Timing Advance Group Indication

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to devices, methods, apparatus, and computer-readable storage media for blind-user device (UE) specific timing advance group (TAG) indications. The method includes determining, in a first device, whether an association between at least one TAG associated with a SpCell of the first device and one or more indices in the RAR is obtained from a second device, and determining, based on the association determination, the applicability of the RAR to a random access procedure of the first device.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to the field of telecommunications, and in particular, to methods, devices, apparatuses, and computer-readable storage media for Timing Advance Group (TAG) indication, in particular, blind User Equipment (UE)-specific TAG indication.

BACKGROUND ART

[0002] The main objectives for Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) enhancement may involve beam management, multiple Transmission and Reception Points (mTRP) for Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications (URLLC), mTRP for enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), and Time Division Duplex (TDD) / Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) interaction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0003] In a first aspect of the present disclosure, a first apparatus is provided. The first apparatus comprises at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions, which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus at least to determine whether an association between at least one TAG associated with a Special Cell (SpCell) of the first apparatus and a respective one or more indexes in a Random Access Response (RAR) is obtained from a second apparatus, and determine the applicability of the RAR for a random access procedure of the first apparatus based on the determination of the association.

[0004] A second aspect of the present disclosure provides a second device, the second device comprising at least one processor and at least one memory for storing instructions, the instruction, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the second device to at least configure associations between at least one TAG associated with a SpCell of the first device and one or more indices in the RAR.

[0005] A third aspect of the present disclosure provides a method, which includes determining, in a first device, whether an association between at least one TAG associated with a SpCell of the first device and one or more indices in the RAR is obtained from a second device, and determining, based on the association determination, the applicability of the RAR to a random access procedure of the first device.

[0006] A fourth aspect of the present disclosure provides a method, which involves configuring an association between at least one TAG associated with a SpCell of the first device and one or more respective indices in the RAR from the second device to the first device.

[0007] A fifth aspect of the present disclosure provides a first apparatus, the first apparatus comprising means for determining whether an association between at least one TAG associated with a SpCell of the first apparatus and one or more indices in the RAR is obtained from a second apparatus, and means for determining the applicability of the RAR to a random access procedure of the first apparatus based on the association determination.

[0008] A sixth aspect of the present disclosure provides a second device, which comprises means for configuring an association between at least one TAG associated with a SpCell of the first device and one or more respective indices in the RAR.

[0009] A seventh aspect of this disclosure provides a computer-readable medium, which includes instructions stored on the computer-readable medium that cause a device to perform a method according to at least the third aspect.

[0010] In an eighth aspect of this disclosure, a computer-readable medium is provided. The computer-readable medium includes instructions stored on the computer-readable medium that cause a device to perform at least the method according to the fourth aspect.

[0011] It should be understood that the Summary of the Invention section is not intended to identify any important or essential features of the embodiments of this disclosure, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of this disclosure. Other features of this disclosure will become readily apparent through the following description.

[0012] Several exemplary embodiments are described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0013] [Figure 1] This figure shows an exemplary communication environment in which exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. [Figure 2] This figure shows a signaling chart illustrating an example of a process according to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 3] This figure shows examples of message formats including TAG indication according to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 4] This figure shows a flowchart of a method performed in a first apparatus according to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 5] This figure shows a flowchart of a method implemented in a second device according to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 6] This figure shows a simplified block diagram of a device suitable for carrying out exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 7]This figure shows a block diagram of an exemplary computer-readable medium according to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0014] Throughout the drawing, identical or similar reference numbers represent identical or similar elements.

[0015] The principles of this disclosure are described herein with reference to several exemplary embodiments. These embodiments are described for illustrative purposes only and, without implying any limitation on the scope of the disclosure, are helpful to those skilled in the art in understanding and implementing this disclosure. The embodiments described herein may be implemented in a variety of ways other than those described below.

[0016] In the following description and claims, unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as those commonly understood by those skilled in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

[0017] References in this disclosure to “one embodiment,” “embodiment,” and “exemplary embodiment” indicate that the embodiments described may include certain features, structures, or characteristics, but not all embodiments are required to include such features, structures, or characteristics. Furthermore, such phrases do not necessarily refer to the same embodiments. Moreover, when certain features, structures, or characteristics are described in relation to an embodiment, it is assumed that they are within the scope of knowledge of a person skilled in the art, affecting such features, structures, or characteristics in relation to other embodiments, whether explicitly described or not.

[0018] Terms such as “first,” “second,” etc., preceding nouns may be used herein to describe various elements, but it should be understood that such elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are used solely to distinguish one element from another and do not limit the order of nouns. For example, without departing from the scope of the exemplary embodiments, the first element may be called the second element, and similarly, the second element may be called the first element. As used herein, the term “and / or” includes any one or more of the listed items and all combinations thereof.

[0019] As used herein, “at least one of the <list of two or more elements>” and “at least one of the <list of two or more elements>” and similar phrases mean at least one of the elements, or at least two or more of the elements, or at least all of the elements, when the lists of two or more elements are linked by “and” or “or”.

[0020] Unless expressly stated otherwise, performing a step "in response to A" as used herein does not indicate that the step will be performed immediately after "A" occurs, and that it may include one or more intervening steps.

[0021] The terminology used in this specification is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only, and is not intended to be limiting of the exemplary embodiments. As used in this specification, the singular forms "a", "an", and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should be further understood that the terms "comprises", "comprising", "has", "having", "includes", and / or "including", when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, elements, and / or components etc., but do not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components, and / or combinations thereof.

