Mobility reports for network energy savings

Abstract

In one embodiment, the disclosed subject matter includes a method performed at a user equipment comprising receiving a mobility command from a network node serving a radio resource; triggering a mobility operation that corresponds to the mobility command and is based on a network energy savings (NES) decision made at the network node; determining the NES decision made by the network node serving the radio resource; performing an NES based mobility operation if the NES decision is determined by the user equipment; and generating a mobility report indicating that the mobility operation is triggered due to an NES decision if the mobility operation succeeds or fails.

Description

MOBILITY REPORTS FOR NETWORK ENERGY SAVINGSTECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present disclosure relates generally to communications, and more particularly to methods and related mobile devices and mobile network nodes performing wireless and / or cellular based communications and signaling.BACKGROUND

[0002] Presently, energy consumption is a considerable challenge for fifth generation (5G) systems in scenarios where a primary contributor of the energy consumption is the radio unit of radio access network (RAN) system. Figure 1 illustrates an example of a new radio (“NR”) network (e.g., a 5th Generation (“5G”) network) including a 5G core (“5GC”) network 130, network nodes 120a-b (e.g., 5G base station (“gNB”)), multiple communication devices 110 (also referred to as user equipment (“UE”)).

[0003] The network power consumption for new radio (NR) systems is said to be less than long term evolution (LTE) systems because of its efficient design, i.e., no CRS and the SSB periodicity is 20 milliseconds (ms) by default. However, current implementations of NR may consume more energy compared to LTE, partly due to higher bandwidths (BWs), shorter TTIs, and the massive number of antennas used. This is still evident even at times when cells and beams are lightly loaded or serve no traffic or no users at all. To enable an energy efficient network, 3GPP initiated a study item (SI) on network energy savings in NR, which was presented in TR 38.864.

[0004] Following the SI phase, a new work item (WI) on network energy savings (NES) for NR was approved at RAN#98. The WI aims to specify the following enhancements:

[0005] Specify SSB-less SCell operation for inter-band CA for FR1 and co-located cells, if found feasible by RAN4 study, where a user equipment (UE) measures synchronization signal block (SSB) transmitted on a primary cell (PCell) or another secondary cell (SCell) for an SCell’ s time / frequency synchronization (including downlink automatic gain control (AGC)), and layer 1 / layer 3 (L1 / L3) measurements, including potential enhancement on SCell activation procedures if necessary [RAN4, RAN2].

[0006] Specify enhancement on a cell discontinuous transmission / discontinuous reception (DTX / DRX) mechanism including the alignment of cell DTX / DRX and UE DRX in RRC_CONNECTED mode, and inter-node information exchange on cell DTX / DRX [RAN2, RAN1, RAN3].

[0007] Notably, there is no change for SSB transmission due to cell DTX / DRX. Further, the impact to IDLE / INACTIVE UEs due to the above enhancement should be avoided.

[0008] The following techniques in spatial and power domains are also specified: specify necessary enhancements on channel state information (CSI) and beam management related procedures including measurement and report, and signaling to enable efficient adaptation of spatial elements (e.g., antenna ports, active transceiver chains) [RANI, RAN2]; specify necessary enhancements on CSI related procedures including measurement and report, and signaling to enable efficient adaptation of power offset values between physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and CSI-RS [RANI, RAN2]. Notably, the above objectives are only for UE specific channels / signals and the legacy UE CSI / CSI-RS capabilities applies when considering total number of CSI reports and requirements. The following techniques in spatial and power domains are further specified: specify mechanism(s) to prevent legacy UEs camping on cells adopting the Rel-18 NES techniques, if necessary [RAN2]; specify conditional handover (CHO) procedure enhancement(s) in case source / target cell is in NES mode [RAN2]; specify inter-node beam activation and enhancements on restricting paging in a limited area [RAN3]; and specify the corresponding radio resource management (RRM) and / or radio frequency (RF) core requirements, if necessary, for the above features [RAN4].SUMMARY

[0009] There currently exist certain challenge(s). The handover procedure in NR may fail due to a cell applying a NES technique, e.g., UL / DL degradation due to network energy saving policies may prevent the UE from successfully completing the mobility operation if the source or the target cell is applying cell DTX / DRX.

[0010] For example, the source cell or any other radio resource of a mobility operation enabled with NES capabilities may trigger the mobility procedure earlier than the optimal time and / or location that a mobility operation should be triggered. Hence, a mobility operation performed for NES purposes may result in a different performance, e.g., sub-optimally successful handover (HO) execution or even leading to a radio link failure. By leveraging existing mobility reports (e.g., SON reports), the network will not know that NES was active at the moment of the failure, and hence the network may erroneously classify the failure (e.g., failure due to Too Early handover). Similarly, if a cell decides to perform handover to a NES cell and the UE fails in performing the handover toward that cell and re-establish the connection to another cell, it might be classified as a HO to wrong cell, while the reason for the failure is not selecting the wrong cell but the NES policy performed at the target cell.

[0011] Similar problems may exist in case of successfully executed mobility operations, as the deteriorated performance of the target cell due to NES operation affecting the handover execution time and consequently the user plane interruption time might be misclassified with the legacy coverage issues.

[0012] In one embodiment, the disclosed subject matter includes a method performed at a user equipment comprising receiving a mobility command from a network node serving a radio resource, e.g., a source cell; triggering a mobility operation that corresponds to the mobility command and is based on a network energy savings (NES) decision made at the network node; determining the NES decision made by the network node serving the radio resource; performing an NES based mobility operation if the NES decision is determined by the user equipment; and generating a mobility report indicating that the mobility operation is triggered due to an NES decision if the mobility operation succeeds or fails.

[0013] In one embodiment, the disclosed subject matter includes a method comprising receiving, by a network node, at least one failure report; sharing an outcome of the at least one failure report with one or more other network nodes; utilizing the at least one failure report to adjust a next configuration of a NES feature that caused one or more failures indicated in the at least one failure report; and utilizing the at least one failure report to apply a policy that mitigates future handover failures.

[0014] In one embodiment, the disclosed subject matter includes a method comprising receiving, by a network node, at least one successful mobility report; utilizing the at least one successful mobility report to adjust a next configuration of a NES feature that caused a sub- optimal performance by a mobility operation indicated in the at least one successful mobility report; and utilizing the at least one successful mobility report to apply a policy that enhances future mobility procedures.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate certain non-limiting embodiments of inventive concepts. In the drawings:

[0016] Figure 1 depicts an example 5G communications network;

[0017] Figure 2 depicts an example scenario where a measurement report may be unsuccessfully communicated to the network;

[0018] Figure 3 depicts an example scenario where a handover command may be unsuccessfully communicated to the user equipment;

[0019] Figure 4 depicts an example user equipment information signaling procedure;

[0020] Figure 5 illustrates a flow chart depicting an exemplary method performed by a user equipment according to some embodiments;

[0021] Figure 6 illustrates a flow chart depicting an exemplary method performed by a user equipment according to some embodiments;

[0022] Figure 7 illustrates a flow chart depicting an exemplary method performed by a network node according to some embodiments;

[0023] Figure 8 illustrates a flow chart depicting an exemplary method performed by a network node according to some embodiments;

[0024] Figure 9 depicts a block diagram of a communication system in accordance with some embodiments;

[0025] Figure 10 is a block diagram of a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments;

[0026] Figure 11 is a block diagram of a network node in accordance with some embodiments;

[0027] Figure 12 is a block diagram of a host device in accordance with some embodiments; and

[0028] Figure 13 is a block diagram of a virtualization environment in accordance with some embodiments.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0029] The present disclosure is related to wireless communication systems and more particularly to utilizing mobility reports (e.g., self-organizing network (SON) reports), or the like, for network energy savings (NES). Upon triggering a reconfiguration with a synchronization procedure for a PCell or PSCell (including but not limited to the normal handover, conditional handover, PSCell change, or conditional PSCell change) due to a NES operation in a serving cell, the UE logs an indication in a report specifying that the mobility procedure is triggered due to a NES operation applied by the serving cell.

