PDCCH extension for group paging

Abstract

Apparatus, system, and method for PDCCH extension for group-based paging indication. A user equipment device may be configured to receive an indication of a paging occasion from a network via a PG-RNTI and / or via a DCI of at least six bits. A value of the PG-RNTI may be associated with the paging occasion and a UE set including the UE. The UE may be configured to monitor the paging occasion based on the value of the PG-RNTI and receive the paging indication during the paging occasion via at least six bits of the DCI, where each bit of the at least six bits may indicate a paging indication for a specific UE set, which may be a subset of the UE set. The UE may also be configured to decode a corresponding PDSCH in response to determining that the UE has a paging message.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present application relates to wireless devices, and more particularly, to apparatus, systems, and methods for physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) enhancements for group-based paging indication. [Background technology]

[0002] The use of wireless communication systems is growing rapidly. In recent years, wireless devices such as smartphones and tablet computers have become increasingly sophisticated. In addition to supporting telephony functions, many mobile devices now provide Internet access, email, text messaging, and navigation using a global positioning system (GPS), and can run sophisticated applications that take advantage of these functionalities.

[0003] Long Term Evolution (LTE) has become the technology of choice for most wireless network operators worldwide, providing mobile broadband data and high-speed Internet access to their subscriber base. LTE specifies a number of downlink (DL) physical channels (classified as transport or control channels) that carry information blocks received from the Medium Access Control (MAC) and higher layers. LTE also specifies a number of physical layer channels for the uplink (UL).

[0004] For example, LTE defines the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) as a DL transport channel. The PDSCH is the primary data-bearing channel that is dynamically and opportunistically assigned to users. The PDSCH carries data in Transport Blocks (TBs) corresponding to MAC Protocol Data Units (PDUs) passed from the MAC layer to the physical (PHY) layer every Transmission Time Interval (TTI). The PDSCH is also used to transmit broadcast information such as System Information Blocks (SIBs) and paging messages.

[0005] As another example, LTE defines the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) as a DL control channel that carries resource allocations for UEs, contained in Downlink Control Information (DCI) messages. Multiple PDCCHs can be transmitted in the same subframe using nine Control Channel Elements (CCEs), each of which is a set of four resource elements known as Resource Element Groups (REGs). The PDCCH employs Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulation, with four QPSK symbols mapped to each REG. Furthermore, to ensure sufficient robustness, one, two, four, or eight CCEs can be used for a UE, depending on the channel conditions.

[0006] In addition, LTE defines the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) as an UL channel shared by all devices (User Equipment, UE) in a radio cell to transmit user data to the network. Scheduling for all UEs is under the control of the LTE base station (Enhanced Node B, or eNB). The eNB uses an uplink scheduling grant (DCI format 0) to inform the UE about the resource block (RB) allocation, modulation and coding scheme to be used. PUSCH typically supports QPSK and Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). In addition to user data, PUSCH also carries any control information required for decoding information such as transport format indicators and Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) parameters. The control data is multiplexed with the information data before digital Fourier transform (DFT) unfolding.

[0007] The proposed next generation telecommunications standard beyond the current International Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced (IMT-Advanced) standard is referred to as the fifth generation mobile network or fifth generation radio system, or 5G for short (also known as 5G-NR for 5G New Radio, or simply NR). 5G-NR provides higher capacity to accommodate a higher density of mobile broadband users compared to the current LTE standard, and also supports ultra-reliable and high-volume machine-to-machine communication between devices, as well as low latency and low battery consumption. Additionally, the 5G-NR standard may allow for more restrictive UE scheduling compared to the current LTE standard. As a result, efforts are underway to develop 5G-NR to take advantage of the higher throughput possible at higher frequencies. Summary of the Invention

[0008] For example, disclosed are embodiments relating to apparatus, systems, and methods for physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) enhancement for group-based paging indication that reduces the probability that a wireless device unnecessarily decodes a physical downlink shared channel for paging by reducing the number of wireless devices monitoring paging occasions.

[0009] In some embodiments, a wireless device, such as, for example, a user equipment device (UE), may be configured to receive a group indication from a network via at least six bits of a downlink control index (DCI). In some embodiments, each bit of the at least six bits indicates a paging indication for a particular set of UEs. The UE may be configured to determine whether the UE has a paging message based on the group indication, and in response to determining that the UE has a paging message, decode a corresponding physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

[0010] In some embodiments, the UE may be configured to receive a group indication from the network via a paging radio network temporary identifier (PG-RNTI). In some embodiments, a value of the PG-RNTI may be associated with a paging occasion, and the value of the PG-RNTI may be associated with a set of devices that includes the UE. The UE may be configured to determine whether the UE has a paging message based on the value of the PG-RNTI, and in response to determining that the UE has a paging message, decode a corresponding PDSCH.

[0011] In some embodiments, the UE may be configured to receive a paging occasion indication from the network via the PG-RNTI. In some embodiments, a value of the PG-RNTI may be associated with a paging occasion, and the value of the PG-RNTI may be associated with a UE set that includes the UE. The UE may be configured to monitor the paging occasion based on the value of the PG-RNTI and to receive a paging indication during the paging occasion via at least six bits of the DCI. In some embodiments, each bit of the at least six bits may indicate a paging indication for a particular UE set, and the particular UE set may be a subset of the UE set. The UE may also be configured to decode a corresponding PDSCH in response to determining that the UE has a paging message.

[0012] The techniques described herein may be implemented in and / or used on a number of different types of devices, including, but not limited to, cellular telephones, tablet computers, wearable computing devices, portable media players, and a variety of other computing devices.

[0013] This Summary is intended to provide an overview of some of the subject matter described in this document. It should therefore be understood that the features described above are merely examples and should not be construed as narrowing the scope and spirit of the subject matter described herein. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the subject matter described herein will become apparent from the following detailed description, figures, and claims.

[0014] A better understanding of the present subject matter can be obtained from the following detailed description of various embodiments when considered in conjunction with the following drawings. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0015] [Figure 1A] 1 illustrates an exemplary wireless communication system according to some embodiments. [Figure 1B] 1 illustrates an example of a base station (BS) and an access point in communication with a user equipment (UE) device, according to some embodiments. [Diagram 2] 1 shows an exemplary simplified block diagram of a WLAN access point (AP) according to some embodiments. [Diagram 3] 1 illustrates an example block diagram of a UE according to some embodiments. [Figure 4] 1 illustrates an example block diagram of a BS according to some embodiments. [Diagram 5] 1 illustrates an example block diagram of a cellular communication circuit according to some embodiments. [Figure 6A] An example of a connection between an EPC network, an LTE base station (eNB), and a 5G NR base station (gNB) is shown. [Figure 6B] 1 illustrates an embodiment of a protocol stack for an eNB and a gNB. [Figure 7A] 1 illustrates an example of a 5G network architecture incorporating both 3GPP (e.g., cellular) and non-3GPP (e.g., non-cellular) access to a 5G CN, according to some embodiments. [Figure 7B] 1 illustrates an example of a 5G network architecture incorporating both dual 3GPP (e.g., LTE and 5G NR) access and non-3GPP access to a 5G CN, according to some embodiments. [Figure 8] 1 illustrates an example of a baseband processor architecture for a UE according to some embodiments. [Figure 9] 1 shows an example of a paging frame that occurs in a DRX paging cycle. [Figure 10] Illustrates examples of paging occasions occurring in paging frames. [Figure 11] 1 illustrates an example of group indication using unused bit fields of DCI1_0 according to some embodiments. [Figure 12]1 illustrates an example of using a PG-RNTI to support paging different UE groups for UEs monitoring paging occasions, according to some embodiments. [Figure 13A] 1 illustrates an example of a PG-RNTI indicating a PDSCH according to some embodiments. [Figure 13B] 1 illustrates an example of a PG-RNTI indicating a PDSCH according to some embodiments. [Figure 14] 4 illustrates an example of UE power consumption for PDCCH blind decoding and PDSCH decoding as a function of group size according to some embodiments. [Figure 15] 1 illustrates a block diagram of an example method for group-based paging indication according to some embodiments. [Figure 16] 1 illustrates a block diagram of an example method for group-based paging indication according to some embodiments. [Figure 17] 1 shows a block diagram of an example method for group-based paging indication, according to some embodiments. While the features described herein are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and are described in detail herein. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description of the specific embodiments are not intended to be limited to the particular forms disclosed, but rather to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives within the spirit and scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0016] term

[0017] Below is a glossary of terms used in this disclosure.

[0018] Storage medium - various non-transitory memory or storage devices. The term "storage medium" is intended to include, for example, installation media such as CD-ROM, floppy disk or tape devices, computer system memory or random access memory such as DRAM, DDR RAM, SRAM, EDO RAM, Rambus RAM, non-volatile memory such as flash, magnetic media, e.g. hard drives, or optical storage devices, registers, or other similar types of memory elements. Storage medium may also include other types of non-transitory memory, and combinations thereof. In addition, the storage medium may be located in a first computer system where a program is executed, or in a second, different computer system that connects to the first computer system through a network such as the Internet. In the latter case, the second computer system can provide the program instructions to the first computer for execution. The term "storage medium" may include two or more storage media that may be in different locations, for example, in different computer systems connected through a network. The storage medium may store program instructions (e.g., embodied as a computer program) that are executable by one or more processors.

[0019] Carrier Medium - storage media as described above, as well as physical transmission media such as a bus, network, and / or other physical transmission medium that carries signals, such as electrical, electromagnetic, or digital signals.

