Event-triggering layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility reporting for layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility cell switching

Abstract

A communication device can determine (840) that a triggering condition is met based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement. The first measurement can be associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell. The second measurement can be associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated. Responsive to the triggering condition being met, the communication device transmits (850) a LTM lower layer measurement report.

Description

9900-110777W001 / P110777W001EVENT-TRIGGERING LAYER 1 / LAYER 2-TRIGGERED MOBILITY REPORTING FOR LAYER 1 / LAYER 2-TRIGGERED MOBILITY CELL SWITCHINGTECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present disclosure is related to wireless communication systems and more particularly to event-triggering layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility (“LTM”) reporting for LTM cell switching.BACKGROUND

[0002] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a new radio (“NR”) network (e.g., a 5th Generation (“5G”) network) including a 5G core (“5GC”) network 130, network nodes 120a-b (e.g., 5G base station (“gNB”)), multiple communication devices 110 (also referred to as user equipment (“UE”)).

[0003] Layer 1 (“Ll”) / Layer 2 (“L2”)-Triggered Mobility (“LTM”) can be defined as a Primary Cell (“PCell”) (or primary secondary cell (“PSCell”)) cell switch procedure, consequently with Cell Group change (e.g., Master Cell Group (“MCG”) or Secondary Cell Group (“SCG”) that the network triggers via media access control (“MAC”) Control Element (“CE”) based on LI measurements. In that procedure, a gNodeB (“gNB”) receives the LI measurement report(s) from the UE, and on their basis the gNB changes UE’s serving cell by a cell switch command signaled via a MAC CE. The cell switch command indicates an LTM candidate cell configuration that the gNB previously prepared and provided to the UE through RRC signaling. Then the UE switches to the target cell according to the cell switch command.

[0004] When configured by the network, it is possible to activate Transmission Configuration Indicator (“TCI”) states of one or multiple cells that are different from the current serving cell, which may be called LTM candidate cells. For instance, the TCI states of the LTM candidate cells can be activated in advance before any of those cells become the serving cell (e.g., by reception of a MAC CE indicating an LTM candidate and a TCI state of the indicated LTM candidate). This allows the UE to be downlink (“DL”) synchronized with those indicated cells, thereby facilitating a faster cell switch to one of those cells when cell switch is triggered.

[0005] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of an overall procedure for LTM.

[0006] At block 210, the UE sends a MeasurementReport message to the gNB. The gNB decides to configure LTM and initiates candidate cell(s) preparation.

[0007] At block 220, the gNB transmits an RRCReconfiguration message to the UE including the LTM candidate cell configurations of one or multiple candidate cells.

[0008] At block 230, the UE stores the LTM candidate cell configurations and transmits an RRCReconfigurationComplete message to the gNB.9900-110777W001 / P110777W001

[0009] At block 240a, the UE performs DL synchronization with the candidate cell(s) before receiving the cell switch command.

[0010] At block 240b, the UE performs UL synchronization with the candidate cell(s) before receiving the cell switch command.

[0011] At block 250, the UE performs LI measurements on the configured candidate cell(s) and transmits LI measurement reports to the gNB. LI measurement should be performed as long as RRC reconfiguration (at block 220) is applicable.

[0012] At block 260, the gNB decides to execute cell switch to a target cell and transmits a MAC CE triggering cell switch by including the candidate configuration index of the target cell. The UE switches to the target cell and applies the configuration indicated by candidate configuration index.

[0013] At block 270, the UE performs the random access procedure towards the target cell, if UE does not have valid Timing Advance (“TA”) of the target cell. The UE performs Contention Free Random Access (“CFRA”) if the LTM cell switch command MAC CE contains information for CFRA.

[0014] At block 280, the UE completes the LTM cell switch procedure by sending RRCReconfigurationComplete message to target cell. If the UE has performed a RA procedure (at block 270) the UE considers that LTM cell switch execution is successfully completed when the random access procedure is successfully completed. For RACH-less LTM, the UE considers that LTM cell switch execution is successfully completed when the UE determines that the network has successfully received its first UL data. The UE determines successful reception of its first UL data by receiving a PDCCH addressing the UE’s C-RNTI in the target cell, which schedules a new transmission following the first UL data. The PDCCH carries either a DL assignment or an UL grant addressing the same HARQ process as the first UL data.SUMMARY

[0015] According to some embodiments, a method of operating a communication device is provided. The method includes determining that a triggering condition is met based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated. The method further includes, responsive to the triggering condition being met, transmitting (850) a LTM lower layer measurement report.

[0016] According to other embodiments, a method of operating a network node is provided. The method includes transmitting an indication of configuration information to a communication9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 device, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a triggering condition, the triggering condition being associated with the difference between: a first measurement being associated with a LTM candidate cell; and a second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated. The method further includes receiving the LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device.

[0017] According to other embodiments, a communication device, a network node, a computer program, computer program product, non-transitory computer readable medium, host, or system is provided to perform one of the above methods.

[0018] Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantages. Some embodiments provide savings in terms of UE power consumption and UL resources on the network side, because unnecessary transmissions, as in periodic reports, would not be performed when the UE only transmits the LI report for LTM when the condition is fulfilled i.e. when an LTM candidate cell becomes an offset better than the serving cell e.g. the PCell, which has an activated TCI state: that indicates to the network the need to trigger an LTM Cell Switch.

[0019] In other words, the UE only transmits the LI report for LTM when a beam in the LTM candidate cell for which the UE is not DL synchronized, becomes an offset better than a beam in the LTM candidate cell for which the UE is DL synchronized, which indicates to the network the need to switch the beam to be synchronized with.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0020] The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate certain non-limiting embodiments of inventive concepts. In the drawings:

[0021] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a 5thgeneration (“5G”) network;

[0022] FIG. 2 is a signal flow diagram illustrating an example of a LTM procedure;

[0023] FIGS. 3-4 illustrate examples of problems with periodic LTM lower layer reporting;

[0024] FIG. 5 is a signal flow diagram illustrating an example of LTM lower layer reporting in accordance with some embodiments;

[0025] FIG. 6 is a table illustrating an example of a mapping order of CSI fields of one report for SSBR / RSRP reporting for LTM in accordance with some embodiments;9900-110777W001 / P110777W001

[0026] FIG. 7 is a table illustrating an example of a bitwidth for SSBRI, RSRP, or differential RSRP to be included in an LTM CSI measurement report in accordance with some embodiments;

[0027] FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating an example of operations performed by a communication device in accordance with some embodiments;

[0028] FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating an example of operations performed by a communication device in accordance with some embodiments;

[0029] FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a communication system in accordance with some embodiments;

[0030] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments;

[0031] FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a network node in accordance with some embodiments;

[0032] FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a host computer communicating with a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments;

[0033] FIG. 14 is a block diagram of a virtualization environment in accordance with some embodiments; and

[0034] FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a host computer communicating via a base station with a user equipment over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0035] Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art, in which examples of embodiments of inventive concepts are shown. Inventive concepts may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of present inventive concepts to those skilled in the art. It should also be noted that these embodiments are not mutually exclusive. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present / used in another embodiment.

[0036] There currently exist certain challenges. To assist the network to trigger an LTM Cell Switch, the UE can be configured to transmit LI measurement (LTM lower layer reports) including lower layer measurements on beams (e.g. SSBs) of one or more LTM candidate cells. Thanks to these reports, the network determines the LTM candidate cell and the beam (e.g. corresponding TCI state identity) to indicate in the LTM Cell Switch command.9900-110777W001 / P110777W001

[0037] In the LTM functionality specified in Rel-18, LTM lower layer reports are configured in an LTM reporting configuration (LTM-CSI-ReportConfig IE) as periodic, semi- persistent on PUCCH, semi-persistent on PUSCH, or aperiodic, as illustrated in FIG. 3.

[0038] FIG. 4 illustrates an example of problems with LTM lower layer periodic reports. In particular, FIG. 4 illustrates an example in which LTM lower layer reports are periodically configured in an LTM reporting configuration. Periodic reports consume a significant amount of unnecessary Uplink (UL) resources and makes the UE to waste a lot of energy for reporting measurements periodically, while in fact, the network only needs to know these measurements when the UE is close to a situation in which an LTM cell Switch is to be triggered.

[0039] Other types of reports (e.g., aperiodic reports) rely on requests from the network. It is not always simple to figure out the exact timing in which these reports are to be requested, especially when there is no UL data to be scheduled for the UE.

[0040] Various embodiments herein address some of these challenges by having a user equipment (UE) transmit an LTM lower layer report upon fulfillment of a triggering condition as indicated in FIG. 5. In some embodiments, the triggering condition includes a first measurement associated to an LTM candidate cell being an offset better than a second measurement associated to a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated. The serving cell for which a TCI state is activated may correspond to a Special Cell (SpCell), such as a Primary Cell (PCell) of the Master Cell Group (MCG) or a Primary SCG Cell of a Secondary Cell Group (SCG).

[0041] In additional or alternative embodiments, in response to transmitting the LTM lower layer report, the UE receives an LTM Cell Switch Command (e.g., LTM Cell Switch Command MAC CE) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Target Configuration ID associated to an LTM candidate ID) and a TCI state (e.g., TCI State ID) which is to be activated in the LTM Candidate Cell which becomes the target cell.

[0042] The indicated TCI state to be activate in the LTM Candidate Cell in the LTM Cell Switch is associated to one of the SSBs indicated in the LTM lower layer report, whose first measurement has triggered the report. In one embodiment, the association between that reported SSB and the indicated TCI state is that the SSB is configured as Quasi-Co-Location (QCL) source of the indicated TCI State.

[0043] In some embodiments, the UE triggering of a lower layer report occurs when the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest LI RSRP) becomes an offset better than the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell e.g. SpCell.9900-110777W001 / P110777W001

[0044] In additional or alternative embodiments, the UE triggering of a lower layer report occurs when the cell quality (e.g. cell based RSRP) of an LTM candidate cell becomes an offset better than the cell quality (e.g. cell based RSRP) of the serving cell e.g. SpCell

[0045] Various embodiments herein refer to a measurement of a beam. In general terms, measurement of a beam may correspond to a measurement of a Reference Signal (RS) and / or Synchronization Signal (SS), such as a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) or Channel State Information - RS (CSI-RS), or Mobility Reference Signal (MRS). In that context, a beam may be interpreted as a spatial direction (of filter) which the RS or SS is being transmitted.

[0046] In some embodiments, the beam is associated to an activated TCI sate. The beam being associated with the activated TCI state corresponds to an RS (or SS) transmitted in the beam, e.g., indicated by an SSB index and / or CSI-RS resource identifier, being configured as Quasi-Co-Location (QCL) source of the activated TCI state of the candidate cell.

[0047] Embodiments herein refer to the term “L1 / L2 based inter-cell mobility” as used in the Work Item Description in 3GPP, though it interchangeably also uses the terms L1 / L2 mobility, Ll-mobility, LI based mobility, Ll / L2-centric inter-cell mobility, L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility Ll / L2-Triggered Mobility, Lower-layer triggered Mobility or LTM. The basic principle is that the UE receives a lower layer signaling from the network indicating to the UE a change (or switch or activation) of its serving cell (e.g. change of PCell, from a source to a target Pcell), wherein a lower layer signaling is a message / signaling of a lower layer protocol, which may be referred as a L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility execution command or LTM cell switch command. The change of serving cell (e.g. change of Pcell) may also lead to a change in Scell(s) for the same cell group e.g. in case the command triggers the UE to change to another cell group configuration of the same type (e.g. another MCG configuration). Before the UE receives the LTM cell switch command, the UE is configured by the network with one or more LTM candidate cell configurations (e.g. reception of an RRC Reconfiguration message, with at least one LTM candidate cell configuration) A LTM candidate cell configuration may include parameters in the IE CellGroupConfig per candidate cell and / or an embedded RRC Reconfiguration per LTM candidate cell.

[0048] The term LTM cell switch procedure refers to the process of a UE switching (or changing) its cell from a source cell to a target cell (which may be called here an LTM candidate cell or a neighbour cell), using Ll / L2-triggered mobility (aLTM). In the context of L1 / L2- triggered mobility (LTM), an LTM cell switch procedure may sometimes also be known as L1 / L2 based inter-cell mobility execution, LTM execution, dynamic switch, LTM switch, (LTM) cell switch, (LTM) serving cell change or (LTM) cell change. In the context of the invention, switching to the LTM candidate cell configuration includes the UE considering that9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 an LTM candidate cell becomes its new special cell (SpCell) e.g. Pcell in case of LTM being configured for a Master Cell Group (MCG) and / or PSCell in case of LTM being configured for a Secondary Cell Group (SCG); or, changing its SpCell from the current Pcell to an LTM candidate cell.

[0049] Even if the term change of cell is used, that may include a change of a whole cell group configuration, which includes a change in the SpCell (e.g. change of Pcell, or change of PSCell) and a change in Scells of the cell group (e.g. addition, modification and / or release of one or more Scells).

[0050] An LTM cell switch procedure may be triggered in the UE by reception of a LTM cell switch command (e.g. LTM Cell Switch MAC CE), or alternatively, triggered by some other event, such as a condition, e.g., a triggering condition used for conditional configuration, such as conditional handover, being fulfilled, as a result of recovery from radio link failure or handover failure.

[0051] Embodiments herein may refer to a LTM candidate cell, which is a cell the UE is configured with when configured with Ll / L2-triggered mobility. That is a cell the UE can move to in a LTM cell switch procedure, upon reception of a LTM cell switch command. These cells may also be called candidate cell(s), LTM candidate cells, candidates, mobility candidates, nonserving cells, additional cells, target candidate cell, target candidate, etc. A LTM candidate cell is a cell the UE perform measurements on (e.g., CSI measurements) so that the UE reports these measurements and network may take educated decision on which beam (e.g., TCI state) and / or cell the UE is to be switched to. An LTM candidate cell may be a candidate to be a target Pcell or PSCell, or an Scell of a cell group (e.g., MCG Scell).

[0052] Embodiments herein may refer to at least one LTM candidate cell configuration and that the UE has received at least one LTM candidate cell configuration. This is also sometimes referred to as a configuration of a LTM candidate cell, which may be an RRC configuration, such as encapsulated in an RRC Reconfiguration message, that the UE receives when being configured with Ll / L2-Triggered Mobility. A LTM candidate cell configuration includes the configuration which the UE needs to start to operate accordingly when it performs an LTM cell switch procedure to that LTM candidate cell e.g. upon reception of the LTM cell switch command indicating the UE to perform a LTM cell switch procedure to that LTM candidate cell, which becomes the target cell and the current (new) SpCell, or an SCell in a serving frequency. The LTM candidate cell configuration includes parameters of a serving cell (or multiple serving cells, such as a cell group), including one or more of the groups of parameters, such as an RRCReconfiguration message an IE CellGroupConfig or an IE SpCellConfig (or the IE SCellConfig, in the case of a Secondary Cell). A LTM candidate cell configuration may in9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 one example include one or more of: i) the PCell configuration and one or more SCell configuration(s) of a Master Cell Group (MCG); i) the PSCell configuration and one or more SCell configuration(s) of a secondary Cell Group (SCG). The terms (LTM) candidate configuration, LTM configuration, (LTM) candidate target cell configuration, (LTM) target candidate (cell) configuration may be used interchangeably when referring to LTM candidate cell configuration. An LTM candidate cell configuration is associated with an identifier which is used in the signaling when referring to a certain LTM candidate cell configuration, such as when the UE receives the LTM candidate cell configuration and when the UE receives an LTM cell switch command indicating the UE to perform a LTM cell switch procedure to that LTM candidate cell. This identifier is sometimes known as the LTM candidate cell configuration identity or LTM candidate configuration index (or similar).

