Dual Transmit Configuration Indication (TCI) activation in multi-receiver (RX) chains

Abstract

Various embodiments of the present application relate to methods, processes, or techniques that may be performed by a user equipment (UE), one or more elements of a UE, and / or one or more electronic devices that include and / or implement a UE. The UE may identify a group-based beam report previously transmitted by the UE. The UE may further identify a first transmission configuration indication (TCI) state for the UE and an indication to activate a second TCI state for the UE. The UE may further identify a multiplexing scheme associated with the first TCI state and the second TCI state based on the group-based beam report. Other embodiments may be described and / or claimed.

Description

[Background technology]

[0001] Various embodiments may relate to the field of wireless communications. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0002] The embodiments can be readily understood by the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: To facilitate this description, like reference numerals refer to like structural elements; and The embodiments are illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings.

[0003] [Figure 1] 1 illustrates a schematic representation of a wireless network according to various embodiments; [Figure 2] 1 illustrates a schematic representation of components of a wireless network according to various embodiments. [Figure 3] FIG. 1 is a block diagram representing components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methods discussed herein, according to some example embodiments. [Figure 4] 1 illustrates a network according to various embodiments. [Figure 5] 1 represents example techniques that may be implemented in accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0004] The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth, such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc., to provide a thorough understanding of various aspects of various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that various aspects of various embodiments may be practiced in other examples that depart from the specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the various embodiments with unnecessary detail. For purposes of this specification, the phrases "A or B" or "A / B" mean (A), (B), or (A and B).

[0005] In the third-generation partnership project (3GPP) Release-18 specifications, a user equipment (UE) may support simultaneous reception by multiple panels. For each panel, one transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state may be activated. Thus, there may be two TCI states (referred to herein as "dual TCI") that need to be activated. It may be desirable to define the relationship between the two TCI states in this situation. It may also be desirable to address the overall TCI state update delay. Embodiments herein relate to known / unknown conditions for TCI state activation and TCI state list update delay requirements.

[0006] [Group-based reporting] Multiple Transmit / Receive Points (mTRPs) for single Downlink Control Information (sDCI) and multiple Downlink Control Information (mDCI) There may be multiple mTRP-related schemes for sDCI and / or mDCI. Such mTRP schemes may be or include, for example, time division multiplexing (TDM), frequency division multiplexing (FDM), space division multiplexing (SDM), etc. In this scenario, the two TCI states may apply to one or more of the various mTRP schemes.

[0007] In the case of SDM, two TCI states can be used for simultaneous reception.

[0008] In the case of TDM, two TCI states can be used for non-simultaneous reception.

[0009] However, when sDCI or mDCI-based activation is based on a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) (or is based only on MAC CE), it can be difficult to distinguish whether SDM or TDM should be applied.

[0010] Using MAC CE activation for sDCI as an example, two TCI states in one codepoint may be activated for two TRPs. However, from this codepoint alone, the UE may not be able to identify whether the two TCI states are for SDM or TDM. If two code division multiplexed groups are indicated in the DCI, the UE may be able to identify that SDM should be applied. If one CDM group is indicated in the DCI, the UE may be able to identify that TDM and / or FDM should be applied. However, as is clear from the above example, activation based only on MAC CE may not include enough information for the UE to identify the scheme to be applied.

[0011] observation Observation 1: For activation of the two TCI states based on sDCI: - MAC CE based TCI activation alone may not be sufficient for the UE to be able to identify whether the dual TCI should be used for SDM or TDM. The UE may be able to identify the SDM scheme in a subsequent DCI activation step where two CDM groups are indicated in the DCI. DCI-based TCI activation may enable the UE to distinguish whether two TCI states are used for SDM when two CDM groups are indicated. In the case of mDCI, two separate MAC CEs or DCIs can be activated per TRP, and for each MAC CE or DCI, it can be difficult to tell whether the two TCI states should apply to SDM, TDM, or both.

[0012] Observation 2: For activation of the two TCI conditions based on mDCI: - In the case of MAC CE TCI activation and / or DCI-based TCI activation, the UE may not be able to distinguish whether the activation of two separate TCI states can be applied for SDM.

[0013] However, if there is a report based on a previous UE feedback group, when MAC CE activation arrives (for either or both sDCI and mDCI), the two activated TCI states can be applied to SDM. Specifically, group-based reporting can help distinguish between SDM for both sDCI and mDCI. Otherwise, the UE may not know which scheme is applied.

[0014] [Known / Unknown TCI Conditions] As mentioned above, in case of MAC CE based activation of two TCI states, for either sDCI or mDCI, it may be difficult for the UE to distinguish whether the mTRP scheme is SDM or TDM. If group-based reporting can be assumed for simultaneous reception, the dual MAC CE based TCI activation requirements (e.g., whether SDM or TDM should be used) can be differentiated.

[0015] If group-based reporting is assumed for SDM, different requirements for dual TCI activation may be defined separately for SDM or TDM in mTRP. If group-based reporting is not assumed for SDM, the same requirements for dual TCI activation may apply.

[0016] Known / unknown combinations of dual TCI states Two TCI states may need to be activated, so the following are some example combinations: ·{TCI state 0 is known, TCI state 1 is known} ·{TCI state 0 is unknown, TCI state 1 is unknown} ·{TCI state 0 is known, TCI state 1 is unknown} ·{TCI state 0 is unknown, TCI state 1 is known}

[0017] Dual TCI states for SDM In the case of sDCI-based MAC CE activation, two TCI states may be activated simultaneously, in which case the known status of the two TCI states may be the same.

[0018] Impact of Panel Identifier (ID) In Layer 1 (L1) reporting, the panel ID may be transparent, i.e., the panel ID is not associated with the beam index. In the case of MAC CE-based activation, if the beam pair has not been previously reported, the UE may not know which panel to use and which panel receive (RX) beam sweep to apply. In that case, the UE may need to activate all panels again.

[0019] Therefore, the embodiments in this section may only be relevant if known. In the case of sDCI-based MAC CE activation, the two TCI states are assumed to be known (for the purposes of the embodiments in this section).

[0020] In the case of mDCI, the two TCI states may be activated at different times, but for each TCI state, they may both be assumed to be known (for the purposes of this section).

[0021] Therefore, for both sDCI and mDCI, the dual TCI state should be {TCI state 0 is known, TCI state 1 is known}.