[0022] The term "circuit" as used in the present application may refer to one or more or all of the following. (a) Hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and / or digital circuits) (b) A combination of hardware circuitry and software, for example (as applicable) (i) A combination of analog and / or digital hardware circuitry with software / firmware (ii) Any portion of a hardware processor, software, and memory with software (including a digital signal processor) that cooperate to cause a device such as a mobile phone or server to perform various functions (c) A processor, such as a microprocessor or a portion of a microprocessor, that requires hardware circuitry and / or software (e.g., firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when not required for operation

[0023] This definition of circuit applies to all use of this term in this application, including in any claim. Further examples include the term circuit as used herein, which also encompasses a mere hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors), or a portion of a hardware circuit or processor, and its associated software and / or firmware implementation. The term circuit also includes, for example, and applicable to the elements of a particular claim, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device, or a similar integrated circuit in a server, cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

[0024] As used herein, the term “communication network” refers to a network that conforms to any appropriate communication standard, such as New Radio (NR), Long-Term Evolution (LTE), LTE Advanced (LTE-A), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High-Speed ​​Packet Access (HSPA), and Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT). Furthermore, communication between terminal devices and network devices within a communication network may be carried out in accordance with any appropriate generation of communication protocol, including but not limited to first-generation (1G), second-generation (2G), 2.5G, 2.75G, third-generation (3G), fourth-generation (4G), 4.5G, fifth-generation (5G), sixth-generation (6G) communication protocols, and / or any other protocols currently known or to be developed in the future. Embodiments of this disclosure may be applied to a variety of communication systems. Given the rapid development of communications, there will naturally be future communication technologies and systems to which this disclosure may be embodied. The scope of this disclosure should not be seen as being limited to the aforementioned systems only.

[0025] As used herein, the term “network device” refers to a node in a communications network through which terminal devices access the network and receive services from it. Depending on the applicable terminology and technology, a network device may also refer to a base station (BS) or access point (AP), such as a node B (node ​​B or NB), an evolved node B (enode B or eNB), an NR NB (also called a gNB), a remote radio unit (RRU), a radio header (RH), a remote radio head (RRH), a relay, an access backhaul integration (IAB) node, a low-power node such as a femto or pico, a non-terrestrial network (NTN) or satellite network device, a base station (BS) or access point (AP), such as a low orbit (LEO) satellite or geostationary (GEO) satellite, or an aircraft network device. In some exemplary embodiments, a radio access network (RAN) distribution architecture includes a central unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU) in an IAB donor node. The IAB node includes a mobile terminal (IAB-MT) portion that behaves like a UE with respect to the parent node, and the DU portion of the IAB node behaves like a base station with respect to the next-hop IAB node.

[0026] The term “terminal device” refers to any end device that may be capable of wireless communication. For example, rather than being limited, terminal devices may also be called communication devices, user equipment (UE), subscriber stations (SS), portable subscriber stations, mobile stations (MS), or access terminals (AT). Terminal devices may include, but are not limited to, mobile phones, cellular phones, smartphones, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, tablets, wearable terminal devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable computers, desktop computers, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, gaming terminal devices, music storage and playback devices, in-vehicle wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, laptop embedded devices (LEEs), laptop mounted devices (LMEs), USB dongles, smart devices, wireless customer equipment (CPEs), Internet of Things (IoT) devices, watches or other wearables, head-mounted displays (HMDs), vehicles, drones, medical devices and applications (e.g., remote surgery), industrial devices and applications (e.g., robots and / or other wireless devices operating in the context of industrial and / or automated processing chains), consumer electronic devices, and devices operating on commercial and / or industrial wireless networks. Terminal devices also correspond to the mobile terminal (MT) portion of IAB nodes (e.g., relay nodes). In the following description, the terms “terminal device,” “communication device,” “terminal,” “user equipment,” and “UE” may be used interchangeably.

[0027] As used herein, the terms “resource,” “transmission resource,” “resource block,” “physical resource block” (PRB), “uplink resource,” or “downlink resource” may refer to any resource for communication, for example, communication between a terminal device and a network device, such as a time-domain resource, a frequency-domain resource, a spatial-domain resource, a code-domain resource, or any other combination of time, frequency, spatial, and / or code-domain resources that enables communication. Hereinafter, unless expressly stated otherwise, resources in both the frequency and time domains will be used as examples of transmission resources to illustrate some exemplary embodiments of this disclosure. It should be noted that the exemplary embodiments of this disclosure are equally applicable to other resources in other domains.

[0028] As used herein, the term “Transmit / Receive Point (TRP)” may refer to an antenna port or antenna array (using one or more antenna elements) available to a network device located at a specific geographical location. For example, a network device may be coupled to multiple TRPs at different geographical locations to achieve better coverage. Alternatively, or further, multiple TRPs may be incorporated into a network device, or in other words, a network device may contain multiple TRPs. The term “TRP” may also be referred to as a cell, such as a macrocell, small cell, picocell, femtocell, remote radio head, or relay node. It should be understood that the term “TRP” may refer to a logical concept that can be physically implemented in various ways. For example, a TRP may refer to or correspond to a physical cell identity (PCI) or a control resource set (CORESET) pool index (i.e., CORESETPoolIndex). In exemplary embodiments of this disclosure, the term “TRP” may be used interchangeably with the terms “PCI” or “CORESETPoolIndex”.

[0029] Figure 1 shows an exemplary communication network 100 in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. As shown in Figure 1, the communication network 100 may include a first device 110-1 and a first device 110-2. Each of the first device 110-1 and the first device 110-2 may be referred to as a terminal device (e.g., UE). Hereinafter, the first device 110-1 and the first device 110-2 may be collectively referred to as the first device 110.

