Method, terminal device, and network device

Abstract

An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a solution for communication with multiple Timing Early Groups (TAGs), in which a terminal device receives configuration information from a network device indicating multiple Timing Early Groups (TAGs) associated with a first cell of the terminal device, and during a communication procedure with the network device, the terminal device determines at least one operating state of at least one timer among multiple timers associated with the multiple TAGs, and performs an action for the communication procedure based on the at least one operating state of the at least one timer.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The exemplary embodiments of this disclosure relate, as a whole, to the field of communications technology, and more particularly to methods, apparatus, and media for communications having multiple Timing Advance Groups (TAGs). [Background technology]

[0002] Timing Advance (TA) is used to adjust the timing of uplink (UL) transmission. Traditionally, one TA is associated with one Timing Advance Group (TAG), and one serving cell is associated with one TAG. Currently, it has been proposed to designate two TAs for communication, for example, to support UL multi-downlink control information (DCI) and multi-transmission and reception point (MTRP) operations. Furthermore, for a single serving cell, two TAGs may be configured for two TAs. Therefore, specific operations using multiple TAGs may be required. [Overview of the project]

[0003] Embodiments of this disclosure, as a whole, provide a method, apparatus, and computer storage medium for communication having a plurality of TAGs.

[0004] In a first embodiment, a communication method is provided. The method includes, in a terminal device, receiving configuration information from a network device indicating a plurality of timing advance groups (TAGs) associated with a first cell of the terminal device; determining at least one operating state of at least one timer among a plurality of timers associated with the plurality of TAGs during a communication procedure with the network device; and performing an action on the communication procedure based on at least one operating state of the at least one timer.

[0005] In a second embodiment, a communication method is provided. The method includes, in a terminal device, receiving configuration information from a network device indicating a plurality of timing advance groups (TAGs) associated with a first cell of the terminal device; receiving a plurality of timing advance (TA) commands for the plurality of TAGs from the network device; determining a start time for the plurality of TAGs indicating when the plurality of TAG commands will be applied; and applying the plurality of TA commands from the determined start time, in accordance with the determination that the active BWP of the first cell is configured to have a multi-transmission and reception point (MTRP) mode.

[0006] In a third embodiment, a communication method is provided, which includes, in a terminal device, receiving configuration information from a network device indicating a plurality of timing early groups (TAGs) associated with a cell for the terminal device; selecting a target TAG from the plurality of TAGs based on TAG selection criteria for a communication procedure; and performing a communication procedure with the network device based on at least the target TAG.

[0007] In a fourth embodiment, a terminal device is provided. The terminal device comprises a processing unit and a memory coupled to the processing unit, which stores instructions, and when the instructions are executed by the processing unit, causes the device to perform a method according to any of the first, second, or third embodiments.

[0008] In a fifth aspect, a computer-readable medium is provided, which, when executed on at least one processor, stores instructions in at least one processor that implement a method according to any of the first, second, and third aspects.

[0009] Other features of this disclosure should be easily understood through the following description. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0010] The above-mentioned and other objectives, features and advantages of this disclosure will be further clarified by describing in more detail some exemplary embodiments of this disclosure in the accompanying drawings.

[0011] [Figure 1] This figure shows an exemplary communication environment in which exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented.

[0012] [Figure 2] This figure shows an example of a TA in a communication with multiple TRPs according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0013] [Figure 3] This figure shows flowcharts of communication methods according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0014] [Figure 4] This figure shows examples of TAG settings according to some embodiments of this disclosure.

[0015] [Figure 5] This figure shows flowcharts of communication methods according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0016] [Figure 6A] This figure shows examples of the relationship between the bandwidth part (BWP) and TAG according to some embodiments of this disclosure.

[0017] [Figure 6B] This diagram shows an exemplary timeline illustrating TA command reception, BWP switching, and TA command application according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0018] [Figure 7] This figure shows an exemplary relationship between BWP and TAG according to some embodiments of this disclosure.

[0019] [Figure 8] This figure shows exemplary settings for TAG and CC lists according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0020] [Figure 9] This figure shows exemplary configurations of TAGs and cell groups by MAC entities according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0021] [Figure 10] This figure shows another example of TAG settings according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0022] [Figure 11A] This figure shows an example of a MAC CE used to illustrate TA commands according to some embodiments of this disclosure. [Figure 11B] This figure shows an example of a MAC CE used to illustrate TA commands according to some embodiments of this disclosure.

[0023] [Figure 12A] This figure shows an example of SCS selection for determining the indicated TA value according to some embodiments of this disclosure. [Figure 12B] This figure shows an example of SCS selection for determining the indicated TA value according to some embodiments of this disclosure.

[0024] [Figure 13] This figure shows a flowchart illustrating an exemplary communication method according to some other embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0025] [Figure 14] This figure shows a flowchart of an exemplary communication method according to some other embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0026] [Figure 15A] The following are exemplary BFR procedures relating to some embodiments of this disclosure.

[0027] [Figure 15B] An exemplary table illustrating the relationships between TAGs, resource pools, and RSs for BFRs according to some embodiments of this disclosure is provided.

[0028] [Figure 16] This is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus suitable for implementing an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0029] Throughout the entire drawing, identical or similar reference numbers represent identical or similar elements. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0030] The principles of this disclosure will be described with reference to several embodiments. These embodiments are described solely for illustrative purposes and should be helpful to those skilled in the art in understanding and implementing this disclosure, and should not be considered to imply any limitation on the scope of this disclosure. The disclosure described herein can be implemented in various other ways than those described below.

[0031] In the following description and claims, unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used have the same meaning as those generally understood by those skilled in the art to which this disclosure pertains.

[0032] In this disclosure, the term "terminal device" refers to any device having wireless or wired communication capabilities. Examples of terminal devices include user equipment (UE), personal computers, desktops, mobile phones, cellular phones, smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDA), portable computers, tablets, wearable devices, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, Ultra-reliable and Low Latency Communication (URLLC) devices, Internet of Everything (IoE) devices, machine-type communication (MTC) devices, in-vehicle devices for V2X communication where X represents a pedestrian, vehicle, or infrastructure / network, devices for Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB), spacecraft or aircraft in non-terrestrial networks (NTN) including satellites and high-altitude platforms (HAP), Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR) This includes, but is not limited to, extended reality (XR) devices that include different types of reality such as reality, virtual reality (VR), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly referred to as drones (i.e., aircraft without human pilots), equipment on high-speed trains (HST), or image capture devices such as digital cameras, sensors, and game consoles, music storage and playback devices, and internet appliances that enable wireless or wired internet access and browsing.The “Terminal device” may further have “Multicast / Broadcast” functionality and can support public safety and mission-critical, V2X applications, transparent IPv4 / IPv6 multicast delivery, IPTV, smart TV, wireless services, wireless software delivery, group communications, and IoT applications. It may also incorporate one or more Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs), referred to as multi-SIM. The term “Terminal device” may be used interchangeably with UE, mobile station, subscriber station, mobile terminal, user terminal, or wireless device.

[0033] The term "network device" refers to a device capable of providing or hosting a cell or coverage from which terminal devices can communicate. Examples of network devices include, but are not limited to, Node B (NodeB or NB), evolved Node B (eNodeB or eNB), next generation Node B (gNB), transmission reception point (TRP), remote radio unit (RRU), radio head (RH), remote radio head (RRH), low-power nodes such as IAB nodes, femtonodes, and piconodes, and reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS).

[0034] Terminal devices or network devices may have artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning capabilities. Typically, these include models trained from a large amount of collected data for a specific function and can be used to predict some kind of information.

[0035] Terminal or network devices may operate in multiple frequency ranges, such as FR1 (410 MHz to 7125 MHz), FR2 (24.25 GHz to 71 GHz), frequency bands greater than 100 GHz, and terahertz (THz). Furthermore, they can operate in licensed / unlicensed / shared spectrum. Terminal devices may have multiple connections to network devices in multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC) application scenarios. Terminal or network devices can operate in full-duplex, flexible-duplex, and cross-division-duplex modes.

[0036] Embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in test equipment such as signal generators, signal analyzers, spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, test terminal devices, test network devices, and channel emulators. In some embodiments, the terminal device may be connected to a first network device and a second network device. One of the first and second network devices may be a master node and the other a secondary node. The first and second network devices may use different radio access technologies (RATs). In some embodiments, the first network device may be a first RAT device, and the second network device may be a second RAT device. In some embodiments, the first RAT device is an eNB, and the second RAT device is a gNB. Information regarding different RATs may be transmitted to the terminal device from at least one of the first and second network devices. In some embodiments, the first information may be transmitted from the first network device to the terminal device, and the second information may be transmitted from the second network device to the terminal device directly or via the first network device. In some embodiments, information regarding the configuration of a terminal device set by the second network device may be transmitted from the second network device via the first network device. Information regarding the reconfiguration of a terminal device set by the second network device may be transmitted from the second network device directly to the terminal device or via the first network device.

[0037] In this disclosure, unless otherwise specified in the text, the singular forms of “a,” “the said,” and “the said” are also plural. The term “including” and its variations are interpreted as an open term meaning “including but not limited to.” The term “based on” is interpreted as “based at least partially on.” The terms “one embodiment” and “embodiment” are interpreted as “at least one embodiment.” The term “another embodiment” is interpreted as “at least one other embodiment.” Terms such as “first,” “second,” etc., may refer to different or the same subject. The following content may include other explicit and implicit definitions.

[0038] In some examples, values, procedures, or devices are referred to as “optimal,” “lowest,” “highest,” “minimum,” “maximum,” etc. It is understood that such descriptions are intended to indicate that a choice is available from among several functional alternatives, and that such a choice does not necessarily have to be better, smaller, higher, or more preferable than the others.

[0039] In this specification, the terms “resource,” “transmitting resource,” “uplink resource,” or “downlink resource” may refer to any resource for performing communication, such as a time-domain resource, a frequency-domain resource, a space-domain resource, a code-domain resource, or any other resource that enables communication. Hereafter, unless otherwise specified, both frequency-domain and time-domain resources will be used as examples of transmitting resources to describe some exemplary embodiments of this disclosure. It should be noted that the exemplary embodiments of this disclosure are equally applicable to other resources in other domains.

[0040] The terms "SRI," "SRS Resource Set Index," "UL TCI," "UL Spatial Domain Filter," "UL Beam," and "Joint TCI" can be used interchangeably.

[0041] With regard to CG PUSCH, the term "PUSCH transmission" used here can refer to either a nominal transmission or an actual transmission.

[0042] The terms "Transmission Capability Information," "UE Capability Information," "Capability-Related Information," "Capability Value Set," "Panel Information," and "Panel-Related Information" can be used interchangeably.

[0043] The terms "precoder," "precoding," "precoding matrix," "beam," "spatial relationship information," "precoding information and number of layers," "precoding matrix indicator (PMI)," "precoding matrix indicator," "transmit precoding matrix indication," "precoding matrix indication," "TCI status," "transmit setting indicator," "quasi co-location (QCL)," "quasi co-location," "QCL parameters," "QCL assumptions," "QCL relationship," and "spatial relationship" can be used interchangeably.

[0044] The terms "Single TRP," "Single TCI State," "Single TCI," "S-TCI," "Single CORESET," "Single Controlled Resource Set Pool," "S-TRP," and "S-TCI State" are interchangeable.

[0045] The terms "multiple TRPs," "multiple TCI states," "multiple CORESETs," and "multiple control resource set pools," "multi-TRP," "multi-TCI states," "multi-TCI," "multi-CORESETs," and "multiple control resource set pools," "MTRP," "M-TCI," and "M-TPR" can be used interchangeably.

[0046] The terms "resource," "resource within a resource set," and "resource set" can be used interchangeably.

[0047] The terms "group," "subset," and "set" can be used interchangeably.

[0048] Furthermore, as described in this disclosure, “a panel” refers to one or more antenna elements located in a specific area of ​​a terminal device. The panels described in this disclosure may include downlink panels, uplink panels, panel types, panel states, capability sets, reference signal (RS) resources, RS resource sets, antenna ports, antenna port groups, beams, and beam groups. In this regard, the terms “panel,” “panel type,” “set of antenna ports,” “antenna elements,” and “antenna array” (and their equivalent expressions) are interchangeable.

[0049] Furthermore, the panel information described in this disclosure may refer to UE panel index / identifier (ID), downlink panel ID, uplink panel ID, panel type indicator, panel status indicator, capability value set index, RS resource ID, RS resource set ID, antenna port ID, antenna port group ID, beam ID, and beam group ID.

[0050] The term "BWP ID / Index" can be used interchangeably with "BWP / CC ID / Index," "CC Identity / Index," "Cell Identity / Index," "Cell Group Identity / Index," "Physical Cell Identity / Index," and "Serving Cell Identity / Index."

[0051] The term "beam fault" can be used interchangeably with "link fault," and the term "beam fault recovery request" can be used interchangeably with "link recovery request."

[0052] Embodiments of this disclosure provide a solution for communication having multiple timing early groups (TAGs). The principles and embodiments of this disclosure are described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

[0053] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary communication environment 100 in which exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. The communication environment 100 involves a terminal device 110 and a plurality of communication devices, including a plurality of network devices 120-1 and 120-2. For convenience of explanation, network devices 120-1 and 120-2 are collectively or individually referred to as network device 120.

