Performing measurements in wireless networks employing relaying

Abstract

Procedures, methods, architectures, apparatuses, systems, devices, and computer program products for performing measurements by a remote wireless transmit-receive unit, WTRU, in wireless networks. The WTRU receives, from a network node, configuration information comprising measurement event configurations and per measurement event first conditions related to measurements to be performed by the remote WTRU and second conditions related to measurements to be performed by a relay WTRU, and actions associated with the measurement, to be performed by the remote WTRU when the first and second conditions apply. The remote WTRU monitors the first and second conditions, and upon detecting fulfillment of the first and second conditions, performs the actions associated with the measurement event.

Description

PERFORMING MEASUREMENTS IN WIRELESS NETWORKS EMPLOYING RELAYINGCROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 620,511 filed 12- January-2024 which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.FIELD

[0002] The present disclosure is generally directed to the fields of communications, software and encoding, including, for example, to methods, architectures, apparatuses, systems related to performing measurements in wireless network employing relayingBACKGROUND

[0003] Release 18 work on SL relay handles multipath where the remote WTRU can transmit via a direct Uu path and an indirect path via a WTRU to NW relay.

[0004] A remote WTRU which is out of NW coverage may want to take advantage of bandwidth and reliability extensions of multipath as well. This can be achieved with multiple relay WTRUs serving as different paths. The remote WTRU (which may or may not have a direct path) can communicate via multiple indirect paths using a SL or ideal (e.g., non-3GPP) connection.

[0005] A SL relay may be connected to the remote WTRU via a PC5 link or a proprietary / non- 3GPP link (referred to also as ideal link in this document). For ideal type links, methods and procedures are to be defined for optimal resource usage.SUMMARY

[0006] Embodiments are disclosed, described and claimed in the appended claims, which embodiments contribute to further improvements in New Radio networks.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0007] A more detailed understanding may be had from the detailed description below, given by way of example in conjunction with drawings appended hereto. Figures in such drawings, like the detailed description, are examples. As such, the Figures (FIGs.) and the detailed description are not to be considered limiting, and other equally effective examples are possible and likely. Furthermore, like reference numerals ("ref.") in the FIGs. indicate like elements, and wherein:

[0008] FIG. 1 A is a system diagram illustrating an example communications system;

[0009] FIG. IB is a system diagram illustrating an example wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU) that may be used within the communications system illustrated in FIG. 1 A;

[0010] 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;

[0011] FIG. ID 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. 1 A;

[0012] FIG. 2 is a network topology wherein a wireless receive-transmit unit (WTRU) (‘remote WTRU’) that is out of coverage of a network node, uses the services of an intermediate WTRU (‘relay WTRU’) that is in coverage of the network node, to communicate with the network node.

[0013] FIG. 3 is a user plane protocol stack for L2 WTRU-to-Network relay;

[0014] FIG. 4 is a control plane protocol stack for L2 WTRU-to-Network relay;

[0015] FIG. 5 is a network topology where a WTRU can communicate via multiple indirect paths using an SL or ideal (e.g., non-3GPP) connection;

[0016] FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a method according to an embodiment; and

[0017] FIG. 7 is a flow chart of a method according to an embodiment.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0018] In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments and / or examples disclosed herein. However, it will be understood that such embodiments and examples may be practiced without some or all of the specific details set forth herein. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components and circuits have not been described in detail, so as not to obscure the following description. Further, embodiments and examples not specifically described herein may be practiced in lieu of, or in combination with, the embodiments and other examples described, disclosed or otherwise provided explicitly, implicitly and / or inherently (collectively "provided") herein. Although various embodiments are described and / or claimed herein in which an apparatus, system, device, etc. and / or any element thereof carries out an operation, process, algorithm, function, etc. and / or any portion thereof, it is to be understood that any embodiments described and / or claimed herein assume that any apparatus, system, device, etc. and / or any element thereof is configured to carry out any operation, process, algorithm, function, etc. and / or any portion thereof.

[0019] Abbreviations and AcronymsACK AcknowledgementBLER Block Error RateBWP Bandwidth PartCA Carrier aggregationCAP Channel Access PriorityCAPC Channel access priority class CCA Clear Channel Assessment CCE Control Channel Element CE Control ElementCG Configured grant or cell groupCHO Conditional handoverCP Cyclic PrefixCP-OFDM Conventional OFDM (relying on cyclic prefix) CPA Conditional PsCell additionCP AC Conditional PsCell addition / changeCPC Conditional PsCell changeCQI Channel Quality IndicatorCRC Cyclic Redundancy CheckCSI Channel State InformationCW Contention WindowCWS Contention Window SizeCO Channel OccupancyCP Control PlaneDAI Downlink Assignment IndexDC Dual connectivityDCI Downlink Control InformationDFI Downlink feedback information DG Dynamic grantDL DownlinkDM-RS Demodulation Reference SignalDRB Data Radio Bearer eLAA enhanced Licensed Assisted AccessFeLAA Further enhanced Licensed Assisted AccessHARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request HO Hand OverIC In CoverageIS In syncL1 / L2 Level 1 / Level 2LAA License Assisted AccessLBT Listen-Before-TalkLTE Long Term Evolution e.g. from 3GPP LTE R8 and up LTM Ll / 2 triggered mobilityNACK Negative ACKMCG Master cell groupMAC Medium access controlMCS Modulation and Coding SchemeMIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output NR New RadioNW NetworkOFDM Orthogonal Frequency-Division MultiplexingOOC Out of Coverage00 S Out of syncPCell Primary cellPCI Physical cell identityPHY Physical LayerPID Process IDPO Paging OccasionPRACH Physical Random Access ChannelPSCell Primary SCG CellPSS Primary Synchronization SignalRA Random Access (or procedure)RACH Random Access ChannelRAR Random Access ResponseRCU Radio access network Central UnitRF Radio Front endRLC Radio Link ControlRLF Radio Link FailureRLM Radio Link MonitoringRNTI Radio Network IdentifierRO RACH occasionRRC Radio Resource ControlRRM Radio Resource ManagementRS Reference SignalRSRP Reference Signal Received PowerRS SI Received Signal Strength IndicatorSCell Secondary cellSCG Secondary cell groupSDU Service Data UnitSIB System Information BroadcastSpCell Special Cell*SRAP Sidelink Relay Adaptation ProtocolSRS Sounding Reference SignalSS Synchronization SignalSSS Secondary Synchronization SignalSWG Switching Gap (in a self-contained subframe)SPS Semi-persistent schedulingSUL Supplemental UplinkTB Transport BlockTBS Transport Block SizeTRP Transmission / Reception PointTSC Time-sensitive communicationsTSN Time-sensitive networkingTTT Time to triggerU2N UE-to-NetworkUAV Uncrewed Aerial VehicleUE User Equipment - see WTRUUL UplinkUP User PlaneURLLC Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency CommunicationsWBWP Wide Bandwidth PartWLAN Wireless Local Area Networks and related technologies (IEEE 802. xx domain)WTRU Wireless transmit-receive unit -see UE

[0020] Example Communications System

[0021] The methods, apparatuses and systems provided herein are well-suited for communications involving both wired and wireless networks. An overview of various types of wireless devices and infrastructure is provided with respect to FIGs. 1A-1D, where various elements of the network may utilize, perform, be arranged in accordance with and / or be adapted and / or configured for the methods, apparatuses and systems provided herein.

[0022] FIG. 1A is a system 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), singlecarrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), zero-tail (ZT) unique-word (UW) discreet Fourier transform (DFT) spread OFDM (ZT UW DTS-s OFDM), unique word OFDM (UW-OFDM), resource block- filtered OFDM, filter bank multicarrier (FBMC), and the like.

[0023] As shown in FIG. 1A, the communications system 100 may include wireless transmit / receive units (WTRUs) 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, a radio access network (RAN) 104 / 113, a core network (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 of WTRUs, 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 (or be) 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 UE.

[0024] 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, e.g., to facilitate access to one or more communication networks, such as the CN 106 / 115, the Internet 110, and / or the networks 112. By way of example, the base stations 114a, 114b may be any of a base transceiver station (BTS), a Node-B (NB), an eNode-B (eNB), a Home Node-B (HNB), a Home eNode-B (HeNB), a gNode-B (gNB), a NR Node-B (NR NB), 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.

[0025] 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 an embodiment, the base station 114a may include three transceivers, i.e., one for each sector of the cell. In an embodiment, the base station 114a may employ multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) technology and may utilize multiple transceivers for each or any sector of the cell. For example, beamforming may be used to transmit and / or receive signals in desired spatial directions.

[0026] 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).

[0027] 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 116 using wideband CDMA (WCDMA). WCDMA may include communicationprotocols such as High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and / or Evolved HSPA (HSPA+). HSPA may include High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and / or High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA).

[0028] 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).

[0029] 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).

[0030] 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., an eNB and a gNB).

[0031] In an embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement radio technologies such as IEEE 802.11 (i.e., Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (i.e., Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)), CDMA2000, CDMA2000 IX, CDMA2000 EV-DO, Interim Standard 2000 (IS-2000), Interim Standard 95 (IS-95), Interim Standard 856 (IS-856), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE (GERAN), and the like.

[0032] 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 an 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 an embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may utilize a cellular-based RAT (e.g., WCDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, LTE, LTE-A, LTE-A Pro, NR, etc.) to establish any of a small cell, picocell or femtocell. As shown in FIG. 1 A, 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.

[0033] 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. 1 A, 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 an NR radio technology, the CN 106 / 115 may also be in communication with another RAN (not shown) employing any of a GSM, UMTS, CDMA 2000, WiMAX, E-UTRA, or Wi-Fi radio technology.

[0034] 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 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 / 114 or a different RAT.

[0035] 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.

[0036] FIG. IB is a system diagram illustrating an example WTRU 102. As shown in FIG. IB, 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 elements / 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.

[0037] 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. IB 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, e.g., in an electronic package or chip.

[0038] 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 an 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, for example. In an 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.

[0039] Although the transmit / receive element 122 is depicted in FIG. IB as a single element, the WTRU 102 may include any number of transmit / receive elements 122. For example, the WTRU 102 may employ MIMO technology. Thus, in an 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.

[0040] 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.

[0041] 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 liquidcrystal 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), readonly 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).

[0042] 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.

[0043] 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.

[0044] The processor 118 may further be coupled to other elements / peripherals 138, which may include one or more software and / or hardware modules / units that provide additional features, functionality and / or wired or wireless connectivity. For example, the elements / peripherals 138 may include an accelerometer, an e-compass, a satellite transceiver, a digital camera (e.g., 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 elements / 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 lightsensor, a touch sensor, a magnetometer, a barometer, a gesture sensor, a biometric sensor, and / or a humidity sensor.

[0045] 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 uplink (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 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 WTRU 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 uplink (e.g., for transmission) or the downlink (e.g., for reception)).

