Methods and apparatuses for reference signal resource configuration, measurement and reporting

Abstract

According to some embodiments, there is provided a method performed by a wireless device (400) The method comprises performing (801) measurement(s) on one or more Reference Signal, RS, resources configured in one or more sets of RS resources. The method further comprises reporting (802) to a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer of the wireless device, at least the index(es) of at least one RS resource from the one or more sets of RS resources. A measurement value (e.g., radio link quality measurement(s)) associated with said at least one RS resource is - higher or lower by a predetermined / configured amount compared to a value obtained from measurements of a configured / predetermined / indicated RS resource, or - higher or lower than a predetermined / configured threshold value. The index(es) reported is / are associated with a time information.

Description

[0001] METHODS AND APPARATUSES FOR REFERENCE SIGNAL RESOURCE CONFIGURATION, MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING

[0002] TECHNICAL FIELD

[0003] The present invention relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a method, a wireless device and a network node for configurations, measurements, and reporting of reference signal resources.

[0004] BACKGROUND

[0005] The radio access technology (RAT) in fifth generation (5G) mobile communications system, also known as 5G new radio (NR), provides a higher level of performance and flexibility than the previous generations of mobile communications systems. 5G mobile communications has been driven by the need to provide ubiquitous connectivity for applications as diverse automotive communication, remote control with feedback, video downloads, as well as data applications for Internet-of-Things (loT) devices, machine type communication (MTC) devices, etc. 5G wireless technology brings several main benefits, such as higher speed, lower latency and increased connectivity. The third-generation partnership project (3GPP) provides the complete system specification for the 5G network architecture, which includes at least a radio access network (RAN), core transport networks (CN) and service capabilities.

[0006] In millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies (frequency range 2 (FR2)), i.e., frequencies above 6 GHz, in general, wireless communication between communication devices is performed with spatially selective / directive transmissions and receptions called beams. The term ‘beam’ is used in the following to denote a spatially selective / directive transmission of an outgoing signal or reception of an incoming signal which is achieved by precoding / filtering the signal at the antenna ports of the communication device with a set of coefficients. The word precoding or filtering may refer to processing of the signal in the analog or digital domain. The set of coefficients used to spatially direct a transmission / reception in a certain direction may differ from one direction to another direction. The term ‘Tx beam’ denotes a spatially selective / directive transmission and the term ‘Rx beam’ denotes a spatially selective / directive reception. The set of coefficients used to precode / filter the transmission or reception is denoted by the term ‘spatial filter’. The term ‘spatial filter’ may be used interchangeably with the term ‘beam direction’ as the spatial filter coefficients determine the direction in which a transmission / reception is spatially directed to.

[0007] The sounding of a channel with spatially selective ‘beams’ is used in higher frequencies to have enough link budget for reliable communication. The receiving wireless device measures such beams and uses said measurements to evaluate a suitable beam for communication or to assess overall radio link quality. Improvements to beam management are still needed.

[0008] SUMMARY

[0009] It is an objective of the embodiments herein to provide methods and procedures that aid and exploit beam prediction algorithms which may be employed at a wireless device or a network node in a wireless communications network, for various beam management purposes.

[0010] According to an aspect of some embodiments herein, there is illustrated a method performed by a wireless device. The method comprises: receiving a configuration or indication from a network node or another wireless device of at least one Reference Signal, RS, resource, performing a quasi-co-location, QCL, assumption or association for said at least one RS resource with reference to a Channel State Information Reference Signal, CSI-RS, resource or a Synchronization Signal / Physical Broadcast Channel (SS / PBCH) Block, SSB, resource, wherein o said at least one RS resource is disabled, and o the QCL assumption or association, and / or one or more parameters of the QCL assumption or association is / are

[0011] ■ predetermined by the standard specifications (i.e., known to the wireless device via rule(s) in the standard specifications), or

[0012] ■ configured or indicated to the wireless device by the network node or the another wireless device, applying said QCL assumption or association to said at least one RS resource.

[0013] According to another aspect of some embodiments herein, there is a method performed by a wireless device. The method comprises: receiving from a network node or another wireless device a configuration or indication of a set of reference signal, RS, resources, wherein one or more of the reference signal, RS, resources are disabled, performing measurements on one or more RS resources of said set of RS resources, and reporting to a network node or the another wireless device, index(es) and / or measurement(s) associated with one or more RS resources. According to another aspect of some embodiments herein, there is a method performed by a wireless device. The method comprises: receiving from a network node or another wireless device a configuration or indication of a first and second set of RS resources, each set of RS resources comprising one or more RS resources, performing measurements on one or more RS resources in the first set of RS resources, determining and reporting to a network node or another wireless device, based on the measurements of the one or more RS resources, at least one of the following: indices of one or more RS resources of the second set of RS resources, measurement value(s) corresponding to one or more RS resources of the second set of RS resources.

[0014] According to another aspect of some embodiments herein, there is a method performed by a wireless device. The method comprises: receiving from a network node or another wireless device, a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each set comprising one or more RS resources, performing measurements on one or more RS resources, and determining, and reporting to the network node or the another wireless device, at least one of the following: an indication of index(es) of D > 1 groups of RS resources, wherein an j-th group comprises resources, one or more measurement value(s) associated with D > 1 groups of RS resources, and wherein the index(es) and / or measurement values are associated with a time information.

[0015] According to another aspect of some embodiments herein, there is a method performed by a wireless device. The method comprises: receiving from a network node or another wireless device a configuration or indication of a set of reference signal, RS, resources, comprising one or more RS resources, performing measurements on one or more RS resources, wherein the one or more RS resources are provided across M > 1 transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s), determining at least one measurement value corresponding to R > 1 RS resource(s) across M > 1 transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s), and reporting to the network node or the another wireless device the at least one measurement value.

[0016] According to another aspect of some embodiments herein, there is a method performed by a wireless device. The method comprises: receiving from a network node or another wireless device a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each set comprising one or more RS resources, performing measurements on said one or more RS resource(s) from said at least one RS resource set, and determining, and reporting or providing to a higher layer at least one of the following: index(es) of D > 1 groups of RS resources, a group i comprising > 1 RS resources, i = one or more measurement values associated with RS resources whose index(es) is / are included in the reporting, wherein

[0017] - the reported RS resource(s) in group i is / are from the RS resources configured in said one or more sets of RS resources, and each group is associated with a predetermined, configured or indicated time instant or a time information.

[0018] According to another aspect of some embodiments herein, there is a method performed by a wireless device. The method comprises: receiving from a network node or another wireless device a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each on comprising one or more RS resources, performing measurements on said one or more RS resource(s) from said at least one set of RS resources, and determining at least one of the following indications: if / whether the radio link quality and / or measurements associated with all the RS resource(s) in said one or more configured sets of RS resources is below a predetermined or configured threshold, if / whether the radio link quality and / or measurements associated with at least one RS resource in said one or more configured sets of RS resources is above a predetermined or configured threshold, reporting / providing to a higher layer the at least one of the indications, wherein a reported / provided indication is associated with a time information.

[0019] According to another aspect of some embodiments herein, a method is performed by a wireless device. The method comprises:

[0020] • performing measurement(s) on one or more Reference Signal, RS, resources configured in one or more sets of RS resources, and

[0021] • reporting to a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer of the wireless device, at least the index(es) of at least one RS resource from the one or more sets of RS resources, wherein a measurement value (e.g., radio link quality measurement(s)) associated with said at least one RS resource is higher or lower by a predetermined / configured amount compared to a value obtained from measurements of a configured / predetermined / indicated RS resource, or higher or lower than a predetermined / configured threshold value, and wherein the index(es) reported is / are associated with a time information.

[0022] According to another aspect of some embodiments herein, a method is performed by a wireless device. The method comprises: performing measurement(s) on an RS resource, and reporting to a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer of the wireless device, an indication that a value obtained from measurement(s) (e.g., radio link quality measurement(s)) of the RS resource is higher or lower than a predetermined or configured threshold, and wherein said indication is associated with a time information.

[0023] According to another aspect of some embodiments herein, there is a method performed by a wireless device. The method comprises: receiving a configuration or indication via a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer wherein, a first RS resource is provided as a reference for QCL parameter(s) (in some case, in a TCI-State), spatial relation and / or pathloss estimation, for a DL / UL channel (e.g., PDCCH, PDSCH, PUCCH, PUSCH or PRACH) or DL / UL RS (e.g., CSI-RS or SRS), and using a second RS resource as reference for one or more QCL parameter(s), spatial relation, and / or pathloss estimation for said DL / UL channel or DL / UL RS, wherein said first RS resource is disabled, and said second RS resource is used as a reference for QCL assumptions, spatial relation and / or pathloss estimation for said first RS resource.

[0024] According to another aspect of some embodiments herein, there is a method performed by a network node. The method comprises:

[0025] - transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration of at least one RS resource, for enabling the wireless device to: perform a quasi-co-location, QCL, assumption or association for said RS resource with reference to a Channel State Information Reference Signal, CSI-RS, resource or a Synchronization Signal / Physical Broadcast Channel (SS / PBCH) Block, SSB, resource, wherein a. said at least one RS resource is disabled, and b. the QCL assumption or association and / or one or more parameters of the QCL assumption or association is / are i. predetermined by the standard specifications (i.e., known to the wireless device via rule(s) in the standard specifications), or ii. configured or indicated to the wireless device by the network node,

[0026] - apply said QCL assumption or association to said RS resource.

[0027] According to another aspect of some embodiments herein, there is a method performed by a network node. The method comprises:

[0028] - transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of a set of reference signal, RS, resources, wherein one or more of the reference signal, RS, resources are disabled, for enabling the wireless device to: perform measurements on one or more RS resources of said set of RS resources, and report to the network node, index(es) and / or measurement(s) associated with one or more RS resources.

[0029] According to another aspect of some embodiments herein, there is a method performed by a network node. The method comprises:

[0030] - transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of a first and second set of RS resources, each set of RS resources comprising one or more RS resources, for enabling the wireless to: perform measurements on one or more RS resources in the first set of RS resources, determine, and reporting to a network node or another wireless device, based on the measurements of the one or more RS resources, at least one of the following: i. indices of one or more RS resources of the second set of RS resources, ii. measurement value(s) corresponding to one or more RS resources of the second set of RS resources.

[0031] According to another aspect of some embodiments herein, there is a method performed by a network node. The method comprises:

[0032] - transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each set comprising one or more RS resources, for enabling the wireless device to: perform measurements on one or more RS resources, and determine, and report to the network node or the another wireless device, at least one of the following: i. an indication of index(es) of D > 1 groups of RS resources, wherein an j-th group comprises > 1 RS resources, ii. one or more measurement value(s) associated with D > 1 groups of RS resources, and wherein the index(es) and / or measurement values are associated with a time information. According to another aspect of some embodiments herein, there is a method performed by a network node. The method comprises:

[0033] - transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of a set of reference signal, RS, resources, comprising one or more RS resources, for enabling the wireless device to: perform measurements on one or more RS resources, wherein the one or more RS resources are provided across M > 1 transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s), determine at least one measurement value corresponding to R > 1 RS resource(s) across M > 1 transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s), and report to the network node the at least one measurement value.

[0034] According to another aspect of some embodiments herein, there is a method performed by a network node. The method comprises:

[0035] - transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each set comprising one or more RS resources, for enabling the wireless device to: perform measurements on said one or more RS resource(s) from said at least one RS resource set, and determine, and report or provide to a higher layer at least one of the following: i. index(es) of D > 1 groups of RS resources, a group i comprising > 1 RS resources, ii. one or more measurement values associated with RS resources whose index(es) is / are included in the reporting, wherein

[0036] - the reported RS resource(s) in group i is / are from the RS resources configured in said one or more sets of RS resources, and each group is associated with a predetermined, configured or indicated time instant or a time information.

[0037] According to another aspect of some embodiments herein, there is a method performed by a network node. The method comprises: transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each on comprising one or more RS resources, for enabling the wireless device to: perform measurements on said one or more RS resource(s) from said at least one set of RS resources, and determine at least one of the following indications: if / whether the radio link quality and / or measurements associated with all the RS resource(s) in said one or more configured sets of RS resources is below a predetermined or configured threshold, if / whether the radio link quality and / or measurements associated with at least one RS resource in said one or more configured sets of RS resources is above a predetermined or configured threshold, and report / provide to a higher layer the at least one of the indications, and wherein a reported / provided indication is associated with a time information.

[0038] According to another aspect of some embodiments herein, there is a method performed by a network node. The method comprises:

[0039] - transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication wherein, a first RS resource is provided as a reference for QCL parameter(s) (in some case, in a TCI- State), spatial relation and / or pathloss estimation, for a DL / LIL channel (e.g., PDCCH, PDSCH, PUCCH, PUSCH or PRACH) or DL / UL RS (e.g., CSI-RS or SRS), and for enabling the wireless device to: use a second RS resource as reference for one or more QCL parameter(s), spatial relation, and / or pathloss estimation for said DL / UL channel or DL / UL RS, wherein i. said first RS resource is disabled, and ii. said second RS resource is used as a reference for QCL assumptions, spatial relation and / or pathloss estimation for said first RS resource.

[0040] According to another aspect of some embodiments herein, a method is performed by a network node. The method comprises: transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each set of RS resource comprising one or more RS resources, for enabling the wireless device to: • perform measurement(s) on one or more RS resources configured in said at least one set of RS resources, and receiving from the wireless device, a report comprising at least the index(es) of at least one RS resource from the at least one set of RS resources, wherein a measurement value (e.g., radio link quality measurement(s)) associated with said at least one RS resource is higher or lower by a predetermined / configured amount compared to a value obtained from measurements of a configured / predetermined / indicated RS resource, or higher or lower than a predetermined / configured threshold value, and wherein the index(es) reported is / are associated with a time information.

[0041] According to another aspect of some embodiments herein, a method is performed by a network node. The method comprises:

[0042] - transmitting to a wireless device, an RS resource for enabling the wireless device to perform measurement(s) on said RS resource, and receiving from the wireless device, an indication that a value obtained from measurement(s) (e.g., radio link quality measurement(s)) of the RS resource is higher or lower than a predetermined or configured threshold, and wherein said indication is associated with a time information.

[0043] According to another aspect of embodiments herein, there is also provided a wireless device (e.g., a UE) comprising a processor and a memory containing instructions executable by the processor, whereby said wireless device is operative or configured to perform any one of the embodiments presented in the detailed description related to the actions performed by the wireless device.

[0044] According to yet another aspect of embodiments herein, there is provided a network node comprising a processor and a memory containing instructions executable by the processor, whereby said network node is operative or configured to perform any one of the embodiments presented in the detailed description related to the actions performed by the network node.

[0045] There is also provided a computer program comprising instructions which when executed on at least one processor of the wireless device (e.g., a UE), cause the at least said one processor to carry out the actions or method steps presented herein.

[0046] There is also provided a computer program comprising instructions which when executed on at least one processor of the network node, cause the at least said one processor to carry out the method steps presented herein. A carrier is also provided containing the computer program, wherein the carrier is one of a computer readable storage medium, an electronic signal, optical signal, or a radio signal.

[0047] An advantage of the embodiments herein is to provide advanced beam management methods or procedures that apply beam prediction schemes at the wireless device. Another advantage is to reduce latency and signaling overhead for beam indication and reporting.

[0048] Additional advantages of the embodiments herein are provided in the detailed description of this disclosure.

[0049] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0050] Embodiments of the present invention are now described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0051] Fig. 1 shows a schematic representation of a wireless communications network, wherein embodiments herein may be applied;

[0052] Fig. 2 illustrates a flowchart of a method performed by a wireless device (such as a UE) according to some embodiments herein;

[0053] Fig. 3 illustrates a flowchart of a method performed by a network node (such as a gNB) according to some embodiments herein;

[0054] Fig. 4 is a block diagram depicting a wireless device (such as a UE) according to exemplary embodiments herein.

[0055] Fig. 5 is a block diagram depicting a network node (such as a gNB) according to exemplary embodiments herein.

[0056] Fig. 6 shows an example of downlink sounding with SSB and CSI-RS.

[0057] Fig. 7 shows an example of a source RS in a QCL association for a deactivated (i.e., disabled) CSI-RS.

[0058] Fig. 8 illustrates a flowchart of a method performed by a wireless device (such as a UE) according to some embodiments herein;

[0059] DETAILED DESCRIPTION In this disclosure, methods and procedures for a wireless device or a network node to aid and exploit beam prediction mechanisms are presented. The following aspects are discussed in this disclosure:

[0060] Configuration of reference signal, RS, resources for beam prediction purposes, Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) and Quasi-Colocation (QCL) settings for RS resources,

[0061] Reporting mechanisms for beam prediction at a wireless device and a network node, Signalling exploiting beam prediction algorithms at a wireless device and a network node, Managing the life cycle of beam prediction algorithms.

[0062] With beam prediction algorithms deployed at the wireless device and / or the network node, it may be possible to reduce the overhead of beams used in the sounding process, thereby reducing the pilot and measurement overhead at the receiver. It may also help in improving beam identification / refinement latency and downlink / sidelink channel throughput. With the recent advancements in AI / ML-based beam prediction algorithms, the usage of beam prediction promises significant pilot overhead reduction along with reasonable prediction accuracy and / or latency reduction.

[0063] Figure 1 illustrates a simplified schematic view of an example of a wireless communications network 100 including a core network (CN) 110 and a radio access network (RAN) 120. The RAN 120 is shown including a plurality of network nodes or radio base stations, which in 5G are called gNBs. Three radio base stations are depicted gNB1 , gNB2 and gNB3. Each gNB serves an area called a coverage area or a cell. Figure 1 illustrates 3 cells 121 , 122 and 123, each served by its own gNB, gNB1 , gNB2 and gNB3, respectively. It should be mentioned that the network 100 may include any number of cells and gNBs. The radio base stations, or network nodes serve users within a cell. In 4G or LTE, a radio base station is called an eNB, in 3G or UMTS, a radio base station is called an eNodeB, and BS in other radio access technologies. A user equipment (UE) may be a wireless or a mobile terminal device or a stationary communication device. A wireless device may be a UE, an loT device, an MTC device, etc. loT devices may include wireless sensors, software, actuators, and computer devices. The loT devices can be imbedded into mobile devices, motor vehicle, industrial equipment, environmental sensors, medical devices, aerial vehicles and more, as well as network connectivity that enables these devices to collect and exchange data across an existing network infrastructure.

[0064] Referring back to Figure 1 , each cell as shown includes UEs and loT devices. gNB1 in cell 121 serves UE1 121A, UE2 121 B and loT device 121C. Similarly, gNB2 in cell 121 serves UE3 122A, UE4 122B and loT device 122C, and gNB3 in cell 123 serves UE5 123A, UE6 123B and loT device 123C. The wireless communications network 100 may include any number of UEs and loT devices or any other types of devices. The devices communicate with the serving gNB(s) in the uplink and the gNB(s) communicate with the devices in the downlink. The respective base station gNB1 to gNB3 may be connected to the CN 110, e.g., via the S1 interface, via respective backhaul links 111 , 121 D, 122D, 123D, which are schematically depicted in Fig. 1 by the arrows pointing to “core”. The core network 110 may be connected to one or more external networks, such as the Internet. The gNBs may be connected to each other via the S1 interface or the X2 interface or the XN interface in 5G, via respective interface links 121 E, 122E and 123E, which is depicted in the figure by the arrows pointing to gNBs.

