Apparatus and method for enhanced paging

Abstract

Various aspects of the present disclosure relate to: monitoring (1502) for paging in a set of standard paging occasions; determining (1504) whether the paging is received in the set of standard paging occasions; determining (1506) whether a downlink radio quality of a current serving cell is less than a threshold value; and, in response to determining that the paging is not received in the set of standard paging occasions and that the downlink radio quality of the current serving cell is less than the threshold value, monitoring (1508) for paging downlink control information (DCI) in a set of enhanced paging occasions.

Description

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ENHANCED PAGINGTECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present disclosure relates to wireless communications, and more specifically to enhanced paging in a wireless network.BACKGROUND

[0002] A wireless communications system may include one or multiple network communication devices, such as base stations, which may support wireless communications for one or multiple user communication devices, which may be otherwise known as user equipment (UE), or other suitable terminology. The wireless communications system may support wireless communications with one or multiple user communication devices by utilizing resources of the wireless communication system (e.g., time resources (e.g., symbols, slots, subframes, frames, or the like) or frequency resources (e.g., subcarriers, carriers, or the like). Additionally, the wireless communications system may support wireless communications across various radio access technologies including third generation (3G) radio access technology, fourth generation (4G) radio access technology, fifth generation (5G) radio access technology, among other suitable radio access technologies beyond 5G (e.g., sixth generation (6G)).SUMMARY

[0003] An article “a” before an element is unrestricted and understood to refer to “at least one” of those elements or “one or more” of those elements. The terms “a,” “at least one,” “one or more,” and “at least one of one or more” may be interchangeable. As used herein, including in the claims, “or” as used in a list of items (e.g., a list of items prefaced by a phrase such as “at least one of’ or “one or more of’ or “one or both of’) indicates an inclusive list such that, for example, a list of at least one of A, B, or C means A or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., A and B and C). Also, as used herein, the phrase “based on” shall not be construed as a reference to a closed set of conditions. For example, an example step that is described as “based on condition A” may be based on both a condition A and a condition B without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. In other words, as used herein, the phrase “based on” shall beconstrued in the same manner as the phrase “based at least in part on. Further, as used herein, including in the claims, a “set” may include one or more elements.

[0004] Some implementations of the method and apparatuses described herein may further include: monitoring for paging in a set of standard paging occasions; determining whether the paging is received in the set of standard paging occasions; determining whether a downlink radio quality of a current serving cell is less than a threshold value; and, in response to determining that the paging is not received in the set of standard paging occasions and that the downlink radio quality of the current serving cell is less than the threshold value, monitoring for paging downlink control information (DCI) in a set of enhanced paging occasions.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0005] Figure 1 illustrates an example of a wireless communications system in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0006] Figure 2 illustrates an example of a non-terrestrial network (NTN).

[0007] Figure 3 illustrates an example of a networking radio access network (RAN) architecture with a transparent satellite.

[0008] Figure 4 illustrates an example of a regenerative satellite without intersatellite links (ISL).

[0009] Figure 5 illustrates an example of a regenerative satellite with ISL.

[0010] Figure 6 illustrates an example of a next generation (NG) RAN architecture.

[0011] Figure 7 illustrates an example of a procedure for core network (CN) controlled subgrouping.

[0012] Figure 8 illustrates an example of a procedure for user equipment (UE) identifier (ID) based subgrouping.

[0013] Figure 9 illustrates an example of a paging procedure.

[0014] Figure 10 illustrates an example of legacy paging occasions and new paging occasions.

[0015] Figure 11 illustrates another example of legacy paging occasions and new paging occasions.

[0016] Figure 12 illustrates an example of a UE in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0017] Figure 13 illustrates an example of a processor in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0018] Figure 14 illustrates an example of a network equipment (NE) in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0019] Figure 15 illustrates a flowchart of a method performed by a UE in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0020] Figure 16 illustrates a flowchart of a method performed by a NE in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0021] Various aspects of the present disclosure relate to a system that supports enhanced paging. The enhanced paging found herein may be used to supplement legacy paging. It should be noted, that as used herein, legacy paging is synonymous with normal paging and / or non-enhanced paging. Moreover, enhanced paging is not normal paging, and enhanced paging (or new paging) is paging in different paging radio resources than the radio resources used for legacy paging.

[0022] Aspects of the present disclosure are described in the context of a wireless communications system.

[0023] Figure 1 illustrates an example of a wireless communications system 100 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The wireless communications system 100 may include one or more NE 102, one or more UE 104, and a core network (CN) 106. The wireless communications system 100 may support various radio access technologies. In some implementations, the wireless communications system 100 may be a 4G network, such as an LTE network or an LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network. In some other implementations, the wireless communications system 100 may be a new radio (NR) network, such as a 5G network, a 5G-Advanced (5G-A) network, or a 5G ultrawideband (5G-UWB) network. In other implementations, the wireless communications system 100 may be a combination of a 4G network and a 5G network, or other suitable radio access technology including Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20.The wireless communications system 100 may support radio access technologies beyond 5G, for example, 6G. Additionally, the wireless communications system 100 may support technologies, such as time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), or code division multiple access (CDMA), etc.

[0024] The one or more NE 102 may be dispersed throughout a geographic region to form the wireless communications system 100. One or more of the NE 102 described herein may be or include or may be referred to as a network node, a base station, a network element, a network function, a network entity, a radio access network (RAN), a NodeB, an eNodeB (eNB), a next-generation NodeB (gNB), or other suitable terminology. An NE 102 and a UE 104 may communicate via a communication link, which may be a wireless or wired connection. For example, an NE 102 and a UE 104 may perform wireless communication (e.g., receive signaling, transmit signaling) over a Uu interface.

[0025] An NE 102 may provide a geographic coverage area for which the NE 102 may support services for one or more UEs 104 within the geographic coverage area. For example, an NE 102 and a UE 104 may support wireless communication of signals related to services (e.g., voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc.) according to one or multiple radio access technologies. In some implementations, an NE 102 may be moveable, for example, a satellite associated with a non-terrestrial network (NTN). In some implementations, different geographic coverage areas associated with the same or different radio access technologies may overlap, but the different geographic coverage areas may be associated with different NE 102.

[0026] The one or more UE 104 may be dispersed throughout a geographic region of the wireless communications system 100. A UE 104 may include or may be referred to as a remote unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, a remote device, a subscriber device, a transmitter device, a receiver device, or some other suitable terminology. In some implementations, the UE 104 may be referred to as a unit, a station, a terminal, or a client, among other examples. Additionally, or alternatively, the UE 104 may be referred to as an Intemet-of-Things (loT) device, an Intemet-of-Everything (loE) device, or machine-type communication (MTC) device, among other examples.

[0027] A UE 104 may be able to support wireless communication directly with other UEs 104 over a communication link. For example, a UE 104 may support wirelesscommunication directly with another UE 104 over a device-to-device (D2D) communication link. In some implementations, such as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) deployments, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) deployments, or cellular-V2X deployments, the communication link may be referred to as a sidelink. For example, a UE 104 may support wireless communication directly with another UE 104 over a UE-to-UE interface (PC5 interface).

[0028] An NE 102 may support communications with the CN 106, or with another NE 102, or both. For example, an NE 102 may interface with other NE 102 or the CN 106 through one or more backhaul links (e.g., SI, N2, N2, or network interface). In some implementations, the NE 102 may communicate with each other directly. In some other implementations, the NE 102 may communicate with each other or indirectly (e.g., via the CN 106. In some implementations, one or more NE 102 may include subcomponents, such as an access network entity, which may be an example of an access node controller (ANC). An ANC may communicate with the one or more UEs 104 through one or more other access network transmission entities, which may be referred to as a radio heads, smart radio heads, or transmission -reception points (TRPs).