[0053] An actual LTM candidate cell configuration and its exact content and / or structure of this IE and / or embedded message may be called an RRC model for the candidate configuration, or simply RRC model. An LTM candidate cell configuration includes the configuration which the UE needs to operate accordingly when it performs (executes) L1 / L2 based inter-cell mobility execution to a LTM candidate cell, upon reception of the lower layer signaling (MAC CE) indicating a L1 / L2 based inter-cell mobility to a LTM candidate cell (which becomes the target cell and the current (new) PCell, or an SCell in a serving frequency), or upon reception of the lower layer signaling (MAC CE) indicating a L1 / L2 based inter-cell mobility to a LTM candidate cell configuration indicated with a candidate configuration index (sometimes also denoted candidate configuration ID). The UE may be configured with multiple LTM candidate cell configurations, so a Candidate DU generates and sends to the CU multiple configuration(s). The actual LTM candidate cell configuration the UE receives during the LTM configuration may be a delta signaling to be applied on top of a reference configuration, so that the actual configuration the UE is to use in the candidate cell upon LTM cell switch is the combination of the LTM candidate cell configuration and the reference configuration (e.g., separately signaled by the network to the UE).

[0054] Embodiments herein refer to a report triggered by the UE upon fulfillment of a triggering condition which the UE is evaluating, the report including the measurement results that is sent by the UE to the network, called a LI report for LTM, LTM CSI measurement report, or CSI report for Ll / L2-triggered Mobility (LTM). In one option, the report includes at least one or more measurement which were used as input to the triggering conditions which have been fulfilled and triggered the UE to transmit report. In one option for the LTM measurement report, the UE includes a list of identifiers (e.g., resource identifiers or resource indications, or SSB identifiers) each one of them pointing to one or more SSBs and LTM candidate cells where9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 e.g., ID1, is the first element of the list of LTM candidate cell and first element of the list of SSB. When the network receives the report, it means that the report SSB is the one identified by the first element of the list of SSB and belongs to the LTM candidate cell identified by the first element of the list of LTM candidate cells. This may also be called a resource identifier or indicator, such as an SSB resource Identifier (SSBRI), in the case of an RS being an SSB.

[0055] An LTM candidate cell may also be an LTM candidate cell in a 5G Radio access technology, such as NR, or a 6G Radio Access Technology.

[0056] Some embodiments herein refer to a RS of an LTM candidate cell, which includes an SSB and / or an RS transmitted in a beam or spatial direction, and / or a Mobility Reference Signal (MRS), a Channel State Information - RS (CSI-RS), or a RS defined for a 6G radio interface. The term “beam” may also be used to express a spatial direction in which a Reference Signal (e.g., SSB) associated to an index (e.g., SSB index, or CSLRS index) is being transmitted, so that a beam measurement may correspond to a measurement on an RS transmitted in that beam (e.g., an SSB measurement).

[0057] Some embodiments herein refer to a beam (or RS) that may be associated to a TCI e.g. by the RS (e.g., SSB) being configured as QCL source of a TCI state configuration.

[0058] In some embodiments, a UE transmits an LTM lower layer report upon fulfillment of a triggering condition, wherein the triggering condition consists of a first measurement associated to an LTM candidate cell becomes an offset better than a second measurement associated to a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated. The serving cell for which a TCI state is activated may corresponds to a Special Cell (SpCell), such as a Primary Cell (PCell) of the Master Cell Group (MCG) or a Primary SCG Cell of a Secondary Cell Group (SCG). In an other alternative, the serving cell for which a TCI state is activated may correspond to an SCell of the MCG, or an SCell of a SCG. In other words, instead of sending periodic reports to the network so the network detects when an LTM Candidate cell becomes better than the current serving cell (e.g. PCell), the UE only triggers the report when that happens. An RS (or beam) in this context may be an SSB, CSI-RS, MRS or any other RS defined for 5G, 6G, etc.

[0059] In response to the LTM lower layer report, the UE receives an LTM Cell Switch Command (e.g., LTM Cell Switch Command MAC CE) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell (e.g. Target Configuration ID associated to an LTM candidate ID) and a TCI state (e.g., TCI State ID) which is to be activated in the LTM Candidate Cell which becomes the target cell.

[0060] The indicated TCI state to be activate in the LTM Candidate Cell in the LTM Cell Switch is associated to one of the SSBs indicated in the LTM lower layer report, whose first measurement has triggered the report. In one embodiment, the association between that reported9900-110777W001 / P110777W001SSB and the indicated TCI state is that the SSB is configured as Quasi-Co-Location (QCL) source of the indicated TCI State.

[0061] The condition (or triggering condition for transmitting an LTM lower layer report) “a first measurement associated to an LTM candidate cell becomes an offset better than a second measurement associated to a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated” may also be characterized as an event the UE is configured by network. Thus, the fulfillment of the condition may correspond to the fulfillment of the event, or the entry condition of the event.

[0062] Embodiments associated with the triggering condition being associated with a best beam are described below.

[0063] In some embodiments, the UE triggers an LTM lower layer report when the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g. highest LI RSRP) becomes an offset better than the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell e.g. SpCell.

[0064] In some examples, the “best” beam of the LTM candidate cell may corresponds to the beam (or RS e.g. SSB, CSI-RS, MRS, etc.) with the highest measurement quantity among other beams (or RSs) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g. highest LI RSRP).

[0065] In additional or alternative examples, the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell may correspond to the beam with the highest measurement quantity (e.g. highest LI RSRP) among the other beams (or RSs) of the serving cell e.g. SpCell.

[0066] In additional or alternative examples, the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell may correspond to the beam (or RS) associated with an activated TCI state of the serving cell e.g. SpCell. In this case the beam may be represented by a Reference Signal (RS), such as an SSB and, the best beam corresponds to the SSB configured as QCL source of the activated TCI state in the serving cell. When the serving cell has a single TCI state activated, the UE considers the best beam as the beam associated to that activated TCI State. For example, let us assume that the PCell has TCI state activated with configured QCL source [SSB2]. Then, the UE considers SSB2 as the best beam of that serving cell. When the serving cell has multiple TCI states activates, one option is to consider the best beam as the one associated to the highest measurement quantity among the beams associated to activated TCI States. For example, let us assume that the PCell has 3 TCI states activated, with configured QCL sources [SSB2], [SSB5], [SSB7] wherein the SSB with the highest Ll-RSRP is of SSB5. Then, the UE considers SSB5 as the best beam of that serving cell.

[0067] In additional or alternative examples, the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell may correspond to the beam (or RS) associated with an activated candidate TCI state of the LTM Candidate cell. In this case the beam may be represented by a Reference Signal (RS), such as an SSB and, the best beam corresponds to the SSB configured as QCL source of the activated9900-110777W001 / P110777W001TCI state in the LTM Candidate Cell. A candidate TCI state of an LTM Candidate Cell may be activated before an LTM Cell Switch command is received. The activation occurs in response to the reception by the UE of a MAC CE (e.g. Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation MAC CE). When the LTM Candidate Cell has a single TCI state activated, the UE considers the best beam as the beam associated to that activated TCI State. For example, let us assume that an LTM Candidate Cell has candidate TCI state activated with configured QCL source [SSB2]. Then, the UE considers SSB2 as the best beam of that LTM Candidate Cell. When the LTM Candidate Cell has multiple TCI states activated, one option is to consider the best beam as the one associated to the highest measurement quantity among the beams associated to activated TCI States of the LTM Candidate Cell. For example, let us assume that the LTM Candidate Cell has 3 TCI states activated, with configured QCL sources [SSB2], [SSB5], [SSB7] wherein the SSB with the highest Ll-RSRP is of SSB5. Then, the UE considers SSB5 as the best beam of that LTM Candidate Cell.

[0068] In additional or alternative examples, the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell may corresponds to the beam (or RS e.g. SSB, CSI-RS, MRS, etc.) which average measurement quantity (over a time window) is with the highest measurement quantity among other beams (or RSs) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g. highest LI RSRP).

[0069] In additional or alternative examples, the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell may correspond to the beam which average measurement quantity (over a time window) is with the highest measurement quantity (e.g. highest LI RSRP) among the other beams (or RSs) of the serving cell e.g. SpCell.

[0070] In additional or alternative examples, the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell may correspond to any of what is described above, but considering beams which belong to a PCell, PSCell, or SCell(s) (or any permutation of these).

[0071] In additional or alternative examples, the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell may correspond to any of what is described above, but considering beams which belong to a PCell, PSCell, or SCell(s) (or any permutation of these).

[0072] In additional or alternative embodiments, the triggering condition may rely on different combinations of the different options above for the “best” beam. For example, the UE triggers an LTM lower layer report when the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g. highest LI RSRP) becomes an offset better than the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell e.g. SpCell. In some examples, the best beam of the LTM Candidate cell includes the highest measurement quantity among other beams (or RSs) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g. highest LI RSRP) and the “best” beam of the serving cell (e.g. SpCell) includes the beam with the highest measurement quantity (e.g. highest LI RSRP) among the other beams (or RSs) of the serving9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 cell e.g. SpCell. In additional or alternative examples, the best beam of the LTM Candidate cell includes the highest measurement quantity among other beams (or RSs) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g. highest LI RSRP) and the “best” beam of the serving cell (e.g. SpCell) includes the beam (or RS) associated with an activated TCI state of the serving cell e.g. SpCell.

[0073] In additional or alternative embodiments, the UE triggers an LTM lower layer report when the LI RSRP of an SSB of the LTM candidate cell becomes an offset better than the LI RSRP of SSB (e.g. SS-RSRP) of the serving cell (e.g. PCell) with highest LI RSRP. The report aims to indicate to the network, for example, that the “best” beam or RS of the LTM candidate cell the UE is DL synchronized with has changed, which enables the network to trigger a switching of TCI state for an LTM candidate cell which the UE is DL synchronized with. In other words, instead of sending periodic reports to the network so the network detects when the best beam of an activated LTM candidate cell changes, the UE only triggers the report when that happens.

[0074] For these embodiments, the UE may receive an RRC message for configuring one or more parameter associated to the event defined as above. The RRC message (e.g. RRC Reconfiguration) may include a reporting configuration (e.g. LTM-CSI-ReportConfig) and an association resource configuration (e.g. LTM-CSI-ResourceConfig).

[0075] The reporting configuration may indicate an identifier (e.g. event ID) so that when the UE receives the configuration the UE determines that the configuration is for the event whose condition is defined as above i.e. “the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g. highest LI RSRP) becomes an offset better than the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell e.g. SpCell”.

[0076] The reporting configuration may indicate one or more parameters associated to the event such as: 1) a trigger quantity, indicating what is the quantity to be measured and used as input to the triggering condition e.g. RSRP, RSRQ, SINR, etc; 2) an offset value, associated to the event definition e.g. in terms of dBs; 3) one or more reporting quantities, indicating what additional quantities the UE is meant to measure and / or report, in addition to the trigger quantity; 4) a time to trigger value, which indicates how long since the condition has been fulfilled the UE needs to way before sending the measurement report; or 5) an LTM candidate cell ID, which indicate to which LTM candidate configuration the event applies.

[0077] The reporting configuration may indicate an identifier of a resource configuration (e.g. LTM-CSI-ReportConfigld, included in the reporting configuration), which indicates one or more LTM Candidate Cells to be possibly considered as input for the condition associated to the event. Thus, the UE determines the LTM Candidate Cells for which beams / SSB(s) within the resource configuration are to be considered as input to the event(s) e.g. the SSBs of the LTM9900-110777W001 / P110777W001Candidate Cell(s) and / or the SSBs of the Serving cell (e.g. the SpCell or PCell). In other words, even when the UE is configured with more LTM Candidate Cells which may be detected by the UE, these are not considered as applicable cells to be used as input to the events unless they are included in the resource configuration.

[0078] The reporting configuration may indicate an identifier of a resource configuration (e.g. LTM-CSI-ReportConfigld, included in the reporting configuration), which indicates one or more SSB(s) (or other RSs e.g. CSI-RS resources, MRS(s), etc.) per one or more associated LTM Candidate cell(s), to be possibly considered as input for the condition associated to the event. Thus, the UE determines the SSB(s) within the resource configuration to be considered as input to the event(s) e.g. the SSBs of the LTM Candidate Cell(s) and / or the SSBs of the Serving cell e.g. the SpCell or PCell. In other words, even when an LTM Candidate Cell has more SSBs detected by the UE, these are not considered as applicable SSBs to be used as input to the events unless they are included in the resource configuration.

[0079] For example, let us assume an instance of the IE LTM-CSI-ResourceConfig-rl8 (having an associated identifier e.g. ltm-CSI-ResourceConfigId-rl8) and being grouped in as a resource set (e.g. in the IE LTM-CSI-SSB-ResourceSet-rl8), wherein the resource set may be structure as a first and a second list, wherein the first list includes one or more SSB indexes and the second list includes one or more LTM candidate cell identifiers (IDs), wherein the position in the list is associated to an LTM CSI resource in that LTM CSI resource configuration e.g. the instance of the IE LTM-CSI-ResourceConfig includes the following lists Itm-CSI-SSB- ResourceList-rl8 and ltm-CandidateIdList-r!8: ltm-CSI-SSB-ResourceList-rl8 Itm- CandidateldList-rl 8[SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1][SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1][SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1][SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1][SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3][SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3][SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]9900-110777W001 / P110777W001[SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3][SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5][SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5][SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5][SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]

[0080] Thus, even when the UE has other LTM Candidate cells configured, the UE monitors the triggering condition associated to that resource configuration the LTM Candidate cells [LTM Candidate cell ID 1], [LTM Candidate cell ID 2], [LTM Candidate cell ID 3], [LTM Candidate cell ID 4].

[0081] And, even when the UE has other SSBs per LTM Candidate cells which may be detected, the UE monitors the triggering condition associated to that resource configuration the [SSB1], [SSB2], [SSB3], [SSB4], [SSB5] of each LTM candidate cell.

[0082] In one option, not all SSBs of an LTM Candidate Cell which are included in the resource configuration are applicable to be considered as input to the triggering condition, but the SSBs in the resource configuration which are associated to the activated LTM candidate cell which is also in the resource configuration. Assuming the example above, in which [LTM Candidate cell ID 2] is activated, [LTM Candidate cell ID 2] is to be evaluated in comparison with the serving cell.

[0083] In another option, not all SSBs of an LTM Candidate Cell which are included in the resource configuration are applicable to be considered as input to the triggering condition, but the SSBs in the resource configuration which are associated to the activated TCI state(s) of the LTM candidate cell e.g. SSBs configured as QCL source of a candidate TCI state which is activated. Assuming the example above, in which [LTM Candidate cell ID 2] is activated (SSB5), [SSB5] of [LTM Candidate cell ID 2] is to be evaluated in comparison with the best beam of the serving cell (e.g. of the PCell).

[0084] In another option, not all SSBs of a serving cell (e.g. SpCell, PCell) which are included in the resource configuration are applicable to be considered as input to the triggering9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 condition, but the SSBs in the resource configuration which are associated to the activated TCI state(s) of the serving cell e.g. SSBs configured as QCL source of a TCI state which is activated.