[0020] Programmable Hardware Element - includes various hardware devices with multiple programmable function blocks connected via programmable interconnects. Examples include Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), Field Programmable Object Arrays (FPOAs), and Complex PLDs (CPLDs). Programmable function blocks can range from fine-grained (combinational logic or look-up tables) to coarse-grained (arithmetic logic units or processor cores). Programmable hardware elements are also sometimes referred to as "reconfigurable logic."

[0021] Computer System - any of a variety of computing or processing systems, including a personal computer system (PC), a mainframe computer system, a workstation, a network appliance, an Internet appliance, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a television system, a grid computing system, or any other device or combination of devices. In general, the term "computer system" may be broadly defined to encompass any device (or combination of devices) having at least one processor that executes instructions from a storage medium.

[0022] User Equipment (UE) (or "UE device") - any type of computer system device that is mobile or handheld and performs wireless communication. Examples of UE devices include mobile phones or smartphones (e.g., iPhone™, Android™ based phones), portable gaming devices (e.g., Nintendo DS™, PlayStation Portable™, Gameboy Advance™, iPhone™), laptops, wearable devices (e.g., smart watches, smart glasses), PDAs, portable Internet devices, music players, data storage devices, or other handheld devices. In general, the term "UE" or "UE device" may be broadly defined to encompass any electronic, computing, and / or telecommunication device (or combination of devices) that is easily carried by a user and capable of wireless communication.

[0023] Base Station - The term "base station" has the full scope of its ordinary meaning and includes at least a wireless communication station that is installed at a fixed location and used to communicate as part of a wireless telephone or wireless system.

[0024] Processing Element - refers to various elements or combinations of elements capable of performing functions within a device such as a user equipment or cellular network device. A processing element may include, for example, a processor and associated memory, a portion or circuitry of an individual processor core, an entire processor core, a processor array, a circuit such as an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), a programmable hardware element such as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), and various combinations of any of the above.

[0025] Channel - a medium used to convey information from a sender (transmitter) to a receiver. Note that since the characteristics of the term "channel" may differ according to different wireless protocols, as used herein, the term "channel" is considered to be used to match the standard of the type of device with which the term is used in association. In some standards, the channel width may be variable (e.g., depending on device capabilities, band conditions, etc.). For example, LTE can support scalable channel bandwidths from 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz. In contrast, a WLAN channel may have a 22 MHz width and a Bluetooth channel may have a 1 Mhz width. Other protocols and standards may include different channel definitions. Additionally, some standards may define and use multiple types of channels, e.g., different channels for uplink or downlink, and / or different channels for different uses such as data, control information, etc.

[0026] Band - The term "band" has the full scope of the ordinary meaning of band and includes at least that portion of the spectrum (eg, the radio frequency spectrum) that a channel uses or is reserved for the same purpose.

[0027] Automatically - refers to an action or operation performed by a computer system (e.g., software executed by a computer system) or device (e.g., a circuit, a programmable hardware element, an ASIC, etc.) without user input directly specifying or executing the action or operation. Thus, the term "automatically" is in contrast to an operation that is manually performed or specified by a user, where the user provides input to directly perform the operation. An automatic procedure may be initiated by user-provided input, but the subsequent actions that are performed "automatically" are not specified by the user, i.e., are not performed "manually" where the user specifies each action to be performed. For example, a user filling out an electronic form by selecting each field and providing input specifying information (e.g., by typing information, selecting checkboxes, selecting radio buttons, etc.) is manually filling out the form, even though the computer system must update the form in response to the user actions. A form may also be filled out automatically by a computer system, where the computer system (e.g., software executed on the computer system) analyzes the form's fields and fills out the form without any user input specifying answers for those fields. As mentioned above, a user can invoke automatic filling of a form, but is not involved in the actual filling of the form (e.g., the user does not manually specify answers for fields, but rather, they are completed automatically). This specification provides examples of various actions that are automatically performed in response to actions taken by the user.

[0028] Approximately - Refers to a value that is nearly correct or exact. For example, approximately can refer to a value that is within 1-10 percent of a precise (or desired) value. Note, however, that the actual threshold (or tolerance) may depend on the application. For example, in some embodiments, "approximately" may mean within 0.1% of some specified or desired value, while in various other embodiments the threshold may be, for example, 2%, 3%, 5%, etc., as desired or required by the particular application.

[0029] Concurrent - refers to parallel execution or performance, where tasks, processes, or programs execute in an at least partially overlapping manner. For example, concurrent may be implemented using "strong parallelism" or strict parallelism, where tasks are executed (at least partially) in parallel on respective computing elements, or using "weak parallelism", where tasks are executed in an interleaved manner, e.g., by time division multiplexing of execution threads.

[0030] Various components may be described as being "configured to" perform a task or tasks. In such contexts, "configured to" is a broad description that generally means "having the structure" to perform a task or tasks during operation. Thus, a component may be configured to perform a task even when the component is not currently performing the task (e.g., a set of electrical conductors may be configured to electrically connect a module to another module even when the two modules are not connected). In some contexts, "configured to" may be a broad description that generally means "having circuitry" to perform a task or tasks during operation. Thus, a component may be configured to perform a task even when it is not currently on. In general, the circuitry that forms the structure corresponding to "configured to" may include hardware circuitry.

[0031] In the description herein, for convenience, various components may be described as performing a task or tasks. Such descriptions should be construed to include the phrase "configured to." It is expressly intended that the description of a component as configured to perform one or more tasks does not invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) interpretation of that component. FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B - Communication System

[0032] 1A illustrates a simplified exemplary wireless communication system according to some embodiments. It should be noted that the system of FIG. 1 is merely one example of a possible system and that features of the present disclosure may be implemented in a variety of systems, as desired.

[0033] As shown in the figure, the wireless communication system includes a base station 102A that communicates over a transmission medium with one or more user devices 106A, 106B-106N. Each of the user devices may be referred to herein as "User Equipment" (UE). Accordingly, the user devices 106 may be referred to as UEs or UE devices.

[0034] The base station (BS) 102A may be a base transceiver station (BTS) or a cell site (cellular base station) and may include hardware that enables wireless communication with the UEs 106A-106N.

[0035] The communication area (or coverage area) of a base station may be referred to as a "cell." The base station 102A and the UE 106 may be configured to communicate over a transmission medium using various radio access technologies (RATs), also referred to as wireless communication technologies or telecommunication standards, such as GSM, UMTS (e.g., associated with a WCDMA or TD-SCDMA air interface), LTE, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), 5G New Radio (5G NR), HSPA, 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), etc. It should be noted that if the base station 102A is implemented in the context of LTE, it may be referred to instead as an "eNodeB" or "eNB." It should be noted that if the base station 102A is implemented in the context of 5G NR, it may be referred to instead as a "gNodeB" or "gNB."

[0036] As shown, the base station 102A may also be capable of communicating with a network 100 (e.g., a telecommunications network such as a cellular service provider's core network, a public switched telephone network (PSTN), and / or the Internet, among other possibilities). Thus, the base station 102A may facilitate communications between user devices and / or between the user devices and the network 100. In particular, the cellular base station 102A may provide various telecommunications capabilities to the UE 106, such as voice, SMS, and / or data services.

[0037] Thus, base station 102A, and other similar base stations (such as base stations 102B-102N) operating according to the same or different cellular communication standards, may be provided as a network of cells that can provide continuous or near-continuous overlapping services to UEs 106A-106N and similar devices over a geographic area via one or more cellular communication standards.

[0038] Thus, as shown in FIG. 1, base station 102A may function as a "serving cell" for UEs 106A-106N, and each UE 106 may also receive signals from (possibly within range of) one or more other cells, which may be referred to as "neighboring cells" (which may be provided by base stations 102B-102N and / or any other base stations). Such cells may also facilitate communication between user devices and / or between user devices and network 100. Such cells may include "macro" cells, "micro" cells, "pico" cells, and / or cells providing various other granularities of service area size. For example, base stations 102A and 102B illustrated in FIG. 1 may be macro cells, while base station 102N may be a micro cell. Other configurations are possible.

[0039] In some embodiments, the base station 102A may be a next generation base station, such as a 5G New Radio (5G NR) base station (i.e., "gNB"). In some embodiments, the gNB may be connected to a conventional Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network and / or to an NR Core (NRC) network. In addition, a gNB cell may include one or more Transition and Reception Points (TRPs). In addition, a UE capable of operating according to 5G NR may be connected to one or more TRPs in one or more gNBs.

[0040] It should be noted that the UE 106 may have the capability of communicating using multiple wireless communication standards. For example, the UE 106 may be configured to communicate using at least one cellular communication protocol (e.g., GSM, UMTS (e.g., associated with a WCDMA or TD-SCDMA air interface), LTE, LTE-A, 5G NR, HSPA, 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), etc.) in addition to wireless networking (e.g., Wi-Fi) and / or peer-to-peer wireless communication protocols (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi peer-to-peer, etc.). The UE 106 may also or instead be configured to communicate using one or more Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS, e.g., GPS or GLONASS), one or more mobile television broadcast standards (e.g., ATSC-M / H or DVB-H), and / or any other wireless communication protocols, as appropriate. Other combinations of wireless communication standards (including more than two wireless communication standards) are also possible.

[0041] 1B illustrates a user equipment 106 (e.g., one of devices 106A-106N) in communication with a base station 102 and an access point 112, according to some embodiments. The UE 106 may be a device with both cellular and non-cellular communication capabilities (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc.), such as a mobile phone, a handheld device, a computer or tablet, or virtually any type of wireless device.

[0042] The UE 106 may include a processor configured to execute program instructions stored in memory. The UE 106 may perform the method embodiments described herein by executing such stored instructions. Alternatively, or in addition, the UE 106 may include a programmable hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), configured to perform the method embodiments described herein, or any portion of the method embodiments described herein.