[0029] The CN 106 may support user authentication, access authorization, tracking, connectivity, and other access, routing, or mobility functions. The CN 106 may be an evolved packet core (EPC), or a 5G core (5GC), which may include a control plane entity that manages access and mobility (e.g., a mobility management entity (MME), an access and mobility management functions (AMF)) and a user plane entity that routes packets or interconnects to external networks (e.g., a serving gateway (S-GW), a Packet Data Network (PDN) gateway (P-GW), or a user plane function (UPF)). In some implementations, the control plane entity may manage non-access stratum (NAS) functions, such as mobility, authentication, and bearer management (e.g., data bearers, signal bearers, etc.) for the one or more UEs 104 served by the one or more NE 102 associated with the CN 106.

[0030] The CN 106 may communicate with a packet data network over one or more backhaul links (e.g., via an SI, N2, N2, or another network interface). The packet data network may include an application server. In some implementations, one or more UEs 104 may communicate with the application server. A UE 104 may establish a session (e.g., a protocol data unit (PDU) session, or the like) with the CN 106 via an NE 102.The CN 106 may route traffic (e.g., control information, data, and the like) between the UE 104 and the application server using the established session (e.g., the established PDU session). The PDU session may be an example of a logical connection between the UE 104 and the CN 106 (e.g., one or more network functions of the CN 106).

[0031] In the wireless communications system 100, the NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may use resources of the wireless communications system 100 (e.g., time resources (e.g., symbols, slots, subframes, frames, or the like) or frequency resources (e.g., subcarriers, carriers)) to perform various operations (e.g., wireless communications). In some implementations, the NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may support different resource structures. For example, the NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may support different frame structures. In some implementations, such as in 4G, the NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may support a single frame structure. In some other implementations, such as in 5G and among other suitable radio access technologies, the NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may support various frame structures (i.e., multiple frame structures). The NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may support various frame structures based on one or more numerologies.

[0032] One or more numerologies may be supported in the wireless communications system 100, and a numerology may include a subcarrier spacing and a cyclic prefix. A first numerology (e.g., jU=O) may be associated with a first subcarrier spacing (e.g., 15 kHz) and a normal cyclic prefix. In some implementations, the first numerology (e.g., ^=0) associated with the first subcarrier spacing (e.g., 15 kHz) may utilize one slot per subframe. A second numerology (e.g., ^=1) may be associated with a second subcarrier spacing (e.g., 30 kHz) and a normal cyclic prefix. A third numerology (e.g., ^=2) may be associated with a third subcarrier spacing (e.g., 60 kHz) and a normal cyclic prefix or an extended cyclic prefix. A fourth numerology (e.g., ju=3) may be associated with a fourth subcarrier spacing (e.g., 120 kHz) and a normal cyclic prefix. A fifth numerology (e.g., i=4) may be associated with a fifth subcarrier spacing (e.g., 240 kHz) and a normal cyclic prefix.

[0033] A time interval of a resource (e.g., a communication resource) may be organized according to frames (also referred to as radio frames). Each frame may have a duration, for example, a 10 millisecond (ms) duration. In some implementations, each frame may include multiple subframes. For example, each frame may include 10 subframes, and each subframe may have a duration, for example, a 1 ms duration. Insome implementations, each frame may have the same duration. In some implementations, each subframe of a frame may have the same duration.

[0034] Additionally or alternatively, a time interval of a resource (e.g., a communication resource) may be organized according to slots. For example, a subframe may include a number (e.g., quantity) of slots. The number of slots in each subframe may also depend on the one or more numerologies supported in the wireless communications system 100. For instance, the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth numerologies (i.e., / r=0, ju=l, ,11=2. [1=3, =4) associated with respective subcarrier spacings of 15 kHz, 30 kHz, 60 kHz, 120 kHz, and 240 kHz may utilize a single slot per subframe, two slots per subframe, four slots per subframe, eight slots per subframe, and 16 slots per subframe, respectively. Each slot may include a number (e.g., quantity) of symbols (e.g., orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols). In some implementations, the number (e.g., quantity) of slots for a subframe may depend on a numerology. For a normal cyclic prefix, a slot may include 14 symbols. For an extended cyclic prefix (e.g., applicable for 60 kHz subcarrier spacing), a slot may include 12 symbols. The relationship between the number of symbols per slot, the number of slots per subframe, and the number of slots per frame for a normal cyclic prefix and an extended cyclic prefix may depend on a numerology. It should be understood that reference to a first numerology (e.g., i=0) associated with a first subcarrier spacing (e.g., 15 kHz) may be used interchangeably between subframes and slots.

[0035] In the wireless communications system 100, an electromagnetic (EM) spectrum may be split, based on frequency or wavelength, into various classes, frequency bands, frequency channels, etc. By way of example, the wireless communications system 100 may support one or multiple operating frequency bands, such as frequency range designations FR1 (410 MHz - 7.125 GHz), FR2 (24.25 GHz - 52.6 GHz), FR3 (7.125 GHz - 24.25 GHz), FR4 (52.6 GHz - 114.25 GHz), FR4a or FR4-1 (52.6 GHz - 71 GHz), and FR5 (114.25 GHz - 300 GHz). In some implementations, the NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may perform wireless communications over one or more of the operating frequency bands. In some implementations, FR1 may be used by the NEs 102 and the UEs 104, among other equipment or devices for cellular communications traffic (e.g., control information, data). In some implementations, FR2 may be used by the NEs 102 and the UEs 104, among other equipment or devices for short-range, high data rate capabilities.

[0036] FR1 may be associated with one or multiple numerologies (e.g., at least three numerologies). For example, FR1 may be associated with a first numerology (e.g., ^=0), which includes 15 kHz subcarrier spacing; a second numerology (e.g., ^=1), which includes 30 kHz subcarrier spacing; and a third numerology (e.g., ^=2), which includes 60 kHz subcarrier spacing. FR2 may be associated with one or multiple numerologies (e.g., at least 2 numerologies). For example, FR2 may be associated with a third numerology (e.g., ^=2), which includes 60 kHz subcarrier spacing; and a fourth numerology (e.g., ^=3), which includes 120 kHz subcarrier spacing.

[0037] Figure 2 illustrates an example of a NTN 200. The NTN 200 includes an access and mobility management function (AMF) / user plane function (UPF) 202 and a gNB 204. The gNB 204 includes an NTN gateway 206 and an NTN payload 208. The NTN 200 provides non-terrestrial (NT) new radio (NR) access to a UE by means of the NTN payload 208 and the NTN gateway 206 via a service link 210 between the NTN payload 208 and the UE. The service link 210 may be a NR Uu interface 212. There is a feeder link 214 between the NTN gateway 206 and the NTN payload 208. Moreover, the AMF / UPF 202 communicates with the gNB 204 over an NG interface 216.

[0038] The NTN payload 208 transparently forwards a radio protocol received from the UE (via the service link 210) to the NTN gateway 206 (via the feeder link 214) and vice-versa. The following connectivity may be supported by the NTN payload 208: 1) the NTN gateway 206 may serve multiple NTN payloads 208; and 2) the NTN payload 208 may be served by multiple NTN gateways 206.

[0039] For NTN, the following may apply in addition to network identities: 1) a tracking area may correspond to a fixed geographical area - any respective mapping may be configured in the RAN; and 2) a mapped cell identifier (ID).

[0040] In some systems, three types of service links may be supported, such as: 1) earth-fixed: provisioned by beams continuously covering the same geographical areas all the time (e.g., for geosynchronous orbit (GSO) satellites); 2) quasi-Earth-fixed: provisioned by beams covering one geographic area for a limited period and a different geographic area during another period (e.g., for non-GSO (NGSO) satellites generating steerable beams); and / or 3) Earth-moving: provisioned by beams whose coverage area slides over the Earth surface (e.g., for NGSO satellites generating fixed or non-steerable beams).