[0030] In general, when the radio link becomes degraded and the UE needs to send measurement reports, it is possible that those reports never reach the network since the uplink is degraded or even if they do, the network tries to respond with a handover command that may never reach the UE, either since the downlink is degraded. Figures 2 and 3 respectfully illustrate signaling diagrams 200 and 300, which depict when these two cases might happen. Notably, Figure 2 depicts an example scenario where a measurement report 202 sent by a UE 211 to asource node 212 may be unsuccessfully communicated to the network, e.g., after the UE 211 triggers an A3 event (see block 201). Similarly, Figure 3 depicts an example scenario where a handover command 303 may be unsuccessfully communicated to the UE 311, e.g., after the source node 312 receives a measurement report 302.

[0031] To remedy these failure cases, Conditional Handover (CHO) was introduced in 3GPP. The main motivation for this handover mechanism is to reduce the number of failure occurrences while a UE is moving, e.g., when a handover between cells fails, or when a connection fails before a handover (HO) is even triggered. In a conditional handover, instead of preparing one target cell as in a regular (non-CHO) handover, one or more candidate target cells are prepared in advance in the network. This enables the network to send the handover command to the UE at an earlier stage compared to a regular handover, i.e., the handover command is sent when the radio conditions are still good, rather than when the radio conditions begin to degrade as in a regular handover. When received, the UE stores the handover command (and the RRC configurations included in the message) instead of applying it immediately, and starts to evaluate the CHO trigger condition(s) configured by the network. The UE may the apply the stored handover command (and the associated RRC configuration) when the CHO trigger condition(s) configured by the network is satisfied for one of the configured candidate target cells. Afterwards, the UE executes the handover and connects to the target node as the UE would in a regular handover.

[0032] In a conditional handover, instead of transmitting the measurement report, the UE applies the stored handover command message (and the associated RRC configuration) when the CHO trigger condition is satisfied for one of the configured candidate target cells. The network may also configure two CHO trigger conditions for the UE and associate both to the stored handover command, i.e., the handover command is applied only if both CHO trigger conditions are fulfilled, e.g., conditions configured for different types of measurement quantities, like cell coverage represented by Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), and quality represented by Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ).

[0033] It is also possible that a failure is detected while the UE is monitoring the configured conditions. In legacy, the UE would perform cell selection and continue with a reestablishment procedure. However, with conditional handover, when the same type of failure is detected, e.g., a radio link failure or handover failure, the UE can prioritize a cell for which it has a stored handover command and, instead of performing re-establishment, the UE performs a conditional handover, which reduces the interruption time and the signaling over the air interface.

[0034] As mentioned above, procedure enhancements in CHO are proposed to target the NES scenarios. For example, a UE may be prepared with conditions related to a source / target gNB NES state where the term NES can be anything from a gNB completely turned off to a gNB operating in a relaxed manner with respect to one or more of time- (e.g., Cell DRX / DTX) and / or frequency- (operating with limited bandwidth), and / or power- (operating with reduced output power), and / or spatial (operating with fewer antennas) resources.

[0035] Handover Failure

[0036] For an intra-NR RAN handover, the source gNB triggers the Uu handover by sending an RRCReconfiguration message to the UE that contains the information required to access the target cell (including CellGroupConfig->spCellConfig->reconfigurationWithSync). The UE thus synchronizes to the target cell and completes the RRC handover procedure by sending an RRCReconfigurationComplete message to the target gNB.

[0037] However, there may be a failure in this handover process, in which case the UE will not be able to successfully complete random access on the target cell. Therefore, by the time the RRCReconfiguration message including reconfigurationWithSync is received, a timer is started (T304) and will continue to run until the UE successfully completes random access on the target cell.

[0038] If this timer expires, the UE will initiate RRC procedures for Reconfiguration with sync Failure, as defined in 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 38.331 and described below. Those procedures will store a variable with handover failure information which can be later requested by the network via UE information procedure as defined in TS 38.331, also described below:

[0039] During T304 expiry (Reconfiguration with sync Failure), the UE shall:1> if T304 of the MCG expires:2> release dedicated preambles provided in rach-ConfigDedicated if configured;2> revert back to the UE configuration used in the source PCell;2> store the following handover failure information in VarRLF-Report by setting its fields as follows:3> clear the information included in VarRLF-Report, if any;3> set the plmn-IdentityList to include the list of EPLMNs stored by the UE (i.e., includes the RPLMN);3> set the measResultLastServCell to include the RSRP, RSRQ and the available SINR, of the source PCell based on the available SSB and CSI-RS measurements collected up to the moment the UE detected handover failure;3> set the ssbRLMConfigBitmap and / or csi-rsRLMConfigBitmap in measResultLastServCell to include the radio link monitoring configuration of the source PCell;3> for each of the configured measObjectNR in which measurements are available;4> if the SS / PBCH block-based measurement quantities are available;5> set the measResultListNR in measResultNeighCells to include all the available measurement quantities of the best measured cells associated to the measObjectNR, other than the source PCell, ordered such that the cell with highest SS / PBCH block RSRP is listed first if SS / PBCH block RSRP measurement results are available, otherwise the cell with highest SS / PBCH block RSRQ is listed first if SS / PBCH block RSRQ measurement results are available, otherwise the cell with highest SS / PBCH block SINR is listed first, based on the available SS / PBCH block based measurements collected up to the moment the UE detected handover failure;6> for each neighbour cell included, include the optional fields that are available;4> if the CSI-RS based measurement quantities are available;5> set the measResultListNR in measResultNeighCells to include all the available measurement quantities of the best measured cells, other than the source PCell, ordered such that the cell with highest CSI-RS RSRP is listed first if CSI-RS RSRP measurement results are available, otherwise the cell with highest CSI-RS RSRQ is listed first if CSI-RS RSRQ measurement results are available, otherwise the cell with highest CSI-RS SINR is listed first, based on the available CSI-RS based measurements collected up to the moment the UE detected handover failure;6> for each neighbour cell included, include the optional fields that are available;3> for each of the configured EUTRA frequencies in which measurements are available;4> set the measResultListEUTRA in measResultNeighCells to include the best measured cells ordered such that the cell with highest RSRP is listed first if RSRP measurement results are available, otherwise the cell with highest RSRQ is listed first, and based on measurements collected up to the moment the UE detected radio link failure;5> for each neighbour cell included, include the optional fields that are available;NOTE 2: The measured quantities are filtered by the L3 filter as configured in the mobility measurement configuration. The measurements are based on the time domain measurement resource restriction, if configured. Blacklisted cells are not required to be reported.3> if detailed location information is available, set the content of the Locationinfo as follows:4> if available, set the commonLocationlnfo to include the detailed location information ;4> if available, set the bt-Locationlnfo to include the Bluetooth measurement results, in order of decreasing RSSI for Bluetooth beacons;4> if available, set the wlan-Locationlnfo to include the WLAN measurement results, in order of decreasing RSSI for WLAN APs;4> if available, set the sensor-Locationlnfo to include the sensor measurement results;3> set the failedPCellld to the global cell identity and tracking area code, if available, and otherwise to the physical cell identity and carrier frequency of the target PCell of the failed handover;3> include previousPCellld and set it to the global cell identity and tracking area code of the PCell where the last RRCReconfiguration message including reconfigurationWithSync was received;3> set the timeConnFailure to the elapsed time since reception of the last RRCReconfiguration message including the reconfigurationWithSync,3> set the connectionFailur eType to hofi3> set the c-RNTI to the C-RNTI used in the source PCell;3> set the absoluteFrequencyPointA to indicate the absolute frequency of the reference resource block associated to the random-access resources;3> set the locationAndBandwidth and subcarrierSpacing associated to the UL BWP of the randomaccess resources;3> set the msgl-FrequencyStart, msgl-FDM and msg 1 -SubcarrierSpacing associated to the randomaccess resources;3> set perRAInfoList to indicate random access failure information as specified in 5.3.10.3;2> initiate the connection re-establishment procedure as specified in subclause 5.3.7.NOTE 1: In the context above, "the UE configuration" includes state variables and parameters of each radio bearer.1> else if T304 of a secondary cell group expires:2> release dedicated preambles provided in rach-ConfigDedicated, if configured;2> initiate the SCG failure information procedure as specified in subclause 5.7.3 to report SCG reconfiguration with sync failure, upon which the RRC reconfiguration procedure ends;1> else if T304 expires when RRCReconfiguration is received via other RAT (HO to NR failure):2> reset MAC;2> perform the actions defined for this failure case as defined in the specifications applicable for the other RAT.