[0065] For data transmission, a physical resource grid may be used. The physical resource grid may comprise a set of resource elements (REs) to which various physical channels and physical signals are mapped. For example, the physical channels may include the physical downlink, uplink and / or sidelink (SL) shared channels (PDSCH, PLISCH, PSSCH) carrying user specific data, also referred to as downlink, uplink or sidelink payload data, the physical broadcast channel (PBCH) carrying for example a master information block (MIB) and a system information block (SIB), the physical downlink, uplink and / or sidelink control channels (PDCCH, PLICCH, PSCCH) carrying for example the downlink control information (DCI), the uplink control information (UCI) or the sidelink control information (SCI). For the uplink, the physical channels may further include the physical random-access channel (PRACH or RACH) used by UEs for accessing the network once a UE is synchronized and obtains the MIB and SIB. The physical signals may comprise reference signals (RS), synchronization signals (SSs) and the like. The resource grid may comprise a frame or radio frame having a certain duration, like 10 milliseconds, in the time domain and having a given bandwidth in the frequency domain. The radio frame may have a certain number of subframes of a predefined length, e.g., 2 subframes with a length of 1 millisecond. Each subframe may include one or more slots of a number of OFDM symbols depending on the cyclic prefix (CP) length. In 5G, each slot consists of 14 OFDM symbols or 12 OFDM symbols based on normal CP and extended CP respectively. A frame may also consist of a smaller number of OFDM symbols, e.g., when utilizing shortened transmission time intervals (TTIs) or a mini-slot / non-slot-based frame structure comprising just a few OFDM symbols. Slot aggregation is supported in 5G NR and hence data transmission can be scheduled to span one or multiple slots. Slot format indication informs a UE whether an OFDM symbol is downlink, uplink or flexible / special.

[0066] The wireless communications network may be any single-tone or multicarrier system using frequency-division multiplexing, like the orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) system, the orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) system, or any other Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) based signal with or without CP, e.g., DFT-spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM). Other waveforms, like non-orthogonal waveforms for multiple access, e.g., filter-bank multicarrier (FBMC), generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) or universal filtered multi carrier (LIFMC), may also be used. The wireless communication system may operate, e.g., in accordance with the LTE-Advanced Pro standard, the 5G or NR (New Radio) standard or any other standard using any of the aforementioned waveforms.

[0067] The wireless communications network depicted in Figure 1 may be a heterogeneous network having two distinct overlaid networks, a network of macro cells with each macro cell including a macro base station, like base station gNB1 to gNB3, and a network of small cell base stations (not shown in Figure 1), like femto- or pico-base stations. In addition to the above-described wireless network, non-terrestrial wireless communication networks also exist including spaceborne transceivers, like satellites, and / or airborne transceivers, like unmanned aircraft systems. The non-terrestrial wireless communication network or system may operate in a similar way as the terrestrial system described above with reference to Figure 1 , for example in accordance with the LTE-advanced pro standard or the 5G or NR, standard.

[0068] In the wireless communications network such as the one depicted schematically in Figure 1 , multi-antenna techniques may be used, e.g., in accordance with LTE, NR or any other communication system, to improve user data rates, link reliability, cell coverage and network capacity. To support multi-stream or multi-layer transmissions, linear precoding is used in the physical layer of the communication system. Linear precoding is performed by a precoder matrix which maps layers of data to antenna ports. The precoding may be seen as a generalization of beamforming, which is a technique to spatially direct or focus a data transmission towards an intended receiver. The precoder matrix to be used at the gNB to map the data to the transmit antenna ports is decided using channel state information, CSI.

[0069] In the wireless communications network as described above, such as LTE or New Radio (5G), various physical channels are defined for the communication of data payload and control information. In addition, various reference signals are also designed for purposes such as link adaptation and management, demodulation, frame synchronization, cell search, phase tracking, among others. A gNodeB (or gNB or base station) transmits to one or more users in the downlink. A user equipment (UE) or mobile terminal transmits to one or more base stations in the uplink. In the sidelink, two or more user equipments may be involved in communication. The data payload is transmitted via the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) in the downlink (DL), via the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) in the uplink (UL) and via the physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) in the sidelink (SL), of a wireless network. The control information is typically transmitted via the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in the downlink (DL), via the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) in the uplink (UL) and via the physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) in the sidelink (SL), of a wireless network. The physical broadcast channel (PBCH) is transmitted along with the synchronization signals (SS) in the downlink as a SS / PBCH block to aid in cell search and downlink synchronization. A SS / PBCH block may be interchangeably referred to as a SS block (SSB). The physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH) in the sidelink is similar in structure and functionality to the PBCH. The physical random-access channel (PRACH) in the uplink is characterized by the PRACH preamble and is used for uplink synchronization. The PDSCH, PDCCH, PBCH, PLISCH, PLICCH, PSSCH, PSCCH and PSBCH are provided with DeModulation Reference Signals (DMRS) for coherent demodulation of the channel. The number of DMRS antenna ports during a given instance of transmission of the channel is equal to the number of layers transmitted. A layer of the transmission of a channel can be referred to using the DMRS port associated with it.

[0070] The term ‘higher layer’ in the following, when used in isolation, denotes any communication layer above the physical layer in the protocol stack. The physical channels described above are associated with the ‘PHY’ layer or the physical layer in the protocol stack. Some of the layers ‘above’ the physical layer in the protocol stack are the medium access control (MAC) and radio resource control (RRC). The wireless device may also exchange messages or information across layers in the protocol stack. The wireless device typically receives configuration, indication, information or messages via higher layers (e.g., MAC or RRC) from a network node or another wireless device. The configuration, indication, information or message(s) may comprise information regarding parameter(s) / value(s) or signalling involved in communication between the wireless device and the network or the other wireless device. In some cases, the configuration, indication, information and / or messages via the MAC layer may be provided to the wireless device using MAC-Control Element (MAC-CE) messages.

[0071] The term serving cell and carrier component (CC) may be used interchangeably in this disclosure as a serving cell configured for a wireless device (such as a UE) and is usually a separate physical carrier with a certain carrier frequency. Depending on the frequency of a component carrier / serving cell, the size of the cell and the beamformed reference signals may vary. Each serving cell or component carrier comprises / VBWP> 1 bandwidth parts (BWP) which is a set of frequency domain resources. At any given time instant in a serving cell, the UE may receive physical layer transmissions from a TRP or any other network element in one of the configured BWPs in the DL in the cell and may perform transmissions in one of the configured BWPs in the UL in the cell.

[0072] It is to be noted that any mention of an action performed by a network node such as a gNodeB (gNB) can also be performed by any other element of the network and hence any concerned statement shall be read as such.

[0073] Configuration of reference signal resources for sounding and reporting Reference signals are required for various purposes in a wireless network such as the following: frame synchronization, cell search, time-frequency tracking, channel estimation, link adaptation, coherent demodulation, phase-tracking, port-selection, beam management, positioning, etc. CSI-RS and SS / PBCH blocks, or SSBs are typically used by the network in the downlink (DL) for some of the aforementioned purposes. The SRS in the uplink (UL) is similar in some of its uses as the CSI-RS.

[0074] Typically, a reference signal, RS, resource is a configuration of a reference signal comprising a certain time, frequency, spatial, transmit power, resource-mapping and / or sequence settings, along with some additional settings in some cases (for. e.g., use-case, Transmission Configuration Indication-State, etc.). A RS resource can be a Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) resource, a SS / PBCH block (or SSB) resource, a sounding reference signal (SRS) resource. Said configuration of a RS resource may be provided to a wireless device by a network node or another wireless device, or preconfigured / known to the wireless device (e.g., fixed in the standard specifications). An RS resource may be transmitted by a wireless device or a network node with said settings.

[0075] It is to be noted that a SS / PBCH block or a SSB may also be referred to as a SSB resource in this disclosure. In the following, the configuration of reference signal, RS, resources (pilot signals) that aid in beam prediction in the spatial or temporal domain is provided. Each RS resource may be regarded as a beam - a spatially selective transmission. A set of beams / RS resources would be used to spatially cover a certain area in the cell or the whole cell. Typically, CSI-RS resources or SSBs may be ‘beamformed’ (formed as spatially selective ‘beam’) for sounding by a network node in the downlink in a cell, while SRS is used for sounding in the UL.

[0076] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive a configuration of a set of reference signal, RS, resources, or a RS resource set via a higher layer (e.g., RRC) from a network node or another wireless device.

[0077] In some examples, a set of RS resources or a RS resource set comprises one or more CSI- RS and / or SSB resources, or one or more SRS resources.

[0078] In this disclosure, the term ‘a set of RS resources’ may denote at least one of the following: a configuration of a RS resource set provided to a wireless device via a higher layer, a group or a grouping of one or more RS resources, a group or a grouping of one or more RS resources based on one or more criteria provided by a configuration / indication from a network node or another wireless device, and / or by the standard specifications. In this disclosure, the phrases ‘configured in a set of RS resources or an RS resource set’, ‘corresponding to a set of RS resources or an RS resource set’, ‘of / in a set of RS resources or an RS resource set’ used in connection with one or more RS resources may have the same meaning and may be used interchangeably.

[0079] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive a configuration or indication of a subset of RS resources from the set of RS resources or the RS resource set via the PHY-layer or a higher layer, and wherein the subset comprises one or more RS resource(s).

[0080] In this disclosure, a set of RS resources or an RS resource set may comprise N > 1 RS resource(s), and a subset of RS resources from said RS resource set comprises M RS resource(s) from the N > 1 RS resource(s), wherein 1 < M < N. In some examples, the subset of RS resources is a ‘proper subset’ comprising M RS resources, wherein M < N. In some examples, the subset of RS resources is an ‘improper subset’ comprising M RS resources, wherein M = N.

[0081] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive, a configuration of a set of RS resources or a reference signal (RS) resource set comprising a plurality of SS / PBCH block, SSB, and / or CSI-RS resources via a higher layer from a network node or another wireless device, and a configuration or an indication via a PHY-layer or a higher layer from said network node or said another wireless device of a subset of RS resources from said set of RS resources or RS resource set, wherein the RS resources in the subset are deactivated / disabled by said network node or said another wireless device, or wherein the RS resources in the subset are activated / enabled by said network node or another wireless device.

[0082] A wireless device typically receives, performs measurements on and / or computes one or more measurement metric(s) from a reference signal (or reference signal resource) such as a SSB (SSB resource) or a CSI-RS resource. A SSB is typically transmitted by a network node and a CSI-RS resource may be transmitted by a network node or another wireless device.

[0083] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive, a configuration of a set of RS resources or a reference signal (RS) resource set comprising a plurality of SRS resources via a higher layer from a network node or another wireless device, and a configuration or an indication via a PHY-layer or a higher layer from said network node or said another wireless device of a subset of RS resources from said set of RS resources or RS resource set, wherein the RS resources in the subset are deactivated / disabled by said network node or said another wireless device, or wherein the RS resources in the subset are activated / enabled by said network node or another wireless device.

[0084] A network node typically receives, performs measurements on and / or computes one or more measurement metric(s) from a reference signal (or reference signal resource) such as an SRS (SRS resource). An SRS resource is typically transmitted by a wireless device.

[0085] In the present disclosure, the disabling, muting or deactivation of an RS resource (e.g., SSB, CSI-RS or SRS resource) or an inactive, disabled, muted or deactivated RS resource means at least one of the following:

[0086] - the RS resource is not transmitted or received by a wireless device or a network node,

[0087] - the RS resource is transmitted with zero power or assumed to be transmitted with zero power by a wireless device or a network node, a wireless device expects or is configured / indicated to expect or assume that the RS resource is not transmitted or transmitted with zero power, a wireless device does not expect or is configured / indicated to not expect the transmission or reception of the RS resource, or a wireless device is not expected to transmit or receive the RS resource.

[0088] In certain cases, in the present disclosure, the disabling, muting or deactivation of a RS resource (e.g., SSB, CSI-RS or SRS resource) or an inactive, disabled, muted or deactivated RS resource may mean the following:

[0089] - the aforementioned transmission / reception by the wireless device or network node, or lack thereof of the RS resource, or

[0090] - the aforementioned expectation / assumption by the wireless device regarding transmission or reception, or lack thereof of the RS resource, is valid / holds for at least for one transmission occasion or transmission period of the RS resource or for at least one slot.

[0091] Similarly, an active, enabled or activated RS resource, in this disclosure, may be an RS resource that is not inactive / disabled / deactivated / muted.

[0092] In certain cases, in the present disclosure, an active or enabled RS resource may be at least one of the following: non-zero power, NZP, RS resource, a configured periodic RS resource, a semi-persistent RS resource that is activated by a MAC-CE message, an aperiodic RS resource that is triggered by a network node via the PHY-layer or a higher layer.

[0093] In this disclosure, each the following sets of terms used for an RS resource may have the same meaning and may be used interchangeably: active, enabled, activated, and activating, enabling.

[0094] Similarly, each the following sets of terms used for a RS resource may have the same meaning and may be used interchangeably: inactive, disabled, deactivated, muted, and disabling, deactivating, muting.

[0095] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive an indication for the activation or the deactivation of the RS resources from the subset of RS resources. In certain options, the wireless device receives the indication via the PHY-layer (e.g., DCI) or a higher layer (e.g., MAC-CE signalling).

[0096] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive via a PHY-layer or a higher layer from a network node or another wireless device, a configuration or indication that deactivates or activates one or more RS resources.

[0097] In some examples, said one or more RS resources is / are one of the following:

[0098] SSB(s) and / or CSI-RS resource(s), or

[0099] SRS resource(s).

[0100] In some examples, said indication is received via a MAC-CE message or a PDCCH.

[0101] In some examples, said configuration is provided in the configuration of the RS resource(s) or the RS resource set(s) that the RS resource(s) belong to.

[0102] In some examples, said one or more RS resources belong to one RS resource set.

[0103] The disabling, deactivating or muting of RS resources in an RS resource set may be used in the following way by the network node or the wireless device receiving the RS resource: the active / activated RS resources in the resource set are measured at the receiver and a beam prediction algorithm employed at the receiver or the transmitter is applied on the measurements or quality metrics of the active / enabled beams to predict the measurements or quality of the deactivated / inactive beams. The receiver may report the measurements to the transmitter for the beam prediction algorithm employed at the transmitter. Strategic muting / disabling of RS resources in the RS resource may result in “good” predictions or interpolation of the measurements or quality of the disabled beams from the beam prediction algorithms.

[0104] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive from a network node, an indication of at least one of the following: all resources in the set of RS resources or in the RS resource set are activated / enabled, or none of the RS resources in the set of RS resources or in the RS resource set are disabled.

[0105] The proposed method may be used when a beam prediction algorithm at the wireless device or a network node is disabled or to be disabled.

[0106] QCL assumptions of configured RS resources

[0107] The network uses the Transmission Configuration Indication - State(s), TCI-state(s) and / or the Quasi-colocation (QCL) framework for various purposes at the wireless device, such as the following: coherent demodulation of downlink channels, tracking of channel parameters, channel parameters for reception of a physical channel or reference signal, pathloss estimation, and parameters for uplink transmissions such as power control.

[0108] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive from a network node or another wireless device, the configuration of one or more TCI-state(s) via the PHY-layer or a higher layer.

[0109] The configuration of a TCI-state comprises at least one of the following settings:

[0110] 1. A first setting: one or more reference signals and one or more quasi-colocation, QCL, assumptions or setting types per reference signal,

[0111] 2. A second setting: one or more reference signals, RSs, to be used as pathloss reference (the pathloss estimate computed from said RS(s) may be used to compute Tx power for UL channels or RSs),

[0112] 3. A third setting: one or more transmit power (Tx power) settings. Depending on the indicated setting(s), the TCI-State is a downlink, DL, TCI-State, an uplink, UL, TCI-State or a joint TCI-State.

[0113] A TCI-State is a DL TCI-State if the configuration comprises only the first (reception) setting, wherein the reception setting comprises one or more reference signals and QCL assumptions or a setting type for each reference signal. A DL TCI state does not comprise the second and third settings mentioned above. The setting(s) in a DL TCI-State are applied by the wireless device to DL channels or RSs (the setting(s) in a DL TCI-State are applied for the reception of DL channels or RSs). A TCI-State is an UL TCI-State if the configuration comprises transmission settings, i.e., the second and / or third setting(s) mentioned above. An UL TCI state does not comprise the first setting. The setting(s) in an UL TCI-State is / are applied by the wireless device to UL channels or RSs. A TCI-State is a joint TCI-State if the configuration comprises the first setting, and second and / or third setting(s). The setting(s) in a joint TCI- State can be applied by the wireless device to both UL and DL channels and / or RSs.

[0114] The 'transmit power (Tx power) settings’ may denote one or more parameters / values that are used to compute a Tx power at a wireless device for the uplink or the sidelink.

[0115] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to apply one or more DL TCI- State(s), i.e., the reception setting(s) that are provided in the one or more TCI-State(s), for the reception of a DL reference signal or DL channel (e.g., the Physical Downlink Shared Channel, PDSCH, or the Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH).

[0116] The phrase “application of a TCI-State to a DL reference signal or channel” by the wireless device has the same meaning as “application of the QCL assumption(s) or setting(s) provided in the TCI-State for the reception of said DL reference signal or channel” in this disclosure.

[0117] Two ports are said to be quasi co-located (QCL-ed) if the large-scale properties of the channel over which a symbol on one antenna port is conveyed can be inferred from the channel over which a symbol on the other antenna port is conveyed. The large-scale properties include one or more of a delay spread, a Doppler spread, a Doppler shift, an average gain, an average delay, and a spatial Rx parameter.

[0118] The QCL assumption(s) are performed or applied between ports of two different reference signals, or between a port of a reference signal and a (DeModulation Reference Signal) port of a physical channel, such as the PDCCH or the PDSCH. The wireless device may infer one or more large scale channel properties of a channel or reference signal from that / those reference signal which provides the QCL, i.e., the source RS for QCL.

[0119] The phrase “A DL / SL channel or RS ‘A’ (or the respective port(s)) is QCL-ed, or assumed to be QCL-ed, with an RS ‘b’ (or the respective port(s)) in terms of ‘Doppler shift’ and ‘delay spread’,” implies that said parameters (or channel parameters) for the reception, demodulation, decoding or processing of (said port(s) of) DL / SL channel or RS ‘A’ can be determined, inferred or derived from (the channel corresponding to / the channel corresponding to the port(s) of) RS ‘b’. Here, (port(s) of) RS 'b' is referred to as the QCL source, or source RS, that provides the reference for the measurement of said channel parameters or simply parameters. The (port(s) of the) DL / SL channel or RS 'A' is the target.

[0120] Four different QCL types are defined in the current NR standards to indicate with respect to which parameters QCL assumption(s) is / are to be performed / applied:

[0121] Type A: {Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread}

[0122] Type B: {Doppler shift, Doppler spread}

[0123] Type C: {Doppler shift, average delay}

[0124] Type D: {Spatial Rx parameter}

[0125] A channel or RS ‘X’ that is QCL-ed, or assumed to be QCL-ed, with a DL RS resource ‘b’ implies that one or more channel parameters (e.g., Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread or Rx spatial filter) for said channel (or the DM RS ports of said channel) or (ports of) RS ‘X’ can be obtained or derived from (the channel corresponding to) DL RS resource ‘b’.

[0126] A channel or RS ‘X’ that is QCL-ed, or assumed to be QCL-ed, with a DL RS resource ‘b’ with respect to QCL type ‘A’ or via QCL type ‘A’ implies that the Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, and delay spread for said channel (or the DM RS ports of said channel) or (ports of) RS ‘X’ can be obtained or derived from (the channel corresponding to) DL RS resource ‘b’.

[0127] A channel or RS ‘X’ that is QCL-ed, or assumed to be QCL-ed, with a DL RS resource ‘b’ with respect to QCL type ‘D’ or via QCL type ‘D’ implies that the channel (or the DM RS ports of said channel) or (ports of) RS ‘X’ and (ports of) DL RS resource ‘b’ can be received by the wireless device with the same spatial receive filter. QCL type ‘D’ is typically applicable to UEs that are capable of receive, Rx, beamforming (for instance, a wireless device implementing a hybrid or analog beamforming network). A TCI state comprises one or more CSI-RS or SSB resources as source RS(s) along with the QCL assumption(s) for each source RS. The RS in the TCI-state is usually a RS that the wireless device has measured before, so that it can use it as a reference to receive the (port(s) of) target signal or target channel. An RS provided in a TCI-State along with a QCL assumption type can be called as a source RS for QCL.

