Method and system for secondary cell beam recovery

Abstract

To provide a system, a device, a method, and a computer-readable medium for use in a wireless network for configuring and implementing a secondary cell beam failure recovery procedure.SOLUTION: In user equipment (UE) including a wireless front end circuit and a processor circuit coupled to the wireless front end circuit, the processor circuit detects that a first beam associated with a secondary cell (SCell) is misaligned. The first beam is associated with a first reference signal (RS). The processor circuit also configures a beam failure recovery (BFR) procedure for the SCell and performs the BFR procedure to replace the first beam with a second beam. The second beam is associated with the SCell.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 13

Description

Technical Field

[0001] (Cross - Reference to Related Applications) This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62 / 807,188, filed on Feb. 18, 2019, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

[0002] Various embodiments may generally relate to the field of wireless communication.

Summary of the Invention

[0003] Some embodiments of the present disclosure include systems, devices, methods, and computer - readable media for use in a wireless network for configuring and implementing a secondary cell beam failure recovery procedure.

[0004] Some embodiments relate to a user equipment (UE). The UE includes a radio front - end circuit and a processor circuit coupled to the radio front - end circuit. The processor circuit may be configured to detect that a first beam associated with a secondary cell (SCell) is inconsistent. The first beam is associated with a first reference signal (RS). The processor circuit may be further configured to configure a beam failure recovery (BFR) procedure for the SCell and execute the BFR procedure to replace the first beam with a second beam, where the second beam is associated with the SCell.

[0005] Some embodiments relate to a method. The method includes detecting, by a user equipment (UE), that a first beam associated with a secondary cell (SCell) is inconsistent. The first beam is associated with a first reference signal (RS). The method may further include configuring a beam failure recovery (BFR) procedure for the SCell and executing the BFR procedure to replace the first beam with a second beam, where the second beam is associated with the SCell. )

[0006] Some embodiments relate to user equipment (UE). The UE includes a memory configured to store program instructions and a processor. The processor may be configured to detect, upon execution of a program instruction, that a first beam associated with a secondary cell (SCell) is mismatched. The first beam is associated with a first reference signal (RS). The processor may be further configured to configure a beam fault recovery (BFR) procedure for the SCell and to perform the BFR procedure to replace the first beam with a second beam, the second beam being associated with the SCell. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0007] [Figure 1] The following are exemplary medium access control (MAC) control elements (CEs) for beam fault recovery requests (BFRQ) according to several embodiments. [Figure 2] This document illustrates exemplary associations between beam obstruction requirement configurations in several embodiments. [Figure 3] The architecture of a network system according to several embodiments is shown. [Figure 4] The architecture of a system including a first core network, according to several embodiments, is shown. [Figure 5] The architecture of a system including a second core network in several embodiments is shown. [Figure 6] Examples of infrastructure facilities in various embodiments are shown. [Figure 7] This document illustrates exemplary components of a computer platform in various embodiments. [Figure 8] Exemplary components of baseband circuits and radio frequency circuits according to various embodiments are shown. [Figure 9] This diagram illustrates various protocol functions that can be used in various protocol stacks through various embodiments. [Figure 10] The components of the core network are shown in various embodiments. [Figure 11] This is a block diagram showing the components of a system for supporting NFV in various embodiments. [Figure 12] The following are block diagrams showing components that, according to some exemplary embodiments, can read instructions from a machine-readable medium or a computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-temporary machine-readable storage medium) and perform one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. [Figure 13] For example, an exemplary flowchart for implementing various embodiments discussed herein for configuring and performing a secondary cell beam fault recovery procedure is shown.

[0008] The features and advantages of the embodiments will become apparent from the detailed description below in conjunction with the drawings, where similar reference numerals throughout the drawings identify corresponding elements. In the drawings, similar reference numerals generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and / or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit (or number) in the corresponding reference numeral. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0009] The following detailed descriptions refer to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numerals may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, specific details such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, and techniques are described for illustrative purposes only, not to limit, in order to provide a complete understanding of the various aspects of the various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art who are interested in this disclosure that various aspects of the various embodiments may be implemented in other embodiments that deviate from these specific details. In some cases, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the various embodiments with unnecessary details. For the purposes of this document, each of the phrases “A or B,” “A / B,” and “A and / or B” means (A), (B), or (A and B).

[0010] Beam Fault Recovery (BFR) is defined in New Radio (NR) Release 15 (Rel-15). One concept is that a user equipment (UE) detects that the beams in the next-generation node B (gNB) and / or UE are mismatched. As a result, the network (NW) cannot reach the UE. In this situation, the UE can search for a new reference signal (RS) among the candidate beams configured by the Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol for BFR procedures that satisfies a specific criterion, for example, that the reference signal received power (RSRP) of the new beam exceeds the signaled RSRP threshold. If such an RS is found, the UE can (i) use that RS as a quasi-colocated (QCL) RS to perform uncontested random access to the cell (via the random access preamble associated with the selected beam RS), or (ii) perform contest-based random access to the cell. Next, the NW proceeds to reconfigure the Transmit Configuration Instruction (TCI) state of the Control Channel Resource Set (CORESET) by transmitting the corresponding Medium Access Control (MAC) control element (CE), scheduled by the control channel in the configured BFR search space, to the UE. In this way, beam fault recovery is completed. In the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Technical Specification (TS) 38.213 (Rel-15), this procedure is known as the link recovery procedure.

[0011] Currently, the link recovery procedure in 3GPP TS38.213 (Rel-15) is only supported for primary cells (PCell). Furthermore, the link recovery procedure is currently under development for NR Release 16 (Rel-16). As a result, some aspects of the signaling and procedural details for the link recovery procedure remain unresolved.

[0012] Embodiments of this disclosure relate to techniques that enable link recovery procedures for secondary cells (SCells). The embodiments described provide a trade-off between signaling / resource overhead and link recovery efficiency. • Exemplary Embodiment 1: Per-Serving Cell Beam Fault Recovery Configuration: In this exemplary embodiment, the SCell's BFR configuration may be configured as a per-serving cell configuration, e.g., "ServingCellConfig" in 3GPP TS38.331(Rel-15), instead of a per-uplink configuration, e.g., "UplinkConfig" in 3GPP TS38.331(Rel-15). This extension makes it possible to perform BFR procedures in the serving cell without uplink (UL) data transmission capabilities. • Exemplary Embodiment 2: Secondary Cell BFR Request via MAC CE Signaling: In this exemplary embodiment, UL MAC CE can be used by the UE to send a BFR request (BFRQ) to the NW to inform the NW of the index of the SCell experiencing beam mismatch and a recommended new beam index where the RSRP exceeds the threshold set for BFR. • Exemplary Embodiment 3: BFR configured per cell group in the MAC entity: In this exemplary embodiment, BeamFailureRequestConfig may be configured in the MAC entity for each cell group. Each beam failure request configuration is identified by BeamFailureRequestId and corresponds to a SCell that supports the BFR procedure. The list of BeamFailureRequestResourceConfigs can be configured for each (physical uplink control channel) PUCCH-Config, and each BeamFailureRequestResourceConfig can be associated with multiple BeamFailureRequestConfigs, so that the same BeamFailureRequestResourceConfig can be used by multiple BeamFailureRequestConfigs corresponding to different SCells. ·Exemplary Embodiment 4: Event-triggered Layer 1 (L1) Channel State Information (CSI) Reporting for SCell BFRQ: In this exemplary embodiment, it is proposed that event-triggered L1 CSI reporting associated with an SCell is transmitted by a corresponding BFRQ determined by the MAC BFR procedure. The BFRQ CSI report can include information regarding the RSRP of a new beam for link recovery and the SCell index.

[0013] The embodiments described herein enable a BFR procedure for a serving cell. Embodiments of MAC CE and event-triggered L1 CSI reporting provide a good trade-off between resource / signaling overhead and link recovery efficiency. Embodiment 1: Beam Failure Recovery Configuration for Each Serving Cell

[0014] In this exemplary embodiment, the BFR configuration of the SCell is configured with a per-serving cell configuration, such as "ServingCellConfig" in 3GPP TS38.331 (Rel-15), instead of a per-ul configuration, such as UplinkConfig in 3GPP TS38.331 (Rel-15). According to some embodiments, this extension enables the execution of the BFR procedure in the serving cell without a UL data transmitter function. Further, the BFR of the SCell does not depend on the random access channel (RACH) procedure in the SCell. According to some embodiments, the BFR configuration can be designed as follows.

Number

[0015] In this exemplary embodiment, the UL MAC CE is used by the UE to send a BFRQ to the NW to notify (i) the index of the SCell experiencing beam misalignment, and (ii) the index of a recommended new beam whose RSRP exceeds the threshold set for BFR. The NW selects and reconfigures a new beam / TCI state for the CORESET within the SCell by means of a downlink (DL) MAC CE. When receiving the MAC CE that conveys the reconfiguration of the CORESET TCI state, the BFR of the SCell is successfully completed. The UL MAC CE for BFRQ can be transmitted in (i) the PCell, and (ii) the SCell that supports UL transmission. An exemplary MAC CE 100 is shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 shows an exemplary media access control (MAC) control element (CE) for beam failure recovery request (BFRQ) according to several embodiments.

[0016] The BFRQ MAC CE that signals a new candidate beam with RSRP exceeding the set threshold is identified by a MAC protocol data unit (PDU) sub-header having a new logical channel identifier (LCID) defined in 3GPP TS38.321 (Rel-15). It can have a variable size and include the following fields. -Serving Cell ID 102: This field indicates the identity of the serving cell having beam mismatch to which MAC CE100 is applied. According to some embodiments, the length of the field is 5 bits. However, embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to this exemplary length. -Bandwidth Part (BWP) ID 104: This field indicates the UL BWP to which MAC CE100 applies, as a code point for the DCI Bandwidth Part Indicator field as defined in 3GPP TS38.212. According to some embodiments, the length of the BWP ID field is 2 bits. However, embodiments of this disclosure are not limited to this exemplary length. -T i 106a~106n: This field indicates the activation / deactivation status of the PRACH-ResourceDedicatedBFR having the sequential index i set in candidateBeamRSList in BeamFailureRecoveryConfig. According to some embodiments, T i The field is set to "1" to indicate that the RSRP of the PRACH-ResourceDedicatedBFR with order index i is above the set threshold for the BFR. Otherwise, T i The field is set to "0". N refers to the maximum number of PRACH-ResourceDedicatedBFRs that can be composed of candidateBeamRSList, for example, N can be 16. -R108: Reserved bit, set to "0". Embodiment 3: BFR configured for each cell group in the MAC entity:

[0017] In this exemplary embodiment, the BeamFailureRequestConfig may consist of MAC entities for each cell group. Each beam failure request configuration is identified by a BeamFailureRequestId and corresponds to a SCell that supports the BFR procedure. The BeamFailureRequestConfig can be designed as follows:

number

[0018] A list of BeamFailureRequestResourceConfigs can be configured for each PUCCH-Config (physical uplink control channel), and each BeamFailureRequestResourceConfig can be associated with multiple BeamFailureRequestConfigs, so that the same BeamFailureRequestResourceConfig can be used by multiple BeamFailureRequestConfigs corresponding to different SCells. For example, a BeamFailureRequestResourceConfig can be specified as follows:

number

[0019] As a result, the relationships between all configurations related to BFRQ can be summarized in Figure 2. Figure 2 shows exemplary relationships between beam fouling requirement configurations according to several embodiments. Embodiment 4: Reporting of an event-triggered L1 CSI regarding an SCell BFR request:

[0020] In this exemplary embodiment, an event-triggered L1 CSI report associated with a SCell is transmitted by the corresponding beam fault request resource determined by the MAC BFR procedure. The BFRQ CSI report may include information about link recovery and the new beam's RSRP relative to the SCell index. For example, the BFRQ CSI report can be designed as follows:

number

[0021] As a result, the contents of the CSI report can be listed in the table below. [Table 1] System and Implementation

[0022] Figure 3 shows exemplary architectures of network system 300 according to various embodiments. The following description is provided for exemplary system 300 operating in conjunction with LTE system standards and 5G or NR system standards, such as those provided by 3GPP technical specifications. However, exemplary embodiments are not limited in this respect, and the embodiments described may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems (e.g., 6th generation (6G)) systems and IEEE 802.16 protocols (e.g., WLAN, WiMAX, etc.).

[0023] As shown in Figure 3, system 300 includes UE301a and UE301b (collectively referred to as "UE301"). In this example, UE301 is illustrated as a smartphone (e.g., a portable touchscreen mobile computing device capable of connecting to one or more cellular networks), but may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device such as consumer devices, mobile phones, smartphones, feature phones, tablet computers, wearable computer devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handsets, desktop computers, laptop computers, infusion infotainment (IVI), in-vehicle entertainment (ICE) devices, instrument clusters (ICs), head-up display (HUD) devices, on-board diagnostic (OBD) devices, dash-top mobile devices (DMEs), mobile data terminals (MDTs), electronic engine management systems (EEMS), electronic / engine control units (ECUs), electronic engine / engine control modules (ECMs), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems (EMSs), networked or "smart" appliances, MTC devices, M2M, IoT devices, and / or similar.

[0024] In some embodiments, any of the UE301 may include an IoT UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications that leverage short-term UE connectivity. The IoT UE may utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC to exchange data with MTC servers or devices via PLMN, ProSe or D2D communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks. M2M data exchange or MTC data exchange may also be the exchange of machine activation data. The IoT network describes interconnected IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure) via short-term connectivity. The IoT UEs may run background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate connectivity within the IoT network.

[0025] UE301 may be configured to connect to RAN310, for example, to be communicatively coupled. In embodiments, RAN310 may be an NG RAN or 5G RAN, E-UTRAN, or a legacy RAN such as UTRAN or GERAN. As used herein, the terms "NG RAN," etc., refer to RAN310 operating in an NR or 5G system 300, and the terms "E-UTRAN," etc., refer to RAN310 operating in an LTE or 4G system 300. UE301 utilizes connections (or channels) 303 and 304, respectively, which each include a physical communication interface or layer (discussed in further detail below).

[0026] In this embodiment, connections 303 and 304 are shown as air interfaces to enable a communicable coupling and may be compliant with cellular communication protocols such as the GSM protocol, CDMA network protocol, PTT protocol, POC protocol, UMTS protocol, 3GPP LTE protocol, 5G protocol, NR protocol, and / or any other communication protocols discussed herein. In this embodiment, UE301 can also directly exchange communication data via the ProSe interface 305. The ProSe interface 305 may alternatively be referred to as the SL interface 305 and may include one or more logical channels, including but not limited to PSCCH, PSSCH, PSDCH, and PSBCH.

[0027] It is shown that UE301b is configured to access AP306 (also known as “WLAN node 306,” “WLAN306,” “WLAN terminal 306,” “WT306,” etc.) via connection 307. Connection 307 may include a local wireless connection such as a connection conforming to any IEEE 802.11 protocol, and AP306 will likely feature a WiFi (Wireless Fidelity)® router. In this example, AP306 connects to the internet without connecting to the core network of the wireless system, as illustrated (described in more detail below). In various embodiments, UE301b, RAN310, and AP306 may be configured to utilize LWA operation and / or LWIP operation. LWA operation may involve UE301b in an RRC connection configured by RAN nodes 311a-311b to utilize LTE and WLAN radio resources. LWIP operation may involve UE301b using WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 307) via an IPsec protocol tunnel to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) transmitted over connection 307. The IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packet.

[0028] RAN310 may include one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes 311a and 311b (collectively referred to as “RAN node 311”) that enable connections 303 and 304. As used herein, the terms “access node,” “access point,” etc., may describe equipment that provides radio baseband functionality for data and / or voice connections between the network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, NodeBs, RSUs, TRxP, or TRP, etc., and may comprise ground stations (e.g., ground access points) or satellite stations that provide effective communication range within a geographical area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, the terms “NG RAN node,” etc., may refer to a RAN node 311 operating on an NR or 5G system 300 (e.g., gNB), and the term “E-UTRAN node” may refer to a RAN node 311 operating on an LTE or 4G system 300 (e.g., eNB). Depending on the implementation, RAN node 311 may be implemented as one or more dedicated physical devices, such as macrocell base stations and / or low-power (LP) base stations, to provide femtocells, picocells, or other similar cells with smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacities, or higher bandwidths compared to macrocells.

[0029] In some implementations, all or part of the RAN node 311 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as CRAN and / or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these implementations, CRAN or vBBUP may implement RAN functional partitioning such as PDCP partitioning, where the RRC and PDCP layers are operated by CRAN / vBBUP and other L2 protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes 311; MAC / PHY partitioning, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by CRAN / vBBUP and the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 311; or "lower PHY" partitioning, where the upper part of the RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and PHY layers are operated by CRAN / vBBUP and the lower part of the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 311. This virtualized framework allows the freed processor cores of the RAN node 311 to run other virtualized applications. In some implementations, individual RAN nodes 311 may represent individual gNB-DUs connected to gNB-CUs via individual F1 interfaces (not shown in Figure 3). In these implementations, a gNB-DU may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs (see, e.g., Figure 6), and the gNB-CU may be operated by a server located in RAN 310 (not shown) or by a server pool in a manner similar to CRAN / vBBUP. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 311 may be next-generation eNBs (ng-eNBs), which are RAN nodes that provide E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminals to UE 301 and are connected to 5GC (e.g., CN520 in Figure 5) via an NG interface.

[0030] In a V2X scenario, one or more of the RAN nodes 311 can be or may serve as an RSU. The term “Road Side Unit” or “RSU” can refer to any transport infrastructure entity used for V2X communication. An RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or stationary (or relatively stationary) UE. An RSU implemented in or by a UE may be called a “UE-type RSU,” an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be called an “eNB-type RSU,” an RSU implemented in or by a gNB may be called a “gNB-type RSU,” and so on. In one example, an RSU is a computing device coupled to a roadside radio frequency circuit that provides connectivity support to a passing vehicle UE 301 (vUE 301). An RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry for storing intersection map shapes, traffic statistics, media, and applications / software for sensing and controlling oncoming vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU can operate in the 5.9GHz Direct Short Range Communication (DSRC) band to provide very low latency communication required for high-speed events such as collision avoidance and traffic warnings. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU can operate in the cellular V2X band to provide the aforementioned low latency communication, as well as other cellular communication services. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU can operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot (2.4GHz band) and / or provide connectivity to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communication. Some or all of the RSU's computing devices and radio frequency circuits can be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation and may include a network interface controller to provide wired connectivity (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller and / or backhaul network.

[0031] Any of the RAN nodes 311 can terminate the air interface protocol and become the first contact point of the UE301. In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 311 can perform various logical functions for the RAN310, including, but not limited to, radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[0032] According to some embodiments, UE301 can be configured to communicate with each other or with any of the RAN nodes 311 using OFDM communication signals via multi-carrier communication channels according to various communication technologies, such as OFDMA communication technology (e.g., for downlink communication) or SC-FDMA communication technology (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communication), but not limited to these, and the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect. OFDM signals may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0033] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 311 to UE301, while uplink transmissions can utilize similar techniques. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, also called a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which represents the physical resources of the downlink within each slot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is a common convention in OFDM systems, making radio resource allocation intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in the radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit of the resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid contains a number of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of specific physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block contains a set of resource elements, which in the frequency domain can represent the minimum amount of resources that can currently be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels that are transmitted using such resource blocks.

[0034] According to various embodiments, UE301 and RAN node 311 communicate data (e.g., transmit and receive) over an authorized medium (also called the “authorized spectrum” and / or “authorized band”) and an unauthorized shared medium (also called the “unauthorized spectrum” and / or “unauthorized band”). The authorized spectrum may include channels operating in a frequency range of approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, and the unauthorized spectrum may include a 5 GHz band.