[0054] It should be understood that the number of devices and their connections in Figure 1 are shown for illustrative purposes only and do not limit this disclosure. The communication environment 100 may comprise any appropriate number of devices adapted to implement embodiments of this disclosure. For example, the communication environment 100 may have more terminal devices and / or network devices. Although not shown, the communication environment 100 may be involved in a core network having core network devices to support communication.

[0055] Communication in communication environment 100 includes, but is not limited to, GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), LTE (Long Term Evolution), LTE-Evolution, LTE-A (LTE-Advanced), NR (New Radio), WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), GERAN (GSM EDGE Radio Access Network), MTC (Machine Type Communication), and any other suitable standard. Embodiments of this disclosure may be implemented in accordance with any generation of communication protocol that is currently known or will be developed in the future. Examples of communication protocols include, but are not limited to, first generation (1G), second generation (2G), 2.5G, 2.75G, third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), 4.5G, fifth generation (5G) communication protocols, 5.5G, 5G-Advanced networks, or sixth generation (6G) networks.

[0056] In the communication environment 100, the terminal device 110 can communicate with one or more network devices 120. In some embodiments, the network devices 120 may include transmission reception points (TRPs). The network device 120 that provides services to the terminal device 110 may be referred to as the serving network device of the terminal device 110. In some exemplary embodiments, the link from the network device 120 to the terminal device 110 is referred to as a downlink (DL), and the link from the terminal device 110 to the network device 120 is referred to as an uplink (UL).

[0057] During communication, the TA is used to adjust the UL transmission timing to enable synchronization. Specifically, the UL frame number i for transmission from the terminal device is T before the start of the corresponding DL frame in the terminal device. TA =(N TA +NTA,offset +N TA,adj common +N TA,adj UE )T c Start. Here, N TA is a timing early command or an absolute timing early command T A shown in, N TA,offset is the timing early offset in the timing early command, N TA,adj common is derived from upper layer parameters or is a default value, N TA,adj UE is calculated based on upper layer parameters related to satellite ephemeris if set, or is a default value. In some examples, T c = 1 / (Δf max ·N f ), where Δf max = 480·10^3 Hz, and N f = 4096.

[0058] In this disclosure, T c is a basic timing unit, T c = 1 / (Δf max ·N f ), Δf max = 480·10 3 Hz, and N f = 4096. Other time units may be milliseconds (ms), frames, sub - frames, slots, symbols, and these can be converted to each other, and the frame length T f =(Δf max ·N f / 100)·T c = 10 ms so that it can be converted to T c . The number of consecutive OFDM symbols per sub - frame is N symb subframe,μ = N symb slot N slot subframe,μ . Further, the slot is in ascending order within the sub - frame, n s μ ∈{0,...,N slotsubframe,μ Numbered as {-1}, and in ascending order within the frame, n s,f μ ∈{0,...,N slot frame,μ They are numbered in increments of -1. Furthermore, other parameters related to the above timing unit conversion are shown in the table below. Table 1 shows examples of supported transmission numerologies. [Table 1]

[0059] Table 2 shows examples of OFDM symbols per slot, slots per frame, and slots per subframe for a typical cyclic prefix. [Table 2]

[0060] Table 3 shows examples of OFDM symbol counts per slot, slot counts per frame, and slot counts per subframe for extended cyclic prefixes. [Table 3]

[0061] When a timing early command is received for a TAG, the terminal device will determine the value N that the UE expects to be the same for all serving cells within the TAG. TA,offset Based on the received timing early command, the UL timing for transmission is adjusted for all serving cells in the TAG, with the same UL timing for transmission for all serving cells in the TAG. The terminal device receives the timing early offset value N for the serving cell. TA,offsetHowever, this can be provided by an n-TimingAdvanceOffset for the serving cell. If an n-TimingAdvanceOffset is not provided to the UE, the UE defaults to the default value N for the timing advance offset for the serving cell. TA,offset To decide.

[0062] TAG timing early command T A And in the case of random access response, timing early command T A , or timing early command T in absolute timing early command media access control (MAC CE) A is, T A N is defined by index values ​​= 0, 1, 2, ..., 3846. TA The value is shown, here, 2 μ The amount of time alignment for a TAG with a 15kHz SCS is N TA =T A ·16·64 / 2 μ N TA This is defined relative to the subcarrier spacing (SCS) of the first uplink transmission from the terminal device after receiving a random access response or an absolute timing early command MAC CE. In other cases, the timing early command T for TAG is defined relative to the subcarrier spacing (SCS) of the first uplink transmission from the terminal device after receiving a random access response or an absolute timing early command MAC CE. A is, T A The current N is determined by the index values ​​=0, 1, 2, ..., 63. TA Value N TA_old From a new N TA Value N TA_new This indicates an adjustment to 2 μ Regarding 15kHz SCS, N TA_new =N TA_old +(T A -31)·16·64 / 2 μ That is the case.

[0063] Generally, TAs can be set and updated for TAGs. A TAG is a set of cells set by radio resource control (RRC), which may include a set of cells that use the same timing reference cell and the same timing advance value for a cell in which a UL is set. In some cases, a timing advance group containing a MAC entity's SpCell is called a Primary Timing Advance Group (PTAG), and other TAGs are called Secondary Timing Advance Groups (STAGs).

[0064] Traditionally, one TA (Time Aperture) is associated with one Timing Early Group (TAG), and one TAG is associated with one serving cell. Currently, it has been proposed to designate two TAs for communication to support, for example, UL (Multi-Downlink Control Information) and Multi-Transmit / Receive Point (MTRP) operations. In MTRP operation, a terminal device may communicate with multiple MTRPs; for example, in Figure 1, terminal device 110 may communicate with both network devices 120-1 and 120-2. Possible scenarios in MTRP operation include assuming two TRPs are involved, with one TRP in the DL and the other in the UL, both TRPs in the DL and one TRP in the UL, one TRP in the DL and both TRPs in the UL, or both TRPs in the DL and UL.

[0065] UL timing may differ for different MTRPs. As shown in Figure 2, the start timing T for UL frame number i220 for transmission to TPR1 is different. TA,1 This is determined relative to DL frame i 210 from TRP1, and the start timing T of UL frame number j 222 for transmission to TPR2 is determined relative to DL frame i 210. TA,2 This is determined relative to the DL frame number j212 from TRP2. Considering the distance from the terminal device to the two TRPs and other channel conditions, TTA,1 and T TA,2 These may differ. If a TA is measured or signaled between TRP1 and the terminal device, it may not be suitable for communication between TRP2 and the terminal device. Similar problems can occur with different UE panels and TRPs. Therefore, more than one TA may be required, and more than one TAG may be set for each TA.

[0066] When multiple tags are set, it may conflict with the conventional tag definition. In the conventional tag definition, a set of cells is set by RRC, and for cells with UL set, the same timing reference cell and the same timing early value are used. Therefore, specific behaviors using multiple tags must be carefully designed and defined to maintain consistency during communication and guarantee communication performance.

[0067] Exemplary embodiments of this disclosure provide solutions for communication with multiple TAGs. In some embodiments, specific operations are provided for a terminal device so that the terminal device can correctly apply TA commands for multiple TAGs. In some embodiments, specific settings, instructions, and / or device capabilities are provided for supporting multiple TAGs for a particular cell. In some embodiments, multiple timers associated with multiple TAGs are triggered to enable the completion of a particular communication procedure, and therefore the execution of those communication procedures depends on the set timers. In some embodiments, TA value matching within a cell is proposed to enable the execution of a particular communication procedure.

[0068] The principles and embodiments of this disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

[0069] Refer to Figure 3, which shows a flowchart of a communication method 300 according to some embodiments of this disclosure. Method 300 may be implemented in a terminal device. For illustrative purposes, method 300 will be described with reference to Figure 1, and method 300 may be implemented in a terminal device 110.

[0070] In block 310, the terminal device 110 receives configuration information from the network device indicating multiple timing advance groups (TAGs) associated with the first cell of the terminal device 110. Here, the first cell may be the serving cell of the terminal device 110. In some examples, the configuration information to the terminal device may indicate the identities (IDs) of the multiple TAGs.

[0071] A TAG may involve one or more cells. In embodiments of this disclosure, it is assumed that a serving cell of terminal device 110 (hereinafter referred to as the “first cell”) belongs to multiple TAGs. Cells within the same TAG may share the same TA value for UL transmission timing.

[0072] Figure 4 shows an exemplary configuration 400 of two TAGs. As shown in the figure, the first TAG (TAG1) is associated with serving cell x, cell 1, and cell 2, and the second TAG (TAG2) is associated with serving cell x, cell 1, and cell 2. It is assumed that the terminal device 110 is within the coverage of serving cell x and can receive configuration information indicating TAG1 and TAG2. Note that the example in Figure 4 is for illustrative purposes only, and the mapping between cells and TAGs may differ, with more, fewer, or different cells and TAGs being configured.

[0073] In some embodiments, the multiple TAGs may include a first TAG and a second TAG. In some embodiments, the multiple TAGs may include more than two TAGs.

[0074] If multiple TAGs are set, the operation or behavior of the terminal device 110 during communication may be determined according to the multiple TAGs. In block 320, the terminal device 110 performs communication based on the multiple TAGs.

[0075] Figure 5 shows a flowchart of a communication method 500 implemented in a terminal device according to several embodiments. Method 500 is implemented by the terminal device and determines how to apply TA commands for UL timing. For illustrative purposes, method 500 will be described with reference to Figure 1, and method 500 may be implemented in terminal device 110.

[0076] In block 510, the terminal device 110 receives configuration information from the network device indicating multiple TAGs associated with the first cell of the terminal device 110. If multiple TAGs are configured, in block 520, the terminal device 110 receives multiple TA commands from the network device for the multiple TAGs.

[0077] In some embodiments, the two TAs of the two TAGs for the serving cell are, respectively, T ADV,1 =( T TRP1-RX,PRACH1 -T TRP1-TX ), T ADV,2 =( T TRP2-RX、PRACH2 -T TRP2-TX ) can be calculated as follows. Assuming that TRP1 and PRACH1 are associated with TAG1, and TRP2 and PRACH2 are associated with TAG2, TRP1-RX This is the TRP1 reception timing of uplink subframe #i containing PRACH1 transmitted from the terminal device for TAG1, and is defined by the first path detected in time, T TRP1-TX This is the TRP transmission timing of the downlink subframe #j that is temporally closest to subframe #i received from the terminal device. TRP2-RX This is the TRP2 reception timing of uplink subframe #i containing PRACH2 transmitted from the terminal device for TAG2, defined by the first path detected in time, T TRP2-TX This is the TRP transmission timing of the downlink subframe #j that is temporally closest to subframe #i received from the terminal device.

[0078] In some embodiments, the two TAs of the two TAGs can be calculated over the TRP as TADV,1 = (T TRP1-RX,PRACH2 - T TRP1-TX + offset1), T ADV,2 =(T TRP1-RX、PRACH1 - T TRP2-TX - offset1). T TRP1-RX is the TRP1 reception timing of the uplink subframe #i including PRACH2 transmitted from the terminal device for TAG2, defined by the path detected first in time, and T TRP1-TX is the TRP transmission timing of the downlink subframe #j closest in time to the subframe #i received from the terminal device. T TRP2-RX is the TRP2 reception timing of the uplink subframe #i including PRACH1 transmitted from the terminal device for TAG1, defined by the path detected first in time, and T TRP2-TX is the TRP transmission timing of the downlink subframe #j closest in time to the subframe #i received from the terminal device. offset1 is the propagation difference between TRP1 and TRP2, and offset1 can be a positive or negative value. In some embodiments, offset1 is signaled by the network device. In some embodiments, offset1 can be reported by the terminal device.

[0079] In some embodiments, when PRACH1 or PRACH2 is transmitted with a non-zero TA, an additional offset2 is required for the calculation of T ADV,1 or T ADV,2 respectively. In some embodiments, offset2 is signaled by the network device. In some embodiments, offset2 can be reported by the terminal device.

[0080] In some embodiments, T TRP1-TX and T TRP2-TX can be the same. Alternatively, or in addition, T TRP1-TX and T TRP2-TX may be different, and T ADV,1=( T TRP1-RX -T TRP2-TX +offset3), T ADV,2 =( T TRP2-RX -TT RP1-TX -offset3), where offset3 is T TRP1-TX and T TRP2-TX The offset3 is the transmission timing difference between the two points, and can be a positive or negative value. In some embodiments, the offset3 is signaled by a network device. In some embodiments, the offset3 may be reported by a terminal device.

[0081] T TRP-RX Reference points regarding (for example, T TRP1-RX、PRACH1 , T TRP1-RX、PRACH2 , T TRP2-RX、PRACH1 , T TRP1-RX、PRACH2 )teeth, - Compatible TRP Rx antenna connector, - The corresponding TRP's Rx antenna (i.e., the central position of the Rx antenna's radiation region) - Corresponding TRP Rx transceiver array boundary connector, It could be one of them. T TRP-RX Reference points regarding (for example, T TRP1-TX , T TRP2-TX )teeth, - Compatible TRP Tx antenna connector, - The corresponding TRP's Tx antenna (i.e., the central position of the Tx antenna's radiation region) - Corresponding TRP Tx transceiver array boundary connector, It could be one of them.

