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

Abstract

A communication device can perform event-triggering layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility ("LTM") reporting for inter-frequency LTM cell switching The communication device determines (840) that a triggering condition is met based on determining that a first measurement is better than a first threshold value and a second measurement is worse than a second threshold value. The first measurement is associated with a LTM candidate cell. The second measurement is associated with a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated. Responsive to determining that the triggering condition is met, the communication device can transmit (850) a LTM lower layer measurement report.

Description

EVENT-TRIGGERING LAYER 1 / LAYER 2-TRIGGERED MOBILITY REPORTING FOR INTER-FREQUENCY LAYER 1 / LAYER 2-TRIGGERED CELL SWITCHING TECHNICAL FIELD

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

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

[0003] Layer 1 (L1) / Layer 2 (L2)-Triggered Mobility (LTM) can be defined as a PrimaryCell (PCell) (or primary secondary cell (PSCell)) cell switch procedure, consequently with Cell Group change (e.g., Master Cell Group (MCG) or Secondary Cell Group (SCG) that the network triggers via media access control (MAC) Control Element (CE) based on L1 measurements. In that procedure, a gNB receives the L1 measurement report(s) from the UE, and on their basis the gNB changes UE’s serving cell by a cell switch command signaled via a MAC CE. The cell switch command indicates an LTM candidate cell configuration that the gNB previously prepared and provided to the UE through RRC signaling. Then the UE switches to the target cell according to the cell switch command.

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

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

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

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

[0008] At block 230, the UE stores the LTM candidate cell configurations and transmits anRRCReconfigurationComplete message to the gNB.

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

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

[0011] At block 250, the UE performs L1 measurements on the configured candidate cell(s)and transmits L1 measurement reports to the gNB. L1 measurement should be performed as long as RRC reconfiguration (at block 220) is applicable.

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

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

[0014] At block 280, the UE completes the LTM cell switch procedure by sendingRRCReconfigurationComplete message to target cell. If the UE has performed a RA procedure(at block 270) the UE considers that LTM cell switch execution is successfully completed whenthe random access procedure is successfully completed. For RACH-less LTM, the UE considers that LTM cell switch execution is successfully completed when the UE determines that the network has successfully received its first UL data. The UE determines successful reception ofits first UL data by receiving a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) addressing theUE’s cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) in the target cell, which schedules a newtransmission following the first UL data. The PDCCH carries either a DL assignment or an ULgrant addressing the same hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process as the first UL data.SUMMARY

[0015] According to some embodiments, a method of operating a communication device isprovided. The method includes determining that a triggering condition is met based on determining that a first measurement is better than a first threshold value and determining that asecond measurement is worse than a second threshold value. The first measurement is associatedwith a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell. The second measurement isassociated with a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated. The method further includes,responsive to determining that the triggering condition is met, transmitting a LTM lower layer measurement report.

[0016] According to other embodiments, a method of operating a network node is provided.The method includes transmitting an indication of configuration information to a communication device. The configuration information configures the communication device to transmit a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a triggering condition. The triggering condition is based on a first measurement being better than a first threshold value and a second measurement being worse than a second threshold value. The first measurement is associated with a LTM candidate cell. The second measurement is associated with a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated. The method further includes receiving the LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device.

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

[0018] Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technicaladvantages. In some embodiments, the innovations provide savings in terms of UE power consumption and UL resources on the network side when the UE needs to assist the network to perform inter-frequency LTM Cell Switch procedures, because unnecessary transmissions, as in periodic reports, would not be performed when the UE only transmits the LTM lower layer report when the condition is fulfilled.

[0019] In additional or alternative embodiments, the innovations enable the UE to performLTM related measurements (lower layer measurements for LTM candidate cell(s)) to assist the network to take timely inter-frequency LTM Cell Switch decisions, when the PCell is getting too bad to maintain the connection to an acceptable level (PCell worse than absolute threshold) and, at the same time, there is a configured LTM candidate cell in another SSB frequency (different than SSB frequency of the PCell) which is a good candidate (i.e. inter-frequency LTM candidate cell better than an absolute threshold).

[0020] In additional or alternative embodiments, the LTM lower layer report indicates to thenetwork that while the PCell frequency is not good enough, there is another frequency which is good enough. Assuming there was no LTM lower report indicating that there was an LTM candidate cell in the PCell’s SSB frequency offset better than the PCell, the indication from the proposed LTM report based on the proposed triggering condition is an indication sent by the UE to the network that there is a better frequency to connect to instead of the PCell’s frequency.

[0021] In additional or alternative embodiments, the proposed report, based on the proposedtriggering condition, is to enable the network to pre-activate a TCI state of an inter-frequencyLTM candidate cell, which may be critical to enable a fast inter-frequency LTM Cell Switch.The reason is that the delay to synchronize with an inter-frequency neighbour, during an inter-frequency LTM Cell Switch, is longer. So, it becomes critical to make sure the UE is DL synchronized with an LTM Candidate cell before an inter-frequency LTM Cell Switch. Thus, the LTM lower layer report, based on the proposed triggering condition(s), enables the UE to get a command to activate a TCI state of an inter-frequency LTM candidate cell, before the UE receives the LTM Cell Switch command.

[0022] Another benefit of the proposed report, based on the proposed triggering condition,is to enable the network to trigger an Early Uplink sync procedure, in which the UE receives a PDCCH order to trigger a random access preamble which enables the network to calculate a timing advance value (to be included in the LTM Cell Switch command). That is also critical to enable a fast inter-frequency LTM Cell Switch. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0023] The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understandingof the disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate certain non-limiting embodiments of inventive concepts. In the drawings:

[0024] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a 5th generation (“5G”)network;

[0025] FIG. 2 is a signal flow diagram illustrating an example of a LTM procedure;

[0026] FIG. 3 is a signal flow diagram illustrating an example of LTM lower layer reportingin accordance with some embodiments;

[0027] FIG. 4 is a pair of graphs illustrating examples of triggering conditions for LTMreporting;

[0028] FIG. 5 is a signal flow diagram illustrating an example of different responses the UEmay receive when it triggers a lower layer LTM report;

[0029] FIG. 6 is a table illustrating an example of a mapping order of CSI fields of onereport for SSBRI / RSRP reporting for LTM in accordance with some embodiments;

[0030] FIG. 7 is a table illustrating an example of a bitwidth for SSBRI, RSRP, ordifferential RSRP to be included in an LTM CSI measurement report in accordance with some embodiments;

[0031] FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating an example of operations performed by acommunication device in accordance with some embodiments;

[0032] FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating an example of operations performed by acommunication device in accordance with some embodiments;

[0033] FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a communication system in accordance with someembodiments;

[0034] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a user equipment in accordance with someembodiments;

[0035] FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a network node in accordance with someembodiments; and

[0036] FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a virtualization environment in accordance with someembodiments. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0037] Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described more fullywith reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art, in which examples of embodiments of inventive concepts are shown. Inventive concepts may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of present inventive concepts to those skilled in the art. It should also be noted that these embodiments are not mutually exclusive. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present / used in another embodiment.

[0038] Layer 1 / Layer 2-triggered mobility (LTM) was introduced in Rel-18 and can offerimprovements in handover latency and interruption time compared to Layer 3 based mobility. However, LTM as introduced in Rel-18 also has a number of limitations compared to Layer 3 mobility. The Rel-19 work item aims to remove a number of these limitations. Layer 3 mobilityuses layer 3 measurement reporting which supports user equipment (UE) evaluated events fortriggering of measurement reports and reduces signaling overhead compared to periodic measurement reporting. Such event triggering is not supported by the L1 measurements that are used for LTM mobility.

[0039] Layer 1 (L1) measurements for LTM procedures are limited to synchronizationsignal block (SSB) measurements. Expanding L1 measurements to include a channel stateinformation reference signal (CSI-RS) can address this limitation and can be expected to enablegreater throughput on the target cell immediately after cell switch.

[0040] There currently exist certain challenges. To assist the network to trigger an LTMCell Switch, the UE can be configured to transmit L1 measurement (LTM lower layer reports) including lower layer measurements on beams (e.g., SSBs) of one or more LTM candidate cells. Thanks to these reports, the network determines the LTM candidate cell and the beam (e.g.,corresponding transmission configuration indication (TCI) state identity) to indicate in the LTMCell Switch command.

[0041] In the LTM functionality specified in Rel-18, LTM lower layer reports areconfigured in an LTM reporting configuration (LTM-CSI-ReportConfig IE) as periodic, semi- persistent on physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), semi-persistent on physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), or aperiodic.

[0042] However, periodic reports consume a significant amount of unnecessary Uplink(UL) resources and makes the UE to waste a lot of energy for reporting measurements periodically, while in fact, the network only needs to know these measurements when the UE is close to a situation in which an LTM cell Switch is to be triggered.

[0043] Other types of reports, e.g., aperiodic reports, rely on requests from the network. It isnot always simple to figure out the exact timing in which these reports are to be requested, especially when there is no UL data to be scheduled for the UE.

[0044] FIG. 3 illustrates an example of problems with LTM lower layer periodic reports. Insome examples, LTM lower layer measurement reports are expected to assist the network to trigger coverage-triggered inter-frequency LTM Cell Switches, since LTM CSI resource configuration(s) may include LTM candidate cell(s) which are intra-frequency neighbors and LTM candidate cell(s) which are inter-frequency neighbors. Coverage triggered LTM CellSwitches should be triggered when the current serving cell of the primary cell (PCell) does nothave good coverage i.e. when the best cell in that frequency is not any longer providing goodcoverage and / or quality of service (e.g., in terms of signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio(SINR)), and at the same time the UE is covered by a frequency providing good enough coverage and quality of service.

[0045] Various embodiments herein address some of these challenges by having a UEtransmit an LTM lower layer report upon fulfillment of a triggering condition as indicated in FIGS.4-5.

[0046] In some embodiments, a UE transmits an LTM lower layer report upon fulfillmentof a triggering condition, wherein the triggering condition includes a measurement associated toa serving cell (e.g., measurement on the PCell, measurement on the primary secondary cell(PSCell)) for which a TCI state is activated becoming worse than absolute threshold 1 and ameasurement associated to an LTM candidate cell becomes better than absolute threshold2. The serving cell for which a TCI state is activated may corresponds to a Special Cell (SpCell), suchas a PCell of the Master Cell Group (MCG) or a primary secondary cell group (SCG) Cell of aSCG. In additional or alternative embodiments, the LTM candidate cell is an inter-frequency LTM candidate cell.

[0047] In some examples, the UE triggers an LTM lower layer report when the “best” beam(or reference signal (RS)) of the serving cell (e.g., SpCell) becomes worse than threshold 1 andthe “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest L1 reference signal receivedpower (RSRP)) (e.g,. in a different frequency as the serving cell) becomes better than threshold2.

[0048] In additional or alternative examples, the UE triggers a lower layer report when thecell quality (e.g., cell based RSRP) of the serving cell e.g., SpCell becomes worse thanthrehsold1 AND the cell quality (e.g., cell based RSRP) of an LTM candidate cell (e.g., in adifferent frequency as the serving cell) becomes better than threshold 2.

[0049] In additional or alternative examples, in response to the LTM lower layer report, theUE receives an LTM Cell Switch Command (e.g., LTM Cell Switch Command MAC ControlElement – CE) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Target Configuration identifier (ID)associated to an LTM candidate ID) which is an inter-frequency neighbour (e.g., in a differentSSB frequency than the UE’s serving cell), and a TCI state (e.g., TCI State ID) which is to beactivated in the LTM Candidate Cell which becomes the target cell. The indicated TCI state to be activated in the LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour) in the LTM Cell Switch is associated to one of the SSBs indicated in the LTM lower layer report, whose first measurement has triggered the report. In one embodiment, the association between that reported SSB and the indicated TCI state is that the SSB is configured as Quasi-Co-Location (QCL) source of the indicated TCI State.

[0050] In additional or alternative examples, before receiving the LTM Cell Switch, inresponse to the LTM layer report, the UE receives a TCI activation command for an LTMCandidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation MAC CE) indicatingthe LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Target Configuration ID associated to an LTM candidate ID)which is an inter-frequency neighbour (e.g., in a different SSB frequency than the UE’s servingcell), and a TCI state (e.g., TCI State ID) which is to be pre-activated in the LTM CandidateCell.

[0051] In additional or alternative examples, before receiving the LTM Cell Switch, andpossibly after the TCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell, the UE receives acommand for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., PDCCH order), indicating anLTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a Reference Signal (e.g., SSB identifier) based on which the UE transmits a random access preamble to the LTM Candidate Cell.

[0052] Various embodiments herein refer to a measurement of a beam. In general terms,measurement of a beam may correspond to a measurement of a Reference Signal (RS) and / or Synchronization Signal (SS), such as a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) or Channel StateInformation - RS (CSI-RS), or Mobility Reference Signal (MRS). In that context, a beam maybe interpreted as a spatial direction (of filter) which the RS or SS is being transmitted.

[0053] In some embodiments, the beam is associated to an activated TCI sate. The beambeing associated with the activated TCI state corresponds to an RS (or SS) transmitted in the beam, e.g., indicated by an SSB index and / or CSI-RS resource identifier, being configured as QCL source of the activated TCI state of the candidate cell.

[0054] Embodiments herein refer to the term “L1 / L2 based inter-cell mobility,” though itinterchangeably also uses the terms L1 / L2 mobility, L1-mobility, L1 based mobility, L1 / L2- centric inter-cell mobility, L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility L1 / L2-Triggered Mobility, Lower-layertriggered Mobility or LTM. The basic principle is that the UE receives a lower layer signalingfrom the network indicating to the UE a change (or switch or activation) of its serving cell (e.g., change of PCell, from a source to a target Pcell), wherein a lower layer signaling is a message / signaling of a lower layer protocol, which may be referred as a L1 / L2 inter-cell mobilityexecution command or LTM cell switch command. The change of serving cell (e.g., change ofPcell) may also lead to a change in Scell(s) for the same cell group e.g., in case the commandtriggers the UE to change to another cell group configuration of the same type (e.g., anotherMCG configuration). Before the UE receives the LTM cell switch command, the UE isconfigured by the network with one or more LTM candidate cell configurations (e.g., receptionof an RRC Reconfiguration message, with at least one LTM candidate cell configuration). ALTM candidate cell configuration may include parameters in the IE CellGroupConfig per candidate cell and / or an embedded RRC Reconfiguration per LTM candidate cell.

[0055] The term LTM cell switch procedure refers to the process of a UE switching (orchanging) its cell from a source cell to a target cell (which may be called here an LTM candidatecell or a neighbour cell), using LTM. In the context of LTM, an LTM cell switch procedure maysometimes also be known as L1 / L2 based inter-cell mobility execution, LTM execution,dynamic switch, LTM switch, LTM cell switch, LTM serving cell change, or LTM cell change.In the context of the invention, switching to the LTM candidate cell configuration comprises theUE considering that an LTM candidate cell becomes its new special cell (SpCell) (e.g., Pcell) incase of LTM being configured for a MCG and / or PSCell in case of LTM being configured for a SCG; or, changing its SpCell from the current Pcell to an LTM candidate cell.

[0056] Even if the term change of cell is used, that may comprise a change of a whole cellgroup configuration, which includes a change in the SpCell (e.g., change of Pcell, or change ofPSCell) and a change in Scells of the cell group (e.g., addition, modification and / or release ofone or more Scells).

[0057] An LTM cell switch procedure may be triggered in the UE by reception of a LTMcell switch command (e.g., LTM Cell Switch MAC CE), or alternatively, triggered by someother event, such as a condition, e.g., a triggering condition used for conditional configuration, such as conditional handover, being fulfilled, as a result of recovery from radio link failure or handover failure.

[0058] Embodiments herein may refer to a LTM candidate cell, which is a cell the UE isconfigured with when configured with L1 / L2-triggered mobility. That is a cell the UE can move to in a LTM cell switch procedure, upon reception of a LTM cell switch command. These cells may also be called candidate cell(s), LTM candidate cells, candidates, mobility candidates, non- serving cells, additional cells, target candidate cell, target candidate, etc. A LTM candidate cellis a cell the UE perform measurements on (e.g., CSI measurements) so that the UE reports thesemeasurements and network may take educated decision on which beam (e.g., TCI state) and / orcell the UE is to be switched to. An LTM candidate cell may be a candidate to be a target Pcellor PSCell, or an Scell of a cell group (e.g., MCG Scell).

[0059] Embodiments herein may refer to at least one LTM candidate cell configuration andthat the UE has received at least one LTM candidate cell configuration. This is also sometimes referred to as a configuration of a LTM candidate cell, which may be an RRC configuration, such as encapsulated in an RRC Reconfiguration message, that the UE receives when being configured with L1 / L2-Triggered Mobility. A LTM candidate cell configuration comprises the configuration which the UE needs to start to operate accordingly when it performs an LTM cell switch procedure to that LTM candidate cell e.g., upon reception of the LTM cell switch command indicating the UE to perform a LTM cell switch procedure to that LTM candidate cell, which becomes the target cell and the current (new) SpCell, or an SCell in a serving frequency. The LTM candidate cell configuration comprises parameters of a serving cell (or multiple serving cells, such as a cell group), comprising one or more of the groups of parameters, such as an RRCReconfiguration message an IE CellGroupConfig or an IE SpCellConfig (or the IE SCellConfig, in the case of a Secondary Cell). A LTM candidate cell configuration may in one example comprise one or more of: i) the PCell configuration and one or more SCell configuration(s) of a MCG; ii) the PSCell configuration and one or more SCell configuration(s) of a SCG. The terms LTM candidate configuration, LTM configuration, LTM candidate target cell configuration, LTM target candidate cell configuration may be used interchangeably when referring to LTM candidate cell configuration. An LTM candidate cell configuration is associated with an identifier which is used in the signaling when referring to a certain LTM candidate cell configuration, such as when the UE receives the LTM candidate cell configuration and when the UE receives an LTM cell switch command indicating the UE toperform a LTM cell switch procedure to that LTM candidate cell. This identifier is sometimes known as the LTM candidate cell configuration identity or LTM candidate configuration index (or similar).

[0060] An actual LTM candidate cell configuration and its exact content and / or structure ofthis IE and / or embedded message may be called an RRC model for the candidate configuration, or simply RRC model. An LTM candidate cell configuration comprises the configuration which the UE needs to operate accordingly when it performs (executes) L1 / L2 based inter-cell mobility execution to a LTM candidate cell, upon reception of the lower layer signaling (MAC CE)indicating a L1 / L2 based inter-cell mobility to a LTM candidate cell (which becomes the targetcell and the current (new) PCell, or an SCell in a serving frequency), or upon reception of the lower layer signaling (MAC CE) indicating a L1 / L2 based inter-cell mobility to a LTM candidate cell configuration indicated with a candidate configuration index (sometimes also denoted candidate configuration ID). The UE may be configured with multiple LTM candidate cell configurations, so a Candidate DU generates and sends to the CU multiple configuration(s). The actual LTM candidate cell configuration the UE receives during the LTM configuration may be a delta signaling to be applied on top of a reference configuration, so that the actual configuration the UE is to use in the candidate cell upon LTM cell switch is the combination of the LTM candidate cell configuration and the reference configuration (e.g., separately signaled by the network to the UE).

[0061] Embodiments herein refer to a report triggered by the UE upon fulfillment of atriggering condition which the UE is evaluating, the report including the measurement results that is sent by the UE to the network, called a L1 report for LTM, LTM CSI measurement report, or CSI report for LTM. In one option, the report includes at least one or more measurement which were used as input to the triggering conditions which have been fulfilled and triggered the UE to transmit report. In one option for the LTM measurement report, the UEincludes a list of identifiers (e.g., resource identifiers or resource indications, or SSB identifiers)each one of them pointing to one or more SSBs and LTM candidate cells where e.g., ID1, is the first element of the list of LTM candidate cell and first element of the list of SSB. When the network receives the report, it means that the report SSB is the one identified by the first element of the list of SSB and belongs to the LTM candidate cell identified by the first element of the list of LTM candidate cells. This may also be called a resource identifier or indicator, such as an SSB resource Identifier (SSBRI), in the case of an RS being an SSB.

[0062] An LTM candidate cell may also be an LTM candidate cell in a 5G Radio accesstechnology, such as NR, or a sixth generation (6G) Radio Access Technology.

[0063] Some embodiments herein refer to a RS of an LTM candidate cell, which includesan SSB and / or an RS transmitted in a beam or spatial direction, and / or a MRS, a Channel StateInformation – RS (CSI-RS), or a RS defined for a 6G radio interface. The term “beam” may alsobe used to express a spatial direction in which a Reference Signal (e.g., SSB) associated to anindex (e.g., SSB index, or CSI-RS index) is being transmitted, so that a beam measurement maycorrespond to a measurement on an RS transmitted in that beam e.g., an SSB measurement.

[0064] Some embodiments herein refer to a beam (or RS) that may be associated to a TCIe.g., by the RS (e.g., SSB) being configured as QCL source of a TCI state configuration.

[0065] Some embodiments herein refer to a trigger condition that is based on ameasurement becoming “better” than a threshold 1, which corresponds to the measurementbeing higher than the threshold 1 or above the threshold 1, and a measurement becoming“worse” than a threshold 2, which corresponds to the measurement being lower than thethreshold 1 or below the threshold 1.