[0035] To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, UE301 and RAN node 311 may operate using LAA, eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms. In these implementations, UE301 and RAN node 311 may perform one or more known medium detection and / or carrier detection operations to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied before transmission in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium / carrier detection operations may be performed according to the listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0036] LBT is a mechanism in which equipment (e.g., UE301, RAN node 311, etc.) detects a medium (e.g., a channel or carrier frequency) and transmits when it is detected that the medium is idle (or when it is detected that a particular channel within the medium is not occupied). The medium detection operation may include a CCA that utilizes at least an ED to determine the presence or absence of other signals on the channel in order to determine whether the channel is occupied or cleared. This LBT mechanism enables cellular / LAA networks to coexist with active systems in unlicensed spectrum and other LAA networks. The ED may include detecting RF energy over an intended transmission bandwidth over a period of time and comparing the detected RF energy to a predetermined or set threshold.

[0037] Typically, the current system in the 5GHz band is a WLAN based on IEEE 802.11 technology. WLANs employ a contention-based channel access mechanism called CSMA / CA. Here, if a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS) such as UE301, AP306) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmitting. Furthermore, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid collisions in situations where two or more WLAN nodes perceive a channel as idle and transmit simultaneously. The backoff mechanism may be a randomly drawn counter within the CWS, which increases exponentially when a collision occurs and is reset to a minimum value when the transmission is successful. LBT mechanisms designed for LAA are somewhat similar to the CSMA / CA of WLANs. In some implementations, the LBT procedure for DL ​​or UL transmit bursts, including PDSCH or PUSCH transmits respectively, may have an LAA conflict window of variable length between the XECCA and YECCA slots, where X and Y are the minimum and maximum values ​​of the CWS for LAA. For example, the minimum CWS for LAA transmission may be 9 microseconds (μs), but the size of the CWS and MCOT (e.g., transmit burst) may be based on government regulatory requirements.

[0038] The LAA mechanism is built upon the CA technology of the LTE Advanced System. In CA, each aggregated carrier is called a CC. A CC can have a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, or 20 MHz, and up to five CCs can be aggregated, so the maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100 MHz. In FDD systems, the number of aggregated carriers may differ between DL and UL, with the number of UL CCs being less than or equal to the number of DL element carriers. In some cases, individual CCs may have different bandwidths than other CCs. In TDD systems, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC are usually the same for DL ​​and UL.

[0039] CA also includes individual serving cells that provide individual CCs. For example, CCs in different frequency bands experience different path loss, so the effective communication range of a serving cell may differ. A primary service cell, or PCell, can provide PCCs to both UL and DL and can handle RRC and NAS-related activities. Other serving cells are called SCells, and each SCell can provide individual SCCs to both UL and DL. SCCs can be added and removed as needed, while changing the PCC may require the UE301 to undergo a handover. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all SCells can operate on an unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA SCells"), and LAA SCells are supported by PCells operating on licensed spectrums. If a UE consists of two or more LAA SCells, the UE can receive UL grants on the configured LAA SCells, indicating different PUSCH start locations within the same subframe.

[0040] The PDSCH carries user data and upper-layer signaling to the UE301. The PDCCH carries, among other things, information regarding the transport format and resource allocation associated with the PDSCH channel. It can also notify the UE301 of the transmission format, resource allocation, and HARQ information for the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (allocating control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE301b in the cell) may be performed on one of the RAN nodes 311 based on channel quality information fed back from one of the UE301s. Downlink resource allocation information may be transmitted on the (e.g., allocated) PDCCH used for each of the UE301s.

[0041] PDCCH transmits control information using CCEs. Before being mapped to resource elements, PDCCH complex numerical symbols may first be organized into four quadruplets, which may then be swapped using subblock interleavers for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, and each CCE can correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as REGs. Four quadruple phase shift modulation (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. A PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more CCEs depending on the size of the DCI and the channel state. There may be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation level, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

[0042] Some embodiments may use a concept for resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above concept. For example, some embodiments may utilize an EPDCCH that uses a PDSCH resource for transmitting control information. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more ECCEs. As above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as EREGs. In some situations, an ECCE may have a different number of EREGs.

[0043] RAN nodes 311 may be configured to communicate with each other via interface 312. In embodiments where system 300 is an LTE system (for example, when CN320 is EPC420 in Figure 4), interface 312 may be an X2 interface 312. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 311 (e.g., two or more eNBs) connected to EPC320, and / or between two eNBs connected to EPC320. In some implementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide a flow control mechanism for user data packets transmitted over the X2 interface and may be used to communicate information regarding the distribution of user data between eNBs. For example, X2-U may provide specific sequence number information for user data transferred from MeNB to SeNB, information regarding the success of sequence delivery of PDCP PDUs from SeNB to UE301 for user data, information regarding PDCP PDUs that were not delivered to UE301, and information regarding the current minimum desired buffer size in SeNB for sending UE user data. X2-C may provide LTE in-access mobility functions, load management functions, and inter-cell interference adjustment functions, including context transfer from source eNB to target eNB and user plane transport control.

[0044] In embodiments where system 300 is a 5G or NR system (for example, when CN320 is 5GC520 in Figure 5), interface 312 may be an Xn interface 312. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 311 connected to 5GC320 (e.g., two or more gNBs), between a RAN node 311 connected to 5GC320 (e.g., a gNB) and an eNB, and / or between two eNBs connected to 5GC320. In some implementations, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U provides unguaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and can support / provide data transfer and flow control functions. The Xn-C provides mobility support for connected mode UE301 (e.g., CM connection), including, among other functions, management and error handling functions, functions to manage the Xn-C interface, and functions to manage UE mobility for connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 311. Mobility support may include context transfer from the old (source) serving RAN node 311 to the new (target) serving RAN node 311 and control of the user plane tunnel between the old (source) serving RAN node 311 and the new (target) serving RAN node 311. The Xn-U protocol stack may include a transport network layer built on top of the Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer and a GTP-U layer on top of the UDP and / or IP layer to carry user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol (called the Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer built on top of SCTP. SCTP may be on top of the IP layer and may provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. Point-to-point transmission is used in the transport IP layer to deliver signaling PDUs.In other implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and / or Xn-C protocol stack may be the same as or similar to the user plane and / or control plane protocol stacks shown and described herein.

[0045] RAN310 is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network, in this embodiment, a core network (CN)320. CN320 may comprise a plurality of network elements 322 configured to provide various data and telecommunications services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UE301) connected to CN320 via RAN310. The components of CN320 may be implemented on a single physical node or separate physical nodes, including components for reading and executing instructions from machine-readable or computer-readable media (e.g., non-temporary machine-readable storage media). In some embodiments, NFV can be used to virtualize any or all of the above network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media (described in more detail below). Logical instantiations of CN320 may be referred to as network slices, and some logical instantiations of CN320 may be referred to as network subslices. The NFV architecture and infrastructure may be used to virtualize one or more network functions on physical resources, including a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches, or may be run on dedicated hardware. In other words, an NFV system can be used to perform a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more EPC components / functions.

[0046] Generally, the application server 330 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data service, etc.). The application server 330 may also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., VoIP session, PTT session, group communication session, social networking service, etc.) for the UE301 via the EPC320.

[0047] In the embodiment, CN320 may be a 5GC (referred to as "5GC320," etc.), and RAN310 may be connected to CN320 via NG interface 313. In the embodiment, NG interface 313 can be divided into two parts: an NG user plane (NG-U) interface 314 that carries traffic data between RAN node 311 and UPF, and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 315 that is a signaling interface between RAN node 311 and AMF. The embodiment in which CN320 is a 5GC320 will be described in more detail with reference to Figure 5.

[0048] In some embodiments, CN320 may be a 5G CN (referred to as "5GC320," etc.), and in other embodiments, CN320 may be an EPC. When CN320 is an EPC (referred to as "EPC320," etc.), RAN310 may be connected to CN320 via S1 interface 313. In some embodiments, S1 interface 313 may be divided into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 314 that carries traffic data between RAN node 311 and S-GW, and an S1-MME interface 315 that is a signaling interface between RAN node 311 and MME. An exemplary architecture in which CN320 is an EPC320 is shown in Figure 4.

[0049] Figure 4 shows exemplary architectures of system 400 including a first CN420 in various embodiments. In this example, system 400 can implement an LTE standard in which CN420 is EPC420 corresponding to CN320 in Figure 3. Furthermore, UE401 may be the same as or similar to UE301 in Figure 3, and E-UTRAN410 may be the same as or similar to RAN310 in Figure 3 and may include the aforementioned RAN node 311. CN420 may comprise MME421, S-GW422, P-GW423, HSS424, and SGSN425.

[0050] The MME421 may have similar functionality to the legacy SGSN control plane and may perform MM functions to track the current location of the UE401. The MME421 may perform various MM procedures to manage access mobility modes such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. MM (also called "EPSMM" or "EMM" in the E-UTRAN system) can refer to all applicable procedures, methods, data storage, etc., used to maintain knowledge about the current location of the UE401, provide confidentiality of user identity, and / or perform other similar services to the user / subscriber. Each UE401 and MME421 may include an MM or EMM sub-layer, and an MM context may be established in the UE401 and MME421 when the attach procedure is successfully completed. The MM context may be a data structure or database object that stores MM-related information for the UE401. MME421 may be coupled to HSS424 via reference point S6a, to SGSN425 via reference point S3, or to S-GW422 via reference point S11.

[0051] SGSN425 may be a node that services UE401 by tracking the location of individual UE401s and performing security functions. Furthermore, SGSN425 can perform, among other functions, inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between 2G / 3G and E-UTRAN 3GPP access networks, PDN and S-GW selection specified by MME421, processing of time zone functions of UE401 specified by MME421, and MME selection for handover to E-UTRAN 3GPP access networks. An S3 reference point between MME421 and SGSN425 can enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPP access network mobility in idle and / or active states.

[0052] The HSS424 can have a database of network users, which includes subscription-related information to support the handling of communication sessions by network entities. The EPC420 can have one or more HSS424s depending on the number of mobile subscribers, equipment capacity, network organization, etc. For example, the HSS424 can provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS424 and the MME421 can enable the transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating / authorizing user access to the EPC420 between the HSS424 and the MME421.

[0053] S-GW422 may terminate the S1 interface 313 ("S1-U" in Figure 4) to RAN410 and route data packets between RAN410 and EPC420. In addition, S-GW422 may be a local mobility anchor point for RAN node handovers and may also provide an anchor for 3GPP inter-node mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, billing, and certain policy enforcement. The S11 reference point between S-GW422 and MME421 can provide a control plane between MME421 and S-GW422. S-GW422 may be coupled with P-GW423 via the S5 reference point.

[0054] The P-GW423 can terminate the SGi interface to the PDN430. The P-GW423 may route data packets between the EPC420 and an external network, such as the network containing the application server 330 (alternatively referred to as "AF"), via the IP interface 325 (see, for example, Figure 3). In embodiments, the P-GW423 can be communicably coupled to the application server (application server 330 in Figure 3 or PDN430 in Figure 4) via the IP communication interface 325 (see, for example, Figure 3). The S5 reference point between the P-GW423 and the S-GW422 may provide user plane tunneling and tunnel management between the GW423 and the S-GW422. The S5 reference point may also be used for relocating the S-GW422 when, due to the mobility of the UE401, the S-GW422 needs to connect to the non-collocated P-GW423 for the required PDN connectivity. P-GW423 may further include nodes for policy enforcement and billing data collection (e.g., PCEF (not shown)). In addition, the SGi reference point between P-GW423 and the packet data network (PDN) 430 may be, for example, an external public, private PDN, or an internal packet data network for providing IMS services. P-GW423 may be coupled with PCRF426 via a Gx reference point.

[0055] PCRF426 is the policy and billing control element of EPC420. In a non-roaming scenario, a single PCRF426 may exist within the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with the Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session of the UE401. In a roaming scenario with local breakout of traffic, there may be two PCRFs associated with the IP-CAN session of the UE401: a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) in the HPLMN and a Visited PCRF (V-PCRF) in the Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). PCRF426 may be communicably connected to the application server 430 via the P-GW423. The application server 430 can signal PCRF426 to instruct a new service flow and select QoS and billing parameters. PCRF426 can provision this rule to a PCEF (not shown) with appropriate TFT and QCI, and initiate the QoS and billing specified by the application server 430. A Gx reference point between PCRF426 and P-GW423 may enable the transfer of QoS policies and billing rules from PCRF426 to P-GW423's PCEF. An Rx reference point may exist between PDN430 (or "AF430") and PCRF426.

[0056] Figure 5 shows the architecture of system 500 including a second CN520 according to various embodiments. System 500 is shown to include UE501, which may be the same as or similar to the UE301 and UE401 described above; (R)AN510, which may be the same as or similar to the RAN310 and RAN410 described above and may include the RAN node 311 described above; DN503, which may be, for example, operator services, internet access, or third-party services; and 5GC520. 5GC520 may include AUSF522, AMF521, SMF524, NEF523, PCF526, NRF525, UDM527, AF528, UPF502, and NSSF529.

[0057] UPF502 can function as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point for interconnection to DN503, and a branch point supporting multi-homed PDU sessions. UPF502 can also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, enforce the user plane portion of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS processing on the user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF vs. QoS flow mapping), perform transport-level packet marking on uplinks and downlinks, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggers. UPF502 may include uplink classifiers to support routing traffic flows to the data network. DN503 can represent various network operator services, internet access, or third-party services. DN503 may include, or be similar to, the application server 330 discussed earlier. UPF502 can interact with SMF524 via an N4 reference point between SMF524 and UPF502.

[0058] The AUSF522 may store data for authentication of the UE501 and handle authentication-related functions. The AUSF522 can facilitate a general authentication framework for various access types. The AUSF522 can communicate with the AMF521 via the N12 reference point between the AMF521 and the AUSF522, and can communicate with the UDM527 via the N13 reference point between the UDM527 and the AUSF522. In addition, the AUSF522 may represent a Nausf service-based interface.

[0059] AMF521 may be involved in registration management (e.g., to register UE501), connectivity management, reachability management, mobility management, and lawful interception of AMF-related events, as well as access authentication and authorization. AMF521 may be the endpoint of the N11 reference point between AMF521 and SMF524. AMF521 may provide transport for SM messages between UE501 and SMF524 and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF521 may also provide transport for SMS messages between UE501 and SMSF (not shown in Figure 5). AMF521 may function as a SEAF, which may include interaction between AUSF522 and UE501 and receiving intermediate keys established as a result of the authentication process of UE501. If USIM-based authentication is used, AMF521 may obtain security material from AUSF522. AMF521 may also include an SCM function that receives keys from the SEA to be used to derive access network-specific keys. Furthermore, AMF521 may be the termination point of the RANCP interface, and may include or be an N2 reference point between (R)AN510 and AMF521, and AMF521 may be the termination point of NAS(N1) signaling, enabling NAS encryption and integrity protection.

[0060] The AMF521 can also support NAS signaling using the UE501 via the N3 IWF interface. The N3IWF can be used to provide access to untrusted entities. The N3IWF may be the termination point of the N2 interface between the control plane's (R)AN510 and the AMF521, or the termination point of the N3 reference point between the user plane's (R)AN510 and the UPF502. Thus, the AMF521 can handle N2 signaling from the SMF524 and AMF521 for PDU sessions and QoS, encapsulate / decapsulate packets for IPsec and N3 tunneling, mark N3 user plane packets on the uplink, and implement QoS corresponding to N3 packet marking, taking into account the QoS requirements associated with such marking received via N2. The N3IWF can also relay uplink and downlink control plane NAS signaling between the UE501 and AMF521 via the N1 reference point between the UE501 and AMF521, and relay uplink and downlink user plane packets between the UE501 and UPF502. The N3IWF also provides a mechanism for establishing an IPsec tunnel with the UE501. The AMF521 can represent a Namf service-based interface and can be the endpoint of the N14 reference point between two AMF521s, and the N17 reference point between the AMF521 and the 5G-EIR (not shown in Figure 5).

[0061] UE501 may need to register with AMF521 to receive network services. RM is used to register or unregister UE501 with the network (e.g., AMF521) and to establish a UE context within the network (e.g., AMF521). UE501 may operate in either the RM-REGISTERED or RM-DEREGISTERED state. In the RM-DEREGISTERED state, UE501 is not registered with the network, and the UE context within AMF521 does not hold valid location or routing information for UE501, so that UE501 is not reachable by AMF521. In the RM-registered state, UE501 is registered with the network, and the UE context within AMF521 can hold valid location or routing information for UE501, so that UE501 is reachable by AMF521. In the RM registration state, among other things, UE501 can perform mobility registration update procedures, periodic registration update procedures triggered by the expiration of a periodic update timer (for example, to notify the network that UE501 is still active), update UE capability information, or perform registration update procedures to renegotiate network and protocol parameters.

[0062] The AMF521 can store one or more RM contexts for the UE501, each RM context associated with a specific access to the network. The RM context may, among other things, be a data structure, database object, etc., that indicates or stores registration status and periodic update timers for each access type. The AMF521 may also store a 5GCMM context, which may be the same as or similar to the (E)MM context described above. In various embodiments, the AMF521 can store the CE mode B restriction parameters of the UE501 in the associated MM context or RM context. The AMF521 may also derive values ​​as needed from UE usage configuration parameters already stored in the UE context (and / or MM / RM context).

[0063] The CM may be used to establish and release signaling connections between the UE501 and the AMF521 via the N1 interface. The signaling connections are used to enable NAS signaling exchange between the UE501 and the CN520 and include both signaling connections between the UE and the AN (e.g., RRC connection for non-3GPP access or UE-N3IWF connection) and the N2 connection for the UE501 between the AN (e.g., RAN510) and the AMF521. The UE501 may operate in one of two CM states: CM-IDLE mode or CM-CONNECTED mode. When the UE501 is operating in the CM-IDLE state / mode, the UE501 does not need to have an established NAS signaling connection with the AMF521 via the N1 interface, and there may be (R)AN510 signaling connections for the UE501 (e.g., N2 and / or N3 connections). When UE501 is operating in CM-CONNECTED state / mode, UE501 may have an established NAS signaling connection with AMF521 via the N1 interface, and may also have (R)AN510 signaling connections for UE501 (e.g., N2 and / or N3 connections). Establishment of an N2 connection between (R)AN510 and AMF521 can cause UE501 to transition from CM-IDLE mode to CM-CONNECTED mode, and UE501 can transition from CM-CONNECTED mode to CM-IDLE mode when the N2 signaling between (R)AN510 and AMF521 is released.

[0064] SMF524 includes SM (e.g., establishing, modifying, and releasing sessions, including maintaining tunnels between UPF and AN nodes), UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization), selection and control of UP functions, configuring traffic steering in UPF to route traffic to appropriate destinations, termination of interfaces toward policy control functions, control of policy enforcement and some QoS, lawful interception (of SM events and interfaces to LI systems), termination of the SM portion of NAS messages, downlink data notification, initiation of AN-specific SM information sent to AN via AMF on N2, and determination of the session's SSC mode. SM can refer to the management of PDU sessions, and PDU session or “session” can refer to the PDU connectivity service that performs or enables the exchange of PDUs between UE501 and data network (DN) 503 identified by the data network name (DNN). A PDU session is established upon a UE501 request, modified in response to UE501 and 5GC520 requests, and can be released upon UE501 and 5GC520 requests using NAS SM signaling exchanged via an N1 reference point between UE501 and SMF524. Upon request from an application server, 5GC520 can trigger a specific application within UE501. Upon receiving a trigger message, UE501 can pass the trigger message (or relevant parts / information of the trigger message) to one or more specified applications within UE501. These specified applications(s) within UE501 can establish a PDU session with a specific DNN. SMF524 can check whether a UE501 request conforms to the user enrollment information associated with UE501. In this regard, SMF524 can request to obtain and / or receive update notifications for enrollment data at the SMF524 level from UDM527.

