Event for candidate cell list update or transmission configuration indicator state activation update

Abstract

A communication device can be configured to provide event for candidate cell list update or transmission configuration indicator (TCI) sate activation update The communication device can determine (640) that a first triggering condition is met based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement. The first measurement can be associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a TCI state is activated. Responsive to the first triggering condition being met, the communication device can transmit (650) a first LTM lower layer measurement report. The communication device can further determine (660) that a second triggering condition is met. Responsive to the second triggering condition being met, the UE can transmit (670) a second LTM lower layer measurement report.

Description

EVENT FOR CANDIDATE CELL LIST UPDATE OR TRANSMISSION CONFIGURATION INDICATOR STATE ACTIVATION UPDATETECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present disclosure is related to wireless communication systems and more particularly to an event for candidate cell list update or transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state activation update.BACKGROUND

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[0018] Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantages. Some embodiments provide savings in terms of UE power consumption and UL resources on the network side, because unnecessary transmissions, as in periodic reports, would not be performed when the UE only transmits the LI report for LTM when the condition is fulfilled i.e. when there is an SSB in the LTM candidate cell QCLEd with an activated TCI state which becomes worse than a threshold. Such a reported SSB (or beam, or RS, or CSLRS) is not any longer a good beam for the UE to be DL synchronized with and is likely not a beam the network will select in the LTM Cell Switch (to indicate the TCI state), so that maintaining such a beam DL synchronized is a waste of UE resources. In addition, the information may enable the network to activate different TCI state(s), possibly from the same or different LTM Candidate Cells, more suitable to become target cell(s) and TCI states to be activated in an LTM Cell Switch.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate certain non-limiting embodiments of inventive concepts. In the drawings:

[0020] FIG. l is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a 5thgeneration (“5G”) network;

[0021] FIG. 2 is a signal flow diagram illustrating an example of a LTM procedure;

[0022] FIG. 3 is a signal flow diagram illustrating an example of LTM lower layer reporting in accordance with some embodiments;

[0023] FIG. 4 is a table illustrating an example of a mapping order of CSI fields of one report for SSBRI / RSRP reporting for LTM in accordance with some embodiments;

[0024] FIG. 5 is a table illustrating an example of a bitwidth for SSBRI, RSRP, or differential RSRP to be included in an LTM CSI measurement report in accordance with some embodiments;

[0025] FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating an example of operations performed by a communication device in accordance with some embodiments;

[0026] FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating an example of operations performed by a communication device in accordance with some embodiments;

[0027] FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a communication system in accordance with some embodiments;

[0028] FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments;

[0029] FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a network node in accordance with some embodiments; and

[0030] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a virtualization environment in accordance with some embodiments.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0031] Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art, in which examples of embodiments of inventive concepts are shown. Inventive concepts may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of present inventive concepts to those skilled in the art. It should also be noted that these embodiments are not mutually exclusive. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present / used in another embodiment.

[0032] Layer 1 / Layer 2-triggered mobility (LTM) was introduced in Rel-18 and can offer improvements 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 mobility uses layer 3 measurement reporting which supports UE evaluated events for triggering of measurement reports and reduces signaling overhead compared to periodic measurement reporting. Such event triggering is not supported by the LI measurements that are used for LTM mobility.

[0033] LI measurements for LTM procedures are limited to SSB measurements. Expanding LI measurements to include CSLRS can address this limitation and can be expected to enable greater throughput on the target cell immediately after cell switch.

[0034] There currently exist certain challenges. To assist the network to trigger an LTM Cell Switch, the UE can be configured to transmit LI measurement (LTM lower layer reports) including lower layer measurements on beams (e.g., SSBs) of one or more LTM candidate cells. Thanks to these reports, the network determines the LTM candidate cell and the beam (e.g., corresponding TCI state identity) to indicate in the LTM Cell Switch command.

[0035] In the LTM functionality specified in Rel-18, LTM lower layer reports are configured in an LTM reporting configuration (LTM-CSI-ReportConfig IE) as periodic, semi- persistent on PUCCH, semi-persistent on PUSCH, or aperiodic.

[0036] 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.

[0037] Other types of reports, e.g., aperiodic reports, rely on requests from the network. It is not always simple to figure out the exact timing in which these reports are to be requested, especially when there is no UL data to be scheduled for the UE.

[0038] FIG. 3 illustrates an example of problems with LTM lower layer periodic reports. In some examples, LTM lower layer measurement reports are expected to assist the network to trigger inter-frequency LTM Cell Switches due to Load Balancing i.e. when the strongest cell the UE is connected to is overloaded (e.g., has too many connected UE(s) and / or has very high traffic demands). To assist the network to take mobility load balancing decisions, the network needs to understand when a neighbour frequency (e.g., a cell in a neighbour frequency) for which the load is lower than the UE’s current serving frequency provides good enough coverage. This considers that 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.

[0039] Various embodiments herein address some of these challenges by having a User equipment (UE) transmit an LTM lower layer report upon fulfillment of a triggering condition. In some embodiments, the triggering condition consists of a measurement associated to an LTM candidate cell becomes worse than absolute thresholdl.

[0040] In some examples, the UE transmits a lower layer report when the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest LI RSRP) becomes worse than thresholdl.

[0041] In additional or alternative examples, the UE transmits a lower layer report when the cell quality (e.g., cell based RSRP) of an LTM candidate cell becomes worse than threhsoldl.

[0042] In one option of the method, the UE transmits the LTM lower layer report according to the trigger condition above to assist the network to know when to deactivate a TCI state of an LTM candidate cell, wherein the UE considers as applicable cells for the triggering condition the LTM candidate cells which have at least one activated TCI state (so that they become sort of candidates to have their TCI state deactivated when the beam quality of such an activated TCI stops being good enough). And, when the best beam measurement of the LTM candidate cell is to be considered, the best beam of the LTM candidate cell is the beam associated to the activated TCI sate of the LTM candidate cell e.g., SSB configured as QCL source of the activated TCI state of the LTM candidate cell. In more general terms, the triggering condition considers the status of the TCI state(s) of the LTM candidate cell e.g., ‘activated’, ‘deactivated’.

[0043] In another option the triggering condition is defined as a leaving condition for the following event “the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest LI RSRP), becomes offset better than the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell (e.g., highest LI RSRP)”. The leaving condition in this case means that before that leaving condition was triggered, an entering condition according to the event has been fulfilled i.e. earlier, “the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest LI RSRP), became offset better than the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell (e.g., highest LI RSRP)” and that has triggered the UE to send a first LTM lower layer report; And, subsequently, after one or more measurement occasions, the leaving conditions is fulfilled i.e. the UE determines that the entering conditions stops to be fulfilled i.e. “the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest LI RSRP), is not any longer an offset better than the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell (e.g., highest LI RSRP)” or “the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest LI RSRP), becomes an offset worse than the “best” beam (or RS) of the serving cell (e.g., highest LI RSRP)”. In response to the fulfillment of the leaving condition, the UE transmits the LTM lower layer report (to assist the network to determine to deactivate an activated TCI state of an LTM Candidate cell) the UE may receive an indication from the network to deactivate a TCI state of an LTM Candidate cell.

[0044] In one option, in response to the LTM lower layer report, UE receives one or more of the following messages and / or indications. In some example, the UE receives a MAC Control Element (CE) indicating the UE to update the activated TCI states. Updating in this context could mean the UE receiving a command for deactivating an activated TCI state of an LTM candidate cell, e.g., for which a beam measurement of a beam of the activate TCI state is below the absolute threshold 1.

[0045] In additional or alternative examples, the UE receives a MAC CE to trigger an LTM Cell Switch e.g., including a TCI state which differs from the TCI state associated with the beam for which the LTM lower layer report was triggered and / or an LTM Candidate cell also different from an LTM candidate cell indicated in the report for which one of its beam measurements has triggered the trigger condition; or including an indication of a Random Access based LTM Cell Switch.

[0046] In addition or alternative examples, the UE receives RRC reconfiguration to TCI state to addition or modification message for updating the TCI states to be activated (e.g., using ltm-DL-OrJointTCI-StateToAddModList-rl8) and / or releasing the TCI states (e.g., using Itm- DL-OrJointTCI-StateToReleaseList-rl8) e.g., to remove TCI states which were configured. In additional or alternative examples, the UE receives LTM candidate cell config to update the candidate cells (e.g., using ltm-CandidateToAddModList-rl8) and / or releasing the candidate cells (e.g., using ltm-CandidateToReleaseList-rl8).

[0047] In additional or alternative examples, the UE receives a new configuration for early UL pre-synchronization for one of the LTM candidate cell configurations reported in the LTM lower layer report for which the network is planning to activate a TCI state state and for which an early UL synchronization is most likely to happen.

[0048] Embodiments herein refer to the term “L1 / L2 based inter-cell mobility” as used in the Work Item Description in 3GPP, though it interchangeably also uses the terms L1 / L2 mobility, Ll-mobility, LI based mobility, Ll / L2-centric inter-cell mobility, L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility Ll / L2-Triggered Mobility, Lower-layer triggered Mobility or LTM. The basic principle is that the UE receives a lower layer signaling from the network indicating to the UE a change (or switch or activation) of its serving cell (e.g., change of PCell, from a source to a target Pcell), wherein a lower layer signaling is a message / signaling of a lower layer protocol, which may be referred as a L1 / L2 inter-cell mobility execution command or LTM cell switch command. The change of serving cell (e.g., change of Pcell) may also lead to a change in Scell(s) for the same cell group e.g., in case the command triggers the UE to change to another cell group configuration of the same type (e.g., another MCG configuration). Before the UE receives the LTM cell switch command, the UE is configured by the network with one or moreLTM candidate cell configurations (e.g., reception of an RRC Reconfiguration message, with at least one LTM candidate cell configuration) A LTM candidate cell configuration may include parameters in the IE CellGroupConfig per candidate cell and / or an embedded RRC Reconfiguration per LTM candidate cell.