[0085] In one option, the reporting configuration is associated to an LTM candidate ID, and no explicitly SSB list is provided in a resource configuration. The UE determines the SSBs associated to the LTM Candidate ID which may be considered as input to the event / triggering condition by obtaining the TCI state configuration. The SSBs considered as possible input are the SSBs configured as QCL source(s) in the Candidate TCI state configuration associated to the LTM candidate cell.

[0086] In additional or alternative embodiments the multiple LTM Candidate cell(s) fulfill the triggering condition: the “best” beam (or RS) of an LTM candidate cell (e.g. highest LI RSRP) becomes an offset better than the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell e.g. SpCell. In other words, the best beam of multiple LTM Candidate cell(s) may, at a certain point in time, be an offset better than the best beam of the PCell.

[0087] In one example, when multiple beams trigger the report, the report include single beam’s report whose LI -RSRP is highest among the beams which triggered the event. In other example, report include all the beams and their cell IDs which triggers the event.

[0088] In one example the report includes top N beam’s Ll-RSRP corresponding to single LTM candidate cell. In other example, LTM lower layer report includes top N beams corresponding to different LTM candidate cells which trigger the event.

[0089] According to these embodiments, the UE transmits an LTM lower layer report when the triggering condition is fulfilled i.e. when the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g. highest LI RSRP) becomes an offset better than the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell e.g. SpCell, wherein the UE includes one or more of the following in the LTM lower layer report: Information about the best “beam” (or RS) of the LTM Candidate Cell which has triggered the event (e.g. so-called triggered SSB); Information about the best “beam” (or RS) and the top N beams of the LTM Candidate Cell which has triggered the event (e.g. so-called triggered SSB); Information about the best “beam” (or RS) of the Serving Cell which has triggered the event; Information about the LTM candidate cell associated to the “best” beam and / or best SSB and / or triggered SSB; SSB Frequency (e.g. ARFCN of the SSB) of the LTM candidate cell associated to the beam or RS which has triggered the LTM lower layer report; or an identifier associated to the measurement which is being triggered e.g. a reporting configuration identifier, and / or a resource configuration identifier, or another identifier associated to the reporting configuration identifier

[0090] In some examples, information about the best “beam” (or RS) of the LTM Candidate Cell which has triggered the event (e.g. so-called triggered SSB) includes at least one of: an9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 indication of a value of the measurement quantity which has triggered the report (e.g. Ll-RSRP associated to that beam or RS); an indication of a value of a measurement quantity configured at the UE (e.g. reporting quantity(ies) configured in the LTM reporting configuration) (e.g. Ll- RSRQ associated to that beam or RS); a differential measurement quantity (e.g. differential LI RSRP) associated to that best beam (e.g. relative to a reference value); or an indication of the best beam or RS such as, a beam identifier of the best beam, an RS index (e.g. SSB index) or a resource indication, indicating the position of that best beam in the associated resource configuration, such as an SSB Resource Indicator (SSBRI), in the case of an SSB being configured as a resource.

[0091] In some examples, information about the best “beam” (or RS) and the top N beams of the LTM Candidate Cell which has triggered the event (e.g. so-called triggered SSB) includes at least one of: an indication of a value of the measurement quantity which has triggered the report (e.g. Ll-RSRP associated to that beam or RS); an indication of a value of a measurement quantity configured at the UE (e.g. reporting quantity(ies) configured in the LTM reporting configuration) (e.g. Ll-RSRQ associated to that beam or RS); a differential measurement quantity (e.g. differential LI RSRP) associated to that best beam (e.g. relative to a reference value); an indication of the best beam or RS such as, a beam identifier of the best beam, an RS index (e.g. SSB index) or a resource indication, indicating the position of that best beam in the associated resource configuration, such as an SSB Resource Indicator (SSBRI), in the case of an SSB being configured as a resource; or N may be configurable or fixed quantity.

[0092] In some examples, information about the best “beam” (or RS) of the Serving Cell which has triggered the event, includes at least one of: an indication of a value of the measurement quantity which has triggered the report (e.g. Ll-RSRP associated to that beam or RS); an indication of a value of a measurement quantity configured at the UE (e.g. reporting quantity(ies) configured in the LTM reporting configuration) (e.g. Ll-RSRQ associated to that beam or RS); a differential measurement quantity (e.g. differential LI RSRP) associated to that best beam (e.g. relative to a reference value); an indication of the best beam or RS such as, a beam identifier of the best beam, an RS index (e.g. SSB index) or a resource indication, indicating the position of that best beam in the associated resource configuration, such as an SSB Resource Indicator (SSBRI), in the case of an SSB being configured as a resource.

[0093] In some examples, information about the LTM candidate cell associated to the “best” beam and / or best SSB and / or triggered SSB includes at least one of: LTM Candidate ID (e.g. encoded in fewer bits than the cell identity and associated to an LTM Candidate cell configuration), configured when LTM is configured; Cell identifier (Cell ID) of the LTM Candidate cell associated to the beam or RS which has triggered the LTM lower layer report9900-110777W001 / P110777W001(this may be a Serving cell index or SCell index depending on whether the LTM candidate cell has been configured as a PCell, PSCell, or SCell); or Physical Cell Identity (PCI) of the LTM candidate cell associated to the beam or RS which has triggered the LTM lower layer report.

[0094] In some examples, SSB Frequency (e.g. ARFCN of the SSB) of the LTM candidate cell associated to the beam or RS which has triggered the LTM lower layer report;Information about the Serving cell (e.g. Pcell associated to the “best” beam and / or best SSB of the Serving cell) includes at least one of: LTM Candidate ID (e.g. encoded in fewer bits than the cell identity and associated to the current serving cell), also configured as an LTM Candidate cell configuration, configured when LTM is configured; Cell identifier (Cell ID) of the Serving Cell associated to the beam or RS which has triggered the LTM lower layer report (this may be a Serving cell index or SCell index depending on whether the LTM candidate cell has been configured as a PCell, PSCell, or SCell); Physical Cell Identity (PCI) of the Serving Cell associated to the beam or RS which has triggered the LTM lower layer report; or SSB Frequency (e.g. ARFCN of the SSB) of the Serving Cell associated to the beam or RS which has triggered the LTM lower layer report.

[0095] In some examples, an identifier associated to the measurement which is being triggered e.g. a reporting configuration identifier, and / or a resource configuration identifier, or another identifier associated to the reporting configuration identifier includes an Event ID, if there are multiple events configured for one or more LTM candidate cells, but e.g., with different conditions or parameters.

[0096] For that set of embodiments, the UE transmits the LTM lower layer report e.g. by transmitting a MAC Control Element, and / or a report over PUSCH and / or PUCCH.

[0097] The fulfillment of the triggering condition may be expressed in terms of measurements on RS(s) (e.g. SSB, CSLRS, MRS, etc.) associated to pre-activated TCI states of an LTM candidate cell, and measurements on RS(s) (e.g. SSB, CSI-RS, MRS, etc.) associated to deactivated TCI states of that LTM candidate cell, as follows.

[0098] In one option, when the resource indication is included in the LTM lower layer report, it may be associated to a resource configuration which is associated to the reporting configuration in which the triggering condition which has triggered the report is configured. The resource configuration includes a resource set may be structure as a first and a second list, wherein the first list includes one or more SSB indexes and the second list includes one or more LTM candidate cell identifiers (IDs), wherein the position in the list is associated to an LTM CSI resource in that LTM CSI resource configuration. For example, the instance of the IE LTM- CSLResourceConfig includes the following lists ltm-CSI-SSB-ResourceList-rl8 and Itm- CandidateldList-r 18 :9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 ltm-CSI-SSB-ResourceList-rl8 Itm- CandidateldList-rl 8[SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1][SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1][SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1][SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1][SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3][SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3][SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3][SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3][SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5][SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5][SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5][SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]

[0099] In the example above, a resource indicator is associated to a position in the list(s) in which a resource is included. Each LTM CSI resource in the LTM CSI resource configuration (in particular in a resource set) has an associated resource indicator e.g. an SSB Resource Indicator (SSBRI), wherein SSBRI k (k > 0) corresponds to the configured (k+l)-th entry of the associated [LTM-csi-SSB-ResourceList] in the corresponding [LTM-CSI-SSB-ResourceSet]. For example, SSBRI#0 corresponds to the configured 1-st entry of the associated [LTM-csi- SSB-ResourceList] in the corresponding [LTM-CSI-SSB-ResourceSet], i.e., the pair [SSB1], [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]; SSBRI#1 corresponds to the configured 2-nd entry i.e., the pair [SSB2], [LTM Candidate cell ID 1], etc.9900-110777W001 / P110777W001

[0100] The LTM CSI measurement report which is being triggered (which may also be called a CSI report, or CSI report for Ll / L2-triggered mobility, or LI measurement report or LI measurement report for LTM, or L2 measurement report) includes one or more resource indication(s), each associated to an LTM candidate cell identifier and a RS identifier of that LTM candidate cell e.g. an SSBRI associated to an LTM candidate cell ID and an SSB Index of the LTM candidate cell associated to the LTM candidate cell ID. When the UE includes an LTM candidate cell to be included in an LTM CSI measurement report the UE includes an SSBRI associated to the selected LTM candidate cell. Taking the previous example, including LTM Candidate cell whose LTM candidate cell ID =2 means that the UE includes SSBRI#5 and / or SSBRI#6 and / or SSBRI#7 and / or SSBRI#8 and / or SSBRI#9, since: [LTM Candidate cell ID 2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][LTM Candidate cell ID 2]

[0101] An LTM CSI measurement report (which may also be called a CSI report, or CSI report for Ll / L2-triggered mobility) may also include measurement information associated to an LTM CSI resource which is included in the LTM CSI measurement report, for example, measurement information associated to an SSBRI, such as one or more of the following:Layer 1 Reference Signal Received Power (Ll-RSRP)- Differential Ll-RSRPLayer 1 reference signal received quality (Ll-RSRQ) Differential LI -RSRQ- Layer 1 SINR (Ll-SINR)Differential LI -SINRSS reference signal received power (SS-RSRP)SS reference signal received quality (SS-RSRQ)SS signal-to-noise and interference ratio (SS-SINR)

[0102] In one example, for Ll-RSRP reporting, if the higher layer parameters [noOfReportedCells] and [noOfReportedRSPerCell] are both configured to be one, the reported Ll-RSRP value is defined by a 7-bit value in the range [-140, -44] dBm with IdB step size, or if any of the higher layer parameters [noOfReportedCells] and [noOfReportedRSPerCell] is configured to be larger than one, the UE uses differential Ll-RSRP based reporting for the LTM CSI resources whicha the UE selects to be included in the LTM CSI measurement report, where the largest measured value of Ll-RSRP is quantized to a 7-bit value in the range [-140, -44]9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 dBm with IdB step size, and the differential Ll-RSRP is quantized to a 4-bit value. The differential Ll-RSRP value is computed with 2 dB step size with a reference to the largest measured Ll-RSRP value which is part of the same Ll-RSRP reporting instance.

[0103] SS reference signal received power (SS-RSRP), for example, maybe be defined as the linear average over the power contributions (in [W]) of the resource elements that carry secondary synchronization signals. The measurement time resource(s) for SS-RSRP are confined within SS / PBCH Block Measurement Time Configuration (SMTC) window duration. If SS-RSRP is used for Ll-RSRP as configured by reporting configurations as defined in TS 38.214, the measurement time resources(s) restriction by SMTC window duration is not applicable.

[0104] For SS-RSRP determination demodulation reference signals for physical broadcast channel (PBCH) and, if indicated by higher layers, CSI reference signals in addition to secondary synchronization signals may be used. SS-RSRP using demodulation reference signal for PBCH or CSI reference signal shall be measured by linear averaging over the power contributions of the resource elements that carry corresponding reference signals taking into account power scaling for the reference signals as defined in TS 38.213. If SS-RSRP is not used for Ll-RSRP, the additional use of CSI reference signals for SS-RSRP determination is not applicable.

[0105] SS-RSRP shall be measured only among the reference signals corresponding to SS / PBCH blocks with the same SS / PBCH block index and the same physical-layer cell identity.

[0106] If SS-RSRP is not used for Ll-RSRP and higher-layers indicate certain SS / PBCH blocks for performing SS-RSRP measurements, then SS-RSRP is measured only from the indicated set of SS / PBCH block(s).

[0107] For frequency range 1, the reference point for the SS-RSRP shall be the antenna connector of the UE. For frequency range 2, SS-RSRP shall be measured based on the combined signal from antenna elements corresponding to a given receiver branch. For frequency range 1 and 2, if receiver diversity is in use by the UE, the reported SS-RSRP value shall not be lower than the corresponding SS-RSRP of any of the individual receiver branches.

[0108] The number of resource elements within the measurement period that are used by the UE to determine SS-RSRP is left up to the UE implementation with the limitation that corresponding measurement accuracy requirements have to be fulfilled.

[0109] The power per resource element is determined from the energy received during the useful part of the symbol, excluding the CP.

[0110] When the UE selects the LTM candidate cell(s) and respective RSs (e.g. SSB(s)) to include in the LTM CSI measurement report, the UE includes an SSBRI associated to a selected9900-110777W001 / P110777W001LTM CSI resource (i.e. pair SSB index, LTM candidate cell ID), and a measurement information associated (e.g. Ll-RSRP and / or differential Ll-RSRP), in the mapping order of FIG. 6.

[0111] One example of the bitwidth for SSBRI, RSRP, differential RSRP to be included in an LTM CSI measurement report is illustrated in FIG. 7, where / sslijsthe configured number of SS / PBCH blocks (SSBs) in the corresponding LTM CSI resource configuration (e.g. within a resource set) for reporting an RSRP (E.g. 'ssb-Index-RSRP'.).

[0112] Embodiments associated with a triggering condition associated with cell quality are described below.

[0113] In some embodimetns, the UE triggers of a lower layer report when the cell quality (e.g. cell based RSRP) of an LTM candidate cell becomes an offset better than the cell quality (e.g. cell based RSRP) of the serving cell e.g. SpCell.

[0114] There are different options for defining a cell quality to be used by the UE as input to the triggering condition.

[0115] In some examples, the cell quality of a cell may correspond to a cell measurement result such as cell-based RSRP, cell based RSRQ, cell based SINR. The measurements may be performed on one or more Reference Signals (RS(s)) transmitted in different spatial direction(s) (e.g. beams), such as SSB(s) or CSI-RS(s).

[0116] In additional or alternative examples, the cell quality of the LTM candidate cell may corresponds to the highest beam measurement quantity (e.g. highest RSRP, or highest LI RSRP) among other beams of the LTM candidate cell.

[0117] In additional or alternative examples, the cell quality of the serving cell (e.g. SpCell) may corresponds to the highest beam measurement quantity (e.g. highest RSRP, or highest LI RSRP) among other beams of the serving cell (e.g. SpCell).

