (GFBR) and / or a maximum flow bit rate (MFBR). A QoS flow can be associated with a specific packet delay budget (PDB), packet error rate (PER), and / or maximum packet loss rate. QoS flows may also be subject to per-UE and per-session aggregate bit rates.

[0236] To operate within the QoS model, UE 1701 may apply resource mapping rules 1718 to QoS flows 1716A-1716C. The air interface between UE 1701 and AN 802 may be associated with resources 1720. In the current illustration, QoS flow 1716A is mapped to resource 1720A, while QoS flows 1716B and 1716C are mapped to resource 1720B. Resource mapping rules 1718 may be provided by RAN 1702. To meet QoS requirements, resource mapping rules 1718 may assign more resources to relatively high-priority QoS flows. With more resources, high-priority QoS flows, such as QoS flow 1716A, may be more likely to obtain a high flow bit rate, a low packet delay budget, or other characteristics associated with QoS rules 1714. Resources 1720 may include, for example, radio bearers. Radio bearers (e.g., data radio bearers) may be established between UE 1701 and RAN 1702. The 5G radio bearer between UE 1701 and RAN 1702 may be different from the LTE bearer, such as an Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer between the UE and a Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW), an S1 bearer between an eNB and a Serving Gateway (SGW), and / or an S5 / S8 bearer between an SGW and a PGW.

[0237] Once packets associated with a particular QoS flow are received at the RAN 1702 via resource 1720A or resource 1720B, the RAN 1702 may separate the packets into corresponding QoS flows 1756A-1756C based on the QoS profile 1728. The QoS profile 1728 may be received from the SMF. Each QoS profile may correspond to a QFI, such as the QFI marked on the uplink packets 1712A-1712E. Each QoS profile may include QoS parameters such as a 5G QoS identifier (5QI) and an allocation and retention priority (ARP). The QoS profile for non-GBR QoS flows may further include additional QoS parameters such as a reflective QoS attribute (RQA). The QoS profile for a GBR QoS flow may further include additional QoS parameters such as a guaranteed flow bit rate (GFBR), a maximum flow bit rate (MFBR), and / or a maximum packet loss rate. The 5QI may be a standardized 5QI with a one-to-one mapping of each well-known service to a standardized combination of 5G QoS characteristics. 5QI may be a dynamically assigned 5QI, for which standardized 5QI values ​​are not defined. 5QI may represent 5G QoS characteristics. 5QI may include resource type, default priority, packet delay budget (PDB), packet error rate (PER), maximum data burst, and / or averaging window. Resource type may indicate non-GBR QoS flow, GBR QoS flow, or delay-critical GBR QoS flow. The averaging window may represent the duration over which GFBR and / or MFBR are calculated. ARP may be a priority that includes preemption capability and preemption capability. Based on ARP, RAN 1702 may apply admission control for QoS flows in the event of resource limitations.

[0238] RAN 1702 may select one or more N3 tunnels 1750 for transporting QoS flows 1756A-1756C. After the packets are divided into QoS flows 1756A-1756C, the packets may be sent to UPF 1705 (e.g., toward the DN) via the selected one or more N3 tunnels 1750. UPF 1705 may verify that the QFI of the uplink packets 1712A-1712E complies with the QoS rules 1714 provided to UE 1701. UPF 1705 may measure and / or count the packets and / or provide packet metrics to, for example, a PCF.

[0239] The figure also illustrates the process for the downlink. Specifically, one or more applications may generate downlink packets 1752A-1752E. UPF 1705 may receive downlink packets 1752A-1752E from one or more DNs and / or one or more other UPFs. Based on the QoS model, UPF 1705 may apply packet detection rules (PDRs) 1754 to downlink packets 1752A-1752E. Based on PDRs 1754, UPF 1705 may map packets 1752A-1752E into QoS flows. In the current illustration, downlink packets 1752A and 1752B are mapped to QoS flow 1756A, downlink packet 1752C is mapped to QoS flow 1756B, and the remaining packets are mapped to QoS flow 1756C.

[0240] QoS flows 1756A-1756C may be sent to RAN 1702. RAN 1702 may apply resource mapping rules to QoS flows 1756A-1756C. In the current illustration, QoS flow 1756A is mapped to resource 1720A, while QoS flows 1756B and 1756C are mapped to resource 1720B. To meet QoS requirements, resource mapping rules may allocate more resources to higher-priority QoS flows.

[0241] One or more applications in this specification may include at least one of the following: advanced media services; high data rate low latency (HDRLL) services; virtual reality (VR) services; augmented reality services; extended reality (XR) services; tactile / multimodal communication services; streaming services (e.g., video, audio); multimedia telephony services of IMS (MTSI) services; multimedia broadcast and multicast services (MBMS); multicast broadcast services (MBS), etc.

[0242] Extended reality (XR) can refer to all real-virtual environments and human-computer interactions generated by computer technology and wearable devices. XR can be an umbrella term for different types of reality.

[0243] Virtual reality (VR) can be a rendered version of a delivered visual and audio scene. The rendering can be designed to simulate the visual and auditory sensory stimulation of the real world as naturally as possible as the observer or user moves within the constraints defined by the application. Virtual reality typically, but not necessarily, may require the user to wear a head-mounted display (HMD) that completely replaces the user's field of view with simulated visual components, and wear headphones to provide accompanying audio to the user. Some form of head and motion tracking of the user in VR may also typically be required to allow the simulated visual and audio components to be updated to ensure that items and sound sources remain consistent with the user's movements from the user's perspective.

[0244] Augmented reality (AR) can be artificially generated items or content that provide additional information or overlays on a user's current environment. Such additional information or content can typically be visual and / or audible information, and their observation of their current environment can be direct, without intermediate sensing, processing, and rendering, or indirect, where their perception of their environment can be relayed via sensors and can be augmented or processed.

[0245] Mixed reality (MR) can be an advanced form of AR, in which some virtual elements can be inserted into the physical scene to provide the illusion that these elements are part of the real scene.

[0246] Other terms used in the context of XR are immersion (the feeling of being surrounded by the virtual environment) and presence (providing the feeling of being physically and spatially in the virtual environment). Telepresence can provide meaningful minimum performance requirements for different technologies such as tracking, latency, persistence, resolution, and optics.

[0247] The field of view may be the angle of the viewable field expressed in degrees measured from the focal point.

[0248] Some applications (e.g., XR and media (XRM) services) PDUs may have dependencies on each other. It can be expected that the PDUs (e.g., I frames) that other PDUs (e.g., P frames, B frames) depend on are more important and can be transmitted first. However, in some applications (e.g., XR and media (XRM) services), P frames and B frames may also be important because I frames build smooth video, and the discarding of those P frames and B frames causes QoE jitter, which is no less than giving up the entire service. In some other applications (e.g., XRM services), P frames and B frames can be used to enhance high definition, such as from 720p to 1080p. When network resources cannot transmit all service data, discarding those P frames and B frames makes sense to maintain the service.

[0249] A PDU set may consist of one or more PDUs that carry the payload of an information unit generated at the application level (e.g., frames or videos for XR and media services). In some embodiments, the application layer may need all PDUs in the PDU set to use the corresponding information unit. In other embodiments, when some PDUs are lost, the application layer can still recover some or all of the information units. PDU sets may have several types (e.g., Type A and Type B). Type A and Type B may have different importance or priority. In one instance, a Type A PDU set may contain one or more I frames with importance or priority, and a Type B PDU set may contain one or more P / B frames with no importance or priority. In one instance, a Type A PDU set may contain one or more I frames, and a Type B PDU set may contain one or more P / B frames. A Type A PDU set and a Type B PDU set may have the same importance or priority.

[0250] Multimodal data can describe input data from different types of devices / sensors or output data required by the same task or application to different types of destinations (e.g., one or more UEs). Multimodal data can be composed of more than one unimodal data, and strong dependencies may exist between each unimodal data. Unimodal data can be considered a single type of data.

[0251] A data burst may be data generated by an application in a short period of time and may contain PDUs from one or more PDU sets.

[0252] In both uplink and downlink, XR awareness helps optimize base station radio resource scheduling and can rely at least on the concepts of PDU sets and data bursts. A data burst can consist of multiple PDUs belonging to one or more PDU sets.

[0253] To efficiently handle PDUs in both the UL and DL, the following information may be useful. Semi-static information provided by the core network includes at least one of the following: PDU Set Delay Budget (PSDB); PDU Set Error Rate (PSER); service parameters (e.g., periodicity); jitter information (e.g., range). Dynamic information may include PDUs belonging to a PDU set (this includes means to determine at least the PDU set boundaries) and PDUs belonging to a data burst.

[0254] Figure 18The example embodiments depicted in the present invention illustrate how an application data unit (ADU) is delivered from a sender to a receiver. An ADU may include, for example, a picture file, a video frame, a text file, etc. For example, an ADU may include a data unit generated by one or more protocols (e.g., RTP, DASH, TCP, UDP, etc.). An ADU may be generated and / or created, for example, by a first instance of a particular application, used and / or enjoyed by a second instance of the application, or processed by an application server of the application. An intermediate layer may be responsible for encapsulating and / or formatting the ADU for delivery from a sender to a receiver. For example, an intermediate layer may provide the functionality of one or more protocols (e.g., IP, etc.). After formatting the ADU into one or more packets based on one or more protocols, the intermediate layer may forward the one or more packets to the lower layer. The lower layer may provide, for example, the functionality of forwarding one or more packets from one node / device to another node / device via a specific interface. The second instance of the application may be located at another node / device. An ADU may be described as a set of PDUs. An ADU may be interchangeable with a set of PDUs.

[0255] like Figure 18 As depicted in , for example, an upper layer (e.g., an application) in a UE may generate one or more application data units (ADUs). The one or more ADUs may include ADU 1 and / or ADU 2. The upper layer in the UE may deliver ADU 1 and / or ADU 2 to an intermediate layer of the UE. For the delivered ADU 1 and / or ADU 2, the intermediate layer of the UE may process the one or more ADUs based on one or more protocols and may encapsulate the one or more ADUs into one or more packets. For example, one or more packets may include packet 1 and / or packet 2. For example, if an IP protocol is used, ADU 1 and / or ADU 2 may be processed into one or more IP packets. Each IP packet may include at least a portion of at least one of the one or more ADUs. For example, packet 1 may include at least a portion of ADU 1. For example, packet 2 may include at least a portion of ADU 2.

[0256] The intermediate layer may deliver the generated one or more packets to the lower layer. The lower layer may be an access layer (AS), which is responsible for transmitting data between the UE and the NG-RAN. For example, the SDAP entity of the AS may receive packet 1 as SDU 1 from the intermediate layer. For example, the SDAP entity may receive packet 2 as SDU 2 from the intermediate layer. The AS of the UE may process and send SDU 1 and SDU 2. For example, the AS of the UE may send SDU 1 and SDU 2 to the AS layer of the NG-RAN. For example, the RLC entity of the AS layer of the UE may generate one or more PDUs from SDU 1 and SDU 2. For example, based on the amount of radio resources allocated by the NG-RAN, the RLC layer of the AS may segment SDU 1 into PDU 1 and PDU 2, and segment SDU 2 into PDU 3 and PDU 4. The MAC entity of the AS may receive one or more PDUs from the RLC entity. The MAC entity may transmit the received one or more PDUs to the NG-RAN.

[0257] Each layer has different functions, as mentioned above. Figure 3 The data that makes up ADU 1 may be divided, subdivided, compressed, encrypted, reordered, multiplexed, encoded, etc. After ADU 1 and / or ADU 2 passes through these layers, the end result (e.g., one or more PDUs) may be suitable for transmission. However, the PDUs may be indecipherable (literally) to the applications associated with ADU 1 and / or ADU 2. After transmission (described in more detail below), the process may be reversed, and ADU 1 and / or ADU 2 may be transmitted on the other side (e.g., Figure 18 The data is rebuilt at the application server in the process so that the data can be used by the application.

[0258] return Figure 18 , the MAC entity of the NG-RAN may receive one or more PDUs sent by the UE. The received one or more PDUs may be reassembled into one or more SDUs. For example, using the received PDU 1 and PDU 2, the AS of the NG-RAN may reassemble SDU 1. For example, using the received PDU 3 and PDU 4, the AS of the NG-RAN may reassemble SDU 2. Packet 1 of SDU 1 and packet 2 of SDU 2 may be delivered from the NG-RAN to a core network node (e.g., UPF). The core network node may send packet 1 and packet 2 to a receiver (e.g., an application server associated with ADU 1 and ADU 2) via the Internet. After receiving packet 1 and packet 2, the middle layer of the application server may restore ADU 1 and ADU 2 and deliver ADU 1 and ADU 2 to an upper layer. The upper layer may perform application-specific processing on the received ADU 1 and ADU 2.

[0259] One or more protocol entities and / or one or more layers may be agnostic to the differentiated characteristics of one or more types of ADUs of an application. For example, the AS may not consider the different characteristics of different applications. For example, the AS may not consider the differences and / or similarities and / or relationships between one or more ADUs of an application. For example, a data unit in a lower layer (e.g., Figure 18 1, SDU 1, PDU 2) can be associated with an ADU associated with a specific application (e.g., Figure 18 1). However, within the lower layers, the data unit may not be recognizable as being associated with a specific application data unit or even a specific application. At the lower layers, the data unit may just be a series of ones and zeros that are encapsulated for delivery. This application-agnostic approach (e.g., an ADU-agnostic approach) may help support independent enhancements of one or more layers and / or one or more entities. For example, by not tying the operation of the AS to a certain application characteristic, the AS can evolve without changing the behavior of one or more applications. Due to this application-agnostic approach, the AS can support the introduction of new, later-developed applications. However, as new advanced use cases emerge and the QoS requirements of applications become stricter to enhance the user experience, the application-agnostic ADU processing performed by the AS may not be able to support efficient use of radio resources and network resources, as will be discussed in more detail below.