[0030] The communication network 100 may further include a second device 120-1 and a second device 120-2. Each of the second device 120-1 and the second device 120-2 may be called a network device (e.g., a gNB or TRP). Hereinafter, the second device 120-1 and the second device 120-2 may be collectively referred to as the second device 120.

[0031] Both the second device 120-1 and the second device 120-2 may serve the first device 110. That is, each of the second device 120-1 and the second device 120-2 may serve the first device 110 within its serving cell. In this case, the serving cell associated with the second device 120-1 and the serving cell associated with the second device 120-2 may be called SpCell 102 of the first device 110. SpCell may be called a primary cell (PCell) and / or a primary secondary cell (PSCell).

[0032] In some scenarios, the first device 110 may consist of a multi-TRP (MTRP), for example, a first TRP (e.g., a second device 120-1) and a second TRP (e.g., a second device 120-2) within the SpCell of the first device 110.

[0033] When the first device 110 communicates with the second device 120 in the serving cell, it should be understood that the first device 110 may communicate with one or both of the first TRP and the second TRP. For example, a terminal device may be permitted to send and / or receive control information and data from the first TRP and the second TRP.

[0034] It should be understood that the number of network devices and terminal devices shown in Figure 1 are given for illustrative purposes only and do not imply any limitation. The communication network 100 may include any appropriate number of network devices and terminal devices.

[0035] In some exemplary embodiments, the link from the second device 120 to the first device 110 may be called a downlink (DL), and the link from the first device 110 to the second device 120 may be called an uplink (UL). In the DL, the second device 120 is the transmitting (TX) device (or transmitter), and the first device 110 is the receiving (RX) device (or receiver). In the UL, the first device 110 is the TX device (or transmitter), and the second device 120 is the RX device (or receiver).

[0036] Communication within the communication environment 100 may be conducted in accordance with any suitable communication protocol, including, but not limited to, cellular communication protocols such as first-generation (1G), second-generation (2G), third-generation (3G), fourth-generation (4G), fifth-generation (5G), and sixth-generation (6G), wireless local network communication protocols such as IEEE 802.11, and / or any other protocols currently known or to be developed in the future. Furthermore, communication may utilize any suitable wireless communication technology, including, but not limited to, code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division duplexing (FDD), time division duplexing (TDD), multiple input multiple output (MIMO), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM), and / or any other technologies currently known or to be developed in the future.

[0037] As mentioned above, MIMO has been widely used in current wireless communication systems. Specifically, MIMO is one of the key technologies in NR systems and has been successful in commercial deployment. MIMO has been investigated and specified for both frequency division duplex (FDD) and time division duplex (TDD) systems, with a major part of that focusing on downlink MIMO operation.

[0038] While it is important to identify and specify the necessary enhancements for UL MIMO, there is still a need to introduce necessary enhancements for downlink MIMO to facilitate the use of large antenna arrays not only in frequency range 1 (FR1) but also in frequency range 2 (FR2) to meet the demands of the evolution of NR deployment. This includes the following enhancement areas:

[0039] Firstly, significant performance losses for UEs at high / medium speeds were observed, particularly in commercial deployments in multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) scenarios. Since these performance losses are partly due to legacy channel status information (CSI), enhancements to CSI acquisition to mitigate such losses may be beneficial.

[0040] Secondly, an integrated transmit configuration indicator (TCI) framework was introduced to facilitate streamlined multibeam operation targeting FR2. While focusing on single TRP use cases, extending the integrated TCI framework to focus on multi-TRP use cases is beneficial.

[0041] Thirdly, the increasing need for multiplexing capacity of downlink and uplink demodulated reference signals (DMRS) across various use cases necessitates an increase in the number of orthogonal ports for DMRS.

[0042] Fourth, features to facilitate multi-TRP deployments were introduced primarily in non-coherent coupled transmission (NC-JT). Coherent coupled transmission (CJT) improves coverage and average throughput in commercial deployments with high-performance backhaul and synchronization, and enhancements to CSI acquisition for FDD and TDD targeting FR1 may be beneficial in expanding the usefulness of multi-TRP deployments.

[0043] Fifth, as the relevance of advanced UE (e.g., customer premises equipment (CPE), fixed wireless access (FWA), vehicles, industrial devices) increases, introducing the necessary enhancements to support eight antenna ports and four or more layers for UL transmission could provide the necessary improvements in UL coverage and average throughput.

[0044] Sixth, with the introduction of features for UL panel selection, advanced UEs (e.g., CPE, FWA, automotive, industrial devices) can benefit from higher UL coverage and average throughput using simultaneous UL multi-panel transmission. Finally, several further enhancements to facilitate UL multi-TRP deployments with two TAs and enhanced UL power control may result in additional UL performance improvements.

[0045] Furthermore, we discussed two timing advance (TA) studies on UL multi-downlink control information (DCI) for multi-TRP operation.

[0046] With two TAs for DCI for multi-TRP operation, it is agreed that the UE may consist of two TAGs per serving cell.

[0047] The corresponding agreement may indicate the following: For multi-DCI-based multi-TRP operation using two TAs, it is supported to configure two TAGs belonging to the serving cell. For intra-cell multi-DCI-based multi-TRP operation with two TA enhancements and physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) ordered contention-free random access (CFRA), a representation of a 1-bit TAG identifier (ID) (either the first TAG ID or the second TAG ID for the serving cell) is indicated as part of the TA command in the RAR. For multi-DCI-based multi-TRP operation within a cell, single N TA,offset Only this is composed.

[0048] In the case of contention-based random access (CBRA), it is also agreed that the mechanism for CFRA cases may be used, i.e., Random Access (RA) RAR may be used to indicate TAG.

