Methods for WTRU-controlled UL power determinations in wireless systems

Abstract

A wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU) with a processor may be configured to send an indication that the WTRU has a pathloss prediction capability to a network. The WTRU may receive, from the network, configuration information associated with pathloss prediction. The WTRU may determine a measured pathloss value associated with a first time instance and predict a pathloss value associated with a future time instance. The WTRU may determine whether to use the measured pathloss value or the predicted pathloss value for an uplink transmission and send an indication to the network.

Description

METHODS FOR WTRU-CONTROLLED UL POWER DETERMINATIONS IN WIRELESS SYSTEMSCROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of United States Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 613,629 filed on December 21 , 2023, and to United States Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 614,173 filed on December 22, 2023, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.BACKGROUND

[0002] A Wireless Transmitter / Receiver Unit (WTRU) can perform a multitude of measurements. These measurements can be a valuable dataset that can be leveraged for predictive capabilities, especially in the context of supervised learning. Its usage is, however, not limited to that. Statistical properties can be retrieved from the measurement data, which can help create insights, predicting certain target metrics, etc.

[0003] The WTRU or the network (NW) can predict a target metric. There is an assumption that it is the WTRU executing prediction on measurements, but nothing precludes that the NW can execute them and deliver them to the WTRU. In this case, the predicted values can be sent to the WTRU and the WTRU can either validate them by comparing current measurement values. The WTRU may also, upon reception of a predicted value, execute its own predictions and validate the values predicted by the NW if, e.g., WTRU predicted values do not differ from the NW predicted values by a certain amount, amount which could also be configured by the NW.SUMMARY

[0004] A wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU) with a processor may be configured to send, to a network, an indication that the WTRU has a pathloss prediction capability. The WTRU may receive, from the network, configuration information associated with pathloss prediction. The WTRU may determine a measured pathloss value associated with a first time instance. The WTRU may further predict a pathloss value associated with a future time instance.

[0005] The WTRU may determine whether to use the measured pathloss value or the predicted pathloss value for an uplink transmission based on the measured pathloss value and the predicted pathloss value (e.g., based on a comparison of the measured pathloss value and the predicted pathloss value). The WTRU may further send, to the network, an indication thatindicates whether the measured pathloss value or the predicted pathloss value is used to send the uplink transmission.

[0006] In one embodiment, the configuration information may include a prediction duration, and the WTRU may be configured to predict whether pathloss is stable or unstable for the prediction duration based on the predicted pathloss value.

[0007] In an example, the WTRU may determine to use the predicted pathloss value for the uplink transmission when the pathloss is predicted to be stable for the prediction duration and determine to use the measured pathloss value when the pathloss is predicted to be unstable for the prediction duration. The WTRU may determine that the pathloss is stable for the prediction duration when a plurality of predicted pathloss values over the duration do not vary by more than a variance threshold.

[0008] In another example, the determination of whether to use the measured pathloss value or the predicted pathloss value may be based on reference signal received power (RSRP) measurements, predicted RSRP values, a duration of a predicted period of stability or instability of RSRP measurements, timing of the uplink transmission, or timing of received reference signals (RSs) associated with the RSRP measurements. The WTRU may determine a transmit power for the uplink transmission based on the predicted pathloss value. The WTRU may transmit the uplink transmission using the transmit power that is determined based on the predicted pathloss value. In one example, the transmit power for the uplink transmission may be determined without transmit power control (TPC) commands associated with the uplink transmission.

[0009] The configuration information may include triggering conditions of the pathloss prediction, a model identifier, a model output type, or a threshold that indicates confidence of the pathloss prediction. The model output type may include a one time prediction, a time series, or a classification of pathloss levels.

[0010] The configuration information may include a prediction duration. The indication may include an indication of a duration for which predicted pathloss values are determined to be valid, a prediction confidence value associated with the predicted pathloss value, a maximum predicted pathloss value during the prediction duration, or a minimum predicted pathloss value during the prediction duration. The indication may be sent via an uplink control information (UCI), a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or a radio resource control (RRC)..BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011] FIG. 1A is a system diagram illustrating an example communications system in which one or more disclosed embodiments may be implemented.

[0012] FIG. 1 B is a system diagram illustrating an example wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU) that may be used within the communications system illustrated in FIG. 1A according to an embodiment.

[0013] FIG. 1C is a system diagram illustrating an example radio access network (RAN) and an example core network (CN) that may be used within the communications system illustrated in FIG. 1A according to an embodiment.

[0014] FIG. 1 D is a system diagram illustrating a further example RAN and a further example CN that may be used within the communications system illustrated in FIG. 1A according to an embodiment.

[0015] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of the time series prediction for Pathloss (PL).

[0016] FIG. 3 is an example of Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) and Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) measured over time from a test WTRU connected to a live network (NW).

[0017] FIG. 4 illustrates an example of model accuracy results on a model that predicts uplink (UL) transmit (Tx) power.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0018] FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating an example communications system 100 in which one or more disclosed embodiments may be implemented. The communications system 100 may be a multiple access system that provides content, such as voice, data, video, messaging, broadcast, etc., to multiple wireless users. The communications system 100 may enable multiple wireless users to access such content through the sharing of system resources, including wireless bandwidth. For example, the communications systems 100 may employ one or more channel access methods, such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), zero-tail unique-word DFT-Spread OFDM (ZT UW DTS-s OFDM), unique word OFDM (UW-OFDM), resource block-filtered OFDM, filter bank multicarrier (FBMC), and the like.

[0019] As shown in FIG. 1A, the communications system 100 may include wireless transmit / receive units (WTRUs) 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, a RAN 104 / 113, a CN 106 / 115, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 108, the Internet 110, and other networks 112, though it will be appreciated that the disclosed embodiments contemplate any number ofWTRUs, base stations, networks, and / or network elements. Each of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d may be any type of device configured to operate and / or communicate in a wireless environment. By way of example, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, any of which may be referred to as a “station” and / or a “STA”, may be configured to transmit and / or receive wireless signals and may include a user equipment (UE), a mobile station, a fixed or mobile subscriber unit, a subscription-based unit, a pager, a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smartphone, a laptop, a netbook, a personal computer, a wireless sensor, a hotspot or Mi-Fi device, an Internet of Things (loT) device, a watch or other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD), a vehicle, a drone, a medical device and applications (e.g., remote surgery), an industrial device and applications (e.g., a robot and / or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and / or an automated processing chain contexts), a consumer electronics device, a device operating on commercial and / or industrial wireless networks, and the like. Any of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and 102d may be interchangeably referred to as a WTRU.

[0020] The communications systems 100 may also include a base station 114a and / or a base station 114b. Each of the base stations 114a, 114b may be any type of device configured to wirelessly interface with at least one of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d to facilitate access to one or more communication networks, such as the CN 106 / 115, the Internet 110, and / or the other networks 112. By way of example, the base stations 114a, 114b may be a base transceiver station (BTS), a Node-B, an eNode B, a Home Node B, a Home eNode B, a gNB, a NR NodeB, a site controller, an access point (AP), a wireless router, and the like. While the base stations 114a, 114b are each depicted as a single element, it will be appreciated that the base stations 114a, 114b may include any number of interconnected base stations and / or network elements.

[0021] The base station 114a may be part of the RAN 104 / 113, which may also include other base stations and / or network elements (not shown), such as a base station controller (BSC), a radio network controller (RNC), relay nodes, etc. The base station 114a and / or the base station 114b may be configured to transmit and / or receive wireless signals on one or more carrier frequencies, which may be referred to as a cell (not shown). These frequencies may be in licensed spectrum, unlicensed spectrum, or a combination of licensed and unlicensed spectrum. A cell may provide coverage for a wireless service to a specific geographical area that may be relatively fixed or that may change over time. The cell may further be divided into cell sectors. For example, the cell associated with the base station 114a may be divided into three sectors. Thus, in one embodiment, the base station 114a may include three transceivers, e.g., one for each sector of the cell. In an embodiment, the base station 114a may employ multiple-inputmultiple output (MIMO) technology and may utilize multiple transceivers for each sector of the cell. For example, beamforming may be used to transmit and / or receive signals in desired spatial directions.

[0022] The base stations 114a, 114b may communicate with one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d over an air interface 116, which may be any suitable wireless communication link (e.g., radio frequency (RF), microwave, centimeter wave, micrometer wave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), visible light, etc.). The air interface 116 may be established using any suitable radio access technology (RAT).

[0023] More specifically, as noted above, the communications system 100 may be a multiple access system and may employ one or more channel access schemes, such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, and the like. For example, the base station 114a in the RAN 104 / 113 and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), which may establish the air interface 115 / 116 / 117 using wideband CDMA (WCDMA). WCDMA may include communication protocols such as High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and / or Evolved HSPA (HSPA+). HSPA may include High-Speed Downlink (DL) Packet Access (HSDPA) and / or High-Speed UL Packet Access (HSUPA).

[0024] In an embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA), which may establish the air interface 116 using Long Term Evolution (LTE) and / or LTE- Advanced (LTE-A) and / or LTE-Advanced Pro (LTE-A Pro).

[0025] In an embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as NR Radio Access , which may establish the air interface 116 using New Radio (NR).

[0026] In an embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement multiple radio access technologies. For example, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement LTE radio access and NR radio access together, for instance using dual connectivity (DC) principles. Thus, the air interface utilized by WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may be characterized by multiple types of radio access technologies and / or transmissions sent to / from multiple types of base stations (e.g., a eNB and a gNB).

[0027] In other embodiments, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement radio technologies such as IEEE 802.11 (i.e., Wireless Fidelity (WiFi), IEEE 802.16 (i.e. , Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)), CDMA2000, CDMA2000 1X, CDMA2000 EV-DO, Interim Standard 2000 (IS-2000), Interim Standard 95 (IS-95), InterimStandard 856 (IS-856), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE (GERAN), and the like.

[0028] The base station 114b in FIG. 1 A may be a wireless router, Home Node B, Home eNode B, or access point, for example, and may utilize any suitable RAT for facilitating wireless connectivity in a localized area, such as a place of business, a home, a vehicle, a campus, an industrial facility, an air corridor (e.g., for use by drones), a roadway, and the like. In one embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.11 to establish a wireless local area network (WLAN). In an embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.15 to establish a wireless personal area network (WPAN). In yet another embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may utilize a cellularbased RAT (e.g., WCDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, LTE, LTE-A, LTE-A Pro, NR etc.) to establish a picocell or femtocell. As shown in FIG. 1A, the base station 114b may have a direct connection to the Internet 110. Thus, the base station 114b may not be required to access the Internet 110 via the CN 106 / 115.

[0029] The RAN 104 / 113 may be in communication with the CN 106 / 115, which may be any type of network configured to provide voice, data, applications, and / or voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services to one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d. The data may have varying quality of service (QoS) requirements, such as differing throughput requirements, latency requirements, error tolerance requirements, reliability requirements, data throughput requirements, mobility requirements, and the like. The CN 106 / 115 may provide call control, billing services, mobile location-based services, pre-paid calling, Internet connectivity, video distribution, etc., and / or perform high-level security functions, such as user authentication. Although not shown in FIG. 1A, it will be appreciated that the RAN 104 / 113 and / or the CN 106 / 115 may be in direct or indirect communication with other RANs that employ the same RAT as the RAN 104 / 113 or a different RAT. For example, in addition to being connected to the RAN 104 / 113, which may be utilizing a NR radio technology, the CN 106 / 115 may also be in communication with another RAN (not shown) employing a GSM, UMTS, CDMA 2000, WiMAX, E-UTRA, or WiFi radio technology.

