Design of Paging Occasion in New Radio

Abstract

To allow a base station to flexibly allocate paging occasions taking into account operator-defined configurations, such as the number of SSBs, multiplexing pattern, system numerology, and so on.SOLUTION: In a communication system, a user device comprises circuitry which performs reception of paging signals. A paging occasion configuration indicates at least one of: one of a predefined plurality of rasters; a bitmap indicating with each bit for one raster time point whether or not a paging occasion is included in the raster time point; and a short-bitmap which is shorter than the number of raster points in the paging cycle, indicating whether or not a paging occasion is included in the raster time point. A base station includes a base station-side processing circuit which transmits the paging occasion configuration to the user device to transmit paging signals.SELECTED DRAWING: None

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to paging of user equipment in a communication system.

Background Art

[0002] New Radio (NR) is a technology being developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP (registered trademark)) for submission to the International Telecommunications Union as a candidate technology for 5G. One of the highly notable aspects of NR is that its design is being advanced considering operations using beamforming (see Non-Patent Document 1), and beamforming is particularly useful in high frequency bands. Generally, beamforming enables the energy of a given wireless transmission to be concentrated in a specific direction, and as a result, the range can be extended to compensate for, for example, high propagation losses at high frequencies. Since 5G is expected to operate at high frequencies where more spectrum is available, beamforming operations are important in NR.

Prior Art Documents

Non-Patent Documents

[0003]

Non-Patent Document 1

Non-Patent Document 2

Summary of the Invention

[0004] According to a non-limiting and representative embodiment, efficient monitoring of paging messages by a user equipment is facilitated.

[0005] The technology disclosed herein is, in a general aspect, a communication system including a user equipment and a base station, wherein the user equipment receives a paging occasion configuration including at least one parameter for configuring a predetermined time domain pattern for receiving a paging occasion within a paging cycle from the base station, and performs reception of a paging signal within the paging occasion within the predetermined time domain pattern configured according to the received paging occasion configuration, and includes a processing circuit, wherein the paging occasion configuration indicates at least one of (i) one of a plurality of predetermined rasters, (ii) a bitmap indicating whether a paging occasion is included in the raster time point by one bit for each one of the raster time points, and (iii) a short bitmap shorter than the number of raster points within the paging cycle, and indicating whether a paging occasion is included in the raster time point by one bit for each one of the raster time points, and the base station transmits the paging occasion configuration to the user equipment and includes a base station side processing circuit for transmitting the paging signal, thereby providing a communication system.

[0006] Note that a general embodiment or a specific embodiment can be implemented as a system, a method, an integrated circuit, a computer program, a storage medium, or any optional combination thereof.

[0007] Further benefits and advantages of the disclosed embodiments will become apparent from the specification and the drawings. These benefits and / or advantages can be obtained individually by various embodiments and features of the specification and the drawings, provided that not all of these features are required to obtain one or more of such benefits and / or advantages.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0008]

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Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

[0009] In order to support beamforming operations, it is necessary to redesign some aspects of NR, including functions such as time / frequency synchronization and paging. This disclosure relates to paging design in NR.

[0010] An important function in mobile cellular systems (and similarly in NR) is the paging mechanism, by which the network determines the location of the UE for incoming traffic (voice calls or data). Antenna beams increase the range (the distance between the base station and the user equipment communicating with each other), but their coverage is narrower than that of a conventional tri-sectional cell. Since paging is about finding the location of the UE within one cell (or a group of cells), it is necessary to adapt the paging operation to the beam sweeping operation in NR. Therefore, some design principles derived from LTE can be inherited by NR, but other concepts such as the definition of paging occasions and the resource allocation of paging occasions need to be adapted.

[0011] In the case of a cellular system, paging is a mechanism by which the network locates a User Equipment (UE) in the IDLE mode, i.e., within a given geographical area called a tracking area, which may consist of several cells, and initiates connection setup. Since the network does not know the exact geographical location of the UE to be paged, it is necessary to transmit beamformed paging messages (used in NR) in different directions at different time instants so that the UE to be paged can be surely found. Here, the term "network" mainly means a base station (also called gNB in NR) with which the UE communicates via a radio interface, and this base station is connected to the rest of the network. The UE is any mobile station implemented in a terminal such as, for example, a mobile phone, a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop, a PC, or any other device.

[0012] It should be noted that the paging design of the present disclosure can be applied to two modes in NR, namely, the RRC_IDLE state and the RRC_INACTIVE state. These are generally referred to as the IDLE mode and the INACTIVE mode. According to 3GPP TS 38.304 v0.1.2 (2018-02), these modes apply when the UE is camping on an NR cell and when the UE is searching for a cell to camp on. For the UE to be camping on a cell means that the UE has completed the cell selection / reselection process and selected a cell. In these states, the UE monitors system information and (in most cases) paging information. The tasks of the RRC_IDLE state and the RRC_INACTIVE state can be subdivided into three processes, namely, PLMN selection, cell selection and reselection, and location registration and RNA update. Cell selection can only be applied to the RRC_IDLE state.

[0013] However, the present disclosure is not limited to merely these specific NR states. The present disclosure generally applies to any UE state in which the cell's broadcast channel and paging channel are monitored. This typically applies when there is currently no data bearer configured and no pending communication between the UE and the base station (not only in NR but also in LTE or other systems). When there is an exchange of data and signaling between the UE and the base station, control information can also be transmitted via such a link, i.e., faster than monitoring the paging channel. Hereinafter, when referring to IDLE_MODE, it means any idle mode such as the NR mode described above. Thus, an IDLE UE is any UE in the IDLE_MODE state.

[0014] There are two interrelated issues in the overall paging design and operation.

[0015] 1) Design of the PO structure This relates to determining the length and composition of each individual paging occasion. In LTE, the concept of a PO means both the paging frames and subframes in which a given UE needs to monitor the paging downlink control information (DCI). In NR, it is agreed that a PO is composed of one or more slots having a duration such that a complete beam sweep of the paging signal can be allocated. In fact, each PO needs to contain one CORESET associated with (and quasi-colocated with) each SSB. Therefore, if the number of beams in a cell is variable, the length of the PO is also variable and depends on the maximum number of synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), i.e., the parameter L, which depends on the numerology or the number of actually transmitted SSBs, e.g., the variable L′ (≦L). Furthermore, for a given L, it is also possible to take several approaches. For example, a length specific to a particular L allows blanks in the PO at time positions where SSBs are not transmitted, or a length that directly depends on the number of actually transmitted SSBs (L′) is used. In any case, it is necessary to consider variable-length POs in NR, and thus this element needs to be taken into account in the assignment of POs, which is the next issue.

[0016] 2) Allocation of POs This relates to the allocation of different POs within the paging cycle of the system. In LTE, the paging cycle of the system is indicated as system information, which is assumed by default by the UE unless UE-specific configuration (UE-specific DRX cycle) is provided. Next, the UE is distributed among different POs by the operation of the mod-type, but the number of POs depends on the paging load and can be changed. The same principle applies to NR, but there are some important differences. The paging CORESET is agreed to reuse the same configuration as the RMSI CORESET, which means that the paging CORESET, at least for RRC_IDLE, is transmitted within the initial active downlink bandwidth part (IAD_BP). This bandwidth part may or may not overlap with the bandwidth where the SSB is transmitted, so it is necessary to avoid collisions between the CORESET and the SSB (and between different CORESETs). Overall, the PO allocation strategy needs to be flexible enough to apply and adapt to other cell-specific configurations such as the SSB-CORESET multiplexing pattern (Pattern 1, 2, or 3, see [3]) and the SSB period. Generally speaking, the strategy of PO allocation needs to be flexible enough to apply and conform to other cell-specific configurations such as the SSB-CORESET multiplexing pattern (Pattern 1, 2, or 3, see [3]), or the periodicity of the SSB.