[0041] With NGSO satellites, a gNB may provide either a quasi-Earth-fixed service link or an Earth-moving service link, while a gNB operating with a GSO satellite may provide an Earth fixed service link.

[0042] Some systems may have a transparent satellite-based NG-RAN architecture. In such systems, a satellite payload implements frequency conversion and there is a radio frequency amplifier in both uplink and downlink directions. The satellite payload may correspond to an analogue radio frequency (RF) repeater. The satellite repeats an NR-Uu radio interface from a feeder link (between a NTN gateway and a satellite) to a service link (between the satellite and a UE) and vice versa. A satellite radio interface (SRI) on the feeder link may be NR-Uu. In other words, the satellite does not terminate NR-Uu. The NTN gateway (GW) supports all necessary functions to forward signals of the NR-Uu interface.

[0043] Different transparent satellites may be connected to the same gNB on the ground. Figure 3 illustrates an example of a networking RAN architecture 300 with a transparent satellite. While several gNBs may access a single satellite pay load, the networking RAN architecture 300 is simplified to a unique gNB accessing the satellite payload without loss of generality.

[0044] Some systems may have regenerative satellite-based NG-RAN architectures with a gNB processed payload as illustrated in Figures 4 and 5. In such systems, the NG-RAN logical architecture may be used as a baseline for NTN scenarios. The satellite payload implements regeneration of signals received from Earth and may have: 1) an NR-Uu radio interface on a service link between a UE and a satellite; and / or 2) an SRI on a feeder link between an NTN gateway and the satellite. SRI may be a transport link between an NTN GW and a satellite.

[0045] Figure 4 illustrates an example of a regenerative satellite 400 without ISL. The satellite 400 may embark additional traffic routing functions that are out of RAN scope. Moreover, the satellite payload may provide ISL between satellites. ISL is a transport link between satellites. ISL may be a radio interface or an optical interface that may be 3GPP or non 3GPP defined. The NTN GW may be a transport network layer node and may support all necessary transport protocols.

[0046] Figure 5 illustrates an example of a regenerative satellite 500 with ISL. A UE served by a gNB on board a satellite may access a 5G CN via ISL. The gNB onboard different satellites may be connected to the same 5G CN on the ground. If the satellite 500 hosts more than one gNB, the same SRI may transport all of the corresponding NG interface instances.

[0047] In some configurations, a terrestrial network (TN) may be used. Figure 6 illustrates an example of aNG-RAN architecture 600. In a TN architecture, an NG- RAN node may be either: 1) a gNB, providing NR user plane and control plane protocol terminations towards the UE; or 2) an ng-eNB, providing evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) user plane and control plane protocol terminations towards the UE.

[0048] The gNBs and ng-eNBs are interconnected with each other by means of the Xn interface. The gNBs and ng-eNBs are also connected by means of the NG interfaces to the 5GC, more specifically to the AMF by means of the NG-C interface and to the UPF by means of the NG-U interface.

[0049] In certain configurations, paging allows a network to reach UEs in RRC IDLE and in RRC INACTIVE states through paging messages, and to notify UEs in RRC IDLE, RRC INACTIVE, and RRC CONNECTED states of system information changes and earthquake and tsunami warning system (ETWS) / commercial mobile alert system (CMAS) indications through short messages. Both paging messages and short messages are addressed with a paging (P)-radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) (P-RNTI) on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), but while the former is sent on a paging control channel (PCCH), the latter is sent over PDCCH directly.

[0050] While in RRC IDLE, a UE may monitor the paging channels for CN- initiated paging. While in RRC INACTIVE with no ongoing small data transmission (SDT) procedure, the UE may monitor paging channels for RAN-initiated paging and CN-initiated paging. A UE need not monitor paging channels continuously though. Paging discontinuous reception (DRX) is defined where the UE in RRC IDLE or RRC INACTIVE is only required to monitor paging channels during one paging occasion (PO) per DRX cycle. The paging DRX cycles are configured by the network as follows: 1) for CN-initiated paging, a default cycle is broadcast in system information; 2) for CN-initiated paging, a UE specific cycle can be configured via NAS signaling; 3) for RAN-initiated paging, a UE -specific cycle is configured via RRCsignaling; and 4) the UE uses the shortest of the DRX cycles applicable (e.g., a UE in RRC IDLE uses the shortest of the first two cycles above, while a UE in RRC_INACTIVE uses the shortest of the three).

[0051] The POs of a UE for CN-initiated and RAN-initiated paging are based on the same UE ID resulting in overlapping POs for both. The number of different POs in a DRX cycle is configurable via system information and a network may distribute UEs to those POs based on their IDs. While in RRC CONNECTED and while in RRC INACTIVE with an ongoing SDT procedure, the UE monitors the paging channels in any PO signaled in system information (SI) for a SI change indication and a public warning system (PWS) notification. For bandwidth adaptation (BA), a UE in RRC CONNECTED only monitors paging channels on the active bandwidth part (BWP) with common search space configured.

[0052] For operation with shared spectrum channel access, a UE may be configured for an additional number of PDCCH monitoring occasions in its PO to monitor for paging. However, when the UE detects a PDCCH transmission within the UE's PO addressed with P-RNTI, the UE is not required to monitor the subsequent PDCCH monitoring occasions within this PO.

[0053] If a paging cause is included in a paging message, a UE in RRC IDLE orRRC IN ACTIVE state may use the paging cause.

[0054] For paging optimization for UEs in CM IDLE: at UE context release, the NG-RAN node may provide the AMF with a list of recommended cells and NG-RAN nodes as assistance info for subsequent paging. The AMF may also provide paging attempt information including a paging attempt count and an intended number of paging attempts and may include a next paging area scope. If paging attempt information is included in the paging message, each paged NG-RAN node receives the same information during a paging attempt. The paging attempt count may be increased by one at each new paging attempt. The next paging area scope, when present, indicates whether the AMF plans to modify the paging area currently selected at a next paging attempt. If the UE has changed its state to CM CONNECTED, the paging attempt count is reset.

[0055] For paging optimization for UEs in RRC INACTIVE: at RAN paging, the serving NG-RAN node provides RAN paging area information. The serving NG-RANnode may also provide RAN paging atempt information. Each paged NG-RAN node receives the same RAN paging atempt information during a paging atempt with the following content: paging atempt count, an intended number of paging attempts, and a next paging area scope. The paging atempt count may be increased by one at each new paging atempt. The next paging area scope, when present, indicates whether the serving NG_RAN node plans to modify the RAN paging area currently selected at the next paging atempt. If the UE leaves the RRC_INACTIVE state, the paging attempt count is reset.

[0056] For UE power saving for paging monitoring: to reduce UE power consumption due to false paging alarms, a group of UEs monitoring the same PO may be divided into multiple subgroups. With subgrouping, a UE may monitor PDCCH in its PO for paging if the subgroup to which the UE belongs is paged as indicated via an associated permanent equipment identifier (PEI). If a UE cannot find its subgroup ID with the PEI configurations in a cell or if the UE is unable to monitor the associated PEI occasion corresponding to its PO, it may monitor the paging in its PO.

