Method and apparatus for saving power

Abstract

The present disclosure provides methods and devices for saving power, wherein a method performed by a user equipment (UE) is disclosed, the UE comprises a first receiver and a second receiver, wherein the first receiver is a low power receiver, the method comprises: receiving, by the UE, a first reference signal through the first receiver; performing cell measurement based on the first reference signal; performing cell evaluation based on the measurement result and parameters related to low power; based on cell evaluation result, determining whether to wake up the second receiver.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SAVING POWER

[0001] The present application relates generally to the field of wireless communication technology, and more specifically to a method and device for saving power based on low power characteristic.

[0002] In order to meet the increasing demand for wireless data communication services since the deployment of 4G communication systems, efforts have been made to develop improved 5G or pre-5G communication systems. Therefore, 5G or pre-5G communication systems are also called "Beyond 4G networks" or "Post-LTE systems".

[0003] In order to achieve a higher data rate, 5G communication systems are implemented in higher frequency (millimeter, mmWave) bands, e.g., 60 GHz bands. In order to reduce propagation loss of radio waves and increase a transmission distance, technologies such as beamforming, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), full-dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antenna, analog beamforming and large-scale antenna are discussed in 5G communication systems.

[0004] In addition, in 5G communication systems, developments of system network improvement are underway based on advanced small cell, cloud radio access network (RAN), ultra-dense network, device-to-device (D2D) communication, wireless backhaul, mobile network, cooperative communication, coordinated multi-points (CoMP), reception-end interference cancellation, etc.

[0005] In 5G systems, hybrid FSK and QAM modulation (FQAM) and sliding window superposition coding (SWSC) as advanced coding modulation (ACM), and filter bank multicarrier (FBMC), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and sparse code multiple access (SCMA) as advanced access technologies have been developed.

[0006] The present application provides methods and devices for saving power to support various functions based on low power characteristic.

[0007] According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment (UE), the UE comprising a first receiver and a second receiver, wherein the first receiver is a low power receiver, the method comprising: receiving a first reference signal through the first receiver; performing cell measurement based on the first reference signal; performing cell evaluation based on a measurement result and parameters related to low power characteristic; based on a cell evaluation result, determining whether to trigger the second receiver to perform corresponding processing.

[0008] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, performing the cell measurement based on the first reference signal includes: measuring a serving cell and / or a neighbour cell based on the first reference signal.

[0009] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, performing the cell measurement based on the first reference signal includes: obtaining configuration information related to the cell measurement; determining signal received power information and / or signal received quality information corresponding to the first reference signal based on the first reference signal and the configuration information related to the cell measurement, wherein the configuration information related to the cell measurement comprises at least one of a measurement timing configuration period of the first reference signal, a transmission period of the first reference signal, and a period of a low power wake up signal (LP-WUS).

[0010] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, determining the signal received power information and / or signal received quality information corresponding to the first reference signal based on the first reference signal and the configuration information related to the cell measurement includes: using, by the UE, at least two measurement values to filter the signal received power information and / or signal received quality information corresponding to the first reference signal of the cell; wherein an interval of the at least two measurement value is determined based on the period of the LP-WUS or the measurement timing configuration period of the first reference signal in the configuration information related to the cell measurement.

[0011] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the measurement timing configuration period of the first reference signal is greater than a maximum value of a measurement timing configuration period of a second reference signal, wherein the second reference signal is received by the second receiver.

[0012] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, performing the cell evaluation based on the measurement result and the parameters related to the low power characteristic includes: obtaining configuration information related to the cell evaluation, the configuration information including parameters related to the low power characteristic; performing the cell evaluation based on the measurement result and the configuration information related to the cell evaluation; wherein the configuration information related to cell evaluation comprises at least one of a period of a low power wake up signal (LP-WUS), a discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle, a low power period length.

[0013] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, performing the cell evaluation based on the measurement result and the configuration information related to the cell evaluation includes: determining a low power period length based on at least one of a period of the LP-WUS, a DRX cycle and measurement timing configuration cycle of the first reference signal in the configuration information related to the cell evaluation; determining an evaluation period based on evaluation-related parameters of the UE and the low power period length; performing the cell evaluation based on the evaluation period.

[0014] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the evaluation-related parameters of the UE include at least one of the following: a parameter related to radio frequency front-end chain switching, a frequency-related scaling factor, an evaluation-related multiplication factor, and a relaxation factor related to a degree of relaxation of the evaluation period.

[0015] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, performing the cell evaluation based on the measurement result and the parameters related to the low power characteristic includes: based on a first low power offset parameter and a first low power correction parameter in the parameters related to the low power characteristic, converting a first measurement value in the measurement result; obtaining a first evaluation result using the converted first measurement value; wherein the first measurement value is related to the signal received power information corresponding to the first reference signal.

[0016] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, performing the cell evaluation based on the measurement result and the parameters related to the low power characteristic includes: based on a second low power offset parameter and a second low power correction parameter in the parameters related to the low power characteristic, converting a second measurement value in the measurement result; obtaining a second evaluation result using the converted second measurement value; wherein the second measurement value is related to the signal received quality information corresponding to the first reference signal.

[0017] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, performing the cell evaluation based on the measurement result and the parameters related to the low power characteristic includes: obtaining a third evaluation result based on the measurement result and a threshold value related to the low power characteristic in the parameter related to the low power characteristic.

[0018] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, performing the cell measurement based on the first reference signal includes: performing measurement on a serving cell based on the first reference signal; determining, based on a measurement result of the serving cell, whether a condition for triggering neighbour cell measurement is fulfilled; if it is fulfilled, triggering the second receiver to perform measurement on neighbour cells, wherein the neighbour cell measurement comprise at least one of measurements of intra-frequency NR cells, inter-frequency NR cells, and inter-radio access technology, inter-RAT, cells indicated by the serving cell.

[0019] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, performing the cell measurement based on the first reference signal includes: performing measurement on a serving cell based on the first reference signal; if the UE supports orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) low power reception capability, measuring neighbour cells based on the second reference signal.

[0020] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, performing the cell evaluation based on the measurement result and the parameters related to the low power characteristic includes: ranking measurement results of neighbour cells that fulfil the condition, and determining the optimal neighbour cell according to ranking result; based on comparison of the measurement result of the optimal neighbour cell with the measurement result of the serving cell, determining whether the optimal neighbour cell is the reselected cell of the UE.

[0021] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, determining whether the optimal neighbour cell is the reselected cell of the UE includes: based on a third low power offset parameter and a third low power correction parameters in the parameters related to low power characteristic, converting the measurement result of the serving cell; based on comparison the measurement result of the optimal neighbour cell with the converted measurement result of the serving cell, determining whether the optimal neighbour cell is the reselected cell of the UE.

[0022] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the first low power offset parameter, the second low power offset parameter, and the third low power offset parameter are obtained by at least one of: a difference in received signal values when signals with the same power are received by the first receiver and the second receiver; whether the first receiver supports the radio frequency front end chain switching; the number of radio frequency front end chains which are switchable by the first receiver; a power difference between a reference signal received by the first receiver and a reference signal received by the second receiver; measurement jitter error.

[0023] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the first low power offset parameter, the second low power offset parameter, and the third low power offset parameter are obtained by a difference between measurement results of respective reference signals measured by the first receiver and the second receiver, respectively.

[0024] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the configuration information related to the cell measurement or the configuration information related to the cell evaluation are obtained through system information block.

[0025] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the radio frequency front end chain comprises at least one of an antenna, a matching network, an antenna switch, a radio frequency switch, a filter, an amplifier, a duplexer, a multiplexer, a mixer.

[0026] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the first reference signal includes at least one of a low power synchronization signal, a low power wake up signal, and a synchronization signal block.

[0027] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the second reference signal comprises a synchronization signal block (SSB).

[0028] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, determining whether to trigger the second receiver to perform corresponding processing includes: determining whether to trigger the second receiver to perform at least one of neighbour cell measurement, neighbour cell evaluation, cell reselection, and cell selection.

[0029] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a network node, the method comprising: transmitting a first reference signal to a user equipment (UE) comprising a first receiver and a second receiver, wherein the first receiver is a low power receiver, the first reference signal is received by the first receiver; wherein cell measurement is performed based on the first reference signal; wherein cell evaluation is performed based on measurement results and parameters related to low power characteristic; wherein whether to trigger the second receiver to perform corresponding processing is determined based on cell evaluation result.

[0030] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the cell measurement based on the first reference signal includes: the measurement of the serving cell and / or the neighbour cell is performed based on the first reference signal.

[0031] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method further includes: sending configuration information related to the cell measurement, wherein the cell measurement performed based on the first reference signal includes: signal received power information and / or signal received quality information corresponding to the first reference signal is determined based on the first reference signal and the configuration information related to the cell measurement; wherein the configuration information related to the cell measurement includes at least one of a measurement timing configuration period of the first reference signal, a transmission period of the first reference signal, and a period of the low power wake up signal (LP-WUS).

[0032] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, determination of the signal received power information and / or the signal received quality information corresponding to the first reference signal based on the first reference signal and the configuration information related to the cell measurement includes: at least two measurement values is used to filter the signal received power information and / or signal received quality information corresponding to the first reference signal of the cell; wherein an interval of the at least two measurement value is determined based on the period of the LP-WUS or the measurement timing configuration period of the first reference signal in the configuration information related to the cell measurement.

[0033] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the measurement timing configuration period of the first reference signal is greater than a maximum value of a measurement timing configuration period of a second reference signal, wherein the second reference signal is received by the second receiver.

[0034] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method further includes: sending configuration information related to the cell evaluation, the configuration information including parameters related to the low power characteristic, wherein the cell evaluation performed based on the measurement result and the parameters related to the low power characteristic includes: the cell evaluation is performed based on the measurement result and the configuration information related to the cell evaluation, wherein the configuration information related to cell evaluation comprises at least one of a period of a low power wake up signal (LP-WUS), a discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle, a low power period length.

[0035] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the cell evaluation performed based on the measurement result and the configuration information related to the cell evaluation comprises: a low power period length is determined based on at least one of a period of the LP-WUS, a DRX cycle and measurement timing configuration periodof the first reference signal in the configuration information related to the cell evaluation; an evaluation period is determined based on evaluation-related parameters of the UE and the low power period length, the cell evaluation is performed based on the evaluation period.

[0036] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the evaluation-related parameters of the UE include at least one of the following: a parameter related to radio frequency front-end chain switching, a frequency-related scaling factor, an evaluation-related multiplication factor.

[0037] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the cell evaluation performed based on the measurement result and the parameters related to the low power characteristic includes: based on a first low power offset parameter and a first low power correction parameter in the parameters related to the low power characteristic a first measurement value in the measurement result is converted; the converted first measurement value is used to obtain a first evaluation result, wherein the first measurement value is related to the signal received power information corresponding to the first reference signal.

[0038] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the cell evaluation performed based on the measurement result and the parameters related to the low power characteristic includes: based on a second low power offset parameter and a second low power correction parameter in the parameters related to the low power characteristic, a second measurement value in the measurement result is converted; the converted second measurement value is used to obtain a second evaluation result, wherein the second measurement value is related to the signal received quality information corresponding to the first reference signal.

[0039] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the cell evaluation performed based on the measurement result and the parameters related to the low power characteristic includes: a third evaluation result is obtained based on the measurement result and a threshold value related to the low power characteristic in the parameter related to the low power characteristic.

[0040] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the cell measurement performed based on the first reference signal includes: measurement on a serving cell is performed based on the first reference signal; based on a measurement result of the serving cell, whether a condition for triggering neighbour cell measurement is fulfilled is determined; if it is fulfilled, measurement on neighbour cells performed by the second receiver to is triggered, wherein the neighbour cell measurement comprise at least one of measurements of intra-frequency NR cells, inter-frequency NR cells, and inter-radio access technology, inter-RAT, cells indicated by the serving cell.

[0041] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the cell measurement performed based on the first reference signal includes: measurement on a serving cell is performed based on the first reference signal; if the UE supports orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) low power reception capability, neighbour cells is measured based on the second reference signal.

[0042] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the cell evaluation performed based on the measurement result and the parameters related to the low power characteristic includes: measurement results of neighbour cells that fulfil the condition are ranked, and the optimal neighbour cell is determined according to a ranking result; based on comparison of the measurement result of the optimal neighbour cell with the measurement result of the serving cell, whether the optimal neighbour cell is the reselected cell of the UE is determined.

[0043] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, determination of whether the optimal neighbour cell is the reselected cell of the UE includes: based on a third low power offset parameter and a third low power correction parameters in the parameters related to the low power characteristic, the measurement result of the serving cell is converted; based on comparison the measurement result of the optimal neighbour cell with the converted measurement result of the serving cell, whether the optimal neighbour cell is the reselected cell of the UE is determined.

[0044] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the first low power offset parameter, the second low power offset parameter, and the third low power offset parameter are obtained by at least one of: a difference in received signal values when signals with the same power are received by the first receiver and the second receiver; whether the first receiver supports the radio frequency front end chain switching; the number of radio frequency front end chains which are switchable by the first receiver; a power difference between a reference signal received by the first receiver and a reference signal received by the second receiver; measurement jitter error.

[0045] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the first low power offset parameter, the second low power offset parameter, and the third low power offset parameter are obtained by a difference between measurement results of respective reference signals measured by the first receiver and the second receiver, respectively.

[0046] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method further includes: sending the configuration information related to the cell measurement or the configuration information related to the cell evaluation through system information block.

[0047] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the radio frequency front end chain comprises at least one of an antenna, a matching network, an antenna switch, a radio frequency switch, a filter, an amplifier, a duplexer, a multiplexer, a mixer.

[0048] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the first reference signal includes at least one of a low power synchronization signal, a low power wake up signal, and a synchronization signal block.

[0049] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein the second reference signal comprises a synchronization signal block (SSB).

[0050] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, determination of whether to trigger the second receiver to perform corresponding processing includes: whether to trigger the second receiver to perform at least one of neighbour cell measurement, neighbour cell evaluation, cell reselection, and cell selection is determined. According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a network node, comprising: obtaining first information about power boosting of a reference signal; sending second information about the power boosting of the reference signal to a user equipment (UE), wherein the second information about the power boosting of the reference signal includes at least one of: whether to boost power of the reference signal received by a first receiver of the UE, the first receiver being a low power receiver; whether to boost power of the reference signal received by a second receiver of the UE; a power boosting value of the reference signal received by the first receiver; a power boosting value of the reference signal received by the second receiver; difference between the power boosting value of the reference signal received by the second receiver and the power boosting value of the reference signal received by the first receiver.

[0051] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, obtaining the first information about the power boosting of the reference signal includes: receiving information about capability and / or a type of the UE from the UE; based on the information about the capability and / or the type of the UE, determining the second information about the power boosting of the reference signal.

[0052] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, sending the second information about the power boosting of the reference signal to the UE includes: sending the second information about the power boosting of the reference signal to the UE through at least one of a system information block, signaling sent to the UE, and the reference signal received by the first receiver.

[0053] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the information about the capability and / or the type of the UE indicates a detection method or a radio frequency indicator of the UE.

[0054] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in the case where the information on the capability and / or the type of the UE indicates that the UE supports detection for OFDM, the power of the reference signal received by the first receiver is not boosted; or

[0055] in case that the information about the capability and / or the type of the UE indicates that the UE supports the detection for OFDM, the power of the reference signal received by the first receiver is boosted, and the boosted power is smaller than the boosted power in case that the UE does not support the detection for OFDM; or

[0056] in case that the information about the capability and / or the type of the UE indicates that the UE does not support the detection for OFDM, or the information about the capability and / or the type of the UE is not received, the power of the reference signal received by the first receiver is boosted.

[0057] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the reference signal received by the first receiver includes at least one of a low power synchronization signal, a low power wake up signal, and a synchronization signal block; the reference signal received by the second receiver includes a synchronization signal block.

[0058] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method performed by a user equipment (UE) is provided, including: sending first information about power boosting of a reference signal to a network node; receiving second information about the power boosting of the reference signal from a network node, wherein the second information about the power boosting of the reference signal includes at least one of: whether to boost power of the reference signal received by a first receiver of the UE, the first receiver being a low power receiver; whether to boost power of the reference signal received by a second receiver of the UE; a power boosting value of the reference signal received by the first receiver; a power boosting value of the reference signal received by the second receiver; difference between the power boosting value of the reference signal received by the second receiver and the power boosting value of the reference signal received by the first receiver.

