Ue initiated srs transmission

Abstract

Methods and systems are described for initiating a Sounding Reference Signal, SRS A network node sends to a user equipment, UE, a configuration for the UE initiated SRS transmission and also transmits a plurality of downlink reference signals, DL-RS, to the UE. The UE performs measurements on the plurality of DL-RS. A trigger condition for a UE initiated SRS transmission is evaluated to see if it is met based at least in part on the measurements. The network node receives an indication that the UE will transmit the UE initiated SRS transmission. The SRS is transmitted using a spatial filter associated with the DL-RS with the highest received power, signal to interference plus noise ratio, SINR, and reference signal received power, RSRP.

Description

UE INITIATED SRS TRANSMISSIONTECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for initiating a sounding reference signal.BACKGROUNDSounding Reference Signal

[0002] In new radio, NR, sounding reference signal, SRS, is used for providing channel state information, CSI, to the gNodeB, gNB, in the uplink, UL. The usage of SRS includes, e.g., deriving the appropriate transmission / reception beams and / or to perform link adaptation (i.e., setting the transmission rank and the modulation and coding scheme, MCS), and for selecting downlink, DL, (e.g., for physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH, transmissions), UL (e.g., for physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH, transmissions), and multiple-input multipleoutput, MIMO, precoding.

[0003] In long term evolution, LTE, and NR, the SRS is configured via radio resource control, RRC, where parts of the configuration can be updated (for reduced latency) through medium access control control element, MAC-CE, signaling. The configuration includes, for example, the SRS resource allocation (the physical mapping and the sequence to use) as well as the time-domain behavior (aperiodic, semi-persistent, or periodic). For aperiodic SRS transmission, the RRC configuration does not activate an SRS transmission from the user equipment, UE, but instead a dynamic activation trigger is transmitted from the gNB in the DL, via the downlink control information, DCI, in the physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, which instructs the UE to transmit the SRS once, at a predetermined time.

[0004] When configuring SRS transmissions, the gNB configures, through the SRS-Config IE, a set of SRS resources and a set of SRS resource sets, where each SRS resource set contains one or more SRS resources.SRS Configuration

[0005] Each SRS resource is configured with the abstract syntax notation, ASN, code 100 shown in FIG.l in RRC (see ASN code in third generation partnership project, 3GPP, TS 38.331 version 16.1.0). An SRS resource is configurable with respect to, for example:The number of SRS ports (1, 2, or 4), configured by the RRC parameter nrofSRS- Ports.The transmission comb (i.e., mapping to every 2nd, 4th or 8th subcarrier), configured by the RRC parameter transmissionComb, which includes: o The comb offset, configured by the RRC parameter combOffset, being specified (i.e., which of the combs that should be used) o The cyclic shift, configured by the RRC parameter cyclicShift, that configures a (port-specific, for multi-port SRS resources) cyclic shift for the Zadoff-Chu sequence that is used for SRS. The use of cyclic shifts increases the number of SRS resources that can be mapped to a comb (as SRS sequences are designed to be (almost) orthogonal under cyclic shifts), but there is a limit on how many cyclic shifts can be used (8 for comb 2, 12 for comb 4 and 6 for comb 8).The time-domain position within a given slot, configured with the RRC parameter resourceMapping, which includes: o The time-domain start position, which is limited to be one of the last 6 symbols (in NR Rel-15) or in any of the 14 symbols in a slot (in NR Rel-16 and 17), configured by the RRC parameter startPosition o The number of symbols for the SRS resource (that can be set to 1, 2 or 4), configured by the RRC parameter nrofSymbols (extended to up to 14 orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing, OFDM, symbols inRel-17) o The repetition factor (that can be set to 1, 2 or 4), configured by the RRC parameter repetitionFactor. When the repetition factor is larger than 1 , the same frequency resources are used multiple times across symbols, used to improve the coverage as this allows more energy to be collected by the receiver. The repetition factor was extended to include the following values in Rel-17: 1,2,4,5,6,7,8,10,12,14.The sounding bandwidth, frequency-domain position and shift, and frequency-hopping pattern of an SRS resource (i.e., which part of the transmission bandwidth that is occupied by the SRS resource) is set through the RRC parameters freqDomainPosition,freqDomainShift, and the freqHopping parameters c-SRS, b-SRS, and b-hop. The smallest possible sounding bandwidth is 4 RBs.The RRC parameter resourceType determines whether the SRS resource is transmitted as periodic, aperiodic (single transmission triggered by DCI), or semi persistent (same as periodic except for the start and stop of the periodic transmission is controlled through MAC-CE signaling instead of RRC signaling)The RRC parameter sequenceld specifies how the SRS sequence is initializedThe RRC parameter spatialRelationlnfo configures the spatial relation for the SRS beam with respect to another reference signal, RS, (which could be another SRS, a synchronization signal block, SSB, or a CSI-RS). If an SRS resource has a spatial relation to another SRS resource, then this SRS resource should be transmitted with the same beam (i.e., virtualization) as the indicated SRS resource.

[0006] An SRS resource set is configured with the ASN code 200 shown in FIG.2 in RRC (see ASN code in 3GPP TS 38.331 version 16.1.0).

[0007] SRS resource(s) will be transmitted as part of an SRS resource set, where all SRS resources in the same SRS resource set must share the same resource type. An SRS resource set is configurable with respect to, e.g., the resource usage, which is configured by the RRC parameter usage sets constraints and assumptions on the resource properties (see 3GPP TS 38.214 for further details). SRS resource sets can be configured with one of four different usages: ‘antennaSwitching,’ ‘codebook,’ ‘non-Codebook,’ and ‘beamManagement’ .- An SRS resource set that is configured with usage ‘antennaSwitching’ is used for reciprocity-based DL precoding (i.e., used to sound the channel in the UL so that the gNB can use reciprocity to set a suitable DL precoders). The UE is expected to transmit one SRS port per UE antenna port.- An SRS resource set that is configured with usage ‘codebook,’ CB, is used for CB- based UL transmission (i.e., used to sound the different UE antennas and help the gNB to determine / signal a suitable UL precoder, transmission rank, and MCS for PUSCH transmission). There are up to two SRS resources in an SRS resource set with usage ‘codebook’. How SRS ports are mapped to UE antenna ports is, however, up to UE implementation and not known to the gNB.- An SRS resource set that is configured with usage ‘non-Codebook,’ NCB, is used for NCB-based UL transmission. Specifically, the UE transmits one SRS resource per candidate beam (suitable candidate beams are determined by the UE based on CSI-RSmeasurements in the DL and, hence, reciprocity needs to hold). The gNB can then, by indicating a subset of these SRS resources, determine which UL beam(s) that the UE should apply for PUSCH transmission. One UL layer will be transmitted per indicated SRS resource. Note that how the UE maps SRS ports to antenna ports is up to UE implementation and not known to the gNB.- An SRS resource set that is configured with usage ‘beamManagement’ is used (mainly for frequency bands above 6 GHz (i.e., for frequency range 2, FR2)) to evaluate different UE beams for analog beamforming arrays. The UE transmits one SRS resource per analog beam, and the gNB will perform a reference signal received power, RSRP, measurement per transmitted SRS resource and, in this way, determine a suitable UE beam that is reported to the UE.

[0008] To summarize, the SRS resource-set configuration determines, e.g., usage, power control, and slot offset for aperiodic SRS. The SRS resource configuration determines the time-and-frequency allocation, the periodicity and offset, the sequence, and the spatial-relation information.Multi-Beam Operation

[0009] Several aspects of multi-beam operation to discuss are beam management procedure, beam indication, and UL beam management.Beam Management Procedure

[0010] In high frequency range, FR2, multiple RF beams may be used to transmit and receive signals at a gNB and a UE. For each DL beam from a gNB, there is typically an associated best UE receiver chain, RX, beam for receiving signals from the DL beam. The DL beam and the associated UE RX beam form a beam pair. The beam pair can be identified through a so-called beam management process in NR.

[0011] A DL beam is (typically) identified by an associated DL reference signal, RS, transmitted in the beam, either periodically, semi-persistently, or aperiodic. The DL RS for the purpose can be a Synchronization Signal, SS, and Physical Broadcast Channel, PBCH, block, SSB, or a Channel State Information RS, CSI-RS. By measuring all the DL RSs, the UE can determine and report to the gNB the best DL beam to use for DL transmissions. The gNB can then transmit a burst of DL-RS in the reported best DL beam to let the UE evaluate candidate UE RX beams.

[0012] Although not explicitly stated in the NR specification, beam management 300 has been divided into three procedures, schematically illustrated in FIG.3, which shows an example of beam management procedure.P-1 Procedure 302: Purpose is to find a coarse direction for the UE using wide gNB transmitter chain, TX, beam covering the whole angular sectorP-2 Procedure 304: Purpose is to refine the gNB TX beam by doing a new beam search around the coarse direction found in P 1P-3 Procedure 306: Used for UE that has analog beamforming to let them find a suitable UE RX beam

[0013] P-1 302 is expected to utilize beams with rather large beamwidths and where the beam reference signals are transmitted periodically and are shared between all UEs of the cell. Typical reference signals to use for P-1 302 are periodic CSI-RS or SSB. The UE then reports the N best beams to the gNB and their corresponding RSRP values.