[0046] 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, and 102c over the air interface 116. The RAN 104 may also be in communication with the CN 106.

[0047] 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 for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. In an 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 receive wireless signals from, the WTRU 102a.

[0048] Each of the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, and 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 uplink (UL) and / or downlink (DL), and the like. As shown in FIG. 1C, the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may communicate with one another over an X2 interface.

[0049] 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 (PGW) 166. While each of the foregoing elements are depicted as part of the CN 106, it will be appreciated that any one of these elements may be owned and / or operated by an entity other than the CN operator.

[0050] The MME 162 may be connected to each of the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, and 160c in the RAN 104 via an SI 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 theWTRUs 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.

[0051] The SGW 164 may be connected to each of the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c in the RAN 104 via the SI 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.

[0052] 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.

[0053] 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 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.

[0054] 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.

[0055] In representative embodiments, the other network 112 may be a WLAN.

[0056] 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 into 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 directlink setup (DLS). In certain representative embodiments, the DLS may use an 802. l ie DLS or an 802.1 Iz 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.

[0057] When using the 802.1 lac 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.

[0058] 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 nonadj acent 20 MHz channel to form a 40 MHz wide channel.

[0059] Very high throughput (VHT) STAs may support 20 MHz, 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 a medium access control (MAC) layer, entity, etc.

[0060] Sub 1 GHz modes of operation are supported by 802.1 laf and 802.11 ah. The channel operating bandwidths, and carriers, are reduced in 802.1 laf and 802.1 lah relative to those used in 802.1 In, and 802.1 lac. 802.1 laf supports 5 MHz, 10 MHz and 20 MHz bandwidths in the TV white space (TVWS) spectrum, and 802.1 lah 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 (MTC), 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).

[0061] WLAN systems, which may support multiple channels, and channel bandwidths, such as 802.1 In, 802.1 lac, 802.11af, and 802.1 lah, 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 802.1 lah, 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.

[0062] In the United States, the available frequency bands, which may be used by 802.1 lah, 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 802.1 lah is 6 MHz to 26 MHz depending on the country code.

[0063] FIG. ID 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.

[0064] 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 an embodiment, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may implement MIMO technology. For example, gNBs 180a, 180b may utilize beamforming to transmit signals to and / or receive signals from the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c. 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 mayimplement 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).

[0065] The WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c using transmissions associated with a scalable numerology. For example, 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., including a varying number of OFDM symbols and / or lasting varying lengths of absolute time).

[0066] 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.

[0067] 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 functions (UPFs) 184a, 184b, routing of control plane information towards access and mobility management functions (AMFs) 182a, 182b, and the like. As shown in FIG. ID, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may communicate with one another over an Xn interface.

[0068] The CN 115 shown in FIG. ID may include at least one AMF 182a, 182b, at least one UPF 184a, 184b, at least one session management function (SMF) 183a, 183b, and at least one 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.

[0069] 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 protocol data unit (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, e.g., 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 MTC access, and / or the like. The AMF 162 may provide a control plane function for switching between the RAN 113 and other RANs (not shown) that employ other radio technologies, such as LTE, LTE-A, LTE-A Pro, and / or non-3GPP access technologies such as WiFi.

[0070] The SMF 183a, 183b may be connected to an AMF 182a, 182b in the CN 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 UE 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.

[0071] 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, e.g., 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 multihomed PDU sessions, handling user plane QoS, buffering downlink packets, providing mobility anchoring, and the like.

[0072] 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 an 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.

[0073] In view of FIGs. 1 A-1D, and the corresponding description of FIGs. 1 A-1D, one or more, or all, of the functions described herein with regard to any of: WTRUs 102a-d, base stations 114a- b, eNode-Bs 160a-c, MME 162, SGW 164, PGW 166, gNBs 180a-c, AMFs 182a-b, UPFs 184a- b, SMFs 183a-b, DNs 185a-b, and / or any other element(s) / device(s) described herein, may be performed by one or more emulation elements / 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.

[0074] 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 one or 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.

[0075] 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.

[0076] Introduction

[0077] WTRU to NW relay for OOC WTRUs

[0078] Release 17 has specified SL-based UE to Network Relays. Sidelink relay is introduced to support 5G ProSe UE-to-Network Relay (U2N Relay) function to provide connectivity to the network for U2N Remote UE(s). Both L2 and L3 U2N Relay architectures are supported. The L3 U2N Relay architecture is transparent to the serving RAN of the U2N Relay UE, except for controlling sidelink resources.

[0079] A U2N Relay UE shall be in RRC CONNECTED to perform relaying of unicast data. For L2 U2N Relay operation, the following RRC state combinations are supported: a) both U2N Relay UE and U2N Remote UE shall be in RRC CONNECTED to perform transmission / reception of relayed unicast data; and b) the U2N Relay UE can be in RRC IDLE, RRC INACTIVE or RRC CONNECTED as long as all the U2N Remote UE(s) that are connected to the U2N Relay UE are either in RRC INACTIVE or in RRC IDLE.

[0080] For L2 U2N Relay, the U2N Remote UE can only be configured to use resource allocation mode 2 for data to be relayed.

[0081] A single unicast link is established between one L2 U2N Relay UE and one L2 U2N Remote UE. The traffic of U2N Remote UE via a given U2N Relay UE and the traffic of the U2N Relay UE shall be separated in different Uu RLC channels over Uu.

[0082] The underlying assumption in Rel 17 is that the remote UE is OOC, as in Figure 2.

[0083] Multipath

[0084] Release 17 of the 3 GPP specifications has introduced layer 2 UE to NW relays. The main use case considered is the case of a remote UE out of coverage. In Release 18, however, specification of multipath is expected. In multipath, the remote UE is assumed to be in coverage and can therefore utilize either Uu path, SL (relayed) path, or both. The description of the multipath work for Rel 18 is as follows: a) Study the benefit and potential embodiments for multi-path support to enhance reliability and throughput (e.g., by switching among or utilizing the multiple paths simultaneously) in the following scenarios [RAN2, RAN3]: al) A UE is connected to the same gNB using one direct path and one indirect path via 1) Layer- 2 UE-to-Network relay, or 2) via another UE (where the UE-UE inter-connection is assumed to be ideal), where the embodiments for 1) are to be reused for 2) without precluding the possibility of excluding a part of the embodiments which is unnecessary for the operation for 2).

[0085] Note 3 A: Study on the benefit and potential embodiments are to be completed in RAN#98 which will decide whether / how to start the normative work.

[0086] Note 3B: UE-to-Network relay in scenario 1 reuses the Rel-17 embodiment as the baseline.

[0087] Note 3C: Support of Layer-3 UE-to-Network relay in multi-path scenario is assumed to have no RAN impact and the work and embodiments are subject to SA2 to progress.

[0088] L2 U2N Relay Protocol Architecture

[0089] The protocol stacks for the user plane and control plane of L2 U2N Relay architecture are presented in the Figures 3 and 4. The SRAP sublayer is placed above the RLC sublayer for both CP and UP at both PC5 interface and Uu interface. The Uu SDAP, PDCP and RRC are terminated between L2 U2N Remote UE and gNB, while SRAP, RLC, MAC and PHY are terminated in each hop (i.e., the link between L2 U2N Remote WTRU and L2 U2N Relay WTRU and the link between L2 U2N Relay WTRU and the gNB).

[0090] For L2 U2N Relay, the SRAP sublayer over PC5 hop is only for the purpose of bearer mapping. The SRAP sublayer is not present over PC5 hop for relaying the L2 U2N Remote WTRU’s message on BCCH and PCCH. For L2 U2N Remote WTRU’s message on SRB0, the SRAP sublayer is not present over PC5 hop, but the SRAP sublayer is present over Uu hop for both DL and UL.

[0091] For L2 U2N Relay, for uplink: a) The Uu SRAP sublayer supports UL bearer mapping between ingress PC5 Relay RLC channels for relaying and egress Uu Relay RLC channels over the L2 U2N Relay WTRU Uu interface. For uplink relaying traffic, the different end-to-end RBs (SRBs or DRBs) of the same Remote WTRU and / or different Remote WTRUs can be multiplexed over the same Uu Relay RLC channel; b) The Uu SRAP sublayer supports L2 U2N Remote WTRU identification for the UL traffic. The identity information of L2 U2N Remote WTRU Uu Radio Bearer and a local Remote WTRU ID are included in the Uu SRAP header at UL in order for gNB to correlate the received packets for the specific PDCP entity associated with the right Uu Radio Bearer of a Remote WTRU; c) The PC5 SRAP sublayer at the L2 U2N Remote WTRU supports UL bearer mapping between Remote WTRU Uu Radio Bearers and egress PC5 Relay RLC channels.

[0092] For L2 U2N Relay, for downlink: a) The Uu SRAP sublayer supports DL bearer mapping at gNB to map end-to-end Radio Bearer (SRB, DRB) of Remote WTRU into Uu Relay RLC channel over Relay WTRU Uu interface. The Uu SRAP sublayer supports DL bearer mapping and data multiplexing between multiple end-to-end Radio Bearers (SRBs or DRBs) of a L2 U2N Remote WTRU and / or different L2 U2N Remote WTRUs and one Uu Relay RLC channel over the Relay WTRU Uu interface; b) The Uu SRAP sublayer supports Remote WTRU identification for DL traffic. The identity information of Remote WTRU Uu Radio Bearer and a local Remote WTRU ID are included into the Uu SRAP header by the gNB at DL in order for Relay WTRU to map the received packets from Remote WTRU Uu Radio Bearer to its associated PC5 Relay RLC channel; c) The PC5 SRAP sublayer at the Relay WTRU supports DL bearer mapping between ingress Uu Relay RLC channels and egress PC5 Relay RLC channels; d) The PC5 SRAP sublayer at the Remote WTRU correlates the received packets for the specific PDCP entity associated with the right Uu Radio Bearer of a Remote WTRU based on the identity information included in the Uu SRAP header.

[0093] A local Remote WTRU ID is included in both PC5 SRAP header and Uu SRAP header. L2 U2N Relay WTRU is configured by the gNB with the local Remote WTRU ID to be used in SRAP header. Remote WTRU obtains the local Remote ID from the gNB via Uu RRC messages including RRCSetup, RRCReconfiguration, RRCResume and RRCReestablishment. Uu DRB(s) and Uu SRB(s) are mapped to different PC5 Relay RLC channels and Uu Relay RLC channels in both PC5 hop and Uu hop.

[0094] It is the gNB’s responsibility to avoid collision on the usage of local Remote WTRU ID. The gNB can update the local Remote WTRU ID by sending the updated local Remote ID via RRCReconfiguration message to the Relay WTRU. The serving gNB can perform local Remote WTRU ID update independent of the PC5 unicast link L2 ID update procedure.