[0059] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, sending the first information about the power boosting of the reference signal to the network node includes:

[0060] sending information about capability and / or a type of the UE to the network node;

[0061] wherein based on the information about the capability and / or the type of the UE, the second information about the power boosting of the reference signal is determined.

[0062] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, receiving the second information about the power boosting of the reference signal from the network node includes: receiving the second information about the power boosting of the reference signal from the network node through at least one of a system information block, signaling sent to the UE, and the reference signal received by the first receiver.

[0063] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the information about the capability and / or the type of the UE indicates a detection method or a radio frequency indicator of the UE.

[0064] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in case that the information on the capability and / or the type of the UE indicates that the UE supports detection for OFDM, the power of the reference signal received by the first receiver is not boosted; or in case that the information about the capability and / or the type of the UE indicates that the UE supports the detection for OFDM, the power of the reference signal received by the first receiver is boosted, and the boosted power is smaller than the boosted power in case that the UE does not support the detection for OFDM; or in case that the information about the capability and / or the type of the UE indicates that the UE does not support the detection for OFDM, or the information about the capability and / or the type of the UE is not received, the power of the reference signal received by the first receiver is boosted.

[0065] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein the reference signal received by the first receiver includes at least one of a low power synchronization signal, a low power wake up signal, and a synchronization signal block; the reference signal received by the second receiver includes a synchronization signal block.

[0066] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment (UE), the UE comprising a first receiver and a second receiver, wherein the first receiver is a low power receiver, the method comprising: receiving, by the second receiver, a reference signal using at least one chain of multiple radio frequency front end chains of the UE; receiving, by the first receiver, the reference signal based on switching using at least one of any of the radio frequency front end chains in case that radio resource management is offloaded to the first receiver.

[0067] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, receiving the reference signal by the first receiver includes: the first receiver cyclically uses every one of at least one of any of the radio frequency front-end chains to receive the reference signal.

[0068] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, receiving the reference signal by the first receiver includes: after the first receiver cyclically uses every one of at least one of any of the radio frequency front-end chains to receive the reference signal, selecting one radio frequency front end chain from the any of the radio frequency front-end chains based on measurement results of reference signals of every one of the at least one of any of the radio frequency front-end chains; receiving, by the first receiver, the reference signal using the selected one radio frequency front end chain of the radio frequency front end chains; and cyclically performing the processing of the selection and reception.

[0069] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the reference signal received by the first receiver includes at least one of a low power synchronization signal, a low power wake up signal, and a synchronization signal block; the reference signal received by the second receiver includes a synchronization signal block.

[0070] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the radio frequency front end chain comprises at least one of an antenna, a matching network, an antenna switch, a radio frequency switch, a filter, an amplifier, a duplexer, a multiplexer, a mixer.

[0071] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a user equipment (UE) comprising: at least one transceiver configured to receive and transmit signals; at least one processor coupled with the at least one transceiver and configured to perform the method according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0072] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a network node comprising: at least one transceiver configured to receive and transmit signals; at least one processor coupled with the at least one transceiver and configured to perform the method according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0073] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment (UE), the UE comprising a first receiver and a second receiver, wherein the first receiver is a low power receiver, the method comprising: receiving, by the UE, a first reference signal through the first receiver; perform cell measurement based on the first reference signal; performing cell evaluation based on the measurement result and parameters related to low power; based on cell evaluation result, determining whether to trigger the second receiver to perform corresponding processing.

[0074] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, performing the cell measurement based on the first reference signal includes: measuring a serving cell and / or a neighbour cell in an idle state and / or an RRC inactive state based on the first reference signal.

[0075] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, performing the cell measurement based on the first reference signal includes: obtaining configuration information related to the cell measurement; determining signal received power information and / or signal received quality information corresponding to the first reference signal based on the first reference signal and the configuration information related to the cell measurement, wherein the configuration information related to the cell measurement comprises at least one of a measurement timing configuration period based on the first reference signal, a period of the first reference signal, power configuration of the first reference signal, a base station power boosting gain, configuration parameters of a low power wake up signal LP-WUS, wherein the configuration parameters of the low power wake up signal LP-WUS include at least one of paging indication, a WUS period, a UE group, a UE subgroup, a UE ID, and system information indication.

[0076] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the parameters related to the low power includes a first measurement offset related to at least one of: first parameter information configured by a network; second parameter information calculated by the UE; third parameter information related to radio frequency implementation of the UE; a measurement margin.

[0077] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the first parameter information is related to at least one of: configuration information related to the power boosting; and / or the second parameter information relates to at least one of: sensitivity difference between the first receiver and the second receiver; difference of measurement results obtained by measurements using the first reference signal and the second reference signal; and / or the third parameter information is related to at least one of: an antenna architecture of the first receiver and the second receiver related to radio frequency implementation of the UE.

[0078] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, performing the cell evaluation based on the measurement result and the parameters related to the low power includes: determining a first measurement offset based on the measurement result and the parameters related to low power; scaling the measurement result, and performing the cell evaluation based on the first measurement offset and the scaled measurement result.

[0079] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, scaling the measurement result, and performing the cell evaluation based on the first measurement offset and the scaled measurement result includes: scaling the measurement result based on parameters related to a first receiver architecture and / or a first low power correction parameter; performing cell evaluation based on the first measurement offset and the scaled measurement result.

[0080] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, performing the cell measurement based on the first reference signal includes: determining measurement results of the reference signal received power and / or reference signal received quality corresponding to the first reference signal based on the first reference signal and the configuration information related to the cell measurement; filtering the measurement results based on a measurement interval related to the first receiver.

[0081] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the measurement interval is related to at least one of the following parameters: a measurement timing configuration period based on the first reference signal in the configuration information related to the cell measurement, a measurement period of the first reference signal, and a discontinuous reception DRX cycle.

[0082] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the measurement timing configuration period based on the first reference signal is greater than the maximum value of the measurement timing configuration period based on the second reference signal, wherein the second reference signal is received by the second receiver.

[0083] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, performing the cell evaluation includes: determining a number and / or a period of cell evaluation granularities based on at least one of a relaxation factor related to the first receiver, a switching factor of a radio frequency antenna, an evaluation granularity, a relaxation ratio of the DRX cycle, and a frequency-related scaling factor, and determining whether a cell evaluation criterion is fulfilled based on the measurement result, configuration information related to the cell evaluation including the parameters related to the low power, and the number and / or the period of the cell evaluation granularities; based on the cell evaluation result, determining whether to trigger the second receiver to perform corresponding processing includes: triggering the second receiver to perform cell reselection or cell selection if the cell evaluation criterion is fulfilled.

[0084] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the configuration information related to the cell evaluation further includes at least one of: a period of the low power wake up signal LP-WUS, a discontinuous reception DRX cycle, a low power period length, and a measurement timing period of the first reference signal.

[0085] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the evaluation granularities comprise a first evaluation granularity related to a first receiver and a second evaluation granularity related to a second receiver,

[0086] wherein the first evaluation granularity is determined by determining the first evaluation granularity related to the first receiver based on at least one of the period of the first reference signal, the DRX cycle and the measurement timing configuration period of the first reference signal in the configuration information related to the cell evaluation.

[0087] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the cell evaluation criterion is related to at least one of: a threshold value of a cell selection evaluation criterion, a received level value of the cell selection, a cell quality value, wherein the threshold value of the cell selection evaluation criterion is a first threshold value related to the first receiver or a second threshold value related to the second receiver.

[0088] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, performing the cell evaluation includes: determining whether a condition to trigger the second receiver is fulfilled based on the measurement result and the parameters related to the low power; if it is fullfilled, waking up the second receiver and triggering neighbour cell measurement and / or serving cell measurement.

[0089] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, performing the cell measurement based on the first reference signal includes: measuring the serving cell based on the first reference signal, if a neighbour cell supports low power characteristic, measuring the neighbour cell based on the first reference signal.

[0090] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method further includes: if the UE supports orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDM low power reception capability, triggering the first receiver and the second receiver to measure the serving cell and neighbour cells based on the second reference signal.

[0091] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, measuring neighbour cells based on the second reference signal includes: for the first receiver supporting OFDM low power reception capability, based on the number of beams of the corresponding second reference signal that needs to be measured by the first receiver, indicated by the first receiver performing an RRM relaxed measurement on the neighbor cells based on the second reference signal received by the first receiver.

[0092] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method further comprises: scaling the measurement results of the neighbour cells of the first receiver, and processing the scaled measurement result based on second measurement offset; ranking the processed measurement result and the measurement results of the neighbour cells of the second receiver; according to the ranking result, reselecting to the highest ranked cell.

[0093] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the second measurement offset is related to at least one of: first parameter information configured by the network, second parameter information calculated by the UE, third parameter information related to radio frequency implementation of the UE, inaccuracy of automatic gain control of the UE radio frequency chain , other measurement margins.

[0094] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a network node, the method comprising: transmitting a low power wake up signal to a UE; determining a number of successful waking up of the UE; after completing the preset number of low power wake up signal transmission, determining the UE measurement result based on the accumulated total number of transmission and the number of successful waking up of the UE.

[0095] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method further includes: before sending a low power wake up signal to the UE, the network node sends a message to enter or activate a test mode to the UE, and receives a response message ACK reported by the UE; after sending the last low power wake up signal to the UE, the network node sends a message to exit or deactivate the test mode to the UE, and receives a response message ACK reported by the UE.

[0096] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the low power wake up signal sent to the UE includes at least one of a true low power wake up signal and a pseudo low power wake up signal, wherein the true low power wake up signal is a low power wake up signal that wakes up the UE to be tested, and the pseudo low power wake up signal is a low power wake up signal that wakes up other UEs or a noise.

[0097] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, determining the UE measurement result includes calculating at least one of a miss detection rate and a false wake up rate, wherein the miss detection rate is determined based on the accumulated total number of true low power wake up signals and the corresponding number of successful waking up, wherein the false wake up rate is determined based on the number of successful waking up of the UE corresponding to the pseudo low power wake up signals and the accumulated total number of the pseudo low power wake up signals.

[0098] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the network node sends a message to enter the test mode to the UE in a connected state, wherein the network node sends the low power wake up signal to the UE in an idle state, an inactive state, or a connected state.

[0099] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the message to enter or activate the test mode contains content indicating specific behavior of the first receiver of the UE after receiving the low power wake up signal, and / or that the first receiver of the UE no longer maintains the specific behavior, wherein the exit condition is a preset value for the accumulated total number of low power wake up signals sent by the network node to the UE.

[0100] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the interval between the network node sending low power wake up signals to the UE is a preset time interval.

[0101] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method performed by a user equipment (UE) is provided, the UE comprising a first receiver and a second receiver, wherein the first receiver is a low power receiver, the method comprising: receiving, by the second receiver, a message to enter or activate or exit or deactivate a test mode, issued by a network node, and sending a response message to the network node, the test mode indicating specific behavior of the first receiver of the UE after receiving the low power wake up signal.

[0102] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the UE is in the test mode state, the specific behavior is that after the first receiver of the UE receives the low power wake up signal, accumulating the number of successful waking up (but not waking up the second receiver) until the exit condition is fulfilled, wherein the exit condition is that the accumulated total number of low power wake up signals sent by the network node to the UE reaches a preset value, or the UE exits or deactivates the test mode state.

[0103] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the UE exits or deactivates the test mode state, or when the exit condition of the test mode is fulfilled, the first receiver of the UE wakes up the second receiver, and the second receiver reports to the network node the accumulated total number of successful waking up during the test mode activation, wherein the exit condition is that the accumulated total number of low power wake up signals sent by the network node to the UE reaches a preset value, or the UE exits or deactivates the test mode state.

[0104] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, receiving a message to enter or activate or exit or deactivate the test mode issued by the network node through the second receiver and sending a response message ACK to the network node are performed in the connected state; wherein, the specific behavior of the first receiver of the UE after receiving the low power wake up signal during the activation of the test mode is performed in an idle state, an inactive state or a connected state.

[0105] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a network node, the method comprising: sending a first reference signal to a UE so that the UE performs cell measurement based on the first reference signal, the UE comprising a first receiver and a second receiver, wherein the first receiver is a low power receiver, and the first reference signal is received by the first receiver; sending, to the UE, evaluation-related information related to the first receiver, so that the UE performs cell evaluation based on measurement result, parameters related to low power and the evaluation-related information, and determines whether to trigger the second receiver to perform corresponding processing based on the cell evaluation result.

[0106] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a network node, comprising: obtaining first information about power boosting of a reference signal; sending second information about the power boosting of the reference signal to a user equipment (UE), wherein the second information about the power boosting of the reference signal includes at least one of: whether to boost power of the reference signal received by a first receiver of the UE, the first receiver being a low power receiver; whether to boost power of the reference signal received by a second receiver of the UE; a power boosting value of the reference signal received by the first receiver; a power boosting value of the reference signal received by the second receiver; difference between the power boosting value of the reference signal received by the second receiver and the power boosting value of the reference signal received by the first receiver.

[0107] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method performed by a user equipment (UE) is provided, including: sending first information about power boosting of a reference signal to a network node; receiving second information about the power boosting of a reference signal from a network node, wherein the second information about the power boosting of the reference signal includes at least one of: whether to boost power of the reference signal received by a first receiver of the UE, the first receiver being a low power receiver; whether to boost power of the reference signal received by a second receiver of the UE; a power boosting value of the reference signal received by the first receiver; a power boosting value of the reference signal received by the second receiver; difference between the power boosting value of the reference signal received by the second receiver and the power boosting value of the reference signal received by the first receiver.

[0108] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment (UE), the UE comprising a first receiver and a second receiver, wherein the first receiver is a low power receiver, the method comprising: receiving a reference signal by the second receiver using at least one of multiple radio frequency front end chains of the UE; receiving the reference signal by the first receiver based on switching using at least one of any of the multiple radio frequency front end chains in case that radio resource management is offloaded to the first receiver.

[0109] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a user equipment (UE) comprising: at least one transceiver configured to receive and transmit signals; at least one processor coupled with the at least one transceiver and configured to perform the method according to any one of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0110] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a network node comprising: at least one transceiver configured to receive and transmit signals; at least one processor coupled with the at least one transceiver and configured to perform the method according to any one of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0111] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, by performing related configuration or measurement on signals with low power characteristic, or improving the detection of signals with low power characteristic, or combining configuration of a network device and a type and capability of a user equipment to adjust corresponding measurement and wake up methods, the technical effect of saving power is achieved.

[0112] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network according to various embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0113] FIGS. 2a and 2b illustrate example wireless transmit and receive paths according to the present disclosure;

[0114] FIG. 3a illustrates an example user equipment, UE, according to the present disclosure;

[0115] FIG. 3b illustrates an example base station according to the present disclosure;

[0116] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a UE supporting low power characteristic according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0117] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an interval of two measurement values in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0118] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a mobility scenario according to an embodiment of the present disclosure (the serving cell and the neighbour cell have an overlapping area);

[0119] FIG. 7 is a flowchart of cell reselection according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0120] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a mobility scenario according to an embodiment of the present disclosure (the serving cell and the neighbour cell have no overlapping area);

[0121] FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of an antenna configuration according to a comparative example (an LR architecture with independent single antenna);

[0122] FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of an antenna configuration according to a comparative example (an LR architecture sharing one antenna of an MR);

[0123] FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of an antenna configuration according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0124] FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of an antenna operating mode (polling mode) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0125] FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of the antenna operating mode according to an embodiment of the present disclosure (polling antenna + fixed antenna mode);

[0126] FIG. 14 is a block diagram of a User Equipment (UE) or a network node according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0127] FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of a UE receiver architecture with an LR and an MR according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0128] FIG. 16 is a flowchart of an existing energy-saving RRM measurement method using an LR;

[0129] FIG. 17 is a schematic diagram of a problem in the existing energy-saving RRM measurement method using an LR;

[0130] FIG. 18 is an overall flowchart of energy-saving RRM measurement using coordination of an LR and an MR according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0131] FIG. 19 is a schematic diagram of an SMTC measurement window and measurement interval according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0132] FIG. 20 is a process diagram of MR waking up under different scenarios according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0133] FIG. 21 is a schematic diagram of an LR performance test method in an idle mode according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0134] FIG. 22 is a schematic diagram of a scenario of relaxed measurement of neighbour cells according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0135] FIG. 23 is a schematic diagram of a problem in conventional testing method;

[0136] FIG. 24 is schematic diagram of a defect of an LR architecture with an independent single antenna;

[0137] FIG. 25 is a schematic diagram of an antenna architecture in which a UE uses an LR designed as a subset of an MR for FR2 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0138] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the wireless network 100 shown in FIG. 1 is for illustration only. Other embodiments of the wireless network 100 can be used without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0139] The wireless network 100 includes a gNodeB (gNB) 101, a gNB 102, and a gNB 103. gNB 101 communicates with gNB 102 and gNB 103. gNB 101 also communicates with at least one Internet Protocol (IP) network 130, such as the Internet, a private IP network, or other data networks.