[0030] The CN 106 / 115 may also serve as a gateway for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d to access the PSTN 108, the Internet 110, and / or the other networks 112. The PSTN 108 may include circuit-switched telephone networks that provide plain old telephone service (POTS). The Internet 110 may include a global system of interconnected computer networks and devices that use common communication protocols, such as the transmission control protocol (TCP),user datagram protocol (UDP) and / or the internet protocol (IP) in the TCP / IP internet protocol suite. The networks 112 may include wired and / or wireless communications networks owned and / or operated by other service providers. For example, the networks 112 may include another CN connected to one or more RANs, which may employ the same RAT as the RAN 104 / 113 or a different RAT.

[0031] Some or all of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d in the communications system 100 may include multi-mode capabilities (e.g., the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d may include multiple transceivers for communicating with different wireless networks over different wireless links). For example, the WTRU 102c shown in FIG. 1A may be configured to communicate with the base station 114a, which may employ a cellular-based radio technology, and with the base station 114b, which may employ an IEEE 802 radio technology.

[0032] FIG. 1 B is a system diagram illustrating an example WTRU 102. As shown in FIG. 1 B, the WTRU 102 may include a processor 118, a transceiver 120, a transmit / receive element 122, a speaker / microphone 124, a keypad 126, a display / touchpad 128, non-removable memory 130, removable memory 132, a power source 134, a global positioning system (GPS) chipset 136, and / or other peripherals 138, among others. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may include any sub-combination of the foregoing elements while remaining consistent with an embodiment.

[0033] The processor 118 may be a general purpose processor, a special purpose processor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in association with a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) circuits, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), a state machine, and the like. The processor 118 may perform signal coding, data processing, power control, input / output processing, and / or any other functionality that enables the WTRU 102 to operate in a wireless environment. The processor 118 may be coupled to the transceiver 120, which may be coupled to the transmit / receive element 122. While FIG. 1 B depicts the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 as separate components, it will be appreciated that the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 may be integrated together in an electronic package or chip.

[0034] The transmit / receive element 122 may be configured to transmit signals to, or receive signals from, a base station (e.g., the base station 114a) over the air interface 116. For example, in one embodiment, the transmit / receive element 122 may be an antenna configured to transmit and / or receive RF signals. In an embodiment, the transmit / receive element 122 may be an emitter / detector configured to transmit and / or receive IR, UV, or visible light signals, forexample. In yet another embodiment, the transmit / receive element 122 may be configured to transmit and / or receive both RF and light signals. It will be appreciated that the transmit / receive element 122 may be configured to transmit and / or receive any combination of wireless signals.

[0035] Although the transmit / receive element 122 is depicted in FIG. 1B as a single element, the WTRU 102 may include any number of transmit / receive elements 122. More specifically, the WTRU 102 may employ MIMO technology. Thus, in one embodiment, the WTRU 102 may include two or more transmit / receive elements 122 (e.g., multiple antennas) for transmitting and receiving wireless signals over the air interface 116.

[0036] The transceiver 120 may be configured to modulate the signals that are to be transmitted by the transmit / receive element 122 and to demodulate the signals that are received by the transmit / receive element 122. As noted above, the WTRU 102 may have multi-mode capabilities. Thus, the transceiver 120 may include multiple transceivers for enabling the WTRU 102 to communicate via multiple RATs, such as NR and IEEE 802.11 , for example.

[0037] The processor 118 of the WTRU 102 may be coupled to, and may receive user input data from, the speaker / microphone 124, the keypad 126, and / or the display / touchpad 128 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) display unit or organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display unit). The processor 118 may also output user data to the speaker / microphone 124, the keypad 126, and / or the display / touchpad 128. In addition, the processor 118 may access information from, and store data in, any type of suitable memory, such as the non-removable memory 130 and / or the removable memory 132. The non-removable memory 130 may include random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), a hard disk, or any other type of memory storage device. The removable memory 132 may include a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, a memory stick, a secure digital (SD) memory card, and the like. In other embodiments, the processor 118 may access information from, and store data in, memory that is not physically located on the WTRU 102, such as on a server or a home computer (not shown).

[0038] The processor 118 may receive power from the power source 134, and may be configured to distribute and / or control the power to the other components in the WTRU 102. The power source 134 may be any suitable device for powering the WTRU 102. For example, the power source 134 may include one or more dry cell batteries (e.g., nickel-cadmium (NiCd), nickel-zinc (NiZn), nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lithium-ion (Li-ion), etc.), solar cells, fuel cells, and the like.

[0039] The processor 118 may also be coupled to the GPS chipset 136, which may be configured to provide location information (e.g., longitude and latitude) regarding the current location of the WTRU 102. In addition to, or in lieu of, the information from the GPS chipset 136,the WTRU 102 may receive location information over the air interface 116 from a base station (e g., base stations 114a, 114b) and / or determine its location based on the timing of the signals being received from two or more nearby base stations. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may acquire location information by way of any suitable location-determination method while remaining consistent with an embodiment.

[0040] The processor 118 may further be coupled to other peripherals 138, which may include one or more software and / or hardware modules that provide additional features, functionality and / or wired or wireless connectivity. For example, the peripherals 138 may include an accelerometer, an e-compass, a satellite transceiver, a digital camera (for photographs and / or video), a universal serial bus (USB) port, a vibration device, a television transceiver, a hands free headset, a Bluetooth® module, a frequency modulated (FM) radio unit, a digital music player, a media player, a video game player module, an Internet browser, a Virtual Reality and / or Augmented Reality (VR / AR) device, an activity tracker, and the like. The peripherals 138 may include one or more sensors, the sensors may be one or more of a gyroscope, an accelerometer, a hall effect sensor, a magnetometer, an orientation sensor, a proximity sensor, a temperature sensor, a time sensor; a geolocation sensor; an altimeter, a light sensor, a touch sensor, a magnetometer, a barometer, a gesture sensor, a biometric sensor, and / or a humidity sensor.

[0041] The WTRU 102 may include a full duplex radio for which transmission and reception of some or all of the signals (e.g., associated with particular subframes for both the UL (e.g., for transmission) and downlink (e.g., for reception) may be concurrent and / or simultaneous. The full duplex radio may include an interference management unit 139 to reduce and or substantially eliminate self-interference via either hardware (e.g., a choke) or signal processing via a processor (e.g., a separate processor (not shown) or via processor 118). In an embodiment, the WRTU 102 may include a half-duplex radio for which transmission and reception of some or all of the signals (e.g., associated with particular subframes for either the UL (e.g., for transmission) or the downlink (e.g., for reception)).

[0042] FIG. 1C is a system diagram illustrating the RAN 104 and the CN 106 according to an embodiment. As noted above, the RAN 104 may employ an E-UTRA radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. The RAN 104 may also be in communication with the CN 106.

[0043] The RAN 104 may include eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c, though it will be appreciated that the RAN 104 may include any number of eNode-Bs while remaining consistent with an embodiment. The eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may each include one or more transceivers forcommunicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. In one embodiment, the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may implement MIMO technology. Thus, the eNode-B 160a, for example, may use multiple antennas to transmit wireless signals to, and / or receive wireless signals from, the WTRU 102a.

[0044] Each of the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may be associated with a particular cell (not shown) and may be configured to handle radio resource management decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of users in the UL and / or DL, and the like. As shown in FIG. 1C, the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may communicate with one another over an X2 interface.

[0045] The CN 106 shown in FIG. 1C may include a mobility management entity (MME) 162, a serving gateway (SGW) 164, and a packet data network (PDN) gateway (or PGW) 166. While each of the foregoing elements are depicted as part of the CN 106, it will be appreciated that any of these elements may be owned and / or operated by an entity other than the CN operator.

[0046] The MME 162 may be connected to each of the eNode-Bs 162a, 162b, 162c in the RAN 104 via an S1 interface and may serve as a control node. For example, the MME 162 may be responsible for authenticating users of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, bearer activation / deactivation, selecting a particular serving gateway during an initial attach of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and the like. The MME 162 may provide a control plane function for switching between the RAN 104 and other RANs (not shown) that employ other radio technologies, such as GSM and / or WCDMA.

[0047] The SGW 164 may be connected to each of the eNode Bs 160a, 160b, 160c in the RAN 104 via the S1 interface. The SGW 164 may generally route and forward user data packets to / from the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c. The SGW 164 may perform other functions, such as anchoring user planes during inter-eNode B handovers, triggering paging when DL data is available for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, managing and storing contexts of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and the like.

[0048] The SGW 164 may be connected to the PGW 166, which may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to packet-switched networks, such as the Internet 110, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and IP-enabled devices.

[0049] The CN 106 may facilitate communications with other networks. For example, the CN 106 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to circuit- switched networks, such as the PSTN 108, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and traditional land-line communications devices. For example, the CN 106 may include, or may communicate with, an IP gateway (e.g., an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) server) that serves as an interface between the CN 106 and the PSTN 108. In addition, the CN 106 may providethe WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to the other networks 112, which may include other wired and / or wireless networks that are owned and / or operated by other service providers.

[0050] Although the WTRU is described in FIGS. 1A-1D as a wireless terminal, it is contemplated that in certain representative embodiments that such a terminal may use (e.g., temporarily or permanently) wired communication interfaces with the communication network.

[0051] In representative embodiments, the other network 112 may be a WLAN.

[0052] A WLAN in Infrastructure Basic Service Set (BSS) mode may have an Access Point (AP) for the BSS and one or more stations (STAs) associated with the AP. The AP may have an access or an interface to a Distribution System (DS) or another type of wired / wireless network that carries traffic in to and / or out of the BSS. Traffic to STAs that originates from outside the BSS may arrive through the AP and may be delivered to the STAs. Traffic originating from STAs to destinations outside the BSS may be sent to the AP to be delivered to respective destinations. Traffic between STAs within the BSS may be sent through the AP, for example, where the source STA may send traffic to the AP and the AP may deliver the traffic to the destination STA. The traffic between STAs within a BSS may be considered and / or referred to as peer-to-peer traffic. The peer-to-peer traffic may be sent between (e.g., directly between) the source and destination STAs with a direct link setup (DLS). In certain representative embodiments, the DLS may use an 802.11e DLS or an 802.11z tunneled DLS (TDLS). A WLAN using an Independent BSS (IBSS) mode may not have an AP, and the STAs (e.g., all of the STAs) within or using the IBSS may communicate directly with each other. The IBSS mode of communication may sometimes be referred to herein as an “ad-hoc” mode of communication.

[0053] When using the 802.11 ac infrastructure mode of operation or a similar mode of operations, the AP may transmit a beacon on a fixed channel, such as a primary channel. The primary channel may be a fixed width (e.g., 20 MHz wide bandwidth) or a dynamically set width via signaling. The primary channel may be the operating channel of the BSS and may be used by the STAs to establish a connection with the AP. In certain representative embodiments, Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA / CA) may be implemented, for example in in 802.11 systems. For CSMA / CA, the STAs (e.g., every STA), including the AP, may sense the primary channel. If the primary channel is sensed / detected and / or determined to be busy by a particular STA, the particular STA may back off. One STA (e.g., only one station) may transmit at any given time in a given BSS.

[0054] High Throughput (HT) STAs may use a 40 MHz wide channel for communication, for example, via a combination of the primary 20 MHz channel with an adjacent or nonadjacent 20 MHz channel to form a 40 MHz wide channel.

[0055] Very High Throughput (VHT) STAs may support 20MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and / or 160 MHz wide channels. The 40 MHz, and / or 80 MHz, channels may be formed by combining contiguous 20 MHz channels. A 160 MHz channel may be formed by combining 8 contiguous 20 MHz channels, or by combining two non-contiguous 80 MHz channels, which may be referred to as an 80+80 configuration. For the 80+80 configuration, the data, after channel encoding, may be passed through a segment parser that may divide the data into two streams. Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) processing, and time domain processing, may be done on each stream separately. The streams may be mapped on to the two 80 MHz channels, and the data may be transmitted by a transmitting STA. At the receiver of the receiving STA, the above described operation for the 80+80 configuration may be reversed, and the combined data may be sent to the Medium Access Control (MAC).