[0049] This means that when a UE performs an RA procedure on a serving cell consisting of two TAGs (in the case of a CBRA, it is always on a SpCell, i.e., either a PCell or a PSCell), the network (NW) indicates the TAG to which the RAR is applied via indication within the RAR. Generally, it is understood that the R bit in the Media Access Control (MAC) payload for the RAR can be used for this indication.

[0050] MAC RAR is octet-aligned and consists of the following fields: - R: Reserved bit, set to 0 - Timing Advance Command (TAC): The Timing Advance Command field is an index value T used to control the amount of timing adjustment that a MAC entity must apply. A This indicates the timing advance command field. The size of the timing advance command field is 12 bits. - UL Grant: The uplink grant field indicates the resources used on the uplink. The size of the UL grant field is 27 bits. - Temporary C-RNTI: The Temporary Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) field indicates a temporary identity used by the MAC entity during random access. The size of the Temporary C-RNTI field is 16 bits.

[0051] As mentioned above, when the CBRA procedure is executed, the NW only identifies the UE after receiving the message 3 (Msg3) of the RA procedure from the UE. This causes problems when indicating associated tags in the RAR (e.g., message 2 (Msg2)) of the RA procedure when two UEs in the same serving cell have different TAG IDs associated with the same TRP of the cell.

[0052] For example, as shown in Figure 1, this may occur when a first device 110-1 (e.g., a first UE) performs initial access to a beam provided by a second device 120-1 (e.g., a first TRP), and the first TA#0 provided to the first device 110-1 may be associated with TAG#0 (directed to the second device 120-1), and additional TAs of the second device 120-2 (e.g., a second TRP) may be further associated with TAG#1 / 2 / 3.

[0053] On the other hand, the first device 110-2 (e.g., the second UE) may perform initial access to the beam provided by the second device 120-2 (e.g., the second TRP), and the first TA#0 provided to the first device 110-2 may be associated with TAG#0 (directed to the second device 120-2), and additional TAs of the second device 120-1 (e.g., the first TRP) may be further associated with TAG#1 / 2 / 3.

[0054] Therefore, when the network receives a preamble via a random access channel (RACH), it does not know which UE sent the preamble, and thus does not know if the UE is configured with multiple TAGs for a serving cell, and if so, which TAG IDs are associated with a given TRP of the UE.

[0055] According to some exemplary embodiments of this disclosure, a solution for blind UE-specific TAG indication is provided. In this solution, a first device 110 determines whether an association between at least one TAG associated with a SpCell of the first device 110 and one or more indices in the RAR is obtained from a second device 120. Based on the association determination, the first device 110 determines the applicability of the RAR to the random access procedure of the first device 110.

[0056] In this way, the network does not need to identify the UE, as it can indicate the appropriate TAG for the UE via RAR when the UE consists of two TAGs for its SpCell.

[0057] Exemplary embodiments of this disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0058] Referring here to Figure 2, Figure 3 shows a signaling chart 200 for communication according to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in Figure 2, the signaling chart 200 is accompanied by terminal devices 110 and network devices 120. For illustrative purposes, the signaling chart 200 will be described with reference to Figure 1.

[0059] In some scenarios related to Figure 2, at least two TAGs associated with the SpCell 102 of the first device 110 may be configured for the first device 110.

[0060] In some embodiments, the first device 110 may be configured by the second device 120 to establish an association between at least one TAG associated with the SpCell 102 of the first device 110 and each of one or more indices in the RAR (205).

[0061] For example, the first device 110 may acquire an association (210) when configuring a second TAG for the first device 110. That is, the second device 120 may provide / configure an association between each TAG associated with the SpCell (e.g., one of the two TAGs) and an indication (e.g., an index) via RAR. This association can indicate which TAG is applicable to which index value of the indication in RAR.

[0062] In some embodiments, it should be understood that an index or indication within a RAR may be indicated by the value of a bit field within a RAR. In some examples, an index or indication within a RAR may be indicated by the value of a bit field within a UL grant field in a RAR.

[0063] As another example, if there is no second TAG, the first device 110 may obtain an association between the first TAG and the corresponding index in the RAR (215). For example, the second device 120 may establish such an association, i.e., between the first TAG and the corresponding index in the RAR, during the initial configuration of the first device 110.

[0064] With respect to the association between at least one TAG and each of one or more indexes / indications, the second device 120 may configure only the association between one TAG associated with the SpCell of the first device 110 and an index in the RAR having a specific index value (e.g., value #1). The first device 110 may determine that other TAGs associated with the SpCell of the first device 110 are indicated by an index in the RAR having a different index value (e.g., value #0).

[0065] Optionally, or alternatively, indications within the RAR are always interpreted in a certain way. For example, a low index value of an indication within the RAR (e.g., value #0) may always be mapped to a TAG with a low TAG index value (e.g., TAG ID #0), and a high index value of an indication within the RAR (e.g., value #1) may always be mapped to a TAG with a high TAG index value of the first device 110 (e.g., TAG ID #2).

[0066] In this situation, in some embodiments, the second device 120 may need to ensure that the TAG ID for the first device 110, which consists of two TAGs for the SpCell, is properly configured. For example, when configuring the second TAG associated with the SpCell for the first device 110, the second device 120 may need to reconfigure TAG ID #0 for the second TAG and configure a new TAG ID (e.g., TAG ID #2) for the first TAG of the first device 110.

[0067] The second device 120 may transmit (220) the RAR to the first device 110 (for example, in the RA procedure). The first device 110 may determine the TAG indications (e.g., indices) within the RAR.