[0260] For example, Figure 19 An example of advanced application can be demonstrated. Figure 19 It can be shown how to represent a video (e.g., a moving sequence) input picture. For example, in Figure 19 In the example, the input picture may show that the rectangular object does not move, while the triangular object may move from the right side of the screen to the left side. Based on this movement sequence, the encoder of the advanced application may generate one or more output data. The first output data (output data 1, type A) may include information describing the details of the first input picture (input picture 1 at T=t1). The second output data (output data 2, type B) may include information describing the difference between the first input picture and the second input picture (input picture 2 at T=t2). For example, the second output data may include information that the triangular object moves from right to left. Sending information about changes in the picture can reduce the amount of data that needs to be transmitted compared to sending the second input picture itself. Similarly, the third output data (output data 3, type B) may include information about the changes between the second input picture and the third input picture (input picture 3 at T=t3).

[0261] In one example, a video transmitter may transmit one or more output data to a receiver. For example, Figure 19One or more output data in. The receiver may receive one or more data sent by the transmitter, and / or the receiver may not receive one or more data sent by the transmitter. For example, the receiver may receive second output data, third output data, and fourth output data. For example, the receiver may not receive the first output data. Because the second output data includes information about the changes between the first input picture and the second picture, in order to restore the second picture from the second output data, the receiver may need the first input picture. If the first output data containing the first input picture is not received, the receiver may not be able to restore the second input picture from the received second output data. Similarly, if the receiver does not have information about the second input picture, the receiver may not be able to restore the third input picture from the third output data. The availability of one or more output data (e.g., the second output data, the third output data, the fourth output data) may depend on the availability of one or more output data (e.g., the first output data).

[0262] Figure 20 An example of data delivery failure can be shown. Application A can generate a first ADU and a second ADU. One or more ADUs generated by application A can contain service data flows. Different ADUs may have different importance for the operation of application A. For example, the first ADU may have higher importance than the second ADU. For example, in Figure 19 In the example of , the first ADU may include the first output data. Figure 19 In the example of , the second ADU may include second output data, third output data, or fourth output data. The first ADU may be delivered to the middle layer as a first packet. The first packet may be delivered to the lower layer as SDU 1. The second ADU may be delivered to the middle layer as a second packet. The second packet may be delivered to the lower layer as SDU 2. The lower layer may generate PDU 1 and PDU 2 for SDU 1. The lower layer may generate PDU 3 and PDU 4 for SDU 2. The lower layer may send PDU 1, PDU 2, PDU 3, and PDU 4. PDU 1, PDU 3, and PDU 4 may be successfully delivered to the receiver. PDU 2 may not be successfully delivered to the receiver. An ADU may be described as a PDU set. An ADU may be interchangeable with a PDU set.

[0263] Based on PDU 3 and PDU 4, the receiver can reassemble SDU 2. SDU 2 can be delivered to the middle layer as a second packet. The second packet can be delivered to the application server hosting application A. The middle layer can deliver ADU 2 to application A. For example, ADU 2 can contain Figure 19Due to the failure to receive PDU 2, the receiver may not be able to reassemble SDU 1. Due to the loss of SDU 1, packet 1 may not be recovered and may not be delivered to the application server. Application A may not receive ADU 1. For example, ADU 1 may contain Figure 19 The first output data. Figure 19 As shown in the example of , in order to process ADU 2 (e.g., the second output data), application A may need ADU 1 (e.g., the first output data). Due to the lack of ADU 1, application A may not be able to use the received ADU 2. Radio resources and / or network resources used to deliver ADU 2 may be unnecessarily wasted. Based on the different characteristics of different ADUs of the service data flow, the lower layer (e.g., the AS layer of NR, the AS layer of LTE) may not provide differentiated handling of the ADU. Therefore, a higher priority ADU may not be delivered, and a less prioritized ADU may be delivered. In the above description and Figure 20 In the example of FIG, for the purpose of simple explanation, it is described that data is delivered from the UE to the application server. Data may also be delivered from the application server to the UE, or data may be delivered directly from the first UE to the second UE.

[0264] Figure 21 The example depicted in shows how data generated by an application is delivered from a transmitter to a receiver. The data unit generated by the application can be an application data unit (ADU). The ADU can contain, for example, a picture file, a video frame, a text file, etc. The ADU can be generated and / or created, for example, by a first instance of a particular application, used and / or enjoyed by a second instance of the application, or processed by an application server of the application. In order to reliably deliver the ADU and / or efficiently process the ADU, the ADU can be divided into one or more smaller units. For example, the one or more smaller units can be one or more protocol data units (PDUs). For a first ADU, one or more first PDUs (e.g., PDU 1, PDU 2) can be a first PDU set (e.g., PDU set 1). For a second ADU, one or more second PDUs (e.g., PDU 3, PDU 4) can be a second PDU set (e.g., PDU set 2).

[0265] In one example, an application may deliver one or more first PDUs and / or one or more second PDUs to an SDAP / PDCP entity (e.g., an SDAP entity, a PDCP entity, and / or both an SDAP entity and a PDCP entity). A first PDU (e.g., PDU 1) may be delivered from an application to an SDAP / PDCP entity. In the SDAP / PDCP entity, the first PDU may be a first SDAP SDU, a first SDAP PDU, a first PDCP SDU, and / or a first PDCP PDU. A second PDU (e.g., PDU 2) may be delivered from an application to an SDAP / PDCP entity. In the SDAP / PDCP entity, the second PDU may be a second SDAP SDU, a second SDAP PDU, a second PDCP SDU, and / or a second PDCP PDU. Similarly, PDU 3 may be a third PDCP PDU (e.g., PDCP PDU 3) and / or PDU 4 may be a fourth PDCP PDU (e.g., PDCP PDU 4).

[0266] In one example, one or more PDCP PDUs (e.g., PDCP PDUs 1, 2, 3, and 4) may be delivered from the SDAP / PDCP entity to the RLC entity. The RLC layer may provide functionality for forwarding one or more packets from one node to another using a MAC entity and / or a PHY entity, for example, over a specific interface.

[0267] For example, Figure 21 As depicted in , an application in a transmitter may generate one or more PDU sets. For example, the one or more PDU sets may include a first PDU set and / or a second PDU set. The application in the transmitter may deliver the one or more PDU sets to an SDAP / PDCP entity of the transmitter. The SDAP / PDCP entity may classify one or more PDUs in the one or more PDU sets, apply header compression to the one or more PDUs to reduce the size of the headers of the one or more PDUs, apply encryption to the one or more PDUs to provide security, and / or generate one or more PDCP PDUs.

[0268] In one example, the SDAP / PDCP entity of the transmitter delivers the generated one or more PDCP PDUs to the RLC entity. The RLC entity may be responsible for transmitting data between the UE and the NG-RAN using the MAC entity and / or the PHY entity. For example, the RLC entity of the transmitter may process and generate one or more RLC PDUs for one or more PDCP PDUs (e.g., RLC SDUs) delivered from the PDCP / SDAP entity. For example, the RLC entity may generate a first RLC PDU from a first PDCP PDU (e.g., a first RLC SDU), and / or the RLC entity may generate a second RLC PDU from a second PDCP PDU (e.g., a second RLC SDU).

[0269] In one instance, one or more RLC PDUs generated by the RLC entity of the transmitter may be delivered to the MAC entity of the transmitter. The MAC entity of the transmitter may send one or more RLC PDUs to the MAC entity of the receiver. The MAC entity of the receiver may deliver the one or more RLC PDUs to the RLC entity of the receiver. For example, the RLC entity of the receiver may receive one or more RLC PDUs (e.g., RLC PDU 1, 2, 3, 4). The RLC entity of the receiver may use the one or more RLC PDUs to recover one or more RLC SDUs (e.g., PDCP PDUs). The RLC entity may deliver the one or more recovered PDCP PDUs to the PDCP entity of the receiver. The PDCP entity of the receiver may process the one or more received PDCP PDUs and / or may recover one or more PDUs from the one or more PDCP PDUs. In order to recover a PDCP SDU (or RLC SDU) from a PDCP PDU (or RLC PDU), the PDCP PDU may be extracted from the PDCP PDU and the PDCP PDU may be reassembled from the PDCP SDU.

[0270] For example, as depicted in FIG. 22 , a PDU set may be of several types (e.g., Figure 19 Type A and Type B as described in

[15] . Type A and Type B may have different importance or priority. Four alternatives are possible, depending on how PDU sets are mapped to QoS flows in the NAS and how QoS flows are mapped to DRBs in the AS. Figure 22A A one-to-one mapping between PDU set types (e.g., type A and type B) and QoS flows in the NAS, and a one-to-one mapping between QoS flows and DRBs in the AS are shown. From a Layer 2 architecture perspective, this alternative may require as many DRBs as there are PDU set types. Figure 22BThe one-to-one mapping between PDU set types (e.g., Type A and Type B) and QoS flows in the NAS is shown, as well as the possible multiplexing of QoS flows in one DRB in the AS. From a Layer 2 architecture perspective, this alternative approach allows for the same QoS to be given to each QoS flow multiplexed in the DRB.

[0271] Figure 22C The possible multiplexing of PDU set types (e.g., Type A and Type B) in a QoS flow in the NAS and the one-to-one mapping between QoS flows and DRBs in the AS are shown. From a Layer 2 architecture perspective, this alternative approach allows for one QoS per QoS flow / DRB. Figure 22D The possible multiplexing of PDU aggregate types in a QoS flow in the NAS and the de-multiplexing of PDU aggregate types in a QoS flow across multiple DRBs in the AS are shown. From a Layer 2 architecture perspective, it may be necessary to de-multiplex a PDU aggregate type from a QoS flow across multiple DRBs.

[0272] Figure 23 The split architecture of a base station is shown. A base station (BS) can be split into a base station central unit (BS-CU) and one or more base station distributed units (BS-DU). The BS-CU can be split into a base station central unit control plane (BS-CU-CP) and one or more base station central unit user planes (BS-CU-UP), which can be connected by an E1 interface. The F1-C interface can connect the BS-DU and the BS-CU-CP. The F1-U interface can connect the BS-DU and the BS-CU-UP. Wireless devices can be served by the split architecture.

[0273] Figure 24 An example is shown in which a service of application A (e.g., video, audio, XR, VR, AR) is provided to a wireless device via a base station. Application A may include PDU Set 1 and PDU Set 2. PDU Set 1 may be type A (e.g., I frame). PDU Set 2 may be type B (e.g., B / P frame). The availability of PDU Set 2 (type B, e.g., B / P frame) depends on the availability of PDU Set 1 (type A). In the prior art, the base station may perform admission control on the application A service of the wireless device based on PDU session / QoS flow. Some PDU sessions / QoS flows of application A may not be admitted by the base station. As a result, the user experience of application A may be reduced for the wireless device.

[0274] Figure 25 Shows a scenario where a service (e.g., video, audio, XR, VR, AR) of application A is accessed via a Figure 23Another example of a base station providing a wireless device with the split architecture (BS-CU-UP, BS-CU-CP, DU) shown in FIG. Application A may include PDU Set 1 and PDU Set 2. PDU Set 1 may be of type A (e.g., I frame). PDU Set 2 may be of type B (e.g., B / P frame). The availability of PDU Set 2 (Type B, e.g., B / P frame) depends on the availability of PDU Set 1 (Type A). In the prior art, the BS-CU-UP may perform admission control on the application A service of the wireless device based on PDU session / QoS flow. Some PDU sessions / QoS flows of application A may not be admitted by the base station. Therefore, for the wireless device, the user experience of application A may be reduced.

[0275] Figure 26 An example of Layer 3 handover is presented. A wireless device may transmit a measurement report to a source base station (BS), and the source BS may determine to hand over the wireless device to a target BS based on the measurement report. The BS may initiate the handover and issue a handover request (HANDOVER REQUEST) over the Xn interface. The BS may perform admission control and provide the new RRC configuration as part of a handover request acknowledgment (HANDOVER REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGE). The source BS may provide the RRC configuration to the wireless device by forwarding an RRC reconfiguration message received in a handover request acknowledgment (HANDOVER REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGE). The RRC reconfiguration message may include at least a cell ID and all information required to access the target cell, allowing the wireless device to access the target cell without retrieving system information. In some cases, information required for contention-based random access and contention-free random access may be included in the RRC reconfiguration message. Access information for the target cell may include beam-specific information, if available. The wireless device may switch the RRC connection to the target BS and reply to the target BS with an RRC reconfiguration complete message.