[0118] In additional or alternative examples, the cell quality of the serving cell (e.g. SpCell) may corresponds to the beam measurement quantity of the beam (or RS) associated to a TCI state of the SpCell which is activated. In one option, when the serving cell has a single TCI state activated, the UE considers the cell quality as the quality of the beam associated to that activated TCI State. For example, let us assume that the PCell has TCI state activated with configured QCL source [SSB2]. Then, the UE considers as cell quality the beam quality of SSB2. In one option, when the serving cell has multiple TCI states activates, one option is to consider the cell quality as the highest measurement quantity among the beams associated to activated TCI States. For example, let us assume that the PCell has 3 TCI states activated, with configured QCL sources [SSB2], [SSB5], [SSB7] wherein the SSB with the highest Ll-RSRP is of SSB5. Then, the UE considers the cell quality as the quality of SSB5.9900-110777W001 / P110777W001

[0119] In additional or alternative examples, the cell quality of an LTM Candidate Cell may correspond to the beam measurement quantity of the beam (or RS) associated to a TCI state of the LTM Candidate Cell which is activated. In one option, when the LTM Candidate Cell has a single TCI state activated, the UE considers the cell quality as the quality of the beam associated to that activated TCI State. For example, let us assume that the LTM Candidate Cell has TCI state activated with configured QCL source [SSB2]. Then, the UE considers as cell quality the beam quality of SSB2. In one option, when the LTM Candidate Cell has multiple TCI states activated, one option is to consider the cell quality as the highest measurement quantity among the beams associated to activated TCI States. For example, let us assume that the LTM Candidate Cell has 3 TCI states activated, with configured QCL sources [SSB2], [SSB5], [SSB7] wherein the SSB with the highest Ll-RSRP is of SSB5. Then, the UE considers the cell quality as the quality of SSB5.

[0120] In additional or alternative examples, the cell quality of the serving cell may correspond to an average of the highest “K” beam measurements of the serving cell. For example, the cell quality may be the linear power scale average of the highest beam measurement quantity values above a threshold (e.g. absThreshSS-BlocksConsolidation) where the total number of averaged beams shall not exceed “N” (e.g. nrofSS-BlocksToA verage).

[0121] In additional or alternative examples, the cell quality of an LTM Candidate Cell may correspond to an average of the highest “K” beam measurements of the LTM Candidate Cell. For example, the cell quality may be the linear power scale average of the highest beam measurement quantity values above a threshold (e.g. absThreshSS-BlocksConsolidation) where the total number of averaged beams shall not exceed “N” (e.g. nrofSS-BlocksToA verage).

[0122] In additional or alternative examples, the cell quality of the serving cell may correspond to an average of the “K” beam measurements associated to the “K" activated TCI States of the serving cell. In one option, the “K” beams are a subset of all the total beam which measurement is above a threshold. In one option, the average of the “K” beam measurements is over a defined time window.

[0123] In additional or alternative examples, the cell quality of an LTM candidate cell may correspond to an average of the “K” beam measurements associated to the “K" activated candidate TCI States of the LTM Candidate cell. In one option, the “K” beams are a subset of all the total beam which measurement is above a threshold. In one option, the average of the “K” beam measurements is over a defined time window.

[0124] In additional or alternative examples, the cell quality of the LTM candidate cell may correspond to any of what is described above, but considering beams which belong to a PCell, PSCell, or SCell(s) (or any permutation of these).9900-110777W001 / P110777W001

[0125] In additional or alternative examples, the cell quality of the serving cell may correspond to any of what is described above, but considering beams which belong to a PCell, PSCell, or SCell(s) (or any permutation of these).

[0126] The triggering condition may rely on different combinations of the different options above for the cell quality. For example, the UE triggers an LTM lower layer report when the cell quality of the LTM candidate cell becomes an offset better than the cell quality of the serving cell e.g. SpCell. In some examples, the cell quality of the LTM Candidate cell corresponds to cell measurement result (such as cell-based RSRP, cell based RSRQ, cell based SINR) AND the cell quality of the serving cell e.g. SpCell corresponds to cell measurement result (such as cellbased RSRP, cell based RSRQ, cell based SINR). In additional or alternative examples, the cell quality of the LTM candidate cell may correspond to the highest beam measurement quantity (e.g. highest RSRP, or highest LI RSRP) among other beams of the LTM candidate cell and the cell quality of the serving cell e.g. PCell, may correspond to the highest beam measurement quantity (e.g. highest RSRP, or highest LI RSRP) among other beams of the serving cell. In additional or alternative examples, the cell quality of the serving cell (e.g. SpCell) may corresponds to the beam measurement quantity of the beam (or RS) associated to a TCI state of the SpCell which is activated AND the cell quality of the LTM Candidate cell may correspond to the beam measurement quantity of the beam (or RS) associated to a TCI state of the LTM Candidate Cell which is activated.

[0127] In some embodiments, the UE performs cell quality derivation of a serving cell (e.g. SpCell) and / or an LTM Candidate cell to be used as input to a triggering condition for triggering an LTM lower layer report, based on one or more parameters which the UE obtains e.g. upon reception of a configuration in an RRC message, such as an RRC Reconfiguration message. These parameters may be called here Cell Quality Derivation (CQD) parameters, and includes one or more of: 1) a “threshold” for determining beams to be averaged for CQD. When the threshold is configured, the UE derives a cell measurement results as the linear power scale average of the highest beam measurement quantity values above the threshold where the total number of averaged beams shall not exceed a value N. In some examples, there is a threshold value per measurement quantity e.g. one for RSRP, one for RSRQ, one for SINR. In additional or alternative examples, there is a threshold value per RS type e.g. one for SSB measurements, one for CSI-RS measurements, one for MRSs, etc; 2) A value “N” for determining the number of beams to be averaged for CQD. The UE derives a cell measurement results as the linear power scale average of the highest beam measurement quantity values above a threshold where the total number of averaged beams shall not exceed the value “N;” 3) A time window “T” for determining over which period of time the beams should be averaged; or 4) Offsets.9900-110777W001 / P110777W001

[0128] The QCD parameters for the serving cell for LTM may be configured in a measurement object associated to the SSB frequency of the serving cell (e.g. same as indicated in the serving cell configuration). This option implies that the UE receives a measurement object (e.g. IE MeasObjectNR) associated to the serving cell.

[0129] The QCD parameters for the serving cell for LTM may be configured in a measurement object indicated in the serving cell configuration i.e. the measurement object whose measurement object identifier is indicated in the serving cell configuration. This option implies that the UE receives a measurement object (e.g. IE MeasObjectNR) associated to the serving cell.

[0130] The QCD parameters for the serving cell for LTM may be configured in the serving cell configuration.

[0131] The QCD parameters for the serving cell for LTM may be configured in an LTM configuration.

[0132] The QCD parameters for the serving cell for LTM may be configured in a resource configuration, associated to the reporting configuration associated to the triggering condition of the LTM reporting.

[0133] The QCD parameters for an LTM candidate cell may be configured in a measurement object associated to the SSB frequency of the LTM Candidate cell (e.g. same as indicated in the LTM Configuration for that candidate). This option implies that the UE receives a measurement object (e.g. IE MeasObjectNR) associated to an LTM Candidate cell which needs to be measured to be used as input to a triggering condition for LTM reporting.

[0134] The QCD parameters for the LTM Candidate cell may be configured in the LTM Configuration for that LTM Candidate cell (e.g. not the configuration to be applied upon execution, but the configuration to be applied upon reception).

[0135] The QCD parameters for an LTM Candidate Cell may be configured in a resource configuration, associated to the reporting configuration associated to the triggering condition of the LTM reporting.

[0136] For some of those embodiments, the UE may receive an RRC message for configuring one or more parameter associated to the event defined as above. The RRC message (e.g. RRC Reconfiguration) may include a reporting configuration (e.g. LTM-CSI- ReportConfig) and an association resource configuration (e.g. LTM-CSI-ResourceConfig).

[0137] The reporting configuration may indicate an identifier (e.g. event ID) so that when the UE receives the configuration the UE determines that the configuration is for the event whose condition is defined as above i.e. “the cell quality (e.g. cell based RSRP) of an LTM9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 candidate cell becomes an offset better than the cell quality (e.g. cell based RSRP) of the serving cell e.g. SpCell”.

[0138] The reporting configuration may indicate an identifier of a resource configuration (e.g. LTM-CSI-ReportConfigld, included in the reporting configuration), which indicates one or more LTM Candidate Cells to be possibly considered as input for the condition associated to the event. Thus, the UE determines the LTM Candidate Cells within the resource configuration which are considered as input to the events. In other words, even when the UE is configured with more LTM Candidate Cells which may be detected by the UE, these are not considered as applicable cells to be used as input to the events unless they are included in the resource configuration.

[0139] The reporting configuration may indicate one or more parameters associated to the event such as: 1) a trigger quantity, indicating what is the quantity to be measured and used as input to the triggering condition e.g. RSRP, RSRQ, SINR, etc; 2) an offset value, associated to the event definition e.g. in terms of dBs; or 3) one or more reporting quantities, indicating what additional quantities the UE is meant to measure and / or report, in addition to the trigger quantity.

[0140] The reporting configuration may indicate an identifier of a resource configuration (e.g. LTM-CSI-ReportConfigld, included in the reporting configuration), which indicates one or more SSB(s) (or other RSs e.g. CSI-RS resources, MRS(s), etc.) per one or more associated LTM Candidate cell(s), to be possibly considered as input for CQD, which is input to the triggering condition associated to the resource configuration. Thus, the UE determines the SSB(s) within the resource configuration to be considered as input to the CQD e.g. the SSBs of the LTM Candidate Cell(s) and / or the SSBs of the Serving cell from which the highest measurement of a beam is taken, or beams whose measurement quantities are to be averaged. In other words, even when an LTM Candidate Cell has more SSBs detected by the UE, these are not considered for CQD, to be used as input to the events unless they are included in the resource configuration.

[0141] For example, let us assume an instance of the IE LTM-CSI-ResourceConfig-rl8 (having an associated identifier e.g. ltm-CSI-ResourceConfigId-rl8) and being grouped in as a resource set (e.g. in the IE LTM-CSI-SSB-ResourceSet-rl8), wherein the resource set may be structure as a first and a second list, wherein the first list includes one or more SSB indexes and the second list includes one or more LTM candidate cell identifiers (IDs), wherein the position in the list is associated to an LTM CSI resource in that LTM CSI resource configuration e.g. the instance of the IE LTM-CSI-ResourceConfig includes the following lists Itm-CSI-SSB- ResourceList-rl8 and ltm-CandidateIdList-rl8:9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 ltm-CSI-SSB-ResourceList-rl8 Itm- CandidateldList-rl 8[SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1][SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1][SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1][SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1][SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3][SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3][SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3][SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3][SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5][SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5][SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5][SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]

[0142] Thus, even when the UE has other LTM Candidate cells configured, the UE monitors the triggering condition associated to that resource configuration the LTM Candidate cells [LTM Candidate cell ID 1], [LTM Candidate cell ID 2], [LTM Candidate cell ID 3], [LTM Candidate cell ID 4].

[0143] And, even when the UE has other SSBs per LTM Candidate cells which may be detected, the UE performs CQD the triggering condition associated to that resource configuration the [SSB1], [SSB2], [SSB3], [SSB4], [SSB5] of each LTM candidate cell.

[0144] In one option, not all SSBs of an LTM Candidate Cell which are included in the resource configuration are considered as input to CQD, but the SSBs in the resource9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 configuration which are associated to the activated LTM candidate cell which is also in the resource configuration.

[0145] In another option, not all SSBs of an LTM Candidate Cell which are included in the resource configuration are applicable to be considered for CQD, but the SSBs in the resource configuration which are associated to the activated TCI state(s) of the LTM candidate cell e.g. SSBs configured as QCL source of a candidate TCI state which is activated. Assuming the example above, in which [LTM Candidate cell ID 2] is activated, [SSB3], [SSB4], [SSB5] of [LTM Candidate cell ID 2] are considered for CQD of [LTM Candidate cell ID 2].

[0146] In another option, not all SSBs of a serving cell (e.g. SpCell, PCell) which are included in the resource configuration are considered for CQD, but the SSBs in the resource configuration which are associated to the activated TCI state(s) of the serving cell e.g. SSBs configured as QCL source of a TCI state which is activated.

[0147] In one option, the reporting configuration is associated to an LTM candidate ID, and no explicitly SSB list is provided in a resource configuration. The UE determines the SSBs associated to the LTM Candidate ID for CQD by obtaining the TCI state configuration. The SSBs considered as possible input for CQD are the SSBs configured as QCL source(s) in the Candidate TCI state configuration associated to the LTM candidate cell.

[0148] In some embodiments, the multiple LTM Candidate cell(s) fulfill the triggering condition: the cell quality (e.g. cell based RSRP) of an LTM candidate cell becomes an offset better than the cell quality (e.g. cell based RSRP) of the serving cell e.g. SpCell. In other words, multiple LTM Candidate cell(s) may, at a certain point in time, be an offset better than the PCell, for a given measurement quantity e.g. RSRP, RSRQ, SINR, etc.

[0149] In one example, when multiple cells trigger the event, the report include top N beams of the single cell, whose cell level quality is highest among the cells which triggered the event. In other example, report include TOP N beams of the all the cells which triggers the event.

[0150] In additional or alternative embodiments, the UE transmits an LTM lower layer report when the triggering condition is fulfilled i.e. when the cell quality (e.g. cell based RSRP) of an LTM candidate cell becomes an offset better than the cell quality (e.g. cell based RSRP) of the serving cell e.g. SpCell, wherein the UE includes one or more of the following in the LTM lower layer report: Information about the best “ N beam” (or RS) of the LTM Candidate Cell whose cell quality has triggered the event; Information about the best “beam” (or RS) of the Serving Cell whose cell quality has triggered the event; An indication of the best beam or RS such as, a beam identifier of the best beam, an RS index (e.g. SSB index) or a resource indication, indicating the position of that best beam in the associated resource configuration,9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 such as an SSB Resource Indicator (SSBRI), in the case of an SSB being configured as a resource; Information about the Serving cell e.g. Pcell associated to the “best” beam and / or best SSB of the Serving cell; an identifier associated to the measurement which is being triggered e.g. a reporting configuration identifier, and / or a resource configuration identifier, or another identifier associated to the reporting configuration identifier.

[0151] In some examples, information about the best “ N beam” (or RS) of the LTM Candidate Cell whose cell quality has triggered the event, includes at least one of: an indication of a value of the beam measurement quantity e.g. Ll-RSRP associated to the best beam or RS; an indication of a value of a measurement quantity configured at the UE (e.g. reporting quantity(ies) configured in the LTM reporting configuration) e.g. Ll-RSRQ associated to that beam or RS; a differential measurement quantity (e.g. differential LI RSRP) associated to the best beam (e.g. relative to a reference value) of the LTM Candidate cell; an indication of the best beam or RS such as, a beam identifier of the best beam, an RS index (e.g. SSB index) or a resource indication, indicating the position of that best beam in the associated resource configuration, such as an SSB Resource Indicator (SSBRI), in the case of an SSB being configured as a resource; or N may be configurable or fixed quantity.

[0152] In some examples, information about the best “beam” (or RS) of the Serving Cell whose cell quality has triggered the event, includes at least one of: an indication of a value of the beam measurement quantity (e.g. Ll-RSRP associated to the best beam or RS of the Serving Cell); an indication of a value of a measurement quantity configured at the UE (e.g. reporting quantity(ies) configured in the LTM reporting configuration) (e.g. Ll-RSRQ associated to that beam or RS); or a differential measurement quantity (e.g. differential LI RSRP) associated to the best beam (e.g. relative to a reference value) of the Serving Cell.

