Beam Disturbance Report

Abstract

An apparatus and method in a communication system are disclosed, the method including: detecting a beam failure event in a serving cell (400); transmitting a beam failure recovery message (404) in response to the detection of the beam failure event; and transmitting a measurement report (406) including mobility measurements related to the serving cell and at least one additional cell.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] Exemplary and non-limiting embodiments of the present invention relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly to apparatus and methods in wireless communication networks. [Background technology]

[0002] The use of wireless communication systems is constantly increasing in many fields of application. Communications previously realized by wired connections are being replaced by wireless connections, because wireless communication systems offer many advantages over wired systems.

[0003] The reliability of wireless solutions is under constant evolution: if a wireless link fails, link recovery should be realized with minimal delay. Summary of the Invention [Means for solving the problem]

[0004] The following presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is not intended to identify key / critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

[0005] According to an aspect of the present invention, an apparatus as claimed in claims 1 and 13 is provided.

[0006] According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method according to claims 14 and 15.

[0007] One or more examples of embodiments are described in more detail in the accompanying drawings and in the following description. Other features will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims. The embodiments and / or examples and features described herein that do not fall within the scope of the independent claims, if any, should be construed as examples useful for understanding various embodiments of the invention.

[0008] Embodiments of the present invention are described below, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a simplified system architecture of a communication system. [Diagram 2] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a simplified system architecture of a communication system. [Diagram 3] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a Multi-Transmission / Reception Point (M-TRP). [Figure 4A] 1 is a flow chart illustrating some embodiments. [Figure 4B] 1 is a flow chart illustrating some embodiments. [Diagram 5] 1 is a flow chart illustrating some embodiments. [Figure 6] FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified example of an apparatus for applying some embodiments of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010] The following embodiments are merely examples. Although the specification may refer to "a," "one," or "several" embodiments in several places, this does not necessarily mean that each such reference is to the same embodiment or that the features only apply to a single embodiment. Single features of various embodiments may also be combined to produce other embodiments. Furthermore, the words "comprising" and "including" should be understood not to limit the described embodiments to consist only of the stated features, and such embodiments may also include features, structures, units, modules, etc. that are not specifically stated.

[0011] Some embodiments of the present invention are applicable to user equipments, communication devices, base stations, eNodeBs, gNodeBs, distributed realizations of base stations, network elements of a communication system, corresponding components and / or to any communication system or any combination of different communication systems supporting the required functionality.

[0012] Specifications of protocols, communication systems, servers, and user equipment used, especially in wireless communications, are rapidly evolving. Such evolution may require significant changes to an embodiment. Therefore, all words and phrases should be interpreted broadly and are intended to illustrate, and not to limit, the embodiments.

[0013] In the following, various exemplary embodiments will be described using radio access architectures based on Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-Advanced, LTE-A) or New Radio (NR, 5G) as examples of access architectures to which the embodiments may be applied, without, however, limiting the embodiments to such architectures. The embodiments may also be applied to other types of communication networks with suitable means by appropriately adjusting parameters and procedures. Some examples of alternatives for suitable systems are Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Radio Access Network (UTRAN), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN or WiFi), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Bluetooth®, Personal Communications Services (PCS), ZigBee®, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), systems using Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology, sensor networks, Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET), and Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), or any combination thereof.

[0014] 1 depicts a simplified system architecture example that merely shows some elements and functional entities that are all logical units, and the implementation of those elements and functional entities may differ from those shown. The connections shown in FIG. 1 are logical connections; the actual physical connections may differ. It is apparent to one skilled in the art that a system typically also includes functions and structures other than those shown in FIG. 1.

[0015] However, the embodiments are not limited to the system given as an example, and a person skilled in the art may apply the solution to other communication systems provided with the required characteristics.

[0016] The example of FIG. 1 shows a portion of an exemplary radio access network.

[0017] FIG. 1 shows devices 100 and 102. The devices 100 and 102 are configured to wirelessly connect over one or more communication channels with a node 104. The node 104 is further connected to a core network 106. In one example, the node 104 may be an access node such as an (e / g) Node B serving devices in a cell. In one example, the node 104 may be a non-3GPP access node. The physical link from the device to the (e / g) Node B is referred to as an uplink or reverse link, and the physical link from the (e / g) Node B to the device is referred to as a downlink or forward link. It should be understood that the (e / g) Node B or their functionality may be realized using any node, host, server, or access point, or other entity suitable for such use.

