Prach transmission triggered by pdcch order

Abstract

A method is performed by a wireless device (900) for physical random access channel, PRACH, transmission triggered by a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, order. The wireless device receives (100), via radio resource control, RRC, signaling, a configuration for the PDCCH order. The wireless device receives (110) the PDCCH order in accordance with the received configuration. The received PDCCH order includes an indication whether a pathloss offset associated with a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is to be used for determining a power level for transmission of a PRACH preamble. The wireless device transmits (120) the PRACH preamble with a power level determined based on the indication included in the received PRACH order.

Description

PRACH TRANSMISSION TRIGGERED BY PDCCH ORDER TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present disclosure generally relates to wireless communication, and more particularly to physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission triggered by a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order. BACKGROUND 1 New Radio (NR)

[0002] Data scheduling in 3rdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP) New Radio (NR) is typically in slot basis. An example is shown in Figure 1 with a 14-symbol slot, where the first two symbols contain Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and the rest contain physical shared data channel, i.e., either Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) or Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH).

[0003] Downlink transmissions can be dynamically scheduled in a slot-by-slot basis. The scheduling information such as resource allocation and modulation order is contained in Downlink Control Information (DCI) carried by PDCCH. Downlink (DL) user data is carried in PDSCH.

[0004] Uplink data transmission can also be dynamically scheduled using DCI carried in PDCCH. A User Equipment (UE) first decodes uplink grants in DCI and then transmits data in PUSCH based the scheduling information in the uplink grant.

[0005] In addition to dynamic scheduling of PUSCH, semi-persistent transmission of periodic PUSCH using Configured Grants (CGs) is also supported in NR. In CG type 1, the periodicity as well as a slot offset are configured by Radio Resource Control (RRC). In CG type 2, the PUSCH transmission can be activated or deactivated dynamically by DCI.

[0006] For channel estimation purpose, Channel State Information Reference Signals (CSI- RS) in the DL and Sounding Reference Signals (SRS) in the uplink (UL) are also supported.

[0007] Synchronization Signals (SS), including Primary SS (PSS) and Secondary SS (SSS), are used in NR to allow a UE to acquire DL synchronization to a cell and the Physical Cell ID (PCI) associated to a cell. PSS and SSS are transmitted together with Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), referred to a SS / PDCH block or SSB in short. PBCH is used to transmit some critical information (i.e., Master Information Block, MIB) in a cell for a UE to acquire system information from other System Information Blocks (SIBs).2 Uplink Power Control in NR

[0008] The NR base station, which is referred to as a gNodeB (gNB), may consist of a single Transmission and Reception Point (TRP) or multiple TRPs. In case of multiple TRPs, a UE can be scheduled with downlink transmissions from one or more of the TRPs and uplink data transmission to one or more of the TRPs, either one TRP at a time or simultaneously.

[0009] Uplink power control in NR consists of two parts, i.e., open-loop power control and closed-loop power control. Open-loop power control is used to set the uplink transmit power based on a few factors such as pathloss estimation between the UE and a TRP in a serving cell, the target receive power, channel / signal bandwidth, Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), fractional power control factor, etc.

[0010] Closed-loop power control is based on power adjustments signaled in power control commands received from the gNB. The power control commands are typically determined based on the difference between the actual received power and a desired received power at the gNB. Up to two closed power control loops can be configured in NR for each UL channel or signal. Either cumulative or non-cumulative closed-loop power adjustments are supported in NR. A closed loop adjustment at a given time is also referred as a power control adjustment state.

[0011] A DL Reference Signal (RS) is transmitted from each TRP, which can be used by a UE to estimate the pathloss between the UE and the TRP. Each DL RS has an associated index for identifying it. For UL transmission, power control can be performed separately for each TRP.

[0012] For a UL channel or signal (e.g., PUSCH, Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), or SRS) to be transmitted in UL associated with a pathloss RS with index ^^, its transmit power in a transmission occasion ^^ within a slot in a bandwidth part (BWP) of a carrier frequency of aserving cell and a closed-loop index ^^ ^^^ ൌ 0,1^ can be expressed as^^^ெ^^,^,^^^^ ^^^^^, ^^, ^^^ ൌ ^^^^^^ ^ ^^^^^^^ି^^^^^^^, ^^^ ^ ^^^^^^^ௗି^^^^^^^, ^^^where ^^^ெ^^,^,^^^^^ is a UE’s maximum output power for the carrier frequency, f, of the servingcell, c, in transmission occasion ^^ for the UL channel or signal. ^^^^^^ି^^^^^^^, ^^^ is the open looptransmit power and ^^^^^^^ௗି^^^^^^^, ^^^ is the closed loop power adjustment.

[0013] ^^^^^^ି^^^^^^^, ^^^ is given by:^^^^^^ି^^^^^^^, ^^^ ൌ ^^ை ^ ^^ோ^^^^^ ^ ^^^^^^^^^^ ^ ∆^^^^where ^^ைis the and comprises a cellspecific part ^^ை,^^^^and a UE specific part ^^ை,^ா, ^^ோ^^^^^ is a power adjustment related to the bandwidth or number of Resource Blocks (RBs) occupied by the channel or signal at transmissionoccasion ^^ , ^^^^^^^^ is a pathloss (PL) estimation based on a downlink RS with index k,^^ ^0 ^ ^^ ^ 1^ is a fractional pathloss compensation factor, and ∆^^^^ is a power offset determinedby modulation and code rate of the UL channel or signal.

[0014] ^^^^^^^ௗି^^^^^^^, ^^^ is given by:ெ ^^^ ^ ^^^, ^^^ ^ ^ ^^^^^, ^^^ ; if cumulation is enabledin a DCI associated with the UL channel or signal at transmission occasion ^^ and configured withclosed-loop index ^^ ; ∑ெ^ୀ^ ^^^^^, ^^^ is a sum of power adjustment values indicated in TPCcommands that the UE received for the channel or signal since the TPC command for transmissionoccasion ^^ െ ^^^.

[0015] Note that power control parameters ^^ை , ^^ோ^^^^^ , ^^ , ^^^^ , ∆^^^^ , ^^^^^, ^^^ are generallyconfigured separately for each UL channel or signal (e.g., PUSCH, PUCCH, and SRS) and may be different for different UL channels or signals. 3 SRS

[0016] In NR, SRS is used for providing Channel State Information (CSI) to the gNB in the UL. The usage of SRS includes, e.g., deriving the appropriate transmission / reception beams and / or to perform link adaptation (i.e., setting the transmission rank and the MCS), and for selecting DL (e.g., for PDSCH transmissions) and UL (e.g., for PUSCH transmissions) Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) precoding.

[0017] In Long Term Evolution (LTE) and NR, the SRS is configured via RRC, where parts of the configuration can be updated (for reduced latency) through Medium Access Control (MAC)- Control Element (CE) signaling. The configuration includes, for example, the SRS resource allocation (the physical mapping and the sequence to use) as well as the time-domain behavior (aperiodic, semi-persistent, or periodic). For aperiodic SRS transmission, the RRC configuration does not activate an SRS transmission from the UE but instead a dynamic activation trigger is transmitted from the gNB in the DL, via the DCI in the PDCCH which instructs the UE to transmit the SRS once, at a predetermined time.

[0018] When configuring SRS transmissions, the gNB configures, through the SRS-Config Information Element (IE), a set of SRS resources and a set of SRS resource sets, where each SRS resource set contains one or more SRS resources.4 QCL and TCI States

[0019] In NR, several signals can be transmitted from different antenna ports of a same base station. These signals can have the same large-scale properties such as Doppler shift / spread, average delay spread, or average delay. These antenna ports are then said to be quasi co-located (QCL).

[0020] If the UE knows that two antenna ports are QCL with respect to a certain parameter (e.g. Doppler spread), the UE can estimate that parameter based on one of the antenna ports and apply that estimate for receiving signal on the other antenna port.

[0021] For example, there may be a QCL relation between a CSI-RS for Tracking RS (TRS) and the PDSCH Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS). When UE receives the PDSCH DMRS, it can use the measurements already made on the TRS to assist the DMRS reception.