[0065] The SMF524 may include the following roaming capabilities: local enforcement processing for applying a QoS SLA (VPLMN), billing data collection and billing interface (VPLMN), lawful interception (within the VPLMN of SM events and interfaces to the LI system), and support for interaction with external DNs for the transmission of signaling for authorization / authentication of PDU sessions by external DNs. An N16 reference point between two SMF524s may be included in system 500, which may be between another SMF524 in a visited network and an SMF524 in the home network in a roaming scenario. In addition, the SMF524 may represent an Nsmf service-based interface.

[0066] NEF523 may provide means for securely exposing services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third parties, internal exposure / re-exposure, application functions (e.g., AF528), edge computing, or fog computing systems. In such embodiments, NEF523 can authenticate, authorize, and / or slow down AFs. NEF523 may also translate information exchanged with AF528 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, NEF523 can translate between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. NEF523 may also receive information from other network functions (NFs) based on the exposed capabilities of other network functions. This information may be stored in NEF523 as structured data or in a data storage NF using a standardized interface. The stored information can then be re-exposed by NEF523 to other NFs and AFs and / or used for other purposes such as analysis. Furthermore, NEF523 can present an Nnef service-based interface.

[0067] The NRF525 supports service discovery functionality, receiving NF discovery requests from NF instances and providing NF instances with information about discovered NF instances. The NRF525 also maintains information about available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, terms such as “instance” and “instantiation” refer to the creation of an instance; “instance” refers to the specific occurrence of an object that may occur, for example, during the execution of program code. In addition, the NRF525 may represent an Nnrf service-based interface.

[0068] The PCF526 can provide and enforce policy rules for control plane functions (one or more), and can also support an integrated policy framework to control network behavior. The PCF526 may also implement a FE to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the UDR of the UDM527. The PCF526 can communicate with the AMF521 via the N15 reference point between the PCF526 and the AMF521, and in roaming scenarios, this may include PCF526 and AMF521 in the visited network. The PCF526 may communicate with the AF528 via the N5 reference point between the PCF526 and the AF528, and may communicate with the SMF524 via the N7 reference point between the PCF526 and the SMF524. System 500 and / or CN520 may also include an N24 reference point between the PCF526 (in the home network) and the PCF526 in the visited network. Furthermore, the PCF526 can present an Npcf service-based interface.

[0069] The UDM527 can process subscriber-related information to support the processing of communication sessions for network entities and can store subscriber data for UE501. For example, subscriber data may be communicated between the UDM527 and AMF521 via an N8 reference point between the UDM527 and AMF521. The UDM527 can include two parts: an application FE and an application data manager (UDR) (FE and UDR are not shown in Figure 5). The UDR can store structured data for subscriber and policy data for UDM527 and PCF526, and / or exposure and application data for NEF523 (including PFD for application detection and application request information for multiple UE501). Nudr service-based interfaces may be presented by the UDR and 221 to enable UDM527, PCF526, and NEF523 to access specific sets of stored data, read notifications of relevant data changes in the UDR, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe. The UDM may include a UDM FE responsible for processing credentials, location management, and enrollment management. Several different frontends can serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authorization credential processing, user identification processing, access permissions, enrollment / mobility management, and subscription management. The UDR can interact with the SMF524 via an N10 reference point between the UDM527 and the SMF524. The UDM527 can also support SMS management, and the SMS-FE implements application logic similar to that described above. In addition, the UDM527 may represent a Nudm service-based interface.

[0070] AF528 can influence traffic routing applications, provide access to NCE, and interact with policy frameworks for policy control. NCE may also be a mechanism that allows 5GC520 and AF528 to exchange information with each other via NEF523, which can be used in edge computing implementations. In such an implementation, network operators and third-party services can be hosted in proximity to the access points of the UE501 attachment, achieving efficient service delivery with reduced end-to-end latency and load on the transport network. In an edge computing implementation, 5GC can select a UPF502 adjacent to UE501 and perform traffic steering from UPF502 to DN503 via the N6 interface. This may be based on UE join data, UE location, and information provided by AF528. In this way, AF528 can influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. When AF528 is considered a trusted entity based on operator deployment, the network operator can allow AF528 to directly interact with the relevant NF. Furthermore, AF528 can present a Naf service-based interface.

[0071] NSSF529 can select a set of network slice instances to serve UE501. NSSF529 can also determine mappings to authorized NSSAIs and subscribed S-NSSAIs, as needed. NSSF529 can also determine a list of AMF sets, or candidate AMFs, 521 used to serve UE501, possibly by querying NRF525, based on a preferred configuration. The selection of a set of network slice instances for UE501 may also be triggered by an AMF521, to which UE501 registers by interacting with NSSF529, which may lead to changes. NSSF529 can interact with AMF521 via the N22 reference point between AMF521 and NSSF529. It can communicate with another NSSF529 in the visited network via the N31 reference point (not shown in Figure 5). Furthermore, NSSF529 can present an Nnssf service-based interface.

[0072] As mentioned above, CN520 may include an SMSF that is involved in SMS join checking and verification and can relay SM messages between UE501 and other entities such as SMS-GMSC / IWMSC / SMS routers. SMS can also interact with AMF521 and UDM527 for notification procedures to indicate that UE501 is available for SMS forwarding (e.g., setting a flag that the UE is unreachable and notifying UDM527 if UE501 is available for SMS).

[0073] CN120 may also include other elements not shown in Figure 5, such as a data storage system / architecture, 5G-EIR, and SEPP. The data storage system may include SDSF, UDSF, etc. Any NF can store unstructured data in and retrieve it from a UDSF (e.g., a UE context) via an N18 reference point (not shown in Figure 5) between any NF and a UDSF. Individual NFs can share a UDSF to store each piece of unstructured data, or each individual NF may have its own UDSF located in or near its own NF. Furthermore, a UDSF may present a Nudsf service-based interface (not shown in Figure 5). The 5G-EIR may be an NF that checks the status of a PEI to determine whether a particular device / entity is blacklisted from the network, and the SEPP may be an opaque proxy that performs topology hiding, message filtering, and policing on the PLMN-to-control plane interface.

[0074] Furthermore, there may be more reference points and / or service-based interfaces between NF services within an NF. However, these interfaces and reference points are omitted from Figure 5 for clarity. For example, CN520 may include an Nx interface, which is an inter-CN interface between MME (e.g., MME421) and AMF521, to enable interworking between CN520 and CN420. Other exemplary interfaces / reference points may include the N5g-EIR service-based interface presented by the 5G-EIR, the N27 reference point between the NRF in the visited network and the NRF in the home network, and the N31 reference point between the NSSF in the visited network and the NSSF in the home network.

[0075] Figure 6 shows an example of infrastructure equipment 600 in various embodiments. Infrastructure equipment 600 (or "System 600") can be implemented as a base station, a radio head, RAN nodes such as the aforementioned RAN node 311 and / or AP306, an application server 330, and / or any other elements / devices described herein. In other examples, System 600 may be implemented in or by the UE.

[0076] The system 600 includes an application circuit 605, a baseband circuit 610, one or more radio front-end modules (RFEMs) 615, a memory circuit 620, a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 625, a power T circuit 630, a network controller circuit 635, a network interface connector 640, a satellite positioning circuit 645, and a user interface 650. In some embodiments, the device 600 may include additional elements such as memory / storage, a display, a camera, a sensor, or an input / output (I / O) interface. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in two or more devices. For example, the circuit may be included separately in two or more devices for a CRAN, vBBU, or other similar implementation.

[0077] Application circuit 605 may include, but is not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and low-dropout voltage regulators (LDOs), interrupt controllers, SPI, I 2The application circuit 605 includes one or more circuits such as a serial interface, including a C or Universal Programmable Serial Interface Module; a Real-Time Clock (RTC); a timer counter including interval and watchdog timers; general-purpose input / output (I / O or IO); a memory card controller such as a Secure Digital (SD) Multimedia Card (MMC); a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface; a Mobile Industrial Processor Interface (MIPI) interface; and a Joint Test Access Group (JTAG) test access port. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 605 may be coupled to or include memory / storage elements and may be configured to execute instructions stored in memory / storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 600. In some implementations, the memory / storage elements may be on-chip memory circuits, which may include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, and / or any other type of memory device technology as described herein.

[0078] The processor of application circuit 605 may include, for example, one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors, one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISC machine (ARM) processors, one or more composite instruction set computing (CISC) processors, one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, or any preferred combination thereof. In some embodiments, application circuit 605 may include, or may not include, a dedicated processor / controller operating according to various embodiments herein. For example, the processor of application circuit 605 may include one or more Intel Pentium®, Core®, or Xeon® processors, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processors, Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), or Epyc® processors, ARM-based processors provided by ARM Holdings, Ltd. such as the ARM Cortex-A family of processors, and MIPS-based designs provided by MIPS Technologies, Inc. such as ThunderX2®, MIPS Warrior, or P-class processors provided by Cavium® Inc. In some embodiments, system 600 may not utilize application circuit 605 and instead include, for example, a dedicated processor / controller for processing IP data received from EPC or 5GC.

[0079] In some implementations, the application circuit 605 may include one or more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, etc. These one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and / or deep learning (DL) accelerators. For example, the programmable processing device may include one or more field-programmable devices (FPDs), such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as composite PLDs (CPLDs) and high-capacitance PLDs (HCPLDs), ASICs, such as structured ASICs, and programmable SoCs (PSoCs). In such implementations, the circuitry of the application circuit 605 may include logic blocks or logic fabrics, and other interconnected resources that can be programmed to perform various functions, such as procedures, methods, and functions, in the various implementations described herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of the application circuit 605 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), antifuse, etc.)) used to store logic blocks, logic fabric, data, etc., in a lookup table (LUT), etc.

[0080] The baseband circuit 610 may be implemented, for example, as a soldering board containing one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Various hardware electronic elements of the baseband circuit 610 are described below with reference to Figure 9.

[0081] The user interface circuit 650 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the system 600, or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interaction with the system 600. The user interface may include, but is not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., light-emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, a speaker or other audio light-emitting device, a microphone, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, etc. The peripheral component interface may include, but is not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power interface, etc.

[0082] The wireless front-end module (RFEM) 615 may include a millimeter-wave (millimeter-wave) RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter-wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, one or more sub-millimeter-wave RFICs may be physically separated from the millimeter-wave RFEM. The RFICs may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, for example, antenna array 811 in Figure 9 below), and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both millimeter-wave and sub-millimeter-wave radio functions may be implemented within the same physical RFEM 615 incorporating both millimeter-wave and sub-millimeter-wave antennas.

[0083] The memory circuit 620 may include one or more volatile memories, including dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and / or synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), and non-volatile memories (NVM), including high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly called flash memory), phase-change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc., and may incorporate Intel® and Micron® 3D crosspoint (XPOINT) memory. The memory circuit 620 may be implemented as one or more solder-packaged integrated circuits, socket memory modules, and plug-in memory cards.

[0084] The PMIC625 may include a voltage regulator, a surge protector, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power sources such as a battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of the brownout (undervoltage) and surge (overvoltage) conditions. The power T circuit 630 can supply power drawn from the network cable to provide both power and data connectivity to the infrastructure equipment 600 using a single cable.

[0085] The network controller circuit 635 can provide network connectivity using standard network interface protocols such as Ethernet, Ethernet over a GRE tunnel, Ethernet over Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), or any other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may be provided to and from infrastructure equipment 600 via the network interface connector 640 using physical connections that may be electrical (commonly referred to as "copper wiring"), optical, or wireless. The network controller circuit 635 may include one or more dedicated processors and / or FPGAs for communicating using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some implementations, the network controller circuit 635 may include multiple controllers for providing connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

[0086] The positioning circuit 645 includes circuits for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcast by a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning network. Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include the US Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia's Global Navigation System (GLONASS), the European Union's Galileo system, China's Beidou Navigation Satellite System, regional navigation systems, or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., navigation by Indian Constellation (NAVIC), Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), France's Doppler Orbitography and Radio Positioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS)). The positioning circuit 645 includes various hardware elements for communicating with components of the positioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes (e.g., hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, and antenna elements to facilitate OTA communication). In some embodiments, the positioning circuit 645 may include a Micro-Technology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (Micro-PNT) IC for performing position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance using a master timing clock. The positioning circuit 645 may also be part of, or interact with, the baseband circuit 610 and / or RFEM 615 to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit 645 may also provide position data and / or time data to the application circuit 605, which can use the data to synchronize its operation with various infrastructure (e.g., RAN node 311, etc.).

[0087] The components shown in Figure 6 can communicate with each other using interface circuits that include any number of bus and / or interconnect (IX) technologies, such as industry standard architecture (ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheral component interconnect (PCI), extended peripheral component interconnect (PCIx), PCI Express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX may be a proprietary bus used in, for example, an SoC-based system. In particular, 2 Other bus / IX systems may include C interfaces, SPI interfaces, point-to-point interfaces, and power buses.

[0088] Figure 7 shows an example of platform 700 (or "device 700") according to various embodiments. In embodiments, platform 700 may be suitable for use as UE301, 401, 501, application server 330, and / or any other elements / devices described herein. Platform 700 may include any combination of the components shown in the embodiments. The components of platform 700 may be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs) adapted to the computer platform 700, parts thereof, individual electronic devices, or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or combinations thereof, or as components incorporated into the chassis of a larger system. The block diagram in Figure 7 is intended to show a high-level diagram of the components of the computer platform 700. However, some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components may be present, and different arrangements of the components shown may occur in other embodiments.

[0089] The application circuit 705 is not limited to these, but may include one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more LDOs, interrupt controllers, SPIs, and I 2The application circuit 705 includes a serial interface such as a C or Universal Programmable Serial Interface Module, a timer counter including an RTC, interval and watchdog timers, general-purpose I / O, a memory card controller such as an SD MMC, a USB interface, a MIPI interface, and a JTAG test access port. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 705 may be coupled to or include memory / storage elements and may be configured to execute instructions stored in memory / storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 700. In some implementations, the memory / storage elements may be on-chip memory circuits, which may include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, and / or any other type of memory device technology as described herein.

[0090] The processor of the application circuit 605 may include, for example, one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one or more GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, one or more CISC processors, one or more DSPs, one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, multithreaded processors, ultra-low voltage processors, embedded processors, several other known processing elements, or any preferred combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuit 605 may include a dedicated processor / controller operating according to various embodiments herein, or may be a dedicated processor / controller.

[0091] For example, the processor in application circuit 705 may include Intel® Architecture Core®-based processors such as Quark®, Atom®, i3, i5, i7, or MCU-class processors, or other such processors available from Intel® Corporation in Santa Clara, California. The processor in application circuit 705 may also be one or more of the following: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processors or Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), Apple® Inc.'s A5-A9 processors, Qualcomm® Technologies, Inc.'s Snapdragon® processors, Texas Instruments, Inc.'s Open Multimedia Applications Platform (OMAP)® processors, MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc. such as MIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors, ARM-based designs licensed from ARM Holdings such as ARM Cortex-A, Cortex-R, and Cortex-M families of processors, or similar. In some implementations, the application circuit 705 and other components may be part of a system-on-a-chip (SoC) formed in a single integrated circuit or a single package such as an Edison® or Galileo® SoC board manufactured by Intel® Corporation.

[0092] Additionally or alternatively, the application circuit 705 may include, but is not limited to, one or more field-programmable devices (FPDs) such as FPGAs, programmable logic devices (PLDs) such as composite PLDs (CPLDs) and high-capacitance PLDs (HCPLDs), ASICs such as structured ASICs, and programmable SoCs (PSoCs). In such embodiments, the circuitry of the application circuit 705 may include logic blocks or logic fabrics and other interconnected resources that can be programmed to perform various functions such as procedures, methods, and functions of the various embodiments described herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of the application circuit 705 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random-access memory (SRAM), antifuse, etc.)) used to store logic blocks, logic fabrics, data, etc., in lookup tables (LUTs), etc.

[0093] The baseband circuit 710 may be implemented, for example, as a soldering board containing one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Various hardware electronic elements of the baseband circuit 710 are described below with reference to Figure 9.

[0094] The RFEM715 may include a millimeter-wave RFEM and one or more submillimeter-wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, one or more submillimeter-wave RFICs may be physically separated from the millimeter-wave RFEM. The RFICs may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, for example, antenna array 811 in Figure 9 below), and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both millimeter-wave and submillimeter-wave radio functions may be implemented within the same physical RFEM715 incorporating both millimeter-wave and submillimeter-wave antennas.

[0095] The memory circuit 720 may include any number and types of memory devices used to provide a given amount of system memory. For example, the memory circuit 720 may include one or more volatile memories, including dumb access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), and / or synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), as well as non-volatile memories (NVM), including high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly called flash memory), phase-change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc. The memory circuit 720 may be developed according to the Joint Electron Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC) low-power double data rate (LPDDR) based designs, such as LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, etc. The memory circuit 720 may be implemented as one or more soldered-on integrated circuits, single-die packages (SDP), dual-die packages (DDP) or quad-die packages (Q17P), socket-type memory modules, dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs) including microDIMMs or miniDIMMs, and / or soldered onto a motherboard via a ball grid array (BGA). In low-power implementations, the memory circuit 720 may be an on-die memory or register associated with the application circuit 705. To provide persistent storage of information such as data, applications, and operating systems, the memory circuit 720 may include one or more mass storage devices, including, among others, solid-state disk drives (SSDDs), hard disk drives (HDDs), micro HDDs, resistive random-access memory, phase-change memory, holographic memory, or chemical memory. For example, the computer platform 700 may incorporate three-dimensional (3D) crosspoint (XPOINT) memory from Intel® and Micron®.

[0096] The removable memory circuit 723 may include devices, circuits, enclosures / casings, ports or receptacles, etc., used to couple portable data storage devices with the platform 700. These portable data storage devices can be used for high-capacity storage purposes and may include, for example, flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, microSD cards, xD Image cards, etc.), and USB flash drives, optical discs, external HDDs, etc.

[0097] Platform 700 may also include interface circuits (not shown) used to connect external devices to Platform 700. External devices connected to Platform 700 via the interface circuits include sensor circuits 721 and electromechanical components (EMC) 722, as well as removable memory devices coupled to removable memory circuits 723.

[0098] The sensor circuit 721 includes a device, module, or subsystem whose purpose is to detect an event or change in its environment and to transmit information about the detected event (sensor data) to some other device, module, subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors include, among other things, an inertial measuring unit (IMU) including an accelerometer, gyroscope, and / or magnetometer; a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) or nano-electromechanical system (NEMS) having a 3-axis accelerometer, a 3-axis gyroscope, and / or magnetometer; a level sensor, a flow sensor, a temperature sensor (e.g., a thermistor), a pressure sensor, a barometric pressure sensor, a gravimeter, an altimeter, an image capture device (e.g., a camera or lensless aperture), a light-detection ranging (LiDAR) sensor, a proximity sensor (e.g., an infrared detector), a depth sensor, an ambient light sensor, an ultrasonic transceiver, a microphone, or other similar audio capture device, and so on.