[0018] A communication system typically comprises more than one (e / g)Node B, in which case the (e / g)Node Bs may also be configured to communicate with each other over wired or wireless links designed for that purpose. These links may be used for signaling purposes. The (e / g)Node B is a computing device configured to control radio resources of the communication system to which the (e / g)Node B is coupled. The Node B may also be referred to as a base station, an access point, or any other type of interfacing device including a relay station that can operate in a wireless environment. The (e / g)Node B includes or is coupled to a transceiver. A connection is made from the transceiver of the (e / g)Node B to an antenna unit that establishes a bidirectional radio link to the device. The antenna unit may comprise multiple antennas or antenna elements. The (e / g)Node B is further connected to a core network 106 (CN, or Next Generation Core NGC). Depending on the deployed technology, the (e / g) Node B is connected to a Serving and Packet Data Network Gateway (S-GW+P-GW) or User Plane Function (UPF) for routing and forwarding user data packets and for providing device connectivity to one or more external packet data networks, and to a Mobile Management Entity (MME) or Access Mobility Management Function (AMF) for controlling device access and mobility.

[0019] Example embodiments of a device are a subscriber unit, a user device, user equipment (UE), a user terminal, a terminal device, a mobile station, a mobile device, and so on.

[0020] A device typically refers to a mobile or static device (e.g., a portable or non-portable computing device), including a wireless mobile communication device that operates with or without a Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM), including, but not limited to, the following types of devices: mobile phones, smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), handsets, devices that use wireless modems (alarm or measuring devices, etc.), laptops and / or touch screen computers, tablets, game consoles, notebooks, and multimedia devices. It should be understood that a device may also be a nearly dedicated uplink-only device, an example of which is a camera or video camera that loads images or video clips onto the network. A device may also be a device that has the capability to operate in an Internet of Things (IoT) network, which is a scenario in which objects are provided with the capability to transmit data over a network without the need for human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction, such as would be used in smart power grids and connected vehicles. A device may also utilize the cloud. In some applications, the device may comprise a user portable device with a wireless portion (such as a watch, earphones, or glasses) and the computations are performed in the cloud.

[0021] A device illustrates one type of apparatus to which resources over the air interface are allocated and assigned, and thus any features described herein with respect to the device may be implemented by a corresponding apparatus, such as a relay node. An example of such a relay node is a layer 3 repeater (self-backhauling repeater) towards a base station. The device (or, in some embodiments, the layer 3 relay node) is configured to perform one or more of the user equipment functionalities.

[0022] The various techniques described herein may also be applied to cyber-physical systems (CPS), systems of collaborative computational elements that control physical entities. CPS may enable the realization and exploitation of a large amount of interconnected information and communication technology, ICT, devices (sensors, actuators, processors, microcontrollers, etc.) embedded in physical objects in various locations. Mobile cyber-physical systems, where the physical systems in question have inherent mobility, are a subcategory of cyber-physical systems. Examples of mobile physical systems include mobile robotics and electronic devices carried by humans or animals.

[0023] In addition, although an apparatus is depicted as a single entity, various units, processors and / or memory units (not all of which are shown in FIG. 1) may be implemented.

[0024] 5G makes it possible to use many more base stations or nodes than LTE, including multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas, macro sites working in conjunction with smaller stations (the so-called small cell concept), and a variety of radio technologies depending on the service needs, use cases, and / or available spectrum. 5G mobile communications will support a wide range of use cases and related applications, including video streaming, augmented reality, various forms of data sharing, and various forms of machine type applications such as (massive) machine type communications (mMTC), including road safety, various sensors, and real-time control. 5G is expected to have multiple air interfaces, e.g. below 6 GHz or above 24 GHz, cmWave and mmWave, and can be integrated with existing legacy radio access technologies such as LTE. Integration with LTE may be realized, at least in the early stages, as a system in which macro coverage is provided by LTE and 5G air interface access comes from small cells by aggregation to LTE. In other words, 5G will support inter-RAT operability (e.g. LTE-5G) and inter-RI operability (below 6 GHz - cmWave, 6 GHz or above 24 GHz - 5G networks are planned to support both LTE and LTE-based wireless networks (inter-air interface interoperability, such as cmWave and mmWave). One of the concepts expected to be used in 5G networks is network slicing, in which multiple independent and dedicated virtual sub-networks (network instances) can be created within the same infrastructure to run services with different requirements for latency, reliability, throughput, and mobility.

[0025] The current architecture in LTE networks is fully distributed in the radio and fully centralized in the core network. Low latency applications and services in 5G require bringing content closer to the radio, which leads to local breakout and multi-access edge computing (MEC). 5G allows analytics and knowledge generation to occur at the source of the data. This approach requires leveraging resources that may not be continuously connected to the network, such as laptops, smartphones, tablets, and sensors. MEC brings a distributed computing environment for application and service hosting. MEC also has the ability to store and process content in close proximity to the cellular subscriber for faster response times. Edge computing covers a wide range of technologies, including wireless sensor networks, mobile data acquisition, mobile signature analysis, collaborative distributed peer-to-peer ad-hoc networking and processing which can be categorized as local cloud / fog computing and grid / mesh computing, due computing, mobile edge computing, cloudlets, distributed data storage and retrieval, autonomous self-healing networks, remote cloud services, augmented and virtual reality, data caching, Internet of Things (massive connectivity and / or latency critical), critical communications (autonomous vehicles, road safety, real-time analytics, time-critical control, healthcare applications).