[0057] Subgroups may have the following characteristics: 1) they are formed based on either CN controlled subgrouping or UE ID based subgrouping; 2) if a CN controlled subgroup ID is not provided from an AMF, UE ID based subgrouping is used if supported by the UE and network; 3) a radio resource control (RRC) state (RRC IDLE or RRC INACTIVE state) does not impact which subgroup the UE belongs to; 4) subgrouping support for a cell is broadcast in system information as one of the following: only CN controlled subgrouping supported, only UE ID based subgrouping supported, or both CN controlled subgrouping and UE ID based subgrouping supported;5) a total number of subgroups allowed in a cell is up to 8 and represents the sum of CN controlled and UE ID based subgrouping configured by the network; and / or 6) a UE configured with CN controlled subgroup ID applies CN controlled subgroup ID if the cell supports CN controlled subgrouping; otherwise, it derives UE ID based subgroup ID if the cell supports only UE ID based subgrouping.

[0058] In various configurations, PEI associated with subgroups may have the following characteristics: 1) if the PEI is supported by the UE, it may at least support a UE ID based subgrouping method; a) PEI monitoring may be limited via system information to a last used cell (e.g., the cell in which the UE most recently receivedRRCRelease without indicating that the last used cell for PEI shall not be updated); b) a PEI-capable UE may store its last used cell information; c) gNBs supporting PEI monitoring for the last used cell function provide the UE's last used cell information to the AMF in the NG-access point (AP) UE context release complete message for PEI capable UEs; and / or d) a UE that expects a metropolitan beacon system (MBS) group notification may ignore the PEI and may monitor paging in its PO.

[0059] For CN controlled subgrouping, an AMF is responsible for assigning a subgroup ID to a UE. A total number of subgroups for CN controlled subgrouping may be configured (e.g., by operations and management (0AM) is up to 8). It may be assumed that CN controlled subgrouping support is homogeneous within a RAN based notification area (RNA).

[0060] Figure 7 illustrates an example of a procedure 700 for CN controlled subgrouping. The procedure 700 involves communications between a UE 702, a gNB 704, and an AMF 706.

[0061] At 708, the UE 702 indicates its support of CN controlled subgrouping via NAS signaling.

[0062] At 710, if the UE 702 supports CN controlled subgrouping, the AMF 706 determines a subgroup ID assignment for the UE.

[0063] At 712, the AMF 706 sends the subgroup ID to the UE 702 via NAS signaling.

[0064] At 714, the AMF 706 informs the gNB 704 about the CN assigned subgroup ID for paging the UE 702 in RRC IDLE or RRC INACTIVE state.

[0065] At 716, when the paging message for the UE 702 is received from the CN or is generated by the gNB 704, the gNB 704 determines the PO and the associated PEI occasion for the UE 702.

[0066] At 718, before the UE 702 is paged in the PO, the gNB 704 transmits the associated PEI and indicates the corresponding CN controlled subgroup of the UE 702 that is to be paged in the PEI.

[0067] For UE ID based subgrouping, a gNB and UE may determine a subgroup ID based on the UE ID and the total number of subgroups for UE ID based subgrouping inthe cell. The total number of subgroups for UE ID based subgrouping is decided by the gNB for each cell and may be different in different cells. Figure 8 describes the procedure for UE ID based subgrouping:

[0068] Specifically, Figure 8 illustrates an example of a procedure 800 for UE ID based subgrouping. The procedure 800 involves communications between a UE 802 and a gNB 804.

[0069] At 806, the gNB 804 determines the total number of subgroups for UE ID based subgrouping in a cell.

[0070] At 808, the gNB 804 broadcasts the total number of subgroups for UE ID based subgrouping in a cell.

[0071] At 810, the UE 802 determines its subgroup in a cell.

[0072] At 812, when paging message for the PEI capable UE is received from theCN at the gNB 804 or is generated by the gNB 804 , the gNB 804 determines the PO and the associated PEI occasion for the UE 802.

[0073] At 814, before the UE 802 is paged in the PO, the gNB 804 transmits the associated PEI and indicates the corresponding subgroup derived based on UE ID of the UE 802 that is paged in the PEI.

[0074] For outgoing (e.g., mobile originated) calls or messages, users are usually aware of outgoing communication and, therefore, the users may consciously attempt to choose a spot of good network radio coverage to initiate communication. However, for incoming service via NTN only, users may experience poor reception conditions and thus miss calls and messages, which may be especially detrimental for public safety or emergency purpose paging messages. These poor reception condition scenarios can happen when a UE is placed in pockets, backpacks, in vehicles, in boats, and so forth, or in conditions where there are clutter losses.

[0075] Some configurations may use shadow fading and clutter loss for suburban and rural scenarios. A non-line-of-sight (NLOS) due to clutter loss may be over 18 dB. With a line-of-sight (LOS) probability at 30 degrees elevation, about 10% of users in rural and 50% in urban scenarios may experience NLOS.

[0076] In various configurations, a definition of a UE specific notification and / or alert feature may be used to address missed paging messages for a UE in low signal-to- noise ratio (SNR) conditions (e.g., NLOS). The notification may be used to invite a user to move to a better SNR condition to set-up a call. Such features may be able to mitigate, to a maximum extent, additional loss compared to a link margin required in LOS conditions.

[0077] Described herein are various embodiments for the support of a robust notification and / or alert message and its delivery (including paging procedure impact) over downlink physical channels. While paging problems may be pronounced in NTN mainly, they can also occur in a terrestrial network. However, embodiments herein may be applicable for both TN and NTN.

[0078] In certain configurations, a network may use coverage enhancement techniques like repetitions to page a UE that is not responding to a normal page. This may lead to wastage of radio resources if it is unclear if the UE is in a particular cell and / or area.

[0079] In some configurations, a UE may get RRC connected from time to time and check whether the UE has been paged. This may not work since a user does not know when a UE is failing to establish the RRC connection without a user initiating a mobile originated (MO) call and, therefore, in poor (e.g., 18 db loss) coverage area the UE will remain unreachable. In addition, many attempts to establish an RRC connection may drain the UE battery.

[0080] Most UEs present in a cell are typically in an RRC IDLE and / or INACTIVE state and only a small percentage (e.g., less than say 5%) are RRC connected.Generally, the presence of an RRC IDLE and / or INACTIVE UE is not known to a radio network at a cell level. As a result, the network does not know which UE is in deteriorated downlink radio condition and, therefore, when a paging needs to be made. Paging may be performed based on a legacy paging policy and / or strategy. If for a time the UE does not send a response (e.g., send a paging response successfully) to a paging message (e.g., has not established RRC connection and transmitted its UE CN identity (ng-5G-S-TMSI-Value) in an RRC setup complete message including a dedicated NAS message, the network may start to perform enhanced paging transmissions to the UE.Different embodiments affecting the network’s paging strategy and realization of enhanced paging are possible.

[0081] In some embodiments of paging for 5G system (5GS) services, a network may initiate a paging procedure for 5GS services when NAS signaling messages or user data is pending to be sent to a UE in a 5G mobility management (5GMM) IDLE mode over 3GPP access and there is no paging restriction applied in the network forthat paging.

[0082] Figure 9 illustrates an example of a paging procedure 900. To initiate the procedure, the 5GMM entity in the AMF requests a lower layer to start paging and start a timer T3513. The network may stop timer T3513 for the paging procedure when an integrity-protected response is received from the UE and successfully integrity checked by the network or when the 5GMM entity in the AMF receives an indication from the lower layer that it has received the next generation application protocol (NGAP) UE context resume request message.

[0083] Upon expiry of the timer T3513, the network may reinitiate paging. If the network, while waiting for a response to the paging sent without paging priority, receives downlink signaling or downlink data associated with priority user-plane resources for protocol data unit (PDU) sessions, the network may stop timer T3513 and then initiate the paging procedure with paging priority.