[0128] A TCI-State comprises at least the following: a RS ‘rT with QCL type ‘XT, and / or a RS ‘r2’ with QCL type ‘X2’, wherein ‘XT, ‘X2’ can be one of ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ or ‘D’. The application of the TCI-State to a DL channel or RS means that the UE performs the QCL assumption(s) as provided in the TCI- State, i.e., the wireless device assumes that said DL channel or RS is QCL-ed,

[0129] - with RS ‘rT with respect to QCL type ‘XT, if RS ‘rT with QCL type ‘XT is provided in the TCI-State,

[0130] - with RS ‘r2’ with respect to QCL type ‘X2’, if RS ‘r2’ with QCL type ‘X2’ is provided in the TCI -State.

[0131] In certain embodiments, the RS ‘rT and ‘r2’ can be a CSI-RS (e.g., a NZP CSI-RS resource) or a SSB.

[0132] Similarly, the application / performing of a QCL assumption to a DL channel or RS denotes an assumption that said DL channel or RS is QCL-ed with an indicated / specified RS T with respect to an indicated / specified / predetermined QCL type ‘X’ (where ‘X’ can be one of ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ or ‘D’).

[0133] This can also be termed as performing a QCL association. In the above examples, the RS T can be a CSI-RS (e.g., a NZP CSI-RS resource) or an SSB.

[0134] In some examples, a TCI-State (a joint or UL TCI-State) may comprise an RS as a reference for the computation, estimation or calculation of a pathloss estimate by the wireless device and / or power control setting(s) or variable(s) used to compute an UL transmit, Tx, power. The application of the TCI-State to an UL channel or RS means that the wireless device uses the RS provided in the TCI-State as a reference for the determination of a pathloss estimate, which is used for the calculation of an UL Tx power for the transmission of said UL channel or RS, and / or the wireless device uses the power control setting(s) provided in the TCI-State for the calculation of an UL Tx power for the transmission of said UL channel or RS. In certain embodiments, the RS indicated as a reference for the computation of a pathloss estimate is a CSI-RS (e.g., a CSI-RS resource or a NZP CSI-RS resource) or an SSB.

[0135] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive a configuration of one or more DL RS resources for tracking, wherein the one or more DL RS resources are provided in one or more resource sets. In some examples, the network indicates that the resource(s) is / are used by the wireless device for tracking. In some examples, the configuration of the resources comprises a parameter ‘trs-lnfo’ that indicates that the associated resource(s) is / are for tracking.

[0136] In certain cases, ‘tracking’ may refer to the usage of the RS resource(s) used for the determination, measurement or estimation of time / frequency parameters related to a channel at the wireless device. It may also refer to the determination, measurement or estimation of one or more large-scale channel properties or parameters or referred to as ‘channel parameters’ in some cases in this disclosure. Such determination, measurement or estimation may be performed over one or more transmission occasions of said RS resource(s).

[0137] In some examples, the resource(s) configured for tracking are non-zero-power (NZP) CSI-RS resource(s).

[0138] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive a configuration of resource(s) for tracking in one or more resource set(s). A resource set may be provided either by the higher layer parameter ‘NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet’ configured with the parameter ‘trs- lnfo’, or by the higher layer parameter ‘trs-ResourceSetConfig’. The resources provided in a NZP CSI-RS resource set configured with the parameter ‘trslnfo’ are called CSI-RS fortracking in the following, and the resources provided in ‘trs-ResourceSetConfig’ are called TRS in the following.

[0139] In this disclosure, a QCL assumption may also be referred to as a QCL association.

[0140] QCL assumptions / TCI-States for deactivated RS resources

[0141] In the following, methods and mappings of QCL assumptions for deactivated / disabled RS resources and activated / enabled RS resources are provided that enable a wireless device to perform beam prediction in the spatial domain. QCL assumptions for deactivated / disabled RS resources are necessary at the wireless device to determine the parameters and / or the type of beam prediction algorithm to be used. The ordering of the beam measurements for the application of the beam prediction algorithm on the measured RS resources and the resulting predictions is determined by the RSs used in the QCL associations / assumptions and / or the QCL types used in them.

[0142] The methods proposed below facilitate the determination of QCL associations / assumptions for deactivated / disabled RS resources via QCL assumptions of enabled / activated RS resources that are already available / explicitly signalled to the wireless device. This results in a lower control information overhead signalling as there is no explicit signalling required for the QCL assumptions of deactivated / disabled RS resources.

[0143] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform a quasi-co-location, QCL, assumption or association for a RS resource with reference to a Channel State Information Reference Signal, CSI-RS, resource or a Synchronization Signal / Physical Broadcast Channel (SS / PBCH) Block, SSB, resource wherein, said RS resource is deactivated / disabled, and the QCL assumption and / or one or more parameters of the QCL assumption is / are o provided or predetermined by the standard specifications (i.e., known to the wireless device via rule(s) in the standard specifications), or o configured or indicated to the wireless device by a network node or another wireless device.

[0144] In some examples, the QCL assumption for a deactivated / disabled RS resource is configured or indicated by a network node to a wireless device using a TCI-State.

[0145] In certain options, the QCL assumption for a deactivated / disabled RS resource is configured / indicated by the network node in the configuration of said RS resource or in the RS resource set the RS resource belongs to.

[0146] In some examples, the QCL assumption for a deactivated / disabled RS resource is provided / predetermined in the standard specifications.

[0147] In some examples, said deactivated / disabled RS resource is configured in a set of RS resources or a RS resource set wherein at least one other RS resource is not deactivated / disabled (i.e., at least one other RS resource in the RS resource set is enabled / activated). In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured or indicated with a subset of RS resources from a set of RS resources or an RS resource set wherein, the RS resources in the subset of RS resources are deactivated / disabled, and a RS resource in said subset of RS resources is QCL-ed with an SSB resource or a CSI- RS resource with respect to a provided / predetermined, indicated or configured QCL type.

[0148] In some cases, the QCL association, the QCL type and / or the SSB / CSI-RS resource used in a QCL association for a RS resource is provided / predetermined in the standard specifications, and hence known to the wireless device. In some cases, the QCL association, the QCL type and / or the SSB / CSI-RS resource used in a QCL association for a RS resource is provided by an indication or configuration provided via the PHY-layer or a higher layer from the network node or another wireless device. In some examples, the indication or configuration may be a TCI-State. In some other examples, the QCL association, type and / or the SSB / CSI-RS resource used in a QCL association for a RS resource is provided in the configuration of the RS resource.

[0149] In certain embodiments, a first RS resource is QCL-ed with a first SSB or CSI-RS resource with respect to a configured or predetermined QCL type, a second RS resource is QCL-ed (or assumed to be QCL-ed by a wireless device) with a second SSB / CSI-RS resource with respect to a configured or predetermined QCL type, wherein said second RS resource is disabled / deactivated.

[0150] In certain options, said first RS resource is enabled / activated.

[0151] In the above method, the QCL assumptions for a deactivated / disabled RS resource are derived based on the QCL assumptions of an activated / enabled RS resource. For example, an active RS resource and an inactive RS resource may be QCL-ed with spatially ‘close’ (or index-wise ‘close’) SSB / CSI-RS beams which helps in the ordering and / or prediction of the deactivated beams. This relationship in the QCL associations between active and inactive RS resources may be derived / indicated with low overhead by a network node or provided in the specifications instead of explicit TCI indications which incur higher overhead.

[0152] In certain embodiments, a first RS resource is QCL-ed with a SSB or CSI-RS resource with respect to a configured or predetermined QCL type, a second RS resource is QCL-ed (or assumed to be QCL-ed by a wireless device) with the same SSB / CSI-RS resource with respect to a configured or predetermined QCL type, wherein said second RS resource is disabled / deactivated.

[0153] In the above method, the QCL assumptions for a deactivated / disabled RS resource are derived from an SSB / CSI-RS resource that is QCL-ed with an activated / enabled RS resource. Two RS resources may be spatially covering the area covered by one SSB / CSI-RS beam - one RS resource is activated (i.e., first RS resource) while the other (i.e., second RS resource) is deactivated. Therefore, the wireless device may 'interpolate’ for the inactive beam with the measurement of the active beam.

[0154] In certain cases, the index of an activated / enabled RS resource used to determine the QCL association for the deactivated / disabled RS resource is either provided in the NR specifications (i.e., known to the wireless device) or configured / indicated by a network node or another wireless device. By this method, the QCL assumption for the deactivated / disabled RS resource is not explicitly provided by the network (or another wireless device) and derived by the wireless device via the QCL assumptions of the activated / enabled RS resource. This helps in reduction of the control information from the network node to the wireless device.

[0155] Figure 6 shows an example of the configuration of the RS resources (which are CSI-RS resources in Figure 6) and their QCL associations with SSB resources. The DL sounding by the network in the example shown in the figure shows a SSB set with 4 resources and a CSI- RS set with 8 resources (which are the RS resources discussed in the methods above). The hierarchical connection shows the QCL associations between the SSBs and the CSI-RSs - CSI-RS 1 and CSI-RS 2 are QCL-ed with SSB 1 , CSI-RS 3 and CSI-RS 4 are QCL-ed with SSB 2 and so on. The QCL-associations between the SSBs and the CSI-RSs connected to them may be via a predetermined, configured or indicated QCL type. Only half the CSI-RSs are enabled in the example shown (CSI-RSs in dashed boxes are disabled) in this sounding method so that the wireless device (such as a UE) may measure the active / enabled CSI-RSs and interpolate or predict the measurements for the deactivated CSI-RSs from the measurements of the active / enabled CSI-RSs. In certain use-cases, the SSBs are characterized by ’wide' beams, while the CSI-RSs are characterized by 'narrow' beams - the SSBs are used for initial beam identification, while the CSI-RSs are used for beam refinement after the identification. The area spatially covered by the sounding of SSB 1 with a 'wide' beam is collectively covered by the two 'narrow' beam CSI-RSs QCL-ed with SSB 1 - only one of which is enabled and measured by the wireless device. The QCL association between the CSI- RSs and the SSB in this case may be with respect to QCL-type D. With such a sounding and configuration of the QCL associations in the DL sounding, the wireless device is able to order beam measurements for a prediction algorithm and also use suitable indication in the reporting provided to a network node or another wireless device.

[0156] In some examples, a CSI-RS resource with which an RS resource in the set of RS resources or RS resource set is QCL-ed is a CSI-RS resource configured for tracking or is a tracking reference signal.

[0157] In certain embodiments, at least one of the following mappings is provided / predetermined by the standard specifications or is configured / indicated by the network node via the PHY-layer or a higher layer: a mapping between the indexes of said first and second RS resource, a mapping of index(es) of the SSB / CSI-RS resource(s) the first and second RS resources are QCL-ed with, a mapping of indexes between said first and second RS resources and the SSB / CSI-RS resource(s) the first and second RS resources are QCL-ed with.

[0158] In certain examples, the indexes of said first and second RS resources are determined via a mapping defined / fixed in the standard specifications or via a method / mapping configured / indicated by the network node.

[0159] In some examples, the ID / index of the first RS resource is the closest in terms of ID / index to the ID / index of the second RS resource.

[0160] In some examples, said first and second RS resources belong to the same set of RS resources or RS resource set.

[0161] In some examples, there may be more than two RS resources that are mapped to / QCL-ed with an SSB / CSI-RS resource.

[0162] In certain embodiments, the QCL types in the QCL assumption / association used for said first and second RS resources are identical. Here, the identical QCL assumptions may mean that the RS resource and an SSB / CSI-RS resource may be beamformed in similar directions.

[0163] In certain embodiments, the QCL type used in a QCL assumption / association between a RS resource and a SSB resource is QCL type ‘C’ and / or ‘D’. In this case, it may mean that the RS resource may be beamformed in a similar direction as the SSB, but the beamformers may not be identical. The RS resource may be beamformed with a narrower beam compared to the SSB.

[0164] In certain embodiments, the QCL type used in a QCL assumption / association between a RS resource and a CSI-RS resource is QCL type ‘A’, ‘B’ and / or ‘D’. In this case, it may mean that the RS resource may be beamformed in a similar direction as the CSI-RS, wherein the beamformers may be identical (for example, a QCL type A with a CSI-RS for tracking is possible) or originating from different base station nodes.

[0165] In certain embodiments, a first RS resource is QCL-ed with a first SSB or CSI-RS resource with respect to a configured or predetermined QCL type, and a second RS resource is QCL- ed with said first SSB / CSI-RS resource with respect to the same QCL type as the one used in the QCL association between said first RS resource and said first SSB / CSI-RS resource, wherein said first RS resource is enabled / activated and said second RS resource is disabled / deactivated. In some examples, this rule for the QCL association between said second RS resource and said first SSB / CSI-RS resource is provided in the specifications.

[0166] In certain embodiments, if an RS resource with index A + n, wherein n #= 0 is a positive or negative integer, is QCL-ed with an SSB / CSI-RS resource with index S with respect to a predetermined, indicated or configured QCL type, the wireless device is configured to assume that an inactive RS resource with index A is QCL-ed with an SSB / CSI-RS resource S + x with respect to a predetermined, indicated or configured QCL type, wherein x #= 0 is a positive or negative integer.

[0167] In certain options, the RS resource with index A + n is an active / enabled RS resource.

[0168] In an example, x = n. In a second example, x = 0. In a third example, x = 0 for certain values of n. In a fourth example, a given value of n is mapped to a value of x.

[0169] In the methods above, the activation / deactivation of resources for selective transmission and / or measurement is performed to reduce overhead from RS transmissions. However, there are certain resources for which such activation / deactivation is more suited when designing a wireless system considering overhead reduction, continuance of beam management activities and reduced impact on other aspects of communication and corner cases of beam assumptions involving DL RSs. In certain embodiments, an RS resource set that may comprise a configuration or receive an indication / signalling that enables / disables (activates / deactivates) the transmission of one or more RS resources in the RS resource set is a CSI-RS resource set that comprises a plurality of CSI-RS resources.

[0170] In certain embodiments, said CSI-RS resource set is aperiodic or semi-persistent.

[0171] In certain embodiments, a CSI-RS resource in said resource set is provided with at least one of the following RS(s) as a QCL reference: a SSB resource, a CSI-RS resource configured for tracking or a tracking reference signal.

[0172] In certain embodiments, a CSI-RS resource that is inactive / deactivated is provided with at least one of the following RS(s) as a QCL reference: a SSB resource, a CSI-RS resource configured for tracking or a tracking reference signal.

[0173] Transmitter-side deployment of beam prediction

[0174] Reporting schemes for spatial beam prediction

[0175] The wireless device may report measurements of activated / enabled RS resources to the device / entity transmitting the RS resources (such as a network node or another wireless device). The transmitter may use the measurement report to predict a beam or the power of a beam associated with a disabled or deactivated RS resource.

[0176] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive from a network node or another wireless device a configuration or indication of a set of reference signal, RS, resources, or a RS resource set, comprising one or more RS resources, perform measurements on one or more RS resources of said set of RS resources or said RS resource set.

[0177] In some examples, a RS resource set comprises one or more SSBs and / or CSI-RS resources.

[0178] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured report to a network node or another wireless device, at least one value of measurement corresponding to each active / enabled / activated RS resource from the resource set. In some examples, there is at least one RS resource that is inactive / disabled / deactivated in said RS resource set, or the RS resource set can be configured or indicated with a signalling regarding activation / deactivation of RS resource(s) in the resource set.

[0179] The above method of reporting can be performed when a spatial beam prediction algorithm is employed at the transmitter-side. The wireless device may measure a subset of beams from a RS resource set (the resources which are enabled for transmission) and report the RSRP values corresponding to all the measured beams so that the transmitter can use these values to predict the best beam(s) across all the configured resources in the resource set.

[0180] In a second way, the wireless device may measure all the resources in a RS resource set and report the RSRP value(s) corresponding to the resources.

[0181] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to report to a network node or another wireless device, at least one value of measurement corresponding to each RS resource configured in a RS resource set. For example, if a RS resource set is configured with R' RS resources, the wireless device reports R' measurement values corresponding to R' RS resources in the RS resource set.

[0182] In the above method, all the configured resource(s) in a RS resource set may be enabled / activated, or the transmitter may only use a reduced set of beams in the cell / area for sounding. The wireless device reports the measurements corresponding to every RS resource in the RS resource set so that the transmitter may perform the beam prediction. The ordering of the beams and the prediction manoeuvres associated with it are left to the network.

[0183] In some examples, the measurement value(s) in the report are ordered in increasing order or decreasing order of the indexes of the RS resources configured in the RS resource set.

[0184] In some examples, the report may also comprise the indices of the resource(s) for which the measurement value(s) are reported.

[0185] In this disclosure, the terms ‘a value of measurement’, ‘a measurement value’, ‘radio link quality’ corresponding to or associated with an RS resource, may be a value of reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ) or a signal-to-interference- plus-noise (SINR) corresponding to or associated with said RS resource. In some cases, the RSRP or SINR value(s) are Layer 1 (L1) value(s), i.e., L1-RSRP or L1-SINR values. In some other cases, the RSRP or SINR value(s) are ‘filtered’ RSRP / SINR value(s) (e.g., RSRP / SINR ‘filtered’ using preconfigured coefficients or coefficients configured / indicated by a higher layer or a network node). A measurement value ‘of’, ‘from’, ‘corresponding to’ or ‘associated with’ an RS resource is measured, determined or computed by said wireless device from said RS resource. The wireless device may receive a RS resource, in certain cases, based on one or more QCL assumptions / associations configured or indicated to the wireless device by a network node or another wireless device or preconfigured (provided / determined via the standard specifications) to the wireless device.

[0186] In certain cases, in this disclosure, a measurement value ‘of’, ‘from’, ‘corresponding to’ or ‘associated with’ an RS resource is measured, determined or computed by said wireless device based on measurements from said RS resource and / or measurements from RS resource(s) other than said RS resource.

[0187] In certain cases, in this disclosure, the terms ‘a measurement’, ‘a value of measurement’, ‘a measurement value’, ‘a value related to / associated with a measurement’, ‘radio link quality’, or ‘radio link quality measurements’ corresponding to or associated with an RS resource, may refer to a value related to a reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), a signal-to-interference-plus-noise (SINR), or any other metric related to signal, interference and / or noise power corresponding to or associated with said RS resource, wherein said value may be obtained based on one of the following: measurement(s) of said RS resource, employing one or more methods or algorithms (for e.g., method(s) or algorithm(s) that use prediction) on one or more measurement(s) obtained from said RS resource and / or RS resource(s) other than said RS resource.

[0188] From the above, it can be understood that said terms in this disclosure may refer to measurement(s) obtained from reception of said RS resource or by processing measurement(s) by employing standardized or proprietary methods / algorithms from measurement(s) made from reception of said RS resource and / or reception of one or more other RS resources (for e.g., predicted measurement(s)).

[0189] The prediction of measurement(s) of a RS resource based on measurements of other RS resource(s) may be performed via spatial prediction methods wherein the ‘location’ or ‘beamforming direction’ of said other RS resources is used to predict the measurement(s) of said RS resource. Similarly, prediction of measurement(s) of a RS resource for some time in the ‘future’ based on its own measurement(s) in the past and / or present may be performed via temporal prediction methods. A combination of temporal prediction and spatial prediction may also be possible.

[0190] In this disclosure, the reporting / determining / computing of ‘a measurement’, ‘a value of measurement’, ‘a measurement value’, ‘a value related to / associated with a measurement’, ‘radio link quality’, or ‘radio link quality measurements’ corresponding to or associated with an RS resource by a wireless device that is deactivated / disabled (i.e., not received or not expected to be received by the wireless device) may mean the following: the wireless device may report or determine or compute a value that is obtained by employing one or more methods or algorithms (e.g., method(s) or algorithm(s) that use prediction schemes) on one or more measurement(s) obtained from said RS resource and / or RS resource(s) other than said RS resource.

[0191] In this disclosure, the reporting / determining / computing of ‘a measurement’, ‘a value of measurement’, ‘a measurement value’, ‘a value related to / associated with a measurement’, ‘radio link quality’, or ‘radio link quality measurements’ corresponding to or associated with an RS resource by a wireless device that is associated with a point in time in the future or a point in time after the instance of reporting may mean the following: the wireless device may report or determine or compute a value that is obtained by employing one or more methods or algorithms (e.g., method(s) or algorithm(s) that use prediction schemes) on one or more measurement(s) obtained from said RS resource and / or RS resource(s) other than said RS resource.