[0040] Figure 4 illustrates an example UE information procedure 400 that is used by Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) 412, which requests the UE 411 to report information. Notably, NG-RAN initiates the procedure by sending the UEInformationRequest message 401. In response, UE 411 replies with a UEInformationResponse message 402. In some embodiments, NG-RAN may initiate this procedure only after successful security activation.

[0041] Upon receiving the UEInformationRequest message 401, the UE 411 shall, only after successful security activation:1> if the logMeasReportReq is present and if the RPLMN is included in plmn-IdentityList stored in VarLogMeasReport.2> if VarLogMeasReport includes one or more logged measurement entries, set the contents of the logMeasReport in the UEInformationResponse message as follows:3> include the absoluteTimeStamp and set it to the value of absoluteTimelnfo in the VarLogMeasReport,3> include the traceReference and set it to the value of traceReference in the VarLogMeasRepor ,3> include the traceRecordingSessionRef and set it to the value of traceRecordingSessionRef in the VarLogMeasReport;3> include the tce-Id and set it to the value of tce-Id in the VarLogMeasReport,3> include the logMeasInfoList and set it to include one or more entries from VarLogMeasReport starting from the entries logged first;3> if the VarLogMeasReport includes one or more additional logged measurement entries that are not included in the logMeasInfoList within the UEInformationResponse message:4> include the logMeasAvailable',3> if the VarLogMeasReport includes one or more additional logged Bluetooth measurement entries that are not included in the logMeasInfoList within the UEInformationResponse message:4> include the logMeasAvailableBT',3> if the VarLogMeasReport includes one or more additional logged WLAN measurement entries that are not included in the logMeasInfoList within the UEInformationResponse message:4> include the logMeasAvailableWLAN', > if ra-ReportReq is set to true and the LIE has random access related information available in VarRA- Report and if the RPLMN is included in plmn-IdentityList stored in VarRA-ReporV.2> set the ra-Report in the UEInformationResponse message to the value of ra-Report in VarRA-Report\2> discard the ra-Report from VarRA-Report upon successful delivery of the UEInformationResponse message confirmed by lower layers; > if rlf-ReportReq is set to true'.2> if the LIE has radio link failure information or handover failure information available in VarRLF- Report and if the RPLMN is included in plmn-IdentityList stored in VarRLF-Report'.3> set timeSinceFailure in VarRLF-Report to the time that elapsed since the last radio link or handover failure in NR;3> set the rlf-Report in the UEInformationResponse message to the value of rlf-Report in VarRLF- Report',3> discard the rlf-Report from VarRLF-Report upon successful delivery of the UEInformationResponse message confirmed by lower layers;2> else if the LIE has radio link failure information or handover failure information available in VarRLF- Report of TS 36.331

[0010] and if the RPLMN is included in plmn-IdentityList stored in VarRLF- Report of TS 36.331

[0010] :3> set timeSinceFailure in VarRLF-Report of TS 36.331

[0010] to the time that elapsed since the last radio link or handover failure in EUTRA;3> set the rlf-Report in the UEInformationResponse message to the value of rlf-Report in VarRLF- Report',3> discard the rlf-Report from VarRLF-Report upon successful delivery of the UEInformationResponse message confirmed by lower layers;3> discard the rlf-Report from VarRLF-Report of TS 36.331

[0010] upon successful delivery of the UEInformationResponse message confirmed by lower layers; > if connEstFailReportReq is set to true and the LIE has connection establishment failure information in VarConnEstFailReport and if the RPLMN is equal to plmn-Identity stored in VarConnEstFailReport'.2> set timeSinceFailure in VarConnEstFailReport to the time that elapsed since the last connection establishment failure in NR;2> set the connEstFailReport in the UEInformationResponse message to the value of connEstFailReport in VarConnEstFailReport',2> discard the connEstFailReport from VarConnEstFailReport upon successful delivery of the UEInformationResponse message confirmed by lower layers;1> if the mobilityHistoryReportReq is set to true'.2> include the mobilityHistoryReport and set it to include entries from VarMobility History Report,2> include in the mobilityHistoryReport an entry for the current cell, possibly after removing the oldest entry if required, and set its fields as follows:3> set visitedCellld to the global cell identity of the current cell:3> set field timeSpent to the time spent in the current cell;1> if the logMeasReport is included in the UEInformationResponse'.2> submit the UEInformationResponse message to lower layers for transmission via SRB2;2> discard the logged measurement entries included in the logMeasInfoList from VarLogMeasReport upon successful delivery of the UEInformationResponse message confirmed by lower layers;1> else:2> submit the UEInformationResponse message to lower layers for transmission via SRB1.

[0042] Certain aspects of the disclosure and their embodiments may provide solutions to these or other challenges. Upon triggering a reconfiguration with a synchronization procedure for a PCell or PSCell (including but not limited to the normal handover, conditional handover, PSCell change, or conditional PSCell change) due to a NES operation in a serving cell, the UE logs an indication in a report specifying that the mobility procedure is triggered due to a NES operation applied by the serving cell.

[0043] In the case of successful execution of the mobility procedure to change the serving PCell, the UE logs the indication (that indicates the triggering of the reconfiguration with sync due to NES decision) in a successful handover report (SHR).

[0044] In the case of successful execution of the mobility procedure to change the serving PSCell, the UE logs the indication (that indicates the triggering of the reconfiguration with sync due to NES decision) in a successful PSCell change report (SPR).

[0045] In the case of failure in execution of the mobility procedure to change the serving PCell, the UE logs the indication (that indicates the triggering of the reconfiguration with sync due to NES decision) in the handover failure report (e.g., a RLF report or MCGFailurelnformation in the case of being able to perform MCG recovery in dual connectivity).