[0017] Similar operations have already been agreed for the synchronization signals that provide the UE with time and frequency references, i.e., these signals are beam swept within the cell (i.e., transmitted with different beams at different times) so that the UE can access the system after obtaining the time-frequency reference and some other information from the so-called Synchronization Signal Block (SSB).

[0018] The term "pre-synchronization" means a design principle discussed in some standardization meetings. In particular, for UEs moving at high speed in the IDLE_MODE state, it is desirable, or even necessary, to receive the synchronization block before attempting to receive and decode paging occasions. Since the UE is moving at high speed, the time and frequency references may degrade. Therefore, an IDLE UE needs to "update" (re-sync) before receiving paging. Thus, it is highly desirable to obtain the PO after the SSB.

[0019] Therefore, it is expected that a specific association or relationship can be utilized since the SSB and the paging signal exhibit similar behavior, i.e., both need to be beam swept. The SSB is a resource block composed of a predetermined number of symbols in the time domain, e.g., 4 symbols, and a predetermined number of sub-carriers or physical resource blocks. The number of symbols and / or sub-carriers or physical resource blocks may be defined in the standard or may be configurable in the system resources. The SSB may carry the Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS), the Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS), and the Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH).

[0020] One of the fundamental differences between NR and LTE is that, for beam sweeping operations, the length of OFDM symbols or slots is not constant. This is because the PO needs to accommodate the same number of paging configuration resource sets (CORESETs) as the synchronization blocks (beams). Additionally, the paging CORESET (along with the Remaining Minimum System Information, i.e., RMSI, and Other System Information, i.e., OSI) is confined within a specific individual bandwidth part called the Initial Active Downlink Bandwidth Part (IAD_BP). The bandwidth used for synchronization blocks may or may not overlap with the IAD_BP. When there is an overlap, generally, collisions are not allowed. Therefore, the issue of paging occasion allocation, i.e., determining the time and frequency resources for the paging CORESET, is not trivial, and a unified framework for NR (i.e., a framework applicable to all relevant configurations affecting paging) is recommended.

[0021] This disclosure provides several strategies to address the aforementioned issues by providing a common framework that allows the gNB to flexibly allocate the PO considering other operator-defined configurations such as, for example, the number of SSBs, multiplexing patterns, system numerology, etc. Also, this allocation strategy can avoid collisions between control signals while maintaining the necessary common control signaling overhead (system information) acceptably and without requiring additional UE-specific signaling except when UE-specific configurations are necessary.

[0022] This disclosure relates to items under research for NR access technology (Non-Patent Document 2). This is related to the framework of "initial access". Initial access particularly includes synchronization signals and paging design. In particular, some embodiments provide a mechanism for embedding paging messages within the resources of the NR system in order to make paging reception on the UE side more efficient. However, this disclosure is not limited to being adopted in NR and can be easily applied to other mobile and / or cellular communication systems where it is necessary to page a UE.

[0023] The following points summarize paging operations in the preceding Long Term Evolution (LTE) system and highlight similarities and differences with NR.

[0024] · Paging is used to identify the location of a UE within a tracking area in order to initiate a setup connection when the UE is in the IDLE mode. Thus, in LTE, paging messages are broadcast within each cell of the tracking area. This operation based on the tracking area is similar in NR as well.

[0025] ·In LTE, a mechanism similar to data transmission is used to receive paging messages. That is, the UE first receives and monitors control information (L1 / L2 signaling, which means layer 1 / layer 2 signaling for the physical layer and MAC layer), and knows where and when the actual paging message will be transmitted. Hereinafter, this L1 / L2 signaling and the actual paging message are referred to as paging DCI (Downlink Control Information) and paging message, respectively. The DCI is carried on the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH). This operation is also adopted in NR, at least as a baseline. Furthermore, in the case of NR, the paging DCI is generally included within a set of resources called CORESET. Therefore, the UE needs to identify the position of the paging CORESET and receive this paging CORESET in order to receive the paging message. In other words, the CORESET is a set of time-frequency resources for the UE to monitor PDCCH (DCI) reception.

[0026] ·In LTE, the paging DCI / message is broadcast within the cells of a tracking area, but in NR, beam operation is generally supported, that is, the paging message is transmitted in different directions in different time slots.

[0027] ·To enable energy-efficient operation in LTE, the UE in IDLE mode sleeps most of the time and wakes up only when it may be paged. The time instances when a UE can be paged are called Paging Occasions (POs), and thus the paging cycle is defined. Each UE uses its ID and other parameters according to a predefined formula to determine when (i.e., which PO (frame and subframe)) it needs to monitor paging. This is hereinafter referred to as PO calculation. In NR, although there are some differences, similar behavior is expected. Also, multiple UEs use a predefined formula to determine the time positions of their corresponding POs, i.e., from the perspective of one UE, to identify a specific PO among multiple POs within the paging cycle in which reception is performed by that UE, and to periodically monitor such a PO. To support the operation of beam sweeping, the PO is defined as a time interval, which in some cases (when all necessary beams are transmitted) consists of several time slots. Therefore, in principle, the UE listens throughout the entire PO interval to check whether a paging message relevant to itself is being transmitted.

[0028] ·In LTE, a PO indicates the frames and subframes in which paging DCI may be transmitted (using a reserved ID: P-RNTI, i.e., the Paging Radio Network Temporary Identifier which is a group ID). In NR, this operation is more flexible. The paging CORESET can be transmitted within different OFDM symbols (hereinafter referred to as symbols) in a slot, and its duration is also variable, i.e., the duration of the paging CORESET can be one or more symbols. Therefore, to indicate to the UE the exact time position of the paging CORESET to be monitored, a display with symbol resolution is required. A slot is composed of 14 symbols in the time domain. The details of the paging message are defined in 3GPP TS 36.331, Section 6.2.2, version f.1.0 or TS 38.331, v. 15.1.0. In NR, a time structure similar to that of LTE is adopted, but there are differences due to the use of different numerologies. A 10 ms (radio) frame and a 1 ms subframe are retained, but the number of slots in a frame depends on the numerology. For example, in the case of 15 KHz, there is 1 slot per subframe, and in the case of 30 KHz, there are 2 slots per subframe, etc. The number of OFDM symbols per slot is the same (14) regardless of the numerology. For this point, refer to 3GPP TS 38.211 V15.0.0 (pages 8 and 9).

[0029] In other words, a paging occasion is a set of (consecutive or distributed) slots in which the UE monitors a paging-PDCCH (also referred to as type 2 PDCCH). A PO is defined as a time interval during which a paging signal is transmitted and, as described above, consists of one or more time slots. The paging signal includes a paging DCI and a paging message. As described above, the paging DCI is transmitted on a type 2 PDCCH, and its configuration is provided by a higher layer parameter paging-SearchSpace (where the higher layer means the RRC protocol). The paging message is transmitted via the PDSCH. In principle, the paging DCI and the paging message can be time-division multiplexed and / or frequency-division multiplexed.