[0153] In some examples, an indication of the best beam or RS such as, a beam identifier of the best beam, an RS index (e.g. SSB index) or a resource indication, indicating the position of that best beam in the associated resource configuration can include: an SSB Resource Indicator (SSBRI), in the case of an SSB being configured as a resource includes information about the LTM candidate cell whose cell quality has triggered the event. LTM Candidate ID e.g. encoded in fewer bits than the cell identity and associated to an LTM Candidate cell configuration, configured when LTM is configured; Cell identifier (Cell ID) of the LTM Candidate cell which has triggered the LTM lower layer report (this may be a Serving cell index or SCell index depending on whether the LTM candidate cell has been configured as a PCell, PSCell, or SCell); Physical Cell Identity (PCI) of the LTM candidate cell which has triggered the LTM lower layer report; SSB Frequency (e.g. ARFCN of the SSB) of the LTM candidate cell which has triggered9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 the LTM lower layer report; or Cell quality of the LTM Candidate cell e.g. cell-level RSRP, cell-level RSRQ, cell level SINR, etc.

[0154] In some examples, information about the Serving cell e.g. Pcell associated to the “best” beam and / or best SSB of the Serving cell can include LTM Candidate ID (e.g. encoded in fewer bits than the cell identity and associated to the current serving cell), also configured as an LTM Candidate cell configuration, configured when LTM is configured; Cell identifier (Cell ID) of the Serving Cell which has triggered the LTM lower layer report (this may be a Serving cell index or SCell index depending on whether the LTM candidate cell has been configured as a PCell, PSCell, or SCell); Physical Cell Identity (PCI) of the Serving Cell which has triggered the LTM lower layer report; SSB Frequency (e.g. ARFCN of the SSB) of the Serving Cell which has triggered the LTM lower layer report; or Cell quality of the Serving cell e.g. cell-level RSRP, cell-level RSRQ, cell level SINR, etc.

[0155] In some examples, an identifier associated to the measurement which is being triggered (e.g. a reporting configuration identifier), and / or a resource configuration identifier, or another identifier associated to the reporting configuration identifier can include an Event ID, if there are multiple events configured for one or more LTM candidate cells, but e.g., with different conditions or parameters.

[0156] For that set of embodiments, the UE transmits the LTM lower layer report e.g. by transmitting a MAC Control Element, and / or a report over PUSCH and / or PUCCH.

[0157] The fulfillment of the triggering condition may be expressed in terms of measurements on RS(s) (e.g. SSB, CSLRS, MRS, etc.) associated to pre-activated TCI states of an LTM candidate cell, and measurements on RS(s) (e.g. SSB, CSI-RS, MRS, etc.) associated to deactivated TCI states of that LTM candidate cell, as follows.

[0158] In one option, when the resource indication is included in the LTM lower layer report, it may be associated to a resource configuration which is associated to the reporting configuration in which the triggering condition which has triggered the report is configured. The resource configuration includes a resource set may be structure as a first and a second list, wherein the first list includes one or more SSB indexes and the second list includes one or more LTM candidate cell identifiers (IDs), wherein the position in the list is associated to an LTM CSI resource in that LTM CSI resource configuration. For example, the instance of the IE LTM- CSLResourceConfig includes the following lists ltm-CSI-SSB-ResourceList-rl8 and Itm- CandidateldList-r 18 : ltm-CSI-SSB-ResourceList-rl8 ltm-CandidateIdList-rl8[SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1] [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]9900-110777W001 / P110777W001[SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1][SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1][SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3][SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3][SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3][SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3][SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4][SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5][SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5][SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5][SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5][SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]

[0159] In the example above, a resource indicator is associated to a position in the list(s) in which a resource is included. Each LTM CSI resource in the LTM CSI resource configuration (in particular in a resource set) has an associated resource indicator e.g. an SSB Resource Indicator (SSBRI), wherein SSBRI k (k > 0) corresponds to the configured (k+l)-th entry of the associated [LTM-csi-SSB-ResourceList] in the corresponding [LTM-CSI-SSB-ResourceSet]. For example, SSBRI#0 corresponds to the configured 1-st entry of the associated [LTM-csi- SSB-ResourceList] in the corresponding [LTM-CSI-SSB-ResourceSet], i.e., the pair [SSB1], [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]; SSBRI#1 corresponds to the configured 2-nd entry i.e., the pair [SSB2], [LTM Candidate cell ID 1], etc.

[0160] The LTM CSI measurement report which is being triggered (which may also be called a CSI report, or CSI report for Ll / L2-triggered mobility, or LI measurement report or LI measurement report for LTM, or L2 measurement report) includes one or more resource9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 indication(s), each associated to an LTM candidate cell identifier and a RS identifier of that LTM candidate cell e.g. an SSBRI associated to an LTM candidate cell ID and an SSB Index of the LTM candidate cell associated to the LTM candidate cell ID. When the UE includes an LTM candidate cell to be included in an LTM CSI measurement report the UE includes an SSBRI associated to the selected LTM candidate cell. Taking the previous example, including LTM Candidate cell whose LTM candidate cell ID =2 means that the UE includes SSBRI#5 and / or SSBRI#6 and / or SSBRI#7 and / or SSBRI#8 and / or SSBRI#9, since: [LTM Candidate cell ID 2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2][LTM Candidate cell ID 2]

[0161] An LTM CSI measurement report (which may also be called a CSI report, or CSI report for Ll / L2-triggered mobility) may also include measurement information associated to an LTM CSI resource which is included in the LTM CSI measurement report, for example, measurement information associated to an SSBRI, such as one or more of the following:Layer 1 Reference Signal Received Power (Ll-RSRP)- Differential Ll-RSRPLayer 1 reference signal received quality (Ll-RSRQ) Differential LI -RSRQ- Layer 1 SINR (Ll-SINR)Differential LI -SINRSS reference signal received power (SS-RSRP)SS reference signal received quality (SS-RSRQ)SS signal-to-noise and interference ratio (SS-SINR)

[0162] In one example, for Ll-RSRP reporting, if the higher layer parameters [noOfReportedCells] and [noOfReportedRSPerCell] are both configured to be one, the reported Ll-RSRP value is defined by a 7-bit value in the range [-140, -44] dBm with IdB step size, or if any of the higher layer parameters [noOfReportedCells] and [noOfReportedRSPerCell] is configured to be larger than one, the UE uses differential Ll-RSRP based reporting for the LTM CSI resources whicha the UE selects to be included in the LTM CSI measurement report, where the largest measured value of Ll-RSRP is quantized to a 7-bit value in the range [-140, -44] dBm with IdB step size, and the differential Ll-RSRP is quantized to a 4-bit value. The differential Ll-RSRP value is computed with 2 dB step size with a reference to the largest measured Ll-RSRP value which is part of the same Ll-RSRP reporting instance.9900-110777W001 / P110777W001

[0163] SS reference signal received power (SS-RSRP), for example, maybe be defined as the linear average over the power contributions (in [W]) of the resource elements that carry secondary synchronization signals. The measurement time resource(s) for SS-RSRP are confined within SS / PBCH Block Measurement Time Configuration (SMTC) window duration. If SS-RSRP is used for Ll-RSRP as configured by reporting configurations as defined in TS 38.214, the measurement time resources(s) restriction by SMTC window duration is not applicable.

[0164] For SS-RSRP determination demodulation reference signals for physical broadcast channel (PBCH) and, if indicated by higher layers, CSI reference signals in addition to secondary synchronization signals may be used. SS-RSRP using demodulation reference signal for PBCH or CSI reference signal shall be measured by linear averaging over the power contributions of the resource elements that carry corresponding reference signals taking into account power scaling for the reference signals as defined in TS 38.213. If SS-RSRP is not used for Ll-RSRP, the additional use of CSI reference signals for SS-RSRP determination is not applicable.

[0165] SS-RSRP shall be measured only among the reference signals corresponding to SS / PBCH blocks with the same SS / PBCH block index and the same physical-layer cell identity.

[0166] If SS-RSRP is not used for Ll-RSRP and higher-layers indicate certain SS / PBCH blocks for performing SS-RSRP measurements, then SS-RSRP is measured only from the indicated set of SS / PBCH block(s).

[0167] For frequency range 1, the reference point for the SS-RSRP shall be the antenna connector of the UE. For frequency range 2, SS-RSRP shall be measured based on the combined signal from antenna elements corresponding to a given receiver branch. For frequency range 1 and 2, if receiver diversity is in use by the UE, the reported SS-RSRP value shall not be lower than the corresponding SS-RSRP of any of the individual receiver branches.

[0168] The number of resource elements within the measurement period that are used by the UE to determine SS-RSRP is left up to the UE implementation with the limitation that corresponding measurement accuracy requirements have to be fulfilled.

[0169] The power per resource element is determined from the energy received during the useful part of the symbol, excluding the CP.

[0170] When the UE selects the LTM candidate cell(s) and respective RSs (e.g. SSB(s)) to include in the LTM CSI measurement report, the UE includes an SSBRI associated to a selected LTM CSI resource (i.e. pair SSB index, LTM candidate cell ID), and a measurement information associated (e.g. Ll-RSRP and / or differential Ll-RSRP), in the mapping order of FIG. 6. One example of the bitwidth for SSBRI, RSRP, differential RSRP to be included in an9900-110777W001 / P110777W001LTM CSI measurement report is illustrated in FIG. 7, where 'sSSBis the configured number of SS / PBCH blocks (SSBs) in the corresponding LTM CSI resource configuration (e.g. within a resource set) for reporting an RSRP (E.g. 'ssb-Index-RSRP'.).

[0171] In a set of embodiments, the UE monitors the fulfillment of triggering conditions (associated to a reporting configuration) for LTM Candidate Cell(s) for which there is at least one candidate TCI State activated (or pre-activated). When an LTM Candidate cell does not have a candidate TCI state activated, that LTM Candidate Cell is not monitored for the fulfillment of the triggering condition; when a TCI State of an LTM Candidate cell is activated, the UE evaluates the triggering condition; when a TCI State of an LTM Candidate cell is deactivated, the UE stops evaluating the triggering condition. One benefit is that the UE reduces the amount of LTM Candidate cells for which it needs to evaluate the triggering conditions, which may reduce the number of measurements the UE needs to perform and report. In other words, in this case we may say that the applicable LTM Candidate cells are the LTM Candidate cells configured for which the UE has at least one TCI state activated.

[0172] One could consider that the reception of the command from the network for preactivating a TCI state of an LTM candidate cell which does not have any activated TCI state (e.g. reception of a “Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation MAC CE MAC CE”) leads the UE to initiate the evaluating of the fulfillment of the condition.

[0173] For example, when the LTM resource configuration associated to the LTM reporting configuration for the event includes one or more LTM Candidate Cell(s) (e.g. LTM Candidate IDs in the resource configuration), the UE considers as applicable cells (i.e. cells to be evaluated for the triggering conditions, to be compared with the serving cell) the subset of LTM Candidate cell(s) among these for which at least one candidate TCI state has been activated, e.g., which may be a single LTM Candidate cell. A candidate TCI state of an LTM Candidate cell is configured at the UE e.g. when the UE is configured with the candidate, and, the UE may further receive a command to pre-activate a TCI state of an LTM candidate cell before an LTM Cell switch command, so that in response to the command to activate a candidate TCI state of the LTM Candidate the UE evaluates the fulfillment of the triggering condition for the LTM Candidate Cell, and does not need to evaluate the triggering conditions for the other LTM Candidate cells in the LTM Resource configuration which do not have an activated candidate TCI State.

[0174] In a set of embodiments, the UE monitors the fulfillment of triggering conditions (associated to a reporting configuration) for beams (e.g. SSBs) of LTM Candidate Cell(s) associated to candidate TCI State activated (or pre-activated). A beam measurement (of a beam of an LTM Candidate Cell) is considered as input to the triggering condition when the beam is9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 associated to a candidate TCI state which is activated, e.g., when the beam (e.g. SSB) of the LTM candidate cell is configured as QCL source of the candidate TCI state which is activated. When a beam of an LTM Candidate cell does not have an associated candidate TCI state activated, that beam is not monitored for the fulfillment of the triggering condition; when a TCI State of an LTM Candidate cell is activated, the UE evaluates the triggering condition for the associated beam; when a TCI State of an LTM Candidate cell is deactivated, the UE stops evaluating the triggering condition for the beam associated to that TCI state. One benefit is that the UE reduces the amount of beams of an LTM Candidate cell for which it needs to evaluate the triggering conditions, which may reduce the number of measurements the UE needs to perform and report. In other words, in this case we may say that the applicable beams of an LTM Candidate cell are the beams of the LTM Candidate cells configured for which the UE has associated TCI states activated.

[0175] One could consider that the reception of the command from the network for preactivating a TCI state of an LTM candidate cell which does not have any activated TCI state (e.g. reception of a “Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation MAC CE MAC CE”) leads the UE to initiate the evaluating of the fulfillment of the condition.

[0176] For example, when the LTM resource configuration associated to the LTM reporting configuration for the event includes one or more SSBs of an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g. SSB indexes in the resource configuration), the UE considers as applicable beams / SSBs (i.e. beams / SSBs to be evaluated for the triggering conditions, to be compared with the best beam / best SSB of the serving cell) the subset of beams / SSBs among these which have the associated candidate TCI state activated, e.g., which may be a single SSB of the LTM Candidate cell. A candidate TCI state of an LTM Candidate cell is configured at the UE e.g. when the UE is configured with the candidate, and, the UE may further receive a command to pre-activate a TCI state of an LTM candidate cell before an LTM Cell switch command, so that in response to the command to activate a candidate TCI state (associated to a beam / SSB-X) of the LTM Candidate the UE evaluates the fulfillment of the triggering condition for the SSB-X of the LTM Candidate Cell, and does not need to evaluate the triggering conditions for the other beams of the LTM Candidate cell in the LTM Resource configuration which do not have an activated candidate TCI State.

[0177] In a set of embodiments, the UE monitors the fulfillment of triggering conditions (associated to a reporting configuration) for LTM Candidate Cell(s) for which the UE has performed an Early Uplink sync procedure. When an LTM Candidate cell is a cell for which the UE has not performed an early UL sync procedure, that LTM Candidate Cell is not monitored for the fulfillment of the triggering condition; when the UE triggers an Early UL sync procedure,9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 the UE evaluates the triggering condition for that LTM Candidate cell; when the UL sync for an LTM Candidate cell is determined to be invalid (e.g. indication from the network and / or expiry of a Time Alignment timer), the UE stops evaluating the triggering condition. One benefit is that the UE reduces the amount of LTM Candidate cells for which it needs to evaluate the triggering conditions, which may reduce the number of measurements the UE needs to perform and report. In other words, in this case we may say that the applicable LTM Candidate cells are the LTM Candidate cells configured for which the UE has a chance to perform an LTM Cell Switch without the need of a random access procedure.

[0178] One could consider that the reception of the command from the network for triggering the Early UL sync, a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) order indicating an LTM candidate cell, leads the UE to initiate the evaluating of the fulfillment of the condition for the indicated LTM Candidate Cell. Or, alternatively, the transmission of a preamble to the LTM Candidate cell indicated in the PDCCH order. Or, alternatively, the transmission of a preamble to the LTM Candidate cell indicated in the PDCCH order and the absence of another PDCCH order indicating a re-transmission of an attempt.