[0014] P-2 304 is expected to use aperiodic or semi-persistent CSI-RS transmitted in narrow beams around the coarse direction found in P-1 302.

[0015] P-3 306 is expected to use aperiodic or semi-persistent CSI-RSs repeatedly transmitted in one narrow gNB beam. One alternative way is to let the UE determine a suitable UE RX beam based on the periodic SSB transmission. Since each SSB consists of four OFDM symbols, a maximum of four UE RX beams can be evaluated during each SSB burst transmission. One benefit with using SSB instead of CSI-RS is that no extra overhead of CSI-RS transmission is needed.Beam Indication

[0016] In NR, several signals can be transmitted from different antenna ports of the same base station. These signals can have the same large-scale properties such as Doppler shift / spread, average delay spread, or average delay. These antenna ports are then said to be quasi co-located, QCL.

[0017] If the UE knows that two antenna ports are QCL with respect to a certain parameter (e.g., Doppler spread), the UE can estimate that parameter based on one of the antenna ports and apply that estimate for receiving signal on the other antenna port.

[0018] For example, there may be a QCL relation between a CSI-RS for tracking RS, TRS, and the PDSCH demodulation reference signal, DM-RS. When UE receives the PDSCH DM-RS it can use the measurements already made on the TRS to assist the DM-RS reception.

[0019] Information about what assumptions can be made regarding QCL is signaled to the UE from the network. In NR, four types of QCL relations between a transmitted source RS and transmitted target RS were defined:Type A: {Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread}Type B: {Doppler shift, Doppler spread}Type C: {average delay, Doppler shift}Type D: {Spatial RX parameter}

[0020] QCL type D was introduced in NR to facilitate beam management with analog beamforming and is known as spatial QCL. There is currently no strict definition of spatial QCL, but the understanding is that if two transmitted antenna ports are spatially QCL, the UE can use the same RX beam to receive them. This is helpful for a UE that uses analog beamforming to receive signals, since the UE needs to adjust its RX beam in some direction prior to receiving a certain signal. If the UE knows that the signal is spatially QCL with some other signal it has received earlier, then it can safely use the same RX beam to also receive this signal.

[0021] In NR, the spatial QCL relation for a DL or UL signal / channel can be indicated to the UE by using a “beam indication.” The “beam indication” is used to help the UE to find a suitable RX beam for DL reception, and / or a suitable TX beam for UL transmission. In NR, the “beam indication” for DL is conveyed to the UE by indicating a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state to the UE, while in UL the “beam indication” can be conveyed by indicating a DL-RS or UL-RS as spatial relation (in NR Rel-15 / 16) or a TCI state (in NR rel- 17).UL Beam Management

[0022] Some UEs could have analog beamformers without or with poor beam correspondence, which implies that DL / UL reciprocity cannot be used to determine the beams for these beamformers. Lor such UEs, the UE beam used for an UL transmission cannot be derived from beam management procedures based on DL reference signals as described above. To handle such UEs, UL beam management has been included in the NR standard specification since release 15. The main difference between normal beam management and UL beam management is that UL beam management utilizes uplink reference signals instead of DL references signals. The UL reference signal that has been agreed to be used for UL beam management is sounding reference signal (SRS). Two UL beam management proceduress 400 are supported in NR: U2 402 and U3 404, which are schematically illustrated in EIG.4. The U2 402 procedure is performed bytransmitting a burst of SRS resources in one UE TX beam and letting the TRP evaluate different TRP RX beams. The U3 404 procedure lets the UE evaluate a suitable UE TX beam by transmitting different SRS resources in different UE TX beams.

[0023] UL beam management can also be useful even if UEs have beam correspondence:Some companies in 3GPP are arguing that a combined DL beam management procedure and UL beam management procedure requires less overhead and latency compared to only using DL beam management procedures.“UL only”-node deployments are a hot topic in 3GPP to improve UL coverage in a cost-efficient way (especially at higher frequencies). An “UL only” network node is equipped with UL capability but with none or very limited downlink capability. In this case, since the “UL only” node is not capable of transmitting DL reference signals, the beam pair link between a UE and an “UL only” node has to be based on UL beam management procedures.In D-MIMO, there will be many different access points, AP, or transmission points, TRPs, in a small area, and where each AP / TRP might be equipped with multiple different beams. In case DL-beam management is used to determine a suitable AP / TRP and corresponding AP / TRP beam to a UE, significant amount of reference signal overhead is needed, which has been identified as an issue for D-MIMO.

[0024] Hence, it is likely that UL beam management will play a more significant role for 5G advanced and 6G applications.

[0025] Lor UEs, the signals can arrive and emanate from all different directions, hence it is beneficial to have an antenna implementation at the UE which has the possibility to generate omni-directional-like coverage in addition to the high gain narrow beams. One way to increase the omni-directional coverage at a UE is to install multiple panels, and point the panels in different directions, which typically is the case for commercial UEs. However, in order to reduce the cost and energy consumption, these UE might only be able to transmit from a subset of all UE panels at each time instance. FIG.5 illustrates one example of a UE 500 with two baseband chains 502 (one per polarization) which are used to switch between three different dualpolarized panels 504a, 504b, 504c. FIG.5 shows an illustration of UE 500 with three panels 504a, 504b, 504c pointing in different directions to improve coverage. The UE 500 has two baseband chains 502 that can be connected to one of the three panels 504a, 504b, 504c depending on switch setting.

[0026] In “Breaking the wireless barriers to mobilize 5G NR mmWave,” QUALCOMM, 2019, it is described that antenna-switching procedures can be used to switch between the multiple UE panels 602a, 602b, 602c, 602d, as illustrated in FIG.6, which shows a mmWave UE 600.

[0027] Typically, a UE panel 504 of a commercial UE can generate beams of different beam widths, as illustrated in FIG.7. Typically, commercial UEs generate wider beams by turning off one or multiple PAs of the panel, which has a negative impact on the available output power. However, it is possible to mitigate the power loss when generating wide beams by applying dual -polarized beamforming (e.g., using array size invariant, ASI, beamforming). It is useful for the UE to generate a wide beam of a panel during beam sweep procedures to first find a coarse direction to a serving AP / TRP, which would enable the UE to select and activate a suitable UE panel. In this example, the UE can generate one wide beam 702, 5 half-wide beams 704, and 9 narrow beams 706 for each panel.Mobility Measurements in LTE and NR

[0028] The UE can be configured by the network to perform measurements of serving and neighbor cells, by sending a measurement configuration, provided in an RRCReconfiguration messsage (in case of NR) or an RRCConnectionReconfiguration RRC message (for LTE), or as part of broadcasted system information. In accordance with this measurement configuration provided by the network, the UE also reports measurement information, using a Measurement Report RRC message, to the network. The network then typically uses the measurement reports to trigger handover of the UE to a neighbor cell.

[0029] The neighbor cell measurements are classified into intra-frequency, interfrequency or inter-RAT measurements.

[0030] The UE measures on what is defined as a measurement object, which is part of the measurement configuration. A measurement object is: for LTE: a carrier frequency for NR: frequency / time location and subcarrier spacing of reference signals.

[0031] The measurement object may be refined by listed cells (such as allowed cells, and / or excluded cells) as well as listed cell-specific offsets. Excluded (also called blacklisted cells) are not considered in event evaluation or measurement reporting. The allowed (also called white listed) cells may be the only ones considered for event evaluation and measurement reportingif so configured. If neither allowed nor excluded cells are configured, the UE considers all detect cells in event evaluation and measurement reporting.

[0032] The measurement configuration also includes a reporting configuration, consisting of a reporting criterion (used to trigger the report) and reporting format (which quantities to include in the report). The reporting criterion is either “periodic” or “single event”. The reporting quantity may be RSRP for example.

[0033] The measurement configuration also includes a list of measurement identities where each measurement identity links one measurement object with one reporting configuration. By configuring multiple measurement identities, it is possible to link more than one measurement object to the same reporting configuration, as well as to link more than one reporting configuration to the same measurement object. The measurement identity is also included in the measurement report that triggered the reporting, serving as a reference to the network.

[0034] The measurement configuration also includes a quantity configuration, which defines the measurement filtering configuration used for all event evaluation and related reporting, and for periodical reporting of that measurement.

[0035] Finally, the measurement configuration includes Measurement gaps, which are periods that the UE may use to perform measurements.