[0046] In the case of failure in execution of the mobility procedure to change the serving PSCell, the UE logs the indication (that indicates the triggering of the reconfiguration with sync due to NES decision) in the handover failure report (e.g., a RLF report orMCGFailurelnformation in the case of being able to perform MCG recovery in dual connectivity).

[0047] In some embodiments, the disclosed subject matter includes logging an indication in the mobility reports (e.g., SON reports) specifying that a mobility operation is triggered due to a NES decision applied by the radio resource, e.g., a source cell. As used herein, a radio resource may refer to one or more of the radio signals and / or the radio uplink / downlink channels of a cell as per the 3GPP standard. For instance, one example of a radio resource is a source cell, which is an area that is defined by the radio signals and / or channels supported by a source node and / or network node (e.g., a gNodeB, eNodeB, or the like). The indication, in the case of failed mobility operation, is logged in the failure reports (e.g., a RLF-report, or SCG Failure Information or MCG Failure information). The indication in the case of successful mobility operations will be logged in the successful mobility reports, such as successful handover report (SHR) or successful PSCell change / addition report (SPR).

[0048] Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantage(s). Based on the provided report, e.g., handover failure report in an REF-report container, the RAN nodes in charge of analyzing the failure report would be able to analyze the root cause of the failure that might not be the legacy mobility control parameters such as legacy A3 / A5 events, but the NES triggering mechanisms such as NES dedicated triggering conditions or an explicit NES based handover execution command. Hence, instead of incorrectly tuning the legacy mobility control parameters such as A3 / A5 events, the RAN node would be able to adjust the NES decisions in such a way that reduces the failure rates caused by the NES decisions.

[0049] The same advantage is applicable to the successful reconfiguration with sync scenarios, i.e., with the information provided in the successful reports (e.g., SHR and / or SPR) the RAN node would be enabled to differentiate the sub-optimal performance of the mobility operations caused by the NES decisions from the sub-optimal configuration of the mobility control parameters.

[0050] 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.

[0051] As used herein, the “NES decision” may be defined as a gNB decision that can be cell-specific or gNB-specific. In the latter case, the “cell NES decision determined by the UE” is considered that same as a “gNB cell decision determined by the UE”.

[0052] In some embodiments, the disclosed subject matter includes a first method (e.g., “Method- 1”) that is performed at a UE for a failed mobility operation. For example, the disclosed subject matter may comprise a method at a wireless device and / or terminal (e.g., a UE) to perform a mobility procedure (e.g., executing a reconfiguration with sync toward a target PCell or PSCell in dual connectivity) triggered by a NES decision and / or action at a serving RAN node. Figure 5 is a flow chart illustrating an example method and / or process 500 that is executed by a UE or other communication device. In some embodiments, process 500 may represent a software algorithm that is stored in memory and executed by one or more hardware processors (and / or processing circuitry) of a UE. For example, process 500 may be stored in memory 1010 and executed by processing circuitry 1002 as shown in Figure 10 and described below.

[0053] In block 502, process 500 includes receiving, by a UE operating at a radio resource (e.g., a source cell), a mobility command from a network node. In some embodiments, the method / process comprises receiving a mobility command which may include a “reconfiguration with sync” indication (e.g., for a PCell or PSCell).

[0054] In block 504, process 500 includes triggering a mobility operation corresponding to the mobility command and based on a NES decision made at the network node serving the radio resource (e.g., source cell). For example, the process may include triggering the mobility operation based on a NES decision and / or action made / taken at the serving / source node serving the serving cell (e.g., PCell or PSCell).

[0055] In block 506, process 500 includes determining, by the UE, the radio resource NES decision (e.g., source cell NES decision) made by the network node. For example, the radio resource NES decision may be determined by the UE according to one or more methods. In some embodiments, the mobility command may include an indication specifying that the mobility operation is due to a NES decision and / or action at the serving / source node. In some embodiments, the indication specifies that the NES based mobility trigger is received in a signal to the UE that is separate from the mobility command, such as via dedicated signaling (e.g., RRCReconfiguration) or broadcast signaling (i.e., SIB). In some embodiments, the NES based mobility trigger command may be derived implicitly, e.g., based on a radio triggering condition provided by the serving node or based on a supervision timer. In some embodiments, the NES decision (e.g., activation of NES at the serving cell) is signaled to the UE prior to the execution of the reconfiguration with sync, i.e., the UE is already configured with NES-based operations at the moment of mobility operation executions.

[0056] In block 508, process 500 includes performing the NES based mobility operation if the radio resource NES decision is determined by the UE.

[0057] In block 510, process 500 includes generating a report indicating that the mobility operation is triggered due to an NES decision if the mobility operation fails. For example, if the mobility operation fails (e.g., a handover failure or radio link failure), the method includes generating a report (e.g., a RLF report) and including an indication in the RLF report indicating that the mobility operation is triggered due to a NES operation / decision / action. Notably, the RLF report may include one or more of the information presented below.

[0058] In some embodiments, the indication specifying NES based mobility can be an explicit indication, e.g., a handover failure type or a conditional handover triggering event / condition that is customized / tailored for NES based mobility operations (e.g., A3 or A5 events designed for the NES based mobility). The indication may also specify that a radio resource NES decision (e.g., source cell NES decision) was determined by the UE when the mobility operation was executed, or indicated that the cause of the last executed handover before the failure was a “NES decision”.

[0059] In some embodiments, the indication indicating NES based mobility can be an implicit indication. In some embodiments, the time elapsed since the determination of the NES decision at the radio resource (e.g., source cell) and the execution of the mobility operation may be included in the RLF report. In some embodiments, the time elapsed since the determination of the NES decision at the radio resource and the mobility operation failure may be included in the RLF report. In some embodiments, the indication of the triggering condition determining the radio resource NES decision, e.g., reception of reconfiguration with synch including NES cause a lack of SSBs transmitted by the cell.

[0060] In some embodiments, an indication indicating whether a target cell NES decision is determined by the UE at the moment of mobility operation execution or at the moment of failure. For example, the target cell NES decision can be determined by the UE on the basis of an indication related to target cell NES decision indicated in the HO command provided by the target cell. In another embodiment, the target cell NES decision is indicated by the radio resource before the mobility operation execution (e.g., as part of CHO configuration). In another embodiment, the target cell NES decision is determined by the UE after the mobility operation completion as per cell NES decisions determined after being connected to the target cell and prior to the generation of the RLF report.

[0061] In some embodiments, an indication indicating whether a neighboring cell NES decision is determined by the UE at the moment of mobility operation execution or at themoment of failure, wherein the neighboring cell NES decision can be determined on the basis of the previous methods.

[0062] In block 512, process 500 includes indicating the availability of the failure report, wherein the failure report includes the indication of the NES based mobility operation. For example, the method of the disclosed subject matter may further include indicating the availability of the failure report, wherein the failure report includes the indication of the NES based mobility operation within the RLF report, upon returning back to connected state.

[0063] In block 514, process 500 includes sending the failure report to the network upon network request for the report. Sending the failure report to the network upon receiving a request for the report.