[0276] Figure 27An example is shown in which the services of application A (e.g., video, audio, XR, VR, AR) are provided to a wireless device via a base station (BS1). Application A may include PDU set 1 and PDU set 2. PDU set 1 may be type A (e.g., I frame). PDU set 2 may be type B (e.g., B / P frame). The availability of PDU set 2 (type B, e.g., B / P frame) depends on the availability of PDU set 1 (type A). BS1 may initiate handover or dual connectivity of the wireless device to base station 2 (BS2) or base station 3 (BS3). In the prior art, BS2 or BS3 may perform admission control on the application A services of the wireless device based on PDU sessions / QoS flows. Some PDU sessions / QoS flows of application A may not be admitted by BS2 or BS3. Therefore, for the wireless device after handover or dual connectivity, the user experience of application A may be reduced.

[0277] Example embodiments improve system performance by enhancing signaling and implementing admission control between various combinations of base stations and core network nodes (AMF / SMF).

[0278] Example embodiments of the present disclosure improve the user experience of application A of a wireless device by enhancing admission control in a base station or BS-CU-UP based on application A, i.e., PDU set 1 and / or PDU set 2, and the relevance and / or type / priority of PDU set 1 and / or PDU set 2. Figure 28 In the example shown in , the base station can determine to accept or reject QoS flow 1 and QoS flow 2 together based on the common identifier of PDU set 1 and / or PDU set 2. Figure 29 In another example shown in , the base station may determine to accept or reject each of packet flow 1 and packet flow 2 based on PDU set 1 and / or PDU set 2. Figure 30 In the example shown in , the BS-CU-UP may determine to accept or reject QoS Flow 1 and QoS Flow 2 together based on the common identifier of PDU Set 1 and / or PDU Set 2. Figure 31 In another example shown in , BS-CU-UP determines to accept or reject each of Packet Flow 1 and Packet Flow 2 based on PDU Set 1 and / or PDU Set 2. The above embodiments can improve the user experience of Application A (PDU Set 1 and PDU Set 2) of the wireless device.

[0279] The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure enhance the admission control in the target base station (BS2) based on application A, i.e., PDU set 1 and / or PDU set 2 and the relevance and / or type / priority of PDU set 1 and / or PDU set 2. Figure 34 and Figure 36In the example shown in , the target base station (eg, BS2) may determine to accept or reject QoS Flow 1 and QoS Flow 2 together based on the common identifier of PDU Set 1 and / or PDU Set 2. Figure 35 and Figure 37 In other examples shown in , the target base station (e.g., BS2) can determine whether to accept or reject each of packet flow 1 and packet flow 2 based on PDU set 1 and / or PDU set 2. The above embodiments can improve the user experience of application A (PDU set 1 and PDU set 2) of the wireless device after handover or dual connectivity.

[0280] In this specification, the term AF (Application Function) can be interpreted as an AS (Application Server) that can host and / or run one or more applications. A wireless device (e.g., UE) can receive services from one or more applications. The one or more applications may include at least one of the following: advanced media services; high data rate low latency (HDRLL) services; virtual reality (VR) services; augmented reality services; extended reality (XR) services; tactile / multimodal communication services; streaming services (e.g., video, audio); multimedia telephony services of IMS (MTSI) services; multimedia broadcast and multicast services (MBMS); multicast broadcast services (MBS), etc.

[0281] In this specification, the term base station may include at least one of the following: NG-RAN, gNB, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, access node, access point, N3IWF, relay node, etc.

[0282] In this specification, the term core network node can be interpreted as a core network device, which may include at least one of the following: Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), SMF, NSSF, UPF, NRF, UDM, PCF, SoR-AF, AF, DDNMF, MB-SMF, MB-UPF, etc.

[0283] In this specification, the term PDU set may be interpreted as one or more PDUs that carry the payload of an information unit generated at the application layer level (e.g., a frame or video for XR and media services). In some embodiments, the application layer may need all PDUs in a PDU set to use the corresponding information unit. In other embodiments, when some PDUs are lost, the application layer may be able to recover some of the information units. A PDU set may be of several types (e.g., Figure 1922 and the above description). Type A and Type B may have different importance or priority. In one example, a Type A PDU set may include one or more I frames with importance or priority, and a Type B PDU set may include one or more P / B frames without importance or priority. In one example, a Type A PDU set may include one or more I frames, and a Type B PDU set may include one or more P / B frames. A Type A PDU set and a Type B PDU set may have the same importance or priority.

[0284] In this specification, the term ADU can be interpreted as an information unit. Information units can be exchanged between one or more hosts serving applications. In an example, an application (e.g., an Internet browser, an instant messaging application, a video player application, etc.) can be run on a first host (e.g., a smartphone, a computer, an application server, etc.), and the same application can be run on a second host (e.g., another smartphone, a computer, an application server, etc.). The application on the first host can generate one or more information units (e.g., a picture file, a text message, etc.). Each of the one or more information units can contain one or more PDUs, and / or the one or more PDUs for an information unit can be a PDU set.

[0285] In this specification, the terms PDU set, sub-QoS flow, QoS flow and ADU can be interchangeable. That is, a PDU set can be interpreted as a sub-QoS flow, a QoS flow or an ADU.

[0286] In this specification, the parameters of a PDU set / sub-QoS flow / QoS flow or ADU may include at least one of the following: a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay budget, a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival period and start time, a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival jitter, an indication of QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set discard allowed, a maximum allowed delay difference / bearing of a group of QoS flows / sub-QoS flows / associated flows, a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set identifier, the number of PDUs in a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set, an indication of the last QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU in a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set, a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set bit size, a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay information, a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance, a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set general identifier / correlation information (e.g., a general identifier, a group identifier, a correlation identifier, a group of pictures (GOP) identifier).

[0287] In one example, general identifier / dependency information, such as (e.g., general identifier, group identifier, dependency identifier, group of pictures (GOP) identifier), can indicate the relationship of QoS flows / sub-QoS flows / PDU sets for certain applications (e.g., XR and media (XRM) services). A QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set (e.g., I-frames) of an application (e.g., XR and media (XRM)) can have a dependency on another QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set (e.g., P-frames, B-frames) of the application (e.g., XR and media (XRM) services). In some applications, I-frames can be expected to be more important than P-frames and B-frames. In other applications, P-frames and B-frames can be as important as I-frames. In some other applications, P-frames and B-frames can be used to enhance high definition (e.g., from 720p to 1080p).

[0288] In one example, general identifiers / correlation information, such as (e.g., general identifiers, group identifiers, correlation identifiers, group of pictures (GOP) identifiers), can also be applied to multimodal data, which can describe input data from different types of devices / sensors or output data required by the same task or application to different types of destinations (e.g., one or more UEs). Multimodal data can be composed of more than one unimodal data, and there may be strong dependencies between each unimodal data. Unimodal data can be considered as a type of data that can be transported by a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set. General identifiers / correlation information, such as (e.g., general identifiers, group identifiers, correlation identifiers, group of pictures (GOP) identifiers), can indicate the relationship between one or more unimodal data.

[0289] Figure 28 An example embodiment of the present disclosure is described. This can improve the user experience of applications of wireless devices.

[0290] In one instance, the AF may determine to set up an AF session with the required QoS. The AF may send a message to the PCF. The message may include a flow description of the target media service data / packet flow for PDU set / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow handling, auxiliary information describing the media and media characteristics, such as burst periodicity, the number of temporal and spatial media layers and periodicity and dependencies, and media detection rules specifying the header type. The message may further include PDU set / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow level packet handling / processing requirements. The PDU set / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow level packet handling / processing may include PDU set / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow level priority (or importance, type A or type B), PDB, PER, universal identifier, etc.

[0291] In one instance, the PCF may initiate a PDU session setup / modification procedure. The PCF may generate appropriate PCC rules based on the configuration and information from the AF. During the generation of Policy and Charge Control (PCC) rules, PDU aggregate / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow level packet handling / processing requirements may be considered. PCC rules may also include detection rules for service data flows, PDU aggregate / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow level packet handling / processing policies, and PDU aggregate / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow detection and classification rules. The PCF may send PCC rules to the SMF.

[0292] In one example, the SMF may generate a QoS profile and N4 interface rules based on the PCC rules from the PCF, wherein the PCC rules may include packet handling / processing policies. The SMF may send the N4 interface rules to the UPF, wherein the N4 interface rules may include rules for PDU sets / QoS flows / sub-QoS flows.

[0293] In one example, the SMF may determine to instruct the base station via the AMF to perform QoS treatment associated with the PDU set / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow of the wireless device. Figure 28 As shown in , a base station may receive one or more messages from an SMF via an AMF. The one or more messages may be request messages for a wireless device to establish a QoS flow in the base station. The request message may include at least one of the following: an N2 / NG interface message; an S1 interface message; an initial context setup request message; a UE context modification request message; a PDU session resource setup request message; a PDU session resource modification request message, etc. The one or more messages may be, for example, a single message. It will be appreciated that the message may have any suitable name.

[0294] The request message may include at least one of the following: an identifier of the wireless device within the Mobility Management Entity (MME) (e.g., MME UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the AMF (e.g., AMF UE NGAP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the eNB (e.g., eNB UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the NG Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) (e.g., RAN UE NGAP ID), etc.

[0295] In an example, the request message may include at least one of the following: a first QoS flow of the PDU session; a second QoS flow of the PDU session; a field indicating that the first QoS flow is associated with the second QoS flow, etc.

[0296] In one example, the first QoS flow may include at least one of the following: a QoS flow, a sub-QoS flow, a PDU set, etc. The second QoS flow may include at least one of the following: a QoS flow, a sub-QoS flow, a PDU set, etc.

[0297] In one example, the field may indicate that a first universal identifier of a first QoS flow is the same as a second universal identifier of a second QoS flow.

[0298] In one example, the field may include a first universal identifier for a first QoS flow and a second universal identifier for a second QoS flow, the first universal identifier being the same as the second universal identifier.

[0299] In one example, the field can contain a common identifier associated with the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow.

[0300] In one example, the universal identifier / first universal identifier / second universal identifier may include at least one of the following: a universal identifier; a group identifier; a correlation identifier; a GOP identifier, etc. The universal identifier / first universal identifier / second universal identifier may indicate a relationship / correlation between the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow.

[0301] The first QoS flow and the second QoS flow may be used for the same application of the wireless device. The application may include at least one of the following: advanced media services; high data rate low latency (HDRLL) services; virtual reality (VR) services; augmented reality services; extended reality (XR) services; tactile / multimodal communication services; streaming services (e.g., video, audio); multimedia telephony services of IMS (MTSI) services; multimedia broadcast and multicast services (MBMS); multicast broadcast services (MBS), etc.

[0302] In one instance, the first QoS flow and / or the second QoS flow may further include at least one of the following parameters: QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay budget, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival period and start time, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival jitter, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set drop allowed indication, maximum allowed delay difference / bearing of QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / group of associated flows, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set identifier, number of PDUs in QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set, last QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU indication in QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set bit size, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay information, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance or priority, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set general identifier / correlation information (e.g., general identifier, group identifier, correlation identifier, group of pictures (GOP) identifier), etc. In one example, the QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance or priority may include Type A and Type B as described above.

[0303] In one example, a first QoS flow can be mapped to a first DRB. A second QoS flow can be mapped to a second DRB. The first DRB and the second DRB can be the same.

[0304] In one example, Figure 28 As shown in FIG, the base station can determine whether to accept or reject both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow for the wireless device. As described above, the determination can be based on information received from the SMF / AMF. For example, the determination can be based on the first QoS flow and / or the second QoS flow and a field containing a universal identifier / first universal identifier / second universal identifier, through which the base station can note that the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow can be used for the same application of the wireless device.

[0305] In one example, the base station may further determine whether to accept or reject the first QoS flow and / or the second QoS flow based on QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance / priority / Type A / Type B information.

[0306] In one example, the base station may further determine radio resource allocation for the first QoS flow and / or the second QoS flow based on the QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance / priority / Type A / Type B information. The resource allocation may include mapping the first QoS flow and / or the second QoS flow to a DRB.

[0307] Based on the determination, Figure 28As shown in , the base station may send a response message including at least one or more identifiers of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow to the core network node (i.e., SMF / AMF), wherein one or both of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow is admitted or failed to be admitted. When one or more of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow fails, the response message may further include a cause value.

[0308] In one instance, the response message may include at least one of the following: a list of identifiers of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow are successfully established; a list of identifiers of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow fail to be established, and a reason value; an identifier of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second flow fails to be established, and a reason value; an identifier of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second flow is successfully established.

[0309] In one instance, the cause value may include at least one of the following: radio resources unavailable, radio resources unavailable to accept both QoS flows 1 and 2, resources unavailable for slices of QoS flow 1 and / or QoS flow 2, unknown or invalid QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set / DRB identifier, etc.

[0310] The response message may include at least one of the following: an N2 / NG interface message; an S1 interface message; an initial context setup response message; a UE context modification response message; a PDU session resource setup response message; a PDU session resource modification response message, etc. The one or more messages may be, for example, a single message. It will be appreciated that the message may have any suitable name.

[0311] The response message may include at least one of the following: an identifier of the wireless device within the Mobility Management Entity (MME) (e.g., MME UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the AMF (e.g., AMF UE NGAP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the eNB (e.g., eNB UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the NG Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) (e.g., RAN UE NGAP ID), etc.

[0312] In one example, the response message may include at least one of the following: a common identifier of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow are successfully established; a common identifier of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow fail to be established; a common identifier of the first QoS flow or the second flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second flow fails to be established; a common identifier of the first QoS flow or the second flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second flow is successfully established, etc. In the above case, the response message may include the QoS flow identifier of the first QoS flow and / or the QoS flow identifier of the second QoS flow.

