Energy Saving in Cellular Communication Networks

Abstract

According to an example aspect of the present disclosure, an apparatus is provided, comprising: means for determining that a change of a measurement relaxation status of the apparatus to another measurement relaxation status has been triggered; means for determining whether to change the measurement relaxation status to the other measurement relaxation status before a measurement relaxation related event occurs; and means for transmitting a report regarding the other measurement relaxation status to a radio network node.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] Various exemplary embodiments relate generally to cellular communication networks, and more particularly, to power conservation in such networks. [Background technology]

[0002] Typically, user equipment (UE) has limited power. Therefore, it is important to save the power of the UE in various cellular networks, such as networks operating according to Long Term Evolution LTE and / or 5G radio access technologies. The 5G radio access technology may also be referred to as new wireless NR access technology. LTE has been widely deployed since its introduction, and the Third Generation Partnership Project 3GPP continues to develop LTE. Similarly, 3GPP is also developing standards for 5G / NR. One of the topics in 3GPP discussions is the power consumption of UEs, and there is a need to provide enhanced methods, apparatus, and computer programs for saving the power of UEs in cellular communication networks. Such enhancements may also be beneficial in other cellular communication networks, such as future 6G networks. Summary of the Invention

[0003] According to some aspects, the subject matter of the independent claims is provided. Some exemplary embodiments are defined in the dependent claims.

[0004] The scope of protection sought for various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure is set out in the independent claims. The exemplary embodiments and features described herein that do not fall within the scope of the independent claims, if any, should be interpreted as examples that serve to understand the various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0005] According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an apparatus, comprising: means for determining that a change of a measurement relaxation status of the apparatus to another measurement relaxation status is triggered, means for determining whether to change the measurement relaxation status to the other measurement relaxation status before a measurement relaxation related event occurs, and means for transmitting a report regarding the other measurement relaxation status to a radio network node. The apparatus of the first aspect may be a user equipment, or possibly a control device configured to control functions of the user equipment when installed in the user equipment.

[0006] Exemplary embodiments of the first aspect may include at least one feature from the following bulleted list, or any combination of the following features. Measurement mitigation related events are the sending of a report on other measurement mitigation status to a radio network node or expiry of the device's user equipment UE assistance information prohibit timer. The device is in measurement relaxation mode before the change and in non-measurement relaxation mode after the change, or the device is in non-measurement relaxation mode before the change and in measurement relaxation mode after the change, and the device is allowed to relax measurements in measurement relaxation mode and the device is not allowed to relax measurements in non-measurement relaxation mode. · The measurement relaxation status is the status in which the measurement is relaxed and the other measurement relaxation status is the status in which the measurement is not relaxed, or the measurement relaxation status is the status in which the measurement is not relaxed and the other measurement relaxation status is the status in which the measurement is relaxed. The apparatus further comprises means for determining whether the apparatus is allowed to change the measurement mitigation status of the apparatus based on the status of the UE assistance information prohibit timer and other measurement mitigation status. · The status of the UE assistance information prohibit timer is running or not started. · Other mitigation status depends on whether measurement mitigation conditions are met. The apparatus further comprises means for determining whether to change a measurement mitigation status of the apparatus while the UE assistance information prohibit timer is running. The apparatus further comprises means for determining to change a measurement mitigation status of the apparatus while a UE assistance information prohibition timer is running, and means for changing the measurement mitigation status to another measurement mitigation status before a measurement mitigation related event occurs. The apparatus further comprises means for determining, when a measurement mitigation condition is not satisfied while the UE assistance information prohibition timer is running, to change a measurement mitigation status of the apparatus before a measurement mitigation related event occurs, and means for changing the measurement mitigation status to another measurement mitigation status before a measurement mitigation related event occurs. The apparatus further comprises means for determining to change a measurement relaxation status of the apparatus after a measurement relaxation related event occurs if a measurement relaxation condition is met while the UE assistance information prohibition timer is running, and means for changing the measurement relaxation status to another measurement relaxation status after a measurement relaxation related event occurs. The apparatus further comprises means for determining to change a measurement mitigation status of the apparatus before a measurement mitigation related event occurs if the UE assistance information prohibition timer has not been started when a measurement mitigation condition is met and reported. The apparatus further comprises means for reporting that the measurement mitigation status of the apparatus has changed to another measurement mitigation status before sending a report regarding the other measurement mitigation status to the radio network node. The device further comprises means for reporting how long before sending a report to the radio network node regarding another measurement mitigation status of the device that the measurement mitigation status of the device has changed. The device further comprises means for receiving a configuration, the configuration indicating whether the device is allowed to change the measurement mitigation status of the device before sending a report on another measurement mitigation status of the device to the radio network node. The apparatus further comprises means for receiving a configuration, the configuration indicating whether the apparatus is allowed to change a measurement mitigation status of the apparatus while the UE assistance information prohibit timer is running. The measurement mitigation status and the other measurement mitigation status include at least one of radio resource management (RRM), radio link monitoring (RLM), and beam failure detection (BFD) measurement mitigation status. The device further comprises means for deciding to change the measurement mitigation status of the device if the conditions of the RRM or RLM or BFD measurement mitigation conditions are met for a certain period of time (i.e. are always satisfied, i.e. must be satisfied, during this period of time). Sending a report on the measurement relaxation status to the radio network node is performed if the conditions of the RRM or RLM or BFD measurement relaxation conditions are met for a certain period of time. The device further comprises means for deciding to change a measurement mitigation status of the device and for transmitting a report on the measurement mitigation status when the mitigation status of the device differs from a previously transmitted measurement mitigation status. The first mitigation status report sent by the device indicates that an RRM or RLM or BFD measurement mitigation condition is met. The first measurement relaxation status report is triggered the first time the measurement relaxation condition is met after configuration.