[0066] According to some embodiments, when the UE receives a command to pre-activate(or activate) a TCI state of an LTM candidate cell, it may be said that the UE would be performing one or more DL synchronization actions (also called DL pre-synchronization, pre- synchronization, pre-sync ) with an LTM candidate cell, comprising the UE detecting and / or measuring at least one synchronization signal of the LTM candidate cell, such as an SSB, e.g., an SSB of the LTM candidate cell associated to an SSB index and / or identifier and transmitted in a spatial direction (beam), and / or a CSI-RS and / or a Tracking Reference Signal (TRS) and / or a Primary Sync Signal (PSS) and / or a Secondary Sync Signal (SSS); in this context, measuring comprises determining a measurement quantity value such as a Synchronization Signal based Reference Signal Received Power (SS-RSRP) and / or Synchronization Signal based Reference Signal Received Quality (SS-RSRQ) and / or Synchronization Signal based Signal to Noise and Interference Ratio (SS-SINR).

[0067] According to some embodiments, the UE performing DL synchronization with anLTM candidate cell includes the UE performing fine time tracking and acquiring full timing information of the LTM candidate cell. Timing acquisition comprises obtaining the time boundaries of time units of a given LTM candidate cell such as time slot, OFDM symbol, subframe, radio frame. Timing acquisition comprises synchronizing a clock with the boundaries of time units of a given LTM candidate cell such as time slot, OFDM symbol, subframe, radio frame. The acquired fine timing is used as reference point for PRACH transmission and UE uplink transmissions.

[0068] In some embodiments, the UE transmits an LTM lower layer report upon fulfillmentof a triggering condition, wherein the triggering condition consists of: a measurement associatedto a serving cell (e.g., measurement on the PCell, measurement on the PSCell) for which a TCI state is activated becomes worse than absolute threhsold1 AND a measurement associated to an LTM candidate cell becomes better than absolute threshold2.

[0069] In additional or alternative embodiments, the LTM candidate cell is an inter-frequency neighbour cell, which can be defined as follows: ^The Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) frequency of the LTM candidate cell configuredfor LTM measurement is different than the SSB frequency of the serving cell (e.g., PCell, or PSCell) configured for LTM measurement; and / or ^The SSB center frequency of the LTM candidate cell configured for LTM measurement isdifferent than the SSB center frequency of the serving cell (e.g., PCell, or PSCell) configured for LTM measurement; and / or ^The subcarrier spacing (SCS) of the SSB of the LTM Candidate cell (e.g., configured forLTM measurements) is different than the SCS of the serving cell (e.g., PCell, or PSCell) configured for LTM measurement; and / or ^The frequency range (e.g., FRx) of the LTM candidate cell is different than the frequencyrange of the serving cell (e.g., FRy). The FR in this context may refer to the FR in which the SSB frequency of the LTM candidate cell and the serving cell is / are located; and / or ^The frequency band of the LTM candidate cell is different than the frequency band of theserving cell; and / or ^The frequency band of one RAT (e.g., NR) of the LTM candidate cell is different than thefrequency band of another RAT (e.g., LTE) of the serving cell; and / or ^The LTM Candidate cell is if one RAT (e.g., NR) which is different than the RAT of theserving cell (e.g., 6G RAT).

[0070] The serving cell for which a TCI state is activated may corresponds to a Special Cell(SpCell), such as a Primary Cell (PCell) of the Master Cell Group (MCG) or a Primary SCG Cell of a Secondary Cell Group (SCG). The LTM candidate cell is an inter-frequency neighbour cell i.e. a cell for which Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) frequency is different than the SSB frequency of the serving cell (e.g., PCell, or PSCell) and / or the subcarrier spacing is different than the subcarrier spacing of the serving cell (e.g., PCell, or PSCell). NOTE: The condition differs from the A5 condition in TS 38.331 defined for triggering RRC Measurement Reports at least because the proposed triggering condition takes into the status of the TCI state(s) of LTM Candidate cells and / or serving cells e.g., ‘activated’ or ‘deactivated’ TCI state(s).

[0071] In additional or alternative embodiments, in response to the LTM lower layer report,the UE receives an LTM Cell Switch Command (e.g., LTM Cell Switch Command MACControl Element – CE) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Target Configuration IDassociated to an LTM candidate ID) which is an inter-frequency neighbour (e.g., in a different SSB frequency than the UE’s serving cell), and a TCI state (e.g., TCI State ID) which is to be activated in the LTM Candidate Cell which becomes the target cell. In one option, the indicated TCI state to be activate in the LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour) inthe LTM Cell Switch is associated to one of the SSBs indicated in the LTM lower layer report, whose measurement has triggered the report. In one embodiment, the association between thatreported SSB and the indicated TCI state is that the SSB is configured as Quasi-Co-Location(QCL) source of the indicated TCI State. In one embodiment, in response to the LTM Cell Switch command the UE applies an LTM candidate cell configuration associated to the LTM Candidate cell indicated in the LTM Cell Switch Command, in response to which the UE accesses the LTM Candidate cell indicated in the LTM Cell Switch command by transmitting a Scheduling Request (SR) over PUCCH in a pre-configured UL resource and / or by initiating a random access procedure (in which the UE transmits a random access preamble to the indicated LTM Candidate cell).

[0072] In additional or alternative embdoiments, before receiving the LTM Cell Switch, inresponse to the LTM lower layer report the UE has transmitted, the UE receives a TCI activationcommand for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / DeactivationMAC CE) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Target Configuration ID associated to anLTM candidate ID) which is an inter-frequency neighbour (e.g., in a different SSB frequency than the UE’s serving cell), and a TCI state (e.g., TCI State ID) which is to be pre-activated in the LTM Candidate Cell. In one option, the indicated TCI state to be activate in the LTM Candidate Cell in the LTM Cell Switch is associated to one of the SSBs indicated in the LTM lower layer report, whose first measurement has triggered the report. In one embodiment, the association between that reported SSB and the indicated TCI state is that the SSB is configured as Quasi-Co-Location (QCL) source of the indicated TCI State. In more general terms, the procedure to activate (or pre-activate) a TCI state may correspond to a Downlink (DL) synchronization procedure.

[0073] In additional or alternative embodiments, before receiving the LTM cell switch, inresponse to the LTM lower layer report the UE has transmitted, the UE receives a TCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation MAC CE) indicating for the already mentioned the LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Target Configuration ID associated to an LTM candidate ID) which is an inter-frequency neighbour (e.g., in a different SSB frequency than the UE’s serving cell), and a TCI state (e.g., TCI State ID) which is to be de-activated. This is the case where the LTM candidate cell has already a TCI state which is already activated, but this TCI state which is already activated is not among the one or more TCI states received within the LTM lower layer report. In such a case, there are no benefits in keeping a TCI state as activated if this TCI state is not good enough to perform an LTM cell switch procedure.

[0074] In additional or alternative embodiments, before the UE receives the LTM CellSwitch, and possibly after the TCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell, the UEreceives a command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., order), indicating anLTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a Reference Signal (e.g., SSB identifier) based on which the UE transmits a random access preamble to the LTMCandidate Cell. In one option, the Reference Signal (e.g., SSB identifier) indicated in thecommand is one of the RS(s) indicated in the LTM lower layer report. In one option, the LTM candidate cell indicated in the command is one of the LTM candidate cell(s) indicated in the LTM lower layer report. In one option, the command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure indicates a preamble index which is associated to a random access configuration when the time and frequency domain in which the preamble index can be transmitted towards the indicated LTM candidate cell are inter-frequency with respect to the frequency in which the serving cell is operating.

[0075] In additional or alternative embodiments, the condition (or triggering condition fortransmitting an LTM lower layer report) “a measurement associated to a serving cell (e.g., measurement on the PCell, measurement on the PSCell) for which a TCI state is activated becomes better than absolute threhsold1 AND a measurement associated to an LTM candidate cell becomes better than absolute threshold2” may also be characterized as an event the UE is configured by network. Thus, the fulfillment of the condition may correspond to the fulfillment of the event, or the entry condition of the event.

[0076] FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a signaling flow showing the different responses theUE may receive when it triggers a lower layer LTM report (i.e. including lower layermeasurements on inter-frequency LTM Candidate Cells) e.g., TCI activation command and / orcommand triggering early UL sync and / or an LTM Cell Switch command.

[0077] In additional or alternative embodiments, the UE may receive, in response totransmitting the LTM lower layer report, a TCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell(e.g., a Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation MAC CE), indicating an LTMCandidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a TCI state which is to be activated in the LTM Candidate Cell. And, in response to that TCI activation command for anLTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) the UE activatesthe indicated TCI state of the indicated LTM Candidate cell. That may correspond to the UE performing a DL synchronization with the RS and / or beam associated to the indicated LTM candidate cell associated to the indicated TCI state.

[0078] In additional or alternative embodiments, the UE may receive such TCI activationcommand for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., a Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / DeactivationMAC CE) before the UE receives an LTM Cell Switch command for an LTM Candidate Cell.

[0079] In some examples, the UE transmits a first instance of the LTM lower layer report,triggered by the proposed triggering condition, and in response it receives the TCI activationcommand for an LTM Candidate cell (e.g., LTM Candidate cell X) and an indicated TCI State(e.g., TCI state with TCI state ID=Z). Then, before the UE transmits another instance of theLTM lower layer report, the UE receives the LTM Cell Switch command indicating the same LTM Candidate cell and the same TCI state. In that case, the network only needs one instance of the LTM lower layer report to take the decision to pre-activate the TCI state of the LTM candidate cell and to indicate to the UE to perform the LTM Cell Switch to that LTM Candidate cell.

[0080] In additional or alternative examples, the UE transmits a first instance of the LTMlower layer report, triggered by the proposed triggering condition, and in response it receives theTCI activation command for an LTM Candidate cell (e.g., LTM Candidate cell X) and anindicated TCI State (e.g., TCI state with TCI state ID=Z). Then, the UE transmits at least a second instance of the LTM lower layer report, and in response, the UE receives the LTM Cell Switch command indicating the same LTM Candidate cell and the same TCI state. In that case, the network needs multiple instances of the LTM lower layer report to take the decision to pre- activate the TCI state of the LTM candidate cell and to further indicate to the UE to perform the LTM Cell Switch to that LTM Candidate cell.

[0081] In additional or alternative embodiments, the UE may receive, in response totransmitting the LTM lower layer report, a command for triggering an Early Uplink syncprocedure (e.g., PDCCH order), indicating an LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequencyneighbour cell) and a Reference Signal (e.g., SSB identifier) based on which the UE transmits arandom access preamble to the LTM Candidate Cell.

[0082] In some examples, the LTM candidate cell indicated in the command is one of theLTM Candidate cells indicated in the LTM lower layer report transmitted by the UE.

[0083] In additional or alternative examples, the RS indicated in the command is one of theRSs (e.g., SSBs) indicated in the LTM lower layer report transmitted by the UE.

[0084] In additional or alternative examples, the preamble index indicated in the commandis associated to a random access configuration when the time and frequency domain in which the preamble index can be transmitted towards the indicated LTM candidate cell are inter-frequency with respect to the frequency in which the serving cell is operating

[0085] In additional or alternative embodiments, the command for triggering an Early ULsync procedure may further indicate to the UE one or more random access configuration indications associated to a random access configuration of the LTM Candidate Cell. In response to the command the UE transmits a random access preamble to the LTM Candidate Cell.

[0086] In additional or alternative embodiments, when a command is received from the NWnode with in X1 ms (e.g., X1 is 160ms) from measurement associated with the LTM lower layer report or from the measurement LTM lower layer report, UE transmitting the random-access preamble in the next random-access occasion associated to the RS indicated in the command (e.g., PDCCH order). Otherwise, the method comprises obtaining T / F synchronization to the inter-frequency neighbour before transmitting the random-access preamble. The time required for obtaining T / F synchronization to the inter-frequency neighbour is Y1*SSB_Periodicity (e.g., Y1 is 3).

[0087] In additional or alternative embodiments, the UE evaluates the event after servingcell measurement occasion and / or after each neighbour cell measurement occasion (i.e., after the LTM candidate cell configured with this event trigger).

[0088] In some examples, based on the preamble the network node associated to the LTMcandidate cell indicated in the command, calculates a Timing Advance (TA) value, which may be included in the LTM Cell Switch command.

[0089] In additional or alternative embodiments, the UE may receive the command fortriggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., PDCCH order) before the UE receives an LTMCell Switch command for an LTM Candidate Cell.

[0090] In some examples, the UE transmits a first instance of the LTM lower layer report,triggered by the proposed triggering condition, and in response it receives the command for triggering the Early UL sync procedure for an LTM Candidate cell (e.g., LTM Candidate cell X) and an indicated SSB ID. Then, after the UE transmits the preamble for the Early UL sync procedure, and before the UE transmits another instance of the LTM lower layer report, the UE receives the LTM Cell Switch command indicating the same LTM Candidate cell and a TimingAdvance value (e.g., calculated by the network based on the preamble transmitted by the UE). Inthat case, the network only needs one instance of the LTM lower layer report to take the decision to triggers the Early UL sync and to indicate to the UE to perform the LTM Cell Switch to that LTM Candidate cell.

[0091] In additional or alternative examples, the UE transmits a first instance of the LTMlower layer report, triggered by the proposed triggering condition, and in response it receives thecommand for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., order) for an LTM Candidate cell(e.g., LTM Candidate cell X) and an indicated SSB ID. Then, the UE transmits the preamble forthe Early UL sync, and transmits at least a second instance of the LTM lower layer report, and in response, the UE receives the LTM Cell Switch command indicating the same LTM Candidate cell. In that case, the network needs multiple instances of the LTM lower layer report to take the decision to trigger Early UL sync and to further indicate to the UE to perform the LTM Cell Switch to that LTM Candidate cell.

[0092] In additional or alternative embodiments, the UE may receive the command fortriggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., PDCCH order) after the UE receives the TCIactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., a Candidate Cell TCI StatesActivation / Deactivation MAC CE).

[0093] In some examples, the UE transmits a first instance of the LTM lower layer report,triggered by the proposed triggering condition, and in response it receives the TCI activationcommand for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., a Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / DeactivationMAC CE), e.g., LTM Candidate cell X. In response to that the UE activates the indicates TCI state of the indicated LTM candidate cell X. Then, also in response to that first instance of the LTM lower layer report the UE also receives the command for triggering the Early UL syncprocedure for the same LTM Candidate cell (e.g., LTM Candidate cell X) and an indicated SSBID. In other words, in response to the same instance of the LTM lower layer report the UE receives the command to activate a TCI state of an LTM candidate cell and a command to trigger Early UL sync to the same LTM candidate cell (which may be an LTM candidate cell the UE has indicated in the LTM lower layer report).

[0094] In additional or alternative examples, after the UE transmits the preamble for theEarly UL sync procedure, and before the UE transmits another instance of the LTM lower layer report, the UE receives the LTM Cell Switch command indicating the same LTM Candidate cell and a Timing Advance value (e.g., calculated by the network based on the preamble transmitted by the UE). In that case, the network only needs one instance of the LTM lower layer report to take the decision to triggers TCI state activation of an LTM candidate cell, the Early UL sync, and to indicate to the UE to perform the LTM Cell Switch to that LTM Candidate cell.

[0095] In additional or alternative examples, after the UE transmits the preamble for theEarly UL sync procedure, the UE transmits at least a second instance of the LTM lower layer report and, in response to it, the UE receives the LTM Cell Switch command indicating the sameLTM Candidate cell and a Timing Advance value (e.g., calculated by the network based on thepreamble transmitted by the UE). In that case, the network needs a single instance of the LTM lower layer report to take the decision to triggers TCI state activation of an LTM candidate cell and the Early UL sync, but more instances to indicate to the UE to perform the LTM Cell Switch to that LTM Candidate cell.

[0096] In additional or alternative examples, the UE transmits a first instance of the LTMlower layer report, triggered by the proposed triggering condition, and in response it receives theTCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., a Candidate Cell TCI StatesActivation / Deactivation MAC CE), e.g., LTM Candidate cell X. In response to that the UE activates the indicates TCI state of the indicated LTM candidate cell X. Then, the UE transmits at least a second instance of the LTM lower layer report and, in response to, the UE receives the command for triggering the Early UL sync procedure for the same LTM Candidate cell (e.g., LTM Candidate cell X) and an indicated SSB ID.

[0097] In additional or alternative examples, after the UE transmits the preamble for theEarly UL sync procedure, and without the UE having to transmit another instance of the LTM lower layer report, the UE receives the LTM Cell Switch command indicating the same LTMCandidate cell and a Timing Advance value (e.g., calculated by the network based on thepreamble transmitted by the UE).

[0098] IN additional or alternative examples, after the UE transmits the preamble for theEarly UL sync procedure, the UE transmits another instance of the LTM lower layer report and, in response to it, the UE receives the LTM Cell Switch command indicating the same LTMCandidate cell and a Timing Advance value (e.g., calculated by the network based on thepreamble transmitted by the UE).

[0099] In additional or alternative embodiments, the indicated TCI state ID the UE receivesin the LTM Cell Switch Command for an LTM Candidate cell or in the TCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell is for TCI state associated to an RS whose indication the UE has included in the LTM lower layer report. For example, the UE receives in the LTM Cell Switch a TCI ID=Z for the LTM Candidate cell X, when the UE included in the LTM lower report, an indication of the LTM Candidate cell X and an SSB whose SSB ID=Y, wherein the SSB ID=Y is configured as QCL source of the TCI ID=Z of the LTM Candidate cell X.

[0100] In additional or alternative embodiments, the indicated RS ID the UE receives in thecommand for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., PDCCH order) for an LTMCandidate cell is an RS ID whose indication the UE has included in the LTM lower layer report. For example, the UE receives in the PDCCH order an SSB ID=Y for the LTM Candidate cell X, when the UE included in the LTM lower report, an indication of the LTM Candidate cell X and an indication of SSB ID=Y.

[0101] In additional or alternative embodiments, the UE perform measurements and / orevaluates the triggering condition on the LTM candidate cell, for transmitting LTM lower layer reports, depending on the status of a TCI state of the LTM candidate cell, wherein the status may be ‘activated’ or ‘deactivated’.

[0102] In some examples, the UE perform measurements and / or evaluates the fulfillment ofthe triggering condition on LTM candidate cell(s) (which is / are inter-frequency LTM candidate cell(s) when that LTM candidate cell has at least one TCI state activated. Or, the UE perform measurements and / or evaluates the fulfillment of the triggering condition on LTM candidate cell(s) (which is / are inter-frequency LTM candidate cell(s) when that LTM candidate cell has all its TCI states deactivated.

[0103] In additional or alternative examples, the UE is configured with two instances of thetriggering condition, e.g., with different value(s) for the pair threshold1 and threshold2 (two pairs are provided, each pair with different values). A first instance of the LTM lower layer report (triggered based on the proposed condition) is to be triggered earlier than the other (e.g., threshold value for comparing with the PCell is higher), to assist the network to first activate TCI state of an LTM candidate cell and, only later, to trigger an LTM Cell Switch. In that sense, the first instance is monitored by the UE for a deactivate inter-frequency LTM Candidate cell and, when that inter-frequency LTM candidate cell gets activated, the UE stops evaluating the first instance (e.g., with first set of thresholds) and starts evaluating the second instance (with second set of thresholds), since that is an inter-frequency LTM Candidate Cell which is sort of ‘ready’ for a fast inter-frequency LTM Cell switch.

[0104] In additional or alternative examples, the two instances may be configured in twodifferent reporting configuration instances e.g., two different instances of LTM-CSI- ReportConfig IE(s), each with its own reporting configuration identifier.

[0105] In additional or alternative examples, the UE switches (e.g., autonomously) betweenthese two depending whether the inter-frequency LTM candidate cell has at least one TCI state or not. Switching in this context means evaluating or not the trigger condition, and / or performing the associated measurement(s).

[0106] In additional or alternative examples, the UE switches between these two based on asignaling from the network indicating which reporting configuration to evaluate and to notevaluate e.g., MAC CE indicating a reporting configuration Id.

[0107] In additional or alternative examples, the UE switches between these two based on aMAC CE the UE receives to activate or deactivate a TCI state of an LTM Candidate Cell. When an LTM Candidate cell has all its TCIs states deactivated, the UE is evaluating the first instance of the reporting configuration (first set of thresholds for early trigger of pre-sync); the UE may transmits the LTM lower layer report and in response receive a MAC CE indicating the activation of a TCI state of that LTM candidate cell; then, in response to that MAC CE, the UE stops evaluating the first instance, and starts evaluating the second instance.

[0108] In additional or alternative examples, the UE switches between these two based on anew MAC CE the UE receives to toggle between reporting configurations to be evaluated.

[0109] In additional or alternative examples,, this is a single reporting configurationinstance, which may take the two pairs (or more) of thresholds.

[0110] In additional or alternative examples, the UE switches (e.g., autonomously) betweenthese two pairs depending whether the inter-frequency LTM candidate cell has at least one TCI state or not. Switching in this context means evaluating or not the trigger condition, and / or performing the associated measurement(s).

[0111] In additional or alternative examples, the UE switches between these two pairs basedon a signaling from the network indicating for a given reporting configuration to evaluate (e.g., MAC CE indicating a reporting configuration Id), which pairs of thresholds to consider.

[0112] In additional or alternative examples, the UE switches between these two pairs toevaluate based on a MAC CE the UE receives to activate or deactivate a TCI state of an LTM Candidate Cell. When an LTM Candidate cell has all its TCIs states deactivated, the UE isevaluating the first instance of the reporting configuration (first set of thresholds for early triggerof pre-sync); the UE may transmits the LTM lower layer report and in response receive a MAC CE indicating the activation of a TCI state of that LTM candidate cell; then, in response to that MAC CE, the UE stops evaluating the first instance, and starts evaluating the second instance.