[0030] The paging cycle is also referred to as a discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle in 3GPP specifications such as LTE and NR. In general, the paging cycle in which the base station provides a paging occasion (referred to as the system paging cycle or the paging cycle from the network perspective) may be different from the paging cycle in which a specific UE accesses (receives for a part of) some of the POs provided by the network (also referred to as the UE-specific paging cycle or the paging cycle from the UE perspective). The present disclosure is applicable to a system paging cycle that can also accommodate the UE paging cycle. Furthermore, embodiments for the case where a UE-specific paging cycle is provided to the UE are provided as described below.

[0031] From the perspective of the UE, it is one period with a PO, and this is repeated. Although specific values for NR have not yet been set, for this disclosure that can function with any value, the individual values are not important. It is being considered that the minimum DRX period is 32 frames, i.e., 320 ms. The eNB can configure a UE-specific DRX period that is different from the default system paging period notified to the UE as system information.

[0032] The period (paging / DRX period) for the PO may or may not correspond to the period of the SSB (T SSB ). T SSB is the periodicity at which the synchronization block is transmitted. This value may be selected from the following set, i.e., {5, 10, 20, …, 160} [ms], and 20 ms is the default value for all bands, but the operator can adjust this value.

[0033] The number of POs means the number of POs (N PO ) within the system paging period. The gNB can configure another appropriate N PO according to the requirements of the paging capacity. Therefore, the number of POs can be in the range of, for example, 32 to 128. It is possible to page up to 16 UEs per PO (the actual IDs of multiple UEs are within one paging message). In a paging occasion, when a paging CORESET including the P-RNTI appears, it indicates to the UE that there is a paging message that the UE needs to decode. What the paging message is like / where it is located is a scheduling matter. It is within the paging message that the UE IDs are used to distinguish the messages of different UEs.

[0034] As described above, Paging Occasion Calculation (POC) is a mechanism (e.g., a formula and / or an algorithm) by which a UE determines the ordinal number of the PO to which it belongs. Parameters for POC may include the UE identity (e.g., IMSI, i.e., International Mobile Subscriber Identity) and some system parameters (e.g., the number of POs per paging period in LTE, nB which may also be applicable to NR or other systems).

[0035] One important aspect of NR is the support for beamforming-based operation. One important function in a cellular system is to provide reliable time-frequency references to UEs. In LTE, the signals used for this purpose are broadcast within a cell, while in NR, these signals need to be transmitted in different directions (with different beams) at different times. Therefore, SSBs are defined to accommodate the time-frequency references and information for UEs to access the system. Since these SSBs are transmitted omnidirectionally, in principle, a UE can catch at least one of these time-multiplexed SSBs, i.e., receive them normally and finally access the system. Thus, a UE can determine its position based on the SSBs it receives. 1) These signals are regularly monitored for other purposes, e.g., for radio resource management, and 2) in principle, an IDLE UE can always identify the SSB to which it belongs. Using this knowledge, as long as there is some association, the position of the corresponding paging CORESET within the PO can be determined, whether it is signaled to the UE or recognized by the UE. Each PO accommodates a paging CORESET corresponding to all SSBs (i.e., beams), and its duration corresponds to the period required to beam sweep the paging signal.

[0036] In LTE, and perhaps also in NR, in the case of the first synchronization after detecting the synchronization signal (when the UE is not yet camped on or connected to an LTE cell), the UE decodes the Physical Broadcast CHannel (PBCH) and then obtains important system information. In particular, the PSS and SSS are transmitted periodically to enable the terminal to acquire the timing of the slot boundary. Next, the PBCH of the cell carrying the configuration information may be read. The configuration information may be common configuration information to be read by all terminals and / or by a group of terminals. This may include, for example, the configuration of cell resources such as paging resources. RMSI (Remaining Minimum System Information) and OSI (Other System Information) are resources indicated from the PBCH and also carry broadcast common information of the cell to be read by any terminal within the cell. This information may also include the configuration. This configuration information may be carried by the Radio Resource Control (RRC).

[0037] Figure 1 shows the basic principle of using several blocks as means for time / frequency synchronization in NR. The positions of candidate SSBs and their total number can be specified in the specification, and they are specific to a numerology. For a subcarrier spacing of 240 KHz, the maximum number L = 64 SSBs. One numerology is defined by the subcarrier spacing and the overhead of the cyclic prefix (CP). In Figure 1, the candidate positions are represented as boxes. In this representation, 5 out of the L = 8 possible SSBs (indicated by "SSB1", "SSB2", etc., which are their respective SSB indices) are actually transmitted by the network and notified via RMSI. Generally, a base station (referred to as gNB in NR and similar to the eNB / eNodeB in LTE) covers cells / sectors by transmitting different SSBs using different beams at different times, as illustrated in Figure 2.

[0038] It should be noted that the UE monitors SSBs to perform some other functions, such as Radio Resource Management (RRM) (e.g., handover), and thus the UE recognizes the best receiving beam. Furthermore, since the gNB does not know the positions of UE in the IDLE mode within the tracking area, paging messages also need to be beam swept. Therefore, as a natural design, the operation of SSBs and paging are associated.

[0039] One of the important agreements for this disclosure among the above agreements is that QCL (Quasi-Colocation) between SSB and paging (DCI / message) can be assumed by the UE. The concept of Quasi-co-location (QCL) means that the radio channels experienced by signals transmitted by different antenna ports have the same characteristics (e.g., average delay spread, Doppler spread / shift, average gain, etc.) over a wide range if and only if they are quasi-collocated. In practice, this means that signals corresponding to two different channels (e.g., SSB and paging) are transmitted from the same Transmission and Reception Point (TRP) using the same beam structure. In other words, for each SSB transmitted with a unique index, there is a corresponding paging signal transmitted using the same beam. By this agreement, a link is created between each SSB and the paging message through QCL. The association between SSB and CORESET is indicated by RMSI.

[0040] Another agreement made so far is related to RMSI, OSI, and paging sharing the same CORESET configuration defined within IAD_BP. IAD_BP means the Initial Active Downlink Bandwidth Part defined as the bandwidth of RMSI, i.e., by its location and size. Furthermore, it is necessary to consider different multiplexing patterns between SSB and RMSI / OSI / paging CORESET.

[0041] Figure 3A shows PO, which starts at time t0 and includes slots i - 2, i - 1, i, and i + 1 in IAD_BP. Note that the term "IAD_BP" is used synonymously with the acronym "IAD_BWP" in this disclosure.

[0042] Figure 3B shows another example of PO, where some slots contain paging CORESET (PC). In particular, in the calculation of paging occasions, it is necessary to determine the starting point (t0). This needs to be done taking into account the transmission of RMSI and OSI CORESET (the reason being that they are also transmitted within IAD_BP). It is recognized that the paging CORESET does not overlap (collide in time) with the RMSI / OSI CORESET. The RMSI CORESET, OSI CORESET, and paging CORESET are all allocated within IAD_BP. Therefore, they are arranged within the same frequency band. However, they never overlap in time, which is achieved by the gNB configuring them. Thus, in the case of "pattern 1" where the SSB and the paging CORESET are within the same band IAD_BP, the transmission pattern of the SSB is considered. The transmission pattern of the SSB usually requires about half a frame (i.e., a 5 ms window) per T SSB each, which is about half a frame (i.e., a 5 ms window).