[0095] Discovery

[0096] The U2N Remote WTRU can perform Relay discovery (solicitation) message transmission and may monitor the sidelink for Relay discovery message while in RRC IDLE, RRC INACTIVE or RRC CONNECTED. The network may broadcast a threshold, which is used by the U2N Remote WTRU to determine if it can transmit Relay discovery solicitation messages to U2N Relay WTRU(s).

[0097] The U2N Relay WTRU can perform Relay discovery message transmission and may monitor the sidelink for Relay discovery message while in RRC IDLE, RRC INACTIVE or RRC CONNECTED. The network may broadcast a maximum Uu RSRP threshold, a minimum Uu RSRP threshold, or both, which are used by the U2N Relay WTRU to determine if it can transmit Relay discovery messages to U2N Remote WTRU(s).

[0098] The network may provide the Relay discovery configuration using broadcast or dedicated signaling for Relay discovery. In addition, the U2N Remote WTRU and U2N Relay WTRU may use pre-configuration for Relay discovery.

[0099] Mobility

[0100] The following mobility and path switching scenarios that involve a remote WTRU are currently supported in 3 GPP: a) Direct to indirect: A remote WTRU directly connected to the gNB switching the connection to indirect via a relay WTRU: al) Intra-gNB : when the relay WTRU is connected to the same gNB as the gNB the remote WTRU was previously connected to; a2) Inter-gNB: when the relay WTRU is connected to a gNB different from the gNB the remote WTRU was previously connected to. b) Indirect to direct: A remote WTRU connected to the gNB via relay WTRU switching the connection to a direct connection with the gNB: bl) Intra-gNB: when the relay WTRU is connected to the same gNB as the gNB the remote WTRU is connecting to; b2) Inter-gNB: when the relay WTRU is connected to a gNB different from the gNB the remote WTRU is connecting to. c) Indirect to Indirect: A remote WTRU connected to the gNB via a source relay WTRU switching the connection to an indirect connection via a target relay WTRU: cl) Intra-gNB: when the source and relay WTRU are connected to the same gNB; c2) Inter-gNB: when the source and relay WTRU are connected to the same gNB. d) Multipath addition: dl) A remote WTRU connected to the gNB via a relay adds a direct link to the same gNB; d2) A remote WTRU connected to the gNB directly adds an indirect link to the same gNB via a relay WTRU. e) Multipath removal: el) The indirect link of a remote WTRU’s multipath connection is released and the WTRU is now connected to the gNB only with a direct link; e2) The direct link of a remote WTRU’s multipath connection is released and the WTRU is now connected to the gNB only with an indirect link. f) Multipath switching: fl) The indirect link of a remote WTRU’s multipath connection is switched to an indirect connection via another relay.

[0101] Measurements

[0102] Handover and path switching is typically triggered by measurement reports, even though there is nothing preventing the network from sending a HO or a path switching command to the WTRU even without receiving a measurement report.

[0103] The WTRU is configured with a measurement object and a reporting configuration.

[0104] The measurement object indicates what is being measured, e.g., frequency, cells, the quantity being measured, e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, etc.,).

[0105] The reporting configuration indicates what is being reported (e.g., reference signal type such as CSI-RS or SSB, the beam and cell level quantities to be reported such as RSRP / RSRQ, maximum number of cells or / and beams to be reported, etc.,) and the reporting criteria (e.g., periodic, or event conditions), upon the fulfilment of which the WTRU sends a measurement report.

[0106] The following is a list of some of the main events that a WTRU can be configured to enable a mobility between direct links (i.e., no relay involved): a) Event Al (Serving cell becomes better than threshold); b) Event A2 (Serving becomes worse than threshold); c) Event A3 (Neighbor cell becomes offset better than SpCell); d) Event A4 (Neighbor cell becomes better than threshold); e) Event A5 (SpCell becomes worse than threshold 1 and neighbor cell becomes better than threshold2); f) Event A6 (Neighbor cell becomes offset better than SCell); g) Event B 1 (Inter RAT neighbor cell becomes better than threshold); h) Event B2 (PCell becomes worse than threshold 1 and inter RAT neighbor cell becomes better than threshold2).

[0107] Here the term SpCell refers to a PCell (Primary Cell), or in the case of DC (Dual Connectivity), the Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell). Event A3, A5, B2 can only be configured for the PCell or PSCell.

[0108] Events Al, A2, A3, A5, B2 can be configured for any serving cell.

[0109] Event A6 can be configured only for SCells (i.e., for the secondary cells in carrier aggregation, CA).

[0110] Events A4 and B 1 are only related to neighbor cell measurements (and thus not related to any serving cell).[OHl] For example, the WTRU is configured with an A3 event that triggers a measurement report to be sent when the radio signal level / quality (RSRP, RSRQ, etc) of a neighbor cell becomesbetter than the Primary serving cell (PCell) or also the Primary Secondary serving Cell (PSCell), in the case of Dual Connectivity (DC). The WTRU monitors the serving and neighbor cells and will send a measurement report when the conditions get fulfilled. When such a report is received, the network (current serving node / cell) will prepare the HO command (basically, an RRC Reconfiguration message, with a reconfigurationWithSync) and sends it to the WTRU, which the WTRU executes immediately resulting in the WTRU connecting to the target cell.

[0112] Rell6 NR introduced the concept of conditional handover (CHO) with the main aim of reducing the likelihood of radio link failures (RLF) and handover failures (HOF). In CHO, the WTRU, instead is preconfigured with the CHO command and associated event (similar to the case of measurement reporting) but when the event conditions are fulfilled, the WTRU executes the CHO command instead of sending a measurement report.

[0113] The following is a list of some of the main events that can be configured for a CHO: a) CondEvent A3 : Conditional reconfiguration candidate becomes amount of offset better than PCell / PSCell; b) CondEvent A4: Conditional reconfiguration candidate becomes better than absolute threshold; c) CondEvent A5: PCell / PSCell becomes worse than absolute thresholdl AND Conditional reconfiguration candidate becomes better than another absolute threshold2.

[0114] The following is a list of some of the main events / measurements that can be configured for mobility (or path switching) that involves an indirect link: a) Event SI : Serving sidelink becomes better than threshold; b) Event S2: Serving sidelink becomes worse than threshold c) Event XI : Serving L2 U2N Relay WTRU becomes worse than absolute thresholdl AND NR Cell becomes better than another absolute threshold2; d) Event X2: Serving L2 U2N Relay WTRU becomes worse than absolute threshold; e) Event Y 1 : PCell becomes worse than absolute thresholdl AND candidate L2 U2N Relay WTRU becomes better than another absolute threshold2; f) Event Y2: Candidate L2 U2N Relay WTRU becomes better than absolute threshold;

[0115] Conditional mobility / path switching that involves an indirect link is not currently supported in 3GPP (as such, no corresponding conditional events for events S1 / S2, X1 / X2, Y1 / Y2).

[0116] To enhance QoS of NR sidelink transmissions, congestion control is important to prevent a transmitting WTRU from occupying too many resources in sidelink transmissions. Two metrices are defined for this purpose:a) Channel Busy Ratio (CBR): The CBR is defined as the portion of subchannels whose RSSI exceeds a preconfigured value over a certain time duration; b) Channel Occupation Ratio (CR): Considering a particular slot n, the CR is defined as (X + Y)M, where X is the number of the subchannels that have been occupied by a transmitting WTRU within [n - a, n - 1], Y is the number of the subchannels that have been granted within [n, n + b], and M is the total number of subchannels within [n - a, n + b],

[0117] For congestion control, an upper bound of CR denoted by CRlimit is imposed to a transmitting WTRU, where CRlimit is a function of CBR and the priority of the sidelink transmissions. The amount of resources occupied by a transmitting WTRU may not exceed CRlimit.

[0118] The CBR report is also used by the gNB to determine the pool of resources allocated to sidelink communication (e.g. increase the pool of resources if the WTRUs involved in sidelink communication are reporting high CBRs, decrease the pool of resources if the CBRs reported are low, etc).

[0119] In addition to peer WTRUs involved in sidelink operation configuring each other for measurement (either periodical or S1 / S2 events), for in coverage operation (i.e. the remote WTRU is within the coverage of the gNB), the gNB can configure the remote WTRU with CBR measurements, which can also be either periodical or event triggered.

[0120] The following two measurement events can be configured for CBR measurement reporting: a) Event Cl (CBR of NR sidelink communication becomes better than absolute threshold); b) Event C2 (CBR of NR sidelink communication becomes worse than absolute threshold).

[0121] Overview

[0122] Release 18 work on SL relay handles multipath where the remote WTRU can transmit via a direct Uu path and an indirect path via a WTRU to NW relay.

[0123] A remote WTRU which is out of NW coverage may want to take advantage of bandwidth and reliability extensions of multipath as well. This can be achieved with multiple relay WTRUs serving as different paths. Figure 5 shows such a scenario, where the remote WTRU (which may or may not have a direct path) can communicate via multiple indirect paths using a SL or ideal (e.g., non-3GPP) connection.

[0124] A SL relay may be connected to the remote WTRU via a PC5 link or a proprietary / non- 3GPP link (referred to also as ideal link in this document).

[0125] If the link between the remote WTRU and relay WTRU is a PC5 link, the Relay WTRU sends the discovery message only if its Uu to the gNB is in good conditions. Thus, even thoughthe remote WTRU will not know the exact radio conditions of this Uu link and whether one target relay WTRU is better connected to the gNB than another relay WTRU, it has some baseline / implicit knowledge that the relay WTRU has a good connectivity to the gNB.

[0126] If the link is not PC5, there is no 3GPP defined discovery message and thus the remote WTRU has no guarantee that the relay WTRU’s Uu to the gNB is in good condition, especially in the case where the relay WTRU is in IDLE / INACTIVE. Some example drawbacks of this are: a) Direct to indirect path switching gets triggered (e.g., source gNB sends a HO request message to the target gNB), relay WTRU was in INACTIVE / IDLE, target gNB pages the relay WTRU to bring it to CONNECTED state and finalize the HO, but remote WTRU’s QoE (Quality of Experience) degrades because of the relay WTRU’s Uu connection to the gNB becomes a bottleneck; b) The target gNB, instead of performing the path switching to indirect “blindly”, may check the relay WTRU’ s Uu link after bringing it to CONNECTED state (e.g., after a Uu measurement report is received from the relay WTRU), and if that is found to be not good enough, the HO is cancelled. This may create a considerable delay in the path switching (e.g., source may need to try another target relay / gNB after this cancellation, etc.,).

[0127] Even in the case where the link to the relay WTRU is a PC5 link, the remote WTRU will not be able to distinguish which relay WTRUs have a better Uu quality, as the discovery message just indicates the relay WTRU has an acceptable connectivity to the gNB. As such, sub-optimal handover decisions can be made. For example, a remote WTRU may execute a conditional path switching based on SL thresholds towards a relay WTRU that could lead to performance degradation if the target relay WTRU has a worse Uu radio conditions as compared to the source relay WTRU.