[0022] Dual TCI States for TDM If two TCI states are used for TDM, a single panel may be applied. In that case, the dual TCI states for TDM may not be limited to known cases. The dual TCI states may have known / unknown status as follows: ·{TCI state 0 is known, TCI state 1 is known} ·{TCI state 0 is unknown, TCI state 1 is unknown} ·{TCI state 0 is known, TCI state 1 is unknown} ·{TCI state 0 is unknown, TCI state 1 is known}

[0023] Example Conditions In legacy 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP®) specifications, the known conditions based on single TCI activation can be as follows:

[0024] A TCI state is known if the following conditions are met:

number

[0025] In the case of dual TCI activation, known conditions may be updated according to embodiments herein based on group-based reporting. An example of such an update is as follows (example updates are shown in bold / italics below):

[0026] A TCI state is known if the following conditions are met:

number

[0027] In an additional or alternative example of dual TCI activation, the dual TCI state may be considered known if the following conditions are met:

number

[0028] TCI Status List Update Delay The MAC CE based TCI state list update delay may be used for TCI state activation of the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). In the case of mTRP, there may be two types of MAC CE based TCI state activation for PDSCH, as follows: 1. mDCI: With Control Resource Set (CORESET) Pool ID = {0,1}, the mDCI may indicate the TRP to which MAC CE-based TCI state activation should be applied. MAC CE-based TCI state activation may also be applied to a single TRP that does not have a CORESET Pool ID. A MAC CE may support activation of up to eight TCI states. 2. sDCI: Two TCI states from two TRPs can be activated in one codepoint. A MAC CE may also support multiple codepoints.

[0029] When extended to the mTRP case, it may be desirable to define two separate rules for sDCI and mDCI. It may also be possible (although potentially redundant) to define MAC CE-based requirements only for sDCI.

[0030] If the TCI state switching can be performed independently for each TCI state of two or more TCI states, it becomes unnecessary to distinguish whether different TCI states are from the same TRP. In this embodiment, the longest delay can be used for updating the entire list.

[0031] Therefore, a single TCI status list update delay can be defined for both sDCI and mDCI. If there are multiple TCI statuses in the list, the longest delay of any TCI status in the list can be used as the total delay for updating the TCI status list.

[0032] Total TCI activation delay for simultaneous reception After the UE completes the activation of the two TCI states, the UE may receive two PDSCHs simultaneously, regardless of whether the two TCI states are activated based on one MAC CE or two MAC CEs.

[0033] Therefore, the total TCI activation delay for simultaneous reception may be measured from the time the UE receives the first MAC CE command to the time the UE finishes activating the two TCI states. This time measurement may be done regardless of whether the two TCI states are activated by one MAC CE or by two MAC CEs.

[0034] System and Implementation 1-4 depict various systems, devices, and components that may implement aspects of the disclosed embodiments.

[0035] 1 illustrates a network 100 according to various embodiments. Network 100 may operate in a manner consistent with 3GPP® technical specifications for an LTE system or a 5G / NR system. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this respect, and the described embodiments may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP® systems.

[0036] The network 100 may include a UE 102. The UE 102 may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with the RAN 104 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 102 may be communicatively coupled to the RAN 104 by a Uu interface. The UE 102 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, a tablet computer, a wearable computing device, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment device, an in-vehicle entertainment device, an instrument panel, a head-up display device, an on-board diagnostic device, a dash-top mobile device, a mobile data terminal, an electronic engine management system, an electronic / engine control unit, an electronic / engine control module, an embedded system, a sensor, a microcontroller, a control module, an engine management system, a network appliance, a machine-type communication device, an M2M or D2D device, an IoT device, etc.

[0037] In some embodiments, the network 100 may include multiple UEs directly coupled to each other via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M / D2D devices communicating using physical sidelink channels such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, and PSFCH.

[0038] In some embodiments, the UE 102 may further communicate with the AP 106 via a wireless connection. The AP 106 may manage a WLAN connection. The WLAN connection may serve to offload some / all network traffic from the RAN 104. The connection between the UE 102 and the AP 106 may follow any IEEE 802.11 protocol, where the AP 106 may be a Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) router. In some embodiments, the UE 102, the RAN 104, and the AP 106 may utilize cellular-WLAN aggregation (e.g., LWA / LWIP). Cellular-WLAN aggregation may include the UE 102 being configured by the RAN 104 to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

[0039] The RAN 104 may include one or more access nodes, such as the AN 108. The AN 108 may terminate air interface protocols for the UE 102 by providing access stratum protocols, including the RRC protocol, the PDCP protocol, the RLC protocol, the MAC protocol, and the L1 protocol. In this manner, the AN 108 may enable data / voice connectivity between the CN 120 and the UE 102. In some embodiments, the AN 108 may be implemented in a discrete device or as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN or virtual baseband unit pool. The AN 108 may be referred to as a BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, TRP, etc. The AN 108 may be a macrocell base station or low-power base station providing a femtocell, picocell, or other similar cell with a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to a macrocell.

[0040] In embodiments in which the RAN 104 includes multiple ANs, they may be coupled to each other via an X2 interface (if the RAN 104 is an LTE RAN) or an Xn interface (if the RAN 104 is a 5G RAN). The X2 / Xn interface may be separated into a control / user plane interface in some embodiments and may allow the ANs to communicate information regarding handover, data / context transfer, mobility, load management, interference coordination, etc.

[0041] Each AN of the RAN 104 may manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, etc., to provide the UE 102 with an air interface for network access. The UE 102 may simultaneously connect to multiple cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 104. For example, the UE 102 and the RAN 104 may use carrier aggregation to enable the UE to connect to multiple component carriers, each corresponding to a Pcell or Scell. In a dual connectivity scenario, the first AN may be a master node providing an MCG, and the second AN may be a secondary node providing an SCG. The first / second ANs may be any combination of eNBs, gNBs, ng-eNBs, etc.

[0042] The RAN 104 may provide an air interface via licensed spectrum or unlicensed spectrum. To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, a node may use LAA, eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms based on CA techniques with the PCell / Scell. Before accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the node may perform a medium / carrier sensing operation, for example, based on a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0043] In a V2X scenario, the UE 102 or the AN 108 may be or operate as an RSU. An RSU can refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. An RSU can be implemented in or by an appropriate AN or a fixed (or relatively stationary) UE. An RSU implemented in or by a UE can be referred to as a “UE-type RSU,” an eNB can be referred to as an “eNB-type RSU,” a gNB can be referred to as a “gNB-type RSU,” etc. In one example, an RSU is a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuits installed on a side road that provides connectivity support to passing vehicular UEs. The RSU may also include built-in data storage circuits that store intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications / software for detecting and controlling moving vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The RSU can provide very low-latency communications necessary for high-speed events such as traffic accidents and traffic warnings. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU can provide other cellular / WLAN communication services. The components of the RSU may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation and may include a network interface controller that provides a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller or backhaul network.

[0044] In some embodiments, the RAN 104 may be an LTE RAN 110 including an eNB, such as the eNB 112. The LTE RAN 110 may provide an LTE air interface with characteristics such as a 15 kHz SCS, CP-OFDM for DL ​​and SC-FDMA for UL, turbo codes for data and TBCC for control, etc. The LTE air interface may rely on the CSI-RS for CSI acquisition and beam management, the PDSCH / PDCCH DMRS for PDSCH / PDCCH demodulation, and the CRS for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurements, and channel estimation for coherent demodulation / detection at the UE. The LTE air interface may operate in sub-6 GHz bands.