[0007] According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an apparatus, comprising means for receiving, from a user equipment, a report indicating a change of a measurement relaxation status of the user equipment to another measurement relaxation status. The apparatus of the first aspect may be a radio network node, or possibly a control device configured to control functionality of the radio network node when installed within the radio network node.

[0008] Exemplary embodiments of the first aspect may include at least one feature from the following bulleted list, or any combination of the following features. · receiving a report from the user equipment indicating that the measurement mitigation status of the user equipment has changed to another measurement mitigation status prior to sending a report on the other measurement mitigation status; The apparatus further comprises means for receiving a report from the user equipment indicating how long prior to the transmission of a report regarding another measurement mitigation status of the user equipment the measurement mitigation status of the user equipment was changed. The apparatus further comprises means for transmitting a configuration, the configuration indicating whether the user equipment is permitted to change its measurement mitigation status before transmitting a report on another measurement mitigation status. The apparatus further comprises means for transmitting a configuration, the configuration indicating whether the user equipment is allowed to change its measurement mitigation status while the UE assistance information prohibition timer is running.

[0009] According to a third aspect, there is provided a first method, comprising: determining that a change of a measurement relaxation status of an apparatus to another measurement relaxation status is triggered, determining whether to change the measurement relaxation status to the other measurement relaxation status before a measurement relaxation related event occurs, and transmitting a report on the other measurement relaxation status to a radio network node. The first method may be performed by a user equipment, or possibly by a control device configured to control functionality of the user equipment when installed within the user equipment.

[0010] According to a fourth aspect, there is provided a second method comprising receiving, from a user equipment, a report indicating a change of a measurement relaxation status of the user equipment to another measurement relaxation status. The second method may be performed by a radio network node or possibly by a control device configured to control functionality of the radio network node when installed within the radio network node.

[0011] According to a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an apparatus comprising at least one processing core and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to cause the apparatus, using the at least one processing core, to at least perform the following: determining that a change of a measurement relaxation status of the apparatus to another measurement relaxation status has been triggered; determining whether to change the measurement relaxation status to the other measurement relaxation status before a measurement relaxation related event occurs; and transmitting a report regarding the other measurement relaxation status to a radio network node. The apparatus of the fifth aspect may be a user equipment or, in some cases, a control device configured to control functions of the user equipment when installed in the user equipment.

[0012] According to a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an apparatus comprising at least one processing core and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to cause, using the at least one processing core, the apparatus to at least perform: receiving, from a user equipment, a report indicating a change of a measurement relaxation status of the user equipment to another measurement relaxation status. The apparatus of the sixth aspect may be a radio network node, or possibly a control device configured to control functionality of the radio network node when installed within the radio network node.

[0013] According to a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a set of computer readable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause an apparatus to perform at least a first method. According to an eighth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a set of computer readable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause an apparatus to perform at least a second method.

[0014] According to a ninth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer program comprising instructions that, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform a first method. According to a tenth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer program comprising instructions that, when executed by the apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform a second method. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0015] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 illustrates an example network scenario in accordance with at least some example embodiments. [Diagram 2] 1 is an illustration of a signaling graph according to at least some example embodiments. [Diagram 3] FIG. 1 illustrates an example device capable of supporting at least some of the example embodiments. [Figure 4] 1 is a flow graph of a method in accordance with at least some example embodiments. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0016] The procedure described herein may enhance power saving in a cellular communication network. More specifically, the operation regarding measurement relaxation may be enhanced. The user equipment UE may determine whether to change the measurement relaxation status currently used to another measurement relaxation status before a measurement relaxation related event occurs, such as sending a report regarding another measurement relaxation status to a radio network node or expiry of a UE assistance information UAI prohibit timer. If the UE decides to change the measurement relaxation status before a measurement relaxation related event occurs, the UE may do so immediately, making the process more efficient. Then, the UE may send a report regarding the other measurement relaxation status to the radio network node after the change. If the UE relaxes measurements, the UE may perform measurements less frequently compared to when the UE does not relax measurements. Since performing measurements consumes UE power, measurement relaxation saves UE power. If the measurement relaxation is not stopped in a timely manner by the UE, radio link failure or handover failure may occur because the neighboring cells of the handover candidate are not measured early enough.

[0017] Figure 1 illustrates an example network scenario according to at least some example embodiments. According to the example network scenario of Figure 1, there may be a cellular communication system including a UE 110, a radio network node 120, and a core network element 130. The UE 110 may be connected to the radio network node 120 via an air interface 115, and the radio network node 120 may be connected to the core network 130 via a wired interface 125. In some example embodiments, the air interface 115 may be a beam-based interface.

[0018] The UE 110 may comprise, for example, a smartphone, a mobile phone, a machine-to-machine M2M node, a machine-type communication MTC node, a RedCap UE (reduced functionality UE) node, an Internet of Things IoT node, an automotive telemetry unit, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, or indeed any kind of suitable wireless terminal, e.g., a relay. The radio network node 120 may be considered a serving node for the UE 110, and one cell of the radio network node 120 may be a serving cell for the UE 110.

[0019] The air interface 115 between the UE 110 and the radio network node 120 may be configured according to a radio access technology RAT that both the UE 110 and the radio network node 120 are configured to support. Examples of cellular RATs include Long Term Evolution LTE, New Radio NR, which may also be referred to as fifth generation 5G radio access technology, and MulteFire. For example, in the context of LTE, the radio network node 120 may be referred to as an eNB, and in the context of NR, the radio network node 120 may be referred to as a gNB. In some exemplary embodiments, the radio network node 120 may be referred to as a transmission / reception point TRP, or may control multiple TRPs that may or may not be co-located. In some exemplary embodiments, the radio network node 120 may be a relay. In any event, the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to any particular radio technology. Instead, the exemplary embodiments may be utilized in any cellular communication network in which relaxed measurements are used.