[0043] The UE 106 may include one or more antennas for communicating using one or more wireless communication protocols or technologies. In some embodiments, the UE 106 may be configured to communicate using, for example, CDMA2000 (1xRTT / 1xEV-DO / HRPD / eHRPD), LTE / LTE-Advanced, or 5G NR using a single shared radio, and / or GSM, LTE / LTE-Advanced, or 5G NR using the single shared radio. The shared radio may be coupled to a single antenna or may be coupled to multiple antennas (e.g., in the case of MIMO) to perform wireless communication. In general, a radio may include any combination of a baseband processor, analog RF signal processing circuitry (e.g., including filters, mixers, oscillators, amplifiers, etc.), or digital processing circuitry (e.g., for digital modulation and other digital processing). Similarly, the radio may implement one or more receive and transmit chains using the hardware described above. For example, the UE 106 may share one or more portions of the receive and / or transmit chains between multiple wireless communication technologies, such as those described above.

[0044] In some embodiments, the UE 106 may include a separate transmit and / or receive chain (e.g., including separate antennas and other radio components) for each wireless communication protocol it is configured to communicate with. As a further possibility, the UE 106 may include one or more radios shared among multiple wireless communication protocols and one or more radios used exclusively by a single wireless communication protocol. For example, the UE 106 may include a shared radio for communicating using either LTE or 5G NR (or LTE or 1xRTT or LTE or GSM) and a separate radio for communicating using each of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Other configurations are possible. Figure 2 - Access Point Block Diagram

[0045] 2 illustrates an example block diagram of an access point (AP) 112. It should be noted that the AP block diagram of FIG. 2 is merely one example of a possible system. As shown, the AP 112 may include a processor(s) 204 that may execute program instructions for the AP 112. The processor(s) 204 may also be coupled (directly or indirectly) to a memory management unit (MMU) 240 that may be configured to receive addresses from the processor(s) 204 and translate those addresses to memory (e.g., memory 260 and read-only memory (ROM) 250) locations or other circuits or devices.

[0046] The AP 112 may include at least one network port 270. The network port 270 may be configured to couple to a wired network and provide access to the Internet to multiple devices, such as the UE 106. For example, the network port 270 (or additional network ports) may be configured to couple to a local network, such as a home network or an enterprise network. For example, the port 270 may be an Ethernet port. The local network may provide connectivity to additional networks, such as the Internet.

[0047] The AP 112 may be configured to operate as a wireless transceiver and may include at least one antenna 234 that may be further configured to communicate with the UE 106 via a wireless communication circuit 230. The antenna 234 communicates with the wireless communication circuit 230 via a communication chain 232. The communication chain 232 may include one or more receive chains, one or more transmit chains, or both. The wireless communication circuit 230 may be configured to communicate via 802.11 Wi-Fi or WLAN, for example. The wireless communication circuit 230 may also, or instead, be configured to communicate via various other wireless communication technologies, including, but not limited to, 5G NR, Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), Global System for Mobile (GSM), Broadband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), CDMA2000, etc., for example, when the AP is co-located with a base station in the case of a small cell, or in other examples where it may be desirable for the AP 112 to communicate via a variety of different wireless communication technologies.

[0048] In some embodiments, as described further below, the AP 112 may be configured to perform a method of PDCCH enhancement for group-based paging indication, e.g., as described further herein. Figure 3 - UE block diagram

[0049] FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary simplified block diagram of a communication device 106, according to some embodiments. It should be noted that the communication device block diagram of FIG. 3 is merely one example of a possible communication device. According to an embodiment, the communication device 106 may be a user equipment (UE) device, a mobile device or station, a wireless device or station, a desktop computer or computing device, a mobile computing device (e.g., a laptop, notebook, or portable computing device), a tablet, and / or a combination of devices, among other devices. As shown in the figure, the communication device 106 may include a set of components 300 configured to perform a core function. For example, the set of components may be implemented as a System On Chip (SOC) that may include portions for various purposes. Alternatively, the set of components 300 may be implemented as separate components or groups of components for various purposes. The set of components 300 may be communicatively coupled (e.g., communicatively, directly or indirectly) to various other circuits of the communication device 106.

[0050] For example, communication device 106 may include various types of memory (including, for example, NAND flash 310), input / output interfaces such as connector I / F 320 (e.g., for connecting to a computer system, a dock, a charging station, input devices such as a microphone, camera, keyboard, output devices such as speakers, etc.), a display 360 that may be integrated with communication device 106 or may be external, and cellular communication circuitry 330 such as 5G NR, LTE, GSM, etc., and near / mid-range wireless communication circuitry 329 (e.g., Bluetooth and WLAN circuitry). In some embodiments, communication device 106 may include wired communication circuitry (not shown), such as a network interface card for Ethernet.

[0051] The cellular communication circuitry 330 may be communicatively coupled (e.g., communicatively, directly or indirectly) to one or more antennas, such as antennas 335 and 336, as shown. The near / mid-range wireless communication circuitry 329 may also be communicatively coupled (e.g., communicatively, directly or indirectly) to one or more antennas, such as antennas 337 and 338, as shown. Alternatively, the near / mid-range wireless communication circuitry 329 may be communicatively coupled (e.g., communicatively, directly or indirectly) to antennas 335 and 336 in addition to or instead of being communicatively coupled (e.g., communicatively, directly or indirectly) to antennas 337 and 338. The near / mid-range wireless communication circuitry 329 and / or the cellular communication circuitry 330 may include multiple receive chains and / or multiple transmit chains for receiving and / or transmitting multiple spatial streams in a Multiple-Input Multiple Output (MIMO) configuration, for example.

[0052] In some embodiments, as described further below, the cellular communication circuitry 330 may include dedicated receive chains (e.g., a first receive chain for LTE and a second receive chain for 5G NR) for multiple RATs (including dedicated processors and / or radios and / or communicatively coupled, e.g., directly or indirectly, to dedicated processors and / or radios). In addition, in some embodiments, the cellular communication circuitry 330 may include a single transmit chain that may be switched between radios dedicated to a particular RAT. For example, a first radio may be dedicated to a first RAT (e.g., LTE) and may communicate with a dedicated receive chain and a shared transmit chain with an additional radio, e.g., a second radio that is dedicated to a second RAT (e.g., 5G NR). The second radio may also communicate with a dedicated receive chain and a shared transmit chain.

[0053] The communication device 106 may also include and / or be configured for use with one or more user interface elements, which may include various elements such as a display 360 (which may be a touchscreen display), a keyboard (which may be a separate keyboard or may be implemented as part of the touchscreen display), a mouse, a microphone and / or speakers, one or more cameras, one or more buttons, and / or various other elements that can provide information to a user and / or receive or interpret user input.

[0054] The communication device 106 may further include one or more smart cards 345 that include Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) functionality, such as one or more Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) cards 345 .

[0055] As shown, the SOC 300 may include a processor(s) 302 capable of executing program instructions for the communication device 106, and a display circuit 304 capable of performing graphic processing and providing display signals to a display 360. The processor(s) 302 may be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 340, which may be configured to receive addresses from the processor(s) 302 and translate those addresses to memory (e.g., memory 306, read only memory (ROM) 350, NAND flash memory 310) locations and / or other circuits or devices, such as the display circuit 304, near / mid-range wireless communication circuit 329, cellular communication circuit 330, connector I / F 320, and / or display 360. The MMU 340 may be configured to perform memory protection and page table translation or setup. In some embodiments, the MMU 340 may be included as part of the processor(s) 302.

[0056] As mentioned above, the communication device 106 may be configured to communicate using wireless and / or wired communication circuitry. The communication device 106 may be configured to perform a method of PDCCH enhancement for group-based paging indication, as further described herein.

[0057] As described herein, the communication device 106 may include hardware and software components that implement the aforementioned features to cause the communication device 106 to communicate with the network in a power-saving scheduling profile. The processor 302 of the communication device 106 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored in a storage medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium). Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 302 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array FPGA, or as an application specific integrated circuit ASIC. Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 302 of the communication device 106 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein together with one or more of the other components 300, 304, 306, 310, 320, 329, 330, 340, 345, 350, 360.

[0058] Additionally, as described herein, the processor 302 may include one or more processing elements. Thus, the processor 302 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of the processor 302. Additionally, each integrated circuit may include a circuit (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the processor(s) 302.

[0059] Further, as described herein, the cellular communication circuit 330 and the near / mid-range wireless communication circuit 329 may each include one or more processing elements. In other words, the cellular communication circuit 330 may include one or more processing elements, and similarly, one or more processing elements may be included in the near / mid-range wireless communication circuit 329. Thus, the cellular communication circuit 330 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of the cellular communication circuit 330. In addition, each integrated circuit may include a circuit (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the cellular communication circuit 330. Similarly, the near / mid-range wireless communication circuit 329 may include one or more ICs configured to perform the functions of the near / mid-range wireless communication circuit 329. In addition, each integrated circuit may include a circuit (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the near / mid-range wireless communication circuit 329. Figure 4 - Base station block diagram

[0060] FIG. 4 illustrates an example block diagram of a base station 102, according to some embodiments. It should be noted that the base station of FIG. 4 is merely one example of a possible base station. As shown, the base station 102 may include a processor(s) 404 that may execute program instructions for the base station 102. The processor(s) 404 may also be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 440 that may be configured to receive addresses from the processor(s) 404 and translate those addresses to memory (e.g., memory 460 and read-only memory (ROM) 450) locations or other circuits or devices.

