User equipment and base station involved in reporting prediction results

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a user equipment (UE) comprising: a receiver of the UE receives configuration information dedicated to prediction reports, but not dedicated to measurement reports, from a base station; the received prediction-only configuration information configures one or more of predicted characteristics of beams to be reported from the UE to the base station and a report beam set identifying beams whose predicted characteristics will be reported from the UE to the base station; a processor of the UE predicts characteristics of a first beam set based on the received prediction-only configuration information; and a transmitter of the UE transmits a prediction report including the predicted characteristics of the one or more beams to the base station.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present disclosure is directed to methods, apparatus, and articles in communication systems, such as 3GPP communication systems. [Background technology]

[0002] Currently, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is working on technical specifications for a new radio access technology, 5G New Radio (NR), also known as fifth generation (5G) or NR, which are used interchangeably herein.

[0003] One objective is to provide a single technical framework that addresses all usage scenarios, requirements, and deployment scenarios (see, for example, Section 6 of Non-Patent Document 1), including at least enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), and massive machine-type communications (mMTC). For example, deployment scenarios for eMBB may include indoor hotspots, dense urban areas, suburban areas, and urban macro-high-speed environments. Deployment scenarios for URLLC may include industrial control systems, mobile health management (remote monitoring, remote diagnosis, and remote treatment), real-time vehicle control, and wide-area monitoring and control systems for smart grids. Deployment scenarios for mMTC may include scenarios using a large number of devices, such as smart wearables and sensor networks, where the impact of data transmission latency is small. While eMBB and URLLC services are similar in that both require very high bandwidth, URLLC services differ in that they preferably require ultra-low latency.

[0004] A second goal is to achieve forward compatibility, which facilitates the introduction of entirely new system designs and / or new features.

Prior Art Documents

Non-Patent Documents

[0005]

Non-Patent Document 1

Non-Patent Document 2

Non-Patent Document 3

Non-Patent Document 4

Non-Patent Document 5

Non-Patent Document 6

[0006] Non-limiting examples of the present disclosure contribute to providing a procedure for a UE to perform an improved predicted outcome reporting procedure. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the disclosed technology features a user equipment (UE) including: a receiver of the UE receiving, from a base station, configuration information dedicated for prediction reporting and not for measurement reporting; - predicted characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station; and - A reporting set of beams identifying beams whose predicted characteristics will be reported from the UE to the base station; Set one or more of the following:

[0008] A processing unit of the UE predicts characteristics of the first set of beams based on the received prediction-specific configuration information. A transmitting unit of the UE transmits a prediction report to the base station, the prediction report including the predicted characteristics of the one or more beams. Note that the general or specific embodiments may be implemented as a system, a method, an integrated circuit, a computer program, a storage medium, or any combination thereof. For example, the integrated circuit may control processing of the UE or the base station.

[0009] Further benefits and advantages of the disclosed embodiments and various implementations will become apparent from the specification and drawings. Such benefits and / or advantages may be provided by some of the embodiments and features described in the specification and drawings, respectively, but not necessarily all of them may be provided to obtain one or more identical features.

[0010] The following exemplary embodiments are described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0011] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 illustrates an example architecture of a 3GPP NR system to which the improved procedures of the present disclosure can be applied. [Figure 2] 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the functional division between the NG Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) and the 5G Core Network (5GC), to which the improved procedures of the present disclosure may be applied; [Figure 3] 1 is a sequence diagram of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection setup / reconfiguration procedure to which the improved procedures of the present disclosure may be applied. [Figure 4] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating eMBB, mMTC, and URLLC usage scenarios in which the improved procedures of the present disclosure may be applied. [Figure 5] Block diagram illustrating an example 3GPP NR system architecture for a non-roaming scenario [Figure 6] FIG. 1 shows a simplified exemplary implementation of a set of synchronization signal blocks distributed over half frames. [Figure 7] Diagram showing several beams and their corresponding SSB indices SSB1 to SSB8, and how the beams are transmitted by the gNB in ​​a beam-sweeping manner. [Figure 8] Figure 1 shows a signaling diagram for CSI measurement and reporting [Figure 9] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of spatial relationships between multiple beams, where a second set of beams (Set B) is a subset of a first set of beams (Set A). [Figure 10] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of spatial relationships between multiple beams, where a first set of beams (Set A) is different from a second set of beams (Set B). [Figure 11]FIG. 1 shows an exemplary simplified structure of a UE and a gNB. [Figure 12] FIG. 1 illustrates the structure of a UE according to an exemplary implementation of an improved prediction result reporting procedure. [Figure 13] 1 is a flow diagram of UE behavior with an exemplary implementation of an improved predicted outcome reporting procedure. [Figure 14] FIG. 1 illustrates the structure of a base station according to an exemplary implementation of an improved predicted outcome reporting procedure. [Figure 15] 1 is a flow diagram of a base station's behavior according to an exemplary implementation of an improved predicted outcome reporting procedure. [Figure 16] 1 is a signaling diagram illustrating an exemplary exchange between a UE and a gNB in ​​an exemplary implementation of an improved predicted result reporting procedure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0012] <5G NR system architecture and protocol stack> 3GPP is working on the next release of fifth-generation cellular technology (simply referred to as "5G"), which involves the development of new radio access technologies operating in frequencies up to 100 GHz. The first version of the 5G standard was completed at the end of 2017, allowing for the testing and commercial deployment of smartphones compliant with the 5G NR standard.

[0013] In particular, the overall system architecture assumes an NG-RAN (Next Generation - Radio Access Network) with gNBs, which terminate the NG radio access user plane (SDAP / PDCP / RLC / MAC / PHY) protocols and control plane (Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocols) towards UEs. The gNBs are interconnected with each other by an Xn interface. The gNBs are also connected to the 5GC by a Next Generation (NG) interface, more specifically to the Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) (e.g., a specific core entity running the AMF) by an NG-C interface and to the User Plane Function (UPF) (e.g., a specific core entity running the UPF) by an NG-U interface. The NG-RAN architecture is shown in Figure 1 (see, for example, Section 4 of Non-Patent Document 2).

[0014] The user plane protocol stack in NR (see, for example, Section 4.4.1 of Non-Patent Document 2) includes a PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol; see, for example, Section 6.4 of Non-Patent Document 2) sublayer, a RLC (Radio Link Control; see, for example, Section 6.3 of Non-Patent Document 2) sublayer, and a MAC (Medium Access Control; see, for example, Section 6.2 of Non-Patent Document 2) sublayer, and these sublayers terminate at the gNB on the network side. In addition, a new access stratum (AS) sublayer (SDAP, Service Data Adaptation Protocol) is introduced above PDCP (see, for example, Section 6.5 of Non-Patent Document 2). NR also defines a control plane protocol stack (see, for example, Section 4.4.2 of Non-Patent Document 2). An overview of Layer 2 functions is described in Section 6 of Non-Patent Document 2. The functions of the RRC layer are described in Section 7 of Non-Patent Document 2.

[0015] For example, the Medium-Access-Control (MAC) layer handles scheduling and scheduling-related functions, including multiplexing logical channels and handling various numerologies.

[0016] The physical layer (PHY) is responsible for, for example, coding, PHY HARQ processing, modulation, multi-antenna processing, and mapping of signals to appropriate physical time-frequency resources. The physical layer also handles mapping of transport channels to physical channels. The physical layer provides services to the MAC layer in the form of transport channels. A physical channel corresponds to a set of time-frequency resources used for transmitting a specific transport channel, and each transport channel is mapped to a corresponding physical channel. For example, physical channels are the PRACH (Physical Random Access Channel), PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared Channel), and PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) for the uplink, and the PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel), PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel), and PBCH (Physical Broadcast Channel) for the downlink.

[0017] NR use cases / deployment scenarios include enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC), and / or massive machine-type communications (mMTC), which have diverse requirements for data rates, latency, and coverage. For example, eMBB is expected to support peak data rates (20 Gbps downlink and 10 Gbps uplink) and user-perceived data rates on the order of three times those offered by IMT-Advanced. In contrast, URLLC has more stringent requirements, including extremely low latency (user plane latency of 0.5 ms for UL and DL, respectively) and high reliability (1-10 Mbps within 1 ms). -5) and mMTC requires high connection density (1 km in urban environments). 2 1,000,000 devices per second), wide coverage in harsh environments, and extremely long battery life (15 years) to lower device costs may preferably be required.

[0018] Therefore, an OFDM numerology (e.g., subcarrier spacing, OFDM symbol length, cyclic prefix (CP) length, number of symbols per scheduling interval) suitable for one use case may not work well for another use case. For example, low-latency services may preferably require a shorter symbol length (and therefore a larger subcarrier spacing) and / or fewer symbols per scheduling interval (also referred to as TTI) than mMTC services. Furthermore, deployment scenarios with large channel delay spreads may preferably require a longer CP length than scenarios with small delay spreads. To maintain a similar CP overhead, the subcarrier spacing should be optimized depending on the delay spread. In NR, more than one value of subcarrier spacing may be supported. Therefore, subcarrier spacings of 15 kHz, 30 kHz, 60 kHz, ... are currently being considered. The symbol length T u and the subcarrier spacing Δf is given by the formula (Δf=1 / T u ) As in LTE systems, the term "resource element" can be used to denote the smallest resource unit consisting of one subcarrier for the length of one OFDM / SC-FDMA symbol.

[0019] In the new wireless system 5G-NR, for each numerology and carrier, a resource grid of subcarriers and OFDM symbols is defined for each of the uplink and downlink. Each element in the resource grid is called a resource element and is identified based on the frequency index in the frequency domain and the symbol position in the time domain (see, for example, Section 4 of Non-Patent Document 3). For example, downlink transmission and uplink transmission are set in a frame having a time length of 10 ms. Each frame consists of 10 subframes each having a time length of 1 ms. In the implementation of 5G NR, the number of consecutive OFDM symbols per subframe depends on the setting of the subcarrier spacing. For example, in the case of a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz, the subframe has 14 OFDM symbols (assuming a normal cyclic prefix, similar to the LTE-compliant implementation). On the other hand, in the case of a subcarrier spacing of 30 kHz, the subframe has two slots, and each slot contains 14 OFDM symbols.

[0020] <Split of 5G NR functions between NG-RAN and 5GC> Figure 2 shows the split of functions between NG-RAN and 5GC. The logical nodes of NG-RAN are gNB or ng-eNB. The logical nodes of 5GC are AMF, UPF, and SMF.

[0021] In particular, gNB and ng-eNB handle the following main functions. - Functions of radio resource management such as radio bearer control, radio admission control, connection mobility control, and dynamic resource allocation (scheduling) to the UE in both the uplink and downlink directions - IP header compression, encryption, and integrity protection of data - AMF selection at UE attach time when routing to the AMF cannot be determined from information provided by the UE - Routing of user plane data to the UPF - Routing of control plane information to AMF - Establishing and releasing connections - scheduling and sending of paging messages - Scheduling and transmission of system broadcast information (sent from AMF or OAM) - Configuring measurements and measurement reporting for mobility and scheduling - Transport-level packet marking in the uplink - Session Management - Network slicing support - QoS flow management and mapping to data radio bearers - Support for UEs in RRC_INACTIVE state - Non-Access Stratum (NAS) message delivery function - Radio Access Network Sharing - Dual Connectivity - Close cooperation between NR and E-UTRA

[0022] The Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) handles the following main functions: - Termination of Non-Access Stratum (NAS) signaling - NAS signaling security - Access Stratum (AS) security control - Core Network (CN) inter-node signaling for mobility between 3GPP access networks - Reachability for idle mode UEs (including control and execution of paging retransmissions) - Registration Area Management - Support for intra-system and inter-system mobility - Access Authentication - Access authentication, including roaming rights checks - Mobility management controls (subscriptions and policies) - Network slicing support - Selection of Session Management Function (SMF)

[0023] Furthermore, the User Plane Function (UPF) handles the following main functions: - Anchor points for intra-RAT / inter-RAT mobility (when applicable) - External PDU session points for interconnection with data networks - Packet routing and forwarding - User plane portion of packet inspection and policy rule enforcement - Traffic Usage Report - Uplink classifier to support routing of traffic flows to the data network - Branching points to support multi-homed PDU sessions - User plane QoS processing (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement) - Verification of uplink traffic (mapping from SDF to QoS flow) - Downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering

[0024] Finally, the Session Management Function (SMF) handles the following major functions: - Session Management - UE IP address allocation and management - UP function selection and control - Configuration of traffic steering in the user plane function (UPF) for routing traffic to the correct destination - Policy enforcement and QoS control part - Downlink data notification

[0025] <Procedures for establishment and reconfiguration of RRC connection> Figure 3 shows the interaction among the UE, gNB, and AMF (5GC entity) in the NAS part when the UE transitions from RRC_IDLE to RRC_CONNECTED (see Non-Patent Document 2).

[0026] RRC is the upper layer signaling (protocol) used for the configuration of the UE and gNB. In particular, in this transition, the AMF may create UE context data (including, for example, PDU session context, security keys, UE radio capabilities, UE security capabilities, etc.) and send it to the gNB by INITIAL CONTEXT SETUP REQUEST (Initial Context Setup Request). Next, the gNB activates the AS security with the UE, which is executed by the gNB sending a SecurityModeCommand message to the UE and the UE responding to the gNB with a SecurityModeComplete message. After that, the gNB executes reconfiguration to establish signaling radio bearer 2 (SRB2) and data radio bearer (DRB: Data Radio Bearer), which is by the gNB sending an RRCReconfiguration message to the UE and receiving RRCReconfigurationComplete from the UE in response. In the case of a signaling-only connection, since SRB2 and DRB are not established, these steps related to RRCReconfiguration are skipped. Finally, the gNB notifies the AMF by INITIAL CONTEXT SETUP RESPONSE (Initial Context Setup Response) that the establishment procedure has completed.

[0027] Therefore, the present disclosure provides a 5GC entity (e.g., AMF, SMF, etc.) having, in operation, a circuit for establishing a next generation (NG) connection with a gNodeB such that a signaling radio bearer is established between the gNodeB and a user equipment (UE), and a transmitter for, in operation, transmitting an initial context setup message to the gNodeB via the NG connection. In particular, the gNodeB transmits RRC signaling including a resource allocation configuration information element (IE) to the UE via the signaling radio bearer. The UE then performs uplink transmission or downlink reception based on the resource allocation configuration.