[0045] In some embodiments, the RAN 104 may be an NG-RAN 114 including a gNB, e.g., the gNB 116, or an ng-eNB, e.g., the ng-eNB 118. The gNB 116 may connect to a 5G-capable UE using a 5G NR interface. The gNB 116 may connect to a 5G core via an NG interface. The NG interface may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. The ng-eNB 118 may also connect to a 5G core via an NG interface, but may connect to a UE via an LTE air interface. The gNB 116 and the ng-eNB 118 may connect to each other via an Xn interface.

[0046] In some embodiments, the NG interface may be divided into two parts: an NG User Plane (NG-U) interface (e.g., N3 interface), which carries traffic data between nodes in the NG-RAN 114 and the UPF 148, and an NG Control Plane (NG-C) interface, which is a signaling interface between nodes in the NG-RAN 114 and the AMF 114 (e.g., N2 interface).

[0047] The NG-RAN 114 may provide a 5G-NR air interface with characteristics such as tunable SCS, CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM for UE, polarity codes, repetition codes, simplex codes, and Reed-Muller codes for control, and LDPC for data. Similar to the LTE air interface, the 5G-NR air interface may rely on CSI-RS and PDSCH / PDCCH DMRS. The 5G-NR air interface may not use CRS, but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation, PTRS for PDSCH phase tracking, and tracking reference signals for time tracking. The 5G-NR air interface may operate in the FR1 band, which includes sub-6 GHz bands, or the FR2 band, which includes bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. The 5G-NR air interface may include SSB, which is an area of ​​the downlink resource grid that includes PSS / SSS / PBCH.

[0048] In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface may utilize BWPs for various purposes. For example, BWPs can be used for dynamic SCS adaptation. For example, a UE 102 may be configured with multiple BWPs, each BWP configuration having a different SCS. When a BWP change is instructed to the UE 102, the SCS for transmission also changes. Another example use case for BWPs relates to power conservation. In particular, multiple BWPs with different amounts of frequency resources (e.g., PRBs) may be configured for the UE 102 to support data transmission under different traffic load scenarios. A BWP with fewer PRBs can be used for data transmission with a small traffic load, enabling power savings at the UE 102 and, in some cases, at the gNB 116. A BWP with a larger number of PRBs can be used for scenarios with higher traffic loads.

[0049] The RAN 104 is communicatively coupled to the CN 120, which includes network elements to provide various functions to support data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UEs 102). The components of the CN 120 may be implemented on a single physical node or separate physical nodes. In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the functions provided by the network elements of the CN 120 onto physical compute / storage resources, such as servers, switches, etc. A logical instantiation of the CN 120 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 120 may be referred to as a network sub-slice.

[0050] In some embodiments, the CN 120 may be an LTE CN 122, which may also be referred to as an EPC. The LTE CN 122 may include an MME 124, an SGW 126, an SGSN 128, an HSS 130, a PGW 132, and a PCRF 134, which are coupled to each other via interfaces (or "reference points") as shown. The functionality of the elements of the LTE CN 122 may be briefly introduced as follows.

[0051] The MME 124 may implement mobility management functions to track the current location of the UE 102 to facilitate paging, bearer activation / deactivation, handover, gateway selection, authentication, and the like.

[0052] The SGW 126 terminates the S1 interface to the RAN and may route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 122. The SGW 126 may be a local mobility anchor point for handovers between RAN nodes and may also provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, charging, and some policy enforcement.

[0053] The SGSN 128 may track the location of the UE 102 and perform security functions and access control. Additionally, the SGSN 128 may perform signaling between EPC nodes for mobility between different RAN networks, selection of PDN and S-GW designated by the MME 124, selection of MME for handover, etc. An S3 reference point between the MME 124 and the SGSN 128 may enable exchange of user and bearer information for mobility between 3GPP access networks in idle / active state.

[0054] The HSS 130 may include a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entity's handling of communication sessions. The HSS 130 may support routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / address resolution, location dependency, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS 130 and the MME 124 may enable the transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating / authorizing user access to the LTE CN 122.

[0055] The PGW 132 may terminate an SGi interface to a data network (DN) 136, which may include an application / content server 138. The PGW 132 may route data packets between the LTE CN 122 and the data network 136. The PGW 132 may be coupled to the SGW 126 by an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. The PGW 132 may further include a node (e.g., PCEF) for policy enforcement and charging data collection. Furthermore, the SGi reference point between the PGW 132 and the data network 136 may be an operator-external public or private PDN, or an operator-internal packet data network (e.g., for the provision of IMS services). The PGW 132 may be coupled to the PCRF 134 via a Gx reference point.

[0056] The PCRF 134 is the policy and charging control element of the LTE CN 122. The PCRF 134 may be communicatively coupled to the application / content server 138 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for a service flow. The PCRF 134 may use the appropriate TFT and QCI to provision the relevant rules to the PCEF (over the Gx reference point).

[0057] In some embodiments, the CN 120 may be a 5GC 140. The 5GC 140 may include an AUSF 142, an AMF 144, an SMF 146, a UPF 148, an NSSF 150, an NEF 152, an NRF 154, a PCF 156, a UDM 158, and an AF 160, which are coupled to each other via interfaces (or "reference points") as shown. The functionality of the elements of the 5GC 140 may be briefly introduced as follows.

[0058] The AUSF 142 may store data for authentication of the UE 102 and handle authentication-related functions. The AUSF 142 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC 140 via reference points as shown, the AUSF 142 may include a Nausf service-based interface.

[0059] The AMF 144 may enable other functions of the 5GC 140 to communicate with the UE 102 and the RAN 104 and subscribe to notifications regarding mobility events for the UE 102. The AMF 144 may be involved in registration management (e.g., to register the UE 102), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 144 may provide transport for SM messages between the UE 102 and the SMF 146 and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. The AMF 144 may also provide transport for SMS messages between the UE 102 and the SMSF. The AMF 144 may interact with the AUSF 142 and the UE 102 to perform various security anchor and context management functions. Furthermore, the AMF 144 may be the termination point of the RAN CP interface, which may include or be the N2 interface between the RAN 104 and the AMF 114, and the AMF 144 is the termination point of the NAS (N1) signaling and may perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. The AMF 144 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 102 via the N3 IWF interface.

[0060] The SMF 146 may be involved in SM (e.g., session establishment and tunnel management between the UPF 148 and the AN 108), UE IP address allocation and management (including any authorization), UP function selection and control, traffic steering configuration in the UPF 148 to route traffic to a more appropriate destination, terminating the interface to the policy control function, controlling policy enforcement, charging, and parts of QoS, lawful interception (e.g., for SM events and interfacing to the LI system), terminating the SM portion of NAS messages, downlink data notification, initiating AN-specific SM information sent by the AMF 144 to the AN 108 over N2, and determining the SSC mode of the session. SM can refer to the management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or "session" can refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE 102 and the data network 136.

[0061] The UPF 148 may function as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point for interconnection to the data network 136, and a branching point for supporting multi-homed PDU sessions. The UPF 148 may route and forward packets, perform packet inspection, apply the user plane portion of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), traffic usage reporting, user plane QoS processing (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement), uplink traffic validation (e.g., SDF-to-QoS flow mapping), transport-level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and may also perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. The UPF 148 may include an uplink classifier to support routing of traffic flows to the data network.