[0128] The above examples are also relevant in multipath scenarios (e.g., adding a multipath, switching from one multipath to another, etc., can become very slow or inefficient).

[0129] A problem is, that a remote WTRU has no knowledge / guarantee of the quality of the Uu link between a target / source relay WTRU and the gNB, which may lead to sub-optimal mobility decisions (e.g., direct to indirect HO, indirect path switching, etc.,) that cause performance degradation (e.g., due to conditional path switching triggered based only on SL conditions that leads to connectivity via a target relay WTRU that has worse Uu conditions) or considerable delays (e.g., unnecessary measurement reports triggered due to the SL thresholds towards a target relay WTRU were fulfilled, but network not performing the path switching due to the bad Uu conditions of the target relay WTRU, etc.,).

[0130] Aspects common to described embodiments

[0131] [Relay / remote WTRU connection]

[0132] In this disclosure, the interface between the relay and remote WTRU may be sidelink / PC5. Legacy procedures for data / control transmission between the relay and remote WTRU may be used for exchange of control information, SR / BSR information, grant information, etc, defined in this disclosure.

[0133] Alternatively, the interface between the relay and the remote WTRU may be an ideal link (e.g., a wired link, a non-3GPP wireless link, two attached / collocated devices having different radios, etc). Exchange of data and control between the gNB and the remote WTRU may be transparent to the relay WTRU.

[0134] In this disclosure, any discussion concerning the interaction between a remote WTRU and a relay WTRU in the context of the relay WTRU relaying data from the remote WTRU to the network (and vice versa) may furthermore apply in the context of multiple collaborative WTRUs operating in the context of WTRU aggregation.

[0135] [Applicable Scenarios]

[0136] The embodiments described in this disclosure are applicable to measurement events that are configured for measurements reporting as well as measurement events that are configured for conditional reconfiguration (e.g., handover, relay path switching, etc.,).

[0137] The embodiments described in this disclosure are applicable to all the following scenarios: a) Direct to indirect switching; b) Indirect to indirect path switching; c) Indirect to direct path switching; d) Direct to multipath; e) Indirect to multipath; f) Changing the direct link of a multipath connection; g) Changing the indirect link of a multipath connection; h) Changing from one multipath to another multipath (i.e., changing both the direct and indirect links of a multipath).

[0138] [Terminologies and Disclaimers]

[0139] The terms PC5 and SL (sidelink) are used interchangeably.

[0140] The terms ideal link, non-3GPP link, and non-PC5 link are used interchangeably.

[0141] The terms reconfiguration and configuration are used interchangeably.

[0142] The terms reconfiguration complete message, RRC reconfiguration complete message, RRC complete message, path switching complete message and complete message are used interchangeably.

[0143] The terms path switch and path switching are used interchangeably and may refer to the HO of the WTRU from one link to another (e.g., changing from one indirect link to another or from / to direct link to / from an indirect link) or adding / removing a multipath connection.

[0144] The terms candidate and target relays are used interchangeably.

[0145] The terms conditions and thresholds are used interchangeably.

[0146] The term backhaul link is used interchangeably for the Uu link between a relay WTRU and a gNB.

[0147] Focus is on L2 U2N relay case, but the embodiments are equally applicable to L3.

[0148] Unless otherwise specified, a WTRU in the embodiments below refers to a remote WTRU.

[0149] Unless otherwise specified, the term source refers to a source gNB / node / cell.

[0150] Unless otherwise specified, the term target refers to a target gNB / node / cell.

[0151] The terms conditional handover (CHO), conditional mobility, and conditional path switching (CPS), are used interchangeably in this disclosure.

[0152] In the descriptions below by “measurements of a certain relay”, unless otherwise specified, is meant to describe the SL measurements between the remote WTRU and the relay WTRU.

[0153] The terms cell and gNB are used interchangeably.

[0154] The terms serving cell / gNB and current cell / gNB are used interchangeably.

[0155] The terms measurements and measurement report are used interchangeably.

[0156] In this disclosure, the term Ax is used to refer to any of the measurement events Al, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, or any future measurement event that will be defined in 3GPP that is related to intra-RAT Uu measurements.

[0157] In this disclosure, the term Bx is used to refer to any of the measurement events Bl, B2 or any future measurement event that will be defined in 3GPP that is related to inter-RAT Uu measurements.

[0158] In this disclosure, the term Cx is used to refer to any of the measurement events Cl, C2 or any new future measurement event that will be defined in 3GPP that is related to CBR measurements.

[0159] In this disclosure, the term Xx is used to refer to any of the measurement events XI, X2 or any new future measurement event that will be defined in 3 GPP that is related to serving SL relay measurements.

[0160] In this disclosure, the term Yx is used to refer to any of the measurements events Yl, Y2 or any new future measurement event that will be defined in 3GPP that is related to candidate SL relay measurements.

[0161] In this disclosure, the conditions related to the SL may refer may be associated with SL- RSRP (i.e., measured when there is a PC5 connection established between the relay WTRU and remote WTRU and there is data transmission over the SL) or SD-RSRP (i.e., measurements based on SL discovery signals when there is no PC5 established or there is no data transmission over the SL).

[0162] The term condition in this disclosure refers to a threshold (e.g., SL-RSRP / SD-RSRP threshold), which can be an absolute threshold (e.g., SL-RSRP between the remote WTRU and the target relay WTRU is above the threshold) or a relative threshold (e.g., SL-RSRP between the remote WTRU and the target relay WTRU is above the SL-RSRP between the remote WTRU and the current serving SL relay).

[0163] Different thresholds / conditions can be associated with SL-RSRP and SD-RSRP measurements. For example, the WTRU may be configured with a first absolute / relative threshold to be used to compare the SL-RSRP of the link to a serving relay WTRU and target relay WTRU, and a second absolute / relative threshold to compare the SD-RSRP of the link to a serving relay WTRU and target relay WTRU, a third threshold to compare the SL-RSRP of the link to a serving relay WTRU with the SD-RSRP of the link towards a target relay WTRU, etc..

[0164] The terms conditional reconfiguration, conditional handover, and conditional path switching are used interchangeably in this disclosure.

[0165] In the descriptions below, the focus has been put on measurements related to radio conditions. However, all the embodiments are equally applicable to CBR related measurements (e.g., a remote WTRU configured with a measurement event that is dependent on the CBR measurement towards a relay WTRU, e.g., event Cl, and an indication or measurement report received from the relay WTRU).

[0166] In all the descriptions below, the focus has been put for a one hop scenario for the sake of brevity (i.e., relay WTRU directly connected to the gNB). However, all the embodiments are equally applicable to the case where there are multiple hops (i.e., multiple relay WTRUs between the remote WTRU and the gNB). In this case, a embodiment can be envisioned where the last relayWTRU (i.e., that is directly connected to the gNB) can send the indication or measurement report to the next relay WTRU and so on until it is received by the remote WTRU.

[0167] In all the embodiments descriptions below, the focus has been put on the indication or measurement report from the relay WTRU being indicated in a unicast manner to the relay WTRU. However, all the embodiments are applicable to scenarios where the information is communicated in a broadcast manner (E.g., relay WTRU sending the indication or the measurement report in SL broadcast signaling, like a discovery message). Similarly, the remote WTRU may request the indication or the measurement report from relay WTRUs in a broadcast manner (E.g., like a discovery solicitation message).

[0168] In all the embodiments below, the measurement event at the remote WTRU (i.e., that is dependent on the measurements performed by the remote WTRU and the measurement done by the relay WTRU) can be associated with a measurement report (e.g., send the report to the gNB) or conditional mobility action (e.g., a path switching, multipath addition / change / release, etc.,)

[0169] Measurement events at a remote WTRU that consider measurements performed by the remote WTRU and measurements performed by a relay WTRU - Summary

[0170] A remote WTRU may be configured with a measurement event, where the triggering conditions for the event consist of conditions associated with measurements performed by the remote WTRU and conditions associated with measurements performed by a relay WTRU (e.g., Uu measurement report from the relay WTRU, reception of an indication from a relay WTRU that is based on Uu measurements performed by the relay WTRU).

[0171] According to an embodiment, a remote WTRU performs the following: a) Receives a configuration for a measurement event, where the measurement event configuration contains conditions and actions to be taken when the conditions are fulfilled, and the conditions are a combination of one or more of the following: al) Conditions related to measurements performed by the remote WTRU (e.g., Uu thresholds in the case of direct connection or multipath, SL conditions in the case of indirect connection or multipath, etc.,); a2) Conditions related to measurements performed by the relay WTRU (e.g., measurements of the Uu link between relay WTRU and gNB, SL radio link in the case of multihop, SL and Uu links in case the relay WTRU is itself connected in multipath to the gNB, etc.,): a2a) Explicit conditions: Thresholds concerning measurements reported by the relay WTRU (e.g., to the remote WTRU, to the gNB); or a2b) Implicit conditions: Reception of an indication from the relay WTRU that implicitly indicates the measurements performed by the relay WTRU.b) Monitors the fulfillment of the measurement event conditions; c) Upon the detection of the fulfillment of the conditions, perform the actions associated with the measurement event (e.g., send a measurement report to the gNB, execute a CHO / CPAC configuration associated with the event).

[0172] Measurement events at a remote WTRU that consider measurements performed by the remote WTRU and measurements performed by a relay WTRU - Details

[0173] [Measurement events that consider measurements at the remote WTRU and indication received from a relay WTRU]

[0174] According to an embodiment the remote WTRU is configured with a measurement event configuration where the triggering conditions for the event are considered to be fulfilled if a threshold / condition (or thresholds / conditions) associated with measurements made by the remote WTRU is satisfied and a certain indication is received from a relay WTRU.

[0175] According to an embodiment the indication is received from a serving SL relay WTRU.

[0176] According to an embodiment the indication is received from a target / candidate SL relay WTRU.

[0177] According to an embodiment the indication from the relay WTRU can be a single value (e.g., Boolean flag).

[0178] According to an embodiment the indication from the relay WTRU can be one of multiple values (e.g., value 1, value 2, value 3, etc.,).

[0179] According to an embodiment the indication from the relay WTRU can be the RRC state of the relay WTRU.

[0180] According to an embodiment where the indication sent by the relay WTRU can be one of multiple values, the same measurement configuration can be used by the remote WTRU, but compared with different parameters (e.g., thresholds, filter coefficients, etc). For example, the measurement event conditions can be: a) If indication 1 is received from the relay WTRU, use absolute / relative threshold l for the measurement performed by the remote WTRU for event X2; b) If indication 2 is received from the relay WTRU, use absolute / relative threshold_2 for the measurement performed by the remote WTRU for event X; c) Etc..