[0140] Depending on a type of the network, other well-known terms such as "base station" or "access point" can be used instead of "gNodeB" or "gNB". For convenience, the terms "gNodeB" and "gNB" are used in this patent document to refer to network infrastructure components that provide wireless access for remote terminals. And, depending on the type of the network, other well-known terms such as "mobile station", "user station", "remote terminal", "wireless terminal" or "user apparatus" can be used instead of "user equipment" or "UE". For convenience, the terms "user equipment" and "UE" are used in this patent document to refer to remote wireless devices that wirelessly access the gNB, no matter whether the UE is a mobile device (such as a mobile phone or a smart phone) or a fixed device (such as a desktop computer or a vending machine).

[0141] gNB 102 provides wireless broadband access to the network 130 for a first plurality of User Equipments (UEs) within a coverage area 120 of gNB 102. The first plurality of UEs include a UE 111, which may be located in a Small Business (SB); a UE 112, which may be located in an enterprise (E); a UE 113, which may be located in a WiFi Hotspot (HS); a UE 114, which may be located in a first residence (R); a UE 115, which may be located in a second residence (R); a UE 116, which may be a mobile device (M), such as a cellular phone, a wireless laptop computer, a wireless PDA, etc. GNB 103 provides wireless broadband access to network 130 for a second plurality of UEs within a coverage area 125 of gNB 103. The second plurality of UEs include a UE 115 and a UE 116. In some embodiments, one or more of gNBs 101-103 can communicate with each other and with UEs 111-116 using 5G, Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-A, WiMAX or other advanced wireless communication technologies.

[0142] The dashed lines show approximate ranges of the coverage areas 120 and 125, and the ranges are shown as approximate circles merely for illustration and explanation purposes. It should be clearly understood that the coverage areas associated with the gNBs, such as the coverage areas 120 and 125, may have other shapes, including irregular shapes, depending on configurations of the gNBs and changes in the radio environment associated with natural obstacles and man-made obstacles.

[0143] As will be described in more detail below, one or more of gNB 101, gNB 102, and gNB 103 include a 2D antenna array as described in embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, one or more of gNB 101, gNB 102, and gNB 103 support codebook designs and structures for systems with 2D antenna arrays.

[0144] Although FIG. 1 illustrates an example of the wireless network 100, various changes can be made to FIG. 1. The wireless network 100 can include any number of gNBs and any number of UEs in any suitable arrangement, for example. Furthermore, gNB 101 can directly communicate with any number of UEs and provide wireless broadband access to the network 130 for those UEs. Similarly, each gNB 102-103 can directly communicate with the network 130 and provide direct wireless broadband access to the network 130 for the UEs. In addition, gNB 101, 102 and / or 103 can provide access to other or additional external networks, such as external telephone networks or other types of data networks.

[0145] FIGs. 2a and 2b illustrate example wireless transmission and reception paths according to the present disclosure. In the following description, the transmission path 200 can be described as being implemented in a gNB, such as gNB 102, and the reception path 250 can be described as being implemented in a UE, such as UE 116. However, it should be understood that the reception path 250 can be implemented in a gNB and the transmission path 200 can be implemented in a UE. In some embodiments, the reception path 250 is configured to support codebook designs and structures for systems with 2D antenna arrays as described in embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0146] The transmission path 200 includes a channel coding and modulation block 205, a Serial-to-Parallel (S-to-P) block 210, a size N Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) block 215, a Parallel-to-Serial (P-to-S) block 220, a cyclic prefix addition block 225, and an up-converter (UC) 230. The reception path 250 includes a down-converter (DC) 255, a cyclic prefix removal block 260, a Serial-to-Parallel (S-to-P) block 265, a size N Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) block 270, a Parallel-to-Serial (P-to-S) block 275, and a channel decoding and demodulation block 280.

[0147] In the transmission path 200, the channel coding and modulation block 205 receives a set of information bits, applies coding (such as Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) coding), and modulates the input bits (such as using Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) or Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)) to generate a sequence of frequency-domain modulated symbols. The Serial-to-Parallel (S-to-P) block 210 converts (such as demultiplexes) serial modulated symbols into parallel data to generate N parallel symbol streams, where N is a size of the IFFT / FFT used in gNB 102 and UE 116. The size N IFFT block 215 performs IFFT operations on the N parallel symbol streams to generate a time-domain output signal. The Parallel-to-Serial block 220 converts (such as multiplexes) parallel time-domain output symbols from the Size N IFFT block 215 to generate a serial time-domain signal. The cyclic prefix addition block 225 inserts a cyclic prefix into the time-domain signal. The up-converter 230 modulates (such as up-converts) the output of the cyclic prefix addition block 225 to an RF frequency for transmission via a wireless channel. The signal can also be filtered at a baseband before switching to the RF frequency.

[0148] The RF signal transmitted from gNB 102 arrives at UE 116 after passing through the wireless channel, and operations in reverse to those at gNB 102 are performed at UE 116. The down-converter 255 down-converts the received signal to a baseband frequency, and the cyclic prefix removal block 260 removes the cyclic prefix to generate a serial time-domain baseband signal. The Serial-to-Parallel block 265 converts the time-domain baseband signal into a parallel time-domain signal. The Size N FFT block 270 performs an FFT algorithm to generate N parallel frequency-domain signals. The Parallel-to-Serial block 275 converts the parallel frequency-domain signal into a sequence of modulated data symbols. The channel decoding and demodulation block 280 demodulates and decodes the modulated symbols to recover the original input data stream.

[0149] Each of gNBs 101-103 may implement a transmission path 200 similar to that for transmitting to UEs 111-116 in the downlink, and may implement a reception path 250 similar to that for receiving from UEs 111-116 in the uplink. Similarly, each of UEs 111-116 may implement a transmission path 200 for transmitting to gNBs 101-103 in the uplink, and may implement a reception path 250 for receiving from gNBs 101-103 in the downlink.

[0150] Each of the components in FIGs. 2a and 2b can be implemented using only hardware, or using a combination of hardware and software / firmware. As a specific example, at least some of the components in FIGs. 2a and 2b may be implemented in software, while other components may be implemented in configurable hardware or a combination of software and configurable hardware. For example, the FFT block 270 and IFFT block 215 may be implemented as configurable software algorithms, in which the value of the size N may be modified according to the implementation.

[0151] Furthermore, although described as using FFT and IFFT, this is only illustrative and should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the present disclosure. Other types of transforms can be used, such as Discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) functions. It should be understood that for DFT and IDFT functions, the value of variable N may be any integer (such as 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), while for FFT and IFFT functions, the value of variable N may be any integer which is a power of 2 (such as 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc.).

[0152] Although FIGs. 2a and 2b illustrate examples of wireless transmission and reception paths, various changes may be made to FIGs. 2a and 2b. For example, various components in FIGs. 2a and 2b can be combined, further subdivided or omitted, and additional components can be added according to specific requirements. Furthermore, FIGs. 2a and 2b are intended to illustrate examples of types of transmission and reception paths that can be used in a wireless network. Any other suitable architecture can be used to support wireless communication in a wireless network.

[0153] FIG. 3a illustrates an example UE 116 according to the present disclosure. The embodiment of UE 116 shown in FIG. 3a is for illustration only, and UEs 111-115 of FIG. 1 can have the same or similar configuration. However, a UE has various configurations, and FIG. 3a does not limit the scope of the present disclosure to any specific implementation of the UE.

[0154] UE 116 includes an antenna 301, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver 302, a transmission (TX) processing circuit 303, a microphone 304, and a reception (RX) processing circuit 305. UE 116 also includes a speaker 306, a controller / processor 307, an input / output (I / O) interface 308, an input device(s) 309, a display 310, and a memory 311. The memory 311 includes an operating system (OS) 312 and one or more applications 313.

[0155] The RF transceiver 302 receives an incoming RF signal transmitted by a gNB of the wireless network 100 from the antenna 301. The RF transceiver 302 down-converts the incoming RF signal to generate an intermediate frequency (IF) or baseband signal. The IF or baseband signal is transmitted to the RX processing circuit 305, where the RX processing circuit 305 generates a processed baseband signal by filtering, decoding and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signal. The RX processing circuit 305 transmits the processed baseband signal to speaker 306 (such as for voice data) or to controller / processor 307 for further processing (such as for web browsing data).

[0156] The TX processing circuit 303 receives analog or digital voice data from microphone 304 or other outgoing baseband data (such as network data, email or interactive video game data) from controller / processor 307. The TX processing circuit 303 encodes, multiplexes, and / or digitizes the outgoing baseband data to generate a processed baseband or IF signal. The RF transceiver 302 receives the outgoing processed baseband or IF signal from the TX processing circuit 303 and up-converts the baseband or IF signal into an RF signal transmitted via the antenna 301.

[0157] The controller / processor 307 can include one or more processors or other processing devices and execute an OS 312 stored in the memory 311 in order to control the overall operation of UE 116. For example, the controller / processor 307 can control the reception of forward channel signals and the transmission of backward channel signals through the RF transceiver 302, the RX processing circuit 305 and the TX processing circuit 303 according to well-known principles. In some embodiments, the controller / processor 307 includes at least one microprocessor or microcontroller.

[0158] The controller / processor 307 is also capable of executing other processes and programs residing in the memory 311, such as operations for channel quality measurement and reporting for systems with 2D antenna arrays as described in embodiments of the present disclosure. The controller / processor 307 can move data into or out of the memory 311 as required by an execution process. In some embodiments, the controller / processor 307 is configured to execute the application 313 based on the OS 312 or in response to signals received from the gNB or the operator. The controller / processor 307 is also coupled to an I / O interface 308, where the I / O interface 308 provides UE 116 with the ability to connect to other devices such as laptop computers and handheld computers. I / O interface 308 is a communication path between these accessories and the controller / processor 307.

[0159] The controller / processor 307 is also coupled to the input device(s) 309 and the display 310. An operator of UE 116 can input data into UE 116 using the input device(s) 309. The display 310 may be a liquid crystal display or other display capable of presenting text and / or at least limited graphics (such as from a website). The memory 311 is coupled to the controller / processor 307. A part of the memory 311 can include a random access memory (RAM), while another part of the memory 311 can include a flash memory or other read-only memory (ROM).

[0160] Although FIG. 3a illustrates an example of UE 116, various changes can be made to FIG. 3a. For example, various components in FIG. 3a can be combined, further subdivided or omitted, and additional components can be added according to specific requirements. As a specific example, the controller / processor 307 can be divided into a plurality of processors, such as one or more central processing units (CPUs) and one or more graphics processing units (GPUs). Furthermore, although FIG. 3a illustrates that the UE 116 is configured as a mobile phone or a smart phone, UEs can be configured to operate as other types of mobile or fixed devices.

[0161] FIG. 3b illustrates an example gNB 102 according to the present disclosure. The embodiment of gNB 102 shown in FIG. 3b is for illustration only, and other gNBs of FIG. 1 can have the same or similar configuration. However, a gNB has various configurations, and FIG. 3b does not limit the scope of the present disclosure to any specific implementation of a gNB. It should be noted that gNB 101 and gNB 103 can include the same or similar structures as gNB 102.

[0162] As shown in FIG. 3b, gNB 102 includes a plurality of antennas 370a-370n, a plurality of RF transceivers 372a-372n, a transmission (TX) processing circuit 374, and a reception (RX) processing circuit 376. In certain embodiments, one or more of the plurality of antennas 370a-370n include a 2D antenna array. gNB 102 also includes a controller / processor 378, a memory 380, and a backhaul or network interface 382.

[0163] RF transceivers 372a-372n receive an incoming RF signal from antennas 370a-370n, such as a signal transmitted by UEs or other gNBs. RF transceivers 372a-372n down-convert the incoming RF signal to generate an IF or baseband signal. The IF or baseband signal is transmitted to the RX processing circuit 376, where the RX processing circuit 376 generates a processed baseband signal by filtering, decoding and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signal. RX processing circuit 376 transmits the processed baseband signal to controller / processor 378 for further processing.

[0164] The TX processing circuit 374 receives analog or digital data (such as voice data, network data, email or interactive video game data) from the controller / processor 378. TX processing circuit 374 encodes, multiplexes and / or digitizes outgoing baseband data to generate a processed baseband or IF signal. RF transceivers 372a-372n receive the outgoing processed baseband or IF signal from TX processing circuit 374 and up-convert the baseband or IF signal into an RF signal transmitted via antennas 370a-370n.

[0165] The controller / processor 378 can include one or more processors or other processing devices that control the overall operation of gNB 102. For example, the controller / processor 378 can control the reception of forward channel signals and the transmission of backward channel signals through the RF transceivers 372a-372n, the RX processing circuit 376 and the TX processing circuit 374 according to well-known principles. The controller / processor 378 can also support additional functions, such as higher-level wireless communication functions. For example, the controller / processor 378 can perform a Blind Interference Sensing (BIS) process such as that performed through a BIS algorithm, and decode a received signal from which an interference signal is subtracted. A controller / processor 378 may support any of a variety of other functions in gNB 102. In some embodiments, the controller / processor 378 includes at least one microprocessor or microcontroller.

[0166] The controller / processor 378 is also capable of executing programs and other processes residing in the memory 380, such as a basic OS. The controller / processor 378 can also support channel quality measurement and reporting for systems with 2D antenna arrays as described in embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the controller / processor 378 supports communication between entities such as web RTCs. The controller / processor 378 can move data into or out of the memory 380 as required by an execution process.

[0167] The controller / processor 378 is also coupled to the backhaul or network interface 382. The backhaul or network interface 382 allows gNB 102 to communicate with other devices or systems through a backhaul connection or through a network. The backhaul or network interface 382 can support communication over any suitable wired or wireless connection(s). For example, when gNB 102 is implemented as a part of a cellular communication system, such as a cellular communication system supporting 5G or new radio access technology or NR, LTE or LTE-A, the backhaul or network interface 382 can allow gNB 102 to communicate with other gNBs through wired or wireless backhaul connections. When gNB 102 is implemented as an access point, the backhaul or network interface 382 can allow gNB 102 to communicate with a larger network, such as the Internet, through a wired or wireless local area network or through a wired or wireless connection. The backhaul or network interface 382 includes any suitable structure that supports communication through a wired or wireless connection, such as an Ethernet or an RF transceiver.

[0168] The memory 380 is coupled to the controller / processor 378. A part of the memory 380 can include an RAM, while another part of the memory 380 can include a flash memory or other ROMs. In certain embodiments, a plurality of instructions, such as the BIS algorithm, are stored in the memory. The plurality of instructions are configured to cause the controller / processor 378 to execute the BIS process and decode the received signal after subtracting at least one interference signal determined by the BIS algorithm.

[0169] As will be described in more detail below, the transmission and reception paths of gNB 102 (implemented using RF transceivers 372a-372n, TX processing circuit 374 and / or RX processing circuit 376) support aggregated communication with FDD cells and TDD cells.

[0170] Although FIG. 3b illustrates an example of gNB 102, various changes may be made to FIG. 3b. For example, gNB 102 can include any number of each component shown in FIG. 3a. As a specific example, the access point can include many backhaul or network interfaces 382, and the controller / processor 378 can support routing functions to route data between different network addresses. As another specific example, although shown as including a single instance of the TX processing circuit 374 and a single instance of the RX processing circuit 376, gNB 102 can include multiple instances of each (such as one for each RF transceiver).

[0171] The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0172] The text and drawings are provided as examples only to help readers understand the present disclosure. They are not intended and should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Although certain embodiments and examples have been provided, based on the content disclosed herein, it is obvious to those skilled in the art that modifications to the illustrated embodiments and examples can be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0173] Battery-powered wireless communication devices have a strong demand for reducing power consumption and improving standby time. To meet this demand, a variety of power saving technologies have emerged. For example, Discontinuous Reception (DRX) technology saves device power consumption by making the main transceiver sleep when no service is transmitted, and wake up with a long or short cycle (DRX cycle) to perform necessary signal reception according to the scenario. Generally, in the connected state (RRC_Connected), the user equipment wakes up according to a shorter cycle to monitor PDCCH signals. In the idle state or inactive state (RRC_Idle, RRC_inactive) the user equipment may wake up according to a relatively long cycle to monitor paging signals.