[0062] The NSSF 150 may select a set of network slice instances to serve the UE 102. The NSSF 150 may also determine the allowed NSSAIs and their mapping to subscribed S-NSSAIs, if necessary. The NSSF 150 may also determine the AMF set used to serve the UE 102, or a list of candidate AMFs, possibly by querying the NRF 154, based on appropriate configuration. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 102 may be triggered by the AMF 144 to which the UE 102 is registered interacting with the NSSF 150, which may result in an AMF change. The NSSF 150 may interact with the AMF 144 via the N22 reference point and communicate with other NSSFs in visited networks via the N31 reference point (not shown). Furthermore, the NSSF 150 may have an Nnssf service-based interface.

[0063] The NEF 152 can securely expose services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions to third parties, internal publication / republication, AFs (e.g., AF 160), edge computing systems, fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, the NEF 152 may authenticate, authorize, or throttle AFs. The NEF 152 can also translate information exchanged with the AF 160 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 152 can translate between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. The NEF 152 can also receive information from other NFs based on the other NFs' published capabilities. This information can be stored in the NEF 152 as structured data or in a data storage NF using a standardized interface. The stored information can be republished by the NEF 152 to other NFs or AFs, or used for other purposes such as analytics. Furthermore, the NEF 152 may include an NEF service-based interface.

[0064] The NRF 154 may support service discovery functionality, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information about discovered NF instances to the NF instances. The NRF 154 also maintains information about available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, terms such as "instantiate" and "instantiation" may refer to the creation of an instance, and an "instance" may refer to a specific occurrence of an object that may occur, for example, during the execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 154 may include an Nnrf service-based interface.

[0065] The PCF 156 may provide and enforce policy rules to control plane functions as well as support a unified policy framework for managing network behavior. The PCF 156 may also implement a front end for accessing subscription information related to policy decisions within the UDRs of the UDM 158. In addition to communicating with functions via reference points as shown, the PCF 156 includes an Npcf service-based interface.

[0066] The UDM 158 can process subscription-related information to support the processing of communication sessions with network entities and can store subscription data for the UE 102. For example, the subscription data can be communicated between the UDM 158 and the AMF 144 via the N8 reference point. The UDM 158 can include two parts: an application front end and a UDR. The UDR can store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 158 and the PCF 156, and / or structured data and application data for publishing for the NEF 152 (including PFDs for application discovery and application request information for multiple UEs 102). A Nudr service-based interface can be provided by the UDR 221 to enable the UDM 158, the PCF 156, and the NEF 152 to access specific sets of stored data and to read, update (e.g., add or modify), delete, and subscribe to notifications of changes in the associated data in the UDR. The UDM can include a UDM-FE responsible for credential processing, location management, subscription management, etc. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses the subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification processing, access authorization, registration / mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs via reference points as shown, the UDM 158 may also provide a Nudm service-based interface.

[0067] The AF 160 may influence applications on traffic routing, provide access to the NEF, and interact with the policy framework for policy control.

[0068] In some embodiments, the 5GC 140 may enable edge computing by selecting an operator / third-party service to be geographically close to the point where the service attaches to the network for the UE 102. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide an edge computing implementation, the 5GC 140 may select a UPF 148 close to the UE 102 and perform traffic steering from the UPF 148 to the data network 136 via the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE's subscription data, the UE's location, and information provided by the AF 160. In this way, the AF 160 may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. If the AF 160 is deemed a trusted entity based on operator deployment, the network operator may allow the AF 160 to interact directly with the associated NF. Furthermore, the AF 160 may be equipped with a NAF service-based interface.

[0069] Data network 136 may represent various network operator services, internet access, or third party services that may be provided by one or more servers, including, for example, application / content server 138 .

[0070] 2 is a schematic representation of a wireless network 200 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 200 may include a UE 202 in wireless communication with an AN 204. The UE 202 and the AN 204 are similar to and may be substantially interchangeable with components of the same name described elsewhere herein.

[0071] The UE 202 may be communicatively coupled to the AN 204 via a connection 206. The connection 206 is represented as an air interface that enables the communicative coupling and may follow a cellular communication protocol, such as an LTE protocol or a 5G NR protocol operating in mmWave or sub-6 GHz frequencies.

[0072] The UE 202 may include a host platform 208 coupled to a modem platform 210. The host platform 208 may include an application processing circuit 212 coupled to a protocol processing circuit 214 of the modem platform 210. The application processing circuit 212 may execute various applications for the UE 202 that source / sink application data. The application processing circuit 212 may further implement one or more layer operations that transmit application data to and receive application data from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (e.g., UDP) operations and Internet (e.g., IP) operations.

[0073] The protocol processing circuitry 214 may implement one or more layer operations to facilitate transmission or reception of data over the connection 206. The layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuitry 214 may include, for example, MAC operations, RLC operations, PDCP operations, RRC operations, and NAS operations.

[0074] The modem platform 210 may further include digital baseband circuitry 216, which may include one or more layer operations in a network protocol stack "below" the layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 214. These operations may include PHY operations including, for example, one or more of HARQ-ACK functions, scrambling / descrambling, encoding / decoding, layer mapping / demapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol / bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding / decoding which may include space-time, space-frequency, or spatial coding, reference signal generation / detection, preamble sequence generation and / or decoding, synchronization sequence generation / detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions.

[0075] The modem platform 210 may further include transmit circuitry 218, receive circuitry 220, RF circuitry 222, and an RF front end (RFFE) 224. The RFFE 224 may include or connect to one or more antenna panels 226. Briefly, the transmit circuitry 218 may include digital-to-analog converters, mixers, intermediate frequency (IF) components, etc. The receive circuitry 220 may include analog-to-digital converters, mixers, IF components, etc. The RF circuitry 222 may include low-noise amplifiers, power amplifiers, power monitoring components, etc. The RFFE 224 may include filters (e.g., surface / bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beamforming components (e.g., phased array antenna components), etc. The selection and arrangement of the transmit circuitry 218, receive circuitry 220, RF circuitry 222, RFFE 224, and antenna panel 226 components (commonly referred to as "transmit / receive components") can be specific to the details of a particular implementation, such as, for example, whether communications are TDM or FDM, whether at mmWave or sub-6 GHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit / receive components may be arranged in multiple parallel transmit / receive chains, on the same or different chips / modules, etc.

[0076] In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry 214 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) that provides control functions for the transmit / receive components.

[0077] UE reception may be established by and through antenna panel 226, RFFE 224, RF circuitry 222, receive circuitry 220, digital baseband circuitry 216, and protocol processing circuitry 214. In some embodiments, antenna panel 226 may receive transmissions from AN 204 by beamforming signals received by multiple antennas / antenna elements of one or more antenna panels 226.