[0049] The term LTM cell switch procedure refers to the process of a UE switching (or changing) its cell from a source cell to a target cell (which may be called here an LTM candidate cell or a neighbour cell), using L1 / L2 -triggered mobility (aLTM). In the context of L1 / L2- triggered mobility (LTM), an LTM cell switch procedure may sometimes also be known as L1 / L2 based inter-cell mobility execution, LTM execution, dynamic switch, LTM switch, (LTM) cell switch, (LTM) serving cell change or (LTM) cell change. In the context of the invention, switching to the LTM candidate cell configuration comprises the UE considering that an LTM candidate cell becomes its new special cell (SpCell) e.g., Pcell in case of LTM being configured for a Master Cell Group (MCG) and / or PSCell in case of LTM being configured for a Secondary Cell Group (SCG); or, changing its SpCell from the current Pcell to an LTM candidate cell.

[0050] Even if the term change of cell is used, that may comprise a change of a whole cell group configuration, which includes a change in the SpCell (e.g., change of Pcell, or change of PSCell) and a change in Scells of the cell group (e.g., addition, modification and / or release of one or more Scells).

[0051] An LTM cell switch procedure may be triggered in the UE by reception of a LTM cell switch command (e.g., LTM Cell Switch MAC CE), or alternatively, triggered by some other event, such as a condition, e.g., a triggering condition used for conditional configuration, such as conditional handover, being fulfilled, as a result of recovery from radio link failure or handover failure.

[0052] Embodiments herein may refer to a LTM candidate cell, which is a cell the UE is configured with when configured with Ll / L2-triggered mobility. That is a cell the UE can move to in a LTM cell switch procedure, upon reception of a LTM cell switch command. These cells may also be called candidate cell(s), LTM candidate cells, candidates, mobility candidates, nonserving cells, additional cells, target candidate cell, target candidate, etc. A LTM candidate cell is a cell the UE perform measurements on (e.g., CSI measurements) so that the UE reports these measurements and network may take educated decision on which beam (e.g., TCI state) and / or cell the UE is to be switched to. An LTM candidate cell may be a candidate to be a target Pcell or PSCell, or an Scell of a cell group (e.g., MCG Scell).

[0053] Embodiments herein may refer to at least one LTM candidate cell configuration and that the UE has received at least one LTM candidate cell configuration. This is also sometimesreferred to as a configuration of a LTM candidate cell, which may be an RRC configuration, such as encapsulated in an RRC Reconfiguration message, that the UE receives when being configured with Ll / L2-Triggered Mobility. A LTM candidate cell configuration 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 Master Cell Group (MCG); i) the PSCell configuration and one or more SCell configuration(s) of a secondary Cell Group (SCG). The terms (LTM) candidate configuration, LTM configuration, (LTM) candidate target cell configuration, (LTM) target candidate (cell) configuration may be used interchangeably when referring to LTM candidate cell configuration. An LTM candidate cell configuration is associated with an identifier which is used in the signaling when referring to a certain LTM candidate cell configuration, such as when the UE receives the LTM candidate cell configuration and when the UE receives an LTM cell switch command indicating the UE to perform a LTM cell switch procedure to that LTM candidate cell. This identifier is sometimes known as the LTM candidate cell configuration identity or LTM candidate configuration index (or similar).

[0054] An actual LTM candidate cell configuration and its exact content and / or structure of this IE and / or embedded message may be called an RRC model for the candidate configuration, or simply RRC model. An LTM candidate cell configuration 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 target cell and the current (new) PCell, or an SCell in a serving frequency), or upon reception of the lower layer signaling (MAC CE) indicating a L1 / L2 based inter-cell mobility to a LTM candidate cell configuration indicated with a candidate configuration index (sometimes also denoted candidate configuration ID). The UE may be configured with multiple LTM candidate cell configurations, so a Candidate DU generates and sends to the CU multiple configuration(s). The actual LTM candidate cell configuration the UE receives during the LTM configuration may be a delta signaling to be applied on top of a reference configuration, so that the actualconfiguration 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).

[0055] Embodiments herein refer to a report triggered by the UE upon fulfillment of a triggering condition which the UE is evaluating, the report including the measurement results that is sent by the UE to the network, called a LI report for LTM, LTM CSI measurement report, or CSI report for LI / L2 -triggered Mobility (LTM). In one option, the report includes at least one or more measurement which were used as input to the triggering conditions which have been fulfilled and triggered the UE to transmit report. In one option for the LTM measurement report, the UE includes a list of identifiers (e.g., resource identifiers or resource indications, or SSB identifiers) each one of them pointing to one or more SSBs and LTM candidate cells 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.

[0056] An LTM candidate cell may also be an LTM candidate cell in a 5G Radio access technology, such as NR, or a 6G Radio Access Technology.

[0057] Some embodiments herein refer to a RS of an LTM candidate cell, which includes an SSB and / or an RS transmitted in a beam or spatial direction, and / or a Mobility Reference Signal (MRS), a Channel State Information - RS (CSLRS), or a RS defined for a 6G radio interface. The term “beam” may also be used to express a spatial direction in which a Reference Signal (e.g., SSB) associated to an index (e.g., SSB index, or CSLRS index) is being transmitted, so that a beam measurement may correspond to a measurement on an RS transmitted in that beam e.g., an SSB measurement.

[0058] Some embodiments herein refer to a beam (or RS) that may be associated to a TCI e.g., by the RS (e.g., SSB) being configured as QCL source of a TCI state configuration.

[0059] Some embodiments herein refer to a trigger condition that is based on a measurement associated to a LTM candidate cell becoming worse than absolute threhsoldl.

[0060] The condition (or triggering condition for transmitting an LTM lower layer report) “a measurement associated to an LTM candidate cell becomes worse than absolute thresholdl” 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.

[0061] In response to transmitting the LTM lower layer report, the UE receives an LTM Cell Switch Command (e.g., LTM Cell Switch Command MAC Control Element - CE)indicating an LTM Candidate Cell and a TCI state which is to be activated in the LTM Candidate Cell which becomes the target cell. In one option, the indicated TCI state to be activated in the LTM cell switch is associated to a beam and / or a RS and / or an SSB indicated in the LTM lower layer report, which is not a beam for which the report was triggered (i.e. not a beam for which measurement s) is worse than the thresholdl).

[0062] The method also comprises, in response to transmitting the LTM lower layer report (triggered by the triggering condition), the UE receiving a TCI deactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation for deactivating a TCI state of an LTM Candidate) indicating an LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a TCI state of the LTM Candidate Cell which is to be deactivated. When UE receive this command UE deactivate the TCI states and removes the T / F synchronization information stored for the target TCI state. In one option, the UE receives the TCI deactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating the LTM Candidate 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 an LTM Candidate Cell.

[0063] In one option, in response to the response to transmitting the LTM lower layer report (triggered by the triggering condition), UE receives the TCI deactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell and a TCI state which is to be deactivated in the LTM Candidate Cell. In response to the deactivated command, UE deactivates the indicated TCI state of the indicated LTM Candidate cell. In another option, UE further receives another TCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating a second LTM Candidate Cell (which may be the same cell or a different cell than the LTM Candidate Cell) and a second TCI state (different than the TCI state which was deactivated) which is to be activated in the second LTM Candidate Cell, or the UE receives an RRC Reconfiguration message for releasing and / or removing a TCI state configuration of the LTM Candidate Cell.

[0064] In one option, the UE receives a new configuration related which UE should use to trigger an early uplink sync procedure for one or more of the LTM candidate cells for which the network intends to activate a TCI state and for which the network may also intend to trigger an early uplink sync procedure.

[0065] According to the method the UE may receive, in response to transmitting the LTM lower layer report, a command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., Physical Downlink control Channel - PDCCH order), indicating a second LTM Candidate Cell and aReference Signal (e.g., SSB identifier) different from the RS associated to the TCI state which was deactivated or triggered LTM lower layer report, wherein based on the command the UE transmits a random access preamble to the second LTM Candidate Cell, wherein the second LTM candidate cell may be the same or different cell than the cell for which the TCI state was previously deactivated. In one option, 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, wherein the second LTM candidate cell may be the same or different cell than the cell for which the TCI state was previously deactivated.

[0066] The method further comprising, in response to the command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., Physical Downlink control Channel - PDCCH order), the UE transmits a random access preamble to the second LTM Candidate Cell, wherein the second LTM candidate cell may be the same or different cell than the cell for which the TCI state was previously deactivated.

[0067] In some embodiments, a UE transmits a first LTM lower layer report upon fulfillment of a first triggering condition, wherein the first triggering condition is an entering condition defined as a measurement associated to a an LTM candidate cell becomes an offset better than a measurement associated to a serving cell, and transmitting an second LTM lower layer report upon fulfillment of a second triggering condition, wherein the second triggering condition is a leaving condition associated to the first triggering condition.

[0068] The method further comprising, in response to transmitting an first LTM lower layer report, , the UE receiving an LTM Cell Switch Command indicating an LTM Candidate Cell and a TCI state which is to be activated in the LTM Candidate Cell which becomes the target cell. In one option, the LTM Cell Switch Command indicates an LTM Candidate Cell included in the first 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 first LTM lower layer report.