[0026] The communication system may also communicate with or use services provided by other networks 112, such as the public switched telephone network, or a VoIP network, or the Internet, or a private network. The communication network may also be capable of supporting the usage of cloud services, e.g., at least a portion of the core network operations may be performed as cloud services (this is depicted in FIG. 1 by "cloud" 114). The communication system may also comprise a central control entity, or the like, that provides facilities for various operators' networks to cooperate, e.g., in spectrum sharing.

[0027] Edge cloud technology can be incorporated into the Radio Access Network (RAN) by utilizing Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN). Using edge cloud technology may mean that the access node operations are at least partially performed in a server, host, or node that is operatively coupled to a remote radio head or base station that comprises a radio part. It is also possible that the node operations will be distributed among multiple servers, nodes, or hosts. The application of the Cloud RAN architecture allows RAN real-time functions to be performed at or near the remote antenna site (in a distributed unit, DU 108) and non-real-time functions to be performed in a centralized manner (in a centralized unit, CU 110).

[0028] It should also be understood that the distribution of work between the core network operations and the base station operations may be different from that of LTE or may even not exist. Some other technological advances that will likely be used are big data and all-IP, which may change the way networks are built and managed. 5G (or New Radio, NR) networks are designed to support multiple hierarchies, and MEC servers may be located between the core and the base station or Node B (gNB). It should be understood that MEC may also be applied in 4G networks.

[0029] 5G may also use satellite communications to enhance or complement the coverage of 5G services, for example by providing backhauling. Possible use cases are to provide service continuity for Machine-to-Machine (M2M) or Internet of Things (IoT) devices, or for passengers in vehicles, or to ensure service availability for critical communications and future rail / maritime / aviation communications. Satellite communications may use Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite systems, but also Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite systems, especially mega-constellations, where hundreds of (micro)satellites are deployed. Each satellite in a mega-constellation may cover several satellite-enabled network entities creating a ground cell. The ground cell may be created by a terrestrial relay node or by a gNB located on the ground or in the satellite.

[0030] It is obvious to those skilled in the art that the depicted system is merely an example of a portion of a radio access system, and in practice the system may comprise multiple (e / g) Node Bs, a device may have access to multiple radio cells, and the system may also comprise other devices, such as physical layer relay nodes, or other network elements, etc. At least one of the (e / g) Node Bs may be a home (e / g) Node B. In addition, in a geographical area of ​​a wireless communication system, multiple radio cells of different types, as well as multiple radio cells, may be provided. The radio cells may be macrocells (or umbrella cells), which are large cells usually having a diameter of up to tens of kilometers, or smaller cells such as micro, femto, or pico cells. The (e / g) Node Bs in FIG. 1 may provide these cells of any type. A cellular radio system may be realized as a multi-layer network including several types of cells. Typically, in a multi-layer network, one access node provides one or more cells of one type, and therefore multiple (e / g) Node Bs are required to provide such a network structure.

[0031] To meet the need to improve the deployment and performance of communication systems, the concept of "Plug and Play" (e / g) Node B was introduced. Typically, a network that can use "Plug and Play" (e / g) Node B includes a Home Node B Gateway or HNB-GW (not shown in FIG. 1) in addition to a Home (e / g) Node B (H(e / g) Node B). The HNB Gateway (HNB-GW), typically installed in an operator's network, may aggregate traffic from multiple HNBs to return to the core network.

[0032] Figure 2 illustrates an example of a communication system based on 5G network components. A user terminal or user equipment 200 communicating via a data network 112 and a 5G network 202. The user terminal 200 is connected to a radio access network RAN ​​node, such as an (e / g) Node B 206, which provides the user terminal with a connection to the network 112 via one or more user plane functions, UPF 208. The user terminal 200 is further connected to a core access and mobility management function, AMF 210, which is a control plane core connector for the (radio) access network, and which in this respect can be considered as a 5G version of the mobility management entity, MME, in LTE. The 5G network further comprises a session management function, SMF 212, which is responsible for subscriber sessions such as session establishment, modification, and release, and a policy control function, PCF 214, which is configured to manage the network behavior by providing policy rules to the control plane functions.

[0033] In modern wireless communication systems, solutions have been developed in which a terminal device may communicate with more than one transmission point or be aware of several transmission points.

[0034] One of these solutions is conditional handover, in which a terminal device receives a handover command from a serving cell and a condition associated with the handover command. Instead of immediately performing the handover command, the terminal device stores the command. The terminal device monitors the condition and executes the handover command when the condition is met.