[0056] Sub 1 GHz modes of operation are supported by 802.11 af and 802.11 ah. The channel operating bandwidths, and carriers, are reduced in 802.11af and 802.11 ah relative to those used in 802.11 n, and 802.11ac. 802.11af supports 5 MHz, 10 MHz and 20 MHz bandwidths in the TV White Space (TVWS) spectrum, and 802.11ah supports 1 MHz, 2 MHz, 4 MHz, 8 MHz, and 16 MHz bandwidths using non- TVWS spectrum. According to a representative embodiment, 802.11ah may support Meter Type Control / Machine-Type Communications, such as MTC devices in a macro coverage area. MTC devices may have certain capabilities, for example, limited capabilities including support for (e.g., only support for) certain and / or limited bandwidths. The MTC devices may include a battery with a battery life above a threshold (e.g., to maintain a very long battery life).

[0057] WLAN systems, which may support multiple channels, and channel bandwidths, such as 802.11 n, 802.11ac, 802.11af, and 802.11 ah, include a channel which may be designated as the primary channel. The primary channel may have a bandwidth equal to the largest common operating bandwidth supported by all STAs in the BSS. The bandwidth of the primary channel may be set and / or limited by a STA, from among all STAs in operating in a BSS, which supports the smallest bandwidth operating mode. In the example of 802.11ah, the primary channel may be 1 MHz wide for STAs (e.g., MTC type devices) that support (e.g., only support) a 1 MHz mode, even if the AP, and other STAs in the BSS support 2 MHz, 4 MHz, 8 MHz, 16 MHz, and / or other channel bandwidth operating modes. Carrier sensing and / or Network Allocation Vector (NAV) settings may depend on the status of the primary channel. If the primary channel is busy, for example, due to a STA (which supports only a 1 MHz operating mode), transmitting to the AP, the entire available frequency bands may be considered busy even though a majority of the frequency bands remains idle and may be available.

[0058] In the United States, the available frequency bands, which may be used by 802.11 ah, are from 902 MHz to 928 MHz. In Korea, the available frequency bands are from 917.5 MHz to 923.5 MHz. In Japan, the available frequency bands are from 916.5 MHz to 927.5 MHz. The total bandwidth available for 802.11 ah is 6 MHz to 26 MHz depending on the country code.

[0059] FIG. 1 D is a system diagram illustrating the RAN 113 and the CN 115 according to an embodiment. As noted above, the RAN 113 may employ an NR radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. The RAN 113 may also be in communication with the CN 115.

[0060] The RAN 113 may include gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c, though it will be appreciated that the RAN 113 may include any number of gNBs while remaining consistent with an embodiment.The gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may each include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. In one embodiment, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may implement MIMO technology. For example, gNBs 180a, 108b may utilize beamforming to transmit signals to and / or receive signals from the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c. Thus, the gNB 180a, for example, may use multiple antennas to transmit wireless signals to, and / or receive wireless signals from, the WTRU 102a. In an embodiment, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may implement carrier aggregation technology. For example, the gNB 180a may transmit multiple component carriers to the WTRU 102a (not shown). A subset of these component carriers may be on unlicensed spectrum while the remaining component carriers may be on licensed spectrum. In an embodiment, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may implement Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) technology. For example, WTRU 102a may receive coordinated transmissions from gNB 180a and gNB 180b (and / or gNB 180c).

[0061] The WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c using transmissions associated with a scalable numerology. For example, the OFDM symbol spacing and / or OFDM subcarrier spacing may vary for different transmissions, different cells, and / or different portions of the wireless transmission spectrum. The WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c using subframe or transmission time intervals (TTIs) of various or scalable lengths (e.g., containing varying number of OFDM symbols and / or lasting varying lengths of absolute time).

[0062] The gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may be configured to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c in a standalone configuration and / or a non-standalone configuration. In the standalone configuration, WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c without also accessing other RANs (e.g., such as eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c). In the standalone configuration, WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may utilize one or more of gNBs 180a,180b, 180c as a mobility anchor point. In the standalone configuration, WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c using signals in an unlicensed band. In a non-standalone configuration WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with / connect to gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c while also communicating with / connecting to another RAN such as eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c. For example, WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement DC principles to communicate with one or more gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c and one or more eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c substantially simultaneously. In the non-standalone configuration, eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may serve as a mobility anchor for WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may provide additional coverage and / or throughput for servicing WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c.

[0063] Each of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may be associated with a particular cell (not shown) and may be configured to handle radio resource management decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of users in the UL and / or DL, support of network slicing, dual connectivity, interworking between NR and E-UTRA, routing of user plane data towards User Plane Function (UPF) 184a, 184b, routing of control plane information towards Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 182a, 182b and the like. As shown in FIG. 1 D, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may communicate with one another over an Xn interface.

[0064] The CN 115 shown in FIG. 1D may include at least one AMF 182a, 182b, at least one UPF 184a, 184b, at least one Session Management Function (SMF) 183a, 183b, and possibly a Data Network (DN) 185a, 185b. While each of the foregoing elements are depicted as part of the CN 115, it will be appreciated that any of these elements may be owned and / or operated by an entity other than the CN operator.

[0065] The AMF 182a, 182b may be connected to one or more of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c in the RAN 113 via an N2 interface and may serve as a control node. For example, the AMF 182a, 182b may be responsible for authenticating users of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, support for network slicing (e.g., handling of different PDU sessions with different requirements), selecting a particular SMF 183a, 183b, management of the registration area, termination of NAS signaling, mobility management, and the like. Network slicing may be used by the AMF 182a, 182b in order to customize CN support for WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c based on the types of services being utilized WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c. For example, different network slices may be established for different use cases such as services relying on ultra-reliable low latency (URLLC) access, services relying on enhanced massive mobile broadband (eMBB) access, services for machine type communication (MTC) access, and / or the like. The AMF 162 may provide a control plane function for switching between the RAN 113 and other RANs (notshown) that employ other radio technologies, such as LTE, LTE-A, LTE-A Pro, and / or non- 3GPP access technologies such as WiFi.

[0066] The SMF 183a, 183b may be connected to an AMF 182a, 182b in the ON 115 via an N11 interface. The SMF 183a, 183b may also be connected to a UPF 184a, 184b in the CN 115 via an N4 interface. The SMF 183a, 183b may select and control the UPF 184a, 184b and configure the routing of traffic through the UPF 184a, 184b. The SMF 183a, 183b may perform other functions, such as managing and allocating WTRU IP address, managing PDU sessions, controlling policy enforcement and QoS, providing downlink data notifications, and the like. A PDU session type may be IP-based, non-IP based, Ethernet-based, and the like.

[0067] The UPF 184a, 184b may be connected to one or more of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c in the RAN 113 via an N3 interface, which may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to packet-switched networks, such as the Internet 110, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and IP-enabled devices. The UPF 184, 184b may perform other functions, such as routing and forwarding packets, enforcing user plane policies, supporting multi-homed PDU sessions, handling user plane QoS, buffering downlink packets, providing mobility anchoring, and the like.

[0068] The CN 115 may facilitate communications with other networks. For example, the CN 115 may include, or may communicate with, an IP gateway (e.g., an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) server) that serves as an interface between the CN 115 and the PSTN 108. In addition, the CN 115 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to the other networks 112, which may include other wired and / or wireless networks that are owned and / or operated by other service providers. In one embodiment, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may be connected to a local Data Network (DN) 185a, 185b through the UPF 184a, 184b via the N3 interface to the UPF 184a, 184b and an N6 interface between the UPF 184a, 184b and the DN 185a, 185b.

[0069] In view of Figures 1A-1 D, and the corresponding description of Figures 1A-1D, one or more, or all, of the functions described herein with regard to one or more of: WTRU 102a-d, Base Station 114a-b, eNode-B 160a-c, MME 162, SGW 164, PGW 166, gNB 180a-c, AMF 182a-ab, UPF 184a-b, SMF 183a-b, DN 185a-b, and / or any other device(s) described herein, may be performed by one or more emulation devices (not shown). The emulation devices may be one or more devices configured to emulate one or more, or all, of the functions described herein. For example, the emulation devices may be used to test other devices and / or to simulate network and / or WTRU functions.

[0070] The emulation devices may be designed to implement one or more tests of other devices in a lab environment and / or in an operator network environment. For example, the oneor more emulation devices may perform the one or more, or all, functions while being fully or partially implemented and / or deployed as part of a wired and / or wireless communication network in order to test other devices within the communication network. The one or more emulation devices may perform the one or more, or all, functions while being temporarily implemented / deployed as part of a wired and / or wireless communication network. The emulation device may be directly coupled to another device for purposes of testing and / or may performing testing using over-the-air wireless communications.

[0071] The one or more emulation devices may perform the one or more, including all, functions while not being implemented / deployed as part of a wired and / or wireless communication network. For example, the emulation devices may be utilized in a testing scenario in a testing laboratory and / or a non-deployed (e.g., testing) wired and / or wireless communication network in order to implement testing of one or more components. The one or more emulation devices may be test equipment. Direct RF coupling and / or wireless communications via RF circuitry (e.g., which may include one or more antennas) may be used by the emulation devices to transmit and / or receive data.

[0072] Following is an example definition of a layer three (L3) filtering procedure. The WTRU may, for each cell measurement quantity, each beam measurement quantity, each sidelink measurement quantity, for each CLI measurement quantity that the WTRU performs measurements, and / or for each candidate L2 U2N Relay WTRU measurement quantity, filter the measured result, before using for evaluation of reporting criteria or for measurement reporting, by the following formula: Fn - (1 - a)*Fn-1 + a*Mn. In the formula, Mn may be the latest received measurement result from the physical layer. Fn may be the updated filtered measurement result, that is used for evaluation of reporting criteria or for measurement reporting. Fn-1 may be the old filtered measurement result, where F0 is set to M1 when the first measurement result from the physical layer is received; and for MeasObjectNR, a = 1 / 2(ki / 4), where ki is the filtercoefficient for the corresponding measurement quantity of the i:th QuantityConfigNR in quantityConfigNR-List, and i is indicated by quantityConfiglndex in MeasObjectNR; for other measurements, a = 1 / 2(k / 4), where k is the filtercoefficient for the corresponding measurement quantity received by the quantityConfig; for UTRA-FDD, a = 1 / 2(k / 4), where k is the filtercoefficient for the corresponding measurement quantity received by quantityConfigUTRA-FDD in the QuantityConfig. The WTRU may adapt the filter such that the time characteristics of the filter are preserved at different input rates, observing that the filtercoefficient k assumes a sample rate equal to X ms. The value of X may be equivalent toone intrafrequency L1 measurement period (e.g., as defined in TS 38.133 assuming non-DRX operation, and / or depending on frequency range).

[0073] Methods and apparatuses may include artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI / ML) aspects. The WTRU may be assumed to have a pre-trained AI / ML model that is able to produce predictions of air-interface and / or sensing related measurements (e.g., Pathloss (PL), Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), UL Tx Power (Uplink Transmit Power), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), Signal-to-Inference-plus-Noise Ratio (SINR), doppler, angular, delay, etc.) of serving and / or neighbor cells (any cell, basically), and / or any TRP emitting a reference signal used for the purpose of sensing, e.g., a PRS. The predictions may be a tool to anticipate the measurements the WTRU will experience.

[0074] In order to produce more meaningful predictions in this context, the WTRU may predict one or more of Pathloss (PL), Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), and / or Uplink Transmit Power (UL Tx Power). Predictions may be executed in a time series manner. From the moment the WTRU predictions are triggered, the WTRU may produce several prediction outputs over a future time span, with a certain granularity or time step.