[0020] Radio network node 120 may be connected to core network 130 via interface 125, either directly or via at least one intermediate node. Core network 130 in turn may be coupled to other networks (not shown in FIG. 1 ) via interface 135, which may provide connectivity to further networks, for example via a global interconnection network. Radio network node 120 may be connected to core network 130 or other core networks, either directly or via at least one intermediate node.

[0021] In some example embodiments, the network scenario may include a relay node instead of or in addition to the UE 110 and / or the radio network node 120. A relay may be used, for example, when operating at mmWave frequencies. An example of a relay node may be an integrated access and backhaul IAB node. An IAB node may also be referred to as a self-backhaul relay. Another example of a relay may be an out-band relay. In general, a relay node may include two parts: 1) A distributed unit (DU) portion that may facilitate the functionality of a radio network node 120, such as a gNB. Thus, in some exemplary embodiments, the DU portion of the relay may be referred to as a radio network node 120, and the DU may perform the tasks of the radio network node 120. 2) A Mobile Termination MT portion that may facilitate the functionality of the UE 110, i.e., a backhaul link that may be a communication link between a parent node (DU), such as the DU portion of the radio network node 120, and a relay, such as an IAB node. In some exemplary embodiments, the MT portion may be referred to as the UE 110 and may perform the tasks of the UE 110.

[0022] In some example embodiments of the present disclosure, a prohibition timer may be configured for the UAI to limit how often the UE 110 transmits the UAI. While the UAI prohibition timer is running, the UE 110 may not be permitted to transmit the UAI. Thus, power savings may be achieved by relaxing measurements of the UE 110, such as radio resource management RRM, radio link management RLM, and / or beam failure detection BFD measurements, if the UE 110 meets at least one measurement relaxation criterion. The criteria may be related to, for example, measurements of signal power (e.g., reference signal received power RSRP) or quality (e.g., reference signal received quality RSRQ). The measurements may be cell or beam level measurements.

[0023] Some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied to the processing of UAIs, particularly for RRM / RLM / BFD mitigation. For example, the UAI may be used to report the measurement mitigation status of the UE 110 to the radio network node 120. For example, the UAI may be used to report changes in the measurement mitigation status of the UE 110 to the radio network node 120. In some exemplary embodiments, the measurement mitigation status may indicate whether the conditions for RRM / RLM / BFD measurement mitigation are met or not. When using the UAI to report the measurement mitigation status, a prohibition timer may be required. For example, the UAI prohibition timer may be used to prevent the UE 110 from reporting the measurement mitigation status to the radio network node 120 too frequently. In some exemplary embodiments, other messages or procedures may be used instead of the UAI to report the measurement mitigation status or changes in the measurement mitigation status of the UE 110 to the radio network node 120. For example, a new radio resource control RRC message or RRC procedure may be defined for this reporting. In the remainder of the present disclosure, the exemplary embodiments are described with reference to the UAI, but it should be understood that the same embodiments may also be applied to other procedures or messages.

[0024] A network node, such as radio network node 120, may be able to set a prohibition timer for the UAI to limit how often UE 110 transmits the UAI. While the prohibition timer is running, UE 110 is not permitted to transmit the UAI, and if the prohibition timer is used for a UAI that carries a measurement mitigation status, such as the RRM / RLM / BFD mitigation status of UE 110, the UE 110 cannot immediately report the mitigation status even if the measurement mitigation status of UE 110 changes. In some exemplary embodiments, the prohibition timer may be set generally for any UAI transmission by UE 110, or the prohibition timer may be set specifically for measurement mitigation status reporting. For example, the prohibition timer may be common or different between RRM, RLM, and BFD-based measurement mitigation status reporting.

[0025] Accordingly, certain example embodiments of the present disclosure enable utilizing the UAI prohibit timer for measurement mitigation status reporting while at the same time allowing or preventing the UE 110 from changing the measurement mitigation status even when the UAI prohibit timer is running, e.g., by the radio network node 120, the UE 110 itself or by predefined rules.

[0026] In some exemplary embodiments, the UE 110 may change the measurement relaxation status even if a UAI prohibit timer for measurement relaxation reports, such as RRM / RLM / BFD relaxation reports, is running. The UE 110 may determine that a change of the measurement relaxation status of the UE 110 to another measurement relaxation status is triggered, and then decide to change the measurement relaxation status to another measurement relaxation status before a measurement relaxation related event occurs, e.g., while a UAI prohibit timer is running, or before a report regarding the other measurement relaxation status is transmitted. That is, the measurement relaxation related event may be a transmission of a report regarding the other measurement relaxation status to the radio network node 120 or an expiration of the UAI prohibit timer of the UE 110. The UE 110 may then transmit a report regarding the other measurement relaxation status to the radio network node. The report may be transmitted as a UAI or as another procedure / message. The report may indicate a measurement relaxation condition. For example, the report may indicate whether a measurement relaxation condition is met or is no longer met. For example, one of the measurement relaxation statuses may indicate that one or more measurement relaxation conditions are met, and the other one of the measurement relaxation statuses may indicate that one or more measurement relaxation conditions are not met. For example, different measurement relaxation conditions may be set for RRM, RLM, and BFD measurements.

[0027] In some exemplary embodiments, the change may be permitted and performed when a measurement relaxation condition, such as an RRM / RLM / BFD measurement relaxation condition, is no longer satisfied. In such a case, the measurement relaxation status of the UE 110 may be a measurement relaxed status and the other measurement relaxation status may be a measurement non-relaxed status. That is, the UE 110 may stop the RRM / RLM / BFD measurement relaxation before the RRM / RLM / BFD mitigation status is reported to the network, i.e., before the report is sent to the radio network node 120. In this way, the change may be performed before a measurement relaxation related event occurs. The UE 110 may be in a measurement relaxation mode before the change and in a non-measurement relaxation mode after the change, and the UE 110 may be permitted to relax measurements in the measurement relaxation mode and may not be permitted to relax measurements in the non-measurement relaxation mode.