[0064] In some embodiments of method 500, the mobility report comprises a successful mobility report that includes either a successful handover report (SHR) or a successful PSCell change report (SPR) if the mobility operation succeeds. In some embodiments, the method further comprises indicating an availability of the successful mobility report, wherein the successful mobility report includes the indication of an NES based mobility operation. In some embodiments, the method further comprises sending the successful mobility report to one or more network nodes in a network upon receiving a request for the successful mobility report. In some embodiments, the method further comprises receiving a mobility report configuration (e.g., a self-organizing network report configuration) to generate the successful mobility report. In some embodiments, the mobility report comprises a failure report that includes either a radio link failure (RLF) report or a MCGFailurelnformation report if the mobility operation fails. In some embodiments, the method further comprises indicating an availability of the failure report, wherein the failure report includes the indication of an NES based mobility operation. In some embodiments, the method further comprises sending the failure report to one or more network nodes in a network upon receiving a request for the failure report.

[0065] In some embodiments of method 500, the method further comprises logging an indication in the mobility report specifying that a mobility operation is triggered due to a NES decision applied by the network node in the radio resource (e.g., source cell). In some embodiments, the network node is configured to analyze the mobility report to determine a root cause of a failure and / or sub-optimal performance of the mobile operation. In some embodiments, the network node is configured to adjust its NES decisions such that mobility operation failure rates are reduced. In some embodiments, the network node is configured to differentiate a sub-optimal performance of the mobility operations caused by NES decisions derived from a sub-optimal configuration of mobility control parameters.

[0066] In some embodiments, the disclosed subject matter may include a second method or process (e.g., “Method-2”) that is performed at a UE for the successful mobility operation. For example, the disclosed subject matter may comprise a method at a wireless device and / or terminal (e.g., UE) for performing a mobility procedure (e.g., executing a reconfiguration with sync toward a target PCell or PSCell in dual connectivity) triggered by a NES decision / action at the serving RAN node. Figure 6 illustrates a flow chart of an example method and / or process 600 executed by a UE or other communication device. In some embodiments, process 600 may represent a software algorithm that is stored in memory and executed by one or more hardware processors (and / or processing circuitry) of a UE. For example, process 600 may be stored in memory 1010 and executed by processing circuitry 1002 as shown in Figure 10 and described below. In block 602, process 600 includes receiving, by a UE, a mobility command from a network node. In some embodiments, the process may comprise receiving a mobility command which may include a “reconfiguration with sync” indication (e.g., for a PCell or PSCell).

[0067] In block 604, process 600 includes triggering a mobility operation corresponding to the mobility command and based on a NES decision made at the network node serving the radio resource (e.g., source cell). For example, the process may include triggering the mobility operation based on a NES decision and / or action made / taken at the source node serving the serving cell (i.e., the PCell or PSCell).

[0068] In block 606, process 600 includes determining, by the UE, the NES decision made by the network node. In some embodiments, the resource cell NES decision (e.g., source cell NES decision) may be determined by the UE according to one or more methods. In some embodiments, the mobility command including the reconfiguration with sync may include an indication indicating that the mobility operation is due to a NES decision and / or action at the serving / source node. In some embodiments, the indication indicating the NES based mobility trigger is received in a separate signal to the UE than the mobility command, e.g., via dedicated signaling (e.g., RRCReconfiguration) or broadcast signaling (e.g., SIB). In some embodiments, the NES based mobility trigger command may be derived implicitly, e.g., based on some radio triggering condition provided by the serving node or based on a supervision timer. In yet another embodiment, the radio resource NES decision (e.g., activation of NES at the serving source cell or radio resource) is signaled to the UE prior to the execution of the reconfiguration with sync, i.e., the UE is already configured with NES-based operations at the moment of mobility operation executions.

[0069] In block 608, process 600 includes receiving a mobility report configuration (e.g., SON report configuration) to generate a successful mobility report. In some embodiments, theUE may receive a mobility report configuration to generate a successful mobility report (e.g., SHR configuration for PCell change, or SPR configuration for PSCell change), including the conditions to generate a report. For example, one of the conditions to generate the report may be that the radio resource NES decision was determined by the UE at the moment of executing the reconfiguration with sync. In another embodiment, the “determined radio resource NES decision” is not included as a condition for the generation of the successful report.

[0070] In block 610, process 600 includes performing a NES based mobility operation.

[0071] In block 612, process 600 includes generating a report indicating that the mobility operation is triggered due to an NES decision. For example, if the mobility operation succeeds and UE generates a successful mobility report (such as SHR or SPR based on the received SON report configuration, or other received mobility report configuration), the method includes generating a report (e.g., SHR report) and including an indication in the report specifying that the mobility operation is triggered due to a NES operation / decision / action, wherein the successful mobility report may include one or more of the following information.

[0072] In some embodiments, an indication indicating whether neighboring cell NES decision is determined by the UE at the moment of mobility operation execution or prior to the generation of successful mobility report. Notably, the neighboring cell NES decision can be determined on the basis of the previous methods. In some embodiments, the above information are included in a successful mobility report only if one of the conditions to generate the successful mobility report is that “source cell NES decision was determined by the UE” at the moment of executing the reconfiguration with sync. Otherwise if such a condition is not included, the above information is not included in the successful mobility report that is generated.

[0073] In block 614, the process 600 includes indicating the availability of the successful mobility report, wherein the successful mobility report includes the indication of the NES based mobility operation, upon returning back to connected state. In block 616, the process 600 also includes sending the successful mobility report (e.g., SHR or SPR) to the network upon receiving a network request for the report.

[0074] In some embodiments, the disclosed subject matter includes methods and / or processes performed at a network node (e.g., gNB) for analyzing the successful mobility reports.

[0075] In some embodiments of method 600, the mobility report comprises a successful mobility report that includes either a successful handover report (SHR) or a successful PSCell change report (SPR) if the mobility operation succeeds. In some embodiments, the methodfurther comprises indicating an availability of the successful mobility report, wherein the successful mobility report includes the indication of an NES based mobility operation. In some embodiments, the method further comprises sending the successful mobility report to one or more network nodes in a network upon receiving a request for the successful mobility report. In some embodiments, the method further comprises receiving a self-organizing network report configuration to generate the successful mobility report. In some embodiments, the mobility report (e.g., SON report) comprises a failure report that includes either a radio link failure (RLF) report or a MCGFailurelnformation report if the mobility operation fails. In some embodiments, the method further comprises indicating an availability of the failure report, wherein the failure report includes the indication of an NES based mobility operation. In some embodiments, the method further comprises sending the failure report to one or more network nodes in a network upon receiving a request for the failure report.

[0076] In some embodiments of method 600, the method further comprises logging an indication in the mobility report specifying that a mobility operation is triggered due to a NES decision applied by the network node in the radio resource (e.g., source cell). In some embodiments, the network node is configured to analyze the mobility report to determine a root cause of a failure and / or sub-optimal performance of the mobile operation. In some embodiments, the network node is configured to adjust its NES decisions such that mobility operation failure rates are reduced. In some embodiments, the network node is configured to differentiate a sub-optimal performance of the mobility operations caused by NES decisions derived from a sub-optimal configuration of mobility control parameters.

[0077] In some embodiments, the disclosed subject matter may also include methods for analyzing failure mobility reports at the gNB. Figure 7 is a flow chart of an example method and / or process 700 executed by a network node, such as a gNB. In some embodiments, process 700 may represent a software algorithm that is stored in memory and executed by one or more hardware processors (and / or processing circuitry) of a network node. For example, process 700 may be stored in memory 1104 and executed by processing circuitry 1102 as shown in Figure 11 and described below. In some embodiments, the network node includes a radio access network node. In block 702, process 700 includes receiving at least one failure report. In some embodiments, a first network node receives the reports regarding HO failures.