[0078] UE transmissions may be established by and through protocol processing circuitry 214, digital baseband circuitry 216, transmit circuitry 218, RF circuitry 222, RFFE 224, and antenna panel 226. In some embodiments, the transmit components of UE 202 may apply spatial filters to data to be transmitted to form transmit beams that are radiated by antenna elements of antenna panel 226.

[0079] Similar to the UE 202, the AN 204 may include a host platform 228 coupled to a modem platform 230. The host platform 228 may include an application processing circuit 232 coupled to a protocol processing circuit 234 of the modem platform 230. The modem platform may further include a digital baseband circuit 236, a transmit circuit 238, a receive circuit 240, an RF circuit 242, an RFFE 244, and an antenna panel 246. The components of the AN 204 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with the similarly named components of the UE 202. In addition to performing the data transmission / reception described above, the components of the AN 204 may perform various logical functions, including RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.

[0080] 3 is a block diagram representing components according to some example embodiments that can read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 3 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 300, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 310, one or more memory / storage devices 320, and one or more communication resources 330, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 340 or other interface circuitry. For embodiments in which node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 302 may execute to provide an execution environment in which one or more network slices / sub-slices utilize the hardware resources 300.

[0081] Processor 310 may include, for example, processor 312 and processor 314. Processor 310 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), other processors (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[0082] The memory / storage device 320 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 320 may include any suitable volatile, non-volatile, or semi-volatile memory, such as, but not limited to, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

[0083] Communications resources 330 may include interconnect or network interface controllers, components, or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripherals 304 or one or more databases 306 or other network elements over network 308. For example, communications resources 330 may include wired communications components (e.g., for coupling via USB, Ethernet, etc.), cellular communications components, NFC components, Bluetooth (or Bluetooth Low Energy) components, Wi-Fi components, and other communications components.

[0084] The instructions 350 may include software, a program, an application, an applet, an APP, or other executable code that causes at least one of the processors 310 to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein. The instructions 350 may reside, completely or partially, on at least one of the processors 310 (e.g., in a processor's cache memory), the memory / storage device 320, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions may be transferred to the hardware resources 300 from any combination of the peripherals 304 or the database 306. Thus, the memory of the processor 310, the memory / storage device 320, the peripherals 304, and the database 306 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0085] FIG. 4 illustrates a network 400 according to various embodiments. Network 400 may operate in accordance with 3GPP® technical specifications or technical reports for 6G systems. In some embodiments, network 400 may operate simultaneously with network 100. For example, in some embodiments, network 400 may share one or more frequency or bandwidth resources with network 100. As one specific example, a UE (e.g., UE 402) may be configured to operate in both network 400 and network 100. Such a configuration may be based on the UE including circuitry configured for communication over the frequency and bandwidth resources of both networks 100 and 400. In general, some elements of network 400 may share one or more characteristics with elements of network 100. For the sake of brevity and clarity, such elements may not be repeated in the description of network 400.

[0086] The network 400 may include a UE 402. The UE 402 may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with the RAN 408 over a wireless connection. The UE 402 may be similar to the UE 102, for example. The UE 402 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, a tablet computer, a wearable computing device, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment device, an in-vehicle entertainment device, an instrument panel, a head-up display device, an on-board diagnostic device, a dash-top mobile device, a mobile data terminal, an electronic engine management system, an electronic / engine control unit, an electronic / engine control module, an embedded system, a sensor, a microcontroller, a control module, an engine management system, a network appliance, a machine-type communication device, an M2M or D2D device, an IoT device, or the like.

[0087] Although not specifically shown in FIG. 4 , in some embodiments, the network 400 may include multiple UEs directly coupled to each other via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M / D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels, such as, but not limited to, a PSBCH, a PSDCH, a PSSCH, a PSCCH, and a PSFCH. Similarly, although not specifically shown in FIG. 4 , the UE 402 may be communicatively coupled to an AP, such as the AP 106, as described with respect to FIG. 1 . Furthermore, although not specifically shown in FIG. 4 , in some embodiments, the RAN 408 may include one or more ANs, such as the AN 108, as described with respect to FIG. 1 . The RAN 408 and / or the ANs of the RAN 408 may be referred to as base stations (BSs), RAN nodes, or using other terms or names.

[0088] The UE 402 and the RAN 408 are configured to communicate over an air interface that may be referred to as a sixth-generation (6G) air interface. The 6G air interface may include one or more features, such as communication in terahertz (THz) or sub-THz bandwidths, or joint communication and sensing. As used herein, the term "joint communication and sensing" may refer to a system that enables wireless communication along with radar-based sensing through various types of multiplexing. As used herein, the THz or sub-THz bandwidth may refer to communication in the frequency range of 80 GHz and above. Such frequency ranges may additionally or alternatively be referred to as the "millimeter wave" or "mmWave" frequency ranges.

[0089] The RAN 408 may enable communication between the UE 402 and a 6G Core Network (CN) 410. Specifically, the RAN 408 may facilitate transmission and reception of data between the UE 402 and the 6G CN 410. The 6G CN 410 may include various functions, such as the NSSF 150, the NEF 152, the NRF 154, the PCF 156, the UDM 158, the AF 160, the SMF 146, and the AUSF 142. The 6G CN 410 may further include the UPF 148 and the DN 136, as shown in FIG.

[0090] Furthermore, the RAN 408 may include various additional functions that are in addition to or alternative to the functions of legacy cellular networks, such as 4G or 5G networks. Two such functions are the Compute Control Function (Comp CF) 424 and the Compute Service Function (Comp SF) 436. The Comp CF 424 and the Compute SF 436 may be parts or functions of the computing service plane. The Comp CF 424 may be a control plane function that provides functions such as managing the Comp SF 436, generating and managing (e.g., creating, reading, modifying, and deleting) compute task contexts, and interacting with the underlying compute infrastructure for compute resource management. The Comp SF 436 may be a user plane function that acts as a gateway for interfacing computing service users (e.g., UE 402) with the computing nodes behind the Comp SF instance. Comp SF 436 functions include analyzing computing service data received from users to compute tasks that can be executed on the computing nodes, maintaining a service mesh ingress gateway or service API gateway, enforcing service and charging policies, performance monitoring, and telemetry collection. In some embodiments, a Comp SF 436 instance may act as a user plane gateway for a cluster of computing nodes. A Comp CF 424 instance may control one or more Comp SF 436 instances.

[0091] Two other such functions include a communications control function (Comm CF) 428 and a communications services function (Comm SF) 438, which may be part of the communications service plane. The Comm CF 428 may be a control plane function for managing the Comm SF 438, creating / configuring / releasing communications sessions, and managing communications session context. The Comm SF 438 may be a user plane function for data transport. The Comm CF 428 and Comm SF 438 may be considered upgrades to the SMF 146 and UPF 148 described for the 5G system in FIG. 1. The upgrades provided by the Comm CF 428 and Comm SF 438 may enable service-aware transport. For legacy (e.g., 4G or 5G) data transport, the SMF 146 and UPF 148 may still be used.