[0028] In some exemplary embodiments, if a UAI prohibit timer for measurement relaxation status reporting is running when a measurement relaxation condition is met, UE 110 may not be permitted to change a measurement relaxation status, such as an RRM / RLM / BFD mitigation status. That is, UE 110 may determine that a change of the measurement relaxation status of UE 110 to another measurement relaxation status has been triggered and then determine that it is not permitted to change the measurement relaxation status to another measurement relaxation status before a measurement relaxation-related event occurs, e.g., while the UAI prohibit timer is running or before sending a report regarding the other measurement relaxation status. In such a case, the measurement relaxation status of UE 110 may be a measurement unmitigated status and the other measurement relaxation status may be a measurement relaxed status. UE 110 may then send a report regarding the other measurement relaxation status to a radio network node. In this manner, the decision to change may be performed before a measurement relaxation-related event occurs, but the change may be performed after the event occurs. Alternatively, the decision to change the measurement relaxation status and the change may be performed at or after the occurrence of a measurement relaxation-related event. The UE 110 may be in a non-measurement mitigation mode before the change and in a measurement mitigation mode after the change. In other words, the UE 110 may need to wait until the measurement mitigation status report UAI prohibit timer expires before the UE 110 can initiate measurement mitigation, such as RRM / RLM / BFD measurement mitigation. Alternatively, in some exemplary embodiments, the UE 110 may need to wait until the UE 110 transmits a report regarding other measurement mitigation status to the radio network node 120 before the UE 110 can initiate measurement mitigation, such as RRM / RLM / BFD measurement mitigation.

[0029] In some exemplary embodiments, the UAI prohibit timer for a measurement relaxation report, such as an RRM / RLM / BFD relaxation report, may be applied, started, or restarted only if the measurement relaxation condition is not met, e.g., if the RRM / RLM / BFD relaxation condition is no longer met. UE 110 may determine that it is not permitted to change the measurement relaxation status to another measurement relaxation status if the UAI prohibit timer was not started when it determined that a change in the measurement relaxation status of UE 110 to another measurement relaxation status was triggered and then the measurement relaxation condition was met and reported, e.g., before a measurement relaxation related event occurs, e.g., before transmission of a report. That is, when UE 110 stops measurement relaxation and the measurement relaxation status is reported to the network.

[0030] In some exemplary embodiments, the UAI prohibit timer for a measurement relaxation report, such as an RRM / RLM / BFD relaxation report, may be applied, started, or restarted only when a measurement relaxation status report is transmitted after a measurement relaxation condition is determined to be not met, e.g., when an RRM / RLM / BFD relaxation condition is no longer met. The UE 110 may determine that a change in the measurement relaxation status of the UE 110 to another measurement relaxation status has been triggered and that the measurement relaxation status was triggered when one or more measurement relaxation conditions are not met. Thus, the UAI prohibit timer may be started after the UE 110 transmits a measurement relaxation status report to the radio network node 120. In some exemplary embodiments, the UAI prohibit timer for a measurement relaxation report, such as an RRM / RLM / BFD relaxation report, may not be applied, started, or restarted when a measurement relaxation status report is transmitted after one or more measurement relaxation conditions are determined to be met, e.g., when an RRM / RLM / BFD relaxation condition is met. Thus, in certain exemplary embodiments, a measurement relaxation status report may be triggered and reported whenever one or more measurement relaxation conditions are determined to be not satisfied.

[0031] In some exemplary embodiments, the UE 110 may report whether it has already stopped mitigation previously, i.e., before a measurement mitigation status report such as an RRM / RLM / BFD mitigation status report. That is, the UE 110 may report that the measurement mitigation status has changed to another measurement mitigation status before sending a report to the radio network node 120 regarding the other measurement mitigation status, where the measurement mitigation status may be a status where measurements are mitigated and the other measurement mitigation status may be a status where measurements are not mitigated. In some exemplary embodiments, the report indicating that the UE 110 has already stopped measurement mitigation previously, i.e., before the measurement mitigation status report, may be carried in the same message (e.g., UAI) as the measurement mitigation status report or in a separate message. In some exemplary embodiments, the separate message may be a drive test minimized MDT report or a logged report.

[0032] Additionally or alternatively, UE 110 may report how long before the transmission of a report UE 110 stopped mitigation, i.e., UE 110 may report how long before sending a report to radio network node 120 regarding the other measurement mitigation status the measurement mitigation status of the device changed, where the measurement mitigation status may be a status where measurements are mitigated and the other measurement mitigation status may be a status where measurements are not mitigated.

[0033] In some demonstrative embodiments, the network, e.g., radio network node 120, may configure whether UE 110 is allowed to change the measurement mitigation status to another measurement mitigation status, e.g., start / stop RLM / RRM / BFD measurement mitigation, before the other measurement mitigation status is reported to the network. Thus, UE 110 may receive a configuration from radio network node 120 indicating whether UE 110 is allowed to change the measurement mitigation status before sending a report to radio network node 120 regarding the other measurement mitigation status.

[0034] In some example embodiments, the network, e.g., radio network node 120, may configure whether the UE is allowed to start / stop RLM / RRM / BFD measurement mitigation even when the UAI prohibit timer is running. Thus, UE 110 may receive a configuration from radio network node 120 indicating whether it is allowed to change the measurement mitigation status of the device while the UAI prohibit timer is running.

[0035] In general, the measurement mitigation status and other measurement mitigation status may include radio resource management RRM, radio link monitoring RLM, or beam failure detection BFD measurement mitigation status, or any combination thereof.

[0036] 2 illustrates a first signaling graph according to at least some example embodiments. On the vertical axis, from left to right, UE 110 and radio network node 120 are arranged. Time progresses from top to bottom. FIG. 2 illustrates an example of how some example embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied.