[0078] In block 704, process 700 includes sharing an outcome of the at least one failure report with one or more other network nodes. For example, the first network node may subsequently share the failed outcome with one or more other nodes, e.g., a second networknode configured with a NES feature, particularly if the second node was the node for which the UE has reported a HO failure.

[0079] In block 706, process 700 includes utilizing the at least one failure report to adjust the next configuration of a NES feature that caused the failure. In some embodiments, the network node for which the UE has reported a mobility operation failure can use the received report to adjust the next configuration of a NES feature that caused the failure or perform another action to mitigate future failures. The network node may deduce that the legacy mobility control parameters applied to the normal mobility procedures are not the cause of the reported failure.

[0080] In block 708, process 700 includes utilizing the at least one failure report to apply a policy that mitigates future handover failures. In some embodiments, the node for which the UE has reported a failure can keep track of the failure reports and use the stored information for applying a policy that mitigates future HO failures. In one example, the node can use the HO failure records to modify or cancel the configuration of a NES feature that caused the failure based on a simple policy (i.e., the configuration of a NES feature is modified or cancelled if the number of failures excided a predefined threshold). In another example, the node can use a learning-based algorithm that determines the policy for mitigating future HO failures.

[0081] In some embodiments, the disclosed subject matter may also include methods for analyzing successful mobility reports at the gNB. Figure 8 is a flow chart of an example method and / or process 800 executed by a network node, such as a gNB. In some embodiments, process 800 may represent a software algorithm that is stored in memory and executed by one or more hardware processors (and / or processing circuitry) of a network node. For example, process 800 may be stored in memory 1104 and executed by processing circuitry 1102 as shown in Figure 11 and described below. In some embodiments, the network node includes a radio access network node. In block 802, process 800 includes receiving at least one successful mobility report.

[0082] In block 804, process 800 includes utilizing the at least one successful mobility report to adjust a next configuration of a network energy savings (NES) feature that caused a sub-optimal performance by a mobility operation indicated in the at least one successful mobility report. For example, the network node for which the UE has reported a sub-optimal successfully executed mobility operation can use the received SHR (in case of PCell mobility) or SPR (in case of PSCell related mobility) report to adjust the next configuration of a NES feature that caused the sub-optimal performance by the mobility operation. The network nodemay deduce that the legacy mobility control parameters applied to the normal mobility procedures are not the cause of the report and hence tries to analyze and optimize the NES operations instead.

[0083] In block 806, process 800 includes utilizing the at least one successful mobility report to apply a policy that enhances future mobility procedures. In some embodiments, the node for which the UE has reported a sub-optimal mobility operation can keep track of the successful mobility reports (e.g., SHR or SPR) and use the stored information for applying a policy that enhance the future mobility procedures. In one example, the node can use the SHR or SPR to modify or cancel the configuration of a NES feature that caused the sub-optimal mobility operation based on a simple policy (i.e., the configuration of a NES feature is modified or cancelled if the number of SHR / SPR exceeds a configurable threshold). In another example, the node can use a learning-based algorithm that determines the policy for mitigating future sub-optimal mobility procedure. In some embodiments, method 800 further includes sharing an outcome of the at least one successful mobility report with one or more other network nodes.

[0084] Figure 9 shows an example of a communication system 900 in accordance with some embodiments. In the example, the communication system 900 includes a telecommunication network 902 that includes an access network 904, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network 906, which includes one or more core network nodes 908. The access network 904 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes 910a and 910b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 910), or any other similar 3rdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP) access nodes or non-3GPP access points. Moreover, as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, a network node is not necessarily limited to an implementation in which a radio portion and a baseband portion are supplied and integrated by a single vendor. Thus, it will be understood that network nodes include disaggregated implementations or portions thereof. For example, in some embodiments, the telecommunication network 902 includes one or more Open-RAN (ORAN) network nodes. An ORAN network node is a node in the telecommunication network 902 that supports an ORAN specification (e.g., a specification published by the O-RAN Alliance, or any similar organization) and may operate alone or together with other nodes to implement one or more functionalities of any node in the telecommunication network 902, including one or more network nodes 910 and / or core network nodes 908.

[0085] Examples of an ORAN network node include an open radio unit (O-RU), an open distributed unit (O-DU), an open central unit (O-CU), including an O-CU control plane (O- CU-CP) or an O-CU user plane (O-CU-UP), a RAN intelligent controller (near-real time ornon-real time) hosting software or software plug-ins, such as a near-real time control application (e.g., xApp) or a non-real time control application (e.g., rApp), or any combination thereof (the adjective “open” designating support of an ORAN specification). The network node may support a specification by, for example, supporting an interface defined by the ORAN specification, such as an Al, Fl, Wl, El, E2, X2, Xn interface, an open fronthaul user plane interface, or an open fronthaul management plane interface. Moreover, an ORAN access node may be a logical node in a physical node. Furthermore, an ORAN network node may be implemented in a virtualization environment (described further below) in which one or more network functions are virtualized. For example, the virtualization environment may include an O-Cloud computing platform orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an 0-2 interface defined by the 0-RAN Alliance or comparable technologies. The network nodes 910 facilitate direct or indirect connection of user equipment (UE), such as by connecting UEs 912a, 912b, 912c, and 912d (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 912) to the core network 906 over one or more wireless connections.

[0086] 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 900 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 900 may include and / or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and / or other similar type of system.

[0087] The UEs 912 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 910 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes 910 are arranged, capable, configured, and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs 912 and / or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network 902 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 902.

[0088] In the depicted example, the core network 906 connects the network nodes 910 to one or more hosts, such as host 916. 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 906 includes one more core network nodes (e.g., corenetwork node 908) 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 908. 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).

[0089] The host 916 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network 904 and / or the telecommunication network 902, and may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. The host 916 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.

[0090] As a whole, the communication system 900 of Figure 9 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 specific standards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE), 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.

[0091] In some examples, the telecommunication network 902 is a cellular network that implements 3GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunications network 902 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network 902. For example, the telecommunicationsnetwork 902 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) / Massive loT services to yet further UEs.

[0092] In some examples, the UEs 912 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 904 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 904. 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).

[0093] In the example, the hub 914 communicates with the access network 904 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE 912c and / or 912d) and network nodes (e.g., network node 910b). In some examples, the hub 914 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub 914 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network 906 for the UEs. As another example, the hub 914 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 910, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub 914. As another example, the hub 914 may be a data collector that acts as temporary storage for UE data and, in some embodiments, may perform analysis or other processing of the data. As another example, the hub 914 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR headset, display, loudspeaker or other media delivery device, the hub 914 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 914 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and / or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub 914 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular if one or more of the UEs are low energy loT devices.

[0094] The hub 914 may have a constant / persistent or intermittent connection to the network node 910b. The hub 914 may also allow for a different communication scheme and / or schedule between the hub 914 and UEs (e.g., UE 912c and / or 912d), and between the hub 914 and the core network 906. In other examples, the hub 914 is connected to the core network 906 and / or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub 914 may be configured toconnect to an M2M service provider over the access network 904 and / or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 910 while still connected via the hub 914 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub 914 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 910b. In other embodiments, the hub 914 may be a non-dedicated hub - that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and network node 910b, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and / or end point for certain data channels.

[0095] Figure 10 shows a UE 1000 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, 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.

[0096] 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).

[0097] The UE 1000 includes processing circuitry 1002 that is operatively coupled via a bus 1004 to an input / output interface 1006, a power source 1008, a memory 1010, a communication interface 1012, and / or any other component, or any combination thereof.Certain UEs may utilize all or a subset of the components shown in Figure 10. 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.