[0313] In one example, Figure 28 As shown in , the core network node (ie, SMF / AMF) can determine whether to release one or both of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow based on the response message for the wireless device.

[0314] Based on the determination, the base station may receive a NAS message / PDU Session Release Request message from a core network node (i.e., SMF / AMF) including QoS flow identifiers of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow failed to be established, and a second cause value. The base station may send a NAS message including a PDU Session Release Request message to the wireless device, wherein the NAS message may include QoS flow identifiers of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow failed to be established, and the second cause value. The NAS message / PDU Session Release Request message may include a common identifier for the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow. In one example, the wireless device may release the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow based on the received information.

[0315] In one instance, the second cause value may include at least one of the following: (radio) resources unavailable, (radio) resources unavailable to accept both QoS flows 1 and 2, resources unavailable for slices of QoS flow 1 and / or QoS flow 2, unknown or invalid QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set / DRB identifier, etc.

[0316] Based on the determination, the base station may receive a NAS message / PDU Session Modification Request message from a core network node (i.e., SMF / AMF) including a QoS flow identifier of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow failed to be established, and a third cause value. The base station may send a NAS message including a PDU Session Modification Request message to the wireless device, wherein the NAS message may include a QoS flow identifier of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow failed to be established, and a third cause value. The NAS message / PDU Session Modification Request message may include a universal identifier of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow. In one example, the wireless device may release the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow based on the received information.

[0317] In one instance, the third cause value may include at least one of the following: (radio) resources unavailable, (radio) resources unavailable to accept both QoS flows 1 and 2, resources unavailable for slices of QoS flow 1 and / or QoS flow 2, unknown or invalid QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set / DRB identifier, etc.

[0318] Figure 29 An example embodiment of the present disclosure is described. This can improve the user experience of applications of wireless devices.

[0319] In one instance, the AF may determine to set up an AF session with the required QoS. The AF may send a message to the PCF. The message may include a flow description of the target media service data / packet flow for PDU set / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow handling, auxiliary information describing the media and media characteristics, such as burst periodicity, the number of temporal and spatial media layers and periodicity and dependencies, and media detection rules specifying the header type. The message may further include PDU set / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow level packet handling / processing requirements. The PDU set / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow level packet handling / processing may include PDU set / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow level priority (or importance, type A or type B), PDB, PER, universal identifier, etc.

[0320] In one instance, the PCF may initiate a PDU session setup / modification procedure. The PCF may generate appropriate PCC rules based on the configuration and information from the AF. During the generation of Policy and Charge Control (PCC) rules, PDU aggregate / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow level packet handling / processing requirements may be considered. PCC rules may also include detection rules for service data flows, PDU aggregate / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow level packet handling / processing policies, and PDU aggregate / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow detection and classification rules. The PCF may send PCC rules to the SMF.

[0321] In one example, the SMF may generate a QoS profile and N4 interface rules based on the PCC rules from the PCF, wherein the PCC rules may include packet handling / processing policies. The SMF may send the N4 interface rules to the UPF, wherein the N4 interface rules may include rules for PDU sets / QoS flows / sub-QoS flows.

[0322] In one example, the SMF may determine to instruct the base station via the AMF to perform QoS treatment associated with the PDU set / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow of the wireless device. Figure 29 As shown in , the base station may receive one or more messages from the SMF via the AMF. The one or more messages may be request messages for a wireless device to establish a QoS flow for a PDU session in the base station. The request message may include at least one of the following: an N2 / NG interface message; an S1 interface message; an initial context setup request message; a UE context modification request message; a PDU session resource setup request message; a PDU session resource modification request message, etc. The one or more messages may be, for example, a single message. It will be appreciated that the message may have any suitable name.

[0323] The request message may include at least one of the following: an identifier of the wireless device within the Mobility Management Entity (MME) (e.g., MME UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the AMF (e.g., AMF UE NGAP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the eNB (e.g., eNB UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the NG Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) (e.g., RAN UE NGAP ID), etc.

[0324] In one example, the request message may include at least one of the following: a QoS flow identifier of the QoS flow, a first flow identifier of the first packet flow, a second flow identifier of the second packet flow, wherein the QoS flow includes the first packet flow and the second packet flow, etc.

[0325] In one example, a first packet flow is associated with a first set of PDUs, and a second packet flow is associated with a second set of PDUs.

[0326] In one example, the first packet flow is associated with a first sub-QoS flow, and the second packet flow is associated with a second sub-QoS flow.

[0327] In one example, the first flow identifier of the first packet flow includes at least one of the following: a first identifier of the first PDU set; a first identifier of the first sub-QoS flow; a common identifier of the first sub-QoS flow or the first PDU set, etc.

[0328] In one example, the second flow identifier of the second packet flow includes at least one of the following: a second identifier of the second PDU set; a second identifier of the second sub-QoS flow; a universal identifier of the second sub-QoS flow or the second PDU set.

[0329] In one example, the universal identifier of the first sub-QoS flow or the first PDU set may be the same as the universal identifier of the second sub-QoS flow or the second PDU set.

[0330] In one example, the universal identifier may include at least one of the following: a universal identifier, a group identifier, a correlation identifier, a GOP identifier, etc. The universal identifier / first universal identifier / second universal identifier may indicate a relationship / correlation between the first packet flow and the second packet flow.

[0331] In one example, the QoS flow identifier may indicate that the first packet flow and the second packet flow may be used for the same application of the wireless device. The application may include at least one of the following: advanced media services; high data rate low latency (HDRLL) services; virtual reality (VR) services; augmented reality services; extended reality (XR) services; tactile / multimodal communication services; streaming services (e.g., video, audio); multimedia telephony services of IMS (MTSI) services; multimedia broadcast and multicast services (MBMS); multicast broadcast services (MBS), etc.

[0332] In one example, the first packet flow and / or the second packet flow may further include at least one of the following parameters: a sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay budget, a sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival period and start time, a sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival jitter, an indication of sub-QoS flow / PDU set drop permission, a maximum allowed delay difference / bearing of a group of sub-QoS flows / associated flows, a sub-QoS flow / PDU set identifier, the number of PDUs in a sub-QoS flow / PDU set, an indication of the last sub-QoS flow / PDU in a sub-QoS flow / PDU set, a sub-QoS flow / PDU set bit size, sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay information, sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance or priority, sub-QoS flow / PDU set relevance information (e.g., a universal identifier, a group identifier, a relevance identifier, a group of pictures (GOP) identifier), etc. In one example, the sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance or priority may include Type A and Type B as described above.

[0333] In one example, a first packet flow can be mapped to a first DRB. A second packet flow can be mapped to a second DRB. The first DRB and the second DRB can be the same.

[0334] In one example, Figure 29As shown in , the base station can determine whether to accept or reject each of the first packet flow and the second packet flow for the wireless device. As described above, the determination can be based on a request message from the SMF / AMF.

[0335] In one example, the base station may further determine whether each of the first packet flow and the second packet flow is a sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance / priority / Type A / Type B information for the wireless device.

[0336] In one example, the base station may further determine radio resource allocation for the first packet flow and / or the second packet flow based on the sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance / priority / Type A / Type B information. The resource allocation may include mapping the first packet flow and / or the second packet flow to a DRB.

[0337] Based on the determination, Figure 29 As shown in , the base station may send a response message including at least one or more identifiers of the first packet flow or the second packet flow to the core network node (i.e., SMF / AMF), wherein one or both of the first packet flow or the second packet flow is admitted or failed to be admitted. When one or more of the first packet flow or the second packet flow fails, the response message may further include a cause value.

[0338] In one instance, the response message may include at least one of the following: a list of identifiers of the first packet flow and the second packet flow, where both the first packet flow and the second packet flow are successfully established; a list of identifiers of the first packet flow and the second packet flow, where both the first packet flow and the second packet flow fail to be established, and a reason value; the first packet flow or the second packet flow fails to be established, and a reason value; an identifier of the first packet flow or the second packet flow, where the first packet flow or the second packet flow is successfully established.

[0339] In one instance, the cause value may include at least one of the following: radio resources are unavailable, radio resources are unavailable to accept both packet flow 1 and packet flow 2, resources are unavailable for slices of packet flow 1 and / or packet flow 2, unknown or invalid packet flow / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set / DRB identifier, etc.

[0340] The response message may include at least one of the following: an N2 / NG interface message; an S1 interface message; an initial context setup response message; a UE context modification response message; a PDU session resource setup response message; a PDU session resource modification response message, etc. The one or more messages may be, for example, a single message. It will be appreciated that the message may have any suitable name.

[0341] The response message may include at least one of the following: an identifier of the wireless device within the Mobility Management Entity (MME) (e.g., MME UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the AMF (e.g., AMF UE NGAP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the eNB (e.g., eNB UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the NG Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) (e.g., RAN UE NGAP ID), etc.

[0342] In one example, the response message may include at least one of the following: a universal identifier of the first packet flow and the second packet flow, wherein both the first packet flow and the second packet flow are successfully established; a universal identifier of the first packet flow and the second packet flow, wherein both the first packet flow and the second packet flow fail to be established; a universal identifier of the first packet flow or the second packet flow, wherein the first packet flow or the second packet flow fails to be established; a universal identifier of the first packet flow or the second packet flow, wherein the first packet flow or the second packet flow is successfully established, etc. In the above case, the response message may include the packet flow identifier of the first packet flow and / or the packet flow identifier of the second packet flow.

[0343] In one example, the response message can include a QoS flow identifier of the QoS flow.

[0344] In one example, Figure 29 As seen in FIG, the core network node (ie, SMF / AMF) can determine whether to release one or both of the first packet flow or the second packet flow based on the response message for the wireless device.

[0345] Based on the determination, the base station may receive a NAS message / PDU Session Release Request message from a core network node (i.e., SMF / AMF) including packet flow identifiers of the first packet flow and the second packet flow, wherein both the first packet flow and the second packet flow failed to be established, and a second cause value. The base station may send a NAS message including a PDU Session Release Request message to the wireless device, wherein the NAS message may include packet flow identifiers of the first packet flow and the second packet flow, wherein both the first packet flow and the second packet flow failed to be established, and the second cause value. The NAS message / PDU Session Release Request message may include a QoS flow identifier and / or a universal identifier of the first packet flow and the second packet flow. In one example, the wireless device may release the first packet flow and the second packet flow based on the received information.

[0346] In one instance, the second cause value may include at least one of the following: (radio) resources unavailable, (radio) resources unavailable to accept both packet flow 1 and packet flow 2, resources unavailable for slices of packet flow 1 and / or packet flow 2, unknown or invalid packet flow / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set / DRB identifier, etc.

[0347] Based on the determination, the base station may receive a NAS message / PDU Session Modification Request message from a core network node (i.e., SMF / AMF) including a packet flow identifier of the first packet flow or the second packet flow, wherein the first packet flow or the second packet flow failed to be established, and a third cause value. The base station may send a NAS message including a PDU Session Modification Request message to the wireless device, wherein the NAS message may include a packet flow identifier of the first packet flow or the second packet flow, wherein the first packet flow or the second packet flow failed to be established, and a third cause value. The NAS message / PDU Session Modification Request message may include a QoS flow identifier and / or a universal identifier of the first packet flow or the second packet flow. In one example, the wireless device may release the first packet flow or the second packet flow based on the received information.

[0348] In one instance, the third cause value may include at least one of the following: (radio) resources unavailable, (radio) resources unavailable to accept both packet flow 1 and packet flow 2, resources unavailable for slices of packet flow 1 and / or packet flow 2, unknown or invalid packet flow / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set / DRB identifier, etc.

[0349] Figure 30 An example embodiment of the present disclosure is depicted. Figure 30 Shows the Base Station Central Unit Control Plane (BS-CU-CP), Base Station Central Unit User Plane (BS-CU-UP) and Radio Devices ( Figure 30 This can improve the user experience of applications on the wireless device.

[0350] In one example, Figure 30 As shown in , BS-CU-CP can receive a request message (such as Figure 28 ) receives a request message from the core network (e.g., SMF / AMF) when the wireless device receives the request message. The request message may instruct the BS-CU-CP to perform QoS processing associated with the PDU set / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow of the wireless device. The details of the request message can be referred to Figure 28 Description in .

[0351] In one example, the BS-CU-CP may determine to perform QoS treatment associated with a PDU set / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow of the wireless device. Figure 30 As shown in , the BS-CU-UP may receive one or more messages from the BS-CU-CP. The one or more messages may be bearer context setup / modification request messages for the wireless device to establish a QoS flow in the BS-CU-UP.

[0352] The bearer context setup / modification request message may include at least one of the following: an E1 interface message; a bearer context setup request message; a bearer context modification request message, etc. The one or more messages may be, for example, a single message. It is understood that the message may have any appropriate name.

[0353] The bearer context setup / modification request message may include at least one of the following: an identifier of the wireless device within the BS-CU-CP (e.g., gNB-CU-CP UE E1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the BS-CU-UP (e.g., gNB-CU-UP UE E1AP ID), etc.

[0354] In one example, the bearer context setup / modification request message may include at least one of the following: a first QoS flow of the PDU session; a second QoS flow of the PDU session; a field indicating that the first QoS flow is associated with the second QoS flow, etc.