[0069] The method also comprises, in response to the first 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 the LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Target Configuration ID associated to an LTM candidate ID), and a TCI state (e.g., TCI State ID) which is to be 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 first LTM lower layer report, whose first measurement has triggered the report.

[0070] Once the TCI state is activated, may be due to UE mobility or change in channel conditions, the activated TCI state may no longer be strongest. In this scenario, NW may need to deactivate the TCI state. The method further comprises of, measuring as per the LTM configuration and evaluating the second trigger condition. When the second trigger condition is met, transmitting a second LTM lower layer report.

[0071] The method further comprises, in response to transmitting the second LTM lower layer report (triggered by the second triggering condition), the UE receiving a TCI deactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation for deactivating a TCI state of an LTM Candidate) indicating an LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a TCI state of the LTM Candidate Cell which is to be deactivated.

[0072] In response to the TCI deactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell and the TCI state, UE deactivates the indicated TCI state of the indicated LTM Candidate cell by removing the T / F sync information stored at the UE and removing the TCI state from the list of TCI states activated.

[0073] In one option, UE receives the TCI deactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating the LTM Candidate 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 an LTM Candidate Cell.

[0074] In one option, upon UE deactivating the TCI state of the LTM candidate cell UE further receives another TCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating a second LTM Candidate Cell (which may be the same cell or a different cell than the LTM Candidate Cell) and a second TCI state (different than the TCI state which was deactivated) which is to be activated in the second LTM Candidate Cell.

[0075] In one option, as per the method, the UE receives a new configuration related to which UE should use to trigger an early uplink sync procedure for one or more of the LTM candidate cells for which the network intends to activate a TCI state and for which the network may also intend to trigger an early uplink sync procedure.

[0076] As per the method, in response to transmitting the second LTM lower layer report, the UE receiving a command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., Physical Downlink control Channel - PDCCH order), indicating a second LTM Candidate Cell and a Reference Signal (e.g., SSB identifier) different from the RS associated to the TCI state which was deactivated, wherein based on the command the UE transmits a random access preamble tothe second LTM Candidate Cell, wherein the second LTM candidate cell may be the same or different cell than the cell for which the TCI state was previously deactivated.

[0077] As per the method, in response to transmitting the second LTM lower layer report, the UE receiving a command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., Physical Downlink control Channel - PDCCH order), indicating a second LTM Candidate Cell and 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, wherein the second LTM candidate cell may be the same or different cell than the cell for which the TCI state was previously deactivated.

[0078] As per the method, in response to the command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., Physical Downlink control Channel - PDCCH order), the UE transmits a random access preamble to the second LTM Candidate Cell, wherein the second LTM candidate cell may be the same or different cell than the cell for which the TCI state was previously deactivated.

[0079] In one set of option, according to the method, the UE perform measurements and / or evaluates the fulfillment of the triggering condition on 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) when that LTM candidate cell has all its TCI states deactivated.

[0080] When the UE performs measurement s) on an LTM candidate cell which has a TCI activated, the UE perform the measurements on a beam of the LTM Candidate cell associated to the activate TCI state of the LTM candidate cell e.g., on an RS and / or SSB and / or CSLRS of the LTM Candidate cell configured as QCL source of the activated TCI state of the LTM candidate cell. If UE has capability to measure N1 RS, and the RS associated to activated TCI states are less than Nl, UE measures on the RS associated to nonactivated TCI states. In one option, UE measures on all the RS configured for LTM measurement irrespective of activated or nonactivated TCI states.

[0081] When the UE performs measurement s) on an 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 deactivate TCI state of the LTM candidate cell e.g., on an RS and / or SSB and / or CSLRS of the LTM Candidate cell configured as QCL source of the deactivated TCI state of the LTM candidate cell. In one option, when all the TCI states of the LTM candidate cell are deactivated, UE measures as per the RS configuration for LTM measurement on the cell.

[0082] According to the method, in response to the LTM lower layer 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.

[0083] According to the method, in response to the LTM lower layer 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 to the LTM candidate cell which has triggered the LTM lower layer report.

[0084] According to the method the UE may receive, in response to transmitting 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), to update the TCIs states which are to be activated on the LTM Candidate Cell(s). If the TCI state activation command only removes the TCI states from the previously activated TCI states, UE do not need additional time to obtain the T / F synchronization or activate the TCI states received in the TCI state activation command. If there are new TCI states in the TCI state activation command, in response to the TCI activation command the UE activates the additional TCI states newly added in the TCI state activation command. That may correspond to the UE performing a DL synchronization with the RS and / or beam associated to the newly activated LTM TCI state while maintaining the activation for the non-removed TCI states.

[0085] According to the method the UE may receive, in response to transmitting the LTM lower layer report, RRC reconfiguration message to add or modify or release the TCI states for the LTM candidate cell(s).

[0086] According to the method the UE may receive, in response to transmitting the LTM lower layer report, RRC reconfiguration message to add or modify or release the LTM candidate cell(s) with new candidate configuration.

[0087] In a first set of independent embodiments, the UE triggers an LTM lower layer report when the “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell becomes worse than threhsoldl.

[0088] In second set of independent embodiments, the UE triggers a first LTM lower layer report when the first trigger condition is met. Where the first trigger condition is: a “best” beam of the LTM Candidate cell (e.g., measurement on the “best” beam of the LTM Candidate cell) becomes offset better than a best beam of the serving cell (e.g., measurement on the “best” beam of the LTM Candidate cell).

[0089] UE further trigger a second LTM lower layer report when the second trigger condition is met.

[0090] Where the second trigger condition is: a “best” beam of the LTM Candidate cell (e.g., measurement on the “best” beam of the LTM Candidate cell) becomes offset worse than a best beam of the serving cell (e.g., measurement on the “best” beam of the LTM Candidate cell)

[0091] There are different options for defining a “best” beam, which would make the UE to determine the input to the triggering condition.

[0092] The “best” beam of the LTM candidate cell may corresponds to the beam (or RS e.g., SSB, CSLRS, MRS, etc.) with the highest measurement quantity among the beams (or RSs) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest LI RSRP) whose TCI states are not activated.

[0093] The “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell may correspond to the beam (or RS) associated with an activated candidate TCI state of the LTM Candidate cell. In this case the beam may be represented by 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.

[0094] 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.

[0095] When the LTM Candidate Cell has multiple TCI states activated, one option is to consider the best beam as the one associated to the highest measurement quantity among the beams associated to activated TCI States of the LTM Candidate Cell. For example, let us assume that the LTM Candidate Cell has 3 TCI states activated, with configured QCL sources [SSB2], [SSB5], [SSB7] wherein the SSB with the highest Ll-RSRP is of SSB5. Then, the UE considers SSB5 as the best beam of that LTM Candidate Cell.

[0096] The “best” beam (or RS) of the LTM candidate cell may corresponds to the beam (or RS e.g., SSB, CSLRS, MRS, etc.) which average measurement quantity (over a time window) is with the highest measurement quantity among other beams (or RSs) of the LTM candidate cell (e.g., highest LI RSRP).

[0097] In a first set of independent embodiments, the UE triggers of a lower layer report when the cell quality (e.g., cell based RSRP) of the LTM candidate cell becomes worse than threshold 1.

[0098] For 2ndindependent embodiment: the UE triggers an first LTM lower layer report when the cell quality of the LTM Candidate cell becomes an offset better (e.g., higher, above) than the cell quality of the serving cell and the UE triggers a second LTM lower layer reportwhen the cell quality of the LTM Candidate cell becomes an offset worse (e.g., lower, below) than the cell quality of the serving cell.

[0099] There are different options for defining a cell quality to be used by the UE as input to the triggering condition.

[0100] The cell quality of a cell may correspond to a cell measurement result such as cellbased RSRP, cell based RSRQ, cell based SINR. The measurements may be performed on one or more Reference Signals (RS(s)) transmitted in different spatial directi on(s) (e.g., beams), such as SSB(s) or CSI-RS(s).

[0101] The cell quality of the LTM candidate cell may corresponds to the highest beam measurement quantity (e.g., highest RSRP, or highest LI RSRP) among other beams of the LTM candidate cell.

[0102] The cell quality of an LTM Candidate Cell may correspond to the beam measurement quantity of the beam (or RS) associated to a TCI state of the LTM Candidate Cell which is activated.

[0103] In one option, when the LTM Candidate Cell has a single TCI state activated, the UE considers the cell quality as the quality of the beam associated to that activated TCI State. For example, let us assume that the LTM Candidate Cell has TCI state activated with configured QCL source [SSB2], Then, the UE considers as cell quality the beam quality of SSB2.

[0104] In one option, when the LTM Candidate Cell has multiple TCI states activated, one option is to consider the cell quality as the highest measurement quantity among the beams associated to activated TCI States. For example, let us assume that the LTM Candidate Cell has 3 TCI states activated, with configured QCL sources [SSB2], [SSB5], [SSB7] wherein the SSB with the highest LI -RSRP is of SSB 5. Then, the UE considers the cell quality as the quality of SSB5.

[0105] The cell quality of an LTM Candidate Cell may correspond to an average of the highest “K” beam measurements of the LTM Candidate Cell. For example, the cell quality may be the linear power scale average of the highest beam measurement quantity values above a threshold (e.g., absThreshSS-BlocksConsolidation) where the total number of averaged beams shall not exceed “N” (e.g., nrofSS-BlocksToAverage).