[0174] Because the master transceiver usually has a high power, there is still significant power consumption even in case of periodically waking up, especially when there is no service demand, periodically waking up leads to waste of power. Although power consumption can continue to be reduced by increasing the discontinuous reception cycle (DRX cycle), it will also cause a problem of increased latency of response services, thereby affecting the user experience.

[0175] In order to continue to reduce device power consumption without increasing the latency, a low power wake up receiver (LP-WUR, sometimes further abbreviated as LR or WUR) technology has recently emerged. The main purpose of the LP-WUR is to reduce the UE's energy consumption by maintaining the Main Radio (MR) in a sleep state for a long time to extend battery life. As shown in FIG. 4, because the MR has a high power, the technology adopts a specially designed LR with low power in the user equipment to perform necessary monitoring functions, such as monitoring a low power synchronization signal (LP-SS) sent by a network (NW) for synchronization and / or measurement, monitoring a low power wake up signal (LP-WUS) sent by the NW to receive information sent by network. According to the information received by the LR, the user equipment wakes up the MR to perform services when necessary (such as receiving a paging signal). When unnecessary, the MR can stay a sleep state for a relatively long time, thereby further saving power consumption. More specifically, please refer to FIG. 15. In an idle mode, the MR performs RRM measurement based on the always-on SSBs, monitors paging signals in every DRX cycle to detect if the NW sends any information. This behavior consumes power highly. However, in the idle mode, when the MR is in a sleep state, the LR can receive an LP-SS / SSS to perform the RRM measurement, and detect an LP-WUS to wake up the MR to monitor paging signals when the NW side sends downlink data.

[0176] Embodiments of the present disclosure include cell selection and cell reselection in an idle or inactive mode.

[0177] In the idle or inactive mode, after the UE has been turned on and the public land mobile network (PLMN) has been selected, the UE will perform cell selection and cell reselection. The main concerns of UE behaviors / demands are: measurement and evaluation of a serving cell, measurement of intra-frequency NR cells, measurement of inter-frequency NR cells, and measurement of inter-radio access technology (inter-RAT) E-UTRAN (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) cells.

[0178] In the cell selection, one of the factors that may be considered is: a suitability criterion / measurement criterion (both suitability criterion and measurement criterion may be used interchangeably in this disclosure), i.e., the S criterion. The S criterion is defined as:

[0179]

[0180] wherein

[0181] Srxlev = Qrxlevmeas-(Qrxlevmin+ Qrxlevminoffset)-Pcompensation-Qoffsettemp(1)

[0182] Squal = Qqualmeas-(Qqualmin+ Qqualminoffset)-Qoffsettemp(2)

[0183] In the equations (1) and (2), Srxlev is a cell selection Rx level value (dB), Squal is a cell selection quality value (dB), Qrxlevmeasis a reference signal received power (RSRP) value measured by the UE, Qqualmeasis a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) value measured by the UE, Qrxlevminis a minimum required received RSRP level value (dBm) in the (NR) cell indicated by cell selection / reselection, Qqualminis a minimum required quality value (dB) in the cell, Qrxlevminoffsetis an offset to the signalled Qrxlevmintaken into account in the Srxlev evaluation as a result of a periodic search for a higher priority PLMN while camped normally on a VPLMN, Qqualminoffsetis an offset to the signalled Qqualmintaken into account in the Squal evaluation as a result of a periodic search for a higher priority PLMN while camped normally on a VPLMN, Pcompensationis a power compensation factor related to the UE power type, representing cell coverage. Qoffsettempis an Offset temporarily applied to a cell for connection setup failure.

[0184]

[0185] The cell considered for cell reselection are at least one of intra-frequency NR cells, inter-frequency NR cells, inter-RAT E-UTRAN (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network, Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) cells. Conditions that need to be considered for cell reselection at least include: absolute priority criterion and radio linkage quality criterion. For the purpose of UE power saving, measurements on neighbour cells (also referred to as neighbor cells or neighboring cells or neighbouring cells in this article) by the UE need to fulfil certain condition, and decisions need to be made on the current camped on cell based on this condition to decide whether to perform measurement on neighbour cells. The following measurement rules are used to define whether cell reselection needs to be performed:

[0186]

[0187] For inter-frequency and inter-radio access technology cell measurements, since there are multiple frequency layers present in inter-frequency cell measurement, the reselection priorities of these frequency layers need to be taken into account, which are configured in the system information SIB (e.g. SIB4 or SIB5), the UE will try to check priorities only among those cells specified in the SIB.

[0188] For intra-frequency cells and inter-frequency cells with the same priority, the cell reselection criterion include:

[0189]

[0190] where the cell ranking criterion Rs for the serving cell and Rn for neighbour cells are defined as

[0191]

[0192]

[0193]

[0194] The UE needs to use the reference signal to perform RSRP and RSRQ measurements on the serving cell. And the UE needs to perform measurement filtering on the SS-RSRP values (i.e. RSRP based on SSB measurement) and SS-RSRQ values (i.e. RSRQ based on the SSB measurement) of the serving cell using at least two measurements. In a set of measurement values used for the filtering, an interval of the at least two measurement values are at least DRX cycle / 2, seeing FIG. 5. Moreover, the UE needs to evaluate whether the RSRP and the RSRQ of the serving cell fulfil the cell selection S criterion within a period of time (evaluation period).

[0195] The configuration of DRX cycle in NR may be 320ms, 640ms, 1280ms, or 2560ms.

[0196] The reference signal used for measurement needs to be periodic. After introducing LP-WUS / LP-WUR, the reference signals on which the measurement can be performed may include: an SSB (PSS / SSS / PBCH DMRS), an LP-WUS, an LP-SS.

[0197] In the prior art, the UE needs to wait for periodic SSB to measure, and the UE needs to measure the RSRP and / or the RSRQ to check the quality of the camped cell. For example, if the cell quality is below a certain threshold, the UE will reselect a new cell. Thus, the UE can always camp on a reachable cell. The periodicity of the SSB varies between 5 ms and 160 ms, and the SSB with a periodicity of 20 ms is defined for a cell.

[0198] In addition, because the UE does not know the actual SSB transmission periodicity of the neighbour cells, the UE needs to detect the SMTC periodicity, that is, the UE obtains the SMTC periodicity / offset and duration from the SIB1, and then performs SSB measurement according to the SMTC periodicity. The maximum periodicity of the SMTC is 160 ms in the existing configuration. Regarding the periodic LP-SS, at least for the WUR that cannot receive the existing PSS / SSS, the WUR may use the periodic LP-SS for RRM measurement (when the MR offloads the RRM measurement to the LR). The period of the LP-SS is at least 320 ms, and may be, for example, 320 ms, 640 ms, 1280 ms, 2560 ms, 5120 ms or 10240 ms in particular.

[0199] Simultaneously, the LP-SS may also be used for at least coarse time synchronization of the LP-WUR and at least coarse frequency synchronization of the LP-WUR.

[0200] Regarding the LP-WUS, it is used to wake up the MR for normal NR procedures and can carry a part of the paging-related information, or carry a 1-bit index pointing to the paging-related information. For example, when a UE receives the paging-related information related to the UE carried by the LP-WUS, the LP-WUR in the UE can activate the MR to perform normal NR steps. Since the LP-WUS is a periodic signal, the RRM measurement can also be performed. The period of LP-WUS must be greater than at least one DRX cycle to ensure successful monitoring of paging occasions.

[0201] As mentioned above, the current more mature DRX technology has encountered a bottleneck in saving power, and its power saving effect is often based on increased latency. With the emerging LP-WUS / LP-WUR technology, many specific technical problems need to be solved.

[0202] For example, the specially designed low power wake up receiver LR needs to adopt a new RF architecture in order to pursue its power consumption much lower than the MR. However, it is often difficult to improve the power consumption and the RF performance at the same time. Negative impact on the network coverage will be caused while achieving low power consumption. Possibly, different radio frequency architectures also mean that different types of terminal devices have different coverage capabilities, and how network devices handle them accordingly to balance their current network performance, etc.

[0203] Alternatively, the RRM measurement that the main transceiver MR needs to perform periodically is an important operation for the wireless communication terminal to maintain the mobility. After using the LP-WUS / LP-WUR technology, if the MR is waked up every time RRM measurement is required, then the power saving effect of the terminal will be greatly reduced. It is therefore highly necessary to offload the RRM measurement, which is conventionally required to be performed on the MR side, to the LR.

[0204] The flowchart of the existing energy-saving RRM measurement method using an LR is shown in FIG. 16.

[0205] At step 16-1, a UE performs cell search.

[0206] At steps 16-2 and 16-3, a network broadcasts measurement related configuration and the LR access.

[0207]

[0208] Step 16-4-1: Based on a preconfigured threshold, the UE enters a measurement mode using the LR;

[0209]

[0210]

[0211] At step 16-5, based on the measurement result of the LR, the MR is waked up according to LR-specific suitability criterion.

[0212] If the LR-based relaxed measurement criterion / suitability criterion is not fulfilled, the MR is waked up.

[0213]

[0214] However, existing LR-based energy-saving RRM measurement has the following major problems: performance is greatly reduced when using the LR for measurements. The MR will be waked up unnecessarily, incurring additional power consumption. FIG. 17 schematically depicts this problem. Referring to Table 1 below, it is shown that the UE, which is located at point M in the area where the serving cell MR coverage, the serving cell LR coverage and the neighbour cell coverage overlap in FIG. 17, obtains different measurement values using the LR and MR based on different reference signals.

[0215] Point MPC3 UE # LR(Measurement quantity: LP-RSRP)PC3 UE # MR(Measurement quantity: SS-RSRP)QrxlevmeasQrxlevmeasLR=-129 dBmQrxlevmeasMR=-125 dBmQrxlevmin-127 dBm-127 dBmSrxlev-22

[0216] In Table 1, PC3 UE represents a UE of Power Class 3 (PowerClass3), the measurement quantity LP-RSRP represents the LP-RSRP calculated based on the LP-SS; SS-RSRP represents the LP-RSRP calculated based on the SSB, and Srxlev is used to determine whether a cell is suitable or not.

[0217]

[0218] = QrxlevmeasMR-((-127) + Qrxlevminoffset)-Pcompensation=-125 + 127 = 2 > 0

[0219] = QrxlevmeasLR-((-127) + Qrxlevminoffset)-Pcompensation=-129 + 127 =-2 < 0

[0220] This opposite result will lead to the MR and the LR having opposite cell suitability decisions. That is, using the LR results in inaccurate UE behavior at point M and causes performance loss. That is, if the LR is used, the neighbour cell measurement or reselection procedure initiated by the UE is inaccurate. Moreover, high false alarm rate based on the LR will cause the MR to be waked up unnecessarily, resulting in additional MR power consumption.

[0221] DifferenceMRLRTransmit power of reference signal(SSS / LP-SS)HighLowAntenna gain (dBi)GoodPoorDefinition of RSRPLinear average of power contribution of REs carrying cell-specific reference signalsLinear average of received power of LP-SS over OOK ON symbols

[0222] At the same time, due to the inaccuracy of measurement, a UE supporting the LP-WUR feature may erroneously reselect to an LR covered cell (a cell with a small coverage) instead of the desired normal coverage cell (desired MR covered cell) after erroneously detecting that the cell it camps on does not satisfy the existing suitability criterion.

[0223] This need to face the problem of how to level the MR and LR measurements. Under LR operations, how to balance energy saving and high performance. And how to determine whether the MR needs to be awaked for necessary operations such as cell selection, cell reselection, etc. through the measurement result of the LR. There are other problems. For example, in the prior art, the existing maximum SMTC periodicity is 160 ms, and the LP-SS period is 320ms, 640ms, 1280ms, 2560ms, 5120ms or 10240ms, and thus the SMTC periodicity is not enough to cover the LP-SS. That is to say, the existing SMTC periodicity does not match the LP-SS period. Based on the existing SMTC configuration, a suitable measurement timing configuration period cannot be found to perform the LP-SS measurement, and thus the RSRP / RSRQ measurement of RRM cannot be successfully performed.

[0224] For example, in the prior art, Tserv for a serving cell depends on the DRX cycle, but the DRX is a basic configuration for energy saving of the MR. The MR periodically wakes up to monitor paging signals in an idle mode or to monitor PDCCHs in a connected mode. However, the LP-SS is only the signal used by the LP-WUR, and there is no connection between the LP-SS and the DRX cycle (MR mechanism). Therefore, if the LP-SS is to be used for evaluation, the DRX cannot be applied as the granularity, and DRX / 2 cannot be applied as an interval of at least two measurement values in measurement filtering. Thus, the existing definition of maximum evaluation period is not applicable to the LP-WUR either, i.e., for measurement and evaluation of the serving cell, the existing interval (DRX cycle / 2) between at least two measurement values and evaluation granularity (DRX cycle) are not applicable to the LR.

[0225] For example, in the prior art, the evaluation process of the serving cell needs to consider the S criterion, and based on the RSRP / RSRQ measurement results of the serving cell, the UE needs to search for the strongest cell that satisfy the S criterion. In the neighbour reselection process, Rs in the R criterion for the serving cell also needs to be based on the RSRP measurements. However, due to LP-WUR requirements of low power consumption and low complexity, using the LP-SS (signal larger than SSB period) and within the LR coverage area, the signal received quality of the signal received by the UE as well as the calculated corresponding signal strength RSRP / RSRQ may be small. In this case, if the existing S criterion / R criterion are used, it is impossible to find a suitable cell that satisfies the existing suitability criterion, that is, the existing S criterion for cell selection and the existing R criterion for cell reselection are not applicable.

[0226] For example, in the prior art, if the cell supports the LP-WUS / LP-WUR deployment, i.e. supports transmitting an LP-SS, and the UE supports this new feature, then the cell should signal a new value in new system information for the LP-WUS / LP-WUR. Depending on the supported coverage area levels and different frequency layer priorities, these values may be different and need to be configured flexibly. At the same time, in terms of system information overhead, the current system information design with high overhead is not the preferred design for the LP-WUS / LP-WUR of the simple function, and will also bring additional power consumption.

[0227] In view of the problems still existing in the LP-WUS / LP-WUR technology mentioned above, the technical solution of the present disclosure can solve any one or more of the above technical problems, but it does not mean that it is necessary to solve the above technical problems at the same time. For example, on the basis of the conventional LR architecture, according to different frequency ranges (FR1 / FR2), the present disclosure proposes a new LR architecture in which the antennas or the RF front-ends are shared based on switching and proposes solutions of corresponding RRM measurement offloading to the LR (MR RRM measurement offload to LR) for the conventional LR architecture and the new switching share LR architecture respectively.

[0228] According to one aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, by introducing a flexible architecture design, the coverage performance of the LP-WUS / LP-WUR terminal is improved and the applicable scope of the power saving technology is improved.

[0229] According to another aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, by introducing a new RRM measurement and decision mechanism on the LR side, the reliability of the RRM measurement using the LR is improved, thereby reducing the false wake up rate and improving power saving effect and performance of the device.

[0230] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the UE uses the first receiver to perform RRM measurement on the serving cell, and determines measurement result of signal received power and / or signal received quality corresponding to the first reference signal based on the first reference signal and configuration information related to the cell measurement. The UE filters the measurement result based on a measurement interval related to the first receiver. The UE decides first measurement offset of the first receiver based on at least one of the following parameter information: first parameter information configured by the network and / or second parameter information calculated by the UE and / or third parameter information related to radio frequency implementation of the UE and / or other measurement margins. In connection with the first measurement offset, the UE scales the measurement result based on the first receiver to obtain similar measurement performance to that of the second receiver.

[0231] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the UE decides a evaluation period based on at least one of a relaxation factor and / or a switching factor of radio frequency antennas and / or an evaluation granularity related to the first receiver. According to the scaled measurement result of the LR, the UE uses the first receiver to evaluate a cell based on the cell suitability criterion at least once per the evaluation period and verifies whether the suitability criterion associated with the cell is fulfilled. If the suitability criterion is fulfilled, the UE wakes up the second receiver for subsequent cell reselection or re-performs cell selection.

[0232] Based on parameters related to low power characteristic, the measurement result and the evaluation period, the UE uses the first receiver for serving cell evaluation, and wakes up the second receiver based on the cell evaluation result and suitability criterion related to cell evaluation. The serving cell evaluation includes: obtaining configuration information related to the cell evaluation, the configuration information including parameters related to low power characteristic; performing cell evaluation based on measurement result and the configuration information related to the cell evaluation; wherein the configuration information related to the cell evaluation comprises at least one of a period of a low power wake up signal (LP-WUS), a discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle, a low power period length, a measurement timing period of a first reference signal.