[0061] The base station 102 may include at least one network port 470. The network port 470 may be configured to couple to a telephone network and provide multiple devices, such as the UE device 106, access to the telephone network, as described in Figures 1 and 2.

[0062] Network port 470 (or additional network ports) may also or alternatively be configured to couple to a cellular network, for example, a cellular service provider's core network. The core network may provide mobility-related services and / or other services to multiple devices, such as UE device 106. In some cases, the network port 470 may be coupled to a telephone network through the core network and / or the core network may provide telephone communication (e.g., between other UE devices serviced by a cellular service provider).

[0063] In some embodiments, the base station 102 may be a next generation base station, such as a 5G New Radio (5G NR) base station (i.e., "gNB"). In such embodiments, the base station 102 may be connected to a conventional Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network and / or to an NR Core (NRC) network. In addition, the base station 102 may be considered a 5G NR cell and may include one or more Transition and Reception Points (TRPs). In addition, a UE capable of operating according to 5G NR may be connected to one or more TRPs in one or more gNBs.

[0064] The base station 102 may include at least one antenna 434, and possibly multiple antennas. The at least one antenna 434 may be configured to operate as a wireless transceiver and may be further configured to communicate with the UE device 106 via the radio 430. The antenna 434 communicates with the radio 430 via a communication chain 432. The communication chain 432 may be a receive chain, a transmit chain, or both. The radio 430 may be configured to communicate via various wireless communication standards, including, but not limited to, 5G NR, LTE, LTE-A, GSM, UMTS, CDMA2000, Wi-Fi, etc.

[0065] The base station 102 may be configured to communicate wirelessly using multiple wireless communication standards. In some cases, the base station 102 may include multiple radios that may enable the base station 102 to communicate according to multiple wireless communication technologies. For example, in one possibility, the base station 102 may include an LTE radio for performing communications according to LTE and a 5G NR radio for communicating according to 5G NR. In such a case, the base station 102 may operate as both an LTE base station and a 5G NR base station. In another possibility, the base station 102 may include a multimode radio that may communicate according to multiple wireless communication technologies (e.g., 5G NR and Wi-Fi, LTE and Wi-Fi, LTE and UMTS, LTE and CDMA2000, UMTS and GSM, etc.).

[0066] As further described herein, the BS 102 may comprise hardware and software components for implementing or supporting the implementation of features described herein. The processor 404 of the base station 102 may be configured to implement or support some or all of the methods described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored in a storage medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium). Alternatively, the processor 404 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA (field programmable gate array), or as an ASIC (application specific integrated circuit), or as a combination thereof. Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 404 of the BS 102 may be configured to implement or support some or all of the features described herein together with one or more of the other components 430, 432, 434, 440, 450, 460, 470.

[0067] Additionally, as described herein, the processor(s) 404 may include one or more processing elements. In other words, one or more processing elements may be included in the processor(s) 404. Thus, the processor(s) 404 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of the processor(s) 404. Additionally, each integrated circuit may include a circuit (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the processor(s) 404.

[0068] Further, as described herein, the radio 430 may include one or more processing elements. In other words, the radio 430 may include one or more processing elements. Thus, the radio 430 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of the radio 430. In addition, each integrated circuit may include a circuit (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the radio 430. Figure 5: Block diagram of a cellular communication circuit

[0069] FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary simplified block diagram of cellular communication circuitry, according to some embodiments. It should be noted that the block diagram of the cellular communication circuitry in FIG. 5 is merely one example of possible cellular communication circuitry. According to an embodiment, the cellular communication circuitry 330 may be included in a communication device, such as the communication device 106 described above. As noted above, the communication device 106 may be a user equipment (UE) device, a mobile device or station, a wireless device or station, a desktop computer or computing device, a mobile computing device (e.g., a laptop, notebook, or portable computing device), a tablet, and / or a combination of devices, among other devices.

[0070] The cellular communication circuitry 330 may be (e.g., communicatively coupled, directly or indirectly) to one or more antennas, such as antennas 335a-b and 336 (as shown in FIG. 3). In some embodiments, the cellular communication circuitry 330 may include dedicated receive chains (e.g., a first receive chain for LTE and a second receive chain for 5G NR) for multiple RATs (including and / or communicatively coupled, e.g., directly or indirectly, to dedicated processors and / or radios). For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the cellular communication circuitry 330 may include a modem 510 and a modem 520. The modem 510 may be configured to communicate according to a first RAT, such as LTE or LTE-A, and the modem 520 may be configured to communicate according to a second RAT, such as 5G NR.

[0071] As shown, the modem 510 may include one or more processors 512 and memory 516 in communication with the processor 512. The modem 510 may be in communication with a Radio Frequency (RF) front end 530. The RF front end 530 may include circuitry for transmitting and receiving wireless signals. For example, the RF front end 530 may include receive circuitry (RX) 532 and transmit circuitry (TX) 534. In some embodiments, the receive circuitry 532 may be in communication with a downlink (DL) front end 550, which may include circuitry for receiving wireless signals via an antenna 335a.

[0072] Similarly, the modem 520 may include one or more processors 522 and a memory 526 in communication with the processor 522. The modem 520 may be in communication with an RF front end 540. The RF front end 540 may include circuitry for transmitting and receiving wireless signals. For example, the RF front end 540 may include receive circuitry 542 and transmit circuitry 544. In some embodiments, the receive circuitry 542 may be in communication with a DL front end 560, which may include circuitry for receiving wireless signals via the antenna 335b.

[0073] In some embodiments, the switch 570 may couple the transmit circuitry 534 to an uplink (UL) front end 572. Additionally, the switch 570 may couple the transmit circuitry 544 to the UL front end 572, which may include circuitry for transmitting wireless signals via the antenna 336. Thus, when the cellular communication circuitry 330 receives an instruction to transmit according to a first RAT (e.g., as supported via the modem 510), the switch 570 may be switched to a first state that enables the modem 510 to transmit signals according to the first RAT (e.g., via a transmit chain that includes the transmit circuitry 534 and the UL front end 572). Similarly, when the cellular communication circuitry 330 receives an instruction to transmit according to a second RAT (e.g., as supported via the modem 520), the switch 570 may be switched to a second state that enables the modem 520 to transmit signals according to the second RAT (e.g., via a transmit chain that includes the transmit circuitry 544 and the UL front end 572).

[0074] In some embodiments, the cellular communication circuitry 330 may be configured to perform a method of PDCCH enhancement for group-based paging indication, as described further herein.

[0075] As described herein, the modem 510 may include hardware and software components for performing the above functions or for time division multiplexing UL data for NSA NR operation, as well as various other techniques described herein. The processor 512 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored in a storage medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium). Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 512 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array FPGA, or as an application specific integrated circuit ASIC. Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 512 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein in conjunction with one or more of the other components 530, 532, 534, 550, 570, 572, 335, and 336.

[0076] In addition, as described herein, the processor 512 may include one or more processing elements. Thus, the processor 512 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of the processor 512. In addition, each integrated circuit may include a circuit (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the processor 512.

[0077] As described herein, the modem 520 may include hardware and software components implementing the aforementioned features, as well as various other techniques described herein, to communicate with the network in a power-saving scheduling profile. The processor 522 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored in a storage medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium). Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 522 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array FPGA, or as an application specific integrated circuit ASIC. Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 522 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein in conjunction with one or more of the other components 540, 542, 544, 550, 570, 572, 335, and 336.

[0078] In addition, as described herein, processor 522 may include one or more processing elements. Thus, processor 522 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of processor 522. In addition, each integrated circuit may include circuitry (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of processor 522. 5G NR Architecture with LTE

[0079] In some implementations, fifth generation (5G) wireless communication is initially deployed simultaneously with the current wireless communication standard (e.g., LTE). For example, dual connectivity between LTE and 5G New Wireless (5G NR or NR) is specified as part of the initial deployment of NR. Thus, as shown in FIG. 6A-B, an evolved packet core (EPC) network 600 can continue to communicate with a current LTE base station (e.g., eNB 602). In addition, eNB 602 can communicate with a 5G NR base station (e.g., gNB 604) and can pass data between EPC network 600 and gNB 604. Thus, EPC network 600 can be used (or reused), and gNB 604 can serve as additional capabilities for the UE (e.g., providing increased downlink throughput to the UE). In other words, LTE can be used for control plane signaling, and NR can be used for user plane signaling. Thus, a connection to the network can be established using LTE, and NR can be used for data services.

[0080] 6B illustrates a proposed protocol stack for the eNB 602 and the gNB 604. As shown, the eNB 602 may include a medium access control (MAC) layer 632 that interfaces with radio link control (RLC) layers 622a-b. The RLC layer 622a may interface with a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer 612a, and the RLC layer 622b may interface with a PDCP layer 612b. Similar to dual connectivity as specified in LTE-Advanced Release 12, the PDCP layer 612a may interface with the EPC network 600 via a master cell group (MCG) bearer, and the PDCP layer 612b may interface with the EPC network 600 via a split bearer.