[0106] The cell quality of an LTM candidate cell may correspond to an average of the “K” beam measurements associated to the “K" activated candidate TCI States of the LTM Candidate cell. In one option, the “K” beams are a subset of all the total beam which measurement is above a threshold. In one option, the average of the “K” beam measurements is over a defined time window.

[0107] In a set of embodiments, the UE performs cell quality derivation of LTM Candidate cell to be used as input to a triggering condition for triggering an LTM lower layer report, based on one or more parameters which the UE obtains e.g., upon reception of a configuration in an RRC message, such as an RRC Reconfiguration message. These parameters may be called here Cell Quality Derivation (CQD) parameters, and includes one or more of: 1) A “threshold” for determining beams to be averaged for CQD (this is not the same configuration as thresholdl 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; 2) A value “N” for determining the number of beams to be averaged for CQD. The UE derives a cell measurement results as the linear power scale average of the highest beam measurement quantity values above a threshold where the total number of averaged beams shall not exceed the value “N”; 3) A time window “T” for determining over which period of time the beams should be averaged; or 4) Offsets. In one option, there is a threshold value per measurement quantity e.g., one for RSRP, one for RSRQ, one for SINR. In one option, there is a threshold value per RS type e.g., one for SSB measurements, one for CSLRS measurements, one for MRSs, etc.

[0108] The CQD parameters for an LTM candidate cell may be configured in a measurement object associated to the SSB frequency of the LTM Candidate cell (e.g., same as indicated in the LTM Configuration for that candidate). This option implies that the UE receives a measurement object (e.g., IE MeasObjectNR) associated to LTM Candidate cell which needs to be measured to be used as input to a triggering condition for LTM reporting.

[0109] The CQD parameters for the LTM Candidate cell may be configured in the LTM Configuration for that LTM Candidate cell (e.g., not the configuration to be applied upon execution, but the configuration to be applied upon reception).

[0110] The QCD parameters for LTM Candidate Cell may be configured in a resource configuration, associated to the reporting configuration associated to the triggering condition of the LTM reporting.

[0111] According to the method the UE may receive an RRC message for configuring 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.

[0112] The reporting configuration may indicate an identifier (e.g., event ID) so that when the UE receives the configuration the UE determines that the configuration is for the event whose condition is defined as above i.e. an LTM lower layer report when the “best” beam (or RS) of an LTM candidate cell becomes worse than thrsoholdl or cell quality of an LTM candidate cell becomes worse than threshold 1.

[0113] The reporting configuration may indicate one or more parameters associated to the event such as: 1) a trigger quantity, indicating what is the quantity to be measured and used as input to the triggering condition e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, SINR, LI RSRP, etc; 2) a threshold 1 value, associated to the event definition e.g., in terms of dBs or dBm; 3) one or more reporting quantities, indicating what additional quantities the UE is meant to measure and / or report, in addition to the trigger quantity; 4) a time to trigger value, which indicates how long since the condition has been fulfilled the UE needs to way before sending the measurement report; 5) an LTM candidate cell ID, which indicate to which LTM candidate configuration the event applies; 6) a reference signal type (e.g., SSB or CSLRS); 7) an indication of an associated resource configuration (e.g., resource configuration identifier); 8) a reporting configuration identifier

[0114] The reporting configuration may indicate an identifier of a resource configuration (e.g., LTM-CSI-ReportConfigld, included in the reporting configuration), which indicates one or more LTM Candidate Cells to be possibly considered as input for the condition associated to the event. Thus, the UE determines the LTM Candidate Cells within the resource configuration are to be considered as input to the event(s) e.g., the SSBs of the LTM Candidate Cell(s). 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.

[0115] For example, for some of the embodiments disclosed in the method, the UE evaluates 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.

[0116] Or, as in some of the embodiments disclosed in the method, the UE evaluates the fulfillment 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.

[0117] In one option, the RS (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS) to be considered may be explicitly indicated by the NW in the report configuration. One example this may be a simple indication like consider all RS / cells configured or only the cells or beams associated with TCI states activated or the Cells / RSs or beams not associated with TCI states activated.

[0118] According to the method, the UE transmits an LTM lower layer report when the triggering condition is fulfilled as for first variant or second variant wherein the UE includes one or more of the following in the LTM lower layer report.

[0119] The UE can include information about the best “beam” (or RS) of the LTM Candidate Cell which has triggered the event (e.g., so-called triggered SSB) and other top N beams of the cell such as an indication of a value of the measurement quantity which has triggered the report e.g., Ll-RSRP associated to that beam or RS; an indication of a value of a measurement quantity configured at the UE (e.g., reporting quantity(ies) configured in the LTM reporting configuration) e.g., Ll-RSRQ associated to that beam or RS; a differential measurement quantity (e.g., differential LI RSRP) associated to that best beam (e.g., relative to a reference value); an indication of the best beam or RS such as, a beam identifier of the best beam, an RS index (e.g., SSB index) or a resource indication, indicating the position of that best beam in the associated resource configuration, such as an SSB Resource Indicator (SSBRI), in the case of an SSB being configured as a resource; or N may be configurable or fixed quantity.

[0120] The UE can include information about the LTM Candidate Cell which has triggered the event (e.g., so-called triggered SSB) and top N beams of the other LTM candidate cell such as: an indication of a value of the measurement quantity which has triggered the report e.g., Ll- RSRP associated to that beam or RS; an indication of a value of a measurement quantity configured at the UE (e.g., reporting quantity(ies) configured in the LTM reporting configuration) e.g., Ll-RSRQ associated to that beam or RS; or an indication about beams from other cells which may be better than the candidate cell which triggered the event.

[0121] The UE can include information about the LTM candidate cell associated to the “best” beam and / or best SSB and / or triggered SSB. LTM Candidate ID e.g., encoded in fewer bits than the cell identity and associated to an LTM Candidate cell configuration, configured when LTM is configured. Cell identifier (Cell ID) of the LTM Candidate cell associated to the beam or RS which has triggered the LTM lower layer report. This may be a Serving cell index or SCell index depending on whether the LTM candidate cell has been configured as a PCell, PSCell, or SCell. Physical Cell Identity (PCI) of the LTM candidate cell associated to the beam or RS which has triggered the LTM lower layer report.

[0122] The UE can include SSB Frequency (e.g., absolute frequency information, like an ARFCN of the SSB) of the LTM candidate cell associated to the beam or RS which has triggered the LTM lower layer report.

[0123] The UE can include an identifier associated to the measurement which is being triggered e.g., a reporting configuration identifier, and / or a resource configuration identifier, or another identifier associated to the reporting configuration identifier. An Event ID, if there are multiple events configured for one or more LTM candidate cells, but e.g., with different conditions or parameters. Configuration 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.

[0124] The UE can include a time stamp information about the last measurement occasion for the inter-frequency neighbour cell that triggered the event. In one example the reporting granularity of the time stamp can be in the order of number 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. This is particularly useful for the NW to understand the T / F validity of the LTM inter-frequency candidate cell so that NW can schedule the PRACH preamble occasion as per this report. In one example, if the inter-frequency neighbour was measured more than 160ms before the serving cell measurement that triggered the report, NW can schedule the PRACH transmission after 60ms (e.g., Yl*SSB_period, Y1 is 3 and SSB _period is 20ms). This helps NW utilize the PRACH preamble occasions effectively. In another example, NW can configure a time threshold for the last measured occasion 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.

[0125] For that set of embodiments, the UE transmits the LTM lower layer report e.g., by transmitting a MAC Control Element, and / or a report over PUSCH and / or PUCCH. 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.

[0126] The fulfillment of the triggering condition may be expressed in terms of measurements on RS(s) (e.g., SSB, CSLRS, MRS, etc.) associated to pre-activated TCI states 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.

[0127] 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 LI / L2 -triggered mobility, or LI measurement report or LI 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:• SSBRI 5 a [SSB1] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]• SSBRI 6 a [SSB2] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]• SSBRI 7 a [SSB3] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]• SSBRI 8 a [SSB4] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]• SSBRI 9 a [SSB5] [LTM Candidate cell ID 2]

[0128] 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 LI / L2 -triggered mobility) may also comprise measurement information associated to resources which is included in the report, for example, measurement information associated to an SSBRI, such as one or more of the following: Layer 1 Reference Signal Received Power (Ll-RSRP); Differential Ll-RSRP; Layer 1 reference signal received quality (Ll-RSRQ); Differential Ll-RSRQ; Layer 1 SINR (Ll- SINR); Differential LI -SINR; SS reference signal received power (SS-RSRP); SS reference signal received quality (SS-RSRQ); or SS signal-to-noise and interference ratio (SS-SINR).

[0129] In one example, for Ll-RSRP reporting, if the higher layer parameters [noOfReportedCells] and [noOfReportedRSPerCell] are both configured to be one, the reported Ll-RSRP value is defined by a 7-bit value in the range [-140, -44] dBm with IdB step size, or if any of the higher layer parameters [noOfReportedCells] and [noOfReportedRSPerCell] is configured to be larger than one, the UE uses differential Ll-RSRP based reporting for the LTM CSI resources whicha the UE selects to be included in the LTM CSI measurement report, where the largest measured value of Ll-RSRP is quantized to a 7-bit value in the range [-140, -44] dBm with IdB step size, and the differential Ll-RSRP is quantized to a 4-bit value. The differential Ll-RSRP value is computed with 2 dB step size with a reference to the largest measured Ll-RSRP value which is part of the same Ll-RSRP reporting instance.