[0082] JPEG0007893374000004.jpg101168

[0083] In some examples, the TA command T for TAG A And in the case of a random access response, the TA command T A , or TA command T in absolute timing early command A The value is T AN is represented by index values ​​= 0, 1, 2, ..., 3846. TA It may also indicate the value N of the timing early offset for TAG in the terminal device 110. TA,offset In some cases, a timing early command T may be provided for TAG. A is, T A The current N is determined by the index values ​​=0, 1, 2, ..., 63. TA Value N TA_old From a new N TA Value N TA_new You may indicate adjustments to this.

[0084] The above provides some examples of TA commands. TA commands for TAGs may be provided in other ways, and may indicate other information or values ​​for the terminal device to determine the timing of UL transmission for TAGs.

[0085] In some embodiments, the TA command may be received along with configuration information relating to the corresponding TAG. For example, terminal device 110 may receive a media control access (MAC) control element (CE) indicating both the TAG and the corresponding TA command. In some embodiments, the TA command may be indicated separately from the TAG configuration.

[0086] Upon receiving multiple TA commands, the terminal device 110 may decide when and how to apply the multiple TA commands, for example, to adjust the timing of UL transmission. In block 530, the terminal device 110 determines the start time for the multiple TAGs. The start time indicates when the multiple TA commands will be applied.

[0087] In embodiments of the present invention, when multiple TAGs are associated with the same serving cell for a terminal device 110, it is proposed that the terminal device 110 apply corresponding TA commands for the TAGs from the same point in time.

[0088] In some embodiments, the start time may be determined to indicate that the corresponding adjustment of uplink transmission timing is applied from the start of a particular uplink slot. The start time or this uplink slot may be determined at least in part based on information bandwidth portion (BWP) related information within the TAG. In some examples, a reference SCS of the BWP is determined within the TAG to determine the start time. The reference SCS may be the minimum SCS.

[0089] JPEG0007893374000005.jpg153168

[0090] Determination of the starting point or uplink slot n+k+1+2 μ ·K offset The predetermined parameter k may vary depending on the TAG. If multiple TAGs are set, the terminal device 110 may determine multiple potential start times for different TAGs. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may determine multiple values ​​for the predetermined parameter k for calculating the start time based on the corresponding BWP-related information in the multiple TAGs, or it may select one of the determined values ​​for the predetermined parameter k to determine the start time.

[0091] JPEG0007893374000006.jpg88168

[0092] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may select a relatively large or maximum value from among a plurality of values ​​for a predetermined parameter k. For example, the uplink slot for the start time is n + max(k1,k2) + 1 + 2 in the case of two TAGs. μ ·K offset It can be determined as follows: In other words, the latter of k1 and k2 can be selected to determine the starting point.

[0093] JPEG0007893374000007.jpg107168

[0094] Please understand that the above provides a concrete example of the initial calculation. The initial calculation can be performed in other ways, and the parameters used can be adjusted accordingly.

[0095] Once the start time is determined, in block 540, according to the determination that MTRP mode is set for the active BWP of the first cell for the terminal device 110, the terminal device 110 applies multiple TA commands from the determined start time. In some embodiments, if the terminal device 110 communicates with multiple TRPs, multiple TA values ​​are useful in MTRP mode.

[0096] In a given cell, an MTRP mode may be configured for each BWP. Specifically, if a cell has multiple BWPs (e.g., UL BWPs), an MTRP mode may be configured for one or more of those BWPs. In some examples, the MTRP mode may be UL multi-DCI for MTRP mode (sometimes referred to here as "target MTRP mode"). In some examples, the target MTRP mode may be multi-DCI based MTRP for PUSCH, multi-DCI based MTRP for PUCCH, or multi-DCI based MTRP STxMP (simultaneous uplink transmission across multiple panels) for PUCCH and / or PUSCH. In some embodiments below, the target MTRP mode is used as an example, but other MTRP modes can also be configured.

[0097] If terminal device 110 determines that MTRP mode is set for the active BWP (e.g., active UL BWP), it may decide to apply multiple TA commands. Here, the active BWP indicates that terminal device 110 is operating with the network device and this BWP. Because MTRP mode is set for this BWP, terminal device 110 may need to operate with multiple TAs for different TRPs.

[0098] In these embodiments, for active UL BWPs in which MTRP mode is set, the terminal device 110 applies TA commands from a determined start time. This adjusts the timing of application of TA values ​​in TA commands to match the MTRP operation.

[0099] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 can switch between BWPs in a cell. The BWP switch may occur before or after the time to apply a TA command. The terminal device 110 may perform different actions depending on the timing of the BWP switch.

[0100] JPEG0007893374000008.jpg63168

[0101] In the case of a BWP switch, for example, a switch from a first BWP to a second BWP, the reference SCS may change. In some embodiments, if the terminal device 110 changes the active UL BWP between the time of receiving a timing early command and the time of applying the corresponding adjustment for uplink transmission timing, the terminal device 110 may determine the TA value based on the SCS of the new active UL BWP, for example, the second BWP. In some embodiments, if a TA command cannot be applied to the new active UL BWP, the terminal device 110 may determine the TA value based on the SCS of the previous active UL BWP when the TA command was received.

[0102] In some examples, in addition to the MTRP mode, different BWPs within a cell may be configured to be associated with different TAGs. An example of association relationship 610 is shown in Figure 6A. In this example, serving cell x of the terminal device is associated with both TAG1 and TAG2. UL BWP1 of serving cell x is not configured for the target MTRP mode and is associated with TAG1. On the other hand, UL BWP2 is configured for the target MTRP mode and is associated with both TAG1 and TAG2. UL BWP1 has SCS1 and UL BWP2 has SCS2.

[0103] Figure 6B shows an example of a timeline 620 for TA command reception (time T1), BWP switching (time T2), and TA command application (time T3). In this example, the BWP switch from BWP2 to BWP1 is completed between the time of TA command reception (T1) and the start of TA command application (T3).

[0104] The terminal device 110 switches from BWP2 to BWP1, and since the active BWP (BWP1 in this example) is associated with TAG1, the TA value for TAG1 may be determined based on the TA command received for this TAG and the reference SCS (SCS1) of BWP1. For example, a new N TA The value is N TA_new =N TA_old +(T A -31)·16·64 / 2 μ It can be determined as follows. Here, μ may be SCS1 of BWP1.

[0105] With respect to TAG2, since the active BWP (BWP1 in this example) is not associated with TAG2 according to the association in Figure 6A, BWP1 does not apply the adjustments indicated by the received TA command for TAG2. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may still use the SCS of the previous active BWP (BWP2) to calculate the TA value for TAG2. Thus, the TA value for TAG2 may be determined based on the received TA command for the second TAG and the reference SCS of the first BWP, N TA_new =N TA_old +(T A -31)·16·64 / 2 μ2 It can also be expressed as follows. Here, μ2 may be the SCS2 of BWP2.

[0106] The above embodiment is described with reference to two TAGs. If more than two TAGs are set, the reference SCS for those TAGs, and consequently the TA values, can be determined in a similar manner.

[0107] In some embodiments, if the terminal device 110 changes the active UL BWP after applying a TA command (i.e., if adjustments to the uplink transmission timing are applied), the terminal device 110 may assume at least one identical absolute timing early command value before and after the change in the active UL BWP. That is, the terminal device 110 may maintain at least one of a plurality of TA values ​​for at least one of a plurality of TAGs.

[0108] In one example, let's assume that the BWP switch occurs from BWP1 to BWP2. Assuming the relationships shown in Figure 6A, before such a BWP switch, the active BWP (BWP1) is not associated with TAG2, so TA commands for TAG1 and TAG2 can be applied normally. After the BWP switch, the active BWP becomes BWP2 and is associated with both TAG1 and TAG2. At this point, a new TA value associated with TAG2 is applied, and naturally, it is not the same as the TA value associated with TAG1. In other words, if terminal device 110 changes the active UL BWP after applying adjustments to the uplink transmission timing, terminal device 110 may assume the same absolute timing early command value before and after the change of the active UL BWP in the TAG.

[0109] The above describes several embodiments of applying TA commands for multiple TAGs. Below, we further describe several embodiments of specific configurations regarding settings, instructions, and / or capabilities for supporting multiple TAGs.

[0110] In some embodiments, several methods and constraints are provided for setting multiple TAGs belonging to a serving cell of a terminal device.

[0111] In some embodiments, multiple TAGs may be required in MTRP mode. In some cases, MTRP mode may be set per BWP, and unified TCI state operation may be set per BWP. In some embodiments, whether or not to follow the unified TCI state for UL transmission may also be set per BWP, and even per channel or reference signal. Therefore, not all BWPs in a cell require multiple TAGs, and further selection may be required for the applicable TAG / TA values ​​for them. Thus, in some embodiments, for a particular cell associated with multiple TAGs, one or more TAGs may be set or applied to one or more BWPs (e.g., UL BWPs) in which MTRP mode is set.

[0112] In some embodiments, multiple TAGs associated with a cell for terminal device 110 (first cell) may be configured for each BWP. For example, terminal device 110 can receive configuration information indicating which BWP is associated with which TAG. One or more BWPs with MTRP mode configured may be associated with two or more TAGs from the multiple TAGs, while one or more other BWPs without MTRP mode configured may each be associated with one of the multiple TAGs.

[0113] Figure 7 shows an example of the BWP-TAG relationship 700. In this example, it is assumed that serving cell x for terminal device 110 is associated with two TAGs (TAG1 and TAG2). Of all UL BWPs in serving cell x, UL BWP2 is associated with both TAG1 and TAG2 because the target MTRP mode is set. The other UL BWPs are associated with one of several TAGs (e.g., TAG1).

[0114] In some embodiments, one of several TAGs may be configured to be associated with a BWP that supports MTRP mode. For example, TAG2 in the example in Figure 7 is configured to apply to a BWP that supports MTRP mode.

[0115] In some embodiments, one TAG ID may be set per cell, and one or more additional TAG IDs may be set on BWPs operating in MTRP mode.

[0116] In some embodiments, more than one TAG may not be set for the initial UL BWP. Generally, the initial UL BWP may not be used for MTRP operation.

[0117] In some embodiments, multiple TAGs may be configured per cell, as shown in the example in Figure 4. The configuration information may further indicate that at least one of the multiple TAGs is limited to applying to one or more BWPs configured without MTRP mode. In one example, the first TAG applies to all UL BWPs in the serving cell, while one or more second TAGs do not apply to UL BWPs configured without MTRP mode. In some embodiments, if two or more TAGs are configured for terminal device 110, the first TAG is the one with the lowest or highest TAG ID, and the second TAGs are the ones with the remaining higher or lower TAG IDs. If two TAGs are configured, the second TAGs are the ones with the higher or lower TAG IDs.

[0118] In some embodiments, one or more second TAGs may be set within a predefined IE, such as an information element (IE) designated as additionalTAG-ID. In some embodiments, the restriction of not applying a second TAG means that the terminal device 110 may ignore the second TAG, its associated TA value, or TA command. In some embodiments, the restriction of not applying a second TAG means that the terminal device 110 may not have to stop or start a timer (denoted as timeAlignmentTimer) associated with the second TAG, or may consider it to have expired.

[0119] In some embodiments, a different TAG may be set for each BWP. That is, there may be a one-to-one correspondence between the TAG of a serving cell and a BWP. For example, the configuration information of a terminal device may indicate that UL BWP1 is associated with TAG1 and UL BWP2 is associated with BWP2. With such a configuration, in some embodiments, BWP switching within a cell may be used as TAG switching, and even as TA value switching. The TA value applied may be the TA value for the TAG associated with the BWP after the switch. In this case, some additional delays may be introduced to complete the BWP switching in order to deal with the TAG change. On the other hand, it is convenient and easy to manage both BWPs and TAGs.

[0120] In some embodiments, several cell groups or cell lists may be configured for the terminal device 110 with respect to a list of component carriers (CCs) or beam waves (BWPs), including but not limited to common beam operation, simultaneous TCI state updates, spatial relationships, and unified TCI states, which may result in some overlap between the list of CCs or BWPs and the cells in the TAG. These lists may be configured, for example, via the RRC IE's simultaneousTCI-UpdateList, simultaneousSpatial-UpdatedList, simultaneousU-TCI-UpdateList, etc.

[0121] To address the issue of duplication, in some embodiments, if a cell is associated with multiple TAGs, this cell and cells associated with only one TAG may not be included in the same CC list for simultaneous TCI updates, simultaneous spatial relation updates, simultaneous unified TCI updates, and simultaneous UL TCI updates. For example, if a first cell for terminal device 110 is configured to have multiple TAGs, terminal device 110 may receive configuration information about a CC list for simultaneous TCI / spatial relation / unified TCI / UL TCI updates that shows a list of cells configured to be associated with multiple TAGs, including the first cell. Figure 8 shows an exemplary configuration for TAGs and CC lists. In this example, according to the TAG configuration 400 shown in Figure 4, serving cell x and cell 1 of terminal device 110 are configured to be associated with both TAG1 and TAG2. Therefore, serving cell x and cell 1 may be included in the same CC list 800 for simultaneous TCI updates. Cells 2 and 3 may be configured in two separate CC lists if configured for simultaneous TCI updates. In other words, cells for simultaneous TCI / spatial relations / unified TCI / UL TCI updates are cells with the same TAG set, for example, cells with the same TAG number and TAG ID.