[0181] According to an embodiment where the indication sent by the relay WTRU can be one of multiple values, different measurement can be used by the remote WTRU. For example, the measurement event conditions can be:a) If indication 1 is received from the relay WTRU, use absolute / relative threshold l for the measurement performed by the remote WTRU for event X2; b) If indication 2 is received from the relay WTRU, use absolute / relative threshold_2 for the measurement performed by the remote WTRU for event Y2; c) Etc..

[0182] In the above embodiments, for the sake of brevity, only one event and threshold (associated with the measurement performed by the remote WTRU) was indicated to be configured with the indication received from the relay WTRU. However, it can be envisioned that several thresholds can be associated with one relay WTRU indication for a given measurement event of the remote WTRU (E.g., for events like XI, Y1 that have more than one threshold associated with them).

[0183] In the above embodiments, the remote WTRU is configured with a measurement event configuration that depends on the indication from a relay WTRU. However, the same can apply for a relay WTRU configured with a measurement configuration dependent on an indication from the remote WTRU, or of one WTRU that depends on indications from a group of other WTRUs.

[0184] [Measurement events that consider measurements at the remote WTRU and measurement report received from a relay WTRU]

[0185] According to an embodiment the remote WTRU is configured with a measurement event configuration where the event is considered to be fulfilled if a threshold / condition (or thresholds / conditions) associated with measurements made by the remote WTRU is satisfied and if a threshold / condition (or thresholds / conditions) associated with a measurement report that the remote WTRU has received from the relay WTRU. That is, the remote WTRU will receive the measurement report from the relay WTRU will do the evaluation / determination of the fulfillment of the conditions / thresholds associated with the relay WTRU’s measurements.

[0186] For example, the measurement event configuration could contain: a) thresholds for event X1 / X2, which the remote WTRU compares with the measurements of the SL between the remote WTRU and the serving relay WTRU (i.e., measurements performed by the remote WTRU); b) thresholds for event Ax, which the remote WTRU compares with the measurements received from the relay WTRU (e.g., measurements of the Uu link between the relay WTRU and the gNB that the relay WTRU has performed and sent to the remote WTRU).

[0187] In a similar fashion, a remote WTRU may be configured with a measurement event configuration where the event is considered to be fulfilled if a threshold / condition associated with measurement made by the remote WTRU is satisfied and a measurement made by a relay WTRUis satisfied. Such may apply to the case where the remote and relay WTRU are connected by an ideal connection whereby the interface between them is not standardized, and where the two WTRUs may have visibility of each other’s measurements.

[0188] In the above embodiments, the remote WTRU is configured with a measurement event configuration that depends on measurements from the relay WTRU. However, the same can apply for a relay WTRU configured with a measurement configuration dependent on measurements from the remote WTRU, or of one WTRU that depends on measurements from a group of other WTRUs.

[0189] [Actions at the remote WTRU upon fulfillment of the event]

[0190] According to an embodiment the measurement event configuration at the remote WTRU (which is associated with an indication received from the relay WTRU or with a measurement report received from the relay WTRU, according to any of the embodiments above) is related to measurement reporting (e.g., remote WTRU sending a measurement report to the gNB when the event conditions are fulfilled). That is, upon the fulfillment of the event, the remote WTRU sends a measurement report (e.g., to the serving gNB).

[0191] According to an embodiment the measurement event configuration is related to conditional path switching from direct link to an indirect link, and the measurements performed by the remote WTRU could be Uu measurements to the serving cell / gNB and / or SL measurements to target relay WTRU(s). That is, upon the fulfillment of the event, the remote WTRU executes a conditional reconfiguration that will lead to path switching from direct to indirect link.

[0192] According to an embodiment the measurement event configuration is related to conditional path switching from indirect link to a direct link, and the measurements performed by the WTRU could be Uu measurements to target cells / gNBs and / or SL measurements to the source relay WTRU. That is, upon the fulfillment of the event, the remote WTRU executes a conditional reconfiguration that will lead to path switching from indirect to a direct link.

[0193] According to an embodiment the measurement event configuration is related to conditional path switching from indirect link to another indirect link, and the measurements performed by the WTRU could be SL measurements to the source relay WTRU and / or SL measurements to target relay WTRU(s). That is, upon the fulfillment of the event, the remote WTRU executes a conditional reconfiguration that will lead to path switching from one indirect link to another indirect link.

[0194] According to an embodiment the measurement event configuration is related to conditional multipath addition, and the measurements performed by the WTRU could be Uu measurements to the serving cell / gNB and / or SL measurements to target relay WTRU(s). That is,upon the fulfillment of the event, the remote WTRU executes a conditional reconfiguration that will lead to adding a multipath via an indirect link.

[0195] According to an embodiment the measurement event configuration is related to conditional multipath switching, and the measurements performed by the WTRU could be Uu measurements to the serving cell / gNB, Uu measurements to a neighbor cell / gNB, SL measurements to a source relay WTRU, and / or SL measurements to target relay WTRU(s). That is, upon the fulfillment of the event, the remote WTRU executes a conditional reconfiguration that will lead to changing the multipath link (e.g., keeping the direct link and switching the indirect link from a source to a target relay WTRU, changing the direct link from the source cell / gNB to a target cell / gNB but keeping the indirect link, or changing the direct link from the source cell / gNB to a target cell / gNB and changing the indirect link from the source relay WTRU to the target relay WTRU.)

[0196] [ Partial fulfilment of event conditions]

[0197] In the above embodiments, the remote WTRU considers the event to be fulfilled if the conditions related to the measurements performed by the remote WTRU and the conditions related to the measurements performed by the relay WTRU (e.g., the reception of a specific indication from the relay WTRU, or the remote WTRU itself determining the relay WTRU related conditions are fulfilled by comparing the thresholds with the measurement received from the relay WTRU).

[0198] According to an embodiment when the conditions related to the measurements of the remote WTRU have been fulfilled, the WTRU starts a timer (e.g., with a timer value that is configured by the network along with the event configuration). If the timer expires before the conditions related to the relay WTRU are not fulfilled (e.g., no indication sent from the relay WTRU, indication sent from the relay WTRU but the indication is not the one associated with the current fulfilled measurement conditions at the remote WTRU due to which the timer was started, measurement report was not received from the relay WTRU, measurement report was received from the relay WTRU but remote WTRU has determined the conditions associated with the relay WTRU measurement were not fulfilled, etc.), the remote WTRU may be configured to behave in one or more of the following ways (assuming the conditions related to the remote WTRU’s measurements are still valid when the timer expires): a) remote WTRU considers the event has not been fulfilled, and thus doesn’t perform the action associated with the event; b) remote WTRU considers the event to be fulfilled, and performs the action associated with the event anyways:bl) the remote WTRU may indicate to the network the action is being taken due to partial fulfillment of only the remote WTRU’s measurement (e.g., indication in the measurement report, indication in HO complete or path switch complete message if the action was to perform conditional HO or conditional path switching, etc.,); c) remote WTRU considers the event to be partially fulfilled, and performs an action associated with a partial fulfillment: cl) e.g., the remote WTRU may be configured with an additional action to take when the conditions related to the remote WTRU’s measurements are fulfilled but the conditions related to the relay WTRU’s measurements are not fulfilled.

[0199] According to an embodiment when the conditions related to the measurements of the relay WTRU have been fulfilled (e.g., indication sent from the relay WTRU that corresponds with the remote WTRU measurement conditions being monitored, measurement report was received from the relay WTRU and the remote WTRU has determined the conditions associated with the relay WTRU measurement are fulfilled, etc.), the remote WTRU starts a timer (e.g., with a timer value that is configured by the network along with the event configuration). If the timer expires before the conditions related to the remote WTRU’s measurements are not fulfilled, the remote WTRU may be configured to behave in one or more of the following ways (assuming the conditions related to the relay WTRU’s measurements are still valid when the timer expires): a) remote WTRU considers the event has not been fulfilled, and thus doesn’t perform the action associated with the event; b) remote WTRU considers the event to be fulfilled, and performs the action associated with the event anyways: bl) the remote WTRU may indicate to the network the action is being taken due to partial fulfillment of only the relay WTRU’s measurements (e.g., indication in the measurement report, indication in HO complete or path switch complete message if the action was to perform conditional HO or conditional path switching, etc.,) c) remote WTRU considers the event to be partially fulfilled, and performs an action associated with a partial fulfillment. cl) e.g., the remote WTRU may be configured with an additional action to take when the conditions related to the relay WTRU’s measurements are fulfilled but the conditions related to the remote WTRU’s measurements are not fulfilled.

[0200] [Other aspects]

[0201] According to an embodiment the remote WTRU may be configured to not evaluate the conditions related to remote WTRU’s measurements until the conditions related to relay WTRU’s measurements are fulfilled.

[0202] According to an embodiment the remote WTRU may be configured to not perform some or all the measurement that it is configured to measure that are associated with the event before it has determined the conditions related to relay WTRU’s measurements are fulfilled (e.g., indication received from relay WTRU). Once it has determined the relay WTRU’s measurement conditions are fulfilled, the remote WTRU may start performing all the measurements and measurement evaluation.

[0203] According to an embodiment the remote WTRU may be configured to perform some or all the measurement that it is configured to measure that are associated with the event in a relaxed manner (e.g., take less measurement samples, etc.,) before it has determined the conditions related to relay WTRU’s measurements are fulfilled (e.g., indication received from relay WTRU). Once it has determined the relay WTRU’ s measurement conditions are fulfilled, the remote WTRU may start performing the full measurements and measurement evaluation.

[0204] According to an embodiment the remote WTRU may request the relay WTRU for the information regarding the measurements performed by the relay WTRU. Several examples are given below: a) remote WTRU asking the relay WTRU for the relay WTRU’s Uu measurements (e.g., one shot request) b) remote WTRU can request the relay WTRU to send an indication that indicates the current state of the relay WTRU’ s measurement. c) remote WTRU asking the relay WTRU if a particular relay WTRU indication can be assumed (e.g., the relay WTRU may have sent the indication earlier, but some time duration has elapsed since then and remote WTRU wants to ensure if the situation has not changed). The relay WTRU may respond with an acknowledgement or negative acknowledgement, with an indication (the same indication or a different indication as the one indicated by the remote WTRU). d) remote WTRU can request the relay WTRU to send a measurement report when (or whenever) the relay WTRU’s Uu conditions fulfill certain radio conditions (E.g., above a certain threshold, below another threshold, etc.,).

[0205] In all the embodiments above, source and target relay WTRU can be served by the same cell.

[0206] In all the embodiments above, source and target gNB can be the same.

[0207] In all the embodiments above, source and target gNB can be different.

[0208] In all the embodiments above, source and target relay WTRU can be served by different cells of the same gNB.