[0099] EMC722 includes devices, modules, or subsystems intended to enable platform 700 to change its state, position, and / or orientation, or to move or control a mechanism or (sub)system. Furthermore, EMC722 may be configured to generate and transmit messages / signals to other components of platform 700 to indicate the current state of EMC722. Examples of EMC722 include one or more power switches, relays including electromechanical relays (EMRs) and / or solid-state relays (SSRs), actuators (e.g., valve actuators), audible sound generators, visual warning devices, motors (e.g., DC motors, stepper motors), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks, and / or other similar electromechanical components. In embodiments, platform 700 is configured to operate one or more EMC722 based on one or more captured events and / or commands or control signals received from service providers and / or various clients.

[0100] In some implementations, the interface circuit may connect the platform 700 to the positioning circuit 745. The positioning circuit 745 includes circuitry for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcast by the GNSS positioning network. Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include the US GPS, Russia's GLONASS, the European Union's Galileo system, China's Beidou navigation satellite system, regional navigation systems, or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., NAVIC, Japan's QZSS, France's DORIS, etc.). The positioning circuit 745 includes various hardware elements for communicating with components of the positioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, and antenna elements to facilitate OTA communication). In some embodiments, the positioning circuit 745 may include a Micro-PNT IC for performing position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance using a master timing clock. The positioning circuit 745 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 610 and / or RFEM 715 to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit 745 may also provide location data and / or time data to the application circuit 705, which may use the data to synchronize its operation with various infrastructure (e.g., radio base stations) for turn-by-turn navigation applications.

[0101] In some implementations, the interface circuit may connect the platform 700 to a Near Field Communication (NFC) circuit 740. The NFC circuit 740 is configured to provide contactless short-range communication based on the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) standard, and magnetic field induction is used to enable communication between the NFC circuit 740 and an NFC-enabled device outside the platform 700 (e.g., an "NFC touchpoint"). The NFC circuit 740 comprises an NFC controller coupled to an antenna element and a processor coupled to the NFC controller. The NFC controller may be a chip / IC that provides NFC functionality to the NFC circuit 740 by running NFC controller firmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack may be run by the processor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmware may be run by the NFC controller to control the antenna element to radiate a near-range RF signal. The RF signal can power a passive NFC tag (e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transmit stored data to the NFC circuit 740, or it can initiate data transmission between the NFC circuit 740 located near the platform 700 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smartphone or NFC-enabled POS terminal).

[0102] The driver circuit 746 may include software and hardware elements that operate to control specific devices that are incorporated into, mounted on, or otherwise communicatively coupled to the platform 700. The driver circuit 746 may include individual drivers that enable other components of the platform 700 to interact with or control various input / output (I / O) devices that are present in or may be connected to the platform 700. For example, the driver circuit 746 may include a display driver for controlling and allowing access to a display device, a touchscreen driver for controlling and allowing access to the touchscreen interface of the platform 700, a sensor driver for acquiring sensor readings from the sensor circuit 721 and controlling and allowing access to the sensor circuit 721, an EMC driver for acquiring actuator positions from the EMC 722 and / or controlling and allowing access to the EMC 722, a camera driver for controlling and allowing access to an embedded capture device, and an audio driver for controlling and allowing access to one or more audio devices.

[0103] The power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 725 (also called the “power management circuit 725”) can manage the power supplied to various components of platform 700. Specifically, with respect to the baseband circuit 710, the PMIC 725 can control power source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion. If platform 700 is powered by a battery 730, for example, if this device is included in UE301, 401, or 501, the PMIC 725 may often be included.

[0104] In some embodiments, the PMIC725 can control, or otherwise be part of, various power-saving mechanisms of the platform 700. For example, if the platform 700 is in the RRC_Connected state and is still connected to a RAN node because it is expected to receive traffic soon, after a period of inactivity, the platform can enter a state known as intermittent receive mode (DRX). During this state, the platform 700 can briefly reduce power, thereby saving energy. If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period, the platform 700 can transition to the RRC_Idle state, disconnecting from the network and not performing actions such as channel quality feedback or handover. The platform 700 enters a very low power state, performs paging, wakes up periodically again to listen to the network, and then powers down again. The platform 700 does not need to receive data in this state; it must transition to the RRC_Connected state to receive data. Additional power-saving modes may allow the device to make the network unavailable for longer periods than the paging interval (ranging from seconds to hours). During this time, the device can be completely disconnected from the network and have its power cut off entirely. Any data transmitted during this period will experience significant delays, and these delays are assumed to be acceptable.

[0105] The battery 730 can supply power to the platform 700, although in some examples the platform 700 may be deployed and mounted in a fixed location and may have a power source coupled to a power grid. The battery 730 may be a lithium-ion battery, a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, or other metal-air battery. In some implementations, such as V2X applications, the battery 730 may be a typical lead-acid automotive battery.

[0106] In some implementations, the battery 730 may include or be coupled to a Battery Management System (BMS) or a battery monitoring integrated circuit as a “smart battery”. The BMS may be included in the platform 700 to track the charge state (SoCh) of the battery 730. The BMS may also be used to monitor other parameters of the battery 730 to provide fault predictions such as the health state (SoH) and functional state (SoF) of the battery 730. The BMS may communicate information about the battery 730 to the application circuit 705 or other components of the platform 700. The BMS may also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter that allows the application circuit 705 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 730 or the current flow from the battery 730. Battery parameters may be used to determine the operations that the platform 700 can perform, such as the transmit frequency, network operation, and sensing frequency.

[0107] A power block, or other power source coupled to the grid, may be coupled to the BMS to charge the battery 730. In some embodiments, the power block 730 can be replaced with a wireless power receiver, which can obtain power wirelessly, for example, via a loop antenna in a computer platform 700. In these embodiments, a wireless battery charging circuit may be included in the BMS. The specific charging circuit selected may depend on the size of the battery 730 and therefore the current required. Charging can be performed using, among other things, the Airfuel standard published by the Airfuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standard published by the Wireless Power Consortium, or the Rezence charging standard published by the Alliance for Wireless Power.

[0108] The user interface circuit 750 includes various input / output (I / O) devices located within or connected to the platform 700, and may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the platform 700, and / or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interaction with the platform 700. The user interface circuit 750 includes an input device circuit and an output device circuit. The input device circuit includes, among other things, any physical or virtual means for receiving input, including one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, a microphone, a scanner, a headset, etc. The output device circuit includes any physical or virtual means for displaying information, such as sensor readings, actuator positions, or other similar information, or for conveying information in other ways. The output device circuit may include any number and / or combination of audio or visual displays, including, among other things, one or more simple visual outputs / indicators (e.g., light-emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-digit character visual outputs, or more complex outputs such as display devices or touchscreens (e.g., liquid crystal displays (LCDs), LED displays, quantum dot displays, projectors, etc.), and outputs such as characters, graphics, multimedia objects are generated from the operation of platform 700. The output device circuit may also include speakers or other audio emitting devices, printers, and / or similar. In some embodiments, the sensor circuit 721 may be used as an input device circuit (e.g., an image capture device, a motion capture device, etc.), and one or more EMCs may be used as output device circuits (e.g., actuators for providing haptic feedback, etc.). In another embodiment, an NFC circuit with an NFC controller coupled with an antenna element and a processing device may be included for reading electronic tags and / or connecting to another NFC-enabled device.Peripheral component interfaces include, but are not limited to, non-volatile memory ports, USB ports, audio jacks, and power interfaces.

[0109] Although not shown, the components of Platform 700 can communicate with each other using appropriate bus or interconnection (IX) technology, which may include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCIx, PCIe, Time Trigger Protocol (TTP) systems, FlexRay systems, or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX may be a proprietary bus / IX used in, for example, an SoC-based system. 2 Other bus / IX systems may include C interfaces, SPI interfaces, point-to-point interfaces, and power buses.

[0110] Figure 9 shows exemplary components of the baseband circuit 810 and the radio front-end module (RFEM) 815 according to various embodiments. The baseband circuit 810 corresponds to the baseband circuits 610 and 710 in Figures 6 and 7, respectively. The RFEM 815 corresponds to the RFEMs 615 and 715 in Figures 6 and 7, respectively. As shown, the RFEM 815 may include at least a radio frequency (RF) circuit 806, a front-end module (FEM) circuit 808, and an antenna array 811 coupled together as shown.

[0111] The baseband circuit 810 includes circuitry and / or control logic configured to perform various radio / network protocols and radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuit 806. Radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation / demodulation, coding / decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, the modulation / demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuit 810 may include fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping / demapping functions. In some embodiments, the coding / decoding circuitry of the baseband circuit 810 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or low-density parity check (LDPC) encoder / decoder functions. Embodiments of modulation / demodulation and encoder / decoder functions are not limited to these embodiments, and other embodiments may include other suitable functions. The baseband circuit 810 is configured to process baseband signals received from the receiving signal path of the RF circuit 806 and generate baseband signals for the transmitting signal path of the RF circuit 806. The baseband circuit 810 is configured to interface with application circuits 605 / 705 (see Figures 6 and 7) for generating and processing baseband signals and for controlling the operation of RF circuit 806. The baseband circuit 810 can handle various radio control functions.

[0112] The aforementioned circuitry and / or control logic of the baseband circuit 810 may include one or more single or multicore processors. For example, one or more processors may include a 3G baseband processor 804A, a 4G / LTE baseband processor 804B, a 5G / NR baseband processor 804C, or several other baseband processors 804D of existing, developing, or future generations (e.g., 6th generation (6G)). In other embodiments, some or all of the functions of the baseband processors 804A-804D may be contained in modules stored in memory 804G and executed via a central processing unit (CPU) 804E. In other embodiments, some or all of the functions of the baseband processors 804A-804D may be provided as hardware accelerators (e.g., FPGAs, ASICs, etc.) loaded with appropriate bitstreams or logic blocks stored in the corresponding memory cells. In various embodiments, memory 804G can store program code for a real-time operating system (RTOS) that, when executed by the CPU 804E (or other baseband processor), causes the CPU 804E (or other baseband processor) to manage the resources of the baseband circuit 810, schedule tasks, and so on. Examples of RTOS include Operating System Embedded (OSE) (trademark) provided by Enea®, Nucleus RTOS (trademark) provided by Mentor Graphics®, Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX) provided by Mentor Graphics®, ThreadX (trademark) provided by Express Logic®, FreeRTOS, REX OS provided by Qualcomm®, OKL4 provided by Open Kernel (OK)Labs®, or any other suitable RTOS as described herein. Furthermore, the baseband circuit 810 includes one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 804F.The audio DSP(s)804F may include elements for compression / decompression and echo removal, and in other embodiments, it may include other preferred processing elements.

[0113] In some embodiments, each of the processors 804A to 804E includes its own memory interface for sending and receiving data to and from memory 804G. The baseband circuit 810 may further include one or more interfaces that communicate with other circuits / devices, such as interfaces for sending and receiving data to and from memory outside the baseband circuit 810; an application circuit interface for sending and receiving data to and from application circuits 605 / 705 in Figures 6 to 9; an RF circuit interface for sending and receiving data to and from RF circuit 806 in Figure 9; a wireless hardware connection interface for sending and receiving data to and from one or more wireless hardware elements (e.g., near-field communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth® / Bluetooth® low-energy components, WiFi® components, and / or similar); and a power management interface for sending and receiving power or control signals to and from PMIC 725.

[0114] In alternative embodiments (which may be combined with the embodiments described above), the baseband circuit 810 includes one or more digital baseband systems coupled to a CPU subsystem, an audio subsystem, and an interface subsystem via interconnect subsystems. The digital baseband subsystems may also be coupled to a digital baseband interface and a mixed-signal baseband subsystem via another interconnect subsystem. Each of the interconnect subsystems may include several other preferred bus or interconnect technologies, such as bus systems, point-to-point connections, network-on-chip (NOC) structures, and / or those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include DSP circuits, buffer memory, program memory, audio processing accelerator circuits, data conversion circuits such as analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, analog circuits including one or more amplifiers and filters, and / or other similar components. In one aspect of the present disclosure, the baseband circuit 810 may include a protocol processing circuit having one or more instances of a control circuit (not shown) to provide control functions for the digital baseband circuit and / or radio frequency circuit (e.g., radio front-end module 815).

[0115] Although not shown in Figure 9, in some implementations, the baseband circuit 810 includes one or more individual processing devices for executing one or more wireless communication protocols (e.g., a "multiprotocol baseband processor" or "protocol processing circuit") and one or more individual processing devices for implementing PHY layer functions. In these embodiments, the PHY layer functions include the radio control functions described above. In these embodiments, the protocol processing circuit operates or implements various protocol layers / entities of one or more wireless communication protocols. In the first embodiment, the protocol processing circuit can operate LTE protocol entities and / or 5G / NR protocol entities when the baseband circuit 810 and / or RF circuit 806 are part of a millimeter-wave communication circuit or some other suitable cellular communication circuit. In the first embodiment, the protocol processing circuit operates MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC, and NAS functions. In the second embodiment, the protocol processing circuit may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols when the baseband circuit 810 and / or RF circuit 806 are part of a Wi-Fi communication system. In a second embodiment, the protocol processing circuit operates the WiFi MAC and Logical Link Control (LLC) functions. The protocol processing circuit may include one or more memory structures (e.g., 804G) for storing program code and data for operating the protocol functions, and one or more processing cores that execute the program code and perform various operations using the data. The baseband circuit 810 can also support wireless communication regarding two or more radio protocols.

[0116] The various hardware elements of the baseband circuit 810 discussed herein may be implemented, for example, as a soldering board containing one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single package IC soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more ICs. In one embodiment, the components of the baseband circuit 810 may be suitably combined within a single chip or chipset, or they may be arranged on the same circuit board. In another embodiment, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 810 and the RF circuit 806 may be implemented together, for example, in a system-on-a-chip (SoC) or system-in-package (SiP). In yet another embodiment, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 810 may be implemented as a separate SoC communicatively coupled with the RF circuit 806 (or multiple instances of the RF circuit 806). In yet another embodiment, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 810 and the application circuits 605 / 705 may be implemented together as individual SoCs mounted on the same circuit board (e.g., a "multi-chip package").

[0117] In some embodiments, the baseband circuit 810 can provide communication compatible with one or more wireless technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuit 810 can support communication with E-UTRAN or other WMAN, WLAN, or WPAN. Embodiments in which the baseband circuit 810 is configured to support wireless communication of two or more wireless protocols may be referred to as a multimode baseband circuit.

[0118] The RF circuit 806 can enable communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuit 806 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc., to facilitate communication with the wireless network. The RF circuit 806 may include a receive signal path which may include a circuit for down-converting the RF signal received from the FEM circuit 808 and providing the baseband signal to the baseband circuit 810. The RF circuit 806 may also include a transmit signal path which may include a circuit for up-converting the baseband signal provided by the baseband circuit 810 and providing the RF output signal to the FEM circuit 808 for transmission.

[0119] In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuit 806 may include a mixer circuit 806a, an amplifier circuit 806b, and a filter circuit 806c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 806 may include a filter circuit 806c and a mixer circuit 806a. The RF circuit 806 may also include a combiner circuit 806d for combining the frequencies used by the mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path may be configured to downconvert the RF signal received from the FEM circuit 808 based on the combined frequency provided by the combiner circuit 806d. The amplifier circuit 806b may be configured to amplify the downconverted signal, and the filter circuit 806c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the downconverted signal to produce an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to the baseband circuit 810 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may be a zero-frequency baseband signal, but this is not required. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 806a in the received signal path may include a passive mixer, but the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0120] In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 806a in the transmit signal path may be configured to upconvert the input baseband signal based on the combined frequency provided by the combiner circuit 806d to generate an RF output signal for the FEM circuit 808. The baseband signal may also be provided by the baseband circuit 810 and may be filtered by the filter circuit 806c.

[0121] In some embodiments, the receive signal path mixer circuit 806a and the transmit signal path mixer circuit 806a may include two or more mixers, which may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the receive signal path mixer circuit 806a and the transmit signal path mixer circuit 806a may include two or more mixers, which may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the receive signal path mixer circuit 806a and the transmit signal path mixer circuit 806a may be arranged for direct down-conversion and direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the receive signal path mixer circuit 806a and the transmit signal path mixer circuit 806a may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

[0122] In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the RF circuit 806 may include an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuit, and the baseband circuit 810 may include a digital baseband interface for communicating with the RF circuit 806.

[0123] In some dual-mode embodiments, separate wireless IC circuits may be provided to process the signals of each spectrum, but the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0124] In some embodiments, the combiner circuit 806d may be a fractional N combiner or a fractional N / N+1 combiner, but other types of frequency combiners may be preferred, so the scope of this embodiment is not limited in this respect. For example, the combiner circuit 806d may be a combiner with a phase-locked loop having a delta-sigma combiner, a frequency multiplier, or a frequency divider.

[0125] The combiner circuit 806d may be configured to combine the output frequencies used by the mixer circuit 806a of the RF circuit 806 based on the frequency input and the divider control input. In some embodiments, the combiner circuit 806d may be a fractional N / N+1 combiner.

[0126] In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), but this is not required. The divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuit 810 or the application circuits 605 / 705, depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a lookup table based on the channel indicated by the application circuits 605 / 705.

[0127] The combiner circuit 806d of the RF circuit 806 may include a divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal into either N or N+1 (e.g., based on performance) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some exemplary embodiments, the DLL may include a set of cascaded tunable delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to divide the VCO period into Nd packets of equal phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to contribute to ensuring that the total delay across the delay line is one VCO cycle.

[0128] In some embodiments, the combiner circuit 806d may be configured to generate the carrier frequency as the output frequency, and in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency), and can be used in conjunction with quadrature generators and divider circuits to generate multiple signals with multiple different carrier frequencies relative to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit 806 may include an IQ / polarity converter.

[0129] The FEM circuit 808 may include a receive signal path that operates on the RF signal received from the antenna array 811, amplifying the received signal and providing an amplified version of the received signal to the RF circuit 806 for further processing. The FEM circuit 808 may also include a transmit signal path that may include a circuit configured to amplify a signal for transmission, which is provided by the RF circuit 806 for transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 811. In various embodiments, amplification through the transmit or receive signal path may occur in the RF circuit 806 alone, in the FEM circuit 808 alone, or in both the RF circuit 806 and the FEM circuit 808.

[0130] In some embodiments, the FEM circuit 808 may include a TX / RX switch for switching between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuit 808 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuit 808 may include an LNA for amplifying the received RF signal and providing the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuit 806). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuit 808 may include a power amplifier (PA) for amplifying the input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuit 806) and one or more filters for generating an RF signal for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 811.

[0131] The antenna array 811 comprises one or more antenna elements, each configured to convert electrical signals into radio waves that propagate through the air and to convert received radio waves into electrical signals. For example, a digital baseband signal provided by the baseband circuit 810 is amplified and converted into an analog RF signal (e.g., a modulated waveform) transmitted through the antenna elements of the antenna array 811, which includes one or more antenna elements (not shown). The antenna elements may be omnidirectional, directional, or a combination thereof. The antenna elements may be formed in multiple arrays as known and / or described herein. The antenna array 811 may include microstrip antennas or printed antennas fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards. The antenna array 811 may be formed as patches of metal foil of various shapes (e.g., patch antennas) and may be coupled to the RF circuit 806 and / or FEM circuit 808 using metal transmission lines or the like.

[0132] The processors of application circuits 605 / 705 and baseband circuit 810 can be used to execute elements of one or more instances of the protocol stack. For example, the processors of baseband circuit 810 can be used alone or in combination to perform layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processors of application circuits 605 / 705 may utilize data received from these layers (e.g., packet data) and may also perform layer 4 functions (e.g., TCP and UDP layers). As referred to herein, layer 3 may include the RRC layer, which is described in more detail below. As referred to herein, layer 2 may include the MAC layer, RLC layer, and PDCP layer, which are described in more detail below. As referred to herein, layer 1 may include the PHY layer of the UE / RAN node, which is described in more detail below.