[0036] In case of single event reporting criterion, there are a number of event types defined to trigger measurement reports, see e.g., TS 38.331 Section 5.5.4. Examples of two event types are the following:Event A3 800, as shown in FIG.8: For LTE it is also known as “Neighbour becomes offset better than SpCell.” In case of NR it is also known as “Neighbour becomes offset better than PCell / PSCell.” The offset is the cell specific offset part of the measurement object corresponding to the particular neighbor cell.Event A5 900, as shown in FIG.9: For LTE it is also known as “SpCell becomes worse than thresholdl and neighbour becomes better than threshold2.” In case of NR it is also known as “PCell / PSCell becomes worse than thresholdl and neighbour becomes better than threshold2.” The thresholds are part of the reporting configuration.

[0037] As part of the configuration for events A3 , A5 and also other type of events, a hysteresis may also be included. The hysteresis is useful in combination with configuration of “reportOnLeave,” where the UE transmits a report when a trigger quantity of a measurement object ceases to fulfil the criterion (and taking the hysteresis into account) for reporting. For example, as also illustrated in FIG.8, when using the “reportOnLeave” applied on event A3 for aneighbor cell, the UE transmits a measurement report when the neighbor cell falls below the serving cell plus offset minus the hysteresis.SUMMARY

[0038] A first embodiment under the present disclosure includes a method performed by a user equipment, UE, for initiating a Sounding Reference Signal, SRS. The method comprises performing measurements on a plurality of downlink reference signals, DL-RS, evaluating if a trigger condition for a UE initiated SRS transmission is met based at least in part on the measurements, and transmitting the SRS using a spatial filter that is associated with one of the plurality of DL-RS. The one of the plurality of DL-RS has the highest received power, signal to interference plus noise ratio, SINR, and / or reference signal received power, RSRP.

[0039] A second embodiment is the method of the first embodiment, further comprising signaling support for UE initiated SRS transmission to a network node, receiving a configuration from the network node for the UE initiated SRS transmission, receiving the plurality of DL-RS from the network node, and indicating to the network node that it will transmit the SRS . The trigger condition is set by an event defined by the configuration or predefined in a specification.

[0040] A third embodiment is the method of the second embodiment, further comprising receiving from the network node an indication of a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state switch, applying the spatial filter associated with the TCI state, and communicating with the network node using a new beam pair link.

[0041] A fourth embodiment is the method of any of the first to third embodiments, where the UE has one or more applied unified TCI states, and where the one or more applied unified TCI states are associated with a service link.

[0042] A fifth embodiment is the method of the fourth embodiment where the one or more applied unified TCI states provide a source DL-RS which can be used to derive at least one of receive spatial filters used to receive downlink, DL, channels / reference signals, and transmit spatial filters used to transmit uplink, UL, channels / reference signals.

[0043] A sixth embodiment is the method of the fourth or fifth embodiments wherein performing measurements on the plurality of DL-RSs includes monitoring the service link of each of the one or more applied unified TCI states.

[0044] A seventh embodiment is the method of any of the first to sixth embodiments, where when a certain trigger condition has been met, the UE initiates an SRS transmission.

[0045] An eighth embodiment is the method of any of the fifth to seventh embodiments where the trigger condition comprises at least one of a performance metric of the source DL-RS becoming worse than a first threshold, a performance metric of a candidate DL-RS becoming a certain predefined offset better than that of the source DL-RS, the performance metric of the candidate DL-RS becoming better than a second threshold, the performance metric of the source DL-RS becoming worse than a third threshold and the performance metric of the candidate DL-RS becoming better than a fourth threshold, and a panel associated with the service link experiencing panel blocking.

[0046] A ninth embodiment is the method of any of the fourth to seventh embodiments where the event comprises at least one of a performance metric of the source DLRS becoming worse than a first threshold, a performance metric of a candidate DL-RS becoming a certain predefined offset better than that of the source DL-RS, the performance metric of the candidate DL-RS becoming better than a second threshold, the performance metric of the source DL-RS becoming worse than a third threshold and the performance metric of the candidate DLRS becoming better than a fourth threshold, and a panel associated with the service link experiencing panel blocking.

[0047] A tenth embodiment is the method of any of the fourth to the ninth embodiments where the source DL-RS is the DL-RS associated with one of the one or more applied unified TCI state.

[0048] An eleventh embodiment is the method of the eighth or ninth embodiments where the source DL-RS and the candidate DL-RS are selected from the group consisting of synchronization signal block, SSB, demodulation reference signal, DM-RS, and channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS.

[0049] A twelfth embodiment is the method of any of the first to ninth embodiments where the measurements comprise a metric averaged over a number of consecutive measurement occasions.

[0050] A thirteenth embodiment is the method of the eighth or ninth embodiment where the performance metric is selected from the group consisting of secondary synchronization reference signal received power, SS-RSRP, channel state information reference signal received power, CSI-RSRP, synchronization signal block reference signal received power, SSB-RSRP,secondary synchronization signal to noise plus interference, SS-SINR, CSI-SINR, SSB-SINR, and CSI reference signal received quality, CSI-RSRQ.

[0051] A fourteenth embodiment is the method of any of the first to thirteenth embodiments where a time delay or time to trigger is predefined.

[0052] A fifteenth embodiment is the method of any of the first to fourteenth embodiments where the triggering condition is met for a duration of time before the UE transmits the SRS.

[0053] A sixteenth embodiment is the method of any of the first to fifteenth embodiments where before transmitting the SRS, the UE indicates to the network node that the UE initiated SRS transmission will be performed.

[0054] A seventeenth embodiment is the method of the sixteenth embodiment where the indication comprises information about which service link of each of the one or more applied unified TCI states has triggered the UE initiated SRS transmission.

[0055] An eighteenth embodiment is the method of any of the first to seventeenth embodiments where transmitting the SRS further comprises repeating the SRS over a plurality of OFDM symbols.

[0056] A nineteenth embodiment is the method of any of the first to nineteenth embodiments where transmitting the SRS further comprises transmitting a burst of SRS resources in different spatial filters.

[0057] A twentieth embodiment is the method of any of the first to nineteenth embodiments where the UE determines the best spatial filter based on the measurements.

[0058] A twenty-first embodiment is the method of the nineteenth embodiment, where the burst of SRS resources comprises an SRS resource for each of the different spatial filters, and the UE receives an indication of which of the different spatial filters to use for communicating.

[0059] A twenty-second embodiment is the method of the sixteenth or seventeenth embodiments where the UE waits, after the indicating step, a period of time before transmitting the SRS, wherein the period of time corresponds to an application time delay received in the configuration.

[0060] A twenty-third embodiment is the method of the twenty-second embodiment where the application time delay is specified according to a UE capability report or the specification.

[0061] A twenty-fourth embodiment is the method of the twenty-second or twenty- third embodiments where the transmitting occurs only if the response message is received within the application time delay.

[0062] A twenty-fifth embodiment is the method of any of the first to twentyfourth embodiments further comprising indicating, via a UE capability message, the support of the UE initiated SRS transmission. The UE capability message comprises at least one of support of periodically configured SRS resource for the UE initiated SRS transmission, support of aperiodic configured SRS resource for the UE initiated SRS transmission, maximum number of SRS resources supported for a transmission occasion of the UE initiated SRS transmission, minimum time distance between a PUCCH-SR transmission and the corresponding SRS transmission, support of gNB signaling approval or disapproval for an upcoming UE initiated SRS transmission, support of SRS repetition for the UE initiated SRS transmission, and support of SRS burst for the UE initiated SRS transmission. The support of SRS repetition for the UE initiated SRS transmission comprises at least one of support of maximum gap between the repeated SRS transmission, and maximum number of repetition. The support of SRS burst for the UE initiated SRS transmission comprises at least one of maximum number of SRS transmissions within an SRS burst, support of maximum gap between the SRS transmission, and support of minimum gap between the SRS transmission.

[0063] A twenty-sixth embodiment is the method of any of the first to twenty-fifth embodiments where performing measurements comprise sweeping through a plurality of UE panels.

[0064] A twenty-seventh embodiment under the present disclosure includes a method performed by a network node for configuring a user equipment, UE, for initiating a Sounding Reference Signal, SRS. The method comprises sending to the UE a configuration for the UE initiated SRS transmission, transmitting a plurality of downlink reference signals, DL-RS, to the UE, and receiving from the UE an indication that the UE will transmit a UE initiated SRS transmission.

[0065] A twenty-eighth embodiment is the method of the twenty-seventh embodiment further comprising receiving from the UE an indication of support for UE initiated SRS transmission, receiving the SRS from the UE, the SRS associated with a best new candidate DL-RS, wherein a new beam pair link is determined based on the SRS, communicating to the UE an indication of a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state switch, and communicating with the UE using the new beam pair link.

[0066] A twenty-ninth embodiment is the method of the twenty-eighth embodiment further comprising transmitting a response message to the UE, the response message approving the UE to transmit the SRS.

[0067] A thirtieth embodiment is the method of the twenty-ninth embodiment where the response message is included in one of an uplink, UL, related downlink control information, DCI, a downlink related DCI, and a dedicated new DCL

[0068] A thirty-first embodiment is the method of the twenty-ninth or thirtieth embodiments where the response message is a trigger of an aperiodic SRS resource set.