[0209] In all the embodiments above, source and target relay WTRU can be served by the same gNB or different gNBs.

[0210] Different configuration can be provided for different groups of cells (e.g., same thresholds or sets of thresholds if the source and target gNBs are the same, different thresholds or sets of thresholds if the source and target gNBs are different).

[0211] Relay WTRU configured to inform the remote WTRU (implicitly or explicitly) about the Uu radio link quality between the relay WTRU and the gNB - Summary

[0212] A relay WTRU is may be configured with a measurement event (e.g., thresholds related to Uu link between relay WTRU and gNB), and upon the fulfillment of the conditions, may inform the remote WTRU (e.g., send the Uu measurement reports, send one or more pre-configured indications / flags) or may perform a connection establishment related action (e.g., establish a PC5 connection, trigger a connection establishment or resumption to the gNB if relay WTRU was in INACTIVE / IDLE state).

[0213] A relay WTRU may perform the following: a) Receives a configuration for a measurement event, where the measurement event configuration contains conditions and actions to be taken when the conditions are fulfilled, where the conditions are associated with the Uu measurement between the relay WTRU and the gNB (e.g., Uu signal level thresholds), and the actions is one or more of the following: al) Send the Uu measurement report to the remote WTRU; or a2) Establish a PC5 connection towards a remote WTRU; or a3) Trigger a connection establishment or resumption toward the gNB (if the current state of the relay WTRU is INACTIVE / IDLE); or a4) Send one or more indications that are associated with the Uu measurements. b) Monitors the fulfillment of the measurement event conditions; c) Upon the detection of the fulfillment of the conditions, perform the actions associated with the measurement event (e.g., send a measurement report to the remote WTRU, send an indication to the remote WTRU, etc.,).

[0214] Relay WTRU configured to inform the remote WTRU (implicitly or explicitly) about the Uu radio link quality between the relay WTRU and the gNB - Details

[0215] [Relay WTRU configured to send Uu measurements from remote WTRU]

[0216] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU is configured to send its Uu measurement report periodically to the remote WTRU.

[0217] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU is configured to send its Uu measurement report based on a condition. For example, the relay WTRU can be configured with an Ax / Bx like event, and upon the fulfillment of the event conditions, will send the Uu measurements to the remote WTRU instead of (or in addition to) the gNB. According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU can be configured with an Ax / Bx like event, and upon the fulfillment of the event conditions, sends Uu measurement reports to the remote WTRU as well as the gNB, but the contents of the two measurement reports could be different (e.g., complete measurement to the gNB, a subset of the measurements to the remote WTRU, where the subset of the measurements could be related a subset of the cells that the relay WTRU has detected and measured, as configured by the gNB).

[0218] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU is configured to send a subsequent measurement report to the remote WTRU if its Uu conditions change significantly as compared tothe previously sent measurement report (E.g., above / below by more than a certain configured threshold).

[0219] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU is configured by the gNB to send the measurements to the remote WTRU. The configuration could include the identity (e.g., L2 ID) of the remote WTRU.

[0220] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU sends its Uu measurements upon explicit request from the remote WTRU.

[0221] According to an embodiment, the request from the remote WTRU is a one shot request.

[0222] According to an embodiment, the request from the remote WTRU is for a periodic reporting. The reporting period can be indicated by the remote WTRU or decided by the relay WTRU.

[0223] According to an embodiment, the request from the remote WTRU may include a condition (e.g., Ax / Bx like condition), and the relay WTRU sends a measurement report to the remote WTRU when the event conditions are fulfilled.

[0224] [Relay WTRU configured to send an indication related to Uu measurements from remote WTRU]

[0225] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU is configured to send an indication to the remote WTRU periodically, where the indication is related to the Uu measurements performed by the relay WTRU.

[0226] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU is configured to send the indication based on a condition. For example, the relay WTRU can be configured with an Ax / Bx like event, with multiple conditions / thresholds, and upon the fulfillment of the first condition / threshold, it sends a first indication, upon the fulfillment of a second condition / threshold, it sends a second indication, etc.

[0227] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU is configured to send a subsequent indication to the remote WTRU if its Uu conditions change significantly since it has sent the lastindication (E.g., above / below by more than a certain configured threshold, as compared to the Uu measurements that led to the sending of the previous indication).

[0228] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU’s configuration regarding the sending of the indication to the remote WTRU is received from the gNB.

[0229] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU’s configuration regarding the sending of the indication to the remote WTRU is received from the remote WTRU.

[0230] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU is configured by the gNB to send the measurements to the remote WTRU. The configuration could include the identity (e.g., L2 ID) of the remote WTRU.

[0231] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU sends its Uu measurements upon explicit request from the remote WTRU.

[0232] According to an embodiment, the request from the remote WTRU is a one shot request.

[0233] According to an embodiment, the request from the remote WTRU is for a periodic reporting. The reporting period can be indicated by the remote WTRU or decided by the relay WTRU.

[0234] According to an embodiment, the request from the remote WTRU may include a condition (e.g., Ax / Bx like condition), and the relay WTRU sends a measurement report to the remote WTRU when the event conditions are fulfilled.

[0235] [Relay WTRU configured to trigger a proactive PC5 establishment with the remote WTRU]

[0236] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU (e.g., a target relay WTRU) is configured to trigger a PC5 connection establishment with a remote WTRU based on conditions related to its Uu signal level with the gNB.

[0237] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU is configured (e.g., by the gNB) with Uu related thresholds and a remote WTRU identity, and when the signal level to the gNB fulfils the configured threshold(s), the relay WTRU trigger a PC5 connection establishment with the concerned remote WTRU.

[0238] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU determines the triggering of the PC5 establishment to the remote WTRU autonomously / implicitly (e.g., without an explicit remote WTRU identity configured by the gNB as in the embodiment above). For example, when the relay WTRU detects solicitation / discovery message from a remote WTRU and it determines that it doesn’t have good Uu conditions with the gNB, it will save the remote WTRU’s identity and lateron trigger establishes the PC5 connection with that remote WTRU if the Uu conditions are fulfilled.

[0239] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU performs the autonomous triggering of the PC5 establishment according to the above embodiment only if it has received a solicitation message from more than a configured number of WTRUs.

[0240] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU performs the autonomous triggering of the PC5 establishment according to the above embodiment only if it the Uu conditions are fulfilled before a certain configured time duration has not elapsed since the reception of the solicitation message from a remote WTRU.

[0241] According to an embodiment, the Uu threshold to be used by the relay WTRU for determine the PC5 establishment autonomously as discussed in the above embodiments is configured / determined by the gNB (e.g., dedicated signaling to the relay WTRU, broadcast signaling in SIB, etc.,). According to an example, different Uu thresholds can be configured for different remote WTRUs, different cells, etc.

[0242] According to an embodiment, the Uu threshold to be used by the relay WTRU for determine the PC5 establishment autonomously as discussed in the above embodiments is configured / determined by the remote WTRU. For example, the remote WTRU may include the threshold in its solicitation message. For example, the remote WTRU may include different Uu threshold values for different target cells, etc.

[0243] According to an embodiment, the time duration value to be used by the relay WTRU for determine the PC5 establishment autonomously as discussed in the above embodiments is configured / determined by the gNB. According to an example, different time duration values can be configured for different remote WTRUs, different cells, etc..

[0244] According to an embodiment, the Uu threshold to be used by the relay WTRU for determine the PC5 establishment autonomously as discussed in the above embodiments is configured / determined by the remote WTRU. For example, the remote WTRU may include the threshold in its solicitation message. For example, the remote WTRU may include different time duration values for different target cells, etc.

[0245] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU includes a new cause indicating the reason for PC5 establishment (e.g., in the RRCReconfigurationSidelink message it sends to the remoteWTRU), indicating that the PC5 is being pre-emptively established due to the fulfillment of conditions associated with the Uu of the relay WTRU.

[0246] [Relay WTRU in INACTIVE / CONNECTED]

[0247] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU may be configured to trigger a transition to a CONNECTED state (e.g., trigger RRC Setup Request while in IDLE state or RRC Resume Request while in INACTIVE state) based on the Uu conditions.

[0248] According to an embodiment, if an IDLE / INACTIVE relay WTRU has received a solicitation message from a remote WTRU (e.g., indicating wanting to connect to a certain cell, and optionally indicating Uu thresholds, or time durations as specified according to any of the embodiments above, or the relay WTRU pre-configured with Uu thresholds and time durations by the gNB, etc.,), it will start monitoring the Uu conditions while in INACTIVE / IDLE state, and if the conditions get fulfilled, it will trigger an RRC Setup Request or RRC Resume Request to the gNB (e.g.., including a new cause value).

[0249] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU triggers the setup of the PC5 connection towards the remote WTRU after it has successfully transitioned to CONNECTED state.

[0250] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU triggers the transition to the CONNECTED state after it has successfully established a PC5 connection towards the remote WTRU (or if it already has a PC5 connection with the remote WTRU when the Uu conditions get fulfilled).

[0251] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU triggers the setup of the PC5 connection towards the remote WTRU in parallel with the setting up or resuming the connection to the gNB.

[0252] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU triggers the state transition upon cell reselection (e.g., if the target cell is the same as a cell that has been included in the solicitation message from a remote WTRU).

[0253] According to an embodiment, a relay WTRU, upon transitioning into INACTIVE / IDLE state (e.g., in the RRC release message, SIB message) or while in INACTIVE / IDLE state, may receive a configuration as to Uu thresholds to trigger transition back to the connected state. For example, the relay WTRU may further be configured to trigger the state transition if the Uu thresholds are fulfilled and furthermore a solicitation message is received from a remote WTRU. For example, the relay WTRU may further be configured to trigger the state transition if a solicitation message was received from more than a certain number of remote WTRUs. For example, the relay WTRU may further be configured to trigger the state transition if a solicitationmessage was received from a particular remote WTRU (e.g., identified by a L2 WTRU ID), or a set of remote WTRUs (e.g., identified by a set of L2 WTRU IDs, etc.,)

[0254] [Other aspects]

[0255] In all the above embodiments, the measurement report performed by the relay WTRU is sent to the remote WTRU via a PC5 RRC message. That is, the content can be the same or similar as a measurement report sent by the relay WTRU towards the gNB (e.g., containing a similar measurement of cells, including different measurement quantities, etc.,), but security wise, it is using the SL-SRB security configuration (e.g., encryption and integrity protection).

[0256] According to an embodiment, the relay WTRU may be configured with conditions to send a measurement report to the gNB (instead of the remote WTRU) and at the same time send an indication to the remote WTRU.