[0133] Figure 9 illustrates various protocol functions that may be implemented in wireless communication devices according to various embodiments. In particular, Figure 9 includes array 900, which shows the interconnections between various protocol layers / entities. The following description of Figure 9 is provided for various protocol layers / entities that operate in conjunction with 5G / NR and LTE system standards, but some or all of the embodiments of Figure 9 may also be applicable to other wireless communication network systems.

[0134] The protocol layer of array 900 may include one or more of the following: PHY910, MAC920, RLC930, PDCP940, SDAP947, RRC955, and NAS layer 957, in addition to other higher-layer functions not shown. The protocol layer may include one or more service access points (e.g., items 959, 956, 950, 949, 945, 935, 925, and 915 in Figure 9) that can provide communication between two or more protocol layers.

[0135] The PHY910 can send and receive physical layer signals 905 that can be received or transmitted to one or more other communication devices. The physical layer signals 905 may include one or more physical channels, as described herein. The PHY910 may further perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell discovery (e.g., for initial synchronization and handover purposes), and other measurements used by higher layers such as the RRC955. The PHY layer 910 may also further perform error detection on transport channels, forward error correction (FEC) coding / decoding of transport channels, modulation / demodulation of physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to physical channels, and MIMO antenna processing. In embodiments, an instance of the PHY910 can process requests and provide instructions from instances of the MAC920 via one or more PHY-SAP915s. According to some embodiments, requests and instructions communicated via the PHY-SAP915s may include one or more transport channels.

[0136] An instance of MAC920 can process requests from instances of RLC930 via one or more MAC-SAP925s and provide instructions to the instances. These requests and instructions communicated via MAC-SAP925s may include one or more logical channels. MAC920 can perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs from one or more logical channels onto the TB delivered to the PHY910 via transport channels, demultiplexing MAC SDUs from the TB to one or more logical channels delivered to the PHY910 via transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto the TB, scheduling information reporting, error correction by HARQ, and logical channel prioritization.

[0137] An instance of RLC930 can process requests from an instance of PDCP940 via one or more Radio Link Control Service Access Points (RLC-SAP)935 and provide instructions to the PDCP instance. These requests and instructions communicated via RLC-SAP935 may include one or more RLC channels. RLC930 can operate in multiple operating modes, including Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and Acknowledged Mode (AM). RLC930 can perform forwarding of upper-layer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction via automatic repeat requests (ARQs) for AM data forwarding, and concatenation, splitting, and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data forwarding. The RLC930 may also perform repartition of RLC data PDUs for AM data transfer, reorder RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transfer, detect duplicate data for UM and AM data transfer, discard RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfer, detect protocol errors for AM data transfer, and perform RLC re-establishment.

[0138] An instance of PDCP940 can process requests to and / or instructions to instances of RRC955 and / or SDAP947 via one or more Packet Data Convergence Protocol Service Access Points (PDCP-SAP)945s. These requests and instructions communicated via PDCP-SAP945s may involve one or more radio bearers. PDCP940 can perform header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP sequence numbers (SNs), perform in-sequence delivery of upper-layer PDUs in lower-layer re-establishment, remove duplicates of lower-layer SDUs in lower-layer re-establishment for radio bearers mapped on RLC AMs, encrypt and decrypt control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification of control plane data, control timer-based data discarding, and perform security operations (e.g., encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.).

[0139] An instance of SDAP947 can process requests and provide instructions from one or more upper-layer protocol entities via one or more SDAP-SAP949. These requests and instructions communicated via SDAP-SAP949 may include one or more QoS flows. SDAP947 can map QoS flows to DRBs and vice versa, and can also mark QFIs in DL packets and UL packets. A single SDAP entity 947 may be configured for individual PDU sessions. In the UL direction, NG-RAN310 can control the mapping of QoS flows to DRBs(s) in two different ways: reflective mapping or explicit mapping. For reflective mapping, SDAP947 in UE301 may monitor the QFI of DL packets for each DRB and apply the same mapping to packets flowing in the UL direction. With respect to DRBs, SDAP947 in UE301 can map QoS flow IDs(s) and UL packets belonging to the QoS flow(s) corresponding to the PDU session observed in the DL packet for that DRB. To enable reflection mapping, the NG-RAN510 can mark DL packets on the Uu interface with a QoS flow ID. Explicit mapping may include an RRC955 configuring SDAP947 in the DRB mapping rule with an explicit QoS flow, which is remembered and can be followed by SDAP947. In this embodiment, SDAP947 may be used only in NR implementations and not in LTE implementations.

[0140] RRC955 can constitute one or more protocol layer configurations, which may include one or more instances of PHY910, MAC920, RLC930, PDCP940, and SDAP947 via one or more Management Service Access Points (M-SAPs). In an embodiment, an instance of RRC955 can process requests and provide instructions from one or more NAS entities 957 via one or more RRC-SAPs 956. The main services and functions of RRC955 include broadcasting system information (e.g., contained in MIBs or SIBs related to NAS) or System Information Blocks (SIBs), broadcasting system information related to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishing, maintaining, and releasing RRC connections between UE301 and RAN310 (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, RRC connection release), establishing, configuring, maintaining, and releasing point-to-point radio bearers, security functions including key management, radio access technology (RAT) mobility, and measurement configurations for UE measurement reporting. MIBs and SIBs may each contain one or more IEs that may include individual data fields or data structures.

[0141] The NAS957 may form the top layer of the control plane between the UE301 and the AMF521. The NAS957 may also support the mobility and session management procedures of the UE301 to establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE301 and the P-GW of the LTE system.

[0142] According to various embodiments, one or more protocol entities in array 900 may be implemented in the UE301, RAN node 311, NR implementation AMF521 or LTE implementation MME421, NR implementation UPF502 or LTE implementation S-GW422 and P-GW423, etc., which are used in the control plane or user plane communication protocol stack between the devices described above. In such embodiments, one or more protocol entities that can be implemented in one or more of the UE301, gNB311, AMF521, etc., can communicate with their respective peer protocol entities that can be implemented in or on another device using the services of their respective lower-layer protocol entities to perform such communication. In some embodiments, the gNB-CU of gNB311 can host the RRC955, SDAP947, and PDCP940 of the gNB, which control the operation of one or more gNB-DUs, and the gNB-DU of gNB311 can host the RLC930, MAC920, and PHY910 of gNB311, respectively.

[0143] In the first example, the control plane protocol stack may comprise, from top to bottom, NAS957, RRC955, PDCP940, RLC930, MAC920, and PHY910. In this embodiment, the upper layer 960 can be built on top of NAS957, which includes the IP layer 961, SCTP962, and the Application Layer Signaling Protocol (AP) 963.

[0144] In an NR implementation, AP963 may be an NG application protocol layer (NGAP or NG-AP) 963 for an NG interface 313 defined between an NG-RAN node 311 and an AMF521, or AP963 may be an Xn application protocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP) 963 for an Xn interface 312 defined between two or more RAN nodes 311.

[0145] NG-AP963 may support the functionality of NG interface 313 and may include Elementary Procedures (EPs). An NG-AP EP can be the unit of interaction between NG-RAN node 311 and AMF521. NG-AP963 services may include two groups: UE-related services (e.g., services related to UE301) and non-UE-related services (e.g., services related to the entire NG interface instance between NG-RAN node 311 and AMF521). These services may include, but are not limited to, paging functions for sending paging requests to NG-RAN nodes 311 located in a specific paging area; UE context management functions for enabling AMF521 to establish, modify, and / or release UE contexts within AMF521 and NG-RAN nodes 311; mobility functions for UE301 in ECM connection mode for in-system HOs supporting mobility within NG-RAN and inter-system HOs supporting mobility between EPS systems; NAS signaling transmission functions for transmitting or rerouting NAS messages between UE301 and AMF521; NAS node selection functions for determining the relationship between AMF521 and UE301; NG interface management functions (one or more) for configuring NG interfaces and monitoring errors via NG interfaces; warning message transmission functions for providing means to forward warning messages via NG interfaces or cancel ongoing broadcasts of warning messages; Configuration Transfer functions for requesting and transferring RAN configuration information (e.g., SON information, performance measurement (PM) data, etc.) between two RAN nodes 311 via CN320; and / or other similar functions.

[0146] XnAP963 can support the functionality of Xn Interface 312 and may include XnAP Basic Mobility Procedures and XnAP Global Procedures. XnAP Basic Mobility Procedures may include procedures used to handle UE mobility within NG RAN 311 (or E-UTRAN 410), such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN status transfer procedures, UE context lookup and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, and dual connectivity-related procedures. XnAP Global Procedures may include procedures not related to a specific UE 301, such as Xn Interface Setup and Reset Procedures, NG-RAN Update Procedures, and Cell Activation Procedures.

[0147] In an LTE implementation, AP963 may be an S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 963 for an S1 interface 313 defined between an E-UTRAN node 311 and an MME, or AP963 may be an X2 application protocol layer (X2AP or X2-AP) 963 for an X2 interface 312 defined between two or more E-UTRAN nodes 311.

[0148] The S1 Application Protocol Layer (S1-AP)963 can support the functions of the S1 interface, and, similar to the NG-AP described above, the S1-AP may include an S1-AP EP. The S1-AP EP can be the unit of interaction between the E-UTRAN node 311 and the MME421 in the LTE CN320. The S1-AP963 service may include two groups: UE-related services and non-UE-related services. These services perform functions including, but not limited to, E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transmission, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transmission.

[0149] X2AP963 can support the functionality of the X2 interface 312 and may include X2AP basic mobility procedures and X2AP global procedures. X2AP basic mobility procedures may include procedures used to handle UE mobility within E-UTRAN320, such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN status transfer procedures, UE context lookup and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, and dual connectivity-related procedures. X2AP global procedures may include procedures not related to a specific UE301, such as X2 interface setup and reset procedures, load indication procedures, error indication procedures, and cell activation procedures.

[0150] The SCTP layer (or SCTP / IP layer) 962 can provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages (e.g., NGAP or XnAP messages in an NR implementation, or S1-AP or X2AP messages in an LTE implementation). SCTP 962 can guarantee reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node 311 and the AMF 521 / MME 421, partially based on the IP protocol supported by IP 961. The Internet Protocol layer (IP) 961 can be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. In some implementations, the IP layer 961 can use point-to-point transmission to deliver and propagate PDUs. In this regard, the RAN node 311 may have L2 and L1 layer communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the MME / AMF for exchanging information.

[0151] In the second example, the user plane protocol stack may comprise, from top layer to bottom layer, SDAP947, PDCP940, RLC930, MAC920, and PHY910. In an LTE implementation, the user plane protocol stack may be used for communication between UE301, RAN node 311, and UPF502, or for communication between S-GW422 and P-GW423. In this example, the upper layer 951 may be built on top of SDAP947 and may include the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and IP Security Layer (UDP / IP) 952, the General-Purpose Packet Radio Services (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol for the User Plane Layer (GTP-U) 953, and the User Plane PDU Layer (UP PDU) 963.

[0152] The transport network layer 954 (also called the “transport layer”) may be built on top of the IP transport, and may use GTP-U953 on top of the UDP / IP layer 952 (including the UDP and IP layers) to carry user-plane PDUs (UP-PDUs). The IP layer (also called the “Internet layer”) may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. The IP layer can assign IP addresses to user data packets, for example, in IPv4, IPv6, or PPP format.

[0153] GTP-U953 can be used to carry user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. The transmitted user data may be packets in any of the following formats: IPv4, IPv6, or PPP. UDP / IP952 can provide data integrity checksums, port numbers to handle different functions at source and destination, and encryption and authentication on selected data flows. RAN node 311 and S-GW422 can utilize the S1-U interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including L1 layer (e.g., PHY910), L2 layer (e.g., MAC920, RLC930, PDCP940, and / or SDAP947), UDP / IP layer 952, and GTP-U953. S-GW422 and P-GW423 can utilize the S5 / S8a interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including L1 layer, L2 layer, UDP / IP layer 952, and GTP-U953. As mentioned above, the NAS protocol can support the mobility and session management procedures of the UE301 in order to establish and maintain an IP connection between the UE301 and the P-GW423.

[0154] Furthermore, although not shown in Figure 9, an application layer may exist on top of AP963 and / or the transport network layer 954. The application layer may be a layer in which users of UE301, RAN node 311, or other network elements interact with software applications executed by, for example, application circuit 605 or application circuit 705. The application layer may also provide one or more interfaces for software applications to interact with the communication systems of RAN node 311, such as UE301 or baseband circuit 810. In some implementations, the IP layer and / or application layer can provide the same or similar functionality as layers 5-7 or parts thereof of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model (e.g., OSI layer 7 - application layer, OSI layer 6 - presentation layer, and OSI layer 5 - session layer).

[0155] Figure 10 shows the components of the core network according to various embodiments. The components of CN420 may be implemented in a single physical node or separate physical nodes, including components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable medium or a computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-temporary machine-readable storage medium). In embodiments, the components of CN520 may be implemented in the same or similar manner as described herein with respect to the components of CN420. In some embodiments, NFV is used to virtualize any or all of the above-described network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media (described in more detail below). A logical instantiation of CN420 may be referred to as a network slice 1001, and individual logical instantiations of CN420 can provide specific network capabilities and network characteristics. A logical instantiation of a portion of CN420 may be referred to as a network subslice 1002 (for example, a network subslice 1002 is shown to include P-GW423 and PCRF426).

[0156] As used herein, terms such as “instance” and “instantiation” can refer to the creation of an instance, and “instance” can refer to the specific occurrence of an object that may occur, for example, during the execution of program code. A network instance can refer to information identifying a domain that can be used for traffic discovery and routing in the case of different IP domains or overlapping IP addresses. A network slice instance can refer to a set of resources (e.g., compute, storage, and networking resources) required to deploy a network function (NF) instance and a network slice.

[0157] For 5G systems (see, for example, Figure 5), network slices always include both a RAN portion and a CN portion. Support for network slicing relies on the principle that traffic for different slices is handled by different PDU sessions. Networks can implement different network slices through scheduling and by providing different L1 / L2 configurations. The UE501, when provided by the NAS, provides support information for network slice selection in the appropriate RRC message. While a network can support many slices, the UE does not need to support eight slices simultaneously.

[0158] A network slice may include the CN520 control plane and user plane NF, the NG-RAN510 in the serving PLMN, and the N3IWF function in the serving PLMN. Individual network slices may have different S-NSSAIs and / or different SSTs. An NSSAI includes one or more S-NSSAIs, and each network slice is uniquely identified by an S-NSSAI. Network slices may differ in terms of supported functions and network function optimizations, and / or multiple network slice instances may deliver the same service / function for different groups of UE501 (e.g., enterprise users). For example, individual network slices may deliver different committed services and / or be dedicated to a particular customer or enterprise. In this embodiment, each network slice may have different NSSAIs, having the same SST but different slice microstructures. Furthermore, a single UE may be served by one or more network slice instances simultaneously via a 5G AN and associated with eight different S-NSSAIs. Furthermore, each AMF521 instance providing services to an individual UE501 may belong to each of the network slice instances providing services to that UE.

[0159] Network slicing in NG-RAN510 includes RAN slice recognition. RAN slice recognition involves differentiated processing of traffic across different pre-configured network slices. Slice recognition in NG-RAN510 is implemented at the PDU session level by indicating the S-NSSAI corresponding to the PDU session in all signaling, including PDU session resource information. How NG-RAN510 supports slice activation in terms of NG-RAN functionality (e.g., a set of network functions including each slice) depends on the implementation. NG-RAN510 selects the RAN portion of a network slice using supporting information provided by UE501 or 5GC520, which unambiguously identifies one or more of the pre-configured network slices within the PLMN. NG-RAN510 also supports inter-slice resource management and policy enforcement according to SLAs. A single NG-RAN node can support multiple slices, and NG-RAN510 may also apply appropriate RRM policies of the enforced SLA to each supported slice. NG-RAN510 can also support QoS differentiation within slices.

[0160] NG-RAN510 may also use UE assistance information to select an AMF521 during initial attachment, if available. NG-RAN510 uses assistance information to route the initial NAS to an AMF521. If NG-RAN510 cannot select an AMF521 using assistance information, or if UE501 does not provide any such information, NG-RAN510 sends NAS signaling to a default AMF521 that may be in the pool of AMF521s. For subsequent access, UE501 provides a temporary ID (temp ID) assigned to UE501 by 5GC520, allowing NG-RAN510 to route NAS messages to the appropriate AMF521 as long as the temp ID is valid. NG-RAN510 can recognize and reach the AMF521 associated with the temp ID; otherwise, the method for initial attachment applies.

[0161] NG-RAN510 supports resource isolation between slices. NG-RAN510 resource isolation may be achieved through RRM policies and protection mechanisms, which are necessary to avoid resource shortages if one slice violates the service level agreement for another slice. In some implementations, it is possible to dedicate NG-RAN510 resources entirely to specific slices. The way NG-RAN510 supports resource isolation depends on the implementation.

[0162] Some slices may be available only in a portion of the network. NG-RAN510 recognition of slices supported within its adjacent cells may be beneficial for inter-frequency mobility in connected mode. Slice availability can be kept constant within the UE's registration area. NG-RAN510 and 5GC520 are responsible for processing service requests for slices that may or may not be available in a given area. Approval or denial of access to a slice may depend on factors such as slice support, resource availability, and NG-RAN510's support for the requested service.

[0163] UE501 may be associated with multiple network slices simultaneously. If UE501 is associated with multiple slices simultaneously, only one signaling connection is maintained, and for intra-frequency cell reselection, UE501 attempts to camp in the best cell. For inter-frequency cell reselection, a dedicated priority can be used to control which frequency UE501 is camping at. 5GC520 will verify that UE501 has the right to access the network slices. Before receiving the initial context setup request message, NG-RAN510 may be allowed to apply several provisional / local policies based on its recognition of the specific slice that UE501 is requesting access to. During initial context setup, NG-RAN510 is notified about the slices for which resources are being requested.

[0164] The NFV architecture and infrastructure may be used to virtualize one or more NFs, or alternatively, run on dedicated hardware and virtualized on physical resources including a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches. In other words, an NFV system can be used to run a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more EPC components / functions.

[0165] Figure 11 is a block diagram showing the components of a system 1100 supporting an NFV according to some exemplary embodiments. The system 1100 is shown to include VIM1102, NFVI1104, VNFM1106, VNF1108, EM1110, NFVO1112, and NM1114.

[0166] VIM1102 manages the resources of NFVI1104. NFVI1104 may include physical or virtual resources and applications (including hypervisors) used to run system 1100. VIM1102 manages the virtual resource lifecycle by NFVI1104 (e.g., creation, maintenance, and destruction of VMs associated with one or more physical resources), tracks VM instances, tracks the performance, failures, and security of VM instances and associated physical resources, and can expose VM instances and associated physical resources to other management systems.

[0167] VNFM1106 can manage VNF1108. VNF1108 can be used to execute EPC components / functions. VNFM1106 may manage the lifecycle of VNF1108 and track the performance, failures, and security of the virtual aspects of VNF1108. EM1110 can track the performance, failures, and security of the functional aspects of VNF1108. Tracking data from VNFM1106 and EM1110 may include, for example, performance measurement PM data used by VIM1102 or NFVI1104. Both VNFM1106 and EM1110 can scale up / down the amount of VNFs in system 1100.