[0075] FIG. 2 is a diagram 200 that illustrates the time series prediction for PL as an example. FIG. 2 is an example WTRU predictions - at time t, the WTRU may predict one PL prediction value per time step from time t+1 until t+n.

[0076] The predictions may also be done for one point in time (e.g., one point in time), and / or may extend over several time steps. In many scenarios, prediction with time series output may be beneficial than single value predictions as it may be difficult to match the prediction with e.g., a specific NW configured PL value with a single prediction point. Instead, the WTRU may then predict several samples of e.g., PL, and with that information, it may easily determine the time it would take until the PL values will be under / above a certain threshold.

[0077] These may be practical issues and again, out of the scope of this document. The triggers for NW predictions may not be described herein, but a few suggestions may be left here for these two aspects.

[0078] In some examples, a WTRU may be configured to predict future measurements based on current and / or historical measurements. For example, the WTRU may be configured with a trained AI / ML model that is able to produce predictions for radio interface radio signal levels and / or sensing related measurements. In an example, the AI / ML model at the WTRU may be implementation based. In another example, the WTRU may obtain the artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI / ML) model from the NW. In one example, the AI / ML model may be configured to take as an input current and / or historical PL measurements. In anotherexample, the AI / ML model may be configured to take additional inputs such as WTRU location information, WTRU mobility, etc. In another example, the AI / ML model may be requested by the WTRU from the NW or from a server, based on the configuration of another event, e.g., a specific event related to a sensing task. In one example, the AI / ML model may be configured to produce single value predictions. For example, the AI / ML may produce a prediction when PL is at a future specific time instant t. In another example, the AI / ML model may be configured to predict a series of PL values corresponding to future time instances t+1 , t+2 and so on, up to t+t_fb, which represents the time of the final predicted value.

[0079] The predicted value (e.g., PL values) may be associated and / or represented by a confidence or error value, and may be represented by an average, peak, minimum value, etc. along a short time window representing the validity of that prediction. For example, the AI / ML may generate PL predictions. The PL predictions the AI / ML generate may be at least x seconds with 95% confidence. The PL predictions the AI / ML generate may be at least y seconds with 90% confidence. The PL predictions the AI / ML generate may be at most z seconds with 80% confidence.

[0080] As another example, the PL prediction may be one of the following. The PL prediction may be PL of between x and y seconds, with 95% confidence. The PL prediction may be PL of between y and z seconds, with 90% confidence.

[0081] Furthermore, it may be assumed that there is some WTRU capability communication between the WTRU and the NW about AIML capability (e.g., where the WTRU may indicate to the network (NW) the supported AIML models / functions, confidence level of predictions, time horizon of predictions (how far along in the future are the prediction being made), etc.).

[0082] The WTRU may support several AIML models for a certain functionality (e.g., with different prediction time horizons, prediction confidence levels, processing requirements, trained under / for operation in different frequencies / cells / location / times of day, etc.).

[0083] A given AIML model may operate in different modes (e.g., with different levels of prediction confidence levels at different prediction time horizons, etc.).

[0084] The WTRU may choose the AIML model to use for a certain functionality (e.g., NW decides for which functionalities the WTRU may use AIML based operation, and the WTRU chooses the AIML model to use) or the NW may explicitly control this (e.g., WTRU provides details of AIML models and their capabilities, NW determines which model to activate for a particular functionality).

[0085] The AIML models may be available at the WTRU already trained, or the WTRU may be provided with an untrained AIML model and may perform the training by itself.

[0086] The AIML model may be available at the WTRU already trained, and the WTRU may be enabled / configured to perform further training (e.g., for different conditions, such as frequencies / cells / location / times of day, for the same conditions as the initial training but for increasing the level of confidence or / and the prediction time horizon, etc.).

[0087] Uplink power control may enable the NW to control the WTRU transmit (TX) power not only to meet the required PL level for data reception but also for interference management. At a high level, the WTRU may calculate its TX power based on NW configured parameters, an estimated path loss to the target gNb, and based on an accumulation of Transmit Power Control (TPC) received dynamically via the Downlink Control Information (DCI).

[0088] Uplink power control at a WTRU may be calculated based on a formula and may change theoretically at TTI, with input from RAN node (NW) signaling via DCI. This mechanism may exist to control the uplink (UL) TX power for meeting the target SI NR and for interference management. It may have the drawback however of increasing NW signaling overhead.

[0089] The signaling overhead may come from the TPC commands received from the NW - the WTRU may adjust the UL power value used for transmission occasion based on a formula that is updated with a contribution from the received TPC commands in DCI.

[0090] In a practical system, the WTRU may be provided with TPC commands via the DCI when it is scheduled with an UL or DL grant (E.g., via the 2-bits TPC field in the DCI Format 0_0). The 2-bit may not be an overhead when the NW is dynamically scheduling data, like sending DCI formats to the WTRU that schedule the data. In the case where the WTRU has a Configured Grant (CG) however, and the WTRU is not actively receiving DL data, the NW may need to transmit a DCI for the sole purpose of carrying TPC. Regardless of the active type of grant, in any occasion where the NW decides to control the UL power of a WTRU, it may have to transmit the TPC command in the PDCCH. Currently, to send the TPC command may be a challenge. The DCI format chosen by the NW that contains the TPC command may have to be transmitted to the WTRU due to the current blind decoding technique in place. The transmission of the DCI format may lead in any case to a signaling overhead that is non-negligeable.

[0091] FIG. 3 is an example of Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) and Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) measured over time from a test WTRU connected to a live NW in the US. FIG. 3 shows a trace of the L3 RSRP, measured by a WTRU, connected to a live NW deployment from a well-known telecom operator in the United States.

[0092] FIG. 3 is a plot graph 300 of an example of RSRP and RSRQ measured over time from a test WTRU connected to a live NW in the US. The plot may help understanding that RSRP may be, in many instances, stable. Otherwise, there would be continuous coverage problems inwireless NWs. If the RSRP remains stable in many instances of a WTRU connected to the NW receiving and sending data, then it may stand out clearly that the rate at which UL power control is assessed may be suboptimal, if it is controlled very frequently.

[0093] The main problem addressed in this disclosure may be to reduce this signaling overhead that the power control mechanism currently entails. The question may be how an UL power control related signaling may be reduced.

[0094] Methods for a WTRU to activate and / or deactivate applying predicted pathloss (PL), RSRP and / or UL Tx power to UL transmissions may be implemented herein.

[0095] Methods and apparatuses may include UL grant type applicability. The example may be applicable to both configured and dynamic UL grants. In the case of a dynamic grant, it is considered that each DCI occasion containing information about the grant may contain a TPC command or configuration aspects related to the predictions and procedures the WTRU executes. The WTRU may receive from the NW an indication for these predictions and procedures as a separate DCI signaling instance, without that signaling necessarily containing changes in the current active grant. In the case of a configured grant, the same configuration may be applied and changed via Radio Resource Control (RRC) (for type I CGs) messaging, or if configured via RRC, changes may be applied resorting to subsequent DCI signaling (for type II CGs).

[0096] The purpose may be to reduce NW control signaling in DCI. A method may be proposed where the WTRU applies predictive UL Tx power parameter calculation / estimation on its transmissions, based on predictive methods, e.g., AI / ML, where the UL power control is performed by the WTRU.

[0097] WTRU may indicate to the NW a pathloss prediction capability. WTRU may receive a configuration associated with the pathloss (or UL Tx power) predictions (e.g., when to trigger predictions, duration, model identifier (ID) to use, model output type, e.g., one time prediction, time series, classification of pathloss levels, etc., thresholds for confidence of those predictions). WTRU may receive a configuration associated with the application of the predicted or measured values (e.g., use measured pathloss values when available or predicted values otherwise).

[0098] WTRU may receive a configuration associated with the decoding of a TPC command. (e.g., for a TPC received for Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), WTRU may derive subsequent TPC command values for Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) and Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) that are a delta number of symbols or slots separated from the received command.) (e.g., for the decoding and usage of a predictive TPC command, in case the Pathloss (PL), RSRP and / or UL Tx power predictions are generated from the NW side.)

[0099] WTRU may predict one or more pathloss values (or UL Tx power) for the configured duration. WTRU may determine for a Tx occasion (or for a set of Tx occasions or UL transmission or set of UL transmissions) whether to use actual or predicted pathloss values. e.g., based on one or more of: current PL, predicted PL, current RSRP measurements, predicted RSRP values, predicted period of stability or instability of the RSRP / PL, duration / timing of predicted period of stability or instability of the RSRP / PL, timing of (the uplink) transmission, and / or timing of received reference signals (RSs) (e.g., RSs used to perform RSRP / PL measurements or predictions).

[0100] The WTRU may determine for a transmission (Tx) occasion (or for a set of Tx occasions or uplink (UL) transmission or set of UL transmissions) whether to use actual or predicted pathloss values where a period of stability may be defined by a set of predicted measurements (over a determined period of time) whose variance (or difference between max and min values, or max / min rate of change) is less than a configurable threshold. The WTRU may determine for a Tx occasion (or for a set of Tx occasions or UL transmission or set of UL transmissions) whether to use actual or predicted pathloss values where a period of instability may be defined by a set of predicted measurements (over a determined a period of time) whose variance (or difference between max and min values or max / min rate of change) is greater than a configurable threshold.

[0101] A WTRU may transmit an indication to the NW related to the usage of predicted or measured PL values, e.g., the indication may include one or more of: an indication of the duration or number of slots / frames / ms for which the predictions are determined to be valid (validity period), (e.g., based on the confidence level of the prediction), a prediction confidence value, max predicted value change rate during the validity period, min / max predicted values, duration of upcoming stable / unstable period, parameters related to upcoming stable / unstable period interpolation methods used, etc.

[0102] This indication may be done via uplink control information (UCI), medium access control element (MAC CE), or radio resource control (RRC). Based on the pathloss predictions, and the received configuration, the WTRU may determine the UL Tx power to use. The WTRU may transmit in the UL with a predicted UL Tx power value for the Tx occasion(s).

[0103] Additionally or alternatively, the WTRU may receive from the NW a TPC command. WTRU may receive a TPC command from the NW (e.g., a generalized command targeting PUSCH). WTRU may determine the power adjustment based on one or more of: whether predicted or measured PL was used in a first (previous) transmission, the predicted or measured PL, whether predicted of measured PL will be used in a second (subsequent)transmission, UL Tx power value and the received TPC command, and / or received configuration.

[0104] WTRU may receive a predictive TPC command (e.g., if the predictions of PL, RSRP and / or UL Tx power are generated from the NW side). WTRU may determine the power adjustment for subsequent one or more transmissions based on the received predictive TPC command (e.g., if the predictive TPC command contains more than one power adjustment as predicted by the NW).

[0105] The WTRU may assist the NW to perform accurate TPC predictions by providing WTRU indications, which may include WTRU validation of NW prediction, and / or WTRU transmission of a special SRS to enable the NW to determine pathloss.

[0106] A WTRU may perform a second UL transmission. Proposed examples and common terminology are described herein. The terms AI / ML and AIML may be used interchangeably. The terms “prediction”, “projection”, “expectation”, and “estimation” may be used interchangeably. The terms “predicted”, “projected”, “expected”, and “estimated” may be used interchangeably. The terms “report” and “indication” may be used interchangeably.

[0107] Interpolation may be a method of fitting the data points to represent the value of a function. It may have a various number of applications in engineering and science, that are used to construct additional data points within the range of a discrete data set of known data points or may be used for determining a formula of the function that will pass from the given set of points (x,y). Many may be the known interpolation methods, and the decision to use one or another may be highly dependent on the data available to interpolate. Examples of interpolation methods may include Barycentric Lagrange Interpolation, Krogh interpolation, Cubic Hermite spline interpolation, spline interpolation, linear interpolation, etc.