[0022] Information about what assumptions can be made regarding QCL is signaled to the UE from the network. In NR, four types of QCL relations between a transmitted source RS and transmitted target reference signal (RS) were defined: ^ Type A: {Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread} ^ Type B: {Doppler shift, Doppler spread} ^ Type C: {average delay, Doppler shift} ^ Type D: {Spatial Rx parameter}

[0023] QCL type D was introduced to facilitate beam management with analog beamforming and is known as spatial QCL. There is currently no strict definition of spatial QCL, but the understanding is that if two transmitted antenna ports are spatially QCL, the UE can use the same Rx beam to receive them. This is helpful for a UE that uses analog beamforming to receive signals, since the UE needs to adjust its receiver (RX) beam in some direction prior to receiving a certain signal. If the UE knows that the signal is spatially QCL with some other signal it has received earlier, then it can safely use the same RX beam to receive also this signal. Note that for beam management, the discussion mostly revolves around QCL Type D, but it is also necessary to convey a Type A QCL relation for the RSs to the UE, so that it can estimate all the relevant large- scale parameters.

[0024] To introduce dynamics in beam and TRP selection, the UE can be configured through RRC signaling with up to 128 Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) states. The TCI state information element is shown below: TCI-State ::= SEQUENCE { tci-StateId TCI-StateId,qcl-Type1 QCL-Info, qcl-Type2 QCL-Info ... } QCL-Info ::= SEQUENCE { cell ServCellIndex bwp-Id BWP-Id referenceSignal CHOICE { csi-rs NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceId, ssb SSB-Index }, qcl-Type ENUMERATED {typeA, typeB, typeC, typeD}, ... }

[0025] The gNB can use DCI format 1_1 or 1_2 to indicate to the UE that it is to use one of the activated TCI states for the subsequent PDSCH reception. The field being used in the DCI is Transmission configuration indication, which is 3 bits if tci-PresentInDCI is “enabled” or tci- PresentForDCI-Format1-2-r16 is present respectively for DCI format 1_1 and DCI 1_2 by higher layer.

[0026] In 3GPP Release (Rel-) 17, a new unified TCI state framework is specified, which aims to streamline the indication of transmit / receive spatial filter (and other QCL properties) to the UE by letting a single TCI state indicate QCL properties for multiple different DL and / or UL signals / channels.

[0027] The unified TCI state framework of Rel-17 can be RRC configured in one out of two modes of operation “Joint DL / UL TCI” or “Separate DL / UL TCI”. For “Joint DL / UL TCI” operation, one common Joint TCI state is used for both DL and UL signals / channels. For “Separate DL / UL TCI” operation, one common DL-only TCI state is used for DL channels / signals, and one common UL-only TCI state is used for UL signals / channels.

[0028] It is expected that “Joint DL / UL TCI” operation will be the most common use case (see Figure 2 which shows an example of activated TCI states and their mapping to TCI field codepoints for “Joint DL / UL TCI”), but “Separate DL / UL TCI” operation can be useful in specific scenarios where the optimal DL beam differs from optimal UL beam. For “Separate DL / UL TCI”operation, up to two TCI states can be activated per TCI codepoint, one for DL signals / channels (DL-only TCI state) and one for UL signals / channels (UL-only TCI state). One schematic example of how this may look is illustrated in Figure 3 which shows an example of activated TCI states and their mapping to TCI field codepoints for “Separate DL / UL TCI”. In case the TCI codepoint is “0”, the UE should apply “DL-only TCI state 3” as common QCL source for DL signals / channels, and not update the QCL source for UL signals channel. In case the TCI codepoint is “7”, the UE should apply “UL-only TCI state 57” as QCL source for UL signals / channels, and not update the QCL source for DL signals / channel. In case the TCI codepoint is “2”, the UE should apply “DL- only TCI state 9” as QCL source for DL signals / channels and apply “UL-only TCI state 1” as QCL source for UL signals / channels.

[0029] The existing DCI formats 1_1 and 1_2 in NR are reused (as in Rel-15 / 16 beam management framework) for beam indication, both with and without DL assignment. 5 Physical RACH Procedure

[0030] Prior to initiation of the physical random access procedure, Layer 1 or physical layer receives from higher layers a set of SS / PBCH block indexes and provides to higher layers a corresponding set of Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) measurements.

[0031] Physical random access procedure is triggered upon request of a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) transmission by higher layers or by a PDCCH order. A configuration by higher layers for a PRACH transmission includes the following: ^ A configuration for PRACH transmission according to 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 38.211 (see, e.g., V18.2.0). ^ A preamble index, a preamble subcarrier spacing (SCS), PRACH target receive power, a corresponding Random Access Channel (RACH) Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RA-RNTI), and a PRACH resource.

[0032] A PRACH preamble is transmitted according to the PRACH configuration with a transmission power on the indicated PRACH resource.

[0033] PRACH configuration can be cell specific or UE specific. Cell specific PRACH configuration is via a RACH-ConfigCommon IE while UE specific PRACH configuration is done via a RACH-ConfigDedicated IE, both are described in 3GPP TS 38.331 (see, e.g., V18.0.0). 5.1 PDCCH order initiated RACH procedure

[0034] A RACH procedure can be initiated by either the gNB or the UE. It can be contention based (CB) or contention free (CF). A RACH procedure can be initiated by a PDCCH order sentfrom the gNB to the UE for synchronizing the UL when UL time alignment may have been lost. PDCCH order is carried by DCI format 1-0 when the DCI’s Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) is scrambled by a UE’s Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) and the "Frequency domain resource assignment" field of the DCI contains all ones. The PDCCH order contains the following information: ^ Random Access Preamble index: 6 bits according to a higher layer parameter “ra- PreambleIndex” in Clause 5.1.2 of 3GPP TS 38.321 (see, e.g., V18.0.0); ^ SS / PBCH index: 6 bits, If the value of the "Random Access Preamble index" is not all zeros, this field indicates the SS / PBCH that shall be used to determine a RACH occasion for PRACH transmission; otherwise, this field is reserved; ^ PRACH Mask index. If the value of the "Random Access Preamble index" is not all zeros, this field indicates the RACH occasion associated with the SS / PBCH indicated by "SS / PBCH index" for the PRACH transmission, according to Clause 5.1.1 of 3GPP TS 38.321; otherwise, this field is reserved; ^ Cell indicator - ⌈^^^^^^2(^^ + 1)⌉ bits indicating the cell for the corresponding PRACH transmission if the UE is configured with higher layer parameter EarlyUlSyncConfig, where C is the number of candidate cells configured with higher layer parameter EarlyUlSyncConfig; 0 bit otherwise. The bit field index 0 of the cell indicator field is mapped to the serving cell, and other bit field indexes are mapped to the candidate cells configured with higher layer parameter EarlyUlSyncConfig according to an ascending order of a candidate identity configured by ltm- CandidateId, with the bit field index 1 mapped to the candidate cell with the smallest candidate identity; ^ PRACH association indicator - 0 or 1 bit o 1bit if the UE is provided with tag-Id2, and the UE is not provided coresetPoolIndex or is provided coresetPoolIndex with value 0 for the first CORESETs, and is provided coresetPoolIndex with value 1 for the second CORESETs. ^ This field indicates the PCI associated with the PRACH transmission if the UE is provided SSB-MTCAddtionalPCI. The bit field index 0 of this field is mapped to the PCI of the serving cell, and the bit field index 1 of this field is mapped to the active additional PCI. ^ This field indicates the PL-RS for the PRACH transmission if the UE is not provided SSB-MTCAddtionalPCI. The bit field index 0 of this field is mapped to the DL RS that the DM-RS of the PDCCH order is quasi-collocated with, and the bit field index 1 of this field is mapped to the SS / PBCH indicated by the SS / PBCH index field in this DCI format. o 0 bit otherwise. ^ PRACH retransmission indicator - 0 or 1 bit o 1bit if the UE is configured with higher layer parameter EarlyUlSyncConfig. This field indicates initial transmission or retransmission of PRACH according to Table 7.3.1.2.1-3 if the cell indicated by Cell indicator field is a candidate cell, and this field is reserved if the cell indicated by Cell indicator field is a serving cell but not a candidate cell. o 0 bit otherwise. ^ Reserved bits - a number of bits as determined by the following: o 12 bits for operation in a cell with shared spectrum channel access in frequency range 1 or when the DCI format is monitored in common search space for operation in a cell in frequency range 2-2, and if the UE is not configured with higher layer parameter EarlyUlSyncConfig; o 11-⌈^^^^^^2(^^+1)⌉ bits for operation in a cell with shared spectrum channel access in frequency range 1 or when the DCI format is monitored in common search space for operation in a cell in frequency range 2-2, and if the UE is configured with higher layer parameter EarlyUlSyncConfig; o 9-⌈^^^^^^2(^^+1)⌉ bits for operation in a cell without shared spectrum channel access in frequency range 1 or for operation in a cell in frequency range 2-1 or when the DCI format is monitored in UE-specific search space for operation in a cell in frequency range 2-2, and if the UE is configured with higher layer parameter EarlyUlSyncConfig; o 10 bits otherwise.