[0069] A thirty-second embodiment is the method of any of the twenty-eighth to thirty-first embodiments where receiving the SRS further comprises performing a sequential spatial filter sweep repeated over a plurality of OFDM symbols.

[0070] A thirty-third embodiment under the present disclosure includes a user equipment, UE, for initiating a Sounding Reference Signal, SRS. The UE comprises processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of the first to twenty-sixth embodiments, and power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the processing circuitry.

[0071] A thirty-fourth embodiment under the present disclosure includes a user equipment, UE, for initiating a Sounding Reference Signal, SRS. The UE comprises an antenna configured to send and receive wireless signals, radio front-end circuitry connected to the antenna and to processing circuitry, and configured to condition signals communicated between the antenna and the processing circuitry. The processing circuitry being configured to perform any of the steps of the first to twenty-sixth embodiments. The UE also comprises an input interface connected to the processing circuitry and configured to allow input of information into the UE to be processed by the processing circuitry, an output interface connected to the processing circuitry and configured to output information from the UE that has been processed by the processing circuitry, and a battery connected to the processing circuitry and configured to supply power to the UE.

[0072] A thirty-fifth embodiment under the present disclosure includes a network node for configuring a user equipment, UE, for initiating a Sounding Reference Signal, SRS. The network node comprises processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the twenty-seventh to thirty-second embodiments, and power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the processing circuitry.

[0073] A thirty-sixth embodiment is the method of the nineteenth embodiment where the UE comprises a plurality of UE panels and the different spatial fdters correspond to different UE panels form the plurality of UE panels.

[0074] A thirty-seventh embodiment is the method of the nineteenth embodiment where the different spatial fdters correspond to different beams of the panel.

[0075] This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an indication of the scope of the claimed subject matter.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0076] For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0077] Fig. 1 illustrates an example of ASN code to configure an SRS recourse;

[0078] Fig. 2 illustrates an additional example of ASN code to configure an SRS recourse;

[0079] Fig. 3 illustrates examples of beam management procedures;

[0080] Fig. 4 illustrates examples of UL beam management procedures;

[0081] Fig. 5 illustrates an example of a UE with three dual-polarized panels;

[0082] Fig. 6 illustrates an example of a UE with multiple antenna modules and antenna switching;

[0083] Fig. 7 illustrates an example of UE beams of different widths;

[0084] Fig. 8 illustrates an example of an event type, A3, for triggering measurement reports;

[0085] Fig. 9 illustrates another example of an event type, A5, for triggering measurement reports;

[0086] Fig. 10 is a sequence diagram illustrating an embodiment for a UE initiated SRS transmission under the present disclosure;

[0087] Fig. 11 illustrates a flow-chart of a method embodiment under the present disclosure;

[0088] Fig. 12 illustrates a flow-chart of a method embodiment under the present disclosure;

[0089] Fig. 13 shows a schematic of a communication system embodiment under the present disclosure;

[0090] Fig. 14 shows a schematic of a user equipment embodiment under the present disclosure;

[0091] Fig. 15 shows a schematic of a network node embodiment under the present disclosure;

[0092] Fig. 16 shows a schematic of a host embodiment under the present disclosure; and

[0093] Fig. 17 shows a schematic of a virtualization environment embodiment under the present disclosure.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0094] Before describing various embodiments of the present disclosure in detail, it is to be understood that this disclosure is not limited to the parameters of the particularly exemplified systems, methods, apparatus, products, processes, and / or kits, which may, of course, vary. Thus, while certain embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail, with reference to specific configurations, parameters, components, elements, etc., the descriptions are illustrative and are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the claimed embodiments. In addition, the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing the embodiments and is not necessarily intended to limit the scope of the claimed embodiments.

[0095] There currently exist certain challenge(s). In some deployments (e.g., using a low complexity digital receiver as proposed in RWS-230006, “Fast Beam Management and Capacity Enhancement for Release 19”, 3GPP TSG RAN Rel-19 Workshop, Taipei, June 15-16, 2023, it may be beneficial to use SRS (UL) based beam management procedures to determine suitable beam pair links between the network and the UE instead of using DL beam management procedures.

[0096] The current UL beam management procedures in NR are limited and it is therefore difficult to apply it in a useful way. For example, when triggering an SRS resource set with the usage type beam management, in order to determine a suitable UE beam, the UE will most likely select a number of beams to evaluate from one of the UE panels. However, it is currently not possible to configure the UE to perform a beam management procedure over multipledifferent UE panels, i.e., there is no way to make sure that the UE perform an UL beam management procedure over multiple UE panels. Since the optimal gNB beam might differ depending on which UE panel that is used during the UL beam management procedure, there is a large risk for sub-optimal beam pair link selections when using current NR UL beam management procedures.

[0097] Based on the current UL beam management procedure, the procedure to determine suitable beam pair link based on SRS transmission requires substantial overhead and latency which will reduce the performance in the network. Hence, how to reduce the overhead and latency associated with UL beam management is an open problem to be solved.

[0098] Certain aspects of the disclosure and their embodiments may provide solutions to these or other challenges. The disclosure describes different methods on how to perform UE initiated SRS transmission, e.g., where the UE initiates an SRS transmission according to different trigger conditions based on measurements on DL-RSs. In addition, the disclosure also describes network response to the UE initiated SRS transmission.