[0092] Two other such functions include a data control function (Data CF) 422 and a data service function (Data SF) 432, which may be part of the data service plane. The Data CF 422 may be a control plane function, providing functions such as managing the Data SF 432, creating / configuring / releasing data services, and managing data service contexts. The Data SF 432 is a user plane function, which may act as a gateway between data service users (e.g., various functions of the UE 402 and the 6G CN 410) and data service endpoints behind the gateway. Specific functions may include parsing and forwarding data service user data to corresponding data service endpoints, generating charging data, and reporting data service status.

[0093] Another such function may be a service orchestration and chaining function (SOCF) 420, which can discover, integrate, and chain communication / computation / data services provided by functions in the network. Upon receiving a service request from a user, SOCF 420 may interact with one or more of Comp CF 424, Comm CF 428, and Data CF 422 to identify instances of Comp SF 436, Comm SF 438, and Data SF 432, configure service resources, and generate a service chain. A service chain may include multiple instances of Comp SF 436, Comm SF 438, and Data SF 432 and their associated computing endpoints. Workload processing and data movement may then occur within the generated service chain. SOCF 420 may also be responsible for maintaining, updating, and releasing the generated service chain.

[0094] Another such function may be a Service Registration Function (SRF) 414, which may act as a registry of system services offered in the user plane, such as services offered by service endpoints behind Comp SF 436 and Data SF 432 gateways and services offered by the UE 402. The SRF 414 may be considered a counterpart to the NRF 154, which may act as a registry of network functions.

[0095] Other such functions may include an evolved service communication proxy (eSCP) and a service infrastructure control function (SICF) 426, which may provide a service communication infrastructure for control plane services and user plane services. The eSCP may relate to the 5G service communication proxy (SCP) to which the user plane service communication proxy function has been added. Thus, the eSCP is expressed in two parts: eSCP-C 412 for the control plane service communication proxy and SCP-U 434 for the user plane service communication proxy. The SICF 426 may control and configure the eSCP instances with respect to service traffic routing policies, access rules, load balancing configuration, performance monitoring, etc.

[0096] Another such function is the AMF 444. The AMF 444 is similar to the AMF 144 but may have additional functions. In particular, the AMF 444 may include potential subdivision of functions, such as moving message forwarding functions from the AMF 444 to the RAN 408.

[0097] Another such function is the Service Orchestration Exposure Function (SOEF) 418. The SOEF 418 can be configured to expose service orchestration and service chaining to external users such as applications.

[0098] The UE 402 may include an additional function called a Computing Client Services Function (comp CSF) 404. The comp CSF 404 may have both control plane and user plane functions and may interact with corresponding network-side functions, such as the SOCF 420, Comp CF 424, Comp SF 436, Data CF 422, and / or Data SF 432, for service discovery, request / response, computational task workload exchange, etc. The Comp CSF 404 may operate with the network-side functions to determine whether a computing task should be performed on elements of the UE 402, the RAN 408, and / or the 6G CN 410.

[0099] The UE 402 and / or the Com Comp CSF 404 may include a service mesh proxy 406. The service mesh proxy 406 may act as a proxy for service-to-service communications within the user plane. Capabilities of the service mesh proxy 406 may include one or more of addressing, security, load balancing, etc.

[0100] Example Procedure In some embodiments, an electronic device, network, system, chip, or component of Figures 1-4 or other figures herein, or portions or implementations thereof, may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, or methods, or portions thereof, described herein. One such process is depicted in Figure 5.

[0101] 5 relates to a method performed by a UE, one or more elements of a UE, and / or an apparatus that includes and / or implements a UE. The process may include, at 505, identifying a group-based beam report previously transmitted by the UE, at 510, identifying an instruction to activate a first TCI state for the UE and a second TCI state for the UE, and at 515, identifying a multiplexing scheme associated with the first TCI state and the second TCI state based on the group-based beam report.

[0102] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components illustrated in one or more of the previous figures may be configured to perform one or more of the operations, techniques, processes, and / or methods illustrated in the following examples. For example, the baseband circuitry described above in connection with one or more of the previous figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples illustrated below. As another example, circuitry associated with a UE, a base station, a network element, etc. described above in connection with one or more of the previous figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples illustrated below.

[0103] example Example 1 may include that if group-based reporting is assumed for SDM, different requirements for dual TCI activation may be defined separately for SDM or TDM schemes in the mTRP.

[0104] Example 2 may include that if group-based reporting is not envisioned for SDM, the same requirements for dual TCI activation apply.

[0105] Example 3 may include that for MAC CE activation based on sDCI and mDCI in SDM, both TCI states should be known, i.e. - {TCI state 0 is known, TCI state 1 is known}

[0106] Example 4 may include the case where two TCI states are used for TDM, which may include all combinations, for example: - {TCI state 0 is known, TCI state 1 is known} - {TCI state 0 is unknown, TCI state 1 is unknown} - {TCI state 0 is known, TCI state 1 is unknown} - {TCI state 0 is unknown, TCI state 1 is known}

[0107] Example 5 may include, for dual TCI activation in an SDM scheme, known conditions are updated based on group-based reporting.

[0108] Example 6 may include that a single TCI state list update delay may be defined for both sDCI and mDCI. If there are multiple TCI states in the list, the longest delay of the TCI states in the list is used as the total delay for updating the TCI state list.

[0109] Example 7 may include that, regardless of whether the two TCI states are activated by one MAC CE or two MAC CEs, the total TCI activation delay for simultaneous reception is from the time the UE receives the first MAC CE command to the time the UE finishes activating the two TCI states.

[0110] Example 8 may include a method performed by a UE, one or more elements of the UE, and / or one or more electronic devices that include and / or implement the UE, the method including identifying a group-based beam report previously transmitted by the UE, identifying an instruction to activate a first transmission configuration indication (TCI) state for the UE and a second TCI state for the UE, and identifying a multiplexing scheme associated with the first TCI state and the second TCI state based on the group-based beam report.

[0111] Example 9 may include the method of Example 8 and / or any other example herein, wherein the first activated TCI state relates to a first panel of the UE and the second activated TCI state relates to a second panel of the UE.

[0112] Example 10 may include the method of Examples 8-9 and / or any other example herein, wherein the instructions to activate the first TCI state and the second TCI state relate to a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) received by the UE.

[0113] Example 11 may include the method of Examples 8-10 and / or other examples herein, wherein the instructions to activate the first TCI state and the second TCI state relate to single downlink control information (sDCI) received by the UE.

[0114] Example 12 may include the method of Examples 8-11 and / or other examples herein, wherein the instructions to activate the first TCI state and the second TCI state relate to multiple downlink control information (mDCI) received by the UE.

[0115] Example 13 may include the method of Examples 8-12 and / or any other example herein, wherein the UE activates the first TCI state and the second TCI state simultaneously with each other.

[0116] Example 14 may include the method of Examples 8-12 and / or any other example herein, wherein the UE activates the first TCI state and the second TCI state separately from each other.

[0117] Example 15 can include the method of Examples 8-14 and / or any other example herein, wherein the multiplexing scheme is time division multiplexing (TDM).