[0035] If the PRACH preamble index is non-zero, a Contention Free Random Access (CFRA) procedure is triggered, in which the PRACH preamble is allocated only for the UE in a corresponding PRACH resource.

[0036] If the PRACH preamble index is zero, and CFRA PRACH resources associated with SSBs have been provided in a UE specific RACH configuration in rach-ConfigDedicated IE, UE first select an SSB with SSB based RSRP (SS-RSRP) above a configured threshold, then select a PRACH preamble according to the selected SSB. If the PRACH preamble index is zero, and CFRA resources associated with CSI-RSs have been provided in rach-ConfigDedicated IE, UE first select an CSI-RS with CSI-RSRP above a configured threshold, rsrp-ThresholdCSI-RS, then select aPRACH preamble according to the selected CSI-RS. If the PRACH preamble index is zero and the CFRA PRACH resources associated with SSB or CSI-RS are not provided, a Contention-Based Random Access (CBRA) procedure is triggered by the PDCCH order, in which the UE selects a PRACH preamble randomly from a set of PRACH preambles configured for CBRA in the serving cell. Note that in this case, the same preamble could be selected by more than one UE in a same PRACH resource and contention could occur. PDCCH order triggered CBRA is only allowed for a Special Cell (SpCell), i.e., a primary cell in either a Master Cell Group (MCG) or a Secondary Cell Group (SCG), if cell groups are configured. The rach-ConfigDedicated IE is described in 3GPP TS 38.331, the detailed procedure is described in 3GPP TS 38.321 section 5.1.2.

[0037] A RACH occasion is a time and frequency resource (i.e., a number of RBs in a number of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols) allocated for PRACH transmission, multiple RACH occasions may be configured in a PRACH configuration period consisting multiple radio frames. RACH occasions may be multiplexed either in time or frequency.

[0038] From the physical layer perspective, the random access procedure triggered by a PDCCH order includes the transmission of random access preamble (Msg1) in a PRACH by a UE, the transmission of RACH Response (RAR) message with a PDCCH and a corresponding PDSCH (Msg2), and when applicable, the transmission of a PUSCH scheduled by a RAR UL grant, and PDSCH for contention resolution if the RACH procedure is contention based. 5.2 Rel-18 PDCCH order for mTRP with two-TA

[0039] The Rel-18 two-Timing Advance (TA) feature relies on multi-DCI solutions. A PRACH association indicator (0 or 1 bit) is introduced (see also Section 5.1): ^ 1 bit if the UE is provided with Timing Advance Group (TAG)-Id2, and the UE is not provided CORESETpoolIndex or id provided CORESETPoolIndex with value 0 for the first CORESETs, and is provided CORESETPoolIndex with value 1 for the second CPRESETs ^ This field indicates the PCI associated with the PRACH transmission if the UE is provided SSB-MTCAddtionalPCI. The bit field index 0 of this field is mapped to the PCI of the serving cell, and the bit field index 1 of this field is mapped to the active additional PCI. ^ This field indicates the PL-RS for the PRACH transmission if the UE is not provided SSB- MTCAddtionalPCI. The bit field index 0 of this field is mapped to the DL RS that the DM- RS of the PDCCH order is quasi-collocated with, and the bit field index 1 of this field is mapped to the SS / PBCH indicated by the SS / PBCH index field in this DCI format.6 UL-only nodes

[0040] It is expected that the demand on capacity and user throughput will increase in the future. It is also expected that uplink (UL) will become a limiting factor, partly due to the natural imbalance of spectral efficiency between UL and downlink (DL) (which comes from for instance different number antennas, different power levels etc.) but also partly due to an increase of UL heavy services like gaming, Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication, etc.

[0041] A potential remedy to this is to densify the networks more in the UL than in the DL. This may be done by for instance providing radio nodes that only receive in the UL (they do hence not perform any DL transmissions). We will refer to such a transmission node as an “UL-only node / TRP” herein. By using such UL-only nodes one could consequently enhance the UL without enhancing the DL. While there is obviously no direct improvement in downlink performance, as compared to normal DL+UL nodes, benefits of UL-only nodes include lower complexity, lower weight, smaller volumes, ease of deployment and avoiding the need for permits to deploy radio transmitters. A first step to better support UL-only nodes has been included in the NR MIMO Rel- 19 Work Item Description (WID), where the power control for Frequency Range 1 (FR1) and Frequency Range 2 (FR2) will be enhanced to better support UL-only nodes.

[0042] In the Rel-19 MIMO WID, the following objective is included: 5 Specify enhancement for asymmetric DL sTRP / UL mTRP deployment scenarios, assuming intra-band intra-DU non-co-located mTRP scenarios, without changing existing cell definition or defining a new cell (e.g. UL-only cell), assuming the Rel-17 / 18 unified TCI framework and fully reusing the legacy QCL / UL spatial relation rules, targeting FR1 and FR2 a. Two closed-loop PC adjustment states for SRS, both separate from PUSCH; and pathloss offset configurations for pathloss calculation to UL TRP(s), when the pathloss RS is from DL sTRP.

[0043] In the RAN1#116 meeting, the following agreements on pathloss offset for pathloss calculation to UL TRP were achieved: Agreement For the asymmetric DL sTRP / UL mTRP deployment scenarios, support to associate a UL TCI state with a PL offset: ^ When a UL TCI state associated with a PL offset is applied for the PUSCH / PUCCH / SRS transmission, the UE shall calculate the Tx power ofthe PUSCH / PUCCH / SRS based on the DL PL RS and PL offset associated with this UL TCI state. o Reuse the legacy uplink power control formulation by replacing legacy PL with UL PL which is derived from the DL PL RS and the PL offset. o FFS: The UE can update UL PL in a way that new UL PL = current UL PL + an update delta indicated by the NW. ^ Note: it does not intend to increase the number of maintained PLs per cell. ^ FFS: whether to support associating joint TCI state (if supported) with a PL offset. Further study whether / how to apply a PL offset on PDCCH-order PRACH transmission too. ^ FFS: how to determine the Tx beam of PRACH towards UL TRP ^ Note: this does not imply to support 2 TA for single-DCI based system. Agreement Down-select one from the following alternatives: ^ Alt1: Use only RRC to update the PL offset associated with the UL TCI state ^ Alt2: In addition to RRC, MAC-CE can be used to update the PL offset associated with the UL TCI state o FFS: Details on MAC CE Agreement For the asymmetric DL sTRP / UL mTRP deployment scenarios, separate DL / UL TCI state mode of Rel-17 / 18 unified TCI framework can be configured for both FR1 and FR2. ^ Joint TCI state mode can be configured at least for FR1 SUMMARY

[0044] A first aspect provides embodiments of a method performed by a wireless device for physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission triggered by a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order. The method comprises receiving, via radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a configuration for the PDCCH order. The method comprises receiving the PDCCH order in accordance with the received configuration. The received PDCCH order includes anindication whether a pathloss offset associated with a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state is to be used for determining a power level for transmission of a PRACH preamble. The method comprises transmitting the PRACH preamble with a power level determined based on the indication included in the received PRACH order.

[0045] Corresponding embodiments of a wireless device are also provided.

[0046] A second aspect provides embodiments of a method performed by a network node for physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission from a wireless device triggered by a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order from the network node. The method comprises sending, via radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a configuration for the PDCCH order to the wireless device. The method comprises sending the PDCCH order to the wireless device in accordance with the sent configuration. The sent PDCCH order includes an indication whether a pathloss offset associated with a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state is to be used for determining a power level for transmission of a PRACH preamble from the wireless device.

[0047] Corresponding embodiments of a network node are also provided. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0048] Figure 1 shows an example slot with 14 symbols.

[0049] Figure 2 shows an example of activated TCI states and their mapping to TCI field codepoints for “Joint DL / UL TCI”.