[0113] In additional or alternative examples, the UE switches between these two based on anew MAC CE the UE receives to toggle between these pairs, for a given reporting configuration.

[0114] In additional or alternative examples, instead of two pairs of values for threshold1and threhsold2, to be evaluated depending on whether the LTM candidate cell has activated TCIstates or not, the UE is configured with a pair of the threshold 1 and threshold 2 and one or moreoffset(s), wherein the offset(s) are applied depending on whether the LTM candidate cell has activated TCI states or not.

[0115] In additional or alternative embodiments, it may be possible that an LTM candidatecell does not have any TCI state activated at the moment the UE evaluate the triggering condition, and this may be due to UE capabilities (UE is already the maximum number of TCIstate for all the LTM candidate cell which can support) or due to network limitation (e.g.,network did not activate a TCI state in time for the LTM candidate cell for which the UE is going to evaluate the triggering condition). In this case, when the UE receives the configuration which include the triggering condition, the UE may further receives a list of TCI states for the serving cell and for a LTM candidate cell which can be used to evaluate the triggering condition. This means that the UE may selects a TCI state from the subset of TCI states of the serving cellor LTM candidate cell, and use the beam and / or a reference signal (RS) (e.g., an SSB and / or a CSI-RS resource) associated to it to evaluate the triggering condition.

[0116] In additional or alternative embodiments, when the UE performs measurement(s) onan LTM candidate cell which has a TCI activated, the UE perform the measurements on a beam of the LTM Candidate cell associated to the activated TCI state of the LTM candidate cell e.g., on an RS and / or SSB and / or CSI-RS of the LTM Candidate cell configured as QCL source of the activated TCI state of the LTM candidate cell.

[0117] In additional or alternative embodiments, when the UE performs measurement(s) onan LTM candidate cell which has a TCI state deactivated, the UE performs the measurements on a beam of the LTM Candidate cell configured as QCL source of the deactivated TCI state of the LTM candidate cell e.g., on an RS and / or SSB and / or CSI-RS of the LTM Candidate cell configured as QCL source of the deactivated TCI state of the LTM candidate cell.

[0118] Some embodiments associated with a comparison of beam measurements isdescribed below.

[0119] In some embodiments, the UE triggers an LTM lower layer report when the “best”beam (or RS) of the serving cell e.g., SpCell becomes worse than threhsold1 AND the “best”beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest L1 RSRP), in a different frequency as theserving cell, becomes better than threshold 2.

[0120] There are different options for defining a “best” beam, which would make the UE todetermine the input to the triggering condition.

[0121] In some examples, the “best” beam of the LTM candidate cell may corresponds tothe beam (or RS e.g., SSB, CSI-RS, MRS, etc.) with the highest measurement quantity amongother beams (or RSs) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest L1 RSRP).

[0122] In additional or alternative examples, the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cellmay correspond to the beam with the highest measurement quantity (e.g., highest L1 RSRP)among the other beams (or RSs) of the serving cell e.g., SpCell.

[0123] In additional or alternative examples, the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cellmay correspond to the beam (or RS) associated with an activated TCI state of the serving celle.g., SpCell, or the indicated TCI state among the activated TCI states. In this case the beammay be represented by a Reference Signal (RS), such as an SSB and, the best beam corresponds to the SSB configured as QCL source of the activated TCI state in the serving cell. When the serving cell has a single TCI state activated, the UE considers the best beam as the beam associated to that activated TCI State. For example, let us assume that the PCell has TCI state activated with configured QCL source [SSB2]. Then, the UE considers SSB2 as the best beam of that serving cell. When the serving cell has multiple TCI states activated, one option is toconsider the best beam as the one associated to the highest measurement quantity among the beams associated to activated TCI States. For example, let us assume that the PCell has 3 TCI states activated, with configured QCL sources [SSB2], [SSB5], [SSB7] wherein the SSB with the highest L1-RSRP is of SSB5. Then, the UE considers SSB5 as the best beam of that serving cell. When the serving cell has multiple TCI states activated, one option is to consider the best beam as the one which has been indicated i.e. the one which the UE is considering for PDCCH receptions (even if the UE is synchronized with multiple beams of the activated TCI states).

[0124] In additional or alternative examples, the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidatecell may correspond to the beam (or RS) associated with an activated candidate TCI state of the LTM Candidate cell. In this case the beam may be represented by an RS, such as an SSB and, the best beam corresponds to the SSB configured as QCL source of the activated TCI state in the LTM Candidate Cell. A candidate TCI state of an LTM Candidate Cell may be activated before an LTM Cell Switch command is received. The activation occurs in response to the reception bythe UE of a MAC CE (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation MAC CE).When the LTM Candidate Cell has a single TCI state activated, the UE considers the best beam as the beam associated to that activated TCI State. For example, let us assume that an LTM Candidate Cell has candidate TCI state activated with configured QCL source [SSB2]. Then, the UE considers SSB2 as the best beam of that LTM Candidate Cell. When the LTM Candidate Cell has multiple TCI states activated, one option is to consider the best beam as the one associated to the highest measurement quantity among the beams associated to activated TCI States of the LTM Candidate Cell. For example, let us assume that the LTM Candidate Cell has 3 TCI states activated, with configured QCL sources [SSB2], [SSB5], [SSB7] wherein the SSB with the highest L1-RSRP is of SSB5. Then, the UE considers SSB5 as the best beam of that LTM Candidate Cell.

[0125] In additional or alternative examples, the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidatecell may corresponds to the beam (or RS e.g., SSB, CSI-RS, MRS, etc.) which average measurement quantity (over a time window) is with the highest measurement quantity amongother beams (or RSs) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest L1 RSRP).

[0126] In additional or alternative examples, the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cellmay correspond to the beam which average measurement quantity (over a time window) is withthe highest measurement quantity (e.g., highest L1 RSRP) among the other beams (or RSs) ofthe serving cell e.g., SpCell.

[0127] In additional or alternative examples, the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidatecell may correspond to any of what is described above, but considering beams which belong to a PCell, PSCell, or SCell(s) (or any permutation of these).

[0128] In additional or alternative examples, the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cellmay correspond to any of what is described above, but considering beams which belong to a PCell, PSCell, or SCell(s) (or any permutation of these).

[0129] In additional or alternative examples, the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidatecell may correspond to any of what is described above, but considering beams which belong to a TCI state which is part to a subset of TCI state which are configured by the network for the UE to evaluate the triggering condition.

[0130] In additional or alternative examples, the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cellmay correspond to any of what is described above, but considering beams which belong to a TCI state which is part to a subset of TCI state which are configured by the network for the UE to evaluate the triggering condition.

[0131] In additional or alternative embodiments, the “best” beam of the LTM Candidate cellmay change over time for example, in a measurement period t0 the best beam may be b1, in measurement period t1 the best beam may be b5, and in measurement period the best beam may be b7. In that case, the UE may have a best beam measurement per period and perform an average to define a best beam quality, even if the best beam differs for the different measurement periods.

[0132] In additional or alternative embodiments, the triggering condition may rely ondifferent combinations of the different options above for the “best” beam. For example, the UE triggers an LTM lower layer report when the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell(e.g., highest L1 RSRP) is better than threshold2 AND the “best” beam (or RS) of the servingcell e.g., SpCell is worse than threshold1, wherein: i) the best beam of the LTM Candidate cellcomprises the highest measurement quantity among other beams (or RSs) of the LTM candidatecell (e.g., highest L1 RSRP) and the “best” beam of the serving cell (e.g., SpCell) comprises thebeam with the highest measurement quantity (e.g., highest L1 RSRP) among the other beams (orRSs) of the serving cell e.g., SpCell; or ii) the best beam of the LTM Candidate cell comprisesthe highest measurement quantity among other beams (or RSs) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest L1 RSRP) and the “best” beam of the serving cell (e.g., SpCell) comprises the beam (orRS) associated with an activated TCI state of the serving cell e.g., SpCell; or any othercombination of the options above for defining the “best” beam of the serving cell and of the LTM Candidate cell.

[0133] In some examples, the UE triggers an LTM lower layer report when the L1 RSRP ofan SSB of the LTM candidate cell is better than threshold2 AND the L1 RSRP of SSB (e.g., SS- RSRP) of the serving cell (e.g., PCell) with highest L1 RSRP is worse than threshold1.

[0134] In additional or alternative embodiments, the UE may receive an RRC message forconfiguring one or more parameters associated to the triggering conditions (which may also be called an event or entering condition associated to the event). The RRC message (e.g., RRC Reconfiguration) may include a reporting configuration (e.g., LTM-CSI-ReportConfig) and an association resource configuration (e.g., LTM-CSI-ResourceConfig). Upon receiving the one or more parameters the UE evaluates the fulfillment of the triggering condition.

[0135] In additional or alternative embodiments, the reporting configuration may indicatean identifier (e.g., event ID) so that when the UE receives the configuration the UE determines that the configuration is for the event whose condition is defined as above i.e. an LTM lower layer report when the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell e.g., SpCell becomes worse than threhsold1 AND the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest L1 RSRP), in a different frequency as the serving cell, becomes better than threshold 2.

[0136] In additional or alternative embodiments, the reporting configuration may indicateone or more parameters associated to the event such as: -a trigger quantity, indicating what is the quantity to be measured and used as input to thetriggering condition e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, SINR, L1 RSRP, etc. -a threshold1 value, associated to the event definition e.g., in terms of dBs or dBm;- a threshold2 value, associated to the event definition e.g., in terms of dBs or dBm;- one or more reporting quantities, indicating what additional quantities the UE is meant tomeasure and / or report, in addition to the trigger quantity. -a time to trigger value, which indicates how long since the condition has been fulfilledthe UE needs to way before sending the measurement report. -an LTM candidate cell ID, which indicate to which LTM candidate configuration theevent applies -a reference signal type (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS)- an indication of an associated resource configuration (e.g., resource configurationidentifier) -a reporting configuration identifier

[0137] In additional or alternative embodiments, the reporting configuration may indicatean identifier of a resource configuration (e.g., LTM-CSI-ReportConfigId, included in the reporting configuration), which indicates one or more LTM Candidate Cells to be possibly considered as input for the condition associated to the event.Thus, the UE determines the LTMCandidate Cells for which beams / SSB(s) within the resource configuration are to be consideredas input to the event(s) e.g., the SSBs of the LTM Candidate Cell(s) and / or the SSBs of the Serving cell (e.g., the SpCell or PCell). In other words, even when the UE is configured with more LTM Candidate Cells which may be detected by the UE, these are not considered as applicable cells to be used as input to the events unless they are included in the resource configuration.

[0138] For example, for some of the embodiments disclosed in the method, the UEevaluates the fulfillment of the triggering conditions for an LTM candidate cell when that has at least one activated TCI state. Applying this concept, the UE only considers the resources in the resource configuration associated to the reporting configuration for the proposed event, when that is of an LTM Candidate Cell which has at least one activated TCI state.

[0139] Or, as in some of the embodiments disclosed in the method, the UE evaluates thefulfillment of the triggering conditions for RSs of an LTM candidate cell which are associated to Activated TCI states. Thus, the UE only considers the resources in the resource configuration (e.g., RS ID(s), SSB ID(s)) associated to the reporting configuration for the proposed event, when these SSB ID(s) or RS ID(s) are configured as QCL source of activated TCI states of LTM Candidate cells.

[0140] In some examples, the RS (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS) to be considered may be explicitlyindicated by the NW in the report configuration. One example this may be a simple indication like consider all RS configured or only the beams or RS associated with TCI states activated or the RSs or beams not associated with TCI states activated. This can be indicated to UE in the report configuration as following.ltmRSForEventEvaluation ENUMERATED {All LTM candidate RS, LTM candidateRS associated with TCI states activated, LTM candidate RS not associated with activated TCI states, Spare}

[0141] For example, based on intended usage of the event by the NW,ltmRSForEventEvaluation can be configured appropriately by NW. If the NW intend to use the event for selecting the cells / RS for DL and UL pre-synchronization, NW may indicate above field as LTM candidate RS not associated with activated TCI states. If the NW intend to use the event for cell switch for load balancing, NW can indicate LTM candidate RS associated with TCI states activated and so on.

[0142] In some examples, a resource configuration may include resources of LTMCandidate cells which are inter-frequency candidate cell(s) (e.g., SSB ID(s) associated to an LTM candidate ID) and resources of LTM Candidate cells which are NOT inter-frequency candidate cell(s) (e.g., SSB ID(s) associated to an LTM candidate ID). Thus, as the event defined as follow “the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell e.g., SpCell becomes worse than threhsold1 AND the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest L1 RSRP), in a different frequency as the serving cell, becomes better than threshold 2” is applicable for inter- frequency LTM candidate cell(s), the UE only considers for comparing with threshold 2, the resources associated to inter-frequency LTM Candidate cell(s). In some examples, the applicable cells are the inter-frequency LTM candidate cells among the LTM candidate cells inthe resource configuration associated to the reporting configuration in which the event is configured. In additional or alternative examples, the applicable beams, SSBs and / or RS ID(s) are the ones of inter-frequency LTM candidate cells among the LTM candidate cells in the resource configuration associated to the reporting configuration in which the event is configured.

[0143] One alternative which might not require such a rule, could be if the UE would beconfigured with a resource configuration only with inter-frequency LTM candidate cell(s). However, that would require different sets of resource configuration(s). Thus, it may bebeneficial to define resource configuration(s) including both intra-frequency LTM Candidatecells and inter-frequency LTM candidate cell(s). And, to properly operate with the different events, the UE would need to consider only inter-frequency LTM candidate cells for the event defined as “the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell e.g., SpCell becomes worse than threhsold1 AND the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest L1 RSRP) becomes better than threshold2.

[0144] For example, assume an instance of the IE LTM-CSI-ResourceConfig-r18 (havingan associated identifier e.g., ltm-CSI-ResourceConfigId-r18) and being grouped in as a resource set (e.g., in the IE LTM-CSI-SSB-ResourceSet-r18), wherein the resource set may be structure as a first and a second list, wherein the first list comprises one or more SSB indexes and thesecond list comprises one or more LTM candidate cell identifiers (IDs), wherein the position inthe list is associated to an LTM CSI resource in that LTM CSI resource configuration e.g., the instance of the IE LTM-CSI-ResourceConfig includes the following lists ltm-CSI-SSB- ResourceList-r18 and ltm-CandidateIdList-r18: ltm-CSI-SSB-ResourceList-r18 ltm-CandidateIdList-r18 ^[SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]

[0145] In this example, LTM Candidate cells with ID 2 and ID 4 are the inter-frequencyLTM Candidate Cell(s). Then, only LTM Candidate cells with ID 2 and ID 4 are applicable when that resource configuration is indicated in a reporting configuration configuring the event “the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell e.g., SpCell becomes worse than threhsold1 AND the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest L1 RSRP) becomes better than threshold2.”

[0146] And, even when the UE has other SSBs per LTM Candidate cells which may bedetected, the UE monitors the triggering condition associated to that resource configuration the [SSB1], [SSB2], [SSB3], [SSB4], [SSB5] of the LTM candidate cell ID 2 and the [SSB1], [SSB2], [SSB3], [SSB4], [SSB5] of the LTM candidate cell ID 4.

[0147] In one option, not all SSBs of an inter-frequency LTM Candidate Cell which areincluded in the resource configuration are applicable to be considered as input to the triggering condition, but the SSBs in the resource configuration which are associated to the activated LTM candidate cell which is also in the resource configuration. Assuming the example above, in which [LTM Candidate cell ID 2] is activated, but [LTM Candidate cell ID 4] is deactivated, only [LTM Candidate cell ID 2] is to be evaluated in comparison with the serving cell.

[0148] In another option, not all SSBs of an inter-frequency LTM Candidate Cell which areincluded in the resource configuration are applicable to be considered as input to the triggering condition, but the SSBs in the resource configuration which are associated to the activated TCI state(s) of the LTM candidate cell e.g., SSBs configured as QCL source of a candidate TCI state which is activated. Assuming the example above, in which [LTM Candidate cell ID 2] is activated (SSB5), [SSB5] of [LTM Candidate cell ID 2] is to be evaluated in comparison with the best beam of the serving cell (e.g., of the PCell).

[0149] In another option, not all SSBs of a serving cell (e.g., SpCell, PCell) which areincluded in the resource configuration are applicable to be considered as input to the triggering condition, but the SSBs in the resource configuration which are associated to the activated TCI state(s) of the serving cell e.g., SSBs configured as QCL source of a TCI state which is activated.

[0150] In one option, the reporting configuration is associated to an LTM candidate ID, andno explicitly SSB list is provided in a resource configuration. The UE determines the SSBsassociated to the LTM Candidate ID which may be considered as input to the event / triggeringcondition by obtaining the TCI state configuration. The SSBs considered as possible input are the SSBs configured as QCL source(s) in the Candidate TCI state configuration associated to the LTM candidate cell.

[0151] In a set of embodiments, multiple inter-frequency LTM Candidate cell(s) fulfill thetriggering condition: the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell e.g., SpCell becomes worse than threhsold1 AND the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest L1 RSRP), in a different frequency as the serving cell, becomes better than threshold 2. In other words, the best beam of multiple inter-frequency LTM Candidate cell(s) may, at a certain point in time, be better than threshold2 and the best beam of the serving cell is worse than threshold1.

[0152] According to the method, the UE transmits an LTM lower layer report when thetriggering condition is fulfilled i.e., the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell e.g., SpCell becomes worse than threhsold1 AND the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest L1 RSRP), in a different frequency as the serving cell, becomes better than threshold 2, wherein the UE includes one or more of the following in the LTM lower layer report: -Information about the best “beam” (or RS) of the inter-frequency LTM Candidate Cellwhich has triggered the event (e.g., so-called triggered SSB) such as: oAn indication of a value of the measurement quantity which has triggered thereport e.g., L1-RSRP associated to that beam or RS; oAn indication of a value of a measurement quantity configured at the UE (e.g.,reporting quantity(ies) configured in the LTM reporting configuration) e.g., L1- RSRQ associated to that beam or RS; oA differential measurement quantity (e.g., differential L1 RSRP) associated tothat best beam (e.g., relative to a reference value); oAn indication of the best beam or RS such as, a beam identifier of the best beam,an RS index (e.g., SSB index) or a resource indication, indicating the position of that best beam in the associated resource configuration, such as an SSB Resource Indicator (SSBRI), in the case of an SSB being configured as a resource; -Information about the best “beam” (or RS) and the top N beams of the LTM CandidateCell which has triggered the event (e.g., so-called triggered SSB) such as: oAn indication of a value of the measurement quantity which has triggered thereport e.g., L1-RSRP associated to that beam or RS; oAn indication of a value of a measurement quantity configured at the UE (e.g.,reporting quantity(ies) configured in the LTM reporting configuration) e.g., L1- RSRQ associated to that beam or RS; oA differential measurement quantity (e.g., differential L1 RSRP) associated tothat best beam (e.g., relative to a reference value); oAn indication of the best beam or RS such as, a beam identifier of the best beam,an RS index (e.g., SSB index) or a resource indication, indicating the position of that best beam in the associated resource configuration, such as an SSB Resource Indicator (SSBRI), in the case of an SSB being configured as a resource; oN may be configurable or fixed quantity- Information about the best “beam” (or RS) of the Serving Cell which has triggered theevent, such as: oAn indication of a value of the measurement quantity which has triggered thereport e.g., L1-RSRP associated to that beam or RS; oAn indication of a value of a measurement quantity configured at the UE (e.g.,reporting quantity(ies) configured in the LTM reporting configuration) e.g., L1- RSRQ associated to that beam or RS; oA differential measurement quantity (e.g., differential L1 RSRP) associated tothat best beam (e.g., relative to a reference value); oAn indication of the best beam or RS such as, a beam identifier of the best beam,an RS index (e.g., SSB index) or a resource indication, indicating the position of that best beam in the associated resource configuration, such as an SSB Resource Indicator (SSBRI), in the case of an SSB being configured as a resource;- Information about the LTM candidate cell associated to the “best” beam and / or best SSBand / or triggered SSB oLTM Candidate ID e.g., encoded in fewer bits than the cell identity andassociated to an LTM Candidate cell configuration, configured when LTM is configured; oCell identifier (Cell ID) of the LTM Candidate cell associated to the beam or RSwhich has triggered the LTM lower layer report; ^This may be a Serving cell index or SCell index depending on whether theLTM candidate cell has been configured as a PCell, PSCell, or SCell. oPhysical Cell Identity (PCI) of the LTM candidate cell associated to the beam orRS which has triggered the LTM lower layer report;- SSB Frequency (e.g., absolute frequency information, like an ARFCN of the SSB) of theLTM candidate cell associated to the beam or RS which has triggered the LTM lower layer report;- Information about the Serving cell e.g., Pcell associated to the “best” beam and / or bestSSB of the Serving cell oLTM Candidate ID e.g., encoded in fewer bits than the cell identity andassociated to the current serving cell, also configured as an LTM Candidate cell configuration, configured when LTM is configured; oCell identifier (Cell ID) of the Serving Cell associated to the beam or RS whichhas triggered the LTM lower layer report; ^This may be a Serving cell index or SCell index depending on whether theLTM candidate cell has been configured as a PCell, PSCell, or SCell. oPhysical Cell Identity (PCI) of the Serving Cell associated to the beam or RSwhich has triggered the LTM lower layer report; oSSB Frequency (e.g., ARFCN of the SSB) of the Serving Cell associated to thebeam or RS which has triggered the LTM lower layer report;- An identifier associated to the measurement which is being triggered e.g., a reportingconfiguration identifier, and / or a resource configuration identifier, or another identifier associated to the reporting configuration identifier. oAn Event ID, if there are multiple events configured for one or more LTMcandidate cells, but e.g., with different conditions or parameters. oConfiguration ID, if one event ID is configured with multiple configuration ID.E.g., one config ID can be configured with one set of thresholds for selecting cells with TCI state activation. Other set of configurations with other set of thresholds for cell switch.- Time stamp information about the last measurement occasion for the inter-frequencyneighbour cell that triggered the event.o In one example the reporting granularity of the time stamp can be in the order ofnumber SSB periods. This can be reported in terms of number of SSB periods of the inter-frequency neighbors. For example, if the event is evaluated after the serving cell measurement (serving cell became lower than threshold after latest measurement while the neighbour cell was higher than threshold before this measurement), if the inter-frequency cell measurement was made 2 SSB period earlier than the serving cell measurement, UE reports this field as 2. oThis is particularly useful for the NW to understand the T / F validity of the LTMinter-frequency candidate cell so that NW can schedule the PRACH preamble occasion as per this report. oIn one example, if the inter-frequency neighbour was measured more than 160msbefore the serving cell measurement that triggered the report, NW can schedule the PRACH transmission after 60ms (e.g., Y1*SSB_period, Y1 is 3 and SSB_period is 20ms). This helps NW utilize the PRACH preamble occasionseffectively. oIn another example, NW can configure a time threshold for the last measuredoccasion such as Y1 ms. In this example, UE reports 1 if UE has measured the SSB within last Y1 ms. Else UE reports 0. In one example NW may configure Y1 as 80ms. In another example NW may configure 160ms. In some other examples, Y1 value may be a fixed value in the spec than the configurable value.