[0130] SS reference signal received power (SS-RSRP), for example, maybe be defined as the linear average over the power contributions (in [W]) of the resource elements that carry secondary synchronization signals. The measurement time resource(s) for SS-RSRP are confined within SS / PBCH Block Measurement Time Configuration (SMTC) window duration. If SS-RSRP is used for Ll-RSRP as configured by reporting configurations as defined in TS 38.214, the measurement time resources(s) restriction by SMTC window duration is not applicable.

[0131] For SS-RSRP determination demodulation reference signals for physical broadcast channel (PBCH) and, if indicated by higher layers, CSI reference signals in addition to secondary synchronization signals may be used. SS-RSRP using demodulation reference signal for PBCH or CSI reference signal shall be measured by linear averaging over the power contributions of the resource elements that carry corresponding reference signals taking into account power scaling for the reference signals as defined in TS 38.213. If SS-RSRP is not used for Ll-RSRP, the additional use of CSI reference signals for SS-RSRP determination is not applicable.

[0132] SS-RSRP shall be measured only among the reference signals corresponding to SS / PBCH blocks with the same SS / PBCH block index and the same physical-layer cell identity.

[0133] If SS-RSRP is not used for Ll-RSRP and higher-layers indicate certain SS / PBCH blocks for performing SS-RSRP measurements, then SS-RSRP is measured only from the indicated set of SS / PBCH block(s).

[0134] For frequency range 1, the reference point for the SS-RSRP shall be the antenna connector of the UE. For frequency range 2, SS-RSRP shall be measured based on the combined signal from antenna elements corresponding to a given receiver branch. For frequency range 1 and 2, if receiver diversity is in use by the UE, the reported SS-RSRP value shall not be lower than the corresponding SS-RSRP of any of the individual receiver branches.

[0135] 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.

[0136] The power per resource element is determined from the energy received during the useful part of the symbol, excluding the CP.

[0137] When the UE selects the LTM candidate cell(s) and respective RSs (e.g., SSB(s)) to include in the LTM CSI measurement report, the UE includes an SSBRI associated to a selected LTM CSI resource (i.e. pair SSB index, LTM candidate cell ID), and a measurement information associated (e.g., Ll-RSRP and / or differential Ll-RSRP), in the following mapping order:

[0138] FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a mapping order of CSI fields of one report for SSBRI / 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, where ASSBis the configured number of SS / PBCH blocks (SSBs) in the corresponding LTM CSI resource configuration (e.g., within a resource set) for reporting an RSRP (E.g., 'ssb-Index-RSRP'.).

[0139] Operations of a communication device 900 (implemented using the structure of FIG.9) will now be discussed with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 6 according to some embodiments of inventive concepts. For example, modules may be stored in memory 910 of FIG. 9, and these modules may provide instructions so that when the instructions of a module are executed by respective communication device processing circuitry 902, communication device 900 performs respective operations of the flow chart.

[0140] At block 610, processing circuity 902 receives, via communication interface 912, an indication of configuration information. In some embodiments, the configuration information configures the communication device to transmit the first LTM lower layer report in response to the first triggering condition being met and to transmit the second LTM lower layer report in response to the second triggering condition being met.

[0141] At block 620, processing circuitry 902 determines a first measurement. In some embodiments, the first measurement is associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell

[0142] At block 630, processing circuitry 902 determines a second measurement. In some embodiments, the second measurement is associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated;

[0143] At block 640, processing circuitry 902 determines that a first triggering condition is met. In some embodiments, determining that the first triggering condition is met includes determining that the first triggering condition is met based on a difference between the first measurement and the second measurement.

[0144] At block 650, processing circuitry 902 transmits, via communication interface 912, a first LTM lower layer measurement report. In some embodiments, the communication device transmit the first LTM lower layer measurement report in response to the first triggering condition being met.

[0145] At block 660, processing circuitry 902 determines that a second triggering condition is met.

[0146] At block 670, processing circuitry 902 transmits, via communication interface 912, a second LTM lower layer measurement report. In some embodiments, the communication devicetransmit the second LTM lower layer measurement report in response to the second triggering condition being met.

[0147] Various operations from the flow chart of FIG. 6 may be optional with respect to some embodiments of communication devices and related methods.

[0148] Operations of a network node 900 (implemented using the structure of FIG. 10) will now be discussed with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 7 according to some embodiments of inventive concepts. For example, modules may be stored in memory 1004 of FIG. 10, and these modules may provide instructions so that when the instructions of a module are executed by respective network node processing circuitry 1002, network node 1000 performs respective operations of the flow chart.

[0149] At block 710, processing circuitry 1002 transmits, via communication interface 1006, an indication of configuration information. In some embodiments, the configuration information configures the communication device to transmit a first layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a first triggering condition and configuring the communication device to transmit a second LTM lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a second triggering condition. The first triggering condition is based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement. The first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated.

[0150] At block 720, processing circuitry 1002 receives, via communication interface 1006, a first LTM lower layer measurement report.

[0151] At block 730, processing circuitry 1002 receives, via communication interface 1006, a second LTM lower layer measurement report.

[0152] Various operations from the flow chart of FIG. 7 may be optional with respect to some embodiments of communication devices and related methods.

[0153] Example Embodiments are provided below.

[0154] Embodiment AL 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 an LTM candidate cell becomes worse than absolute threhsoldl.

[0155] Embodiment A2. A method of Al and all, wherein the measurement associated to an LTM Candidate cell comprises a beam (or RS) measurement of a beam of the LTM Candidate cell.

[0156] Embodiment A3. A method of Al and all, wherein the triggering condition comprises: a “best” beam of the LTM Candidate cell (e.g., measurement on the “best” beam of the LTM Candidate cell) becomes worse than absolute thresholdl.

[0157] Embodiment A4. A method of Al and all, wherein the measurement associated to an LTM Candidate cell comprises a cell level measurement of the LTM Candidate cell which is in a different SSB frequency than the serving cell’s SSB frequency or of an LTM candidate cell which is the same SSB frequency as the serving cell’s SSB frequency.

[0158] Embodiment A5. A method of Al and all wherein the triggering condition comprises: the cell quality of the LTM Candidate cell becomes worse (e.g., lower, below) than absolute thresholdl.

[0159] Embodiment A5b. A method of Al and all, where an LTM lower layer report comprises a beam or RS identifier and a measurement quantity value, associated with an LTM candidate cell.

[0160] Embodiment A5c. A method of A5b, where the measurement quantity value is a Ll- RSRP value, a Ll-SINR value or a Ll-RSRQ value.

[0161] Embodiment A6. A method of Al and all, wherein in response to transmitting the LTM lower layer report, the UE receiving an LTM Cell Switch Command indicating an LTM Candidate Cell and a TCI state which is to be activated in the LTM Candidate Cell which becomes the target cell.

[0162] Embodiment A7. A method of Al and all, wherein the LTM Cell Switch Command indicates an LTM Candidate 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, which is not a beam for which the report was triggered (i.e. not a beam for which measurement(s) is worse than the thresholdl).

[0163] Embodiment A8. A method of Al and all, in response to transmitting the LTM lower layer report (triggered by the triggering condition), the UE receiving a TCI deactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation for deactivating a TCI state of an LTM Candidate) indicating an LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a TCI state of the LTM Candidate Cell which is to be deactivated.

[0164] Embodiment A9. A method of Al and all, in response to the TCI deactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell and the TCI state, deactivating the indicated TCI state of the indicated LTM Candidate cell.

[0165] Embodiment A10. A method of Al and all, wherein the UE receives the TCI deactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating the LTM Candidate 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 an LTM Candidate Cell.

[0166] Embodiment Al 1. A method of Al and all, wherein the UE receives the TCI deactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell and a TCI state which is to be deactivated in the LTM Candidate Cell, deactivates the indicated TCI state of the indicated LTM Candidate cell, and further receives another TCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating a second LTM Candidate Cell (which may be the same cell or a different cell than the LTM Candidate Cell) and a second TCI state (different than the TCI state which was deactivated) which is to be activated in the second LTM Candidate Cell, or the UE receives an RRC Reconfiguration message for releasing and / or removing a TCI state configuration of the LTM Candidate Cell.

[0167] Embodiment Al la. A method in Al and all, wherein the UE receives a new configuration related which UE should use to trigger an early uplink sync procedure for one or more of the LTM candidate cells for which the network intends to activate a TCI state and for which the network may also intend to trigger an early uplink sync procedure.

[0168] Embodiment A12. A method of Al and all, in response to transmitting the LTM lower layer report, the UE receiving a command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., Physical Downlink control Channel - PDCCH order), indicating a second LTM Candidate Cell and a Reference Signal (e.g., SSB identifier) different from the RS associated to the TCI state which was deactivated or triggered LTM lower layer report, wherein based on the command the UE transmits a random access preamble to the second LTM Candidate Cell, wherein the second LTM candidate cell may be the same or different cell than the cell for which the TCI state was previously deactivated.

[0169] Embodiment Al 3. A method of Al and all, in response to transmitting the LTM lower layer report, the UE receiving a command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., Physical Downlink control Channel - PDCCH order), indicating a second LTM Candidate Cell and 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, wherein the second LTM candidate cell may be the same or different cell than the cell for which the TCI state was previously deactivated.

[0170] Embodiment A14. A method of Al and all, in response to the command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., Physical Downlink control Channel - PDCCH order), the UE transmits a random access preamble to the second LTM Candidate Cell, wherein the second LTM candidate cell may be the same or different cell than the cell for which the TCI state was previously deactivated.