[0050] Figure 3 shows an example of activated TCI states and their mapping to TCI field codepoints for “Separate DL / UL TCI”.

[0051] Figure 4 illustrates an example of a serving cell with an UL-only node in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0052] Figure 5 is a flowchart that illustrates the operation of a UE in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0053] Figure 6 illustrates an example embodiment of a TCI state configuration and signaling scenario for a schematic asymmetric single DL TRP and multiple UL TRPs deployment.

[0054] Figure 7 shows a schematic deployment related to the flowchart in Figure 6.

[0055] Figure 8 shows an example of a communication system accordance with some embodiments.

[0056] Figure 9 shows a UE in accordance with some embodiments.

[0057] Figure 10 shows a network node in accordance with some embodiments.

[0058] Figure 11 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0059] The embodiments set forth below represent information to enable those skilled in the art to practice the embodiments and illustrate the best mode of practicing the embodiments. Upon reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawing figures, those skilled in the art will understand the concepts of the disclosure and will recognize applications of these concepts not particularly addressed herein. It should be understood that these concepts and applications fall within the scope of the disclosure.

[0060] 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.

[0061] In the present disclosure, the terms “UL-only node”, “UL-only TRP”, “UL-only RP” are exchangeable.

[0062] There currently exist certain challenge(s). In existing NR multi-TRP operation, it is assumed that each node can be used for both DL transmission and UL reception. For NR Rel-19, the idea of deploying UL-only nodes in a cell has been proposed in RWS-230248, Views on Rel- 19 MIMO / UL enhancements, NTT DOCOMO, INC, 3GPP TSG RAN Rel-19 workshop, Taipei, June 15th – 16th, 2023 and RWS-230290, Views on Rel-19 MIMO evolution, ZTE, Sanechips, 3GPP TSG RAN Rel-19 workshop, Taipei, June 15th – 16th, 2023. UL-only nodes may be useful in following scenarios: ^ UL-only nodes deployed at the cell edge to provide better UL coverage for cell edge UEs. ^ UL-only node deployed in a Time Division Duplexing (TDD) band where there is dominant UL allocation. ^ UL-only node deployed in a band that can only be used for UL transmission due to regulatory issues. ^ UL-only node deployed for network energy saving.

[0063] An UL-only node receives only and does not transmit any DL signals. For this reason, it can also be referred to as UL-only RP. However, one issue with enabling UL-only node is UL power control for UL transmissions to those nodes. In NR, UL power control is based on the DL pathloss computation at the UE (e.g., based on the pathloss computed from DL PL-RS). It has been described how to derive pathloss between UE and UL-only TRP based on measurement done by the network. The Rel-18 multi-TRP (mTRP) two-TA deployment is based on multi-DCI solutions. However, motivated by one single DL TRP in the asymmetric DL single-TRP (sTRP) UL mTRPs deployment, it is natural to exploit single-DCI based solution. In this case, methods are needed toindicate PRACH association for single-DCI (s-DCI) based mTRP scenario including how to carry information related to output power setting and spatial filtering in PDCCH order.

[0064] Certain aspects of the disclosure and their embodiments may provide solutions to these or other challenges. Embodiments of systems and methods are disclosed for how a UE determines spatial filters and associated transmission power settings for PDCCH order triggered PRACH transmission targeting UL-only TRP in an asymmetric DL sTRP UL mTRP deployment.

[0065] In example embodiments of the present disclosure, it is assumed that there is one PRACH per MAC entity. If there is an ongoing Random Access procedure that is triggered by a PDCCH order while the UE receives another PDCCH order indicating the same Random Access Preamble, PRACH mask index and uplink carrier, the Random Access procedure is considered as the same Random Access procedure as the ongoing one and not initialized again.

[0066] Some example embodiments are as follows. Note, however, that these are only examples. The present disclosure describes numerous embodiments, not all of which may be covered by the following examples. In one example, embodiment, a method in a wireless device (e.g., a UE) for determining configuration for PRACH transmission triggered by a PDCCH order comprises: (a) receiving (e.g., from a network node such as, e.g., an anchor TRP) a higher layer configuration about the PDCCH order, (b) receiving a PDCCH order, and decoding the targeting TRP and the PRACH configuration in the PDCCH order, and (c) transmitting PRACH procedure towards the determined TRP according to the determination in Step b.

[0067] In one embodiment, the method further comprises, prior to (b), receiving higher layer configuration on the TCI states, e.g., “joint TCI states” and / or “separate UL / DL TCI states”.

[0068] In one embodiment, the higher layer configuration is received via RRC signaling.

[0069] In one embodiment, the higher layer configuration may include information about any one or more of the following: configuration for a legacy PDCCH order, configuration for a Rel- 19 PDCCH order targeting UL-only TRP, or configuration of a PRACH in 6G targeting UL-only TRP.

[0070] In one embodiment, the PRACH configuration comprised in the PDCCH order is a use case specific PRACH configuration. In one embodiment, the PRACH configuration comprised in the PDCCH order includes one or more of configurations or indications for any one or more of the following: ^ Association to an UL TCI state, or an UL RS or an UL spatial filter o E.g., in case there are power control parameters associated with the UL TCI state, the UE might derive the output power for the triggered PRACH based on the oneor more of these power control parameters (for example one or more of pathloss reference signal, pathloss offset, P0 etc.) ^ A first PRACH transmission ^ A PRACH re-transmission ^ A change of the PREAMBLE_POWER_RAMPING_COUNTER ^ An indication to enable / disable the application of a pre-configured or pre-specified pathloss offset ^ Indication of one out of one or more pre-configured or pre-specified candidate path loss offsets ^ DL-RS used to estimate the pathloss ^ PRACH output power related parameter ^ Power ramping related parameter, e.g., step size for power ramping, maximum number of power ramping etc. ^ Additional PCI index ^ A list of candidate cells ^ Candidate cell SSB index ^ Indication of a new explicit output power offset (which should be applied on top of the legacy output power that the UE would use for the PRACH transmission based on legacy output power calculations for PRACH) ^ Indication of a relative output power indication, which should be applied only if it is a re- transmission of the PRACH, and the UE should apply add the indicated relative output power indication to the output power that was used the last time the UE transmitted the corresponding PRACH.

[0071] In one embodiment, the PDCCH order may indicate a Random Access (RA) Procedure targeting the serving cell, targeting a candidate cell, or targeting a second TRP.

[0072] In one embodiment, the PRACH configuration is an UL-only TRP specific PRACH configuration. In one embodiment, the UL-only TRP specific PRACH configuration is provided to UE via reserved bits in the PDCCH order and / or some existing bitfield in the PDCCH order.

[0073] Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantage(s). Embodiments of the present disclosure may help the UE to determine the association of a PRACH transmission triggered by a PDCCH order to an anchor TRP or an UL-only TRP, and / or get information about suitable output power and / or spatial filter for the PRACH transmission targeting a UL-only TRP.

[0074] Figure 4 illustrates an example of a serving cell with an UL-only node in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure. In this example, an anchor node (TRP0) provides a full coverage of a serving cell with both DL and UL transmissions, and an UL-only node (TRP1) is deployed at the cell edge to improve UL performance of cell edge UEs. TRP0 and TRP1 are connected to a gNB (not shown) via an ideal backhaul link. A UE in the cell may perform initial access and network connection via TRP0. After initial access and / or network connection, if the UE is closer to TRP1 than to TRP0 or if the gNB decides to move the UE to TRP1, e.g. to reduce the uplink interference for TRP0 or to improve resource usage efficiency, the gNB may direct the UE to transmit towards the TRP1. Alternatively, instead of performing initial access via TRP0, for UEs close to TRP1, all UL transmissions including during initial access can be performed via TRP1. The presence of TRP1 may be transparent to UEs in the cell. Due to UE moving, the distance between UE and TRP0 could be different from the distance between UE and TRP1. It will be useful to configure UE with separate UL-RSs (e.g., SRS resource sets and / or SRS resources) targeting TRP0 and TRP1 respectively (SRS0 vs SRS1 in Figure 4).

[0075] In the following, a “first node” refers to a node with UL-only capabilities, and a “second node”, or sometimes referred to as Anchor node, refers to a node with both DL and UL capabilities.