[0099] Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantage(s). One advantage with certain embodiments is that the UL beam management procedure utilizing, for example, the low complexity digital receivers as proposed in RWS- 230006, “Fast Beam Management and Capacity Enhancement for Release 19,” 3GPP TSG RAN Rel-19 Workshop, Taipei, June 15-16, 2023, at the gNB can be performed more efficiently with respect to latency and overhead signaling.[000100] Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art.[000101] FIG. 10 illustrates a schematic example of a flow chart of one proposed method embodiment 1100 between a UE 2200 and a network node, NW, 3300.[000102] At 1102, the UE 2200 signals support for UE initiated SRS transmission to the NW 3300.[000103] At 1104, the NW 3300 configures the UE 2200 for UE initiated SRS transmission (e.g., the trigger conditions of the SRS transmission, the SRS resource to transmit, etc.).[000104] At 1106, the NW 3300 transmits DL-RS (e.g. SSBs, CSI-RS or other new similar DL-RS in 6G, which could be done periodically to e.g. enable initial access and mobility, etc.).[000105] At 1108, the UE 2200 performs measurements on the DL-RS while sweeping through different UE panels / beams (which is done in commercial UEs today to, for example, handle mobility, and to determine suitable UE panels / beams for configured TCI states) and determines that a trigger condition for the “UE initiated SRS transmission event” is met.[000106] Optionally, at 1110, the UE 2200 indicates to the NW 3300 that it will transmit SRS (or similar UL-RS in 6G).[000107] At 1112, the UE 2200 transmits the SRS. Here the UE 2200 transmits the SRS from UE panel / beams that are associated with a best new candidate DL-RS.[000108] At 1114, the NW 3300 receives the SRS (using e.g., the low complexity digital receiver proposed in RWS-230006, “Fast Beam Management and Capacity Enhancement for Release 19,” 3GPP TSG RAN Rel-19 Workshop, Taipei, June 15-16, 2023, and determines a suitable beam pair link.[000109] At 1116, the NW 3300 initiates a TCI state switch or similar beam indication in 6G.[000110] At 1118, the UE 2200 applies the UE beam (spatial filter) associated with the indicated TCI state.[000111] At 1120, the NW 3300 and the UE 2200 start communicating using the new beam pair link (new TCI state).[000112] In this disclosure it is assumed that the UE 2200 has at least one or more applied (indicated) unified TCI states (or similar QCL and / or spatial filter related information element in 6G), and where the one or more of the applied unified TCI states are associated with a service link. The one or more applied unified TCI states provide the source DL-RS which can be used to derive at the UE 2200:Receive spatial filters used to receive DL channels / reference signals; and / orTransmit spatial filters used to transmit UL channels / reference signals[000113] It is further assumed that the UE 2200 is monitoring one or more of the service links to detect if a better gNB beam (or beam pair link, where a beam pair link is a gNB beam + UE beam) has occurred (e.g., a gNB beam (or beam pair link) that is better than the gNB beam (or beam pair link) currently used for one or more of the monitored service links).[000114] In one embodiment, when a certain trigger condition has been met, the UE 2200 initiates an SRS transmission. The UE 2200 can be configured with one or more triggering conditions (based on some performance metrics), comprising of one or more of, for example:- the performance metric of the serving DL-RS / beam becomes worse than a first threshold- the performance metric of one or multiple candidate DL-RSs / beams become a certain predefined / preconfigured offset better than that of the serving DL-RS / beam- the performance metric of one or multiple candidate DL-RSs / beams become better than a second threshold- the performance metric of the serving DL-RS / beam becomes worse than a third threshold and the performance metric of one or multiple candidate DL-RSs / beams become than a fourth threshold- the panel associated with serving link experiences panel blocking and uplink transmission power from that panel get limited, due to e.g. Power Management Maximum Power Reduction (P-MPR), as specified n NR or similar mechanism in 6GNote here, the serving DL-RS / beam is the DL-RS associated with the applied DL / UL TCI state.[000115] In one embodiment, the serving and candidate DL-RS can be for example, SSB, DMRS, or CSI-RS etc. The measurement result can be an averaged metric over a number of consecutive measurement occasions. The performance metric can be RSRP (e.g., SS-RSRP, CSI- RSRP as defined in 3GPP TS 38.215 vl7.3.0), and / or SINR (e.g., SS-SINR, CSI-SINR as defined in 3GPP TS 38.215 vl7.3.0), and / or RSRP (e.g., SS-RSRP, CSI-RSRQ as defined in 3GPP TS 38.215 V17.3.0), and / or SSB-RSRP, and / or SSB-SINR.[000116] In another embodiment, a time delay or time to trigger (denoted as AT) is configured or predefined in order to minimize frequent UE initiated SRS transmissions. In this embodiment, once the triggering condition happens at time t, the triggering condition needs to be met until time t+AT before the UE 2200 initiates an SRS transmission at time t+AT.[000117] In one embodiment, before triggering the UE initiated SRS transmission, the UE 2200 optionally signals to the network that a UE initiated SRS transmission will be performed (e.g., inform the network that a trigger condition of a UE initiated SRS transmission event has been met) using e.g., a PUCCH scheduling request, SR, or some other low overhead signaling indication in NR or 6G at 1110. Then at 1112, the UE 2200 performs the UE initiated SRS transmission. In one detailed optional embodiment, the PUCCH SR will carry information about which one or more of the monitored service links have triggered the UE initiated SRS transmission. Alternatively, the UE 2200 may not need to inform the gNB about the service linkswhich triggered the UE initiated SRS transmission, for example in case all the service links experience performance degradation.[000118] In another embodiment, the UE 2200 performs UE initiated SRS transmission at 1112, without 1110 occurring, once the trigger condition has been met. That is, once the trigger condition has been met, the UE 2200 directly transmits the UE initiated SRS without indicating to the network that the UE 2200 will perform a UE initiated SRS transmission. In one embodiment, the UE 2200 transmits the SRS using a spatial fdter associated with a DL-RS that meets the trigger condition at 1108. In one embodiment, in case multiple DL-RSs meet the trigger condition, the UE selects the best DL-RS of the DL-RSs that meet the trigger condition (e.g., the DL-RS with highest RSRP, SINR). In one embodiment, in between 1110 and 1112, the NW 3300 optionally signals a response message (e.g., an ACK / NACK) to approve or decline the UE initiated SRS transmission of 1112. The UE 2200 then only transmits the SRS at 1112 if the NW 3300 approved the UE initiated SRS transmission. The response message can be carried on an UL related DCI, a downlink related DCI or a dedicated new DCI. In one embodiment, the ACK is a trigger of an aperiodic SRS resource set.[000119] In one embodiment, the UE 2200 transmits a single SRS using one spatial fdter associated with the best candidate DL-RS. The network can then use this SRS to determine a suitable gNB beam based on, for example, a low complexity digital receiver as discussed in RWS-230006, “Fast Beam Management and Capacity Enhancement for Release 19,” 3GPP TSG RAN Rel-19 Workshop, Taipei, June 15-16, 2023. In one embodiment, the said single SRS resource is repeated over a plurality of OFDM symbols in order to allow the gNB to perform sequential beam sweep (this could be useful for gNB to evaluate different beams over the repeated plurality of OFDM symbols). In one embodiment, a time gap between two adjacent repeated SRS transmission symbols is configured by network to reduce the processing effort.[000120] In one embodiment, the UE 2200 transmits a burst of SRS resources in different spatial filters, where the different spatial filters may, for example, correspond to different beams of a UE panel, or different UE panels. In another embodiment, the UE 2200 transmits a burst of SRS resources in different UE beams of a UE panel at 1112. In this case, it is assumed that the UE 2200 can determine a best UE panel to use for the SRS transmission based on the reception of the DL-RS at 1108. In yet another embodiment, different spatial filters may correspond to different beams of one UE panel. This method could be useful for example in case the UE 2200 uses a wide beam per UE panel to receive the DL-RSs at 1108. Here, the UE 2200 can determine the best UE panel based on the measurements of the DL-RSs, however, the UE2200 does not know the best narrow UE beam for that UE panel. In this case, the UE 2200 can transmit one SRS resource per narrow beam of the best UE panel, and the network can indicate using an SRS resource indicator or TCI state ID (in case the UE 2200 has been configured with one or more UL TCI states with SRS resources as QCL Type D) or similar indicators in 6G, which of the UE beams that was best for the best UE panel, and the UE 2200 can use that beam for upcoming communication. In one embodiment, a time gap between the transmission of two adjacent SRS resources is configured by network.[000121] In one embodiment, the SRS resource(s) used for the UE initiated SRS transmission (e.g., at 1112) are periodically configured, however, the UE 2200 only transmits the SRS on these configured SRS resources when the UE initiated SRS transmission has been triggered, and / or when the UE 2200 has been previously indicated to the network that it will transmit the SRSs (e.g. using a SR on PUCCH).[000122] In one embodiment, the SRS resources used for the UE initiated SRS transmission are aperiodic triggered by the PUCCH-SR as indicate to the network at 1110.[000123] In one embodiment, an application time delay between the SRS transmission indication at 1110 and the SRS transmission at 1112 is configured by the NW 3300 via e.g., RRC signaling, as a part of the SRS resource configuration. In another example, the time delay is specified according to the UE capability report, or the specification. In a detailed embodiment, the latency configuration between the SRS transmission indication at 1110 and the SRS transmission at 1112 should be sufficiently large to allow the reception of the response message from the gNB. In one example, the UE 2200 can transmit the UE initiated SRS if an acknowledge message is received within the configured application time delay. In another example, the UE 2200 should not transmit the UE initiated SRS if a NACK message is received within the configured application time delay or the acknowledge message is not received within the configured application time delay.UE Capability Signaling[000124] In one embodiment, a UE capability message is used to indicate the support of UE initiated SRS transmission and where the UE capability message contains one or more of the following information related to the UE initiated SRS transmission:Support of periodically configured SRS resource for the UE initiated SRS transmission Support of aperiodic configured SRS resource for the UE initiated SRS transmissionMaximum number of SRS resources supported for a transmission occasion of a UE initiated SRS transmissionMinimum time distance between PUCCH-SR transmission and the corresponding SRS transmissionSupport gNB signaling (either approving or disapproving) the upcoming UE initiated SRS transmission indicationSupport of SRS repetition for the UE initiated SRS transmission o Support of maximum gap between the repeated SRS transmission and / or o Maximum number of repetitionSupport of SRS burst for the UE initiated SRS transmission o Maximum number of SRS transmissions within a SRS burst and / or o Support of maximum and or minimum gap between the SRS transmission [000125] One example method embodiment 1300 is shown in FIG.l 1. Method 1300 is a method performed by a UE for initiating a SRS. At 1310, which is optional, the UE signals support for UE initiated SRS transmission to a network node. At 1320, which is also optional, the UE receives a configuration from the network node for UE initiated SRS transmission (e.g., the trigger conditions of the SRS transmission, the SRS resource to transmits). At 1330, which too is optional, the UE receives a plurality of DL-RS from the network node (e.g., SSBs, CSI-RS or other new similar DL-RS in 6G, which could be done periodically to e.g. enable initial access and mobility). At 1340, the UE performs measurements on the plurality of DL-RS. At 1350, the UE evaluates if a trigger condition for a UE initiated SRS transmission event defined by the configuration, or predefined in a specification, is met. Optionally at 1360, the UE indicates to the network node that it will transmit SRS (or similar UL-RS in 6G). Also optionally, at 1370, the UE transmits the SRS using a spatial filter that is associated with a best new candidate DL-RS. At 1380, which is optional, the UE receives from the network node an indication of a TCI state switch or similar beam indication in 6G. At 1390, which is also optional, the UE applies the spatial filter associated with the indicated TCI state. At 1395, which too is optional, the UE communicates with the network node using the new beam pair link. Method 1300 can comprise a variety of additional or alternative modifications.[000126] Another example method embodiment 1500 is shown in FIG.12. Method 1500 is a method performed by a network node, NW, for configuring a UE for initiating a SRS. At 1510, which is optional, the NW receives from the UE an indication of support for UE initiated SRS transmission to the network node. At 1520, which is also optional, the NW sends to the UEa configuration for UE initiated SRS transmission (e.g., the trigger conditions of the SRS transmission, the SRS resource to transmits). At 1530, the NW transmits a plurality of DL-RS to the UE (e.g., SSBs, CSI-RS or other new similar DL-RS in 6G, which could be done periodically to e .g . enable initial access and mobility) so that the UE can perform measurements on the plurality of DL-RS and evaluate if a trigger condition for a UE initiated SRS transmission event defined by the configuration, or predefined by specification, is met. Optionally, at 1540, the NW receives from the UE an indication that it will transmit SRS (or similar UL-RS in 6G). Also optionally, at 1550, the NW receives the SRS from UE using the spatial filter that is associated with a best new candidate DL-RS. At 1560, which is optional, the NW communicates to the UE an indication of a TCI state switch or similar beam indication in 6G. At 1570, which is also optional, the NW communicates with the network node using the new beam pair link. Method 1500 can comprise a variety of alternative or additional modifications.Additional Embodiments[000127] FIG. 13 shows an example of a communication system 2100 in accordance with some embodiments. In the example, the communication system 2100 includes a telecommunication network 2102 that includes an access network 2104, such as a RAN, and a core network 2106, which includes one or more core network nodes 2108. The access network 2104 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes 2110a and 2110b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 2110), or any other similar 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access node or non-3GPP access point. The network nodes 2110 facilitate direct or indirect connection of UE, such as by connecting UEs 2112a, 2112b, 2112c, and 2112d (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 2112) to the core network 2106 over one or more wireless connections.[000128] Example wireless communications over a wireless connection include transmitting and / or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and / or other types of signals suitable for conveying information without the use of wires, cables, or other material conductors. Moreover, in different embodiments, the communication system 2100 may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, UEs, and / or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and / or signals whether via wired or wireless connections. The communication system 2100 may include and / or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and / or other similar type of system.[000129] The UEs 2112 may be any of a wide variety of communication devices, including wireless devices arranged, configured, and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with the network nodes 2110 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes 2110 are arranged, capable, configured, and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs 2112 and / or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network 2102 to enable and / or provide network access, such as wireless network access, and / or to perform other functions, such as administration in the telecommunication network 2102.[000130] In the depicted example, the core network 2106 connects the network nodes 2110 to one or more hosts, such as host 2116. These connections may be direct or indirect via one or more intermediary networks or devices. In other examples, network nodes may be directly coupled to hosts. The core network 2106 includes one more core network nodes (e.g., core network node 2108) that are structured with hardware and software components. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the UEs, network nodes, and / or hosts, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of the core network node 2108. Example core network nodes include functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Subscription Identifier De-concealing function (SIDF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), Network Exposure Function (NEF), and / or a User Plane Function (UPF).[000131] The host 2116 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network 2104 and / or the telecommunication network 2102, and may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. The host 2116 may host a variety of applications to provide one or more service. Examples of such applications include live and pre-recorded audio / video content, data collection services such as retrieving and compiling data on various ambient conditions detected by a plurality of UEs, analytics functionality, social media, functions for controlling or otherwise interacting with remote devices, functions for an alarm and surveillance center, or any other such function performed by a server.[000132] As a whole, the communication system 2100 of FIG. 13 enables connectivity between the UEs, network nodes, and hosts. In that sense, the communication system may be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures, such as specificstandards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Uong Term Evolution (UTE), and / or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g., 6G); wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802. 11 standards (WiFi); and / or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z- Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, LiFi, and / or any low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) standards such as LoRa and Sigfox.[000133] In some examples, the telecommunication network 2102 is a cellular network that implements 3GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunications network 2102 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network 2102. For example, the telecommunications network 2102 may provide Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services to some UEs, while providing Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and / or Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC)ZMassive loT services to yet further UEs.[000134] In some examples, the UEs 2112 are configured to transmit and / or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a UE may be designed to transmit information to the access network 2104 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 2104. Additionally, a UE may be configured for operating in single- or multi-RAT or multi -standard mode. For example, a UE may operate with any one or combination of Wi-Fi, NR (New Radio) and LTE, i.e. being configured for multi -radio dual connectivity (MR-DC), such as E-UTRAN (Evolved- UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) New Radio - Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).[000135] In the example, the hub 2114 communicates with the access network 2104 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE 2112c and / or 2112d) and network nodes (e.g., network node 2110b). In some examples, the hub 2114 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub 2114 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network 2106 for the UEs. As another example, the hub 2114 may be a controller that sends commands or instructions to one or more actuators in the UEs. Commands or instructions may be received from the UEs, network nodes 2110, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub 2114. As another example, the hub 2114 may be a data collector that actsas temporary storage for UE data and, in some embodiments, may perform analysis or other processing of the data. As another example, the hub 2114 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR headset, display, loudspeaker or other media delivery device, the hub 2114 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 2114 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and / or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub 2114 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular in if one or more of the UEs are low energy loT devices.[000136] The hub 2114 may have a constant / persistent or intermittent connection to the network node 2110b. The hub 2114 may also allow for a different communication scheme and / or schedule between the hub 2114 and UEs (e.g., UE 2112c and / or 2112d), and between the hub 2114 and the core network 2106. In other examples, the hub 2114 is connected to the core network 2106 and / or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub 2114 may be configured to connect to an M2M service provider over the access network 1104 and / or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 2110 while still connected via the hub 2114 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub 2114 may be a dedicated hub - that is, a hub whose primary function is to route communications to / from the UEs from / to the network node 2110b. In other embodiments, the hub 2114 may be a non-dedicated hub - that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and network node 2110b, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and / or end point for certain data channels.[000137] FIG. 14 shows a UE 2200 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, a UE refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and / or other UEs. Examples of a UE include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, mobile phone, cell phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phone, wireless local loop phone, desktop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), wireless cameras, gaming console or device, music storage device, playback appliance, wearable terminal device, wireless endpoint, mobile station, tablet, laptop, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), smart device, wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE), vehicle-mounted or vehicle embedded / integrated wireless device, etc. Other examples include any UE identified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including a narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and / or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.