[0035] One solution is the multi-transmit / receive point (M-TRP) method illustrated in Figure 3. In the figure, there are two transmit-receive points TRP0 300 and TRP1 302, and a terminal device 304. In the M-TRP example of Figure 3, there are two TRPs, but the number of TRPs is not limited to two. TRP0 300 transmits two beams 306A, 306B with Channel State Information- Reference Signals CSI-RS#1 and CSI-RS#1. TRP1 302 transmits two beams 308A, 308B with Channel State Information- Reference Signals CSI-RS#3 and CSI-RS#4.

[0036] In one embodiment, TRP0 operates a first cell with physical cell ID PCI#0 and TRP1 operates a second cell with physical cell ID PCI#1. The terminal device may have a radio resource control, RRC, connection with TRP0 300. TRP1 302 does not have an RRC connection with the terminal device and transmits a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, and associated downlink control information (DCI) to the terminal device. Cell PCI#0 may be denoted as a serving cell and cell PCI#1 may be denoted as an inter-cell mTRP cell or a cell configured for inter-cell multi-TRP communication for the UE. In some instances, cell PCI#1 may be referred to as a "non-serving cell". However, the M-TRP configuration of PCI#1 or a non-serving cell is still part of the serving cell configuration (PCI#0).

[0037] In one embodiment, M-TRP operation may be implemented in such a manner that there may be different control resource sets, CORESETs, associated with a particular TRP using the CORESETPoolIndex parameter. The CORESET associated with TRP0 has a given pool index, and the CORESET associated with TRP1 has a different pool index. Thus, in some embodiments, to determine that multi-TRP communication is configured, the UE may determine whether there are more than one (e.g., two or more) distinct CORESETpoolIndex values ​​configured for the CORESET.

[0038] In one embodiment, the terminal device is configured to monitor the transmission of the M-TRP or the transmission of the serving cell and the CHO candidate cell or generally the neighboring cell. In the case of an inter-cell MTRP scenario, when the terminal device is configured to monitor the PDCCH on both TRPs (referred to as multi-DCI), the following cases may be recognized: Case 1: TRP0 beam fails (TRP#0 is that of the serving cell) Case 2: TRP1 beam failure (associated with a non-serving cell) Case 3: Both beams TRP0 and TRP1 fail.

[0039] In one embodiment, the terminal device is configured to perform a beam failure recovery procedure, and the beam failure recovery request signaling may include providing mobility measurement information related to at least one serving cell and one or more further cells during the recovery procedure. The one or more further cells may be, for example, an inter-cell M-TRP cell, a non-serving cell indicated as a conditional handover target or prepared cell (e.g., a cell with a UE context), or a neighboring cell.

[0040] The flow chart of Figure 4A illustrates one embodiment. The flow chart illustrates an example of the operation of the apparatus. In one embodiment, the apparatus may be a terminal device or part of a terminal device.

[0041] In step 400, the terminal device is configured to detect a beam failure event in a serving cell.

[0042] In step 404, the terminal device is configured to transmit a beam failure recovery message in response to detecting a beam failure event.

[0043] In step 406, and still in response to the beam failure event, the terminal device is configured to transmit a measurement report including mobility measurement results relating to the serving cell and the at least one further cell.

[0044] In one embodiment, the beam failure recovery message and measurement report are transmitted to the serving cell using another beam of the serving cell.

[0045] In one embodiment, the further cell is one of an inter-cell multi-transmission reception point cell, a neighbor cell, a cell prepared for conditional handover of the terminal device, or a cell prepared with the terminal device context.

[0046] In one embodiment, the measurement information is sent as part of msg / 3 during a random access procedure triggered when the active beam of a P-cell or SP-cell (or serving cell) fails, or in another subsequent message as part of a beam failure recovery procedure.

[0047] In one embodiment, the measurement information message may be embedded in a new MAC CE or in an extended beam failure recovery BRF MAC CE to cover additional cells (such as non-serving cells, neighbor cells, mTRP cells, or the like).

[0048] In one embodiment, the measurement report is triggered after the transmission of a beam failure recovery request during a beam failure recovery procedure or after the beam failure recovery procedure or the random access procedure for beam failure recovery is completed. For example, a separate MAC CE / RRC level report may be used by the UE for the measurement report. In some embodiments, a PUSCH / PUCCH report may be used.

[0049] The solution is not limited to inter-cell multi-TRP but may also be used in other situations, e.g. in the context of carrier aggregation or conditional handover. When a beam failure is detected, the UE shall evaluate whether some given condition is met and, if so, report the corresponding event to the BS by means of a BFR report.

[0050] In one embodiment, the terminal device may be further configured to transmit a measurement report if a given condition is met, as illustrated in the conditional step 402. In another example, if the condition is not met, the UE may be configured to perform, or may decide to perform, a beam failure recovery procedure without providing a measurement report. Examples of conditions to be determined include:

[0051] - The cell quality value of the serving cell is lower than a given threshold.