[0153] For that set of embodiments, the UE transmits the LTM lower layer report e.g., bytransmitting a MAC Control Element, and / or a report over PUSCH and / or PUCCH. In the case of an LTM lower layer report on a MAC CE, the UE transmits a scheduling request before it receives an UL grant for transmitting the LTM lower layer report.

[0154] The fulfillment of the triggering condition may be expressed in terms ofmeasurements on RS(s) (e.g., SSB, CSI-RS, MRS, etc.) associated to pre-activated TCI states of an LTM candidate cell, and measurements on RS(s) (e.g., SSB, CSI-RS, MRS, etc.) associated to deactivated TCI states of that LTM candidate cell, as follows.

[0155] In one option, when the resource indication is included in the LTM lower layerreport, it may be associated to a resource configuration which is associated to the reporting configuration in which the triggering condition which has triggered the report is configured. The resource configuration comprises a resource set may be structure as a first and a second list, wherein the first list comprises one or more SSB indexes and the second list comprises one or more LTM candidate cell identifiers (IDs), wherein the position in the list is associated to an LTM CSI resource in that LTM CSI resource configuration. For example, the instance of the IE LTM-CSI-ResourceConfig includes the following lists ltm-CSI-SSB-ResourceList-r18 and ltm- CandidateIdList-r18: ltm-CSI-SSB-ResourceList-r18 ltm-CandidateIdList-r18 ^[SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]

[0156] In the example above, a resource indicator is associated to a position in the list(s) inwhich a resource is included. Each LTM CSI resource in the LTM CSI resource configuration (in particular in a resource set) has an associated resource indicator e.g., an SSB Resource Indicator (SSBRI), wherein SSBRI k (k ≥ 0) corresponds to the configured (k+1)-th entry of the associated [LTM-csi-SSB-ResourceList] in the corresponding [LTM-CSI-SSB-ResourceSet]. For example, SSBRI#0 corresponds to the configured 1-st entry of the associated [LTM-csi- SSB-ResourceList] in the corresponding [LTM-CSI-SSB-ResourceSet], i.e., the pair [SSB1], [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]; SSBRI#1 corresponds to the configured 2-nd entry i.e., the pair [SSB2], [LTM Candidate cell ID 1], etc.

[0157] The LTM lower layer report (e.g., CSI measurement report) which is being triggered(which may also be called a CSI report, or CSI report for L1 / L2-triggered mobility, or L1 measurement report or L1 measurement report for LTM, or L2 measurement report) comprises one or more resource indication(s), each associated to an LTM candidate cell identifier and a RS identifier of that LTM candidate cell e.g., an SSBRI associated to an LTM candidate cell ID and an SSB Index of the LTM candidate cell associated to the LTM candidate cell ID. When the UE includes an LTM candidate cell to be included in an LTM CSI measurement report the UE includes an SSBRI associated to the selected LTM candidate cell. Taking the previous example, including LTM Candidate cell whose LTM candidate cell ID =2 means that the UE includes SSBRI#5 and / or SSBRI#6 and / or SSBRI#7 and / or SSBRI#8 and / or SSBRI#9, since:^ [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]

[0158] The LTM lower layer report (e.g., CSI measurement report) which is being triggered(which may also be called a CSI report, or CSI report for L1 / L2-triggered mobility) may also comprise measurement information associated to resources which is included in the report, forexample, measurement information associated to an SSBRI, such as one or more of thefollowing:- Layer 1 Reference Signal Received Power (L1-RSRP)- Differential L1-RSRP- Layer 1 reference signal received quality (L1-RSRQ)- Differential L1-RSRQ- Layer 1 SINR (L1-SINR)- Differential L1-SINR- SS reference signal received power (SS-RSRP)- SS reference signal received quality (SS-RSRQ)- SS signal-to-noise and interference ratio (SS-SINR)

[0159] In one example, for L1-RSRP reporting, if the higher layer parameters[noOfReportedCells] and [noOfReportedRSPerCell] are both configured to be one, the reported L1-RSRP value is defined by a 7-bit value in the range [-140, -44] dBm with 1dB step size, or if any of the higher layer parameters [noOfReportedCells] and [noOfReportedRSPerCell] is configured to be larger than one, the UE uses differential L1-RSRP based reporting for the LTM CSI resources whicha the UE selects to be included in the LTM CSI measurement report, where the largest measured value of L1-RSRP is quantized to a 7-bit value in the range [-140, -44] dBm with 1dB step size, and the differential L1-RSRP is quantized to a 4-bit value. Thedifferential L1-RSRP value is computed with 2 dB step size with a reference to the largestmeasured L1-RSRP value which is part of the same L1-RSRP reporting instance.

[0160] SS reference signal received power (SS-RSRP), for example, maybe be defined asthe linear average over the power contributions (in [W]) of the resource elements that carry secondary synchronization signals. The measurement time resource(s) for SS-RSRP are confined within SS / PBCH Block Measurement Time Configuration (SMTC) window duration. If SS-RSRP is used for L1-RSRP as configured by reporting configurations as defined in TS 38.214, the measurement time resources(s) restriction by SMTC window duration is not applicable.

[0161] For SS-RSRP determination demodulation reference signals for physical broadcastchannel (PBCH) and, if indicated by higher layers, CSI reference signals in addition tosecondary synchronization signals may be used. SS-RSRP using demodulation reference signal for PBCH or CSI reference signal shall be measured by linear averaging over the power contributions of the resource elements that carry corresponding reference signals taking into account power scaling for the reference signals as defined in TS 38.213. If SS-RSRP is not used for L1-RSRP, the additional use of CSI reference signals for SS-RSRP determination is not applicable.

[0162] SS-RSRP shall be measured only among the reference signals corresponding toSS / PBCH blocks with the same SS / PBCH block index and the same physical-layer cell identity.

[0163] If SS-RSRP is not used for L1-RSRP and higher-layers indicate certain SS / PBCHblocks for performing SS-RSRP measurements, then SS-RSRP is measured only from the indicated set of SS / PBCH block(s).

[0164] For frequency range 1, the reference point for the SS-RSRP shall be the antennaconnector of the UE. For frequency range 2, SS-RSRP shall be measured based on the combinedsignal from antenna elements corresponding to a given receiver branch. For frequency range 1and 2, if receiver diversity is in use by the UE, the reported SS-RSRP value shall not be lower than the corresponding SS-RSRP of any of the individual receiver branches.

[0165] The number of resource elements within the measurement period that are used by theUE to determine SS-RSRP is left up to the UE implementation with the limitation that corresponding measurement accuracy requirements have to be fulfilled.

[0166] The power per resource element is determined from the energy received during theuseful part of the symbol, excluding the CP.

[0167] When the UE selects the LTM candidate cell(s) and respective RSs (e.g., SSB(s)) toinclude in the LTM CSI measurement report, the UE includes an SSBRI associated to a selected LTM CSI resource (i.e. pair SSB index, LTM candidate cell ID), and a measurement information associated (e.g., L1-RSRP and / or differential L1-RSRP), in the following mapping order:

[0168] FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a mapping order of CSI fields of one report forSSBRI / RSRP reporting for LTM. FIG.7 illustrates an example of a bitwidth for SSBRI, RSRP, differential RSRP to be included in an LTM CSI measurement report, whereKSSB sis theconfigured number of SS / PBCH blocks (SSBs) in the corresponding LTM CSI resource configuration (e.g., within a resource set) for reporting an RSRP (E.g., 'ssb-Index-RSRP'.).

[0169] Embodiments associated with comparison of cell measurements are describedbelow.

[0170] In some embodiments, the UE triggers of a lower layer report when the cell quality(e.g., cell based RSRP) of the serving cell e.g., SpCell becomes worse than threhsold1 ANDthe cell quality (e.g., cell based RSRP) of an LTM candidate cell, in a different frequency as the serving cell, becomes better than threshold 2.

[0171] There are different options for defining a cell quality to be used by the UE as inputto the triggering condition, such as: -The cell quality of a cell may correspond to a cell measurement result such as cell-basedRSRP, cell based RSRQ, cell based SINR. The measurements may be performed on one or more Reference Signals (RS(s)) transmitted in different spatial direction(s) (e.g., beams), such as SSB(s) or CSI-RS(s). -The cell quality of the inter-frequency LTM candidate cell may corresponds to thehighest beam measurement quantity (e.g., highest RSRP, or highest L1 RSRP) among other beams of the LTM candidate cell; -The cell quality of the serving cell (e.g., SpCell) may corresponds to the highest beammeasurement quantity (e.g., highest RSRP, or highest L1 RSRP) among other beams of the serving cell (e.g., SpCell) -The cell quality of the serving cell (e.g., SpCell) may corresponds to the beammeasurement quantity of the beam (or RS) associated to a TCI state of the SpCell which is activated oIn one option, when the serving cell has a single TCI state activated, the UEconsiders the cell quality as the quality of the beam associated to that activated TCI State. For example, let us assume that the PCell has TCI state activated with configured QCL source [SSB2]. Then, the UE considers as cell quality the beam quality of SSB2. oIn one option, when the serving cell has multiple TCI states activates, one optionis to consider the cell quality as the highest measurement quantity among the beams associated to activated TCI States. For example, let us assume that the PCell has 3 TCI states activated, with configured QCL sources [SSB2], [SSB5], [SSB7] wherein the SSB with the highest L1-RSRP is of SSB5. Then, the UE considers the cell quality as the quality of SSB5. -The cell quality of an LTM Candidate Cell may correspond to the beam measurementquantity of the beam (or RS) associated to a TCI state of the LTM Candidate Cell which is activated; oIn one option, when the LTM Candidate Cell has a single TCI state activated, theUE considers the cell quality as the quality of the beam associated to that activated TCI State. For example, let us assume that the LTM Candidate Cell has TCI state activated with configured QCL source [SSB2]. Then, the UE considersas cell quality the beam quality of SSB2. oIn one option, when the LTM Candidate Cell has multiple TCI states activated,one option is to consider the cell quality as the highest measurement quantity among the beams associated to activated TCI States. For example, let us assume that the LTM Candidate Cell has 3 TCI states activated, with configured QCL sources [SSB2], [SSB5], [SSB7] wherein the SSB with the highest L1-RSRP is of SSB5. Then, the UE considers the cell quality as the quality of SSB5. -The cell quality of the serving cell may correspond to an average of the highest “K”beam measurements of the serving cell. oFor example, the cell quality may be the linear power scale average of the highestbeam measurement quantity values above a threshold (e.g., absThreshSS- BlocksConsolidation) where the total number of averaged beams shall not exceed “N” (e.g., nrofSS-BlocksToAverage). -The cell quality of an LTM Candidate Cell may correspond to an average of the highest“K” beam measurements of the LTM Candidate Cell.o For example, the cell quality may be the linear power scale average of the highestbeam measurement quantity values above a threshold (e.g., absThreshSS- BlocksConsolidation) where the total number of averaged beams shall not exceed “N” (e.g., nrofSS-BlocksToAverage). -The cell quality of the serving cell may correspond to an average of the “K” beammeasurements associated to the “K" activated TCI States of the serving cell. oIn one option, the “K” beams are a subset of all the total beam whichmeasurement is above a threshold oIn one option, the average of the “K” beam measurements is over a defined timewindow. -The cell quality of an LTM candidate cell may correspond to an average of the “K” beammeasurements associated to the “K" activated candidate TCI States of the LTM Candidate cell. oIn one option, the “K” beams are a subset of all the total beam whichmeasurement is above a threshold oIn one option, the average of the “K” beam measurements is over a defined timewindow. -The cell quality of the LTM candidate cell may correspond to any of what is describedabove, but considering beams which belong to a PCell, PSCell, or SCell(s) (or any permutation of these). -The cell quality of the serving cell may correspond to any of what is described above, butconsidering beams which belong to a PCell, PSCell, or SCell(s) (or any permutation of these). -The cell quality of the LTM candidate cell may correspond to any of what is describedabove, but considering beams which belong to a TCI state which is part to a subset of TCI state which are configured by the network for the UE to evaluate the triggering condition. -The cell quality of the serving cell may correspond to any of what is described above, butconsidering beams which belong to a TCI state which is part to a subset of TCI state which are configured by the network for the UE to evaluate the triggering condition. The triggering condition may rely on different combinations of the different options above for the cell quality. For example, the UE triggers an LTM lower layer report when the cell quality of the LTM candidate cell becomes an offset better than the cell quality of the serving cell e.g., SpCell, wherein: -i) the cell quality of the inter-frequency LTM Candidate cell corresponds to cellmeasurement result (such as cell-based RSRP, cell based RSRQ, cell based SINR) AND the cell quality of the serving cell e.g., SpCell corresponds to cell measurement result (such as cell-based RSRP, cell based RSRQ, cell based SINR); or -ii) The cell quality of the LTM candidate cell may correspond to the highest beammeasurement quantity (e.g., highest RSRP, or highest L1 RSRP) among other beams of the LTM candidate cell and the cell quality of the serving cell e.g., PCell, may correspond to the highest beam measurement quantity (e.g., highest RSRP, or highest L1 RSRP) among other beams of the serving cell; or -iii) The cell quality of the serving cell (e.g., SpCell) may corresponds to the beammeasurement quantity of the beam (or RS) associated to a TCI state of the SpCell which is activated AND the cell quality of the LTM Candidate cell may correspond to the beam measurement quantity of the beam (or RS) associated to a TCI state of the LTM Candidate Cell which is activated; or- any other combination of the options above for defining the cell quality of the servingcell and of the LTM Candidate cell.

[0172] Parameters for cell quality derivation (CQD)

[0173] In a set of embodiments, the UE performs cell quality derivation of a serving cell(e.g., SpCell) and / or an inter-frequency LTM Candidate cell to be used as input to a triggering condition for triggering an LTM lower layer report, based on one or more parameters which the UE obtains e.g., upon reception of a configuration in an RRC message, such as an RRC Reconfiguration message. These parameters may be called here Cell Quality Derivation (CQD) parameters, and includes one or more of: -A “threshold” for determining beams to be averaged for CQD (this is not the sameconfiguration as threshold1 or threshold2 which define the event). When the threshold is configured, the UE derives a cell measurement results as the linear power scale average of the highest beam measurement quantity values above the threshold where the total number of averaged beams shall not exceed a value N. oIn one option, there is a threshold value per measurement quantity e.g., one forRSRP, one for RSRQ, one for SINR. oIn one option, there is a threshold value per RS type e.g., one for SSBmeasurements, one for CSI-RS measurements, one for MRSs, etc. -A value “N” for determining the number of beams to be averaged for CQD. The UEderives a cell measurement results as the linear power scale average of the highest beam measurement quantity values above a threshold where the total number of averaged beams shall not exceed the value “N”. -A time window “T” for determining over which period of time the beams should beaveraged. -Offsets;

[0174] The CQD parameters for the serving cell for LTM may be configured in ameasurement object associated to the SSB frequency of the serving cell (e.g., same as indicated in the serving cell configuration). This option implies that the UE receives a measurement object (e.g., IE MeasObjectNR) associated to the serving cell.

[0175] The CQD parameters for the serving cell for LTM may be configured in ameasurement object indicated in the serving cell configuration i.e. the measurement object whose measurement object identifier is indicated in the serving cell configuration. This option implies that the UE receives a measurement object (e.g., IE MeasObjectNR) associated to the serving cell.

[0176] The CQD parameters for the serving cell for LTM may be configured in the servingcell configuration.

[0177] The CQD parameters for the serving cell for LTM may be configured in an LTMconfiguration.

[0178] The CQD parameters for the serving cell for LTM may be configured in a resourceconfiguration, associated to the reporting configuration associated to the triggering condition of the LTM reporting.

[0179] The CQD parameters for an inter-frequency LTM candidate cell may be configuredin a measurement object associated to the SSB frequency of the LTM Candidate cell (e.g., same as indicated in the LTM Configuration for that candidate).

[0180] This option implies that the UE receives a measurement object (e.g., IEMeasObjectNR) associated to an inter-frequency LTM Candidate cell which needs to be measured to be used as input to a triggering condition for LTM reporting.

[0181] The CQD parameters for the inter-frequency LTM Candidate cell may be configuredin the LTM Configuration for that LTM Candidate cell (e.g., not the configuration to be applied upon execution, but the configuration to be applied upon reception).

[0182] The QCD parameters for an inter-frequency LTM Candidate Cell may be configuredin a resource configuration, associated to the reporting configuration associated to the triggering condition of the LTM reporting.

[0183] According to the method the UE may receive an RRC message for configuring oneor more parameters associated to the triggering conditions (which may also be called an event or entering condition associated to the event). The RRC message (e.g., RRC Reconfiguration) may include a reporting configuration (e.g., LTM-CSI-ReportConfig) and an association resource configuration (e.g., LTM-CSI-ResourceConfig). Upon receiving the one or more parameters the UE evaluates the fulfillment of the triggering condition.

[0184] The reporting configuration may indicate an identifier (e.g., event ID) so that whenthe UE receives the configuration the UE determines that the configuration is for the event whose condition is defined as above i.e. an LTM lower layer report when the cell quality of the serving cell e.g., SpCell becomes worse than threhsold1 AND the cell quality of the LTM candidate cell LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest L1 RSRP), in a different frequency as the serving cell, becomes better than threshold 2.

[0185] The reporting configuration may indicate an identifier of a resource configuration(e.g., LTM-CSI-ReportConfigId, included in the reporting configuration), which indicates one or more LTM Candidate Cells to be possibly considered as input for the condition associated to the event.Thus, the UE determines the LTM Candidate Cells within the resource configuration which are considered as input to the events. In other words, even when the UE is configuredwith more LTM Candidate Cells which may be detected by the UE, these are not considered asapplicable cells to be used as input to the events unless they are included in the resource configuration.

[0186] The reporting configuration may indicate one or more parameters associated to theevent such as: -a trigger quantity, indicating what is the quantity to be measured and used as input to thetriggering condition e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, SINR, L1 RSRP, etc. -a threshold1 value, associated to the event definition e.g., in terms of dBs or dBm;- a threshold2 value, associated to the event definition e.g., in terms of dBs or dBm;- one or more reporting quantities, indicating what additional quantities the UE is meant tomeasure and / or report, in addition to the trigger quantity. -a time to trigger value, which indicates how long since the condition has been fulfilledthe UE needs to way before sending the measurement report. -an LTM candidate cell ID, which indicate to which LTM candidate configuration theevent applies or the list of candidate cells for which the event is applied. -a reference signal type (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS)- an indication of an associated resource configuration (e.g., resource configurationidentifier) -a reporting configuration identifier

[0187] The reporting configuration may indicate an identifier of a resource configuration(e.g., LTM-CSI-ReportConfigId, included in the reporting configuration), which indicates one or more SSB(s) (or other RSs e.g., CSI-RS resources, MRS(s), etc.) per one or more associated LTM Candidate cell(s), to be possibly considered as input for CQD, which is input to the triggering condition associated to the resource configuration. Thus, the UE determines the SSB(s) within the resource configuration to be considered as input to the CQD e.g., the SSBs of the LTM Candidate Cell(s) and / or the SSBs of the Serving cell from which the highest measurement of a beam is taken, or beams whose measurement quantities are to be averaged. In other words, even when an inter-frequency LTM Candidate Cell has more SSBs detected by the UE, these are not considered for CQD, to be used as input to the events unless they are included in the resource configuration.

[0188] In one option, the candidate cells or SSBs to be considered may be explicitlyindicated by the NW in the report configuration. One example this may be a simple indication like consider all candidate cells or only the cells with TCI states activated or the cells with NO TCI states activated. This can be indicated to UE in the report configuration as following.ltmCandidatesForEventEvaluation ENUMERATED {All LTM candidates, LTMcandidates with TCI state activated, LTM candidates with NO TCI state activated, Spare}

[0189] For example, based on intended usage of the event by the NW,ltmCandidatesForEventEvaluation can be configured appropriately by NW. If the NW intend to use the event for selecting the cells for DL and UL pre-synchronization, NW may indicate above field as LTM candidates with NO TCI state activate. If the NW intend to use the event for cell switch for load balancing NW can indicate LTM candidates with TCI state activated and so on.