[0168] NFVO1112 can coordinate, authorize, release, and reserve resources of NFVI1104 to provide requested services (e.g., to perform EPC functions, components, or slices). NM1114 can provide a package of end-user functions responsible for network management, which may include network elements having VNFs, non-virtualized network functions, or both (VNF management may be performed via EM1110).

[0169] Figure 12 is a block diagram showing components, in several exemplary embodiments, capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-temporary machine-readable storage medium) and executing one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, Figure 12 shows a schematic representation of hardware resources 1200, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1210, one or more memory / storage devices 1220, and one or more communication resources 1230, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1240. In embodiments utilizing node virtualization (e.g., NFV), a hypervisor 1202 may be implemented to provide execution environments for one or more network slices / subslice for utilizing the hardware resources 1200.

[0170] Processor 1210 may include, for example, processors 1212 and 1214. Processor 1210 (one or more) may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a composite instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP, such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a high-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any preferred combination thereof.

[0171] The memory / storage device 1220 may include main memory, disk storage, or any preferred combination thereof. The memory / storage device 1220 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, or solid-state storage.

[0172] The communication resource 1230 may include interconnection or network interface components or other devices for communicating with one or more peripheral devices 1204 or one or more databases 1206 via the network 1208. For example, the communication resource 1230 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth® Low Energy) components, Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.

[0173] Instruction 1250 may include software, programs, applications, applets, apps, or other executable code to cause at least one of the processors 1210 to execute any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Instruction 1250 may reside, whole or in part, in the processor 1210 (e.g., in the processor's cache memory), the memory / storage device 1220, or at least one of any preferred combination thereof. Furthermore, any part of instruction 1250 may be transferred to the hardware resource 1200 from any combination of peripheral device 1204 or database 1206. Thus, the memory of the processor 1210, the memory / storage device 1220, the peripheral device 1204, and the database 1206 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media. Example procedure

[0174] In some embodiments, electronic devices, networks, systems, chips, or components, or parts thereof or implementations, of Figures 3–12 or any other figures herein may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, or methods, or parts thereof, described herein. One such process is shown in Figure 13. Figure 13 shows a flowchart 13 illustrating electronic devices, e.g., UE301, 401, 501, 700, for use in a wireless network to configure and perform a secondary cell beam fault recovery procedure according to embodiments of the present disclosure. In embodiments, flowchart 1300 may be performed or controlled by a processor or processor circuit described in various embodiments herein, including the processor shown in Figure 12, the application circuit 605 or 705 shown in Figures 6–7, and / or the baseband circuit 610 or 710.

[0175] In 1302, it is detected that the first beam associated with the secondary cell (SCell) is mismatched. For example, the UE can detect or cause it to detect that the first beam associated with the secondary cell (SCell) is mismatched. According to some embodiments, the first beam can be associated with a first reference signal (RS). In 1304, a beam fault recovery (BFR) procedure for the SCell is configured. For example, the UE can configure or cause a beam fault recovery (BFR) procedure applicable to the SCell to be configured. In 1306, the BFR procedure is performed to replace the first beam with a second beam. For example, the UE can perform or cause the BFR procedure to be performed to replace the first beam with a second beam. According to some embodiments, the second beam is associated with the SCell.

[0176] According to some embodiments, method 1300 may further include the UE transmitting a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) to the base station as a BFR request (BFRQ). The MAC CE may include an identifier that identifies the SCell and an index associated with the second beam. The index associated with the second beam may also indicate whether the reference signal received power (RSRP) exceeds a threshold.

[0177] According to some embodiments, Method 1300 may also include selecting a second RS, the second RS being associated with a second beam and having a reference signal received power (RSRP) above a threshold. Method 1300 may also include using the second RS as a quasi-colocated RS to access the SCell. Method 1300 may also include receiving a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) from a base station, processing the MAC CE, and selecting a second beam to replace the first beam in response to processing the MAC CE.

[0178] Please understand that other processes not shown in the flowchart (e.g., Figure 13) may be described herein.

[0179] The functions and / or processes shown in Figure 13 can be performed at least partially by one or more of the application circuits 605 or 705, the baseband circuits 610 or 710, and / or the processor 1214.

[0180] In one or more embodiments, at least one of the components, devices, systems, or parts thereof described in one or more of the aforementioned figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and / or methods as described in the following Examples section. For example, the baseband circuit described above in relation to one or more of the aforementioned figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples described below. In another example, a circuit associated with a UE, base station, network element, etc., as described above in relation to one or more of the aforementioned figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples described below in the Examples section. In yet another example, the apparatus may be configured to operate according to one or more of the embodiments described below. In yet another embodiment, the apparatus may include means that operate according to one or more of the embodiments described below in the Examples section. Examples

[0181] The examples described herein are illustrative, not exhaustive, and not intended to limit.

[0182] Example 1 may include a method for beam fault recovery configuration for a secondary cell (SCell), which may consist of a serving cell configuration, for example, ServingCellConfig in the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Technology Use (TS) 38.331 (Release 15 (Rel-15)), instead of a per-uplink configuration, for example, UplinkConfig in 3GPP TS38.331 (Rel-15). As a result, the beam fault recovery procedure can be performed in the serving cell without UL data transmission functionality.

[0183] Example 2 may include Example 1 of this specification or any other example, and the beam fault recovery configuration may be designed as follows.

number

[0184] Example 3 may include an rsrp-ThresholdSSB in Example 2 of this specification or any other example, the rsrp-ThresholdSSB defining a threshold for the reference signal received power (RSRP) of the CSI-RS and / or synchronization signal block (SSB) configured for beam fault detection. The RSRP of the channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) that triggers beam fault detection shall take into account the power offset of the CSI-RS with respect to the corresponding SSB.

[0185] Example 4 may include a candidateBeamRSList from Example 2 of this specification or any other example, where the candidateBeamRSList includes several candidate beams defined by SSB or CSI-RS. The maximum number of candidate beams is defined by maxNrofCandidateBeams.

[0186] Example 5 may include the beamFailureRecoveryTimer in Example 2 of this specification or any other embodiment, the beamFailureRecoveryTimer defining the time at which a radio resource control (RRC) reconnection procedure is initiated for a SCell having a beam failure.

[0187] Embodiment 6 may include an uplink (UL) medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) that can be used by user equipment (UE) to send a beam fault recovery (BFR) request (BFRQ) to the network (NW) to notify the NW of (i) the index of the SCell experiencing beam mismatch, and (ii) a recommended new beam index where the RSRP exceeds the threshold set for BFR.

[0188] Example 7 may include Example 6 of this specification or any other example, in which the NW can select and reconfigure a new beam / TCI state for the CORESET in the SCell by downlink (DL)MAC CE.

[0189] Example 8 may include the successful completion of the SCell's BFR upon receiving a MAC CE indicating a reset of the CORESET TCI state.

[0190] Example 9 may include a BFRQ UL MAC CE in Example 6 of this specification or any other example, the BFRQ UL MAC CE can be transmitted in primary cells (PCells) and SCells that support UL transmission. Specifically, the UL MAC CE is shown in Figure 1.

[0191] Example 10 may include a BFRQ MAC CE in Example 6 of this specification or any other example, in which a new candidate beam having an RSRP above a set threshold is identified by a MAC protocol data unit (PDU) subheader having a new logical channel identifier (LCID) as defined in 3GPP TS38.321(Rel-15). It has a variable size consisting of the following fields: - Serving Cell ID: This field indicates the identity of the serving cell with beam mismatch to which MAC CE applies. The field length is 5 bits. -BWP ID: This field indicates the UL BWP to which MAC CE applies, as a code point for the DCI bandwidth part indicator field as defined in 3GPP TS38.212(Rel-15). The length of the BWP ID field is 2 bits. -Ti: This field indicates the activation / deactivation status of the PRACH-ResourceDedicatedBFR having sequence index i set in candidateBeamRSList in BeamFailureRecoveryConfig. The Ti field is set to "1" to indicate that the RSRP of the PRACH-ResourceDedicatedBFR having sequence index i exceeds the set threshold for the BFR. Otherwise, the Ti field is set to "0". N refers to the maximum number of PRACH-ResourceDedicatedBFRs that can be configured in candidateBeamRSList, for example, N can be 16. -R: Reserved bit, set to "0".

[0192] Example 11 may include the possibility that the BeamFailureRequestConfig may consist of MAC entities for each cell group. Each beam failure request configuration is identified by a BeamFailureRequestId and corresponds to a SCell that supports the beam failure recovery procedure.

[0193] Example 12 may include a BeamFailureRequestConfig from Example 11 or any other example herein, the BeamFailureRequestConfig can be designed as follows:

number

[0194] Example 13 may include beamFailureRequestId in Example 12 of this specification or any other example, where beamFailureRequestId defines an index for the beam failure request configuration.

[0195] Example 14 may include a bfrq-ProhibitTimer in Example 12 or any other example herein, which defines a timer that controls the time interval between consecutive BFRQs sent to a SCell.

[0196] Example 15 may include bfrq-TransMax in Example 12 of this specification or any other example, where bfrq-TransMax represents the maximum number of BFRQs sent to the SCell before the SCell RRC activation / deactivation procedure is initiated.

[0197] Example 16 may include the fact that the list of BeamFailureRequestResourceConfigs can be configured for each PUCCH-Config, and each BeamFailureRequestResourceConfig can be associated with multiple BeamFailureRequestConfigs, so that the same BeamFailureRequestResourceConfig can be used by multiple BeamFailureRequestConfigs corresponding to different SCells.

[0198] Example 17 may include a BeamFailureRequestResourceConfig from Example 16 of this specification or any other example, the BeamFailureRequestResourceConfig may be specified as follows:

number

[0199] Example 18 may include beamFailureRequestResourceId in Example 17 of this specification or any other example, where beamFailureRequestResourceId defines an index for the beam failure request resource configuration.

[0200] Example 19 may include beamFailureRequestIDList in Example 17 of this specification or any other example, where beamFailureRequestIDList defines a list of relevant beam failure request IDs.

[0201] Example 20 may include periodityAndOffset in Example 17 of this specification or any other example, where periodityAndOffset defines the period and symbol / slot offset of a time opportunity for BFRQ resource transmission.

[0202] Example 21 may include a resource in Example 17 of this specification or any other example, where the resource defines a PUCCH-Resource used for BFRQ resources.

[0203] Example 22 may include the fact that the relationships between all configurations related to beam obstruction requirements can be summarized in Figure 2.

[0204] Example 23 may include the possibility that an event-triggered layer 1 (L1) channel status information (CSI) report associated with the SCell may be transmitted by a corresponding beam fault request (BFR) resource determined by a medium access control (MAC) beam fault recovery procedure.

[0205] Example 24 may include the possibility that the BFRQ CSI report may include information regarding the RSRP of a new beam for link recovery and SCell index. Specifically, the BFRQ CSI report can be designed as follows:

number

[0206] Example 25 may include beamFailurEventTriggered in Example 24 of this specification or any other example, where beamFailurEventTriggered defines a beam failure event trigger report as a new reportConfigType.

[0207] Example 26 may include servingCellIndex-newBeam-RSRP in Example 24 of this specification or any other example, where servingCellIndex-newBeam-RSRP defines a CSI reporting amount consisting of a serving cell index and new candidate beams, each having an RSRP above a set threshold rsrp-ThresholdSSB.

[0208] Example 27 may include NrOfReportedRS in Example 24 of this specification or any other example, where NrOfReportedRS defines the number of candidate beams reported in this report.

[0209] Example 28 may include the fact that the contents of the CSI report can be listed in Table 1.

[0210] Example 29 is a method for link recovery in a new wireless (NR) telecommunications system, To detect or cause to detect a mismatch in the first beam associated with a secondary cell (SCell), wherein the first beam is associated with a first reference signal (RS), Configuring or causing to be configured a beam fault recovery (BFR) procedure applicable to SCell, The method may include performing or having a BFR procedure performed to replace the first beam with a second beam, wherein the second beam is associated with the SCell. Example 30 may include the method in Example 29 of this specification or any other example, which constitutes or causes to constitute a BFR procedure applicable to SCell. Selecting or causing a second RS, wherein the second RS is associated with a second beam and has a reference signal received power (RSRP) exceeding a threshold RSRP, Using a second RS as a quasi-colocated RS to randomly access or cause random access to SCells, Receiving or causing a media access control (MAC) control element (CE) from the network, Processing or causing MAC CE to be processed, This includes selecting or causing a second beam to be selected to replace a first beam in response to processing by MAC CE.

[0211] Example 31 may include the method in Example 30 of this specification or any other example, wherein the BFR procedure is configured without uplink (UL) data transmission functionality.

[0212] Example 32 may include the method in Example 30 of this specification or any other example, which constitutes or causes to constitute a BFR procedure applicable to SCell. Sending or causing a BFR request (BFRQ) to the network, further comprising sending or causing a BFRQ that includes an index associated with a SCell and an index associated with a second beam.

[0213] Example 33 may include the method in Example 30 of this specification or any other example, and the BFR procedure is configured for a plurality of SCells including the SCell.

[0214] Example 34 may include the method in Example 30 of this specification or any other example, which constitutes or causes to constitute a BFR procedure applicable to SCell. Transmitting or causing to transmit Layer 1 (L1) channel status information (CSI) associated with an SCell, further comprising transmitting or causing to transmit an L1 CSI that includes an index associated with the SCell and information regarding the RSRP of a second beam.

[0215] Example 35 is a device for link recovery in a new radio (NR) telecommunications system, Means for detecting a mismatch in a first beam associated with a secondary cell (SCell), wherein the first beam is associated with a first reference signal (RS), Means for configuring a beam fault recovery (BFR) procedure applicable to SCell, The apparatus may include means for performing a BFR procedure to replace a first beam with a second beam, wherein the second beam is associated with a SCell.

[0216] Example 36 may include the apparatus of Example 35 or any other example herein, wherein the means constituting a beam fault recovery (BFR) procedure applicable to SCell are: A means for selecting a second RS, wherein the second RS is associated with a second beam and has a reference signal received power (RSRP) exceeding a threshold RSRP. A means of randomly accessing SCells by using a second RS as a quasi-colocated RS, Means for receiving media access control (MAC) control elements (CE) from a network, A means for processing MAC CE, The system comprises means for selecting a second beam to replace a first beam in response to MAC CE processing.

[0217] Example 37 may include the apparatus of Example 36 of this specification or any other example, wherein the BFR procedure is configured without uplink (UL) data transmission functionality.

[0218] Example 38 may include the apparatus of Example 36 or any other example herein, wherein the means constituting a beam fault recovery (BFR) procedure applicable to SCell are: A means for transmitting a BFR request (BFRQ) to a network, the means for transmitting the BFRQ including an index associated with a SCell and an index associated with a second beam.

[0219] Example 39 may include the apparatus of Example 36 or any other example herein, and the BFR procedure is configured for a plurality of SCells including said SCell.

[0220] Example 40 may include the apparatus of Example 36 or any other example herein, wherein the means constituting a beam fault recovery (BFR) procedure applicable to SCell are: Means for transmitting layer 1 (L1) channel state information (CSI) associated with an SCell, further comprising means for transmitting L1 CSI including an index associated with the SCell and information relating to the RSRP of a second beam.

[0221] Example 41 is a device for link recovery in a new wireless (NR) telecommunications system, The first beam associated with the secondary cell (SCell) is detected to be mismatched, and the first beam is associated with the first reference signal (RS), Configure a beam fault recovery (BFR) procedure applicable to SCell. The apparatus may include means for performing a BFR procedure to replace a first beam with a second beam, wherein the second beam is configured to be associated with a SCell.

[0222] Example 42 may include the apparatus of Example 41 or any other example herein, the apparatus configured to constitute a BFR procedure, A second RS is selected, and the second RS is associated with the second beam and has a reference signal received power (RSRP) that exceeds the threshold RSRP. The second RS is used as a quasi-colocated RS to randomly access SCells, Receives Media Access Control (MAC) control elements (CEs) from the network, Process MAC CE, The apparatus is configured to select a second beam to replace a first beam in response to MAC CE processing.

[0223] Example 43 may include the apparatus of Example 42 or any other example herein, wherein the BFR procedure is configured without uplink (UL) data transmission functionality.

[0224] Example 44 may include the apparatus of Example 42 or any other example herein, the apparatus configured to constitute a BFR procedure, The system further includes equipment configured to transmit BFR requests (BFRQs) to the network, the BFRQs including an index associated with the SCell and an index associated with a second beam.

[0225] Example 45 may include the apparatus of Example 42 or any other example herein, and the BFR procedure is configured for a plurality of SCells including said SCell.

[0226] Example 46 may include the apparatus of Example 42 or any other example herein, the apparatus configured to constitute a BFR procedure, The system further comprises an instrument configured to transmit Layer 1 (L1) channel state information (CSI) associated with an SCell, the L1 CSI including an index associated with the SCell and information regarding the RSRP of a second beam.

[0227] Example 47 may include the apparatus described in any one of Examples 1 to 46, and the apparatus or any part thereof may be implemented in or by a user equipment (UE).

[0228] Example 48 may include the method described in any one of Examples 1 to 46, wherein the method or any part thereof is implemented in or by a user device (UE).

[0229] Example 49 may include the apparatus described in any one of Examples 1 to 46, and the apparatus or any part thereof may be implemented in or by a base station (BS).

[0230] Example 50 may include the method described in any one of Examples 1 to 46, and the method or any part thereof may be implemented in or by a base station (BS).

[0231] Example 51 may include an apparatus comprising means for performing one or more elements of any of the methods described in or related to Examples 1 to 46, or any other method or process described herein.

[0232] Example 52 may include one or more non-temporary computer-readable media containing instructions, wherein when an instruction is executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, the instruction causes the electronic device to execute one or more elements of any of the methods described in or related to Examples 1 to 46, or any other method or process described herein.

[0233] Example 53 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, or circuits for performing one or more elements of any of the methods described in Examples 1 to 46, or any other methods or processes described herein.

[0234] Example 54 may include any of the methods, techniques, or processes described in or related to Examples 1 to 46, or parts or portions thereof.

[0235] Example 55 may include an apparatus comprising one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media containing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause one or more processors to execute a method, technique, or process, or part thereof, described in or related to any of Examples 1 to 46.

[0236] Example 56 may include signals, or parts thereof, described in or related to any of Examples 1 to 46.

[0237] Example 57 may include signals in a wireless network illustrated and described herein.

[0238] Example 58 may include a method of communication within a wireless network as illustrated and described herein.

[0239] Example 59 may include a system that provides wireless communication as illustrated and described herein.

[0240] Example 60 may include a device that provides wireless communication as illustrated and described herein.

[0241] Any of the embodiments described above can be combined with any other embodiment (or combination of embodiments) unless otherwise specified. The above descriptions of one or more implementations are illustrative and illustrative, but are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of implementations to the exact form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in consideration of the above teachings or can be obtained from practical embodiments consistent with this disclosure. Abbreviation

[0242] For the purposes of this document, the following abbreviations can be applied to the examples and embodiments discussed in this specification, but are not meant to be limiting.