[0257] There is disclosed a method 600, see Figure 6, implemented by a remote WTRU. The method may comprise: a) receiving (601), from a network node, configuration information comprising one or more measurement event configurations and, per measurement event of the one or more measurement event configurations, one or more first conditions related to measurements performed (to be performed) by the remote WTRU and one or more second conditions related to measurements performed (to be performed) by a relay WTRU, and one or more actions associated with the measurement event, to be performed by the remote WTRU when the one or more first and second conditions apply; b) monitoring (602) the one or more first and second conditions; and c) detecting / upon detecting (603) fulfillment of the one or more first and second conditions, (and) performing the one or more actions associated with the measurement event.

[0258] According to an embodiment of the method implemented by the remote WTRU, the measurements performed by the remote WTRU may comprise one or more of the following: a) measurement of Uu (channel conditions (relative to one or more)) thresholds in a case of direct connection (of the WTRU with the network node) or multipath (connection of the WTRU with the network node (via the relay WTRU)); b) measurement of sidelink conditions in the case of indirect connection or multipath (measurement of sidelink channel conditions in a case of indirect connection of the WTRU with the network node via the relay WTRU or in a case of multipath connection of the WTRU with the network node via the relay WTRU).

[0259] According to an embodiment of the method, the measurements performed by the relay WTRU may comprise one or more of the following: a) measurement of (channel conditions of) an Uu link between the relay WTRU and the network node; b) measurement of (channel conditions of) a sidelink in a case of multihop; c) measurement of (channel conditions of) a sidelink and of an Uu link in case the relay WTRU is itself connected in multipath to the network node.

[0260] According to an embodiment, the one or more second conditions related to measurements performed by the relay WTRU may comprise one or more of the following conditions: a) thresholds concerning measurements reported by the relay WTRU; and b) reception of an indication from the relay WTRU that is related to measurements performed by the relay WTRU.

[0261] According to an embodiment, the one or more actions associated with the measurement event may comprise one or more of the following: a) sending a measurement report, of the measurements performed by the remote WTRU and of the measurements performed by the relay WTRU, to the network node associated with the measurement event; and b) executing a conditional handover according to a conditional handover configuration associated with the measurement event.

[0262] There is also disclosed a remote WTRU according to embodiments. The remote WTRU comprises at least one processor that may be configured to: receive, from a network node, configuration information comprising one or more measurement event configurations and, per measurement event of the one or more measurement event configurations, one or more first conditions related to measurements performed by the remote WTRU and one or more second conditions related to measurements performed by a relay WTRU, and one or more actions associated with the measurement event, to be performed by the remote WTRU when the one or more first and second conditions apply; monitor the one or more first and second conditions; and upon detection of / detect fulfillment of the one or more first and second conditions, (and) perform the one or more actions associated with the measurement event.

[0263] According to an embodiment, the at least one processor may be configured to, for the measurements performed by the remote WTRU, perform one or more of the following: a) measure Uu thresholds (measure Uu channel conditions (relative to one or more thresholds)) in a case of direct connection or multipath (in a case of direct connection of the WTRU with thenetwork node or in a case of multipath connection of the WTRU with the network node (via the relay WTRU)); and b) measure sidelink conditions in the case of indirect connection or multipath (measure sidelink channel conditions in a case of indirect connection of the WTRU with the network node via the relay WTRU or in a case of multipath connection of the WTRU with the network node via the relay WTRU).

[0264] According to an embodiment, the measurements performed by the relay WTRU may comprise one or more of the following: a) measurement of (channel conditions of) an Uu link between the relay WTRU and the network node; b) measurement of (channel conditions of) a sidelink in a case of multihop; and c) measurement of (channel conditions of) a sidelink and of an Uu link in case the relay WTRU is itself connected in multipath to the network node.

[0265] According to an embodiment, the one or more second conditions related to measurements performed by the relay WTRU may comprise one or more of the following conditions: a) thresholds concerning measurements reported by the relay WTRU; and b) reception of an indication from the relay WTRU that is related to measurements performed by the relay WTRU.

[0266] According to an embodiment, the one or more actions associated with the measurement event may comprise one or more of the following: a) send a measurement report, of the measurements performed by the remote WTRU and of the measurements performed by the relay WTRU, to the network node associated with the measurement event; and b) execute a conditional handover according to a conditional handover configuration associated with the measurement event.

[0267] There is disclosed a method 700, see Figure 7, implemented by a relay WTRU. The method may comprise: a) receiving (701), from a network node, configuration information comprising one or more measurement event configurations and, per measurement event of the one or more measurement event configurations, one or more conditions related to measurements performed by the relay WTRU and one or more actions associated with the measurement event, to be performed by the relay WTRU when the one or more conditions apply; b) monitoring (702) the one or more conditions; andc) (upon) detecting (703) fulfillment of the one or more conditions, (and) performing the one or more actions associated with the measurement event: cl) sending information to a remote WTRU; and c2) modifying a connection state of the relay WTRU.

[0268] According to an embodiment of the method, sending information to the remote WTRU may comprise sending a report of one or more measurements performed by the relay WTRU relative to conditions (e.g., channel conditions) of an Uu link between the relay WTRU and the network node.

[0269] According to an embodiment of the method, sending information to the remote WTRU may comprise sending a report of one or more measurements performed by the relay WTRU relative to conditions (e.g., channel conditions) of a sidelink between the remote WTRU and the relay WTRU.

[0270] According to an embodiment of the method, sending information to the remote WTRU may comprise sending an indication to the remote WTRU.

[0271] According to an embodiment of the method, modifying the connection state of the relay WTRU may comprise triggering a connection establishment or a connection resumption of a connection with the network node.

[0272] According to an embodiment of the method, modifying the connection state of the relay WTRU may comprise triggering an establishment of a PC5 connection with the remote WTRU.

[0273] There is also disclosed a relay WTRU, comprising at least one processor. The at least one processor may be configured to: a) receive, from a network node, configuration information comprising one or more measurement event configurations and, per measurement event of the one or more measurement event configurations, one or more conditions related to measurements performed by the relay WTRU and one or more actions associated with the measurement event, to be performed by the relay WTRU when the one or more conditions apply; b) monitor the one or more conditions; and c) (upon) detection of fulfillment of the one or more conditions, (and) perform the one or more actions associated with the measurement event: cl) send information to a remote WTRU; and c2) modify a connection state of the relay WTRU.

[0274] According to an embodiment, send information to the remote WTRU may comprise sending a report of one or more measurements performed by the relay WTRU relative to channel conditions of an Uu link between the relay WTRU and the network node.

[0275] According to an embodiment, send information to the remote WTRU may comprise sending a report of one or more measurements performed by the relay WTRU relative to channel conditions of a sidelink between the remote WTRU and the relay WTRU.

[0276] According to an embodiment, send information to the remote WTRU may comprise sending an indication to the remote WTRU.

[0277] According to an embodiment, modify the connection state of the relay WTRU may comprise triggering a connection establishment or a connection resumption of a connection with the network node.

[0278] According to an embodiment, modify the connection state of the relay WTRU ma comprise triggering an establishment of a PC5 connection with the remote WTRU.

[0279] Although features and elements are provided above in particular combinations, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that each feature or element can be used alone or in any combination with the other features and elements. The present disclosure is not to be limited in terms of the particular embodiments described in this application, which are intended as illustrations of various aspects. Many modifications and variations may be made without departing from its spirit and scope, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art. No element, act, or instruction used in the description of the present application should be construed as critical or essential to the invention unless explicitly provided as such. Functionally equivalent methods and apparatuses within the scope of the disclosure, in addition to those enumerated herein, will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoing descriptions. Such modifications and variations are intended to fall within the scope of the appended claims. The present disclosure is to be limited only by the terms of the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. It is to be understood that this disclosure is not limited to particular methods or systems.

[0280] The foregoing embodiments are discussed, for simplicity, with regard to the terminology and structure of wireless communication capable devices, (e.g., radio wave emitters and receivers). However, the embodiments discussed are not limited to these systems but may be applied to other systems that use other forms of electromagnetic waves or non-electromagnetic waves such as acoustic waves.

[0281] It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only, and is not intended to be limiting. As used herein, the term "video" or the term "imagery" may mean any of a snapshot, single image and / or multiple images displayed over a time basis. As another example, when referred to herein, the terms "user equipment" and itsabbreviation "WTRU", the term "remote" and / or the terms "head mounted display" or its abbreviation "HMD" may mean or include (i) a wireless transmit and / or receive unit (WTRU); (ii) any of a number of embodiments of a WTRU; (iii) a wireless-capable and / or wired-capable (e.g., tetherable) device configured with, inter alia, some or all structures and functionality of a WTRU; (iii) a wireless-capable and / or wired-capable device configured with less than all structures and functionality of a WTRU; or (iv) the like. Details of an example WTRU, which may be representative of any WTRU recited herein, are provided herein with respect to FIGs. 1 A-1D. As another example, various disclosed embodiments herein supra and infra are described as utilizing a head mounted display. Those skilled in the art will recognize that a device other than the head mounted display may be utilized and some or all of the disclosure and various disclosed embodiments can be modified accordingly without undue experimentation. Examples of such other device may include a drone or other device configured to stream information for providing the adapted reality experience.

[0282] In addition, the methods provided herein may be implemented in a computer program, software, or firmware incorporated in a computer-readable medium for execution by a computer or processor. Examples of computer-readable media include electronic signals (transmitted over wired or wireless connections) and computer-readable storage media. Examples of computer- readable storage media include, but are not limited to, a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a register, cache memory, semiconductor memory devices, magnetic media such as internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-optical media, and optical media such as CD-ROM disks, and digital versatile disks (DVDs). A processor in association with software may be used to implement a radio frequency transceiver for use in a WTRU, WTRU, terminal, base station, RNC, or any host computer.

[0283] Variations of the method, apparatus and system provided above are possible without departing from the scope of the invention. In view of the wide variety of embodiments that can be applied, it should be understood that the illustrated embodiments are examples only, and should not be taken as limiting the scope of the following claims. For instance, the embodiments provided herein include handheld devices, which may include or be utilized with any appropriate voltage source, such as a battery and the like, providing any appropriate voltage.

[0284] Moreover, in the embodiments provided above, processing platforms, computing systems, controllers, and other devices that include processors are noted. These devices may include at least one Central Processing Unit ("CPU") and memory. In accordance with the practices of persons skilled in the art of computer programming, reference to acts and symbolic representations of operations or instructions may be performed by the various CPUs and memories.Such acts and operations or instructions may be referred to as being "executed," "computer executed" or "CPU executed."

[0285] One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the acts and symbolically represented operations or instructions include the manipulation of electrical signals by the CPU. An electrical system represents data bits that can cause a resulting transformation or reduction of the electrical signals and the maintenance of data bits at memory locations in a memory system to thereby reconfigure or otherwise alter the CPU's operation, as well as other processing of signals. The memory locations where data bits are maintained are physical locations that have particular electrical, magnetic, optical, or organic properties corresponding to or representative of the data bits. It should be understood that the embodiments are not limited to the above-mentioned platforms or CPUs and that other platforms and CPUs may support the provided methods.