[0037] In step 202, the UE 110 may be configured with a measurement mitigation configuration, such as an RRM / RLM / BFD measurement mitigation configuration, by the radio network node 120. In some demonstrative embodiments, the network, e.g., the radio network node 120, may configure the UE 110 with a UAI prohibit timer operation for measurement mitigation status reporting, such as an RRM / RLM / BFD measurement mitigation status reporting. The network may also configure a value for a UAI prohibit timer value for the UE 110. For example, the value of the UAI prohibit timer may be configured by the network to avoid unnecessarily burdening the system uplink with measurement mitigation status reporting.

[0038] In step 204, the UE 110 may measure the downlink signal and determine whether at least one measurement relaxation condition is met, such as an RRM, RLM, and / or BFD measurement relaxation condition. Upon determining that the at least one measurement relaxation condition is met, the UE 110 may send a report, such as an RRM / RLM / BFD measurement relaxation status report, to the radio network node 120 in step 206, indicating that the measurement relaxation condition is met.

[0039] In step 208, the UE 110 may initiate measurement relaxation. For example, the UE 110 may decide to initiate RRM / RLC / BFD relaxation, i.e., not to perform at least one of RRM, RLC, and BFD measurements. In step 210, the UE 110 may start a UAI prohibit timer for a measurement relaxation status report, e.g., an RRM / RLM / BFD measurement relaxation status report. Alternatively, in some exemplary embodiments, the UAI prohibit timer may not be started when a measurement relaxation condition, e.g., an RRM / RLM / BFD measurement relaxation condition, is met and reported to the network. In this manner, the UE 110 may send a report to the network whenever a measurement relaxation condition is not met. That is, if the UAI prohibit timer was not started when a measurement relaxation condition was met and reported, the UE 110 may decide to change the measurement relaxation status before a measurement relaxation related event occurs. Thus, the UAI prohibit timer may be started after the UE 110 sends a measurement relaxation status report to the radio network node 120.

[0040] In step 212, UE 110 may determine that a measurement relaxation condition is no longer satisfied. For example, UE 110 may determine that an RRM / RLM / BFD measurement relaxation condition is no longer satisfied. That is, UE 110 may determine that a change in the measurement relaxation status of UE 110 to another measurement relaxation status is triggered. In step 214, UE 110 may determine that a UAI prohibit timer is running and a measurement relaxation status report is triggered.

[0041] In step 216, UE 110 may determine whether to change the measurement mitigation status to another measurement mitigation status before a measurement mitigation related event occurs. UE 110 may decide to change the measurement mitigation status from mitigated measurement to non-mitigated measurement. For example, UE 110 may decide to change the measurement mitigation status while a UAI prohibit timer is running. In some exemplary embodiments, UE 110 may trigger a measurement mitigation status report, such as an RRM / RLM / BFD measurement mitigation status report, but the UAI prohibit timer may prevent the report from being sent.

[0042] The UE 110 may stop measurement mitigation, such as RRM / RLM / BFD measurement mitigation, while it is not yet able to perform measurement mitigation status reporting. That is, the UE 110 may change the measurement mitigation status to another measurement mitigation status before a measurement mitigation event occurs, where the measurement mitigation status is a status where the measurements are mitigated and the other measurement mitigation status is a status where the measurements are not mitigated. The UE 110 may be in a measurement mitigation mode before the change and in a non-measurement mitigation mode after the change, where the UE 110 may be allowed to relax measurements in the measurement mitigation mode and may not be allowed to relax measurements in the non-measurement mitigation mode. In some exemplary embodiments, a network, such as the radio network node 120, may configure what the UE does in this case.

[0043] Then, at least one measurement relaxation related event may occur. In step 218, a UAI prohibit timer may expire. In step 220, the UE 110 may send a report regarding the other measurement relaxation status to the radio network node 120. That is, the UE 110 may perform a measurement relaxation status report, such as an RRM / RLM / BFD measurement relaxation status report, after changing the measurement relaxation status to other measurement relaxation. The UE 110 may report that the measurement relaxation condition is no longer met. The report may be sent as a UAI or as other procedure / message.

[0044] In some exemplary embodiments, the UE 110 may report whether mitigation was stopped before a measurement mitigation related event occurs. For example, the UE 110 may report whether mitigation was stopped before expiration of a UAI prohibit timer and how long ago mitigation was stopped. That is, the UE 110 may report that the measurement mitigation status of the device was changed to another measurement mitigation status before sending a report to the radio network node regarding the other measurement mitigation status. Alternatively, or additionally, the UE 110 may report how long before sending a report to the radio network node 120 regarding the other measurement mitigation status that the measurement mitigation status was changed. A report indicating that the UE 110 has already stopped measurement mitigation previously, i.e., before the measurement mitigation status report, may be carried in the same message (e.g., UAI) as the measurement mitigation status report or may be carried in a separate message.

[0045] In step 222, UE 110 may start a UAI prohibit timer for measurement relaxation status reporting, such as RRM / RLM / BFD measurement relaxation status reporting. In step 224, UE 110 may measure a downlink signal and determine that a measurement relaxation condition, such as an RRM / RLM / BFD measurement relaxation condition, is met. That is, UE 110 may determine that a change of the measurement relaxation status of UE 110 to another measurement relaxation status is triggered, where the measurement relaxation status is a status where the measurement is not relaxed and the other measurement relaxation status is a status where the measurement is relaxed. Thus, UE 110 may be in a non-measurement relaxation mode before the change and in a measurement relaxation mode after the change. Step 226 may correspond to step 214.