[0190] For example, let us assume an instance of the IE LTM-CSI-ResourceConfig-r18(having an associated identifier e.g., ltm-CSI-ResourceConfigId-r18) and being grouped in as a resource set (e.g., in the IE LTM-CSI-SSB-ResourceSet-r18), wherein the resource set may be structure as a first and a second list, wherein the first list comprises one or more SSB indexesand the second list comprises one or more LTM candidate cell identifiers (IDs), wherein theposition in the list is associated to an LTM CSI resource in that LTM CSI resource configuration e.g., the instance of the IE LTM-CSI-ResourceConfig includes the following lists ltm-CSI-SSB- ResourceList-r18 and ltm-CandidateIdList-r18: ltm-CSI-SSB-ResourceList-r18 ltm-CandidateIdList-r18 ^[SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]

[0191] Thus, even when the UE has other LTM Candidate cells configured, the UEmonitors the triggering condition associated to that resource configuration the LTM Candidate cells [LTM Candidate cell ID 1], [LTM Candidate cell ID 2], [LTM Candidate cell ID 3], [LTM Candidate cell ID 4].

[0192] And, even when the UE has other SSBs per LTM Candidate cells which may bedetected, the UE performs CQD the triggering condition associated to that resource configuration the [SSB1], [SSB2], [SSB3], [SSB4], [SSB5] of each LTM candidate cell.

[0193] In this example, LTM Candidate cells with ID 2 and ID 4 are the inter-frequencyLTM Candidate Cell(s). Then, only LTM Candidate cells with ID 2 and ID 4 are applicable when that resource configuration is indicated in a reporting configuration configuring the event in which the cell quality of the serving cell e.g., SpCell becomes worse than threhsold1 AND the cell quality of the LTM candidate cell LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest L1 RSRP), in a different frequency as the serving cell, becomes better than threshold 2. And, even when the UE has other SSBs per LTM Candidate cells which may be detected, the UE monitors the triggering condition associated to that resource configuration the [SSB1], [SSB2], [SSB3], [SSB4], [SSB5] of the LTM candidate cell ID 2 and the [SSB1], [SSB2], [SSB3], [SSB4], [SSB5] of the LTM candidate cell ID 4.

[0194] In one option, not all SSBs of an LTM Candidate Cell which are included in theresource configuration are considered as input to CQD, but the SSBs in the resource configuration which are associated to the activated LTM candidate cell which is also in the resource configuration.

[0195] In another option, not all SSBs of an LTM Candidate Cell which are included in theresource configuration are applicable to be considered for CQD, but the SSBs in the resource configuration which are associated to the activated TCI state(s) of the LTM candidate cell e.g., SSBs configured as QCL source of a candidate TCI state which is activated. Assuming the example above, in which [LTM Candidate cell ID 2] is activated, [SSB3], [SSB4], [SSB5] of [LTM Candidate cell ID 2] are considered for CQD of [LTM Candidate cell ID 2].

[0196] In another option, not all SSBs of a serving cell (e.g., SpCell, PCell) which areincluded in the resource configuration are considered for CQD, but the SSBs in the resource configuration which are associated to the activated TCI state(s) of the serving cell e.g., SSBs configured as QCL source of a TCI state which is activated.

[0197] In one option, the reporting configuration is associated to an LTM candidate ID, andno explicitly SSB list is provided in a resource configuration. The UE determines the SSBs associated to the LTM Candidate ID for CQD by obtaining the TCI state configuration. The SSBs considered as possible input for CQD are the SSBs configured as QCL source(s) in the Candidate TCI state configuration associated to the LTM candidate cell.

[0198] In a set of embodiments, the multiple LTM Candidate cell(s) fulfill the triggeringcondition: the cell quality of the serving cell e.g., SpCell becomes worse than threhsold1 AND the cell quality of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest L1 RSRP), in a different frequency the the serving cell, becomes better than threshold 2. In other words, multiple LTM Candidate cell(s) may, at a certain point in time, be better than threshold 2, while the serving cell (e.g., PCell) is worse than threshold1.

[0199] According to the method, the UE transmits an LTM lower layer report when thetriggering condition is fulfilled i.e. when the cell quality (e.g., cell based RSRP) of an LTM candidate cell becomes better than a threhsold2 AND the cell quality (e.g., cell based RSRP) of the serving cell e.g., SpCell becomes worse than a threshold1, wherein the UE includes one or more of the following in the LTM lower layer report: -Information about the best “ N beam” (or RS) of the LTM Candidate Cell whose cellquality has triggered the event, such as: oAn indication of a value of the beam measurement quantity e.g., L1-RSRPassociated to the best beam or RS; oAn indication of a value of a measurement quantity configured at the UE (e.g.,reporting quantity(ies) configured in the LTM reporting configuration) e.g., L1- RSRQ associated to that beam or RS; oA differential measurement quantity (e.g., differential L1 RSRP) associated to thebest beam (e.g., relative to a reference value) of the LTM Candidate cell; oAn indication of the best beam or RS such as, a beam identifier of the best beam,an RS index (e.g., SSB index) or a resource indication, indicating the position of that best beam in the associated resource configuration, such as an SSB Resource Indicator (SSBRI), in the case of an SSB being configured as a resource; oN may be configurable or fixed quantity- Information about the best “beam” (or RS) of the Serving Cell whose cell quality hastriggered the event, such as: oAn indication of a value of the beam measurement quantity e.g., L1-RSRPassociated to the best beam or RS of the Serving Cell; oAn indication of a value of a measurement quantity configured at the UE (e.g.,reporting quantity(ies) configured in the LTM reporting configuration) e.g., L1- RSRQ associated to that beam or RS; oA differential measurement quantity (e.g., differential L1 RSRP) associated to thebest beam (e.g., relative to a reference value) of the Serving Cell; -An indication of the best beam or RS such as, a beam identifier of the best beam, an RSindex (e.g., SSB index) or a resource indication, indicating the position of that best beam in the associated resource configuration, such as an SSB Resource Indicator (SSBRI), in the case of an SSB being configured as a resource; -Information about the LTM candidate cell whose cell quality has triggered the evento LTM Candidate ID e.g., encoded in fewer bits than the cell identity andassociated to an LTM Candidate cell configuration, configured when LTM is configured; oCell identifier (Cell ID) of the LTM Candidate cell which has triggered the LTMlower layer report; ^This may be a Serving cell index or SCell index depending on whether theLTM candidate cell has been configured as a PCell, PSCell, or SCell. oPhysical Cell Identity (PCI) of the LTM candidate cell which has triggered theLTM lower layer report; oSSB Frequency (e.g., ARFCN of the SSB) of the LTM candidate cell which hastriggered the LTM lower layer report; oCell quality of the LTM Candidate cell e.g., cell-level RSRP, cell-level RSRQ,cell level SINR, etc. -Information about the Serving cell e.g., Pcell associated to the “best” beam and / or bestSSB of the Serving cello LTM Candidate ID e.g., encoded in fewer bits than the cell identity andassociated to the current serving cell, also configured as an LTM Candidate cell configuration, configured when LTM is configured; oCell identifier (Cell ID) of the Serving Cell which has triggered the LTM lowerlayer report; ^This may be a Serving cell index or SCell index depending on whether theLTM candidate cell has been configured as a PCell, PSCell, or SCell. oPhysical Cell Identity (PCI) of the Serving Cell which has triggered the LTMlower layer report; oSSB Frequency (e.g., ARFCN of the SSB) of the Serving Cell which hastriggered the LTM lower layer report; oCell quality of the Serving cell e.g., cell-level RSRP, cell-level RSRQ, cell levelSINR, etc. -An identifier associated to the measurement which is being triggered e.g., a reportingconfiguration identifier, and / or a resource configuration identifier, or another identifier associated to the reporting configuration identifier oAn Event ID, if there are multiple events configured for one or more LTMcandidate cells, but e.g., with different conditions or parameters. oConfiguration ID, if one event ID is configured with multiple configuration ID.E.g., one config ID can be configured with one set of thresholds for selecting cells with TCI state activation. Other set of configuration with other set of thresholds for cell switch. -Time stamp information about the last measurement occasion for the inter-frequencyneighbour cell that triggered the event. oIn one example the reporting granularity of the time stamp can be in the order ofnumber SSB periods. This can be reported in terms of number of SSB periods of the inter-frequency neighbors. For example, if the event is evaluated after the serving cell measurement (serving cell became lower than threshold after latest measurement while the neighbour cell was higher than threshold before this measurement), if the inter-frequency cell measurement was made 2 SSB period earlier than the serving cell measurement, UE reports this field as 2. oThis is particularly useful for the NW to understand the T / F validity of the LTMinter-frequency candidate cell so that NW can schedule the PRACH preamble occasion as per this report. oIn one example, if the inter-frequency neighbour was measured more than 160msbefore the serving cell measurement that triggered the report, NW can schedule the PRACH transmission after 60ms (e.g., Y1*SSB_period, Y1 is 3 and SSB_period is 20ms). This helps NW utilize the PRACH preamble occasions effectively. oIn another example, NW can configure a time threshold for the last measuredoccasion such as Y1 ms. In this example, UE reports 1 if UE has measured the SSB within last Y1 ms. Else UE reports 0. In one example NW may configure Y1 as 80ms. In another example NW may configure 160ms. In some other examples, Y1 value may be a fixed value in the spec than the configurable value

[0200] For that set of embodiments, the UE transmits the LTM lower layer report e.g., bytransmitting a MAC Control Element, and / or a report over PUSCH and / or PUCCH.

[0201] The fulfillment of the triggering condition may be expressed in terms ofmeasurements on RS(s) (e.g., SSB, CSI-RS, MRS, etc.) associated to pre-activated TCI states ofan LTM candidate cell, and measurements on RS(s) (e.g., SSB, CSI-RS, MRS, etc.) associated to deactivated TCI states of that LTM candidate cell, as follows.

[0202] In one option, when the resource indication is included in the LTM lower layerreport, it may be associated to a resource configuration which is associated to the reporting configuration in which the triggering condition which has triggered the report is configured. The resource configuration comprises a resource set may be structure as a first and a second list, wherein the first list comprises one or more SSB indexes and the second list comprises one or more LTM candidate cell identifiers (IDs), wherein the position in the list is associated to an LTM CSI resource in that LTM CSI resource configuration. For example, the instance of the IE LTM-CSI-ResourceConfig includes the following lists ltm-CSI-SSB-ResourceList-r18 and ltm- CandidateIdList-r18: ltm-CSI-SSB-ResourceList-r18 ltm-CandidateIdList-r18 ^[SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]^ [SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 3]^ [SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 4]^ [SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]^ [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]^ [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]^ [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]^ [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 5]

[0203] In the example above, a resource indicator is associated to a position in the list(s) inwhich a resource is included. Each LTM CSI resource in the LTM CSI resource configuration (in particular in a resource set) has an associated resource indicator e.g., an SSB Resource Indicator (SSBRI), wherein SSBRI k (k ≥ 0) corresponds to the configured (k+1)-th entry of the associated [LTM-csi-SSB-ResourceList] in the corresponding [LTM-CSI-SSB-ResourceSet].For example, SSBRI#0 corresponds to the configured 1-st entry of the associated [LTM-csi- SSB-ResourceList] in the corresponding [LTM-CSI-SSB-ResourceSet], i.e., the pair [SSB1], [LTM Candidate cell ID 1]; SSBRI#1 corresponds to the configured 2-nd entry i.e., the pair [SSB2], [LTM Candidate cell ID 1], etc.

[0204] The LTM CSI measurement report which is being triggered (which may also becalled a CSI report, or CSI report for L1 / L2-triggered mobility, or L1 measurement report or L1 measurement report for LTM, or L2 measurement report) comprises one or more resource indication(s), each associated to an LTM candidate cell identifier and a RS identifier of that LTM candidate cell e.g., an SSBRI associated to an LTM candidate cell ID and an SSB Index of the LTM candidate cell associated to the LTM candidate cell ID. When the UE includes an LTM candidate cell to be included in an LTM CSI measurement report the UE includes an SSBRI associated to the selected LTM candidate cell. Taking the previous example, including LTM Candidate cell whose LTM candidate cell ID =2 means that the UE includes SSBRI#5 and / or SSBRI#6 and / or SSBRI#7 and / or SSBRI#8 and / or SSBRI#9, since: ^[LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^ [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]^[LTM Candidate cell ID 2]

[0205] An LTM CSI measurement report (which may also be called a CSI report, or CSIreport for L1 / L2-triggered mobility) may also comprise measurement information associated to an LTM CSI resource which is included in the LTM CSI measurement report, for example, measurement information associated to an SSBRI, such as one or more of the following:- Layer 1 Reference Signal Received Power (L1-RSRP)- Differential L1-RSRP- Layer 1 reference signal received quality (L1-RSRQ)- Differential L1-RSRQ- Layer 1 SINR (L1-SINR)- Differential L1-SINR- SS reference signal received power (SS-RSRP)- SS reference signal received quality (SS-RSRQ)- SS signal-to-noise and interference ratio (SS-SINR)

[0206] In one example, for L1-RSRP reporting, if the higher layer parameters[noOfReportedCells] and [noOfReportedRSPerCell] are both configured to be one, the reported L1-RSRP value is defined by a 7-bit value in the range [-140, -44] dBm with 1dB step size, or if any of the higher layer parameters [noOfReportedCells] and [noOfReportedRSPerCell] is configured to be larger than one, the UE uses differential L1-RSRP based reporting for the LTMCSI resources whicha the UE selects to be included in the LTM CSI measurement report, where the largest measured value of L1-RSRP is quantized to a 7-bit value in the range [-140, -44] dBm with 1dB step size, and the differential L1-RSRP is quantized to a 4-bit value. The differential L1-RSRP value is computed with 2 dB step size with a reference to the largest measured L1-RSRP value which is part of the same L1-RSRP reporting instance.

[0207] SS reference signal received power (SS-RSRP), for example, maybe be defined asthe linear average over the power contributions (in [W]) of the resource elements that carry secondary synchronization signals. The measurement time resource(s) for SS-RSRP are confined within SS / PBCH Block Measurement Time Configuration (SMTC) window duration. If SS-RSRP is used for L1-RSRP as configured by reporting configurations as defined in TS 38.214, the measurement time resources(s) restriction by SMTC window duration is not applicable.

[0208] For SS-RSRP determination demodulation reference signals for physical broadcastchannel (PBCH) and, if indicated by higher layers, CSI reference signals in addition to secondary synchronization signals may be used. SS-RSRP using demodulation reference signal for PBCH or CSI reference signal shall be measured by linear averaging over the power contributions of the resource elements that carry corresponding reference signals taking into account power scaling for the reference signals as defined in TS 38.213. If SS-RSRP is not used for L1-RSRP, the additional use of CSI reference signals for SS-RSRP determination is not applicable.

[0209] SS-RSRP shall be measured only among the reference signals corresponding toSS / PBCH blocks with the same SS / PBCH block index and the same physical-layer cell identity.If SS-RSRP is not used for L1-RSRP and higher-layers indicate certain SS / PBCH blocks for performing SS-RSRP measurements, then SS-RSRP is measured only from the indicated set of SS / PBCH block(s).

[0210] For frequency range 1, the reference point for the SS-RSRP shall be the antennaconnector of the UE. For frequency range 2, SS-RSRP shall be measured based on the combined signal from antenna elements corresponding to a given receiver branch. For frequency range 1 and 2, if receiver diversity is in use by the UE, the reported SS-RSRP value shall not be lower than the corresponding SS-RSRP of any of the individual receiver branches.

[0211] The number of resource elements within the measurement period that are used by theUE to determine SS-RSRP is left up to the UE implementation with the limitation that corresponding measurement accuracy requirements have to be fulfilled.

[0212] The power per resource element is determined from the energy received during theuseful part of the symbol, excluding the CP.

[0213] When the UE selects the LTM candidate cell(s) and respective RSs (e.g., SSB(s)) toinclude in the LTM CSI measurement report, the UE includes an SSBRI associated to a selected LTM CSI resource (i.e. pair SSB index, LTM candidate cell ID), and a measurement information associated (e.g., L1-RSRP and / or differential L1-RSRP), in the following mapping order:

[0214] FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a mapping order of CSI fields of one report forSSBRI / RSRP reporting for LTM.

[0215] FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a bitwidth for SSBRI, RSRP, differential RSRP tobe included in an LTM CSI measurement report, whereKSSB sis the configured number ofSS / PBCH blocks (SSBs) in the corresponding LTM CSI resource configuration (e.g., within a resource set) for reporting an RSRP (E.g., 'ssb-Index-RSRP'.).

[0216] In a set of embodiments, the UE monitors the fulfillment of triggering conditions(associated to a reporting configuration) for LTM Candidate Cell(s) which are inter-frequency LTM Candidate cell. When an LTM Candidate cell is not an inter-frequency LTM candidate cell, that LTM Candidate Cell is not monitored for the fulfillment of the triggering condition.

[0217] In a set of embodiments, the UE monitors the fulfillment of triggering conditions(associated to a reporting configuration) for LTM Candidate Cell(s) for which there is at least one candidate TCI State activated (or pre-activated). When an LTM Candidate cell does not have a candidate TCI state activated, that LTM Candidate Cell is not monitored for the fulfillment of the triggering condition; when a TCI State of an LTM Candidate cell is activated, the UE evaluates the triggering condition; when a TCI State of an LTM Candidate cell is deactivated, the UE stops evaluating the triggering condition. One benefit is that the UE reduces the amount of LTM Candidate cells for which it needs to evaluate the triggering conditions, which may reduce the number of inter-frequency measurements the UE needs to perform and report. In other words, in this case we may say that the applicable LTM Candidate cells are the LTM Candidate cells configured for which the UE has at least one TCI state activated. Notice that these may be the inter-frequency LTM candidate cell(s) associated to a threshold2 value acceptable for an inter-frequency LTM Cell Switch.

[0218] One could consider that the reception of the command from the network for pre-activating a TCI state of an LTM candidate cell which does not have any activated TCI state (e.g., reception of a “Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation MAC CE MAC CE”) leads the UE to initiate the evaluating of the fulfillment of the condition.

[0219] For example, when the LTM resource configuration associated to the LTM reportingconfiguration for the event includes one or more LTM Candidate Cell(s) (e.g., LTM Candidate IDs in the resource configuration), the UE considers as applicable cells (i.e. cells to be evaluatedfor the triggering conditions, to be compared with the serving cell) the subset of inter-frequency LTM Candidate cell(s) among these for which at least one candidate TCI state has been activated, e.g., which may be a single LTM Candidate cell. A candidate TCI state of an inter- frequency LTM Candidate cell is configured at the UE e.g., when the UE is configured with the candidate, and, the UE may further receive a command to pre-activate a TCI state of an LTM candidate cell before an LTM Cell switch command, so that in response to the command to activate a candidate TCI state of the LTM Candidate the UE evaluates the fulfillment of the triggering condition for the LTM Candidate Cell, and does not need to evaluate the triggering conditions for the other LTM Candidate cells in the LTM Resource configuration which do not have an activated candidate TCI State.

[0220] In a set of embodiments, the UE monitors the fulfillment of triggering conditions(associated to a reporting configuration) for beams (e.g., SSBs) of LTM Candidate Cell(s) associated to candidate TCI State activated (or pre-activated). A beam measurement (of a beam of an LTM Candidate Cell) is considered as input to the triggering condition when the beam is associated to a candidate TCI state which is activated, e.g., when the beam (e.g., SSB) of the LTM candidate cell is configured as QCL source of the candidate TCI state which is activated. When a beam of an LTM Candidate cell does not have an associated candidate TCI state activated, that beam is not monitored for the fulfillment of the triggering condition; when a TCI State of an LTM Candidate cell is activated, the UE evaluates the triggering condition for the associated beam; when a TCI State of an LTM Candidate cell is deactivated, the UE stops evaluating the triggering condition for the beam associated to that TCI state. One benefit is that the UE reduces the amount of beams of an LTM Candidate cell for which it needs to evaluate the triggering conditions, which may reduce the number of measurements the UE needs to perform and report. This is especially important in the case these beams are of inter-frequency neighbour cells, more costly to be measured. In other words, in this case we may say that the applicable beams of an LTM Candidate cell are the beams of the LTM Candidate cells configured for which the UE has associated TCI states activated.

[0221] One could consider that the reception of the command from the network for pre-activating a TCI state of an LTM candidate cell which does not have any activated TCI state (e.g., reception of a “Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation MAC CE MAC CE”) leads the UE to initiate the evaluating of the fulfillment of the condition.

[0222] For example, when the LTM resource configuration associated to the LTM reportingconfiguration for the event includes one or more SSBs of an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., SSB indexes in the resource configuration), the UE considers as applicable beams / SSBs (i.e. beams / SSBs to be evaluated for the triggering conditions, to be compared with the best beam / best SSBof the serving cell) the subset of beams / SSBs among these which have the associated candidate TCI state activated, e.g., which may be a single SSB of the LTM Candidate cell. A candidate TCI state of an LTM Candidate cell is configured at the UE e.g., when the UE is configured with the candidate, and, the UE may further receive a command to pre-activate a TCI state of an LTM candidate cell before an LTM Cell switch command, so that in response to the command to activate a candidate TCI state (associated to a beam / SSB-X) of the LTM Candidate the UE evaluates the fulfillment of the triggering condition for the SSB-X of the LTM Candidate Cell, and does not need to evaluate the triggering conditions for the other beams of the LTM Candidate cell in the LTM Resource configuration which do not have an activated candidate TCI State.