[0171] Embodiment A14b. A method of Al and all, where, in response to transmitting the LTM lower layer report, the UE receives a command to perform additional measurements on the LTM candidate cell.

[0172] Embodiment Al 5. A method of Al and all, wherein the LTM candidate cell on which the measurement is associated is an LTM candidate cell which has a TCI state activated.

[0173] Embodiment A16. A method of Al and all, wherein the measurement performed on the LTM candidate cell which has a TCI activated is performed on a beam of the LTM Candidate cell associated to the activate TCI state of the LTM candidate cell.

[0174] Embodiment Al 7. A method of Al and all, wherein the measurement performed on the 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.

[0175] Embodiment A18. A method of Al and all, wherein the measurement performed on the LTM candidate cell depends on the status of a TCI state of the LTM candidate cell, wherein the status may be ‘activated’ or ‘deactivated’.

[0176] Embodiment Al 9. A method of Al and all, wherein the LTM candidate cell on which the measurement is associated is an LTM candidate cell which has a TCI state deactivated.

[0177] Embodiment A20. A method of Al and all, wherein the measurement performed on the LTM candidate cell which has a TCI state deactivated is performed on a beam of the LTM Candidate cell associated to the deactivate TCI state of the LTM candidate cell.

[0178] Embodiment A21. A method of Al and all, wherein the measurement performed on the 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.

[0179] Embodiment A22. A method of Al and all, wherein the LTM candidate cell on which the measurement is associated is an LTM candidate cell which has all its configured TCI state(s) deactivated.

[0180] Embodiment A23. A method of Al and all, wherein in response to the LTM lower layer 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.

[0181] Embodiment A24. A method of Al and all, wherein in response to the LTM lower layer 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 to the LTM candidate cell which has triggered the LTM lower layer report.

[0182] Embodiment A25. A method of Al, wherein the measurement associated to the LTM candidate cell is only performed when there is at least one TCI state of the LTM Candidate cell which is activated.

[0183] Embodiment A26. A method of Al, wherein the UE receives a message including one or more parameters for configuring the triggering condition, and, upon receiving the one or more parameters evaluating the fulfillment of the triggering condition.

[0184] Embodiment A27. A method of A30, wherein the one or more parameters for configuring the triggering condition comprises one or more of: a time to trigger value (e.g., in time units), a trigger quantity (e.g., LI RSRP, LI SINR, LI RSRQ, etc.), one or more reporting quantities (e.g., LI RSRP, LI SINR, LI RSRQ, etc.), a reference signal type (e.g., SSB or CSL RS), an indication of an associated resource configuration (e.g., resource configuration identifier), a value for threshold 1, an event identifier (for identifying the trigger condition).

[0185] Embodiment A28. A method of Al and all, wherein the UE starts evaluating the fulfillment of the trigger condition upon reception of a command associated to a reporting configuration.

[0186] Embodiment A29. A method of Al and all, wherein the command associated to the reporting 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.

[0187] Embodiment Al* A method at a UE comprising: transmitting an early LTM lower layer report upon fulfillment of a first triggering condition, wherein the first triggering condition is an entering condition defined as a measurement associated to a an LTM candidate cell becomes an offset better than a measurement associated to a serving cell, and transmitting an LTM lower layer report upon fulfillment of a second triggering condition, wherein the second triggering condition is a leaving condition associated to the first triggering condition.

[0188] Embodiment A2*. A method of Al and all, wherein the measurement associated to an 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 comprises a beam (or RS) measurement of a beam of the serving cell.

[0189] Embodiment A3*. A method of Al and all, wherein the first triggering condition comprises: a “best” beam of the LTM Candidate cell (e.g., measurement on the “best” beam of the LTM Candidate cell) becomes offset better than a best beam of the serving cell (e.g., measurement on the “best” beam of the LTM Candidate cell).

[0190] Embodiment A4*. A method of Al and all, wherein the measurement associated to an LTM Candidate cell comprises a cell level measurement of the LTM Candidate cell which is in a different SSB frequency than the serving cell’s SSB frequency or of an LTM candidate cell which is the same SSB frequency as the serving cell’s SSB frequency.

[0191] Embodiment A5*. A method of Al and all wherein the first triggering condition comprises: the cell quality of the LTM Candidate cell becomes an offset better (e.g., higher, above) than the cell quality of the serving cell.

[0192] Embodiment A5b*. A method of Al and all wherein the second triggering condition comprises: the cell quality of the LTM Candidate cell becomes an offset worse (e.g., lower, below) than the cell quality of the serving cell.

[0193] Embodiment A6*. A method of Al and all, wherein in response to transmitting the LTM lower layer report, the UE receiving an LTM Cell Switch Command indicating an LTM Candidate Cell and a TCI state which is to be activated in the LTM Candidate Cell which becomes the target cell.

[0194] Embodiment A7*. A method of Al and all, wherein the LTM Cell Switch Command indicates an LTM Candidate 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, which is not a beam for which the report was triggered (i.e. not a beam for which measurement(s) is worse than the thresholdl).

[0195] Embodiment A8*. A method of Al and all, in response to transmitting the LTM lower layer report (triggered by the second triggering condition), the UE receiving a TCI deactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation for deactivating a TCI state of an LTM Candidate) indicating an LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a TCI state of the LTM Candidate Cell which is to be deactivated.

[0196] Embodiment A9*. A method of Al and all, in response to the TCI deactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation)indicating the LTM Candidate Cell and the TCI state, deactivating the indicated TCI state of the indicated LTM Candidate cell.

[0197] Embodiment A10*. A method of Al and all, wherein the UE receives the TCI deactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating the LTM Candidate 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 an LTM Candidate Cell.

[0198] Embodiment Al l*. A method of Al and all, wherein the UE receives the TCI deactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell and a TCI state which is to be deactivated in the LTM Candidate Cell, deactivates the indicated TCI state of the indicated LTM Candidate cell, and further receives another TCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating a second LTM Candidate Cell (which may be the same cell or a different cell than the LTM Candidate Cell) and a second TCI state (different than the TCI state which was deactivated) which is to be activated in the second LTM Candidate Cell.

[0199] Embodiment Al 1 *a. A method in Al and all, wherein the UE receives a new configuration related which UE should use to trigger an early uplink sync procedure for one or more of the LTM candidate cells for which the network intends to activate a TCI state and for which the network may also intend to trigger an early uplink sync procedure.

[0200] Embodiment A12*. A method of Al and all, in response to transmitting the LTM lower layer report, the UE receiving a command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., Physical Downlink control Channel - PDCCH order), indicating a second LTM Candidate Cell and a Reference Signal (e.g., SSB identifier) different from the RS associated to the TCI state which was deactivated, wherein based on the command the UE transmits a random access preamble to the second LTM Candidate Cell, wherein the second LTM candidate cell may be the same or different cell than the cell for which the TCI state was previously deactivated.

[0201] Embodiment A13*. A method of Al and all, in response to transmitting the LTM lower layer report, the UE receiving a command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., Physical Downlink control Channel - PDCCH order), indicating a second LTM Candidate Cell and 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, wherein the second LTM candidate cell may be the same or different cell than the cell for which the TCI state was previously deactivated.

[0202] Embodiment A14*. A method of Al and all, in response to the command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., Physical Downlink control Channel - PDCCH order), the UE transmits a random access preamble to the second LTM Candidate Cell, wherein the second LTM candidate cell may be the same or different cell than the cell for which the TCI state was previously deactivated.

[0203] Embodiment Al 5 *-A29*: similar to Al 5-A29.

[0204] Embodiment B 1. 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- wherein the triggering condition comprises of a measurement associated to a an LTM candidate cell becomes worse than absolute threhsoldl and- in response to the received LTM lower layer report, transmitting one or more of: o An LTM Cell switch command (e.g., LTM Cell Switch Command) o A TCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) o A command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., PDCCH order for a random access preamble transmission to an LTM Candidate Cell). o A new configuration for early UL pre-synchronization for one of the LTM candidate cell configurations reported in the LTM lower layer report for which the network is planning to activate a TCI state state and for which an early UL synchronization is most likely to happen.

[0205] Embodiment B2. A method of Bl and all, wherein the network node configures the triggering condition based on a capability which indicates a limited number of simultaneous TCI states per LTM candidate cells which the UE can keep activated.

[0206] Embodiment B3. A method of Bl and all, wherein in response to receiving the LTM lower layer report, the network node transmitting an LTM Cell Switch Command indicating an LTM Candidate Cell and a TCI state which is to be activated by the UE in the LTM Candidate Cell which becomes the target cell.

[0207] Embodiment B4. A method of B 1 and all, in response to receiving the LTM lower layer report, the network node transmits to the UE a TCI deactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation for deactivating a TCI state of an LTM Candidate) indicating an LTM Candidate Cell (which is an inter-frequency neighbour cell) and a TCI state of the LTM Candidate Cell which is to be deactivated by the UE.

[0208] Embodiment B5. A method of B 1 and all, wherein the network node transmits the TCI deactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell and a TCI state which is to be deactivated in the LTM Candidate Cell, before it transmits to the UE an LTM Cell Switch command for an LTM Candidate Cell.

[0209] Embodiment B6. A method of B 1 and all, wherein the network node transmits theTCI deactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating the LTM Candidate Cell and a TCI state which is to be deactivated in the LTM Candidate Cell, deactivates the indicated TCI state of the indicated LTM Candidate cell, and further transmits another TCI activation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) indicating a second LTM Candidate Cell (which may be the same cell or a different cell than the LTM Candidate Cell) and a second TCI state (different than the TCI state which was deactivated) which is to be activated in the second LTM Candidate Cell, or transmits an RRC Reconfiguration message for releasing and / or removing a TCI state configuration of the LTM Candidate Cell.