[0046] In step 228, UE 110 may determine whether to change the measurement mitigation status to another measurement mitigation status before a measurement mitigation related event occurs. UE 110 may determine whether to change the measurement mitigation status while a UAI prohibit timer is running. In this case, UE 110 may determine that it is not permitted to initiate measurement mitigation, such as RRM / RLM / BFD measurement mitigation, until the UAI prohibit timer expires. For example, UE 110 may trigger a measurement mitigation status report, such as an RRM / RLM / BFD measurement mitigation status report, but is prevented from doing so by the prohibit timer. In some exemplary embodiments, UE 110 may attempt to change the mitigation measurement status, such as an RRM / RLM / BFD mitigation status, while a UAI prohibit timer is running. In some exemplary embodiments, UE 110 does not initiate measurement mitigation, such as an RRM / RLM / BFD measurement mitigation, because the change cannot be reported to the network while the prohibit timer is running. That is, the change in the measurement mitigation state may be performed upon or after the occurrence of a measurement mitigation related event. In some demonstrative embodiments, the UE 110 may need to wait until the UE 110 transmits a report regarding other measurement relaxation status to the radio network node 120 before the UE 110 may start measurement relaxation.

[0047] In step 232, UE 110 may send a report regarding the other measurement mitigation status to radio network node 120. That is, UE 110 may perform a measurement mitigation status report, such as an RRM / RLM / BFD measurement mitigation status report. Furthermore, in some exemplary embodiments, UE 110 may change the measurement mitigation status to another measurement mitigation status in this step. For example, UE 110 may initiate RRM / RLM / BFD measurement mitigation in step 232. UE 110 may also report whether a measurement mitigation condition has been met before expiration of the UAI prohibit timer.

[0048] The UAI prohibition timer may be activated in / by the UE 110 based on the triggers defined above. The UAI prohibition timer may be configured for the UE 110 by the network, and the UE 110 may act according to the configuration. In some example embodiments, measurement mitigation may be configured for all the features of RRM, RLM, and BFD independently and / or in combination. Thus, the UAI prohibition timer may act as proposed based on the measurement mitigation criteria of one of those features (RRM, RLM, BFD) or based on the measurement mitigation criteria of a combination of those features.

[0049] Accordingly, embodiments of the present disclosure enable the network to configure a UAI prohibit timer for UE 110 for measurement mitigation status reports, such as RRM / RLM / BFD measurement mitigation status reports. Additionally, measurement mitigation status may be sent less frequently by UE 110 to enable power savings.

[0050] In some exemplary embodiments, the UE 110 may be allowed to change the measurement mitigation status, such as the RRM / RLM / BFD mitigation status, before the status is reported to the network. The advantage is that the mobility performance in CONNECTED mode, i.e., radio link failures and handover failures, can be avoided (or improved) since the UE can stop the measurement mitigation as soon as the measurement mitigation conditions, such as the RRM / RLM / BFD mitigation conditions, are no longer met. Furthermore, there is no need to define two separate prohibition timers for measurement mitigation status reporting.

[0051] FIG. 3 illustrates an example apparatus capable of supporting at least some example embodiments. Shown is a device 300, which may include, for example, a UE 110 or a radio network node 120, or a control device configured to control the functions thereof when installed therein. Included in the device 300 is a processor 310, which may include, for example, a single-core processor or a multi-core processor, where a single-core processor includes one processing core and a multi-core processor includes two or more processing cores. The processor 310 may generally include a control device. The processor 310 may include two or more processors. The processor 310 may be a control device. The processing core may include, for example, a Cortex-A8 processing core manufactured by ARM Holdings, or a Steamroller processing core manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices Corporation, or the like. The processor 310 may include at least one Qualcomm Snapdragon and / or Intel Atom processor. The processor 310 may include at least one application specific integrated circuit ASIC. The processor 310 may include at least one field programmable gate array FPGA. The processor 310 may be a means for performing method steps in the device 300. The processor 310 may be configured to perform actions at least in part by computer instructions.

[0052] A processor may include a circuit or may be configured as one or more circuits, the one or more circuits configured to perform phases of a method according to the exemplary embodiments described herein. As used in this application, the term "circuit" may refer to one or more or all of the following: (a) hardware-only circuit implementations, e.g., implementations of only analog and / or digital circuitry, and (b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, e.g., where applicable: (i) a combination of analog and / or digital hardware circuit(s) and software / firmware, and (ii) any portion of a hardware processor(s) (including digital signal processor(s)), software, and memory(s) that use software, operating in conjunction to cause a device, such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions, and (c) hardware circuit(s) and / or processor(s), such as, for example, a microprocessor(s) or a portion of a microprocessor(s), that requires software (e.g., firmware) to operate, but may not be present if not required for operation.

[0053] This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of the term in this application, including any claims. As a further example, the term circuitry, as used in this application, also encompasses an embodiment of a simple hardware circuit or processor (or processors), or a portion of a hardware circuit or processor, as well as its (or their) associated software and / or firmware. The term circuitry also encompasses, for example, baseband or processor integrated circuits for mobile devices, or similar integrated circuits in servers, cellular network devices, or other computing or network devices, if applicable to certain claim elements.

[0054] The device 300 may include a memory 320. The memory 320 may include random access memory and / or persistent memory. The memory 320 may include at least one RAM chip. The memory 320 may include, for example, solid state memory, magnetic memory, optical memory, and / or holographic memory. The memory 320 may be at least partially accessible to the processor 310. The memory 320 may be at least partially included within the processor 310. The memory 320 may be a means for storing information. The memory 320 may include computer instructions that the processor 310 is configured to execute. The processor 310 and / or at least one processing core thereof may be considered to be configured to execute a particular action if computer instructions configured to cause the processor 310 to perform a particular action are stored in the memory 320 and the entire device 300 is configured to operate according to the instructions of the processor 310 using the computer instructions from the memory 320. The memory 320 may be at least partially included in the processor 310. The memory 320 may be at least partially external to the device 300, but accessible to the device 300.