[0192] Reporting schemes for temporal beam prediction

[0193] In the following, reporting schemes at the wireless device for temporal beam prediction at the transmitter-side are provided.

[0194] In certain embodiments, one or more RS resources of a RS resource set are provided or transmitted across M > 1 transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s).

[0195] By tracking measurements of RS resources across several occasions, the wireless device may collect the tracked measurements and report them to the transmitter (a network node or another wireless device) to perform beam prediction at the transmitter-side.

[0196] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to report to a network node or another wireless device, measurement value(s) corresponding to at least one of the configured or enabled / transmitted RS resource(s) in the RS resource set on at least one transmission occasion, transmission period or slot.

[0197] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to report to a network node or another wireless device, at least one measurement value corresponding to at least one of the configured or enabled / transmitted RS resource(s) across M > 1 transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s). In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to report to a network node or another wireless device, at least measurement value(s) corresponding to R > 1 RS resource(s) in the RS resource set across M > 1 transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s).

[0198] In the above method, a measurement value may be reported per RS resource and per transmission occasion, i.e., the wireless device may report RM measurement values corresponding to R > 1 RS resource(s) across M > 1 transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s).

[0199] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to report to a network node or another wireless device, M > 1 groups of measurement values, wherein each group comprises measurement values corresponding to the RS resources configured / enabled / active in the RS resource set wherein each group of measurement values is associated with a predetermined, configured or indicated point in time (i.e., a time information), or a transmission occasion, transmission period or slot.

[0200] A description of the ‘time information’ is provided further below in the disclosure.

[0201] In some examples, the measurement value(s) in the report are ordered in increasing order or decreasing order of the indexes of the RS resources configured in the RS resource set, and / or ordered in increasing or decreasing order of appearance or occurrence (earliest first or latest first based ordering) of the transmission occasion(s), period(s) or slot(s).

[0202] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to include time-related information associated with the R reported RS resource(s) / measurement(s). For example, the report may include value(s) or index(es) that map to or denote transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s) associated with the RS resource(s) and / or the measurement value(s) reported.

[0203] In certain embodiments, the RS resource set is configured with R' > 1 RS resource(s) and the measurements corresponding to R = RrRS resource(s) are reported by the wireless device. This means that the wireless device reports for all RS resources configured in the RS resource set. In this type of temporal beam prediction, the whole beam set is involved in the obtaining the beams for the future. In certain embodiments, the RS resource set is configured with R' > 1 RS resource(s) and the measurements corresponding to R < R' RS resource(s) in the RS resource set are reported. In this case, Rr- R RS resources in the RS resource set may be inactive / disabled / deactivated or R' RS resources may be active / enabled / activated in the RS resource set.

[0204] In the above method of temporal beam prediction, only a subset of beams are involved in obtaining the beams for the future which implies that a combined spatial-temporal beam prediction is performed at the transmitter-side.

[0205] In certain embodiments, the RS resource set is semi-persistent (i.e., configured with semi- persistent time-domain behaviour) or periodic.

[0206] In certain embodiments, the RS resource set can be activated or deactivated via a MAC-CE message.

[0207] With configuration of periodic or semi-persistent RS resource sets, sounding and tracking of measurements across transmission occasions / periods or slots of RS resources is possible with reduced signalling overhead.

[0208] In certain embodiments, the value of M or the M transmission occasions, transmission periods or slots for which the RS resource index(es) and / or measurement value(s) is / are reported is / are preconfigured to the wireless device (provided in the standard specifications) and / or configured / indicated to the wireless device by a network node via the PHY-layer or a higher layer.

[0209] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive from a network node, an indication via the PHY-layer or a higher layer, the number of occasions M for which the measurement value(s) corresponding to one or more RS resources are to be reported.

[0210] In certain embodiments, the M transmission occasions or periods are the latest M transmission occasions, periods or slots of the RS resource(s) or RS resource set before the transmission of the report.

[0211] Receiver-side deployment of beam prediction

[0212] Reporting schemes for spatial beam prediction For device-side deployment of beam prediction, the wireless device can measure a first set of beams and predict the measurements of beams of a second set or predict measurements for beams occupying ‘spatial gaps’ across a given set of configured / measured beams.

[0213] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive from a network node or another wireless device a configuration or indication or at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, or at least one RS resource set, each set comprising one or more reference signal, RS, resources, perform measurements on one or more RS resources of said least one set of RS resources or said at least one RS resource set.

[0214] In some examples, a RS resource set comprises one or more SSBs and / or CSI-RS resources.

[0215] In certain cases, at least one of the configured or indicated RS resources is deactivated / disabled or configured or indicated to be deactivated / disabled.

[0216] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform measurements on one or more RS resources of a RS resource set, and report to a network node or another wireless device, at least one of the following:

[0217] • indices of one or more RS resources configured in the RS resource set,

[0218] • measurement value(s) corresponding to one or more RS resources configured in the RS resource set.

[0219] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform measurements on one or more RS resources of a RS resource set, and report to a network node or another wireless device, at least one of the following:

[0220] • index of at least one resource in the RS resource set that is deactivated / disabled,

[0221] • measurement value(s) corresponding to at least one RS resource in the RS resource set that is deactivated / disabled.

[0222] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to report to a network node or another wireless device, index(es) and / or measurement(s) associated with one or more RS resources in at least one RS resource set, wherein at least one of the reported RS resources is deactivated / disabled or configured or indicated to be deactivated / disabled.

[0223] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive from the network node or another wireless device, a signalling or indication that activates / deactivates RS resource(s) in a RS resource set. The wireless device may measure the RS resource(s) that is / are activated / enabled in an RS resource set. The measurement(s) and / or metric(s) related to deactivated / disabled RS resource(s) (‘spatial gaps’) may be predicted from the measurement(s) of the activated / enabled RS resource(s).

[0224] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured with a first and second set of RS resources, or a first and second RS resource set.

[0225] The wireless device may measure the RS resource(s) in a first set and report measurement value(s) corresponding to the RS resource(s) in the second set. In some cases, there may be an association or a linkage between the resources of the first and second set.

[0226] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform measurements on one or more RS resources in a first set of RS resources, and report to a network node, at least one of the following:

[0227] • indices of one or more RS resources configured in or corresponding to a second set of RS resources,

[0228] • measurement value(s) corresponding to one or more RS resources configured in or corresponding to a second set of RS resources.

[0229] In another variation, the following configuration of subsets of beams for measurement and reporting is proposed.

[0230] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform measurements on one or more resources configured in a first set of RS resources, and report to a network node, at least one of the following:

[0231] • indices of one or more RS resources configured in or corresponding to said first set and a second set of RS resources,

[0232] • measurement value(s) corresponding to one or more RS resources configured in or corresponding to said first set and a second set of RS resources.

[0233] Each of the said first and second set of RS resources may comprise one or more SSB and / or CSI-RS resources.

[0234] The wireless device may be configured to report to the network node K > 1 indices of RS resources and / or measurement values. The value of K may be configured via the PHY-layer or a higher layer to the wireless device by a network node or another wireless device. In some examples, the first and second set of RS resources may be indicated or configured by the network node to the wireless device via the PHY-layer or a higher layer.

[0235] In some cases, the first set of RS resources is a subset of the second set of RS resources. In one option, the first set comprises the RS resources used for the measurements and the second set is the full set of beams used for reporting.

[0236] In some cases, the first set and second set of RS resources are completely disjoint or partially intersecting, i.e. , there are no RS resources common between the first and second set or only a subset of RS resources in the first or the second set is found in the other set. This may result in separating the set of measured RS resources and the set of deactivated / inactive RS resources that can’t be measured. A union of the two sets may result in the full set of beams from which a suitable beam needs to be identified.

[0237] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is provided with a configuration of a RS resource set wherein, said first set of RS resources comprises a subset of RS resources from said RS resource set configuration, and said second set of RS resources is a subset of RS resources from said RS resource set configuration or is the said RS resource set configuration itself.

[0238] When there is a ‘subset’ based relationship between the two configured sets of RS resources, spatial beam prediction can be enabled by the network node. The wireless device may measure a small subset of beams and predict beam measurements corresponding to a larger (super) set of beams compared to the measured set of beams.

[0239] In certain embodiments, there is a linkage between the resources in the first set of RS resources and the second set of RS resources based on QCL assumptions. The QCL assumptions, as explained earlier, are vital in determining the parameters and the type of beam prediction algorithm to be used with the measured set of beams.

[0240] For example, a RS resource from the measured set of beams (first set of RS resources) may be QCL-ed with the same SSB / CSI-RS as one of the beams in the second set of RS resources, which may help the beam prediction algorithm to spatially identify an inactive beam, thereby apply the beam prediction appropriately. The reported beam may not be present in the measured set of beams in some cases. For prediction of the ‘missing / inactive’ beams, information regarding their spatial beamforming and / or indices is necessary or can be exploited to the algorithm’s advantage. The use of QCL information helps in providing spatial information to the wireless device. The derivation of the QCL assumptions for beams in either set based on linkage helps in implicit QCL information deduction instead of explicit indication, thereby incurring lower control information overhead.

[0241] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform a mapping or a relation between an RS resource in the first set of RS resources and an RS resource in the second set of RS resources, and perform a QCL assumption or association for said RS resource in first set of RS resources with reference to a SSB / CSI-RS resource and / or said RS resource in second set of RS resources with reference to the same or a different SSB / CSI-RS resource.

[0242] In certain cases, the mapping or relation is provided by the standard specifications. In some options, said mapping or relation is configured or indicated to the wireless device by a network node or another wireless device via the PHY-layer or a higher layer.

[0243] In certain embodiments, a first RS resource in the first set of RS resources and a first RS resource in the second set of RS resources may be associated with a first SSB / CSI-RS resource with respect to a provided / predetermined, configured or indicated QCL type, and a second RS resource in the first set of RS resources and a second RS resource in the second set of RS resources may be associated with a second SSB / CSI-RS resource with respect to a predetermined or configured QCL type, and so on.

[0244] In certain embodiments, a first RS resource in the first set of RS resources and a first RS resource in the second set of RS resources may be associated with a first SSB / CSI-RS resource with respect to a provided / predetermined, configured or indicated QCL type, and a second RS resource in the first set of RS resources and said second RS resource in the second set of RS resources may be associated with said first SSB / CSI-RS resource with respect to a predetermined or configured QCL type, and so on.

[0245] In the above methods, the indexes of the RS resources in the first and second set of RS resources for which the QCL associations are determined based on rule(s) provided by the standard specifications or by configuration / indication provided by a network node via the PHY- layer or a higher layer. In certain options, the QCL type used in the QCL association for said RS resource in the first set of RS resources and the QCL type used in the QCL association for said RS resource in the second set of RS resources are identical.

[0246] In certain embodiments, there is a QCL association between a RS resource in the second set of RS resources and at least one of the following: a SSB resource, a CSI-RS resource.

[0247] In some examples, the CSI-RS resource is configured for tracking. In certain cases, the CSI- RS resource is periodic.

[0248] The QCL association is with respect to QCL type ‘D’, and / or ‘C’ with a SSB resource, or with respect to QCL type ‘A’, ‘ B’, and / or ‘D’ with a CSI- RS resource.

[0249] In certain embodiments, each RS resource in the second set of RS resources has a QCL association with an SSB, a periodic CSI-RS and / or a TRS resource.

[0250] In certain embodiments, the first set of RS resources is periodic, while the second set of RS resources is aperiodic or semi-persistent. With such a configuration, the measurements on the first set may be performed with higher frequency than the verification of the predicted beams with the actual beam measurements with the second set.

[0251] In certain embodiments, the first set of RS resources is aperiodic or semi-persistent, while the second set of RS resources is periodic. With this configuration of the RS resource sets, the beam measurement / prediction verification has precedence over the prediction and / or reporting itself.

[0252] In certain embodiments, the first set of RS resources are active / enabled / activated while at least one RS resource in the second set of RS resources is inactive / deactivated. In some examples, all the RS resources in the second set of RS resources are inactive / deactivated.

[0253] In the above methods, spatial beam prediction / refinement is performed using two sets of beams configured, each set of resources configured with varying widths / beam properties or one RS resource set being a subset of the other. Reporting schemes for temporal beam prediction

[0254] For temporal beam prediction at the device-side, resource and report configurations are provided in the following. The wireless device typically reports a configured number of beams from measurements made from RS resources at a certain time in the future.

[0255] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform measurements on one or more RS resources of a RS resource set, and report to a network node or another wireless device, at least one of the following:

[0256] • index(es) of K > 1 RS resource(s) of said RS resource set,

[0257] • measurement value(s) corresponding to K > 1 RS resource(s) of said RS resource set, wherein the reported index / indices of RS resource(s) and / or measurement value(s) is / are associated with a time information.

[0258] In certain embodiments, K < R' wherein the RS resource set is configured with R' > 1 RS resource(s). In some cases, R < R' RS resources are enabled / transmitted / activated, i.e. , there are Rr- R inactive / deactivated RS resources in the RS resource set. In certain cases, there may be no disabling / deactivation associated with the RS resources in the RS resource set.

[0259] In some examples, there is at least one RS resource among the K reported RS resources is disabled / deactivated. This results in spatial-temporal beam prediction at the wireless device.

[0260] In some options, the value of K is configured by the network node via the PHY-layer or a higher layer. In some examples, 1 < K < 4.

[0261] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform measurements on one or more resource(s) in one or more sets of RS resources, and report to a network node, at least one of the following:

[0262] • index(es) of D > 1 groups of RS resources, a group i comprising > 1 RS resources, i = l, ...,D, wherein all reported RS resources are from the ones configured in said one or more sets of RS resources,

[0263] • one or more measurement value(s) associated with said RS resources whose index(es) is / are included in the report, wherein each group of index(es) and / or measurement value(s) is associated with a predetermined, configured or indicated point in time (or a time information). In some examples, = K V i = j, wherein i,j = 1,

[0264] In some examples, D takes a value of 1 or 2.

[0265] In some examples, the value(s) of wherein i = 1, is / are configured to the wireless device by a network node or fixed in the standard specifications.

[0266] In certain embodiments, the RS resource set is configured with R' > 1 RS resource(s) and Ki < Rr, wherein i = 1, In some cases, R < R' RS resource(s) is / are enabled / transmitted / activated, i.e., Rr- R RS resources are inactive / deactivated in the RS resource set. In certain cases, there may be no disabling / deactivation associated with the RS resources in the RS resource set.

[0267] In some examples, not all the reported RS resource(s) in a group i may be active / enabled for transmission. Such a reporting may mean that the wireless device may perform spatial- temporal prediction.

[0268] It is to be noted that any method in this disclosure involving reporting that is performed by a wireless device to a network node or another wireless device, may also be performed by the wireless device to one or more higher layers. Similarly, any method in this disclosure involving reporting that is performed by a wireless device to one or more higher layers, may also be performed by the wireless device to a network node or another wireless device.

[0269] In this disclosure, reporting or providing of information by a wireless device to a ‘higher layer’ may, in some cases, denote the reporting or providing of information by the physical layer of the wireless device to a higher layer in the protocol stack of the wireless device. Similarly, the receiving of any information by a wireless device from a ‘higher layer’ may, in some cases, denote the reception of the information by the physical layer from a higher layer in the protocol stack of said wireless device. These statements may be applicable in cases where there is no mention of whether the ‘higher layer’ is associated with the network node or another wireless device.

[0270] It is also to be noted that, in this disclosure, a parameter or value that is said to be configured or indicated to a wireless device may mean that said parameter or value is provided to the wireless device by or received by the wireless device from one of the following: a network node or another wireless device via the PHY-layer or a higher layer (e.g., MAC layer or the RRC layer), one or more higher layers.

[0271] Similarly, a parameter or value that is said to be predetermined in this disclosure may mean that said parameter or value is fixed in the standard specification(s).

[0272] The term ‘configured’ may be used in this disclosure, in some cases, for a parameter or value that is provided to the wireless device by a network node or another wireless device via the RRC (i.e., RRC 'configuration'). The term ‘indicated’ may be used in this disclosure, in some cases, for a parameter or value that is provided to the wireless device by a network node or another wireless device via the MAC-layer (e.g., using a MAC-CE message) or the PHY-layer.

[0273] Beam prediction impacts to link monitoring / recovery, TCI-State references and pathloss estimation procedures

[0274] In addition to reporting of beam information, status information regarding link monitoring, failure or recovery can also be operated using beam prediction algorithms.

[0275] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive one of the following sets of resources:

[0276] - two sets of RS resources q0and ql twherein each RS resource set comprises CSI-RS resources and / or SSB resources,

[0277] - two sets of RS resources q00and q01, wherein each RS resource set comprises CSI-RS resources and / or SSB resources that can be activated by MAC-CE, and two sets of RS resources q10and q wherein each RS resource set comprises CSI-RS resources and / or SSB resources, and wherein the set q00is associated with q10and the set q01is associated with q .

[0278] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is provided by a network node, a higher layer or by the standard specifications (i.e., known to the wireless device), one or more thresholds for comparison of measurement values associated with RS resources.

[0279] In certain embodiments, the following procedure may be followed by a wireless device for link monitoring:

[0280] - The physical layer in the wireless device assesses the radio link quality according to the RS resource set q0, q00or q01against a predetermined or configured threshold <2out LR. The physical layer in the wireless device provides an indication to higher layers when the radio link quality for all corresponding RS resources in the RS resource set is worse than the threshold <2out LR. This reporting may be used to determine if the radio link is failing.

[0281] For the PCell, PSCell or SCell, upon request from higher layers, the wireless device provides to higher layers the CSI-RS indexes and / or SSB indexes from the set q , qwor q that are larger than or equal to a predetermined or configured threshold Qin,LR. This reporting may be used to determine how many viable beams exist.

[0282] - The wireless device transmits PRACH according to QCL parameters associated with a CSI-RS or SSB resource qnewprovided by higher layers. The pathloss estimate from the same resource is used for PRACH transmission. Also, the same RS (qnew) may be used as a QCL source for subsequent PDxCH transmissions. The new beam qnewmay be used as an alternative to a failing beam.

[0283] Link monitoring with beam prediction

[0284] The wireless device may be equipped to perform beam prediction based on a given set of beams and report the results to a higher layer for radio link monitoring / recovery purposes.

[0285] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to obtain a configuration of one or more sets of RS resource(s), each set comprising one or more RS resources, for at least one of the following purposes: radio link monitoring, radio link recovery, radio link quality measurements.

[0286] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to obtain a configuration of one or more sets of RS resource(s), each set comprising one or more RS resources, for at least one of the following purposes: beam failure detection, beam failure recovery.

[0287] The RS resource(s) in a RS resource set for any of the above purposes is / are CSI-RS and / or SS / PBCH (SSB) resource(s).

[0288] In certain embodiments, the RS resource(s) are periodic or semi-persistent.

[0289] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform measurements on one or more RS resources of at least one RS resource set, and report / provide to a higher layer at least one of the following:

[0290] • index(es) of one or more RS resources configured in said at least one RS resource set, one or more measurement value(s) associated with said one or more RS resources whose index(es) is / are included in the report.

[0291] In some options, there is at least one RS resource that is disabled / deactivated in said RS resource set, or the RS resource set can be configured / indicated with an associated signalling or indication regarding activation / deactivation or RS resource(s) in the RS resource set.

[0292] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform measurements on one or more RS resources in at least one RS resource set, and report / provide to a higher layer at least one of the following:

[0293] • an index of at least one RS resource that is deactivated in said at least one RS resource set,

[0294] • one or more measurement value(s) associated with said at least one RS resource whose index is included in the report.

[0295] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform measurements on one or more RS resources configured in a first set of RS resources, and report / provide to a higher layer at least one of the following:

[0296] • indices of one or more RS resources configured in a second set of RS resources,

[0297] • measurement value(s) corresponding to one or more resources configured in a second set of RS resources.