[0052] - at least one time to trigger timer for reporting a mobility measurement event has been started but has not expired for at least one further cell.

[0053] - a mobility measurement reporting event has been triggered for at least one further cell but has not yet been reported.

[0054] - The terminal device is configured with at least one conditional handover candidate.

[0055] - at least one cell in the configured cell list for reporting

[0056] - A list of cells (one or more cells) is provided by the network for beam failure recovery.

[0057] - During beam failure recovery, at least one cell in the configured cell list for reporting has at least one beam (CSI-RS / SSB) or cell quality above a signal quality threshold value (such as RSRP / RSRQ / SINR threshold), where the threshold may be configured by the network.

[0058] The terminal device is configured with at least one Transmission Coordination Indicator State with quasi-co-located source reference signals listed in a pre-configured set indicated by the serving cell, so that the proposed measurements may be used when reporting specific beams (e.g. beams corresponding to high elevation angles or beams where HO occurs frequently).

[0059] - The terminal device is configured with an inter-cell multi-transmission reception point with multiple downlink control information values, which allows the network to identify a new TRP for serving as a non-serving cell in an inter-cell multi-TR scenario.

[0060] In one embodiment, the mobility measurements included in the message are so-called Level 3, L3, measurements. In one embodiment, the mobility measurements are used for mobility management of the terminal device.

[0061] In one embodiment, the reporting format and measurements may include one or more of the following:

[0062] - MAC CE: At least one or up to N synchronization signal reference signal received power, SS-RSRP, measurement result for synchronization signal block index for the serving cell and at least one further cell.

[0063] - MAC CE: cell quality of the serving cell and at least one further cell

[0064] - An RRC level event is triggered to report L3 measurements for the serving cell and at least one further cell, and the RRC level report may include cell quality values ​​and / or the RRC level report may include cell quality values ​​or individual beam quality values ​​for further cells for which the time to trigger has been initiated but not yet expired. In some examples, the measurements provided may be Layer 1, L1, RSRP values ​​(CSI-RS or SSB) or the most recent CSI-RSRP / SS-RSRP values ​​or the most recent obtained cell quality values ​​(L1 measurements or L3 filtered measurements) of at least one cell or at least one beam of at least one cell. In some examples, the measurements reported may be the most recent L1 measurement sample or L1 measurements (derived using N samples, N=1, 2, 3...) or L3 measurements (L3 filtered measurements). The L3 filtering may include averaging the measurements at the RRC layer. In some examples, the cell quality value or the quality value of at least one beam to be reported may be an L1 measurement or an L3 measurement. In yet another example, the quality value for determining whether one or more cell beams or a group beam are to be reported may be determined based on L1 or L3 measurement results.

[0065] In one embodiment, the measurement report may be periodic until a network response is received, or the measurement report may be provided N times (N=1, 2, 3, ...). In one embodiment, the measurement report may include an indication of whether a Radio Link Monitoring (RLM) out-of-sync indication for radio link failure, RLF, detection by the physical layer to higher layers is indicated. The measurement report may also include an indication of whether timer T310 or T312 for RLF detection is running in the terminal device. The measurement report may further include an indication regarding, for example, the quality of the uplink signal: the number of RACH transmissions made to send a beam failure request, or the number of missed RACH responses.

[0066] In one embodiment, the terminal device may be configured to use differential reporting when transmitting measurements, for example measurements of at least one further cell may be transmitted in association with measurement result values ​​of a cell serving the device.

[0067] In one embodiment, the serving cell quality, or the quality of at least one beam of the serving cell, is considered to be a reference value, and the quality of further cells or further cell beams may be expressed as relative values ​​with respect to this reference value with a predetermined granularity.

[0068] For example, with respect to FIG. 3, if PCI#0 and PCI#1 are the serving cell and the further cell, respectively, the terminal device may provide the cell logical index [0, 1], or PCI value, together with the differential cell / beam quality value with respect to the current serving cell: the current serving cell index is 0, the differential value is set to 0, and the cell quality value is reported relative to the serving cell's value. For example, if two bits are used, then: 00: Quality <-3 dB with respect to serving cell value; 01: for serving cell value, -3dB<quality<0dB; 10: For serving cell value, 0dB<quality<3dB; 11: Quality > 3 dB with respect to serving cell value.

[0069] In one embodiment, the terminal device may transmit measurements of the further or serving cell which has the highest quality so far and which is listed first, and may use the first listed cell quality as a reference value for other cells included in the report.

[0070] In one embodiment, the terminal device may provide only the value of the further cell as a differential value in the measurement report, the serving cell not being included as it is assumed to be a reference value.