[0055] The device 300 may include a transmitter 330. The device 300 may include a receiver 340. The transmitter 330 and the receiver 340 may be configured to transmit and receive information, respectively, according to at least one cellular or non-cellular standard. The transmitter 330 may include two or more transmitters. The receiver 340 may include two or more receivers. The transmitter 330 and / or the receiver 340 may be configured to operate according to, for example, Global System for Mobile Communications GSM, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access WCDMA, Long Term Evolution LTE, and / or 5G / NR standards.

[0056] The device 300 may include a near field communication NFC transceiver 350. The NFC transceiver 350 may support at least one NFC technology, such as Bluetooth, Wibree, or a similar technology.

[0057] The device 300 may include a user interface UI 360. The UI 360 may include at least one of a display, a keyboard, a touch screen, a vibrator configured to send signals to a user by vibrating the device 300, a speaker, and a microphone. A user may be able to operate the device 300 via the UI 360 to, for example, receive incoming calls, make phone or video calls, browse the Internet, manage digital files stored in the memory 320 or on the cloud accessible via the transmitter 330 and receiver 340, or manage digital files via the NFC transceiver 350, and / or play games, etc.

[0058] The device 300 may include or be configured to accept a user identification module 370. The user identification module 370 may include, for example, a subscriber identity module (SIM card) attachable to the device 300. The user identification module 370 may include information identifying a subscription of a user of the device 300. The user identification module 370 may include cryptographic information usable to verify the identity of the user of the device 300 and / or to facilitate encryption of communicated information and billing of the user of the device 300 for communications made via the device 300.

[0059] The processor 310 may be equipped with a transmitter configured to output information from the processor 310 to other devices included in the device 300 via electrical leads inside the device 300. Such a transmitter may include, for example, a serial bus transmitter configured to output information to the memory 320 via at least one electrical lead for storage therein. Instead of a serial bus, the transmitter may include a parallel bus transmitter. Similarly, the processor 310 may include a receiver configured to receive information at the processor 310 from other devices included in the device 300 via electrical leads inside the device 300. Such a receiver may include, for example, a serial bus receiver configured to receive information from the receiver 340 via at least one electrical lead for processing at the processor 310. Instead of a serial bus, the receiver may include a parallel bus receiver.

[0060] The device 300 may include additional devices not shown in FIG. 3. For example, if the device 300 includes a smartphone, it may include at least one digital camera. Some devices 300 may include a rear camera and a front camera, where the rear camera may be for digital photography and the front camera may be for video calling. The device 300 may include a fingerprint sensor configured to at least partially authenticate a user of the device 300. In some exemplary embodiments, the device 300 does not have at least one of the devices described above. For example, the NFC transceiver 350 and / or the user identification module 370 may not be present in some devices 300.

[0061] The processor 310, memory 320, transmitter 330, receiver 340, NFC transceiver 350, UI 360, and / or user identification module 370 may be interconnected in various ways by electrical leads inside the device 300. For example, each of the aforementioned devices may be individually connected to a master bus inside the device 300, allowing information to be exchanged between the devices. However, as one skilled in the art will appreciate, this is merely an example, and depending on the exemplary embodiment, various ways of interconnecting at least two of the aforementioned devices may be selected without departing from the scope of the exemplary embodiment.

[0062] 4 is a flow graph of a first method according to at least some example embodiments. Each phase of the illustrated first method may be performed by an apparatus 300, such as a UE 110, or possibly by a control device configured to control the functionality of the apparatus 300 when installed in the apparatus 300.

[0063] The method may include determining that a change of the user equipment's measurement relaxation status to another measurement relaxation status is triggered in step 410. The method may also include determining whether to change the measurement relaxation status to another measurement relaxation status before the measurement relaxation related event occurs in step 420. Finally, the method may include sending a report regarding the other measurement relaxation status to the radio network node in step 430.

[0064] It is to be understood that the disclosed exemplary embodiments are not limited to the particular structures, process steps, or materials disclosed herein, but extend to equivalents thereof recognized by those of ordinary skill in the relevant art. It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is used for the purpose of describing particular exemplary embodiments only, and is not intended to be limiting.

[0065] Reference throughout this specification to one example embodiment or an example embodiment means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with that example embodiment is included in at least one example embodiment. Thus, the appearances of the phrases "in one example embodiment" or "in an example embodiment" in various places throughout this specification do not necessarily all refer to the same example embodiment. For example, when a numerical value is referenced using terms such as "about" or "substantially," the exact numerical value is also disclosed.

[0066] As used herein, a plurality of items, structural elements, components, and / or materials may be presented in a common list for convenience. However, these lists should be construed as though each member of the list is individually identified as a separate and unique member. Thus, the individual members of such lists should not be construed as being de facto equivalents to other members of the same list solely based on being presented in a common group, unless otherwise indicated. Furthermore, various exemplary embodiments and examples may be referenced herein along with alternatives for the various components thereof. It is understood that such exemplary embodiments, examples, and alternatives should not be construed as de facto equivalents to one another, but should be considered as separate and independent representations.

[0067] In an example embodiment, an apparatus, such as, for example, a UE 110 or a radio network node 120, may include means for performing the above example embodiments and any combination thereof.

[0068] In an exemplary embodiment, a computer program may be configured to cause a processor to execute a method according to the exemplary embodiments described above and any combination thereof. In an exemplary embodiment, a computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium may be configured to control a processor to execute a process including the exemplary embodiments described above and any combination thereof.

[0069] In an exemplary embodiment, an apparatus, such as, for example, a UE 110 or a radio network node 120, may include at least one processor and at least one memory containing computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to cause the apparatus, by the at least one processor, to perform at least the above-described exemplary embodiments and any combination thereof.

[0070] Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more exemplary embodiments. The foregoing description provides many specific details, such as examples of lengths, widths, shapes, etc., to provide a thorough understanding of exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. However, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the present disclosure can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, etc. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations have not been shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the present disclosure.