[0068] In some embodiments, if the first device 110 determines that the received RAR indicates an index corresponding to a TAG associated with the SpCell of the first device based on a configured association, the first device 110 may determine that this received RAR can be applied to an RA procedure. That is, the first device 110 applies this RAR during an RA procedure (225) only if the indication (e.g., an index) in the RAR corresponds to a configured value for the TAG of the first device 110.

[0069] Otherwise, the first device 110 may not apply the received RAR to the RA procedure until it receives an RAR containing an indication (e.g., an index) corresponding to a configured value for that TAG.

[0070] In some other embodiments, there may be no configuration for the second TAG, nor a corresponding index in the received RAR. In this case, the first device 110 may ignore the indication in the RAR (or treat it as a reserved bit) and always apply the RAR to the RA procedure (225).

[0071] Figure 3 shows examples of message formats including TAG indication according to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0072] In some embodiments, an index associated with the TAG ID of a TAG associated with a SpCell of the first device 110 may be included in the TID field 301 of the MAC payload for the RAR. For example, if the TID field 301 indicates that in the RAR received by the first device 110, the index associated with TAG#1 associated with a SpCell of the first device 110 has an index value of #1, then the first device 110 may apply this RAR to the RA procedure.

[0073] Based on the proposed solutions in this disclosure, the various embodiments proposed in this disclosure can be implemented in MAC specifications. Different alternative embodiments associated with the TID field in RAR for MAC specifications can be listed below. MAC RAR has a fixed size, as shown in Figure 3, and consists of the following fields. - TID: This field indicates the TAG that the timing advance command applies to if the MAC entity's SpCell is associated with two TAGs; otherwise, this field is a reserved bit and is set to 0. A TID field set to 1 indicates the TAG associated with the SpCell for which tagID-rarAssociation is set to true, and a TID field set to 0 indicates the other TAG associated with the SpCell. - TID: This field indicates the TAG that the timing advance command applies to if the MAC entity's SpCell is associated with two TAGs; otherwise, this field is a reserved bit and is set to 0. A TID field set to 1 indicates the TAG associated with the SpCell where tagID-rarAssociation is set to true, and a TID field set to 0 indicates the other TAG associated with the SpCell where tagID-rarAssociation is set to false. - TID: This field indicates the TAG to which the timing advance command applies if the MAC entity's SpCell is associated with two TAGs; otherwise, this field is a reserved bit and is set to 0. The MAC entity determines the TAG indicated by the TID field according to the tagID-rarAssociation of the higher-layer configuration.

[0074] Although the solutions described in this disclosure are illustrated in a 4-step RA procedure (i.e., Msg2 within the 4-step RA procedure), it should be understood that they can also be similarly applied to 2-step RA MSGB and / or fallback RAR.

[0075] By applying the exemplary embodiments of this disclosure, the NW does not need to identify the UE because it can indicate the appropriate TAG for the UE via RAR when the UE consists of two TAGs for its SpCell.

[0076] Figure 4 shows a flowchart of an exemplary method 400 performed in a first apparatus according to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. For illustrative purposes, method 400 will be described in view of the first apparatus 110 in Figure 1.

[0077] In block 410, the first device 110 determines whether an association between at least one TAG associated with the SpCell of the first device and one or more indices in the RAR is obtained from the second device.

[0078] In block 420, the first device 110 determines the applicability of RAR to the random access procedure of the first device based on the association determination.

[0079] In some exemplary embodiments, the first device can be configured with two TAGs associated with the SpCell.

[0080] In some exemplary embodiments, method 400 further includes obtaining an association when configuring a second TAG for a first device.

[0081] In some exemplary embodiments, method 400 further includes obtaining an association between a first TAG and a corresponding index in RAR when a second TAG is not configured.

[0082] In some exemplary embodiments, method 400 further includes determining, based on association, that the received RAR is applied to a random access procedure, according to the decision that the RAR indicates an index corresponding to a TAG associated with a SpCell of a first device.

[0083] In some exemplary embodiments, method 400 further includes determining, based on association, that the received RAR does not indicate an index corresponding to a TAG associated with a SpCell of a first device, and that the RAR is not applicable to a random access procedure.

[0084] In some exemplary embodiments, Method 400 further includes obtaining an association between a TAG associated with a SpCell and an index in a RAR having a specific index value, and determining that a further TAG associated with a SpCell is associated with a further index in a RAR having a different index value.

[0085] In some exemplary embodiments, low index values ​​in the RAR are associated with TAGs having low group identifiers, and high index values ​​in the RAR are associated with TAGs having high group identifiers.

[0086] In some exemplary embodiments, method 400 further includes determining that the RAR is applied to a random access procedure, based on the determination that there is neither a configuration of a second TAG nor a corresponding index in the received RAR.

[0087] In some exemplary embodiments, the index in the RAR is indicated by the value of a bit field in the RAR.

[0088] In some exemplary embodiments, the first device includes a terminal device, and the second device includes a network device.

[0089] Figure 5 shows a flowchart of an exemplary method 500 performed in a second device according to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. For illustrative purposes, method 500 will be described in view of the second device 120 in Figure 1.

[0090] In block 510, the second device 120 configures, with respect to the first device, an association between at least one TAG associated with the SpCell of the first device and one or more respective indices in the RAR.

[0091] In some exemplary embodiments, the first device can be configured with two TAGs associated with the SpCell.

[0092] In some exemplary embodiments, method 500 further includes configuring an association with respect to the first device when configuring a second TAG for the first device.

[0093] In some exemplary embodiments, method 500 further includes configuring an association between the first TAG and the corresponding index in the RAR for the first device in the absence of a second TAG configuration.

[0094] In some exemplary embodiments, Method 500 further includes configuring an index in the RAR having a TAG associated with the SpCell and a specific index value for the first device.