[0210] Embodiment B6a. A method according to Bl and all, wherein the network node transmits a new configuration related which UE should use to trigger an early uplink sync procedure for one or more of the LTM candidate cells for which the network intends to activate a TCI state and for which the network may also intend to trigger an early uplink sync procedure.

[0211] Embodiment B7. A method of B 1 and all, in response to receiving the LTM lower layer report, the network node transmits a command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., Physical Downlink control Channel - PDCCH order), indicating a second LTM Candidate Cell and a Reference Signal (e.g., SSB identifier) different from the RS associated to the TCI state which was deactivated, wherein the second LTM candidate cell may be the same or different cell than the cell for which the TCI state was previously deactivated.

[0212] Embodiment B8. A method of Bl and all, wherein the network node transmits a message including one or more parameters for configuring the triggering condition.

[0213] Embodiment B9. A method of Bl and all, wherein the one or more parameters for configuring the triggering condition comprises one or more of: a time to trigger value (e.g., in time units), a trigger quantity (e.g., LI RSRP, LI SINR, LI RSRQ, etc.), one or more reporting quantities (e.g., LI RSRP, LI SINR, LI RSRQ, etc.), a reference signal type (e.g., SSB or CSL RS), an indication of an associated resource configuration (e.g., resource configuration identifier), a value for threshold 1, an event identifier (for identifying the trigger condition).

[0214] Embodiment B10. A method of Bl and all, wherein the network node transmits a command associated to a reporting configuration, indicating to the UE to start evaluating the fulfillment of the trigger condition.

[0215] Embodiment Bl 1. A method of Bl and all, wherein the command associated to the reporting configuration includes a reporting configuration identifier which indicates to the UE to evaluates the trigger condition configured in the reporting configuration with a matching reporting configuration identifier.

[0216] Embodiment Bl*. A method at a network node comprising:- Configuring a UE to transmit an early LTM lower layer report upon fulfillment of a first triggering condition, wherein the first triggering condition is an entering condition defined as a measurement associated to a an LTM candidate cell becomes an offset better than a measurement associated to a serving cell, and- To transmit an LTM lower layer report upon fulfillment of a second triggering condition, wherein the second triggering condition is a leaving condition associated to the first triggering condition,- And in response to the received LTM lower layer report, transmitting one or more of o An LTM Cell switch command (e.g., LTM Cell Switch Command) o A TCI deactivation command for an LTM Candidate Cell (e.g., Candidate Cell TCI States Activation / Deactivation) o A command for triggering an Early Uplink sync procedure (e.g., PDCCH order for a random access preamble transmission to an LTM Candidate Cell).

[0217] Embodiment B2*-B11* = B2-B11.

[0218] Embodiment 1. A method of operating a communication device, the method comprising: determining (640) that a first triggering condition is met based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated; responsive to the first triggering condition being met, transmitting (650) a first LTM lower layer measurement report; determining (660) that a second triggering condition is met; and responsive to the second triggering condition being met, transmitting (670) a second LTM lower layer measurement report;

[0219] Embodiment 2. The method of Embodiment any of Embodiments 1-2, further comprising: determining (620) the first measurement; and determining (630) the second measurement.

[0220] Embodiment 3. The method of any of Embodiments 1-2, further comprising: receiving (610) an indication of configuration information from a network node, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit the first LTM lower layer report in response to the first triggering condition being met and to transmit the second LTM lower layer report in response to the second triggering condition being met.

[0221] Embodiment 4. A method of operating a network node, the method comprising: transmitting (710) an indication of configuration information to a communication device, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit a first layer1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a first triggering condition and configuring the communication device to transmit a second LTM lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a second triggering condition, the first triggering condition being based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated. receiving (720) the first LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device; and receiving (730) the second LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device.

[0222] Embodiment s. The method of Embodiment 4, further comprising: transmitting (740) a command to the communication device.

[0223] Embodiment 6. A communication device (QQ200) adapted to perform operations comprising: determining (640) that a first triggering condition is met based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated; responsive to the first triggering condition being met, transmitting (650) a first LTM lower layer measurement report; determining (660) that a second triggering condition is met; and responsive to the second triggering condition being met, transmitting (670) a second LTM lower layer measurement report;

[0224] Embodiment 7. The communication device of Embodiment 6, the operations further comprising any of the operations of Embodiments 2-3.

[0225] Embodiment 8. A computer program comprising 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 (640) that a first triggering condition is met based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated;responsive to the first triggering condition being met, transmitting (650) a first LTM lower layer measurement report; determining (660) that a second triggering condition is met; and responsive to the second triggering condition being met, transmitting (670) a second LTM lower layer measurement report;

[0226] Embodiment 9. The computer program of Embodiment 8, the operations further comprising any of the operations of Embodiments 2-3.

[0227] Embodiment 10. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory storage medium (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 (640) that a first triggering condition is met based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated; responsive to the first triggering condition being met, transmitting (650) a first LTM lower layer measurement report; determining (660) that a second triggering condition is met; and responsive to the second triggering condition being met, transmitting (670) a second LTM lower layer measurement report;

[0228] Embodiment 11. The computer program product of Embodiment 10, further comprising any of the operations of Embodiments 2-3.

[0229] 12. A network node (QQ300) adapted to perform operations comprising: transmitting (710) an indication of configuration information to a communication device, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit a first layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a first triggering condition and configuring the communication device to transmit a second LTM lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a second triggering condition, the first triggering condition being based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated. receiving (720) the first LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device; andreceiving (730) the second LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device.

[0230] Embodiment 13. The network node of Embodiment 12, the operations further comprising any of the operations of Embodiment 4.

[0231] Embodiment 14. A computer program comprising 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 (710) an indication of configuration information to a communication device, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit a first layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a first triggering condition and configuring the communication device to transmit a second LTM lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a second triggering condition, the first triggering condition being based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated. receiving (720) the first LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device; and receiving (730) the second LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device.

[0232] Embodiment 15. The computer program of Embodiment 14, further comprising any of the operations of Embodiment 4.

[0233] Embodiment 16. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory storage medium (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 (710) an indication of configuration information to a communication device, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit a first layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a first triggering condition and configuring the communication device to transmit a second LTM lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a second triggering condition, the first triggering condition being based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated.receiving (720) the first LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device; and receiving (730) the second LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device.

[0234] Embodiment 17. The computer program product of Embodiment 16, the operations further comprising any of the operations of Embodiment 4.

[0235] FIG. 8 shows an example of a communication system 800 in accordance with some embodiments.

[0236] In the example, the communication system 800 includes a telecommunication network 802 that includes an access network 804, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network 806, which includes one or more core network nodes 808. The access network 804 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes 810a and 810b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 810), or any other similar 3rdGeneration Partnership Project (3 GPP) 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 802 includes one or more Open-RAN (ORAN) network nodes. An ORAN network node is a node in the telecommunication network 802 that supports an ORAN specification (e.g., a specification published by the O-RAN Alliance, or any similar organization) and may operate alone or together with other nodes to implement one or more functionalities of any node in the telecommunication network 802, including one or more network nodes 810 and / or core network nodes 808.

[0237] Examples of an ORAN network node include an open radio unit (O-RU), an open distributed unit (O-DU), an open central unit (O-CU), including an O-CU control plane (O-CU- CP) or an O-CU user plane (O-CU-UP), a RAN intelligent controller (near-real time or non-real time) hosting software or software plug-ins, such as a near-real time control application (e.g., xApp) or a non-real time control application (e.g., rApp), or any combination thereof (the adjective “open” designating support of an ORAN specification). The network node may support a specification by, for example, supporting an interface defined by the ORAN specification, such as an Al, Fl, Wl, El, E2, X2, Xn interface, an open fronthaul user plane interface, or an open fronthaul management plane interface. Moreover, an ORAN access node may be a logical node in a physical node. Furthermore, an ORAN network node may be implemented in a virtualization environment (described further below) in which one or more network functions are virtualized.For example, the virtualization environment may include an O-Cloud computing platform orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an 0-2 interface defined by the 0-RAN Alliance or comparable technologies. The network nodes 810 facilitate direct or indirect connection of user equipment (UE), such as by connecting UEs 812a, 812b, 812c, and 812d (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 812) to the core network 806 over one or more wireless connections.

[0238] Example wireless communications over a wireless connection include transmitting and / or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and / or other types of signals suitable for conveying information without the use of wires, cables, or other material conductors. Moreover, in different embodiments, the communication system 800 may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, UEs, and / or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and / or signals whether via wired or wireless connections. The communication system 800 may include and / or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and / or other similar type of system.

[0239] The UEs 812 may be any of a wide variety of communication devices, including wireless devices arranged, configured, and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with the network nodes 810 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes 810 are arranged, capable, configured, and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs 812 and / or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network 802 to enable and / or provide network access, such as wireless network access, and / or to perform other functions, such as administration in the telecommunication network 802.

[0240] In the depicted example, the core network 806 connects the network nodes 810 to one or more host computing systems, such as host 816. These connections may be direct or indirect via one or more intermediary networks or devices. In other examples, network nodes may be directly coupled to hosts. The core network 806 includes one more core network nodes (e.g., core network node 808) that are structured with hardware and software components. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the UEs, network nodes, and / or hosts, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of the core network node 808. Example core network nodes include functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Subscription Identifier De-concealing function (SIDF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Security EdgeProtection Proxy (SEPP), Network Exposure Function (NEF), and / or a User Plane Function (UPF).