[0122] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 can be configured to have cell groups via RRC IE CellGroupConfig, which is used to configure, for example, a master cell group (MCG) or a secondary cell group (SCG). A cell group may include one MAC entity, a set of logical channels having associated radio link control (RLC) entities, and a primary cell (SpCell) and one or more secondary cells (SCell). There may be duplication issues between the list of cell groups for MAC entities and the cells in the TAG. To address such issues, in some embodiments, the cell groups for MAC entities may be configured according to the TAG configuration.

[0123] Specifically, if a serving cell of terminal device 110 is associated with multiple TAGs, the cells associated with those TAGs may be controlled by the same MAC entity. Otherwise, if those cells are not controlled by the same MAC entity, TAG switching will require MAC entity switching, which can lead to significant delays and complexity. In other words, cell groups for MAC entities do not need to be configured for each TAG. If a serving cell is associated with multiple TAGs, all cells associated with those multiple TAGs may be configured in the same cell group via RRC IE CellGroupConfig or MAC-CellGroupConFIG.

[0124] Figure 9 shows a schematic diagram of exemplary settings for TAGs and cell groups by MAC entities according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In this example, cell group 900 may be unsuitable because, according to the TAG setting 400, cells 2 and 3 cannot be in different MAC entities. Cell group 910 may be desirable, in which all cells associated with either TAG1 or TAG2 are controlled by the same MAC entity (MAC entity 1).

[0125] In some embodiments, there may be some restrictions on the TAG settings for cells in which MTRP mode is set (one or more BWPs for each cell in which this mode is set). For example, if MTRP mode is not set for a cell, that cell may be set to be associated with one TAG. Additionally, one or more additional TAGs may be set to be associated with other cells in which MTRP mode is set. Figure 10 shows TAG settings 1000 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0126] In some embodiments, setting TAGs for cells may impose some limitations on inter-cell operation. In the case of inter-cell MTRP or inter-cell mobility, cells with different PCIs than the serving cell may be configured or activated. If multiple TAGs are configured for cells with different PCIs, the complexity of maintaining TAs for all cells increases. In some embodiments, if a first cell for terminal device 110 is configured to have an inter-cell MTRP mode with a second cell, the total number of TAGs associated with the first and second cells may be limited, for example, to a predetermined number or less.

[0127] In some cases, a cell with a different physical cell identity (PCI) than the serving cell for a terminal device cannot be associated with multiple TAGs. In some cases, the total number of TAGs that can be configured, activated, or maintained for inter-cell MTRP may be two or less. In some cases, multiple TAGs may be configured separately between cells with different PCIs. For example, if there are two different TAGs, one for the serving cell and the other for a cell with a different PCI. In another case, two TAGs may be configured for a serving cell, one of which may be configured for a cell with a different PCI. Thus, adjacent cells for a terminal device do not have to be associated with the same multiple PCIs, and the complexity of maintaining TAGs can be limited by restricting the total number of TAGs used among cells for inter-cell MTRP mode.

[0128] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 has a TA offset value N for the serving cell, determined by n-TimingAdvanceOffset for the serving cell. TA,offsetIf a cell is configured to be associated with multiple TAGs, the terminal device 110 may receive information indicating multiple TA offset values ​​for the cell, such as multiple n-TimingAdvanceOffset values. The terminal device 110 can associate these TA offset values ​​with the corresponding TAGs.

[0129] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 can apply a one-to-one association between TA offset values ​​and TAGs, where one TAG is associated with one TA offset value. Alternatively, or additionally, TAGs associated with larger TA offset values ​​or the largest TA offset value may be applied to inter-cell operations. Alternatively, or additionally, TAGs associated with larger TA offset values ​​or the largest TA offset value may be applied to cells configured to have eNB NR dual connection (EN-DC) or NR unlicensed. Alternatively, or additionally, TAGs associated with larger TA offset values ​​or the largest TA offset value may be applied to cells configured to have different full-duplex modes.

[0130] When multiple TAGs are configured, information may be needed to indicate which TAG to use or coordinate. In some embodiments, the TAG ID may be indicated for or associated with uplink transmissions, such as physical random access channel (PRACH) transmissions, physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmissions, physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions, or sounding reference signal (SRS) transmissions. In some embodiments, a MAC CE containing multiple TA commands for multiple TAGs may be sent to the terminal device 110. In the MAC CE, the multiple TA commands may be associated with multiple identities (TAG IDs) of multiple TAGs. The TA commands may indicate TA coordination information for the corresponding TAG.

[0131] In some embodiments, multiple TAG IDs and fields within a MAC CE can indicate an index value TA used to control the amount of timing adjustment. In some examples, the TAG IDs for TA commands within a single MAC CE may be set for the same serving cell. Figure 11A shows an example of MAC CE 1100 used to indicate TA commands, with each TA command associated with a corresponding TAG ID.

[0132] In some embodiments, if two tags are configured, only one tag ID is required if a dedicated tag is used to provide the second TA value. Figure 11B shows an example of such a MAC CE1110, where the reserved field is dedicated to providing the TA command for TAG2, and TAG ID1 for TAG1 is included in the MAC CE.

[0133] In some embodiments, adjustment information for the second TA may be provided via one or more of the following: an absolute value, a relative value, or a difference value relative to the TA adjustment of the first TA; information on whether to apply the same indicated TA adjustment of the first TA; and information on whether the terminal device should derive the TA adjustment of the second TA based on the indicated TA adjustment of the first TA and / or the DL reference timing difference of the two TAs.

[0134] In some embodiments, configuration information for multiple TAGs can further indicate the relationships between multiple TAGs and communication resources. TAG IDs may be indicated for or associated with resources. In some examples, resources include one or more of the following: UL resources, beam UL transmits, UL transmit opportunities (such as PRACH, PUCCH, PUSCH, or SRS resources, transmits, or transmit opportunities). In some examples, resources may include one or more of the following: DL resources, signals, or beams, such as physical downlink control channels, control resource sets (CORESET), CORESET pools, CORESET groups, synchronization signal / physical broadcast channels (SS / PBCH blocks), channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS) resources, and path loss reference signals (PL-RS).

[0135] Alternatively, or additionally, configuration information may further indicate the relationships between multiple TAGs and TRPs. TAG IDs may be indicated for or associated with TRPs. Alternatively, or additionally, configuration information may further indicate the relationships between multiple TAGs and TCI states and / or spatial relationships. TCI states include normal TCI states, unified TCI states, or UL TCI states.

[0136] Once the relationships are established, the signaling for changing the aforementioned resources, beams, channels, etc., can be used as signaling for switching TAs between multiple TAs, and / or as signaling for starting or stopping the respective TA timers of the TAGs.

[0137] In some embodiments, if multiple TAGs are configured, additional UE capabilities may be required. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 can transmit capability information indicating its capabilities regarding TAGs at an appropriate time, so that the network device can recognize its capabilities regarding TAG configuration.

[0138] In some embodiments, capability information may indicate whether the terminal device supports multiple TAGs for a cell, and / or whether the terminal device supports multiple TA commands, TA offsets, TA timers, and / or DL ​​reference timings for a cell, primary cell (PCell), secondary cell (SCell), special cell (SPCell), or primary secondary cell (PSCell).

[0139] Alternatively, or additionally, capability information may include the number of TAGs supported by the terminal device, and / or the number of TA commands, the number of TA offsets, the number of TA timers, and the number of DL reference timings for a single cell, PCell, SCell, SPCell, or PSCell supported by the terminal device.

[0140] Alternatively, or additionally, capability information may indicate the number of TAG combinations supported by the terminal device, or the number of TAG combinations for a single cell, PCell, SCell, SPCell, or PSCell supported by the terminal device. Here, a TAG combination may, for example, represent TAG1+TAG2 or TAG1+TAG3 for a serving cell.

[0141] Alternatively, or additionally, capability information may indicate the number of cells that can be configured to have multiple TAGs, more specifically, TA commands, TA offsets, TA timers, and DL reference timings.

[0142] Alternatively, or additionally, capability information may indicate whether the terminal device supports different TAGs (and / or TA commands, TA offsets, TA timers, DL reference timings) within adjacent cells, e.g., service cells and cells with different PCIs.

[0143] Alternatively, or additionally, capability information may indicate the total number of TAGs (and / or TA commands, TA offsets, TA timers, DL reference timings) supported for the serving cell or adjacent cells (e.g., both the serving cell and cells with different PCIs).

[0144] Alternatively, or additionally, capability information may indicate whether the terminal device supports different TAGs (and / or TA commands, TA offsets, TA timers, DL reference timings) simultaneously.

[0145] In some embodiments, capability information may indicate the number of timing early groups supported by the terminal device. In some embodiments, capability information may indicate whether the terminal device supports enhanced uplink capability for in-frequency dual active protocol stack (DAPS) handover.

[0146] In some embodiments, a reference SCS may be required to determine the indicated TA value. If multiple TAGs are set, the reference SCS may be aligned across the TAGs.

[0147] In some embodiments, the reference SCS used to determine the indicated TA value of a TAG may be based on a BWP configured to have MTRP mode, and the reference SCS may be determined across all cells in multiple TAGs.

[0148] For example, the TA command value can be determined relative to the maximum SCS of multiple active UL BWPs that have the MTRP mode configured. In Example 1210 of Figure 12A, for a particular serving cell x with four UL BWPs, UL BWP2 is configured to have the target MTRP mode, so the SCS2 of UL BWP2 is used to determine the reference SCS.

[0149] In some embodiments, a reference SCS can be determined across cells associated with multiple SCSs, and the largest SCS can be selected to determine the TA value for multiple TAGs, and consequently, the UL transmission timing. As shown in Figure 12B, the relationship between TAG1, TAG2 and cells is the same as in the example in Figure 4. Assume that SCS3 > SCS1 > SCSx. For each of cell 1 and cell 2, the SCS to be used can be determined in the same way as for serving cell x. For TAG1, the larger of SCS1 of cell 1, SCSx of serving cell x, and SCS2 of cell 2, i.e., SCS1, is selected. For TAG2, the larger of SCS3 of cell 3, SCSx of serving cell x, and SCS2 of cell 2, i.e., SCS3, is selected. The larger of SCS1 of TAG1 and SCS3 of TAG2 is selected as the reference SCS.

[0150] Therefore, in some embodiments, if multiple TAGs are associated with a single serving cell, the reference SCS may be the same. That is, multiple TA command values ​​may be determined relative to the maximum SCS of multiple active UL BWPs set in the cell of multiple TAGs. In some embodiments, the same reference SCS may be used if at least one MAC CE is used to indicate multiple TA adjustments (via TA commands). In some examples, TA command values ​​may be relative to the same reference SCS for multiple TAGs set for a single serving cell. In some embodiments, for at least one or more TAGs, for example, a second TA value of a second TAG, the reference SCS may be determined as the maximum SCS of multiple active UL BWPs set in the cell of multiple TAGs.

[0151] Alternatively, a reference SCS can be determined from the SCS of a BWP in a cell within a single TAG, and one or more other TAGs can use this reference SCS. For example, if two TAGs are configured, the second TA value of the second TAG can be determined by applying the same reference SCS of the first TA. The reference SCS for a particular TAG can be selected as the remaining larger SCS for multiple active UL BWPs within that TAG.

[0152] In some embodiments, if multiple TAGs are associated with a single serving cell, the reference SCS may be determined per TRP or per TAG. That is, multiple reference SCSs may be determined for each of the multiple TAGs. The reference SCS may be determined as in the example in Figure 12A. Based on the multiple reference SCSs, multiple UL transmission timings (e.g., TA values) may be determined for each of the multiple TAGs. Note that the TA value associated with TAG1 is used for transmission to the first TRP, and the TA value associated with TAG2 is used for transmission to the second TRP. Thus, the reference SCS may be considered to be determined per TRP.

[0153] Several examples of embodiments relating to the configuration, instructions, and / or device capabilities for supporting multiple TAGs are shown above.

[0154] In some embodiments, multiple timers associated with multiple TAGs are triggered, and therefore, the execution of a particular communication procedure depends on whether timers are set to allow the completion of those communication procedures.

[0155] Figure 13 shows a flowchart of an example of a communication method 1300 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Method 1300 is implemented by a terminal device and determines how to apply TA commands for UL timing. For illustrative purposes, method 1300 will be described with reference to Figure 1, and method 1300 may be implemented in a terminal device 110.

[0156] In block 1310, the terminal device 110 receives configuration information from the network device indicating multiple TAGs associated with the first cell of the terminal device 110.

[0157] The embodiments relating to the TA timer described above with reference to Figure 13 can be combined with other embodiments relating to TAG setting, instruction, and / or device capabilities, and / or other embodiments relating to TA value matching described below.