[0028] <IMT usage scenarios after 2020> Figure 4 shows some use cases for 5G NR. The 3GPP NR (3rd Generation Partnership Project New Radio) is considering three use cases envisioned for IMT-2020 to support a wide variety of services and applications. Phase 1 specifications for enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) have been finalized. Current and future work includes standardization for ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC) and massive machine-type communications (mMTC), in addition to further extending eMBB support. Figure 4 shows some examples of IMT usage scenarios envisioned for 2020 and beyond (see, for example, Figure 2 in Non-Patent Document 4).

[0029] URLLC use cases have stringent requirements for capabilities such as throughput, latency, and availability, and are envisioned as one of the enablers for future vertical applications, such as wireless control of industrial manufacturing or production processes, remote medical surgery, power distribution automation in smart grids, and transportation safety. URLLC's ultra-high reliability is supported by identifying technologies to meet the requirements set by NR URLLC in Release 15. For NR URLLC in Release 15, key requirements include a user plane target latency of 0.5 ms for the uplink (UL) and 0.5 ms for the downlink (DL). Typical URLLC requirements for a single packet transmission are a BLER (block error rate) of 1E-5 for a 32-byte packet size with a 1-ms user plane latency.

[0030] From a physical layer perspective, there are several possible ways to improve reliability. Current scope for improving reliability includes defining a separate CQI table for URLLC, a more compact DCI format, PDCCH repetition, etc. However, as NR becomes more stable and developed (a key requirement for NR URLLC), the scope for achieving ultra-high reliability may expand. Specific use cases for NR URLLC in Release 15 include augmented reality / virtual reality (AR / VR), e-health, e-safety, and mission-critical applications.

[0031] Furthermore, technology enhancements targeted at NR URLLC target latency improvement and reliability enhancement. Technology enhancements for latency improvement include configurable numerology, non-slot-based scheduling with flexible mapping, grant-free (configured grant) uplink, slot-level repetition of data channels, and downlink preemption. Preemption means that a transmission for which resources have already been allocated is aborted and the already allocated resources are used for another transmission requested later with smaller latency / higher priority requirements. Thus, an already granted transmission is preempted by a later transmission. Preemption applies regardless of the specific service type. For example, a transmission of service type A (URLLC) can be preempted by a transmission of service type B (e.g., eMBB). Technology enhancements for reliability improvement include dedicated CQI / MCS tables for a target BLER of 1E-5.

[0032] The mMTC (Massive Machine Type Communication) use case is characterized by a very large number of connected devices transmitting relatively small amounts of data that are generally latency sensitive. The devices need to be low cost and have extremely long battery life. From an NR perspective, utilizing very narrow bandwidth portions is one possible solution to achieve power savings from the UE perspective, enabling long battery life.

[0033] As mentioned above, it is expected that the range of reliability in NR will expand. One key requirement for all cases, especially for URLLC and mMTC, is high or ultra-high reliability. Several mechanisms can be considered to improve reliability from a radio perspective and a network perspective. In general, there are several key areas that can help improve reliability. These areas include compact control channel information, data channel / control channel repetition, and diversity related to the frequency, time, and / or spatial domains. These areas are generally applicable to reliability, regardless of the specific communication scenario.

[0034] Additional use cases with more stringent requirements are envisioned for NR URLLC, such as factory automation, transportation, and power distribution. The more stringent requirements include higher reliability (up to 10 times faster), depending on the use case. 6 level), higher availability, packet size up to 256 bytes, time synchronization on the order of a few microseconds (values ​​range from 1 to a few microseconds depending on the frequency range), and short latency on the order of 0.5 to 1 ms (target latency for the user plane in particular is 0.5 ms).

[0035] Furthermore, for NR URLLC, there can be several technical enhancements from the perspective of the physical layer. In particular, enhancements related to PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) include compact DCI, repetition of PDCCH, and increased PDCCH monitoring. Also, enhancements related to UCI (Uplink Control Information) include enhancement of HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) and enhancement of CSI feedback. Additionally, enhancement of PUSCH related to mini-slot level hopping and retransmission / repetition has also been recognized. The term "mini-slot" refers to a Transmission Time Interval (TTI) that contains fewer symbols than a slot (a slot has 14 symbols).

[0036] <QoS Control> The 5G QoS (Quality of Service) model is based on QoS flows and supports both QoS flows that require a guaranteed flow bit rate (GBR QoS flows) and QoS flows that do not require a guaranteed flow bit rate (non-GBR QoS flows). Therefore, at the NAS level, a QoS flow is the finest granularity for QoS differentiation in a PDU session. A QoS flow is identified within a PDU session by a QoS flow ID (QFI) that is transmitted within the encapsulation header through the NG-U interface.

[0037] The 5GC establishes one or more PDU sessions for each UE. The NG-RAN establishes at least one Data Radio Bearer (DRB) for each UE along with the PDU session, and can then configure additional DRBs for the QoS flows of that PDU session (as determined by the NG-RAN, e.g., as described above with reference to Figure 3). The NG-RAN maps packets belonging to different PDU sessions to different DRBs. NAS-level packet filters in the UE and 5GC associate UL and DL packets with QoS flows, and AS-level mapping rules in the UE and NG-RAN associate UL and DL QoS flows with DRBs.

[0038] Figure 5 shows the 5G NR non-roaming reference architecture (see, for example, Section 4.2.3 of v16.9.0 of 3GPP TS 365-0100, or v17.5.0 and v18.0.0). Application Functions (AFs) (e.g., external application servers handling 5G services as exemplarily illustrated in Figure 4) interact with the 3GPP Core Network to provide services. For example, they support application influence on traffic routing, access Network Exposure Functions (NEFs), or interact with a policy framework (see Policy Control Function (PCF)) for policy control (e.g., QoS control). Based on the operator's deployment, Application Functions (AFs) deemed trusted by the operator can be allowed to interact directly with the associated Network Functions. Application Functions not permitted by the operator to directly access Network Functions interact with the associated Network Functions using an external exposure framework via the NEF.

[0039] Figure 5 shows further functional units of the 5G architecture: Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF), Network Repository Function (NRF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), and Data Network (DN) (e.g., operator services, internet access, or third-party services). All or part of the core network functions and application services may be located and run in a cloud computing environment.

[0040] Therefore, the present disclosure provides an application server (e.g., an AF in a 5G architecture) having: a transmitter that, when operated, sends a request including QoS requirements for at least one of a URLLC service, an eMBB service, and an mMTC service to at least one of 5GC functions (e.g., an NEF, an AMF, an SMF, a PCF, an UPF, etc.) to establish a PDU session including a radio bearer between a gNodeB and a UE in accordance with the QoS requirements; and a circuit that, when operated, performs a service using the established PDU session.

[0041] <Multiple sending and receiving points> 5G wireless networks are expected to support massive connectivity, high capacity, ultra-high reliability, and low latency. Such diverse use case scenarios require disruptive approaches for the realization of future 5G systems. 5G envisions multiple transmission and reception points (multi-TRPs) as being crucial to improving reliability, coverage, and capacity performance through flexible deployment scenarios.

[0042] Cell edge users typically receive poor quality of service (QoS) due to their relatively long distance from the base station and unfavorable channel conditions (e.g., intercell interference (ICI) from neighboring base stations). Multi-TRP is a technology that has been considered in 4G mobile communications to mitigate ICI and provide joint scheduling and transmission / reception through dynamic coordination between multiple TRPs. In this way, wireless devices at the cell edge can be served by multiple TRPs, improving signal transmission and reception and increasing throughput.

[0043] Multi-TRP is a feature that allows a gNB to use two or more TRPs to communicate with a UE. This type of communication can be achieved in several different ways, which can be summarized as follows: A first TRP and a second TRP may transmit two different PDSCHs, but the control signals (PDCCH / DCI) for the two PDSCHs are transmitted only by the first TRP. In this case, if there is a problem with the radio link involving the first TRP and the PDCCH fails to be received, communication via the second TRP will also be affected. Furthermore, if the first TRP and the second TRP transmit two different PDSCHs and each TRP transmits its corresponding PDCCH / DCI, communication via the other TRP will not be affected even if there is a problem with the radio link involving one of the TRPs. Furthermore, the first TRP and the second TRP may jointly process DL and UL signals.

[0044] Higher carrier frequencies in 5G (e.g., millimeter waves) make it easier to deploy a larger number of antennas at base stations (e.g., so-called massive MIMO), but this requires beam management procedures for multi-TRP technologies.

[0045] <Send setting indicator status and pseudo-collocation> According to v17.3.0 (September 2022) of Non-Patent Document 6: "Physical layer procedures for data (Release 17)," two reference signals can have a quasi-colocated (QCL) relationship. Two antenna ports are said to be quasi-colocated if the nature of the channel through which symbols on one antenna port are carried can be inferred from the channel through which symbols on the other antenna port are carried.

[0046] In a 5G NR system, the Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state is used to establish a quasi co-location (QCL) connection between a target reference signal (RS) and a source RS. The QCL type of an antenna port is defined as follows:

[0047] Type Description QCL-TypeA Doppler shift, Doppler spread, mean delay, delay spread QCL-TypeB Doppler shift, Doppler spread QCL-TypeC Doppler shift, average delay QCL-TypeD spatial Rx parameters The TCI state is configured for the PDCCH, PDSCH, and channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) to convey the QCL indication for each RS. In frequency range 1 (FR1, below 7.125 GHz), QCL types A to C are applied, and in frequency range 2 (FR2, above 24.250 GHz), QCL types A to D are applied. QCL Type D in FR2 indicates that the PDCCH / PDSCH / CSI-RS is transmitted with the same spatial filter as the reference signal associated with that TCI. In FR2, the network can indicate a change in the transmit beam of the PDSCH or PDCCH by switching the TCI state.

[0048] Each TCI state may include a TCI state identifier, a TCI state ID, and an RS set or one or more individual RSs used for QCL reference. Each RS within a TCI state may be associated with one or more Tx (transmit) beams and / or Rx (receive) beam sets.

[0049] <Synchronization signal block measurement timing setting - SMTC - PSS / SSS, PBCH> NR introduces so-called synchronization signal blocks (SS blocks (SSBs)), which contain a Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS), a Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS), and a Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) (actually, PBCH DMRS and PBCH data). The PSS and SSS can be used by UEs to discover, synchronize to, and identify a network. The PBCH carries a minimal amount of system information, including an indication of where the remaining broadcast system information is transmitted.

[0050] In LTE, these three signals (PSS, SSS, and PBCH) were also used, but not as part of one SSB. In NR, the three SSB components are always transmitted together, e.g., the three SSB components have the same period. A given SSB may be repeated within an SS burst set, which may potentially be used for gNB beam-sweeping transmission. An SS burst set may be limited to a specific period, such as a 5 ms window (half frame). During initial cell selection, the UE may assume a default SS burst set period of 20 ms.

[0051] The 5G NR PSS is a physical layer specific signal for identifying radio frame boundaries and is a type of m-sequence. The 5G NR SSS is also a physical layer specific signal for identifying subframe boundaries and is also an m-sequence. The PSS / SSS sequence consists of complex values ​​used by each element / sample of the sequence. Information on current exemplary 5G implementations of PSS and SSS, including their respective sequence generation and mapping to physical resources, can be found in 3GPP TS 26.210, Sections 7.4.2.2 and 7.4.2.3.

[0052] The time-frequency structure of the SS / PBCH block carrying the SSS is described in Section 7.4.3.1 of 3GPP TS 36.254. In this exemplary 5G implementation, in the time domain, the SS / PBCH block consists of four OFDM symbols numbered in ascending order from 0 to 3. The distribution of the PSS, SSS, and PBCH signals within the SS / PBCH block is defined by Table 7.4.3.1-1.

[0053] In the frequency domain, an SS / PBCH block consists of 240 contiguous subcarriers indexed from 0 to 239. The exact subcarriers used for each PSS, SSS, and PBCH signal within the SS / PBCH block are also defined by Table 7.4.3.1-1.

[0054] A simplified illustration of an SSB according to the above definition is shown in Figure 6. The bottom part of Figure 6 shows the PSS, SSS, and PBCH in the time and frequency domains.

[0055] The timing (OFDM symbol) at which the SS block (see Figure 6) is transmitted by the gNB can be defined differently. In particular, the first symbol index (within each half-frame having SSBs) at which a candidate SSB starts is determined according to Section 4.1 "Cell search" of 3GPP TS 20.210.2306. Figure 6 shows an example set of SSBs assuming starting OFDM symbols of 2, 8, 16, 22, 30, 36, 44, and 50 (for SCS = 30 kHz, frequencies > 3 GHz). The numbering of the associated OFDM symbols starts from 0 in a half-frame. The number of SSBs in an SSB set may also be limited to a maximum Lmax. As an example, an SSB set may contain 4, 8, or 64 SSBs.

[0056] The candidate SS / PBCH blocks in a half-frame (e.g., referred to as an SSB set) are indexed in time in ascending order from 0 to Lmax-1. Correspondingly, each SSB in the SSB set is assigned a unique number that starts from 0 and increases by 1.

[0057] The SSB set shown in Figure 6 illustrates a case in which all candidate SSBs that may be transmitted by the base station are actually transmitted. However, it is not necessary to transmit all SSBs. Rather, the gNB may select and transmit only some of the SSBs in the SSB set based on certain requirements. The SSBs that are actually transmitted by the SSBs can be referred to as an SSB pattern. An SSB pattern has essentially the same characteristics as the corresponding SSB set, including periodicity.

[0058] The gNB informs the UE of the SSB pattern, e.g., which SSBs are actually transmitted and which are not. This can be done, for example, by the gNB transmitting an SSB bitmap that defines the SSB pattern, where each bit in the SSB bitmap is associated with one SSB and identifies whether said SSB is transmitted or not. The length of the SSB bitmap depends on the applicable SSB set and can be, for example, 4, 8, or 64 bits.

[0059] In essence, a set of candidate SSBs is configured to be used by the gNB in ​​the cell, and from the set of candidate SSBs, the gNB may select all or fewer candidate SSBs for actual transmission, which is called an SSB pattern.

[0060] All SSBs can be transmitted on all beams in the system. Alternatively, SSBs can be transmitted on different beams, for example, when SSB beamforming is enabled. In that case, each SSB is transmitted on a different spatial beam, as shown in Figure 7. Similar to the exemplary scenario in Figure 6, there are eight SSBs (0-7) transmitted in different beam directions, and each SSB can be transmitted on a different beam. Therefore, beam-sweeping transmission of SSBs is realized. In other words, the beam (and SSB) sweep transmission is time-division multiplexed and occurs at different times. Two UEs, UE1 and UE2, receive different SSBs at different times. Each beam has a beam index, which corresponds to the SSB index transmitted through that beam.