[0355] In one example, the first QoS flow may include at least one of the following: a QoS flow, a sub-QoS flow, a PDU set, etc. The second QoS flow may include at least one of the following: a QoS flow, a sub-QoS flow, a PDU set, etc.

[0356] In one example, the field may indicate that a first universal identifier of a first QoS flow is the same as a second universal identifier of a second QoS flow.

[0357] In one example, the field may include a first universal identifier for a first QoS flow and a second universal identifier for a second QoS flow, the first universal identifier being the same as the second universal identifier.

[0358] In one example, the field can contain a common identifier associated with the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow.

[0359] In one example, the universal identifier / first universal identifier / second universal identifier may include at least one of the following: a universal identifier; a group identifier; a correlation identifier; a GOP identifier, etc. The universal identifier / first universal identifier / second universal identifier may indicate a relationship / correlation between the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow.

[0360] The first QoS flow and the second QoS flow may be used for the same application of the wireless device. The application may include at least one of the following: advanced media services; high data rate low latency (HDRLL) services; virtual reality (VR) services; augmented reality services; extended reality (XR) services; tactile / multimodal communication services; streaming services (e.g., video, audio); multimedia telephony services of IMS (MTSI) services; multimedia broadcast and multicast services (MBMS); multicast broadcast services (MBS), etc.

[0361] In one instance, the first QoS flow and / or the second QoS flow may further include at least one of the following parameters: QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay budget, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival period and start time, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival jitter, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set drop allowed indication, maximum allowed delay difference / bearing of QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / group of associated flows, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set identifier, number of PDUs in QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set, last QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU indication in QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set bit size, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay information, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance or priority, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set general identifier / correlation information (e.g., general identifier, group identifier, correlation identifier, group of pictures (GOP) identifier), etc. In one example, the QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance or priority may include Type A and Type B as described above.

[0362] In one example, a first QoS flow can be mapped to a first DRB. A second QoS flow can be mapped to a second DRB. The first DRB and the second DRB can be the same.

[0363] In one example, Figure 30 As shown in , the BS-CU-UP can determine whether to accept or reject both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow for the wireless device. As described above, the determination can be based on information received from the BS-CU-CP. For example, the determination can be based on the first QoS flow and / or the second QoS flow and a field containing a universal identifier / first universal identifier / second universal identifier, through which the BS-CU-UP can be aware that the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow can be used for the same application of the wireless device.

[0364] In one example, the BS-CU-UP may further determine whether to accept or reject the first QoS flow and / or the second QoS flow based on QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance / priority / Type A / Type B information.

[0365] In one instance, the BS-CU-UP may further determine user plane resource allocation handling for the first QoS flow and / or the second QoS flow based on QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance / priority / Type A / Type B information.

[0366] Based on the determination, Figure 30 As shown in , the BS-CU-UP may send a bearer context setup / modification response message including at least one or more identifiers of a first QoS flow or a second QoS flow to the BS-CU-CP, wherein one or both of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow is admitted or failed to be admitted. When one or more of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow fails, the response message may further include a cause value.

[0367] In one instance, the bearer context setup / modification response message may include at least one of the following: a list of identifiers of a first QoS flow and a second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow are successfully established; a list of identifiers of a first QoS flow and a second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow fail to be established, and a reason value; an identifier of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second flow fails to be established, and a reason value; an identifier of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second flow is successfully established.

[0368] In one instance, the cause value may include at least one of the following: radio resources / user plane resources are unavailable, radio resources / user plane resources are not available to accept both QoS flows 1 and 2, resources / user plane resources are not available for slices of QoS flow 1 and / or QoS flow 2, unknown or invalid QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set / DRB identifier, etc.

[0369] The bearer context setup / modification response message may include at least one of the following: an E1 interface message; a bearer context setup request message; a bearer context modification request message, etc. The bearer context setup / modification response message may be, for example, a single message. It is understood that the message may have any suitable name.

[0370] The bearer context setup / modification response message may include at least one of the following: an identifier of the wireless device within the BS-CU-CP (e.g., gNB-CU-CP UE E1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the BS-CU-UP (e.g., gNB-CU-UP UE E1AP ID), etc.

[0371] In one example, the bearer context setup / modification response message may include at least one of the following: a common identifier of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow are successfully established; a common identifier of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow fail to be established; a common identifier of the first QoS flow or the second flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second flow fails to be established; a common identifier of the first QoS flow or the second flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second flow is successfully established, etc. In the above case, the response message may include the QoS flow identifier of the first QoS flow and / or the QoS flow identifier of the second QoS flow.

[0372] In one example, Figure 30 As shown in , BS-CU-CP can send the above received information (such as Figure 28 The following implementation of SMF / AMF / wireless devices can be followed Figure 28 Description in .

[0373] Figure 31 An example embodiment of the present disclosure is depicted. Figure 31 Shows the Base Station Central Unit Control Plane (BS-CU-CP), Base Station Central Unit User Plane (BS-CU-UP) and Radio Devices ( Figure 31 This can improve the user experience of applications on the wireless device.

[0374] In one example, Figure 31 As shown in , BS-CU-CP can receive a request message (such as Figure 28 ) receives a request message from the core network (e.g., SMF / AMF) when the wireless device receives the request message. The request message may instruct the BS-CU-CP to perform QoS processing associated with the PDU set / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow of the wireless device. The details of the request message can be referred to Figure 28 Description in .

[0375] In one example, the BS-CU-CP may determine to perform QoS treatment associated with a packet flow / PDU set / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow of the wireless device. Figure 31 As shown in , the BS-CU-UP may receive one or more messages from the BS-CU-CP. The one or more messages may be bearer context setup / modification request messages for the wireless device to establish a QoS flow for a PDU session in the BS-CU-UP.

[0376] The bearer context setup / modification request message may include at least one of the following: an E1 interface message; a bearer context setup request message; a bearer context modification request message, etc. The one or more messages may be, for example, a single message. It is understood that the message may have any appropriate name.

[0377] The bearer context setup / modification request message may include at least one of the following: an identifier of the wireless device within the BS-CU-CP (e.g., gNB-CU-CP UE E1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the BS-CU-UP (e.g., gNB-CU-UP UE E1AP ID), etc.

[0378] In one instance, the bearer context setup / modification request message may include at least one of the following: a QoS flow identifier of a QoS flow, a first flow identifier of a first packet flow, a second flow identifier of a second packet flow, wherein the QoS flow includes a first packet flow and a second packet flow, etc.

[0379] In one example, a first packet flow is associated with a first set of PDUs, and a second packet flow is associated with a second set of PDUs.

[0380] In one example, the first packet flow is associated with a first sub-QoS flow, and the second packet flow is associated with a second sub-QoS flow.

[0381] In one example, the first flow identifier of the first packet flow includes at least one of the following: a first identifier of the first PDU set; a first identifier of the first sub-QoS flow; a common identifier of the first sub-QoS flow or the first PDU set, etc.

[0382] In one example, the second flow identifier of the second packet flow includes at least one of the following: a second identifier of the second PDU set; a second identifier of the second sub-QoS flow; a universal identifier of the second sub-QoS flow or the second PDU set.

[0383] In one example, the universal identifier of the first sub-QoS flow or the first PDU set may be the same as the universal identifier of the second sub-QoS flow or the second PDU set.

[0384] In one example, the universal identifier may include at least one of the following: a universal identifier, a group identifier, a correlation identifier, a GOP identifier, etc. The universal identifier / first universal identifier / second universal identifier may indicate a relationship / correlation between the first packet flow and the second packet flow.

[0385] In one example, the QoS flow identifier may indicate that the first packet flow and the second packet flow may be used for the same application of the wireless device. The application may include at least one of the following: advanced media services; high data rate low latency (HDRLL) services; virtual reality (VR) services; augmented reality services; extended reality (XR) services; tactile / multimodal communication services; streaming services (e.g., video, audio); multimedia telephony services of IMS (MTSI) services; multimedia broadcast and multicast services (MBMS); multicast broadcast services (MBS), etc.

[0386] In one example, the first packet flow and / or the second packet flow may further include at least one of the following parameters: a sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay budget, a sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival period and start time, a sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival jitter, an indication of sub-QoS flow / PDU set drop permission, a maximum allowed delay difference / bearing of a group of sub-QoS flows / associated flows, a sub-QoS flow / PDU set identifier, the number of PDUs in a sub-QoS flow / PDU set, an indication of the last sub-QoS flow / PDU in a sub-QoS flow / PDU set, a sub-QoS flow / PDU set bit size, sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay information, sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance or priority, a sub-QoS flow / PDU set general identifier / correlation information (e.g., a general identifier, a group identifier, a correlation identifier, a group of pictures (GOP) identifier), etc. In one example, the sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance or priority may include Type A and Type B as described above.

[0387] In one example, a first packet flow can be mapped to a first DRB. A second packet flow can be mapped to a second DRB. The first DRB and the second DRB can be the same.

[0388] In one example, Figure 31 As shown in , the BS-CU-UP may determine whether to accept or reject each of the first packet flow and the second packet flow for the wireless device. As described above, the determination may be based on information received from the BS-CU-CP.

[0389] In one example, the BS-CU-UP may further determine whether each of the first packet flow and the second packet flow is a sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance / priority / Type A / Type B information for the wireless device.

[0390] In one example, the BS-CU-UP may further determine radio / user plane resource allocation treatment for the first packet flow and / or the second packet flow based on the sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance / priority / Type A / Type B information.

[0391] Based on the determination, Figure 31 As shown in , the BS-CU-UP may send a bearer context setup / modification response message including at least one or more identifiers of the first packet flow or the second packet flow to the BS-CU-CP, wherein one or both of the first packet flow or the second packet flow is admitted or failed to be admitted. When one or more of the first packet flow or the second packet flow fails, the response message may further include a cause value.

[0392] In one instance, the bearer context setup / modification response message may include at least one of the following: a list of identifiers of a first packet flow and a second packet flow, wherein both the first packet flow and the second packet flow are successfully established; a list of identifiers of a first packet flow and a second packet flow, wherein both the first packet flow and the second packet flow fail to be established, and a reason value; the first packet flow or the second packet flow fails to be established, and a reason value; an identifier of the first packet flow or the second packet flow, wherein the first packet flow or the second packet flow is successfully established.

[0393] In one instance, the cause value may include at least one of the following: radio resources are unavailable, radio resources are unavailable to accept both packet flow 1 and packet flow 2, resources are unavailable for slices of packet flow 1 and / or packet flow 2, unknown or invalid packet flow / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set / DRB identifier, etc.

[0394] The bearer context setup / modification response message may include at least one of the following: an E1 interface message; a bearer context setup request message; a bearer context modification request message, etc. The bearer context setup / modification response message may be, for example, a single message. It is understood that the message may have any suitable name.

[0395] The bearer context setup / modification response message may include at least one of the following: an identifier of the wireless device within the BS-CU-CP (e.g., gNB-CU-CP UE E1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the BS-CU-UP (e.g., gNB-CU-UP UE E1AP ID), etc.

[0396] In one example, the bearer context setup / modification response message may include at least one of the following: a universal identifier of the first packet flow and the second packet flow, where both the first packet flow and the second packet flow are successfully established; a universal identifier of the first packet flow and the second packet flow, where both the first packet flow and the second packet flow fail to be established; a universal identifier of the first packet flow or the second packet flow, where the first packet flow or the second packet flow fails to be established; a universal identifier of the first packet flow or the second packet flow, where the first packet flow or the second packet flow is successfully established, etc. In the above cases, the bearer context setup / modification response message may include the packet flow identifier of the first packet flow and / or the packet flow identifier of the second packet flow.

[0397] In one example, the bearer context setup / modification response message may include a QoS flow identifier of the QoS flow.

[0398] In one example, Figure 31 As shown in , BS-CU-CP can send the above received information (such as Figure 28 The following implementation of SMF / AMF / wireless devices can be followed Figure 28 Description in .

[0399] In an example embodiment, Figure 32 As shown in , the base station receives a request message from the SMF / AMF, the request message including at least one of the following: a first QoS flow of a PDU session; a second QoS flow of a PDU session; a field indicating that the first QoS flow is associated with the second QoS flow for the wireless device. The base station can determine to accept or reject QoS flow 1 and QoS flow 2 together based on a field or a common identifier for the wireless device. The base station can send a response message including at least one or more identifiers of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow to the SMF / AMF, wherein one or both of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow are admitted or failed to be admitted. When one or more of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow fail, the response message may further include a cause value. The base station can receive a NAS message / PDU session release request message including QoS flow identifiers of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow from the SMF / AMF, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow fail to be established, and a second cause value. The base station may send a NAS message including a PDU Session Release Request message to the wireless device, the NAS message may include QoS flow identifiers of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow failed to be established, and a second cause value.

[0400] In an example embodiment, Figure 33As shown in , the base station CU-UP may receive a request message from the base station CU-CP, the request message including at least one of the following: a first QoS flow of a PDU session; a second QoS flow of a PDU session; a field indicating that the first QoS flow is associated with the second QoS flow for the wireless device. The base station CU-UP may determine to accept or reject QoS flow 1 and QoS flow 2 together based on the field and / or the universal identifier for the wireless device. The base station CU-UP may send a response message including at least one or more identifiers of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow to the base station CU-CP, wherein one or both of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow are admitted or failed to be admitted. When one or more of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow fail, the response message may further include a cause value.