[0108] Common principles, observations, and AI / ML aspects are described herein. Dataset analysis and the training of a ML model capable of predicting pathloss may be described and supported, and consequently, due to the formula for UL Tx power at current standards, the UL Tx power itself may be described. Results obtained for the accuracy of such model may be depicted in FIG. 4 Model accuracy results on a model that predicts UL Tx power.

[0109] FIG. 4 is a graph 400 that illustrates an example of model accuracy results on a model that predicts UL Tx power. Two models may be used, DT and XGBoost, and both may be trained including or excluding pathloss as an input feature for training.

[0110] The x-axis may represent the number of features used for training, which implicitly provides a sense of the dataset size required for this purpose. When pathloss is used as a training feature (green and yellow curves), an accuracy of 99.7% may be achieved using 10features of training data. When pathloss is not used for the purposes of training (red and black curves), an accuracy of 86.7% may be achieved, and at least 15 data features may be required for achieving this number. Training of these models might be carried out using data collected from InterDigital testing WTRU equipment (Samsung S21+ smartphones), and data might be pulled out of the WTRU’s Qualcomm 5G modem using Qualipoc mobile networking SW from Rohde & Schwarz. This dataset may be a collection of cellular channel metrics collected from 9 of these WTRU s during outdoor drive tests. Each of these WTRU s might be equipped with SIM cards for one of Verizon, TMobile, AT&T and the drive tests might be carried out in San Francisco Bay Area and Boston over a span of multiple days in each city.

[0111] At least two conclusions may be drawn from the above plot that are relevant for the examples described herein. First, pathloss and UL Tx power may be accurately predicted in most circumstances. Second, the pathloss may stand out as a good feature in the anticipation of UL Tx power.

[0112] The pathloss estimation on the WTRU side may be fundamental for the UL Tx power the WTRU applies to a transmission and the pathloss estimation may be very closely connected with L3 RSRP. The close connection may be because the WTRU has pathloss values available for power control computations at the same rate as it averages L3 RSRP (in a process called L3 filtering, see background). The formula that the WTRU may use for pathloss estimation may be the power measured over the configured reference signal (RS) minus the L3 RSRP. This formula may create a dependency between the pathloss estimation, and the availability of the L3 RSRP, that requires averaging of L1 RSRP, and thus may create a need for the WTRU to estimate the pathloss whenever the L3 RSRP is not available.

[0113] A signaling reduction of the required signaling that is used to adjust power in WTRUs for one or more of the UL channels is desired. Methods for a WTRU to activate and / or deactivate applying predicted PL, RSRP and / or UL Tx power to UL transmissions may be implemented.

[0114] Example embodiments are disclosed for UL grant type applicability. The example may be applicable to both configured and dynamic UL grants. In the case of a dynamic grant, it may be considered that DCI occasion containing information about the grant may contain a TPC command or configuration aspects related to the predictions and procedures the WTRU executes. The WTRU may receive from the NW an indication for these predictions and procedures as a separate DCI signaling instance, without that signaling necessarily containing changes in the current active grant. In the case of a configured grant, the same configuration may be applied and changed via RRC (for type I Configured Grants or Cell Groups (CGs))messaging, or if configured via RRC, changes may be applied resorting to subsequent DCI signaling (for type II CGs).

[0115] The purpose may be to reduce NW control signaling in DCI. A method may be proposed where the WTRU applies predictive UL Tx power parameter calculation / estimation on its transmissions, based on predictive methods, e.g., AI / ML, where the UL power control is performed by the WTRU. A WTRU may indicate to the NW a pathloss prediction capability. A WTRU may send, to a network, an indication that the WTRU has a pathloss prediction capability.

[0116] A WTRU may receive a configuration associated with the pathloss (or UL Tx power) predictions (e.g., when to trigger predictions, duration, model ID to use, model output type, e.g., one time prediction, time series, classification of pathloss levels, etc., thresholds for confidence of those predictions). A WTRU may receive, from the network, configuration information associated with pathloss prediction. A WTRU may receive a configuration associated with the application of the predicted or measured values (e.g., use measured pathloss values when available or predicted values otherwise). The WTRU may determine a measured pathloss value associated with a first time instance.

[0117] A WTRU may receive a configuration associated with the decoding of a TPC command, e.g., for a TPC received for PUSCH, WTRU may derive subsequent TPC command values for PUCCH and SRS that are a delta number of symbols or slots separated from the received command, e.g., for the decoding and usage of a predictive TPC command, in case the PL, RSRP and / or UL Tx power predictions are generated from the NW side.

[0118] A WTRU may predict one or more pathloss values (or UL Tx power) for the configured duration, for example, with a future time instance. A WTRU may determine for a Tx occasion (or for a set of Tx occasions or UL transmission or set of UL transmissions) whether to use actual or predicted pathloss values. The WTRU may determine whether to use the measured pathloss value or the predicted pathloss value for an uplink transmission based on the measured pathloss value and the predicted pathloss value. For example, the determination (e.g., of whether to use the measured pathloss value or the predicted pathloss value) may be based on one or more of: current PL, predicted PL, (current) RSRP measurements, predicted RSRP values, predicted period of stability or instability of the RSRP / PL, a duration / timing of a predicted period of stability or instability of the RSRP / PL (measurements), timing of (the uplink) transmission, and / or timing of received RSs (e.g., RSs used to perform RSRP / PL measurements or predictions) (e.g., associated with the RSRP measurements). The WTRU may determine to use the predicted pathloss value for the uplink transmission when thepathloss is predicted to be stable for the prediction duration and determine to use the measured pathloss value when the pathloss is predicted to be unstable for the prediction duration.

[0119] The WTRU may determine that the pathloss is stable for the prediction duration when a plurality of predicted pathloss values over the duration do not vary by more than a variance threshold. The WTRU may determine for a Tx occasion (or for a set of Tx occasions or UL transmission or set of UL transmissions) whether to use actual or predicted pathloss values where a period of stability may be defined by a set of predicted measurements (over a determined period of time) whose variance (or difference between max and min values, or max / min rate of change) is less than a configurable threshold. The WTRU may determine for a Tx occasion (or for a set of Tx occasions or UL transmission or set of UL transmissions) whether to use actual or predicted pathloss values where a period of instability may be defined by a set of predicted measurements (over a determined a period of time) whose variance (or difference between max and min values or max / min rate of change) is greater than a configurable threshold.

[0120] WTRU may transmit an indication to the NW related to the usage of predicted or measured PL values. The configuration may include a prediction duration. E.g., an indication may include one or more of: an indication of the duration for which predicted pathloss values are determined to be valid, or the number of slots / frames / ms for which the predictions are determined to be valid (validity period), (e.g., based on the confidence level of the prediction), a prediction confidence value associated with the predicted pathloss value, max predicted value change rate during the validity period, minimum predicted pathloss value during the prediction duration, a maximum predicted pathloss value during the predicted duration, duration of upcoming stable / unstable period, parameters related to upcoming stable / unstable period interpolation methods used, etc. The WTRU may predict whether pathloss is stable or unstable for the prediction duration based on the predicted pathloss value. This indication may be done or sent via uplink control information (UCI), a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or a radio resource control (RRC).

[0121] Based on the pathloss predictions, and the received configuration, the WTRU may determine the UL Tx power to use or a transmit power for the uplink transmission based on the predicted pathloss value. A WTRU may transmit in the UL with a predicted UL Tx power value for the Tx occasion(s), or transmit the uplink transmission using the transmit power that is determined based on the predicted pathloss value. The transmit power for the uplink transmission may be determined without transmit power control (TPC) commands associated with the uplink transmission. The WTRU may send, to the network, an indication that indicateswhether the measured pathloss value or the predicted pathloss value is used to send the uplink transmission. Additionally or alternatively, the WTRU may receive from the NW a TPC command. The WTRU may receive a TPC command from the NW (e.g., a generalized command targeting PUSCH).

[0122] The WTRU may determine the power adjustment based on one or more of: whether predicted or measured PL was used in a first (previous) transmission, the predicted or measured PL, whether predicted of measured PL will be used in a second (subsequent) transmission, UL Tx power value and the received TPC command, and / or received configuration.

[0123] The WTRU may receive a predictive TPC command (e.g., if the predictions of PL, RSRP and / or UL Tx power may be generated from the NW side). The WTRU may determine the power adjustment for subsequent one or more transmissions based on the received predictive TPC command (e.g., if the predictive TPC command contains more than one power adjustment as predicted by the NW).

[0124] The WTRU may assist the NW to perform accurate TPC predictions by providing WTRU indications, which may include WTRU validation of a NW predicted TPC, and / or WTRU transmission of a special SRS to enable the NW to determine pathloss.

[0125] WTRU may perform a second UL transmission. WTRU may indicate to the NW a pathloss prediction capability. The WTRU may indicate to the NW a pathloss prediction capability. For example, the WTRU may indicate the capability of predicting pathloss (and / or UL Tx power) to the NW. The capability may be likely related to the AI / ML capabilities in a previous section, but other predictive statistical methods and / or heuristics may not be precluded.

[0126] The WTRU may send an indication to the NW (e.g., via RRC, MAC CE and / or UCI) of the capabilities of one or more algorithms. The pool of AI / ML models available at the WTRU may already be part of the WTRU’s implementation and / or they may be delivered by the NW upon WTRU request (e.g., via one or more messages that are sent by the NW in response to the WTRU’s message that indicate to the NW a pathloss prediction capability), configuration of an autonomous Tx power procedure, upon NW triggered transfer at any point in time, etc.

[0127] Because the WTRU may have a set of AI / ML models, there may be a need to indicate to the NW that the WTRU has this model(s), and which capabilities are available. The capabilities may include the type of prediction, e.g., pathloss and / or Tx power, algorithm(s) in place (e.g., AI / ML models, statistical, etc.), the accuracy of the model(s), type of model(s) (e.g., XGBoost, DT, etc.), its output type (e.g., one shot prediction, time series, etc.), etc.

[0128] In one example, the WTRU may indicate some of its AI / ML models. In an example, the WTRU may indicate a subset of its AI / ML models, based on the pathloss and / or L3-RSRP stability. In this case, the WTRU may receive a configuration to indicate AI / ML models that achieve, e.g., an accuracy higher than a threshold, as long as, e.g., the pathloss and / L3-RSRP change rate is not higher than another threshold, during a past time window. The WTRU may rely on the current / past pathloss and / L3-RSRP to achieve this computation. In one example, the WTRU may indicate the capability with explicit AI / ML model identifiers. In another example, the WTRU may indicate model IDs that may be linked to e.g., a lookup table, etc.

[0129] WTRU may receive a configuration associated with the pathloss (or UL Tx power) predictions (e.g., when to trigger predictions or conditions of the pathloss prediction, for how long, a model identifier (ID) to use, model output type, e.g., one time prediction, time series, classification of pathloss levels, etc., thresholds for confidence of those predictions or a threshold that indicates confidence of the pathloss prediction).

[0130] The WTRU may receive a configuration associated with the pathloss or UL Tx power prediction. For example, the WTRU may receive a configuration associated with when and / or how to perform predictions.

[0131] The configuration may include information related to when to trigger predictions. The information may include an immediate indication from the NW, in which case the WTRU executes predictions immediately. The information may include a specific future timestamp for when to start the predictions. The information may include certain events that upon happening, will trigger the predictions. The WTRU may receive threshold(s) for measurements, where the thresholds may relate to an upper / lower bound for the measurements, change rate over a certain time window, average values, etc., for either L1 and / or L3 measurements, e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, PL, CLI-IM, etc. The thresholds may explicitly be associated with either pathloss, and / or UL Tx power, so the WTRU may trigger predictions for one of the outputs, or both at the same time.