[0233] The UE uses the first receiver for the cell evaluation based on the parameters related to low power characteristic, the measurement result and the evaluation period, and waking up the second receiver based on the cell evaluation result and the suitability criterion related to the cell evaluation comprises determining a first evaluation granularity related to the first receiver based on at least one of a period of the first reference signal, a DRX cycle and a measurement timing configuration period of the first reference signal in the configuration information related to the cell evaluation; determining the evaluation period based on evaluation-related parameters of the UE; performing cell evaluation based on the evaluation period.

[0234] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the evaluation-related parameters of the UE include at least one of the following: a second evaluation granularity related to the second receiver, a first evaluation granularity related to the first receiver, a first relaxation factor related to the first receiver, parameters related to switching of the RF front end chain, a relaxation ratio of the DRX cycle, and a frequency-related scaling factor .

[0235] The second evaluation granularity related to a second receiver is a discontinuous reception cycle (DRX cycle).

[0236] Based on the parameters related to low power characteristic, the measurement result and the evaluation period, the UE uses the first receiver for the cell evaluation, and waking up the second receiver based on the cell evaluation result and the suitability criterion related to the cell evaluation includes: determining a suitability criterion related to the serving cell evaluation based on a threshold of the cell selection evaluation criterion, a cell selection received level value, and a cell quality value.

[0237] The threshold of the cell selection evaluation criterion may be a first threshold related to the first receiver or a second threshold related to the second receiver.

[0238] A suitability criterion relate to neighbour cell evaluation is determined based on a threshold of a cell reselection evaluation criterion, a cell selection received level value, a cell quality value, a cell reselection measurement rule, and a relaxed measurement rule.

[0239] The threshold of the neighbour cell reselection evaluation criterion may be a third threshold related to the first receiver and / or a fourth threshold related to the second receiver.

[0240] Based on the parameters related to low power characteristic, the measurement results and the evaluation period, the UE uses the first receiver for the cell evaluation, waking up the second receiver based on the cell evaluation result and the suitability criterion related to the cell evaluation includes scaling the measurement result of the first receiver based on a measurement offset of the first receiver, an architecture related parameter of the first receiver and a second low power correction parameter, obtaining a first suitability criterion related to the cell evaluation based on the scaled second measurement value and a first threshold related to the first receiver; wherein the second measurement value is related to information about signal received level value corresponding to the first reference signal.

[0241] Based on the parameters related to the low power characteristic, the measurement result and the evaluation periods, the UE uses the first receiver for the cell evaluation, waking up the second receiver based on the cell evaluation result and the suitability criterion related to the cell evaluation includes scaling the measurement result of the first receiver based on a first receiver measurement offset, a architecture-related parameter of the first receiver and a third low power correction parameter, obtaining a second suitability criterion related to the cell evaluation based on the scaled third measurement value and a second threshold related to the first receiver; wherein the third measurement value is related to signal received quality information corresponding to the first reference signal.

[0242] The UE uses the first receiver for the cell evaluation based on the parameters related to the low power characteristic, the measurement result, and the evaluation period, and waking up the second receiver based on the cell evaluation result and the suitability criterion related to the cell evaluation includes: obtaining a third suitability criterion related to the cell evaluation based on relaxed measurement result obtained using the first receiver and a third threshold related to the low power characteristic in the parameters related to the low power characteristic; obtaining a fourth suitability criterion related to the cell evaluation based on the relaxed measurement result obtained using the first receiver and a fourth threshold related to the low power characteristic in the parameters related to the low power characteristic.

[0243] Performing the serving cell evaluation based on the parameters related to the low power characteristic, the measurement result and the evaluation period, and waking up the second receiver based on the cell evaluation result and the suitability criterion related to the cell evaluation include: determining whether a condition to trigger waking up the second receiver is fulfilled. If fulfilled, the UE wakes up the second receiver and triggers neighbour cell measurement.

[0244] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, determining whether the optimal neighbour cell is a reselected cell of the UE includes: for a first receiver supporting orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDM low power reception capability, based on the number of the beams of the corresponding second reference signal which needs to be measured by the first receiver, indicated by the first receiver, the UE uses the first receiver to perform RRM relaxed measurement on neighbour cells.

[0245] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the UE compares the second scaled measurement result of the first receiver and the measurement result of the second receiver for ranking neighbour cells, obtain a mixed neighbour cell ranking result. According to the ranking result, the UE automatically identifies and reselects to the highest ranked cell.

[0246] The UE scales the measurement result of the first receiver according to second measurement offset of the first receiver, architecture-related parameters of the first receiver and fourth low power correction parameter to obtain the second scaled measurement result of the first receiver.

[0247] The second measurement offset of the first receiver is related to at least one of:

[0248] Based on first parameter information configured by the network, and / or second parameter information calculated by the UE, and / or third parameter information related to radio frequency implementation of the UE, and / or inaccuracy of radio frequency chain automatic gain control of the UE, and / or other measurement margins.

[0249] Embodiments in accordance with the disclosure may include one or more of the following aspects:

[0250] Based on the existing conventional LR architecture, a switching-based multi-antenna (and / or multi- radio frequency front end) architecture is introduced on the LR side, and the multi-antenna or multi-radio frequency front end is shared with the MR. Through a RF switch, the LR uses the multi-antenna in a switching manner. For example, embodiments according to the disclosure may include one or more of the following:

[0251] ● The antenna and / or radio frequency front-end used in a certain frequency band of the MR are exactly the same as the antenna and / or radio frequency front end used by the LR in this frequency band;

[0252] ● In a polling manner, different antennas and / or RF front ends are used to receive the low power synchronization signal LP-SS issued by the network and perform synchronization and / or measurement; Optionally, the terminal can fixedly select the antenna with the best signal for reception after a certain polling measurement;

[0253] The UE uses the LR for the serving cell RRM measurement, and filters the measurement result based on the measurement interval related to the LR. Based on a first parameter configured by the network, a second parameter calculated by the UE and a third parameter related to RF implementation of the, the UE decides an LR measurement offset. In connection with the measurement offset parameter, the UE scales the LR-based measurement result to obtain performance similar to the MR.

[0254] ● The first parameter is related to power boosting. When the network device sends a signal for LR reception (e.g. an LP-SS) to the terminal device and performs the power boosting, the network device informs the user equipment of the power boosting information (whether to boost the power, and / or dB value of the power boosting, and / or the difference between the power boosting of the reference signal for the LR (e.g., the LP-SS) and the power boosting of the reference signal for the MR (e.g., an SSB), etc.). For example, embodiments according to the disclosure may include one or more of the following:

[0255] 1. The power boosting information of the network device can be issued in the system information block; It can also be issued through signaling when the MR is operating; This information can also be included in a low power reference signal such as the LP-SS, which is obtained through LR reception by the UE;

[0256] 2. The power boosting information can be used in the RRM measurement and decision procedure. When considering a difference offset to measurement WUSoffset between the LR and the MR, a deviation caused by the power boosting information needs to be considered;

[0257] Optionally, the network device can decide whether to perform the power boosting based on the capability or type of the user equipment.

[0258] ● The second parameter is related to the sensitivity (REFSENS) difference between the MR and the LR, and difference between measurement results using an LR reference signals (RS) and an MR RS.

[0259] ● The third parameter is related to the UE RF LR-MR antenna architecture and / or antenna sharing and switching mechanism or antenna separation mechanism.

[0260] The first parameter information is related to at least one of the following: power boosting.

[0261] The second parameter information is related to at least one of a difference in sensitivity (REFSENS) between the first receiver and the second receiver and / or a difference in measurement results obtained by measurements using the first reference signal and the second reference signal.

[0262] The third parameter information is related to at least one of the following: antenna architecture of the first receiver - the second receiver related to radio frequency implementation of the UE.

[0263] Embodiments in accordance with the disclosure may include one or more of the following aspects:

[0264] Based on a relaxation factor related to the LR, a switching factor of the RF antenna, and the evaluation granularity, the UE decides the evaluation period. Based on the scaled measurement results of the LR, the UE evaluates the suitability criterion, also called relaxed measurement criterion, for the serving cell at least once in each evaluation period, and the criterion is based on the LR coverage. When the new suitability criterion is fulfilled, the UE wakes up the MR and performs subsequent target cell reselection.

[0265]

[0266] FIG. 23 illustrates a conventional testing method and problems thereof.

[0267] Referring to FIG. 23, problems with traditional testing methods may include:

[0268] ● Conventional test method in the connected state: a UE reports measurement result to a testing device (gNB emulator). It is possible that the UE reports the measurement results to the testing device through the MR.

[0269] ● The LR mainly operates in the idle state. In the idle state, the LR is active, the MR is in sleep, and the testing device cannot obtain the measurement result of the UE.

[0270] Embodiments in accordance with the disclosure may include one or more of the following aspects:

[0271] New test method of the LR in the idle mode, which carries out an LR performance test to solve the problems existing in traditional test method.

[0272] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the UE adaptively scaling the measurement result based on the first receiver to obtain similar measurement performance to the second receiver includes: scaling the measurement result based on first measurement offset of the first receiver, parameters related to the first receiver architecture and first low power correction parameter to obtain similar measurement performance to the second receiver.

[0273] Embodiments in accordance with the disclosure may include one or more of the following aspects:

[0274] For the receiver architecture with an OFDM-based LR, based on the number of SSS beams indicated for the LR, the UE uses the LR for the RRM relaxed measurements of neighbour cells. The UE adaptively offsets and scales the LR-based measurement result based on the LR measurement, and combines the scaled results with MR measurement results to perform neighbour ranking. The UE automatically identifies and reselects to the highest ranked cell based on the mixed neighbour ranking result.

[0275] When the MR offloads the RRM measurement to the LR, the LR determines whether the MR needs to perform cell selection and cell reselection through measurements of low power reference signals. For example, embodiments according to the disclosure may include one or more of the following:

[0276]

[0277] ● Configuring a new interval of at least two measurement values for the LR;

[0278] ● Considering various influencing factors of the terminal and the network device simultaneously, determine the maximum evaluation period suitable for the LR;

[0279] ● According to the measurement result of the LR, determine whether cell selection or reselection is required. Two methods are provided. One is to adjust the measurement result of the LR and make a decision according to the criterion for the MR; The other is to provide a criterion directly applied to the LR results for making a decision;

[0280] ● Proving methods of correlating the LR measurement with the MR measurement, including two ways of acquiring the LR measurement offset WUSoffset.

[0281] A new system information block (SIB) design is provided, such as wusSIB, reducing configuration options and simplifying functionality. At the same time, for UEs that support the LP-WUS / LP-WUR, the SI scheduling information needs to be pre-configured in the UE, periodically broadcast through the MIB or the SIB1.

[0282] Embodiments according to the present disclosure may be applied to cell selection / reselection in mobility scenarios when considering the LP-WUS / LP-WUR, but embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited thereto.

[0283] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the reliability and availability of the LR-based measurement result is ensured, so that the MR can be waked up accurately enough to reduce false alarm and miss alarm. The following directions and methods may be focused on:

[0284]

[0285]

[0286]

[0287]

[0288]

[0289] At the same time, the evaluation period is also extended in view of a switching pattern of the RF antenna. The evaluation period is extended by the parameter N, which can be chosen to be 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, or 8 depending on the switching mode of the antenna.

[0290]

[0291]

[0292]

[0293]

[0294]

[0295] Regardless of Method 1 or Method 2, relaxation to measurement on the MR serving cell can be achieved with the LR.

[0296] Embodiments of the present disclosure propose various methods to achieve that when the RRM measurement is offloaded to the LR, the S criterion for cell selection and the R criterion for cell reselection still is applicable.

[0297] Embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied to scenario 1: the serving cell uses RRM offloading, the neighbour cells do not use RRM offloading, and the coverage areas of the serving cell and the neighbour cells overlap, as shown in FIG. 6.

[0298] In case that the UE moves to point A in the area of the serving cell from outside the area, the UE uses existing rules for cell selection, follows the NR process, uses the specified maximum evaluation period Nserv / Tserv and the cell selection S criterion requirements.

[0299] In case that the UE moves from point A to point B and is at point B, the UE enters the LR coverage area from the normal coverage area of the area. If the network supports LP-WUS / LP-WUR / WUR deployment and the UE has this characteristic, the MR sleeps. In this case, the NW sends a low power signal, such as an LP-SS, and the UE performs measurement and evaluation of the serving cell based on the LP-SS. At the same time, in this case, the cell selection criterion and parameters based on the LP-SS should cause the UE still successfully camp on the serving cell. The most critical issue is that using the LP-SS (LR RS) can achieve comparable performance with using the SSB (MR RS).

[0300] Solution 1-1: Based on the configured threshold of the MR (for example, the configured threshold can be 0), suitability criterion / relaxed measurement criterion related to the scaled measurement results of the LR, minimum required received level specific to the LR coverage, called the first suitability criterion in this disclosure, is defined as follows:

[0301] The S criterion in the NR procedure is reuse d together with the existing threshold 0, that is

[0302]

[0303] wherein

[0304]

[0305]

[0306]

[0307] However, the following factors need to be considered:

[0308] 1） The UE has stored the SIB information received in normal coverage mode, or obtains configuration information, such as Qrxlevminoffset, Qqualminoffset, Pcompensation, Qoffsettemp, etc., through transmission from the MR to the LR;

[0309] 2） Because the LR and MR coverages of are different, minimum required received level and quality QrxlevminLRand QqualminLRspecific to the LR coverage needs to be defined, and they are suitable for the suitability check within the LP-WUR coverage;

[0310]

[0311]

[0312]

[0313]

[0314] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, there are two alternative LR-MR antenna architecture designs:

[0315] ● Architecture Design 1: Antenna separation mechanism. Drawbacks of this design are: 1) the separate-antenna design results in poor performance; 2) a mobile phone needs more space to place more antennas, which is very costly; 3) A separate receiver and antenna for FR2 is more impractical. At the same time, due to the separate-antenna design, the correlation between the MR and the LR is poor, resulting in the LR waking up the MR too often (false alarm) or miss detection. Explanation on the drawbacks is shown in FIG. 24. Specifically, the problem of the LR with a single antenna architecture is that its coverage performance is worse compared to the MR with multiple antennas. Even the LR with a single antenna is made to have a better coverage on average by special design, however, another problem is that when the MR offloads the RRM to the LR, the measurement result (such as the LP-RSRP) of the LR on the reference signal (such as the LP-SS) and the measurement result (such as the SS-RSRP) of the MR on the reference signal (such as the SSB) are required. RSRP) have a certain degree of comparability, that is, measurement difference between the two is relatively stable. However, since wireless signals continue to change over time, the received powers of signals received by different antennas are often very different. The MR generally has at least two antennas, and can support up to 4 antennas or even 8 antennas. The received signal of the MR is maximum value of the measurement result of multiple antennas or various signals are conbined. In this case, the difference between the measurement result of the single-antenna LR and the measurement result of the multi-antenna MR will be large. Therefore, when offloading the RRM of the MR to the LR, when setting the offset between the LR and the MR, more margin needs to be reserved, which brings a higher possibility of false wake up.

[0316] ● Architecture design 2: antenna sharing mechanism based on different frequency bands (FR1 / FR2).

[0317] For FR1, between the LR and the MR, the UE uses antenna sharing and switching. The benefit is that the RRM measurement results of the LR and the MR have a stronger correlation, enabling the RRM to be offloaded from the MR to the LR. In addition, it has a low cost and is easy to implement.

[0318] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a switching-based multi-antenna LR design, in which the antennas of the MR are shared with the LR and are connected to the LR through a controllable switch device, as shown in FIG. 11. When the MR uses dual antennas for reception, the two MR antennas are also connected to the LR for reception via the switch device.

[0319] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the switch device in FIG. 11 may not necessarily be an independent switch device, and any design that can achieve the switching effect of the present disclosure is included in the embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0320] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, when the MR operates in certain frequency bands, it may support 4 antennas or even more. Correspondingly, all 4 antennas can be connected to the LR through the switch device for reception, or a part of antennas (such as 2 of 4) with better performance can be selected from 4 antennas, and be connected to the LR for reception through the switch.

[0321] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the LR may receive low power signals by using different antennas in a polling manner as illustrated in FIG. 12.