[0081] Additionally, as shown, the gNB 604 may include a MAC layer 634 that interfaces with the RLC layers 624a-b. The RLC layer 624a may interface with the PDCP layer 612b of the eNB 602 via an X2 interface for information exchange and / or coordination (e.g., UE scheduling) between the eNB 602 and the gNB 604. Additionally, the RLC layer 624b may interface with the PDCP layer 614. Similar to dual connectivity as specified in LTE-Advanced Release 12, the PDCP layer 614 may interface with the EPC network 600 via a secondary cell group (SCG) bearer. Thus, the eNB 602 may be considered a master node (MeNB) and the gNB 604 may be considered a secondary node (SgNB). In some scenarios, a UE may be required to maintain connections to both the MeNB and the SgNB. In such a scenario, the MeNB may be used to maintain a radio resource control (RRC) connection to the EPC, and the SgNB may be used for capabilities (e.g., additional downlink and / or uplink throughput). 5G Core Network Architecture-Interworking with Wi-Fi

[0082] In some embodiments, the 5G Core Network (CN) may be accessed via (or through) a cellular connection / interface (e.g., via a 3GPP communication architecture / protocol) and via (or through) a non-cellular connection / interface (e.g., a non-3GPP access architecture / protocol, such as a Wi-Fi connection). FIG. 7A illustrates an example 5G network architecture incorporating both 3GPP (e.g., cellular) and non-3GPP (e.g., non-cellular) access to the 5G CN, according to some embodiments. As shown in the figure, a user equipment device (e.g., such as a UE 106) may access the 5G CN through both a radio access network (e.g., a RAN, such as a gNB or base station 604) and an access point, such as an AP 112. The AP 112 may include a connection to the Internet 700 as well as a connection to a Non-3GPP Interworking Function (N3IWF) 702 network entity. The N3IWF may include a connection to the 5G CN's Core Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 704. The AMF 704 may include an instance of a 5G Mobility Management (5G MM) function associated with the UE 106. In addition, the RAN (e.g., gNB 604) may also have a connection to the AMF 704. Thus, the 5G CN may also support integrated authentication for both connections and enable simultaneous registration of the UE 106 access via both the gNB 604 and the AP 112. As shown in the figure, the AMF 704 may include one or more functional entities associated with the 5G CN (e.g., a Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF) 720, a Short Message Service Function (SMSF) 722, an Application Function (AF) 724, a Unified Data Management (UDM) 726, a Policy Control Function (PCF) 728, and / or an Authentication Server Function (AUSF) 730). It should be noted that these functional entities may also be supported by the Session Management Function (SMF) 706a and SMF 706b of the 5G CN. The AMF 706 may be connected to (or in communication with) the SMF 706a.Additionally, the gNB 604 may communicate with (or be connected to) a user plane function (UPF) 708a, which may also communicate with an SMF 706a. Similarly, the N3IWF 702 may communicate with a UPF 708b, which may also communicate with an SMF 706b. Both UPFs may communicate with a data network (e.g., DNs 710a and 710b) and / or the Internet 700 and the IMS core network 710.

[0083] FIG. 7B illustrates an example of a 5G network architecture incorporating both dual 3GPP (e.g., LTE and 5G NR) and non-3GPP access to the 5G CN, according to some embodiments. As shown in the figure, a user equipment device (e.g., UE 106, etc.) can access the 5G CN through both a radio access network (e.g., RAN, such as gNB or base station 604 or eNB or base station 602) and an access point, such as AP 112. The AP 112 may include a connection to the Internet 700 as well as a connection to the N3IWF 702 network entity. The N3IWF may include a connection to the 5G CN's AMF 704. The AMF 704 may include an instance of 5G MM functionality associated with the UE 106. In addition, the RAN (e.g., gNB 604) may also have a connection to the AMF 704. Thus, the 5G CN may support unified authentication for both connections and enable simultaneous registration of the UE 106 access via both the gNB 604 and the AP 112. In addition, the 5G CN may support dual registration of UEs in both a traditional network (e.g., LTE via base station 602) and a 5G network (e.g., via base station 604). As shown in the figure, base station 602 may have a connection to a mobility management entity (MME) 742 and a serving gateway (SGW) 744. The MME 742 may have a connection to both the SGW 744 and the AMF 704. In addition, the SGW 744 may have a connection to both the SMF 706a and the UPF 708a. As shown in the figure, the AMF 704 may include one or more functional entities associated with the 5G CN (e.g., NSSF 720, SMSF 722, AF 724, UDM 726, PCF 728, and / or AUSF 730). It should be noted that the UDM 726 may also include a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) function, and the PCF may also include a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF). It is further noted that these functional entities may also be supported by the SMF 706a and SMF 706b of the 5G CN. The AMF 706 may be connected to (or may communicate with) the SMF 706a.Additionally, the gNB 604 may communicate with (or be connected to) a UPF 708a, which may also communicate with an SMF 706a. Similarly, the N3IWF 702 may communicate with a UPF 708b, which may also communicate with an SMF 706b. Both UPFs may communicate with a data network (e.g., DNs 710a and 710b) and / or the Internet 700 and the IMS core network 710.

[0084] It should be noted that in various embodiments, one or more of the network entities mentioned above may be configured for PDCCH enhancement for group-based paging indication, e.g., as described further herein.

[0085] FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a baseband processor architecture of a UE (e.g., UE 106, etc.), according to some embodiments. The baseband processor architecture 800 illustrated in FIG. 8 may be implemented in one or more radios (e.g., radios 329 and / or 330, as described above) or modems (e.g., modems 510 and / or 520) as described above. As illustrated, a non-access stratum (NAS) 810 may include a 5G NAS 820 and a conventional NAS 850. The conventional NAS 850 may include a communication connection with a conventional access stratum (AS) 870. The 5G NAS 820 may include both a 5G AS 840 and a non-3GPP AS 830, and a communication connection with a Wi-Fi AS 832. The 5G NAS 820 may include functional entities associated with both access stratums. Thus, the 5G NAS 820 may include multiple 5G MM entities 826 and 828, as well as 5G session management (SM) entities 822 and 824. The conventional NAS 850 may include functional entities such as a short message service (SMS) entity 852, an evolved packet system (EPS) session management (ESM) entity 854, a session management (SM) entity 856, an EPS mobility management (EMM) entity 858, and a mobility management (MM) / GPRS mobility management (GMM) entity 860. In addition, the conventional AS 870 may include functional entities such as an LTE AS 872, a UMTS AS 874, and / or a GSM / GPRS AS 876.

[0086] Thus, the baseband processor architecture 800 enables a common 5G-NAS for both 5G cellular and non-cellular (e.g., non-3GPP accesses). Note that, as shown in the figure, the 5G MM may maintain separate connection management and registration management state machines for each connection. In addition, a device (e.g., UE 106) may register to a single PLMN (e.g., 5G CN) using 5G cellular access as well as non-cellular access. Furthermore, a device may be in a connected state in one access and in an idle state in another access, or vice versa. Finally, there may be common 5G-MM procedures (e.g., registration, deregistration, identification, authentication, etc.) for both accesses.

[0087] It should be noted that in various embodiments, one or more of the above-mentioned functional entities of the 5G NAS and / or the 5G AS may be configured to perform a method of PDCCH enhancement for group-based paging indication, e.g., as further described herein. PDCCH Paging Extension

[0088] In a current implementation, a paging procedure may be implemented to send paging messages to wireless devices (e.g., UEs) in various Radio Resource Control (RRC) states / modes, such as idle (e.g., RRC_IDLE), inactive (e.g., RRC_INACTIVE), and / or connected (e.g., RRC_CONNECTED). For example, for a wireless device in an inactive state, paging may be initiated by a radio access network (RAN), such as to switch the wireless device to a connected state. As another example, for a wireless device in an idle state, paging may be initiated by a core network (CN), such as to indicate an incoming call and switch the wireless device to a connected state. As a further example, for a wireless device in a connected state, paging may be initiated by the RAN, such as to indicate a system information update. In some implementations, there may be multiple types of paging messages, such as messages directed to a particular wireless device (e.g., UE-specific paging) or messages directed to all wireless devices (e.g., general paging for all UEs). For example, a UE-specific page may indicate an incoming call, while a general page for all UEs may be a Public Warning System (PWS) message, such as a Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) message, an Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS) message, or a System Information (SI) update message.

[0089] In some implementations, the RRC state of a wireless device (UE) may affect how the wireless device monitors the PDCCH for paging messages. For example, when the wireless device is in an RRC connected state, the wireless device may monitor a downlink control information format 1_0 (DCI1_0) with a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled with a paging radio network temporary identifier (P-RNTI) in a type 2-PDCCH common search space (CSS) configured by a pagingSearchSpace parameter in a primary cell (PCell) of a master cell group (MCG). Thus, when the wireless device receives a DCI1_0 with a CRC scrambled with a P-RNTI, the wireless device can decode an associated physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and transmit a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (PDU) to the upper layer of the wireless device.

[0090] As another example, when the wireless device is in an RRC idle or inactive state, the wireless device may monitor one paging occasion (PO) per discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle. It should be noted that a PO may be a set of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring occasions and may consist of (and / or include) multiple time slots, e.g., multiple subframes and / or orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols. In addition, a paging frame (PF) may be defined as one radio frame (e.g., 10 ms) that may include one or more paging occasions. As shown in FIG. 9, a wireless device may be assigned one paging frame per DRX paging cycle, and a DRX paging cycle may include multiple paging frames (e.g., assigned to different sets of wireless devices). Thus, PFs 910a-b may be assigned to wireless devices with UE_IDs 0, 2, 4, etc., while PFs 912a-b may be assigned to wireless devices with UE_IDs 1, 3, 5, etc.

[0091] As shown in FIG. 10, a paging frame such as PF 910a may include multiple paging occasions 1010a-n. Furthermore, a paging occasion such as paging occasion 1010a may be defined as a set of S consecutive PDCCH monitoring occasions (e.g., PDCCH MO_1, PDCCH MO_2-PDCCH MO_S), where S is the number of actually transmitted synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) determined according to the ssb-PositionBurst parameter broadcast in the SIB1 message. Thus, a paging occasion may consist of (or include) multiple slots, as shown in FIG. 10. In some implementations, the Kth PDCCH monitoring occasion for paging in a paging occasion may correspond to the Kth transmitted SSB. In addition, a single transmit beam may be used for both pages and SSBs. In some implementation aspects, PDCCH monitoring occasions for paging that do not overlap with uplink symbols (e.g., as determined according to the tdd-UL-DLConfigurationCommon parameter) may be numbered sequentially starting from 0, starting with the first PDCCH monitoring occasion for paging within a paging frame.