[0223] In a set of embodiments, the UE monitors the fulfillment of triggering conditions(associated to a reporting configuration) for LTM Candidate Cell(s) for which the UE has performed an Early Uplink sync procedure. When an LTM Candidate cell is a cell for which the UE has not performed an early UL sync procedure, that LTM Candidate Cell is not monitored for the fulfillment of the triggering condition; when the UE triggers an Early UL sync procedure, the UE evaluates the triggering condition for that LTM Candidate cell; when the UL sync for an LTM Candidate cell is determined to be invalid (e.g., indication from the network and / or expiry of a Time Alignment timer), the UE stops evaluating the triggering condition. One benefit is that the UE reduces the amount of LTM Candidate cells for which it needs to evaluate the triggeringconditions, which may reduce the number of measurements the UE needs to perform and report.In other words, in this case we may say that the applicable LTM Candidate cells are the LTM Candidate cells configured for which the UE has a chance to perform an LTM Cell Switch without the need of a random access procedure.

[0224] One could consider that the reception of the command from the network fortriggering the Early UL sync, a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) order indicating an LTM candidate cell, leads the UE to initiate the evaluating of the fulfillment of the condition for the indicated LTM Candidate Cell. Or, alternatively, the transmission of a preamble to the LTM Candidate cell indicated in the PDCCH order. Or, alternatively, the transmission of a preamble to the LTM Candidate cell indicated in the PDCCH order and the absence of another PDCCH order indicating a re-transmission of an attempt.

[0225] For example, when the LTM resource configuration associated to the LTM reportingconfiguration for the event includes one or more LTM Candidate Cell(s) (e.g., LTM Candidate IDs in the resource configuration), the UE considers as applicable cells (i.e. cells to be evaluated for the triggering conditions, to be compared with the serving cell) the subset of LTM Candidatecell(s) among these for which Early UL sync has been performed by the UE e.g., which may be a single LTM Candidate cell.

[0226] In a set of embodiments, the UE monitors the fulfillment of triggering conditions(associated to a reporting configuration) for beams (e.g., SSBs) of LTM Candidate Cell(s) which have been indicated during Early UL sync. A beam measurement (of a beam of an LTM Candidate Cell) is considered as input to the triggering condition when the beam (e.g., SSB) has been indicated in a PDCCH order triggering an Early UL sync procedure, leading to the selection of a Random Access Resource of an LTM Candidate cell associated to the indicated beam (SSB). When a beam of an LTM Candidate cell has not been indicated in the PDCCH order triggering the Early UL sync, that beam is not monitored for the fulfillment of the triggering condition; when a beam (SSB index) is indicated in the PDCCH triggering Early UL sync, the UE evaluates the triggering condition for the associated beam; when the Early UL sync with a beam becomes invalid (e.g., expiry of the Time Alignment timer for an LTM candidate cell and / or beam), the UE stops evaluating the triggering condition for the beam associated to that TCI state. One benefit is that the UE reduces the amount of beams of an LTM Candidate cell for which it needs to evaluate the triggering conditions, which may reduce the number of measurements the UE needs to perform and report. In other words, in this case we may say that the applicable beams of an LTM Candidate cell are the beams which have been indicated to the UE in PDCCH orders triggering Early UL sync.

[0227] One could consider that the reception of the command from the network fortriggering Early UL sync (e.g., PDCCH order indicating an LTM candidate cell and an associated beam / SSB index) which leads the UE to initiate the evaluating of the fulfillment of the condition.

[0228] For example, when the LTM resource configuration associated to the LTM reportingconfiguration for the event includes one or more SSBs of an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., SSB indexes in the resource configuration), the UE considers as applicable beams / SSBs (i.e. beams / SSBs to be evaluated for the triggering conditions, to be compared with the best beam / best SSB of the serving cell) the subset of beams / SSBs among these which have been indicated in the command for triggering Early UL sync.

[0229] In a set of embodiments, the UE monitors the fulfillment of triggering conditions(associated to a reporting configuration) for LTM Candidate Cell(s) for which there is at least one candidate TCI State activated (or pre-activated) and for which early UL sync has been triggered.

[0230] In a set of embodiments, the UE monitors the fulfillment of triggering conditions(associated to a reporting configuration) for beams (e.g., SSBs) of LTM Candidate Cell(s)associated to candidate TCI State activated (or pre-activated) and which have been indicated during Early UL sync.

[0231] In one embodiment, the UE triggers an LTM lower layer report when the L1 RSRPof an SSB of the LTM candidate cell, which is configured as Quasi-Co-Location (QCL) source of a activated TCI state of the LTM candidate cell, becomes better than threhsold2 AND the L1 RSRP of the SSB (e.g., SS-RSRP) of the serving cell configured as QCL source of the activated TCI state of the serving cell is worse than threshold1.

[0232] Operations of a communication device 1100 (implemented using the structure ofFIG.11) will now be discussed with reference to the flow chart of FIG.8 according to some embodiments of inventive concepts. For example, modules may be stored in memory 1110 of FIG.11, and these modules may provide instructions so that when the instructions of a module are executed by respective communication device processing circuitry 1102, communication device 1100 performs respective operations of the flow chart.

[0233] At block 810, processing circuity 1102 receives, via communication interface 1112,an indication of configuration information. In some embodiments, the configuration informationconfigures the communication device to transmit the LTM lower layer report in response to the triggering condition being met.

[0234] In additional or alternative embodiments, receiving the indication of theconfiguration information includes receiving a reporting configuration associated to a resource configuration, the resource configuration indicating at least one resource to be measured and used as input to the triggering condition.

[0235] At block 820, processing circuitry 1102 determines a first measurement. In someembodiments, the first measurement is associated with a LTM candidate cell. In some examples, the LTM candidate cell is an inter-frequency neighbor.

[0236] In additional or alternative embodiments, determining the first measurementincludes determining a measurement of a beam of the LTM candidate cell. In some examples, the beam can be a RS, CSI-RS, SSB, or SSRI. In additional or alternative embodiments, determining the measurement of the beam of the LTM candidate cell includes determining at least one of: the beam; a reference signal identifier, ID; and a measurement quantity value.

[0237] In additional or alternative embodiments, determining the first measurementincludes determining an indication of a best beam of the LTM candidate cell.

[0238] In additional or alternative embodiments, determining the first measurementincludes determining at least one of: cell level measurement of the LTM candidate cell; and determining a cell quality of the LTM candidate cell.

[0239] At block 830, processing circuitry 1102 determines a second measurement. In someembodiments, the second measurement is associated with a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated.

[0240] In additional or alternative embodiments, determining the second measurementincludes determining an indication of a best beam of the serving cell. In some examples, the best beam of the serving cell corresponds to at least one of: a beam associated with the TCI state that is activated in the serving cell; a synchronization signal block, SSB, configured as a quasi- collocated, QCL, source of the TCI state that is activated in the serving cell;a beam associated with a the highest measurement quantity among beams associated to the TCI state that is activated; and a beam that the communication device is considering for physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, receptions.

[0241] In additional or alternative embodiments, determining the second measurementincludes at least one of: determining a cell level measurement of the serving cell, and determining a cell quality of the serving cell.

[0242] In additional or alternative embodiments, the serving cell for which the TCI state isactivated comprises at least one of: a special cell, SpCell; a primary cell of a master cell group,MCG; a primary cell of a secondary cell group, SCG; a secondary cell of the MCG; and asecondary cell of the SCG.

[0243] In additional or alternative embodiments, a center frequency of the LTM candidatecell is different from a center frequency of the serving cell, and / or a subcarrier spacing of a synchronization signal block of the LTM candidate cell is different from a subcarrier spacing of a synchronization signal block of the serving cell.

[0244] In additional or alternative embodiments, a frequency range of the LTM candidatecell is different than a frequency range of the serving cell. A frequency band of the LTM candidate cell is different than a frequency band of the serving cell. The frequency band of the LTM candidate cell is associated with a first radio access technology, RAT, and the frequency band of the serving cell is associated with a second RAT that is different from the first RAT.

[0245] At block 840, processing circuitry 1102 determines that a triggering condition ismet. In some embodiments, determining that the triggering condition is met includesdetermining that the first measurement is better than a first threshold value and that the secondmeasurement is worse than a second threshold value.

[0246] At block 850, processing circuitry 1102 transmits, via communication interface1112, a LTM lower layer measurement report. In some embodiments, the LTM lower layermeasurement report is transmitted in response to determining that the triggering condition is met.

[0247] In additional or alternative embodiments, transmitting the LTM lower layer reportincludes transmitting at least one of: an indication of the first measurement; an indication of the second measurement; an indication of the LTM candidate cell associated with the first measurement; and an indication of the serving cell associated with the second measurement.

[0248] At block 860, processing circuitry 1102 receives, via communication interface 1112,a command. In some embodiments, the TCI state activated withing the serving candidate cell isa second TCI state. The communication device receives a command indicating an activation ofa first TCI state within the LTM candidate cell in response to transmitting the LTM lower layerreport. In some examples, the command further indicates a deactivation of the second TCI state within the serving cell and / or a third TCI state within the LTM candidate cell. In some examples the first TCI state is different from the second TCI state.

[0249] In additional or alternative embodiments, receiving the command includes receivinga LTM cell switch command.

[0250] In additional or alternative embodiments, receiving the command includes receivinga TCI state activation command or a TCI state deactivation command.

[0251] In additional or alternative embodiments, receiving the command includes receivinga request to trigger an early uplink synchronization procedure.

[0252] Various operations from the flow chart of FIG. 8 may be optional with respect tosome embodiments of communication devices and related methods.

[0253] Operations of a network node 1100 (implemented using the structure of FIG. 12)will now be discussed with reference to the flow chart of FIG.9 according to some embodiments of inventive concepts. For example, modules may be stored in memory 1204 of FIG.12, and these modules may provide instructions so that when the instructions of a module are executed by respective network node processing circuitry 1202, network node 1200 performs respective operations of the flow chart.

[0254] At block 910, processing circuitry 1202 transmits, via communication interface1206, an indication of configuration information (e.g., to a communication device). In someembodiments, the configuration information configures a communication device to transmit a LTM lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a triggering condition. The triggering condition can be based on a first measurement being better than a first threshold value and a second measurement being worse than a second threshold value. In some examples, the first measurement can be associated with a LTM candidate cell. In additional or alternative examples, the LTM candidate cell is an inter-frequency neighbor.

[0255] In additional or alternative examples, the second measurement can be associatedwith a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated). In additional or alternative examples, theserving cell for which the TCI state is activated comprises at least one of: a special cell, SpCell; a primary cell of a master cell group, MCG; a primary cell of a secondary cell group, SCG; a secondary cell of the MCG; and a secondary cell of the SCG.

[0256] In additional or alternative examples, a center frequency of the LTM candidate cellis different from a center frequency of the serving cell and / or a subcarrier spacing of a synchronization signal block of the LTM candidate cell is different from a subcarrier spacing of a synchronization signal block of the serving cell.

[0257] In additional or alternative examples, a frequency range of the LTM candidate cell isdifferent than a frequency range of the serving cell. A frequency band of the LTM candidate cell is different than a frequency band of the serving cell. The frequency band of the LTM candidate cell is associated with a first radio access technology, RAT, and the frequency band of the serving cell is associated with a second RAT that is different from the first RAT.

[0258] At block 920, processing circuitry 1202 receives, via communication interface 1206,a LTM lower layer measurement report. In some embodiments, receiving the LTM lower layerreport includes receiving at least one of: an indication of the first measurement; an indication of the second measurement; an indication of the LTM candidate cell associated with the first measurement; and an indication of the serving cell associated with the second measurement.

[0259] At block 930, processing circuitry 1202 transmits, via communication interface1206, a command. In some embodiments, the TCI state activated within the serving candidatecell is a second TCI state. The command can indicate activation of a first TCI state within theLTM candidate cell. In additional or alternative embodiments, the command further indicates adeactivation of the second TCI state within the serving cell and / or a third TCI state within the LTM candidate cell.

[0260] In additional or alternative embodiments, transmitting the command includestransmitting a LTM cell switching command and the first TCI state is different than the second TCI state.

[0261] In additional or alternative embodiments, transmitting the command includestransmitting a TCI state activation command or a TCI state deactivation command.

[0262] In additional or alternative embodiments, transmitting the command includestransmitting a request to trigger an early uplink synchronization procedure.

[0263] Various operations from the flow chart of FIG. 9 may be optional with respect tosome embodiments of communication devices and related methods.

[0264] Example Embodiments are provided below.

[0265] Embodiment A1. A method at a UE comprising:transmitting an LTM lower layer report upon fulfillment of a triggering condition,wherein the triggering condition comprises of a measurement associated to a serving cell (e.g., measurement on the PCell, measurement on the PSCell) for which a TCI state is activated becomes worse than absolute threhsold1 AND a measurement associated to an LTM candidate cell becomes better than absolute threshold2.

[0266] Embodiment A2. A method of A1 and all, wherein the serving cell for which a TCIstate is activated comprises a Special Cell (SpCell), such as a Primary Cell (PCell) of the Master Cell Group (MCG) or a Primary SCG Cell (PSCell) of a Secondary Cell Group (SCG).

[0267] Embodiment A3. A method of A1 and all, wherein the serving cell for which a TCIstate is activated comprises a Secondary Cell (SCell) of the MCG or a SCell of a SCG.

[0268] Embodiment A4. A method of A1 and all, wherein the LTM candidate cell is aninter-frequency neighbour.

[0269] Embodiment A5. A method of A1 and all, wherein the center frequency or thesubcarrier spacing of the SSB of the LTM candidate cell is different from the center frequency or the subcarrier spacing of the serving cell.

[0270] Embodiment A5a. A method of A1 and all, wherein the LTM candidate cell is in afrequency range (e.g., FRx) different than the frequency range of the serving cell (e.g., FRy).

[0271] Embodiment A5b. A method of A1 and all, wherein the LTM candidate cell is in afrequency band of the different than the frequency band of the serving cell.

[0272] Embodiment A5c. A method of A1 and all, wherein the LTM candidate cell is in afrequency band of one RAT (e.g., NR) different than the frequency band of another RAT (e.g., LTE) of the serving cell.

[0273] Embodiment A6. A method of A1 and all, wherein the LTM lower layer report mayinclude measurements associated with a serving cell or a measurement associated with one or more LTM candidate cell(s).

[0274] Embodiment A6b. A method of A1 and all, wherein the measurement associated toan LTM Candidate cell comprises a beam (or RS) measurement of a beam of the LTM Candidate cell and the measurement associated to the serving cell for which a TCI state is activated comprises a beam measurement associated to the serving cell.

[0275] Embodiment A6c. A method of A1 and all, where a measurement associated with anLTM candidate cell comprises a beam or RS identifier and a measurement quantity value.

[0276] Embodiment A6d. A method of A6c, where the measurement quantity value is a L1-RSRP value, a L1-SINR value or a L1-RSRQ value.

[0277] Embodiment A7. A method of A1 and all, wherein the triggering conditioncomprises: “best” beam of the serving cell (e.g., measurement on the “best” beam of the PCell, or measurement on the “best” beam of the PSCell) for which a TCI state is activated becomesworse than absolute threhsold1 AND a “best” beam of the LTM Candidate cell (e.g., measurement on the “best” beam of the LTM Candidate cell) becomes better than absolute threshold2.

[0278] Embodiment A8. A method of A1 and all, wherein the measurement associated to anLTM Candidate cell comprises a cell level measurement of the LTM Candidate cell which inter- frequency cell w.r.t serving cell and the measurement associated to the serving cell for which a TCI state is activated comprises a cell level measurement associated to the serving cell.

[0279] Embodiment A9. A method of A1 and all wherein the triggering conditioncomprises: the cell quality of the serving cell for which a TCI state is activated becomes worse than absolute threhsold1 AND the cell quality of the LTM Candidate cell becomes better than absolute threshold2.

[0280] Embodiment A10. A method of A1 and all, wherein in response to transmitting theLTM lower layer report, the UE receiving an LTM Cell Switch Command indicating an LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a TCI state which is to be activated in the LTM Candidate Cell.

[0281] Embodiment A11. A method of A1 and all, wherein the LTM Cell Switch Commandindicates an LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency cell) included in the LTM lower layer report and a TCI state (e.g., TCI State ID) associated to a beam and / or a RS and / or an SSB indicated in the LTM lower layer report.

[0282] Embodiment A12. A method of A1 and all, in response to transmitting the LTMlower layer report, the UE receiving a TCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating an LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a TCI state(s) which are to be activated in the LTM Candidate Cell.

[0283] Embodiment A13. A method of A1 and all, in response to the TCI activationcommand for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and the TCI state, and in response to the TCI state activation command, performing the TCI state(s) activation and acquiring time and / or frequency (T / F) synchronization for the RS associated with TCI state in the LTM candidate cell.

[0284] Embodiment A13b. A method of A1 and all, wherein activating a TCI state of anLTM Candidate cell comprises performing one or more actions associated to a beam and / or RS (e.g., SSB) associated to the TCI state to be activated, such as: i) detecting and / or measuring at least one synchronization signal of the LTM candidate cell, such as an SSB of the LTM candidate cell associated to an SSB index and / or identifier andtransmitted in a spatial direction (beam), and / or a CSI-RS and / or a TRS and / or a PSS and / or a SSS; ii) performing fine time tracking and acquiring full timing information of the LTM candidate cell. iii) obtaining the time boundaries of time units of a given LTM candidate cell such as time slot, OFDM symbol, subframe, radio frame. iv) synchronizing a clock with the boundaries of time units of a given LTM candidate cell such as time slot, OFDM symbol, subframe, radio frame.

[0285] Embodiment A14. A method of A1 and all, wherein in response to transmitting theLTM lower layer report, the UE receives the TCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a TCI state which is to be activated in the LTM Candidate Cell, before the UE receives an LTM Cell Switch command for an LTM Candidate Cell.

[0286] Embodiment A15. A method of A1 and all, wherein the UE receives the TCIactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a TCI state which is to be activated in the LTM Candidate Cell, before the UE receives an LTM Cell Switch command for the same LTM Candidate Cell.

[0287] Embodiment A15a. A method in A1 and all, wherein the UE receives the TCIactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a TCI state which is to be activated in the LTM Candidate Cell and another TCI state (which is currently activated at the LTM candidate cell) which has to be deactivated, before the UE receives an LTM Cell Switch command for the same LTM Candidate Cell.

[0288] Embodiment A15b. A method in A1 and all, wherein the UE receives a TCIdeactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a TCI state which is to be deactivated in the LTM Candidate Cell, before the UE receives an LTM Cell Switch command for the same LTM Candidate Cell, wherein that is received in response to an LT report transmitted when a leaving condition associated to the triggering condition is fulfilled.

[0289] Embodiment A16. A method of A1 and all, in response to transmitting the LTMlower layer report, the UE receiving a command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure(e.g., Physical Downlink control Channel – PDCCH order), indicating an LTM Candidate Cell(which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a Reference Signal (e.g., SSB identifier) based on which the UE transmits a random access preamble to the LTM Candidate Cell.

[0290] Embodiment A17. A method of A1 and all, in response to transmitting the LTMlower layer report, the UE receiving a command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure(e.g., Physical Downlink control Channel – PDCCH order), indicating an LTM Candidate Celland one or more random access configuration indications associated to a random access configuration of the LTM Candidate Cell, based on which the UE transmits a random access preamble to the LTM Candidate Cell.

[0291] Embodiment A18. A method of A1 and all, in response to the command fortriggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., Physical Downlink control Channel – PDCCHorder), the UE transmits a random access preamble to the LTM Candidate Cell.

[0292] Embodiment A18b. A method of A1 and all, where, in response to transmitting theLTM lower layer report, the UE receives a command to perform additional measurements on the LTM candidate cell.

[0293] Embodiment A19. A method of A1 and A7, wherein the RS (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS)indicated in the LTM lower layer report is configured as QCL source of the TCI state (e.g., TCI State ID) indicated in the LTM Cell Switch Command.

[0294] Embodiment A20. A method of A1 and all, wherein the LTM candidate cell onwhich the measurement is associated is an LTM candidate cell which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell which has a TCI state activated.

[0295] Embodiment A21. A method of A1 and all, wherein the measurement performed onthe LTM candidate cell which has a TCI activated is performed at least on a beam(s) of the LTM Candidate cell associated to the activated TCI state(s) of the LTM candidate cell. The measurements are for at least obtaining T / F synchronization and performing L1 measurements.

[0296] Embodiment A21b. A method of A1 and all, wherein the measurement performed onthe LTM candidate cell which has a TCI state activated is performed on an SSB of the LTM Candidate cell configured as QCL source of the activate TCI state of the LTM candidate cell.

[0297] EmbodimentA22. A method of A1 and all, wherein the measurement performed onthe LTM candidate cell depends on the status of a TCI state of the LTM candidate cell, wherein the status may be ‘activated’ or ‘deactivated’.

[0298] Embodiment A23. A method of A1 and all, wherein the LTM candidate cell onwhich the measurement is associated is an LTM candidate cell which has a TCI state deactivated.

[0299] Embodiment A24. A method of A1 and all, wherein the measurement performed onthe LTM candidate cell which has a TCI state deactivated is performed on a beam / RS of theLTM Candidate cell associated to the deactivate TCI state of the LTM candidate cell and if the UE has additional capability to measure, to measure on the other the RS (than the TCI state deactivated) associated with LTM candidate cell.