[0098] The processing circuitry 1002 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 1010. The processing circuitry 1002 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 1002 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs).

[0099] In the example, the input / output interface 1006 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 1000. 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, a mouse, 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.

[0100] In some embodiments, the power source 1008 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 1008 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 1008 itself, and / or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE 1000 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source 1008. Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or othermodification to the power from the power source 1008 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the UE 1000 to which power is supplied.

[0101] The memory 1010 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 1010 includes one or more application programs 1014, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 1016. The memory 1010 may store, for use by the UE 1000, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

[0102] The memory 1010 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 embedded UICC (eUICC), integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as ‘SIM card.’ The memory 1010 may allow the UE 1000 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 1010, which may be or comprise a device -readable storage medium.

[0103] The processing circuitry 1002 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network using the communication interface 1012. The communication interface 1012 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 1022. The communication interface 1012 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 1018 and / or a receiver 1020 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical,frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter 1018 and receiver 1020 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., antenna 1022) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.

[0104] In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communication interface 1012 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 / internet protocol (TCP / IP), synchronous optical networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.

[0105] Regardless of the type of sensor, a UE may provide an output of data captured by its sensors, through its communication interface 1012, 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 reporting from 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).

[0106] 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.

[0107] 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, avoice 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 1000 shown in Figure 10.

[0108] 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.

[0109] 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.

[0110] Figure 11 shows a network node 1100 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 NR NodeBs (gNBs)), O-RAN nodes or components of an O-RAN node (e.g., O-RU, O-DU, O-CU).

[0111] 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, distributed units (e.g., in an O-RAN access node) 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).

[0112] Other examples of network nodes include multiple transmission point (multi-TRP) 5G access nodes, multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, 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).

[0113] The network node 1100 includes a processing circuitry 1102, a memory 1104, a communication interface 1106, and a power source 1108. The network node 1100 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, 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 1100 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 1100 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory 1104 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 1110 may be shared by different RATs). The network node 1100 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 1100, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, Zigbee, Z-wave, LoRaWAN, Radio FrequencyIdentification (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 1100.

[0114] The processing circuitry 1102 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 1100 components, such as the memory 1104, to provide network node 1100 functionality.

[0115] In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1102 includes a system on a chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1102 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1112 and baseband processing circuitry 1114. In some embodiments, the radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1112 and the baseband processing circuitry 1114 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 1112 and baseband processing circuitry 1114 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.

[0116] The memory 1104 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), read-only 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 computerexecutable memory devices that store information, data, and / or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry 1102. The memory 1104 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 1102 and utilized by the network node 1100. The memory 1104 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 1102 and / or any data received via the communication interface 1106. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1102 and memory 1104 is integrated.

[0117] The communication interface 1106 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 1106 comprises port(s) / terminal(s) 1116 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. The communication interface 1106also includes radio front-end circuitry 1118 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna 1110. Radio front-end circuitry 1118 comprises filters 1120 and amplifiers 1122. The radio front-end circuitry 1118 may be connected to an antenna 1110 and processing circuitry 1102. The radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1110 and processing circuitry 1102. The radio front-end circuitry 1118 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 1118 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 1120 and / or amplifiers 1122. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 1110. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 1110 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 1118. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 1102. In other embodiments, the communication interface may comprise different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0118] In certain alternative embodiments, the network node 1100 does not include separate radio front-end circuitry 1118, instead, the processing circuitry 1102 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna 1110. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 1112 is part of the communication interface 1106. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 1106 includes one or more ports or terminals 1116, the radio front-end circuitry 1118, and the RF transceiver circuitry 1112, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 1106 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 1114, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

[0119] The antenna 1110 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and / or receive wireless signals. The antenna 1110 may be coupled to the radio frontend circuitry 1118 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and / or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna 1110 is separate from the network node 1100 and connectable to the network node 1100 through an interface or port.

[0120] The antenna 1110, communication interface 1106, and / or the processing circuitry 1102 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 1110, the communication interface 1106, and / or the processing circuitry 1102 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.

[0121] The power source 1108 provides power to the various components of network node 1100 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source 1108 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 1100 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node 1100 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 1108. As a further example, the power source 1108 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.

[0122] Embodiments of the network node 1100 may include additional components beyond those shown in Figure 11 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 1100 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 1100 and to allow output of information from the network node 1100. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 1100.

[0123] Figure 12 is a block diagram of a host 1200, which may be an embodiment of the host 916 of Figure 9, in accordance with various aspects described herein. As used herein, the host 1200 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 1200 may provide one or more services to one or more UEs.

[0124] The host 1200 includes processing circuitry 1202 that is operatively coupled via a bus 1204 to an input / output interface 1206, a network interface 1208, a power source 1210, and a memory 1212. 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 Figures 10 and 11, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of host 1200.

[0125] The memory 1212 may include one or more computer programs including one or more host application programs 1214 and data 1216, which may include user data, e.g., data generated by a UE for the host 1200 or data generated by the host 1200 for a UE. Embodimentsof the host 1200 may utilize only a subset or all of the components shown. The host application programs 1214 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 1214 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 1200 may select and / or indicate a different host for over-the-top services for a UE. The host application programs 1214 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.

[0126] Figure 13 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 1300 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 virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtual environments 1300 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. In some embodiments, the virtualization environment 1300 includes components defined by the O-RAN Alliance, such as an O-Cloud environment orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an O-2 interface.

[0127] Applications 1302 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualization environment Q400 to implement some of the features, functions, and / or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.

[0128] Hardware 1304 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and / or instructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and / or other hardware devices asdescribed 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 1306 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs 1308a and 1308b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs 1308), and / or perform any of the functions, features and / or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer 1306 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the VMs 1308.

[0129] The VMs 1308 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 1306. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 1302 may be implemented on one or more of VMs 1308, 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.

[0130] In the context of NFV, a VM 1308 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 1308, and that part of hardware 1304 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 1308 on top of the hardware 1304 and corresponds to the application 1302.

[0131] Hardware 1304 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware 1304 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 1304 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 1310, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications 1302. In some embodiments, hardware 1304 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 1312 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.

[0132] 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.