[0071] In one embodiment, the results of cell measurements listed in the report may include an explicit index value of the cell, such as PCI. In another embodiment, the reported cells may be referenced by using a logical index value. As an example, PCI1 has a value of 1, PCI#2 has a value of 2, and PCI#3 has a value of 3. In yet one alternative example, if the UE is configured to report the results of measurements of a particular cell, information related to the cell or the results of the measurements may be listed in a sequence in a particular field (e.g., bit position), and the cell identifier may not be used. As an example, if the results of measurements of two (or more than one) cells are configured to be reported and the report format always includes the results of both (or all) cells, the format may simply include the results of the measurements in a particular sequence. The particular sequence may mean reporting the results in a particular order in the report. The sequence may be configured or determined, for example, based on an identifier that identifies the cell.

[0072] In one embodiment, the beam failure recovery request message may indicate whether the recovery request (e.g., MAC CE / RRC) includes mobility measurements for at least one additional cell in the recovery request or in a subsequent message. For example, this indication may be a one-bit indication in the MAC CE, or the MAC CE identifier may indicate that such reports may be provided by the message (or in a subsequent message).

[0073] The flow chart of Figure 4B illustrates one embodiment. The flow chart illustrates an example of the operation of the device. In one embodiment, the device may be a network element, such as a gNB / eNB, or part of a gNB / eNB.

[0074] In step 420, the network element is configured to operate a cell serving the terminal device, ie, a serving cell.

[0075] In step 422, the network element is configured to receive from the terminal device a beam failure recovery message and an associated measurement report including mobility measurement results relating to the serving cell and at least one further cell.

[0076] In step 424, the network element is configured to determine whether to handoff the terminal device to one of the at least one further cell in response to the beam failure recovery message and to the measurement report.

[0077] In one embodiment, the terminal device transmits a measurement report in response to detecting a beam failure event in a serving cell.

[0078] The flow chart of Figure 5 illustrates one embodiment. The flow chart illustrates an example of the operation of the apparatus. In one embodiment, the apparatus may be a terminal device or part of a terminal device.

[0079] It is assumed that the terminal device is sending a beam failure recovery message and mobility measurement results in conjunction with or after the recovery message.

[0080] In an optional step 500, the terminal device is configured to select the length of a time window for monitoring beam failure recovery response messages based on further cells included in the measurement results.

[0081] In any of the embodiments herein, the further cell may be referenced by using a PCI, a logical index value, or any other value that may identify the cell during reporting. Such an identifier may also be used by the network when indicating a handover to a target cell in any of the embodiments herein.

[0082] For example, consider a situation in which the terminal device reports at least one cell / PCI during beam failure recovery that is not currently configured as an inter-cell M-TRP cell or as a CHO candidate cell or is not prepared by a higher layer configuration. In such a case, the terminal device may decide to select a longer value for the time window used to monitor the response. The time window may be monitored by a retransmission timer that is started after the beam failure recovery message is transmitted. Based on the expiration of the timer, if no response is received, the UE may retransmit the recovery request. In any of the embodiments herein, the retransmitted message may include the result of the original measurement or may include the result of an updated or most recent measurement. The response window duration in this case may be a scaled value of the response window configured for serving cell beam failure recovery. For example, the duration may be 1.25x, 1.5x, longer. As an alternative, a new parameter, for example ra response window inter-cell, may be used to determine the length of the time window.

[0083] As an alternative, the response window inter-cell may be used when the terminal device is configured / decides to report inter-cell candidates as part of a beam failure recovery procedure.

[0084] One of the benefits of a longer time window value is that if the terminal device reports at least one cell that is not pre-configured by the terminal device context, the network can pre-configure the cell (for handover preparation) and can trigger a handover to the cell.

[0085] In step 502, the terminal device is configured to receive at least one response to a beam failure recovery message.

[0086] In step 504, the terminal device is configured to determine, based on at least one response to the beam failure recovery message, whether to remain connected to the serving cell or to perform a handover to another cell.

[0087] In one embodiment, the terminal device may receive more than one response to the beam failure recovery message. The responses may be transmitted from a first cell (e.g., a serving cell) and a second cell (e.g., a further cell).

[0088] In one embodiment, the response may indicate that the failed beam has been restored. In one embodiment, the response may trigger a handover to a further cell. In one embodiment, the response may trigger the terminal device to monitor for a second response from the further cell mentioned in the measurement message sent by the terminal device.

[0089] Consider the case in which a terminal device is configured with an inter-cell M-TRP with multiple DCI, e.g., there is TRP0 as the serving cell and TRP1 as a further cell resulting in PDCCH / DCI transmission, as in the situation in Fig. 3. The terminal device has detected a beam failure and transmitted a beam failure recovery message.

[0090] The terminal device receives a first response from TRP0. In one embodiment, the first response received from TRP0 may include a (re)activation of a TCI state for a PDCCH for at least one CORESET associated with TRP#1. In one embodiment, the first response may include a MAC CE indicating a handover trigger to TRP1.