[0243] 3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project

[0244] 4G 4th Generation

[0245] 5G 5th Generation

[0246] 5GC 5G Core Network

[0247] ACK Acknowledgment

[0248] AF Application Function

[0249] AM Acknowledged Mode

[0250] AMBR Aggregate Maximum Bit Rate

[0251] AMF Access and Mobility Management Function

[0252] AN Access Network

[0253] ANR Automatic Neighbor Relation

[0254] AP Application Protocol, Antenna Port, Access Point

[0255] API Application Programming Interface [[ID=5」

[0256] APN Access Point Name

[0257] [[ID=SO]]ARP Allocation and Retention Priority

[0258] ARQ Automatic Repeat reQuest

[0259] AS Access Stratum

[0260] ASN.1 Abstract Syntax Notation One

[0261] AUSF Authentication Server Function

[0262] AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise

[0263] BCH Broadcast Channel

[0264] BER Bit Error Rate

[0265] BFD Beam Failure Detection

[0266] BLER Block Error Rate

[0267] BPSK Binary Phase Shift Keying

[0268] BRAS Broadband Remote Access Server

[0269] BSS Business Support System

[0270] BS Base Station

[0271] BSR Buffer Status Report

[0272] BW Bandwidth

[0273] BWP Bandwidth Part

[0274] C-RNTI Cell Radio Network Temporary Identity

[0275] CA Carrier Aggregation, Certification Authority

[0276] CAPEX Capital Expenditure

[0277] CBRA Collision-Based Random Access

[0278] CC Component Carrier, Country Code, Cyclic Redundancy Check It should be noted that there is a typo in the original text where "964" in line 47 should probably be "964". This has been corrected in the translation.

[0279] CCA Clear Channel Assessment

[0280] CCE control channel element

[0281] CCCH Common Control Channel

[0282] CE Coverage Extension

[0283] CDM (Content Delivery Network)

[0284] CDMA code division multiple access

[0285] CFRA Contention-Free Random Access

[0286] CG Cell Group

[0287] CI (Cell Identity)

[0288] CID Cell ID (e.g., positioning method)

[0289] CIM Common Information Model

[0290] CIR Carrier-to-Interference Ratio

[0291] CK encryption key

[0292] CM connection management, conditionally required

[0293] CMAS Commercial Mobile Warning Service

[0294] CMD command

[0295] CMS Cloud Management System

[0296] CO Conditional Options

[0297] CoMP (Cooperative Multipoint)

[0298] CORESET Control Resource Set

[0299] COTS (Commercially available products)

[0300] CP control plane, cyclic prefix, connection point

[0301] CPD connection point descriptor

[0302] CPE (Customer Premises Equipment)

[0303] CPICH Common Pilot Channel

[0304] CQI Channel Quality Indicator

[0305] CPU CSI Processing Unit, Central Processing Unit

[0306] C / R Command / Response Field Bits

[0307] CRAN (Cloud Radio Access Network), Cloud RAN

[0308] CRB (Common Resource Block)

[0309] CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check

[0310] CRI Channel Status Information Resource Indicator, CSI-RS Resource Indicator

[0311] C-RNTI Cell RNTI

[0312] CS circuit switching

[0313] CSAR Cloud Service Archive

[0314] CSI Channel Status Information

[0315] CSI-IM CSI Interference Measurement

[0316] CSI-RS CSI reference signal

[0317] CSI-RSRP CSI Reference Signal Received Power

[0318] CSI-RSRQ CSI Reference Signal Reception Quality

[0319] CSI SINR (CSI Signal-to-Interference Ratio)

[0320] CSMA Carrier Sense Multiple Access

[0321] CSMA / CA Collision Avoidance CSMA

[0322] CSS common search space, cell-specific search space

[0323] CTS transmission clear

[0324] CW Codeword

[0325] CWS Conflict Window Size

[0326] D2D (Digital-to-Digital)

[0327] DC Dual Connectivity, Direct Current

[0328] DCI Downlink Control Information

[0329] DF Deployment Flavor

[0330] DL Downlink

[0331] DMTF Distributed Management Task Force

[0332] DPDK Dataplane Development Kit

[0333] DM-RS, DMRS demodulation reference signal

[0334] DN Data Network

[0335] DRB Data Wireless Bearer

[0336] DRS detection reference signal

[0337] DRX discontinuous reception

[0338] DSL (Domain-Specific Language Digital Subscriber Line)

[0339] DSLAM DSL Access Multiplexer

[0340] DwPTS Downlink Pilot Time Slot

[0341] E-LAN ​​Ethernet Local Area Network

[0342] E2E (End-to-End)

[0343] ECCA extended clear channel evaluation, extended CCA

[0344] ECCE extended control channel element, extended CCE

[0345] ED energy detection

[0346] EDGE GSM Evolution: Extended Data (GSM Evolution)

[0347] EGMF Exposure Governance Management Function

[0348] EGPRS Extended GPRS

[0349] EIR Device Identity Register

[0350] eLAA enhanced driver's license assist access, enhanced LAA

[0351] EM Element Manager

[0352] eMBB (Enhanced Mobile Broadband)

[0353] EMS Element Management System

[0354] eNB Advanced Node B, E-UTRAN Node B

[0355] EN-DC E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity

[0356] EPC Advanced Packet Core

[0357] EPDCCH Enhanced PDCCH, Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel

[0358] Energy per resource element in EPRE

[0359] EPS Advanced Packet System

[0360] EREG: Enhanced REG, Enhanced Resource Element Group

[0361] ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute)

[0362] ETWS Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System

[0363] eUICC Embedded UICC, Embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card

[0364] E-UTRA Evolved UTRA

[0365] E-UTRAN - Evolved UTRAN

[0366] EV2X Enhanced V2X

[0367] F1AP F1 Application Protocol

[0368] F1-C F1 control plane interface

[0369] F1-U F1 User Plane Interface

[0370] FACCH High-Speed ​​Accompanying Control Channel

[0371] FACCH / F High-Speed ​​Accompanying Control Channel / Full Rate

[0372] FACCH / H High-Speed ​​Accompanying Control Channel / Half Rate

[0373] FACH (Forward Access Channel)

[0374] FAUSCH High-Speed ​​Uplink Signaling Channel

[0375] FB Functional Block

[0376] FBI Feedback Information

[0377] FCC (Federal Communications Commission)

[0378] FCCH Frequency Correction Channel

[0379] FDD Frequency Division Duplexing

[0380] FDM frequency division multiplexing

[0381] FDMA code division multiple access

[0382] FE Front End

[0383] FEC Forward Error Correction

[0384] Further research on FFS

[0385] FFT (Fast Fourier Transform)

[0386] feLAA further enhanced license support access, further enhanced LAA

[0387] FN Frame Number

[0388] FPGA Field-Programmable Gate Array

[0389] FR frequency range

[0390] G-RNTI GERAN Wireless Network Temporary Identity

[0391] GERAN GSM EDGE RAN, GSM EDGE Radio Access Network

[0392] GGSN Gateway GPRS Support Node

[0393] GLONASS (Global Navigation Satellite System)

[0394] gNB Next Generation Node B

[0395] gNB-CU gNB-Centralized Unit, Next-Generation NodeB Centralized Unit

[0396] gNB-DU gNB distributed unit, next-generation NodeB distributed unit

[0397] GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System)

[0398] GPRS General-Purpose Packet Radio Service

[0399] GSM Mobile Communications Global System, Group Special Mobile

[0400] GTP GPRS Tunneling Protocol

[0401] GPRS Tunneling Protocol for GTP-U User Plane

[0402] GTS sleep request signal (WUS related)

[0403] GUMMEI: A globally unique MME identifier.

[0404] GUTI: A globally unique temporary UE identity

[0405] HARQ Hybrid ARQ, Hybrid Automated Resend Request

[0406] HANDO, HO Handover

[0407] HFN Hyperframe number

[0408] HHO Hard Handover

[0409] HLR Home Location Register

[0410] HN Home Network

[0411] HO Handover

[0412] HPLMN Home Public Land Mobile Network

[0413] HSDPA High-Speed ​​Downlink Packet Access

[0414] HSN hopping sequence number

[0415] HSPA High-Speed ​​Packet Access

[0416] HSS Home Subscriber Server

[0417] HSUPA High-Speed ​​Uplink Packet Access

[0418] HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol

[0419] HTTPS is a secure hypertext transfer protocol (https is http / 1.1 over SSL, for example, on port 443).

[0420] I-Block Information Block

[0421] ICCID Integrated Card Identification

[0422] ICIC Inter-cell interference adjustment

[0423] ID, Identity, Identifier

[0424] IDFT (Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform)

[0425] IE Information Elements

[0426] IBE (Intraband Radiation)

[0427] IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)

[0428] IEI Information Element Identifier

[0429] IEIDL Information Element Identifier Data Length

[0430] IETF Internet Technology Task Force

[0431] IF Infrastructure

[0432] IM Interferometry, Intermodulation, IP Multimedia

[0433] IMC IMS Credentials

[0434] IMEII International Mobile Device Identity

[0435] IMGI International Mobile Group Identity

[0436] IMPI IP Multimedia Private Identity

[0437] IMPU IP Multimedia Public Identity

[0438] IMS IP Multimedia Subsystem

[0439] IMSI (International Mobile Telephone Subscriber Identification Number)

[0440] IoT (Internet of Things)

[0441] IP Internet Protocol

[0442] IPsec IP security, Internet Protocol security

[0443] IP-CAN IP Connection Access Network

[0444] IP-M IP multicast

[0445] IPv4 Internet Protocol version 4

[0446] IPv6 Internet Protocol version 6

[0447] IR infrared

[0448] IS synchronized

[0449] IRP integration reference point

[0450] ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network

[0451] ISIM IM Service Identity Module

[0452] ISO International Organization for Standardization

[0453] ISP (Internet Service Provider)

[0454] IWF interaction function

[0455] I-WLAN Interconnected WLAN

[0456] K Convolutional code constraint length, USIM individual key

[0457] kB (kilobyte) (1000 bytes)

[0458] kbps (kilobits per second)

[0459] Kc encryption key

[0460] Ki Individual Subscriber Authentication Key

[0461] Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

[0462] KQI Key Quality Indicators

[0463] KSI Keyset Identifier

[0464] ksps kilosymbols / second

[0465] KVM (Kernel Virtual Machine)

[0466] L1 layer 1 (physical layer)

[0467] L1-RSRP Layer 1 Reference Signal Received Power

[0468] L2 Layer 2 (Data Link Layer)

[0469] L3 Layer 3 (Network Layer)

[0470] LAA License Assistance Access

[0471] LAN (Local Area Network)

[0472] LBT Listen Before Talk

[0473] LCM (Lifecycle Management)

[0474] LCR Low Tip Rate

[0475] LCS Location Services

[0476] LCID (Logical Channel ID)

[0477] LI Layer Indicator

[0478] LLC Logical Link Control, Low-Level Compatibility

[0479] LPLMN Local PLMN

[0480] LPP LTE Positioning Protocol

[0481] LSB (Less Least Bit)

[0482] LTE Long-Term Evolution

[0483] LWA LTE-WLAN Aggregation

[0484] LTE / WLAN radio level integration with LWIP IPsec tunnels

[0485] LTE Long-Term Evolution

[0486] M2M (Machine to Machine)

[0487] MAC Media Access Control (Protocol Layer Context)

[0488] MAC message authentication code (security / cryptographic context)

[0489] MAC-A authentication and key matching are used in the MAC (TSG T WG3 context).

[0490] MAC-I is used for data integrity in signaling messages (TSG T WG3 context).

[0491] MANO Management and Orchestration

[0492] MBMS Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service

[0493] MBSFN Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service Single Frequency Network

[0494] MCC Mobile Country Code

[0495] MCG Mastercell Group

[0496] MCOT Maximum Channel Occupancy Time

[0497] MCS Modulation and Encoding Scheme

[0498] MDAF Management Data Analysis Function

[0499] MDAS Management Data Analysis Service

[0500] Minimizing MDT drive tests

[0501] ME Mobile Devices

[0502] MeNB Master eNB

[0503] MER message error rate

[0504] MGL measurement gap length

[0505] MGRP measurement gap repetition period

[0506] MIB Master Information Block, Management Information Base

[0507] MIMO multiple input multiple output

[0508] MLC Mobile Location Center

[0509] MM Mobility Management

[0510] MME Mobility Management Entity

[0511] MN Master Node

[0512] MO measurement object, mobile transmission

[0513] MPBCH MTC Physical Notification Channel

[0514] MPDCCH MTC Physical Downlink Control Channel

[0515] MPDSCH MTC Physical Downlink Shared Channel

[0516] MPRACH MTC Physical Random Access Channel

[0517] MPDSCH MTC Physical Uplink Shared Channel

[0518] MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching)

[0519] MS mobile station

[0520] Most significant bit of the MSB

[0521] MSC Mobile Switching Center

[0522] MSI Minimum System Information, MCH Scheduling Information

[0523] MSID Mobile Station Identifier

[0524] MSIN Mobile Station Identification Number

[0525] MSISDN Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number

[0526] MT Mobile Termination, Mobile Termination

[0527] MTC (Machine-Type Communication)

[0528] mMTC (Major Multi-Tunnel Communication), Large-Scale Machine-Based Communication

[0529] MU-MIMO (Multi-User MIMO)

[0530] MWUS MTC wake-up signal, MTC WUS

[0531] NACK Negative Response

[0532] NAI (Network Access Identifier)

[0533] NAS Non-Access Layer

[0534] NCT Network Connectivity Topology

[0535] NEC Network Capability Disclosure

[0536] NE-DC NR-E-UTRA Dual Connectivity

[0537] NEF Network Disclosure Function

[0538] NF Network Function

[0539] NFP Network Forwarding Path

[0540] NFPD Network Forwarding Path Descriptor

[0541] NFV (Network Functions Virtualization)

[0542] NFVI NFV infrastructure

[0543] NFVO NFV Orchestrator

[0544] NG Next generation

[0545] NGEN-DC NG-RAN E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity

[0546] NM Network Manager

[0547] NMS Network Management System

[0548] N-PoP (Network Point of Presence)

[0549] NMIB, N-MIB (Narrowband MIB)

[0550] NPBCH (Narrowband Physical Broadcast Channel)

[0551] NPDCCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel

[0552] NPDSCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel

[0553] NPRACH Narrowband Physical Random Access Channel

[0554] NPUSCH Narrowband Physical Uplink Shared Channel

[0555] NPSS Narrowband Primary Sync Signal

[0556] NSSS Narrowband Secondary Sync Signal

[0557] NR New Radio, Neighborhood Relations

[0558] NRF NF Repository Function

[0559] NRS Narrowband Reference Signal

[0560] NS Network Services

[0561] NSA Non-Standalone Operation Mode

[0562] NSD Network Services Descriptor

[0563] NSR Network Service Record

[0564] NSSAI Network Slice Selection Support Information

[0565] S-NNSAI Single NSSAI

[0566] NSSF Network Slice Selection Function

[0567] NW Network

[0568] NWUS narrowband wake-up signal, narrowband WUS

[0569] NZP (Non-Zero Power)

[0570] O&M (Operations and Maintenance)

[0571] ODU2 Optical Channel Data Unit - Type 2

[0572] OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing)

[0573] OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access)

[0574] Out-of-band (OOB)

[0575] OOS synchronization failure

[0576] OPEX (Operating Expenses)

[0577] OSI and other system information

[0578] OSS Operation Support System

[0579] OTA over-the-air

[0580] PAPR (Peak-to-Average Power Ratio)

[0581] PAR (Peak-to-Average Ratio)

[0582] PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel

[0583] PC power control, personal computer

[0584] PCC Primary Component Carrier, Primary CC

[0585] PCell Primary Cell

[0586] PCI Physical Cell ID, Physical Cell Identity

[0587] PCEF policy and billing implementation function

[0588] PCF Policy Control Function

[0589] PCRF policy control and billing rule function

[0590] PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol), Packet Data Convergence Protocol Layer

[0591] PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel

[0592] PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol

[0593] PDN (Package Data Network), Public Data Network

[0594] PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel

[0595] PDU Protocol Data Unit

[0596] PEI Permanent Equipment Identifier

[0597] PFD Packet Flow Description

[0598] P-GW PDN Gateway

[0599] PHICH Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel

[0600] PHY physical layer

[0601] PLMN Public Land Mobility Network

[0602] PIN (Personal Identification Number)

[0603] PM performance measurement

[0604] PMI Precoding Matrix Indicator

[0605] PNF Physical Network Function

[0606] PNFD Physical Network Function Descriptor

[0607] PNFR Physical Network Function Record

[0608] PTT via POC Cellular

[0609] PP, PTP (Point-to-Point)

[0610] PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol)

[0611] PRACH Physical RACH

[0612] PRB (Physical Resource Block)

[0613] PRG Physical Resource Block Group

[0614] ProSe proximity services, proximity-based services

[0615] PRS positioning reference signal

[0616] PRR Packet Receiver Radio

[0617] PS Packet Service

[0618] PSBCH Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel

[0619] PSDCH Physical Sidelink Downlink Channel

[0620] PSCCH Physical Sidelink Control Channel

[0621] PSSCH Physical Sidelink Shared Channel

[0622] PSCell Primary SCell

[0623] PSS Primary Sync Signal

[0624] PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network)

[0625] PT-RS Phase-Tracking Reference Signal

[0626] PTT (Push-to-Talk)

[0627] PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel

[0628] PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel

[0629] QAM (Quaternary Amplitude Modulation)

[0630] QoS class of QCI identifier

[0631] QCL quasi-collocation

[0632] QFI QoS Flow ID, QoS Flow Identifier

[0633] QoS (Quality of Service)

[0634] QPSK (Quadratic Phase Shift Keying)

[0635] QZSS Quasi-Zenith Satellite System

[0636] RA-RNTI Random Access RNTI

[0637] RAB Wireless Access Bearer, Random Access Burst

[0638] RACH Random Access Channel

[0639] Remote authentication dialing in RADIUS user services

[0640] RAN (Radio Access Network)

[0641] RAND (random number, used for authentication)

[0642] RAR Random Access Response

[0643] RAT (Radio Access Technology)

[0644] RAU Routing Area Update

[0645] RB resource block, wireless bearer

[0646] RBG Resource Block Group

[0647] REG resource element group

[0648] Rel release

[0649] REQ request

[0650] RF radio frequency

[0651] RI Rank Indicator

[0652] RIV Resource Indicator Value

[0653] RL Wireless Link

[0654] RLC wireless link control, wireless link control layer

[0655] RLC AM RLC Affirmative Mode

[0656] RLC UM RLC unaffirmative response mode

[0657] RLF Wireless Link Failure

[0658] RLM Wireless Link Monitoring

[0659] RLM-RS Reference signal for RLM

[0660] RM Registration Management

[0661] RMC Reference Measurement Channel

[0662] RMSI (Remaining MSI), Minimum Remaining System Information

[0663] RN relay node

[0664] RNC Wireless Network Controller

[0665] RNL (Radio Network Layer)

[0666] RNTI (Radio Network Temporary Identifier)

[0667] ROHC Robust Header Compression

[0668] RRC (Radio Resource Control), Radio Resource Control Layer

[0669] RRM Wireless Resource Management

[0670] RS reference signal

[0671] RSRP Reference Signal Received Power

[0672] RSRQ Reference Signal Reception Quality

[0673] RSSI Received Signal Strength Indicator

[0674] RSU roadside unit

[0675] RSTD Reference signal time difference

[0676] RTP (Real-Time Protocol)

[0677] RTS ready to send

[0678] Round-trip time (RTT)