[0158] In the conventional system, one TAG is associated with one serving cell, and one timer (also called a "time alignment timer") is set for each TAG. Different actions are expected for some communication procedures depending on whether the timer is running or not. If multiple TAGs are allowed for a single serving cell, some updates to the conditions for these actions may be necessary.

[0159] In block 1320, the terminal device 110 determines at least one operating state of at least one of the multiple timers associated with multiple TAGs during the communication procedure with the network device. In block 1330, the terminal device 110 performs an action regarding the communication procedure based on at least one operating state of at least one timer.

[0160] When multiple TAGs are configured, various conditions regarding their operating state may exist. For example, if two TAGs are configured, there are four possible conditions, including both timers being operational, the first timer being operational but the second timer not being operational, the second timer being operational but the first timer not being operational, or neither timer being operational. Taking these various possible conditions into consideration, the timers to be considered in different communication procedures can be selected so that the terminal device 110 operates correctly in each procedure without performance degradation.

[0161] In some embodiments, if at least one timer is operating, the terminal device 110 may determine that the first condition is met and perform a first action regarding the communication procedure. If at least one timer is not operating, the terminal device 110 may determine that the second condition is met and perform a second action regarding the communication procedure.

[0162] In some embodiments, the first condition may include that a timer associated with at least one of the TAGs for the serving cell is running. In some embodiments, the first condition may include that timers associated with all TAGs for the serving cell are running. In some embodiments, the first condition may include that a timer associated with the same TAG to which a UL resource is associated for the serving cell is running. In some embodiments, the first condition may include that a timer associated with the same TAG to which a UL resource is associated for the serving cell is running. In some embodiments, the first condition may include that a timer associated with the same TAG to which a TCI state is associated for the serving cell is running. In some embodiments, the first condition may include that a timer associated with the same TAG to which a CORESET is associated for the serving cell is running.

[0163] In some embodiments, the second condition may include that a timer associated with at least one of a plurality of TAGs for a serving cell is not operational. In some embodiments, the second condition may include that timers associated with all TAGs for a serving cell are not operational. In some embodiments, the second condition may include that a timer associated with the same TAG to which a UL resource is associated for a serving cell is not operational. In some embodiments, the second condition may include that a timer associated with the same TAG to which a TCI state is associated for a serving cell is not operational. In some embodiments, the second condition may include that a timer associated with the same TAG to which a CORESET is associated for a serving cell is not operational.

[0164] These conditions eliminate ambiguity regarding the behavior of terminal devices when multiple TAGs are set for a serving cell. For example, if the first condition is not defined, the terminal device may perform subsequent actions if it is not ready to uplink transmit, potentially resulting in an error. Also, if the second condition is not defined, the terminal device may not perform any subsequent actions that it could perform, potentially resulting in extra delays.

[0165] In some embodiments, different conditions may apply to different actions depending on the communication procedure. In some embodiments, in the data transfer procedure, an active timer associated with a serving cell's TAG is defined as a condition for processing DL and UL shared channel (SCH) data transfers. Conventionally, if a cell has one TAG, the terminal device finds the cell for HARQ feedback, determines the TAG associated with this cell, and checks whether the timer associated with this TAG is active. If a serving cell has more than one TAG associated with it, improvement is needed.

[0166] In some embodiments, if the first condition described above is met during the data transfer procedure, the terminal device 110 may provide an acknowledgment (ACK) for DL ​​reception. In some examples, for DL-SCH semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) deactivation, the first condition includes the operation of UL resources, TCI states, spatial relationships, unified TCI states, and / or timers associated with the same TAG as CORESET for the transmitted HARQ feedback. In the DL-SCH SPS deactivation example, the terminal device 110 may provide an acknowledgment to indicate SPS deactivation to the physical layer.

[0167] In these examples, if the first condition is not defined as described above, the terminal device may indicate a positive ACK if it is not ready to transmit uplink (for example, unable to send HARQ feedback), and an error may occur. For example, if the TAG1 timer for HARQ feedback is not operating but the TAG2 timer is operating, the terminal device 110 should not proceed to the next step.

[0168] In some examples, upon receipt of a UL-SCH UL authorization, if the MAC entity has a Cell-Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI), a Temporary C-RNTI, or a Configured Scheduling-RNTI (CS-RNTI) for each PDCCH opportunity, and the first condition is met, the terminal device 110 may proceed with the received UL authorization to use the UL authorization in the data transfer procedure. In some examples, the first condition may specifically include that a timer associated with at least one of several TAGs for the serving cell is operational, or that timers associated with all TAGs for the serving cell are operational.

[0169] Proceeding with a received UL grant may include any of the following: assuming that the NDI has already been toggled for the corresponding HARQ process, regardless of the NDI value; starting or restarting the configuredGrantTimer for the corresponding HARQ process if configured; stopping the cg-RetransmissionTimer for the corresponding HARQ process if running; stopping the cg-SDT-RetransmissionTimer if running; communicating the uplink grant and associated HARQ information to the HARQ entity; triggering the activation of PDCP replication for all configured RLC entities in the DRB; triggering configured uplink grant confirmation; storing the uplink grant and associated HARQ information for this serving cell as a configured uplink grant; or initializing or reinitializing the configured uplink grant for this serving cell to start in the associated PUSCH period and recur according to the send / receive rules without dynamic scheduling.

[0170] In some embodiments, if a cell has one TAG set in the conventional way in the HARQ procedure, the terminal device can find the cell for HARQ feedback, determine the TAG associated with this cell, and check whether the timer associated with this TAG is operating. If a serving cell has multiple TAGs associated with it, improvements are needed. In some embodiments, the second condition above prevents the physical layer from generating an acknowledgment within a transport block (TB). In some examples, for DL-SCH or UL-SCH, when a transmission for the HARQ procedure is made, if one or two (in the case of downlink spatial multiplexing) TBs and associated HARQ information are received from the HARQ entity and the second condition is met, the MAC entity does not need to instruct the physical layer to generate an acknowledgment of the data in this TB. In some examples, for Slink-SCH (SL-SCH), if the sidelink PUCCH configuration (sl-PUCCH-Config) is set by the RRC and the second condition is met, the MAC entity does not need to instruct the physical layer to generate an acknowledgment of the data in this TB for a PUCCH transmission opportunity. In some examples, the second condition may include that timers associated with the same TAG associated with the UL resource, TCI state, spatial relationship, unified TCI state, and / or CORESET to which HARQ feedback is sent are not operating for the serving cell.

[0171] In some embodiments, during the activation or deactivation procedure of a secondary cell group (SCG), if a first condition is met, the terminal device 110 may perform a first action of activating the SCG according to the timing for direct SCG activation. If a second condition is met, the terminal device 110 may perform a second action of pausing the activation of the SCG. In some embodiments, the second action may include indicating that a random access procedure is required for SCG activation. In some examples, if the upper layer indicates that the SCG is activated and the first condition is met, the terminal device 110 may activate the SCG according to the timing for direct SCG activation. In some examples, the first condition may include that the timers associated with all PTAGs of the serving cell are operational. Alternatively, the first condition may include that the timer associated with at least one of the multiple PTAGs of the serving cell is operational. In some examples, if the upper layer indicates that the SCG is activated and the first condition is met, the terminal device 110 may indicate to the upper layer that a random access procedure is required to activate the SCG. In some examples, the second condition may include that the timer associated with at least one of the multiple PTAGs of the serving cell is not running. Alternatively, the second condition may include that the timers associated with all PTAGs of the serving cell are not running. If the first condition is not carefully defined for SCG activation or deactivation, the terminal device may inadvertently activate the SCG. Similarly, if the second condition is not carefully defined, the terminal device may trigger a redundant random access procedure.

[0172] In some embodiments, in a random access (RA) procedure, if one TAG is set for a cell in the conventional method, the terminal device can determine the PTAG and check whether the corresponding TA timer is operating. If multiple TAGs are set for a cell, there may be two or more PTAGs (and / or two or more corresponding timers), and improvements are needed. In some embodiments, in an RA procedure, for example a two-step RA procedure, if the first condition above is met, the terminal device 110 can consider the RA procedure to have completed successfully. If the second condition above is met, the terminal device 110 can determine whether a timing early command has been received.

[0173] In a two-step RA procedure, a first message (MSGA) is sent from the terminal device to the network device. The terminal device can then receive a second message (MSGB) from the network device as a random access response. In some examples, once the MSGA preamble is sent, regardless of the possibility of a measurement gap occurring, the MAC entity may consider the reception of this random access response to have been successful if it has received notification from the lower layer of the reception of the SpCell's PDCCH transmission, if the C-RNTI MAC CE was included in the MSGA, if the first condition is met, and if the PDCCH transmission is addressed to C-RNTI and includes UL permission for a new transmission. In this case, the MAC entity can close the receive window for the MSGB (msgB-ResponseWindow) and consider this random access procedure to have been successfully completed. In some examples, the first condition may specifically include that the timer associated with at least one of the multiple PTAGs is operational, or that the timers associated with all PTAGs are operational. In some cases, if the second condition is met, and a downlink assignment has already been received at PDCCH for C-RNTI, and the received TB has been successfully decoded, and the MAC protocol data unit (PDU) contains an absolute timing early command MAC CE, the terminal device 110 may process the received timing early command. In this case, the terminal device may further consider the reception of this random access response to have been successful, stop the msgB-ResponseWindow, consider this random access procedure to have been successfully completed, and terminate the disassembly and multiplexing of the MAC PDU. In the case of the RA procedure, if the first condition is not properly defined, the terminal device may mistakenly consider the MSGB to have been successfully received. If the second condition is not properly defined, the terminal device may trigger a redundant random access procedure.

[0174] In some embodiments, TA value matching within a cell is proposed to enable the execution of specific communication procedures.

[0175] Figure 14 shows a flowchart of an example of a communication method 1400 implemented according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Method 1400 is implemented by a terminal device and determines how to apply TA commands for UL timing. For illustrative purposes, method 1400 will be described with reference to Figure 1, and method 1400 may be implemented in a terminal device 110.

[0176] In block 1410, the terminal device 110 receives configuration information from the network device indicating multiple TAGs associated with the first cell of the terminal device 110.

[0177] The embodiment relating to TA value matching, described with reference to Figure 14, can be combined with other embodiments described above relating to TAG setting, instruction, device capability, and / or TA timer.

[0178] In block 1420, the terminal device 110 selects a target TAG from multiple TAGs based on TAG selection criteria for the communication procedure.

[0179] In conventional methods, one TAG is associated with one serving cell. Therefore, the TA value of the same TAG in a serving cell is used to determine parameters for several communication procedures. When multiple TAGs are allowed for a single serving cell, the TA values ​​may need to be aligned based on specific TAG selection criteria for the communication procedure. In some embodiments, for a serving cell associated with multiple TAGs, the TAs applied for several communication procedures are selected from multiple TAs of the multiple TAGs according to the TAG selection criteria.

[0180] In some embodiments, the TAG selection criterion may be based on multiple identities of multiple TAGs. Alternatively, or additionally, the TAG selection criterion may be based on multiple TA values ​​of multiple TAGs. Alternatively, or additionally, the TAG selection criterion may be based on multiple TA offsets of multiple TAGs (e.g., N TA,offset), TA timer, DL reference timing may be based on. Alternatively, or additionally, the TAG selection criterion may be based on a first association between the BWP and a plurality of TAGs. In some embodiments, if the BWP is configured to have SL operation, the TAG associated with this BWP may be selected as the target TAG. In some embodiments, the TAG selection criterion may be based on which TAG was last updated by a TA command or absolute TA command. In some embodiments, the TAG selection criterion may be based on which TAG was last applied for the most recent UL transmission.

[0181] Alternatively, or additionally, the TAG selection criteria may be based on a second association between at least one TRP and multiple TAGs. In some examples, the target TRP may include a predefined TRP, a designated reference TRP, a main TRP, a TRP corresponding to a CORESET pool, a TRP corresponding to a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state, or a TRP corresponding to a resource. The TAG associated with such a target TRP may be selected as the target TAG. Alternatively, or additionally, the TAG associated with a target MTRP mode is not selected as the target TAG. Alternatively, or additionally, the TAG selection criteria may be based on a third association between at least one CORESET and multiple TAGs. Alternatively, or additionally, the TAG selection criteria may be based on a fourth relationship between a set of reference signals available to the BFR and multiple TAGs.

[0182] In the following embodiments, several additional or alternative TAG selection criteria may be provided depending on a specific communication procedure.

[0183] In block 1430, the terminal device 110 performs a communication procedure with the network device, based at least on the target TAG.

[0184] In some embodiments, the TA applied for SUL and normal UL (NUL) may be the same in the supplemental UL (SUL) operation procedure. If the terminal device 110 is configured to have two UL carriers (SUL and NUL) for the serving cell, then at least the same TA offset value N TA,offset This can apply to both carriers. At least one identical TA offset may be a TA offset associated with a target TAG having the minimum or maximum TAG ID or a target TAG having the minimum or maximum TA offset value. In some examples, if two or more TA offset values ​​are set for a single TAG, further selection can be made by selecting the minimum or maximum TA offset value.