[0061] The UE uses SSB signals (eg, PSS, SSS, PBCH) in different mechanisms, such as serving cell measurements, time / frequency synchronization, among others.

[0062] <Beam management> Beam management is a set of Layer 1 (PHY) and Layer 2 (MAC) procedures for establishing and maintaining optimal beam pairs for good connectivity. A beam pair consists of, for example, a transmit beam and a corresponding receive beam in one link direction.

[0063] Before a UE can communicate with the network, it must perform a cell search and selection procedure to acquire initial cell synchronization and system information. The first steps in that process are to acquire frame synchronization, find the cell identity, and decode MIB and SIB1.

[0064] For multi-antenna systems transmitting multiple beams, detecting the beam from the gNB is also part of the initial procedure (e.g., when a UE typically detects all beams in its search space).

[0065] Beam management can be divided into three main steps:

[0066] Initial beam establishment Beam conditioning (also known as beam tracking and refining) Beam damage recovery (more on that later) These procedures are briefly described below.

[0067] <Initial beam establishment> Initial beam establishment includes procedures and functions by which beam pairs are initially established in the downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) transmission directions, for example, when a connection is established. In current 5G NR standards, this is done by beam sweeping, where different SSBs associated with different transmit (Tx) beams are transmitted in different OFDM symbols.

[0068] During beam sweeping, the gNB transmits beams in omnidirectional bursts at regularly defined intervals. Each time the UE synchronizes with the network, it reads the synchronization signal block (SSB) and extracts the primary synchronization signal (PSS), secondary synchronization signal (SSS), physical broadcast channel (PBCH), and demodulation reference signal (DMRS).

[0069] A single SS block spans four OFDM symbols in time and 240 subcarriers (20 resource blocks) in frequency (see Figure 6). Each SS block corresponds to a specific beam formed in a different direction. A group of SS blocks forms an SS burst set spanning a 5 ms window. SS bursts are repeated periodically with a period of 20 ms, and the maximum number of SS blocks in an SS burst set depends on the operating frequency range.

[0070] The UE may then search for the strongest DL receive (Tx) beam, for example by also adjusting the corresponding DL Rx beam at the UE side, and report the selection to the gNB via the corresponding RACH opportunity and preamble. After the initial beam pair is established in this way and the connection is set up, the initial beam pair may remain valid until the UE receives a new beam indication.

[0071] <Beam adjustment> After the initial beam pair is established, the beam pair may be constantly adjusted to account for UE movement and / or environmental changes. This may be referred to as beam adjustment. Beam management may also include refining the beam shape, for example, by using narrower CSI-RS beams compared to the relatively wide SSB beams used for initial beam establishment.

[0072] The UE measures beam strength by measuring the received signal power. In idle mode, this can be based on synchronization signals, and in connected mode, on channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS) in DL and sounding reference signals (SRS) in UL. The UE periodically searches for the best beam using a predefined threshold criterion defined by the gNB and identifies the beam with the highest reference signal received power (RSRP). The UE may then perform a beam reporting procedure.

[0073] Because beam adjustment is not performed simultaneously at the gNB and the UE, one beam per procedure (identified by an index) is the outcome that may be used for UL or DL ​​communication. The gNB may use information and recommendations from the UE to enhance beam adjustment. Because beam adjustment aims to improve link quality based on constantly changing radio channel conditions, control signaling and data transmission may benefit from the beams selected in the process. The gNB is responsible for determining and instructing the UE which UL Rx and DL Tx beams to use. Once the UE knows which beams the gNB is using, it can select its own UL Tx and DL Rx beams.

[0074] <Beam Damage Recovery> A beam failure can occur if the beam cannot be tracked using the beam adjustment procedure described above. This can be the case, for example, if the current beam pair is suddenly and unexpectedly interrupted and the beam tracking function cannot react quickly enough. When a beam failure occurs, beam recovery typically requires the following steps:

[0075] Beam obstruction detection Identification of candidate beams Submit a recovery request Network response to beam recovery requests In the case of beam failure, for example due to poor channel conditions, a beam recovery process is triggered to recover a new beam. The UE monitors the reference signal and identifies beam failure when the failure trigger condition is met. In the event of beam failure, the UE selects the next best beam for transmission in a random access (RA) preamble. If the first attempt at RA fails, it sweeps to other beams for another RA procedure. The RA preamble is transmitted in the PRACH. Finally, the UE receives downlink resource allocation and uplink grants in the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH).

[0076] <Beam Measurement and Reporting> Typical actions taken during one or more of the above main steps include: Beam sweeping, i.e. covering a spatial region with a set of beams transmitted and received according to pre-specified spacing and direction; Beam measurements, i.e. assessing the quality of the received signal at the gNB or UE; Beam decision, i.e., selection of the appropriate beam at either the gNB or the UE according to the measurements obtained in the beam measurement procedure; Beam reporting, i.e., the procedure used by the UE to transmit beam quality and beam decision information to the gNB may involve one or more of:

[0077] In essence, beam reporting involves the UE measuring a set of reference signals (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS) corresponding to different downlink Tx beams. The UE then reports these measurements to the network (e.g., serving gNB). Based on the received measurements, the network can then determine, for example, an appropriate downlink Tx transmit beam for the UE.

[0078] The measurement and reporting may be based, for example, on a CSI reporting framework, which may generally be considered to involve two parts: one for configuration and another for triggering CSI reporting.

[0079] There are two types of reference signals that can be used for measurements: SSB and CSI-RS. SSB is always transmitted by the network and is not specific to the UE, making it less flexible. For example, SSB can be used in the context of a relatively wide beam. CSI-RS, on the other hand, can be configured specifically for the UE, allowing for greater flexibility in terms of when and how often it transmits (in the time domain) and in terms of frequency domain resources. CSI-RS can be configured for only one or a few UEs, and therefore can be used in the context of a relatively narrow beam.

[0080] In NR, there are several components of CSI (i.e., several different types of CSI), for example, based on Section 5.2.1 of Non-Patent Document 6.

[0081] CQI (Channel Quality Information) PMI (Precoding Matrix Indicator) CRI (CSI-RS Resource Indicator) SSBRI (SS / PBCH Resource Block Indicator) LI (Layer Indicator) RI (Rank Indicator) L1-RSRP, and / or Capability Index One or more metrics or a combination of different metrics may be reported by the UE. Generally, metrics can be grouped into two types:

[0082] - L1-RSRP related quantities (e.g., cri-RSRP and ssb-Index-RSRP, see IE CSI-ReportConfig below) - CSI-related quantities (e.g., remainder of the IE CSI-ReportConfig) L1-RSRP-related quantities are new and were first introduced in NR (Rel-15), and one of their purposes is to facilitate beam management. In contrast, CSI-related quantities (e.g., CQI) are conventional quantities already present in LTE. These conventional CSI-related quantities are used by the base station to select appropriate MIMO precoding, modulation, and coding size to match the channel conditions, for example.

[0083] Among several IEs for configuration, the IE CSI-ReportConfig is used to configure CSI reporting. Generally, each CSI reporting configuration describes / indicates the following:

[0084] The quantity or set of quantities to be reported. One possible reporting quantity is related to L1-RSRP (e.g. "cri-RSRP" or "ssb-Index-RSRP", see 3GPP v17.4.0, section 5.2.1.4.2).

[0085] The downlink resources on which measurements are performed to derive the reported quantities.

[0086] How the actual reporting is performed, e.g. when to report and which uplink channel to use for reporting.

[0087] A device can be configured with one or several resource sets (e.g., CSI-RS, e.g., NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSets). Each such resource set contains references to one or several configured CSI-RS. The gNB also configures whether reference signals on the resources of a resource set are transmitted periodically, aperiodically, or semi-persistently.

[0088] The resource set may then be used as part of a report configuration that describes the measurements and corresponding reporting to be performed by the device. In a 5G compliant example, the resource set on which measurements are performed is defined based on one or more of the following IEs derived from 3GPP TS 26.2008:

[0089] - The CSI-ResourceConfigID included in the CSI-ReportConfig IE identifies the CSI-ResourceConfig IE used.

[0090] The CSI-ResourceConfig IE defines a group of one or more resource sets including NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet, CSI-IM-ResourceSet, and / or Csi-SSB-ResourceSet, each identified by an appropriate ID (e.g., NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSetId, CSI-IM-ResourceSetId, and / or Csi-SSB-ResourceSetId).

[0091] The resource sets define resources based on, for example, the IEs NZP-CSI-RS-Resource, CSI-IM-Resource and / or SSB-Index, respectively.

[0092] Measuring and reporting can be performed periodically, semi-periodically, or aperiodically.

[0093] The measurement results are reported from the UE to the gNB, for example, as uplink control information for PUCCH or PUSCH. In one 5G-compliant example, CSI reporting is performed by the UE based on the definition given in Section 6.3 of Non-Patent Document 9. More specifically, for CSI reporting for beam management (including, for example, L1-RSRP related metrics), Tables 6.3.1.1.2-6, 6.3.1.1.2-8, and 6.3.1.1.2-8B of Non-Patent Document 9 are most relevant.

[0094] The following exemplary definition of IE CSI-ReportConfig is taken from 3GPP TS 2.0:

[0095] - CSI-ReportConfig The IE CSI-ReportConfig is used to configure periodic or semi-persistent reports transmitted on the PUCCH in the cell in which the CSI-ReportConfig is included, or semi-persistent or aperiodic reports transmitted on the PUSCH triggered by DCI received in the cell in which the CSI-ReportConfig is included (in this case the cell from which the report is transmitted is determined by the received DCI). See Section 5.2.1 of 3GPP TS 36.210.

[0096] [Table 1-1] [Table 1-2] [Table 1-3]

[0097] [Table 2-1] [Table 2-2] [Table 2-3] [Table 2-4]

[0098] [Table 3]

[0099] [Table 4]

[0100] As is evident from the above CSI-ReportConfig, the parameters reportQuantity, reportQuantity-r16, and reportQuantity-r17 can be used to define the reporting quantity that the UE reports.

[0101] 8 illustrates an exemplary simplified signaling exchange for measurement reporting, assuming periodic transmission of reference signals and reports. As can be seen, the gNB configures the UE for measurement and reporting (e.g., as described above). The UE follows this configuration for the measurement and reporting process. The gNB transmits reference signals, and the UE performs configured measurements on the received reference signals and generates a CSI report, which is then transmitted to the gNB. This may be repeated periodically, for example, as configured.

[0102] <Artificial intelligence / machine learning for beam management> In real-world scenarios, beam management faces various sources of nonlinearity. For ease of handling, traditional mathematical methods usually simplify real-world scenarios by ignoring these nonlinear factors. In contrast, artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI / ML) can accurately model these complex nonlinear relationships, facilitating efficient beam management.

[0103] The ongoing 3GPP Rel-18 study item "study on AI / ML for NR air interface" discusses artificial intelligence / machine learning algorithms that can be used to predict the best beam or other quantities / characteristics such as RSRP from a first set of beams (e.g., set A) based on measurements of a second set of beams (e.g., set B). For more details, see, for example, Non-Patent Document 10 and Non-Patent Document 11.

[0104] In the first beam management use case (BM-Case1), DL beam prediction in the spatial domain is performed for a set of beams A (a first beam set) based on measurement results of a set B (a second beam set). As an example, set B may be a subset of set A and thus may share one or more beams. Alternatively, set A and set B may not have beams in common with each other.

[0105] In a second beam management use case (BM-Case2), temporal DL beam prediction may be performed for a set of beams A (first beam set) based on previous measurements for set B (second beam set). In this case, set B may be a subset of set A or may be different from set A in the sense that sets A and B do not exhibit common beams. On the other hand, sets A and B may be equal, i.e., contain the same beams.

[0106] For example, machine learning may be applied to the beam selection procedure to avoid repeated exhaustive searches and reduce communication overhead. The beam selection procedure may include a classification task whose target output is the best beam pair index. A trained AI / ML model may recommend a set of beam pairs. By searching only the recommended beam pairs instead of exhaustively searching all beam pairs, the overhead of beam sweeping can be reduced.

[0107] One such scenario may be that, instead of measuring all SSB beams during the initial beam establishment procedure, the UE measures only a subset of the SSB beams. An AI / ML model in the UE may then determine the best SSB beam based on the partial beam set measurements, and the determined best SSB beam may be reported to the base station.

[0108] Furthermore, by using AI / ML in the beam adjustment procedure, a set of SSB beams may be considered as Set B for measurement, and a set of CSI-RS beams may be considered as Set A for prediction. Based on the measurement results for beams in Set B, the AI / ML module in the UE (and / or gNB) may predict parameters associated with beams in Set A. This allows the UE to optimally predict a refined CSI-RS beam for a given UE. This can significantly reduce the UE's measurement effort compared to measuring a large set of CSI-RS beams to find the strongest refined beam. At the same time, RS overhead can be optimized.

[0109] Furthermore, if beam failures are predicted in advance using AI / ML, failure events can be avoided by proactively switching to other beams.

[0110] For example, the latency for switching to another beam can be reduced, and the accuracy of beam selection can be improved.

[0111] Different inputs to the AI / ML model can be, for example, one or more combinations of the following: L1-RSRP measurements based on Set B and potentially the corresponding DL Tx beam ID and / or Rx beam ID Aiding information, e.g., TX and / or Rx beam shape information (e.g., beam pattern, boresight direction, 3 dB beam width, etc.) Expected TX and / or Rx beams for prediction (e.g., expect Tx and / or Rx angles, Tx beam ID and / or Rx beam ID for prediction) · UE location information · UE direction information Tx beam usage information UE orientation information CIR based on Set B

[0112] Different outputs from an AI / ML model can be one or a combination of the following: Tx Beam ID and / or Rx Beam ID Predicted L1-RSRP of N predicted DL Tx and / or Rx beams (e.g., top N predicted beams) Probability that the beam is the best beam Associated confidence Beam application time / dwelling time Predicted beam obstructions Tx beam angle and / or Rx beam angle

[0113] FIG. 9 illustrates an example of spatial relationships between multiple beams, where a second beam set (set B) is a subset of a first beam set (set A). Specifically, the multiple beams include six beams (beams #1 to #6) that extend in different directions and are not quasi-colocated (QCLed). In the figure, set A includes beams #1 to #6, and set B includes beams #1, #3, and #5. That is, set A = {#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6}, and set B = {#1, #3, #5}. Thus, in the illustrated example, set B is a subset of set A, and the UE may perform a beam management procedure based on measurement results for the beams in set B. For example, the UE may use an AI / ML module to determine a first characteristic of a beam included in set A using measurement results for a second characteristic of a beam included in set B. The first characteristic and the second characteristic may be equal to each other or may be different from each other. For example, the characteristics may relate to signal strength, signal-to-noise ratio, etc. In another example, the AI / ML module may determine the best beam from among the beams included in set A.