[0084] In one embodiment, a content of an enhanced paging request message is defined. The content of a paging request message from an AMF to a gNB may be, in one example, as described herein. The content of the enhanced paging request message may be very similar to the paging request and may use delta signaling (e.g., include information elements (IES) having different values compared to the paging request message except at least for the UE paging identity). In addition, there may be an offset value - which is also signaled by the network to the UE using (e.g., in NAS signaling). The offset may be signaled dedicatedly to the UE in an RRC release message or in NAS communication. The offset may be a multiple of milliseconds, a slot, or a subframe number and may be calculated from the first (or last) PDCCH monitoring occasion of an adjoining legacy PO.

[0085] Paging messages are sent by an AMF and used to page a UE in one or several tracking areas. For example, Direction: AMF — NG-RAN node. Table 1illustrates examples of paging message content from an AMF to a RAN node. Table 2 includes a definition of term.Table 1 : Paging Message Content from an AMF to a RAN nodeTable 2

[0086] It should be noted that enhanced paging may be expensive from a network’s resource perspective and may consume radio resources like time-frequency resources, transmit power, hardware capacity, processing capacity, and so forth. Therefore, efforts may be made to minimize a number of occasions and / or UEs to which such special measures are made. Some examples that can be used as special measures to achieve the enhanced paging may include: repetition, modulation and coding scheme (MCS) adaptation, use of a different physical waveform, baseband and / or radio frequency (RF) processing, increasing spatial, time, and / or frequency diversity, reducing the system throughput (e.g., bits / Hz / second), and so forth. In one implementation, the enhanced paging is only performed for high level paging priorities (e.g., priority level 7 and 8 only and / or paging for high priority signaling or terminating calls). A UE may need to indicate its capability to monitor and respond to enhanced paging to the network and the network may store a UE’s enhanced paging capability alongside the UE’s identifications like serving temporary mobile subscriber identity (S-TMSI) or globally unique temporary identifier (GUI!) and enhanced page may be performed only for UEs capable of enhance paging. Some methods to improve the success rate of enhanced paging and thereby reducing the required resource may also be made as described herein.

[0087] In some embodiments, UEs monitors enhanced paging only when one or more of the following is satisfied: 1) the serving cell of the UE supports enhanced paging - the support can be explicitly broadcasted in a master information block (MIB) (e.g., physical broadcast channel (PBCH)), a system information block (SIB) 1 (SIB1) or in another SIB (e.g., as part of a neighbor list configuration) - or the support may be implicitly indicated by the presence of signaling of any other information required for the enhanced paging (e.g., in paging configuration for enhanced paging); 2) the serving cell is an NTN cell (e.g., as determined from the SIB1 and the IE cellBarredNTN is set to ‘barred’; 3) no paging DCI (e.g., using P-RNTI) has been received in legacy paging occasions over a last ‘n’ number of occasions where the ‘n’ is a configurable value; 4) the downlink (DL) quality of the current serving cell, or the best available radio cell is < threshold minimum - the quality of the current serving cell can be measured as DLreference signal received power (RSRP)Zreference signal received quality (RSRQ) of the synchronization signal block (SSB) reference signal (RS); 5) when there is no suitable cell available; and / or 6) when no detected cell fulfills cell selection criterion S:

[0088] The cell selection criterion S is fulfilled when:Srxlev > 0 AND Squal > 0

[0089] where:Srxlev = Qrxlevmeas - (Qrxlevmin + Qrxlevminoffset )- Pcompensation - QoffsettempSqual = Qqualmeas - (Qqualmin + Qqualminoffset) - Qoffsettemp

[0090] where the values are defined by Table 3.Table 3

[0091] The signaled values Qrxlevminoffset and Qqualminoffset are only applied when a cell is evaluated for cell selection as a result of a periodic search for a higher priority public land mobile network (PLMN) while camped normally in a visiting PLMN (VPLMN). During this periodic search for higher priority PLMN, the UE may check the S criteria of a cell using parameter values stored from a different cell of this higher priority PLMN.

[0092] The UE may use DRX in an RRC IDLE and / or RRC INACTIVE state to reduce power consumption. The UE monitors one PO per DRX cycle. A PO is a set of PDCCH monitoring occasions and may include multiple time slots (e.g., subframe or orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol) where paging DCI may be sent. One paging frame (PF) is one radio frame and may contain one or more POs or a starting point of a PO.

[0093] In various embodiments, enhanced paging is performed on new paging occasions (e.g., new paging frame and / or new PO), different from the paging occasionscalculated by a UE according to legacy paging (e.g., PF and i s calculation). The new paging occasions for enhanced paging are placed an offset away from legacy paging occasions and they may partially overlap each other. In an example implementation, the new paging occasions appear after the legacy paging occasions, allowing the UE to skip monitoring the enhanced paging if the UE received a paging in the immediately preceding legacy paging occasions. If the UE received a paging DCI (format 1 0) with cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by P-RNTI, the UE’s paging UE-Identity may or may not be present in the RRC paging message if the UE was able to receive PDSCH associated with the received paging DCI.

[0094] In certain embodiments, the new paging occasions do not need to appear for every legacy paging occasion but only once for ‘n’ legacy paging occasions as shown in Figure 10.

[0095] Figure 10 illustrates an example 1000 of legacy paging occasions and new paging occasions. New POs appear after every 3 legacy POs of UE A and 5 POs of UE B.

[0096] According to such embodiments, the UE does not need to monitor the new paging occasions so often and thereby save some battery, on the other hand if there will be a need to make the enhanced paging, in absence of UE’s response to normal and / or legacy pagings, the latency to reach UE may increase.

[0097] The offset between the legacy paging occasions and new paging occasions may be signaled by the network to the UE using broadcast signalling (e.g., in SIB1). The offset may also be signaled dedicatedly to the UE in an RRC release message or in a NAS communication. The offset may be a multiple of milliseconds, slots, or subframe numbers and may be calculated from the first (or last) PDCCH monitoring occasions of an adjoining legacy PO. Besides an offset value, the network may also configure parameters necessary for receiving the enhanced paging like: number of repetitions, MCS, control resource set (CORESET), physical resources that are designed to transmit PDCCH and / or DCI, and / or search space to receive enhanced paging DCI. A search space may be an area within a CORESET that the UE may monitor to detect a specific PDCCH and / or DCI. There may be two large categories of search space (SS) called common search space (CSS) and UE specific search space (USS). For enhanced paging, CSS may be configured using broadcast or dedicated RRC signaling, and the USS maybe configured using only dedicated RRC signaling. A new RNTI (e.g., P-RNTI-new) may be used for this purpose; else, it is also possible to continue to use P-RNTI as long as the signaling region for enhanced paging DCI does not overlap with the signaling region for paging DCI.

[0098] Certain embodiments may be used to reduce false alarms and to optimize use of network resources. In one embodiment, enhanced paging includes a new DCI only. This is used to alert the user. When a UE receives the new DCI it alerts the user using a user interface (UI) (e.g., using a combination of an alarm sound or haptics like vibration or something flashing on the UE, anything that draws user attention). In addition, a text might be popped up on the user screen requesting the user to move to a location in the open sky, for example. Upon receiving audible, visible, and / or haptic signal, the user may get the UE from a remote location like out of a pocket, a backpack and so forth and start to move to a better location (e.g., out of the building, out of a basement area, etc. and go to open areas), if possible. As the network may anticipate that it will take a finite time for the user to react to the UE alerts, once the new DCI is received, the network may repeat the new DCI (e.g., enhanced paging) only after allowing some time (e.g., 10 seconds) for the user to react, thereby saving network resources. It can during this time or at the end of this time start to page the UE in a legacy way (e.g., using legacy DCI and associated RRC Paging (in PDSCH)). If a response from the UE is received, all is well and then the paging may be stopped, otherwise the combination of enhanced paging and legacy paging may continue.