[0322] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the antenna polling reception period of the LR may be the same as the period of the low power reference signal such as the LP-SS as shown in FIG. 15, i.e., one antenna is used per LP-SS period. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the antenna polling reception period of the LR may also be an integer multiple of the period of the LP-SS signal.

[0323] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the LR can also select and fix the best antenna for signal reception and measurement for a long time after several times of polling measurements. After one or more periods, the operation of "polling antenna + fixing antenna" is repeated cyclically, as shown in FIG. 13.

[0324] When the user equipment performs the RRM offloading, it is necessary to consider the number N of switching antennas of the user equipment, and the default value of N is 1, that is, antenna switching is not supported. If N > 1, the LR supports antenna switching, and the typical value is 2 or 4, but can also be 3, 6, 8, etc.

[0325] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, for FR2, the UE uses the LR designed as a subset of the MR. A diagram of the antenna sharing architecture is shown in FIG. 25. It can be seen as the MR when total beam forming components of all antenna elements are activated, and it can be seen as the LR when a part of the antenna elements are activated. The benefit of this design is that the RRM measurement results of the LR and the MR are highly correlated, so that the RRM is offloaded from the MR to the LR. In addition, it has a low cost and is easy to implement.

[0326]

[0327]

[0328]

[0329]

[0330] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the UE may adaptively scale the LR-based measurement result based on the LR receiver architecture parameters and the above-mentioned WUSoffset.

[0331]

[0332]

[0333]

[0334]

[0335]

[0336]

[0337]

[0338] T represents a duration of linear averaging of the LP-SS received power.

[0339] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, another approach is to dynamically determine WUSoffset between the LR and the MR based on measurements. Before switching from the MR operation state to the LR operation state each time, the MR and the LR measure their respective reference signals, respectively, and after a period of time, the difference between the two is obtained as WUSoffset.

[0340]

[0341]

[0342]

[0343]

[0344]

[0345]

[0346] The explanation on each parameter in equations (10) and (11) is shown in Table 5 below:

[0347]

[0348] In this Solution 1-2, all parameters are cell-specific, the same and fixed Z1 and Z2 cannot cover all possibilities when the UE capability and the mapping between the MR and the LR are different.

[0349]

[0350] At the same time, this solution needs to consider the following factors:

[0351] 1） New system information SIB (for example, it can be expressed as SIB (x), x is a positive integer, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto) design is required.

[0352] The cell shall signal new configuration values to the UE in a new SIB (e.g., SIB (x)) for the LR.

[0353] 2） If the stored information cannot be used for cell selection at this time, the UE needs to perform initial cell selection.

[0354]

[0355] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the new serving cell measurement and evaluation procedure is summarized as follows:

[0356] Step 1: the UE powers on.

[0357] Step 2: the UE searches and detects cell.

[0358] It should be noted that not each cell supports LP-WUR configuration (i.e., is configured with LP-SS), and the MR and the LR need to downlink synchronize to the same cell. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, two synchronization methods can be used.

[0359] Method 1: Synchronization is required for both the MR and the LR.

[0360] The network sends SSB signals periodically, and the UE uses the MR to detect the SSBs and decode the PSS, the SSS and the PBCH, obtain cell time and frequency synchronization, and obtain the cell ID.

[0361] If the cell supports / deploys the LP-WUR and UE supports LP-WUR feature, the network sends the LP-SS periodically, and the UE uses the LR to detect the LP-SS for synchronization.

[0362] Method 2: MR mandatorily needs synchronization, LR synchronizes on-demand.

[0363] The network sends SSB signals periodically, and the UE uses the MR to detect the SSBs and decode the PSS, the SSS and the PBCH, obtain cell time and frequency synchronization, and obtain the cell ID.

[0364] The conditions for activating LR synchronization may be link data rate and power strength. For example, if the link data rate is very small, the high-power MR is not required, and the UE can make the MR sleep and use the LR to perform RRM measurement tasks. At this time, the LR can be synchronized. For instance, when the side condition / SNR level / BLER is above a threshold or the UE experiences an enough high RSRP value in the serving cell, the MR can sleep, RRM measurement tasks is performed by the LR, etc.

[0365] Step 3: the UE decodes MIB information.

[0366] Step 4: the UE decodes SIB1 and decodes other SIBs.

[0367]

[0368] SIB (x) can also be independent new SIB. After the SIB1, the UE flexibly analyzes parameters according to whether to support the LP-WUS / LP-WUR.

[0369] If the network supports the LP-WUR, the network can configure corresponding values for corresponding parameters. If the network does not support the LP-WUR, the parameters related to the LP-WUR can be configured with default values of 'absent' or '0'.

[0370] Step 5: UE performs cell search.

[0371] After the UE has been turn on and the PLMN has been selected, the UE performs a cell selection procedure. There are two cell selection methods: 1) if cell information is stored for the PLMN, cell selection with the stored information can be performed; 2) if no cell information is stored for the PLMN, the initial cell selection is performed. This step and subsequent steps are embodied in the initial cell selection.

[0372] A UE that supports new feature (also called a UE that support LP-WUS / LP-WUR) can perform cell selection with Solution 1 or 2, which can be implemented according to the specific UE implementation.

[0373]

[0374]

[0375]

[0376] Step 5-2: Serving cell selection of UE supporting new feature.

[0377]

[0378]

[0379]

[0380]

[0381] Step 5-3: Find a more suitable cell and perform cell reselection.

[0382] In case that the UE moves from point B to point C and is at point C, the UE moves to the area covered by the LR of this serving cell, but overlaps with the normal area of the neighbour cell. In this case, MR wake up event will be triggered, and the procedure diagram of MR wake up in different scenarios is shown in FIG. 20. Among them, the MR can be waked up according to the new suitability criterion, which is based on the measurement result of the LR. Specifically, the new suitability criterion is determined based on the scaled measurement result of the LR, lowest required received level specific to the LR coverage and the threshold configured for the MR. Among them, if the LR determines that intra-frequency measurement is required, the UE waits to monitor the LP-WUS signal and wake up the MR, that is, the network triggers to wake up the MR. Whether the UE receives the LP-WUS signal within a duration, e.g. the duration may be Z seconds.

[0383] Scenario 1: Complete power saving scenario. In order to save as much MR power as possible, the UE which is stationary or is not at the cell edge or moves at a low-speed can prioritize the LR coverage over the normal coverage. The MR can remain asleep all the time. At this time the UE can camp on the cell that supporting the LR until the LR-related timer expires based on network configuration.

[0384] Scenario 2: Normal MR wake up. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, in this scenario, the following steps can be performed:

[0385] At step 20-1, when the LR entry condition is satisfied, the UE enters the LR mode and maintains the LR operation.

[0386]

[0387]

[0388] At step 20-3, if data is transmitted, the UE detects the LP-WUS signal within Z ms and wakes up the MR to monitor the paging to ensure accurate and reliable time / frequency alignment between the LP-SS and the LP-WUS.

[0389] At step 20-4, the MR is waked up successfully and restarts the cell search or performs a subsequent evaluation procedure of cell reselection.

[0390]

[0391] For Scenario 2, the MR wake up decision is made based on the LR measurement result within the evaluation window.

[0392] Based on the scaled measurement result of the LR, it can be evaluated according to the first suitability criterion that whether the current cell is suitable to wake up the MR for re-cell reselection or cell reselection evaluation. It is worth noting that the threshold configured for the MR can be 0, or SIntraSearchP / SIntraSearchQfor the intra-frequency measurements, or SnonIntraSearchP / SnonIntraSearchQfor the inter-frequency measurements with same / low priority.

[0393] Whether the current cell is suitable or not may be evaluated according to a second suitability criterion based on the measurement result of the LR.

[0394] When the LR is used as a receiver in the idle and / or inactive states, an LR performance test is also required to verify its performance. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, two LR performance test methods are provided. The first method is a performance test procedure based on a normal signaling procedure. The second method is a performance test procedure defining a specific test mode. The two methods are shown in (a) and (b) of FIG. 21.

[0395] Referring to (a) of FIG. 21, in the first method, at step 2101, in the idle state, the MR enters the sleep state. At step 2102, the LR enters the access state and the UE receives a network emulator (i.e. Test Equipment, TE) message through the LR. At step 2103, the TE transmits a LP-WUS signal to the UE and records the number Ntotalof transmission as 1, and the UE receives the LP-WUS signal through the LR and decodes it. At step 2104, if the decoding is unsuccessful, the MR is not waked up, returning to step 2013, the TE continues to transmit the LP-WUS signal, and the value of Ntotalis increased by 1; If the decoding is successful, proceeding to step 2105, the LR wakes up the MR, the MR and the TE enter the connected state through the access procedure, so that the TE is aware of that the wake up is successful, and the value of the number Nsuccessof successful wake up is increased by 1, returning to step 2101. This procedure is repeated cyclically until the total accumulated number of transmission reaches a preset value, such as 10,000 times.

[0396] Referring to (b) of FIG. 21, in the second method, at step 2111, in the connected state, the UE receives a message to enter or activate a test mode from the TE through the MR, the message to enter or activate the test mode contains content indicating a specific behavior of the LR after receiving a low power wake up signal, and / or an exit condition that the LR no longer maintains the specific behavior. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the specific behavior may be that the LR of the UE accumulates the number of successful wake up after receiving the low power wake up signal, but does not wake up the MR. At step 2112, after the UE reports a response message (ACK), the UE enters the idle state. At this time, the MR enters the sleep state and the LR enters the access state. At step 2113, the UE receives the TE message through the LR. The TE sends a LP-WUS signal to the UE and records the number Ntotalof transmission as 1, and the UE monitor and receives the LP-WUS signal through the LR and decodes it. At step 2114, if the decoding is unsuccessful, the MR is not waked up, and returning to step 2113, and the TE continues to transmit a LP-WUS signal, and the value of Ntotalis increased by 1; At step 2114, if the decoding is successful, proceeding to step 2115, the LR still does not wake the MR, but records the number Nsuccessof successful wake up incremented by 1, then returning to step 2113. This procedure is repeated cyclically until the exit condition is satisfied, for example, the total accumulated number of transmission reaches a preset value, such as 10,000 times.

[0397]

[0398] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the interval between transmitting the low power wake up signals to the UE is a preset time interval.

[0399] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, after sending the last low power wake up signal to the UE, the TE sends a message to exit or deactivate the test mode to the UE, and receives a response message ACK reported by the UE.

[0400] In the test mode of the second method, even if the LR detects the LP-WUS and decodes paging information, the LR does not wake up the MR, until the termination condition is satisfied, it will wake up the MR. The test parameters configured for the LR should take into account the REFSENS difference between the MR and the LR (i.e., the noise figure difference between the MR and the LR). The benefit of the test methods according to embodiments of the present disclosure is that the performance of the LR (such as MDR, FAR) can be tested in the idle mode, solving the problem that performance metric test cannot be performed in the idle state. Especially, the second method can accelerate the test and save test time.

[0401] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, cell reselection triggering event also needs to be considered at this time, and multiple situations may occur depending on the frequency reselection priority.

[0402] It is worth noting that cell reselection is based on cell ranking result, which can be cell-level or beam-level. It depends on whether the cell is configured with therangeToBestCellparameter. If therangeToBestCellparameter is not configured for the cell, the best cell which the UE reselects is the highest ranked cell. If the cell is configured with therangeToBestCellparameter, the best cell which the UE reselects is a cell having the most beams above the good beam threshold.

[0403] Possible scenario 1)

[0404] In order to save power, the reselection priority of the frequency of the cell supporting the LP-WUR is the highest.

[0405] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, for consideration of power saving gain, the reselection rules and parameters should ensure that the UE prioritizes the LR coverage over the normal range coverage of neighbour cells, so that the UE always camps on the highest priority frequency of the LR coverage. This priority can be set directly in SIB1 or new SIB (including intra-frequency and inter-frequency settings). A priority timer can be set, and within the invalid range of the timer / when the timer does not expire, the frequency of the serving cell supporting the LP-WUR has the highest reselection priority.

[0406] In this case, according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, when the UE is at point C, the UE does not wake up the MR. This is MR wake up event scenario 1, and PSS / SSS is not used for neighbour cell detection.

[0407] In this case, according to embodiments of the present disclosure, since the UE is at the edge of the neighbour cell, it is likely that signal received power and / or signal received quality of the neighbour cell are not high, the SNR sidw condition level is low, and the condition of RRM measurement offloading of neighbour cell is not satisfied.

[0408] Possible case 2)

[0409] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the serving cell performs RRM offloading, that is, the LR is used to perform serving cell measurement, and the MR is still used to perform neighbour cell measurement. At this time, combined with the aforementioned MR wake up event scenario 2, two situations of intra-frequency cells and inter-frequency cells are analyzed.

[0410] In the case of an intra-frequency cell, according to embodiments of the present disclosure, measurement of the intra-frequency cell and reselection of the intra-frequency cell need to be considered.

[0411] 1) Measurements of intra-frequency cell

[0412] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, any suitable method may be used for the solution of measurement of intra-frequency cell.

[0413] 2) Reselection of intra-frequency cell

[0414] If the UE wakes up the MR and initiates neighbour cell measurement, and the reselection of the intra-frequency cell is based on cell ranking, the RSRP values of the serving cell and neighbour cells can be calculated and ranked to make a reselection decision.

[0415] Case 1. Since the MR is already waked up at this time, cell reselection measurements can be performed based on the MR. Therefore, the R criterion (i.e., the serving cell ranking criterion Rs and neighbour cell ranking criterion Rn) can use the criterion as specified by NR in equations (12) and (13),

[0416]

[0417]

[0418]

[0419]

[0420] Case 3. If the neighbour does not support the LP-WUR, the following situations may occur:

[0421] Case 3-1: If the LR is not a UE that supports OFDM reception capability, then if the above area overlapping occurs, the UE does not support neighbour cell measurement. At this time, the cell covered by the LR has the highest priority.

[0422] Case 3-2: The UE utilizes the LR for neighbour cell measurement and serving cell measurement based on synchronization signal block SSB. The UE may be a UE in which the LR supports OFDM reception capability. At this time, the LR is turned on, and the UE performs relaxed measurement on the serving cell and measurement on neighbour cells based on the SSS.

[0423] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, if the UE is at a cell edge location, that is, the edge of the LR coverage of the serving cell, the normal coverage, and the neighbour cell coverage. Since the OFDM waveform can achieve the target coverage with lower resource consumption, for the LR of the OFDM-based receiver architecture, because the LR can receive the SSSs of the neighbour cells, if the LR does not exit, the UE can use the LR to perform the relaxed measurement of the serving cell (with a long RRM measurement period) and the scaled RRM measurement of neighbour cells to achieve the relaxed measurement of neighbour cell. A schematic diagram of the scenario of the relaxed measurement on neighbour cells is shown in FIG. 22.

[0424] If the MR and the LR are turned on at the same time, the measurement of the MR and the LR needs to be combined. However, there are the following three issues: 1) since the LP-RSRP and the SS-RSRP have different values and levels (the LR and the MR have different measurement intervals or measurement periods), how the UE combines the measurement results based on the two measurement reference signals; 2) If the cell is configured withrangeToBestCell, the beam threshold is configured for the MR, but it cannot be used by the LR; 3) UE cannot fairly compare different measurement results for ranking. Due to those issues, performance of cell reselection will be degraded.

[0425] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, solutions may include at least the two as follows.

[0426] Scheme 1: Although the LR can receive the SSS, it does not perform measurement. The MR performs measurements on the serving cell and neighbour cells according to existing procedures and requirements. The requirements may include the conventional intra-frequency cell measurement requirements and / or the intra-frequency cell measurement requirements configured with relaxed measurement criterion. The criterion may be a low speed criterion and / or a non-cell edge criterion. The LR exits automatically after X1 ms or the exit condition is satisfied, X1 is a fixed or configured integer.

[0427] Scheme 2: Serving cell relaxed measurement of LR , partial neighbour cell measurement of the LR. In order to ensure that the LR measurement result can fulfil the cell ranking-related settings configured for the MR, and that the two types of measurement results can be fairly compared for cell ranking, the LR measurement result need to be scaled. The mapping relationship shown in equation (14) can be considered, which can also be called the power domain measurement scaling model:

[0428]

[0429]

[0430]

[0431]

[0432]

[0433]

[0434]

[0435]

[0436]

[0437]

[0438] At this time, equation (16) becomes comparison of the same level, as shown in equation (19):

[0439]

[0440]

[0441]

[0442] FIG. 7 is a flow chart of intra-frequency cell reselection according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0443] At step 701, the UE successfully initiates neighbour cell measurements. The cell reselection evaluation procedure is successfully triggered.