[0132] The configuration may include information related to timing and model output type, e.g., for how long in the future to produce predicted values (e.g., a future time window that may be represented with an end time, a timer, a number of Tx occasions, a number of slots / frames, etc.), how many predicted values (e.g., a specific number of output samples). The WTRU may be configured with a number of predictions for the WTRU to execute during the given window. The WTRU may be configured in any form, for example, the WTRU may execute predictions for an x number of time, and may for each time, be instructed to produce different number of predictions, e.g., output 5 values for the first predictions, output 10 values for the secondprediction, etc. The number of predictions may also be configured via a confidence value, in which case the WTRU may output a number of samples considering the confidence value of those estimations is higher than a threshold because, in time series predictions, the longer in the future the WTRU predicts, the lower the confidence associated with that prediction.

[0133] The WTRU may be instructed to use one or more models, which may be signaled implicitly or explicitly by the NW, and may be identified by its characteristics (e.g., model type and / or model ID). The WTRU may use one or more models to generate the predictions and determine which model yields the highest accuracy for, for example, a given number of predictions.

[0134] The WTRU may also be instructed to classify the pathloss into certain levels. The levels may refer to the stability of the pathloss values, the intervals for pathloss values, etc. A simple classification example may be stable vs unstable, where the stability may be assessed, for example, by the change rate of the WTRU measured and / or estimated pathloss. The classification may be more detailed following the same principle, e.g., it may be classified as stable, relatively stable, unstable, very unstable, etc. The pathloss may also be classified using e.g., threshold and / or interval values, where in this case the WTRU may classify the pathloss as high, medium, low, etc., based on the fact that the pathloss values are within a certain interval and / or above / below certain threshold(s).

[0135] WTRU may receive a configuration associated with the application of the predicted or measured values (e.g., use measured pathloss values when available or predicted values otherwise). Because the pathloss is measured using L3-RSRP, the real pathloss measurement may depend on the measurement configuration the WTRU has active at a time. Using the same measurement configuration may result in a certain fixed periodicity in which the pathloss values are available. For example, if the measurement configuration permits an RSRP value every x ms, then the pathloss values may be available every x ms. The WTRU may therefore be configured with certain parameters to help determine when to use measured and / or predicted pathloss values.

[0136] Using different measurement configurations may be described herein. In one example, the WTRU may use the current measurement configuration and may use pathloss values when available, and predicted ones otherwise. In another example, the WTRU may receive a plurality of measurement configurations, or an indication for pre-configured measurement configurations, to activate and use according to certain rules. The rules may include thresholds and / or intervals for any measurement, e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, PL, CLI-IM, etc., in which case the WTRU may activate a different measurement configuration, if, for example, the current RSRP falls within acertain interval and / or above / below a certain threshold. The activation may be based on a NW triggered indication, based on reported measurements from the WTRU. The different measurement threshold(s) and / or intervals may be configured simultaneously, so that the WTRU activates a measurement configuration based on multiple criteria. Examples include activating a measurement configuration if Cross Link Interference - Interference Management (CLI-IM) measurements are above a certain threshold, and the RSRP change rate is higher / lower than another threshold. In another example, the WTRU may activate another measurement configuration if PL falls below a threshold, and RSRP remains stable. In another example, the WTRU may activate another measurement configuration if RSRQ is below a certain threshold, and CLI-IM measurements are within a certain interval, and the RSRP change rate is above a certain threshold. Other examples could be given, combining different measurements for the WTRU to assess that would lead to the activation on another measurement configuration.

[0137] Using the same measurement configuration may be described herein. In this case, there may be a periodicity for the availability of pathloss values. In between, the WTRU may have to estimate the pathloss to use in the Tx power formula, something left today for WTRU implementation. The WTRU may therefore be configured to trigger predicted pathloss values, for the time instances in between when pathloss is available. In this case, the WTRU may estimate the pathloss based on AI / ML methods, statistical based methods (e.g., interpolation), and / or heuristics. The WTRU may also combine methods, e.g., AI / ML and statistical methods, as explained below.

[0138] For AI / ML based methods, the WTRU may trigger pathloss predictions for some the time instances when pathloss is not available. In another example, the WTRU may trigger predictions for a subset of those time instances. The number of predictions may be thus configurable and may be a result of a specific NW indication, or may be left to WTRU implementation (e.g., the WTRU may output a number of predictions based on current computational delay). The number of predictions may also be associated with different measurement related criteria, where the examples given above would apply equally here. As an example, the WTRU may output some possible predicted values (e.g., for some the time instances when pathloss is not available), if a measurement related criteria is met, e.g., if the RSRP change rate falls below a negative threshold (RSRP is dropping in absolute value), and / or CLI-IM measurements are within a certain interval, and / or PL is lower than a threshold.

[0139] For statistical based methods (e.g., interpolation), the WTRU may receive a configuration related to which interpolation method to use. The interpolation method mayalready be a WTRU capability, the NW may indicate which methods are allowed, etc. This indication may be part of the initial configuration, another RRC configuration, may be signaled via MAC CE and / or DCI. The configuration related to which interpolation method to use may also be associated with different measurement related criteria, where the examples given above in [Using different measurement configurations] would apply equally here. As an example, the WTRU may use Barycentric Lagrange or Krogh, if the RSRP change rate falls below a negative threshold (e.g., RSRP is dropping in absolute value), and / or CLI-IM measurements are within a certain interval, and / or SNR is lower than a threshold. As another example, the WTRU may use linear interpolation given that RSRP change rate is below a certain threshold, and / or current RSRP is higher than another threshold, and / or CLI-IM measurements fall below another threshold. The second example would represent a situation where the radio conditions are stable, with low interference, and a simpler interpolation method may suffice in the task of estimating the pathloss.

[0140] In a combined approach with AI / ML and statistical based methods, the WTRU may predict pathloss values for a subset of the time instances where pathloss is not available, and after perform estimation, e.g., via interpolation. In this case, the WTRU may perform the task e.g., by applying the described configuration for both methods sequentially.

[0141] WTRU may receive a configuration associated with the decoding of a TPC command. For example, for a TPC received for PUSCH, WTRU may derive subsequent TPC command values for PUCCH and SRS that are a delta number of symbols or slots separated from the received command.

[0142] While transmitting in the UL, the WTRU may receive a TPC command, e.g., via DCI signaling to adjust the Tx power of the UL channels. The purpose of the described configuration may be for the WTRU to be able to receive one or more TPC commands from the NW and being able to decode and apply them to the UL channels / transmissions.

[0143] The TPC command may be assumed to be received for a channel, and the WTRU may be able to decode it and apply it possibly in a different manner, to other channels. For example, a TPC command received for PUSCH may be applied for the PUSCH, but it may be applied with a certain difference (e.g., in dB) for the PUCCH. If the PUSCH TPC command indicates lower Tx power by 2dB, then the WTRU may deduce 2dB for the next transmissions, but may deduce 2dB minus a delta for the PUCCH. Same may happen conversely, e.g., the TPC command may be received for PUCCH, and applied for this channel, but the WTRU would deduce 2dB and a delta to the PUSCH.

[0144] Application to other channels may be described herein. The received TPC command may be applied to some channels in the same manner. For example, using the formula for the channel to which the received TPC command refers to. The received TPC command may be applied to a subset of the channels, in the same manner. The received TPC command may be applied to some channels, but each channel uses its own Tx power formula. The received TPC command may be applied to a subset of the channels, but each channel uses its own Tx power formula, etc.

[0145] Derivation for other channels may be implemented. If for example, the TPC command is received for PUSCH, the WTRU may determine the Tx power for PUSCH, but then it may derive the power adjustment for PUCCH and / or SRS. For the adjustment, the WTRU may have preconfigured deltas to apply directly for each UL channel, where an example has already been provided above. The delta may be specific for a channel, e.g., if the TPC command refers to PUSCH, then PUCCH delta = 2dB and / or SRS delta = 4dB. The delta may also be relative, for example, PUCCH delta = 2dB, and SRS delta = 10% of PUCCH delta. The delta may be positive or negative for any channel.

[0146] Bounds in power adjustment may be described herein. The adjustment may contain different bounds for the adjustment of each channel, for example, if TPC command instructs more power, there may be e.g., a percentage associated with how much power is increased for other channel, but up to a certain threshold. In this case, the WTRU may adjust the Tx power for any channel within the bounds configured by the NW. If for any reason, the adjustment for one or more channels falls outside the given bounds, the WTRU may send an indication reporting this event to the NW, for example, via UCI, MAC CE and / or L3 messaging.

[0147] WTRU may receive a configuration associated with the decoding of a TPC command. For example, for the decoding and usage of a predictive TPC command, in case the PL, RSRP and / or UL Tx power predictions may be generated from the NW side. In the case where the pathloss, RSRP and / UL Tx power predictions are generated from the NW side, the WTRU may receive a configuration associated with the decoding and usage of a predictive TPC command.

[0148] Because of the predictive nature of the command, the information contained in the received TPC command may refer to more than one Tx occasions, and / or may refer to a certain future time interval. The information may be explicitly signaled to the WTRU, e.g., indicating a number of slots / frames, a time duration, etc., or the information may be implicitly signaled to the WTRU, for example, by embedding and delivering to the WTRU a number of TPC commands to be applied at a certain fixed rate. In this case the WTRU may store the predictive TPC commands and apply them to future UL Tx occasions, for the given duration.

[0149] The details described above, where the WTRU may derive power adjustments to other channels if, for example, the TPC command was received for PUSCH, may also apply to the case of predictive TPC commands. In this case, the deltas may be further adjusted and / or bounded, depending on the confidence of the one or more TPC commands contained in the predictive TPC command. The predictive TPC command may have associated with it a certain confidence for some of the predictions, for each prediction and / or for groups of predictions (e.g., 95% confidence for the first 5 predictions, 90% confidence for the next 5 predictions, 85% confidence for the next 3 predictions, and so on). In this case, the WTRU may be configured to adjust the Tx power for the respective channel by applying the TPC command as received, if the confidence of that command is above a certain threshold, but to adjust the Tx power for the same channel with a certain bound, if the confidence is lower. In this example, if the confidence threshold would be 90%, and the bound 50%, the WTRU would then adjust the power for the UL channel by applying the received commands as received for the first 10 Tx occasions and would cap the power adjustment by 50% of the original adjustment, for the remaining 3 Tx occasions.

[0150] For the cases described above, the WTRU may receive an associated criteria relating to other measurements, e.g., L1 and / or L3 measurements, e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, PL, CLI-IM, etc., for validating the application of the received TPC commands, either multi-channel and / or predictive commands. The WTRU may receive threshold and / or intervals for one or more of the mentioned measurements, that the WTRU would then assess to determine if the measurement criteria is met, and in that case, the WTRU would apply the TPC commands as described, and otherwise. This “validation configuration” may be configured at the WTRU separately for multichannel and predictive TPC commands.

[0151] WTRU may predict one or more pathloss values (e.g., or UL Tx power) for the configured duration. The WTRU may trigger the predictions of pathloss or UL Tx power for the configured duration, according to the configuration described above and / or detailed provided in the background. The WTRU may equally trigger predictions of RSRP for support in the decisionmaking process.

[0152] The WTRU may determine predicted pathloss based on one or more reference signal (RS) measurements (e.g., RSRP, Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), SINR, Channel State Information (CSI), risk indicator (Rl), Channel Quality Indicator (CQI), Precoder Matrix Indicator (PMI), Angle of Arrival (AoA), angle of departure (AoD), Doppler spread, Doppler shift, delay spread, average delay), WTRU configuration (e.g., number of Rx antennas, Rx antenna pattern, number of panels, spatial filter, bandwidth), WTRU scenario (e.g., current speed, current location, current direction of mobility, predicted speed, predicted location, predicteddirection of mobility), Trained AI / ML model (e.g., trained for the current configuration and / or scenario), and / or Predicted future UL / DL data transmission / reception.