[0185] In some embodiments, as an alternative, in SUL operation, a cell or BWP on which SUL is set may not have multiple TAGs set to enable TA alignment. In some embodiments, in SUL operation, the TA applied to SUL may be set so that it can be determined according to the relationship between TAGs and TRPs. For example, the TA applied to SUL may be aligned with the TA associated with a target TRP. This target TRP may be a predefined or indicated reference TRP or a main TRP. In some examples, this TRP may be represented by a CORESETPoolIndex, a TCI state index, and / or a resource index. In some embodiments, since SUL does not use beams for transmission, the unified TCI framework may not apply to SUL. Beam application timing may also not apply to SUL.

[0186] Selecting the correct TA to apply for SUL can increase the likelihood of successfully sending SUL.

[0187] In some embodiments, if a target TAG is selected during a sounding procedure between component carriers, the terminal device 110 may determine, based on the target TAG, a set of carriers to which the sounding procedure can be switched. The set of carriers may be at least within the same TAG, i.e., the target TAG. In some examples, for a carrier of serving cell c1 having a slot format consisting of DL symbols and UL symbols that is not configured for PUSCH or PUCCH transmission, c2 is shown as the corresponding carrier of a serving cell whose UL transmission is temporarily suspended, signaled by the higher-layer parameters srs-SwitchFromServCellIndex and srs-SwitchFromCarrier. This set S(c2)={c2,s1(c2)...s N-1 Define (c2)} as a set of carriers in a serving cell where each carrier satisfies one of the following conditions: i (c2) is in the same band as c2 and is within at least one of the same TAGs, s i (c2) is the interband CA carrier with c2, s i (c2) is represented by the signaling capability affected by the SRS switch from c2 to c1 via ImpactedBands-SRS-CS-v17, where 1 ≤ i ≤ N-1. The same TAG may be the TAG with the lowest or highest TAG ID, the TAG with the lowest or highest TA value, etc. Alternatively, s i (c2) is in the same band associated with the same two TAGs as c2. Alternatively, a cell or BWP in which SRS switching between CCs (e.g., srs-SwitchFromServCellIndex and srs-SwitchFromCarrier) is configured does not need to have multiple TAGs configured. Through these embodiments, more carriers can be switched from here. i (c2) can be added to the carrier set.

[0188] In some embodiments, in the sidelink communication procedure, resources may be allocated for SL communication. Regarding SL resource allocation in the time domain, once the target TAG is determined, the terminal device 110 determines the TA value associated with the target TAG and, based on the determined TA value, determines the sidelink resources to be allocated to the terminal device 110. The temporal main position of the allocated resources may be determined as follows: DL -T TA / 2+K SL ×T slot Time-domain position, where T DL is the start time of the downlink slot that carries the corresponding DCI, and T TA This is the timing early value corresponding to the TAG of the serving cell from which DCI was received, and K SL This is the slot offset between the DCI slot and the first sidelink transmission scheduled by the DCI, and T slot This is the SL slot period. In some examples, with sidelink resource allocation mode 1, for sidelink dynamic permission and sidelink configuration permission type 2, the slot for the first sidelink transmission scheduled by DCI is T DL -T TA / 2+K SL ×T slot It is the first SL slot of the corresponding resource pool that does not start earlier.

[0189] In some embodiments, the target TAG for which the TA value is used may be selected as the TAG having the lowest or highest TAG ID, the TAG having the lowest or highest TA value, or the TAG associated with the same CORESET.

[0190] Alternatively, in some embodiments, to avoid confusion in sidelink resource allocation, a cell or BWP in which sidelink behavior is configured does not need to have multiple TAGs set.

[0191] In some embodiments, in beam fault recovery (BFR) procedures, particularly in the case of MTRP BFR, a new reference signal (RS) (denoted as q_new) for the BFR is typically selected after a beam fault. This new reference signal may not apply multiple TAGs. Therefore, rules must be defined for selecting the TAGs to apply after a beam fault so that terminal equipment can correctly transmit BFR requests (BFRQs) and other UL signals or channels.

[0192] To further understand the situation, Figure 15A shows an example of a BFR procedure between terminal device 110 and network device 120. During the BFR procedure, network device 120 transmits the RRC settings for BFR (1505) and a set of DL RS (referred to as BFD-RS and CBD-RS) for beam fault detection (BFD) and / or candidate beam detection (CBD) (1510).

[0193] If terminal device 110 declares a beam fault (1515), it selects a new reference signal (q_new) from the set of BFD-RS and CBD-RS (1520). Next, terminal device 110 transmits a BFRD with the selected TAG (1525). Network device 120 transmits a BFRQ response to terminal device 110 (1530). Next, terminal device 110 performs a UL transmission to network device 120 with the selected TAG (1535). Furthermore, network device 120 may perform TAG resetting, activation, and / or instruction, and / or provide other information to terminal device 110 (1540).

[0194] In some embodiments, it is proposed to associate multiple TAGs with their respective reference signals within a BFD-RS set and / or a CBD-RS set. Figure 15B shows an exemplary Table 1550 illustrating the relationships between TAGs, resource pools, and RS for the BFR. In this example, we assume there are four reference signal sets represented by q_(0,0), q_(0,1), q_(1,0), and q_(1,1). q_(0,0) and q_(0,1) are two BFD-RS sets corresponding to two TRPs, respectively, and q_(1,0) and q_(1,1) are two CBD-RS sets corresponding to two TRPs, respectively. As shown in Figure 15B, q_(0,0) is associated with q_(1,0), and q_(0,1) is associated with q_(1,1). The RS values ​​at q_(0,0) and q_(1,0) are associated with the same TAG, i.e., TAG1, and the RS values ​​at q_(0,1) and q_(1,1) are associated with the same TAG, i.e., TAG2. Alternatively, in other examples, the RS values ​​at q_(0,0) and q_(1,1) may be associated with the same TAG, and the RS values ​​at q_(0,1) and q_(1,0) may be associated with the same TAG.

[0195] In relation to this, if a BFD operation fails (e.g., a beam fault is declared) and a new reference signal q_new is determined, the TAG associated with the selected reference signal (q_new) is selected along with the target TAG, and the TA of the target TAG associated with the selected reference signal may be applied for a BFD operation, for example, a BFD operation to transmit a BFRQ with the selected TAG (or its TA). In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may stop the TA timer of the TAG associated with the failed TRP or BFD-RS set. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may trigger a random access procedure to obtain a new TA for the selected target TAG. In some embodiments, if multiple TRPs associated with multiple TAGs fail, the terminal device 110 may stop the TA timers of the multiple TAGs, and the applied TA is 0. Furthermore, the terminal device 110 may trigger a random access procedure to obtain a new TA for each of the multiple TAGs.

[0196] In some examples, the default TAG is selected, and the selection is as described above. In some examples, the TA for sending BFRQ may be set to 0.

[0197] Figure 16 is a schematic block diagram of a device 1600 suitable for carrying out embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 1600 can be considered another exemplary implementation of the terminal device 110 or network device 120 shown in Figure 1. Thus, the device 1600 can be implemented in, or at least as part of, the terminal device 110 or network device 120.

[0198] As shown in the figure, the device 1600 comprises a processor 1610, a memory 1620 coupled to the processor 1610, a suitable transmitter (TX) / receiver (RX) 1640 coupled to the processor 1610, and a communication interface coupled to the TX / RX 1640. The memory 1610 stores at least a portion of the program 1630. The TX / RX 1640 is for bidirectional communication. The TX / RX 1640 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication, although in practice the access node referred to in this disclosure may have multiple antennas. The communication interface may represent any interface necessary for communication with other network elements, such as the X2 / Xn interface for bidirectional communication between eNBs / gNBs, the S1 / NG interface for communication between Mobility Management Entity (MME) / Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) / SGW / UPF and eNBs / gNBs, the Un interface for communication between eNBs / gNBs and relay nodes (RNs), or the Uu interface for communication between eNBs / gNBs and terminal devices.

[0199] Program 1630 is assumed to include program instructions that, when executed by the associated processor 1610, enable the device 1600 to operate according to embodiments of the disclosure, as described in the disclosure with reference to Figures 1 to 6. Embodiments in the disclosure may be implemented by computer software executable by the processor 1610 of the device 1600, by hardware, or by a combination of software and hardware. The processor 1610 may be configured to implement various embodiments of the disclosure. Furthermore, a combination of the processor 1610 and memory 1620 may form processing means 1650 suitable for implementing various embodiments of the disclosure.

[0200] Memory 1620 may, in non-limiting examples, be any type suitable for a local technology network and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as non-temporary computer-readable storage media, semiconductor-based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory. Although only one memory 1620 is shown for device 1600, device 1600 may have multiple physically different memory modules. Processor 1610 may, in non-limiting examples, be any type suitable for a local technology network and may include one or more of general-purpose computers, dedicated computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs), and processors based on multicore processor architectures. Device 1600 may have multiple processors, such as application-specific integrated circuit chips that are temporally slewn to a clock that synchronizes the main processor.

[0201] In some embodiments, a communication device (e.g., a terminal device) includes a circuit configured to receive from a network device configuration information indicating a plurality of timing advance groups (TAGs) associated with a first cell of the terminal device, to determine at least one operating state of at least one timer among a plurality of timers associated with the plurality of TAGs during a communication procedure with the network device, and to perform an action for the communication procedure based on at least one operating state of the at least one timer.

[0202] In some embodiments, at least one timer includes one of several timers associated with multiple TAGs, at least one TAG among several TAGs associated with an uplink (UL) resource, at least one TAG among several TAGs associated with a transmit setting indicator (TCI) state, at least one TAG among several TAGs associated with a spatial relationship, at least one TAG among several TAGs associated with a control resource set (CORESET), one or more primary timing advance groups (PTAGs) included in the multiple TAGs, and at least one PTAG among one or more PTAGs.

[0203] In some embodiments, at least one of UL resources, TCI states, spatial relationships, and CORESETs is configured for hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback transmitted in the communication procedure.

[0204] In some embodiments, the circuit is further configured to perform actions concerning a communication procedure by determining that a first condition is met and performing a first action concerning the communication procedure upon determination that at least one timer is operating, and determining that a second condition is met and performing a second action concerning the communication procedure upon determination that at least one timer is not operating.

[0205] In some embodiments, the communication procedure includes a data transfer procedure, and the first action includes sending an acknowledgment for downlink (DL) reception.

[0206] In some embodiments, DL reception includes an instruction to deactivate semi-persistent scheduling (SPS).

[0207] In some embodiments, the communication procedure includes a data transfer procedure, and the first action includes the use of UL authorization in the data transfer procedure.

[0208] In some embodiments, the communication procedure includes a HARQ procedure, and the second action includes preventing the physical layer from generating an acknowledgment within a transport block (TB).

[0209] In some embodiments, the communication procedure includes a procedure for activating or deactivating a secondary cell group (SCG), wherein the first action includes activating the SCG according to the timing for direct SCG activation, and the second action includes suspending the activation of the SCG.

[0210] In some embodiments, the second action includes indicating that a random access procedure is required for the activation of the SCG.

[0211] In some embodiments, the communication procedure includes a random access (RA) procedure, the first action includes the successful completion of the RA procedure, and the second action includes determining whether a timing early command has been received.

[0212] In some embodiments, the RA procedure is of the 2-step RA type, where the first and second actions are performed to receive an RA response in the RA procedure.

[0213] In some embodiments, the first cell is configured to have a first bandwidth part (BWP) configured to have a multi-transmission and reception point (MTRP) mode and a second BWP configured not to have an MTRP mode, and the configuration information further indicates that the first BWP is associated with two or more TAGs out of a plurality of TAGs and the second BWP is associated with one TAG out of a plurality of TAGs.

[0214] In some embodiments, the first cell is configured to have a first BWP configured to have a multi-transmit / receive-point (MTRP) mode and a second BWP configured not to have an MTRP mode, and the configuration information further indicates that at least one of a plurality of TAGs is limited to being applied for the second BWP.

[0215] In some embodiments, the first cell is configured to have a first BWP configured to have a multi-transmission and reception point (MTRP) mode and a second BWP configured not to have an MTRP mode, and the configuration information further indicates that the first BWP is associated with a first TAG among a plurality of TAGs and the second BWP is associated with a second TAG among a plurality of TAGs.

[0216] In some embodiments, the circuit is further configured to receive additional configuration information from a network device indicating a component carrier (CC) list for simultaneous TCI updates, the CC list including at least one cell configured to be associated with a plurality of TAGs, the at least one cell including a first cell.

[0217] In some embodiments, the circuit is further configured to set a cell group for a media access control (MAC) entity, where the first cell group includes at least one cell configured to be associated with at least one of a plurality of TAGs, and the at least one cell includes the first cell.

[0218] In some embodiments, the first cell is configured to have an MTRP mode.

[0219] In some embodiments, the first cell is configured to have an inter-cell MTRP mode with a second cell, and the total number of TAGs associated with the first cell and the second cell is less than or equal to a predefined number.

[0220] In some embodiments, the second cell is configured to be associated with a plurality of TAGs.

[0221] In some embodiments, the circuit is further configured to receive, from a network device, information indicating a plurality of timing advance (TA) offset values for the first cell, and associate the plurality of TA offset values with a plurality of TAGs.