[0043] In particular, FIG. 4 shows the framing in NR with SSB burst sets. In this representative representation, the SSB burst set is within the first half-frame. In NR, one frame is 10 ms, and correspondingly, a half-frame is 5 ms. Each half-frame has five sub-frames, and these sub-frames are further divided into slots. The number of slots varies for different frequency bands (i.e., numerologies). In FIG. 4, the slot-level structure includes a plurality of slots (shown with different filling patterns), and each slot can accommodate a maximum of two SSBs. L is the maximum number of SS Blocks (SSBs) within a burst. In particular, looking at FIG. 4, within each slot, there can be a maximum of two SSBs mapped. For example, in the 15KHz band with L = 4, there is one burst in two adjacent slots of the first half-frame, and it is assumed that each slot carries two SSBs. In the same frequency band with L = 8, there is still one burst over four slots, and each slot has a maximum of two (eight in total) SSBs. In the 120KHz band with L = 64, there are four SSB bursts in one set.

[0044] FIG. 5 shows three possible multiplexing patterns for SSB burst sets, CORESET, and PDSCH (data channel).

[0045] · "Pattern 1" means a multiplexing pattern in which the SSB (SS / PBCH block) and the RMSI CORESET occur at different time instances while the transmission bandwidth for the first active DL BP that accommodates the SS / PBCH block and the RMSI CORESET overlaps.

[0046] · "Pattern 2" means a multiplexing pattern in which the SS / PBCH block and the RMSI CORESET occur in different time instances, while the transmission bandwidth of the SS / PBCH block does not overlap with the first active DL BP that accommodates the RMSI CORESET.

[0047] · "Pattern 3" means a multiplexing pattern in which the SS / PBCH block and the RMSI CORESET occur in the same time instance and the transmission bandwidths for the SS / PBCH block and the first active DL BP that accommodates the SS / PBCH block and the RMSI CORESET do not overlap.

[0048] Furthermore, FIG. 6 shows the periodicity of the SSB burst set. Generally, the duration of one SSB burst set is less than 5 ms, that is, shorter than a half frame (the half frame used is indicated by the network. For example, "0" indicates the first half frame and "1" indicates the second half frame). In FIG. 6, the period of the SSB burst is set to 20 ms (T SSB = 20 ms is the default, but the operator may configure another value). Generally, currently, this period can be selected from the values of {5, 10, 20,..., 160}. The configuration of the period is particularly important for multiplexing pattern 1 because it is necessary to prevent the SSB and the RMSI CORESET from overlapping.

[0049] FIG. 7 shows that the SSB and the RMSI CORESET can have different numerologies, and defines the number of SSBs and the numerology (sub-carrier-spacing, SCS) for different frequency ranges. For example, based on the table in FIG. 7, the possible durations of the CORESET (unit: symbol) are as follows.

[0050] · Pattern 1: {1, 2, 3}, Pattern 2: {1, 2} and Pattern 3: {2}. ·The configuration of the RMSI CORESET depends on the combination of SSB / RMSI numerology and the multiplexing pattern. ·This configuration is reused by OSI and paging.

[0051] Figure 8 shows the relationship between the frequency band, SSB, and numerology. In particular, it is agreed that the maximum number L of SS blocks within the SS burst set for different frequency ranges is as follows.

[0052] ·For the frequency range up to 3 GHz, L is 4, ·For the frequency range from 3 GHz to 6 GHz, L is 8, ·For the frequency range from 6 GHz to 52.6 GHz, L is 64 (for the sake of clarity only).

[0053] Note that the value "L" is the maximum number of SSBs that can be transmitted. The operator may reduce the number of beams used. The network indicates how many beams are used and when they are transmitted (at a given set of candidate positions for the SSB).

[0054] Generally, it is undesirable for the UE to monitor all POs transmitted by several paging CORESETs with different beams (as it may be energy - costly and inefficient). Therefore, it is a preferred approach to utilize QCL.

[0055] Therefore, the present disclosure relates to the allocation and design of paging occasions.

[0056] Figure 9 shows a user equipment and a base station corresponding to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The user equipment 910 (i.e., a user device (UE) or a user terminal) and the base station 960 (i.e., an NR gNB) communicate with each other via a radio channel 950.

[0057] This disclosure relates to the transmission and reception of paging signals, and in particular, to the determination of the position and / or length of paging signals. In particular, it relates to determining the position and length of paging occasions, taking into account beam sweeping operations as used in NR.

[0058] Furthermore, in some embodiments, other constraints to be considered (which may result from some desirable design principles being considered in 3GPP) include pre-synchronization, avoidance of CORESET collisions, and load adaptation (i.e., the paging capacity needs to be at least equal to and adjustable in LTE). Generally, a unified framework is desirable. This means that there is a solution that can be applied regardless of other settings of the cell (possibly using different configurations), and such a solution is not a fragmented solution that requires another solution, for example, when some parameters of the cell are changed. In other words, the basis for having a predefined time domain pattern for paging occasions and providing parameterization for configuring that pattern is to define such a unified framework.

[0059] To efficiently signal paging information, in some embodiments, the location of the paging information is determined by a parameterized predefined pattern that the network (e.g., base station) constructs using at least one parameter about the user equipment. The term "predefined" for this pattern means that there are specific rules that the pattern follows, such as the regularity of the occurrence of the PO over time, in other words, constraints that limit the possible temporal location of the PO. The term "parameterized" means that as long as it follows the predefined pattern, a specific PO position over time can vary depending on the parameter. In particular, the paging occasion assignment is based on a predefined time domain assignment strategy. This method uses the entire paging cycle as one time frame, and the parameters of this method may be set according to the required paging capacity of the cell and the beam sweep (SSB) pattern.

[0060] Generally, the paging information may be transmitted by the network (e.g., base station on a radio interface) in the paging area of the system resources. The paging area is read by a group of terminals. The terminals read only the paging resources configured to carry the paging information among the resources that can generally be configured for the network to carry the paging information in order to save power.

[0061] According to one embodiment, the user equipment 910 shown in FIG. 9 includes a transceiver 920 including a transmitter and / or a receiver for transmitting and / or receiving data to / from a base station, and a circuit 930. During operation, the circuit 930 receives a paging occasion configuration from the base station via the transceiver 920, and this paging occasion configuration includes at least one parameter for configuring a predetermined time region pattern for receiving paging occasions within a paging cycle. Next, the circuit 930 receives (via the transceiver 920) a paging signal within a paging occasion within the predetermined time region pattern configured according to the received paging occasion configuration.

[0062] This user equipment may be any device that implements UE functions in a standard such as LTE or NR. In other words, this may be a mobile phone, a smartphone, a receiver implemented within a laptop or a tablet or a computer, or any terminal device such as, for example, a machine-to-machine communication device. This user equipment may also have a relay function.

[0063] The base station 960 for transmitting and / or receiving data to / from a user equipment in a communication system includes a processing circuit 980 that transmits (via the transceiver 970) a paging occasion configuration to the user equipment during operation. This paging occasion configuration includes at least one parameter for configuring a predetermined time region pattern for receiving paging occasions within a paging cycle, and this processing circuit 980 transmits (via the transceiver 970) a paging signal within one or more paging occasions within the predetermined time region pattern configured according to the received paging occasion configuration.