[0153] The WTRU may determine the duration for which a set of pathloss values is valid. For example, the WTRU may determine a duration to be the maximum duration for which the predicted pathloss values are stable or consistent. The duration may be limited by a configurable maximum duration value. A predicted pathloss value may be considered stable or consistent based on the variance of the predicted pathloss values during a duration is less than a threshold amount, the difference between a maximum pathloss value and minimum pathloss value is less than a threshold amount, and / or the rate of change between two or more pathloss values is less than a threshold amount.

[0154] The WTRU may determine for a Tx occasion (or for a set of Tx occasions or UL transmission or set of UL transmissions) whether to use actual or predicted pathloss values, for example, based on one or more of: current PL, predicted PL, current RSRP measurements, predicted RSRP values, predicted period of stability or instability of the RSRP / PL, duration / timing of predicted period of stability or instability of the RSRP / PL, timing of transmission, and / or timing of received RSs (e.g., RSs used to perform RSRP / PL measurements or predictions).

[0155] The WTRU may determine for a Tx occasion (or for a set of Tx occasions or UL transmission or set of UL transmissions) whether to use actual or predicted pathloss values where a period of stability may be defined by a set of predicted measurements (e.g., over a determined period of time) whose variance (e.g., or difference between max and min values, or max / min rate of change) is less than a configurable threshold. The WTRU may determine for a Tx occasion (or for a set of Tx occasions or UL transmission or set of UL transmissions) whether to use actual or predicted pathloss values where a period of instability may be defined by a set of predicted measurements (e.g., over a determined a period of time) whose variance (e.g., or difference between max and min values or max / min rate of change) is greater than a configurable threshold.

[0156] The WTRU may have checked if the configured criteria related to when to trigger predictions, for how long, etc. is met. The WTRU may then check the rules described above to determine if an additional measurement configuration may be activated or if the current measurement configuration is valid. In any case, the WTRU may know implicitly whether it has, for a given time slot, a pathloss measured value, or an estimated one. This may be because the pathloss follows the same periodicity as the L3-RSRP measurement configuration.

[0157] Then, for a Tx occasion (or for a set of Tx occasions or UL transmission or set of UL transmissions), the WTRU may know whether the measured value is available, or if a predicted value needs to be used. In the latter case, the determination may involve several aspects, described below. At first glance, it may be easy to say that when the WTRU does not have an available PL, it may use an estimated or predicted value. This may however not be the ideal possibility. A simple example may be if the confidence of a predicted value falls under a threshold (e.g., 70%), and the RSRP change rate may follow a continuous change rate of 0 (zero), then it may be better to use the last know PL value, as opposed to the estimated one.

[0158] For the determination herein, the WTRU may be configured with threshold(s) and / or intervals for the current / predicted PL, current / predicted RSRP values, threshold(s) and / or intervals for the classification of stability or instability of PL / RSRP, etc. The terminology current in use here may refer to the current value as measured by the WTRU, and / or may refer to a certain configurable past time window, that the WTRU uses to assess, e.g., the evolution of a metric. It may need to account for the evolution (e.g., change rate) of a certain metric, e.g., PL.

[0159] The WTRU may determine for current PL and / or RSRP, other relevant statistical metrics like average values, min / max values, drop rate and / or growth rate (or change rate), deviation from a median value, etc. These metrics may help in the definition of a classification for the PL / RSRP, because they represent the way the PL / RSRP is changing. They may therefore be linked to the classification of stability (e.g., stable vs unstable, very low stability, low stability, medium stability, high stability, very high stability, etc.).

[0160] The WTRU may make the decision to apply an estimated value (e.g., and the estimation method) based on this configuration. A few examples are herein presented.

[0161] If the PL change rate is below a threshold, the WTRU may apply the last measured PL value. If the PL is higher than a threshold, and the RSRP falls under another threshold, the WTRU may apply an estimated value using Lagrange (e.g., or any other) interpolation method. If at least one of the predicted PL values has a confidence lower than a certain threshold, the WTRU may apply the last measured PL value. If at least one of the predicted PL values has a confidence lower than a certain threshold, the WTRU may apply an estimated value using Lagrange (e.g., or any other) interpolation method. If a number of the predicted PL values has a confidence lower than a certain threshold, the WTRU may apply an estimated value using Lagrange (e.g., or any other) interpolation method. If one of the predicted PL values deviates more than a certain threshold from the average value during a certain past time window, the WTRU may use the last PL measured value.

[0162] The same examples may be applied to RSRP, instead of PL. Both metrics may also be combined further, for this WTRU determination. As an example, if the PL is within a certain interval, and the RSRP change rate is higher than a threshold, the WTRU may apply a predicted value. Same may be said for the stability of the PL / RSRP.

[0163] The timing of transmission and / or the timing of received RSs (e.g., RSs used to perform RSRP / PL measurements or predictions) may also play a role in this determination. The WTRU may be configured with certain bounds related to timing aspects, that may impact the determination. For Tx occasion, the WTRU may either have a measured pathloss value, or an estimated one. Thresholds for the Tx timing may therefore be set. These thresholds may be a time difference (e.g., absolute time, number of slots, frames, etc.) between the time of the last measured PL / RSRP value(s) and the time of the Tx occasion. As an example, the WTRU may determine to apply predicted (e.g., or interpolated) PL values if the time difference between the last measured PL value and the considered Tx occasion is higher than a threshold. Thresholds for the timing of received RSs may also be set. These may be a time difference between one or more sampled PL from one of more of the RSs from where the WTRU is configured to sample the PL from, and the considered Tx occasion. As one example, the WTRU may determine to use a predicted / estimated PL value, if this time difference is higher than a threshold. As another example, the WTRU may determine to use a predicted / estimated PL value, if the WTRU already sampled the one or more RSs more than a certain number of times.

[0164] In addition, the confidence of the predicted PL / RSRP values may dictate for how long (e.g., a validity period) the WTRU has determined to use predicted / estimated values. For example, given a 95% confidence value, the WTRU may predict x number of predicted values, and that may then be easily converted into a time, e.g., a validity period.

[0165] The WTRU may transmit an indication to the NW related to the usage of predicted or measured PL values. An indication may include an indication of duration or the number of slots / frames / ms for which the predictions are determined to be valid (e.g., validity period), (e.g., based on the confidence level of the prediction). An indication may include a prediction confidence value, max predicted value change rate during the validity period, min / max predicted values, duration of upcoming stable / unstable period, and / or parameters related to upcoming stable / unstable period interpolation methods used. This indication may be done via UCI, MAC CE, or RRC.

[0166] The WTRU may transmit an indication to the gNB including one or more predicted pathloss values. The WTRU may transmit an indication to the gNB including the duration of one or more predicted pathloss value. For example, the WTRU may determine a duration for whicha predicted pathloss value is valid. In another example, the WTRU may determine and report a duration for which a pathloss is expected to be stable or unstable. The WTRU may transmit an indication to the gNB including prediction confidence value. The WTRU may transmit an indication to the gNB including statistics associated with one or more predicted pathloss values. The statistics associated may include a max or min predicted value change rate, a maximum or minimum predicted pathloss value.

[0167] The WTRU may transmit this indication to the NW, via UCI, MAC CE, and / or RRC. This indication may include one or more of: an indication of duration or the number of slots / frames / ms for which the predictions are determined to be valid (validity period), (e.g., based on the confidence level of the prediction), a prediction confidence value, max predicted value change rate during the validity period, min / max predicted values, duration of upcoming stable / unstable period, parameters related to upcoming stable / unstable period interpolation methods used, etc.

[0168] The indication may be transmitted in a PUCCH or PUSCH transmission. The PUCCH or PUSCH transmission may be performed using the predicted pathloss value. In another method, the PUCCH or PUSCH transmission may be performed using a measured pathloss value.

[0169] The WTRU may be triggered to report the predicted pathloss indication based on change in predicted pathloss. For example, if the predicted pathloss value differs from a previously reported pathloss value by more than a threshold amount. The WTRU may be triggered to report the predicted pathloss indication based on validation of predicted pathloss. For example, if a measured pathloss value differs from a previously reported pathloss value by more than a threshold amount, the WTRU may report another pathloss value indication indicating failed validation of predictions. The WTRU may be triggered to report the predicted pathloss indication based on time. For example, the WTRU may be configured to report the predicted pathloss indication periodically. In another example, the WTRU may report another predicted pathloss indication after configured or WTRU-determined duration. The WTRU may be triggered to report the predicted pathloss indication based on NW request. The WTRU may be requested to aperiodically report the predicted pathloss indication. The request may be received by the WTRU in a DCI (e.g., enhanced TPC command), or MAC CE or RRC.

[0170] Based on the pathloss predictions, and the received configuration, the WTRU may determine the UL Tx power to use. Methods and apparatuses may include details provided in the configuration processes.

[0171] WTRU may transmit in the UL with a predicted UL Tx power value for the Tx occasion(s). WTRU may transmit using either a predicted UL Tx power value, or a UL Tx powervalue that was determined using a predicted PL / RSRP value, for the Tx occasion(s). The WTRU may indicate whether a transmission uses measured PL or predicted PL.

[0172] WTRU may receive a TPC command from the NW (e.g., a generalized command targeting PUSCH). Methods and apparatuses may include stop applying predicted Tx power values to UL transmission.

[0173] In addition to the details described above, the WTRU may receive an explicit indication from the NW to stop applying predicted Tx power values to transmissions. NW may decide this because it is doing the performance monitoring (E.g., after the WTRU started using the AI / ML model for prediction, it was noticed that more TPC commands were required to maintain a certain required Tx power). But that may be up to NW implementation. The indication could be another TPC DCI format or some other indication (e.g., DCI or MAC CE). The WTRU may stop applying predicted Tx power values to transmissions (e.g., the WTRU determines a second UL Tx power for a second transmission using UL Tx power configuration and performs the second transmission using the determined second UL Tx power). The WTRU may transmit an indication that it fell back to power control for the UL transmissions.

[0174] WTRU may determine the power adjustment based on one or more of: whether predicted or measured PL was used in a first (e.g., previous) transmission, the predicted or measured PL, whether predicted or measured PL will be used in a second (e.g., subsequent) transmission, UL Tx power value and the received TPC command, received configuration.

[0175] WTRU may receive a predictive TPC command (e.g., if the predictions of PL, RSRP and / or UL Tx power are generated from the NW side). The NW may have the capability of predicting WTRU PL / RSRP / transmit power, generating predictive TPC commands in the process. The process for predicting WTRU PL / transmit power may be a replica of the process in the WTRU side.

[0176] Methods and apparatuses may include toggling between measured / predicted TPC for Tx occasion(s). The WTRU may receive an indication from the NW (along with the predicted TPC commands), that for a set of WTRU UL Tx occasions [1... n] whether to use the measured or predicted TPC commands for adjusting Tx power. This decision may be based on one or more of the current PL, RSRP, the predicted RSRP, PL value(s), duration / timing of predicted period of stability or instability of the RSRP / PL, timing of WTRU transmission, etc. The period of stability may be defined by a set of predicted measurements (over a determined period) whose variance (or difference between max and min values, or max / min rate of change) is less than a configurable threshold. Where a period of instability may be defined by a set of predictedmeasurements (over a determined period) whose variance (or difference between max and min values or max / min rate of change) is greater than a configurable threshold.