[0076] Figure 5 is a flowchart that illustrates the operation of a UE (also referred to herein as a wireless device) in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. The illustrated procedure includes the following steps performed at the UE:

[0077] Step 100: The UE receives one or more higher layer configurations, for example via radio resource control (RRC) signaling. The higher layer configuration(s) may include configurations on unified TCI states, which can be “DL / joint TCI states” and / or “UL TCI states”. The higher layer configuration(s) may include a configuration for a PDCCH order (or on PDCCH order) which may for example consist of different PDCCH order configuration targeting the Anchor TRP and the UL-only TRP.

[0078] Step 110: The UE receives a PDCCH order, for example in accordance with the received configuration(s). The received PDCCH order may include an indication whether a pathloss offset associated with a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state is to be used for determining a power level for transmission of a PRACH preamble. The UE may for example decode information related to the spatial filter, and / or power setting etc. The PDCCH order may include information that explicitly or implicitly indicates the target TRP (e.g., indication of spatial beam which implicitly indicates the TRP or explicit indication of the TRP) for PRACH transmission.

[0079] Step 120: The UE transmits PRACH (e.g., a PRACH preamble or Msg1). The UE may for example transmit the PRACH towards either the Anchor TRP or the UL-only TRP based on the determination in Step 110. The UE may transmit the PRACH preamble with a power level determined based on the indication included in the received PRACH order

[0080] The method depicted in Figure 5 may be performed by a wireless device for PRACH transmission triggered by a PDCCH order. A corresponding method may be performed by a network node that sends the configuration(s) received by the UE at step 100, transmits the PDCCH order received by the UE at step 110, and / or receives the PRACH preamble transmitted by the UE at step 120.

[0081] Figure 6 illustrates an example embodiment of TCI state configuration and signaling scenario for a schematic asymmetric single DL TRP and multiple UL TRPs deployment, see also a schematic deployment in Figure 7 (i.e., Figure 7: Schematic deployment related to the flowchart described in Figure 6. In Case 1, the UE is configured with “separate DL / UL TCI states”; in Case 2, the UE is configured with “joint TCI states”). In Figure 7, the Anchor node has two SSBs, and the UE has two antenna panels, where each panel is equipped with two beams (please note that the low number of beams used at TRP and UE are used for simplicity of the description). It is further assumed that the UE supports UL multi-TRP operation (e.g., using repetition or STxMP), and that the UE is configured with the following SRS resource sets: ^ SRS resource set 1 with usage =”beam management” is configured with 2 SRS resources: o SRS resource 1 and SRS resource 2 ^ SRS resource set 2 with usage = “codebook based” is configured with o one two-port SRS resource o configured to follow first indicated UL TCI state ^ SRS resource set 3 with usage = “codebook based” is configured with o one two-port SRS resource o configured to follow second indicated UL TCI state

[0082] The description in Figure 6 is mainly based on “separate DL / UL TCI states”, but the subsequent embodiments are also applicable to “joint TCI states” and / or a combination of “joint TCI states” and “UL TCI states”, in case such schemes are introduced in NR Rel-19 or 6G. Also, the example in Figure 6 and Figure 7 considers that the Anchor TRP is configured with two SSBs, the extension to more than two SSBs is straightforward.

[0083] The flowchart in Figure 6 includes the following steps:

[0084] Step 1: The UE is RRC configured with DL and UL TCI states, SRS resource sets, and PDCCH order.

[0085] In some embodiments, an SRS resource set is configured with “usage=BM”, i.e., without the QCL information.

[0086] In some embodiments, an SRS resource set is configured with “usage = codebook based” and the SRS resource set should follow an indicated UL TCI state.

[0087] In some embodiments, a separate UL TCI state is configured with SRS resource Y from SRS resource set 1 as the QCL reference where the SRS resource Y has usage = “beam management”. In some related embodiment, the same separate UL TCI state is associated to a pathloss offset configuration and the initial pathloss offset can have a fixed value, e.g., -10dB, or is configurable.

[0088] In some embodiment, the UE may receive higher layer configuration related to the TRP association indicator field in the PDCCH order, comprising one or more of ^ The location of the TRP association indicator field in the PDCCH order ^ The start position of the TRP association indicator field in the PDCCH order ^ The number of bits of the TRP association indictor field ^ The mapping between the TRP and the codepoints of TRP association indication field, e.g.,: 00: TRP1 01: TRP2 10: TRP3 11: TRP4

[0089] In an alternative embodiment, some of the above configurations of the TRP association indication field, for example the location and / or the number of bits for the TRP association indication field, are pre-defined according to the specification (e.g., 3GPP specifications).

[0090] In some embodiment, the UE may receive higher layer configurations about an indicator for the Rel-19 specific PRACH configurations (or a 6G related PRACH configuration targeting UL-only nodes), such as ^ Value 0 corresponds to including Rel-19 specific PRACH configuration ^ Value 1 corresponds to there is no Rel-19 specific PRACH configuration

[0091] In some embodiment, the UE may be provided with higher layer UL-only TRP specific PRACH configurations in the legacy RRC IEs e.g., RACH-ConfigCommon IE, RACH- ConfigDedicated IE etc. (or similar new RACH related IEs in 6G).

[0092] In one embodiment, the UE may be provided with higher layer UL-only TRP specific RACH configurations in a higher layer configured Rel-19 RRC IE (or similar RRC IE in 6G).

[0093] In some embodiment, a random access procedure targeting the serving cell with cross TRP PRACH triggering is indicated by a codepoint in the UL-only TRP specific field. Here, the cross TRP PRACH triggering means that the PDCCH order is received from a first TRP and the PRACH transmission is transmitted towards a second TRP wherein both the first TRP and the second TRP are within the serving cell.

[0094] In some embodiment, the PDCCH order may include a bit field to indicate the association with a certain UL TCI state, which service as an implicit TRP association indictor. In some related embodiments, in case there are power control parameters associated with the UL TCI state, the UE might derive the output power for the triggered PRACH based on the one or more of these power control parameters (for example one or more of path loss reference signal, path loss offset, alpha, P0 etc.)

[0095] In some embodiment, one or more of the spare bits is used to indicate an output power indication for the PRACH transmission. In one related embodiment, the output power indication indicates a relative output power level for the coming PRACH transmission, where the relative power indication is compared to a previous PRACH transmission (for example the last PRACH transmitted for the same User case indication). In another related embodiment, the output power indication indicates an absolute output power level for the coming PRACH transmission.

[0096] In some embodiment, the PDCCH order may include a bit field to enable or disable the application of pathloss offset which is also served as an implicit TRP association indicator. Typically, the application of the pathloss offset should be enabled when determining PRACH transmission power if the PRACH is targeting the UL-only TRP. In some related embodiment, one common pathloss offset is applied to all UL TCI states, or each UL TCI state has an associated pathloss offset, or there is a maximum number of pathloss offset a gNB is required to monitoring where the mapping between one pathloss offset and one or more UL TCI states could be configurable. In some related embodiment, the one bit field is used to enable a set of RRC configured PRACH power control parameters associated to a Rel-19 UL-only TRP, for example the value “0” means application of the legacy PRACH power control parameters; and the value “1” means application of the Rel-19 PRACH power control parameters.

[0097] In some embodiment, the Rel-19 PRACH configuration specific for UL-only TRP may include new configurable values of the power ramping step size. In one example, the power ramping step size can be configured with larger values than the legacy values, since the RRC configured pathloss offset quite far from the true value, it will be useful to use larger power ramping steps than in the legacy case. In some embodiment, the maximum number of power ramping is higher layer configuration. Then, the Rel-19 PDCCH order specific for UL-only TRPwill use a bit mapping to indicate the Nth power ramping. For instance, the higher layer parameter sets maximum number of power ramping is 3, the PDCCH order can use two bits to indicate: 00: no power ramping 01: increasing PRACH TX power with ∆^^ 10: increasing PRACH TX power with 2∆^^ 11: increasing PRACH TX power with 3∆^^

[0098] In some embodiment, the Rel-19 PDCCH order specific for UL-only TRP may include power setting information if the PRACH is used for radio link failure recovery where UE will transmit PRACH towards the UL-only TRP to request radio link recovery for the link toward the anchor TRP.

[0099] Step 2: The network indicates DL-TCI state 1 and UL-TCI state 1 which are associated to the first DL RS, i.e., SSB1.