[0179] For example, when the LTM resource configuration associated to the LTM reporting configuration for the event includes one or more LTM Candidate Cell(s) (e.g. LTM Candidate IDs in the resource configuration), the UE considers as applicable cells (i.e. cells to be evaluated for the triggering conditions, to be compared with the serving cell) the subset of LTM Candidate cell(s) among these for which Early UL sync has been performed by the UE e.g., which may be a single LTM Candidate cell.

[0180] In a set of embodiments, the UE monitors the fulfillment of triggering conditions (associated to a reporting configuration) for beams (e.g. SSBs) of LTM Candidate Cell(s) which have been indicated during Early UL sync. A beam measurement (of a beam of an LTM Candidate Cell) is considered as input to the triggering condition when the beam (e.g. SSB) has been indicated in a PDCCH order triggering an Early UL sync procedure, leading to the selection of a Random Access Resource of an LTM Candidate cell associated to the indicated beam (SSB). When a beam of an LTM Candidate cell has not been indicated in the PDCCH order triggering the Early UL sync, that beam is not monitored for the fulfillment of the triggering condition; when a beam (SSB index) is indicated in the PDCCH triggering Early UL sync, the UE evaluates the triggering condition for the associated beam; when the Early UL sync with a beam becomes invalid (e.g. expiry of the Time Alignment timer for an LTM candidate cell and / or beam), the UE stops evaluating the triggering condition for the beam associated to that TCI state. One benefit is that the UE reduces the amount of beams of an LTM Candidate cell for which it needs to evaluate the triggering conditions, which may reduce the number of9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 measurements the UE needs to perform and report. In other words, in this case we may say that the applicable beams of an LTM Candidate cell are the beams which have been indicated to the UE in PDCCH orders triggering Early UL sync.

[0181] One could consider that the reception of the command from the network for triggering Early UL sync (e.g. PDCCH order indicating an LTM candidate cell and an associated beam / SSB index) which leads the UE to initiate the evaluating of the fulfillment of the condition.

[0182] For example, when the LTM resource configuration associated to the LTM reporting configuration for the event includes one or more SSBs of an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g. SSB indexes in the resource configuration), the UE considers as applicable beams / SSBs (i.e. beams / SSBs to be evaluated for the triggering conditions, to be compared with the best beam / best SSB of the serving cell) the subset of beams / SSBs among these which have been indicated in the command for triggering Early UL sync.

[0183] In a set of embodiments, the UE monitors the fulfillment of triggering conditions (associated to a reporting configuration) for LTM Candidate Cell(s) for which there is at least one candidate TCI State activated (or pre-activated) and for which early UL sync has been triggered.

[0184] In a set of embodiments, the UE monitors the fulfillment of triggering conditions (associated to a reporting configuration) for beams (e.g. SSBs) of LTM Candidate Cell(s) associated to candidate TCI State activated (or pre-activated) and which have been indicated during Early UL sync.

[0185] In one embodiment, the UE triggers an LTM lower layer report when the LI RSRP of an SSB of the LTM candidate cell, which is configured as Quasi-Co-Location (QCL) source of a activated TCI state of the LTM candidate cell, becomes an offset better than the LI RSRP of the SSB (e.g. SS-RSRP) of the serving cell configured as QCL source of the activated TCI state of the serving cell. The report aims to indicate to the network, for example, that the “best” beam or RS of the LTM candidate cell the UE is DL synchronized becomes better than the “best” beam of the serving cell, which enables the network to trigger an LTM Cell Switch towards an LTM candidate cell which the UE is DL synchronized with. In other words, instead of sending periodic reports to the network so the network detects when the best beam of an activated LTM candidate cell becomes better than the best beam of the serving cell (e.g. PCell), the UE only triggers the report when that happens.

[0186] Operations of a communication device 1100 (implemented using the structure of FIG. 11) will now be discussed with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 8 according to some embodiments of inventive concepts. For example, modules may be stored in memory 1110 of9900-110777W001 / P110777W001FIG. 11 , and these modules may provide instructions so that when the instructions of a module are executed by respective communication device processing circuitry 1102, communication device 1100 performs respective operations of the flow chart.

[0187] At block 810, processing circuity 1102 receives, via communication interface 1112, an indication of configuration information. In some embodiments, the configuration information configures the communication device to transmit the LTM lower layer measurement report in response to the triggering condition being met. In some examples, receiving the indication of the configuration information includes receiving a reporting configuration associated to a resource configuration, the resource configuration indicating at least one resource to be measured and used as input to the triggering condition.

[0188] At block 820, processing circuitry 1102 determines a first measurement.

[0189] At block 830, processing circuitry 1102 determines a second measurement.

[0190] At block 840, processing circuitry 1102 determines that a triggering condition is met. In some embodiments, the triggering condition is determined to be met based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated. In additional or alterative embodiments, determining that the triggering condition is met includes determining that the first measurement is an offset better than the second measurement.

[0191] In additional or alternative embodiments, the TCI state activated in the serving cell is a first TCI state. The second measurement is associated with a special cell, SPCell, for which a second TCI state is activated, the SpCell including one of: a primary cell, PCell, of a master cell group, MCG; or a primary secondary cell group cell, PSCell, of a secondary cell group, SCG.

[0192] In additional or alternative embodiments, the second measurement is associated with a secondary cell, SCell, of a master cell group, MCG, or of a secondary cell group, SCG.

[0193] In additional or alternative embodiments, the first measurement includes a beam measurement of a beam of the LTM Candidate cell. The second measurement includes a beam measurement associated to the serving cell.

[0194] In additional or alternative embodiments, the first measurement includes an indication of a best beam of the LTM candidate cell. The second measurement includes an indication of a best beam of the serving cell.9900-110777W001 / P110777W001

[0195] In additional or alternative embodiments, the first measurement includes a cell level measurement of the LTM Candidate cell. The second measurement includes a cell level measurement associated of the serving cell.

[0196] In additional or alternative embodiments, the first measurement includes an indication of a cell quality of the LTM Candidate cell. The second measurement includes an indication of a cell quality associated to the serving cell.

[0197] In additional or alternative embodiments, the TCI state activated in the serving cell is a first TCI state. The first measurement is associated with the LTM candidate cell, which has a second TCI state activated. In some examples, the first measurement is one measurement of a plurality of measurements that are each associated with one LTM candidate of a plurality of LTM candidate cells.

[0198] In additional or alternative embodiments, the TCI state activated in the serving cell is a first TCI state. The first measurement is associated with the LTM candidate cell, which has a second TCI state deactivated.

[0199] At block 850, processing circuitry 1102 transmits, via communication interface 1112, a LTM lower layer measurement report.

[0200] At block 860, processing circuitry 1102 receives, via communication interface 1112, an LTM cells switch command. In some embodiments, the TCI state activated in the serving cell is a first TCI state. The LTM candidate cell is a first LTM candidate cell. The LTM cell switch command can indicate a second LTM candidate cell to become a target cell and a second TCI state to be activated in the second LTM candidate cell. In some examples, the second LTM candidate cell is the first LTM candidate cell. The second TCI state is the first TCI state.

[0201] In additional or alternative examples, the LTM lower layer measurement report includes an indication of the second LTM candidate cell and an indication of a beam, a reference signal, or a synchronization signal block, SSB, associated with the second TCI state to be activated in the second LTM candidate cell. Furthermore, the LTM lower layer measurement report can include the indication of the SSB, which is configured as a quasi-co-location, QCL, source of the second TCI state to be activated in the second LTM candidate cell.

[0202] In additional or alternative embodiments, transmitting the LTM lower layer measurement report includes transmitting at least one of: an indication of the first measurement; an indication of the second measurement; an indication of the LTM candidate cell associated with the first measurement; an indication of the serving cell associated with the second measurement; and an indication of a reporting configuration associated with the LTM lower layer measurement report. In additional or alternative embodiments, transmitting the LTM lower layer measurement report includes transmitting the LTM lower layer measurement report9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 via at least one of: a media access control, MAC, control element; a physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH; and a physical uplink control channel, PUCCH.

[0203] Various operations from the flow chart of FIG. 8 may be optional with respect to some embodiments of communication devices and related methods.

[0204] Operations of a network node 1100 (implemented using the structure of FIG. 12) will now be discussed with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 9 according to some embodiments of inventive concepts. For example, modules may be stored in memory 1204 of FIG. 12, and these modules may provide instructions so that when the instructions of a module are executed by respective network node processing circuitry 1202, network node 1200 performs respective operations of the flow chart.

[0205] At block 910, processing circuitry 1202 transmits, via communication interface 1206, an indication of configuration information. In some embodiments, the configuration information configures the communication device to transmit a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a triggering condition, the triggering condition being associated with the difference between: a first measurement being associated with a LTM candidate cell; and a second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated.

[0206] In additional or alternative embodiments, transmitting the indication of the configuration information to the communication device includes transmitting an indication that the communication device transmit the LTM lower layer measurement report in response to the first measurement being an offset better than the second measurement.

[0207] In additional or alternative embodiments, the TCI state activated in the serving cell is a first TCI state. The second measurement is associated with a special cell, SPCell, for which a second TCI state is activated, the SpCell including one of: a primary cell, PCell, of a master cell group, MCG; or a primary secondary cell group cell, PSCell, of a secondary cell group, SCG.

[0208] In some examples, the second measurement is associated with a secondary cell, SCell, of a master cell group, MCG, or of a secondary cell group, SCG.

[0209] At block 920, processing circuitry 1202 receives, via communication interface 1206, a LTM lower layer measurement report. In some embodiments, receiving the LTM lower layer measurement report includes receiving the LTM lower layer report including: an indication of the second LTM candidate cell; and an indication of a beam, a reference signal, or a synchronization signal block, SSB, associated with the second TCI state to be activated in the second LTM candidate cell.9900-110777W001 / P110777W001

[0210] In additional or alternative embodiments, receiving the LTM lower layer measurement report includes receiving the LTM lower layer measurement report including the indication of the SSB, which is configured as a quasi-co-location, QCL, source of the second TCI state to be activated in the second LTM candidate cell.

[0211] In additional or alternative embodiments, receiving the LTM lower layer measurement report includes receiving at least one of: an indication of the first measurement; an indication of the second measurement; an indication of the LTM candidate cell associated with the first measurement; an indication of the serving cell associated with the second measurement; and an indication of a reporting configuration associated with the LTM lower layer measurement report.

[0212] In additional or alternative embodiments, receiving the LTM lower layer measurement report includes receiving the LTM lower layer measurement report via at least one of: a media access control, MAC, control element; a physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH; and a physical uplink control channel, PUCCH.

[0213] In additional or alternative embodiments, receiving the indication of the configuration information includes receiving a reporting configuration associated to a resource configuration, the resource configuration indicating at least one resource to be measured and used as input to the triggering condition.

[0214] At block 930, processing circuitry 1202 transmits, via communication interface 1206, a LTM cell switch command. In some embodiments, the TCI state activated in the serving cell is a first TCI state. The LTM candidate cell is a first LTM candidate cell. Transmitting the LTM cell switch command includes transmitting the LTM cell switch command including an indication of a second LTM candidate cell to become a target cell and a second TCI state to be activated in the second LTM candidate cell. In some examples, the second LTM candidate cell is the first LTM candidate cell. The second TCI state is the first TCI state.

[0215]

[0216] Various operations from the flow chart of FIG. 9 may be optional with respect to some embodiments of communication devices and related methods.

[0217] FIG. 10 shows an example of a communication system 1000 in accordance with some embodiments.

[0218] In the example, the communication system 1000 includes a telecommunication network 1002 that includes an access network 1004, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network 1006, which includes one or more core network nodes 1008. The access network 1004 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes 1010a and 1010b (one9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 1010), or any other similar 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access node or non-3GPP access point. Moreover, as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, the network nodes 1010 are not necessarily limited to an implementation in which a radio portion and a baseband portion are supplied and integrated by a single vendor. Thus, it will be understood that the network nodes 1010 may include disaggregated implementations or portions thereof. For example, in some embodiments, the telecommunication network 1002 includes one or more Open-RAN (ORAN) network nodes. An ORAN network node is a node in the telecommunication network 1002 that supports an ORAN specification (e.g., a specification published by the O-RAN Alliance, or any similar organization) and may operate alone or together with other nodes to implement one or more functionalities of any node in the telecommunication network 1002, including one or more network nodes 1010 and / or core network nodes 1008.

[0219] Examples of an ORAN network node include an open radio unit (O-RU), an open distributed unit (O-DU), an open central unit (O-CU), including an O-CU control plane (O-CU- CP) or an O-CU user plane (O-CU-UP), a RAN intelligent controller (near-real time or non-real time) hosting software or software plug-ins, such as a near-real time RAN control application (e.g., xApp) or a non-real time RAN automation application (e.g., rApp), or any combination thereof (the adjective “open” designating support of an ORAN specification). The network node may support a specification by, for example, supporting an interface defined by the ORAN specification, such as an Al, Fl, Wl, El, E2, X2, Xn interface, an open fronthaul user plane interface, or an open fronthaul management plane interface. Intents and content-aware notifications described herein may be communicated from a 3GPP network node or an ORAN network node over 3GPP-defined interfaces (e.g., N2, N3) and / or ORAN Alliance-defined interfaces (e.g., Al, 01). Moreover, an ORAN network node may be a logical node in a physical node. Furthermore, an ORAN network node may be implemented in a virtualization environment (described further below) in which one or more network functions are virtualized. For example, the virtualization environment may include an O-Cloud computing platform orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an O-2 interface defined by the O-RAN Alliance. The network nodes 1010 facilitate direct or indirect connection of user equipment (UE), such as by connecting wireless devices 1012a, 1012b, 1012c, and 1012d (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 1012) to the core network 1006 over one or more wireless connections. The network nodes 1010 facilitate direct or indirect connection of user equipment (UE), such as by connecting UEs 1012a, 1012b, 1012c, and 1012d (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 1012) to the core network 1006 over one or more wireless connections.9900-110777W001 / P110777W001

[0220] Example wireless communications over a wireless connection include transmitting and / or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and / or other types of signals suitable for conveying information without the use of wires, cables, or other material conductors. Moreover, in different embodiments, the communication system 1000 may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, UEs, and / or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and / or signals whether via wired or wireless connections. The communication system 1000 may include and / or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and / or other similar type of system.

[0221] The UEs 1012 may be any of a wide variety of communication devices, including wireless devices arranged, configured, and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with the network nodes 1010 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes 1010 are arranged, capable, configured, and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs 1012 and / or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network 1002 to enable and / or provide network access, such as wireless network access, and / or to perform other functions, such as administration in the telecommunication network 1002.

[0222] In the depicted example, the core network 1006 connects the network nodes 1010 to one or more hosts, such as host 1016. These connections may be direct or indirect via one or more intermediary networks or devices. In other examples, network nodes may be directly coupled to hosts. The core network 1006 includes one more core network nodes (e.g., core network node 1008) that are structured with hardware and software components. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the UEs, network nodes, and / or hosts, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of the core network node 1008. Example core network nodes include functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Subscription Identifier De-concealing function (SIDE), Unified Data Management (UDM), Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), Network Exposure Function (NEF), and / or a User Plane Function (UPF).

[0223] The host 1016 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network 1004 and / or the telecommunication network 1002, and may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. The host 1016 may host a variety of applications to provide one or more service. Examples of such applications include live and pre-recorded audio / video content, data collection services such as9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 retrieving and compiling data on various ambient conditions detected by a plurality of UEs, analytics functionality, social media, functions for controlling or otherwise interacting with remote devices, functions for an alarm and surveillance center, or any other such function performed by a server.