[0114] FIG. 10 illustrates another example of spatial relationships between multiple beams, where a first beam set (set A) is different from a second beam set (set B). Specifically, set A includes beams #1 through #6, and set B includes beams #7 and #8. That is, set A = {#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6}, and set B = {#7, #8}. Sets A and B do not share common beams. In the illustrated example, beams #7 and #8 overlap with multiple beams included in set A to exhibit wider beam profiles. That is, beam #7 is quasi-colocated with beams #1 through #3, and beam #8 is quasi-colocated with beams #4 through #6. The UE may determine the characteristics of beams #1 through #6, for example, using an AI / ML module with measurements on beams #7 and #8. Alternatively, or additionally, the AI / ML module may determine the best beam from among the beams in set A.

[0115] When using an AI / ML module in a beam management procedure, it is desirable to provide information as input to the AI / ML module, which allows the AI / ML module to provide accurate and reliable prediction results.

[0116] <Further improvements> The above describes the use of AI / ML models in various procedures, including initial beam establishment, beam adjustment, and beam failure prediction. Thus, the use of AI / ML models may involve reporting the results of beam predictions to a network, e.g., a gNB, so that the network can appropriately take follow-up actions based on the predicted information described above.

[0117] However, the present inventors have identified a problem in that the existing reporting procedure for beams only allows a UE to report information about beams that are actually measured. As described above, beam reporting is based on the CSI reporting procedure, and can be configured, for example, based on the IE CSI-ReportConfig.

[0118] For example, the report quantity defined for CSI reporting (see IE CSI-ReportConfig and parameter reportQuantity in 3GPP TS 36.210.1) is currently defined only for measurements, e.g., L1-RSRP measurements for reporting are defined in Section 9.5 of 3GPP TS 36.210.1.

[0119] "If configured by the network, the UE shall be able to perform L1-RSRP measurements on CSI-RS resources, SSB resources, or CSI-RS and SSB resources configured for L1-RSRP. Measurements are performed for serving cells, including PCells, PSCells, or SCells, on resources configured for L1-RSRP measurements within an active BWP."

[0120] The UE shall be able to measure all CSI-RS and / or SSB resources in the NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet and / or csi-SSB-ResourceSet in the CSI-ResourceConfig configuration configured for L1-RSRP for an active BWP, as long as the number of resources, including the number of SSB resources of cells with a PCI different from the serving cell configured for L1-RSRP measurements in 9.13, does not exceed the UE capability indicated by beamManagementSSB-CSI-RS.

[0121] The UE shall report the measurement quantity (reportQuantity) according to the reportConfigType according to the CSI reporting configuration (CSI-ReportConfig) for the active BWP and shall send periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic reports. Furthermore, in sections 10.1.19.2 and 10.1.20.2 of Non-Patent Document 12, L1-RSRP measurement accuracy is defined.

[0122] As is clear from the above, at least some of the currently defined reporting quantities are specifically defined for measurement and therefore cannot be used or are not suitable for reporting predicted results. Furthermore, gNBs, as recipients of measurement / prediction results, expect the reported quantities to be those that have been measured.

[0123] Furthermore, it may be useful for the gNB to know whether the reported quantity was determined by the UE based on measurements or predictions, a distinction that does not appear to be easily possible according to the current definitions of 3GPP.

[0124] Thus, the inventors have identified the possibility of defining an improved predictive outcome reporting procedure that facilitates avoiding one or more of the above-mentioned drawbacks. The present invention relates to various solutions and variations of such an improved predictive outcome reporting procedure.

[0125] <Embodiment> In the following, UEs, base stations, and procedures for meeting these needs are described for new radio access technologies envisioned for 5G mobile communication systems, but may also be used in previous LTE-based mobile communication systems or future (e.g., 6G) mobile communication systems. Various implementations and variations are also described. The following disclosure is facilitated by, and may be based, for example, at least in part on, the above discussion and findings.

[0126] In general, it should be noted that many assumptions have been made herein and will be made below in order to be able to explain the principles underlying the present disclosure in a clear, concise, and understandable manner. However, these assumptions should be understood as merely examples made herein for illustrative purposes, and they are not necessarily essential to the present invention, and therefore should not limit the scope of the present disclosure. Those skilled in the art will understand that the principles described in the following disclosure and claims can be applied to different scenarios and in ways not explicitly described herein.

[0127] Furthermore, although the specific terminology used in the context of new radio access technologies for upcoming communication systems has not yet been fully determined or may eventually change, some of the terms used below, such as procedures, entities, and layers, are closely related to the terms used in LTE / LTE-A systems or in the current 3GPP 5G standardization. Therefore, the terms may change in the future without affecting the functionality of each feature and solution. As a result, those skilled in the art will recognize that the solutions and their scope of protection should not be limited to the specific terms used illustratively in this specification, which lack newer or final agreed-upon terms, but should be more broadly understood by the underlying functions and concepts of the solutions described in this disclosure.

[0128] For example, a mobile station or mobile node or user terminal or user equipment (UE) is a physical entity (physical node) in a communication network. A node may have several functional entities. A functional entity refers to a software or hardware module that implements and / or provides a given set of functions to the same node or other nodes or other functional entities of the network. A node may have one or more interfaces that attach the node to communication facilities or media over which the node can communicate. Similarly, a network entity may have logical interfaces that attach the functional entity to communication facilities or media over which the functional entity may communicate with other functional entities or corresponding nodes.

[0129] The term base station or radio base station here refers to a physical entity in a communication network. Similar to a mobile station, a base station may have several functional entities. A functional entity refers to a software or hardware module that implements and / or provides a set of predetermined functions to other functional entities of the same node or other nodes or networks. A physical entity performs several control tasks for communication devices, including one or more of scheduling and configuration. Note that base station functions and communication device functions may also be integrated within a single device. For example, a mobile terminal may also implement base station functions for other terminals. The term used in LTE is eNB (or eNodeB), while the term currently used in 5G NR is gNB. A base station may also be a gNB in ​​a Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) NR system.

[0130] Communication between a UE and a base station is typically standardized and may be defined by different layers, such as PHY, MAC, RRC, etc. (see background discussion above).

[0131] As used herein, the terms prediction and predicting (and similar terms) are intended to describe a process that is distinct from the process of measuring. As an example, the process of predicting is performed based on a suitable artificial intelligence / machine learning based model, such as those discussed in 3GPP.

[0132] By way of example, the expression "characteristic of a beam" (and similar expressions) used herein is intended to refer to parameters related to the beam, some of which may be reported. By way of example, the characteristics of a beam may correspond to "report quantities" already known in 3GPP 5G NR. The characteristics may be measured or predicted.

[0133] 11 shows a general, simplified, exemplary block diagram of a user equipment (also referred to as a communication device) and a scheduling device (here assumed for purposes of illustration to be located in a base station such as an LTE eNB (also known as an ng-eNB) or a gNB in ​​5G NR). The UE and the eNB / gNB communicate with each other via a (wireless) physical channel using their respective transceivers.

[0134] A communication device may include a transceiver and a processing circuit. The transceiver may include and / or function as a receiver and a transmitter. The processing circuit may be one or more hardware components, such as one or more processing units or any LSI. An input / output point (or node) exists between the transceiver and the processing circuit, and the processing circuit can control the transceiver through the input / output point during operation, i.e., control the receiver and / or transmitter to exchange receive / transmit data. The transceiver may include an RF front end, including one or more antennas, amplifiers, RF modulators / demodulators, etc., as the transmitter and receiver. The processing circuit may control the transceiver to perform control tasks, such as transmitting user data and control data provided by the processing circuit and / or receiving user data and control data that are further processed by the processing circuit. The processing circuit may also be responsible for performing other processes, such as judgment, decision, calculation, and measurement. The transmitter may be responsible for performing the transmission process and other related processes. The receiver may be responsible for performing the reception process and other processes related thereto, such as monitoring the channel.

[0135] Different solutions to the improved predicted result reporting procedure are described below. In this regard, an improved UE, an improved base station, and an improved integrated circuit are presented, which individually or jointly participate in the improved predicted result reporting procedure. Corresponding methods for the UE behavior and the base station behavior are also provided. The integrated circuit can correspond to the UE and the base station and their respective behaviors.

[0136] The presently disclosed solution to the improved predicted result reporting procedure can be based on some or a combination of the different mechanisms described above in the context of the exemplary 3GPP 5G-NR implementation, including, for example, the use of signaling mechanisms currently under discussion in 3GPP (e.g., information elements, in particular for beam measurement configuration and reporting), or the use of predictive models (AI / ML models).

[0137] Figure 12 illustrates a simplified exemplary UE structure for an exemplary implementation of an improved predicted outcome reporting procedure that can be implemented based on the general UE structure described in connection with Figure 11. The various structural elements of the UE illustrated in Figure 12 can be connected to each other using corresponding input / output nodes (not shown), for example, to exchange control and user data and other signals. Although not shown for purposes of illustration, the UE may include additional structural elements.

[0138] As is apparent from FIG. 12, the UE may include a prediction-dedicated configuration information receiving unit, a prediction processing unit, and a prediction report transmitting unit.

[0139] In the present case, the receiver of the UE may be configured to at least partially perform one or more of, for example, receiving prediction-specific configuration information, receiving measurement-related configuration information, etc.

[0140] Thus, in the present case as will become apparent from the disclosure below, the processing circuitry of the UE can be configured to, for example, at least in part, perform one or more of predicting beam characteristics, determining whether to transmit a measurement report or a predicted report, etc.

[0141] Thus, in the present case as will become apparent from the disclosure below, the transmitter of the UE can be configured to, exemplarily, at least in part, perform one or more of the following: transmit prediction reports, transmit measurement reports, etc.

[0142] One exemplary procedure, disclosed in more detail below, is implemented by a UE comprising: a receiver unit of the UE receiving configuration information from a base station, the configuration information being dedicated for prediction reporting and not for measurement reporting; - predicted characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station; and - a reporting beam set identifying beams whose predicted characteristics will be reported from the UE to the base station; Set one or more of the following:

[0143] A processing unit of the UE predicts characteristics of the first set of beams based on the received prediction-dedicated configuration information, and a transmitting unit of the UE transmits a prediction report to the base station, the prediction report including the predicted characteristics of the one or more beams.

[0144] According to one optional exemplary embodiment of the UE, the prediction-specific configuration information allows the UE to predict and report beam characteristics in accordance with the configuration, and allows a gNB receiving such prediction reports to appropriately interpret the received reports.

[0145] A corresponding exemplary method includes the following steps performed by the UE: receiving, from the base station, configuration information dedicated to prediction reporting, not dedicated to measurement reporting, the received prediction-only configuration information comprising: - predicted characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station; and - a reporting beam set identifying beams whose predicted characteristics will be reported from the UE to the base station; and setting or receiving one or more of: predicting characteristics of the first beam set based on the received prediction-specific configuration information; transmitting a prediction report to the base station including predicted characteristics of one or more beams; Includes:

[0146] FIG. 13 shows a corresponding sequence diagram for exemplary UE behavior along the UE and UE methods described above.

[0147] The above-described predictive outcome reporting procedure thereby achieves its objectives and overcomes some of the drawbacks mentioned above.

[0148] For example, the newly introduced prediction-specific configuration information sent from the base station to the UE facilitates the introduction of a procedure for reporting prediction results for one or more beams instead of or in addition to reporting measurement results for the beams.

[0149] The prediction-only configuration is dedicated (e.g., used only) for reporting prediction results, and is not specifically used for performing and reporting measurements, so that it is possible to specifically configure how predictions and prediction reporting are performed.

[0150] Furthermore, by indicating prediction characteristics (dedicated to prediction only) in the prediction-only configuration information, the receiver (here, the base station) can easily identify that the reported prediction characteristics are not the result of measurements but the result of a prediction process in the reporting entity (here, the UE).

[0151] Similarly, by indicating the reporting beam set in the prediction-only configuration information, the receiver (here the base station) can easily identify that the results reported for one of the beams in the configured reporting beam set are not obtained by measurement but by a prediction process in the reporting entity (here the UE).

[0152] The improved prediction result reporting procedure facilitates the implementation of using predictions instead of measurements, thereby providing corresponding benefits such as reduced measurement effort and reduced latency (e.g., when switching to another beam) while at the same time improving the accuracy of beam selection.

[0153] Some example implementations of the improved predicted outcome reporting procedure involve improved base stations, and accordingly, the improved predicted outcome reporting procedure also provides for improved base stations participating in the procedure, as described below.

[0154] Figure 14 illustrates a simplified exemplary base station structure for an exemplary implementation of an improved predicted result reporting procedure, which may be implemented based on the general base station structure described in connection with Figure 11. The various structural elements of the base station illustrated in Figure 14 may be connected to each other, such as by corresponding input / output nodes (not shown), for example, to exchange control data and user data and other signals. Although not shown for illustrative purposes, the base station may include additional structural elements.

[0155] As is clear from the figure, the base station includes a prediction-dedicated setting determination processing unit, a prediction-dedicated setting transmission unit, and a prediction report reception unit.

[0156] Therefore, in the present case as will become clear from the disclosure below, the receiver of the base station can be configured to, exemplarily, at least in part, perform one or more of the following: receive prediction reports from the UE; receive measurement reports; etc.

[0157] Thus, in the present case as will become apparent from the disclosure below, the processing circuitry of the base station can illustratively be configured to at least partially perform one or more of determining prediction-only settings, determining measurement-related settings, etc.

[0158] Therefore, in the present case as will become clear from the disclosure below, the transmitter of the base station can be configured to, for example, at least in part, perform one or more of the following: transmit prediction-only settings and measurement-related settings to the UE.