[000138] A UE may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3GPP standard for sidelink communication, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), or vehicle-to- everything (V2X). In other examples, a UE may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and / or operates the relevant device. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE may represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter).[000139] The UE 2200 includes processing circuitry 2202 that is operatively coupled via a bus 2204 to an input / output interface 2206, a power source 2208, a memory 2210, a communication interface 2212, and / or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain UEs may utilize all or a subset of the components shown in FIG.14. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.[000140] The processing circuitry 2202 is configured to process instructions and data and may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory 2210. The processing circuitry 2202 may be implemented as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored computer programs, general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry 2202 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs).[000141] In the example, the input / output interface 2206 may be configured to provide an interface or interfaces to an input device, output device, or one or more input and / or output devices. Examples of an output device include a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. An input device may allow a user to capture information into the UE 2200. Examples of an input device include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, amouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, a biometric sensor, etc., or any combination thereof. An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port may be used to provide an input device and an output device.[000142] In some embodiments, the power source 2208 is structured as a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic device, or power cell, may be used. The power source 2208 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 2208 itself, and / or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE 2200 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source 2208. Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from the power source 2208 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the UE 2200 to which power is supplied.[000143] The memory 2210 may be or be configured to include memory such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth. In one example, the memory 2210 includes one or more application programs 2214, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 2216. The memory 2210 may store, for use by the UE 2200, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.[000144] The memory 2210 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc (HD- DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as tamper resistant module in the form of a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) including one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs), such as a USIM and / or ISIM, other memory, or any combination thereof. The UICC may for example be an embeddedUICC (eUICC), integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as ‘SIM card.’ The memory 2210 may allow the UE 2200 to access instructions, application programs and the like, stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory 2210, which may be or comprise a device -readable storage medium.[000145] The processing circuitry 2202 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network using the communication interface 2212. The communication interface 2212 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 2222. The communication interface 2212 may include one or more transceivers used to communicate, such as by communicating with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another UE or a network node in an access network). Each transceiver may include a transmitter 2218 and / or a receiver 2220 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter 2218 and receiver 2220 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., antenna 2222) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.[000146] In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communication interface 2212 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short-range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof. Communications may be implemented in according to one or more communication protocols and / or standards, such as IEEE 802. 11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, New Radio (NR), UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, transmission control protocol / intemet protocol (TCP / IP), synchronous optical networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.[000147] Regardless of the type of sensor, a UE may provide an output of data captured by its sensors, through its communication interface 2212, via a wireless connection to a network node. Data captured by sensors of a UE can be communicated through a wireless connection to a network node via another UE. The output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reports the sensed temperature), random (e.g., to even out the load from reportingfrom several sensors), in response to a triggering event (e.g., when moisture is detected an alert is sent), in response to a request (e.g., a user initiated request), or a continuous stream (e.g., a live video feed of a patient).[000148] As another example, a UE comprises an actuator, a motor, or a switch, related to a communication interface configured to receive wireless input from a network node via a wireless connection. In response to the received wireless input the states of the actuator, the motor, or the switch may change. For example, the UE may comprise a motor that adjusts the control surfaces or rotors of a drone in flight according to the received input or to a robotic arm performing a medical procedure according to the received input.[000149] A UE, when in the form of an Internet of Things (loT) device, may be a device for use in one or more application domains, these domains comprising, but not limited to, city wearable technology, extended industrial application and healthcare. Non-limiting examples of such an loT device are a device which is or which is embedded in: a connected refrigerator or freezer, a TV, a connected lighting device, an electricity meter, a robot vacuum cleaner, a voice controlled smart speaker, a home security camera, a motion detector, a thermostat, a smoke detector, a door / window sensor, a flood / moisture sensor, an electrical door lock, a connected doorbell, an air conditioning system like a heat pump, an autonomous vehicle, a surveillance system, a weather monitoring device, a vehicle parking monitoring device, an electric vehicle charging station, a smart watch, a fitness tracker, a head-mounted display for Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR), a wearable for tactile augmentation or sensory enhancement, a water sprinkler, an animal- or item-tracking device, a sensor for monitoring a plant or animal, an industrial robot, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and any kind of medical device, like a heart rate monitor or a remote controlled surgical robot. A UE in the form of an loT device comprises circuitry and / or software in dependence of the intended application of the loT device in addition to other components as described in relation to the UE 2200 shown in FIG. 14.[000150] As yet another specific example, in an loT scenario, a UE may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and / or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and / or measurements to another UE and / or a network node. The UE may in this case be an M2M device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, the UE may implement the 3GPP NB-IoT standard. In other scenarios, a UE may represent a vehicle, such as a car, a bus, a truck, a ship and an airplane, or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and / or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.[000151] In practice, any number of UEs may be used together with respect to a single use case. For example, a first UE might be or be integrated in a drone and provide the drone’s speed information (obtained through a speed sensor) to a second UE that is a remote controller operating the drone. When the user makes changes from the remote controller, the first UE may adjust the throttle on the drone (e.g. by controlling an actuator) to increase or decrease the drone’s speed. The first and / or the second UE can also include more than one of the functionalities described above. For example, a UE might comprise the sensor and the actuator, and handle communication of data for both the speed sensor and the actuators.[000152] FIG.15 shows a network node 3300 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a UE and / or with other network nodes or equipment, in a telecommunication network. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NRNodeBs (gNBs)).[000153] Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and so, depending on the provided amount of coverage, may be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units and / or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS).[000154] Other examples of network nodes include multiple transmission point (multi-TRP) 5G access nodes, multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSRBSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell / multicast coordination entities (MCEs), Operation and Maintenance (O&M) nodes, Operations Support System (OSS) nodes, Self-Organizing Network (SON) nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centers (E-SMLCs)), and / or Minimization of Drive Tests (MDTs).[000155] The network node 3300 includes a processing circuitry 3302, a memory 3304, a communication interface 3306, and a power source 3308. The network node 3300 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNCcomponent, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their own respective components. In certain scenarios in which the network node 3300 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeBs. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, the network node 3300 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory 3304 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 3310 may be shared by different RATs). The network node 3300 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 3300, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, Zigbee, Z-wave, LoRaWAN, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node 3300.[000156] The processing circuitry 3302 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and / or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 3300 components, such as the memory 3304, to provide network node 3300 functionality.[000157] In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 3302 includes a system on a chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 3302 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 3312 and baseband processing circuitry 3314. In some embodiments, the radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 3312 and the baseband processing circuitry 3314 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 3312 and baseband processing circuitry 3314 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.[000158] The memory 3304 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer-readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), readonly memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and / or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device -readable and / or computer-executable memorydevices that store information, data, and / or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry 3302. The memory 3304 may store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, and / or other instructions capable of being executed by the processing circuitry 3302 and utilized by the network node 3300. The memory 3304 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 3302 and / or any data received via the communication interface 3306. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 3302 and memory 3304 is integrated.[000159] The communication interface 3306 is used in wired or wireless communication of signaling and / or data between a network node, access network, and / or UE. As illustrated, the communication interface 3306 comprises port(s) / terminal(s) 3316 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. The communication interface 3306 also includes radio front-end circuitry 3318 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna 3310. Radio front-end circuitry 3318 comprises filters 3320 and amplifiers 3322. The radio front-end circuitry 3318 may be connected to an antenna 3310 and processing circuitry 3302. The radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 3310 and processing circuitry 3302. The radio front-end circuitry 3318 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection. The radio front-end circuitry 3318 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 3320 and / or amplifiers 3322. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 3310. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 3310 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 3318. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 3302. In other embodiments, the communication interface may comprise different components and / or different combinations of components.[000160] In certain alternative embodiments, the network node 3300 does not include separate radio front-end circuitry 3318, instead, the processing circuitry 3302 includes radio frontend circuitry and is connected to the antenna 3310. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 3312 is part of the communication interface 3306. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 3306 includes one or more ports or terminals 3316, the radio front-end circuitry 3318, and the RF transceiver circuitry 3312, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 3306 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 3314, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).[000161] The antenna 3310 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and / or receive wireless signals. The antenna 3310 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry 3318 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and / or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna 3310 is separate from the network node 3300 and connectable to the network node 3300 through an interface or port.[000162] The antenna 3310, communication interface 3306, and / or the processing circuitry 3302 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and / or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and / or signals may be received from a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna 3310, the communication interface 3306, and / or the processing circuitry 3302 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and / or signals may be transmitted to a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment.[000163] The power source 3308 provides power to the various components of network node 3300 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source 3308 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 3300 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node 3300 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., the power grid, an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry of the power source 3308. As a further example, the power source 3308 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.[000164] Embodiments of the network node 3300 may include additional components beyond those shown in FIG. 15 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and / or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, the network node 3300 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 3300 and to allow output of information from the network node 3300. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 3300.[000165] FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a host 4400, which may be an embodiment of the host 2116 of FIG. 13, in accordance with various aspects described herein. As used herein, thehost 4400 may be or comprise various combinations hardware and / or software, including a standalone server, a blade server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server, a virtual machine, container, or processing resources in a server farm. The host 4400 may provide one or more services to one or more UEs.[000166] The host 4400 includes processing circuitry 4402 that is operatively coupled via a bus 4404 to an input / output interface 4406, a network interface 4408, a power source 4410, and a memory 4412. Other components may be included in other embodiments. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the devices of previous figures, such as FIGS. 14 and 15, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of host 4400.[000167] The memory 4412 may include one or more computer programs including one or more host application programs 4414 and data 4416, which may include user data, e.g., data generated by a UE for the host 4400 or data generated by the host 4400 for a UE. Embodiments of the host 4400 may utilize only a subset or all of the components shown. The host application programs 4414 may be implemented in a container-based architecture and may provide support for video codecs (e.g., Versatile Video Coding (VVC), High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), Advanced Video Coding (AVC), MPEG, VP9) and audio codecs (e.g., FLAC, Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), MPEG, G.711), including transcoding for multiple different classes, types, or implementations of UEs (e.g., handsets, desktop computers, wearable display systems, heads-up display systems). The host application programs 4414 may also provide for user authentication and licensing checks and may periodically report health, routes, and content availability to a central node, such as a device in or on the edge of a core network. Accordingly, the host 4400 may select and / or indicate a different host for over-the-top services for a UE. The host application programs 4414 may support various protocols, such as the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) protocol, Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH), etc.[000168] FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 5500 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to any device described herein, or components thereof, and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components. Some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtualcomponents executed by one or more virtual machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtual environments 5500 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computing device that operates as a network node, UE, core network node, or host. Further, in embodiments in which the virtual node does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node or host), then the node may be entirely virtualized.[000169] Applications 5502 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualization environment 5500 to implement some of the features, functions, and / or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.[000170] Hardware 5504 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and / or instructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and / or other hardware devices as described herein, such as a network interface, input / output interface, and so forth. Software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers 5506 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs 5508a and 5508b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs 5508), and / or perform any of the functions, features and / or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer 5506 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the VMs 5508.[000171] The VMs 5508 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 5506. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 5502 may be implemented on one or more of VMs 5508, and the implementations may be made in different ways. Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.[000172] In the context of NFV, a VM 5508 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non-virtualized machine. Each of the VMs 5508, and that part of hardware 5504 that executes that VM, be it hardware dedicated to that VM and / or hardware shared by that VM with others of the VMs, forms separate virtual network elements. Still in the context of NFV, a virtual network function is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more VMs 5508 on top of the hardware 5504 and corresponds to the application 5502.[000173] Hardware 5504 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware 5504 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 5504 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g., such as in a data center or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration 5510, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications 5502. In some embodiments, hardware 5504 is coupled to one or more radio units that each include one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that may be coupled to one or more antennas. Radio units may communicate directly with other hardware nodes via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station. In some embodiments, some signaling can be provided with the use of a control system 5512 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.[000174] Although the computing devices described herein (e.g., UEs, network nodes, hosts) may include the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise computing devices with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that these computing devices may comprise any suitable combination of hardware and / or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein. Determining, calculating, obtaining or similar operations described herein may be performed by processing circuitry, which may process information by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and / or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination. Moreover, while components are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multiple boxes, in practice, computing devices may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component, and functionality may be partitioned between separate components. For example, a communication interface may be configured to include any of the components described herein, and / or the functionality of the components may be partitioned between the processing circuitry and the communication interface. In another example, non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.[000175] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may be provided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which incertain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry alone or to other components of the computing device, but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole, and / or by end users and a wireless network generally.