[0298] The configuration and / or set up of the two sets of RS resources may be as described previously.

[0299] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform measurements on one or more RS resources configured in a first set of RS resources, and report / provide to a higher layer at least one of the following: indices of one or more RS resources configured in said first set and / or a second set of RS resources, measurement value(s) corresponding to one or more RS resources configured in said first set and / or a second set of RS resources.

[0300] In the above method, said first and second set of RS resources may be disjoint sets, i.e. , there are no resources that are common in the two sets of resources.

[0301] In certain options, in the above methods, measurement value(s) is / are reported for the index(es) which is / are included in the report. In the following, temporal prediction of beams and reporting to higher layers is discussed.

[0302] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform measurements on resource(s) configured in one or more sets of RS resources, and report / provide to a higher layer at least one of the following: index(es) of D > 1 groups of RS resources, a group i comprising > 1 RS resources, one or more measurement value(s) associated with RS resources whose index(es) is / are included in the report,

[0303] - wherein

[0304] - the reported RS resource(s) in group i is / are from the ones configured in said one or more sets of RS resources, and each group is associated with a predetermined, configured or indicated point in time or a time information.

[0305] In certain embodiments, the measurement value(s) of the RS resource(s) that are reported are above or below a certain predetermined or configured threshold.

[0306] In some examples, = Kj, f i #= j, wherein i,j = 1,

[0307] In some examples, D takes a value of 1 or 2.

[0308] In some examples, the value(s) of wherein i = 1, is / are configured to the wireless device by a network node or fixed in the standard specifications.

[0309] In certain embodiments, the RS resource set is configured with R' > 1 RS resource(s) and Ki < Rr, wherein i = 1, In some cases, R < R' RS resource(s) is / are enabled / transmitted / activated, i.e., Rr- R RS resources are inactive / deactivated in the RS resource set. In certain cases, there may be no disabling / deactivation associated with the RS resources in the RS resource set.

[0310] The description of time information associated with the reported RS resource(s) is provided further below.

[0311] Link status reporting with beam prediction

[0312] In the following, the sharing of link status messages based on beam prediction are discussed.

[0313] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform measurements on said one or more RS resource(s) from said at least one RS resource set, and determine and provide / transmit to a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer in a report, at least one of the following indications: if / whether the radio link quality and / or measurements associated with all the RS resource(s) in said one or more configured sets of RS resources is below a predetermined or configured threshold, if / whether the radio link quality and / or measurements associated with at least one RS resource in said one or more configured sets of RS resources is above a predetermined or configured threshold, wherein at least one of the reported / provided indications is associated with a time information.

[0314] When a status message such as the one above is provided with a time information, it means that the wireless device is trying to indicate if all links fail or if there is at least one viable link for the wireless device at some point in the future (as provided by the ‘time information’), which can be performed using temporal beam prediction. The reporting of a time corresponding to a link failure prediction may be used to initiate beam failure recovery proceedings sooner rather than later (compared to the conventional beam failure recovery procedures). Similarly, the reporting of the link monitoring with time information ensures that the radio link is fine until a certain point in the future. This may help in reducing the frequency of link monitoring reports which are less useful compared to the proposed link prediction reporting, which is otherwise helpful with faster beam sounding reconfiguration and recovery procedures.

[0315] In certain cases, each of the reported / provided indications is associated with a time information.

[0316] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to provide in a report to a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer, multiple such indications, wherein each indication is associated with a distinct time information. This may mean that the status messages are sent for multiple instants / points in time, which helps in the tracking of the beam strengths and subsequent beam switches as well.

[0317] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform measurement(s) on one or more configured sets of RS resources, and report / provide to a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer, at least the following: index(es) of at least one resource in said one or more configured sets of RS resources, wherein measurement(s) (radio link quality measurement(s)) associated with said at least one resource is / are above a certain predetermined or configured threshold, wherein said report is associated with a time information.

[0318] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform measurement(s) on one or more configured sets of RS resources, and report / provide to a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer, at least one of the following:

[0319] • index(es) of at least one RS resource in said one or more configured sets of RS resources, wherein measurement(s) (radio link quality measurement(s)) associated with said at least one RS resource is / are above a certain predetermined or configured threshold, and

[0320] • measurement(s) associated with said at least one RS resource, wherein said report is associated with a time information.

[0321] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to provide in a report to a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer, measurement(s) associated with one or more RS resource(s), wherein said values of measurements are higher than a predetermined or a configured threshold.

[0322] In the above reporting, the device reports the links that are ‘viable’ for communication based on a predetermined or configured threshold.

[0323] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to provide an indication to a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer regarding measurement(s) associated with one or more sets of RS resources along with associated time information in response to request from higher layer(s) to provide such information.

[0324] In certain embodiments, any of the above reporting is performed by a wireless device when at least one of the following applies:

[0325] - there are RS resource(s) whose measurement(s) satisfy the threshold comparison,

[0326] - the threshold comparison based on the radio link quality and / or measurements associated with said RS resource(s) is satisfied (i.e., said event with respect to threshold comparison happens), a beam prediction (e.g., a beam prediction algorithm) is active / operative at the wireless device, a request from a higher layer to report, a higher layer or PHY-layer configuration / indication from a network node or another wireless device enables such reporting.

[0327] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive at least one of the following requests from higher layer(s):

[0328] - to report / indicate if / whether there is any RS resource in one or more configured sets of RS resources that is above a predetermined or configured threshold at a predetermined / configured / indicated point in time,

[0329] - to report / indicate if / whether all the RS resources in one or more configured sets of RS resources are below a predetermined or configured threshold at a predetermined / configured / indicated point in time,

[0330] - to report / indicate RS resource(s) whose associated measurement(s) is / are above a predetermined or configured threshold at a predetermined / configured / indicated point in time.

[0331] In the method above, the phrase ‘an RS resource above or below a predetermined or configured threshold’ may mean that a measurement or measurement value associated with said RS resource is above or below said predetermined or configured threshold.

[0332] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive at least one of the following requests from higher layer(s):

[0333] - to report / indicate if / whether there is any RS resource in one or more configured sets of RS resources whose measurement value is above a predetermined or configured threshold at a predetermined / configured / indicated point in time,

[0334] - to report / indicate if / whether the measurement values of all the RS resources in one or more configured sets of RS resources are below a predetermined or configured threshold at a predetermined / configured / indicated point in time, to report / indicate RS resource(s) whose associated measurement value(s) is / are above a predetermined or configured threshold at a predetermined / configured / indicated point in time.

[0335] In certain embodiments, the wireless device receives the requests described above from a network node or another wireless device, or a higher layer of the wireless device.

[0336] In the methods above, the request to report or provide said indication(s) may be obtained by the wireless device from a higher layer or, a network node or another wireless device. The wireless device may report or provide said indication(s) to one of the following: - the same entity as the one that requests the report or said indication(s), i.e. , if a network node or another wireless device requests the report or indication, the wireless device reports / indicates to said network node or said another wireless device, and if one or more higher layers request(s) the report or indication, the wireless device reports / indicates to said one or more higher layers, the entity configured or indicated to the wireless device for reporting / providing said indication(s).

[0337] In this disclosure, an ‘indication’ that a wireless device reports or provides / includes in a report may denote one of the following: an information related to measurement(s) or measurement value(s) associated with one or more RS resource(s), an information obtained from comparison of one or more measurement value(s) associated with one or more RS resource(s) with respect to one or more predetermined or configured threshold(s), or one or more measurement value(s) of configured, predetermined or indicated RS resource(s).

[0338] In some examples, the information comprises index(es) of RS resource(s) and / or measurement value(s) associated with RS resource(s).

[0339] Typically, an indication in this disclosure may be used to denote an ‘event’ based on measurement(s), radio link quality and / or predicted measurement(s) of RS resource(s). The ‘event’ may denote failing link(s), better beam(s), falling or rising beam strength(s), a sign that ‘the link is still alright’, etc. When such events are indicated using predicted measurement(s) in the ‘future’, they may denote events that may happened in the future, so that the network or the wireless device may react to such events sooner than later. In certain embodiments, the wireless device provides an indication in a report to a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer of the wireless device, wherein the indication is associated with time information. In some options, the indication is reported / provided in response to an activation / enabling message received from a network node or another wireless device via the PHY-layer or a higher layer.

[0340] In this disclosure, a configured, indicated or predetermined RS resource may be referred to as configured / indicated / predetermined RS resource. A predetermined or configured threshold may be referred to as predetermined / configured threshold. A predetermined threshold or RS resource may mean that said threshold or RS resource may be provided by the standard specifications. A configured or indicated threshold or RS resource may mean that said threshold or RS resource may be configured or indicated to the wireless device by a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer.

[0341] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform measurement(s) on one or more RS resources configured in one or more sets of RS resources, and report to a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer of the wireless device, at least the index(es) of at least one RS resource from the one or more sets of RS resources, wherein a measurement value (radio link quality measurement(s)) associated with said at least one RS resource is higher or lower by a certain predetermined / configured amount compared to a measurement value associated with a configured / predetermined / indicated RS resource, or higher or lower than a certain predetermined / configured threshold value, and wherein the index(es) in the report is / are associated with a time information.

[0342] In certain embodiments, the report comprises a time information and the time information is associated with the index(es) in the report.

[0343] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform measurement(s) on a RS resource, and -report or provide to a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer of the wireless device, an indication that a measurement value (e.g., radio link quality measurement) associated with the RS resource is higher or lower than a certain predetermined / configured threshold, and wherein said indication is associated with a time information.

[0344] In certain embodiments, the RS resource to be measured by the wireless device may be configured or indicated to the wireless device by a network node, another wireless device, or a higher layer, or predetermined by the standard specifications. In the following said RS resource is referred to as ‘configured / indicated / predetermined RS resource.

[0345] In certain embodiments, the value of measurement(s) obtained for the configured / indicated / predetermined RS resource may be obtained based on measurement(s) of said configured / indicated / predetermined RS resource and / or measurement(s) of one or more other RS resources. In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform measurement(s) on one or more RS resources, and -report or provide to a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer of the wireless device, an indication that a measurement value (e.g., radio link quality measurement) associated with said RS resource is higher or lower than a certain predetermined / configured threshold, and wherein said indication is associated with a time information and the configured / indicated / predetermined RS resource may be one among the measured one or more RS resources or not.

[0346] When the configured / indicated / predetermined RS resource is not among the measured RS resources, the value of measurement(s) obtained for the configured / indicated / predetermined RS resource by the wireless device may be obtained (e.g., predicted in the spatial and temporal domain) based on measurement value(s) of one or more other RS resources. When the configured / indicated / predetermined RS resource is among the measured RS resources, the value of measurement(s) obtained for the configured / indicated / predetermined RS resource by the wireless device may be obtained (e.g., predicted in the ‘spatial domain' and / or ‘temporal domain’) based on measurement value(s) of said configured / indicated / predetermined RS resource and / or one or more other RS resources.

[0347] With the above methods, the report from the wireless device may essentially suggest a network node whether a DL / LIL beam for the communication (configured / indicated / predetermined RS resource) with the wireless device shall be switched to a new beam (i.e., RS resource) to improve the link or communication quality at a certain time instant in future. The event for the beam switch is based on a comparison of a predicted link quality (e.g., predicted RSRP / SINR) of the current DL beam with a predicted link quality of one or more new DL beam(s) measured at the wireless device or a predetermined / configured threshold. The time instant for which the ‘event’ of the said comparison result happens is indicated by the associated time information. In some cases, a reporting of multiple new DL beams enables the network node to evaluate and schedule for multiuser scenarios as well.

[0348] The configured / indicated / predetermined RS resource may be the ‘current DL / LIL beam’. This may be predetermined by the standard specifications via one of the following rules.

[0349] In certain examples, the configured / indicated / predetermined RS resource may be the RS resource that is used as a QCL source for the reception of a CORESET. In some instances, it may be the CORESET 0. In certain cases, the configured / indicated / predetermined RS resource may be the RS resource that is used as a QCL source for the reception of a PDSCH.

[0350] In certain cases, the configured / indicated / predetermined RS resource is an RS resource that is provided in the TCI-State mapped to a predetermined / specified codepoint (for e.g., lowest codepoint or codepoint 0) of the TCI-indication field in a DCI format (for example, DCI format 1_1 , 1_2, etc.). In some instances, it may be an RS resource provided as a source for QCL type-D.

[0351] In certain cases, the configured / indicated / predetermined RS resource may be a RS resource that is provided in one of the following:

[0352] - the ‘active’ TCI-State, the unified TCI-State or the ‘active’ unified TCI-State.

[0353] The ‘active’ TCI-State or ‘active’ unified TCI-state may be one of the following:

[0354] - the TCI-State indicated / configured for a PDSCH or a predetermined CORESET,

[0355] - the TCI-state indicated / configured for two or more DL / LIL channel(s) and / or RS(s),

[0356] - the TCI-state that is applied currently or applied latest for two or more DL / LIL channel(s) and / or RS(s), the TCI-state that is applied currently or applied latest for two or more DL / LIL channel(s) and / or RS(s) after an indication from the network via a DCI or a MAC-CE message.

[0357] In the above text, the terms ‘current’ or ‘latest’ may denote the TCI-State applied at the time instance of reporting or the most recent TCI-State applied before the instance of reporting.

[0358] In certain cases, the RS resource used as a QCL source or the RS resource in the TCI-State may denote the RS resource used as the source for QCL type-D.

[0359] In this disclosure, for any method that involves the providing of one or more indication(s), or one or more index(es) or RS resources, in a report by the wireless device, wherein the report is said to be ‘associated with a time information’, the report may comprise multiple groups of indication(s) or index(es) of RS resources, wherein each group is associated with a time information. This is similar to the method described above with D reporting groups.

[0360] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to perform measurements on RS resource(s) configured in one or more sets of RS resources, and report to a higher layer D > 1 groups of indications, wherein group i comprises St > 1 indications, i = 1, and each group is associated with a predetermined, configured or indicated point in time or a time information.

[0361] In some cases in this disclosure that involves a comparison of measurement value(s) or measurement(s), the following may apply: one or more measurement value(s) used in the comparison can be ‘predicted’ measurement value(s), i.e., one or more measurement value(s) used in the comparison are obtained via the application of method(s) / algorithm(s) that predict measurement value(s) based on measurement(s) obtained from one or more RS resources.

[0362] In some cases, for the methods in the disclosure involving indication(s), index(es), measurement value(s) or a report associated with a time information is provided / reported by the wireless device, said associated time information may indicate or denote a time after the instance of reporting (a point in time in the future).

[0363] In some cases, for the methods in the disclosure wherein the wireless device provides / reports at least one indication or index of a RS resource or measurement value, wherein a time information is associated with said at least one indication or index of a RS resource or measurement value, or said report itself, and wherein one or more comparisons of measurement value(s) associated with one or more RS resources is / are performed for the determination of said at least one indication or index of an RS resource or measurement value, the measurement value(s) used in said one or more comparisons are also associated with the same time information. The measurement value(s) used in said one or more comparisons may be computed using one or more method(s) / algorithm(s) that utilize prediction schemes. This means that the measurement value(s) used in said comparison(s) are ‘predicted’ measurement value(s) for the said point in time as denoted by the associated time information (which may typically be a point of time after the instance of measurement - a point of time in the future).

[0364] In an example, an indication or an index of an RS resource or a measurement value based on comparison(s) of measurement value(s) is provided or included in a report by a wireless device to a higher layer, a network node or another wireless device, wherein said indication or index or measurement value or report itself is associated with a time information. The time information in this case may denote or point to a slot, subframe or frame after the time instance of reporting. The indication or index of RS resource or the measurement value included in the report is determined based on comparison(s) of measurement value(s) associated with one or more RS resources with predetermined or configured threshold(s) or one or more measurement value(s) of configured, predetermined or indicated RS resource(s)). Then, the measurement value(s) used in said comparison(s) are also associated with said time information (said slot, frame or subframe after the time instance of reporting), i.e., the measurement value(s) used in said comparison(s) are ‘predicted’ measurement value(s) for said slot, frame or subframe.

[0365] Link status monitoring with spatial domain prediction

[0366] In the methods described above wherein link status messages are reported, it is also possible to use spatial domain prediction instead of or in addition to time domain prediction.

[0367] In certain embodiments, the methods described above for the reporting by a wireless device to a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer may be applied with one of the following changes:

[0368] - there is at least one RS resource that is disabled / deactivated in the one or more sets of RS resources, or one or more RS resource sets measured by the wireless device, or instead of the time information associated with the report or any indication(s), RS group index(es) and / or measurement(s) in the report, there is at least one RS resource that is disabled / deactivated in the one or more sets of RS resources, or one or more RS resource sets measured by the wireless device.

[0369] The method in the second bullet may mean that only spatial prediction may be performed, and no temporal prediction is performed. No time information is associated with the report or the content(s) of the report due to the absence of temporal prediction.

[0370] In any method in this disclosure wherein link status information or ‘event(s)’, i.e., indication(s) based on comparison of measurement(s), is / are reported, at least one of the following statements may apply:

[0371] - the time information associated with a report or an indication or a RS resource index / measurement value may indicate / denote a point in time in the ‘future’ (i.e., a point in time after the instance of reporting), the reported information may be determined based on measurement value(s) associated with received RS resource(s) and / or measurement value(s) associated with RS resource(s) obtained using prediction method(s) or algorithm(s) (i.e., predicted measurement(s)) at the wireless device.

[0372] Deactivated reference beam The above reporting of beam measurements to the higher layer is then used for PRACH beamforming and subsequent handover purposes in the DL and / or UL, if the need arises. In such cases, if deactivated resources are indicated via the higher layer during a handover, the beam and QCL parameters to be derived from the deactivated resource should be specified.

[0373] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive a configuration or indication via a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer wherein, a first RS resource is provided as a reference for QCL parameter(s) (in some case, in a TCI-State), spatial relation and / or pathloss estimation, for a DL / LIL channel (e.g., PDCCH, PDSCH, PUCCH, PUSCH or PRACH) or DL / UL RS (e.g., CSI-RS or SRS), and using a second RS resource as reference for one or more QCL parameter(s), spatial relation, and / or pathloss estimation for said DL / UL channel or RS, wherein o said first RS resource is inactive / deactivated, and o said second RS resource is used as a reference for QCL assumptions, spatial relation and / or pathloss estimation for said first RS resource.

[0374] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is provided via the standard specifications, a first RS resource as a reference for QCL parameter(s) (in some case, in a TCI-State), spatial relation and / or pathloss estimation, for a DL / UL channel (e.g., PDCCH, PDSCH, PUCCH, PUSCH or PRACH) or DL / UL RS (e.g., CSI-RS or SRS), and the wireless device is configured to use a second RS resource as reference for one or more QCL parameter(s), spatial relation, and / or pathloss reference for said DL / UL channel or RS, wherein said first RS resource is inactive / deactivated, and said second RS resource is used as a reference for QCL assumptions, spatial relation and / or pathloss estimation for said first RS resource.

[0375] For example, a deactivated RS resource may be identified as a suitable beam for transmission via a beam prediction algorithm. When this RS resource is indicated as a reference for subsequent DL / UL transmissions by a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer, the derivation of various channel parameters from an inactive RS resource fails. Therefore, an RS that is QCL-ed with the inactive RS resource is ultimately used as the reference.

[0376] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive an instruction / message via a higher layer that comprises the index of a RS resource ‘q’, wherein the RS resource ‘q’ is inactive / disabled / deactivated.

[0377] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive a configuration or indication of a TCI-State comprising a RS resource as a source for QCL parameter(s), spatial relation and / or pathloss reference for a DL / LIL channel or a DL / LIL reference signal, wherein said RS resource is inactive / disabled / deactivated.

[0378] An illustration of the above method is shown via an example in Figure 7. In the example, a SSB or periodic CSI-RS is a source RS for a deactivated / disabled CSI-RS. When the deactivated RS is indicated / configured as a QCL source for a DL / LIL channel / RS, the configuration / indication fails. So, the QCL source of the deactivated RS is used as the QCL source for the DL / UL channel / RS.