[0071] While the foregoing examples illustrate the principles of the exemplary embodiments in one or more specific applications, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that numerous changes in form, use and details of the embodiments may be made without the exercise of the inventive faculty and without departing from the principles and concepts of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it is not intended that the disclosure be limited, except as by the scope of the claims that follow.

[0072] In this document, the verbs "comprise" and "include" are used as open limitations that do not exclude or require the presence of unrecited features. Features recited in the dependent claims may be freely combined with each other, unless expressly stated otherwise. Furthermore, it is to be understood that the use of "a" or "an", i.e. the singular form, throughout this document does not exclude the plural form. [Industrial Applicability]

[0073] At least some of the example embodiments find industrial application in cellular communication networks, such as 3GPP networks, where relaxed measurements are used.

[0074] List of Acronyms 3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project BFD Beam Failure Detection BS base station DU Distributed Unit GSM Global System for Mobile Communications IAB Integrated Access and Backhaul IoT Internet of Things LTE Long Term Evolution M2M Machine to Machine MDT Drive Test Minimization MT Mobile Termination NR New Radio RAN Radio Access Network RAT Radio Access Technology RLC Radio Link Control RRC Radio Resource Control RRM Radio Resource Management RSRP reference signal received power RSRQ Reference signal reception quality TRP Sending and Receiving Point UAI UE support information UE User Equipment UI User Interface WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access WLAN Wireless Local Area Network [Explanation of symbols]

[0075] JPEG2025504899000007.jpg54164

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising: means for determining that a change in a measurement mitigation status of the device to another measurement mitigation status has been triggered; means for determining whether to change the measurement relaxation status to the other measurement relaxation status before a measurement relaxation related event occurs; means for transmitting a report on said other measurement mitigation status to a radio network node; The apparatus comprising:

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the measurement mitigation related event is the sending of the report to the radio network node on the other measurement mitigation status or expiry of a user equipment UE assistance information prohibit timer of the apparatus.

3. 3. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the apparatus is in a measurement relaxation mode before the change and in a non-measurement relaxation mode after the change, or the apparatus is in the non-measurement relaxation mode before the change and in the non-measurement relaxation mode after the change, and the apparatus is permitted to relax measurements in the measurement relaxation mode and the apparatus is not permitted to relax measurements in the non-measurement relaxation mode.

4. means for determining whether the device is authorized to change the measurement relaxation status of the device based on a status of a UE assistance information prohibition timer and the other measurement relaxation status.

13. An apparatus according to any preceding claim, further comprising:

5. Means for determining whether to change the measurement relaxation status of the device while a UE assistance information prohibition timer is running.

13. An apparatus according to any preceding claim, further comprising:

6. means for determining to change the measurement mitigation status of the device while a UE assistance information prohibit timer is running; means for changing the measurement relaxation status to the other measurement relaxation status before the measurement relaxation related event occurs; 13. An apparatus according to any preceding claim, further comprising:

7. means for determining to change the measurement relaxation status of the device before the measurement relaxation related event occurs if a measurement relaxation condition is not satisfied while a UE assistance information prohibition timer is running; means for changing the measurement relaxation status to the other measurement relaxation status before the measurement relaxation related event occurs; 13. An apparatus according to any preceding claim, further comprising:

8. means for determining to change the measurement relaxation status of the device after the measurement relaxation related event occurs if a measurement relaxation condition is met while a UE assistance information prohibition timer is running; means for changing the measurement relaxation status to the other measurement relaxation status after the measurement relaxation related event occurs; 13. An apparatus according to any preceding claim, further comprising:

9. means for determining to change the measurement relaxation status of the device before the measurement relaxation related event occurs if a UE assistance information prohibition timer is not started when a measurement relaxation condition is met and reported.

13. An apparatus according to any preceding claim, further comprising:

10. means for reporting that the measurement mitigation status of the device has changed to the other measurement mitigation status before sending the report on the other measurement mitigation status to the radio network node; 13. An apparatus according to any preceding claim, further comprising:

11. means for reporting how long before transmitting the report on the other measurement mitigation status of the device to the radio network node that the measurement mitigation status of the device has changed; 13. An apparatus according to any preceding claim, further comprising:

12. 13. An apparatus according to any preceding claim, further comprising means for receiving a configuration, the configuration indicating whether the apparatus is allowed to modify the measurement relaxation status of the apparatus before sending the report on the other measurement relaxation status of the apparatus to the radio network node.

13. 13. An apparatus according to any preceding claim, further comprising means for receiving a configuration, the configuration indicating whether the apparatus is allowed to change the measurement relaxation status of the apparatus while a UE assistance information prohibit timer is running.

14. 10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the measurement mitigation status and the other measurement mitigation status include at least one of a radio resource management (RRM), a radio link monitoring (RLM), and a beam failure detection (BFD) measurement mitigation status.

15. means for receiving a report from a user equipment indicating a change of a measurement mitigation status of said user equipment to another measurement mitigation status; An apparatus comprising:

16. means for receiving a report from the user equipment indicating that the measurement relaxation status of the user equipment has changed to the other measurement relaxation status prior to sending the report regarding the other measurement relaxation status; 20. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising:

17. means for receiving a report from the user equipment indicating how long prior to transmission of the report regarding the other measurement mitigation status of the user equipment the measurement mitigation status of the user equipment was changed; 17. The apparatus of claim 15 or 16, further comprising:

18. An apparatus according to any one of claims 15 to 17, further comprising means for transmitting a configuration, the configuration indicating whether the user equipment is permitted to change the measurement relaxation status of the user equipment before transmitting the report on the other measurement relaxation status.

19. The apparatus according to any of claims 15 to 18, further comprising means for transmitting a configuration indicating whether the user equipment is allowed to change the measurement relaxation status of the user equipment while a UE assistance information prohibit timer is running.

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