[0401] In one example, the base station may receive a first request message from a core network node (e.g., AMF / SMF) requesting to establish a QoS flow for a PDU session. The first request message may include at least one of the following: a QoS flow identifier of the QoS flow, a first flow identifier of the first packet flow, and a second flow identifier of the second packet flow; wherein the QoS flow may include the first packet flow and the second packet flow.

[0402] In one example, the base station may determine whether to accept or reject each of the first packet flow and the second packet flow based on the field. Based on the determination, the base station may send a response message to the core network node including at least one or more identifiers of the first packet flow or the second packet flow, wherein one or both of the first packet flow or the second packet flow is admitted or denied. If one or more of the first packet flow or the second packet flow fails, the response message may further include a cause value.

[0403] In one instance, the response message may include at least one of the following: a list of identifiers of the first packet flow and the second packet flow, wherein both the first packet flow and the second packet flow are successfully established; a list of identifiers of the first packet flow and the second packet flow, wherein both the first packet flow and the second packet flow fail to be established, and a reason value; the first packet flow or the second packet flow fails to be established, and a reason value; an identifier of the first packet flow or the second packet flow, wherein the first packet flow or the second packet flow is successfully established, etc.

[0404] In one example, a first packet flow can be associated with a first set of PDUs. A second packet flow can be associated with a second set of PDUs.

[0405] In one example, the first packet flow can be associated with a first sub-QoS flow. The second packet flow can be associated with a second sub-QoS flow.

[0406] In one example, the first flow identifier of the first packet flow may include at least one of the following: a first identifier of the first sub-QoS flow; a first identifier of the first PDU set;

[0407] The general identifier of the first sub-QoS flow or the first PDU set, etc. The second flow identifier of the second packet flow may include at least one of the following: a second identifier of the second sub-QoS flow; a second identifier of the second PDU set; a general identifier of the second sub-QoS flow or the second PDU set, etc.

[0408] In one example, a first packet flow can be mapped to a first DRB, a second packet flow can be mapped to a second DRB, or the first packet flow and the second packet flow can be mapped to the same DRB.

[0409] In one instance, the first packet flow and / or the second packet flow may further include at least one of the following: a sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay budget; a sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival period and start time; a sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival jitter; an indication of sub-QoS flow / PDU set discard permission; a maximum allowable delay difference / carrier of a group of sub-QoS flows / associated flows; sub-QoS flow / PDU set correlation information (e.g., GOP size); a sub-QoS flow / PDU set identifier number of PDUs in a sub-QoS flow / PDU set, an indication of the last sub-QoS flow / PDU in a sub-QoS flow / PDU set; a sub-QoS flow / PDU set bit size; a sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay information; a sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance; a sub-QoS flow / PDU set correlation information (e.g., a universal identifier, a group identifier, a correlation identifier GOP identifier), etc.

[0410] In one example, the base station may further determine whether to accept or reject each of the first packet flow and the second packet flow based on the sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance / priority / type. The base station may further determine the radio resource allocation treatment of the first packet flow and / or the second packet flow based on the sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance / priority / type.

[0411] In one example, a base station may receive a first request message from a core network node (e.g., AMF / SMF) requesting the establishment of: a first QoS flow for a PDU session; a second QoS flow for a PDU session; and a field indicating that the first QoS flow is associated with the second QoS flow, etc. The base station may determine, based on the field, whether to accept or reject both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow. The base station may, based on the determination, send a response message to the core network node containing at least one or more identifiers of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow, wherein one or both of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow is admitted or failed to be admitted. When one or more of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow fails, the response message may further include a cause value.

[0412] In one instance, the response message may include at least one of the following: a list of identifiers of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow are successfully established; a list of identifiers of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow fail to be established, and a reason value; an identifier of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second flow fails to be established, and a reason value; an identifier of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second flow is successfully established, etc.

[0413] In one example, the field may indicate that the first universal identifier of the first QoS flow is the same as the second universal identifier of the second QoS flow. The field may contain the first universal identifier of the first QoS flow and the second universal identifier of the second QoS flow, the first universal identifier being the same as the second universal identifier. The field may contain universal identifiers associated with the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow.

[0414] In one example, the first QoS flow may include at least one of the following: a QoS flow; a sub-QoS flow; a PDU set, etc. The second QoS flow may include at least one of the following: a QoS flow; a sub-QoS flow; a PDU set, etc. The universal identifier may include at least one of the following: a universal identifier; a group identifier; a correlation identifier; a GOP identifier, etc.

[0415] In one example, a first QoS flow may be mapped to a first DRB. A second QoS flow may be mapped to a second DRB. The first QoS flow may include at least one of the following: a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay budget; a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival period and start time; a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival jitter; an indication of a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set drop permission; a maximum allowed delay difference / bearing of a group of QoS flows / sub-QoS flows / associated flows; a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set identifier; the number of PDUs in a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set; an indication of the last QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU in a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set; a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set bit size; a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay information; a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance; QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set correlation information (e.g., a universal identifier; a group identifier; a correlation identifier; a GOP identifier), etc.

[0416] In one example, the base station may further determine whether to accept or reject the first QoS flow and / or the second QoS flow based on the QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance / priority / type. The base station may further determine the radio resource allocation treatment of the first QoS flow and / or the second QoS flow based on the QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance / priority / type.

[0417] In one instance, the first request message may include at least one of the following: N2 / NG interface message; S1 interface message; initial context setup request message; UE context modification request message; PDU session resource setup request message; PDU session resource modification request message, etc.

[0418] In one instance, the first request message may include at least one of the following: an identifier of the wireless device within a mobility management entity (MME) (e.g., MME UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within an AMF (e.g., AMF UE NGAP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within an eNB (e.g., eNB UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within an NG radio access network (NG-RAN) (e.g., RAN UE NGAP ID), etc.

[0419] In one example, the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow may be used for an application of the wireless device. The application of the wireless device may include at least one of the following: advanced media services; high data rate low latency (HDRLL) services; virtual reality (VR) services; augmented reality services; extended reality (XR) services; tactile / multimodal communication services; streaming services (e.g., video, audio); multimedia telephony services of IMS (MTSI) services; multimedia broadcast and multicast services (MBMS); multicast broadcast services (MBS), etc.

[0420] In one instance, the response message may include at least one of the following: N2 / NG interface message; S1 interface message; initial context setup response message; UE context modification response message; PDU session resource setup response message; PDU session resource modification response message, etc.

[0421] In one instance, the response message may include at least one of the following: an identifier of the wireless device within a mobility management entity (MME) (e.g., MME UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within an AMF (e.g., AMF UE NGAP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within an eNB (e.g., eNB UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within an NG radio access network (NG-RAN) (e.g., RAN UE NGAP ID), etc.

[0422] In one example, the response message may include at least one of the following: a universal identifier of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow are successfully established; a universal identifier of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow fail to be established; a universal identifier of the first QoS flow or the second flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second flow fails to be established; a universal identifier of the first QoS flow or the second flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second flow is successfully established, etc. The first base station may include at least one of the following: an eNB; a gNB; an NG-RAN, etc.

[0423] Figure 34 and Figure 36 Example embodiments of the present disclosure are described. Figure 34 or Figure 36 The source base station 1 (BS1), the target base station 2 (BS2) and the wireless device ( Figure 34 or Figure 36 UE in the ). Figure 36 The source AMF (AMF1) and the target AMF (AMF2) are also shown. This can improve the user experience of applications on the wireless device after the handover.

[0424] In one example, Figure 34 or Figure 36 As shown in FIG, source base station 1 (BS1) can provide one or more services to the wireless device. For example, a service can be application A (e.g., Figure 25 ), including PDU sets / QoS flows / sub-QoS flows / PDU sessions. In one example, BS1 can receive one or more radio measurement reports from a wireless device. The one or more radio measurement reports received from the wireless device can include RSRP, RSRQ, and / or SINR for one or more cells of the primary base station (BS1). The radio measurement reports received from the wireless device can include RSRP, RSRQ, and / or SINR for one or more cells of the target base station (BS2).

[0425] Based on the radio measurement report received from the wireless device, BS1 may determine to hand over the wireless device to BS2 or trigger dual connectivity with BS2 for the wireless device. In the case of dual connectivity, for example, both BS1 and BS2 may provide services to the wireless device, wherein the service of application A may be offloaded / handed over to BS2 while other services may remain in BS1.

[0426] Based on the determination, Figure 34 or Figure 36 As shown in , BS2 can receive one or more messages from BS1. Figure 34 In , BS2 can receive one or more messages directly from BS1. Figure 36 In the example, BS2 can receive one or more messages from BS1 via source AMF 1 and target AMF 2.

[0427] In one example, the one or more messages may be a request message for the wireless device to establish a QoS flow in BS2. The request message may include at least one of the following: an Xn / X2 interface message; a handover request message; a secondary node (SN) modification request message; an SN addition request message; an N2 / NG interface message; an S1 interface message; an NG / S1 handover request message; a handover required message, etc. The request message may be, for example, a single message. It will be appreciated that the message may have any suitable name.

[0428] The request message may include at least one of the following: an identifier of the wireless device within the Mobility Management Entity (MME) (e.g., MME UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the AMF (e.g., AMF UE NGAP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the eNB (e.g., eNB UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the NG Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) (e.g., RAN UE NGAP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the eNB or gNB (e.g., MeNB UE X2AP ID, SgNB UE X2AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the primary NG-RAN node or the secondary NG-RAN node (e.g., M-NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID, S-NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the source NG-RAN node or the target NG-RAN node (e.g., source NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID, target NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID), etc.

[0429] In an example, the request message may include at least one of the following: a first QoS flow of the PDU session; a second QoS flow of the PDU session; a field indicating that the first QoS flow is associated with the second QoS flow, etc.

[0430] In one example, the first QoS flow may include at least one of the following: a QoS flow, a sub-QoS flow, a PDU set, etc. The second QoS flow may include at least one of the following: a QoS flow, a sub-QoS flow, a PDU set, etc.

[0431] In one example, the field may indicate that a first universal identifier of a first QoS flow is the same as a second universal identifier of a second QoS flow.

[0432] In one example, the field may include a first universal identifier for a first QoS flow and a second universal identifier for a second QoS flow, the first universal identifier being the same as the second universal identifier.

[0433] In one example, the field can contain a common identifier associated with the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow.

[0434] In one example, the universal identifier / first universal identifier / second universal identifier may include at least one of the following: a universal identifier; a group identifier; a correlation identifier; a GOP identifier, etc. The universal identifier / first universal identifier / second universal identifier may indicate a relationship / correlation between the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow.

[0435] The first QoS flow and the second QoS flow may be used for the same application (e.g., application A) of the wireless device. The application may include at least one of the following: advanced media services; high data rate low latency (HDRLL) services; virtual reality (VR) services; augmented reality services; extended reality (XR) services; tactile / multimodal communication services; streaming services (e.g., video, audio); multimedia telephony services of IMS (MTSI) services; multimedia broadcast and multicast services (MBMS); multicast broadcast services (MBS), etc.

[0436] In one instance, the first QoS flow and / or the second QoS flow may further include at least one of the following parameters: QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay budget, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival period and start time, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival jitter, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set drop allowed indication, maximum allowed delay difference / bearing of QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / group of associated flows, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set identifier, number of PDUs in QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set, last QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU indication in QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set bit size, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay information, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance or priority, QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set general identifier / correlation information (e.g., general identifier, group identifier, correlation identifier, group of pictures (GOP) identifier), etc. In one example, the QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance or priority may include Type A and Type B as described above.

[0437] In one example, a first QoS flow can be mapped to a first DRB. A second QoS flow can be mapped to a second DRB. The first DRB and the second DRB can be the same.

[0438] In one example, Figure 34 Medium or Figure 36 As shown in , BS2 can determine whether to accept or reject both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow for the wireless device. As described above, the determination can be based on information received from BS1. For example, the determination can be based on the first QoS flow and / or the second QoS flow and a field containing a universal identifier / first universal identifier / second universal identifier, through which BS2 can note that the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow can be used for the same application (e.g., application A) of the wireless device.

[0439] In one example, Figure 34 in or Figure 36 BS2 may further determine whether to accept or reject the first QoS flow and / or the second QoS flow based on the QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance / priority / Type A / Type B information.

[0440] In one example, Figure 34 in or Figure 36 BS2 may further determine radio resource allocation for the first QoS flow and / or the second QoS flow based on the QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance / priority / Type A / Type B information. The resource allocation may include mapping the first QoS flow and / or the second QoS flow to a DRB.

[0441] Based on the determination, Figure 34 Medium or Figure 36 As shown in , BS2 can send a response message to BS1. Figure 34 In , BS2 can directly send a response message to BS1. Figure 36 In the process, BS2 can send a response message to BS1 via the target AMF 2 and the source AMF 1.

[0442] In one example, the response message may include at least one or more identifiers of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow, wherein one or both of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow is admitted or failed to be admitted. When one or more of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow fails, the response message may further include a cause value.

[0443] In one instance, the response message may include at least one of the following: a list of identifiers of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow are successfully established; a list of identifiers of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow fail to be established, and a reason value; an identifier of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second flow fails to be established, and a reason value; an identifier of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second flow is successfully established.