[0159] An example procedure, disclosed in more detail below, is implemented by a base station comprising: a processing unit of the base station determining configuration information specific to prediction reports, but not specific to measurement reports; - predicted characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station; and - a reporting beam set identifying beams whose predicted characteristics will be reported from the UE to the base station; Set one or more of the following:

[0160] A transmitter of the base station transmits prediction-dedicated configuration information to the UE, and a receiver of the base station receives a prediction report from the UE, the prediction report including characteristics of one or more beams predicted by the UE based on the prediction-dedicated configuration information.

[0161] As one exemplary possibility, the base station can use the prediction result from the prediction report for beam or cell management. For example, the base station may decide to switch the UE's downlink serving beam to the beam reported by the UE while maintaining the current serving cell. As another example, the base station may decide to change the UE's current serving cell to another cell. On the other hand, the base station may decide not to switch the UE's serving beam or serving cell as long as the UE's current serving beam or serving cell is sufficiently good. As a further example, after receiving the prediction report, the base station may request the UE to perform further measurements and then report the measurement results. This may occur, for example, if the prediction result is associated with a low confidence level or if the base station has certain reasons to doubt the prediction result reported by the UE.

[0162] A corresponding method comprises the following steps executed by a base station: determining configuration information dedicated to prediction reporting, and not dedicated to measurement reporting, the prediction-only configuration information comprising: - predicted characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station; and - a reporting beam set identifying beams whose predicted characteristics will be reported from the UE to the base station; determining whether or not the value of the parameter is a positive integer; sending prediction-specific configuration information to the UE; receiving a prediction report from the UE, the prediction report including characteristics of one or more beams predicted by the UE based on prediction-specific configuration information; Includes:

[0163] 15 shows a corresponding sequence diagram for an exemplary base station behavior in accordance with the base station and corresponding method described above, which illustrates an exemplary simplified implementation of the base station method presented above.

[0164] According to one exemplary possibility, the base station can use the prediction results from the prediction report for beam management or cell management.

[0165] Figure 16 is a signaling diagram of an exemplary and simplified embodiment of an improved predicted result reporting procedure, showing the exchange of messages between different participating entities (here UE and gNB) and the steps performed in these entities.

[0166] The behavior of the UE and the behavior of the gNB follow the UE and base station and respective methods described above. Furthermore, Figure 16 shows how the gNB may use the received prediction report, for example, for beam management. In a further example, the prediction-specific configuration information may include additional configuration parameters necessary or useful for the UE to perform prediction and report the prediction result to the base station. Depending on the actual scenario (e.g., the AI / ML model or the characteristics to be predicted and reported), such additional parameters may be, for example, information about the radio resources on which the reference signal is transmitted (or the reference signal is used to perform measurements on the beam). Information about the beam on which the prediction report is performed is individually defined by the above-mentioned configuration information about the reporting beam set. As another example, the prediction-specific configuration information may include additional information about how and when the prediction result is reported.

[0167] According to one example of the improved predicted result reporting procedure described above, the UE may also be configured with measurement-related configuration information for configuring parameters related to performing measurements and reporting results of these measurements. - Measurement characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station (for example, the quantity defined in the parameter reportQuantity of the CSI-ReportConfig IE in Non-Patent Document 8 mentioned above), - for each beam of the second beam set, radio resources for measuring measurement characteristics (for example, the radio resource set of the CSI-ResourceConfig of the CSI-ReportConfig IE in Non-Patent Document 8); - parameters defining how and when the results of the measurements are reported, e.g. reporting timing (e.g. periodic, semi-persistent, aperiodic) and the uplink channel to use; Set.

[0168] According to the received measurement-related configuration information, the UE can perform measurements on the radio resources of the beam to determine the configured measurement characteristics, and then the UE transmits an appropriate measurement report to the base station, including the measured measurement characteristics of the beam, according to the configured measurement configuration for reporting.

[0169] In such an example, the measurement-related configuration information is separate from the prediction-only configuration information, thereby allowing separate configurations for prediction and measurement.

[0170] Thus, the UE may be configured to perform measurements and / or predictions and report the results of the measurements and / or predictions according to corresponding configuration information.

[0171] In one example, the UE may follow a prediction configuration instead of a measurement configuration. For example, if the UE is configured to report predicted characteristics of a beam, the UE predicts the configured predicted characteristics and then reports the configured predicted characteristics to the base station instead of performing measurements on that beam and reporting the measurement characteristics. This may be done, for example, for all beams for which the UE is configured to report measurements.

[0172] As another example, if a reporting beam set is configured for the UE (but predicted characteristics are not configured), the UE predicts measurement characteristics for the reporting beam set instead of performing measurements on the beams in the reporting beam set and reports the predicted measurement characteristics to the base station.On the other hand, for beams not included in the configured reporting beam set for which the UE is configured to report measurements, the UE may measure the configured measurement characteristics and report the measured measurement characteristics of those beams to the base station.

[0173] According to a further example of such an improved prediction result reporting procedure, the prediction-dedicated configuration information may configure only a part of what is necessary for the UE to perform prediction and report the prediction result to the base station. More specifically, the prediction of the characteristics of one beam may require specific input, but is not defined by the prediction-dedicated configuration information itself. Illustratively, what may also be required is information about the characteristics of the beam to be predicted and reported (if the prediction-dedicated configuration information does not configure specific prediction characteristics). As a further example, it may also be necessary to input information about the radio resources on which reference signals are transmitted (or used to perform measurements on) the beam. The information about the radio resources may provide information about the beam for which the characteristics are predicted (but which are not included in the prediction-dedicated configuration information).

[0174] Similarly, after obtaining the output of the prediction (e.g., predicted characteristics of the beam), reporting such prediction results may require specific parameters that are not necessarily included in the prediction-specific configuration information, such as how and when to report the prediction results to the base station. Illustratively, what may also be required are the timing of reporting (e.g., periodic, semi-persistent, aperiodic) and the uplink channel to use.

[0175] In such cases, an improved prediction result reporting procedure may be performed so that the remaining parts required for prediction and reporting the prediction results are obtained from the measurement-related configuration. As mentioned above, the UE is typically already configured to perform measurements and report the measurement results. The improved prediction result reporting procedure is separate and in addition to the above and may reuse certain parameters from the measurement-related configuration. For example, defined measurement characteristics of the beam can be reused as predicted rather than measured. This may be the case when the prediction-only configuration does not define the prediction characteristics.

[0176] Furthermore, the radio resources of one or more beams intended for performing measurements may be reused for prediction processing in the UE as well. As another example, the definitions of how and when to report measurements may equally apply to how and when to report prediction results.

[0177] Such reuse of measurement related configuration parameters can provide synergistic effects and reduce the signaling overhead required for configuring prediction and reporting of predictions. Furthermore, the configuration of reporting of prediction results remains flexible, as it allows the gNB to define parameters dedicated only to prediction as needed, and can rely on other parameters already defined for reporting measurements when there is no need to define parameters specifically dedicated only to prediction.

[0178] Different exemplary solutions are described in relation to the above points. For the description of the different solutions, some exemplary and simplified assumptions are made. The solutions described herein involve, for example, predicting the characteristics of beams. However, the focus of the solutions is not the prediction itself, and therefore only basic information on how the prediction process may be implemented is provided. As an example, the prediction may be performed based on an appropriate AI / ML model, such as those described above with respect to 3GPP. In this regard, it is assumed that such an AI / ML model has been predefined, for example, by appropriate training. Furthermore, it is assumed that the AI / ML model has access to necessary input parameters that allow it to predict the required output. The prediction process for predicting the characteristics of a first beam set may involve using results of measurements made on a second beam set, where the first set may be a subset of the second set (e.g., all beams in the first set are also part of the second set), but need not share one or more beams. Therefore, in the description, it is exemplarily assumed that the UE uses a prediction model to output a prediction regarding, for example, the characteristics of the beams. The first beam set, i.e., which beams the prediction is performed for, may be defined by the UE or the gNB.

[0179] In addition to the above-described aspects of the improved prediction result reporting procedure, a UE may be configured with several prediction-only configurations, which may differ from each other, for example, in terms of prediction characteristics and / or reporting beam sets and / or reporting timing. A UE may also be configured with several measurement-related configurations. It is equally possible to define a mixture of configurations, where some of the configurations relate to prediction-only parameters and other parts of the configurations relate to measurement-related parameters. In such cases, it is straightforward to reuse measurement-related parameters of the above configurations for reporting predictions, if the corresponding parameters are not defined by the prediction-only part.

[0180] Further to the above, in a 3GPP related example implementation, the UE may be configured with several CSI-ReportConfig information elements (see the above 3GPP definition), each of which covers either measurement only, prediction only, or both measurement and prediction, respectively.

[0181] The above-described implementation of the improved prediction result reporting procedure describes how a UE can have a mixture of configurations for prediction and measurement. This is an example scenario where reporting measurement results and reporting prediction results can occur simultaneously, and the resulting report can contain both measurement and prediction results for the same beam. This can occur especially when the prediction configuration reuses measurement-related parameters regarding how and when to report measurement results.

[0182] Furthermore, further implementations of the improved predictive outcome reporting procedure, which can be combined with any of the other above implementations, provide possibilities as to how the improved predictive outcome reporting procedure can take the above into account.

[0183] One possibility involves the base station being able to dynamically determine which results it wants to receive, i.e., predicted results, measurement results, or both. In response, the base station dynamically determines and timely transmits appropriate instructions to the UE regarding whether to transmit predicted or measurement reports to the base station. As an example, for a scenario in which predicted and measurement results are transmitted from the base station aperiodically following a corresponding trigger, this dynamic instruction may be transmitted together with the aperiodic trigger. For example, the UE may transmit only the dynamically instructed reports, whether they are predicted reports, measurement reports, or both.

[0184] Another possibility is that either or both of the prediction and measurement reports include appropriate indications to identify the report as a prediction or measurement report. Thus, the UE can send either or both of the prediction and measurement reports. In this case, the UE can decide whether to send one or both reports to the base station.

[0185] Yet another possibility is that the UE transmits both prediction and measurement reports, but according to a predetermined transmission order, e.g., measurement reports before prediction reports, or vice versa. Accordingly, the base station can distinguish the report types from the order of reception. As a further variation, the order can be respectively related to beam characteristics, such that for a given characteristic (e.g., RSRP), prediction values ​​are reported first, followed by measurements (or vice versa).

[0186] According to yet another possibility, the UE may follow a priority rule to determine whether to send a predictive report or a measurement report. For example, the priority rule may define that a measurement report has a higher priority than a predictive report, or vice versa. According to such a priority rule, the UE may send a high-priority report (e.g., a measurement report) and drop a low-priority report (e.g., a predictive report).

[0187] The above-described implementation of the improved prediction result reporting procedure describes, for example, how the UE can report the prediction result to the base station according to the reporting timing (e.g., aperiodic, periodic, or semi-persistent) for measurement reports. In a 3GPP-related implementation, the reporting timing for measurement reports / prediction reports can be defined by the parameter reportConfigType.

[0188] [Table 5]

[0189] Furthermore, a further implementation of the improved predictive result reporting procedure, which can be combined with any of the other above implementations, provides a new reporting timing for reporting predictions based on predictive event triggers. The prediction-only configuration can additionally configure one or more predictive events for triggering the sending of predictive reports.

[0190] For example, a predicted event may be based on one or more conditions, e.g. - the serving beam serving the UE becomes predictively worse than a threshold; - the non-serving beam is predictively better than the serving beam that serves the UE; and - that the beam failure will occur predictively at a future time instance; Define

[0191] In response, the UE may predict beam characteristics as described in any one of the implementations of the improved predicted result reporting procedure, and then the UE may determine whether any one of these predicted reporting events (in particular, the conditions defined for the event) is met based on the associated predicted beam characteristics.

[0192] Upon determining that a predicted event is met, the UE triggers the preparation and transmission of a predicted report.

[0193] In a 3GPP related implementation, the new prediction event may be part of the CSI-ReportConfig information element.

[0194] [Table 6]

[0195] In the above definitions, rxx means the release version of the technical standard, e.g., r18 for Release 18, r19 for Release 19, etc. The parameter "PredictionEventTiggerConfig" provides detailed prediction-based event configuration, including triggering conditions, e.g., the serving beam is predictively worse than a threshold (with or without offset), a non-serving beam is predictively better than the serving beam (with or without offset), a beam failure occurs predictively at a future time instance, etc.

[0196] Based on the above novel predictive event triggering, a further implementation of the improved predictive result reporting procedure involves an additional filtering operation when determining whether a predictive event is met. A known drawback of such event triggering is that unnecessary predictive reports may be triggered in certain scenarios, for example, due to fast fading conditions and prediction outliers.

[0197] According to an improved implementation of the present disclosure, after obtaining prediction results for beam characteristics, the UE may first perform a filtering operation on the predicted beam characteristics to facilitate reducing the number of triggering unnecessary prediction report transmissions, thereby reducing reporting overhead by avoiding unnecessary report triggering.

[0198] The filtering operation can be performed in several different ways, for example, in the time domain or the spatial domain. Time domain filtering may involve, for example, averaging the relevant predicted characteristics of a beam over multiple time instances, e.g., OFDM symbols, slots, subframes. Spatial domain filtering may involve, for example, averaging the relevant predicted characteristics of a beam over multiple beams. Spatial domain filtering may be used to obtain a representative value of cell quality and thus may be for cell-level event triggering.

[0199] The above-described implementation of the improved prediction result reporting procedure describes, for example, how the UE can report the prediction result to the base station according to a reporting timing (e.g., aperiodic, periodic, or semi-persistent) for reporting measurements, and accordingly, the reporting timing for transmitting the prediction result is controlled by the base station.

[0200] Furthermore, further implementations of the improved prediction result reporting procedure, which can be combined with any of the other above implementations, provide improvements to the control of the timing of such reporting. Implementations of this disclosure rely on the UE being able to obtain a recommended reporting timing for reporting the prediction result of a prediction.

[0201] For example, the recommended reporting timing may be a periodicity of reporting the predictions or may be an aperiodic sequence of reporting instances.