[0224] As a whole, the communication system 1000 of FIG. 10 enables connectivity between the UEs, network nodes, and hosts. In that sense, the communication system may be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures, such as specific standards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE), and / or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g., 6G); wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (WiFi); and / or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, LiFi, and / or any low- power wide-area network (LPWAN) standards such as LoRa and Sigfox.

[0225] In some examples, the telecommunication network 1002 is a cellular network that implements 3GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunications network 1002 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network 1002. For example, the telecommunications network 1002 may provide Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services to some UEs, while providing Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and / or Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) / Massive loT services to yet further UEs.

[0226] In some examples, the UEs 1012 are configured to transmit and / or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a UE may be designed to transmit information to the access network 1004 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 1004. Additionally, a UE may be configured for operating in single- or multi-RAT or multi- standard mode. For example, a UE may operate with any one or combination of Wi-Fi, NR (New Radio) and LTE, i.e. being configured for multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC), such as E-UTRAN (Evolved- UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) New Radio - Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).

[0227] In the example, the hub 1014 communicates with the access network 1004 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE 1012c and / or 1012d) and network nodes (e.g., network node 1010b). In some examples, the hub 1014 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub 1014 may be a broadband router enabling access to the9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 core network 1006 for the UEs. As another example, the hub 1014 may be a controller that sends commands or instructions to one or more actuators in the UEs. Commands or instructions may be received from the UEs, network nodes 1010, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub 1014. As another example, the hub 1014 may be a data collector that acts as temporary storage for UE data and, in some embodiments, may perform analysis or other processing of the data. As another example, the hub 1014 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR headset, display, loudspeaker or other media delivery device, the hub 1014 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 1014 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and / or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub 1014 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular in if one or more of the UEs are low energy loT devices.

[0228] The hub 1014 may have a constant / persistent or intermittent connection to the network node 1010b. The hub 1014 may also allow for a different communication scheme and / or schedule between the hub 1014 and UEs (e.g., UE 1012c and / or 1012d), and between the hub 1014 and the core network 1006. In other examples, the hub 1014 is connected to the core network 1006 and / or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub 1014 may be configured to connect to an M2M service provider over the access network 1004 and / or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 1010 while still connected via the hub 1014 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub 1014 may be a dedicated hub - that is, a hub whose primary function is to route communications to / from the UEs from / to the network node 1010b. In other embodiments, the hub 1014 may be a non-dedicated hub - that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and network node 1010b, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and / or end point for certain data channels.

[0229] FIG. 11 shows a UE 1100 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, a UE refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and / or other UEs. Examples of a UE include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, mobile phone, cell phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phone, wireless local loop phone, desktop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), wireless cameras, gaming console or device, music storage device, playback appliance, wearable terminal device, wireless endpoint, mobile station, tablet, laptop, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), smart device, wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE), vehicle-mounted or vehicle embedded / integrated wireless device, etc. Other examples include any UE identified by the 3rd9900-110777W001 / P110777W001Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including a narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and / or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.

[0230] A UE may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3GPP standard for sidelink communication, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), or vehicle- to-everything (V2X). In other examples, a UE may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and / or operates the relevant device. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE may represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter).

[0231] The UE 1100 includes processing circuitry 1102 that is operatively coupled via a bus 1104 to an input / output interface 1106, a power source 1108, a memory 1110, a communication interface 1112, and / or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain UEs may utilize all or a subset of the components shown in FIG. 11. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

[0232] The processing circuitry 1102 is configured to process instructions and data and may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory 1110. The processing circuitry 1102 may be implemented as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored computer programs, general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry 1102 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs).

[0233] In the example, the input / output interface 1106 may be configured to provide an interface or interfaces to an input device, output device, or one or more input and / or output devices. Examples of an output device include a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. An input device may allow a user to capture information into the UE 1100. Examples of an input device include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, a biometric sensor, etc., or any combination thereof. An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port may be used to provide an input device and an output device.

[0234] In some embodiments, the power source 1108 is structured as a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic device, or power cell, may be used. The power source 1108 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 1108 itself, and / or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE 1100 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source 1108. Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from the power source 1108 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the UE 1100 to which power is supplied.

[0235] The memory 1110 may be or be configured to include memory such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable readonly memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth. In one example, the memory 1110 includes one or more application programs 1114, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 1116. The memory 1110 may store, for use by the UE 1100, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

[0236] The memory 1110 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as tamper resistant module in the form of a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) including one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs), such as a USIM and / or ISIM, other memory, or any combination thereof. The UICC may for example be an embedded UICC (eUICC), integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as ‘SIM card.’ The memory 1110 may allow the UE 1100 to access instructions, application programs9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 and the like, stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory 1110, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.

[0237] The processing circuitry 1102 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network using the communication interface 1112. The communication interface 1112 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 1122. The communication interface 1112 may include one or more transceivers used to communicate, such as by communicating with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another UE or a network node in an access network). Each transceiver may include a transmitter 1118 and / or a receiver 1120 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter 1118 and receiver 1120 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., antenna 1122) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.

[0238] In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communication interface 1112 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short- range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof. Communications may be implemented in according to one or more communication protocols and / or standards, such as IEEE 802.11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, New Radio (NR), UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, transmission control protocol / internet protocol (TCP / IP), synchronous optical networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.

[0239] Regardless of the type of sensor, a UE may provide an output of data captured by its sensors, through its communication interface 1112, via a wireless connection to a network node. Data captured by sensors of a UE can be communicated through a wireless connection to a network node via another UE. The output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reports the sensed temperature), random (e.g., to even out the load from reporting from several sensors), in response to a triggering event (e.g., when moisture is detected an alert is sent), in response to a request (e.g., a user initiated request), or a continuous stream (e.g., a live video feed of a patient).9900-110777W001 / P110777W001

[0240] As another example, a UE comprises an actuator, a motor, or a switch, related to a communication interface configured to receive wireless input from a network node via a wireless connection. In response to the received wireless input the states of the actuator, the motor, or the switch may change. For example, the UE may comprise a motor that adjusts the control surfaces or rotors of a drone in flight according to the received input or to a robotic arm performing a medical procedure according to the received input.

[0241] A UE, when in the form of an Internet of Things (loT) device, may be a device for use in one or more application domains, these domains comprising, but not limited to, city wearable technology, extended industrial application and healthcare. Non-limiting examples of such an loT device are a device which is or which is embedded in: a connected refrigerator or freezer, a TV, a connected lighting device, an electricity meter, a robot vacuum cleaner, a voice controlled smart speaker, a home security camera, a motion detector, a thermostat, a smoke detector, a door / window sensor, a flood / moisture sensor, an electrical door lock, a connected doorbell, an air conditioning system like a heat pump, an autonomous vehicle, a surveillance system, a weather monitoring device, a vehicle parking monitoring device, an electric vehicle charging station, a smart watch, a fitness tracker, a head-mounted display for Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR), a wearable for tactile augmentation or sensory enhancement, a water sprinkler, an animal- or item-tracking device, a sensor for monitoring a plant or animal, an industrial robot, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and any kind of medical device, like a heart rate monitor or a remote controlled surgical robot. A UE in the form of an loT device comprises circuitry and / or software in dependence of the intended application of the loT device in addition to other components as described in relation to the UE 1100 shown in FIG. 11.

[0242] As yet another specific example, in an loT scenario, a UE may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and / or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and / or measurements to another UE and / or a network node. The UE may in this case be an M2M device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, the UE may implement the 3GPP NB-IoT standard. In other scenarios, a UE may represent a vehicle, such as a car, a bus, a truck, a ship and an airplane, or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and / or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.

[0243] In practice, any number of UEs may be used together with respect to a single use case. For example, a first UE might be or be integrated in a drone and provide the drone’s speed information (obtained through a speed sensor) to a second UE that is a remote controller operating the drone. When the user makes changes from the remote controller, the first UE may9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 adjust the throttle on the drone (e.g. by controlling an actuator) to increase or decrease the drone’s speed. The first and / or the second UE can also include more than one of the functionalities described above. For example, a UE might comprise the sensor and the actuator, and handle communication of data for both the speed sensor and the actuators.

[0244] FIG. 12 shows a network node 1200 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a UE and / or with other network nodes or equipment, in a telecommunication network. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs), NR NodeBs (gNBs)), O-RAN nodes, or components of an O-RAN node (e.g., intelligent controller, O-RU, O-DU, O-CU).

[0245] Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and so, depending on the provided amount of coverage, may be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units and / or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS).

[0246] Other examples of network nodes include multiple transmission point (multi-TRP) 5G access nodes, multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell / multicast coordination entities (MCEs), Operation and Maintenance (O&M) nodes, Operations Support System (OSS) nodes, Self-Organizing Network (SON) nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centers (E-SMLCs)), and / or Minimization of Drive Tests (MDTs).

[0247] The network node 1200 includes a processing circuitry 1202, a memory 1204, a communication interface 1206, and a power source 1208. The network node 1200 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their own respective components. In certain scenarios in which the network node 1200 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeBs. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in some instances be9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, the network node 1200 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory 1204 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 1210 may be shared by different RATs). The network node 1200 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 1200, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, Zigbee, Z-wave, LoRaWAN, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node 1200.

[0248] The processing circuitry 1202 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and / or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 1200 components, such as the memory 1204, to provide network node 1200 functionality.

[0249] In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1202 includes a system on a chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1202 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1212 and baseband processing circuitry 1214. In some embodiments, the radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1212 and the baseband processing circuitry 1214 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 1212 and baseband processing circuitry 1214 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.

[0250] The memory 1204 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer- readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and / or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device-readable and / or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and / or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry 1202. The memory 1204 may store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, and / or other instructions capable of being executed by the processing circuitry 1202 and utilized by the network node 1200. The memory 1204 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 1202 and / or any data received via the communication interface 1206. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1202 and memory 1204 is integrated.9900-110777W001 / P110777W001

[0251] The communication interface 1206 is used in wired or wireless communication of signaling and / or data between a network node, access network, and / or UE. As illustrated, the communication interface 1206 comprises port(s) / terminal(s) 1216 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. The communication interface 1206 also includes radio front-end circuitry 1218 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna 1210. Radio front-end circuitry 1218 comprises filters 1220 and amplifiers 1222. The radio front-end circuitry 1218 may be connected to an antenna 1210 and processing circuitry 1202. The radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1210 and processing circuitry 1202. The radio front-end circuitry 1218 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection. The radio front-end circuitry 1218 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 1220 and / or amplifiers 1222. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 1210. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 1210 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 1218. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 1202. In other embodiments, the communication interface may comprise different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0252] In certain alternative embodiments, the network node 1200 does not include separate radio front-end circuitry 1218, instead, the processing circuitry 1202 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna 1210. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 1212 is part of the communication interface 1206. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 1206 includes one or more ports or terminals 1216, the radio front-end circuitry 1218, and the RF transceiver circuitry 1212, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 1206 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 1214, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

[0253] The antenna 1210 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and / or receive wireless signals. The antenna 1210 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry 1218 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and / or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna 1210 is separate from the network node 1200 and connectable to the network node 1200 through an interface or port.

[0254] The antenna 1210, communication interface 1206, and / or the processing circuitry 1202 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and / or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and / or signals may be received from a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna 1210, the communication interface 1206, and / or the processing circuitry9900-110777W001 / P110777W0011202 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and / or signals may be transmitted to a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment.

[0255] The power source 1208 provides power to the various components of network node 1200 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source 1208 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 1200 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node 1200 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., the power grid, an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry of the power source 1208. As a further example, the power source 1208 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.

[0256] Embodiments of the network node 1200 may include additional components beyond those shown in FIG. 12 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and / or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, the network node 1200 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 1200 and to allow output of information from the network node 1200. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 1200.

[0257] FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a host 1300, which may be an embodiment of the host 1016 of FIG. 10, in accordance with various aspects described herein. As used herein, the host 1300 may be or comprise various combinations hardware and / or software, including a standalone server, a blade server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server, a virtual machine, container, or processing resources in a server farm. The host 1300 may provide one or more services to one or more UEs.

[0258] The host 1300 includes processing circuitry 1302 that is operatively coupled via a bus 1304 to an input / output interface 1306, a network interface 1308, a power source 1310, and a memory 1312. Other components may be included in other embodiments. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the devices of previous figures, such as FIGS. 11 and 12, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of host 1300.

[0259] The memory 1312 may include one or more computer programs including one or more host application programs 1314 and data 1316, which may include user data, e.g., data9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 generated by a UE for the host 1300 or data generated by the host 1300 for a UE. Embodiments of the host 1300 may utilize only a subset or all of the components shown. The host application programs 1314 may be implemented in a container-based architecture and may provide support for video codecs (e.g., Versatile Video Coding (VVC), High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), Advanced Video Coding (AVC), MPEG, VP9) and audio codecs (e.g., FLAC, Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), MPEG, G.711), including transcoding for multiple different classes, types, or implementations of UEs (e.g., handsets, desktop computers, wearable display systems, heads-up display systems). The host application programs 1314 may also provide for user authentication and licensing checks and may periodically report health, routes, and content availability to a central node, such as a device in or on the edge of a core network. Accordingly, the host 1300 may select and / or indicate a different host for over-the-top services for a UE. The host application programs 1314 may support various protocols, such as the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) protocol, Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH), etc.

[0260] FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 1400 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to any device described herein, or components thereof, and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components. Some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtual environments 1400 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computing device that operates as a network node, UE, core network node, or host. Further, in embodiments in which the virtual node does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node or host), then the node may be entirely virtualized. In some embodiments, the virtualization environment 1400 includes components defined by the O-RAN Alliance, such as an O-Cloud environment orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an O-2 interface.

[0261] Applications 1402 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualization environment Q400 to implement some of the features, functions, and / or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.

[0262] Hardware 1404 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and / or instructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and / or other hardware devices as9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 described herein, such as a network interface, input / output interface, and so forth. Software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers 1406 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs 1408a and 1408b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs 1408), and / or perform any of the functions, features and / or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer 1406 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the VMs 1408.

[0263] The VMs 1408 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 1406. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 1402 may be implemented on one or more of VMs 1408, and the implementations may be made in different ways. Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.

[0264] In the context of NFV, a VM 1408 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non- virtualized machine. Each of the VMs 1408, and that part of hardware 1404 that executes that VM, be it hardware dedicated to that VM and / or hardware shared by that VM with others of the VMs, forms separate virtual network elements. Still in the context of NFV, a virtual network function is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more VMs 1408 on top of the hardware 1404 and corresponds to the application 1402.

[0265] Hardware 1404 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware 1404 may implement some functions via virtualization.Alternatively, hardware 1404 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g. such as in a data center or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration 1410, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications 1402. In some embodiments, hardware 1404 is coupled to one or more radio units that each include one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that may be coupled to one or more antennas. Radio units may communicate directly with other hardware nodes via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station. In some embodiments, some signaling can be provided with the use of a control system 1412 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.9900-110777W001 / P110777W001

[0266] FIG. 15 shows a communication diagram of a host 1502 communicating via a network node 1504 with a UE 1506 over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments. Example implementations, in accordance with various embodiments, of the UE (such as a UE 1012a of FIG. 10 and / or UE 1100 of FIG. 11), network node (such as network node 1010a of FIG. 10 and / or network node 1200 of FIG. 12), and host (such as host 1016 of FIG. 10 and / or host 1300 of FIG. 13) discussed in the preceding paragraphs will now be described with reference to FIG. 15.