[0064] This base station may generally be any radio interface for a network (cellular network) to which paging is applied. For example, this base station may correspond to an eNB in LTE, or a gNB in NR, or any similar station. Further, this base station may be a repeater that provides a radio interface to user equipment.

[0065] Transceivers 920 and 970 each include a transmitter and a receiver. These transmitters and receivers may be of any known configuration, and may include antennas (antenna arrays for beamforming), amplifiers, and possibly additional electronics for transmitting and receiving signals at desired time and frequency resources. On the other hand, processing circuits 930 and 980 perform baseband processing such as transmission and reception of signaling and data, that is, process the signals received via respective transceivers 920 and 970 to extract (i.e., demodulate and decode) and decode signaling and data. Further, these circuits may map signaling and data to resources and transmit them via respective transceivers 920 and 970. These transceivers enable communication via a channel 950 formed by specific physical resources such as a frequency band and time for transmission and / or reception.

[0066] As described above, in these embodiments, the procedures of synchronization and paging share some common features such as being transmitted from the same (or substantially the same) transmission and reception point (TRP), such as a base station, using the same beam structure. Therefore, it is practical to associate these two procedures. Synchronization resources will be referred to as synchronization blocks (SSBs). One SSB may be defined by its position among the communication system resources. For example, in NR, an SSB may be given as a block in a time-frequency grid, that is, as a specific number of symbols (in the time domain) and subcarriers (in the frequency domain).

[0067] Therefore, the above user equipment 910 and base station 960 utilize a predefined time-region pattern for the PO based on the paging period of the system. This predefined time-region pattern is parameterized so that they can be configured by the base station 960. In particular, this parameterization may include as input several parameters that can generally be configured by the operator of the communication system. Such input may be, for example, one or more of the following.

[0068] · A multiplexing pattern (e.g., as described above with reference to FIG. 5) that defines the relative positions of the synchronization signal block and the system information block. This parameter can further resolve possible positional collisions for the synchronization signal block (SSB) and the RMSI CORESET. Moreover, presynchronization can also be taken into account. This may be achieved by ensuring that the synchronization signal block regularly precedes the paging occasion so that an IDLE UE can update (i.e., resynchronize) its synchronization immediately before receiving paging. · Beam sweep configuration, and in particular, the maximum number of SSBs L, and / or the actual number of SSBs L'. These parameters may affect the required PO length. · Paging capacity, in particular the number of POs per paging period.

[0069] The PO configuration may include default rules. This rule can be, for example, the definition of a raster in a time domain that restricts the possible positions of the PO. Alternatively, this rule may be a uniform distribution of the PO over the entire paging cycle. These typical rules will be described in detail below. The position of the PO within the raster, or other constraints regarding the rule of uniform distribution, may be defined by further parameters and design rules. These further parameters may include adjustable cell parameters such as, for example, paging capacity. One possible design goal may be that both the scheme of the raster and the uniform distribution of the PO within the paging cycle can function with any multiplexing pattern (with or without bandwidth overlap).

[0070] Paging occasion arranged in the raster An example of a pattern and parameterization is as follows. That is, the default time domain pattern stipulates that the paging occasion can only exist within the normal raster within the paging cycle, and the paging occasion configuration indicates the raster position where the reception of the paging occasion should occur.

[0071] In particular, in this embodiment, the raster is defined within the time domain over the entire paging occasion cycle of the system. The raster points correspond to the candidate positions (possible start points) of the PO. Such a raster is illustrated on the left side of FIG. 10. The offset relative to the start of the paging cycle may define the raster position. This offset may be fixed (predetermined within the standard) or may be configurable (e.g., within the system information by the base station). Furthermore, the raster interval corresponds to the smallest possible PO interval. Here, the PO can be placed (i.e., start) at all raster points. The PO cannot start at positions other than the raster points. Furthermore, not every raster point necessarily contains a PO. The actual PO position may be assigned by other constraints.

[0072] For an operator operating a communication system including a base station or base stations, a plurality of raster with different subdivisions may be defined so that a selection from a plurality of predefined raster configurations is possible. In other words, the paging occasion configuration notified from the base station to the user equipment may indicate one of a plurality of predefined raster. In this case, an identifier can be assigned to each raster, and the signaling from the base station to the user equipment includes the designation of the identifier of the raster selected from among the plurality of raster.

[0073] In another example, the raster may be parameterized by directly signaling the selected raster interval (for example, a parameter defining the distance between adjacent raster points).

[0074] Assume that the raster has equally spaced raster points (illustrated as triangles in FIG. 10), that is, points arranged such that the distance between each pair of adjacent raster points is the same. Also, the selection of the raster may be implicitly determined according to the remaining cell configuration such as, for example, paging capacity or maximum number of SSBs.

[0075] Next, the actual presence of the PO at the raster point may be signaled or derived based on another constraint, or a combination of signaling and derivation may be used. For example, the presence of the PO may be signaled by the following.

[0076] · Bitmap A bitmap contains bits, and each bit may represent a respective raster point. In that case, the bit uses a first value (1 or 0) to indicate that the PO exists at each raster point associated with that bit, and uses a second value (0 or 1) to indicate that the PO does not exist at each raster point. By signaling this bitmap, sufficient flexibility is obtained when constructing the presence of the POs within the raster. On the other hand, this may cause a large overhead. This bitmap option is more suitable when L is small, because its use does not represent an absolutely large overhead (for a small number of bits, e.g., when L = 4, 8, less than 8 bits is sufficient). When L = 64, the raster is likely to be about 80 bits, so the transmission of an 80-bit bitmap may be restricted, because this is system information designed to be as small as possible normally. Therefore, when the value of L is large, the following short pattern can be a more efficient option.

[0077] · Repeating short pattern In practice, it is possible to include a large number of, for example, 128 POs within a paging cycle. In such a case, a raster with at least 128 points is required. Therefore, 128 bits are required to signal the presence of the POs for that raster by the above-mentioned bitmap (the bitmap becomes quite large). To reduce this overhead at the expense of some flexibility, it is to use a short pattern repeated throughout the raster. For example, assume the raster has 50 points. A short pattern may be defined according to the desired number of bits used for signaling the presence of the POs. For example, using only 4 bits, 32 POs (N POSuppose the actual placement of =32) is signaled. By using 4 bits, up to 16 different values corresponding to short patterns can be indicated (since the null pattern 0000 is not applicable, there are actually 15 values). Thus, when pattern 1001 is transmitted, the UE assumes that the PO appears at the position where 1 is placed and repeats this pattern until the required number of POs is reached. Therefore, the pattern of POs in the raster becomes 100110011001···1001 until 32 patterns of 1001 appear. In this way, instead of transmitting a 50-bit bitmap, only 4 bits are transmitted, but clearly restricted to 15 patterns. By signaling the repeating short pattern, flexibility is reduced, but the signaling overhead can be significantly reduced.

[0078] In other words, the bitmap may be signaled from the base station to the user equipment, where each bit is assigned to one raster time point, indicating whether a paging occasion is included at that raster time point. The bitmap contains 1 bit for each raster point within the paging cycle. The raster interval may be selected according to the maximum number of desired paging occasions per paging cycle (either implied by the number of paging occasions or explicitly signaled as described above).