[0379] In response to any of the above indications, the wireless device may make use of indirect references - use the reference(s) of the deactivated signal as the parameters to transmit or receive the target channel / signal.

[0380] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to use for a PDCCH, PDSCH or CSI- RS reception, when a first RS resource that is inactive / disabled / deactivated is provided as a reference for QCL (for e.g., via a TCI-State) by a network node, another wireless device or via the standard specifications, a second RS resource that has a QCL association with (or is used as a QCL reference for) said first RS resource.

[0381] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to use for an UL transmission (e.g., PUSCH, PUCCH, PRACH or SRS), when a first RS resource that is inactive / disabled / deactivated is provided as a reference for a spatial relation and / or pathloss estimate (for e.g., via a TCI-State) by a network node, another wireless device or via the standard specifications, a second RS resource that has a QCL association with (or is used as a QCL reference for) said first RS resource, or is used as a reference for spatial relation or pathloss estimate for said first RS resource.

[0382] In the above methods, the QCL association between said first and second RS resources: the first RS resource is QCL-ed with the second RS resource with respect to a predetermined, configured or indication QCL type, wherein said second RS resource is the QCL source.

[0383] In certain cases, the first RS resource is provided as a reference DL reception or UL transmission by higher layer(s).

[0384] In certain examples, said second RS resource is periodic and a DL RS.

[0385] In certain examples, said second RS resource is a UL RS or a UL channel.

[0386] Another way to mitigate the case of using a deactivated RS resource as a QCL / pathloss reference would be the following.

[0387] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is expected to receive an index of a RS resource that is active / enabled, or not receive an index of a RS resource that is inactive / disabled or transmitted with zero power, as reference(s) for QCL, spatial relation or pathloss estimate.

[0388] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is expected to receive configuration or index(es) of TCI-State(s) that only comprise RS resource(s) that is / are active / enabled, or not receive configuration or index(es) of TCI-State(s) comprising RS resource(s) that is / are inactive / disabled or transmitted with zero power.

[0389] The wireless device may expect aforementioned reception either from a higher layer or a network node.

[0390] Time information associated with a report / indication

[0391] In various methods described above, a report, an indication / signalling or one or more RS resource index(es) and / or measurement value(s) in a report may be associated with a time information or a predetermined / preconfigured, configured or indicated time instant or point in time. In the following, this association with time information is discussed.

[0392] As described above, temporal beam prediction may involve reporting from the wireless device that may be associated with a predetermined time information, or the report itself may include explicit time information. There are two possibilities for the time information reported by a wireless device:

[0393] - the report comprises measurements made in the past hence the associated time information refers to points in time in the past (e.g., when the beam prediction is performed at the transmitter), the report comprises predicted measurements / information that apply to time instants in the future (e.g., when the beam prediction is performed at the wireless device, i.e., the receiver).

[0394] In this disclosure, the wireless device may be configured to provide report(s) to a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer at the wireless device. The reporting may be performed via / by the PHY-layer at the wireless device. In case of reporting to a network node, the reporting may be performed / transmitted on a physical uplink channel such as the physical uplink control channel (PLICCH) or the physical uplink shared channel (PLISCH). In certain cases, the wireless device may be configured to provide report(s) to a network node or another wireless device via the MAC-layer or a higher layer (e.g., RRC). The reporting may happen via the MAC-layer using MAC-CE messages.

[0395] In certain embodiments, time information associated with one or more indexes of RS resource(s) and / or one or more measurement value(s) of RS resource(s) reported by a wireless device, an indication included in a report by the wireless device, or report provided the wireless device, is predetermined / configured / indicated to the wireless device via the PHY-layer or a higher layer, or provided by the wireless device in or along with the report / indication.

[0396] In certain embodiments, a time information is related to, denotes or maps to a slot, a subframe, a frame, a transmission occasion / transmission period of a RS resource or channel, or a time / duration in terms of seconds or milliseconds, after the reporting / transmission or the report by the wireless device.

[0397] In certain embodiments, a time information is related to, denotes or maps to a slot, a subframe, a frame, a transmission occasion / transmission period of a RS resource or channel, or a time / duration in terms of seconds or milliseconds, before the reporting / transmission or the report by the wireless device.

[0398] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to include one or more time information in the report.

[0399] In certain embodiments, the report may comprise one value / index denoting or mapping to a unit or a point in time.

[0400] The association of time information with the contents of a report or the report itself may be performed in one of the following ways or a combination of them: association of time information with predetermined information or configured / indicated information is provided, association of time information with explicit information provided in the report. In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to determine a time information associated with a report / indication / signalling based on a higher layer configuration / indication or a configuration / indication from a network node, another wireless device, or predetermined time information provided in the standard specifications.

[0401] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to determine based on a higher layer configuration / indication or a configuration / indication from a network node, another wireless device, or predetermined time information provided in the standard specifications, a time information associated with one or more indexes of RS resource(s) and / or one or more measurement value(s) of RS resource(s) reported by a wireless device to a network node, or an indication included in a report from a wireless device, a report from a wireless device.

[0402] In some examples, there may be no time information explicitly provided in the content of the report.

[0403] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive from a network node or a higher layer, information related to time for the reporting of one or more indices of RS resource(s) and / or measurement value(s) associated with one or more RS resource(s). The wireless device, in this case, is instructed to perform and report RS resource(s) for the time information provided to it.

[0404] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to receive from a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer, information related to time for a reporting / indication / signalling to be provided by the wireless device. The wireless device, in this case, is instructed to perform said reporting / indication / signalling for / based on the time information provided to it.

[0405] For example, the wireless device may be instructed to report measurements of RS resource(s) on certain configured / indicated on certain transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s). This means that the time information indicates time instant(s) in the past (time instant(s) before the instance of reporting). In another example, the wireless device may be instructed to report measurements of RS resource(s) in time instant(s) after the instance of reporting, i.e. , the wireless device may employ a beam prediction to provide such a report. The information may be provided via a higher layer configuration (e.g., CSI / beam reporting configuration) or indication. The wireless device may be instructed to predict the beams for a certain point in time in the future with said time information. The wireless device may report beams for said point in time, without explicit indication of time information for the reported index(es) / value(s), as the time information is implicitly known via network indication to the wireless device.

[0406] In certain embodiments, a time information associated with one or more indexes of RS resource(s) and / or one or more measurement value(s) of RS resource(s) reported by a wireless device to a network node, is provided in the report. In this case, there may be explicit time information included in the report.

[0407] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to include in a report, an index or a value related to a time information associated with one or more RS resources or a group of RS resource(s) reported by a wireless device. In some examples, said index / value related to time information is included in the same report as that of the associated RS resource(s).

[0408] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to include in a report / indication / signalling, an index or value related to a time information associated with said report / indication / signalling.

[0409] In certain embodiments, an index / value associated with a time information denotes or maps to a unit (slot / frame / subframe / ms / s) or point in time provided in or along with the report / indication.

[0410] In certain embodiments, an index / value corresponding to or associated with a time information is at least one of the following: an index / value corresponding to a slot or an index / value corresponding to an offset in number of slots, an index / value corresponding to a frame / subframe or an index / value corresponding to an offset in number of frames / subframes, an index / value that maps to a time / duration in seconds or milliseconds or an offset in seconds or milliseconds.

[0411] In the above method said slot, subframe, frame or time / duration in seconds or milliseconds may denote or map to a point in time after or before the instance of reporting by the wireless device. In this disclosure, a ‘slot’ or a ‘time slot’ may refer to a transmission slot in the DL, UL or SL.

[0412] Typically, if a method or algorithm for prediction is employed at the receiver (e.g., the wireless device), the point in time associated with a reported measurement and / or value in the report is in the ‘future’ - a point in time after the instance of reporting. If the method or algorithm for prediction is employed at the transmitter, the point in time associated with a reported measurement and / or value in the report is in the ‘past’ - a point in time before the instance of reporting (instance(s) related to the reception of the reported RS resource(s)).

[0413] Procedures related to life-cycle-management of beam prediction

[0414] This section describes procedures wherein the life-cycle management associated with a beam prediction algorithm affect the wireless device / NW operation and / or the signalling and configurations involved.

[0415] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to activate / enable the transmission of all RS resources in a RS resource set, configured to assume / expect the activation / enabling of all RS resources in a RS resource set, assume / expect the activation / enabling of all RS resources in a RS resource set, if a beam prediction method at the wireless device or the transmitter side (such as a network node or another wireless device) is disabled.

[0416] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to provide an indication for the disabling of a beam prediction to a higher layer, a network node or another wireless device, if a metric computed using a measured value and a predicted value of a measurement corresponding to at least one RS resource in at least one RS resource set is above or below a certain threshold across N > 1 occasions.

[0417] In certain embodiments, said metric is a difference, an absolute difference or a squared difference between measured and predicted measurement value(s).

[0418] In certain embodiments, said at least one RS resource set is configured for radio link monitoring, radio link recovery or radio link quality measurements.

[0419] In certain embodiments, said at least one RS resource set is configured for beam failure detection or beam failure recovery.

[0420] In certain embodiments, the wireless device is configured to provide an indication for the disabling of a beam prediction to a higher layer, a network node or another wireless device, wherein the beam prediction was performed for beam reporting to a network node via a physical uplink channel (e.g., PUSCH / PUCCH). The beam prediction may be performed at the wireless device in this case.

[0421] By combining the above methods, the following setup is possible at the wireless device: the wireless device may monitor the accuracy of its beam prediction using the RS resources configured for radio link monitoring while using the accuracy information from it to judge or decide to operate the beam prediction used for beam reporting. By this method, two parallel beam prediction processes may be run at the wireless device, which reduces the latency of life-cycle management procedures related to beam prediction and avoids additional configuration of RS resources for data collection (for life-cycle management of beam prediction).

[0422] Referring to Figure 2, there is illustrated a method performed by a wireless device according to some embodiments. The method comprises: receiving (201 ) a configuration or indication from a network node or another wireless device of at least one Reference Signal, RS, resource, performing (202) a quasi-co-location, QCL, assumption or association for said at least one RS resource with reference to a Channel State Information Reference Signal, CSI-RS, resource or a Synchronization Signal / Physical Broadcast Channel (SS / PBCH) Block, SSB, resource, wherein o said at least one RS resource is disabled, and o the QCL assumption or association, and / or one or more parameters of the QCL assumption or association is / are

[0423] ■ predetermined by the standard specifications (i.e., known to the wireless device via rule(s) in the standard specifications), or

[0424] ■ configured or indicated to the wireless device by the network node or the another wireless device, applying (203) said QCL assumption or association to said at least one RS resource.

[0425] According to some embodiments herein, the QCL assumption or association for said at least one disabled RS resource is configured or indicated by the network node or the another wireless device using a Transmission Configuration Indication, TCI, State.

[0426] It is to be noticed that in the present invention, “the another wireless device” may be referred to as “the other wireless device”. According to some embodiments herein, said at least one disabled RS resource is configured in a set of RS resources, wherein the set of RS resources comprises one or more disabled RS resources.

[0427] According to some embodiments herein, said at least one RS resource being disabled is configured or indicated by the network node or the another wireless device to the wireless device.

[0428] According to some embodiments herein, said at least one disabled RS resource is quasi colocated, QCL-ed, with the CSI-RS or SSB resource with respect to a configured or predetermined QCL type.

[0429] According to some embodiments herein, the configured or predetermined QCL type is QCL type ‘C’ or ‘D’ between said at least one disabled RS resource and the SSB resource, and / or the configured or predetermined QCL type is QCL type ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘D’ between said at least one disabled RS resource and the CSI-RS resource.

[0430] According to some embodiments herein, the method further comprises receiving a configuration or indication of a subset of RS resources from a set of RS resources wherein, o the RS resources in the subset of RS resources are disabled, and o at least one disabled RS resource in the subset of RS resources is QCL-ed with an SSB resource or an CSI-RS resource with respect to a predetermined, indicated or configured QCL type.

[0431] According to some embodiments herein, the method further comprises receiving a configuration or indication of a first and second RS resource, wherein o the first RS resource is QCL-ed with a SSB or CSI-RS resource with respect to a first configured or predetermined QCL type, and o the second RS resource is disabled and QCL-ed with the same SSB / CSI-RS resource with respect to a second configured or predetermined QCL type.

[0432] According to some embodiments herein, at least one of the following mappings is predetermined by the standard specifications, or is configured / indicated by the network node or the another wireless device via the PHY-layer or a higher layer: a mapping of the indexes between said first RS resource and second disabled RS resource, wherein said first and second disabled RS resources are QCL-ed with the same SSB / CSI-RS resource, a mapping of the indexes between said first RS resource and second disabled RS resource and the index of said SSB / CSI-RS resource with which said first RS resource and second disabled RS resource are QCL-ed.

[0433] According to some embodiments herein, the QCL types used in the QCL assumption or association of said first RS resource and second disabled RS resource are identical.

[0434] According to some embodiments herein, if an RS resource with index A + n, wherein n #= 0 is a positive or negative integer, is QCL-ed with an SSB or CSI-RS resource with index S with respect to a predetermined or configured QCL type, then a disabled RS resource with index A is QCL-ed with an SSB or CSI-RS resource S + x with respect to a predetermined or configured QCL type, wherein x #= 0 is a positive or negative integer.

[0435] According to some embodiments herein, the at least one disabled RS resource is a CSI-RS or SSB resource.

[0436] According to some embodiments herein, a method performed by a wireless is proposed. The method comprises: receiving from a network node or another wireless device a configuration or indication of a set of reference signal, RS, resources, wherein one or more of the reference signal, RS, resources are disabled, performing measurements on one or more RS resources of said set of RS resources, and reporting to a network node or the another wireless device, index(es) and / or measurement(s) associated with one or more RS resources.

[0437] According to some embodiments herein, the method further comprising reporting to the network node K > 1 indices of RS resources and / or measurement values, wherein the value of K is configured via the PHY-layer or a higher layer to the wireless device by a network node or another wireless device.

[0438] According to some embodiments herein, a method performed by a wireless device is proposed. The method comprises: receiving from a network node or another wireless device a configuration or indication of a first and second set of RS resources, each set of RS resources comprising one or more RS resources, performing measurements on one or more RS resources in the first set of RS resources, determining and reporting to a network node or another wireless device, based on the measurements of the one or more RS resources, at least one of the following: indices of one or more RS resources of the second set of RS resources, measurement value(s) corresponding to one or more RS resources of the second set of RS resources.

[0439] According to some embodiments herein, the first set of RS resources is a subset of the second set of RS resources, i.e., every RS resource in the first set of RS resources also belongs to the second set of RS resources, or the first set and second set of RS resources are completely disjoint or partially intersecting.

[0440] According to some embodiments herein, the method comprises receiving a configuration of a RS resource set from a network node, wherein said first set of RS resources comprises a subset of RS resources from said configured RS resource set, and said second set of RS resources comprises a subset of RS resources from said configured RS resource set, or is the said configured RS resource set itself.

[0441] According to some embodiments herein, the method comprises performing a mapping or a relation between a first RS resource in the first set of RS resources and a second RS resource in the second set of RS resources, and performing a QCL assumption or association for said first RS resource in the first set of RS resources with reference to a SSB / CSI-RS resource, and / or for said second RS resource in the second set of RS resources with reference to the same or a different SSB / CSI-RS resource.

[0442] According to some embodiments herein, wherein the mapping or relation is predetermined by the standard specifications, or is configured or indicated to the wireless device by the network node or another wireless device via the PHY-layer or a higher layer.

[0443] According to some embodiments herein, the first RS resource in the first set of RS resources is QCL-ed with an SSB / CSI-RS resource with respect to a predetermined or configured QCL type and the second RS resource in the second set of RS resources is QCL-ed with the same SSB / CSI-RS resource with respect to the same QCL type. According to some embodiments herein, the indexes of the RS resources in the first and second set of RS resources, for which the QCL assumptions or associations are performed, are predetermined by the standard specifications, or configured or indicated by the network node or another wireless device via the PHY-layer or a higher layer.

[0444] According to some embodiments herein, an RS resource in the second set of RS resources is QCL-ed with at least one of the following: an SSB resource, a CSI-RS resource.

[0445] According to some embodiments herein, a method performed by a wireless device (or user equipment (UE)) is proposed. The method comprises: receiving from a network node or another wireless device, a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each set comprising one or more RS resources, performing measurements on one or more RS resources, and determining, and reporting to the network node or the another wireless device, at least one of the following: an indication of index(es) of D > 1 groups of RS resources, wherein an j-th group comprises resources, one or more measurement value(s) associated with D > 1 groups of RS resources, and wherein the index(es) and / or measurement values are associated with a time information.

[0446] According to some embodiments herein, the at least one set of RS resources is configured with R' > 1 RS resource(s), and wherein

[0447] According to some embodiments herein, wherein Rr- R RS resource(s) of the at least one set of RS resources are disabled, wherein Rr> 1 is the number of RS resources, and 0 < R < R'.

[0448] According to some embodiments herein, at least one of the reported RS resource(s) in a group i is disabled.

[0449] According to some embodiments herein, D is either 1 or 2.

[0450] According to some embodiments herein, a method performed by a wireless device is proposed.

[0451] The method comprises: receiving from a network node or another wireless device a configuration or indication of a set of reference signal, RS, resources, comprising one or more RS resources, performing measurements on one or more RS resources, wherein the one or more RS resources are provided across M > 1 transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s), determining at least one measurement value corresponding to R > 1 RS resource(s) across M > 1 transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s), and reporting to the network node or the another wireless device the at least one measurement value.

[0452] According to some embodiments herein, the method further comprises reporting a measurement value per RS resource and per transmission occasion, i.e., reporting RM measurement values corresponding to R > 1 RS resource(s) across M > 1 transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s).

[0453] According to some embodiments herein, the reporting includes time-related information associated with the R reported RS resource(s) / measurement value(s).

[0454] According to some embodiments herein, the set of RS resources is configured with R' > 1 RS resource(s), and the measurement values corresponding to R = RrRS resource(s) are reported, or the set of RS resources is configured with R' > 1 RS resource(s), and the measurement values corresponding to R < R' resource(s) in the set of RS resources are reported.

[0455] According to some embodiments herein, Rr- R RS resource(s) in the set of RS resources are disabled.

[0456] According to some embodiments herein, the set of RS resources is semi-persistent (i.e., configured with semi-persistent time-domain behaviour) or periodic, and can be activated via a Medium Access Control - Control Element, MAC-CE, message.

[0457] According to some embodiments herein,, the value of M or the M transmission occasions, transmission periods or slots for which the RS resource index(es) and / or measurement value(s) is / are reported is / are predetermined in the standard specifications, and / or configured / indicated to the wireless device by the network node or the another wireless device via the PHY-layer or a higher layer. According to some embodiments herein, the M transmission occasions or periods are the latest M transmission occasions, transmission periods or slots of the RS resource(s) or set of RS resources before the reporting, or at a time point before the reporting.

[0458] According to some embodiments herein, a method is performed by a wireless device. The method comprises: receiving from a network node or another wireless device a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each set comprising one or more RS resources, performing measurements on said one or more RS resource(s) from said at least one RS resource set, and determining, and reporting or providing to a higher layer at least one of the following: index(es) of D > 1 groups of RS resources, a group i comprising > 1 RS resources, i = one or more measurement values associated with RS resources whose index(es) is / are included in the reporting, wherein

[0459] - the reported RS resource(s) in group i is / are from the RS resources configured in said one or more sets of RS resources, and each group is associated with a predetermined, configured or indicated time instant or a time information.

[0460] According to some embodiments herein, the method further comprises: receiving from the network node or the another wireless device a configuration or indication of a first and second set of reference signal, RS, resources, and each set comprising one or more RS resources, performing measurements on one or more RS resources of said first set of RS resources, and determining, and reporting or providing to a higher layer at least one of the following: indices of one or more RS resources in said first set of RS resources and / or indices of one or more RS resources in said second set of RS resources, measurement value(s) corresponding to one or more RS resources of said first set of RS resources, and / or measurement value(s) corresponding to one or more RS resources in said second set of RS resources.