[0099] Figure 11 illustrates another example 1100 of legacy paging occasions and new paging occasions. In the example 1100, there may be a stepwise use of enhanced paging (e.g., DCI). One paging occasion may contain a burst (e.g., multiple) of new paging DCI.

[0100] Since a paging DCI does not contain UE identification (e.g., like 5G-S-TMSI or I-RNTI), it is likely that any UE monitoring the enhanced paging occasions will alert its user and the user may need to intervene and react (e.g., requiring physical movement). This may be inconvenient especially if it turns out that a certain user was actually not paged (but another one monitoring the same paging occasions), the UE realizes this only upon reception of an RRC paging message containing a paging record list. Efforts may be made to minimize such false alarms.

[0101] In one embodiment, the new paging DCI contains UE paging identification which could be 48 or 40 bits long (e.g., respectively for 5G-S-TMSI or I-RNTI). In addition, a one-bit Boolean flag may be included in the new DCI (e.g., “another-UE” flag). A UE whose paging identification is included may alert its user and the user may take further action and the UE may immediately proceed to transmit a paging response with or without a wait time for user intervention. Generally, the uplink (UL) radio conditions may be better after user intervention (e.g., leading to physical movement and / or fetching the phone to better radio geometry).

[0102] Other UEs monitoring the same enhanced paging occasion, upon determining that their paging identification is not included, may react as following: 1) when the another-UE flag is SET, the other UE continues to monitor the enhanced paging occasion in the current burst; and 2) when the another-UE flag is not SET, the other UE stops monitoring the enhanced paging occasion in the current burst.

[0103] In one implementation, instead of including just one UE paging identification, the network includes multiple UE paging identifications, if more than one UE is to have enhanced paged in the same occasion. In an example, if two UEs with the same enhanced paging occasion are to be paged, instead of 48 or 40 bits, 24 or 20 bits (e.g., least significant bits (LSBs)) are included. To this end, the number of UEs being paged, and ID type (e.g., 5G-S-TMSI or I-RNTI) can also be included in new DCI signaling. A UE sends a paging response only after the user intervention and / or after receiving legacy RRC paging (e.g., PDSCH) and verifying that its paging identity is included. This variation may have slightly higher false alarm rate and therefore may unnecessary require the user to intervene since any UE whose 24 or 20 LSB bits match will alert the user, but it may save costly network resources. It is likely that enhanced DCI may not be able to carry so many bits (e.g., 48 UE identification + one another-UE bit + some other to signal number of UEs being paged, and ID type included) but only limited bits for UE identification. The new DCI signalling and UE behaviour for partial UE identification example disclosed herein may apply.

[0104] In another embodiment, a new DCI is used with a new PDSCH. This requires that special measures apply not only to the new DCI, but also to the PDSCH transmission, requiring much higher use of network resources. Since a UE may successfully receive the PDSCH with higher probability, a user is alerted only if the UEhas actually been paged. The enhanced paging may be done in a stepwise manner to allow time for user intervention to see if a paging response is sent by the UE and repeating the enhanced paging only if necessary.

[0105] In one implementation, the response transmission may use immediate UL transmission (e.g., a common reserved SRS, a physical random access channel (PRACH) etc.) to let the network stop the new DCI and / or new physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission as soon as possible. Once the user has intervened, the UL situation improves and a service request, after RRC connection establishment, may be sent smoothly. So, the network may wait for some time after receiving the immediate UL transmission from the UE. The resources for a common reserved SRS, a PRACH preamble, time-frequency resources and so forth may be configured using RRC signaling such as broadcast signaling.

[0106] figure 12 illustrates an example of a UE 1200 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The UE 1200 may include a processor 1202, a memory 1204, a controller 1206, and a transceiver 1208. The processor 1202, the memory 1204, the controller 1206, or the transceiver 1208, or various combinations thereof or various components thereof may be examples of means for performing various aspects of the present disclosure as described herein. These components may be coupled (e.g., operatively, communicatively, functionally, electronically, electrically) via one or more interfaces.

[0107] The processor 1202, the memory 1204, the controller 1206, or the transceiver 1208, or various combinations or components thereof may be implemented in hardware (e.g., circuitry). The hardware may include a processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or other programmable logic device, or any combination thereof configured as or otherwise supporting a means for performing the functions described in the present disclosure.

[0108] The processor 1202 may include an intelligent hardware device (e.g., a general-purpose processor, a DSP, a CPU, an ASIC, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or any combination thereof). In some implementations, the processor 1202 may be configured to operate the memory 1204. In some other implementations, the memory 1204 may be integrated into the processor 1202. The processor 1202 may beconfigured to execute computer-readable instructions stored in the memory 1204 to cause the UE 1200 to perform various functions of the present disclosure.

[0109] The memory 1204 may include volatile or non-volatile memory. The memory 1204 may store computer-readable, computer-executable code including instructions when executed by the processor 1202 cause the UE 1200 to perform various functions described herein. The code may be stored in a non-transitory computer- readable medium such the memory 1204 or another type of memory. Computer- readable media includes both non-transitory computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A non-transitory storage medium may be any available medium that may be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer.

[0110] In some implementations, the processor 1202 and the memory 1204 coupled with the processor 1202 may be configured to cause the UE 1200 to perform one or more of the functions described herein (e.g., executing, by the processor 1202, instructions stored in the memory 1204). For example, the processor 1202 may support wireless communication at the UE 1200 in accordance with examples as disclosed herein.

[0111] The controller 1206 may manage input and output signals for the UE 1200. The controller 1206 may also manage peripherals not integrated into the UE 1200. In some implementations, the controller 1206 may utilize an operating system such as iOS®, ANDROID®, WINDOWS®, or other operating systems. In some implementations, the controller 1206 may be implemented as part of the processor 1202.

[0112] In some implementations, the UE 1200 may include at least one transceiver 1208. In some other implementations, the UE 1200 may have more than one transceiver 1208. The transceiver 1208 may represent a wireless transceiver. The transceiver 1208 may include one or more receiver chains 1210, one or more transmitter chains 1212, or a combination thereof.

[0113] A receiver chain 1210 may be configured to receive signals (e.g., control information, data, packets) over a wireless medium. For example, the receiver chain 1210 may include one or more antennas for receive the signal over the air or wireless medium. The receiver chain 1210 may include at least one amplifier (e.g., a low-noiseamplifier (LNA)) configured to amplify the received signal. The receiver chain 1210 may include at least one demodulator configured to demodulate the receive signal and obtain the transmitted data by reversing the modulation technique applied during transmission of the signal. The receiver chain 1210 may include at least one decoder for decoding the processing the demodulated signal to receive the transmitted data.

[0114] A transmitter chain 1212 may be configured to generate and transmit signals (e.g., control information, data, packets). The transmitter chain 1212 may include at least one modulator for modulating data onto a carrier signal, preparing the signal for transmission over a wireless medium. The at least one modulator may be configured to support one or more techniques such as amplitude modulation (AM), frequency modulation (FM), or digital modulation schemes like phase-shift keying (PSK) or quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). The transmitter chain 1212 may also include at least one power amplifier configured to amplify the modulated signal to an appropriate power level suitable for transmission over the wireless medium. The transmitter chain 1212 may also include one or more antennas for transmitting the amplified signal into the air or wireless medium.

[0115] Figure 13 illustrates an example of a processor 1300 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The processor 1300 may be an example of a processor configured to perform various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. The processor 1300 may include a controller 1302 configured to perform various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. The processor 1300 may optionally include at least one memory 1304, which may be, for example, an L1 / L2 / L3 cache. Additionally, or alternatively, the processor 1300 may optionally include one or more arithmetic -logic units (ALUs) 1306. One or more of these components may be in electronic communication or otherwise coupled (e.g., operatively, communicatively, functionally, electronically, electrically) via one or more interfaces (e.g., buses).