[0079] Alternatively, instead thereof, new constraints are introduced that periodically repeat the placement of paging occasions within the raster according to a short pattern in order to reduce the overhead in bitmap signaling. This short pattern defines the actual presence of the POs for N adjacent raster points. N is an integer smaller than the number of raster points, for example, in particular, equal to or smaller than half of the number of raster points. Next, this short pattern may be signaled by a corresponding short (N-point) bitmap, where this bitmap uses each of the N bits to indicate the presence or absence of the PO at each corresponding raster point among the N raster points. At the user equipment, this short bitmap is received and decoded. That is, the N bits are periodically mapped to the raster points, whereby for each raster point, it is specified whether the PO is present there or not.

[0080] Note that the above examples of signaling the presence of the PO (raster bitmap, short bitmap) are merely representative examples and do not limit the present disclosure. Further, this short bitmap may have any length. Also, the length of this short bitmap may also be signaled, that is, it may be configurable. Alternatively, instead thereof, this may be implicitly specified based on other cell parameters, or may be fixed within the standard.

[0081] The start of the raster can be defined as an offset from the start of the paging cycle, as illustrated in FIG. 10. The target POs from the perspective of the UE can be autonomously identified by the UE. In other words, an individual UE does not necessarily have to receive at each PO that is shown to be present within the raster.

[0082] The gNB can flexibly avoid CORESET collisions, adjust the paging capacity, and change the time between POs by selecting the appropriate position and number of POs. The length of the PO is also considered. Therefore, although the raster is regular and equally spaced, the POs can be flexibly configured within the paging cycle.

[0083] According to a representative embodiment example, the raster time point is determined at a position within the paging cycle such that the configurable paging occasion does not overlap with the synchronization signal block. This is an exemplary constraint. Here, the overlap to be avoided is in the time domain when the bandwidth used by the PO overlaps with the synchronization signal block (see the multiplexing pattern 1 described above and FIG. 5).

[0084] Figure 11 shows a more detailed illustration of the raster-based PO pattern from the perspectives of both the base station and the user equipment. In particular, Figure 11 shows the paging cycle of the system and the offset indicating the start of the raster within each paging cycle. This raster is shown as triangles equally spaced by the "PO interval". The actual presence of the POs is shown by the dark triangles. The remaining triangles only represent the raster positions where the POs do not actually exist. At the bottom of Figure 11, shorter, UE-specific paging cycles are shown. In particular, six UE-specific cycles are shown, together with their respective numbers of POs, which are 3, 2, 4, 3, 2, 4 (shown as #PO). As can be seen from Figure 11, the paging cycle of the system and the UE-specific paging cycles do not necessarily match or harmonize. The UE may be configured to read only one PO, called the "target PO", within the UE-specific cycle. Such a target PO may be identified by the UE by using a formula (known to both the base station and the UE). Such a formula may include a modulo calculation. For example, if there are the same number of POs within the UE-specific cycle, this calculation may be performed as a modulo operation by dividing the number of POs per UE-specific cycle by a number calculated based on the UE identity and, optionally, some other parameters. In Figure 11, the number of POs within the UE-specific cycle is different. According to a representative exemplary embodiment, this target PO may be calculated by applying the modulo number specified as the minimum number of POs within the UE-specific cycle. In the example of Figure 11, the value of the minimum number of POs per UE-specific cycle is 2. There may also be other solutions.

[0085] Figure 12 shows another example where the actual presence of the POs at the raster points is adjusted with the SSB burst positions. In particular, the POs exist only at raster points with no overlap with the SSB in the time domain. In particular, the cell configuration in this case is NPO = 32, T DRX = 320 ms, T SSB = 40 ms, and it is the multiplexing pattern 1. In this example, 32 PO0 to 31 are arranged over the entire DRX cycle (paging cycle).

[0086] Uniform distribution of POs within the paging period According to another embodiment, the default time region pattern defines that the paging occasion is received within a time interval uniformly distributed within the paging cycle, and the paging occasion configuration shows the periodicity of this uniformly distributed time interval. This is illustrated on the right side of FIG. 10. In this case, a PO exists in each of the uniformly distributed time segments, and as a result, the PO interval is given by the ratio of the duration of the paging cycle (system cycle) to the number of desired POs.

[0087] In other words, the idea of this embodiment is to provide the characteristics of a default paging occasion by allocating N PO POs evenly distributed (over the entire paging occasion cycle) at positions that can be calculated by the UE according to a default rule.

[0088] For example, one rule may be to avoid collisions with SSB in the multiplexing pattern 1 by adopting the immediately following (or immediately preceding) slot when a collision occurs, or by skipping that PO, etc. Generally, the collision avoidance rule may be to adopt the i-th slot after or before the end of the synchronization signal. As another executable measure, assume that the half-frame where the SSB exists simply does not exist (remove this), and make the PO follow the uniform distribution in the remaining timeline.

[0089] To notify the UE of the PO placement, it is necessary to know the number of POs within a period and the offset within the paging period where the first PO is placed. This offset may be fixed or configurable, similar to the raster offset in the raster embodiments described above. Usually, this offset is smaller than the distance between adjacent POs. In a similar LTE design, N PO can be selected from a predefined set, such as {4, 16, 32, 64}, etc. However, this is only a non-limiting example of the present disclosure.

[0090] The target PO from the UE's perspective can be autonomously identified by the UE, as also shown in the above embodiments. Therefore, the UE can calculate which POs within the system period it needs to receive (check) based on a formula or algorithm known to both the base station and the UE. Next, the base station distributes the paging indication (DCI) for a specific UE within the POs that the UE reads.

[0091] In this embodiment, since there are POs at all N PO positions, this approach is more suitable for multiplexing pattern 2 or 3 where no overlap with the SSB occurs. However, as previously mentioned, the offset setting may help avoid collisions with the SSB, and there may be some other constraints that allow this embodiment to be adopted for pattern 1 as well.

[0092] FIG. 13 illustrates an example where the POs are evenly distributed over the entire DRX period. This representative cell configuration has N PO = 32, T DRX = 320 ms, T SSB = 40 ms, and multiplexing pattern 2. As a result, the SSB is placed in a frequency band different from the frequency band where the POs are placed. Therefore, no collision occurs.

[0093] In a representative example of an embodiment, periodicity is defined as the number of paging occasions within a paging cycle in a received paging occasion configuration. This means a way to specify periodicity (which in this case corresponds to the time between POs). The paging cycle here means the system (network) cycle defined by system parameters (it should be understood). This is the default value that the UE should use unless otherwise indicated. The term "DRX cycle" is sometimes applied because it identifies the period during which the UE can switch reception off and the period during which the UE needs to wake up to monitor that paging occasion. The paging cycle by the network and the paging cycle by the UE may be the same or different as described above with reference to FIG. 11.

[0094] In the example of FIG. 13, the paging occasion is transmitted in a frequency sub-band that does not overlap with the frequency sub-band in which the synchronization signal block is transmitted. This applies to multiplexing patterns 2 and 3.

[0095] Other configurations As described above, in principle, both the raster-based PO arrangement and the evenly distributed PO arrangement may generally be used for any of the multiplexing patterns.