[0679] Rx receiver, receiver

[0680] S1AP S1 Application Protocol

[0681] S1-MME for control plane

[0682] S1-U User Plane S1

[0683] S-GW Serving Gateway

[0684] S-RNTI SRNC Wireless Network Temporary Identity

[0685] S-TMSI SAE temporary mobile station identifier

[0686] SA Standalone Operation Mode

[0687] SAE System Architecture Development

[0688] SAP Service Access Point

[0689] SAPD Service Access Point Descriptor

[0690] SAPI Service Access Point Identifier

[0691] SCC Secondary Component Carrier, Secondary CC

[0692] SCell Secondary Cell

[0693] SC-FDMA Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access

[0694] SCG Secondary Cell Group

[0695] SCM Security Context Management

[0696] SCS subcarrier spacing

[0697] SCTP Stream Controlled Transmission Protocol

[0698] SDAP Service Data Adaptive Protocol, Service Data Adaptive Protocol Layer

[0699] SDL Auxiliary Downlink

[0700] SDNF (Structured Data Storage Network) functionality

[0701] SDP Session Description Protocol

[0702] SDSF Structured Data Storage Function

[0703] SDU Service Data Unit

[0704] SEAF Security Anchor Function

[0705] SeNB SecondaryeNB

[0706] SEPP Security Edge Protection Proxy

[0707] SFI Slot Format Indication

[0708] SFTD (Spatial Frequency-Time Diversity), SFN (Spatial Frequency Network), and Frame Timing Difference

[0709] SFN System Frame Number

[0710] SgNB docigNB

[0711] SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node

[0712] S-GW Serving Gateway

[0713] SI System Information

[0714] SI-RNTI System Information RNTI

[0715] SIB System Information Block

[0716] SIM Subscriber Identification Module

[0717] SIP Session Initiation Protocol

[0718] SiP System In-Package

[0719] SL Sidelink

[0720] SLA (Service Level Agreement)

[0721] SM Session Management

[0722] SMF session management function

[0723] SMS Short Message Service

[0724] SMSF SMS function

[0725] SMTC SSB-based measurement timing configuration

[0726] SN Secondary node, sequence number

[0727] SoC (System-on-a-Chip)

[0728] SON Self-Organizing Network

[0729] SpCell dedicated cell

[0730] SP-CSI-RNTI Anti-persistent CSI RNTI

[0731] SPS Anti-Persistent Scheduling

[0732] SQN Sequence Number

[0733] SR scheduling request

[0734] SRB Signaling Radio Bearer

[0735] SRS Sounding Reference Signal

[0736] SS synchronization signal

[0737] SSB synchronous signal block, SS / PBCH block

[0738] SSBRI SS / PBCH Block Resource Indicator, Synchronization Signal Block Resource Indicator

[0739] SSC Session and Service Continuity

[0740] SS-RSRP Synchronization signal-based reference signal received power

[0741] SS-RSRQ Synchronization signal-based reference signal reception quality

[0742] SS-SINR (Synchronization Signal-Based Signal-to-Noise Ratio)

[0743] SSS Secondary Synchronization Signal

[0744] SSSG Search Space Set Group

[0745] SSSIF Search Space Set Indicator

[0746] SST Slice / Service Type

[0747] SU-MIMO (Single User MIMO)

[0748] SUL Auxiliary Uplink

[0749] TA Timing Advance, Tracking Area

[0750] TAC Tracking Area Code

[0751] TAG Timing Advance Group

[0752] TAU tracking area update

[0753] TB transport block

[0754] TBS Transport Block Size

[0755] TBD To Be Defined

[0756] TCI Transmit Configuration Indicator

[0757] TCP (TCP) Transmission and Communication Protocol

[0758] TDD time division duplex

[0759] TDM time division multiplexing

[0760] TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access)

[0761] TE terminal device

[0762] TEID Tunnel Endpoint Identifier

[0763] TFT Traffic Flow Template

[0764] TMSI (Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity)

[0765] TNL Transport Network Layer

[0766] TPC Transmit Power Control

[0767] TPMI Transmit Precoding Matrix Indicator

[0768] TR technical report

[0769] TRP, TRxP Transmit / Receive Point

[0770] TRS Tracking Reference Signal

[0771] TRx Transceiver

[0772] TS Technical Specifications, Technical Standards

[0773] TTI transmission time interval

[0774] Tx transmission, transmitter

[0775] U-RNTI UTRAN Wireless Network Temporary Identity

[0776] UART Universal Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter

[0777] UCI Uplink Control Information

[0778] UE User Equipment

[0779] UDM (Unified Data Management)

[0780] UDP User Datagram Protocol

[0781] UDSF Unstructured Data Storage Network Function

[0782] UICC Universal Integrated Circuit Card

[0783] UL Uplink

[0784] UM Non-affirmative response mode

[0785] UML Unified Model Language

[0786] UMTS Universal Mobile Communications System

[0787] UP User Plane

[0788] UPF User Plane Functionality

[0789] URI Uniform Resource Identifier

[0790] URL Uniform Resource Locator

[0791] URLLC: Ultra-high reliability and low latency

[0792] USB Universal Serial Bus

[0793] USIM Universal Subscriber Identity Module

[0794] USS UE unique search space

[0795] UTRA UMTS Terminal Wireless Access

[0796] UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network

[0797] UwPTS Uplink Pilot Time Slot

[0798] V2I Vehicle-to-Infrastructure

[0799] V2P (Vehicle-to-Pedestrian)

[0800] V2V Vehicle-to-Vehicle

[0801] V2X Vehicle-to-Everything

[0802] VIM Virtualization Infrastructure Manager

[0803] VL virtual link,

[0804] VLAN, Virtual LAN, Virtual Local Area Network

[0805] VM (Virtual Machine)

[0806] VNF Virtualization Network Function

[0807] VNFFG VNF Transfer Graph

[0808] VNFFGD VNF Transfer Graph Descriptor

[0809] VNFM VNF Manager

[0810] VoIP (Voice over IP, Voice over Internet Protocol)

[0811] VPLMN Destination Public Mobile Land Network

[0812] VPN (Virtual Private Network)

[0813] VRB (Virtual Resource Block)

[0814] WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access

[0815] WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network)

[0816] WMAN Wireless Metropolitan Area Network

[0817] WPAN Wireless Personal Area Network

[0818] X2-C X2-Control Plane

[0819] X2-U X2-UserPlane

[0820] XML is an extensible markup language.

[0821] XRES Predicted User Response

[0822] XOR Exclusive OR

[0823] ZC Zadoff-Chu

[0824] ZP Zero Power Technical terms

[0825] For the purposes of this specification, the following terms and definitions are applicable to, but not limited to, the examples and embodiments discussed herein.

[0826] As used herein, the term “circuit” refers to, part of, or includes, hardware components configured to provide the functions described, such as electronic circuits, logic circuits, processors (shared, dedicated, or grouped) and / or memory (shared, dedicated, or grouped), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable devices (FPDs) (e.g., field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), composite PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), structured ASICs, or programmable SoCs), and digital signal processors (DSPs). In some embodiments, a circuit may run one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the functions described. The term “circuit” may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) and program code used to perform the functions of that program code. In these embodiments, a combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuit.

[0827] As used herein, the term “processor circuit” refers to, is part of, or includes a circuit capable of sequentially and automatically performing a series of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording, storing, and / or transferring digital data. The term “processor circuit” can also refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and / or any other device capable of executing or operating computer executable instructions such as program code, software modules, and / or functional processes. The terms “application circuit” and / or “baseband circuit” are considered synonymous with “processor circuit” and are sometimes referred to as “processor circuit.”

[0828] As used herein, the term “interface circuit” refers to, is part of, or includes a circuit that enables the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term “interface circuit” may also refer to one or more hardware interfaces, such as a bus, I / O interface, peripheral component interface, network interface card, and / or similar.

[0829] As used herein, the terms “User Equipment” or “UE” refer to a device having wireless communication capabilities and may represent a remote user of network resources within a communication network. The terms “User Equipment” or “UE” may be considered synonymous with, and may be referred to by, client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, wireless equipment, reconfigurable wireless equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Furthermore, the terms “User Equipment” or “UE” may include any type of wireless / wired device or any computing device including a wireless communication interface.

[0830] As used herein, the term “Network Element” refers to physical or virtualized equipment and / or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless network services. The term “Network Element” may be considered synonymous with and / or referred to as networked computers, networked hardware, network equipment, network nodes, routers, switches, hubs, bridges, wireless network controllers, RAN devices, RAN nodes, gateways, servers, virtualized VNFs, NFVIs, etc.

[0831] As used herein, the term “computer system” refers to any type of interconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or components thereof. Furthermore, the terms “computer system” and / or “system” may refer to various components of a computer that are interconnected in a communicative manner. Furthermore, the terms “computer system” and / or “system” may refer to multiple computer devices and / or multiple computing systems that are interconnected in a communicative manner and configured to share computing resources and / or networking resources.

[0832] As used herein, terms such as “device” and “computer device” refer to computer devices or computer systems having program code (e.g., software or firmware) specifically designed to provide particular computing resources. A “virtual device” is a virtual machine image implemented by a device with a dedicated hypervisor that virtualizes or emulates a computer device or provides particular computing resources.

[0833] As used herein, the term “resource” refers to physical or virtual devices, physical or virtual components within a computing environment, and / or physical or virtual components within a particular device, such as computer devices, mechanical devices, memory space, processor / CPU time, processor / CPU usage, processor and accelerator load, hardware time or usage, power, I / O operations, ports or network sockets, channel / link allocation, throughput, memory usage, storage, networks, databases and applications, and workload units. “Hardware resources” may refer to compute, storage, and / or network resources provided by physical hardware elements. “Virtualization resources” may refer to compute, storage, and / or network resources provided to applications, devices, systems, etc., by a virtualization infrastructure. The term “network resources” or “communication resources” may refer to resources accessible by computer devices / systems via a communication network. The term “system resources” may refer to any kind of shared entity providing services, which may include compute resources and / or network resources. System resources can be thought of as a set of coherent functions, network data objects, or services that reside on a single host or multiple hosts and are accessible via a clearly identifiable server.

[0834] As used herein, the term “channel” refers to any tangible or intangible transmission medium used to communicate data or data streams. The term “channel” may be synonymous and / or equivalent to any other similar term indicating a path or medium through which data is communicated, such as “communication channel,” “data communication channel,” “transmission channel,” “data transmission channel,” “access channel,” “data access channel,” “link,” “data link,” “carrier,” “radio frequency carrier,” and / or any other similar term. Furthermore, as used herein, the term “link” refers to a connection between two devices via a RAT for the purpose of sending and receiving information.

[0835] As used herein, terms such as "instantiate" and "instantiate" refer to the creation of an instance. An "instance" also refers to the specific occurrence of an object that may occur, for example, during the execution of program code.

[0836] The terms “coupled” and “communicatively coupled” are used herein, along with their derivatives. The term “coupled” can mean that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other, that two or more elements are indirectly in contact with each other and interact with each other, and / or that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between elements said to be coupled to each other. The term “directly coupled” can mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with each other. The term “communicatively coupled” can mean that two or more elements can be in contact with each other via wired or other interconnections, via wireless communication channels or ink, and / or by means of communication including the same.

[0837] The term "information element" refers to a structural element that contains one or more fields. The term "field" refers to the individual contents of an information element, or a data element that contains content.

[0838] The term "SMTC" refers to an SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration.

[0839] The term "SSB" refers to the SS / PBCH block.

[0840] The term "primary cell" refers to the MCG cell operating at the primary frequency, during which the UE performs the initial connection establishment procedure or initiates the connection re-establishment procedure.

[0841] A "primary SCG cell" refers to an SCG cell that the UE randomly accesses when reconfiguring using the synchronization procedure for DC operation.

[0842] The term "secondary cell" refers to a cell that provides additional radio resources on top of a dedicated cell for a UE configured in a CA (Carrier Aggregation).

[0843] The term "secondary cell group" refers to a subset of serving cells that include PSCells and zero or more secondary cells for a UE composed of DCs.

[0844] The term "serving cell" refers to the primary cell for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED that is not composed of CA / DC, and there is only one serving cell composed of primary cells.

[0845] The term "serving cell" refers to a set of cells that includes special cells and all secondary cells for UE in RRC_CONNECTED configured with CA / .

[0846] The term "dedicated cell" refers to a PCell in an MCG or a PSCell in an SCG for DC operation. Otherwise, the term "special cell" refers to a P cell.

[0847] As stated above, aspects of the Technology may include, for example, the collection and use of data available from various sources to improve or enhance functionality. The Disclosure considers that in some examples, such collected data may include personal information data that uniquely identifies a particular person, or personal information data that can be used to contact a particular person or locate them. Such personal information data may include demographic data, location-based data, telephone numbers, email addresses, Twitter IDs, addresses, data or records relating to a user's health or fitness level (e.g., vital signs measurements, medication information, exercise information), birth dates, or any other identifying or personal information. The Disclosure recognizes that the use of such personal information data in the Technology may be in the user's best interest.

[0848] This disclosure assumes that entities involved in the collection, analysis, disclosure, transmission, storage, or other use of such personal data will adhere to a robust privacy policy and / or privacy practice. Specifically, such entities should implement and consistently use privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or government requirements for the strict confidentiality of personal data. Such policies should be readily accessible to users and should be updated as data collection and / or use changes. Personal data from users should be collected for the lawful and legitimate use of the entity and should not be shared or sold for any other purpose. Furthermore, such collection / sharing should be carried out only after informing and obtaining the user's consent. Furthermore, such entities should consider taking all necessary steps to protect and secure access to such personal data and to ensure that others who have access to such personal data comply with those privacy policies and procedures. Furthermore, such entities may undergo third-party assessments to demonstrate their compliance with widely accepted privacy policies and practices. Furthermore, policies and practices should be adapted to the specific types of personal data being collected and / or accessed, and should comply with applicable laws and standards, including jurisdiction-specific considerations. For example, in the United States, the collection or access to certain health data may be governed by federal and / or state laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), while health data in other countries may be subject to and should be addressed accordingly. Therefore, different privacy practices should be maintained in each country with respect to different types of personal data.

[0849] Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Disclosure also conceives of embodiments that allow a user to selectively prevent the use of or access to personal data. Specifically, the Disclosure conceives that hardware and / or software elements can be provided to prevent or prevent access to such personal data. For example, the technology could be configured to allow a user to choose to “opt in” or “opt out” of participating in the collection of personal data during or at any time thereafter when registering for the service. In addition to providing “opt-in” and “opt-out” options, the Disclosure conceives that it may provide notices regarding access to or use of personal data. For example, the user may be notified when downloading an app that will access the user’s personal data, and then again immediately before the app accesses the personal data.

[0850] Furthermore, the intent of this disclosure is that personal data should be managed and processed in a manner that minimizes the risk of unintentional or unauthorized access or use. This risk can be minimized by limiting data collection and deleting data when it is no longer needed. Furthermore, where applicable, data de-identification can be used in certain health-related applications to protect user privacy. De-identification can be facilitated, where appropriate, by removing specific identifiers (e.g., date of birth), controlling the amount or specificity of stored data (e.g., collecting location data at the city level rather than the address level), controlling how data is stored (e.g., aggregating data across all users), and / or by other means.

[0851] Therefore, while this disclosure broadly covers the use of personal data to implement one or more of the disclosed embodiments, consider that it is also possible to implement those embodiments without requiring access to such personal data. In other words, the various embodiments of the Technology are not rendered inoperable by the absence of all or part of such personal data.

Claims

1. User equipment (UE), Memory configured to store program instructions, A processor that, upon executing the program instruction, A Beam Fault Recovery Request (BFRQ) is transmitted to the base station using an uplink (UL) media access control (MAC) control element (CE) to indicate the index of the secondary cell (SCell) experiencing beam mismatch and multiple recommended beam indices having corresponding reference signal received power (RSRP) above the threshold configured for the Beam Fault Recovery (BFR) procedure. The base station receives a downlink (DL) MACSE, Based on the received DL MAC CE, the BFR procedure is executed on the SCell. A processor configured as follows, Equipped with, The UL MAC CE is identified by a MAC protocol data unit (PDU) subheader having a logical channel identifier (LCID), The MAC PDU subheader includes multiple fields for indicating the multiple recommended beam indices, Each of the aforementioned fields is set to a value indicating that the corresponding recommended beam has the RSRP above the threshold, UE.

2. The MAC PDU subheader is, The field includes an identity field indicating the serving cell having the beam mismatch to which the UL MAC CE is applied, The UE according to claim 1.

3. The MAC PDU subheader includes a field indicating the UL bandwidth part (BWP) to which the MAC CE applies. The UE according to claim 1.

4. The processor is configured to transmit the BFRQ on primary cells (PCell) and SCell that support uplink (UL) transmission. The UE according to claim 1.

5. It is a method, The user equipment (UE) transmits a Beam Fault Recovery Request (BFRQ) to the base station using the uplink (UL) media access control (MAC) control element (CE) to indicate the index of the secondary cell (SCell) experiencing beam mismatch and a number of recommended beam indices having corresponding reference signal received power (RSRP) above the threshold configured for the Beam Fault Recovery (BFR) procedure, Receiving a downlink (DL) MACSE from the aforementioned base station, Based on the received DL MAC CE, the BFR procedure is executed on the SCell, Includes, The UL MAC CE is identified by a MAC protocol data unit (PDU) subheader having a logical channel identifier (LCID), The MAC PDU subheader includes multiple fields for indicating the multiple recommended beam indices, A method wherein each of the aforementioned fields is set to a value indicating that the corresponding recommended beam has the RSRP above the threshold.

6. The MAC PDU subheader is, The field includes an identity field indicating the serving cell having the beam mismatch to which the UL MAC CE is applied, The method according to claim 5.

7. The MAC PDU subheader includes a field indicating the UL bandwidth part (BWP) to which the MAC CE applies. The method according to claim 5.

8. The further includes transmitting the BFRQ in primary cells (PCell) and SCell that support uplink (UL) transmission. The method according to claim 5.

9. It is a base station, Memory configured to store program instructions, A processor that, upon executing the program instruction, The uplink (UL) media access control (MAC) control element (CE) receives a beam fault recovery request (BFRQ) from the user equipment (UE) to indicate the index of the secondary cell (SCell) experiencing beam mismatch and a number of recommended beam indices having corresponding reference signal received power (RSRP) above the threshold configured for the beam fault recovery (BFR) procedure. Send to the UE a downlink (DL) MACSE used to execute the BFR procedure to the SCell. A processor configured as follows, Equipped with, The UL MAC CE is identified by a MAC protocol data unit (PDU) subheader having a logical channel identifier (LCID), The MAC PDU subheader includes multiple fields for indicating the multiple recommended beam indices, A base station in which each of the aforementioned fields is set to a value indicating that the corresponding recommended beam has the RSRP above the threshold.

10. The processor is further configured to reconfigure the transmit configuration instruction (TCI) state of the control channel resource set (CORESET) based on the received BFRQ. The base station according to claim 9.

11. The processor is configured to receive the BFRQ in primary cells (PCell) and SCell that support uplink (UL) transmission. The base station according to claim 9.

12. It is a method, The base station receives a Beam Fault Recovery Request (BFRQ) from user equipment (UE) using an uplink (UL) media access control (MAC) control element (CE) to indicate the index of the secondary cell (SCell) experiencing beam mismatch and a number of recommended beam indices having corresponding reference signal received power (RSRP) above a threshold configured for the Beam Fault Recovery (BFR) procedure, To the UE, transmit a downlink (DL) MACSE used to execute the BFR procedure to the SCell, Includes, The UL MAC CE is identified by a MAC protocol data unit (PDU) subheader having a logical channel identifier (LCID), The MAC PDU subheader includes multiple fields for indicating the multiple recommended beam indices, A method wherein each of the aforementioned fields is set to a value indicating that the corresponding recommended beam has the RSRP above the threshold.

13. The further step includes reconfiguring the Transmit Configuration Instruction (TCI) state of the Control Channel Resource Set (CORESET) based on the received BFRQ, The method according to claim 12.

14. The BFRQ is further received in primary cells (PCell) and SCell that support uplink (UL) transmission. The method according to claim 12.

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