[0100] Step 3: The network sends a Rel-19 PDCCH order to the UE to trigger a PRACH transmission targeting the UL-only TRP

[0101] Step 4: The UE receives the Rel-19 PDCCH order, decodes the PRACH transmission information (e.g., the targeting TRP is the UL-only TRP, the spatial filter and TX power) and transmits PRACH. The Rel-19 PDCCH order specific for UL-only TRP may include information as ^ Application of pathloss offset to derive pathloss between UE and UL-only TRP ^ Transmission power information with respect to e.g., power ramping

[0102] Step 5: The network may send another legacy PDCCH order to the UE to trigger a PRACH transmission targeting the Anchor TRP

[0103] Step 6: The UE receives the legacy PDCCH order, decodes the PRACH transmission information (e.g., the targeting TRP is the Anchor TRP) and transmits PRACH.

[0104] In some embodiments, the output power applied for PRACH according to one or more of the embodiments described herein is also applied to Msg3 of the 4-step RACH procedure.

[0105] Figure 8 shows an example of a communication system 800 in accordance with some embodiments.

[0106] In the example, the communication system 800 includes a telecommunication network 802 that includes an access network 804, such as a Radio Access Network (RAN), and a core network 806, which includes one or more core network nodes 808. The access network 804 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes 810A and 810B (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 810), or any other similar Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access nodes or non-3GPP Access Points (APs). Moreover, as will beappreciated by those of skill in the art, a network node is 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 network nodes include disaggregated implementations or portions thereof. For example, in some embodiments, the telecommunication network 802 includes one or more Open-RAN (ORAN) network nodes. An ORAN network node is a node in the telecommunication network 802 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 802, including one or more network nodes 810 and / or core network nodes 808.

[0107] 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 control application (e.g., xApp) or a non-real time control 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 A1, F1, W1, E1, E2, X2, Xn interface, an open fronthaul user plane interface, or an open fronthaul management plane interface. Moreover, an ORAN access 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 or comparable technologies. The network nodes 810 facilitate direct or indirect connection of User Equipment (UE), such as by connecting UEs 812A, 812B, 812C, and 812D (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 812) to the core network 806 over one or more wireless connections.

[0108] 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 800 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 800 may includeand / or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and / or other similar type of system.

[0109] The UEs 812 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 810 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes 810 are arranged, capable, configured, and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs 812 and / or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network 802 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 802.

[0110] In the depicted example, the core network 806 connects the network nodes 810 to one or more hosts, such as host 816. 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 806 includes one more core network nodes (e.g., core network node 808) 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 808. 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 (SIDF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), Network Exposure Function (NEF), and / or a User Plane Function (UPF).

[0111] The host 816 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network 804 and / or the telecommunication network 802, and may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. The host 816 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 as 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.

[0112] As a whole, the communication system 800 of Figure 8 enables connectivity between the UEs, network nodes, and hosts. In that sense, the communication system 800 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); UniversalMobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE), and / or other suitable Second, Third, Fourth, or Fifth Generation (2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G) standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g., Sixth Generation (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.

[0113] In some examples, the telecommunication network 802 is a cellular network that implements 3GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunication network 802 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network 802. For example, the telecommunication network 802 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 Internet of Things (IoT) services to yet further UEs.

[0114] In some examples, the UEs 812 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 804 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 804. Additionally, a UE may be configured for operating in single- or multi-Radio Access Technology (RAT) or multi-standard mode. For example, a UE may operate with any one or combination of WiFi, New Radio (NR), and LTE, i.e. being configured for Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity (MR-DC), such as Evolved UMTS Terrestrial RAN (E-UTRAN) NR - Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).

[0115] In the example, a hub 814 communicates with the access network 804 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE 812C and / or 812D) and network nodes (e.g., network node 810B). In some examples, the hub 814 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub 814 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network 806 for the UEs. As another example, the hub 814 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 810, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub 814. As another example, the hub 814 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 anotherexample, the hub 814 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a Virtual Reality (VR) headset, display, loudspeaker or other media delivery device, the hub 814 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 814 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and / or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub 814 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular if one or more of the UEs are low energy IoT devices.

[0116] The hub 814 may have a constant / persistent or intermittent connection to the network node 810B. The hub 814 may also allow for a different communication scheme and / or schedule between the hub 814 and UEs (e.g., UE 812C and / or 812D), and between the hub 814 and the core network 806. In other examples, the hub 814 is connected to the core network 806 and / or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub 814 may be configured to connect to a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) service provider over the access network 804 and / or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 810 while still connected via the hub 814 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub 814 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 810B. In other embodiments, the hub 814 may be a non-dedicated hub – that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and the network node 810B, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and / or end point for certain data channels.

[0117] Figure 9 shows a UE 900 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 Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone, wireless local loop phone, desktop computer, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), wireless camera, 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, vehicle-mounted or vehicle embedded / integrated wireless device, etc. Other examples include any UE identified by the 3GPP, including a Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) UE, a Machine Type Communication (MTC) UE, and / or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.

[0118] 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).

[0119] The UE 900 includes processing circuitry 902 that is operatively coupled via a bus 904 to an input / output interface 906, a power source 908, memory 910, a communication interface 912, and / or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain UEs may utilize all or a subset of the components shown in Figure 9. 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.

[0120] The processing circuitry 902 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 910. The processing circuitry 902 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 902 may include multiple Central Processing Units (CPUs).

[0121] In the example, the input / output interface 906 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 900. 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, a 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. Anoutput 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.

[0122] In some embodiments, the power source 908 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 908 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 908 itself, and / or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE 900 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source 908. Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from the power source 908 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the UE 900 to which power is supplied.

[0123] The memory 910 may be or be configured to include memory such as Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), Programmable ROM (PROM), Erasable PROM (EPROM), Electrically EPROM (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth. In one example, the memory 910 includes one or more application programs 914, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 916. The memory 910 may store, for use by the UE 900, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

[0124] The memory 910 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 RAM (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as a tamper resistant module in the form of a Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) including one or more Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs), such as a Universal SIM (USIM) and / or Internet Protocol Multimedia Services Identity Module (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 a ‘SIM card.’ The memory 910 may allow the UE 900 to access instructions, application programs, 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 910, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.

[0125] The processing circuitry 902 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network using the communication interface 912. The communication interface 912 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 922. The communication interface 912 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 918 and / or a receiver 920 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter 918 and receiver 920 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., the antenna 922) and may share circuit components, software, or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.

[0126] In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communication interface 912 may include cellular communication, WiFi communication, LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short- range communications such as Bluetooth, NFC, 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 according to one or more communication protocols and / or standards, such as IEEE 802.11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA), Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, NR, UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP / IP), Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Quick User Datagram Protocol Internet Connection (QUIC), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.

[0127] Regardless of the type of sensor, a UE may provide an output of data captured by its sensors, through its communication interface 912, 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).

[0128] 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 surfacesor 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.

[0129] A UE, when in the form of an IoT 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 IoT device are a device which is or which is embedded in: a connected refrigerator or freezer, a television, 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 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 IoT device comprises circuitry and / or software in dependence of the intended application of the IoT device in addition to other components as described in relation to the UE 900 shown in Figure 9.

[0130] As yet another specific example, in an IoT 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, an airplane, or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and / or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.

[0131] 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 may 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.

[0132] Figure 10 shows a network node 1000 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, APs (e.g., radio APs), Base Stations (BSs) (e.g., radio BSs, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs), NR Node Bs (gNBs)), and O-RAN nodes or components of an O-RAN node (e.g., O-RU, O-DU, O-CU).

[0133] 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, distributed units (e.g., in an O-RAN access node), and / or Remote Radio Units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such RRUs 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).

[0134] 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 BS 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).

[0135] The network node 1000 includes processing circuitry 1002, memory 1004, a communication interface 1006, and a power source 1008. The network node 1000 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and an 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 1000 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 be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, the network node 1000 may be configured to support multiple RATs. In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory 1004 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 1010 may be shared by different RATs). The network node 1000 may also includemultiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 1000, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, Zigbee, Z-wave, Long Range Wide Area Network (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 the network node 1000.

[0136] The processing circuitry 1002 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, CPU, DSP, ASIC, FPGA, 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 1000 components, such as the memory 1004, to provide network node 1000 functionality.

[0137] In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1002 includes a System on a Chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1002 includes one or more of Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1012 and baseband processing circuitry 1014. In some embodiments, the RF transceiver circuitry 1012 and the baseband processing circuitry 1014 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 the RF transceiver circuitry 1012 and the baseband processing circuitry 1014 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.