[0202] As an example, a prediction model for predicting beam characteristics may also output such a recommended reporting timing. To allow such prediction, the prediction model may, for example, - the speed of the UE, or - information about the UE's screen (e.g., whether the UE's screen is currently on or off and / or the duration of the UE's screen being off and / or the duration of the UE's screen being on), or - Information about (data) traffic occurring in the UE The UE may require specific information about the UE, the environment, or the beam, including:

[0203] Alternatively, rather than transmitting such a recommended reporting timing, this implementation also provides for transmitting the predicted application time (also known as lifetime) of the beam to the base station, or transmitting a sequence of beams with the predicted application time of each beam associated therewith. Such predicted beam application times allow the base station to determine a more appropriate reporting timing configuration for the UE. For example, for periodic reporting, a conservative scheduling approach may set the period to the minimum value of the beam application time associated with the predicted future sequence of beams. In this way, the base station can obtain an updated report each time the current serving beam becomes obsolete. As another example, the base station may trigger an aperiodic report just before the application time of the current beam expires.

[0204] According to one option, this recommended reporting timing may be one of the prediction characteristics mentioned above, configured by prediction-specific configuration information.

[0205] Providing the base station with the recommended reporting timing has the advantage that the reporting timing of the predicted results can be adapted to the situation of the UE.

[0206] <First variant - new prediction characteristics> The first variant is based on the above description of the improved prediction result reporting procedure (see, for example, Figures 12 to 16) and provides further, more detailed information for when the prediction-specific setting information configures the predicted characteristics of the beam to be reported to the base station.

[0207] According to an exemplary implementation of the first variant, the prediction characteristic is: - predicted beam identification, - predicted beam quality, such as reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), and signal to noise ratio (SNR); - predicted timestamp or application time of the beam, - the confidence of the predicted predictive properties, and - predicted quality of two or more beams, Contains one or more of the following:

[0208] The prediction characteristics are determined by the UE, for example, according to a prediction-specific setting and using an appropriate AI / ML model.

[0209] For example, the beam ID can be predicted and output in association with other prediction characteristics. One or more of the following can be reported as the beam ID: a synchronization signal block identifier (SSB ID), a reference signal resource identifier (e.g., a CSI-RS index), and a transmission configuration indication state identifier (TCI state ID). Alternatively, a new beam ID can be introduced for the above purpose.

[0210] The predicted beam quality may be similar to a corresponding measured beam quality known from reporting measurements.

[0211] The beam's predicted timestamp or application time represents information about when the beam will be suitable and / or unsuitable for the UE. This depends, for example, on the UE's speed, the cell and beam environment, the UE's mobility state, etc., all of which can be taken into account by the prediction. The base station can use such information to decide whether to switch the UE's serving beam. For example, for a reported beam associated with a very short application time, the base station may decide to maintain the current serving beam rather than switch it to save signaling overhead and potentially avoid interrupting ongoing communications due to switching. Furthermore, as described above, the base station may use such information to optimize the reporting timing configuration.

[0212] The reliability may be set by the base station to obtain a measure of how good the prediction is considered and may be used by the base station during beam management. For example, if the reliability is below a threshold, the base station may not use the predicted characteristics or may trigger further measurements to obtain actual measurement results instead of or in addition to the predicted results.

[0213] The predicted quality of two or more beams can be obtained, for example, by predicting the quality of the beams individually and averaging the predicted qualities. For example, multiple beams can be assumed to belong to the same cell, thereby obtaining a representative predicted quality at the cell level, which is more representative the more beams of the cell are used for averaging.

[0214] The base station may determine which prediction characteristics are predicted and reported by the UE and generate the prediction-specific configuration information accordingly by indicating the corresponding prediction characteristics, for example, based on consideration of what information is needed for beam management.

[0215] In one example, the prediction configuration may configure the UE to report only the predicted beam ID of one beam, which may be the best beam (e.g., having the best beam quality of all predicted beams) or the recommended beam (e.g., which may be different from the best beam). This information is sufficient to allow the base station to easily identify the most suitable beam to use for the UE, while at the same time not incurring much overhead for reporting the prediction.

[0216] As another example, the predictive configuration may configure the UE to report a predicted beam ID along with a predicted beam quality for one or several beams. This information can be used by the base station for beam management, e.g., to determine a suitable beam (not necessarily the best beam) for the UE.

[0217] Other combinations of predictive properties are possible as well.

[0218] An exemplary implementation of the first variant targeted at 3GPP can be based on, for example, part of the CSI measurement reporting framework already defined in 3GPP for beam management, as described above. As an example, the definition of prediction characteristics can be made as part of the CSI-ReportConfig information element, which is part of the CSI framework, as described above. In particular, the following parameters can be introduced into the CSI-ReportConfig:

[0219] [Table 7]

[0220] In the above definition, rxx means the release version of the technical standard, for example, r18 for release 18, r19 for release 19, etc.

[0221] The "predicted-beam ID", "Predicted-ssb-Index", and "Predicted-csi-RS-Index" listed above can be used to identify the beam, and the gNB can decide which one or more of these parameters will be predicted and reported by the UE.

[0222] Considering that the prediction-specific configuration information configures the prediction characteristics, as already explained above, a first variant of the improved prediction result reporting procedure may involve reusing some parameters from the measurement-related configuration, if necessary.

[0223] According to an example implementation targeted at 3GPP, this may include reusing measurement-related parameters of the radio resource sets, including CSI-ResourceConfig, NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet, CSI-IM-ResourceSet, and Csi-SSB-ResourceSet and the IEs NZP-CSI-RS-Resource, CSI-IM-Resource, and / or SSB-Index from 3GPP TS 802.11b, TS 802.11c, and TS 802.11d show how to measure the CSI-RS-Resource, CSI-IM-Resource, and / or SSB-Index parameters of the 3GPP TS 802.11b parameters also define the beams on which prediction should be performed.

[0224] As another example, the reused measurement related parameters may be those that define how and when to report measurements, such as reportConfigType, CSI-ReportPeriodicityAndOffset, etc.

[0225] <Second variant - new reporting beam set> The second variant is based on the above description of the improved prediction result reporting procedure (see, for example, Figures 12 to 16) and provides additional and more detailed information on when the prediction-specific setting information sets the reporting beam set.

[0226] According to an exemplary implementation of the second variant, the beams of the reporting beam set are each identified by appropriate identification information included in the prediction-specific configuration information. There are several possibilities for identifying the beam, for example, one or more of a synchronization signal block identifier (SSB (synchronization signal block) ID), a reference signal resource identifier (e.g., a CSI-RS index), and a transmission configuration indication state identifier (TCI (transmission configuration indication) state ID). As another possibility, a new beam ID can be introduced for the above purpose.

[0227] As yet another possibility, identifying beams for prediction can also be achieved by defining a separate resource set for prediction in addition to a resource set that may already be configured for measurement. In particular, conceptually following 3GPP implementations, the configuration of a resource set also identifies the beams to which the radio resources of said resource set refer. Thus, by defining a prediction-dedicated resource set for prediction (e.g., in addition to or instead of a measurement-related resource set), beams of a reporting beam set can be identified. The prediction-dedicated resource set and the measurement-related resource set can be identified by different resource set IDs, even if they actually refer to the same beam.

[0228] To address this possibility, a resource set can be identified as being for measurement or prediction by introducing a new tag or label into the resource set definition. Instead of using a tag or label, a specific resource set ID number (e.g., ID=0) or order in the sequence of resource sets may be predefined, thus implicitly allowing for identifying whether the resource set is for measurement or prediction.

[0229] Thus, the prediction-only configuration clearly identifies for which beams the base station expects to receive predicted results rather than measured results.

[0230] In the above description of the improved prediction result reporting procedure, it was described that the prediction is performed for the first beam set. In this second variant, the first beam set used for prediction in the UE may be the same as the beams defined by the reporting beam set dedicated to prediction, or may include more beams. In other words, the reporting beam set may be a subset of the first beam set.

[0231] Therefore, the UE performs predictions, if possible, for at least the beams identified by the configured prediction parameter "reporting beam set." However, even if reporting of prediction results is limited to prediction results related to beams in the configured reporting beam set, predictions can also be performed for further beams for different reasons.

[0232] From the above, a scenario may arise in which a beam recommended by prediction is included in the first beam set (used for prediction) but not in the reported beam set. Therefore, the actual recommended beam cannot be reported to the base station because it is not included in the configured reporting beam set. Instead, a beam from the reporting beam set is reported, which is less optimal than if the prediction had been followed. In such a case, the prediction report may be extended by the UE to also indicate the existence of a beam better than the reported beam (and may optionally or instead include the predicted beam ID of that beam). This allows the base station to learn that a beam better than the recommended beam exists and may use this information, for example, to optimize the reporting beam set.

[0233] The base station may determine for which beam the UE will provide prediction results (instead of measurement results) and, accordingly, generate prediction-only configuration information by identifying the determined beam. According to an example implementation, if the UE is configured to report measurements for a beam, but the UE receives prediction-only configuration information that identifies the beam for prediction, the UE need not perform measurements for the beam but may instead predict characteristics of the beam and then report the predicted beam characteristics to the base station.

[0234] The base station can distinguish that the prediction result is the result of a prediction rather than the result of a measurement by taking into account the beam to which the received prediction result relates and knowing whether the beam has previously been set for prediction.

[0235] As a further option, the prediction report may additionally include an identification or indication along with the predicted characteristics to allow the base station to distinguish that the predicted result is a predicted result rather than a result of a measurement, thereby facilitating the base station in distinguishing between predicted and measured results.

[0236] Such additional identification may be useful when a beam ID is not indicated, or when a beam ID is indicated but does not allow the receiver of the report to clearly distinguish between predicted and measured results. Such a scenario may occur, for example, when the beam of the report set for prediction is identified using a resource set definition and the same beam is configured for measurement and prediction reports. In this case, the additional identification allows the base station to distinguish whether the received results are determined by measurement or prediction. In one example, the additional identification may be a resource set ID, allowing clear identification of the resource set even when two resource sets are defined for the same beam for measurement and prediction, respectively.

[0237] An exemplary implementation of the second variant targeted at 3GPP can be based on, for example, part of the CSI measurement reporting framework already defined in 3GPP for beam management, as described above. In one example, identifying the predicted beam can be based on one or more resource sets defined by the CSI-ReportConfig IE, in particular by the CSI-ResourceConfig, NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet, CSI-IM-ResourceSet, and Csi-SSB-ResourceSet IEs and the NZP-CSI-RS-Resource, CSI-IM-Resource, and / or SSB-Index IEs from 3GPP TS 26.2008. This definition of resource sets according to the 3GPP framework not only identifies the radio resources used by the base station to transmit reference signals via the beam, but also identifies the beam.

[0238] As already explained above, considering that the prediction-only configuration information configures the reporting beam set, a second variant of the improved prediction result reporting procedure may involve reusing some parameters from the measurement-related configuration, if necessary.

[0239] This means that, according to an example implementation targeted at 3GPP, this may include reusing measurement related parameters of the radio resource set, including the parameter reportQuantity (e.g., indicating cri-RI-PMI-CQI, cri-RI-i1, cri-R1-i1-CQI, cri-RI-CQI, cri-RSRP, ssb-Index-RSRP, cri-RI-LI-PMI-CQI...).

[0240] As another example, the reused measurement related parameters may be those that define how and when to report measurements, such as reportConfigType, CSI-ReportPeriodicityAndOffset, etc.

[0241] Third Variation - Both Predicted Properties and Reported Beam Sets The above first and second variants of the improved prediction result reporting procedure may be combined so that a prediction-only setting sets both the prediction characteristics and the reporting beam set.

[0242] <Further variation - Inter-cell beam prediction> In Release 17 of the 5G NR MIMO enhancements, inter-cell beam management (ICBM) was introduced. Accordingly, the UE can be configured by the serving cell to measure DL Tx beams from neighboring cells. The UE then reports the inter-cell beam measurements to the serving cell. These neighboring cell beams can also be associated with SSB or CSI-RS.

[0243] The current 5G NR Release 18 discusses L1-L2-triggered mobility (LTM), in which a UE is first configured with a set of candidate cells, and then a MAC CE (and / or possibly DCI) triggers the UE to switch to its serving cell among the candidate cells. Similar to ICBM in Release 17, the UE may measure and report the beams of the configured set of candidate cells. Based on such reports, the base station may decide to handover the UE to one of the candidate cells.

[0244] Based on this variation of the improved prediction result reporting procedure, the UE can be configured to report prediction results for beams of one or more neighboring cells (i.e., non-serving cells). More specifically, the prediction-only configuration configures the reporting beam set to also indicate one or more beams of one or more neighboring cells for which the UE predicts and reports beam characteristics. For example, the prediction-only configuration indicates a beam ID and a cell ID to clearly identify each beam and corresponding cell.

[0245] Accordingly, the UE can not only predict the characteristics of the beam of its own serving cell, but also predict and report the characteristics of the beam of neighboring cells.

[0246] Reporting prediction results for beams of neighboring cells may result in the prediction report including appropriate identification of the neighboring cell / serving cell to which the prediction results pertain.

[0247] For inter-cell beam prediction, any measurements made by the UE on neighboring cell beams can also be used to predict beam characteristics, similar to those made for the serving cell beam prediction. Also, although not required, to improve the quality of neighboring cell predictions, the prediction model may be pre-trained with information about the neighboring cells, such as their beam patterns / beam configurations or the spatial relationship of their beams. This is particularly useful when the neighboring cell configurations, such as base station antenna settings, Tx power settings, etc., are quite different from those of the serving cell.

[0248] When the base station receives such beam characteristics for a neighboring cell, it can use them, for example, for inter-cell beam management or L1-L2 triggered mobility. For example, if one of the beams from the neighboring cell is predictively better than the current serving beam, the base station can decide to use the beam from the neighboring cell to transmit DL control information and / or DL ​​data (e.g., using PDSCH) without switching serving cells and notify the UE to monitor the beam accordingly. As another example, if multiple beams (or a metric derived from averaging multiple beams) from one of the candidate cells configured for L1-L2 triggered mobility are predictively better than a predefined threshold, the base station can decide to trigger the UE to perform a handover to the candidate cell.

[0249] In one exemplary implementation targeted at 3GPP, the prediction-only configuration may identify neighboring cells based on the following parameters and information of the above-mentioned CSI reporting framework (see Non-Patent Document 8): In one exemplary option, for an SSB beam, the IE "Csi-SSB-ResourceSet" has a parameter "ServingAdditionalPCIIndex-r17" that provides the non-serving cell ID for the SSB. In another exemplary option, for a CSI-RS beam, the UE is configured with the CSI-RS of its serving cell that has a QCL relationship to the SSB beam of the neighboring cell. This is done by providing the QCL source using the IE "TCI-State". For example, in the IE "NZP-CSI-RS-Resource", a TCI-StateId may be indicated for the CSI-RS that indicates "additionalPCI-r17", where a neighboring cell ID may be indicated for the SSB used as a QCL source for the associated CSI-RS.