[0461] According to some embodiments herein, the measurement value(s) of the RS resource(s) that are reported are above or below a predetermined or configured threshold.

[0462] According to some embodiments herein, the method comprises: determining, and reporting or providing to a higher layer at least the following:

[0463] • index(es) of at least one RS resource in said one or more sets of RS resources, wherein the value(s) and / or measurement(s) associated with a radio link quality with said at least one RS resource is / are above a predetermined or configured threshold, and

[0464] • measurement value(s) associated with at least one RS resource, wherein said reporting or providing to a higher layer is associated with a time information.

[0465] According to some embodiments herein, the at least one RS resource is disabled.

[0466] According to some embodiments herein, a method is performed by a wireless device. The method comprises: receiving from a network node or another wireless device a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each on comprising one or more RS resources, performing measurements on said one or more RS resource(s) from said at least one set of RS resources, and determining at least one of the following indications: if / whether the radio link quality and / or measurements associated with all the RS resource(s) in said one or more configured sets of RS resources is below a predetermined or configured threshold, if / whether the radio link quality and / or measurements associated with at least one RS resource in said one or more configured sets of RS resources is above a predetermined or configured threshold, reporting / providing to a higher layer the at least one of the indications, wherein a reported / provided indication is associated with a time information. According to some embodiments herein, said reporting or providing is performed by the wireless device when at least one of the following applies:

[0467] - the threshold comparison based on the radio link quality and / or measurements associated with said RS resource(s) is satisfied, a beam prediction (e.g., a beam prediction algorithm) is active / operative at the wireless device, a request from a higher layer to report, a higher layer or PHY-layer configuration / indication from the network node or the another wireless device enables such reporting.

[0468] According to some embodiments herein, the method comprises receiving at least one of the following requests from higher layer(s):

[0469] - to report / indicate if / whether there is any RS resource in one or more configured sets of RS resources that is above a predetermined or configured threshold at a predetermined / configured / indicated point in time,

[0470] - to report / indicate if / whether all the RS resources in one or more configured sets of RS resources are below a predetermined or configured threshold at a predetermined / configured / indicated point in time,

[0471] - to report / indicate RS resource(s) whose associated measurement(s) is / are above a predetermined or configured threshold at a predetermined / configured / indicated point in time.

[0472] Referring to Figure 8, there is illustrated a method performed by a wireless device according to some embodiments. The method comprises:

[0473] • performing (801) measurement(s) on one or more Reference Signal, RS, resources configured in one or more sets of RS resources, and

[0474] • reporting (802) to a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer of the wireless device, at least the index(es) of at least one RS resource from the one or more sets of RS resources, wherein a measurement value (e.g., radio link quality measurement(s)) associated with said at least one RS resource is higher or lower by a predetermined / configured amount compared to a value obtained from measurements of a configured / predetermined / indicated RS resource, or higher or lower than a predetermined / configured threshold value, and wherein the index(es) reported is / are associated with a time information.

[0475] According to some embodiments herein, a method is performed by a wireless device. The method comprises: performing measurement(s) on an RS resource, and reporting to a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer of the wireless device, an indication that a value obtained from measurement(s) (e.g., radio link quality measurement(s)) of the RS resource is higher or lower than a predetermined or configured threshold, and wherein said indication is associated with a time information.

[0476] According to some embodiments herein, the configured, indicated, or predetermined RS resource is one of the following: an RS resource that is used as a quasi-co-location, QCL, source for the reception of a CORESET. In some instances, it may be the CORESET 0, an RS resource that is used as a QCL source for the reception of a PDSCH, an RS resource that is provided in a TCI-State mapped to a predetermined / specified codepoint of a TCI-indication field in a downlink control information, DCI, format, and an RS resource that is provided in an active TCI-State or active unified TCI-State.

[0477] According to some embodiments herein, the RS resource used as a QCL source, or the RS resource provided in the TCI-State denotes the RS resource used as a source for QCL type- D.

[0478] According to some embodiments herein, the time information associated with one or more indexes and / or measurement value(s) of RS resource(s) reported by a wireless device, or the time information associated with an indication in the report, or the time information associated with the report is predetermined / configured / indicated to the wireless device via the PHY-layer or a higher layer, provided by the wireless device in the report, or included in the report together with the indication in the report. According to some embodiments herein, a time information is related to, denotes or maps to at least one of the following: a slot, a subframe, a frame, a transmission occasion / transmission period of an RS resource or channel, or a time period / duration in terms of seconds or milliseconds.

[0479] According to some embodiments herein, the method comprises including in a report / signalling / indication, an index or a value related to a time information associated with one or more RS resources or a group of RS resource(s) reported by the wireless device, or said report / indication / signalling provided by the wireless device.

[0480] According to some embodiments herein, an index / value corresponding to or associated with a time information is at least one of the following: an index / value corresponding to a slot or an index / value corresponding to an offset in number of slots, an index / value corresponding to a frame / subframe or an index / value corresponding to an offset in number of frames / subframes, an index / value that maps to a time duration in seconds or milliseconds or a time offset in seconds or milliseconds.

[0481] According to some embodiments herein, the time information is associated with a time instant before or after the instance of reporting.

[0482] According to some embodiments herein, a method is performed by a wireless device. The method comprises: receiving a configuration or indication via a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer wherein, a first RS resource is provided as a reference for QCL parameter(s) (in some case, in a TCI-State), spatial relation and / or pathloss estimation, for a DL / UL channel (e.g., PDCCH, PDSCH, PUCCH, PUSCH or PRACH) or DL / UL RS (e.g., CSI-RS or SRS), and using a second RS resource as reference for one or more QCL parameter(s), spatial relation, and / or pathloss estimation for said DL / UL channel or DL / UL RS, wherein said first RS resource is disabled, and said second RS resource is used as a reference for QCL assumptions, spatial relation and / or pathloss estimation for said first RS resource.

[0483] According to some embodiments herein, a value of measurement, radio link quality or measurement value corresponding to a RS resource computed, measured and / or reported by a wireless device is a value of reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ) or a signal-to-interference-plus-noise (SI NR) corresponding to said RS resource.

[0484] According to some embodiments herein, the RSRP or SINR value(s) are Layer 1 (L1) value(s), i.e. , L1-RSRP or L1-SINR values, or ‘filtered’ RSRP / SINR value(s).

[0485] According to some embodiments herein, an inactive, disabled, muted or deactivated RS resource is at least one of the following:

[0486] - the RS resource is not transmitted or received by a wireless device or a network node, the RS resource is transmitted with zero power by a wireless device or a network node.

[0487] In order to perform the previously described process or method steps performed by the wireless device (such as a UE), there is also provided a wireless device. Figure 4 illustrates a simplified block diagram depicting a wireless device 400. The wireless device 400 comprises a processor 410 or processing circuit or a processing module or a processor means 410; a receiver circuit or receiver module 440; a transmitter circuit or transmitter module 450; a memory module 420, a transceiver circuit or transceiver module 430 which may include the transmitter circuit 450 and the receiver circuit 440. The wireless device 400 further comprises an antenna system 460 which includes antenna circuitry for transmitting and receiving signals to / from at least the network node or other wireless device(s). The antenna system employs beamforming as previously described.

[0488] The wireless device may be a UE or an loT device. The wireless device 400 may belong to any radio access technology including 4G or LTE, LTE-A, 5G, advanced 5G or a combination thereof that support beamforming technology. The wireless device comprising the processor and the memory contains instructions executable by the processor, whereby the wireless device 700 is operative or is configured to perform any one of the embodiments related to the wireless device as previously described.

[0489] The processing module / circuit 410 includes a processor, microprocessor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), field programmable gate array (FPGA), or the like, and may be referred to as the “processor.” The processor 410 controls the operation of the wireless device and its components. Memory (circuit or module) 420 includes a random-access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), and / or another type of memory to store data and instructions that may be used by processor 410. In general, it will be understood that the wireless device 400 in one or more embodiments includes fixed or programmed circuitry that is configured to carry out the operations in any of the embodiments disclosed herein.

[0490] In at least one such example, the processor 410 includes a microprocessor, microcontroller, DSP, ASIC, FPGA, or other processing circuitry that is configured to execute computer program instructions from a computer program stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium that is in or is accessible to the processing circuitry. Here, “non-transitory” does not necessarily mean permanent or unchanging storage, and may include storage in working or volatile memory, but the term does connote storage of at least some persistence. The execution of the program instructions specially adapts or configures the processing circuitry to carry out the operations disclosed in this disclosure relating to the wireless device. Further, it will be appreciated that the wireless device 400 may comprise additional components.

[0491] The wireless device 400 by means of processor 410 executes instructions contained in the memory 420 whereby the wireless device is operative to perform any one of the previously described embodiments related to the actions performed by the wireless device, some of which are presented in appended claims.

[0492] There is also provided a computer program comprising instructions which when executed by the processor 410 of the wireless device cause the processor 410 to carry out the method according to any one of the previously described embodiments.

[0493] Referring to Figure 3, there is illustrated a method performed by a network node 500 according to some embodiments. The method comprises:

[0494] - transmitting (301) to a wireless device, a configuration of at least one RS resource, for enabling (302) the wireless device to: perform a quasi-co-location, QCL, assumption or association for said RS resource with reference to a Channel State Information Reference Signal, CSI-RS, resource or a Synchronization Signal / Physical Broadcast Channel (SS / PBCH) Block, SSB, resource, wherein c. said RS resource is disabled, and d. the QCL assumption and / or one or more parameters of the QCL assumption is / are i. predetermined by the standard specifications (i.e., known to the wireless device via rule(s) in the standard specifications), or ii. configured or indicated to the wireless device by the network node,

[0495] - apply said QCL assumption or association to said RS resource.

[0496] According to some embodiments herein, a method is performed by a network node. The method comprises:

[0497] - transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of a set of reference signal, RS, resources, wherein one or more of the reference signal, RS, resources are disabled, for enabling the wireless device to: perform measurements on one or more RS resources of said set of RS resources, and report to the network node, index(es) and / or measurement(s) associated with one or more RS resources.

[0498] According to some embodiments herein, a method is performed by a network node. The method comprises:

[0499] - transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of a first and second set of RS resources, each set of RS resources comprising one or more RS resources, for enabling the wireless to: perform measurements on one or more RS resources in the first set of RS resources, determine, and reporting to a network node or another wireless device, based on the measurements of the one or more RS resources, at least one of the following: i. indices of one or more RS resources of the second set of RS resources, ii. measurement value(s) corresponding to one or more RS resources of the second set of RS resources.

[0500] According to some embodiments herein, a method is performed by a network node. The method comprises:

[0501] - transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each set comprising one or more RS resources, for enabling the wireless device to: perform measurements on one or more RS resources, and determine, and report to the network node or the another wireless device, at least one of the following: i. an indication of index(es) of D > 1 groups of RS resources, wherein an j-th group comprises > 1 RS resources, ii. one or more measurement value(s) associated with D > 1 groups of RS resources, and wherein the index(es) and / or measurement values are associated with a time information.

[0502] According to some embodiments herein, a method is performed by a network node. The method comprises:

[0503] - transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of a set of reference signal, RS, resources, comprising one or more RS resources, for enabling the wireless device to: perform measurements on one or more RS resources, wherein the one or more RS resources are provided across M > 1 transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s), determine at least one measurement value corresponding to R > 1 RS resource(s) across M > 1 transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s), and report to the network node the at least one measurement value.

[0504] According to some embodiments herein, a method is performed by a network node. The method comprises: transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each set comprising one or more RS resources, for enabling the wireless device to: perform measurements on said one or more RS resource(s) from said at least one RS resource set, and determine, and report or provide to a higher layer at least one of the following: i. index(es) of D > 1 groups of RS resources, a group i comprising > 1 RS resources, ii. one or more measurement values associated with RS resources whose index(es) is / are included in the reporting, wherein

[0505] - the reported RS resource(s) in group i is / are from the RS resources configured in said one or more sets of RS resources, and each group is associated with a predetermined, configured or indicated time instant or a time information.

[0506] According to some embodiments herein, a method is performed by a network node. The method comprises:

[0507] - transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each on comprising one or more RS resources, for enabling the wireless device to: perform measurements on said one or more RS resource(s) from said at least one set of RS resources, and determine at least one of the following indications: if / whether the radio link quality and / or measurements associated with all the RS resource(s) in said one or more configured sets of RS resources is below a predetermined or configured threshold, if / whether the radio link quality and / or measurements associated with at least one RS resource in said one or more configured sets of RS resources is above a predetermined or configured threshold, and report / provide to a higher layer the at least one of the indications, and wherein a reported / provided indication is associated with a time information.

[0508] According to some embodiments herein, a method is performed by a network node. The method comprises:

[0509] - transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication wherein, a first RS resource is provided as a reference for QCL parameter(s) (in some case, in a TCI- State), spatial relation and / or pathloss estimation, for a DL / LIL channel (e.g., PDCCH, PDSCH, PUCCH, PUSCH or PRACH) or DL / UL RS (e.g., CSI-RS or SRS), and for enabling the wireless device to: use a second RS resource as reference for one or more QCL parameter(s), spatial relation, and / or pathloss estimation for said DL / UL channel or DL / UL RS, wherein i. said first RS resource is disabled, and ii. said second RS resource is used as a reference for QCL assumptions, spatial relation and / or pathloss estimation for said first RS resource.

[0510] According to some embodiments herein, a method is performed by a network node. The method comprises: transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each set of RS resource comprising one or more RS resources, for enabling the wireless device to:

[0511] • perform measurement(s) on one or more RS resources configured in said at least one set of RS resources, and receiving from the wireless device, a report comprising at least the index(es) of at least one RS resource from the at least one set of RS resources, wherein a measurement value (e.g., radio link quality measurement(s)) associated with said at least one RS resource is higher or lower by a predetermined / configured amount compared to a value obtained from measurements of a configured / predetermined / indicated RS resource, or higher or lower than a predetermined / configured threshold value, and wherein the index(es) reported is / are associated with a time information.

[0512] According to some embodiments herein, a method is performed by a network node. The method comprises:

[0513] - transmitting to a wireless device, an RS resource for enabling the wireless device to perform measurement(s) on said RS resource, and receiving from the wireless device, an indication that a value obtained from measurement(s) (e.g., radio link quality measurement(s)) of the RS resource is higher or lower than a predetermined or configured threshold, and wherein said indication is associated with a time information.

[0514] In order to perform the previously described process or method steps performed by the network node there is also provided a network node. Figure 5 illustrates a block diagram depicting a network node 500. The network node 500 comprises a processor 510 or processing circuit or a processing module or a processor means 510; a receiver circuit or receiver module 540; a transmitter circuit or transmitter module 550; a memory module 520, a transceiver circuit or transceiver module 530 which may include the transmitter circuit 550 and the receiver circuit 540. The network node 500 further comprises an antenna system 560 which includes antenna circuitry for transmitting and receiving signals to / from at least the wireless device. The antenna system employs beamforming as previously described.

[0515] The network node 500 may belong to any radio access technology including 4G or LTE, LTE- A, 5G, advanced 5G or a combination thereof that support beamforming technology. The network device comprising the processor and the memory contains instructions executable by the processor, whereby the network node 500 is operative or is configured to perform any one of the embodiments related to the network node 500 as previously described. The netwok node may be a gNB.

[0516] The processing module / circuit 510 includes a processor, microprocessor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), field programmable gate array (FPGA), or the like, and may be referred to as the “processor.” The processor 510 controls the operation of the network node and its components. Memory (circuit or module) 520 includes a random-access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), and / or another type of memory to store data and instructions that may be used by processor 510. In general, it will be understood that the network node in one or more embodiments includes fixed or programmed circuitry that is configured to carry out the operations in any of the embodiments disclosed herein.

[0517] In at least one such example, the processor 510 includes a microprocessor, microcontroller, DSP, ASIC, FPGA, or other processing circuitry that is configured to execute computer program instructions from a computer program stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium that is in or is accessible to the processing circuitry. Here, “non-transitory” does not necessarily mean permanent or unchanging storage, and may include storage in working or volatile memory, but the term does connote storage of at least some persistence. The execution of the program instructions specially adapts or configures the processing circuitry to carry out the operations disclosed in this disclosure relating to the wireless device. Further, it will be appreciated that the network node500 may comprise additional components. The network node 500 may also be viewed as a Transmitter and Receiver Point (TRP).

[0518] The network node 500 by means of processor 510 executes instructions contained in the memory 520 whereby the network node 500 is operative to perform any one of the previously described embodiments related to the actions performed by the network node, some of which are presented in appended claims.

[0519] There is also provided a computer program comprising instructions which when executed by the processor 510 of the network node cause the processor 510 to carry out the method presented in appended claims.

[0520] Several advantages of the described embodiments in this disclosure are achieved as previously described and which include significantly reducing the signalling overhead for beam reporting and indication. The proposed methods aid at the wireless device or network node for beam prediction in time and / or spatial domains.

[0521] Reference throughout this specification to “an example” or “exemplary” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the example is included in at least one embodiment of the present technology. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in an example” or the word “exemplary” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

[0522] Throughout this disclosure, the word "comprise" or “comprising” has been used in a nonlimiting sense, i.e. meaning "consist at least of". Although specific terms may be employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. The embodiments herein may be applied in any wireless systems including LTE or 4G, LTE-A (or LTE-Advanced), 5G, advanced 5G, WiMAX, WiFi, satellite communications, TV broadcasting etc.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A method performed by a wireless device, the method comprising receiving from a network node or another wireless device a configuration or indication of a first and second set of RS resources, each set of RS resources comprising one or more RS resources, performing measurements on one or more RS resources in the first set of RS resources, determining and reporting to a network node or another wireless device, based on the measurements of the one or more RS resources, at least one of the following: indices of one or more RS resources of the second set of RS resources, measurement value(s) corresponding to one or more RS resources of the second set of RS resources.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein,- the first set of RS resources is a subset of the second set of RS resources, i.e., every RS resource in the first set of RS resources also belongs to the second set of RS resources, or- the first set and second set of RS resources are completely disjoint or partially intersecting.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2 wherein, the method comprises receiving a configuration of a RS resource set from a network node, wherein said first set of RS resources comprises a subset of RS resources from said configured RS resource set, and said second set of RS resources comprises a subset of RS resources from said configured RS resource set, or is the said configured RS resource set itself.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1-3 wherein, the method comprises performing a mapping or a relation between a first RS resource in the first set of RS resources and a second RS resource in the second set of RS resources, and performing a QCL assumption or association for said first RS resource in the first set of RS resources with reference to aSSB / CSI-RS resource, and / or for said second RS resource in the second set of RS resources with reference to the same or a different SSB / CSI-RS resource.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the mapping or relation is predetermined by the standard specifications, or is configured or indicated to the wireless device by the network node or another wireless device via the PHY-layer or a higher layer.

6. The method according to claim 4 or 5 wherein, the first RS resource in the first set of RS resources is QCL-ed with an SSB / CSI-RS resource with respect to a predetermined or configured QCL type and the second RS resource in the second set of RS resources is QCL-ed with the same SSB / CSI-RS resource with respect to the same QCL type.

7. The method according to any one of claims 4-6 wherein, the indexes of the RS resources in the first and second set of RS resources, for which the QCL assumptions or associations are performed, are predetermined by the standard specifications, or configured or indicated by the network node or another wireless device via the PHY-layer or a higher layer.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1-7 wherein, an RS resource in the second set of RS resources is QCL-ed with at least one of the following: an SSB resource, a CSI-RS resource.

9. A method performed by a wireless device, the method comprising: receiving from a network node or another wireless device, a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each set comprising one or more RS resources, performing measurements on one or more RS resources, and determining, and reporting to the network node or the another wireless device, at least one of the following:an indication of index(es) of D > 1 groups of RS resources, wherein an j-th group comprisesresources, one or more measurement value(s) associated with D > 1 groups of RS resources, and wherein the index(es) and / or measurement values are associated with a time information.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein, the at least one set of RS resources is configured with R' > 1 RS resource(s), and wherein11 . The method of claim 9 or 10 wherein R' - R RS resource(s) of the at least one set of RS resources are disabled, wherein R' > 1 is the number of RS resources, and 0 < R < R'.