[0095] In some exemplary embodiments, low index values ​​in the RAR are associated with TAGs having low group identifiers, and high index values ​​in the RAR are associated with TAGs having high group identifiers.

[0096] In some exemplary embodiments, method 500 further includes reconfiguring a TAG having a low group identifier associated with a low index value in response to configuring a TAG having a high group identifier.

[0097] In some exemplary embodiments, the index in the RAR is indicated by the value of a bit field in the RAR.

[0098] In some exemplary embodiments, the first device includes a terminal device, and the second device includes a network device.

[0099] In some exemplary embodiments, a first apparatus capable of performing any of the methods 400 (e.g., the first apparatus 110 in Figure 1) may include means for performing each operation of the methods 400. The means can be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means can be implemented in a circuit or a software module. The first apparatus may be implemented as the first apparatus 110 in Figure 1, or may be included in the first apparatus 110 in Figure 1.

[0100] In some exemplary embodiments, the first device includes means for determining whether an association between at least one TAG associated with a SpCell of the first device and one or more indices in the RAR is obtained from the second device, and means for determining the applicability of the RAR to a random access procedure of the first device based on the association determination.

[0101] In some exemplary embodiments, the first device can be configured with two TAGs associated with the SpCell.

[0102] In some exemplary embodiments, the first device further includes means for obtaining association when configuring a second TAG for the first device.

[0103] In some exemplary embodiments, the first device further includes means for obtaining an association between the first TAG and the corresponding index in the RAR when the second TAG is not configured.

[0104] In some exemplary embodiments, the first device further includes means for determining, based on association, that the received RAR is applied to a random access procedure, according to the decision that the RAR indicates an index corresponding to a TAG associated with a SpCell of the first device.

[0105] In some exemplary embodiments, the first device further includes means for determining, based on association, that a RAR is not applicable to a random access procedure, according to the determination that the received RAR does not indicate an index corresponding to a TAG associated with a SpCell of the first device.

[0106] In some exemplary embodiments, the first apparatus further includes means for obtaining an association between a TAG associated with a SpCell and an index in a RAR having a specific index value, and means for determining that a further TAG associated with a SpCell is associated with a further index in a RAR having a different index value.

[0107] In some exemplary embodiments, low index values ​​in the RAR are associated with TAGs having low group identifiers, and high index values ​​in the RAR are associated with TAGs having high group identifiers.

[0108] In some exemplary embodiments, the first device further includes means for determining that the RAR is applied to a random access procedure, based on the determination that there is neither a configuration of a second TAG nor a corresponding index in the received RAR.

[0109] In some exemplary embodiments, the index in the RAR is indicated by the value of a bit field in the RAR.

[0110] In some exemplary embodiments, the first device includes a terminal device, and the second device includes a network device.

[0111] In some exemplary embodiments, the first apparatus further includes means for performing other operations in some exemplary embodiments of Method 400 or the first apparatus 110. In some exemplary embodiments, the means include at least one processor and at least one memory for storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus to perform operations.

[0112] In some exemplary embodiments, a second apparatus capable of performing any of the methods 500 (e.g., the second apparatus 120 in Figure 1) may include means for performing each operation of the methods 500. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuit or a software module. The second apparatus may be implemented as the second apparatus 120 in Figure 1, or may be included in the second apparatus 120 in Figure 1.

[0113] In some exemplary embodiments, the second device includes means for configuring an association between at least one TAG associated with the SpCell of the first device and one or more respective indices in the RAR, relative to the first device.

[0114] In some exemplary embodiments, the first device can be configured with two TAGs associated with the SpCell.

[0115] In some exemplary embodiments, the second device further includes means for configuring an association with the first device when configuring a second TAG for the first device.

[0116] In some exemplary embodiments, the second device further includes means for configuring an association between the first TAG and the corresponding index in the RAR for the first device in the absence of a second TAG configuration.

[0117] In some exemplary embodiments, the second device further includes means for configuring an index in the RAR having a TAG associated with the SpCell and a specific index value, relative to the first device.

[0118] In some exemplary embodiments, low index values ​​in the RAR are associated with TAGs having low group identifiers, and high index values ​​in the RAR are associated with TAGs having high group identifiers.

[0119] In some exemplary embodiments, the second apparatus further includes means for reconfiguring a TAG having a low group identifier associated with a low index value in response to configuring a TAG having a high group identifier.

[0120] In some exemplary embodiments, the index in the RAR is indicated by the value of a bit field in the RAR.

[0121] In some exemplary embodiments, the first device includes a terminal device, and the second device includes a network device.

[0122] In some exemplary embodiments, the second apparatus further includes means for performing other operations in some exemplary embodiments of Method 500 or the second apparatus 120. In some exemplary embodiments, the means include at least one processor and at least one memory for storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second apparatus to execute.

[0123] Figure 6 is a simplified block diagram of a device 600 suitable for carrying out exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 600 may be provided for carrying out a communication device, for example, the first device 110 or the second device 120 shown in Figure 1. As shown, the device 600 includes one or more processors 610, one or more memories 620 coupled to the processors 610, and one or more communication modules 640 coupled to the processors 610.

[0124] The communication module 640 is for bidirectional communication. The communication module 640 has one or more communication interfaces to facilitate communication with one or more other modules or devices. The communication interfaces may represent any interfaces necessary for communication with other network elements. In some exemplary embodiments, the communication module 640 may include at least one antenna.

[0125] The processor 610 may be of any type suitable for a local technology network and may include, in non-limiting examples, one or more of general-purpose computers, dedicated computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs), and processors based on multicore processor architectures. The device 600 may have multiple processors, such as application-specific integrated circuit chips that are temporally slaves to a clock synchronized with the main processor.