[0444] At step 702, a neighbour cell that satisfies the S criterion is selected. The S criterion in the NR procedure can be reused.

[0445] At step 703, for the neighbours cell that satisfies the S criterion, in consideration of the R criterion, the serving cell and the neighbour cells are ranked according to the measured RSRP results respectively (Rs and Rn).

[0446]

[0447] At step 704, the UE selects the neighbour cell having the highest signal received quality level Rn as the best cell (i.e., highest quality level ranked cell) and defines it as the target cell.

[0448] At step 705, it is determined whether the selected best cell can satisfy the following two conditions:

[0449] Condition 1: Whether the best cell satisfies the R criterion Rn > Rs for a specific time.

[0450] Condition 2: Whether the UE camps on the current cell for more than 1 second.

[0451] If the above R criterion condition and the camping condition are satisfied at the same time, proceeding to step 706 and the UE reselect to the cell; otherwise, proceeding to step 707 and the UE continues to camp on the original cell.

[0452] In case of inter-frequency cell, according to embodiments of the present disclosure, measurement of inter-frequency cell and reselection of inter-frequency cell need to be considered.

[0453] 1) Measurements of inter-frequency cell

[0454] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, frequency priorities need to be compared.

[0455] According to an aspect of the embodiment, if the frequency of the inter-frequency cell has a higher priority than the current serving frequency, the UE will perform reselection measurement on the neighbour cell regardless of the serving cell quality, and the UE directly uses the SSB of the neighbor cell for neighbour cell measurement. The MR is waked up.

[0456] According to another aspect of the embodiments, if the priority of the frequency of the inter-frequency cell is lower than or equal to the priority of the current serving frequency, inter-frequency measurement criterion needs to be determined. There are also two solutions to the inter-frequency measurement criterion. Compared with the above-mentioned intra-frequency measurement, only the thresholds are different but the design ideas are similar. A brief explanation is given here:

[0457] Solution method 2-1:

[0458] Step 2-1: The LR determines whether the UE has an inter-frequency measurement occasion.

[0459] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the determination criterion of inter-frequency cell measurement can reuse measurement rules in the NR procedure, that is,

[0460] Srxlev < = SnonIntraSearchPand Squal < = SnonIntraSearchQ(21)

[0461]

[0462] When the coverage cell satisfies Srxlev > SnonIntraSearchPand Squal > SnonIntraSearchQ, the UE does not need to perform the inter-frequency measurement when the priority of the frequency of the inter-frequency cell is lower than or equal to the priority of the current serving frequency, otherwise the UE needs to perform the inter-frequency measurement.

[0463] Step 2-2: If the LR determines that the measurement occasion is required, the UE waits to monitor the LP-WUS signal and wake up the MR.

[0464] In case that the UE receives a low power reference signal such as an LP-WUS signal within a certain time period (e.g. Z seconds), the MR is waked up normally, and the MR uses NR inter-frequency measurement rules to re-determine whether to measure the inter-frequency neighbor cell.

[0465] If the serving cell satisfies Srxlev > SnonIntraSearchPand Squal > SnonIntraSearchQ, the UE does not choose to perform the inter-frequency measurement with the same or low priority , otherwise it performs the measurement.

[0466] In case that the UE does not receive a low power reference signal, e.g. an LP-WUS signal, within a certain period of time (e.g. Z seconds), the MR is not waked up. At this time, the UE can choose whether to measure the inter-frequency neighbour cell based on the LR determination result according to the implementation.

[0467] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, Z may be defined as the minimum period / allowable time interval of the LP-WUS signal, such as the maximum time offset of 3 s from the LP-WUS to the LP-SS.

[0468] Similarly, for the MR wake up in step 2-2, according to the aforementioned MR wake up mechanism, the UE can also autonomously wake up the MR without network triggering. At this time, if the LR determines that it has an inter-frequency measurement occasion, it wakes up the MR autonomously, and then the MR further determines whether the NR-based inter-frequency measurement rules are satisfied, that is, there is no need for network triggering.

[0469] Solution 2-2

[0470] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the determination criterion of inter-frequency cell measurement may be based on the determination of the new inter-frequency measurement rules, that is,

[0471]

[0472]

[0473] 2) Reselection of inter-frequency cell

[0474] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, in case that the inter-frequency cell has the same priority as the serving cell, the S criterion and the R criterion can be used. For specific processing methods and procedure, refer to the reselection of the intra-frequency cell.

[0475] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, in case that the inter-frequency cell has a different priority from the serving cell, cell reselection can be performed on the inter-frequency cell with a high priority, or cell reselection can be performed on the inter-frequency cell with a low priority.

[0476] Cell reselection will select the inter-frequency cell with the high priority if the following conditions are fulfillled at the same time:

[0477] - The UE is in the current serving cell for more than 1 second;

[0478] - Within the system information SIB4, Srxlev of the evaluated neighbour cell is greater than the parameters indicated by the system information, such as ThreshX-HighP (ThreshX, HighP) broadcast in SIB4.

[0479] Cell reselection will select the inter-frequency cell with the low priority if the following conditions are fulfill at the same time:

[0480] - All inter-frequency neighbour cells with the high priority do not satisfy the high-priority cell reselection condition;

[0481] - The UE is in the current serving cell for more than 1 second;

[0482] - Within the inter-frequency neighbour reselection time (for example, it can be a fixed 1s) broadcast by system information SIB4, the following conditions are simultaneously satisfied:

[0483] ▶ The value of Srxlev of the serving cell is less than the parameters indicated by the system information, such as threshServingLowP of SIB2, where Srxlev can be obtained according to Solution 1-1 and Solution 1-2 and they will not be repeated;

[0484] ▶ Srxlev of the evaluated neighbour cell is greater than the parameter indicated by the system information, such as threshX-LowP of SIB4.

[0485] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, Srxlev of the neighbour cell can be obtained through the SSB of the neighbour cell.

[0486] When the UE moves from point C to point D and is at point D, the UE moves from the serving cell that supports the LP-WUR to a neighbour cell that does not support the LP-WUR, and the UE is at the junction of the normal ranges of the two cells. In this case, the UE uses the MR for neighbour cell measurement and reselection, that is, the UE uses the normal NR reselection process. Once the reselection rules (for example, the S criterion and the R criterion) are met, the UE performs new cell reselection.

[0487] At the same time, when the UE moves from the LR coverage to the normal range of the neighbour cell, the UE may trigger reading of the system information, the information received from the system information will replace any originally stored information at this time. At the same time, although the suitability criterion (e.g., S criterion or R criterion) of the neighbour cell / frequency is not updated, the UE at least needs to know whether the neighbour cell supports the LP-WUR.

[0488] When the UE moves from point D to point E and is at point E, the UE moves within the neighbour cell. The neighbour cell become the serving cell. In this case, the system information of the neighbour cell is already stored at point D. At this time, the UE can use the SSB of the neighbour cell for cell selection.

[0489] Embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied to scenario 2: the serving cell uses RRM offloading, the neighbour cell does not use RRM offloading, and the coverage areas of the serving cell and the neighbour cell do not overlap, as shown in FIG. 8.

[0490] The difference between this Scenario 2 and Scenario 1 is that the normal coverage areas of the serving cell and the neighbour cell do not overlap. There is a problem that the power saving gain is reduced due to a need for switching the LP-WUR and the MR often.

[0491] When the UE moves to point A, the UE moves from outside the area to inside the area of the serving cell, the UE uses existing rules for cell selection, follows the NR procedure, uses the specified maximum evaluation periodicity Tserv and S criterion requirements.

[0492] When the UE moves from point A to point B and is at point B, the UE enters the LR coverage area from the normal coverage area of the cell. If the network supports the LP-WUS / LP-WUR and the UE has this characteristic, the MR sleeps. In this case, according to embodiments of the present disclosure, the UE uses a low power reference signal such as the LP-SS for measurement and evaluation of the serving cell. At the same time, in this case, the cell selection criterion and parameters based on the LP-SS should enable the UE to successfully camp on the serving cell.

[0493] The possible situations and corresponding processing methods are the same as Scenario 1.

[0494] When the UE moves from point B to point C and is at point C, the UE moves from the LR coverage area of the cell to the normal coverage area of the area, and the UE activates the MR and uses the SSB to perform cell selection or reselection.

[0495] When the UE moves from point C to point D and is at point D, neighbour cell processing is based on the NR procedure.

[0496] According to the RRM measurement and decision mechanism on the LR side of the embodiment of the present disclosure, the reliability of RRM measurement using the LR can be improved, thereby reducing the false wake up rate and improving device power saving effect and performance.

[0497] Embodiments of the present disclosure include designing new system information that supports low power performance, such as system information block SIB (x), where x is a positive integer, through which the LR configuration parameters can be transmitted. The new system information such as SIB (x) is only applicable to cells supporting the LP-WUR / deploying the LP-WUR. It can have the same or different content as or from the existing system information. The new system information such as SIB (x) can be designed with: the same ASN.1 structure and the same values; the same ASN.1 structure but different values, different ASN.1 structure and different values.

[0498] Considering reducing UE complexity and UE power consumption, according to embodiments of the present disclosure, the new system information, e.g., SIB (x), design criterion include: using a smaller message size; and containing less information than conventional system information, i.e., reducing configuration options and simplifying functionality. At the same time, for UEs supporting the LP-WUR, scheduling information for the system information (i.e., SIB (x)) needs to be pre-configured in the UE and periodically broadcast through the master information block MIB or system information SIB1 or new system information newSIB1.

[0499] This SIB (x) can be broadcast at a small period, the LR configuration needs to consider compatibility of the UE reception capability. Specifically, the LP-WUR SIB may be acquired through a flexible short SI period broadcast, such as 80 ms. Or the UE obtains it on demand. The LR configuration in SIB (x) needs to be compatible with both UE reception capabilities (OOK-based receiver and OFDM-based receiver).

[0500] The LR parameters transmitted in the new SIB (x) may include one or more of the following:

[0501] ● introducing an indication that the cell supports the LP-WUR operation in the SI, which can be implemented with a 1-bit flag;

[0502] ● introducing measurement quantities that need to be reported, and the measurement quantities can be one or more of the following: LP-RSRP / PSRQ / RSSI / SINR;

[0503] ● configuring a pre-processing cell quality threshold to determine whether to enter or exit the LP-WUR;

[0504] ● configuring parameters for enforcing LP-SS measurement, such as time or frequency configuration;

[0505] ● configuring LP-WUS parameters, such as paging indication information, a WUS period, a UE group, a UE-subgroup or a UE ID, SI change indication, system information indication;

[0506] ● for each frequency of the cell supporting the LR operating, configuring a default suitability factor for cell selection and considering small UL and / or DL coverage;

[0507] ● configuring a priority for the cell supporting the LR operation, and if the priority of the cell is the same as that of the serving cell, the priority configuration can be absent;

[0508] ● gNB power boosting gain.

[0509] The new SIB may include one or more of the contents shown in Table 6.

[0510] connEstFailOffsetTemporary offset value (dB) applied to the cell for connection setup failureParameter "Qoffsettemp". Without this field, an infinite value should be used for "Qoffsettemp".Q-RxLevMinWURLowest received level (dBm) of measured cell supporting LP-WUS / LP-WUR cell.Without this field, the value of "Q-RxLevMin" should be used, taking an integer value.q-RxLevMinOffsetWUROffset value to lowest received level value supporting LP-WUS / LP-WUR cellOptional, but depending on the radio frequency architecture supported by the UE, the UE selects different integer values within 1 to 8 according to different architectures.q-QualMinOffsetCellWUR _Offset value to minimum received quality of received signal supporting LP-WUS / LP-WUR cellsOptional, but depending on the radio frequency architecture supported by the UE, the UE selects different integer values within 1 to 8 according to different architectures.s-IntraSearchPWURThreshold related to received power of cell reselection of intra-frequency cells suppoting LP-WUS / LP-WUR.Used for intra-frequency cell reselection of cells supporting LP-WUR, i.e., corresponding to parameter Without this field, the UE applies the default value 0dBs-IntraSearchQWURThreshold related to received quality of intra-frequency cell reselection that support LP-WUS / LP-WUR.Used for intra-frequency cell reselection of cells supporting LP-WUR, i.e., corresponding parameter Without this field, the UE applies the default value 0dBcellReselectionPriorityWURCell reselection frequency / cell priority supporting LP-WUS / LP-WUROptional, set to 7, for highest prioritys-NonIntraSearchPWURThreshold related to received power of inter-frequency cell reselection that support LP-WUS / LP-WUR.Used for inter-frequency cell reselection of cells supporting LP-WUR, corresponding to parameter Without this field, the UE applies an infinite (default) value for .s-NonIntraSearchQWURThreshold related to received quality of inter-frequency cell reselection supporting LP-WUS / LP-WUR.Used for inter-frequency cell reselection of cells supporting LP-WUR cells, corresponding to parameter Without this field, the UE applies a default value 0dB for Cell selection threshold supporting LP-WUS / LP-WUR.Used for cell selection of cells supporting LP-WUR. Limiting Without this field, the UE applies a value of 0 Cell selection threshold supporting LP-WUS / LP-WUR.Used for cell selection of cells supporting LP-WUR. Limiting Without this field, the UE applies a value of 0QHystHysteresis value applied to serving cell for reselection ranking criteriondB value, optional, enumerated value,For example, one of dB0, dB1, dB2, dB3, dB4, dB5, dB6, dB8, dB10, dB12, dB14, dB16, dB18, dB20, dB22, dB24

[0511] Through the system information block according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, it can be realized that, for example, the network can flexibly configure the parameters required for LP-WUR for UEs that support the new characteristics of LP-WUR / LP-WUS according to the operator deployment conditions, coverage area, and different frequency layer priorities supported by itself. At the same time, in terms of system information SIB overhead, the new SIB design contains fewer information bits, is simplified and has low power consumption, and is more applicable to LP-WUR with simple functions. At the same time, using small-sized SIB can reduce the time for obtaining LP-WUR configuration from the NW, avoid unnecessary SIB broadcast overhead by the NW, and reduce UE power consumption.

[0512] It is worth noting that the LR-related measurement configuration can also be broadcast through existing SIBs, RRCRelease. For example, through RRCRelease, if the UE is released from the connected state back to the idle or inactive state, the NW can transmit the corresponding configuration information through RRCRelease.

[0513] Embodiments of the present disclosure include a multi-antenna LR design based on switching and RRM measurement methods.

[0514] It should be noted that in this description, only antennas are used as an example for ease of description, but the present disclosure also comprises the switching design for multiple radio frequency front end chains (e.g., each of which may include one or more of antenna, matching network, antenna switch, RF switch, filter, amplifier, duplexer, multiplexer, mixer, etc.).

[0515] For the purpose of low power performance, the low power wake up receiver LR currently employs a single receive chain (1RX chain) architecture, which may include an LR architecture with a single independent antenna, as shown in FIG. 9. It is also possible to employ an LR architecture that shares one antenna of MR, as shown in FIG. 10.

[0516]

[0517] By introducing multi-antenna based on switching for the LR, the coverage is improved through multi-antenna switching diversity, and the similarity and comparability of the RRM measurement results of the LR and the MR are improved, so that the RRM measurement evaluation of the MR can be performed by the LR reliably.

[0518] Embodiments of the present disclosure include network device power boosting.

[0519] The coverage performance of the LR is slightly worse than that of the MR. Therefore, when network device transmits a low power signals for LR reception (such as an LP-SS, an LP-WUS), boosting the signal power will be beneficial to improving coverage. However, not all network devices support power boosting of the low power signal. When the network device boosts the power of the reference signal LP-SS used for the LR, and does not boost the power of the signal used for the MR, such as the reference signal SSB (in this specification, various signals used for MR can be called normal signals), if the UE does not know the power difference between the two, when using the RRM measurement result of the LR for RRM evaluation of the MR, large error will be caused.

[0520] On the other hand, the reference signal LP-SS used for the LR and the reference signal SSB used for the MR are both power boosted, but the power boosting values are different, which will also bring RRM measurement error.