[0250] In one exemplary implementation targeted at 3GPP, the predicted report may identify the neighboring cell to which the accompanying predicted characteristics pertain based on the following parameters and information of the CSI reporting framework described above (see Non-Patent Document 8): In one exemplary option, the CRI or SSBRI is reported as shown in Table 6.3.1.1.2-8 of Non-Patent Document 6, where SSBRI and CRI are used to refer to the SSB of the neighboring cell and the SSB and QCLed CSI-RS of the neighboring cell, respectively, as explained above.

[0251] <Further Variation - L3 Mobility> In the current 3GPP 5G NR specification, L3 mobility (i.e., handover triggered by RRC, such as an RRC reconfiguration message) requires the UE to report cell-level measurements such as RSRP, RSRQ, etc. for the complete cell.

[0252] According to this variant of the improved prediction result reporting procedure, the UE can be configured to report prediction results at a cell level. In particular, the cell-level prediction can be determined by the UE by taking into account some or all beams of the cell, for example, by averaging prediction results from different beams of a given cell. The UE can use all or fewer beams of the cell to determine the cell-level prediction.

[0253] For example, the cell-level prediction results may be predicted values ​​such as RSRP, RSRQ, SS-SINR, CSI-SINR, E-UTRA RSRP, E-UTRA RSRQ, E-UTRA SINR, SS-RSRPB, etc. (see Section 5.1 and its subsections of Non-Patent Document 13).

[0254] According to an exemplary implementation of this variant, instead of configuring the UE based on the IE CSI-ReportConfig (of 3GPP TS 36.254), the UE may be configured for reporting cell-level predictions for L3 mobility using the IE ReportConfigNR of 3GPP TS 36.254. In the current 3GPP specification, the ReportConfigNR IE specifies criteria for various triggering events. The IE ReportConfigNR may be extended with a parameter MeasReportQuantity-rxx (where rxx identifies the release, e.g., r18 or r19) that defines prediction characteristics such as predicted rsrp, predicted rsrq, and predicted sinr.

[0255] The above description of the improved predicted result reporting procedure is based on considering beam-level and cell-level metrics. Further variations of the improved predicted result reporting procedure may allow prediction and reporting of sidelink related metrics such as SL RSSI, SL CR, SL CBR, etc. (see 3GPP TS 26.2013, section 5.1 and its subsections).

[0256] The sidelink refers to a direct link between two UEs without a detour via a gNB. Accordingly, a UE may be configured with prediction-specific configuration information to predict and report characteristics related to the sidelink towards the peer UE. For example, new prediction characteristics such as predicted SL RSSI, predicted SL CR, and predicted SL CBR may be defined. The reports may be sent in the corresponding PC5-RRC connection. Both UEs in a PC5-RRC connection maintain a sidelink prediction-specific configuration that defines at least the prediction characteristics.

[0257] Further Aspects According to a first aspect, there is provided a user equipment, including: a receiver of the UE receives, from a base station, configuration information dedicated to prediction reports, but not dedicated to measurement reports, the received prediction-only configuration information comprising: - predicted characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station; and - a reporting beam set identifying beams whose predicted characteristics will be reported from the UE to the base station; Set one or more of the following:

[0258] A processing unit of the UE predicts characteristics of the first set of beams based on the received prediction-dedicated configuration information, and a transmitting unit of the UE transmits a prediction report to the base station, the prediction report including the predicted characteristics of the one or more beams.

[0259] According to a second aspect provided in addition to the first aspect, a receiving unit receives measurement-related setting information, and the received measurement-related setting information includes: - measurement characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station; and - for each beam of the second beam set, a radio resource for measuring measurement characteristics; Set.

[0260] The processing unit performs measurements on radio resources of the second beam set to determine measurement characteristics based on the received measurement-related configuration information. In one optional implementation, the transmitter transmits a measurement report to the base station including measured measurement characteristics of one or more beams of the second beam set. In another optional implementation, the measurement-related configuration information is separate from the prediction-only configuration information. In another optional implementation, the processing unit uses results of the measurements performed on the second beam set when predicting the characteristics of the first beam set.

[0261] According to a third aspect provided in addition to the first or second aspect, if the prediction-specific configuration information configures a prediction characteristic, the processing unit predicts the configured prediction characteristic, and the prediction report includes the predicted prediction characteristic of one or more beams. - predicted beam identification, - predicted beam quality, such as reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), and signal to noise ratio (SNR); - predicted timestamp or application time of the beam, - the confidence of the predicted predictive properties, and - predicted quality of two or more beams, Contains one or more of the following:

[0262] According to a fourth aspect provided in addition to any one of the first to third aspects, when predicting the predicted characteristics, the processing unit reuses parameters set for measuring the measurement characteristics of the beam, including one or more radio resources for measuring the measurement characteristics. In one optional implementation, the radio resources for measuring the measurement characteristics are identified by a resource set ID.

[0263] In one optional implementation, reporting the predicted results reuses one or more parameters set for reporting a measurement report that includes the measured measurement characteristics.

[0264] In one optional implementation, the reused parameters are - information about the beams whose measured measurement characteristics are reported to the base station; - the timing of reporting measurement results, e.g., the reporting periodicity, the semi-persistently configured radio resource allocation for reporting, and - measurement reporting format, Contains one or more of the following:

[0265] According to a fifth aspect provided in addition to any one of the first to fourth aspects, a beam of the reporting beam set is identified based on identification information in the received prediction-dedicated configuration information. In an optional implementation, the beam identification information is one or more of a synchronization signal block identifier (SSB (synchronization signal block) ID (identifier)), a reference signal resource identifier, and a transmission configuration indication state identifier (TCI (transmission configuration indication) state ID (identifier)).

[0266] In any implementation, the reporting beam set is a subset of the first beam set, and optionally, the number of beams in the reporting beam set is less than the number of beams in the first beam set.

[0267] According to a sixth aspect provided in addition to any one of the first to fifth aspects, when the prediction-dedicated setting information sets a reporting beam set, - The predicted report contains the predicted characteristics for the reporting beam set.

[0268] In an optional implementation, the prediction report includes an identification along with the predicted characteristics for the reporting beam set to identify that the predicted characteristics in the prediction report are predicted and not measured. Further optionally, the identification is a set ID assigned to the reporting beam set.

[0269] In any implementation, when reporting a recommended beam, if the recommended beam is in the first beam set but not in the reported beam set, the predictive report indicates the recommended beam in the reported beam set and additionally indicates the existence of a beam that is better than the reported recommended beam.

[0270] According to a seventh aspect provided in addition to any one of the first to sixth aspects, when a prediction report and a measurement report are transmitted at the same time instance, - the receiver receives, in operation, from the base station an indication as to which of the prediction reports and the measurement reports are to be transmitted by the transmitter (and optionally the indication is received together with an aperiodic trigger for triggering the reporting of the prediction reports and the measurement reports); or - one or both of the forecast and measurement reports include an indication that each report is a forecast or measurement report; or - the prediction reports and measurement reports are transmitted in a pre-configured order that defines the order in which the prediction reports and measurement reports are transmitted, or In operation, the processing unit determines which of the predicted reports and the measurement reports will be transmitted by the transmitting unit based on priority rules, and determines not to transmit reports with low priority.

[0271] According to an eighth aspect provided in addition to any one of the first to seventh aspects, the prediction-only setting information is - one or more predictive events to trigger the sending of a predictive report Further set up.

[0272] The processor determines whether one of the one or more predictive events is met based on the predicted characteristics, and if the predictive event is met, the processor determines that a predictive report is to be sent.

[0273] In any implementation, a predicted event may be determined based on one or more conditions, e.g., - the serving beam serving the UE is predicted to be worse than a threshold; - the non-serving beam is predictively better than the serving beam that serves the UE; and - that the beam failure will occur predictively at a future time instance; Define one or more of the following:

[0274] According to a ninth aspect provided in addition to the eighth aspect, the processing unit, when determining whether one predicted event is met, first performs a filtering operation on the predicted characteristics of the beam to reduce the number of triggerings of unnecessary predicted report transmissions.

[0275] In any implementation, the filtering operation is - averaging predicted properties of the beam in the time domain over multiple time instances; - averaging the predicted characteristics in the spatial domain over a plurality of beams in the first beam set; Contains one or more of the following:

[0276] According to a tenth aspect provided in addition to any one of the first to ninth aspects, the processing unit predicts a recommended report timing for transmitting a predicted report, and the transmitting unit transmits the recommended report timing to the base station.

[0277] In an optional implementation, the processing unit, in predicting the recommended reporting timing, - the speed of the UE, - information about a screen of the UE, optionally including one or more of whether the screen of the UE is on or off and a duration of the off state and / or the on state of the screen of the UE; and - information about the traffic occurring in the UE; Use one or more of the following:

[0278] In any implementation, the predicted application time of the beam is predicted as the recommended reporting timing.

[0279] According to an eleventh aspect provided in addition to any one of the first to tenth aspects, the reporting beam set includes one or more beams of neighboring cells adjacent to a serving cell of the UE. In any implementation, the prediction dedicated setting identifies the neighboring cells whose characteristics are to be reported.

[0280] According to a twelfth aspect provided in addition to any one of the first to eleventh aspects, the first beam set is a subset of the second beam set or has no beams in common with the second beam set.

[0281] In any implementation, the processing unit operates a predictive model, for example, an artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI / ML) model, to predict characteristics of the first beam set. In any implementation, the first beam set is configured by the UE or the base station.

[0282] According to a thirteenth aspect, the method comprises the following steps performed by a user equipment (UE): receiving, from the base station, configuration information dedicated to prediction reporting, not dedicated to measurement reporting, the received prediction-only configuration information comprising: - predicted characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station; and - a reporting beam set identifying beams whose predicted characteristics will be reported from the UE to the base station; and setting or receiving one or more of: predicting characteristics of the first beam set based on the received prediction-specific configuration information; transmitting a prediction report to the base station including predicted characteristics of one or more beams; A method is provided which includes:

[0283] According to a fourteenth aspect, there is provided a base station comprising: a processing unit of the base station determining configuration information specific to prediction reports, but not specific to measurement reports, the prediction-specific configuration information comprising: - predicted characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station; and - a reported beam set identifying beams whose predicted characteristics are to be reported from the UE to the base station; Set one or more of the following:

[0284] A transmitter of the base station transmits prediction-dedicated configuration information to the UE, and a receiver receives a prediction report from the UE, the prediction report including characteristics of one or more beams predicted by the UE based on the prediction-dedicated configuration information.

[0285] According to a fifteenth aspect, the following steps are performed by a base station: determining configuration information dedicated to prediction reporting, and not dedicated to measurement reporting, the prediction-only configuration information comprising: - predicted characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station; and - a reporting beam set identifying beams whose predicted characteristics will be reported from the UE to the base station; determining whether or not the value of the parameter is a positive integer; sending prediction-specific configuration information to the UE; receiving a prediction report from the UE, the prediction report including characteristics of one or more beams predicted by the UE based on prediction-specific configuration information; A method is provided that includes:

[0286] According to a sixteenth aspect, there is provided an integrated circuit that, in operation, controls processing of a user equipment (UE), the processing comprising the following steps performed by the UE: receiving, from the base station, configuration information dedicated to prediction reporting, not dedicated to measurement reporting, the received prediction-only configuration information comprising: The predicted characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station; and a reporting beam set identifying beams whose predicted characteristics are to be reported from the UE to the base station; and setting or receiving one or more of: predicting characteristics of the first beam set based on the received prediction-specific configuration information; transmitting a prediction report to the base station including predicted characteristics of one or more beams; Includes:

[0287] According to a seventeenth aspect, there is provided an integrated circuit that, in operation, controls the processing of a base station, the processing comprising the following steps performed by the base station: determining configuration information dedicated to prediction reporting, and not dedicated to measurement reporting, the prediction-only configuration information comprising: - predicted characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station; and - a reporting beam set identifying beams whose predicted characteristics will be reported from the UE to the base station; determining whether or not the value of the parameter is a positive integer; sending prediction-specific configuration information to the UE; receiving a prediction report from the UE, the prediction report including characteristics of one or more beams predicted by the UE based on prediction-specific configuration information; Includes:

[0288] Further variations including hardware and software implementations of the present disclosure The present disclosure can be implemented by software, hardware, or software operating in conjunction with hardware. Each functional block used in the above-described embodiments can be implemented, in whole or in part, by an LSI such as an integrated circuit. Each process described in each embodiment can be controlled, in whole or in part, by the same LSI or a combination of LSIs. The LSI can be formed as an individual chip, or a single chip can be formed to include some or all of the functional blocks. The LSI can include a data input / output unit coupled to it. Depending on the level of integration, the LSI can also be referred to as an IC (integrated circuit), system LSI, super LSI, or ultra LSI. However, the technology for implementing an integrated circuit is not limited to LSI, and can be implemented using dedicated circuits, general-purpose processors, or dedicated processors. Furthermore, FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays), which can be programmed after LSI fabrication, and reconfigurable processors, which can reconfigure the connections and settings of circuit cells arranged within the LSI, can also be used. The present disclosure can be implemented using digital or analog processing. If, as a result of advances in semiconductor technology or other derivative technologies, LSI is replaced by future integrated circuit technologies, these future integrated circuit technologies can be used to integrate functional blocks. Biotechnology can also be applied.

[0289] The present disclosure can be implemented by any kind of apparatus, device, or system having a communication capability (referred to as a communication apparatus).

[0290] A communications device may include a radio transceiver (transceiver unit) and processing / control circuitry. The transceiver unit may include and / or function as a receiver and a transmitter. The transceiver unit as a transmitter and receiver may include an RF (radio frequency) module including an amplifier, an RF modulator / demodulator, etc., and one or more antennas.

[0291] Some non-limiting examples of such communication devices include telephones (e.g., mobile phones, smartphones), tablets, personal computers (PCs) (e.g., laptops, desktops, notebooks), cameras (e.g., digital still / video cameras), digital players (digital audio / video players), wearable devices (e.g., wearable cameras, smart watches, tracking devices), game consoles, e-readers, telehealth / telemedicine devices, vehicles (e.g., cars, airplanes, ships) that provide communication capabilities, and various combinations thereof.