[0126] Memory 620 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, read-only memory (ROM) 624, electrically programmable read-only memory (EPROM), flash memory, hard disks, compact discs (CDs), digital video discs (DVDs), optical discs, laser discs, and other magnetic and / or optical storage. Examples of volatile memories include, but are not limited to, random-access memory (RAM) 622 and other volatile memories that do not persist during power-down periods.

[0127] The computer program 630 includes computer-executable instructions that are executed by the associated processor 610. The instructions in program 630 may include instructions for performing actions / behaviors of some exemplary embodiments of this disclosure. Program 630 may be stored in memory, for example, ROM 624. The processor 610 may perform any appropriate actions and processes by loading program 630 into RAM 622.

[0128] Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by program 630 so that device 600 can perform any of the processes of the disclosure, as described with reference to Figures 2 to 5. Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

[0129] In some exemplary embodiments, program 630 may be tangibly contained in a computer-readable medium which may be contained in device 600 (such as memory 620) or other storage devices accessible by device 600. Device 600 may load program 630 from the computer-readable medium into RAM 622 for execution. In some exemplary embodiments, the computer-readable medium may include any type of non-temporary storage medium such as ROM, EPROM, flash memory, hard disk, CD, DVD, etc. The term “non-temporary” as used herein is a limitation of the medium itself (i.e., tangible and not signaling), and not a limitation of data storage persistence (e.g., RAM vs. ROM).

[0130] Figure 7 shows an example of a computer-readable medium 700, which may be in the form of a CD, DVD, or other optical storage disc. The computer-readable medium 700 has a program 630 stored thereon.

[0131] In general, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware, dedicated circuitry, software, logic, or any combination thereof. Some embodiments may be implemented in hardware, while others may be implemented in firmware or software that can be executed by a controller, microprocessor, or other computing device. Various embodiments of the present disclosure are shown and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or any other graphic representation, but it should be understood that any blocks, apparatus, systems, techniques, or methods described herein may be implemented, in non-limiting examples, in hardware, software, firmware, dedicated circuitry or logic, general-purpose hardware or controllers, or other computing devices, or any combination thereof.

[0132] Some exemplary embodiments of this disclosure also provide at least one computer program product tangibly stored in a computer-readable medium, such as a non-temporary computer-readable medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those contained in a program module, running on a device on a target physical or virtual processor, for performing any of the methods described above. Generally, a program module includes routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, etc., that perform a particular task or implement a particular abstract data type. The functionality of a program module may be combined or separated as desired in various embodiments. The computer-executable instructions for a program module may run in a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, the program module may reside in both a local storage medium and a remote storage medium.

[0133] Program code for performing the methods of this disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. The program code may be provided to a processor or controller of a general-purpose computer, a dedicated computer, or other programmable data processing device such that when the program code is executed by the processor or controller, the functions / operations specified in the flowchart and / or block diagram are performed. The program code may be executed entirely on a computer, partially on a computer, as a standalone software package, partially on a computer and partially on a remote computer, or entirely on a remote computer or server.

[0134] In the context of this disclosure, computer program code or related data may be executed by any suitable carrier to enable a device, apparatus, or processor to perform the various processes and operations described above. Examples of carriers include signals, computer-readable media, and the like.

[0135] Computer-readable media may be computer-readable signal media or computer-readable storage media. Computer-readable media may include, but are not limited to, electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor systems, apparatus, or devices, or any suitable combination thereof. More specific examples of computer-readable storage media include electrical connections with one or more wires, portable computer diskettes, hard disks, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), optical fibers, portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, or any suitable combination thereof.

[0136] Furthermore, although the operations are shown in a specific order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in a specific illustrated or sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed to achieve a desired result. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Similarly, although the above description includes details of several specific embodiments, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of this disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to a particular embodiment. Unless expressly stated, certain features described in the context of a separate embodiment may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. On the other hand, unless expressly stated, various features described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented separately in multiple embodiments or in any suitable partial combination.

[0137] While this disclosure has been described using terminology specific to structural features and / or methodological actions, it should be understood that the disclosure as defined in the attached claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or actions described above. Rather, the specific features and actions described above are disclosed as exemplary forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

1. The first device, At least one processor, At least one memory for storing instructions, wherein when an instruction is executed by the at least one processor, the first device contains at least one To determine whether the association between at least one timing advance group (TAG) associated with a special cell (SpCell) of the first device and one or more indices in the random access response (RAR) is obtained from the second device, Based on the aforementioned determination of the association, the applicability of the RAR to the random access procedure of the first device is determined, To perform this, at least one memory and A first device comprising the following:

2. The first apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first apparatus can be configured with two TAGs associated with the SpCell.

3. The first device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first device is configured to acquire the association when configuring a second TAG for the first device.

4. The first device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first device is configured to obtain the association between the first TAG and the corresponding index in the RAR when there is no configuration of the second TAG.

5. The first device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the first device is configured to determine, based on the association, that the received RAR is applied to the random access procedure, in accordance with the determination that the RAR indicates an index corresponding to a TAG associated with the SpCell of the first device.

6. The first device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the first device is configured to determine, based on the association, that the received RAR does not indicate an index corresponding to a TAG associated with the SpCell of the first device, and that the RAR is not applied to the random access procedure.

7. The first apparatus is Obtaining the association between the TAG associated with SpCell and the index in the RAR having a specific index value, Determine that any additional TAG associated with SpCell is associated with any additional index in the RAR having a different index value. The first apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6, which is configured to do the following.

8. The first apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the low index values ​​in the RAR are associated with TAGs having low group identifiers, and the high index values ​​in the RAR are associated with TAGs having high group identifiers.