[0138] The memory 1004 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, RAM, 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 1002. The memory 1004 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 1002 and utilized by the network node 1000. The memory 1004 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 1002 and / or any data received via the communication interface 1006. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1002 and the memory 1004 are integrated.

[0139] The communication interface 1006 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 1006 comprises port(s) / terminal(s) 1016 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. The communication interface 1006 alsoincludes radio front-end circuitry 1018 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna 1010. The radio front-end circuitry 1018 comprises filters 1020 and amplifiers 1022. The radio front-end circuitry 1018 may be connected to the antenna 1010 and the processing circuitry 1002. The radio front-end circuitry 1018 may be configured to condition signals communicated between the antenna 1010 and the processing circuitry 1002. The radio front-end circuitry 1018 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 1018 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of the filters 1020 and / or the amplifiers 1022. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 1010. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 1010 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 1018. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 1002. In other embodiments, the communication interface 1006 may comprise different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0140] In certain alternative embodiments, the network node 1000 does not include separate radio front-end circuitry 1018; instead, the processing circuitry 1002 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna 1010. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 1012 is part of the communication interface 1006. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 1006 includes the one or more ports or terminals 1016, the radio front-end circuitry 1018, and the RF transceiver circuitry 1012 as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 1006 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 1014, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

[0141] The antenna 1010 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and / or receive wireless signals. The antenna 1010 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry 1018 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and / or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna 1010 is separate from the network node 1000 and connectable to the network node 1000 through an interface or port.

[0142] The antenna 1010, the communication interface 1006, and / or the processing circuitry 1002 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and / or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node 1000. Any information, data, and / or signals may be received from a UE, another network node, and / or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna 1010, the communication interface 1006, and / or the processing circuitry 1002 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by the network node 1000. Any information, data, and / or signals may be transmitted to a UE, another network node, and / or any other network equipment.

[0143] The power source 1008 provides power to the various components of the network node 1000 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source 1008 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 1000 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node 1000 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., the power grid or an electricity outlet) via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry of the power source 1008. As a further example, the power source 1008 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.

[0144] Embodiments of the network node 1000 may include additional components beyond those shown in Figure 10 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 1000 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 1000 and to allow output of information from the network node 1000. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 1000. In some embodiments providing a core network node, such as core network node 108 of FIG. 8, some components, such as the radio front-end circuitry 1018 and the RF transceiver circuitry 1012 may be omitted.

[0145] Figure 11 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 1100 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 virtualization environments 1100 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computing device that operates as a network node, a UE, a core network node, or a 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 1100 includes components defined by the O-RAN Alliance, such as an O-Cloudenvironment orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an O-2 interface. Virtualization may facilitate distributed implementations of a network node, a UE, a core network node, or a host.

[0146] Applications 1102 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualization environment 1100 to implement some of the features, functions, and / or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.

[0147] Hardware 1104 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and / or instructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and / or other hardware devices as described herein, such as a network interface, an input / output interface, and so forth. Software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers 1106 (also referred to as hypervisors or Virtual Machine Monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs 1108A and 1108B (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs 1108), and / or perform any of the functions, features, and / or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer 1106 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the VMs 1108.

[0148] The VMs 1108 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking, or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 1106. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 1102 may be implemented on one or more of VMs 1108, 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.

[0149] In the context of NFV, a VM 1108 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 1108, and that part of the hardware 1104 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 1108 on top of the hardware 1104 and corresponds to the application 1102.

[0150] The hardware 1104 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. The hardware 1104 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, the hardware 1104 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g., such as in a datacenter or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration 1110, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of the applications 1102. In some embodiments, the hardware 1104 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 1112 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.

[0151] Although the computing devices described herein (e.g., UEs, network nodes) 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.

[0152] 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 particularembodiments, 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.

[0153] Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modifications to the embodiments of the present disclosure. All such improvements and modifications are considered within the scope of the concepts disclosed herein. EMBODIMENTS Group A Embodiments 1. A method performed by a wireless device (e.g., a user equipment, UE) for determining configuration for PRACH transmission triggered by a PDCCH order, the method comprising any one or more of the following: receiving (100; Fig. 6, step 1 and / or step 2) a higher layer configuration about a PDCCH order; receiving (110; Fig.6, step 3 and / or 4) a PDCCH order; decoding (110; Fig. 6, step 4) a target TRP and a PRACH configuration in the received PDCCH order; transmitting (120; Fig. 6, step 4) PRACH procedure (e.g., transmitting a PRACH preamble) towards the determined target TRP, in accordance with the determined target TRP and the determined PRACH configuration. 2. The method of embodiment 1, further comprising receiving (100) higher layer configuration on TCI states, e.g., “joint TCI states” and / or “separate UL / DL TCI states”. 3. The method of embodiment 1 or 2, wherein receiving (100) the higher layer configuration about a PDCCH order and / or receiving (100) the higher layer configuration on TCI states is via RRC signaling. 4. The method of any of embodiments 1 to 3, wherein the higher layer configuration about a PDCCH order comprises information about any one or more of the following: configuration for a legacy PDCCH order;configuration for a PDCCH order (e.g., a 3GPP Release 19 PDCCH order) targeting UL- only TRP; configuration of a PRACH in 6G targeting UL-only TRP. 5. The method of any of embodiments 1 to 4, wherein the PRACH configuration comprised in the PDCCH order comprises use case specific PRACH configuration. 6. The method of any of embodiments 1 to 5, wherein the PRACH configuration comprised in the PDCCH order comprises one or more configurations or indications for any one or more of the following: ^ association to an UL TCI state, or an UL RS, or an UL spatial filter o E.g., in case there is a power control parameters associated with the UL TCI state, the UE might derive the output power for the triggered PRACH based on the one or more of these power control parameters (for example one or more of pathloss reference signal, pathloss offset, P0 etc.); ^ a first PRACH transmission; ^ a PRACH re-transmission; ^ a change of the PREAMBLE_POWER_RAMPING_COUNTER; ^ to enable or disable application of a pre-configured or pre-specified pathloss offset; ^ one out of one or more pre-configured or pre-specified candidate path loss offsets; ^ DL-RS used to estimate pathloss; ^ PRACH output power related parameter; ^ power ramping related parameter, e.g., step size for power ramping, maximum number of power ramping, etc.; ^ additional PCI index; ^ a list of candidate cells; ^ candidate cell SSB index; ^ indication of a new explicit output power offset (e.g., which should be applied on top of the legacy output power that the UE would use for the PRACH transmission based on legacy output power calculations for PRACH); ^ indication of a relative output power indication, e.g., which should be applied only if it is a re-transmission of the PRACH, and the UE should apply add the indicated relative output power indication to the output power that was used the last time the UE transmitted the corresponding PRACH.7. The method of any of embodiments 1 to 6, wherein the received PDCCH order may indicate a RA procedure targeting the serving cell, targeting a candidate cell, or targeting a second TRP. 8. The method of any of embodiments 1 to 7, wherein the PRACH configuration is UL-only TRP specific PRACH configuration. 9. The method of embodiment 8, wherein the UL-only TRP specific PRACH configuration is provided to UE via reserved bits in the PDCCH order or some existing bitfield in the PDCCH order. Group B Embodiments 10. A method performed by a network node (e.g., an anchor node of a UE for a serving cell of the UE), the method comprising any one or more of the following: sending (Fig.6, step 1 and / or step 2), to a UE, a higher layer configuration about a PDCCH order; sending (110; Fig.6, step 3), to the UE, a PDCCH order triggering a PRACH transmission, the PDCCH order comprising information indicative of a target TRP and a PRACH configuration. 11. The method of embodiment 10, further comprising sending (Fig. 6, step 1), to the UE, higher layer configuration on TCI states, e.g., “joint TCI states” and / or “separate UL / DL TCI states”. 12. The method of embodiment 10 or 11, wherein sending (100) the higher layer configuration about a PDCCH order and / or sending (100) the higher layer configuration on TCI states is via RRC signaling. 13. The method of any of embodiments 10 to 12, wherein the higher layer configuration about a PDCCH order comprises information about any one or more of the following: configuration for a legacy PDCCH order; configuration for a PDCCH order (e.g., a 3GPP Release 19 PDCCH order) targeting UL- only TRP; configuration of a PRACH in 6G targeting UL-only TRP.14. The method of any of embodiments 10 to 13, wherein the PRACH configuration comprised in the PDCCH order comprises use case specific PRACH configuration. 15. The method of any of embodiments 10 to 14, wherein the PRACH configuration comprised in the PDCCH order comprises one or more configurations or indications for any one or more of the following: ^ association to an UL TCI state, or an UL RS, or an UL spatial filter o E.g., in case there are power control parameters associated with the UL TCI state, the UE might derive the output power for the triggered PRACH based on the one or more of these power control parameters (for example one or more of pathloss reference signal, pathloss offset, P0 etc.); ^ a first PRACH transmission; ^ a PRACH re-transmission; ^ a change of the PREAMBLE_POWER_RAMPING_COUNTER; ^ to enable or disable application of a pre-configured or pre-specified pathloss offset; ^ one out of one or more pre-configured or pre-specified candidate path loss offsets; ^ DL-RS used to estimate pathloss; ^ PRACH output power related parameter; ^ power ramping related parameter, e.g., step size for power ramping, maximum number of power ramping, etc.; ^ additional PCI index; ^ a list of candidate cells; ^ candidate cell SSB index; ^ indication of a new explicit output power offset (e.g., which should be applied on top of the legacy output power that the UE would use for the PRACH transmission based on legacy output power calculations for PRACH); ^ indication of a relative output power indication, e.g., which should be applied only if it is a re-transmission of the PRACH, and the UE should apply add the indicated relative output power indication to the output power that was used the last time the UE transmitted the corresponding PRACH. 16. The method of any of embodiments 10 to 15, wherein the PDCCH order may indicate a RA procedure targeting the serving cell, targeting a candidate cell, or targeting a second TRP.17. The method of any of embodiments 10 to 16, wherein the PRACH configuration is UL-only TRP specific PRACH configuration. 18. The method of embodiment 17, wherein the UL-only TRP specific PRACH configuration is provided to UE via reserved bits in the PDCCH order or some existing bitfield in the PDCCH order. Group C Embodiments 19. A user equipment, comprising: processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments; and power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the processing circuitry. 20. A network node, the network node comprising: processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group B embodiments; power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the processing circuitry. 21. A user equipment (UE), the UE comprising: an antenna configured to send and receive wireless signals; radio front-end circuitry connected to the antenna and to processing circuitry, and configured to condition signals communicated between the antenna and the processing circuitry; the processing circuitry being configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments; an input interface connected to the processing circuitry and configured to allow input of information into the UE to be processed by the processing circuitry; an output interface connected to the processing circuitry and configured to output information from the UE that has been processed by the processing circuitry; and a battery connected to the processing circuitry and configured to supply power to the UE.