[0096] However, according to one example, the configuration of the multiplexing pattern may be associated with each individual predefined PO pattern (predefined time domain pattern for paging reception). For example, multiplexing pattern 1 (where the SSB and the PO are arranged in the same frequency band) may be associated with a raster-based PO arrangement, while the multiplexing pattern in which the SSB and the PO are arranged in non-overlapping frequency bands (patterns 2 and 3 in the above example) may be associated with a uniform PO distribution.

[0097] Other adoption examples of the above embodiments are also conceivable. For example, the standard may enable only one of the raster-based PO placement method and the PO placement method with uniform distribution. Alternatively, instead, it may be possible to configure by the base station whether the raster-based PO placement or the PO placement with uniform distribution should be applied. Alternatively, or in addition thereto, some cell parameters may restrict the application of the raster-based PO placement and / or the PO placement with uniform distribution.

[0098] In a representative embodiment example, the processing circuit of the operating user equipment further configures the reception of paging signals within the paging occasion according to the paging occasion calculation specific to the user equipment and / or according to the beam sweep configuration set in the base station. In particular, the PO calculation is specific to the UE, and this calculation identifies one PO within the DRX cycle.

[0099] The paging occasion configuration may be signaled within the broadcast channel (PBCH) by the base station and includes an offset relative to the start of the paging cycle. This offset may indicate the start of the raster or the position of the first PO in the case of a uniform PO distribution. In other words, this offset defines the start of a predefined time region pattern for receiving paging.

[0100] FIG. 14 shows an example of parameters that can determine the placement of POs to be received (checked) by the user equipment. First, signaling 1410 is provided from the base station to the user equipment, and this signaling can define an allocation strategy (a predefined time domain pattern, e.g., raster-based or uniform distribution), parameters for this allocation strategy (e.g., raster interval, PO interval, and / or offset), and the presence of POs (e.g., bitmap, short bitmap) for (raster allocation). This information may be provided within the default paging configuration and / or signaled within the system information block (SIB), and is common to the cell.

[0101] Next, the UE-specific paging configuration 1420 can be signaled to the UE via the RRC (Radio Resource Control protocol). This can define the UE-specific period and other parameters. The minimum number of POs (not necessarily the target POs) within the DRX period is recognized by the UE from the system configuration that defines the system paging period and PO allocation. As described with reference to FIG. 11, the minimum number of POs within the UE-specific period can be used as a modulo argument. Paging load balancing depends, for example, on how the DRX period is allocated and the paging allocation scheme configuration, which is up to the gNB.

[0102] Finally, the system information may be updated by the base station via cell broadcast (1430), and this system information may include one or more parameters described with reference to signaling 1410.

[0103] Regarding the determination of the length of the PO, the length of the PO may depend on the number of SSBs (beams to be swept). FIG. 3B illustrates the case where the PO length in symbols / slots is arbitrary (e.g., M PO ) but can be proportional to L and L'. M PO>L×S P always holds true. S P is the number of symbols to be used for paging CORESET according to the table in FIG. 7. In other words, the length of the PO can be specified as being greater than (or equal to) the product of the maximum number of beams (L) and the number of time domain symbols configured for paging resources by both the user equipment and the base station. Note that from the perspective of PO allocation, the PO length is only relevant to the gNB. Although the UE can also know its length, from the UE's perspective, it is important to know the start point of the PO and then the offset of the relevant CORESET within the PO. And unless the UE has no clue about the location of the relevant CORESET, in such a case, the PO length may also be relevant to the UE because the UE needs to monitor the entire PO.

[0104] The position of the PO needs to be configured flexibly to take into account multiple options available in NR. By using the above-mentioned allocation strategy, an integrated framework can be obtained that flexibly indicates the position of the PO in a manner compatible with executable configurations available in NR, such as the multiplexed CORESET-SSB multiplexing pattern. Furthermore, less signaling is required and (unless a UE-specific DRX cycle is configured) UE-specific signaling is not necessary. In FIG. 3B, the individual offsets of each paging CORESET within each slot may be indicated using RMSI.

[0105] As described above, these embodiments relate to the identification of the positions of POs. This is implemented on both sides of the user equipment and the base station. The configuration of the POs within the paging period is the same and applicable to both sides. However, the base station may be configured to configure the allocation of POs (e.g., by setting parameters for identifying the positions of POs), while the user equipment may be configured to receive the configuration and identify the positions of the relevant POs. Next, the user equipment may identify a target PO based on the positions of the POs within the paging period and then actually monitor this target PO.

[0106] Therefore, the allocation and signaling of POs may also be implemented by the base station so that they are not repeated here.

[0107] Furthermore, a method for transmitting and / or receiving a paging signal corresponding to the steps implemented by the processing circuits of the user equipment and the base station described above with reference to FIG. 9 is provided.

[0108] In particular, a method for transmitting and / or receiving data to and from a base station in a communication system and to be implemented in a user equipment, the method comprising receiving from the base station a paging occasion configuration including at least one parameter for configuring a predetermined time domain pattern for receiving a paging occasion within a paging period, and implementing receiving a paging signal within the paging occasion within the predetermined time domain pattern configured according to the received paging occasion configuration. Such a method may be implemented by any processing circuit or in a single processor.

[0109] Furthermore, a method for transmitting and / or receiving data to / from a user equipment in a communication system, and a method to be implemented in a base station, the method comprising: transmitting to the user equipment a paging occasion configuration including at least one parameter for configuring a predetermined time region pattern for receiving a paging occasion within a paging cycle; and transmitting a paging signal in one or more paging occasions within the predetermined time region pattern configured according to the transmitted paging occasion configuration.

[0110] Note that the method may include any of the steps described with reference to the above-described processing circuit, according to any of the embodiments and examples.

[0111] Furthermore, a non-transitory storage medium storing program code including code instructions for performing all steps of the above-described method when executed on a processor (or generally a processing circuit) can be provided.

[0112] The present disclosure can be implemented by software, by hardware, or by software cooperating with hardware. Each functional block used in the description of each of the above-described embodiments can be implemented, in part or in whole, by an LSI such as an integrated circuit, and each process described in each embodiment can be controlled, in part or in whole, by the same LSI or a combination of LSIs. The LSI can be formed individually as a chip, or one chip can be formed so as to include part or all of the functional blocks. The LSI can include a data input / output section coupled to itself. The LSI is also referred to as an IC, a system LSI, a super LSI, or an ultra LSI according to the difference in the degree of integration. However, the technology for implementing the integrated circuit is not limited to the LSI, and can be implemented by using a dedicated circuit, a general-purpose processor, or a dedicated processor. Furthermore, an FPGA (field programmable gate array) that can be programmed after the manufacture of the LSI, or a reconfigurable processor that can reconfigure the connection and setting of circuit cells arranged inside the LSI can also be used. The present disclosure can be implemented as digital processing or analog processing. As a result of the progress of semiconductor technology or another derivative technology, when the LSI is replaced by a future integrated circuit technology, the functional blocks can be integrated using the future integrated circuit technology. Biotechnology can also be applied.

[0113] In summary, according to Example 1, there is provided a user equipment for transmitting and / or receiving data to / from a base station in a communication system, which, during operation, receives a paging occasion configuration from the base station including at least one parameter for configuring a predetermined time domain pattern for receiving a paging occasion within a paging cycle, and includes a circuit for performing reception of a paging signal within the paging occasion within the predetermined time domain pattern configured according to the received paging occasion configuration.