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. A method (1100) performed by a user equipment (2200), UE, for initiating a Sounding Reference Signal, SRS, the method comprising: performing (1108) measurements on a plurality of downlink reference signals, DL-RS; evaluating (1108) if a trigger condition for a UE initiated SRS transmission is met based at least in part on the measurements; and transmitting ( 1112) the SRS using a spatial fdter that is associated with one of the plurality of DL-RS; wherein the one of the plurality of DL-RS has the highest: received power, signal to interference plus noise ratio, SINR, and / or reference signal received power, RSRP.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: signaling (1102) support for UE initiated SRS transmission to a network node (3300); receiving (1104) a configuration from the network node (3300) for the UE initiated SRS transmission; receiving (1106) the plurality of DL-RS from the network node (3300); and indicating (1110) to the network node (3300) that it will transmit the SRS; wherein the trigger condition is set by an event defined by the configuration or predefined in a specification.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: receiving (1116) from the network node (3300) an indication of a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state switch; applying (1118) the spatial filter associated with the TCI state; and communicating (1120) with the network node (3300) using a new beam pair link.

4. The method of any claims 1 to 3, wherein the UE (2200) has one or more applied unified TCI states, and wherein the one or more applied unified TCI states are associated with a service link.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more applied unified TCI states provide a source DL-RS which can be used to derive at least one of: receive spatial filters used to receive downlink, DL, channels / reference signals; and transmit spatial filters used to transmit uplink, UL, channels / reference signals.