[0267] Like host 1300, embodiments of host 1502 include hardware, such as a communication interface, processing circuitry, and memory. The host 1502 also includes software, which is stored in or accessible by the host 1502 and executable by the processing circuitry. The software includes a host application that may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as the UE 1506 connecting via an over-the-top (OTT) connection 1550 extending between the UE 1506 and host 1502. In providing the service to the remote user, a host application may provide user data which is transmitted using the OTT connection 1550.

[0268] The network node 1504 includes hardware enabling it to communicate with the host 1502 and UE 1506. The connection 1560 may be direct or pass through a core network (like core network 1006 of FIG. 10) and / or one or more other intermediate networks, such as one or more public, private, or hosted networks. For example, an intermediate network may be a backbone network or the Internet.

[0269] The UE 1506 includes hardware and software, which is stored in or accessible by UE 1506 and executable by the UE’s processing circuitry. The software includes a client application, such as a web browser or operator-specific “app” that may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via UE 1506 with the support of the host 1502. In the host 1502, an executing host application may communicate with the executing client application via the OTT connection 1550 terminating at the UE 1506 and host 1502. In providing the service to the user, the UE’s client application may receive request data from the host's host application and provide user data in response to the request data. The OTT connection 1550 may transfer both the request data and the user data. The UE’s client application may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides to the host application through the OTT connection 1550.

[0270] The OTT connection 1550 may extend via a connection 1560 between the host 1502 and the network node 1504 and via a wireless connection 1570 between the network node 1504 and the UE 1506 to provide the connection between the host 1502 and the UE 1506. The connection 1560 and wireless connection 1570, over which the OTT connection 1550 may be provided, have been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between the host 1502 and9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 the UE 1506 via the network node 1504, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices.

[0271] As an example of transmitting data via the OTT connection 1550, in step 1508, the host 1502 provides user data, which may be performed by executing a host application. In some embodiments, the user data is associated with a particular human user interacting with the UE 1506. In other embodiments, the user data is associated with a UE 1506 that shares data with the host 1502 without explicit human interaction. In step 1510, the host 1502 initiates a transmission carrying the user data towards the UE 1506. The host 1502 may initiate the transmission responsive to a request transmitted by the UE 1506. The request may be caused by human interaction with the UE 1506 or by operation of the client application executing on the UE 1506. The transmission may pass via the network node 1504, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. Accordingly, in step 1512, the network node 1504 transmits to the UE 1506 the user data that was carried in the transmission that the host 1502 initiated, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step 1514, the UE 1506 receives the user data carried in the transmission, which may be performed by a client application executed on the UE 1506 associated with the host application executed by the host 1502.

[0272] In some examples, the UE 1506 executes a client application which provides user data to the host 1502. The user data may be provided in reaction or response to the data received from the host 1502. Accordingly, in step 1516, the UE 1506 may provide user data, which may be performed by executing the client application. In providing the user data, the client application may further consider user input received from the user via an input / output interface of the UE 1506. Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided, the UE 1506 initiates, in step 1518, transmission of the user data towards the host 1502 via the network node 1504. In step 1520, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure, the network node 1504 receives user data from the UE 1506 and initiates transmission of the received user data towards the host 1502. In step 1522, the host 1502 receives the user data carried in the transmission initiated by the UE 1506.

[0273] One or more of the various embodiments improve the performance of OTT services provided to the UE 1506 using the OTT connection 1550, in which the wireless connection 1570 forms the last segment. More precisely, the teachings of these embodiments may enable savings in terms of UE power consumption and UL resources on the network side, because unnecessary transmissions, as in periodic reports, would not be performed when the UE only transmits the LI report for LTM when the condition is fulfilled i.e. when an LTM candidate cell becomes an9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 offset better than the serving cell e.g. the PCell, which has an activated TCI state: that indicates to the network the need to trigger an LTM Cell Switch.

[0274] In other words, the UE only transmits the LI report for LTM when a beam in the LTM candidate cell for which the UE is not DL synchronized, becomes an offset better than a beam in the LTM candidate cell for which the UE is DL synchronized, which indicates to the network the need to switch the beam to be synchronized with.

[0275] In an example scenario, factory status information may be collected and analyzed by the host 1502. As another example, the host 1502 may process audio and video data which may have been retrieved from a UE for use in creating maps. As another example, the host 1502 may collect and analyze real-time data to assist in controlling vehicle congestion (e.g., controlling traffic lights). As another example, the host 1502 may store surveillance video uploaded by a UE. As another example, the host 1502 may store or control access to media content such as video, audio, VR or AR which it can broadcast, multicast or unicast to UEs. As other examples, the host 1502 may be used for energy pricing, remote control of non-time critical electrical load to balance power generation needs, location services, presentation services (such as compiling diagrams etc. from data collected from remote devices), or any other function of collecting, retrieving, storing, analyzing and / or transmitting data.

[0276] In some examples, a measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rate, latency and other factors on which the one or more embodiments improve. There may further be an optional network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 1550 between the host 1502 and UE 1506, in response to variations in the measurement results. The measurement procedure and / or the network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection may be implemented in software and hardware of the host 1502 and / or UE 1506. In some embodiments, sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with other devices through which the OTT connection 1550 passes; the sensors may participate in the measurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantities exemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities from which software may compute or estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguring of the OTT connection 1550 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not directly alter the operation of the network node 1504. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling that facilitates measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency and the like, by the host 1502. The measurements may be implemented in that software causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using the OTT connection 1550 while monitoring propagation times, errors, etc.9900-110777W001 / P110777W001

[0277] Although the computing devices described herein (e.g., UEs, network nodes, hosts) may include the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise computing devices with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that these computing devices may comprise any suitable combination of hardware and / or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein. Determining, calculating, obtaining or similar operations described herein may be performed by processing circuitry, which may process information by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and / or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination. Moreover, while components are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multiple boxes, in practice, computing devices may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component, and functionality may be partitioned between separate components. For example, a communication interface may be configured to include any of the components described herein, and / or the functionality of the components may be partitioned between the processing circuitry and the communication interface. In another example, non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.

[0278] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may be provided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry alone or to other components of the computing device, but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole, and / or by end users and a wireless network generally.

Claims

9900-110777W001 / P110777W001CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. A method of operating a communication device, the method comprising: determining (840) that a triggering condition is met based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated; and responsive to the triggering condition being met, transmitting (850) a LTM lower layer measurement report.

2. The method of Claim 1, further comprising: determining (820) the first measurement; and determining (830) the second measurement.

3. The method of any of Claims 1-2, wherein determining that the triggering condition is met comprises determining that the first measurement is an offset better than the second measurement.

4. The method of any of Claims 1-3, wherein the TCI state activated in the serving cell is a first TCI state, wherein the second measurement is associated with a special cell, SPCell, for which a second TCI state is activated, the SpCell including one of: a primary cell, PCell, of a master cell group, MCG; or a primary secondary cell group cell, PSCell, of a secondary cell group, SCG.

5. The method of any of Claims 1-3, wherein the second measurement is associated with a secondary cell, SCell, of a master cell group, MCG, or of a secondary cell group, SCG.

6. The method of any of Claims 1-5, wherein the first measurement comprises a beam measurement of a beam of the LTM Candidate cell, and wherein the second measurement comprises a beam measurement associated to the serving cell.9900-110777W001 / P110777W0017. The method of any of Claims 1-6, wherein the first measurement comprises an indication of a best beam of the LTM candidate cell, and wherein the second measurement comprises an indication of a best beam of the serving cell.

8. The method of any of Claims 1-7, wherein the first measurement comprises a cell level measurement of the LTM Candidate cell, and wherein the second measurement comprises a cell level measurement associated of the serving cell.

9. The method of any of Claims 1-8, wherein the first measurement comprises an indication of a cell quality of the LTM Candidate cell, and wherein the second measurement comprises an indication of a cell quality associated to the serving cell.

10. The method of any of Claims 1-9, wherein the TCI state activated in the serving cell is a first TCI state, and wherein the first measurement is associated with the LTM candidate cell, which has a second TCI state activated.

11. The method of Claim 10, wherein the first measurement is one measurement of a plurality of measurements that are each associated with one LTM candidate of a plurality of LTM candidate cells.12 The method of any of Claims 1-12, wherein the TCI state activated in the serving cell is a first TCI state, and wherein the first measurement is associated with the LTM candidate cell, which has a second TCI state deactivated.

13. The method of any of Claims 1-12, wherein the TCI state activated in the serving cell is a first TCI state, and wherein the LTM candidate cell is a first LTM candidate cell, the method further comprising: responsive to transmitting the LTM lower layer measurement report, receiving (860) an LTM cell switch command indicating a second LTM candidate cell to become a target cell9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 and a second TCI state to be activated in the second LTM candidate cell.

14. The method of Claim 13, wherein the second LTM candidate cell is the first LTM candidate cell, and wherein the second TCI state is the first TCI state.

15. The method of any of Claims 13-14, wherein the LTM lower layer measurement report includes an indication of the second LTM candidate cell and an indication of a beam, a reference signal, or a synchronization signal block, SSB, associated with the second TCI state to be activated in the second LTM candidate cell.

16. The method of Claim 15, wherein the LTM lower layer measurement report includes the indication of the SSB, which is configured as a quasi-co-location, QCL, source of the second TCI state to be activated in the second LTM candidate cell.

17. The method of any of Claims 1-16, further comprising: receiving (810) an indication of configuration information from a network node, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit the LTM lower layer measurement report in response to the triggering condition being met.

18. The method of Claim 17, wherein receiving the indication of the configuration information comprises receiving a reporting configuration associated to a resource configuration, the resource configuration indicating at least one resource to be measured and used as input to the triggering condition.

19. The method of any of Claims 1-18, wherein transmitting the LTM lower layer measurement report includes transmitting at least one of: an indication of the first measurement; an indication of the second measurement; an indication of the LTM candidate cell associated with the first measurement; an indication of the serving cell associated with the second measurement; and an indication of a reporting configuration associated with the LTM lower layer measurement report, and wherein transmitting the LTM lower layer measurement report includes transmitting the LTM lower layer measurement report via at least one of:9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 a media access control, MAC, control element; a physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH; and a physical uplink control channel, PUCCH.

20. A method of operating a network node, the method comprising: transmitting (910) an indication of configuration information to a communication device, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a triggering condition, the triggering condition being associated with the difference between: a first measurement being associated with a LTM candidate cell; and a second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated; and receiving (920) the LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device.

21. The method of Claim 20, wherein transmitting the indication of the configuration information to the communication device comprises transmitting an indication that the communication device transmit the LTM lower layer measurement report in response to the first measurement being an offset better than the second measurement.

22. The method of any of Claims 20-21, wherein the TCI state activated in the serving cell is a first TCI state, wherein the second measurement is associated with a special cell, SPCell, for which a second TCI state is activated, the SpCell including one of: a primary cell, PCell, of a master cell group, MCG; or a primary secondary cell group cell, PSCell, of a secondary cell group, SCG.

23. The method of any of Claims 20-22, wherein the second measurement is associated with a secondary cell, SCell, of a master cell group, MCG, or of a secondary cell group, SCG.

24. The method of any of Claims 20-23, further comprising: responsive to receiving the LTM lower layer report, transmitting (930) a LTM cell switch command to the communication device.

25. The method of Claim 24, wherein the TCI state activated in the serving cell is a first TCI state, and9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 wherein the LTM candidate cell is a first LTM candidate cell, wherein transmitting the LTM cell switch command comprises transmitting the LTM cell switch command including an indication of a second LTM candidate cell to become a target cell and a second TCI state to be activated in the second LTM candidate cell.

26. The method of Claim 25, wherein the second LTM candidate cell is the first LTM candidate cell, and wherein the second TCI state is the first TCI state.

27. The method of any of Claims 25-26, wherein receiving the LTM lower layer measurement report comprises receiving the LTM lower layer report including: an indication of the second LTM candidate cell; and an indication of a beam, a reference signal, or a synchronization signal block, SSB, associated with the second TCI state to be activated in the second LTM candidate cell.

28. The method of Claim 27, wherein receiving the LTM lower layer measurement report comprises receiving the LTM lower layer measurement report including the indication of the SSB, which is configured as a quasi-co-location, QCL, source of the second TCI state to be activated in the second LTM candidate cell.

29. The method of any of Claims 20-28, wherein receiving the LTM lower layer measurement report includes receiving at least one of: an indication of the first measurement; an indication of the second measurement; an indication of the LTM candidate cell associated with the first measurement; an indication of the serving cell associated with the second measurement; and an indication of a reporting configuration associated with the LTM lower layer measurement report, and wherein receiving the LTM lower layer measurement report includes receiving the LTM lower layer measurement report via at least one of: a media access control, MAC, control element; a physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH; and a physical uplink control channel, PUCCH.

30. The method of any of Claims 20-29, wherein receiving the indication of the configuration9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 information comprises receiving a reporting configuration associated to a resource configuration, the resource configuration indicating at least one resource to be measured and used as input to the triggering condition.

31. A communication device (1100) adapted to perform operations comprising: determining (840) that a triggering condition is met based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated; and responsive to the triggering condition being met, transmitting (850) a LTM lower layer measurement report.

32. The communication device of Claim 31, the operations further comprising any of the operations of Claims 2-19.

33. A computer program comprising program code to be executed by processing circuitry (1102) of a communication device (1100), whereby execution of the program code causes the communication device to perform operations comprising: determining (840) that a triggering condition is met based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated; and responsive to the triggering condition being met, transmitting (850) a LTM lower layer measurement report.

34. The computer program of Claim 33, the operations further comprising any of the operations of Claims 2-19.

35. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory storage medium (1110) including program code to be executed by processing circuitry (1102) of a communication device (1100), whereby execution of the program code causes the communication device to perform operations comprising: determining (840) that a triggering condition is met based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated9900-110777W001 / P110777W001 with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated; and responsive to the triggering condition being met, transmitting (850) a LTM lower layer measurement report.

36. The computer program product of Claim 34, further comprising any of the operations of Claims 2-19.

37. A network node (1200) adapted to perform operations comprising: transmitting (910) an indication of configuration information to a communication device, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a triggering condition, the triggering condition being associated with the difference between: a first measurement being associated with a LTM candidate cell; and a second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated; and receiving (920) the LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device.

38. The network node of Claim 37, the operations further comprising any of the operations of Claims 21-.30.

39. A computer program comprising program code to be executed by processing circuitry (1202) of a network node (1200), whereby execution of the program code causes the network node to perform operations comprising: transmitting (910) an indication of configuration information to a communication device, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a triggering condition, the triggering condition being associated with the difference between: a first measurement being associated with a LTM candidate cell; and a second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated; and receiving (920) the LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device.

40. The computer program of Claim 39, further comprising any of the operations of Claims 21-30.9900-110777W001 / P110777W00141. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory storage medium (1204) including program code to be executed by processing circuitry (1202) of a network node (1200), whereby execution of the program code causes the network node to perform operations comprising: transmitting (910) an indication of configuration information to a communication device, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a triggering condition, the triggering condition being associated with the difference between: a first measurement being associated with a LTM candidate cell; and a second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated; and receiving (920) the LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device.

42. The computer program product of Claim 40, the operations further comprising any of the operations of Claims 21-30.

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