[0521] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a cooperation method for network device and terminal device to solve this problem. Before, when or after sending a signal for LR reception (e.g. an LP-SS) to the terminal device and performing power boosting, the network device notifies the user equipment of power boosting information. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the power boosting information may include one or more of the following: whether to boost the power, the dB value of the power boosting, the difference between the power boosting of the reference signal (such as LP-SS) for the LR and the power boosting of the reference signal (such as SSB) for the MR, etc. The power boosting information of the network device can be delivered in the system information block. It can also be sent through signaling when MR is operating. This information can also be included in a low power reference signal such as the LP-SS, and is obtained through LR reception by the UE. After the UE obtains the power boosting information, it can be used in the RRM measurement and decision procedure. Specifically, factors related to power boosting are considered when determining WUSoffset. See the two methods that can be used to determine WUSoffset mentioned above.

[0522] Optionally, the network device can decide whether to perform power boosting based on the capability or type of the user equipment. The implementation of the LR mainly includes envelope detection and OFDM-based detection. The envelope detection has lower power consumption but slightly worse RF performance. The OFDM-based detection has higher power consumption and better RF performance. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, an embodiment that enables a network device to flexibly configure power boosting includes: in the MR working state, the UE reports the terminal type or terminal capability, for example, the UE reports supporting the OFDM detection, for example, OFDM capability = support. When the UE enters the LR working state, the network device does not boost the power of the low power signal or boosts by a smaller power, such as boosting 3dB. If the UE reports that the OFDM detection is not supported, for example, OFDM capability = not support or the default is no report. When the UE enters the LR working state, the network device boosts the power of the low power signal or boosts by a larger power, such as 6dB.

[0523] Similarly, the radio frequency indicator can also vary according to the type of UE. For example, the UE reports that the LR supports the OFDM detection, for example, OFDM capability = support, then the terminal needs to meet better radio frequency indicator, i.e., the reference sensitivity REFSENS indicator value is better. Correspondingly, the network device may not boost the power or less boost the power of its low power signal to balance the radio frequency performance of the terminal device. If the UE reports that the OFDM detection is not supported, for example, OFDM capability = not support or the default is no report, then the terminal only needs to meet slightly worse radio frequency indicator, for example, the reference sensitivity REFSENS indicator value is worse. Correspondingly, the network device can more boost the power of its low power signal to balance the radio frequency performance of the terminal device.

[0524] In summary, embodiments of the present disclosure provide an overall flowchart of energy-saving RRM measurement by collaboration of the LR and the MR, as shown in FIG. 18.

[0525] At step 18-1, a cell search is performed.

[0526] At steps 18-2 and 18-3, the UE obtains the LR-related configuration through SIB (x), the LR access. The UE may make measurements with the LR.

[0527] At step 18-4, the UE performs energy-saving serving cell / serving cell relaxed measurement and evaluation using the LR for cell selection. According to an exemplary embodiment, step 18-4 may include:

[0528] ● The UE uses the LR to perform the serving cell RRM measurement, and filter the measurement result based on the LR-related measurement interval;

[0529] ● Deciding LR measurement offset based on a first parameter configured by the NW and / or a second parameter calculated by the UE and / or a third parameter determined by the UE RF implementation;

[0530] ● The UE scales the LR-based measurement result to obtain the result similar to the MR;

[0531]

[0532]

[0533] At step 18-5, the UE wakes up the MR based on the LR measurement result according to the first or second suitability criterion.

[0534] At step 18-6, after waking up the MR, the cell reselection is performed. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, partial neighbour cell measurement may be performed using the LR receiver architecture based on OFDM. Further, step 18-6 may include one of:

[0535] ● Case 1: the UE wakes up the MR and initiates neighbour cell measurement. Since the MR is already waked up at this time, cell reselection measurements can all be performed based on the MR;

[0536] ● Case 2: MR and LR are turned on at the same time, the UE uses the LR to perform partial neighbour cell measurement based on SSB (SSS)and serving cell relaxed measurement, which can include:

[0537] ■ Combining the scaled measurement results of the LR and the measurement results of the MR, the UE performs neighbour cell ranking;

[0538] ■ Based on the mixed neighbour cell ranking result, the UE automatically identifies and reselects the highest ranked cell.

[0539] Through interaction between the network device and the user equipment, the network device can flexibly configure the power boosting, so that the user equipment can apply the power boosting information to the RRM measurement and decision, thereby reliably performing the RRM measurement and evaluation of the MR through the LR, saving device power consumption and improving network coverage.

[0540] FIG. 14 is a block diagram of a user equipment UE or network node in a network according to the present disclosure.

[0541] The node device in the network can be used to implement MN, SN, S-SN, T-SN, other candidate T-SNs, etc. in the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 14, the UE or network node according to the present disclosure may include a transceiver 1410, a controller 1420, and a memory 1430. The transceiver 1410, the controller 1420, and the memory 1430 are configured to perform the operations of the methods and / or embodiments of the present disclosure. Although the transceiver 1410, the controller 1420, and the memory 1430 are shown as separate entities, they may be implemented as a single entity, such as a single chip. The transceiver 1410, the controller 1420, and the memory 1430 may be electrically connected or coupled to each other. The transceiver 1410 may be one or more transceivers with different capabilities and may transmit signals to and receive signals from other network nodes and / or UEs, such as base stations or core network nodes. The controller 1420 may include one or more processing units or processors, and may control the network node to perform operations and / or functions according to one of the above-described embodiments. The memory 1430 may store instructions for implementing the operations and / or functions of one of the above-described embodiments.

[0542] As described above, a method performed by a user equipment (UE) comprising a first receiver and a second receiver. wherein the first receiver may be a low power receiver. The method may comprise receiving, by the UE, a first reference signal through the first receiver. The method may comprise performing cell measurement based on the first reference signal. The method may comprise performing cell evaluation based on the measurement result and parameters related to low power. The method may comprise, based on cell evaluation result, determining whether to wake up the second receiver.

[0543] For example, the method may comprise measuring a serving cell and / or a neighbor cell in an idle state and / or an RRC inactive state based on the first reference signal.

[0544] For example, the method may comprise obtaining configuration information related to the cell measurement. The method may comprise determining signal received power information and / or signal received quality information corresponding to the first reference signal based on the first reference signal and the configuration information related to the cell measurement. The configuration information related to the cell measurement may comprise at least one of a measurement timing configuration period based on the first reference signal, a period of the first reference signal, power configuration of the first reference signal, a base station power boosting gain, configuration parameters of a low power wake up signal LP-WUS. The configuration parameters of the low power wake up signal LP-WUS may include at least one of paging indication, a WUS period, a UE group, a UE subgroup, a UE ID, and system information indication.

[0545] For example, the parameters related to the low power may include a first measurement offset related to at least one of: first parameter information configured by a network; second parameter information calculated by the UE; third parameter information related to radio frequency implementation of the UE; a measurement margin.

[0546] For example, the first parameter information may be related to at least one of: configuration information related to the power boosting. The second parameter information may relates to at least one of: sensitivity difference between the first receiver and the second receiver; difference of measurement results obtained by measurements using the first reference signal and the second reference signal. The third parameter information may be related to at least one of: an antenna architecture of the first receiver and the second receiver related to radio frequency implementation of the UE.

[0547] For example, the method may comprise determining a first measurement offset based on the measurement result and the parameters related to low power. The method may comprise scaling the measurement result, and performing the cell evaluation based on the first measurement offset and the scaled measurement result.

[0548] For example, the method may comprise scaling the measurement result based on parameters related to a first receiver architecture and / or a first low power correction parameter. The method may comprise performing cell evaluation based on the first measurement offset and the scaled measurement result.

[0549] For example, the method may comprise determining measurement results of the reference signal received power and / or reference signal received quality corresponding to the first reference signal based on the first reference signal and the configuration information related to the cell measurement. The method may comprise filtering the measurement results based on a measurement interval related to the first receiver. The measurement interval may be related to at least one of the following parameters: a measurement timing configuration period based on the first reference signal in the configuration information related to the cell measurement, a measurement period of the first reference signal, and a discontinuous reception DRX cycle

[0550] For example, the measurement timing configuration period based on the first reference signal may be greater than the maximum value of the measurement timing configuration period based on the second reference signal. The second reference signal may be received by the second receiver.

[0551] For example, the method may comprise determining a number and / or a period of cell evaluation granularities based on at least one of a relaxation factor related to the first receiver, a switching factor of a radio frequency antenna, an evaluation granularity, a relaxation ratio of the DRX cycle, and a frequency-related scaling factor. The method may comprise determining whether a cell evaluation criterion is fulfilled based on the measurement result, configuration information related to the cell evaluation including the parameters related to the low power, and the number and / or the period of the cell evaluation granularities. The method may comprise, based on the cell evaluation result, determining whether to trigger the second receiver to perform corresponding processing includes: triggering the second receiver to perform cell reselection or cell selection if the cell evaluation criterion is fulfilled.

[0552] For example, the configuration information related to the cell evaluation may include at least one of: a period of the low power wake up signal LP-WUS, a discontinuous reception DRX cycle, a low power period length, and a measurement timing period of the first reference signal. The evaluation granularities may comprise a first evaluation granularity related to a first receiver and a second evaluation granularity related to a second receiver. The first evaluation granularity is determined by determining the first evaluation granularity related to the first receiver based on at least one of the period of the first reference signal, the DRX cycle and the measurement timing configuration period of the first reference signal in the configuration information related to the cell evaluation.

[0553] For example, the cell evaluation criterion may be related to at least one of a threshold value of a cell selection evaluation criterion, a received level value of the cell selection, a cell quality value. The threshold value of the cell selection evaluation criterion may be a first threshold value related to the first receiver or a second threshold value related to the second receiver.

[0554] For example, the method may comprise determining whether a condition to trigger the second receiver is fulfilled based on the measurement result and the parameters related to the low power; if it is fulfilled. The method may comprise waking up the second receiver and triggering neighbor cell measurement and / or serving cell measurement.

[0555] For example, the method may comprise if the UE supports orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDM low power reception capability, triggering the first receiver and the second receiver to measure the serving cell and neighbor cells based on the second reference signal. Measuring neighbor cells based on the second reference signal may include for the first receiver supporting OFDM low power reception capability, based on the number of beams of the corresponding second reference signal that needs to be measured by the first receiver, indicated by the first receiver. The method may comprise performing an RRM relaxed measurement on the neighbor cells based on the second reference signal received by the first receiver.

[0556] As described above, a user equipment (UE) may comprise at least one transceiver configured to receive and transmit signals. The UE may comprise at least one processor coupled with the at least one transceiver and configured to perform the above methods.

[0557] Those of skill in the art will appreciate that the above illustrative embodiments are described herein and are not intended to be limiting. It should be understood that any two or more of the embodiments disclosed herein may be combined in any combination. Further, other embodiments may be utilized, and other changes may be made, without departing from the spirit and scope of the subject matter presented herein. It will be readily understood that the aspects of the disclosure of the present disclosure, as generally described herein, and illustrated in the figures, can be arranged, substituted, combined, separated, and designed in a wide variety of different configurations, all of which are contemplated herein.

[0558] Those skilled in the art will understand that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and steps described in this application may be implemented as hardware, software, or a combination of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability between hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps are generally described above in the form of their functional sets. Whether such function sets are implemented as hardware or software depends on the specific application and the design constraints imposed on the overall system. Technicians may implement the described functional sets in different ways for each specific application, but such design decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of this application.

Claims

1.A method performed by a user equipment (UE), the UE comprising a first receiver and a second receiver, wherein the first receiver is a low power receiver, the method comprising:receiving, by the UE, a first reference signal through the first receiver;performing cell measurement based on the first reference signal;performing cell evaluation based on the measurement result and parameters related to low power; andbased on cell evaluation result, determining whether to wake up the second receiver.2.The method of claim 1, wherein performing the cell measurement based on the first reference signal includes:measuring a serving cell and / or a neighbour cell in an idle state and / or an RRC inactive state based on the first reference signal.3.The method of claim 1, wherein performing the cell measurement based on the first reference signal includes:obtaining configuration information related to the cell measurement;determining signal received power information and / or signal received quality information corresponding to the first reference signal based on the first reference signal and the configuration information related to the cell measurement,wherein the configuration information related to the cell measurement comprises at least one of a measurement timing configuration period based on the first reference signal, a period of the first reference signal, power configuration of the first reference signal, a base station power boosting gain, configuration parameters of a low power wake up signal LP-WUS,wherein the configuration parameters of the low power wake up signal LP-WUS include at least one of paging indication, a WUS period, a UE group, a UE subgroup, a UE ID, and system information indication.4.The method of claim 1, wherein the parameters related to the low power includes a first measurement offset related to at least one of: first parameter information configured by a network; second parameter information calculated by the UE; third parameter information related to radio frequency implementation of the UE; a measurement margin.5.The method of claim 4, whereinthe first parameter information is related to at least one of: configuration information related to the power boosting; and / orthe second parameter information relates to at least one of: sensitivity difference between the first receiver and the second receiver; difference of measurement results obtained by measurements using the first reference signal and the second reference signal; and / orthe third parameter information is related to at least one of: an antenna architecture of the first receiver and the second receiver related to radio frequency implementation of the UE.6.The method of claim 1, wherein performing the cell evaluation based on the measurement result and the parameters related to the low power includes:determining a first measurement offset based on the measurement result and the parameters related to low power;scaling the measurement result, and performing the cell evaluation based on the first measurement offset and the scaled measurement result.7.The method of claim 6, wherein scaling the measurement result, and performing the cell evaluation based on the first measurement offset and the scaled measurement result includes:scaling the measurement result based on parameters related to a first receiver architecture and / or a first low power correction parameter;performing cell evaluation based on the first measurement offset and the scaled measurement result.8.The method of claim 1, wherein performing the cell measurement based on the first reference signal includes:determining measurement results of the reference signal received power and / or reference signal received quality corresponding to the first reference signal based on the first reference signal and the configuration information related to the cell measurement;filtering the measurement results based on a measurement interval related to the first receiver.wherein the measurement interval is related to at least one of the following parameters: a measurement timing configuration period based on the first reference signal in the configuration information related to the cell measurement, a measurement period of the first reference signal, and a discontinuous reception DRX cycle.9.The method of claim 3, wherein the measurement timing configuration period based on the first reference signal is greater than the maximum value of the measurement timing configuration period based on the second reference signal, wherein the second reference signal is received by the second receiver.10.The method according to claim 1, wherein performing the cell evaluation includes:determining a number and / or a period of cell evaluation granularities based on at least one of a relaxation factor related to the first receiver, a switching factor of a radio frequency antenna, an evaluation granularity, a relaxation ratio of the DRX cycle, and a frequency-related scaling factor, anddetermining whether a cell evaluation criterion is fulfilled based on the measurement result, configuration information related to the cell evaluation including the parameters related to the low power, and the number and / or the period of the cell evaluation granularities;based on the cell evaluation result, determining whether to trigger the second receiver to perform corresponding processing includes: triggering the second receiver to perform cell reselection or cell selection if the cell evaluation criterion is fulfilled.11.The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration information related to the cell evaluation further includes at least one of: a period of the low power wake up signal LP-WUS, a discontinuous reception DRX cycle, a low power period length, and a measurement timing period of the first reference signal,wherein the evaluation granularities comprise a first evaluation granularity related to a first receiver and a second evaluation granularity related to a second receiver,wherein the first evaluation granularity is determined by:determining the first evaluation granularity related to the first receiver based on at least one of the period of the first reference signal, the DRX cycle and the measurement timing configuration period of the first reference signal in the configuration information related to the cell evaluation.12.The method of claim 10, wherein the cell evaluation criterion is related to at least one of:a threshold value of a cell selection evaluation criterion, a received level value of the cell selection, a cell quality value,wherein the threshold value of the cell selection evaluation criterion is a first threshold value related to the first receiver or a second threshold value related to the second receiver.13.The method of claim 1, wherein performing the cell evaluation includes:determining whether a condition to trigger the second receiver is fulfilled based on the measurement result and the parameters related to the low power; if it is fullfilled,waking up the second receiver and triggering neighbour cell measurement and / or serving cell measurement.14.The method of claim 1, further comprising:if the UE supports orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDM low power reception capability, triggering the first receiver and the second receiver to measure the serving cell and neighbour cells based on the second reference signal,wherein measuring neighbour cells based on the second reference signal includes:for the first receiver supporting OFDM low power reception capability, based on the number of beams of the corresponding second reference signal that needs to be measured by the first receiver, indicated by the first receiver;performing an RRM relaxed measurement on the neighbor cells based on the second reference signal received by the first receiver.15.A user equipment (UE) comprising:at least one transceiver configured to receive and transmit signals;at least one processor coupled with the at least one transceiver and configured to perform the method of any one of claims 1-14.

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