[0177] Methods and apparatuses may include applying predicted TPC values. The WTRU may receive an indication from the NW (e.g., along with the predicted TPC values) related to the usage of the predicted TPC values. This indication may contain one or more of an indication of the number of slots / frames / milliseconds for which the predictions are determined to be valid (validity period), (e.g., based on the confidence level of the prediction), a prediction confidence value, max predicted value change rate during the validity period, min / max predicted values, duration of upcoming stable / unstable period, parameters related to upcoming stable / unstable period interpolation methods used, etc.

[0178] Methods and apparatuses may include reasons for TPC adjustment for future Tx occasions. Associated with the predicted TPC commands, there may be an indication from the NW regarding the reason for the TPC adjustment, (e.g., apply adjustment or consider TPC for ground truth value) and / or a prohibit timer.

[0179] In scenarios of non-optimal power setting, the NW may determine prediction could be a lower value and transmission would still be well received (e.g., in this case, the WTRU may apply the adjustment to the next predicted value(s) or consider the adjustment as ground truth and run a round of training).

[0180] In scenarios of prediction correction, the NW may determine a ground truth value for the predictions and uses the TPC indication for the WTRU to store the ground truth value, for training purposes (in this case, the WTRU considers the adjustment as ground truth and runs a round of training). The correction may also apply to a longer past time span.

[0181] Even if the WTRU’s prediction was correct, the NW may still want to decrease the WTRU power usage for some time (e.g., to prioritize other WTRUs, to reduce overall interference, etc., for a while). The NW may make the WTRU aware of this through predicted TPC commands.

[0182] The predicted TPCs may carry a prohibit timer, based on NW assessment of UL Tx power values (the timer may be extended by the WTRU, setting a higher timer than the one received based on accuracy / bounds / etc. of the next predictions, see details described above). The predicted TPCs may be explicit (e.g., the indication is a MAC CE, and the NW explicitly indicates the prohibit duration, e.g., actual time duration, number of slots, until a certain slot / frame number, number of transmissions, etc.). Or the predicted TPCs could be implicit (e.g., different DCIs for prohibiting the WTRU to use predictions for a certain time / slots / number of transmissions, etc.).

[0183] The predicted TPC command may inform the WTRU about the rules for the determination of the relation between the command and the different UL channels. This may also be achieved by pre-configuration of rules. The TPC command may be applied to some channels in the same manner or according to the given formula of the channel. E.g., if the TPC command is received for PUCCH, the WTRU may determine the Tx power for PUCCH, but then it may derive the power adjustment for PUSCH (e.g., for PUCCH, apply lower / higher Tx power for the PUSCH, and higher / lower power for SRS). This may work for a TPC command received for any channel, or from a generalized command from which adjustment for PUSCH, PUCCH, SRS, may be derived.

[0184] The adjustment may contain different bounds for the adjustment of each channel, e.g., if TPC command instructs more power, there may be a percentage associated with how much power is increased for other channel, but up to a certain threshold. The deltas / percentages for other channels may be positive / negative so that power may be increased in one channel but decreased on others.

[0185] The WTRU may determine the power adjustment for subsequent one or more transmissions based on the received predictive TPC command (e.g., if the predictive TPC command contains more than one power adjustment as predicted by the NW).

[0186] The WTRU may determine next UL Tx power value by taking the predicted TPC command and applying it. In addition, there could be a specific indication from the NW accompanying the predictive TPC command, that the WTRU may decode as an application method for the TPC command. The WTRU may determine next UL Tx power value by applying predicted TPC on the predicted Tx power for the designated future Tx occasion. This process is like where the WTRU applies the measured TPC on the measured Tx power for the next Tx occasion. The WTRU may determine next UL Tx power value by applying predicted TPC - derived adjustments to each UL channel (one or more UL channels). The WTRU may determine next UL Tx power value by applying predicted TPC command to the last WTRU prediction of PL / Tx power and run one or more rounds of training. The WTRU may determine next UL Tx power value by applying predicted TPC command (increase / decrease power) to the previously predicted UL Tx power values for the respective Tx occasions and continue using WTRU Tx power prediction-based approach. The WTRU may determine next UL Tx power value by stopping WTRU Tx power prediction and its application to Tx occasions while prohibit timer is running. When prohibit timer is running, the WTRU may determine a second UL Tx power for a second transmission using UL Tx power configuration and / or perform the second transmission using the determined second UL Tx power. Upon timer expiry, the WTRU may start applyingpredicted UL Tx power values to its transmissions. Optionally, upon timer expiry, the WTRU may report on the prediction related metrics.

[0187] The WTRU may assist the NW to perform accurate TPC predictions by providing WTRU indications, which may WTRU validation of a NW prediction and / or WTRU transmission of a special SRS to enable the NW to determine pathloss.

[0188] The WTRU, after receiving the NW indication of predicted TPC commands and their application methods, may assist the NW in generating accurate predictive TPC commands for the future time instances. The WTRU may trigger its own predictions for either PL / RSRP / Tx power, and compare the NW predicted values included in the TPC command(s) with the UE predicted values. The WTRU may send an indication of the result to the NW and may also choose to transmit a special SRS to the NW to aid the NW in generating accurate pathloss values. This may enable the NW to generate more accurate predictive TPC commands.

[0189] Methods and apparatuses may include WTRU validation of NW TPC prediction. Upon the reception of predicted TPC commands from the NW, the WTRU may compare the resulting UL Tx power with the WTRU predicted UL Tx power for the corresponding future time instance(s). The WTRU may send an indication to the NW about this comparison result, to aid the NW in the prediction process. The indication may include the full set of WTRU generated predictions, a subset of them, an indication that the predictions are invalid, etc. This may be determined by the WTRU by e.g., comparing one or more confidence values received from the NW, with the confidence values of the WTRU generated predictions. The NW may also indicate a maximum deviation for one or more of the predicted values, for the WTRU to assess, in which case the WTRU may trigger an indication of the one or more predictions that exceed the deviation. The WTRU may also send this indication in the form of a time window, during which its predictions are considered valid when compared with the NW generated predictions.

[0190] Methods and apparatuses may include WTRU transmission of a special SRS to enable the NW to determine pathloss. The WTRU may transmit a special SRS to the NW to allow the NW to determine pathloss which may aid the NW in generating more accurate predictive TPC commands. This may be beneficial when there is a difference between the WTRU predicted UL Tx power and the UL Tx power from NW predicted TPC commands. By using the WTRU provided SRS, the NW may determine the pathloss with more accuracy and may generate more accurate predictive TPC commands, thus minimizing the difference between the predicted UL Tx power generated by the WTRU and the NW. The transmission of the SRS by the WTRU may be triggered by the determination that the NW generated predictions are invalid, that the confidence of the one or more predictions is lower than a threshold, and / or may be configuredfor the WTRU to transmit with the initial configuration, etc. The resources used for this SRS transmission may also have been pre-configured, and may have a certain BW, number of slots, periodicity, etc. The NW may also configure this upon reception of an indication from the WTRU that the predictions are not valid. The WTRU may also send at any point in time a suggestion for the SRS resources, that the NW may provide or not.

[0191] Methods and apparatuses may include WTRU performs a second UL transmission. The WTRU may determine a second UL Tx power for a second transmission using UL Tx power configuration and may perform the second transmission using the determined second UL Tx power.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU) comprising: a processor configured to: send, to a network, an indication that the WTRU has a pathloss prediction capability; receive, from the network, configuration information associated with pathloss prediction; determine a measured pathloss value associated with a time instance; predict a pathloss value associated with a future time instance; determine whether to use the measured pathloss value or the predicted pathloss value for an uplink transmission based on a comparison of the measured pathloss value and the predicted pathloss value; and send, to the network, an indication that indicates whether the measured pathloss value or the predicted pathloss value is used to send the uplink transmission.

2. The WTRU of claim 1 , wherein the configuration information comprises a prediction duration, and wherein the processor is configured to: predict whether pathloss is stable or unstable for the prediction duration based on the predicted pathloss value; and determine to use the predicted pathloss value for the uplink transmission when the pathloss is predicted to be stable for the prediction duration and determine to use the measured pathloss value when the pathloss is predicted to be unstable for the prediction duration.

3. The WTRU of claim 2, wherein the processor is configured to determine that the pathloss is stable for the prediction duration when a plurality of predicted pathloss values over the duration do not vary by more than a variance threshold.

4. The WTRU of claim 2, wherein the determination of whether to use the measured pathloss value or the predicted pathloss value is based on reference signal received power (RSRP) measurements, predicted RSRP values, a duration of a predicted period of stability or instability of RSRP measurements, timing of the uplink transmission, or timing of received reference signals (RSs) associated with the RSRP measurements.

5. The WTRU of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to: determine a transmit power for the uplink transmission based on the predicted pathloss value; andtransmit the uplink transmission using the transmit power that is determined based on the predicted pathloss value.

6. The WTRU of claim 5, wherein the transmit power for the uplink transmission is determined without transmit power control (TPC) commands associated with the uplink transmission.

7. The WTRU of claim 1 , wherein the configuration information comprises triggering conditions of the pathloss prediction, a model identifier, a model output type, or a threshold that indicates confidence of the pathloss prediction.

8. The WTRU of claim 7, wherein the model output type comprises a single prediction value, a time series of prediction value, or a classification of pathloss values.

9. The WTRU of claim 1 , wherein the configuration information comprises a prediction duration, wherein the indication comprises an indication of a duration for which predicted pathloss values are determined to be valid, a prediction confidence value associated with the predicted pathloss value, a maximum predicted pathloss value during the prediction duration, or a minimum predicted pathloss value during the prediction duration.

10. The WTRU of claim 1 , wherein the indication is sent via an uplink control information (UCI), a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or a radio resource control (RRC).

11. A method performed by a wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU), the method comprising: sending, to a network, an indication that the WTRU has a pathloss prediction capability; receiving, from the network, configuration information associated with pathloss prediction; determining a measured pathloss value associated with a time instance; predicting a pathloss value associated with a future time instance; determining whether to use the measured pathloss value or the predicted pathloss value for an uplink transmission based on the measured pathloss value and the predicted pathloss value; andsending, to the network, an indication that indicates whether the measured pathloss value or the predicted pathloss value is used to send the uplink transmission.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the configuration information comprises a prediction duration, and wherein the method comprises: predicting whether pathloss is stable or unstable for the prediction duration based on the predicted pathloss value; and determining to use the predicted pathloss value for the uplink transmission when the pathloss is predicted to be stable for the prediction duration and determine to use the measured pathloss value when the pathloss is predicted to be unstable for the prediction duration.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining that the pathloss is stable for the prediction duration when a plurality of predicted pathloss values over the duration do not vary by more than a variance threshold.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the determination of whether to use the measured pathloss value or the predicted pathloss value is based on reference signal received power (RSRP) measurements, predicted RSRP values, a duration of a predicted period of stability or instability of RSRP measurements, timing of the uplink transmission, or timing of received reference signals (RSs) associated with the RSRP measurements.

15. The method of claim 11 , further comprising: determining a transmit power for the uplink transmission based on the predicted pathloss value; and transmitting the uplink transmission using the transmit power that is determined based on the predicted pathloss value.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the transmit power for the uplink transmission is determined without transmit power control (TPC) commands associated with the uplink transmission.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the configuration information comprises triggering conditions of the pathloss prediction, a model identifier, a model output type, or a threshold that indicates confidence of the pathloss prediction.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the model output type comprises a single prediction value, a time series of prediction value, or a classification of pathloss values.

19. The method of claim 11 , wherein the configuration information comprises a prediction duration, wherein the indication comprises an indication of a duration for which predicted pathloss values are determined to be valid, a prediction confidence value associated with the predicted pathloss value, a maximum predicted pathloss value during the prediction duration, or a minimum predicted pathloss value during the prediction duration.

20. The method of claim 11 , wherein the indication is sent via an uplink control information (UCI), a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or a radio resource control (RRC).

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