[0222] In some embodiments, the circuit is further configured to apply one of the plurality of TAGs based on the plurality of TA offset values.

[0223] In some embodiments, the circuit is further configured to apply one of the plurality of TAGs by applying a TAG associated with a maximum TA offset value for at least one of inter-cell operations, cells configured to have dual connections, cells configured to have unlicensed spectra, and cells configured to have different full-duplex modes.

[0224] In some embodiments, the circuit is further configured to receive from a network device a MAC control element (CE) including a plurality of TA commands for a plurality of TAGs, and the plurality of TA commands are associated with the identities of the plurality of TAGs in the MAC CE.

[0225] In some embodiments, the configuration information further indicates an association relationship between a plurality of TAGs and at least one of resources, TRPs, TCI states, and spatial relationships. In some embodiments, the circuit is configured to receive from a network device a switching command indicating at least one of a switch from a first resource to a second resource, a switch from a first TRP to a second TRP, a switch from a first TCI state to a second TCI state, and a switch from a first spatial relationship to a second spatial relationship, and in response to the switching command, switch from a first TA value of a first TAG associated with at least one of the first resource, the first TRP, the first TCI state, and the first spatial relationship to a second TA value of the first TAG associated with at least one of the second resource, the second TRP, the second TCI state, and the second spatial relationship, stop a first timer associated with the first TAG, and start a second timer associated with the second TAG, and is further configured to perform at least one of them.

[0226] In some embodiments, the circuit is further configured to transmit to a network device capability information indicating at least one of whether a terminal device supports a plurality of TAGs for a cell, the number of TAGs supported by the terminal device, the combinations of TAGs supported by the terminal device, the number of cells that can be configured to have a plurality of TAGs, whether the terminal device supports different TAGs in adjacent cells, the total number of TAGs supported for a cell or adjacent cells, and whether the terminal device supports different TAGs simultaneously.

[0227] In some embodiments, the circuit is further configured to determine at least one BWP from a plurality of BWPs of a first cell that is configured to have an MTRP mode; to determine a first reference SCS from at least one subcarrier spacing (SCS) of the determined at least one BWP of the first cell; and to determine a UL transmission timing for at least one TAG among a plurality of TAGs, at least in part on the first reference SCS.

[0228] In some embodiments, the circuit is further configured to determine a second reference SCS from at least one SCS of at least one cell associated with at least a first TAG among a plurality of TAGs, and to determine a plurality of UL transmission timings for the plurality of TAGs, at least in part based on the second reference SCS.

[0229] In some embodiments, the circuit is further configured to determine a second reference SCS by determining a second reference SCS from multiple SCSs of multiple BWPs set for cells associated with multiple TAGs.

[0230] In some embodiments, the circuit is configured to determine multiple UL transmission timings by receiving a MAC control element (CE) from a network device that includes multiple TA commands for multiple TAGs, and determining multiple UL transmission timings for multiple TAGs in response to the MAC CE, based at least in part on a second reference SCS and the multiple TA commands.

[0231] In some embodiments, the circuit is further configured to determine multiple reference SCSs for multiple TAGs and to determine multiple UL transmission timings for multiple TAGs based on the multiple reference SCSs.

[0232] In some embodiments, multiple tags include two tags.

[0233] In some embodiments, a communication device (e.g., a terminal device) includes a circuit configured to receive from a network device configuration information indicating a plurality of timing advance groups (TAGs) associated with a first cell of the terminal device; receive a plurality of timing advance (TA) commands for the plurality of TAGs from the network device; determine a start time for the plurality of TAGs indicating when the plurality of TAG commands will be applied; and apply the plurality of TA commands from the determined start time, in accordance with the determination that the active BWP of the first cell is configured to have a multi-transmission and reception point (MTRP) mode.

[0234] In some embodiments, the circuit is configured to determine the start time by determining multiple values ​​for a predetermined parameter for calculating the start time based on corresponding bandwidth portion (BWP) related information in multiple TAGs, selecting one value from the multiple values ​​for the predetermined parameter, and determining the start time based on the selected value for the predetermined parameter.

[0235] In some embodiments, the circuit is further configured to apply a set of TA commands from a determined start time, in accordance with the determination that the active BWP of the first cell is configured to have MTRP mode.

[0236] In some embodiments, the circuit is further configured to: determine a first TA value for the first TA based on a first TA command for the first TA and a reference SCS for the second BWP, according to a determination that the terminal device switches from a first BWP to a second BWP before the start time, and according to a determination that the second BWP is associated with the first TA; and determine a second TA value for the second TAG based on a second TA command for the second TA and a reference SCS for the first BWP, according to a determination that the second BWP is not associated with the second TAG and the first BWP is associated with the second TAG.

[0237] In some embodiments, the circuit is further configured to determine multiple TA values ​​for multiple TAGs by applying multiple TA commands, and to maintain at least one of the multiple TA values ​​for at least one of the multiple TAs in accordance with the decision that the terminal device switches from a first BWP to a second BWP after the start time.

[0238] In some embodiments, multiple tags include two tags.

[0239] In some embodiments, a communication device (e.g., a terminal device) includes a circuit configured to receive configuration information from a network device indicating a plurality of timing early groups (TAGs) associated with a cell for the terminal device, select a target TAG from the plurality of TAGs based on TAG selection criteria for a communication procedure, and perform a communication procedure with the network device based on at least the target TAG.

[0240] In some embodiments, the TAG selection criteria are based on at least one of the following: multiple identities of multiple TAGs, multiple timing early (TA) values ​​of multiple TAGs, a first association between a bandwidth portion (BWP) and multiple TAGs, a second association between at least one transmit / receive point (TRP) and multiple TAGs, a third association between at least one control resource set (CORESET) and multiple TAGs, and a fourth association between a set of reference signals available for beam failure recovery (BFR) and multiple TAGs.

[0241] In some embodiments, in a first association, the BWP associated with the target TAG includes a BWP configured to have sidelink operation.

[0242] In some embodiments, in the second association relationship, the TRP associated with the target TAG includes one of the following: a predefined TRP, an indicated reference TRP, a main TRP, a TRP corresponding to the CORESET pool, a TRP corresponding to the transmit configuration indicator (TCI) state, and a TRP corresponding to the resource.

[0243] In some embodiments, the communication procedure includes a supplementary uplink (SUL) operation procedure, the circuit is further configured to perform the communication procedure by applying the TA value of a target TAG during the SUL operation procedure.

[0244] In some embodiments, the communication procedure includes a sounding procedure, and the circuit is further configured to perform the communication procedure by determining, based on a target TAG, a set of carriers that can switch the sounding procedure to another carrier, the set of carriers being at least in the same target TAG.

[0245] In some embodiments, the communication procedure includes a sidelink communication procedure, and the circuit is further configured to execute the communication procedure by determining a TA value associated with a target TAG and determining a sidelink resource allocated to a terminal device based on the determined TA value.

[0246] In some embodiments, the communication procedure includes a beam failure recovery (BFR) procedure, the target TAG includes a TAG associated with a reference signal selected from a set of reference signals for BFR, and the circuit is further configured to determine a TA value of the target TAG and apply the TA value for a beam failure detection (BFD) operation based on the selected reference signal.

[0247] In some embodiments, the circuit is further configured to stop a timer associated with the target TAG and trigger a random access procedure for requesting another TA value for the target TAG according to a determination that the BFD operation has failed.

[0248] In some embodiments, the BFR procedure is executed for a plurality of TRPs, the plurality of TRPs are associated with a plurality of TAGs, and the circuit is further configured to stop a plurality of timers associated with the plurality of TAGs and trigger a plurality of random access procedures for requesting respective TA values for the plurality of TAGs according to a determination that the BFD operation by the plurality of TRPs has failed.

[0249] In some embodiments, the plurality of TAGs includes two TAGs.

[0250] As used in this disclosure, the term “circuit” may refer to a hardware circuit and / or a combination of a hardware circuit and software. For example, a circuit may be a combination of an analog and / or digital hardware circuit and software / firmware. As another example, a circuit may be any part of a hardware processor having software, the hardware processor including (multiple) digital signal processors, software, and (multiple) memories, which work together to enable a device such as a terminal or network device to perform various functions. In yet another example, a circuit may be a hardware circuit and / or processor, such as a microprocessor or a part of a microprocessor, which requires software / firmware to operate, but the software may not be present when not required for operation. As used in this disclosure, the term “circuit” may also include simply a hardware circuit or (multiple) processors or a part of a hardware circuit or (multiple) processors and the implementation of the software and / or firmware associated with it (or them).

[0251] In summary, embodiments of this disclosure provide the following solutions.

[0252] One solution involves a communication method in which a terminal device receives configuration information from a network device indicating a plurality of timing advance groups (TAGs) associated with a first cell of the terminal device; during a communication procedure with the network device, determining at least one operating state of at least one timer among a plurality of timers associated with the plurality of TAGs; and performing an action on the communication procedure based on at least one operating state of the at least one timer.

[0253] In some embodiments, at least one timer includes one of several timers associated with multiple TAGs, at least one TAG among several TAGs associated with an uplink (UL) resource, at least one TAG among several TAGs associated with a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state, at least one TAG among several TAGs associated with a spatial relationship, at least one TAG among several TAGs associated with a control resource set (CORESET), one or more primary timing advance groups (PTAGs) included in the multiple TAGs, and at least one PTAG among one or more PTAGs.

[0254] In some embodiments, at least one of UL resources, TCI states, spatial relationships, and CORESETs is configured for hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback transmitted in the communication procedure.

[0255] In some embodiments, performing an action on a communication procedure includes determining that a first condition is met based on the determination that at least one timer is operating, and performing a first action on the communication procedure; and determining that a second condition is met based on the determination that at least one timer is not operating, and performing a second action on the communication procedure.

[0256] In some embodiments, the communication procedure includes a data transfer procedure, and the first action includes sending an acknowledgment for downlink (DL) reception.

[0257] In some embodiments, DL reception includes an instruction to deactivate semi-persistent scheduling (SPS).

[0258] In some embodiments, the communication procedure includes a data transfer procedure, and the first action includes the use of UL authorization in the data transfer procedure.

[0259] In some embodiments, the communication procedure includes a HARQ procedure, and the second action includes preventing the physical layer from generating an acknowledgment within a transport block (TB).

[0260] In some embodiments, the communication procedure includes a procedure for activating or deactivating a secondary cell group (SCG), wherein the first action includes activating the SCG according to the timing for direct SCG activation, and the second action includes suspending the activation of the SCG.

[0261] In some embodiments, the second action includes indicating that a random access procedure is required for the activation of the SCG.

[0262] In some embodiments, the communication procedure includes a random access (RA) procedure, the first action includes the successful completion of the RA procedure, and the second action includes determining whether a timing early command has been received.

[0263] In some embodiments, the RA procedure is of the 2-step RA type, where the first and second actions are performed to receive an RA response in the RA procedure.

[0264] In some embodiments, the first cell is configured to have a first bandwidth part (BWP) configured to have a multi-transmission and reception point (MTRP) mode and a second BWP configured not to have an MTRP mode, and the configuration information further indicates that the first BWP is associated with two or more TAGs out of a plurality of TAGs and the second BWP is associated with one TAG out of a plurality of TAGs.

[0265] In some embodiments, the first cell is configured to have a first BWP configured to have a multi-transmit / receive-point (MTRP) mode and a second BWP configured not to have an MTRP mode, and the configuration information further indicates that at least one of a plurality of TAGs is limited to being applied for the second BWP.

[0266] In some embodiments, the first cell is configured to have a first BWP configured to have a multi-transmission and reception point (MTRP) mode and a second BWP configured not to have an MTRP mode, and the configuration information further indicates that the first BWP is associated with a first TAG among a plurality of TAGs and the second BWP is associated with a second TAG among a plurality of TAGs.

[0267] In some embodiments, the method further includes receiving additional configuration information from a network device indicating a component carrier (CC) list for simultaneous TCI updates, the CC list including at least one cell configured to be associated with a plurality of TAGs, the at least one cell including a first cell.

[0268] In some embodiments, the method further includes setting up cell groups for a Media Access Control (MAC) entity, the first cell group including at least one cell configured to be associated with at least one of a plurality of TAGs, the at least one cell including the first cell.

[0269] In some embodiments, the first cell is configured to have an MTRP mode.

[0270] In some embodiments, the first cell is configured to have an inter-cell MTRP mode with the second cell, and the total number of TAGs associated with the first and second cells is less than or equal to a predefined number.

[0271] In some embodiments, the second cell is configured to be associated with multiple TAGs.

[0272] In some embodiments, the method further includes receiving information from a network device indicating a plurality of timing early (TA) offset values ​​for a first cell, and associating the plurality of TA offset values ​​with a plurality of TAGs.

[0273] In some embodiments, the method further includes applying one of several TAGs based on a plurality of TA offset values.

[0274] In some embodiments, applying one of a plurality of TAGs includes applying the TAG associated with the largest TA offset value for at least one of the following: inter-cell operation, cells configured to have dual connections, cells configured to have an unlicensed spectrum, and cells configured to have different full-duplex modes.