[0118] Example 16 may include the method of Examples 8-14 and / or any other example herein, wherein the multiplexing scheme is frequency division multiplexing (FDM).

[0119] Example 17 may include the method of Examples 8-14 and / or any other example herein, wherein the multiplexing scheme is spatial division multiplexing (SDM).

[0120] Example Z01 may include an apparatus comprising means for performing one or more elements of the method described in or related to any of Examples 1-17, or any other method or process described herein.

[0121] Example Z02 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media containing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of the electronic device, cause an electronic device to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of Examples 1-17, or any other method or process described herein.

[0122] Example Z03 may include a device having logic, modules, or circuitry that performs one or more elements of the method described in or related to any of Examples 1-17, or any other method or process described herein.

[0123] Example Z04 may include any method, technique, or process described in or related to any of Examples 1-17, or portions or portions thereof.

[0124] Example Z05 may include an apparatus that includes one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media containing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process, or portion thereof, described in or related to any of Examples 1-17.

[0125] Example Z06 may include a signal described in or related to any of Examples 1-17, or portions thereof.

[0126] Example Z07 may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message described in or related to any of Examples 1-17, or portions or portions thereof, or those described elsewhere in this disclosure.

[0127] Example Z08 may include a signal encoded with data described in or related to any of Examples 1-17, or portions or portions thereof, or those described elsewhere in this disclosure.

[0128] Example Z09 may include a signal encoded with a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message described in or related to any of Examples 1-17, or portions or portions thereof, or those described elsewhere in this disclosure.

[0129] Example Z10 may include an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, and execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process, or portions thereof, described in or related to any of Examples 1-17.

[0130] Example Z11 may include a computer program including instructions that, when executed by a processing element, cause the processing element to perform a method, technique, or process, or portion thereof, described in or related to any of Examples 1-17.

[0131] Example Z12 may include signals within a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0132] Example Z13 may include a method of communication in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0133] Example Z14 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[0134] Example Z15 may include a device that provides wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[0135] Any of the above examples may be combined with any other example (or combination of examples) unless expressly stated otherwise. The above description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practicing various embodiments.

[0136] Abbreviation Unless otherwise used herein, terms, definitions, and abbreviations shall be consistent with those defined in 3GPP® TR 21.905 v16.0.0, June 2019. As used herein, the following abbreviations may apply to examples and embodiments described herein: [Table 1] TIFF2026508086000006.tif255170TIFF2026508086000007.tif255170TIFF2026508086000008.tif255170TIFF202 6508086000009.tif255170TIFF2026508086000010.tif255170TIFF2026508086000011.tif255170TIFF2026508086 000012.tif255170TIFF2026508086000013.tif255170TIFF2026508086000014.tif255170TIFF2026508086000015. tif255170TIFF2026508086000016.tif255170TIFF2026508086000017.tif255170TIFF2026508086000018.tif18170

[0137] Terminology For purposes of this specification, the following terms and definitions are applicable to the examples and embodiments described herein.

[0138] The term "application" can refer to a complete, deployable package or environment for achieving a specific function within an operating environment. An "AI / ML application," for example, can be an application that includes several AI / ML models and application-level descriptions.

[0139] As used herein, the term "circuitry" refers to, is a part of, or includes hardware components, such as electronic circuits, logic circuits, processors (shared, dedicated, or group) and / or memories (shared, dedicated, or group), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable devices (FPDs) (e.g., field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), complex PLDs (CPLDs), high capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), structured ASICs, or programmable SoCs), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., configured to provide a described functionality. In some embodiments, a circuit may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least a portion of the described functionality. The term "circuitry" can also refer to a combination of program code and one or more hardware elements (or combinations of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) used to perform the functions of the program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuit.

[0140] As used herein, the term “processor circuitry” refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically performing a series of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording, storing, and / or transmitting digital data. The term “processor circuitry” can refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, physical central processing units (CPUs), single-core processors, dual-core processors, triple-core processors, quad-core processors, and / or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions (e.g., program code, software modules, and / or functional processes). The processing circuitry may include additional hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, etc. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and / or deep learning (DL) accelerators. The terms “application circuitry” and / or “baseband circuitry” can be considered synonymous with “processor circuitry” and may be referred to as such.

[0141] As used herein, the term "interface circuitry" refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term "interface circuitry" can refer to one or more hardware interfaces, such as a bus, an I / O interface, a peripheral component interface, a network interface card, and / or the like.

[0142] As used herein, the term "user equipment" or "UE" refers to a device with wireless communication capabilities and may represent a remote user of network resources in a communications network. The term "user equipment" or "UE" may be considered synonymous with, and may be referred to as, client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, wireless device, reconfigurable wireless device, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Furthermore, the term "user equipment" or "UE" may include any type of wireless / wired device or any computing device that includes a wireless communication interface.

[0143] As used herein, the term "network element" refers to physical or virtualized equipment and / or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term "network element" may be considered synonymous with, and may be referred to as, a networked computer, network hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, and / or the like.

[0144] As used herein, the term "computer system" refers to any type of interconnected electronic device, computing device, or combination thereof. Additionally, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled to each other. Additionally, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to multiple computing devices and / or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled to each other and configured to share computational and / or networking resources.

[0145] As used herein, the terms "appliance," "computer appliance," and the like refer to a computing device or system having program code (e.g., software or firmware) that is specifically designed to provide specific computing resources. A "virtual appliance" is a machine image implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizes or emulates a computing appliance or is dedicated to providing specific computing resources.

[0146] As used herein, the term "resource" refers to a physical or virtual device, physical or virtual component within a computing environment, and / or physical or virtual component within a particular device, such as a computing device, mechanical device, memory space, processor / CPU time, processor / CPU usage, processor and accelerator load, hardware time and / or usage, power, input / output operations, ports or network sockets, channel / link allocation, throughput, memory usage, storage, network, databases and applications, workload units, and / or the like. "Hardware resources" may refer to computational, storage, and / or network resources provided by physical hardware elements. "Virtualized resources" may refer to computational, storage, and / or network resources provided by a virtualization infrastructure to an application, device, system, etc. The terms "network resources" or "communication resources" may refer to resources accessible by a computing device or system via a communication network. The term "system resources" may refer to any type of shared entity that provides a service and may include computational and / or network resources. A system resource may be viewed as a set of coherent functions, network data objects, or services accessible through a clearly identifiable server, where such system resource may reside on a single host or multiple hosts.

[0147] The term "channel," as used herein, refers to any transmission medium, whether tangible or intangible, used to communicate data or data streams. The term "channel" can be synonymous and / or equivalent to "communication channel," "data communication channel," "transmission channel," "data transmission channel," "access channel," "data access channel," "link," "data link," "carrier," "radio frequency carrier," and / or other similar terms that describe the path or medium over which data is communicated. Furthermore, the term "link," as used herein, refers to the connection between two devices via a RAT for sending and receiving information.

[0148] As used herein, terms such as "instantiate" and "instance" refer to the creation of an instance, and "instance" refers to a specific occurrence of an object that may occur, for example, during the execution of program code.