[0116] The processor 1300 may be a processor chipset and include a protocol stack (e.g., a software stack) executed by the processor chipset to perform various operations (e.g., receiving, obtaining, retrieving, transmitting, outputting, forwarding, storing, determining, identifying, accessing, writing, reading) in accordance with examples as described herein. The processor chipset may include one or more cores, one or more caches (e.g., memory local to or included in the processor chipset (e.g., the processor1300) or other memory (e.g., random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), static RAM (SRAM), ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM), magnetic RAM (MRAM), resistive RAM (RRAM), flash memory, phase change memory (PCM), and others).

[0117] The controller 1302 may be configured to manage and coordinate various operations (e.g., signaling, receiving, obtaining, retrieving, transmitting, outputting, forwarding, storing, determining, identifying, accessing, writing, reading) of the processor 1300 to cause the processor 1300 to support various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. For example, the controller 1302 may operate as a control unit of the processor 1300, generating control signals that manage the operation of various components of the processor 1300. These control signals include enabling or disabling functional units, selecting data paths, initiating memory access, and coordinating timing of operations.

[0118] The controller 1302 may be configured to fetch (e.g., obtain, retrieve, receive) instructions from the memory 1304 and determine subsequent instruction(s) to be executed to cause the processor 1300 to support various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. The controller 1302 may be configured to track memory address of instructions associated with the memory 1304. The controller 1302 may be configured to decode instructions to determine the operation to be performed and the operands involved. For example, the controller 1302 may be configured to interpret the instruction and determine control signals to be output to other components of the processor 1300 to cause the processor 1300 to support various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. Additionally, or alternatively, the controller 1302 may be configured to manage flow of data within the processor 1300. The controller 1302 may be configured to control transfer of data between registers, arithmetic logic units (ALUs), and other functional units of the processor 1300.

[0119] The memory 1304 may include one or more caches (e.g., memory local to or included in the processor 1300 or other memory, such RAM, ROM, DRAM, SDRAM, SRAM, MRAM, flash memory, etc. In some implementations, the memory 1304 may reside within or on a processor chipset (e.g., local to the processor 1300). In some other implementations, the memory 1304 may reside external to the processor chipset (e.g., remote to the processor 1300).

[0120] The memory 1304 may store computer-readable, computer-executable code including instructions that, when executed by the processor 1300, cause the processor 1300 to perform various functions described herein. The code may be stored in a non- transitory computer-readable medium such as system memory or another type of memory. The controller 1302 and / or the processor 1300 may be configured to execute computer-readable instructions stored in the memory 1304 to cause the processor 1300 to perform various functions. For example, the processor 1300 and / or the controller 1302 may be coupled with or to the memory 1304, the processor 1300, the controller 1302, and the memory 1304 may be configured to perform various functions described herein. In some examples, the processor 1300 may include multiple processors and the memory 1304 may include multiple memories. One or more of the multiple processors may be coupled with one or more of the multiple memories, which may, individually or collectively, be configured to perform various functions herein.

[0121] The one or more ALUs 1306 may be configured to support various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, the one or more ALUs 1306 may reside within or on a processor chipset (e.g., the processor 1300). In some other implementations, the one or more ALUs 1306 may reside external to the processor chipset (e.g., the processor 1300). One or more ALUs 1306 may perform one or more computations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division on data. For example, one or more ALUs 1306 may receive input operands and an operation code, which determines an operation to be executed. One or more ALUs 1306 be configured with a variety of logical and arithmetic circuits, including adders, subtractors, shifters, and logic gates, to process and manipulate the data according to the operation. Additionally, or alternatively, the one or more ALUs 1306 may support logical operations such as AND, OR, exclusive-OR (XOR), not-OR (NOR), and not- AND (NAND), enabling the one or more ALUs 1306 to handle conditional operations, comparisons, and bitwise operations.

[0122] The processor 1300 may support wireless communication in accordance with examples as disclosed herein. The processor 1300 may be configured to or operable to support a means for: monitoring for paging in a set of standard paging occasions; determining whether the paging is received in the set of standard paging occasions; determining whether a downlink radio quality of a current serving cell is less than a threshold value; and, in response to determining that the paging is not received in the setof standard paging occasions and that the downlink radio quality of the current serving cell is less than the threshold value, monitoring for paging DCI in a set of enhanced paging occasions.

[0123] Figure 14 illustrates an example of a NE 1400 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The NE 1400 may include a processor 1402, a memory 1404, a controller 1406, and a transceiver 1408. The processor 1402, the memory 1404, the controller 1406, or the transceiver 1408, or various combinations thereof or various components thereof may be examples of means for performing various aspects of the present disclosure as described herein. These components may be coupled (e.g., operatively, communicatively, functionally, electronically, electrically) via one or more interfaces.

[0124] The processor 1402, the memory 1404, the controller 1406, or the transceiver 1408, or various combinations or components thereof may be implemented in hardware (e.g., circuitry). The hardware may include a processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or other programmable logic device, or any combination thereof configured as or otherwise supporting a means for performing the functions described in the present disclosure.

[0125] The processor 1402 may include an intelligent hardware device (e.g., a general-purpose processor, a DSP, a CPU, an ASIC, an FPGA, or any combination thereof). In some implementations, the processor 1402 may be configured to operate the memory 1404. In some other implementations, the memory 1404 may be integrated into the processor 1402. The processor 1402 may be configured to execute computer- readable instructions stored in the memory 1404 to cause the NE 1400 to perform various functions of the present disclosure.

[0126] The memory 1404 may include volatile or non-volatile memory. The memory 1404 may store computer-readable, computer-executable code including instructions when executed by the processor 1402 cause the NE 1400 to perform various functions described herein. The code may be stored in a non-transitory computer- readable medium such the memory 1404 or another type of memory. Computer- readable media includes both non-transitory computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A non-transitory storage medium may be anyavailable medium that may be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer.

[0127] In some implementations, the processor 1402 and the memory 1404 coupled with the processor 1402 may be configured to cause the NE 1400 to perform one or more of the functions described herein (e.g., executing, by the processor 1402, instructions stored in the memory 1404). For example, the processor 1402 may support wireless communication at the NE 1400 in accordance with examples as disclosed herein.

[0128] The controller 1406 may manage input and output signals for the NE 1400. The controller 1406 may also manage peripherals not integrated into the NE 1400. In some implementations, the controller 1406 may utilize an operating system such as iOS®, ANDROID®, WINDOWS®, or other operating systems. In some implementations, the controller 1406 may be implemented as part of the processor 1402.

[0129] In some implementations, the NE 1400 may include at least one transceiver 1408. In some other implementations, the NE 1400 may have more than one transceiver 1408. The transceiver 1408 may represent a wireless transceiver. The transceiver 1408 may include one or more receiver chains 1410, one or more transmitter chains 1412, or a combination thereof.

[0130] A receiver chain 1410 may be configured to receive signals (e.g., control information, data, packets) over a wireless medium. For example, the receiver chain 1410 may include one or more antennas for receive the signal over the air or wireless medium. The receiver chain 1410 may include at least one amplifier (e.g., a low-noise amplifier (LNA)) configured to amplify the received signal. The receiver chain 1410 may include at least one demodulator configured to demodulate the receive signal and obtain the transmitted data by reversing the modulation technique applied during transmission of the signal. The receiver chain 1410 may include at least one decoder for decoding the processing the demodulated signal to receive the transmitted data.