[0091] The terminal device starts to monitor for a second response from TRP1 and stops monitoring the PDCCH on TRP#0.

[0092] The second response from TRP#1 may include receiving an RRC reconfiguration or trigger command to apply the stored RRC connection for the cell associated with TRP#1.

[0093] Consider another situation where inter-cell multi-TRP is applied, but MTR is not multi-DCI. When the terminal device receives a gNB response from TRP#0 for handover to a cell with inter-cell multi-TRP cell TRP#1, the terminal device is configured to trigger a contention-based random access, CBRA, determine one or more CBRA resources associated with configured PUSCH / PUCCH / PDSCH for TRP#1, and select a RACH resource having an SS-RSRP above at least one threshold value.

[0094] In one embodiment, the terminal device receives activation of pre-configured CFRA resources in the gNB response.

[0095] In one embodiment, when a terminal device initiates beam failure recovery and an associated measurement reporting method, the terminal device may be configured to delay an RRC level report for a given cell if the cell is reported during beam failure recovery.

[0096] In one embodiment, the network may configure the terminal device with respect to a candidate cell list that may be included in the measurement report, or the terminal device may be configured to include a given number of best cells in the report.

[0097] FIG. 6 illustrates one embodiment. The figure illustrates a simplified example of an apparatus for applying an embodiment of the invention. In some embodiments, the apparatus may be a terminal or part of a terminal.

[0098] It should be understood that the device is depicted herein as an example to illustrate some embodiments. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the device may also include other functions and / or structures, and not all described functions and structures are required. Although the device is depicted as one entity, the various modules and memories may be realized in one or more physical or logical entities.

[0099] The example device 304 includes control circuitry 600 configured to control at least a portion of the operation of the device.

[0100] The device may include a memory 602 for storing data. Furthermore, the memory may store software 604 executable by the control circuitry 600. The memory may be integrated within the control circuitry.

[0101] The device may include one or more interface circuitry 606. The interface circuitry is operatively connected to the control circuitry 600. The interface circuitry 606 may be a set of transceivers configured to communicate with a RAN node, such as an (e / g) Node B of a wireless communication network. The interface circuitry 606 has the capability to support multiple subscription identities. In one embodiment, the interface may support more than one of the subscription identities to be in an RRC_connected state simultaneously. The interface circuitry may be connected to an antenna configuration (not shown). The device may also include a connection to a transmitter instead of a transceiver. The device may further include a user interface.

[0102] In one embodiment, the software 604 may include a computer program including program code means configured to cause the device's control circuitry 600 to realize at least some of the embodiments described above.

[0103] As used in this application, the term "circuitry" refers to all of the following: (a) hardware-only circuit embodiments, such as embodiments in purely analog and / or digital circuitry, and (b) combinations of circuitry and software (and / or firmware) (as applicable), such as (i) a processor combination or (ii) a processor / software portion, including a digital signal processor, software, and memory that work together to cause a device to perform various functions, and (c) circuitry, such as a microprocessor or a portion of a microprocessor, that requires the software or firmware to operate even when the software or firmware is not physically present.

[0104] This definition of "circuitry" applies to all uses of the term in this application. As a further example, the term "circuitry" as used in this application will also cover merely a processor (or processors) or a portion of a processor, as well as embodiments of that processor's (or those processors') accompanying software and / or firmware. The term "circuitry" will also cover, for example, and where applicable to the individual elements, a baseband integrated circuit or an application processor integrated circuit for a mobile phone, or similar integrated circuits in a server, a cellular network device, or another network device.

[0105] One embodiment provides a computer program embodied on a distribution medium that includes program instructions that, when loaded into an electronic device, are configured to control the device to perform the embodiments described above.

[0106] The computer program may be in source code form, object code form or in any intermediate form and may be stored in any kind of carrier, which may be any entity or device capable of carrying a program. Such carriers include, for example, recording media, computer memories, read-only memories and software distribution packages. Depending on the processing power required, the computer program may be executed in a single electronic digital computer or it may be distributed among several computers.

[0107] The device may also be implemented as one or more integrated circuits, such as an application specific integrated circuit ASIC. Other hardware implementations are also possible, such as a circuit made from separate logic components. Hybrids of these different implementations are also possible. When selecting an implementation method, the skilled person will take into account, for example, the size and power consumption of the device, the required processing capacity, the production costs, and the requirements set for production volume.

[0108] In one embodiment, the apparatus includes at least one processor; and at least one memory containing computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to cause the apparatus, by the at least one processor, to: detect a beam failure event in a serving cell; in response to detecting the beam failure event: transmit a beam failure recovery message; and transmit a measurement report including mobility measurement results relating to the serving cell and at least one further cell.