[0300] Embodiment A25. A method of A1 and all, wherein the measurement performed onthe LTM candidate cell which has a TCI state deactivated is performed on an SSB of the LTM Candidate cell configured as QCL source of the deactivate TCI state of the LTM candidate cell.

[0301] Embodiment A26. A method of A1 and all, wherein the LTM candidate cell onwhich the measurement is associated is an LTM candidate cell which has all its configured TCI state(s) deactivated.

[0302] Embodiment A27. A method of A1 and all, wherein in response to the LTM lowerlayer report triggered by the trigger condition in which the LTM candidate cell on which the measurement is associated is an LTM candidate cell which has all its configured TCI state(s) deactivated, the UE receives a lower layer command to activate a TCI state of the LTM candidate cell which has triggered the LTM lower layer report.

[0303] Embodiment A28. A method of A1 and all, wherein in response to the LTM lowerlayer report triggered by the trigger condition in which the LTM candidate cell on which the measurement is associated is an LTM candidate cell which has all its configured TCI state(s)deactivated, the UE receives a lower layer command to trigger an Early UL sync procedure tothe LTM candidate cell which has triggered the LTM lower layer report.

[0304] Embodiment A29. A method of A1, wherein the measurement associated to theLTM candidate cell is only performed when there is at least one TCI state of the LTM Candidate cell which is activated.

[0305] Embodiment A30. A method of A1, wherein the UE receives a message includingone or more parameters for configuring the triggering condition, and, upon receiving the one or more parameters evaluating the fulfillment of the triggering condition.

[0306] Embodiment A31. A method of A30, wherein the one or more parameters forconfiguring the triggering condition comprises one or more of: a time to trigger value (e.g., in time units), a trigger quantity (e.g., L1 RSRP, L1 SINR, L1 RSRQ, etc.), one or more reporting quantities (e.g., L1 RSRP, L1 SINR, L1 RSRQ, etc.), a reference signal type (e.g., SSB or CSI- RS), an indication of an associated resource configuration (e.g., resource configuration identifier), a value for threshold 1, a value for threshold 2, an event identifier (for identifying the trigger condition).

[0307] Embodiment A32. A method of A1 and all, wherein the UE starts evaluating thefulfillment of the trigger condition upon reception of a command associated to a reportingconfiguration (e.g., a MAC CE, a PDCCH order and / or a Downlink Control Indication – DCI).

[0308] Embodiment A33. A method of A1 and all, wherein the command associated to thereporting configuration includes a reporting configuration identifier, and in response to the command the UE evaluates the trigger condition configured in the reporting configuration with a matching reporting configuration identifier.

[0309] Embodiment B1. A method at a network node comprising:configuring a UE to transmit an LTM lower layer report upon fulfillment of a triggering condition, receiving the LTM lower layer report, when the triggering condition is fulfilled, wherein the triggering condition is defined as a measurement associated to a serving cell (e.g., measurement on the PCell, measurement on the PSCell) for which a TCI state is activated becomes worse than absolute threhsold1 AND a measurement associated to an LTM candidate cell becomes better than absolute threshold2 in response to the received LTM lower layer report, transmitting one or more of: An LTM Cell switch command (e.g., LTM Cell Switch Command) A TCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) A command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., PDCCH order for a random access preamble transmission to an LTM Candidate Cell).

[0310] Embodiment B2. A method of B1, wherein the serving cell for which a TCI state isactivated comprises a Special Cell (SpCell), such as a Primary Cell (PCell) of the Master Cell Group (MCG) or a Primary SCG Cell of a Secondary Cell Group (SCG).

[0311] Embodiment B3. A method of B1 and all, wherein the LTM candidate cell is aninter-frequency neighbour.

[0312] Embodiment B4. A method of B1 and all, wherein in response to receiving the LTMlower layer report, the network node transmitting an LTM Cell Switch Command indicating an LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a TCI state which is to be activated by the UE in the LTM Candidate Cell which becomes the target cell.

[0313] Embodiment B5. A method of B1 and all, wherein the LTM Cell Switch Commandindicates an LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency cell) included in the LTM lower layer report and a TCI state (e.g., TCI State ID) associated to a beam and / or a RS and / or an SSB indicated in the LTM lower layer report.

[0314] Embodiment B6. A method of B1 and all, in response to receiving the LTM lowerlayer report, the network node transmitting a TCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating an LTM CandidateCell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a TCI state which is to be activated by the UE in the LTM Candidate Cell.

[0315] Embodiment B6a. A method of B1 and all, in response to receiving the LTM lowerlayer report, the network node transmitting a TCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating an LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a TCI state which is to be activated and another TCI state (which is already activated before receiving the TCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell) which is to be deactivated by the UE in the LTM Candidate Cell.

[0316] Embodiment B7. A method of B1 and all, wherein the network node transmits theTCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a TCI state which is to be activated by the UE in the LTM Candidate Cell, before the network node transmits an LTM Cell Switch command for an LTM Candidate Cell.

[0317] Embodiment B8. A method of B1 and all, wherein the network node transmits theTCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a TCI state which is to be activated by the UE in the LTM Candidate Cell, before the network node transmits an LTM Cell Switch command for the same LTM Candidate Cell.

[0318] Embodiment B8a. A method of B1, B7, and B8, wherein the network whichtransmits the TCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) also transmit a TCI state (which is already activated before receiving the TCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell) which is to be deactivated.

[0319] Embodiment B9. A method of B1 and all, wherein in response to receiving the LTMlower layer report, the network node transmitting a command for triggering an Early Uplinksync procedure (e.g., Physical Downlink control Channel – PDCCH order), indicating an LTMCandidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a Reference Signal (e.g., SSB identifier) TCI state based on which the UE transmits a random access preamble to the LTM Candidate Cell.

[0320] Embodiment B10. A method of B1 and all, wherein in response to receiving theLTM lower layer report, the network node transmitting a command for triggering an EarlyUplink sync procedure (e.g., Physical Downlink control Channel – PDCCH order), indicating anLTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a Reference Signal (e.g., SSB identifier) TCI state, and receiving a random access preamble in the LTM Candidate Cell.

[0321] Embodiment B11. A method of B1 and all, in response to receiving the LTM lowerlayer report, transmitting a command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g.,Physical Downlink control Channel – PDCCH order), indicating an LTM Candidate Cell andone or more random access configuration indications associated to a random accessconfiguration of the LTM Candidate Cell for the UE to transmit a random access preamble tothe LTM Candidate Cell.

[0322] Embodiment B12. A method of B1 and all, in response to receiving the LTM lowerlayer report, transmitting a command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g.,Physical Downlink control Channel – PDCCH order), indicating an LTM Candidate Cell andone or more random access configuration indications associated to a random access configuration of the LTM Candidate Cell and receiving a random access preamble in the LTM Candidate Cell.

[0323] Embodiment B13. A method of B1 and all, wherein in response to the received LTMlower layer report including an LTM candidate cell which has all its configured TCI state(s) deactivated, the network node transmits a lower layer command to activate a TCI state of the LTM candidate cell which has triggered the LTM lower layer report.

[0324] Embodiment B15. A method of B1 and all, wherein in response to the received LTMlower layer report including an LTM candidate cell which has all its configured TCI state(s) deactivated, the network node transmits a lower layer command to trigger an Early UL sync procedure to the LTM candidate cell which has triggered the LTM lower layer report.

[0325] Embodiment B16. A method of B1 and all, wherein the network node transmits tothe UE a message including one or more parameters for configuring the triggering condition, for the UE to evaluate the fulfillment of the triggering condition.

[0326] Embodiment B17. A method of B1 and all, wherein the one or more parameters forconfiguring the triggering condition comprises one or more of: a time to trigger value (e.g., in time units), a trigger quantity (e.g., L1 RSRP, L1 SINR, L1 RSRQ, etc.), one or more reporting quantities (e.g., L1 RSRP, L1 SINR, L1 RSRQ, etc.), a reference signal type (e.g., SSB or CSI- RS), an indication of an associated resource configuration (e.g., resource configuration identifier), a value for threshold 1, a value for threshold 2, an event identifier (for identifying the trigger condition).

[0327] Embodiment 1. A method of operating a communication device, the methodcomprising: determining (840) that a triggering condition is met based on a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell, and the second measurement being associated with a serving cellfor which a TCI state is activated, wherein determining that the triggering condition is met comprises: comparing the first measurement to a first threshold value; and comparing the second measurement to a second threshold value; and responsive to determining that the triggering condition is met, transmitting (850) a LTM lower layer measurement report.

[0328] Embodiment 2. The method of Embodiment 1, wherein the LTM candidate cell isan inter-frequency neighbor.

[0329] Embodiment 3. The method of any of Embodiments 1-2, wherein comparing thefirst measurement to the first threshold value comprises determining that the first measurement is better than the first threshold value, and wherein comparing the second measurement to the second threshold value comprises determining that the second measurement is worse than the second threshold value.

[0330] Embodiment 4. The method of Embodiment any of Embodiments 1-3, furthercomprising: determining (820) the first measurement; and determining (830) the second measurement.

[0331] Embodiment 5. The method of Embodiment 4, wherein determining the firstmeasurement comprises determining a measurement of a beam of the LTM candidate cell, and wherein determining the second measurement comprises determining a measurement of a beam of the serving cell.

[0332] Embodiment 6. The method of Embodiment 5, wherein determining themeasurement of the beam of the LTM candidate cell comprises determining at least one of: the beam; a reference signal identifier, ID; and a measurement quantity value.

[0333] Embodiment 7. The method of any of Embodiments 4-6, wherein determining thefirst measurement comprises determining an indication of a best beam of the LTM candidate cell, and wherein determining the second measurement comprises determining an indication of a best beam of the serving cell.

[0334] Embodiment 8. The method of any of Embodiments 4-7, wherein determining thefirst measurement comprises determining a cell level measurement of the LTM candidate cell, andwherein determining the second measurement comprises determining a cell level measurement of the serving cell.

[0335] Embodiment 9. The method of any of Embodiments 4-8, wherein determining thefirst measurement comprises determining a cell quality of the LTM candidate cell, and wherein determining the second measurement comprises determining a cell quality of the serving cell.

[0336] Embodiment 10. The method of any of Embodiments 1-9, wherein the serving cellfor which the TCI state is activated comprises at least one of: a special cell, SpCell; a primary cell of a master cell group, MCG; a primary cell of a secondary cell group, SCG; a secondary cell of the MCG; and a secondary cell of the SCG.

[0337] Embodiment 11. The method of any of Embodiments 1-10, wherein a centerfrequency of the LTM candidate cell is different from a center frequency of the serving cell, and / or wherein a subcarrier spacing of a synchronization signal block of the LTM candidate cell is different from a subcarrier spacing of a synchronization signal block of the serving cell.

[0338] Embodiment 12. The method of any of Embodiments 1-11, wherein a frequencyrange of the LTM candidate cell is different than a frequency range of the serving cell, wherein a frequency band of the LTM candidate cell is different than a frequency band of the serving cell, wherein the frequency band of the LTM candidate cell is associated with a first radio access technology, RAT, and the frequency band of the serving cell is associated with a second RAT that is different from the first RAT.

[0339] Embodiment 13. The method of any of Embodiments 1-12, wherein transmitting theLTM lower layer report comprises transmitting at least one of: an indication of the first measurement; an indication of the second measurement; an indication of the LTM candidate cell associated with the first measurement; and an indication of the serving cell associated with the second measurement.

[0340] Embodiment 14. The method of any of Embodiments 1-13, wherein the TCI stateactivated within the serving candidate cell is a second TCI state, the method further comprising:responsive to transmitting the LTM lower layer report, receiving (560) a command indicating an activation of a first TCI state within the LTM candidate cell.

[0341] Embodiment 15. The method of Embodiment 14, wherein the command furtherindicates a deactivation of the second TCI state within the serving cell and / or a third TCI state within the LTM candidate cell.

[0342] Embodiment 16. The method of any of Embodiments 14-15, wherein receiving thecommand comprises receiving a LTM cell switching command, wherein the first TCI state is different than the second TCI state.

[0343] Embodiment 17. The method of any of Embodiments 14-15, wherein receiving thecommand comprises receiving a TCI state activation command or a TCI state deactivation command.

[0344] Embodiment 18. The method of any of Embodiments 14-17, wherein receiving thecommand comprises receiving a request to trigger an early uplink synchronization procedure.

[0345] Embodiment 19. The method of any of Embodiments 1-18, further comprising:receiving (810) an indication of configuration information from a network node, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit the LTM lower layer report in response to the triggering condition being met.

[0346] Embodiment 20. The method of Embodiment 19, wherein receiving the indicationof the configuration information comprises receiving a reporting configuration associated to a resource configuration, the resource configuration indicating at least one resource to be measured and used as input to the triggering condition.

[0347] Embodiment 21. A method of operating a network node, the method comprising:transmitting (910) an indication of configuration information to a communication device, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a triggering condition, the triggering condition being based on comparing a first measurement to a first threshold value and comparing a second measurement to a second threshold value, the first measurement being associated with a LTM candidate cell, and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated; and receiving (920) the LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device.

[0348] Embodiment 22. The method of Embodiment 21, wherein the LTM candidate cell isan inter-frequency neighbor.

[0349] Embodiment 23. The method of any of Embodiments 21-22, wherein comparing thefirst measurement to the first threshold value comprises determining that the first measurement is better than the first threshold value, andwherein comparing the second measurement to the second threshold value comprises determining that the second measurement is worse than the second threshold value.

[0350] Embodiment 24. The method of any of Embodiments 21-23, wherein the servingcell for which the TCI state is activated comprises at least one of: a special cell, SpCell; a primary cell of a master cell group, MCG; a primary cell of a secondary cell group, SCG; a secondary cell of the MCG; and a secondary cell of the SCG.

[0351] Embodiment 25. The method of any of Embodiments 21-24, wherein a centerfrequency of the LTM candidate cell is different from a center frequency of the serving cell, and / or wherein a subcarrier spacing of a synchronization signal block of the LTM candidate cell is different from a subcarrier spacing of a synchronization signal block of the serving cell.

[0352] Embodiment 26. The method of any of Embodiments 21-25, wherein a frequencyrange of the LTM candidate cell is different than a frequency range of the serving cell, wherein a frequency band of the LTM candidate cell is different than a frequency band of the serving cell, wherein the frequency band of the LTM candidate cell is associated with a first radio access technology, RAT, and the frequency band of the serving cell is associated with a second RAT that is different from the first RAT.

[0353] Embodiment 27. The method of any of Embodiments 21-26, wherein receiving theLTM lower layer report comprises receiving at least one of an indication of the first measurement; an indication of the second measurement; an indication of the LTM candidate cell associated with the first measurement; and an indication of the serving cell associated with the second measurement.

[0354] Embodiment 28. The method of any of Embodiments 21-27, wherein the TCI stateactivated within the serving candidate cell is a second TCI state, the method further comprising: responsive to receiving the LTM lower layer report, transmitting (930) a command indicating an activation of a first TCI state within the LTM candidate cell.

[0355] Embodiment 29. The method of Embodiment 28, wherein the command furtherindicates a deactivation of the second TCI state within the serving cell and / or a third TCI state within the LTM candidate cell.

[0356] Embodiment 30. The method of any of Embodiments 28-29, wherein transmittingthe command comprises transmitting a LTM cell switching command, wherein the first TCI state is different than the second TCI state.

[0357] Embodiment 31. The method of any of Embodiments 28-29, wherein transmittingthe command comprises transmitting a TCI state activation command or a TCI state deactivation command.

[0358] Embodiment 32. The method of any of Embodiments 28-29, wherein transmittingthe command comprises transmitting a request to trigger an early uplink synchronization procedure.

[0359] Embodiment 33. A communication device (QQ200) adapted to perform operationscomprising: determining (840) that a triggering condition is met based on a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell, and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated, wherein determining that the triggering condition is met comprises: comparing the first measurement to a first threshold value; and comparing the second measurement to a second threshold value; and responsive to determining that the triggering condition is met, transmitting (850) a LTM lower layer measurement report.

[0360] Embodiment 34. The communication device of Embodiment 33, the operationsfurther comprising any of the operations of Embodiments 2-20.

[0361] Embodiment 35. A computer program comprising program code to be executed byprocessing circuitry (QQ202) of a communication device (QQ200), whereby execution of the program code causes the communication device to perform operations comprising: determining (840) that a triggering condition is met based on a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell, and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated, wherein determining that the triggering condition is met comprises: comparing the first measurement to a first threshold value; comparing the second measurement to a second threshold value; and responsive to determining that the triggering condition is met, transmitting (850) a LTM lower layer measurement report.

[0362] Embodiment 36. The computer program of Embodiment 35, the operations furthercomprising any of the operations of Embodiments 2-20.

[0363] Embodiment 37. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory storagemedium (QQ210) including program code to be executed by processing circuitry (QQ202) of a communication device (QQ200), whereby execution of the program code causes the communication device to perform operations comprising: determining (840) that a triggering condition is met based on a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell, and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated, wherein determining that the triggering condition is met comprises: comparing the first measurement to a first threshold value; and comparing the second measurement to a second threshold value; and responsive to determining that the triggering condition is met, transmitting (850) a LTM lower layer measurement report.

[0364] Embodiment 38. The computer program product of Embodiment 37, furthercomprising any of the operations of Embodiments 2-20.

[0365] Embodiment 39. A network node (QQ300) adapted to perform operationscomprising: transmitting (910) an indication of configuration information to a communication device, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a triggering condition, the triggering condition being based on comparing a first measurement to a first threshold value and comparing a second measurement to a second threshold value, the first measurement being associated with a LTM candidate cell, and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated; and receiving (920) the LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device.

[0366] Embodiment 40. The network node of Embodiment 39, the operations furthercomprising any of the operations of Embodiments 21-.32.

[0367] Embodiment 41. A computer program comprising program code to be executed byprocessing circuitry (QQ302) of a network node (QQ300), whereby execution of the program code causes the network node to perform operations comprising: transmitting (910) an indication of configuration information to a communication device, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a triggeringcondition, the triggering condition being based on comparing a first measurement to a first threshold value and comparing a second measurement to a second threshold value, the first measurement being associated with a LTM candidate cell, and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated; and receiving (920) the LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device.

[0368] Embodiment 42. The computer program of Embodiment 41, further comprising anyof the operations of Embodiments 21-32.

[0369] Embodiment 43. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory storagemedium (QQ304) including program code to be executed by processing circuitry (QQ302) of a network node (QQ300), whereby execution of the program code causes the network node to perform operations comprising: transmitting (910) an indication of configuration information to a communication device, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a triggering condition, the triggering condition being based on comparing a first measurement to a first threshold value and comparing a second measurement to a second threshold value, the first measurement being associated with a LTM candidate cell, and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated; and receiving (920) the LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device.

[0370] Embodiment 44. The computer program product of Embodiment 43, the operationsfurther comprising any of the operations of Embodiments 21-32.

[0371] FIG. 10 shows an example of a communication system 1000 in accordance with someembodiments.

[0372] In the example, the communication system 1000 includes a telecommunicationnetwork 1002 that includes an access network 1004, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network 1006, which includes one or more core network nodes 1008. The access network 1004 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes 1010a and 1010b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 1010), or any other similar 3rdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP) access nodes or non-3GPP access points. Moreover, as will be appreciated 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 1002 includes one or more Open-RAN (ORAN) network nodes. An ORAN network node is a node in the telecommunication network 1002 that supports an ORAN specification (e.g., aspecification published by the O-RAN Alliance, or any similar organization) and may operate alone or together with other nodes to implement one or more functionalities of any node in the telecommunication network 1002, including one or more network nodes 1010 and / or core network nodes 1008.

[0373] Examples of an ORAN network node include an open radio unit (O-RU), an opendistributed 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 nodein a physical node. Furthermore, an ORAN network node may be implemented in a virtualizationenvironment (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 definedby the O-RAN Alliance or comparable technologies. The network nodes 1010 facilitate direct orindirect connection of user equipment (UE), such as by connecting UEs 1012a, 1012b, 1012c, and 1012d (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 1012) to the core network 1006 over one or more wireless connections.

[0374] Example wireless communications over a wireless connection include transmittingand / or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and / or other types of signals suitable for conveying information without the use of wires, cables, or other material conductors. Moreover, in different embodiments, the communication system 1000 may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, UEs, and / or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and / or signals whether via wired or wireless connections. The communication system 1000 may include and / or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and / or other similar type of system.

[0375] The UEs 1012 may be any of a wide variety of communication devices, includingwireless devices arranged, configured, and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with the network nodes 1010 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes 1010 are arranged, capable, configured, and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs 1012 and / or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network 1002 toenable and / or provide network access, such as wireless network access, and / or to perform other functions, such as administration in the telecommunication network 1002.

[0376] In the depicted example, the core network 1006 connects the network nodes 1010 toone or more host computing systems, such as host 1016. These connections may be direct or indirect via one or more intermediary networks or devices. In other examples, network nodes may be directly coupled to hosts. The core network 1006 includes one more core network nodes (e.g., core network node 1008) that are structured with hardware and software components. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the UEs, networknodes, and / or hosts, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to thecorresponding components of the core network node 1008. Example core network nodes include functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Subscription Identifier De-concealing function (SIDF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), Network Exposure Function (NEF), and / or a User Plane Function (UPF).

[0377] The host 1016 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other thanan operator or provider of the access network 1004 and / or the telecommunication network 1002. The host 1016 may host a variety of applications to provide one or more service. Examples of such applications include live and pre-recorded audio / video content, data collection services such 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 withremote devices, functions for an alarm and surveillance center, or any other such functionperformed by a server.