[0275] In some embodiments, the method further includes receiving a MAC control element (CE) from a network device which includes multiple TA commands for multiple TAGs, the multiple TA commands being associated in the MAC CE with multiple identities of the multiple TAGs.

[0276] In some embodiments, the configuration information further indicates the association between a plurality of TAGs and at least one of resources, TRPs, TCI states, and spatial relationships. In some embodiments, the method further includes receiving a switching command from a network device indicating at least one of switching from a first resource to a second resource, switching from a first TRP to a second TRP, switching from a first TCI state to a second TCI state, and switching from a first spatial relationship to a second spatial relationship; and in response to the switching command, performing at least one of switching from a first TA value of a first TAG associated with at least one of a first resource, a first TRP, a first TCI state, and a first spatial relationship to a second TA value of a first TAG associated with at least one of a second resource, a second TRP, a second TCI state, and a second spatial relationship; stopping a first timer associated with a first TAG; and starting a second timer associated with a second TAG.

[0277] In some embodiments, the method further includes transmitting capability information to a network device indicating at least one of the following: whether a terminal device supports multiple TAGs for a cell, the number of TAGs supported by the terminal device, the combination of TAGs supported by the terminal device, the number of cells that can be configured to have multiple TAGs, whether a terminal device supports different TAGs in adjacent cells, the total number of TAGs supported for a cell or adjacent cell, and whether a terminal device supports different TAGs simultaneously.

[0278] In some embodiments, the method further includes determining at least one BWP from a plurality of BWPs of a first cell that is configured to have MTRP mode; determining a first reference SCS from at least one subcarrier spacing (SCS) of the determined at least one BWP of the first cell; and determining UL transmission timing for at least one TAG of a plurality of TAGs, at least in part on the first reference SCS.

[0279] In some embodiments, the method further includes determining a second reference SCS from at least one SCS of at least one cell associated with at least a first TAG among a plurality of TAGs, and determining a plurality of UL transmission timings for the plurality of TAGs, at least in part based on the second reference SCS.

[0280] In some embodiments, the method further includes determining a second reference SCS by determining a second reference SCS from multiple SCSs of multiple BWPs set for cells associated with multiple TAGs.

[0281] In some embodiments, determining multiple UL transmission timings includes receiving a MAC control element (CE) from a network device containing multiple TA commands for multiple TAGs, and determining multiple UL transmission timings for multiple TAGs in response to the MAC CE, at least in part, based on a second reference SCS and the multiple TA commands.

[0282] In some embodiments, the method further includes determining multiple reference SCSs for multiple TAGs and determining multiple UL transmission timings for multiple TAGs based on the multiple reference SCSs.

[0283] In some embodiments, multiple tags include two tags.

[0284] In an alternative solution, the communication method includes: receiving configuration information from a network device indicating multiple timing advance groups (TAGs) associated with a first cell of the terminal device; receiving multiple timing advance (TA) commands for the multiple TAGs from the network device; determining a start time for the multiple TAGs indicating when the multiple TAG commands will be applied; and applying the multiple TA commands from the determined start time, in accordance with the determination that the active BWP of the first cell is configured to have a multi-transmission and reception point (MTRP) mode.

[0285] In some embodiments, determining the start time includes determining a plurality of values ​​for a given parameter for calculating the start time based on corresponding bandwidth portion (BWP) related information in a plurality of TAGs, selecting one of the plurality of values ​​for the given parameter, and determining the start time based on the selected value for the given parameter.

[0286] In some embodiments, the method further includes applying a number of TA commands from a determined start time, in accordance with the determination that the active BWP of the first cell is configured to have MTRP mode.

[0287] In some embodiments, the method further includes determining a first TA value for the first TA based on a first TA command for the first TA and a reference SCS for the second BWP, according to a determination that the terminal device switches from a first BWP to a second BWP before the start time, and according to a determination that the second BWP is associated with the first TA, and determining a second TA value for the second TAG based on a second TA command for the second TA and a reference SCS for the first BWP, according to a determination that the second BWP is not associated with the second TAG and the first BWP is associated with the second TAG.

[0288] In some embodiments, the method further includes determining multiple TA values ​​for multiple TAGs by applying multiple TA commands, and maintaining at least one of the multiple TA values ​​for at least one of the multiple TAs in accordance with the determination that the terminal device switches from a first BWP to a second BWP after the start time.

[0289] In some embodiments, multiple tags include two tags.

[0290] In another solution, the communication method includes the terminal device receiving configuration information from a network device indicating multiple timing early groups (TAGs) associated with a cell for the terminal device; selecting a target TAG from the multiple TAGs based on TAG selection criteria for a communication procedure; and performing a communication procedure with the network device based on at least the target TAG.

[0291] In some embodiments, the TAG selection criteria are based on at least one of the following: multiple identities of multiple TAGs, multiple timing early (TA) values ​​of multiple TAGs, a first association between a bandwidth portion (BWP) and multiple TAGs, a second association between at least one transmit / receive point (TRP) and multiple TAGs, a third association between at least one control resource set (CORESET) and multiple TAGs, and a fourth association between a set of reference signals available for beam failure recovery (BFR) and multiple TAGs.

[0292] In some embodiments, in a first association, the BWP associated with the target TAG includes a BWP configured to have sidelink operation.

[0293] In some embodiments, in the second association relationship, the TRP associated with the target TAG includes one of the following: a predefined TRP, an indicated reference TRP, a main TRP, a TRP corresponding to the CORESET pool, a TRP corresponding to the transmit configuration indicator (TCI) state, and a TRP corresponding to the resource.

[0294] In some embodiments, the communication procedure includes a supplementary uplink (SUL) operation procedure, and executing the communication procedure further includes applying the TA value of the target TAG during the SUL operation procedure.

[0295] In some embodiments, the communication procedure includes a sounding procedure, and executing the communication procedure includes determining a set of carriers on which the sounding procedure can be switched to another carrier, based on a target TAG, wherein the set of carriers is at least in the same target TAG.

[0296] In some embodiments, the communication procedure includes a sidelink communication procedure, and performing the communication procedure includes determining a TA value associated with a target TAG and determining a sidelink resource allocated to a terminal device based on the determined TA value.

[0297] In some embodiments, the communication procedure includes a beam fault recovery (BFR) procedure, where the target TAG includes a TAG associated with a reference signal selected from a set of reference signals for the BFR, and includes determining the TA value of the target TAG and applying the TA value for beam fault detection (BFD) operation based on the selected reference signal.

[0298] In some embodiments, the method further includes stopping the timer associated with the target TAG in accordance with the determination that the BFD operation has failed, and triggering a random access procedure to request a different TA value for the target TAG.

[0299] In some embodiments, the BFR procedure is performed for multiple TRPs, the multiple TRPs being associated with multiple TAGs, and the method further includes stopping multiple timers associated with the multiple TAGs and triggering multiple random access procedures to request the respective TA values ​​for the multiple TAGs, in accordance with the determination that the BFD operation for the multiple TRPs has failed.

[0300] In some embodiments, multiple tags include two tags.

[0301] In another solution, the terminal device comprises at least one processor and at least one memory in which instructions are stored, and when the instructions are executed by at least one processor, the device causes the device to execute one of the methods implemented by the terminal device.

[0302] Another solution is a computer-readable medium that, when executed on at least one processor, stores instructions causing at least one processor to perform one of the methods described above, as implemented by the terminal device.

[0303] Another solution is a computer program that, when executed on at least one processor, includes instructions that cause at least one processor to perform one of the methods described above, as implemented by a terminal device.

[0304] Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or dedicated circuitry, software, logic, or any combination thereof. Some embodiments may be implemented in hardware, while others may be implemented in firmware or software that can be executed by a controller, microprocessor, or other computing device. Various embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described using block diagrams, flowcharts, or any other pictorial representation, but it should be understood that the blocks, devices, systems, techniques, or methods described in the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, dedicated circuitry or logic, general-purpose hardware or controllers, or other computing devices, or any combination thereof, as non-limiting examples.

[0305] This disclosure also provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-temporary computer-readable storage medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions (such as computer-executable instructions contained in a program module) that are executed in the device on a target real processor or virtual processor to perform the processes or methods described above with reference to Figures 1 to 6. Generally, a program module includes routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, etc., that perform a specific task or implement a specific abstract data type. The functions of the program modules may be combined or divided amongst the program modules as desired in various embodiments. The machine-executable instructions to the program modules may be executed locally or in a distributed device. In a distributed device, the program modules may be located on both local and remote storage media.

[0306] Program code for carrying out the methods of this disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. This program code may be provided to a processor or controller of a general-purpose computer, a dedicated computer, or other programmable data processing device, so that when executed by the processor or controller, the program code implements functions / operations specified in flowcharts and / or block diagrams. The program code may run entirely on a machine, partially on a machine, as a standalone software package, partially on a machine and partially on a remote machine, or entirely on a remote machine or server.

[0307] The above program code may be embodied in a machine-readable medium, which may be any tangible medium that contains or can store a program for use by or with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The machine-readable medium may be a machine-readable signal medium or a machine-readable storage medium. The machine-readable medium includes, but is not limited to, electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor systems, apparatus, or devices, or any suitable combination thereof. More specific examples of machine-readable storage media include electrical connections having one or more wires, portable computer disks, hard disks, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), optical fibers, portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, or any suitable combination thereof.

[0308] Furthermore, although operations are described in a specific order, it should not be understood that such operations must be performed in a specific order indicated, or sequentially, or that all indicated operations must be performed in order to achieve the desired result. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Similarly, although some specific implementation details are included in the above description, these should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of this disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to a particular embodiment. Certain features described in the context of individual embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented individually or in any suitable subcombination in multiple embodiments.

[0309] While this disclosure has been described in language specific to structural features and / or methodological logic and operation, it should be understood that this disclosure, limited to the appended claims, is not necessarily limited to the specific features or operations described above. Rather, the specific features and operations described above are disclosed as exemplary forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

1. A method performed by a terminal device, Receiving configuration information from the network device indicating two timing advance groups (TAGs) for the cell, The timer of one of the two TAGs mentioned above is operating. If one of the TAGs is associated with a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state used to send a first hybrid automatic retransmission request (HARQ) feedback that includes an acknowledgment of semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) deactivation included in downlink reception, and the relationship between the one of the TAGs and the TCI state is indicated by the configuration information, This includes giving the aforementioned affirmative response, method.

2. The timer of one of the two TAGs is not operating. If one of the aforementioned TAGs is associated with the TCI state used to transmit a second HARQ feedback, which includes an acknowledgment of the data in the TB, Not instructing the physical layer to generate the aforementioned acknowledgment, including, The method according to claim 1.

3. The two aforementioned tags do not apply to transmissions on supplemental uplink (SUL) carriers. The method according to claim 1.

4. A method performed by a network device, Send configuration information indicating two timing advance groups (TAGs) for the cell to the terminal device, The timer of one of the two TAGs mentioned above is operating. If one of the TAGs is associated with a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state used for first hybrid automatic retransmission request (HARQ) feedback, including an acknowledgment of semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) deactivation included in downlink transmissions, and the relationship between the one of the TAGs and the TCI state is indicated by the configuration information, Receiving the aforementioned affirmative response, method.

5. The timer of one of the two TAGs is not operating. If one of the aforementioned TAGs is associated with the TCI state used for a second HARQ feedback that includes an acknowledgment of data in the TB, If the aforementioned acknowledgment is not received from the terminal device, The method according to claim 4.

6. The two aforementioned tags do not apply to transmission on a supplemental uplink (SUL) carrier. The method according to claim 4.

7. A means for receiving configuration information from a network device indicating two timing advance groups (TAGs) for a cell, The timer of one of the two TAGs mentioned above is operating. If the TAG is associated with a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state used to send a first hybrid automatic retransmission request (HARQ) feedback that includes an acknowledgment of semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) deactivation included in downlink reception, and the relationship between the one TAG and the TCI state is indicated by the configuration information, The means for indicating the affirmative response is provided, Terminal device.

8. The timer of one of the two TAGs is not operating. If one of the aforementioned TAGs is associated with the TCI state used to transmit a second HARQ feedback, which includes an acknowledgment of the data in the TB, Means of not instructing the physical layer to generate the aforementioned acknowledgment, Equipped with, The terminal device according to claim 7.

9. The two aforementioned tags do not apply to transmission on a supplemental uplink (SUL) carrier. The terminal device according to claim 7.

10. Means for transmitting configuration information indicating two timing advance groups (TAGs) for a cell to a terminal device, The timer of one of the two TAGs mentioned above is operating. If the TAG is associated with a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state used for first hybrid automatic retransmission request (HARQ) feedback, which includes an acknowledgment of semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) deactivation included in downlink transmissions, and the relationship between one of the TAGs and the TCI state is indicated by the configuration information, The system includes means for receiving the aforementioned acknowledgment, Network device.

11. The timer of one of the two TAGs is not operating. If one of the aforementioned TAGs is associated with the TCI state used for a second HARQ feedback that includes an acknowledgment of data in the TB, If the aforementioned acknowledgment is not received from the terminal device, The network device according to claim 10.

12. The two aforementioned tags do not apply to transmission on a supplemental uplink (SUL) carrier. The network device according to claim 10.

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