[0109] In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory containing computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to cause the apparatus to: operate a cell serving a terminal device; receive from the terminal device a beam failure recovery message and an associated measurement report including mobility measurement results relating to the serving cell and at least one further cell; and determine whether to handoff the terminal device to one of the at least one further cell in response to the beam failure recovery message and to the measurement report.

[0110] It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that as technology advances, the concept of the present invention can be realized in various forms. The present invention and its embodiments are not limited to the examples described above, but may vary within the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A terminal device, comprising: Detecting a beam failure event in a serving cell; in response to detecting a beam disturbance event; Transmit a beam failure recovery message including an L3 measurement report wherein the L3 measurement report comprises L3 filtered mobility measurement results relating to a serving cell and at least one further cell, the at least one further cell comprising at least one non-serving cell; The means is further configured to transmit a beam failure recovery message including the L3 measurement report if the determined condition is satisfied, the determined condition being: at least one time-to-trigger timer for reporting an L3 mobility measurement event has been started but has not yet expired for at least one further cell; An L3 mobility measurement event has been triggered for at least one further cell but has not yet been reported A terminal device that satisfies at least one of the following criteria:

2. More cells are Inter-cell multi-transmitting receiving point cell, Neighbor Cell, A cell prepared for a conditional handover of a terminal device; and A cell prepared with a terminal device context The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the terminal device is one of:

3. The means is further configured to transmit a beam failure recovery message including the L3 measurement report if the determined condition is satisfied, the determined condition being: The terminal device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a cell quality value of a serving cell is lower than a given threshold value.

4. The means is further configured to transmit a beam failure recovery message including the L3 measurement report if the determined condition is satisfied, the determined condition being: The terminal device is configured with at least one conditional handover candidate; The terminal device is configured with at least one transmission coordination indicator state having a quasi-co-located source reference signal listed in a preconfigured set indicated by a serving cell; A terminal device is configured with an inter-cell multi-transmission reception point with a plurality of downlink control information values The terminal device according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the following is true:

5. 5. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the means is further adapted to transmit L3 filtered mobility measurement values ​​of at least one further cell in relation to the measurement values ​​of the serving cell.

6. A terminal device as described in any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the L3 filtered mobility measurement results are included in one or a combination of the following: medium access control control elements, physical uplink shared channel signaling, physical uplink control channel signaling, radio resource control messages.

7. The terminal device according to claim 1 , wherein the means is further configured to receive at least one response to the beam failure recovery message.

8. The terminal device according to claim 7, wherein the means is further configured to determine whether to remain connected to the serving cell or to perform a handover to another cell based on at least one response to the beam failure recovery message.

9. The terminal device of claim 7, wherein the means is further configured to select a window length for monitoring responses to the beam failure recovery message based on further cells included in the L3 filtered mobility measurement results.

10. A network element, comprising: operating a cell serving terminal devices; receiving a beam failure recovery message including an L3 measurement report from a terminal device, the L3 measurement report including an L3 filtered mobility measurement result related to a serving cell and at least one further cell, the at least one further cell including at least one non-serving cell, the beam failure message including the L3 measurement report being: at least one time-to-trigger timer for reporting an L3 mobility measurement event has been started for at least one further cell but has not yet expired; An L3 mobility measurement event has been triggered for at least one further cell but has not yet been reported At least one of the following is shown: determining whether to handoff the terminal device to one of the at least one further cell in response to the beam failure recovery message and to the L3 measurement report; A network element comprising:

11. 1. A method in a terminal device, comprising: Detecting a beam failure event in a serving cell; in response to detecting a beam disturbance event; transmitting a beam failure recovery message including an L3 measurement report, the L3 measurement report including L3 filtered mobility measurement results related to a serving cell and at least one further cell, the at least one further cell including at least one non-serving cell; transmitting a beam failure recovery message including an L3 measurement report if the determined condition is satisfied, the determined condition being: at least one time-to-trigger timer for reporting an L3 mobility measurement event has been started for at least one further cell but has not yet expired; An L3 mobility measurement event has been triggered for at least one further cell but has not yet been reported At least one of the following is true: A method in a terminal device comprising:

12. 1. A method in a network element, comprising: operating a cell serving a terminal device; receiving, from a terminal device, a beam failure recovery message including an L3 measurement report, the L3 measurement report including an L3 filtered mobility measurement result related to a serving cell and at least one further cell, the at least one further cell including at least one non-serving cell, the beam failure message including the L3 measurement report being: at least one time-to-trigger timer for reporting an L3 mobility measurement event has been started for at least one further cell but has not yet expired; An L3 mobility measurement event has been triggered for at least one further cell but has not yet been reported and determining whether to handoff the terminal device to one of the at least one further cell in response to the beam failure recovery message and to the L3 measurement report; A method in a network element comprising:

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