[0092] In some implementations, a PDCCH monitoring occasion may be defined as a sequence of OFDM symbols for monitoring the PDCCH. The PDCCH monitoring occasion may be determined by pagingSearchSpace and firstPDCCHMonitoringOccasionOfPO, if they are configured. In addition, the pagingSearchSpace provided in PDCCH-ConfigCommon may indicate an identifier (ID) of a search space for paging. Furthermore, if SearchSpaceID=0 is configured in pagingSearchSpace, the PDCCH monitoring occasion for paging may be the same as that for Remaining Minimum System Information (RMSI). In addition, if the number of paging occasions N is 1, there may be only one paging occasion in the paging frame, starting from the first PDCCH monitoring occasion for paging. However, if the number of paging occasions is 2, the paging occasion may be in either the first half of the paging frame (i_s=0) or the second half of the paging frame (i_s=1). Note that if a SearchSpaceID≠0 is configured for the pagingSearchSpace, then the wireless device may monitor the (i_s+1)th paging occasion.

[0093] In some implementations, a wireless device in an RRC idle or inactive state may be configured with a DRX cycle T (in frames) for paging monitoring. The wireless device may determine a paging frame among the T frames. Furthermore, the wireless device may determine a paging occasion within the paging frame. Furthermore, there may be S consecutive PDCCH monitoring occasions within the paging occasion, where each PDCCH monitoring occasion may correspond to one SSB. The wireless device may monitor all PDCCH monitoring occasions transmitted through different beams to monitor paging messages. In addition, the wireless device may assume that the same paging message and short message are repeated in all transmitted beams (and / or all monitoring occasions).

[0094] In some implementations, the wireless device may monitor DCI1_0 with CRC scrambled with P-RNTI, and if detected, the wireless device may read the short message indicator field. Note that when the short message indicator indicates the presence of a paging message (e.g., either 01 or 11), the wireless device may decode the associated PDSCH. In addition, when the wireless device finds its UE_ID in the pagingRecordList (carried by the PDSCH), the wireless device may initiate a RACH procedure to perform an RRC (re)connection. Alternatively, the wireless device may remain in an RRC idle and / or inactive state.

[0095] However, these implementation aspects of the paging occasion determination mechanism may lead to many wireless devices monitoring the same paging occasion. In addition, many of these wireless devices may not find a page indication (e.g., a page associated with a specific UE_ID) after decoding the PDSCH (containing the paging message). In other words, the current mechanism allows one paging occasion to be assigned to multiple wireless devices and to determine the number of wireless devices monitoring the same paging occasion with UE-ID and N. Thus, all wireless devices assigned to the same paging occasion monitor the same indicator (e.g., ShortMessageIndicator of DCI1_0). Once the indicator indicates that there is scheduling information for paging, all wireless devices monitoring the paging occasion may be required to perform decoding of the corresponding PDSCH.

[0096] The embodiments described herein reduce the number of user equipment devices (UEs), such as UE 106, monitoring paging occasions, thereby reducing the probability that the UE will waste its energy on unnecessary PDSCH decoding for paging. In some embodiments, the number of UEs monitoring paging occasions may be reduced by adjusting various parameters. For example, increasing the number of paging frames N in a given DRX cycle T and / or increasing the number of paging occasions N in a paging frame. However, it should be noted that there may be limits to increasing N and N since both may be limited by T and the length of the frame, respectively.

[0097] In some embodiments, the number of UEs monitoring paging occasions may be reduced by including a group indication via an unused bit field of DCI1_0. In some embodiments, at least six bits may be available for the short message indicator field of DCI1_0. As noted above, the current implementation of DCI1_0 with P-RNTI includes a two-bit short message indicator field indicating whether a PDSCH for paging and / or a short message is transmitted. For example, a short message indicator bit field value of 00 may be reserved, a short message indicator bit field value of 01 may indicate that only scheduling information for paging is present in the DCI, a short message indicator bit field value of 10 may indicate that only scheduling information for short messages is present in the DCI, and a short message indicator bit field value of 11 may indicate that scheduling information for both paging and short messages is present in the DCI. In addition, an eight-bit short message field may be transmitted on the PDCCH using the P-RNTI. In some cases, the short message field may be reserved when only scheduling information for paging (e.g., PDSCH) is transmitted (e.g., short message indicator value of 01). However, when a short message is transmitted (e.g., short message indicator value 10 or 11), the first two bits are used to indicate system information modification, ETWS, and CMAS indication, respectively, and the remaining six bits may be reserved. In addition, DCI1_0 may include six additional bits that are reserved. In some embodiments, these reserved bits may be used to support a larger group of UEs (resulting in a smaller group size). For example, when the short message field is reserved, eight bits of DCI1_0 may be available to support a larger group of UEs.In some embodiments, when a short message is transmitted, six bits of the short message may be available to support a larger number of groups of UEs. Furthermore, in any of these embodiments, additional reserved bits (up to six bits) may be used to support a larger number of groups as well. In other words, the embodiments described herein may use available bits of DCI1_0 (e.g., six, eight, twelve, and / or fourteen bits depending on the situation and / or condition) to indicate paging indications to different UE groups. For example, when eight bits are available to indicate UE groups, a value of 01000010 may indicate that there is a paging message for UE groups 1 and 6. Thus, UEs belonging to groups 1 and 6 may decode the corresponding PDSCH, and UEs belonging to groups 0, 2, 3, 4, and 5 may not have to decode the PDSCH. For example, as shown in FIG. 11, the most significant bit (MSB) 1102a may indicate UE group 0, bit 1102b may indicate UE group 1, bit 1102c may indicate UE group 2, bit 1102d may indicate UE group 3, and so on, with the least significant bit (LSB) 1102x indicating UE group X.

[0098] In some embodiments, a hashing method may be used to determine the UE group. For example, in some embodiments, a division hashing or any predefined hash function, g, may be implemented. In some embodiments, the division hashing may be a modulo operation performed on the UE-IDs for a given divisor K. For example, the hash function may be f(x)=x mod K, where K is an integer between 6 and 14, among other values. In some embodiments, the hash function f(x) may map a set of UE-IDs to a set of integers {0, 1, ..., K-1}, where an integer k in the set of integers may correspond to a UE group k. In some embodiments, an arbitrary hash function g(x) may map a set of UE_IDs to a set of integers {0, 1, ..., K-1}.

[0099] In some embodiments, for each UE, the bit position may be explicitly configured by the network. For example, when traffic arrivals of a set of UEs are highly correlated, e.g., when many UEs (e.g., a majority of UEs) in a group of UEs have a very high likelihood (or probability) of an incoming call coming in at the same time, the UEs may be grouped together. For example, in some embodiments, the first bit may be set to UEs that receive (or will receive) a first groupcast G1, and the second bit may be set to UEs that receive (or will receive) a second groupcast G2. In addition, other UEs may be assigned to other bits according to specified criteria. As another example, the first bit may be associated with slicing #1, and the second bit may be associated with slicing #2.

[0100] In some embodiments, a legacy UE (e.g., operating according to an earlier release of the 3GPP standard, such as Release 15 and / or Release 16) may ignore the pre-reserved bit of DCI1_0 and operate according to a legacy (e.g., current implementation) paging procedure. Thus, there may be no impact on the legacy UE. In some embodiments, a UE supporting group indication via an additional bit of DCI1_0 (e.g., configured according to an embodiment described herein) may avoid unnecessary PDSCH decoding with a higher probability. In some embodiments, the probability that a UE may avoid unnecessary PDSCH decoding for paging may depend on the group size. For example, the smaller the group size, the higher the probability of avoiding unnecessary PDSCH decoding. Thus, if the group size is 1 (e.g., UE dedicated paging indication), the probability that a UE may avoid unnecessary PDSCH decoding for paging is equal to 1.

[0101] In some embodiments, the number of UEs monitoring paging occasions may be reduced through the use of a paging RNTI (PG-RNTI). In such embodiments, different paging groups for different UE groups monitoring paging occasions may be supported via a PG RNTI, for example as shown in FIG. 12. As shown in the figure, at 1202, multiple UEs (e.g., UE1-UE24) may monitor paging occasion "x". However, as shown at 1204, 1206, and 1208, a subset of the UEs may be associated with a value of the PG-RNTI. Thus, UE1-UE8 may monitor paging occasions with (or configured to) a PG-RNTI value of 0xF001, UE9-UE16 may monitor paging occasions with (or configured to) a PG-RNTI value of 0xF002, and UE17-UE24 may monitor paging occasions with (or configured to) a PG-RNTI value of 0xF003. Additionally, at 1214, 1216, and 1218, a subset of UEs may detect the appropriate DCI when a particular PG-RNTI value matches.