[0378] As a whole, the communication system 1000 of FIG. 10 enables connectivity betweenthe UEs, network nodes, and hosts. In that sense, the communication system may be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures, such as specific standards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE), and / or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g., 6G); wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (WiFi); and / or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, LiFi, and / or any low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) standards such as LoRa and Sigfox.

[0379] In some examples, the telecommunication network 1002 is a cellular network thatimplements 3GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunications network 1002 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network 1002. For example, the telecommunications network 1002 may provide Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services to some UEs, while providing Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and / or Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) / Massive IoT services to yet further UEs.

[0380] In some examples, the UEs 1012 are configured to transmit and / or receive informationwithout direct human interaction. For instance, a UE may be designed to transmit information to the access network 1004 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 1004. Additionally, a UE may beconfigured for operating in single- or multi-RAT or multi-standard mode. For example, a UE mayoperate with any one or combination of Wi-Fi, NR (New Radio) and LTE, i.e. being configured for multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC), such as E-UTRAN (Evolved-UMTS Terrestrial RadioAccess Network) New Radio – Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).

[0381] In the example, the hub 1014 communicates with the access network 1004 to facilitateindirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE 1012c and / or 1012d) and network nodes (e.g., network node 1010b). In some examples, the hub 1014 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub 1014 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network 1006 for the UEs. As another example, the hub 1014 may be a controller that sends commands or instructions to one or more actuators in the UEs. Commands or instructions may be received from the UEs, network nodes 1010, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub 1014. As another example, the hub 1014 may be a data collector that acts as temporary storage for UE data and, in some embodiments, may perform analysis or other processing of the data. As another example, the hub 1014 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR device, display, loudspeaker, or other media delivery device, the hub 1014 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 1014 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and / or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub 1014 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular if one or more of the UEs are low energy IoT devices.

[0382] The hub 1014 may have a constant / persistent or intermittent connection to the networknode 1010b. The hub 1014 may also allow for a different communication scheme and / or schedule between the hub 1014 and UEs (e.g., UE 1012c and / or 1012d), and between the hub 1014 and thecore network 1006. In other examples, the hub 1014 is connected to the core network 1006 and / or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub 1014 may be configured to connect to an M2M service provider over the access network 1004 and / or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 1010 while still connected via the hub 1014 via a wired or wireless connection. In someembodiments, the hub 1014 may be a dedicated hub – that is, a hub whose primary function is toroute communications to / from the UEs from / to the network node 1010b. In other embodiments,the hub 1014 may be a non-dedicated hub – that is, a device which is capable of operating to routecommunications between the UEs and network node 1010b, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and / or end point for certain data channels.

[0383] FIG. 11 shows a UE 1100 in accordance with some embodiments. The UE 1100presents additional details of some embodiments of the UE 1012 of Figure 1. As used herein, a UE refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and / or other UEs. Examples of a UE include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, mobile phone, cell phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phone, wireless local loop phone, desktop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), wireless cameras, gaming console or device, music storage / playback device, wearable terminal device, wireless endpoint, mobile station, tablet, laptop, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), an Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR) device, wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE), vehicle, vehicle-mounted or vehicle embedded / integrated wireless device, etc. Other examples include any UE identified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including a narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and / or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.

[0384] A UE may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example byimplementing 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).

[0385] The UE 1100 includes processing circuitry 1102 that is operatively coupled via a bus1104 to an input / output interface 1106, a power source 1108, a memory 1110, a communicationinterface 1112, and / or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain UEs may utilize all or a subset of the components shown in FIG. 11. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

[0386] The processing circuitry 1102 is configured to process instructions and data and maybe configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory 1110. The processing circuitry 1102 may be implemented as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored computer programs, general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry 1102 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs).

[0387] In the example, the input / output interface 1106 may be configured to provide aninterface or interfaces to an input device, output device, or one or more input and / or output devices. Examples of an output device include a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. An input device may allow a user to capture information into the UE 1100. Examples of an input device include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, 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. An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port may be used to provide an input device and an output device.

[0388] In some embodiments, the power source 1108 is structured as a battery or battery pack.Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic device, or power cell, may be used. The power source 1108 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 1108 itself, and / or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE 1100 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source 1108. Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from thepower source 1108 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the UE 1100 to which power is supplied.

[0389] The memory 1110 may be or be configured to include memory such as random accessmemory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth. In one example, the memory 1110 includes one or more application programs 1114, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 1116. The memory 1110 may store, for use by the UE 1100, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

[0390] The memory 1110 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units,such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as tamper resistant module in the form of a universal integrated circuitcard (UICC) including one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs), such as a USIM and / orISIM, other memory, or any combination thereof. The UICC may for example be an embedded UICC (eUICC), integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as ‘SIM card.’ The memory 1110 may allow the UE 1100 to access instructions, application 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 1110, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.

[0391] The processing circuitry 1102 may be configured to communicate with an accessnetwork or other network using the communication interface 1112. The communication interface 1112 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 1122. The communication interface 1112 may include one or more transceivers used to communicate, such as by communicating with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another UE or a network node in an access network). Each transceiver may include a transmitter 1118 and / or a receiver 1120 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter 1118 and receiver 1120 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., antenna 1122) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.

[0392] In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communicationinterface 1112 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short- range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-basedcommunication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location,another like communication function, or any combination thereof. Communications may be implemented in according to one or more communication protocols and / or standards, such as IEEE 802.11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, New Radio (NR), UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, transmission control protocol / internet protocol (TCP / IP), synchronous optical networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.

[0393] Regardless of the type of sensor, a UE may provide an output of data captured by itssensors, through its communication interface 1112, via a wireless connection to a network node. Data captured by sensors of a UE can be communicated through a wireless connection to a network node via another UE. The output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reports the sensed temperature), random (e.g., to even out the load from reporting from several sensors), in response to a triggering event (e.g., when moisture is detected an alert is sent), in response to a request (e.g., a user initiated request), or a continuous stream (e.g., a live video feed of a patient).

[0394] As another example, a UE comprises an actuator, a motor, or a switch, related to acommunication interface configured to receive wireless input from a network node via a wireless connection. In response to the received wireless input the states of the actuator, the motor, or the switch may change. For example, the UE may comprise a motor that adjusts the control surfaces or rotors of a drone in flight according to the received input or to a robotic arm performing a medical procedure according to the received input.

[0395] A UE, when in the form of an Internet of Things (IoT) device, may be a device for usein 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 TV, a connected lighting device, an electricity meter, a robot vacuum cleaner, a voice controlled smart speaker, a home security camera, a motion detector, a thermostat, a smoke detector, a door / window sensor, a flood / moisture sensor, an electrical door lock, a connected doorbell, an air conditioning system like a heat pump, an autonomous vehicle, a surveillance system, a weather monitoring device, a vehicle parking monitoring device, an electric vehicle charging station, a smart watch, a fitness tracker, a wearable for tactile augmentation or sensory enhancement, a watersprinkler, an animal- or item-tracking device, a sensor for monitoring a plant or animal, anindustrial 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 1100 shown in FIG.11.

[0396] As yet another specific example, in an IoT scenario, a UE may represent a machine orother device that performs monitoring and / or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and / or measurements to another UE and / or a network node. The UE may in this case be an M2M device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, the UE may implement the 3GPP NB-IoT standard. In other scenarios, a UE may represent a vehicle, such as a car, a bus, a truck, a ship and an airplane, or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and / or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.

[0397] 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.

[0398] FIG. 12 shows a network node 1200 in accordance with some embodiments. As usedherein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a UE and / or with other network nodes or equipment, in a telecommunication network. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)), O-RAN nodes or components of an O-RAN node (e.g., O-RU, O-DU, O-CU).

[0399] 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 suchas centralized digital units, distributed units (e.g., in an O-RAN access node) and / or remote radiounits (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio unitsmay 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).

[0400] Other examples of network nodes include multiple transmission point (multi-TRP) 5Gaccess nodes, multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell / multicast coordination entities (MCEs), Operation and Maintenance (O&M) nodes, Operations Support System (OSS) nodes, Self-Organizing Network (SON) nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centers (E-SMLCs)), and / or Minimization of Drive Tests (MDTs).

[0401] The network node 1200 includes a processing circuitry 1202, a memory 1204, acommunication interface 1206, and a power source 1208. The network node 1200 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their own respective components. In certain scenarios in which the network node 1200 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeBs. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, the network node 1200 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory 1204 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 1210 may be shared by different RATs). The network node 1200 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 1200, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, Zigbee, Z-wave, LoRaWAN, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node 1200.

[0402] The processing circuitry 1202 may comprise a combination of one or more of amicroprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and / or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 1200 components, such as the memory 1204, to provide network node 1200 functionality.

[0403] In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1202 includes a system on a chip(SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1202 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1212 and baseband processing circuitry 1214. In someembodiments, the radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1212 and the baseband processing circuitry 1214 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 1212 and baseband processing circuitry 1214 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.

[0404] The memory 1204 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer-readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and / or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device-readable and / or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and / or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry 1202. The memory 1204 may store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, and / or other instructions capable of being executed by the processing circuitry 1202 and utilized by the network node 1200. The memory 1204 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 1202 and / or any data received via the communication interface 1206. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1202 and memory 1204 is integrated.

[0405] The communication interface 1206 is used in wired or wireless communication ofsignaling and / or data between a network node, access network, and / or UE. As illustrated, the communication interface 1206 comprises port(s) / terminal(s) 1216 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. The communication interface 1206 also includes radio front-end circuitry 1218 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna 1210. Radio front-end circuitry 1218 comprises filters 1220 and amplifiers 1222. The radio front-end circuitry 1218 may be connected to an antenna 1210 and processing circuitry 1202. The radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1210 and processing circuitry 1202. The radio front-end circuitry 1218 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection. The radio front- end circuitry 1218 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 1220 and / or amplifiers 1222. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 1210. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 1210 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 1218. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 1202. In other embodiments, the communication interface may comprise different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0406] In certain alternative embodiments, the network node 1200 does not include separateradio front-end circuitry 1218, instead, the processing circuitry 1202 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna 1210. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 1212 is part of the communication interface 1206. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 1206 includes one or more ports or terminals 1216, the radio front-end circuitry 1218, and the RF transceiver circuitry 1212, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 1206 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 1214, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

[0407] The antenna 1210 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured tosend and / or receive wireless signals. The antenna 1210 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry 1218 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and / or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna 1210 is separate from the network node 1200 and connectable to the network node 1200 through an interface or port.

[0408] The antenna 1210, communication interface 1206, and / or the processing circuitry1202 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and / or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and / or signals may be received from a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna 1210, the communication interface 1206, and / or the processing circuitry 1202 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and / or signals may be transmitted to a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment.

[0409] The power source 1208 provides power to the various components of network node1200 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source 1208 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 1200 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node 1200 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., the power grid, an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry of the power source 1208. As a further example, the power source 1208 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.

[0410] Embodiments of the network node 1200 may include additional components beyondthose shown in FIG.12 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, includingany of the functionality described herein and / or any functionality necessary to support the subjectmatter described herein. For example, the network node 1200 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 1200 and to allow output of information from the network node 1200. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 1200. In some embodiments providing a core network node, such as core network node 108 of FIG. 10, some components, such as the radio front-end circuitry 1218 and the RF transceiver circuitry 1212 may be omitted.

[0411] FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 1300 in whichfunctions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to any device described herein, or components thereof, and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components. Some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtual environments 1300 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computing device that operates as a network node, UE, core network node, or host. Further, in embodiments in which the virtual node does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node or host), then the node may be entirely virtualized. In some embodiments, the virtualization environment 1300 includes components defined by the O-RAN Alliance, such as an O-Cloud environment orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an O-2 interface. Virtualization may facilitate distributed implementations of a network node, UE, core network node, or host.

[0412] Applications 1302 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtualappliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualization environment Q400 to implement some of the features, functions, and / or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.

[0413] Hardware 1304 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and / orinstructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and / or other hardware devices as described herein, such as a network interface, input / output interface, and so forth. Software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers 1306 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs 1308a and 1308b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs 1308), and / or perform any of the functions, features and / or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein.The virtualization layer 1306 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the VMs 1308.

[0414] The VMs 1308 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking orinterface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 1306. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 1302 may be implemented on one or more of VMs 1308, 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.

[0415] In the context of NFV, a VM 1308 may be a software implementation of a physicalmachine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non-virtualized machine. Each of the VMs 1308, and that part of hardware 1304 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 1308 on top of the hardware 1304 and corresponds to the application 1302.

[0416] Hardware 1304 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic orspecific components. Hardware 1304 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 1304 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g., such as in a data center or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration 1310, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications 1302. In some embodiments, hardware 1304 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 1312 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.

[0417] Although the computing devices described herein (e.g., UEs, network nodes) mayinclude 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, whichmay 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.

[0418] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may beprovided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry alone or to other components of the computing device, but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole, and / or by end users and a wireless network generally.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A method of operating a communication device, the method comprising:determining (840) that a triggering condition is met based on determining that a firstmeasurement is better than a first threshold value and a second measurement is worse than asecond threshold value, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggeredmobility, LTM, candidate cell, and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated; and responsive to determining that the triggering condition is met, transmitting (850) a LTM lower layer measurement report.

2. The method of Claim 1, wherein the LTM candidate cell is an inter-frequency neighbor.

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

4. The method of Claim 3, wherein determining the first measurement comprises determininga measurement of a beam of the LTM candidate cell, and wherein determining the second measurement comprises determining a measurement of a beam of the serving cell.

5. The method of Claim 4, wherein determining the measurement of the beam of the LTMcandidate cell comprises determining at least one of: the beam; a reference signal identifier, ID; and a measurement quantity value.

6. The method of any of Claims 3-5, wherein determining the first measurement comprisesdetermining an indication of a best beam of the LTM candidate cell, and7. The method of any of Claims 3-6, wherein determining the second measurementcomprises determining an indication of a best beam of the serving cell.

8. The method of Claim 7, wherein the best beam of the serving cell corresponds to at leastone of: abeam represented by a reference signal associated witha TCI state that is activated in theserving cell; abeam represented by a synchronization signal block, SSB, configured as a quasi-collocated, QCL, source of a reference signal in the TCI state that is activated in the serving cell;a beam associated with a the highest measurement quantity among beams associated to theTCI state that is activated; and a beam that the communication device is considering for physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, receptions.

9. The method of any of Claims 3-8, wherein determining the first measurement comprisesdetermining at least one of: cell level measurement of the LTM candidate cell; anddetermining a cell quality of the LTM candidate cell, and wherein determining the second measurement comprises at least one of: determining a cell level measurement of the serving cell, and determining a cell quality of the serving cell.

10. The method of any of Claims 1-9, wherein the serving cell for which the TCI state isactivated comprises at least one of: a special cell, SpCell; a primary cell of a master cell group, MCG; a primary cell of a secondary cell group, SCG; a secondary cell of the MCG; and a secondary cell of the SCG.

11. The method of any of Claims 1-10, wherein a center frequency of the LTM candidate cellis different from a center frequency of the serving cell, and / or wherein a subcarrier spacing of a synchronization signal block of the LTM candidate cell is different from a subcarrier spacing of a synchronization signal block of the serving cell.

12. The method of any of Claims 1-11, wherein a frequency range of the LTM candidate cellis different than a frequency range of the serving cell, wherein a frequency band of the LTM candidate cell is different than a frequency band of the serving cell,wherein the frequency band of the LTM candidate cell is associated with a first radio access technology, RAT, and the frequency band of the serving cell is associated with a second RAT that is different from the first RAT.

13. The method of any of Claims 1-12, wherein transmitting the LTM lower layer reportcomprises transmitting at least one of: an indication of the first measurement; an indication of the second measurement; an indication of the LTM candidate cell associated with the first measurement; and an indication of the serving cell associated with the second measurement.

14. The method of any of Claims 1-13, wherein the TCI state activated within the servingcandidate cell is a second TCI state, the method further comprising: responsive to transmitting the LTM lower layer report, receiving (860) a command indicating an activation of a first TCI state within the LTM candidate cell.

15. The method of Claim 14, wherein the command further indicates a deactivation of thesecond TCI state within the serving cell and / or a third TCI state within the LTM candidate cell.

16. The method of any of Claims 14-15, wherein receiving the command comprises receivinga LTM cell switch command, and wherein the first TCI state is different than the second TCI state.

17. The method of any of Claims 14-15, wherein receiving the command comprises receivingat least one of: a TCI state activation command; a TCI state deactivation command; and a request to trigger an early uplink synchronization procedure.

18. The method of any of Claims 1-17, wherein determining that the first measurement isbetter than the first threshold value comprises determining that the first measurement is higher than the first threshold, and wherein determining that the second measurement is worse than the second threshold value comprises determining that the second measurement is lower than the second threshold.

19. The method of any of Claims 1-18, further comprising:receiving (810) an indication of configuration information from a network node, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit the LTM lower layer report in response to the triggering condition being met.

20. The method of Claim 19, wherein receiving the indication of the configuration informationcomprises receiving a reporting configuration associated to a resource configuration, the resource configuration indicating at least one resource to be measured and used as input to the triggering condition.

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

22. The method of Claim 21, wherein the LTM candidate cell is an inter-frequency neighbor.

24. The method of any of Claims 21-23, wherein the serving cell for which the TCI state isactivated comprises at least one of: a special cell, SpCell; a primary cell of a master cell group, MCG; a primary cell of a secondary cell group, SCG; a secondary cell of the MCG; and a secondary cell of the SCG.

25. The method of any of Claims 21-24, wherein a center frequency of the LTM candidate cellis different from a center frequency of the serving cell, and / or wherein a subcarrier spacing of a synchronization signal block of the LTM candidate cell is different from a subcarrier spacing of a synchronization signal block of the serving cell.

26. The method of any of Claims 21-25, wherein a frequency range of the LTM candidate cellis different than a frequency range of the serving cell, wherein a frequency band of the LTM candidate cell is different than a frequency band of the serving cell, wherein the frequency band of the LTM candidate cell is associated with a first radio access technology, RAT, and the frequency band of the serving cell is associated with a second RAT that is different from the first RAT.

27. The method of any of Claims 21-26, wherein receiving the LTM lower layer reportcomprises receiving at least one of: an indication of the first measurement; an indication of the second measurement; an indication of the LTM candidate cell associated with the first measurement; and an indication of the serving cell associated with the second measurement.

28. The method of any of Claims 21-27, wherein the TCI state activated within the servingcandidate cell is a second TCI state, the method further comprising: responsive to receiving the LTM lower layer report, transmitting (930) a command indicating an activation of a first TCI state within the LTM candidate cell.

29. The method of Claim 28, wherein the command further indicates a deactivation of thesecond TCI state within the serving cell and / or a third TCI state within the LTM candidate cell.

30. The method of any of Claims 28-29, wherein transmitting the command comprisestransmitting a LTM cell switching command, and wherein the first TCI state is different than the second TCI state.

31. The method of any of Claims 28-29, wherein transmitting the command comprisestransmitting at least one of: a TCI state activation command; a TCI state deactivation command; and a request to trigger an early uplink synchronization procedure.

32. The method of any of Claims 21-31, wherein the first measurement being better than thefirst threshold value comprises the first measurement being higher than the first threshold, and wherein the second measurement being worse than the second threshold value comprises the second measurement being lower than the second threshold.

33. A communication device (1100) adapted to perform operations comprising:determining (840) that a triggering condition is met based on determining that a first measurement is better than a first threshold value and a second measurement is worse than asecond threshold value, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggeredmobility, LTM, candidate cell, and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated; and responsive to determining that the triggering condition is met, transmitting (850) a LTM lower layer measurement report.

34. The communication device of Claim 33, the operations further comprising any of theoperations of Claims 2-20.

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

36. The computer program of Claim 35, the operations further comprising any of theoperations of Claims 2-20.

37. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory storage medium (1110)including program code to be executed by processing circuitry (1102) of a communication device (1100), whereby execution of the program code causes the communication device to perform operations comprising:determining (840) that a triggering condition is met based on determining that a first measurement is better than a first threshold value and a second measurement is worse than asecond threshold value, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggeredmobility, LTM, candidate cell, and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated; and responsive to determining that the triggering condition is met, transmitting (850) a LTM lower layer measurement report.

38. The computer program product of Claim 37, further comprising any of the operations ofClaims 2-20.

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

40. The network node of Claim 39, the operations further comprising any of the operations ofClaims 21-.32.

41. A computer program comprising program code to be executed by processing circuitry(1202) of a network node (1200), whereby execution of the program code causes the network node to perform operations comprising: transmitting (910) an indication of configuration information to a communication device, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit a layer 1 / layer2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a triggeringcondition, the triggering condition being based on a first measurement being better than a first threshold value and a second measurement being worse than a second threshold value, the first measurement being associated with a LTM candidate cell, and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated; and receiving (920) the LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device.

42. The computer program of Claim 41, further comprising any of the operations of Claims21-32.

43. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory storage medium (1204)including program code to be executed by processing circuitry (1202) of a network node (1200), whereby execution of the program code causes the network node to perform operations comprising: transmitting (910) an indication of configuration information to a communication device, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a triggering condition, the triggering condition being based on a first measurement being better than a first threshold value and a second measurement being worse than a second threshold value, the first measurement being associated with a LTM candidate cell, and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated; and receiving (920) the LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device.

44. The computer program product of Claim 43, the operations further comprising any of theoperations of Claims 21-32.

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