[0131] A transmitter chain 1412 may be configured to generate and transmit signals (e.g., control information, data, packets). The transmitter chain 1412 may include at least one modulator for modulating data onto a carrier signal, preparing the signal for transmission over a wireless medium. The at least one modulator may be configured to support one or more techniques such as amplitude modulation (AM), frequencymodulation (FM), or digital modulation schemes like phase-shift keying (PSK) or quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). The transmitter chain 1412 may also include at least one power amplifier configured to amplify the modulated signal to an appropriate power level suitable for transmission over the wireless medium. The transmitter chain 1412 may also include one or more antennas for transmitting the amplified signal into the air or wireless medium.

[0132] Figure 15 illustrates a flowchart of a method 1500 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of the method 1500 may be implemented by a UE as described herein. In some implementations, a UE 1200 may execute a set of instructions to control the function elements of a processor to perform the described functions.

[0133] At 1502, the method may include monitoring for paging in a set of standard paging occasions. The operations of 1502 may be performed in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of 1502 may be performed by a UE as described with reference to Figure 12.

[0134] At 1504, the method may include determining whether the paging is received in the set of standard paging occasions. It should be noted that determining whether the paging is received in the standard paging occasions includes determining whether the paging is received for a certain period of time or a certain number of occasions, such as, 1 minute, 10 minutes, 1 hour, 10 hour, 100 DRX cycles, 1000 DRX cycles, and so forth. The operations of 1504 may be performed in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of 1504 may be performed by a UE as described with reference to Figure 12.

[0135] At 1506, the method may include determining whether a downlink radio quality of a current serving cell is less than a threshold value. The operations of 1506 may be performed in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of 1506 may be performed by a UE as described with reference to Figure 12.

[0136] At 1508, the method may include, in response to determining that the paging is not received in the set of standard paging occasions and that the downlink radio quality of the current serving cell is less than the threshold value, monitoring for paging DCI in a set of enhanced paging occasions. The operations of 1508 may be performed inaccordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of 1508 may be performed by a UE as described with reference to Figure 12.

[0137] Figure 16 illustrates a flowchart of a method 1600 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of the method 1600 may be implemented by a NE as described herein. In some implementations, aNE 1400 may execute a set of instructions to control the function elements of a processor to perform the described functions.

[0138] At 1602, the method may include transmitting paging to a UE in a set of standard paging occasions. The operations of 1602 may be performed in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of 1602 may be performed by a NE as described with reference to Figure 14.

[0139] At 1604, the method may include determining whether a paging response to the paging transmission is received. The operations of 1604 may be performed in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of 1604 may be performed by a NE as described with reference to Figure 14.

[0140] At 1606, the method may include, in response to determining that a paging response is not received, transmitting paging DCI in a set of enhanced paging occasions. The operations of 1606 may be performed in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of 1606 may be performed by a NE as described with reference to Figure 14.

[0141] At 1608, the method may include waiting for a period of time after transmitting the paging DCI. The operations of 1608 may be performed in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of 1608 may be performed by a NE as described with reference to Figure 14.

[0142] At 1610, the method may include, after waiting for the period of time, transmitting the paging to the UE again in the set of standard paging occasions and transmitting the paging DCI in the set of enhanced paging occasions until the paging response is received from the UE or until a time period has elapsed. The operations of 1610 may be performed in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of 1610 may be performed by a NE as described with reference to Figure 14.

[0143] It should be noted that the methods described herein describe possible implementations, and that the operations and the steps may be rearranged or otherwise modified and that other implementations are possible.

[0144] The description herein is provided to enable a person having ordinary skill in the art to make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosure will be apparent to a person having ordinary skill in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is not limited to the examples and designs described herein but is to be accorded the broadest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:1 . A user equipment (UE), comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE to: monitor for paging in a set of standard paging occasions; determine whether the paging is received in the set of standard paging occasions; determine whether a downlink radio quality of a current serving cell is less than a threshold value; and in response to determining that the paging is not received in the set of standard paging occasions and that the downlink radio quality of the current serving cell is less than the threshold value, monitor for paging downlink control information (DCI) in a set of enhanced paging occasions.

2. The UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to receive the paging DCI in the set of enhanced paging occasions.

3. The UE of claim 2, wherein the paging DCI comprises a UE paging identity and a UE flag.

4. The UE of claim 2, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to determine whether a UE paging identity is included in the paging DCI.

5. The UE of claim 4, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to, in response to determining that the UE paging identity is included in the paging DCI, alert a user using haptic, audible, and / or visible signals and attempt to receive the paging in the set of standard paging occasions.

6. The UE of claim 4, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to, in response to determining that the UE paging identity is not included inthe paging DCI and that a UE flag is set, continue to monitor for the paging DCI in the set of enhanced paging occasions.

7. The UE of claim 1, wherein each enhanced paging occasion in the set of enhanced paging occasions is offset from a corresponding standard paging occasion in the set of standard paging occasions.

8. The UE of claim 1, wherein the paging DCI is received after aggregating a plurality of transmission repetitions over a search space and control resource set (CORESET) configured for the paging DCI.

9. A processor for wireless communication, comprising: at least one controller coupled with at least one memory and configured to cause the processor to: monitor for paging in a set of standard paging occasions; determine whether the paging is received in the set of standard paging occasions; determine whether a downlink radio quality of a current serving cell is less than a threshold value; and in response to determining that the paging is not received in the set of standard paging occasions and that the downlink radio quality of the current serving cell is less than the threshold value, monitor for paging downlink control information (DCI) in a set of enhanced paging occasions.

10. The processor of claim 9, wherein the at least one controller is configured to cause the processor to receive the paging DCI in the set of enhanced paging occasions.

11. The processor of claim 10, wherein the paging DCI comprises a UE paging identity and a UE flag.

12. The processor of claim 10, wherein the at least one controller is configured to cause the processor to determine whether a UE paging identity is included in the paging DCI.

13. The processor of claim 12, wherein the at least one controller is configured to cause the processor to, in response to determining that the UE paging identity is included in the paging DCI, alert a user using haptic, audible, and / or visible signals and attempt to receive the paging in the set of standard paging occasions.

14. The processor of claim 12, wherein the at least one controller is configured to cause the processor to, in response to determining that the UE paging identity is not included in the paging DCI and that a UE flag is set, continue to monitor for the paging DCI in the set of enhanced paging occasions.

15. The processor of claim 9, wherein each enhanced paging occasion in the set of enhanced paging occasions is offset from a corresponding standard paging occasion in the set of standard paging occasions.

16. A method performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: monitoring for paging in a set of standard paging occasions; determining whether the paging is received in the set of standard paging occasions; determining whether a downlink radio quality of a current serving cell is less than a threshold value; and in response to determining that the paging is not received in the set of standard paging occasions and that the downlink radio quality of the current serving cell is less than the threshold value, monitoring for paging downlink control information (DCI) in a set of enhanced paging occasions.

17. A base station, comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the base station to: transmit paging to a user equipment (UE) in a set of standard paging occasions; determine whether a paging response to the paging transmission is received;in response to determining that a paging response is not received, transmit paging downlink control information (DCI) in a set of enhanced paging occasions; wait for a period of time after transmitting the paging DCI; and after waiting for the period of time, transmit the paging to the UE again in the set of standard paging occasions and transmitting the paging DCI in the set of enhanced paging occasions until the paging response is received from the UE or until a time period has elapsed.

18. The base station of claim 17, wherein the paging DCI comprises a UE paging identity and a UE flag.

19. The base station of claim 17, wherein each enhanced paging occasion in the set of enhanced paging occasions is offset from a corresponding standard paging occasion in the set of standard paging occasions.

20. The base station of claim 17, wherein the paging DCI is transmitted with repetitions over a search space and control resource set (CORESET) configured for the paging DCI.

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