[0114] According to Example 2, in Example 1, the predefined time region pattern stipulates that paging occasions can only exist within the normal raster during the paging cycle, and the paging occasion configuration indicates the raster position where the reception of the paging occasion should be carried out.

[0115] In Example 1 or 2, the paging occasion configuration indicates at least one of the following: (i) one of a predefined plurality of rasters, (ii) a bitmap indicating whether the paging occasion is included at that raster time point by one bit for each raster time point, and (iii) a short bitmap shorter than the number of raster points in the paging cycle, which, when periodically repeated, is a short bitmap indicating whether the paging occasion is included at that raster time point by one bit for each raster time point.

[0116] The raster time point may be defined at a position within the paging cycle such that configurable paging occasions do not overlap with the synchronization signal block.

[0117] The predefined time region pattern may stipulate that paging occasions are received within a uniformly distributed time interval during the paging cycle, and the paging occasion configuration may indicate the periodicity of this uniformly distributed time interval.

[0118] In one example, the periodicity is defined as the number of paging occasions within the paging cycle in the received paging occasion configuration.

[0119] In some embodiments, the paging occasion is transmitted within a frequency sub-band that does not overlap with the frequency sub-band in which the synchronization signal block is transmitted.

[0120] According to an exemplary embodiment, during operation, the processing circuitry of the user equipment performs reception of paging signals within a paging occasion, according to a paging occasion calculation specific to the user equipment and / or according to a beam sweep configuration set at the base station.

[0121] In some embodiments, the paging occasion configuration is signaled by the base station within a broadcast channel and includes an offset relative to the start of the paging cycle.

[0122] Provided is a base station for transmitting and / or receiving data to and from a user equipment in a communication system, which during operation comprises processing circuitry for transmitting to the user equipment a paging occasion configuration including at least one parameter for configuring a predefined time region pattern for receiving paging occasions within a paging cycle, and for transmitting paging signals in one or more paging occasions within the predefined time region pattern configured according to the transmitted paging occasion configuration.

[0123] In this exemplary instance, according to one embodiment, the predefined time region pattern defines that paging occasions can only exist within a normal raster within the paging cycle, and the paging occasion configuration indicates the raster positions at which reception of paging occasions is to be performed.

[0124] This paging occasion configuration may indicate at least one of: (i) one of a plurality of default rasters; (ii) a bitmap indicating whether paging is included at each raster time point by one bit for each raster time point; and (iii) a short bitmap shorter than the number of raster points in the paging period, which, when periodically repeated, indicates whether paging is included at each raster time point by one bit for each raster time point.

[0125] The raster time point may be defined at a position within the paging period such that the configurable paging occasion does not overlap with the synchronization signal block.

[0126] In this general example, according to one embodiment, the default time region pattern specifies that paging is transmitted within uniformly distributed time intervals within the paging period, and the paging occasion configuration indicates the periodicity of these uniformly distributed time intervals.

[0127] This periodicity may be defined as the number of paging occasions within the paging period in the transmitted paging occasion configuration.

[0128] Furthermore, paging can be transmitted within a frequency subband that does not overlap with the frequency subband in which the synchronization signal block is transmitted.

[0129] In one example, the processing circuit of the operating base station transmits a paging signal within a paging occasion that is further configured according to a paging occasion calculation specific to the user equipment and / or according to a beam sweep configuration set at the base station.

[0130] The paging occasion configuration can be signaled by a base station within a broadcast channel and includes an offset relative to the start of a paging cycle.

[0131] A corresponding method is also provided. In one example, a method for transmitting and / or receiving data between a user equipment and a base station in a communication system, and a method to be implemented in the user equipment, the method comprising receiving from the base station a paging occasion configuration including at least one parameter for configuring a predefined time region pattern for receiving a paging occasion within a paging cycle; and performing reception of a paging signal within the paging occasion within the predefined time region pattern configured according to the received paging occasion configuration.

[0132] Furthermore, a method for transmitting and / or receiving data between a base station and a user equipment in a communication system, and a method to be implemented in the base station, the method comprising transmitting to the user equipment a paging occasion configuration including at least one parameter for configuring a predefined time region pattern for receiving a paging occasion within a paging cycle; and transmitting a paging signal in one or more paging occasions within the predefined time region pattern configured according to the received paging occasion configuration.

Claims

1. A communication system including a user equipment and a base station, The user equipment, receiving a paging occasion configuration from a base station, the paging occasion configuration including at least one parameter for configuring a predefined time domain pattern for receiving paging occasions within a paging period; a processing circuit that facilitates reception of paging signals within the paging occasions within the predefined time domain pattern configured according to the received paging occasion configuration; Equipped with The paging occasion configuration, (i) one of a plurality of predefined rasters; (ii) a bitmap indicating, with one bit for each raster time point, whether a paging occasion is included in the raster time point; and (iii) a short bitmap shorter than the number of raster points in the paging cycle, the short bitmap indicating whether a paging occasion is included in the raster time point by a respective bit for each raster time point; and The base station, transmitting said paging occasion configuration to said user equipment; A base station side processing circuit for transmitting the paging signal; Equipped with Communication systems.

2. the predefined time domain pattern specifies that the paging occasions may only occur within a regular raster within the paging cycle; the paging occasion configuration indicating a raster position at which reception of the paging occasion should be performed; The communication system according to claim 1 .

3. the raster time points are defined at positions within the paging cycle such that the configurable paging occasions do not overlap with synchronization signal blocks. The communication system according to claim 1 .

4. the predefined time domain pattern specifies that the paging occasions are received within uniformly distributed time intervals within the paging period; the paging occasion configuration indicating a periodicity of the uniformly distributed time intervals. The communication system according to claim 1 .

5. the periodicity being defined in the received paging occasion configuration as a number of paging occasions within the paging period; 5. The communication system according to claim 4.

6. the paging occasions are transmitted in a frequency sub-band that does not overlap with a frequency sub-band in which a synchronization signal block is transmitted.

5. The communication system according to claim 4.

7. the processing circuitry effects reception of the paging signal within the paging occasion further configured according to a paging occasion calculation specific to the user equipment and / or according to a beam sweep configuration configured at the base station. The communication system according to claim 1 .

8. the paging occasion configuration is signaled by the base station in a broadcast channel and includes an offset relative to a start of the paging period. The communication system according to claim 1 .

9. 1. A method implemented in a communications system including a user equipment and a base station, comprising: The user equipment receiving a paging occasion configuration from the base station, the paging occasion configuration including at least one parameter for configuring a predefined time domain pattern for receiving paging occasions within a paging period; effecting reception of paging signals within the paging occasions within the predefined time domain pattern configured according to the received paging occasion configuration; The base station transmitting said paging occasion configuration to said user equipment; transmitting said paging signal; Including, The paging occasion configuration, (i) one of a plurality of predefined rasters; (ii) a bitmap indicating, with one bit for each raster time point, whether a paging occasion is included in the raster time point; and (iii) a short bitmap shorter than the number of raster points in the paging cycle, the short bitmap indicating whether a paging occasion is included in the raster time point by a respective bit for each raster time point; Indicating at least one of method.

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