[0149] The terms "coupled" and "communicatively coupled," along with their derivatives, are used herein. The term "coupled" can mean that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other, can mean that two or more elements are in indirect contact with each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and / or can mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements that are said to be coupled to each other. The term "directly coupled" can mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with each other. The term "communicatively coupled" can mean that two or more elements may be in contact with each other using communications, including via a wired or other interconnect connection, via a wireless communication channel or link, and / or the like.

[0150] The term "information element" refers to a structural element that contains one or more fields. The term "field" refers to the individual contents of an information element or the data element that contains the contents.

[0151] The term "SMTC" refers to the SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration.

[0152] The term "SSB" refers to an SS / PBCH block.

[0153] The term "primary cell" refers to the MCG cell serving on the primary frequency, where the UE is either performing the initial connection establishment procedure or initiating the connection re-establishment procedure.

[0154] The term "primary SCG cell" refers to the SCG cell that the UE randomly accesses when reconfiguring via a synchronization procedure for DC operation.

[0155] The term "secondary cell" refers to a cell that provides additional radio resources in addition to the special cell for a UE configured by CA.

[0156] The term "secondary cell group" refers to a subset of serving cells including a PSCell and zero or more secondary cells for a UE configured by a DC.

[0157] The term "serving cell" refers to a primary cell for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED state that is not configured by CA / DC, and there is only one serving cell that consists of the primary cell.

[0158] The term "serving cell(s)" refers to the set of cells including the special cell and all secondary cells established by CA / for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED state.

[0159] The term "special cell" refers to a PSCell of an SCG or a PCell of an MCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term "special cell" refers to a Pcell.

[0160] The terms "machine learning" or "ML" refer to the use of computer systems that implement algorithms and / or statistical models to perform specific tasks without explicit instructions, relying instead on patterns and inference. ML algorithms build or infer mathematical models (e.g., referred to as "ML models") based on sample data (e.g., referred to as "training data," "model training information," etc.) to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed to perform such tasks. In general, an ML algorithm is a computer program that learns from experience with respect to some task and some performance metric, and an ML model may be any object or data structure generated after an ML algorithm is trained with one or more training datasets. Although the term "ML algorithm" refers to a different concept from the term "ML model," these terms may be used interchangeably for purposes of this disclosure as described herein.

[0161] Terms such as "machine learning model," "ML model," and the like can also refer to ML methods and concepts used by an ML-assisted solution. An "ML-assisted solution" is a solution that uses ML algorithms to address a specific use case during operation. ML models include supervised learning (e.g., linear regression, k-nearest neighbors (KNN), decision tree algorithms, support machine vectors, Bayesian algorithms, ensemble algorithms, etc.), unsupervised learning (e.g., K-means clustering, principal component analysis (PCA), etc.), reinforcement learning (e.g., Q-learning, multi-armed banded learning, deep RL, etc.), neural networks, etc. Depending on the implementation, a particular ML model may have many submodels as components, and the ML model may train all the submodels together. Individually trained ML models can also be concatenated in an ML pipeline during inference. An "ML pipeline" is a set of features, functions, or functional entities specific to an ML-assisted solution, and an ML pipeline may include a data pipeline, a model training pipeline, a model evaluation pipeline, and one or more data sources within actors. An "actor" is an entity that hosts an ML-assisted solution using the output of ML model inference. The term "ML training host" refers to an entity, such as a network function, that hosts the training of a model. The term "ML inference host" refers to an entity, such as a network function, that hosts a model during inference mode (including both model execution and any online learning, if applicable). The ML host informs the actor of the output of the ML algorithm, and the actor decides on an action (an "action" is taken by the actor as a result of the output of the ML-assisted solution). The term "model inference information" refers to information used as input to an ML model to determine an inference. While the data used to train an ML model and the data used to determine an inference may overlap, "training data" and "inference data" refer to different concepts.

[0162] [CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 485,727, filed February 17, 2023.

Claims

1. 1. An apparatus for use in a user equipment (UE), comprising: a memory for storing a group-based beam report previously transmitted by the UE; one or more processors configured to identify a first transmission configuration indication (TCI) state for the UE and an indication to activate a second TCI state for the UE, and to identify a multiplexing scheme associated with the first TCI state and the second TCI state based on the group-based beam report; A device having:

2. the first TCI state relates to a first panel of the UE; the second TCI state relates to a second panel of the UE; 10. The apparatus of claim 1.

3. the indication to activate the first TCI state and the second TCI state relates to a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) received by the UE; 10. The apparatus of claim 1.

4. the indication to activate the first TCI state and the second TCI state relates to a single downlink control information (sDCI) received by the UE.

10. The apparatus of claim 1.

5. the indication to activate the first TCI state and the second TCI state relates to multiple downlink control information (mDCI) received by the UE.

10. The apparatus of claim 1.

6. The UE activates the first TCI state and the second TCI state simultaneously.

6. An apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

7. the UE activates the first TCI state and the second TCI state separately from each other; 6. An apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

8. The multiplexing method is time division multiplexing (TDM).

6. An apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

9. the multiplexing scheme is frequency division multiplexing (FDM); 6. An apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

10. The multiplexing method is spatial division multiplexing (SDM).

6. An apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

11. The instructions, when executed by one or more processors of a user equipment device (UE), cause the UE to: Identifying a group-based beam report previously transmitted by the UE; Identifying an instruction to activate a first transmission configuration indication (TCI) state for the UE and a second TCI state for the UE; determining a multiplexing scheme associated with the first TCI state and the second TCI state based on the group-based beam report; One or more computer-readable storage media.

12. the first TCI state relates to a first panel of the UE; the second TCI state relates to a second panel of the UE; One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 11.

13. the indication to activate the first TCI state and the second TCI state relates to a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) received by the UE; One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 11.

14. the indication to activate the first TCI state and the second TCI state relates to a single downlink control information (sDCI) received by the UE. One or more computer-readable storage media according to any one of claims 11 to 13.

15. the indication to activate the first TCI state and the second TCI state relates to multiple downlink control information (mDCI) received by the UE. One or more computer-readable storage media according to any one of claims 11 to 13.

16. A user equipment (UE), one or more processors; one or more computer-readable media containing instructions; The instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the UE to: Identifying a group-based beam report previously transmitted by the UE; Identifying an instruction to activate a first transmission configuration indication (TCI) state for the UE and a second TCI state for the UE; determining a multiplexing scheme associated with the first TCI state and the second TCI state based on the group-based beam report; UE.

17. the first TCI state relates to a first panel of the UE; the second TCI state relates to a second panel of the UE; 17. The UE of claim 16.

18. the indication to activate the first TCI state and the second TCI state relates to a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) received by the UE; 17. The UE of claim 16.

19. the indication to activate the first TCI state and the second TCI state relates to a single downlink control information (sDCI) received by the UE.

19. The UE according to any one of claims 16 to 18.

20. the indication to activate the first TCI state and the second TCI state relates to multiple downlink control information (mDCI) received by the UE.

19. The UE according to any one of claims 16 to 18.

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