[0102] In some embodiments, the PG-RNTI value may not be fixed, but instead may be a range of values. For example, in some embodiments, the PG-RNTI may have a value ranging from 0x0001 to 0xFFEF. Additionally, in some embodiments, the network may dynamically determine the number of paging indications / PDSCHs associated with a particular PG-RNTI value. In some embodiments, the PG-RNTI may be a group-specific value, e.g., a set of UEs may be configured with the same value. In some embodiments, two or more DCI1_0 with CRC scrambled with either the PG-RNTI or the P-RNTI may indicate the same or different PDSCHs. For example, as shown in Figure 13A, a DCI with a PG-RNTI value 0x0040 (e.g., 1302), a DCI with a PG-RNTI value 0x0041 (e.g., 1304), and a DCI with a P-RNTI value 0xFFFE (e.g., 1306) may indicate a PDSCH carrying a UE-specific paging indication (e.g., 1308). As another example, as shown in Figure 13B, a DCI with a PG-RNTI value 0x0040 (e.g., 13010) and a DCI with a PG-RNTI value 0x0041 (e.g., 1312) may indicate a first PDSCH carrying a UE-specific paging indication (e.g., 1316), while a DCI with a P-RNTI value 0xFFFE (e.g., 1314) may indicate a second PDSCH carrying a paging indication (e.g., 1318).

[0103] In some embodiments, the number of UEs monitoring paging occasions may be reduced by including group indication via unused bit fields in DCI1_0 and using PG-RNTI. In such an embodiment, the first stage grouping may be based on PG-RNTI and the second stage grouping may be based on unused bit fields in DCI1_0. Thus, the first stage may specify a group of UEs and the second stage may specify a subset of the group of UEs. In some embodiments, where Y is the number of PG-RNTIs configured for UEs monitoring a particular paging occasion and X is the number of bits in DCI1_0 used to indicate the group, the total number of UE groups that may be supported is given as Z=Y×X. For example, when 8 bits are configured to be used in DCI1_0 to indicate the group and 3PG-RNTI, a total of 24 UE groups may be supported. As another example, when 6 bits are used in DCI1_0 to indicate the group and 6PG-RNTI, a total of 36 UE groups may be supported. It should be noted that these values ​​are merely examples and that other values ​​are contemplated within the scope of the embodiments described herein.

[0104] In some embodiments, the PG-RNTI may be configured by the network. For example, in some embodiments, the network may configure one or more arbitrary PG-RNTIs that the UE is configured to monitor. In addition, different UEs may or may not be assigned to a set of PG-RNTIs. With such an approach, the network may have great flexibility with respect to UE grouping. Furthermore, the UE does not need to know (and / or have knowledge of) the grouping criteria that are applied.

[0105] In some embodiments, rule-based decisions may be applied to configure the UE PG-RNTI(s). In some embodiments, a predefined association between a PG-RNTI and a reason associated (or related) to a particular functionality and / or paging may be implemented in the UE to determine the PG-RNTI(s). For example, the UE may determine which PG-RNTI to monitor based on (1) a current UE state and / or operation, and / or (2) a predefined association between a PG-RNTI and a functionality / reason for paging (e.g., based at least in part on CN / RAN-based paging, slicing, multicast, broadcast, etc.). With such an approach, the network may have less flexibility (e.g., compared to a network that configures the PG-RNTI), but with such an approach, the network does not need to assign a PG-RNTI to the UE.

[0106] FIG. 14 illustrates an example of UE power consumption of PDCCH blind decoding and PDSCH decoding as a function of group size, according to some embodiments. As shown in FIG. 14, the power consumption of PDSCH and PDCCH decoding for paging in one slot may be reduced as the number of UEs in a group (e.g., group size) is reduced. In this example, assume that the probability that a page is received by the UE is 1%, assume that the power consumption of PDCCH blind decoding for paging in one slot is 100, and assume that the power consumption of PDSCH decoding for paging in one slot is 300. Thus, the energy consumption E can be expressed as a function of the power consumption A of PDCCH blind decoding, the power consumption B of PDSCH decoding, and the probability p that at least one page is received by the UE at a paging occasion. For example, E=A+Bp [1] where p is a function of the number N of UEs in the group (group size) and the probability q that a page is received by the UE. For example, p=1-(1-q) N [2] Thus, in accordance with the embodiments described herein, a reduction in group size results in reduced energy consumption by UEs, such as UE 106, associated with the paging procedure.

[0107] FIG. 15 illustrates a block diagram of an example method of group-based paging indication, according to some embodiments. The method illustrated in FIG. 15 may be used in conjunction with the systems, methods, or devices illustrated in the figures above, among other devices. In various embodiments, some of the illustrated method elements may be performed simultaneously, in a different order than that illustrated, or may be omitted. Additional method elements may be performed as desired. As illustrated, the method may operate as follows.

[0108] At 1502, a UE, such as UE 106, may receive a group indication from a network / base station / network node (e.g., such as base station 102) via at least six bits of a downlink control index (DCI). In some embodiments, each bit of the at least six bits may indicate a paging indication for a particular set of UEs.

[0109] At 1504, the UE may determine whether the UE has a paging message based on the group indication. In other words, the UE may determine whether there is a paging message for the UE based at least in part on at least six bits included in the DCI. In some embodiments, the UE may determine whether there is a paging message for the UE based at least in part on determining whether a monitored bit (e.g., having a value of "1") is set among the at least six bits. In some embodiments, the monitored bit may be associated with a UE set associated with the UE. In some embodiments, the UE may be associated with more than one UE set. In such embodiments, the UE may monitor more than one bit of the at least six bits. In some embodiments, the determination may be performed at least in part based on a hash function and / or an explicit bit configuration specified by the base station. In some embodiments, the hash function may map a set of UE identifiers to a corresponding UE set. In some embodiments, the UEs may be grouped with UE sets having correlated traffic arrival conditions.

[0110] At 1506, in response to determining that the UE has a paging message, the UE may decode a corresponding physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), e.g., as indicated by a DCI. In some embodiments, the DCI may be a format 0_1 ​​DCI having a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled with a paging radio network temporary identifier, e.g., either a P-RNTI or a PG-RNTI.

[0111] In some embodiments, the UE may receive one or more Paging Radio Network Temporary Identifiers (PG-RNTIs) from the base station and monitor for paging occasions based on values ​​of the one or more PG-RNTIs. In some embodiments, each PG-RNTI may be for a UE set. In some embodiments, a particular UE set may be a subset of at least one UE set associated with at least one of the one or more PG-RNTIs. In some embodiments, the PG-RNTI may have a value in the range of 0x0001 to 0xFFEF. In some embodiments, a value of the PG-RNTI may be associated with a particular PDSCH. In some embodiments, one or more values ​​of the PG-RNTI may be associated with a particular PDSCH. In some embodiments, the one or more PG-RNTIs may be configured by the base station / network / network node. In some embodiments, the one or more PG-RNTIs may be determined based on one or more rules. In some embodiments, the one or more rules may be based at least in part on a current UE operating state and an association between the PG-RNTI and one or more functionalities or reasons associated with paging. In some embodiments, the one or more functionality or reasons associated with paging may include whether the paging is based on core network or radio access network paging, paging associated with slicing, paging associated with multicast messages, and / or paging associated with broadcast messages.

[0112] 16 illustrates a block diagram of another example method of group-based paging indication, according to some embodiments. The method illustrated in FIG. 16 may be used in conjunction with the systems, methods, or devices illustrated in the figures above, among other devices. In various embodiments, some of the illustrated method elements may be performed simultaneously, in a different order than that illustrated, or may be omitted. Additional method elements may be performed as desired. As illustrated, the method may operate as follows.

[0113] At 1602, a UE, such as UE 106, may receive a group indication from a network / base station / network node (e.g., base station 102, etc.) via a Paging Radio Network Temporary Identifier (PG-RNTI). In some embodiments, the UE may monitor for paging occasions based on a value of the PG-RNTI. In some embodiments, each PG-RNTI may be for a set of UEs. In some embodiments, the PG-RNTI may have a value in the range of 0x0001 to 0xFFEF. In some embodiments, a value of the PG-RNTI may be associated with a particular PDSCH. In some embodiments, one or more values ​​of the PG-RNTI may be associated with a particular PDSCH. In some embodiments, the PG-RNTI may be configured by the base station / network / network node. In some embodiments, the PG-RNTI may be determined based on one or more rules. In some embodiments, the one or more rules may be based at least in part on a current UE operating state and an association between the PG-RNTI and one or more functionalities or reasons associated with paging. In some embodiments, the one or more functionality or reasons associated with paging may include whether the paging is based on core network or radio access network paging, paging associated with slicing, paging associated with multicast messages, and / or paging associated with broadcast messages.

[0114] At 1604, the UE may determine whether the UE has a paging message based on the value of the PG-RNTI. In other words, the UE may determine whether there is a paging message for the UE based at least in part on the value of the PG-RNTI.

[0115] At 1606, in response to determining that the UE has a paging message, the UE may decode a corresponding physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), e.g., as indicated by at least one value of the PG-RNTI. In some embodiments, the DCI may indicate paging information. In such an embodiment, the DCI may be a format 0_1 ​​DCI having a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled with the PG-RNTI.

[0116] In some embodiments, the group indication received via the PG-RNTI may indicate a paging occasion. In such embodiments, the UE may receive a paging indication during a paging occasion via at least six bits of a received downlink control index (DCI). In some embodiments, each bit of the at least six bits may indicate a paging indication for a particular UE set. In some embodiments, the particular UE set may be a subset of at least one UE set associated with at least one of the one or more PG-RNTIs. In some embodiments, the UE may determine whether there is a paging message for the UE based at least in part on the at least six bits included in the DCI. In some embodiments, the UE may determine whether there is a paging message for the UE based at least in part on determining whether a monitored bit (e.g., having a value of "1") is set among the at least six bits. In some embodiments, the monitored bit may be associated with a subset of UEs associated with the UE. In some embodiments, the UE may be associated with more than one UE set or subset. In such embodiments, the UE may monitor more than one bit of the at least six bits. In some embodiments, the determination may be performed based at least in part on a hash function and / or an explicit bit configuration specified by the base station / network / network node. In some embodiments, the hash function may map a set of UE identifiers to a corresponding UE set. In some embodiments, UEs may be grouped with UE sets that have correlated traffic arrival conditions.