[0444] In one instance, the cause value may include at least one of the following: radio resources unavailable, radio resources unavailable to accept both QoS flows 1 and 2, resources unavailable for slices of QoS flow 1 and / or QoS flow 2, unknown or invalid QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set / DRB identifier, etc.

[0445] The response message may include at least one of the following: an Xn / X2 interface message; a handover request confirmation message; a secondary node (SN) modification request confirmation message; an SN addition request confirmation message; an N2 / NG interface message; an S1 interface message; an NG / S1 handover request confirmation message; a handover command message, etc. The response message may be, for example, a single message. It will be appreciated that the message may have any suitable name.

[0446] The response message may include at least one of the following: an identifier of the wireless device within the Mobility Management Entity (MME) (e.g., MME UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the AMF (e.g., AMF UE NGAP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the eNB (e.g., eNB UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the NG Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) (e.g., RAN UE NGAP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the eNB or gNB (e.g., MeNB UE X2AP ID, SgNB UE X2AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the primary NG-RAN node or the secondary NG-RAN node (e.g., M-NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID, S-NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the source NG-RAN node or the target NG-RAN node (e.g., source NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID, target NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID), etc.

[0447] In one example, the response message may include at least one of the following: a common identifier of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow are successfully established; a common identifier of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow fail to be established; a common identifier of the first QoS flow or the second flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second flow fails to be established; a common identifier of the first QoS flow or the second flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second flow is successfully established, etc. In the above case, the response message may include the QoS flow identifier of the first QoS flow and / or the QoS flow identifier of the second QoS flow.

[0448] In one example, Figure 34 Medium or Figure 36As shown in , BS1 may determine whether to hand over the wireless device to BS2 based on the response message. For example, if both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow cannot be established, or if the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow with high priority / importance / type cannot be established, BS1 may not hand over or offload the wireless device to BS2. BS1 may select another base station (e.g., Figure 25 BS3 in FIG. 1 is used as the target base station. In one example, if both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow are successfully established, BS1 may hand over the wireless device to BS2. If the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow of high priority / importance / type is successfully established, BS1 may hand over the wireless device to BS2. When the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow is successfully established, BS1 may hand over the wireless device to BS2, and the failed QoS flow may not affect the quality of service of the application.

[0449] Figure 35 and Figure 37 Example embodiments of the present disclosure are described. Figure 35 or Figure 37 The source base station 1 (BS1), the target base station 2 (BS2) and the wireless device ( Figure 35 or Figure 37 UE in the ). Figure 37 The source AMF (AMF1) and the target AMF (AMF2) are also shown. This can improve the user experience of applications on the wireless device after the handover.

[0450] In one example, Figure 35 Medium or Figure 37 As shown in FIG, source base station 1 (BS1) may initially provide one or more services to the wireless device. For example, a service may be application A (e.g., Figure 25 ), including PDU sets / QoS flows / sub-QoS flows / PDU sessions. In one example, BS1 can receive one or more radio measurement reports from a wireless device. The one or more radio measurement reports received from the wireless device can include RSRP, RSRQ, and / or SINR for one or more cells of the primary base station (BS1). The radio measurement reports received from the wireless device can include RSRP, RSRQ, and / or SINR for one or more cells of the target base station (BS2).

[0451] Based on the radio measurement report received from the wireless device, BS1 may determine to hand over the wireless device to BS2 or trigger dual connectivity with BS2 for the wireless device. In the case of dual connectivity, for example, both BS1 and BS2 may provide services to the wireless device, wherein the service of application A may be offloaded / handed over to BS2 while other services may remain in BS1.

[0452] Based on the determination, Figure 35 or Figure 37 As shown in , BS2 can receive one or more messages from BS1. Figure 35 In , BS2 can receive one or more messages directly from BS1. Figure 37 In the example, BS2 can receive one or more messages from BS1 via source AMF 1 and target AMF 2.

[0453] In one example, the one or more messages may be a request message for the wireless device to establish a QoS flow for a PDU session in BS2. The request message may include at least one of the following: an Xn / X2 interface message; a handover request message; a secondary node (SN) modification request message; an SN addition request message; an N2 / NG interface message; an S1 interface message; an NG / S1 handover request message; a handover required message, etc. The request message may be, for example, a single message. It will be appreciated that the message may have any suitable name.

[0454] The request message may include at least one of the following: an identifier of the wireless device within the Mobility Management Entity (MME) (e.g., MME UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the AMF (e.g., AMF UE NGAP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the eNB (e.g., eNB UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the NG Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) (e.g., RAN UE NGAP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the eNB or gNB (e.g., MeNB UE X2AP ID, SgNB UE X2AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the primary NG-RAN node or the secondary NG-RAN node (e.g., M-NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID, S-NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the source NG-RAN node or the target NG-RAN node (e.g., source NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID, target NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID), etc.

[0455] In one example, the request message may include at least one of the following: a QoS flow identifier of the QoS flow, a first flow identifier of the first packet flow, a second flow identifier of the second packet flow, wherein the QoS flow includes the first packet flow and the second packet flow, etc.

[0456] In one example, a first packet flow is associated with a first set of PDUs, and a second packet flow is associated with a second set of PDUs.

[0457] In one example, the first packet flow is associated with a first sub-QoS flow, and the second packet flow is associated with a second sub-QoS flow.

[0458] In one example, the first flow identifier of the first packet flow includes at least one of the following: a first identifier of the first PDU set; a first identifier of the first sub-QoS flow; a common identifier of the first sub-QoS flow or the first PDU set, etc.

[0459] In one example, the second flow identifier of the second packet flow includes at least one of the following: a second identifier of the second PDU set; a second identifier of the second sub-QoS flow; a universal identifier of the second sub-QoS flow or the second PDU set.

[0460] In one example, the universal identifier of the first sub-QoS flow or the first PDU set may be the same as the universal identifier of the second sub-QoS flow or the second PDU set.

[0461] In one example, the universal identifier may include at least one of the following: a universal identifier, a group identifier, a correlation identifier, a GOP identifier, etc. The universal identifier / first universal identifier / second universal identifier may indicate a relationship / correlation between the first packet flow and the second packet flow.

[0462] In one example, the QoS flow identifier may indicate that the first packet flow and the second packet flow may be used for the same application of the wireless device. The application may include at least one of the following: advanced media services; high data rate low latency (HDRLL) services; virtual reality (VR) services; augmented reality services; extended reality (XR) services; tactile / multimodal communication services; streaming services (e.g., video, audio); multimedia telephony services of IMS (MTSI) services; multimedia broadcast and multicast services (MBMS); multicast broadcast services (MBS), etc.

[0463] In one example, the first packet flow and / or the second packet flow may further include at least one of the following parameters: a sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay budget, a sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival period and start time, a sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival jitter, an indication of sub-QoS flow / PDU set drop permission, a maximum allowed delay difference / bearing of a group of sub-QoS flows / associated flows, a sub-QoS flow / PDU set identifier, the number of PDUs in a sub-QoS flow / PDU set, an indication of the last sub-QoS flow / PDU in a sub-QoS flow / PDU set, a sub-QoS flow / PDU set bit size, sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay information, sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance or priority, sub-QoS flow / PDU set relevance information (e.g., a universal identifier, a group identifier, a relevance identifier, a group of pictures (GOP) identifier), etc. In one example, the sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance or priority may include Type A and Type B as described above.

[0464] In one example, a first packet flow can be mapped to a first DRB. A second packet flow can be mapped to a second DRB. The first DRB and the second DRB can be the same.

[0465] In one example, Figure 35 Medium or Figure 37 As shown in , BS2 may determine whether to accept or reject each of the first packet flow and the second packet flow for the wireless device. As described above, the determination may be based on the request message from BS1.

[0466] In one example, Figure 35 Medium or Figure 37 As shown in , BS2 may further determine whether to accept or reject each of the first packet flow and / or the second packet flow based on the sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance / priority / Type A / Type B information for the wireless device.

[0467] In one example, Figure 35 Medium or Figure 37 As shown in , BS2 can further determine the radio resource allocation treatment of the first packet flow and / or the second packet flow based on the sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance / priority / Type A / Type B information. The resource allocation treatment can include mapping the first packet flow and / or the second packet flow to the DRB.

[0468] Based on the determination, Figure 35 Medium or Figure 37 As shown in , BS2 can send a response message to BS1. Figure 35 In , BS2 can directly send a response message to BS1. Figure 37 In the process, BS2 can send a response message to BS1 via the target AMF 2 and the source AMF 1.

[0469] In one example, the response message may include at least one or more identifiers of the first packet flow or the second packet flow, wherein one or both of the first packet flow or the second packet flow is admitted or failed to be admitted. When one or more of the first packet flow or the second packet flow fails, the response message may further include a cause value.

[0470] In one instance, the response message may include at least one of the following: a list of identifiers of the first packet flow and the second packet flow, where both the first packet flow and the second packet flow are successfully established; a list of identifiers of the first packet flow and the second packet flow, where both the first packet flow and the second packet flow fail to be established, and a reason value; the first packet flow or the second packet flow fails to be established, and a reason value; an identifier of the first packet flow or the second packet flow, where the first packet flow or the second packet flow is successfully established.

[0471] In one instance, the cause value may include at least one of the following: radio resources are unavailable, radio resources are unavailable to accept both packet flow 1 and packet flow 2, resources are unavailable for slices of packet flow 1 and / or packet flow 2, unknown or invalid packet flow / QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set / DRB identifier, etc.

[0472] The response message may include at least one of the following: an Xn / X2 interface message; a handover request confirmation message; a secondary node (SN) modification request confirmation message; an SN addition request confirmation message; an N2 / NG interface message; an S1 interface message; an NG / S1 handover request confirmation message; a handover command message, etc. The response message may be, for example, a single message. It will be appreciated that the message may have any suitable name.

[0473] The response message may include at least one of the following: an identifier of the wireless device within the Mobility Management Entity (MME) (e.g., MME UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the AMF (e.g., AMF UE NGAP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the eNB (e.g., eNB UE S1AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the NG Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) (e.g., RAN UE NGAP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the eNB or gNB (e.g., MeNB UE X2AP ID, SgNB UE X2AP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the primary NG-RAN node or the secondary NG-RAN node (e.g., M-NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID, S-NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID); an identifier of the wireless device within the source NG-RAN node or the target NG-RAN node (e.g., source NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID, target NG-RAN node UE XnAP ID), etc.

[0474] In one example, the response message may include at least one of the following: a universal identifier of the first packet flow and the second packet flow, wherein both the first packet flow and the second packet flow are successfully established; a universal identifier of the first packet flow and the second packet flow, wherein both the first packet flow and the second packet flow fail to be established; a universal identifier of the first packet flow or the second packet flow, wherein the first packet flow or the second packet flow fails to be established; a universal identifier of the first packet flow or the second packet flow, wherein the first packet flow or the second packet flow is successfully established, etc. In the above case, the response message may include the packet flow identifier of the first packet flow and / or the packet flow identifier of the second packet flow.

[0475] In one example, the response message can include a QoS flow identifier of the QoS flow.

[0476] In one example, Figure 35 Medium or Figure 37 As shown in , BS1 may determine whether to hand over the wireless device to BS2 based on the response message. For example, if both the first packet flow and the second packet flow cannot be established, or if the first packet flow or the second packet flow with high priority / importance / type cannot be established, BS1 may not hand over or offload the wireless device to BS2. BS1 may select another base station (e.g., Figure 25 BS3 in FIG. 1 is used as the target base station. In one example, if both the first packet flow and the second packet flow are successfully established, BS1 may hand over the wireless device to BS2. If either the first packet flow or the second packet flow of high priority / importance / type is successfully established, BS1 may hand over the wireless device to BS2. When either the first packet flow or the second packet flow is successfully established, BS1 may hand over the wireless device to BS2, and the failed packet flow may not affect the quality of service of the application.

[0477] In an example embodiment, Figure 38 As shown in , the target base station (BS2) can receive a request message from the source base station (BS1), wherein the request message includes at least one of the following: a first QoS flow of a PDU session; a second QoS flow of a PDU session; a field indicating that the first QoS flow is associated with the second QoS flow for the wireless device. The target base station can determine to accept or reject QoS flow 1 and QoS flow 2 together based on the field and / or the common identifier for the wireless device. The target base station can send a response message including at least one or more identifiers of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow to the source base station, wherein one or both of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow are admitted or failed to be admitted. When one or more of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow fail, the response message may further include a cause value.

[0478] In an example embodiment, Figure 39 As shown in , the target base station (BS2) can receive a request message from the source base station (BS1), and the request message can include at least one of the following items: a QoS flow identifier of a QoS flow, a first flow identifier of a first packet flow, and a second flow identifier of a second packet flow, wherein for a wireless device, the QoS flow includes a first packet flow and a second packet flow. The target base station can determine to accept or reject each of the first packet flow and the second packet flow for the wireless device. The target base station can send a response message including at least one or more identifiers of the first packet flow or the second packet flow to the source base station, wherein one or both of the first packet flow or the second packet flow is admitted or failed to be admitted. When one or more of the first packet flow or the second packet flow fails, the response message can further include a cause value.