9. The first device according to claim 1, wherein the first device is configured to determine that the RAR is applied to the random access procedure, in accordance with the determination that there is neither a configuration of a second TAG nor a corresponding index in the received RAR.

10. The first device according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the index in the RAR is indicated by the value of a bit field in the RAR.

11. The first device according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the first device includes a terminal device, and the second device includes a network device.

12. The second device, At least one processor, At least one memory for storing instructions, wherein when an instruction is executed by the at least one processor, the second device contains at least one The first device is configured to configure associations between at least one timing advance group (TAG) associated with a special cell (SpCell) of the first device and one or more indices in the random access response (RAR), and at least one memory and A second device equipped with the following.

13. The second apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the first apparatus can be configured with two TAGs associated with the SpCell.

14. The second device according to claim 12 or 13, wherein the second device is configured to configure the association with respect to the first device when configuring a second TAG for the first device.

15. The second device according to claim 12 or 13, wherein, in the absence of a second TAG configuration, the association between the first TAG and the corresponding index in the RAR is configured for the first device.

16. The second device according to any one of claims 12 to 15, wherein the second device is configured to configure, with respect to the first device, an index in the RAR having a TAG associated with SpCell and a specific index value.

17. The second apparatus according to any one of claims 12 to 16, wherein the low index values ​​in the RAR are associated with TAGs having low group identifiers, and the high index values ​​in the RAR are associated with TAGs having high group identifiers.

18. The second device according to claim 17, wherein the second device is configured to reconfigure the TAG having the low group identifier associated with the low index value in response to configuring the TAG having the high group identifier.

19. The second apparatus according to any one of claims 11 to 18, wherein the index in the RAR is indicated by the value of a bit field in the RAR.

20. The second device according to any one of claims 11 to 19, wherein the first device includes a terminal device, and the second device includes a network device.

21. It is a method, In the first device, it is determined whether the association between at least one timing advance group (TAG) associated with a special cell (SpCell) of the first device and one or more indices in the random access response (RAR) is obtained from the second device, Based on the aforementioned determination of the association, the applicability of the RAR to the random access procedure of the first device is determined, Methods that include...

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein the first device can be configured with two TAGs associated with the SpCell.

23. The method according to claim 21 or 22, further comprising obtaining the association when configuring a second TAG for the first device.

24. The method according to claim 21 or 22, further comprising obtaining the association between the first TAG and the corresponding index in the RAR when there is no configuration of the second TAG.

25. The method according to any one of claims 21 to 24, further comprising determining, based on the association, that the received RAR indicates an index corresponding to a TAG associated with the SpCell of the first device, that the RAR is applied to the random access procedure.

26. The method according to any one of claims 21 to 24, further comprising determining, based on the association, that the received RAR does not indicate an index corresponding to a TAG associated with the SpCell of the first device, that the RAR is not applied to the random access procedure.

27. Obtaining the association between the TAG associated with SpCell and the index in the RAR having a specific index value, It is determined that a further TAG associated with SpCell is associated with a further index in the RAR having a different index value, The method according to any one of claims 21 to 26, further comprising:

28. The method according to any one of claims 21 to 27, wherein the low index values ​​in the RAR are associated with TAGs having low group identifiers, and the high index values ​​in the RAR are associated with TAGs having high group identifiers.

29. The method according to claim 21, further comprising determining that the RAR is applied to the random access procedure, in accordance with the determination that there is no configuration of a second TAG and no corresponding index in the received RAR.

30. The method according to any one of claims 21 to 29, wherein the index in the RAR is indicated by the value of a bit field in the RAR.

31. The method according to any one of claims 21 to 30, wherein the first device includes a terminal device and the second device includes a network device.

32. It is a method, A method comprising configuring an association between at least one timing advance group (TAG) associated with a special cell (SpCell) of the first device and one or more indices in a random access response (RAR), from a second device to a first device.

33. The method according to claim 32, wherein the first device can be configured with two TAGs associated with the SpCell.

34. The method according to claim 32 or 33, further comprising configuring the association with respect to the first device when configuring the second TAG for the first device.

35. The method according to claim 32 or 33, further comprising configuring the association between the first TAG and the corresponding index in the RAR with respect to the first device when there is no configuration of a second TAG.

36. The method according to any one of claims 32 to 35, further comprising configuring an index in the RAR having a TAG associated with SpCell and a specific index value for the first device.

37. The method according to any one of claims 32 to 36, wherein the low index values ​​in the RAR are associated with TAGs having low group identifiers, and the high index values ​​in the RAR are associated with TAGs having high group identifiers.

38. The method according to claim 37, further comprising reconfiguring the TAG having the low group identifier associated with the low index value when configuring the TAG having the high group identifier.

39. The method according to any one of claims 31 to 38, wherein the index in the RAR is indicated by the value of a bit field in the RAR.

40. The method according to any one of claims 31 to 39, wherein the first device includes a terminal device and the second device includes a network device.

41. The first device, Means for determining whether an association between at least one timing advance group (TAG) associated with a special cell (SpCell) of the first device and one or more indices in the random access response (RAR) is obtained from the second device, A means for determining the applicability of the RAR to the random access procedure of the first device based on the aforementioned determination of association, A first device comprising the following:

42. The second device, A second device comprising, with respect to the first device, means for configuring an association between at least one timing advance group (TAG) associated with a special cell (SpCell) of the first device and one or more indices in a random access response (RAR).

43. A computer-readable medium, the method according to any one of claims 21 to 31 or A computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored on the computer-readable medium for causing an apparatus to perform at least one of the methods described in any of claims 32 to 40.

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