[0117] 17 illustrates a block diagram of another example method of group-based paging indication, according to some embodiments. The method illustrated in FIG. 17 may be used in conjunction with the systems, methods, or devices illustrated in the figures above, among other devices. In various embodiments, some of the illustrated method elements may be performed simultaneously, in a different order than that illustrated, or may be omitted. Additional method elements may be performed as desired. As illustrated, the method may operate as follows.

[0118] At 1702, a UE, such as UE 106, may receive a group indication from a network / base station / network node (e.g., such as base station 102) via a paging radio network temporary identifier (PG-RNTI) (and / or one or more PG-RNTIs). In some embodiments, the group indication may be for a set of UEs.

[0119] At 1704, the UE may monitor for paging occasions based on the value of the PG-RNTI. In some embodiments, the network may configure multiple PG-RNTI values, each of which (e.g., each PG-RNTI) may be for a set of UEs. In some embodiments, the PG-RNTI may have a value in the range of 0x0001 to 0xFFEF. In some embodiments, the value of the PG-RNTI may be associated with a particular PDSCH. In some embodiments, one or more values ​​of the PG-RNTI may be associated with a particular PDSCH. In some embodiments, the PG-RNTI may be configured by a base station / network / network node. In some embodiments, the PG-RNTI may be determined based on one or more rules. In some embodiments, the one or more rules may be based at least in part on a current UE operating state and an association between the PG-RNTI and one or more functionalities or reasons associated with paging. In some embodiments, the one or more functionality or reasons associated with paging may include whether the paging is based on core network or radio access network paging, paging associated with slicing, paging associated with multicast messages, and / or paging associated with broadcast messages.

[0120] At 1706, the UE may determine whether there is a paging message for the UE based at least in part on the at least six bits included in the DCI. In some embodiments, the UE may determine whether there is a paging message for the UE based at least in part on determining whether a monitored bit (e.g., having a value of "1") is set among the at least six bits. In some embodiments, the monitored bit may be associated with a UE set associated with the UE. In some embodiments, the UE may be associated with more than one UE set. In such embodiments, the UE may monitor more than one bit of the at least six bits. In some embodiments, the determination may be performed at least in part based on a hash function and / or an explicit bit configuration specified by the base station. In some embodiments, the hash function may map a set of UE identifiers to a corresponding UE set. In some embodiments, the UEs may be grouped with UE sets having correlated traffic arrival conditions. In some embodiments, each bit of the at least six bits may indicate a paging indication for a particular UE set. In some embodiments, the particular UE set may be a subset of the at least one UE set associated with the value of the PG-RNTI.

[0121] At 1708, in response to determining that the UE has a paging message, the UE may decode a corresponding physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), e.g., as indicated by at least one value of the PG-RNTI. In some embodiments, the DCI may indicate paging information. In such an embodiment, the DCI may be a format 0_1 ​​DCI having a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled with the PG-RNTI.

[0122] In some embodiments, the group indication received via the PG-RNTI may indicate a paging occasion. In such an embodiment, the UE may receive a paging indication during a paging occasion via at least six bits of a received downlink control index (DCI).

[0123] It is understood that use of personally identifiable information should comply with privacy policies and practices generally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmental requirements for maintaining user privacy. In particular, personally identifiable information data should be managed and handled in a manner that minimizes the risk of unintended or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of permitted uses should be clearly indicated to users.

[0124] The embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in any of a variety of forms. For example, some embodiments may be implemented as a computer-implemented method, a computer-readable storage medium, or a computer system. Other embodiments may be implemented using one or more custom-designed hardware devices, such as an ASIC. Still other embodiments may be implemented using one or more programmable hardware elements, such as an FPGA.

[0125] In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer readable storage medium may be configured to store program instructions and / or data, where the program instructions, when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform, for example, an embodiment of the method described herein, or any combination of the embodiment of the method described herein, or any subset of the embodiment of the method described herein, or any combination of such subsets.

[0126] In some embodiments, a device (e.g., UE 106) may be configured to include a processor (or set of processors) and a storage medium, where the storage medium stores program instructions, where the processor is configured to read and execute the program instructions from the storage medium, where the program instructions are executable to implement various method embodiments described herein (or any combination of the method embodiments described herein, or any subset of the method embodiments described herein, or any combination of such subsets). The device may be realized in various forms.

[0127] Although the above embodiments have been described in considerable detail, numerous variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated, and it is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace all such variations and modifications.

Claims

1. A user equipment device (UE), At least one antenna; at least one radio configured to perform cellular communications using at least one radio access technology (RAT); one or more processors coupled to the at least one radio, the one or more processors and the at least one radio configured to conduct voice and / or data communications; The one or more processors may be configured to: receiving a group indication from a base station of the network via at least six bits of a Downlink Control Information (DCI), each bit of the at least six bits indicating a paging indication for a particular set of UEs associated with each of a plurality of groups; the UE being explicitly configured by the network into one of the plurality of groups, the UE and a plurality of UEs having a correlated traffic arrival condition being grouped into a set, the correlated traffic arrival condition including an incoming call coming to a majority of the UEs in the group of UEs; determining whether the UE has a paging message based on the group indication; and one or more processors configured to cause decoding of a corresponding Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) in response to determining that the UE has a paging message.

2. the determining is performed based on at least one explicit bit configuration specified by the base station. The UE of claim 1.

3. The one or more processors may be configured to: receiving from the base station one or more Paging Radio Network Temporary Identifiers (PG-RNTIs), each PG-RNTI being for a set of UEs, the particular UE set being a subset of at least one UE set associated with at least one of the one or more PG-RNTIs; and monitoring a paging occasion based on the value of the PG-RNTI. The UE of claim 1.

4. The PG-RNTI has a value in the range of 0x0001 to 0xFFEF; The UE of claim 3.

5. The value of the PG-RNTI is associated with a particular PDSCH. The UE of claim 3.

6. One or more values ​​of the PG-RNTI are associated with a particular PDSCH. The UE of claim 3.

7. The one or more PG-RNTIs are configured by the base station. The UE of claim 3.

8. the one or more PG-RNTIs are determined based on one or more rules; The UE of claim 3.

9. The one or more rules are based at least in part on a current UE operating state and an association between a PG-RNTI and one or more functionalities or reasons associated with paging. The UE of claim 8.

10. The one or more functionalities or reasons associated with paging include whether paging is based on core network or radio access network paging, paging associated with slicing, paging associated with multicast messages, or paging associated with broadcast messages; The UE of claim 9.

11. The DCI includes a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled with a paging radio network temporary identifier (PG-RNTI). The UE of claim 1.

12. An apparatus comprising: Memory, a processing element in communication with the memory, receiving a group indication from a base station of a network via a Paging Radio Network Temporary Identifier (PG-RNTI), a value of the PG-RNTI being associated with a paging occasion and the value of the PG-RNTI being associated with a set of devices including the apparatus, the network explicitly configuring a user equipment device (UE) into one of a plurality of groups, the UE and a plurality of UEs having correlated traffic arrival conditions being grouped into a set, the correlated traffic arrival conditions including an incoming call coming to a majority of the UEs in the group of UEs; determining whether the device has a paging message based on the value of the PG-RNTI; and a processing element configured to, in response to determining that the apparatus has a paging message, decode a corresponding Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH).

13. the processing element is further configured to receive, during the paging occasion, a paging indication via at least six bits of downlink control information (DCI), each bit of the at least six bits indicating a paging indication for a specific set of devices, the specific set of devices being a subset of the set of devices; and determining whether the device has a paging message, the processing element being further configured to determine whether the device has a paging message based on the at least six bits.

13. The apparatus of claim 12.

14. The PG-RNTI has a value in the range of 0x0001 to 0xFFEF; 13. The apparatus of claim 12.

15. The value of the PG-RNTI is associated with a particular PDSCH.

13. The apparatus of claim 12.

16. One or more values ​​of the PG-RNTI are associated with a particular PDSCH.

13. The apparatus of claim 12.

17. 1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions executable by a processing circuit, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions executable by a processing circuit, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions executable by a processing circuit, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions executable by a processing circuit, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions executable by a processing circuit, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions executable by a processing circuit, monitoring the paging occasions based on the value of the PG-RNTI; causing a paging indication to be received during the paging occasion via at least six bits of a downlink control information (DCI), each bit of the at least six bits indicating a paging indication for a specific set of UEs associated with each of a plurality of groups, the specific set of UEs being a subset of the set of UEs; the UE being explicitly configured by the network into one of the plurality of groups, the UE and a plurality of UEs having a correlated traffic arrival condition being grouped into a set, the correlated traffic arrival condition including an incoming call coming to a majority of the UEs in the group of UEs; 11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that, in response to determining that the UE has a paging message, causes the UE to decode a corresponding Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH).

18. the determining is performed based on at least one explicit bit configuration specified by the base station.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17.

19. The PG-RNTI is configured by the base station or is determined based on one or more rules, the one or more rules being based at least in part on a current UE operating state and an association between a PG-RNTI and one or more functionalities or reasons associated with paging, the one or more functionalities or reasons associated with paging including whether the paging is based on core network or radio access network paging, paging associated with slicing, paging associated with a multicast message, or paging associated with a broadcast message.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17.

20. The DCI includes a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled with a paging radio network temporary identifier (PG-RNTI).

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17.

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