Claims

CLAIMS 1. A method performed by a wireless device (900) for physical random access channel, PRACH, transmission triggered by a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, order, the method comprising: receiving (100), via radio resource control, RRC, signaling, a configuration for the PDCCH order; receiving (110) the PDCCH order in accordance with the received configuration, wherein the received PDCCH order includes an indication whether a pathloss offset associated with a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is to be used for determining a power level for transmission of a PRACH preamble; and transmitting (120) the PRACH preamble with a power level determined based on the indication included in the received PRACH order.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the pathloss offset is pre-configured, and wherein the indication included in the received PRACH order indicates whether to enable or disable application of the pathloss offset for determining the power level for transmission of the PRACH preamble.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: receiving, via RRC signaling, configuration of the TCI state before receiving the PDCCH order.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication included in the received PRACH order indicates to use a pathloss offset associated with a TCI state from among a plurality of pre- configured TCI states.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising: receiving, via RRC signaling, configuration of the plurality of TCI states before receiving the PDCCH order.

6. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the received PRACH order indicates a downlink reference signal used to estimate a pathloss, wherein the pathloss is used for determining the power level for transmission of the PRACH preamble.

7. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the received PRACH order indicates an uplink spatial filter for the transmission of the PRACH preamble.

8. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the received PDCCH order indicates that the transmission of the PRACH preamble is to use a configuration specific for transmission to an uplink-only node.

9. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the configuration for the PDCCH order is a configuration targeting a PRACH preamble transmission to an uplink-only node.

10. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the configuration for the PDCCH order is a configuration for a 3GPP Release 19 PDCCH order.

11. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the configuration for the PDCCH order indicates whether the PDCCH order is a 3GPP Release 19 type PDCCH order or a legacy type PDCCH order.

12. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the received PDCCH order is carried by downlink control information, DCI, of format 1-0.

13. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the TCI state is a joint TCI state for uplink and downlink.

14. The method of any of claim 1-11, wherein the TCI state is an uplink TCI state separate from a downlink TCI state.

15. A method performed by a network node (1000) for physical random access channel, PRACH, transmission from a wireless device (900) triggered by a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, order from the network node, the method comprising: sending, via radio resource control, RRC, signaling, a configuration for the PDCCH order to the wireless device; sending the PDCCH order to the wireless device in accordance with the sent configuration, wherein the sent PDCCH order includes an indication whether a pathloss offset associated with a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is to be used for determining apower level for transmission of a PRACH preamble from the wireless device.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising: receiving the PRACH preamble.

17. The method of any of claims 15-16, wherein the pathloss offset is pre-configured, and wherein the indication included in the sent PRACH order indicates whether to enable or disable application of the pathloss offset for determining the power level for transmission of the PRACH preamble.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising: sending, via RRC signaling, configuration of the TCI state before sending the PDCCH order.

19. The method of any of claims 15-16, wherein the indication included in the sent PRACH order indicates to use a pathloss offset associated with a TCI state from among a plurality of pre- configured TCI states.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising: sending, via RRC signaling, configuration of the plurality of TCI states before sending the PDCCH order.

21. The method of any of claims 15-20, wherein the sent PRACH order indicates a downlink reference signal used to estimate a pathloss, wherein the pathloss is used for determining the power level for transmission of the PRACH preamble.

22. The method of claims 15-21, wherein the sent PRACH order indicates an uplink spatial filter for the transmission of the PRACH preamble.

23. The method of any of claims 15-22, wherein the sent PDCCH order indicates that the transmission of the PRACH preamble is to use a configuration specific for transmission to an uplink-only node.

24. The method of any of claims 15-23, wherein the configuration for the PDCCH order is aconfiguration targeting a PRACH preamble transmission to an uplink-only node.

25. The method of any of claims 15-24, wherein the configuration for the PDCCH order is a configuration for a 3GPP Release 19 PDCCH order.

26. The method of any of claims 15-25, wherein the configuration for the PDCCH order indicates whether the PDCCH order is a 3GPP Release 19 type PDCCH order or a legacy type PDCCH order.

27. The method of any of claims 15-26, wherein the sent PDCCH order is carried by downlink control information, DCI, of format 1-0.

28. The method of any of claims 15-27, wherein the TCI state is a joint TCI state for uplink and downlink.

29. The method of any of claims 15-27, wherein the TCI state is an uplink TCI state separate from a downlink TCI state.

30. A wireless device (900) for physical random access channel, PRACH, transmission triggered by a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, order, the wireless device comprising: processing circuitry (902) configured to: receive, via radio resource control, RRC, signaling, a configuration for the PDCCH order; receive the PDCCH order in accordance with the received configuration, wherein the received PDCCH order includes an indication whether a pathloss offset associated with a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is to be used for determining a power level for transmission of a PRACH preamble; and transmit the PRACH preamble with a power level determined based on the indication included in the received PRACH order; and power supply circuitry (908) configured to supply power to the processing circuitry.

31. The wireless device of claim 30, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to perform the method of any of claims 2-14.

32. A network node (1000) for physical random access channel, PRACH, transmission from a wireless device (900) triggered by a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, order from the network node, the network node comprising: processing circuitry (1002) configured to: send, via radio resource control, RRC, signaling, a configuration for the PDCCH order to the wireless device; and send the PDCCH order to the wireless device in accordance with the sent configuration, wherein the sent PDCCH order includes an indication whether a pathloss offset associated with a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is to be used for determining a power level for transmission of a PRACH preamble from the wireless device; and power supply circuitry (1008) configured to supply power to the processing circuitry.

33. The network node of claim 32, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to perform the method of any of claims 16-29.

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