[0133] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may be provided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain 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.EMBODIMENTS1. A method performed by a user equipment, the method comprising: receiving (502, 602) a mobility command from a network node serving a source cell; triggering (504, 604) a mobility operation that corresponds to the mobility command and is based on a network energy savings, NES, decision made at the network node; determining (506, 606) the NES decision made by the network node serving the source cell; performing (508, 610) an NES based mobility operation if the NES decision is determined by the user equipment; and generating (510, 612) a network report indicating that the mobility operation is triggered due to an NES decision if the mobility operation succeeds or fails.2. The method of embodiment 1 wherein the network report comprises a successful mobility report that includes either a successful handover report, SHR, or a successful PSCell change report, SPR, if the mobility operation succeeds.3. The method of any of embodiments 1 and 2 further comprising indicating an availability of the successful mobility report, wherein the successful mobility report includes the indication of an NES based mobility operation.4. The method of any of embodiments 1-3 further comprising sending the successful mobility report to one or more network nodes in a network upon receiving a request for the successful mobility report.5. The method of any of embodiments 1-4 further comprising receiving a self-organizing network, SON, report configuration to generate the successful mobility report.6. The method of embodiment 1 wherein the network report comprises a failure report that includes either a radio link failure (RLF) report or a MCGFailurelnformation report if the mobility operation fails.7. The method of any of embodiments 1 and 6 further comprising indicating an availability of the failure report, wherein the failure report includes the indication of an NES based mobility operation.8. The method of any of embodiments 1 and 6-7 further comprising sending the failure report to one or more network nodes in a network upon receiving a request for the failure report.9. The method of any of embodiments 1-8 further comprising logging an indication in the network report specifying that a mobility operation is triggered due to a NES decision applied by the network node in the source cell.10. The method of any of embodiments 1-9 wherein the network node is configured to analyze the network report to determine a root cause of a failure and / or sub-optimal performance of the mobile operation.11. The method of any of embodiments 1-10 wherein the network node is configured to adjust its NES decisions such that mobility operation failure rates are reduced.12. The method of any of embodiments 1-11 wherein the network node is configured to differentiate a sub-optimal performance of the mobility operations caused by NES decisions derived from a sub-optimal configuration of mobility control parameters.13. A method performed by a network node, the method comprising: receiving (702), by the network node, at least one failure report; sharing (704) an outcome of the at least one failure report with one or more other network nodes; utilizing (706) the at least one failure report to adjust a next configuration of a network energy savings, NES, feature that caused one or more failures indicated in the at least one failure report; and utilizing (708) the at least one failure report to apply a policy that mitigates future handover failures.14. The method of embodiment 13 wherein the network node includes a radio access network, RAN, node.15. A method performed by a network node, the method comprising: receiving (802), by the network node, at least one successful mobility report;utilizing (804) the at least one successful mobility report to adjust a next configuration of a network energy savings, NES, feature that caused a sub-optimal performance by a mobility operation indicated in the at least one successful mobility report; and utilizing (806) the at least one successful mobility report to apply a policy that enhances future mobility procedures.16. The method of embodiment 15 wherein the network node includes a radio access network, RAN, node.17. The method of any of embodiments 14-16 further comprising sharing an outcome of the at least one successful mobility report with one or more other network nodes.18. A user equipment for utilizing self-organizing network reports for network energy savings, comprising: processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of embodiments 1- 12; and power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the processing circuitry.19. A network node for utilizing self-organizing network reports for network energy savings, the network node comprising: processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of embodiments 13- 17; and power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the processing circuitry.20. A user equipment, UE, for utilizing self-organizing network reports for network energy savings, the UE comprising: 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 any of the embodiments 1-12; 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.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A method performed by a user equipment (1200), the method comprising: receiving (502, 602) a mobility command from a network node serving a radio resource; triggering (504, 604) a mobility operation that corresponds to the mobility command and is based on a network energy savings, NES, decision made at the network node (1100); determining (506, 606) the NES decision made by the network node serving the radio resource; performing (508, 610) an NES based mobility operation if the NES decision is determined by the user equipment; and generating (510, 612) a mobility report indicating that the mobility operation is triggered due to an NES decision if the mobility operation succeeds or fails.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the mobility report comprises a successful mobility report that includes either a successful handover report, SHR, or a successful PSCell change report, SPR, if the mobility operation succeeds.

3. The method of any of claims 1 and 2 further comprising indicating an availability of the successful mobility report, wherein the successful mobility report includes the indication of an NES based mobility operation.

4. The method of any of claims 1-3 further comprising sending the successful mobility report to one or more network nodes in a network upon receiving a request for the successful mobility report.

5. The method of any of claims 1-4 further comprising receiving a self-organizing network, SON, report configuration to generate the successful mobility report.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the mobility report comprises a failure report that includes either a radio link failure, RLF, report or a MCGFailurelnformation report if the mobility operation fails.

7. The method of any of claims 1-6 further comprising indicating an availability of the failure report, wherein the failure report includes the indication of an NES based mobility operation.

8. The method of any of claims 1-7 further comprising sending the failure report to one or more network nodes in a network upon receiving a request for the failure report.

9. The method of any of claims 1-8 further comprising logging an indication in the mobility report specifying that a mobility operation is triggered due to a NES decision applied by the network node for the radio resource.

10. The method of any of claims 1-9 wherein the network node is configured to analyze the mobility report to determine a root cause of a failure and / or sub-optimal performance of the mobile operation.

11. The method of any of claims 1-10 wherein the network node is configured to adjust its NES decisions such that mobility operation failure rates are reduced.

12. The method of any of claims 1-11 wherein the network node is configured to differentiate a sub-optimal performance of the mobility operations caused by NES decisions derived from a sub-optimal configuration of mobility control parameters.

13. The method of any of claims 1-12 wherein the radio resource is as source cell.

14. A user equipment (1000) comprising: processing circuitry (1002); and at least one memory (1010) storing instructions executable by the processing circuitry to perform operations to: receive (502, 602) a mobility command from a network node serving a radio resource; trigger (504, 604) a mobility operation that corresponds to the mobility command and is based on a network energy savings, NES, decision made at the network node; determine (506, 606) the NES decision made by the network node serving the radio resource; perform (508, 610) an NES based mobility operation if the NES decision is determined by the user equipment; and generate (510, 612) a mobility report indicating that the mobility operation is triggered due to an NES decision if the mobility operation succeeds or fails.

15. The user equipment of claim 14, wherein the at least one memory stores further instructions executable by the processing circuitry to perform further operations comprising operations of any one of claims 2 to 13.

16. A method performed by a network node (1100), the method comprising: receiving (702), by the network node, at least one failure report; sharing (704) an outcome of the at least one failure report with one or more other network nodes; utilizing (706) the at least one failure report to adjust a next configuration of a network energy savings, NES, feature that caused one or more failures indicated in the at least one failure report; and utilizing (708) the at least one failure report to apply a policy that mitigates future handover failures.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the network node includes a radio access network, RAN, node.

18. A network node (1100) comprising : processing circuitry (1102); and at least one memory (1104) storing instructions executable by the processing circuitry to perform operations to: receive (702) at least one failure report; share (704) an outcome of the at least one failure report with one or more other network nodes; utilize (706) the at least one failure report to adjust a next configuration of a network energy savings, NES, feature that caused one or more failures indicated in the at least one failure report; and utilize (708) the at least one failure report to apply a policy that mitigates future handover failures.

19. The network node of claim 18, wherein the at least one memory stores further instructions executable by the processing circuitry to perform further operations comprising operations of claim 17.

20. A method performed by a network node (1100), the method comprising: receiving (802), by the network node, at least one successful mobility report; utilizing (804) the at least one successful mobility report to adjust a next configuration of a network energy savings, NES, feature that caused a sub-optimal performance by a mobility operation indicated in the at least one successful mobility report; and utilizing (806) the at least one successful mobility report to apply a policy that enhances future mobility procedures.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the network node includes a radio access network, RAN, node.

22. The method of any of claims 20-21 further comprising sharing an outcome of the at least one successful mobility report with one or more other network nodes.

23. A network node (1100) comprising: processing circuitry (1102); and at least one memory (1104) storing instructions executable by the processing circuitry to perform operations to: receive (802), by the network node, at least one successful mobility report; utilize (804) the at least one successful mobility report to adjust a next configuration of a network energy savings, NES, feature that caused a sub-optimal performance by a mobility operation indicated in the at least one successful mobility report; and utilize (806) the at least one successful mobility report to apply a policy that enhances future mobility procedures.

24. The network node of claim 23, wherein the at least one memory stores further instructions executable by the processing circuitry to perform further operations comprising operations of any of claims 21 to 22.

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