[0479] In one example, the second base station may receive a request message from the first base station requesting establishment of a QoS flow for the PDU session. The request message may include at least one of the following: a QoS flow identifier of the QoS flow, a first flow identifier of the first packet flow, and a second flow identifier of the second packet flow; wherein the QoS flow includes the first packet flow and the second packet flow.

[0480] In one example, the second base station can determine whether to admit / accept or reject each of the first packet flow and the second packet flow based on the request message.

[0481] In one example, the second base station may, based on the determination, send a response message to the first base station that includes at least one or more identifiers of the first packet flow or the second packet flow, wherein one or both of the first packet flow or the second packet flow is admitted or failed to be admitted. If one or more of the first packet flow or the second packet flow fails, the response message may further include a cause value.

[0482] In one instance, the response message may include at least one of the following: a list of identifiers of the first packet flow and the second packet flow, wherein both the first packet flow and the second packet flow are successfully admitted / accepted / established; a list of identifiers of the first packet flow and the second packet flow, wherein both the first packet flow and the second packet flow fail to be admitted / accepted / established, and a reason value; failure of the first packet flow or the second packet flow to be admitted / accepted / established, and a reason value; an identifier of the first packet flow or the second packet flow, wherein the first packet flow or the second packet flow is successfully admitted / accepted / established, etc.

[0483] In one example, a first packet flow can be associated with a first set of PDUs. A second packet flow can be associated with a second set of PDUs.

[0484] In one example, the first packet flow can be associated with a first sub-QoS flow. The second packet flow can be associated with a second sub-QoS flow.

[0485] In one example, the first flow identifier of the first packet flow may include at least one of the following: a first identifier of the first sub-QoS flow; a first identifier of the first PDU set; a universal identifier of the first sub-QoS flow or the first PDU set, etc. The second flow identifier of the second packet flow may include at least one of the following: a second identifier of the second sub-QoS flow; a second identifier of the second PDU set; a universal identifier of the second sub-QoS flow or the second PDU set, etc.

[0486] In one example, a first packet flow can be mapped to a first DRB, a second packet flow can be mapped to a second DRB, or the first packet flow and the second packet flow can be mapped to the same DRB.

[0487] In one instance, the first packet flow and / or the second packet flow may further include at least one of the following: a sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay budget; a sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival period and start time; a sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival jitter; an indication of sub-QoS flow / PDU set discard permission; a maximum allowable delay difference / carrier of a group of sub-QoS flows / associated flows; sub-QoS flow / PDU set correlation information (e.g., GOP size); a sub-QoS flow / PDU set identifier number of PDUs in a sub-QoS flow / PDU set, an indication of the last sub-QoS flow / PDU in a sub-QoS flow / PDU set; a sub-QoS flow / PDU set bit size; a sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay information; a sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance; a sub-QoS flow / PDU set general identifier / correlation information (e.g., a general identifier, a group identifier, a correlation identifier GOP identifier), etc.

[0488] In one example, the second base station may further determine whether to accept or reject each of the first packet flow and the second packet flow based on the importance / priority / type of the sub-QoS flow / PDU set. The second base station may further determine the radio resource allocation treatment of the first packet flow and / or the second packet flow based on the importance / priority / type of the sub-QoS flow / PDU set.

[0489] In one example, the first base station may include at least one of the following: eNB; gNB; NG-RAN; master base station; auxiliary base station, etc.

[0490] In one example, the second base station may include at least one of the following: eNB; gNB; NG-RAN; master base station; auxiliary base station, etc.

[0491] In one example, the second base station may receive a first request message from the first base station requesting establishment of: a first QoS flow for a PDU session; a second QoS flow for the PDU session; and a field indicating that the first QoS flow is associated with the second QoS flow, etc.

[0492] In one example, the second base station may determine whether to accept or reject both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow based on the field. The second base station may, based on the determination, send a response message to the first base station including at least one or more identifiers of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow, wherein one or both of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow is admitted or denied. If one or more of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow fails, the response message may further include a cause value.

[0493] In one instance, the response message may include at least one of the following: a list of identifiers of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow are successfully established; a list of identifiers of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow, wherein both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow fail to be established, and a reason value; an identifier of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second flow fails to be established, and a reason value; an identifier of the first QoS flow or the second QoS flow, wherein the first QoS flow or the second flow is successfully established, etc.

[0494] In one example, the field may indicate that the first universal identifier of the first QoS flow is the same as the second universal identifier of the second QoS flow. The field may contain the first universal identifier of the first QoS flow and the second universal identifier of the second QoS flow, the first universal identifier being the same as the second universal identifier. The field may contain universal identifiers associated with the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow.

[0495] In one example, the first QoS flow may include at least one of the following: a QoS flow; a sub-QoS flow; a PDU set, etc. The second QoS flow may include at least one of the following: a QoS flow; a sub-QoS flow; a PDU set, etc. The universal identifier may include at least one of the following: a universal identifier; a group identifier; a correlation identifier; a GOP identifier, etc.

[0496] In one example, a first QoS flow may be mapped to a first DRB. A second QoS flow may be mapped to a second DRB. The first QoS flow may include at least one of the following: a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay budget; a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival period and start time; a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set arrival jitter; an indication of a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set drop permission; a maximum allowed delay difference / bearing of a group of QoS flows / sub-QoS flows / associated flows; a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set identifier; the number of PDUs in a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set; an indication of the last QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU in a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set; a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set bit size; a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set delay information; a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance; a QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set general identifier / correlation information (e.g., a general identifier; a group identifier; a correlation identifier; a GOP identifier), etc.

[0497] In one example, the second base station may further determine whether to accept or reject the first QoS flow and / or the second QoS flow based on the QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance / priority / type. The second base station may further determine the radio resource allocation treatment of the first QoS flow and / or the second QoS flow based on the QoS flow / sub-QoS flow / PDU set importance / priority / type.

[0498] In one example, the first base station may include at least one of the following: eNB; gNB; NG-RAN; master base station; auxiliary base station, etc.

[0499] In one example, the second base station may include at least one of the following: eNB; gNB; NG-RAN; master base station; auxiliary base station, etc.

Claims

1. A method comprising: A first message is received by a first network node from a second network node requesting establishment of: a first quality of service (QoS) flow of a protocol data unit (PDU) session; and a second QoS flow of the PDU session, wherein the first message includes a field indicating that the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow are associated with the same application; determining, by the first network node and based on the field, whether to admit both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow; as well as A second message is sent by the first network node to the second network node, the second message indicating whether both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow are admitted.

2. A method comprising: receiving, by the first network node, a first message from the second network node requesting establishment of the first flow and the second flow; and A second message is sent by the first network node to the second network node, the second message indicating whether both the first flow and the second flow are admitted. 3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising determining, by the first network node and based on the first message, whether to admit both the first flow and the second flow.

4. The method according to claim 2 , wherein: The first flow comprises a first quality of service (QoS) flow of a protocol data unit (PDU) session; and The second flow includes a second QoS flow of the PDU session. 5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the first message indicates that both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow are associated with the same application.

6. The method according to one of claims 4 to 5, wherein the first network node comprises at least one of the following: a first base station; or Base Station Central Unit User Plane (BS-CU-UP).

7. The method according to one of claims 4 to 6, wherein the second network node comprises at least one of the following: core network nodes; a second base station; or Base Station Central Unit Control Plane (BS-CU-CP).

8. The method according to one of claims 4 to 7, wherein the first QoS flow comprises at least one of the following: QoS flow; Sub-QoS flow; or PDU collection.

9. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the second QoS flow comprises at least one of the following: QoS flow; Sub-QoS flow; or PDU collection.

10. The method according to one of claims 2 to 3, wherein: The first flow comprises a first packet flow of a Quality of Service (QoS) flow; and The second flow includes a second packet flow of the QoS flow.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first message comprises: A QoS flow identifier of the QoS flow; a first flow identifier for the first packet flow; and A second flow identifier for the second packet flow.

12. The method according to one of claims 10 to 11, wherein the first network node comprises at least one of the following: a first base station; or Base Station Central Unit User Plane (BS-CU-UP).

13. The method according to one of claims 10 to 12, wherein the second network node comprises at least one of the following: core network nodes; a second base station; or Base Station Central Unit Control Plane (BS-CU-CP).

14. The method according to one of claims 2 to 13, wherein the first message comprises a handover request message. The method of claim 14 , wherein the second message comprises a handover request confirm message.

16. The method according to one of claims 2 to 15, wherein upon failure of one or more of the first flow or the second flow, the second message contains a cause value indicating the failure.

17. The method according to one of claims 2 to 16, wherein the second message indicates that a first universal identifier of the first flow is identical to a second universal identifier of the second flow.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first universal identifier identifies at least one of: QoS flow identifier; or application.

19. A first network node comprising one or more processors and a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the first network node to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 18.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a first network node to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 18.

21. A method comprising: The second network node sends a first message to the first network node requesting to establish the first flow and the second flow; and A second message is received by the second network node from the first network node, the second message indicating whether both the first flow and the second flow are admitted.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein: The first flow comprises a first quality of service (QoS) flow of a protocol data unit (PDU) session; and The second flow includes a second QoS flow of the PDU session.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the first message indicates that both the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow are associated with the same application.

24. The method according to one of claims 22 to 23, wherein the first network node comprises at least one of the following: a first base station; or Base Station Central Unit User Plane (BS-CU-UP).

25. The method according to one of claims 22 to 24, wherein the second network node comprises at least one of the following: core network nodes; a second base station; or Base Station Central Unit Control Plane (BS-CU-CP).

26. The method according to one of claims 22 to 25, wherein the first QoS flow comprises at least one of the following: QoS flow; Sub-QoS flow; or PDU collection.

27. The method according to one of claims 22 to 26, wherein the second QoS flow comprises at least one of the following: QoS flow; Sub-QoS flow; or PDU collection.

28. The method of claim 21, wherein: The first flow comprises a first packet flow of a Quality of Service (QoS) flow; and The second flow includes a second packet flow of the QoS flow.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the first message comprises: A QoS flow identifier of the QoS flow; a first flow identifier for the first packet flow; and A second flow identifier for the second packet flow.

30. The method according to one of claims 28 to 29, wherein the first network node comprises at least one of the following: a first base station; or Base Station Central Unit User Plane (BS-CU-UP).

31. The method according to one of claims 28 to 30, wherein the second network node comprises at least one of the following: core network nodes; a second base station; or Base Station Central Unit Control Plane (BS-CU-CP).

32. The method according to one of claims 21 to 31, wherein the first message comprises a handover request message.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the second message comprises a handover request confirm message.

34. The method according to one of claims 21 to 33, wherein upon failure of one or more of the first flow or the second flow, the second message contains a cause value indicating the failure.

35. The method according to one of claims 21 to 34, wherein the second message indicates that a first universal identifier of the first flow is identical to a second universal identifier of the second flow.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the first universal identifier identifies at least one of: QoS flow identifier; or application.

37. The method according to one of claims 2 to 36, wherein: The first flow is mapped to a first data radio bearer (DRB); and The second stream is mapped to a second DRB.

38. The method according to one of claims 2 to 37, wherein the first flow and the packet flow are mapped to the same data radio bearer (DRB).

39. A second network node comprising one or more processors and a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the second network node to perform the method according to any one of claims 21 to 38.

40. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a second network node to perform the method according to any one of claims 21 to 38.

41. A system comprising: A first network node comprising one or more processors and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the first network node to: receiving a first message from a second network node requesting establishment of the first flow and the second flow; and sending a second message to the second network node, the second message indicating whether both the first flow and the second flow are admitted; and The second network node, wherein the second network node comprises: one or more processors and a memory storing instructions, the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, causing the second network node to: sending the first message requesting establishment of the first flow and the second flow to the first network node; and The second message is received from the first network node, the second message indicating whether both the first flow and the second flow are admitted.

42. A method comprising: A first message requesting establishment of a QoS flow for a PDU session is received by a base station from a core network node, wherein the first message includes: A QoS flow identifier of the QoS flow; as well as indicating one or more parameters of a PDU set, wherein the QoS flow includes the PDU set; and sending, by the base station to the core network node, a response message, the response message including: the QoS flow identifier of the QoS flow; as well as parameters indicating that the QoS flow is successfully established based on the one or more parameters indicating the PDU set.

43. A method comprising: receiving, by the first network node from the second network node, a first message requesting establishment of a packet flow, wherein the first message includes one or more parameters indicating a set of PDUs, wherein the packet flow includes the set of PDUs; and A response message is sent by the first network node to the second network node, the response message indicating whether the packet flow is successfully established based on the one or more parameters indicating the PDU set.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein: The first network node comprises a base station; and The second network node includes a core network node.

45. The method according to one of claims 43 to 44, wherein the second message further comprises a cause value when the packet flow fails.

46. ​​The method of one of claims 43 to 45, wherein the packet flow comprises a Quality of Service (QoS) flow, the first message comprising a QoS flow identifier of the QoS flow.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein the one or more parameters indicative of the PDU set include at least one of: An identifier of a sub-QoS flow of the QoS flow; an identifier of the PDU set; or A common identifier of the sub-QoS flow and the PDU set.

48. The method of one of claims 43 to 47, wherein the packet flow is mapped to a Data Radio Bearer (DRB).

49. A first network node comprising one or more processors and a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the first network node to perform the method according to any one of claims 43 to 48.

50. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a first network node to perform the method according to any one of claims 43 to 48.

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