6. The method of claims 4 or 5, wherein performing (1108) measurements on the plurality of DL-RSs includes monitoring the service link of each of the one or more applied unified TCI states.

7. The method of any of claims 1 to 6, wherein when a certain trigger condition has been met, the UE (2200) initiates an SRS transmission.

8. The method of any of claims 5 to 7, wherein the trigger condition comprises at least one of: a performance metric of the source DL-RS becoming worse than a first threshold; a performance metric of a candidate DL-RS becoming a certain predefined offset better than that of the source DL-RS; the performance metric of the candidate DL-RS becoming better than a second threshold; the performance metric of the source DL-RS becoming worse than a third threshold and the performance metric of the candidate DL-RS becoming better than a fourth threshold; and a panel associated with the service link experiencing panel blocking.

9. The method of any of claims 4 to 7, wherein the event comprises at least one of: a performance metric of the source DL-RS becoming worse than a first threshold; a performance metric of a candidate DL-RS becoming a certain predefined offset better than that of the source DL-RS; the performance metric of the candidate DL-RS becoming better than a second threshold;the performance metric of the source DL-RS becoming worse than a third threshold and the performance metric of the candidate DL-RS becoming better than a fourth threshold; and a panel associated with the service link experiencing panel blocking.

10. The method of any of claims 4 to 9, wherein the source DL-RS is the DL-RS associated with one of the one or more applied unified TCI state.

11. The method of claims 8 or 9, wherein the source DL-RS and the candidate DL-RS are selected from the group consisting of: synchronization signal block, SSB, demodulation reference signal, DM-RS, and channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS.

12. The method of any of claims 1 to 9, wherein the measurements comprise a metric averaged over a number of consecutive measurement occasions.

13. The method of claims 8 or 9, wherein the performance metric is selected from the group consisting of: secondary synchronization reference signal received power, SS-RSRP, channel state information reference signal received power, CSI-RSRP, synchronization signal block reference signal received power, SSB-RSRP, secondary synchronization signal to noise plus interference, SS-SINR, CSI-SINR, SSB-SINR, and CSI reference signal received quality, CSI-RSRQ.

14. The method of any of claims 1 to 13, wherein a time delay or time to trigger is predefined.

15. The method of any of claims 1 to 14, wherein the triggering condition is met for a duration of time before the UE (2200) transmits the SRS.

16. The method of any of claims 1 to 15, wherein before transmitting (1112) the SRS, the UE (2200) indicates (1110) to the network node (3300) that the UE initiated SRS transmission will be performed.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the indication (1110) comprises information about which service link of each of the one or more applied unified TCI states has triggered the UE initiated SRS transmission.

18. The method of any of claims 1 to 17, wherein transmitting (1112) the SRS further comprises repeating the SRS over a plurality of OFDM symbols.

19. The method of any of claims 1 to 18, wherein transmitting (1112) the SRS further comprises transmitting a burst of SRS resources in different spatial fdters.

20. The method of any of claims 1 to 19, wherein the UE (2200) determines the best spatial fdter based on the measurements.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the burst of SRS resources comprises an SRS resource for each of the different spatial fdters, and wherein the UE receives an indication of which of the different spatial fdters to use for communicating (1120).

22. The method of claims 16 or 17, wherein the UE (2200) waits, after the indicating (1110) step, a period of time before transmitting (1112) the SRS, wherein the period of time corresponds to an application time delay received in the configuration.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the application time delay is specified according to a UE capability report or the specification.

24. The method of claims 22 or 23, wherein the transmitting (1112) occurs only if the response message is received within the application time delay.

25. The method of any of claims 1 to 24, further comprising indicating, via a UE capability message, the support of the UE initiated SRS transmission, the UE capability message comprising at least one of: support of periodically configured SRS resource for the UE initiated SRS transmission; support of aperiodic configured SRS resource for the UE initiated SRS transmission; maximum number of SRS resources supported for a transmission occasion of the UE initiated SRS transmission; minimum time distance between a PUCCH-SR transmission and the corresponding SRS transmission;support of gNB signaling approval or disapproval for an upcoming UE initiated SRS transmission; support of SRS repetition for the UE initiated SRS transmission with at least one of: support of maximum gap between the repeated SRS transmission, and maximum number of repetition; and support of SRS burst for the UE initiated SRS transmission with at least one of: maximum number of SRS transmissions within an SRS burst; support of maximum gap between the SRS transmission; and support of minimum gap between the SRS transmission.

26. The method of any of claims 1 to 25, wherein performing (1108) measurements comprise sweeping through a plurality of UE panels.

27. A method (1100) performed by a network node (3300) for configuring a user equipment (2200), UE, for initiating a Sounding Reference Signal, SRS, the method comprising: sending (1104) to the UE (2200) a configuration for the UE initiated SRS transmission; transmitting (1106) a plurality of downlink reference signals, DL-RS, to the UE (2200); and receiving (1110) from the UE (2200) an indication that the UE (2200) will transmit a UE initiated SRS transmission.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising: receiving (1102) from the UE (2200) an indication of support for UE initiated SRS transmission; receiving (1114) the SRS from the UE (2200), the SRS associated with a best new candidate DL-RS, wherein a new beam pair link is determined based on the SRS; communicating (1116) to the UE (2200) an indication of a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state switch; and communicating (1120) with the UE (2200) using the new beam pair link.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising transmitting a response message to the UE (2200), the response message approving the UE (2200) to transmit the SRS.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the response message is included in one of an uplink, UL, related downlink control information, DCI, a downlink related DCI, and a dedicated new DCI.

31. The method of claims 29 or 30, wherein the response message is a trigger of an aperiodic SRS resource set.

32. The method of any of claims 28 to 31, wherein receiving (1114) the SRS further comprises performing a sequential spatial fdter sweep repeated over a plurality of OFDM symbols.

33. A user equipment (2200), UE, for initiating a Sounding Reference Signal, SRS, comprising: processing circuitry (2202) configured to perform any of the steps of claims 1 to 26; and power supply circuitry (2208) configured to supply power to the processing circuitry (2202).

34. A user equipment (2200), UE, for initiating a Sounding Reference Signal, SRS, the UE (2200) comprising: an antenna (2222) configured to send and receive wireless signals; radio front-end circuitry (2220) connected to the antenna (2222) and to processing circuitry (2202), and configured to condition signals communicated between the antenna (2222) and the processing circuitry (2202); the processing circuitry (2202) being configured to perform any of the steps of claims 1 to 26; an input interface (2206) connected to the processing circuitry (2202) and configured to allow input of information into the UE (2200) to be processed by the processing circuitry (2206); an output interface (2206) connected to the processing circuitry (2202) and configured to output information from the UE (2200) that has been processed by the processing circuitry (2206); and a battery (2208) connected to the processing circuitry (2202) and configured to supply power to the UE (2200).

35. A network node (3300) for configuring a user equipment (2200), UE, for initiating a Sounding Reference Signal, SRS, the network node (3300) comprising: processing circuitry (3302) configured to perform any of the steps of any of claims 27 to 32; and power supply circuitry (3308) configured to supply power to the processing circuitry(3302).

36. The method of claim 19, wherein the UE (2200) comprises a plurality of UE panels and the different spatial filters correspond to different UE panels from the plurality of UE panels.

37. The method of claim 19, wherein the different spatial filters correspond to different beams of the panel.

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