12. The method of any one of claims 9-11 wherein, at least one of thereported RS resource(s) in a group i is disabled.

13. The method of any one of claims 10-12 wherein, D is either 1 or 2.

14. A method performed by a wireless device, the method comprising: receiving from a network node or another wireless device a configuration or indication of a set of reference signal, RS, resources, comprising one or more RS resources, performing measurements on one or more RS resources, wherein the one or more RS resources are provided across M > 1 transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s), determining at least one measurement value corresponding to R > 1 RS resource(s) across M > 1 transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s), and reporting to the network node or the another wireless device the at least one measurement value.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the method further comprises reporting a measurement value per RS resource and per transmission occasion, i.e., reporting RM measurement values corresponding to R > 1 RS resource(s) across M > 1 transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s).

16. The method according to claim 14 or 15 wherein, the reporting includes time-related information associated with the R reported RS resource(s) / measurement value(s).

17. The method according to any one of claims 14-16 wherein,- the set of RS resources is configured with R' > 1 RS resource(s), and the measurement values corresponding to R = RrRS resource(s) are reported, or- the set of RS resources is configured with R' > 1 RS resource(s), and the measurement values corresponding to R < R' resource(s) in the set of RS resources are reported.

18. The method according to claim 17 wherein, Rr- R RS resource(s) in the set of RS resources are disabled.

19. The method according to any one of claims 14-18 wherein, the set of RS resources is semi- persistent (i.e., configured with semi-persistent time-domain behaviour) or periodic, and can be activated via a Medium Access Control - Control Element, MAC-CE, message.

20. The method according to any one of claims 14-19 wherein, the value of M or the M transmission occasions, transmission periods or slots for which the RS resource index(es) and / or measurement value(s) is / are reported is / are predetermined in the standard specifications, and / or configured / indicated to the wireless device by the network node or the another wireless device via the PHY-layer or a higher layer.

21. The method according to any one of claims 14-20, wherein the M transmission occasions or periods are the latest M transmission occasions, transmission periods or slots of the RS resource(s) or set of RS resources before the reporting, or at a time point before the reporting.

22. A method performed by a wireless device, the method comprising: receiving from a network node or another wireless device a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each set comprising one or more RS resources, performing measurements on one or more RS resource(s) from said at least one RS resource set, and determining, and reporting or providing to a higher layer at least one of the following: index(es) of D > 1 groups of RS resources, a group i comprising> 1 RS resources, i = one or more measurement values associated with RS resources whose index(es) is / are included in the reporting, wherein- the reportedRS resource(s) in group i is / are from the RS resources configured in said one or more sets of RS resources, and each group is associated with a predetermined, configured or indicated time instant or a time information.

23. The method according to claim 22, the method comprising: receiving from the network node or the another wireless device a configuration or indication of a first and second set of reference signal, RS, resources, and each set comprising one or more RS resources, performing measurements on one or more RS resources of said first set of RS resources, and determining, and reporting or providing to a higher layer at least one of the following: indices of one or more RS resources in said first set of RS resources and / or indices of one or more RS resources in said second set of RS resources, measurement value(s) corresponding to one or more RS resources of said first set of RS resources, and / or measurement value(s) corresponding to one or more RS resources in said second set of RS resources.

24. The method according to claim 22 or 23 wherein, the measurement value(s) of the RS resource(s) that are reported are above or below a predetermined or configured threshold.

25. The method according to any of claims 22-24, the method comprising: determining, and reporting or providing to a higher layer at least the following:• index(es) of at least one RS resource in said one or more sets of RS resources, wherein the value(s) and / or measurement(s) associated with a radio link quality with said at least one RS resource is / are above a predetermined or configured threshold, and• measurement value(s) associated with at least one RS resource, wherein said reporting or providing to a higher layer is associated with a time information.

26. The method according to any one of claims 22-25 wherein, the at least one RS resource is disabled.

27. A method performed by a wireless device, the method comprising: receiving from a network node or another wireless device a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each on comprising one or more RS resources, performing measurements on one or more RS resource(s) from said at least one set of RS resources, and determining at least one of the following indications: if / whether the radio link quality and / or measurements associated with all the RS resource(s) in said one or more configured sets of RS resources is below a predetermined or configured threshold, if / whether the radio link quality and / or measurements associated with at least one RS resource in said one or more configured sets of RS resources is above a predetermined or configured threshold,reporting / providing to a higher layer the at least one of the indications, wherein a reported / provided indication is associated with a time information.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein, said reporting or providing is performed by the wireless device when at least one of the following applies:- the threshold comparison based on the radio link quality and / or measurements associated with said RS resource(s) is satisfied, a beam prediction (e.g., a beam prediction algorithm) is active / operative at the wireless device, a request from a higher layer to report, a higher layer or PHY-layer configuration / indication from the network node or the another wireless device enables such reporting.

29. The method according to claim 27 or 28, wherein the method comprises receiving at least one of the following requests from higher layer(s):- to report / indicate if / whether there is any RS resource in one or more configured sets of RS resources that is above a predetermined or configured threshold at a predetermined / configured / indicated point in time,- to report / indicate if / whether all the RS resources in one or more configured sets of RS resources are below a predetermined or configured threshold at a predetermined / configured / indicated point in time,- to report / indicate RS resource(s) whose associated measurement(s) is / are above a predetermined or configured threshold at a predetermined / configured / indicated point in time.

30. A method performed by a wireless device, the method comprising:• performing (801) measurement(s) on one or more Reference Signal, RS, resources configured in one or more sets of RS resources, and• reporting (802) to a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer of the wireless device, at least the index(es) of at least one RS resource from the one or more sets of RS resources, wherein a measurement value (e.g., radio link quality measurement(s)) associated with said at least one RS resource ishigher or lower by a predetermined / configured amount compared to a value obtained from measurements of a configured / predetermined / indicated RS resource, or higher or lower than a predetermined / configured threshold value, and wherein the index(es) reported is / are associated with a time information.

31. A method performed by a wireless device, the method comprising: performing measurement(s) on an RS resource, and reporting to a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer of the wireless device, an indication that a value obtained from measurement(s) (e.g., radio link quality measurement(s)) of the RS resource is higher or lower than a predetermined or configured threshold, and wherein said indication is associated with a time information.

32. The method according to claim 31 , wherein the configured, indicated, or predetermined RS resource is one of the following: an RS resource that is used as a quasi-co-location, QCL, source for the reception of a CORESET. In some instances, it may be the CORESET 0, an RS resource that is used as a QCL source for the reception of a PDSCH, an RS resource that is provided in a TCI-State mapped to a predetermined / specified codepoint of a TCI-indication field in a downlink control information, DCI, format, and an RS resource that is provided in an active TCI-State or active unified TCI-State.

33. The method according to claim 32, wherein the RS resource used as a QCL source, or the RS resource provided in the TCI-State denotes the RS resource used as a source for QCL type-D.

34. The method according to any one of claims 27-33, wherein the time information associated with one or more indexes and / or measurement value(s) of RS resource(s) reported by a wireless device, or the time information associated with an indication in the report, or the time information associated with the report is predetermined / configured / indicated to the wireless device via the PHY-layer or a higher layer, provided by the wireless device in the report, or included in the report together with the indication in the report.

35. The method according to any one of claims 27-34, wherein the time information is related to, denotes or maps to at least one of the following: a slot, a subframe, a frame, a transmission occasion / transmission period of an RS resource or channel, or a time period / duration in terms of seconds or milliseconds.

36. The method according to any one of claims 27-35, wherein the method comprises including in a report / signalling / indication, an index or a value related to a time information associated with one or more RS resources or a group of RS resource(s) reported by the wireless device, or said report / indication / signalling provided by the wireless device.

37. The method according to any one of claims 27-36, wherein an index / value corresponding to or associated with a time information is at least one of the following: an index / value corresponding to a slot or an index / value corresponding to an offset in number of slots, an index / value corresponding to a frame / subframe or an index / value corresponding to an offset in number of frames / subframes, an index / value that maps to a time duration in seconds or milliseconds or a time offset in seconds or milliseconds.

38. The method according to any one of claims 27 to 37 wherein, the time information is associated with a time instant before or after the instance of reporting.

39. A method performed by a wireless device, the method comprising:receiving a configuration or indication via a network node, another wireless device or a higher layer wherein, a first RS resource is provided as a reference for QCL parameter(s) (in some case, in a TCI-State), spatial relation and / or pathloss estimation, for a DL / UL channel (e.g., PDCCH, PDSCH, PUCCH, PUSCH or PRACH) or DL / UL RS (e.g., CSI-RS or SRS), and using a second RS resource as reference for one or more QCL parameter(s), spatial relation, and / or pathloss estimation for said DL / UL channel or DL / UL RS, wherein said first RS resource is disabled, and said second RS resource is used as a reference for QCL assumptions, spatial relation and / or pathloss estimation for said first RS resource.

40. A method performed by a wireless device (400), the method comprising: receiving (201 ) a configuration or indication from a network node or another wireless device of at least one Reference Signal, RS, resource, performing (202) a quasi-co-location, QCL, assumption or association for said at least one RS resource with reference to a Channel State Information Reference Signal, CSI-RS, resource or a Synchronization Signal / Physical Broadcast Channel (SS / PBCH) Block, SSB, resource, wherein o said at least one RS resource is disabled, and o the QCL assumption or association, and / or one or more parameters of the QCL assumption or association is / are■ predetermined by the standard specifications (i.e., known to the wireless device via rule(s) in the standard specifications), or■ configured or indicated to the wireless device by the network node or the another wireless device, applying (203) said QCL assumption or association to said at least one RS resource.41 . The method according to claim 40 wherein, the QCL assumption or association for said at least one disabled RS resource is configured or indicated by the network node or the another wireless device using a Transmission Configuration Indication, TCI, State.

42. The method according to claim 40 or 41 wherein, said at least one disabled RS resource is configured in a set of RS resources, wherein the set of RS resources comprises one or more disabled RS resources.

43. The method according to any of claims 40-42, wherein said at least one RS resource being disabled is configured or indicated by the network node or the another wireless device to the wireless device.

44. The method according to any of claims 40-43, wherein said at least one disabled RS resource is quasi co-located, QCL-ed, with the CSI-RS or SSB resource with respect to a configured or predetermined QCL type.

45. The method according to claim 44, wherein the configured or predetermined QCL type is QCL type ‘C’ or ‘D’ between said at least one disabled RS resource and the SSB resource, and / or the configured or predetermined QCL type is QCL type ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘D’ between said at least one disabled RS resource and the CSI-RS resource.

46. The method according to any of claims 40-45, wherein the method further comprises receiving a configuration or indication of a subset of RS resources from a set of RS resources wherein, o the RS resources in the subset of RS resources are disabled, and o at least one disabled RS resource in the subset of RS resources is QCL-ed with an SSB resource or an CSI-RS resource with respect to a predetermined, indicated or configured QCL type.

47. The method according to any of claims 40-46, wherein the method further comprises receiving a configuration or indication of a first and second RS resource, wherein o the first RS resource is QCL-ed with a SSB or CSI-RS resource with respect to a first configured or predetermined QCL type, and o the second RS resource is disabled and QCL-ed with the same SSB / CSI-RS resource with respect to a second configured or predetermined QCL type.

48. The method according to claim 47 wherein, at least one of the following mappings is predetermined by the standard specifications, or is configured / indicated by the network node or the another wireless device via the PHY-layer or a higher layer: a mapping of the indexes between said first RS resource and second disabled RS resource, wherein said first and second disabled RS resources are QCL-ed with the same SSB / CSI-RS resource, a mapping of the indexes between said first RS resource and second disabled RS resource and the index of said SSB / CSI-RS resource with which said first RS resource and second disabled RS resource are QCL-ed.

49. The method according to any one of claims 47-48 wherein, the QCL types used in the QCL assumption or association of said first RS resource and second disabled RS resource are identical.

50. The method according to any of claims 40-49 wherein, if an RS resource with index A + n, wherein n #= 0 is a positive or negative integer, is QCL-ed with an SSB or CSI-RS resource with index S with respect to a predetermined or configured QCL type, then a disabled RS resource with index A is QCL-ed with an SSB or CSI-RS resource S + x with respect to a predetermined or configured QCL type, wherein x #= 0 is a positive or negative integer.

51. The method according to any of claims 40-50, wherein the at least one disabled RS resource is a CSI-RS or SSB resource.

52. A method performed by a wireless device, the method comprising: receiving from a network node or another wireless device a configuration or indication of a set of reference signal, RS, resources, wherein one or more of the reference signal, RS, resources are disabled, performing measurements on one or more RS resources of said set of RS resources, and reporting to a network node or the another wireless device, index(es) and / or measurement(s) associated with one or more RS resources.

53. The method according to claim 52, wherein the method further comprising reporting to the network node K > 1 indices of RS resources and / or measurement values, wherein the value of K is configured via the PHY-layer or a higher layer to the wireless device by a network node or another wireless device.

54. The method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein, a value of measurement, radio link quality or measurement value corresponding to a RS resource computed, measured and / or reported by a wireless device is a value of reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ) or a signal-to- interference-plus-noise (SINR) corresponding to said RS resource.

55. The method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein, ‘a measurement’, ‘a value of measurement’, ‘a measurement value’, ‘a value related to / associated with a measurement’, ‘radio link quality’, or ‘radio link quality measurements’ corresponding to or associated with an RS resource, refer to a value related to a reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), a signal-to-interference-plus- noise (SINR), or any other metric related to signal, interference and / or noise power corresponding to or associated with said RS resource, wherein said value is obtained based on one of the following: measurement(s) of said RS resource, or employing one or more methods or algorithms (for e.g., method(s) or algorithm(s) that use a prediction) on one or more measurement(s) obtained from said RS resource and / or RS resource(s) other than said RS resource.

56. The method according to claim 54 or 55 wherein, the RSRP or SINR value(s) are Layer 1 (L1) value(s), i.e. , L1-RSRP or L1-SINR values, or ‘filtered’ RSRP / SINR value(s).

57. The method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein, an inactive, disabled, muted or deactivated RS resource is at least one of the following:- the RS resource is not transmitted or received by a wireless device or a network node,- the RS resource is transmitted with zero power by a wireless device or a network node.

58. A method performed by a network node, the method comprising: transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of a first and second set of RS resources, each set of RS resources comprising one or more RS resources,for enabling the wireless to: perform measurements on one or more RS resources in the first set of RS resources, determine, and reporting to a network node or another wireless device, based on the measurements of the one or more RS resources, at least one of the following: i. indices of one or more RS resources of the second set of RS resources, ii. measurement value(s) corresponding to one or more RS resources of the second set of RS resources.

59. A method performed by a network node, the method comprising:- transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each set comprising one or more RS resources, for enabling the wireless device to: perform measurements on one or more RS resources, and determine, and report to the network node or the another wireless device, at least one of the following: i. an indication of index(es) of D > 1 groups of RS resources, wherein an j-th group comprises> 1 RS resources, ii. one or more measurement value(s) associated with D > 1 groups of RS resources, and wherein the index(es) and / or measurement values are associated with a time information.

60. A method performed by a network node, the method comprising:- transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of a set of reference signal, RS, resources, comprising one or more RS resources, for enabling the wireless device to: perform measurements on one or more RS resources, wherein the one or more RS resources are provided across M > 1 transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s), determine at least one measurement value corresponding to R > 1 RS resource(s) across M > 1 transmission occasion(s), transmission period(s) or slot(s), andreport to the network node the at least one measurement value.

61. A method performed by a network node, the method comprising:- transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each set comprising one or more RS resources, for enabling the wireless device to: perform measurements on one or more RS resource(s) from said at least one RS resource set, and determine, and report or provide to a higher layer at least one of the following: i. index(es) of D > 1 groups of RS resources, a group i comprising> 1 RS resources,ii. one or more measurement values associated with RS resources whose index(es) is / are included in the reporting, wherein- the reportedRS resource(s) in group i is / are from the RS resources configured in said one or more sets of RS resources, and each group is associated with a predetermined, configured or indicated time instant or a time information.

62. A method performed by a network node, the method comprising:- transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each on comprising one or more RS resources, for enabling the wireless device to: perform measurements on one or more RS resource(s) from said at least one set of RS resources, and determine at least one of the following indications: if / whether the radio link quality and / or measurements associated with all the RS resource(s) in said one or more configured sets of RS resources is below a predetermined or configured threshold, if / whether the radio link quality and / or measurements associated with at least one RS resource in said one or more configured sets of RS resources is above a predetermined or configured threshold, andreport / provide to a higher layer the at least one of the indications, and wherein a reported / provided indication is associated with a time information.

63. A method performed by a network node, the method comprising:- transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication wherein, a first RS resource is provided as a reference for QCL parameter(s) (in some case, in a TCI- State), spatial relation and / or pathloss estimation, for a DL / LIL channel (e.g., PDCCH, PDSCH, PUCCH, PUSCH or PRACH) or DL / UL RS (e.g., CSI-RS or SRS), and for enabling the wireless device to: use a second RS resource as reference for one or more QCL parameter(s), spatial relation, and / or pathloss estimation for said DL / UL channel or DL / UL RS, wherein i. said first RS resource is disabled, and ii. said second RS resource is used as a reference for QCL assumptions, spatial relation and / or pathloss estimation for said first RS resource.

64. A method performed by a network node, the method comprising: transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of at least one set of reference signal, RS, resources, each set of RS resource comprising one or more RS resources, for enabling the wireless device to:• perform measurement(s) on one or more RS resources configured in said at least one set of RS resources, and receiving from the wireless device, a report comprising at least the index(es) of at least one RS resource from the at least one set of RS resources, wherein a measurement value (e.g., radio link quality measurement(s)) associated with said at least one RS resource is higher or lower by a predetermined / configured amount compared to a value obtained from measurements of a configured / predetermined / indicated RS resource, or higher or lower than a predetermined / configured threshold value, and wherein the index(es) reported is / are associated with a time information.

65. A method performed by a network node, the method comprising:- transmitting to a wireless device, an RS resource for enabling the wireless device to perform measurement(s) on said RS resource, andreceiving from the wireless device, an indication that a value obtained from measurement(s) (e.g., radio link quality measurement(s)) of the RS resource is higher or lower than a predetermined or configured threshold, and wherein said indication is associated with a time information.

66. A method performed by a network node (500), the method comprising:- transmitting (301) to a wireless device, a configuration of at least one RS resource, for enabling (302) the wireless device to: perform a quasi-co-location, QCL, assumption or association for said RS resource with reference to a Channel State Information Reference Signal, CSI-RS, resource or a Synchronization Signal / Physical Broadcast Channel (SS / PBCH) Block, SSB, resource, wherein a. said at least one RS resource is disabled, and b. the QCL assumption or association and / or one or parameters of the QCL assumption or association is / are i. predetermined by the standard specifications (i.e., known to the wireless device via rule(s) in the standard specifications), or ii. configured or indicated to the wireless device by the network node,- apply said QCL assumption or association to said RS resource.

67. A method performed by a network node, the method comprising:- transmitting to a wireless device, a configuration or indication of a set of reference signal, RS, resources, wherein one or more of the reference signal, RS, resources are disabled, for enabling the wireless device to: perform measurements on one or more RS resources of said set of RS resources, and report to the network node, index(es) and / or measurement(s) associated with one or more RS resources.

68. A network node (500) comprising a processor (510) and a memory (520) containing instructions executable by said processor (510), whereby the network node (400) is operative to perform the method according to any of claims 58-67.

69. The network node (500) according to claim 68, wherein the network node (500) is a gNB.

70. A wireless device (400) comprising a processor (410) and a memory (420) containing instructions executable by said processor (410), whereby the wireless device (400) is operative to perform the method according to any of claims 1-57.

71. The wireless device (400) according to claim 70, wherein the wireless device (300) is a User Equipment, UE.

Images