[0286] The data bits may also be maintained on a computer readable medium including magnetic disks, optical disks, and any other volatile (e.g., Random Access Memory (RAM)) or non-volatile (e.g., Read-Only Memory (ROM)) mass storage system readable by the CPU. The computer readable medium may include cooperating or interconnected computer readable medium, which exist exclusively on the processing system or are distributed among multiple interconnected processing systems that may be local or remote to the processing system. It should be understood that the embodiments are not limited to the above-mentioned memories and that other platforms and memories may support the provided methods.

[0287] In an illustrative embodiment, any of the operations, processes, etc. described herein may be implemented as computer-readable instructions stored on a computer-readable medium. The computer-readable instructions may be executed by a processor of a mobile unit, a network element, and / or any other computing device.

[0288] There is little distinction left between hardware and software implementations of aspects of systems. The use of hardware or software is generally (but not always, in that in certain contexts the choice between hardware and software may become significant) a design choice representing cost versus efficiency tradeoffs. There may be various vehicles by which processes and / or systems and / or other technologies described herein may be effected (e.g., hardware, software, and / or firmware), and the preferred vehicle may vary with the context in which the processes and / or systems and / or other technologies are deployed. For example, if an implementer determines that speed and accuracy are paramount, the implementer may opt for a mainly hardware and / or firmware vehicle. If flexibility is paramount, the implementer may opt for a mainly software implementation. Alternatively, the implementer may opt for some combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware.

[0289] The foregoing detailed description has set forth various embodiments of the devices and / or processes via the use of block diagrams, flowcharts, and / or examples. Insofar as such block diagrams, flowcharts, and / or examples include one or more functions and / or operations, it will be understood by those within the art that each function and / or operation within such block diagrams, flowcharts, or examples may be implemented, individually and / or collectively, by a wide range of hardware, software, firmware, or virtually any combination thereof. In an embodiment, several portions of the subject matter described herein may be implemented via Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), digital signal processors (DSPs), and / or other integrated formats. However, those skilled in the art will recognize that some aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein, in whole or in part, may be equivalently implemented in integrated circuits, as one or more computer programs running on one or more computers (e.g., as one or more programs running on one or more computer systems), as one or more programs running on one or more processors (e.g., as one or more programs running on one or more microprocessors), as firmware, or as virtually any combination thereof, and that designing the circuitry and / or writing the code for the software and or firmware would be well within the skill of one of skill in the art in light of this disclosure. In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the mechanisms of the subject matter described herein may be distributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that an illustrative embodiment of the subject matter described herein applies regardless of the particular type of signal bearing medium used to actually carry out the distribution. Examples of a signal bearing medium include, but are not limited to, the following: a recordable type medium such as a floppy disk, a hard disk drive, a CD, a DVD, a digital tape, a computer memory, etc., and a transmission type medium such as a digital and / or an analog communication medium (e.g., a fiber optic cable, a waveguide, a wired communications link, a wireless communication link, etc.).

[0290] Those skilled in the art will recognize that it is common within the art to describe devices and / or processes in the fashion set forth herein, and thereafter use engineering practices to integrate such described devices and / or processes into data processing systems. That is, at least a portion of the devices and / or processes described herein may be integrated into a data processing system via a reasonable amount of experimentation. Those having skill in the art will recognize that a typical data processing system may generally include one or more of a system unit housing, a video display device, a memory such as volatile and non-volatile memory, processors such as microprocessors and digital signal processors, computational entities such as operating systems, drivers, graphical user interfaces, and applications programs, one or more interaction devices, such as a touch pad or screen, and / or control systems including feedback loops and control motors (e.g.,feedback for sensing position and / or velocity, control motors for moving and / or adjusting components and / or quantities). A typical data processing system may be implemented utilizing any suitable commercially available components, such as those typically found in data computing / communication and / or network computing / communication systems.

[0291] The herein described subject matter sometimes illustrates different components included within, or connected with, different other components. It is to be understood that such depicted architectures are merely examples, and that in fact many other architectures may be implemented which achieve the same functionality. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement of components to achieve the same functionality is effectively "associated" such that the desired functionality may be achieved. Hence, any two components herein combined to achieve a particular functionality may be seen as "associated with" each other such that the desired functionality is achieved, irrespective of architectures or intermedial components. Likewise, any two components so associated may also be viewed as being "operably connected", or "operably coupled", to each other to achieve the desired functionality, and any two components capable of being so associated may also be viewed as being "operably couplable" to each other to achieve the desired functionality. Specific examples of operably couplable include but are not limited to physically mateable and / or physically interacting components and / or wirelessly interactable and / or wirelessly interacting components and / or logically interacting and / or logically interactable components.

[0292] With respect to the use of substantially any plural and / or singular terms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from the plural to the singular and / or from the singular to the plural as is appropriate to the context and / or application. The various singular / plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein for sake of clarity.

[0293] It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of the appended claims) are generally intended as "open" terms (e.g., the term "including" should be interpreted as "including but not limited to," the term "having" should be interpreted as "having at least," the term "includes" should be interpreted as "includes but is not limited to," etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, where only one item is intended, the term "single" or similar language may be used. As an aid to understanding, the following appended claims and / or the descriptions herein may include usage of the introductory phrases "at least one" and "one or more" to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles "a" or "an" limits any particular claim including such introduced claimrecitation to embodiments including only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases "one or more" or "at least one" and indefinite articles such as "a" or "an" (e.g., "a" and / or "an" should be interpreted to mean "at least one" or "one or more"). The same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of "two recitations," without other modifiers, means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to "at least one of A, B, and C, etc." is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., "a system having at least one of A, B, and C" would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and / or A, B, and C together, etc.). In those instances where a convention analogous to "at least one of A, B, or C, etc." is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., "a system having at least one of A, B, or C" would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and / or A, B, and C together, etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive word and / or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase "A or B" will be understood to include the possibilities of "A" or "B" or "A and B." Further, the terms "any of' followed by a listing of a plurality of items and / or a plurality of categories of items, as used herein, are intended to include "any of," "any combination of," "any multiple of," and / or "any combination of multiples of the items and / or the categories of items, individually or in conjunction with other items and / or other categories of items. Moreover, as used herein, the term "set" is intended to include any number of items, including zero. Additionally, as used herein, the term "number" is intended to include any number, including zero. And the term "multiple", as used herein, is intended to be synonymous with "a plurality".

[0294] In addition, where features or aspects of the disclosure are described in terms of Markush groups, those skilled in the art will recognize that the disclosure is also thereby described in terms of any individual member or subgroup of members of the Markush group.

[0295] As will be understood by one skilled in the art, for any and all purposes, such as in terms of providing a written description, all ranges disclosed herein also encompass any and all possible subranges and combinations of subranges thereof. Any listed range can be easily recognized assufficiently describing and enabling the same range being broken down into at least equal halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, tenths, etc. As a non-limiting example, each range discussed herein may be readily broken down into a lower third, middle third and upper third, etc. As will also be understood by one skilled in the art all language such as "up to," "at least," "greater than," "less than," and the like includes the number recited and refers to ranges which can be subsequently broken down into subranges as discussed above. Finally, as will be understood by one skilled in the art, a range includes each individual member. Thus, for example, a group having 1-3 cells refers to groups having 1, 2, or 3 cells. Similarly, a group having 1-5 cells refers to groups having 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 cells, and so forth.

[0296] Moreover, the claims should not be read as limited to the provided order or elements unless stated to that effect. In addition, use of the terms "means for" in any claim is intended to invoke 35 U.S.C. §112, 6 or means-plus-function claim format, and any claim without the terms "means for" is not so intended.

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. A method (600), implemented by a remote wireless transmit-receive unit, WTRU, wherein the method comprises: receiving (601), from a network node, configuration information comprising one or more measurement event configurations and, per measurement event of the one or more measurement event configurations, one or more first conditions related to measurements performed by the remote WTRU and one or more second conditions related to measurements performed by a relay WTRU, and one or more actions associated with the measurement event, to be performed by the remote WTRU when the one or more first and second conditions apply; monitoring (602) the one or more first and second conditions; and detecting (603) fulfillment of the one or more first and second conditions, and performing the one or more actions associated with the measurement event.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the measurements performed by the remote WTRU comprise one or more of the following: measurement of Uu thresholds in a case of direct connection or multipath; and measurement of sidelink conditions in the case of indirect connection or multipath.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the measurements performed by the relay WTRU comprise one or more of the following: measurement of an Uu link between the relay WTRU and the network node; measurement of a sidelink in a case of multihop; and measurement of a sidelink and of an Uu link in case the relay WTRU is itself connected in multipath to the network node.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more second conditions related to measurements performed by the relay WTRU comprise one or more of the following conditions: thresholds concerning measurements reported by the relay WTRU; reception of an indication from the relay WTRU that is related to measurements performed by the relay WTRU.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more actions associated with the measurement event comprise one or more of the following: sending a measurement report, of the measurements performed by the remote WTRU and of the measurements performed by the relay WTRU, to the network node associated with the measurement event; and executing a conditional handover according to a conditional handover configuration associated with the measurement event.

6. A remote wireless transmit-receive unit (WTRU), comprising at least one processor configured to: receive, from a network node, configuration information comprising one or more measurement event configurations and, per measurement event of the one or more measurement event configurations, one or more first conditions related to measurements performed by the remote WTRU and one or more second conditions related to measurements performed by a relay WTRU, and one or more actions associated with the measurement event, to be performed by the remote WTRU when the one or more first and second conditions apply; monitor the one or more first and second conditions; and detect fulfillment of the one or more first and second conditions, and perform the one or more actions associated with the measurement event.

7. The remote WTRU according to claim 6, wherein the at least one processor is configured to, for the measurements performed by the remote WTRU, perform one or more of the following: measure Uu thresholds in a case of direct connection or multipath; and measure sidelink conditions in the case of indirect connection or multipath.

8. The remote WTRU according to claim 6, wherein the measurements performed by the relay WTRU comprise one or more of the following: measurement of an Uu link between the relay WTRU and the network node; measurement of a sidelink in a case of multihop; and measurement of a sidelink and of an Uu link in case the relay WTRU is itself connected in multipath to the network node.

9. The remote WTRU according to claim 6, wherein the one or more second conditions related to measurements performed by the relay WTRU comprise one or more of the following conditions: thresholds concerning measurements reported by the relay WTRU; reception of an indication from the relay WTRU that is related to measurements performed by the relay WTRU.

10. The remote WTRU according to claim 6, wherein the one or more actions associated with the measurement event comprise one or more of the following: send a measurement report, of the measurements performed by the remote WTRU and of the measurements performed by the relay WTRU, to the network node associated with the measurement event; and execute a conditional handover according to a conditional handover configuration associated with the measurement event.

Images