[0292] Communication devices are not limited to portable or mobile devices, but can also include any type of equipment, device, or system that is non-portable or fixed, such as smart home devices (e.g., appliances, lights, smart meters, control panels), vending machines, and any other "thing" in an "Internet of Things" (IoT) network.

[0293] Communications include data communications via cellular systems, wireless LAN systems, communications satellite systems, etc., as well as data communications via combinations of these.

[0294] A communications device may include devices such as a controller or a sensor coupled to the communications device to perform the communications functions described in this disclosure. For example, a communications device may include a controller or a sensor that generates control or data signals used by the communications device to perform the communications functions of the communications device.

[0295] The communications apparatus may further include infrastructure facilities, such as base stations, access points, and any other apparatus, device, or system that communicate with or control apparatuses such as the apparatuses in the non-limiting examples above.

[0296] (control signal) In the present disclosure, the downlink control signal (information) according to the present disclosure may be a signal (information) transmitted via a PDCCH of a physical layer, or may be a signal (information) transmitted via a MAC Control Element (CE) of a higher layer or an RRC. The downlink control signal may be a predefined signal (information).

[0297] The uplink control signal (information) according to the present disclosure may be a signal (information) transmitted via a PUCCH of a physical layer, or may be a signal (information) transmitted via a MAC CE of a higher layer or RRC. The uplink control signal may also be a predefined signal (information). The uplink control signal may be uplink control information (UCI), first-stage sidelink control information (SCI), or second-stage SCI.

[0298] (base station) In the present disclosure, a base station may be, for example, a Transmission Reception Point (TRP), a cluster head, an access point, a Remote Radio Head (RRH), an eNodeB (eNB), a gNodeB (gNB), a Base Station (BS), a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), a base unit, or a gateway. Furthermore, in sidelink communication, a terminal may be used instead of a base station. The base station may be a relay device that relays communication between an upper node and a terminal. The base station may be a roadside unit.

[0299] (Uplink / Downlink / Sidelink) The present disclosure may be applied to any of the uplink, downlink, and sidelink.

[0300] For example, the present disclosure may be applied to uplink channels such as PUSCH, PUCCH, and PRACH, downlink channels such as PDSCH, PDCCH, and PBCH, and sidelinks such as PSSCH (Physical Sidelink Shared Channel), PSCCH (Physical Sidelink Control Channel), and PSBCH (Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel).

[0301] The PDCCH, PDSCH, PUSCH, and PUCCH are examples of a downlink control channel, a downlink data channel, an uplink data channel, and an uplink control channel, respectively. The PSCCH and PSSCH are examples of a sidelink control channel and a sidelink data channel, respectively. The PBCH and PSBCH are examples of a broadcast channel, and the PRACH is an example of a random access channel. (Data channel / Control channel) The present disclosure may be applied to both data channels and control channels. The channels in this disclosure may be replaced with data channels including PDSCH, PUSCH, and PSSCH, and / or control channels including PDCCH, PUCCH, PBCH, PSCCH, and PSBCH.

[0302] (reference signal) In this disclosure, a reference signal is a signal known to both a base station and a mobile station, and each reference signal may be referred to as a reference signal (RS) or a pilot signal. A reference signal may be any of a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), a channel state information - reference signal (CSI-RS), a tracking reference signal (TRS), a phase tracking reference signal (PTRS), a cell-specific reference signal (CRS), and a sounding reference signal (SRS).

[0303] (time interval) In the present disclosure, the time resource unit is not limited to one or a combination of a slot and a symbol, and may be a time resource unit such as a frame, a superframe, a subframe, a slot, a subslot of a time slot, a minislot, or a symbol, an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol, a Single Carrier-Frequency Division Multiplexing Access (SC-FDMA) symbol, or other time resource unit. The number of symbols included in one slot is not limited to the number of symbols exemplified in the above-mentioned embodiment, and may be other numbers of symbols.

[0304] (frequency band) The present disclosure may be applied to both licensed and unlicensed bands.

[0305] (communication) The present disclosure may be applied to communication between a base station and a terminal (Uu link communication), communication between terminals (sidelink communication), and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication. The channels in the present disclosure may be replaced with PSCCH, PSSCH, Physical Sidelink Feedback Channel (PSFCH), PSBCH, PDCCH, PUCCH, PDSCH, PUSCH, and PBCH.

[0306] The present disclosure may also be applied to a terrestrial network or a non-terrestrial network (NTN: Non-Terrestrial Network) that uses a satellite or a High Altitude Pseudo Satellite (HAPS). The present disclosure may also be applied to a network with a large cell size or a terrestrial network in which the delay is large compared to the symbol length or slot length, such as an ultra-wideband transmission network.

[0307] (antenna port) An antenna port refers to a logical antenna (antenna group) formed by one or more physical antennas (multiple antennas are possible). That is, an antenna port does not necessarily refer to one physical antenna, but may refer to an array antenna formed by multiple antennas. For example, the number of physical antennas forming an antenna port is not defined. Instead, an antenna port is defined as the smallest unit by which a terminal can transmit a reference signal. An antenna port may also be defined as the smallest unit for multiplying a weight of a precoding vector.

[0308] Furthermore, the various embodiments may also be implemented by means of software modules, which are executed by a processor or directly in hardware. A combination of software modules and hardware implementation is also possible. The software modules may be stored on any kind of computer-readable storage medium, for example RAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, registers, hard disks, CD-ROM, DVD, etc. Furthermore, it should be noted that individual features of the different embodiments may also be the subject of another embodiment, individually or in any combination.

[0309] It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes and / or modifications may be made to the present disclosure as set forth in the specific embodiments without departing from the concept or scope of the invention as broadly described. The embodiments described herein are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.

Claims

1. A user equipment (UE), A receiving unit that, during operation, receives, from a base station, prediction-dedicated configuration information dedicated for prediction reporting and not for measurement reporting, wherein the received prediction-dedicated configuration information includes: - predicted characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station; and a reporting set of beams identifying beams whose predicted characteristics will be reported from the UE to the base station; Set one or more of A receiving unit; a processor that, during operation, predicts characteristics of a first beam set based on the received prediction-only configuration information; a transmitter that, in operation, transmits a prediction report to the base station that includes the predicted characteristics of one or more beams; A UE comprising:

2. The receiving unit receives measurement-related setting information during operation, and the received measurement-related setting information is - measured characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station, and - for each beam of the second set of beams, a radio resource for measuring said measurement characteristic; Set The processing unit, in operation, performs measurements on the radio resources of the second beam set to determine the measurement characteristics based on the received measurement-related configuration information; Optionally, the transmitter, in operation, transmits a measurement report to the base station, the measurement report including the measured measurement characteristics of one or more beams of the second beam set; Optionally, said measurement-related configuration information is separate from said prediction-only configuration information; Optionally, the processing unit uses results of the measurements made on the second beam set in predicting the properties of the first beam set. The UE of claim 1.

3. If the prediction-dedicated configuration information configures the prediction characteristics, the processing unit predicts the configured prediction characteristics, and the prediction report includes the predicted prediction characteristics of the one or more beams; Optionally, the predicted characteristic is: - predicted beam identification, - predicted beam quality such as reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), and signal to noise ratio (SNR); - the predicted timestamp or application time of the beam, the confidence of the predicted predicted characteristic, and - predicted quality of two or more beams, including one or more of: The UE of claim 1.

4. the processing unit, when predicting the predicted characteristics, reuses parameters set for measuring the measurement characteristics of the beam, the parameters including one or more radio resources for measuring the measurement characteristics, and optionally the radio resources for measuring the measurement characteristics are identified by a resource set ID; Optionally, the reporting of the predicted result reuses one or more parameters configured for reporting a measurement report including the measured measurement characteristic; Optionally, the parameters that are reused are: information about the beams for which the measured measurement characteristics are reported to the base station; Timing of reporting measurement results, e.g. reporting periodicity, semi-persistently configured radio resource allocation for reporting, and - the format of said measurement reports, including one or more of: The UE of claim 1.

5. A beam of the reporting beam set is identified based on identification information in the received prediction-dedicated configuration information, and optionally, the identification information of the beam is one or more of a synchronization signal block identifier (SSB (synchronization signal block) ID (identifier)), a reference signal resource identifier, and a transmission configuration indication state identifier (TCI (transmission configuration indication) state ID (identifier)); Optionally, the reporting beam set is a subset of the first beam set, and optionally, the number of beams in the reporting beam set is less than the number of beams in the first beam set. The UE of claim 1.

6. When the prediction-specific setting information sets the reporting beam set, the predicted report includes the predicted characteristics for the reporting beam set; Optionally, the prediction report includes an identification along with the predicted characteristics for the reporting beam set to identify that the predicted characteristics in the prediction report are predicted and not measured, and optionally, the identification is a set ID assigned to the reporting beam set; Optionally, when reporting a recommended beam, and the recommended beam is in the first beam set and not in the reporting beam set, the prediction report indicates the recommended beam in the reporting beam set and additionally indicates the presence of a better beam than the reported recommended beam. The UE of claim 1.

7. if the prediction report and the measurement report are sent at the same time instance, the receiver, in operation, receives from the base station an indication of which of the prediction reports and the measurement reports are to be transmitted by the transmitter, optionally the indication being received together with an aperiodic trigger for triggering the reporting of the prediction reports and the measurement reports, or - one or both of the predicted and measured reports include an indication that the respective report is a predicted or measured report, or the prediction reports and the measurement reports are transmitted in a pre-configured order that defines a transmission order of the prediction reports and the measurement reports, or the processing unit, in operation, determines which of the prediction reports and the measurement reports will be transmitted by the transmitting unit based on priority rules and decides not to transmit the reports of low priority; The UE of claim 1.

8. The prediction-only setting information is one or more predictive events for triggering said sending of said predictive reports; Further set The processing unit, in operation, determines whether one of the one or more predictive events is met based on the predicted characteristics; If a predictive event is met, the processing unit determines that a predictive report is to be sent; Optionally, the predicted event is determined based on one or more conditions, e.g., the serving beam serving the UE becomes predictively worse than a threshold; - the non-serving beams are predictively better than the serving beam serving the UE; and - the beam failure will occur predictively at a future time instance; define one or more of: The UE of claim 1.

9. The processing unit, when determining whether a predicted event is satisfied, first performs a filtering operation on the predicted characteristics of the beam to reduce the number of triggering unnecessary predicted report transmissions; Optionally, the filtering operation comprises: Averaging the predicted properties of the beam in the time domain over multiple time instances; - averaging predicted properties in the spatial domain over a plurality of beams of said first set of beams; including one or more of: The UE of claim 8.

10. the processing unit predicts a recommended reporting timing for transmitting the predicted report; The transmitter, in operation, transmits the recommended reporting timing to the base station; Optionally, the processing unit, in predicting the recommended reporting timing, the speed of the UE, - information about the UE screen, optionally including one or more of whether the UE screen is on or off and the duration of the off and / or on state of the UE screen; and information about the traffic occurring at the UE, using one or more of Optionally, a predicted application time of the beam is predicted as the recommended reporting timing. The UE of claim 1.

11. The reporting beam set includes one or more beams of neighboring cells adjacent to the serving cell of the UE; Optionally, the prediction dedicated configuration identifies the neighboring cells for which characteristics are to be reported. The UE of claim 1.

12. the first beam set is a subset of the second beam set or has no beams in common with the second beam set; Optionally, the processing unit runs a predictive model, for example an artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI / ML) model, to predict properties of the first beam set; Optionally, the first beam set is configured by the UE or the base station.

13. The following steps are performed by a user equipment (UE): receiving, from a base station, prediction-dedicated configuration information dedicated to prediction reports, not dedicated to measurement reports, and the received prediction-dedicated configuration information - predicted characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station; and a reporting beam set identifying beams whose predicted characteristics will be reported from the UE to the base station; and receiving one or more of: predicting characteristics of a first beam set based on the received prediction-only configuration information; transmitting a prediction report to the base station including the predicted characteristics of one or more beams; A method comprising:

14. A base station, a processing unit that, in operation, determines prediction-dedicated configuration information that is not dedicated to measurement reporting but is dedicated to prediction reporting, the prediction-dedicated configuration information comprising: - predicted characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station, and a reporting beam set identifying beams whose predicted characteristics will be reported from the UE to the base station; Set one or more of a processing unit; a transmitter configured, in operation, to transmit the prediction-dedicated configuration information to the UE; a receiver configured to receive, during operation, a prediction report from the UE, the prediction report including characteristics of one or more beams predicted by the UE based on the prediction-specific configuration information; A base station comprising:

15. The following steps are performed by the base station: determining prediction-only configuration information that is not dedicated to measurement reporting but is dedicated to prediction reporting, the prediction-only configuration information comprising: - predicted characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station, and a reporting beam set identifying beams whose predicted characteristics will be reported from the UE to the base station; determining whether or not the value of the parameter is greater than the value of the parameter; transmitting the prediction-dedicated configuration information to the UE; receiving a prediction report from the UE, the prediction report including characteristics of one or more beams predicted by the UE based on the prediction-dedicated configuration information; A method comprising:

16. An integrated circuit that, in operation, controls the processing of a user equipment (UE), said processing comprising the following steps performed by said UE: receiving, from a base station, prediction-dedicated configuration information dedicated to prediction reports, not dedicated to measurement reports, and the received prediction-dedicated configuration information - predicted characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station; and a reporting beam set identifying beams whose predicted characteristics will be reported from the UE to the base station; and receiving one or more of: predicting characteristics of a first beam set based on the received prediction-only configuration information; transmitting a prediction report to the base station including the predicted characteristics of one or more beams; , an integrated circuit.

17. An integrated circuit that, in operation, controls the processing of a base station, said processing comprising the following steps performed by said base station: determining prediction-only configuration information that is not dedicated to measurement reporting but is dedicated to prediction reporting, the prediction-only configuration information comprising: - predicted characteristics of the beam reported by the UE to the base station, and a reporting beam set identifying beams whose predicted characteristics will be reported from the UE to the base station; determining whether or not the value of the parameter is greater than the value of the parameter; transmitting the prediction-dedicated configuration information to the UE; receiving a prediction report from the UE, the prediction report including characteristics of one or more beams predicted by the UE based on the prediction-dedicated configuration information; , an integrated circuit.

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