[0241] The host 816 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network 804 and / or the telecommunication network 802. The host 816 may host a variety of applications to provide one or more service. Examples of such applications include live and pre-recorded audio / video content, data collection services such as retrieving and compiling data on various ambient conditions detected by a plurality of UEs, analytics functionality, social media, functions for controlling or otherwise interacting with remote devices, functions for an alarm and surveillance center, or any other such function performed by a server.

[0242] As a whole, the communication system 800 of FIG. 8 enables connectivity between the UEs, network nodes, and hosts. In that sense, the communication system may be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures, such as specific standards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE), and / or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g., 6G); wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (WiFi); and / or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, LiFi, and / or any low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) standards such as LoRa and Sigfox.

[0243] In some examples, the telecommunication network 802 is a cellular network that implements 3GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunications network 802 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network 802. For example, the telecommunications network 802 may provide Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services to some UEs, while providing Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and / or Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) / Massive loT services to yet further UEs.

[0244] In some examples, the UEs 812 are configured to transmit and / or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a UE may be designed to transmit information to the access network 804 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 804. Additionally, a UE may be configured for operating in single- or multi -RAT or multi-standard mode. For example, a UE may operate with any one or combination of Wi-Fi, NR (New Radio) and LTE, i.e. being configuredfor multi -radio dual connectivity (MR-DC), such as E-UTRAN (Evolved-UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) New Radio - Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).

[0245] In the example, the hub 814 communicates with the access network 804 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE 812c and / or 812d) and network nodes (e.g., network node 810b). In some examples, the hub 814 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub 814 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network 806 for the UEs. As another example, the hub 814 may be a controller that sends commands or instructions to one or more actuators in the UEs. Commands or instructions may be received from the UEs, network nodes 810, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub 814. As another example, the hub 814 may be a data collector that acts as temporary storage for UE data and, in some embodiments, may perform analysis or other processing of the data. As another example, the hub 814 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR device, display, loudspeaker, or other media delivery device, the hub 814 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 814 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and / or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub 814 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular if one or more of the UEs are low energy loT devices.

[0246] The hub 814 may have a constant / persistent or intermittent connection to the network node 810b. The hub 814 may also allow for a different communication scheme and / or schedule between the hub 814 and UEs (e.g., UE 812c and / or 812d), and between the hub 814 and the core network 806. In other examples, the hub 814 is connected to the core network 806 and / or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub 814 may be configured to connect to an M2M service provider over the access network 804 and / or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 810 while still connected via the hub 814 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub 814 may be a dedicated hub - that is, a hub whose primary function is to route communications to / from the UEs from / to the network node 810b. In other embodiments, the hub 814 may be a non-dedicated hub - that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and network node 810b, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and / or end point for certain data channels.

[0247] FIG. 9 shows a UE 900 in accordance with some embodiments. The UE 900 presents additional details of some embodiments of the UE 812 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, mobilephone, 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.

[0248] A UE may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3 GPP 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).

[0249] The UE 900 includes processing circuitry 902 that is operatively coupled via a bus 904 to an input / output interface 906, a power source 908, a memory 910, a communication interface 912, and / or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain UEs may utilize all or a subset of the components shown in FIG. 9. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

[0250] The processing circuitry 902 is configured to process instructions and data and may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory 910. The processing circuitry 902 may be implemented as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, field- programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored computer programs, general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry 902 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs).

[0251] In the example, the input / output interface 906 may be configured to provide an interface or interfaces to an input device, output device, or one or more input and / or output devices. Examples of an output device include a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. An input device may allow a user to capture information into the UE 900. Examples of an input device include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, a biometric sensor, etc., or any combination thereof. 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.

[0252] In some embodiments, the power source 908 is structured as a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic device, or power cell, may be used. The power source 908 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 908 itself, and / or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE 900 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source 908. Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from the power source 908 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the UE 900 to which power is supplied.

[0253] The memory 910 may be or be configured to include memory such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth. In one example, the memory 910 includes one or more application programs 914, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 916. The memory 910 may store, for use by the UE 900, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

[0254] The memory 910 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronousdynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as tamper resistant module in the form of a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) including one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs), such as a USIM and / or ISIM, other memory, or any combination thereof. The UICC may for example be an embedded UICC (eUICC), integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as ‘SIM card.’ The memory 910 may allow the UE 900 to access instructions, application programs and the like, stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory 910, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.

[0255] The processing circuitry 902 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network using the communication interface 912. The communication interface 912 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 922. The communication interface 912 may include one or more transceivers used to communicate, such as by communicating with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another UE or a network node in an access network). Each transceiver may include a transmitter 918 and / or a receiver 920 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter 918 and receiver 920 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., antenna 922) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.

[0256] In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communication interface 912 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short- range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof. Communications may be implemented in according to one or more communication protocols and / or standards, such as IEEE 802.11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, New Radio (NR), UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, transmission control protocol / internet protocol (TCP / IP), synchronous optical networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.

[0257] Regardless of the type of sensor, a UE may provide an output of data captured by its sensors, through its communication interface 912, via a wireless connection to a network node. Data captured by sensors of a UE can be communicated through a wireless connection to a network node via another UE. The output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reportsthe 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).

[0258] As another example, a UE comprises an actuator, a motor, or a switch, related to a communication interface configured to receive wireless input from a network node via a wireless connection. In response to the received wireless input the states of the actuator, the motor, or the switch may change. For example, the UE may comprise a motor that adjusts the control surfaces or rotors of a drone in flight according to the received input or to a robotic arm performing a medical procedure according to the received input.

[0259] A UE, when in the form of an Internet of Things (loT) device, may be a device for use in one or more application domains, these domains comprising, but not limited to, city wearable technology, extended industrial application and healthcare. Non-limiting examples of such an loT device are a device which is or which is embedded in: a connected refrigerator or freezer, a TV, a connected lighting device, an electricity meter, a robot vacuum cleaner, a voice controlled smart speaker, a home security camera, a motion detector, a thermostat, a smoke detector, a door / window sensor, a flood / moisture sensor, an electrical door lock, a connected doorbell, an air conditioning system like a heat pump, an autonomous vehicle, a surveillance system, a weather monitoring device, a vehicle parking monitoring device, an electric vehicle charging station, a smart watch, a fitness tracker, a wearable for tactile augmentation or sensory enhancement, a water sprinkler, an animal- or item-tracking device, a sensor for monitoring a plant or animal, an industrial robot, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and any kind of medical device, like a heart rate monitor or a remote controlled surgical robot. A UE in the form of an loT device comprises circuitry and / or software in dependence of the intended application of the loT device in addition to other components as described in relation to the UE 900 shown in FIG. 9.

[0260] As yet another specific example, in an loT scenario, a UE may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and / or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and / or measurements to another UE and / or a network node. The UE may in this case be an M2M device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, the UE may implement the 3GPP NB-IoT standard. In other scenarios, a UE may represent a vehicle, such as a car, a bus, a truck, a ship and an airplane, or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and / or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.

[0261] 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 operatingthe 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.

[0262] FIG. 10 shows a network node 1000 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a UE and / or with other network nodes or equipment, in a telecommunication network. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, 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)), 0-RAN nodes or components of an 0-RAN node (e.g., O-RU, O-DU, O-CU).

[0263] Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and so, depending on the provided amount of coverage, may be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units, distributed units (e.g., in an 0-RAN access node) and / or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS).

[0264] Other examples of network nodes include multiple transmission point (multi-TRP) 5G access nodes, multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell / multicast coordination entities (MCEs), Operation and Maintenance (O&M) nodes, Operations Support System (OSS) nodes, Self-Organizing Network (SON) nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centers (E-SMLCs)), and / or Minimization of Drive Tests (MDTs).

[0265] The network node 1000 includes a processing circuitry 1002, a memory 1004, a communication interface 1006, and a power source 1008. The network node 1000 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and 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 1000 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multipleNodeBs. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, the network node 1000 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory 1004 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 1010 may be shared by different RATs). The network node 1000 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 1000, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, Zigbee, Z-wave, 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 1000.

[0266] The processing circuitry 1002 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and / or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 1000 components, such as the memory 1004, to provide network node 1000 functionality.

[0267] In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1002 includes a system on a chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1002 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1012 and baseband processing circuitry 1014. In some embodiments, the radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1012 and the baseband processing circuitry 1014 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 1012 and baseband processing circuitry 1014 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.

[0268] The memory 1004 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer- readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, 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 1002. The memory 1004 may store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, and / or other instructions capable of being executed by the processing circuitry 1002 and utilized by the network node 1000. The memory 1004 may be used to store any calculationsmade by the processing circuitry 1002 and / or any data received via the communication interface 1006. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1002 and memory 1004 is integrated.

[0269] The communication interface 1006 is used in wired or wireless communication of signaling and / or data between a network node, access network, and / or UE. As illustrated, the communication interface 1006 comprises port(s) / terminal(s) 1016 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. The communication interface 1006 also includes radio front-end circuitry 1018 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna 1010. Radio front-end circuitry 1018 comprises filters 1020 and amplifiers 1022. The radio front-end circuitry 1018 may be connected to an antenna 1010 and processing circuitry 1002. The radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1010 and processing circuitry 1002. The radio front-end circuitry 1018 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection. The radio frontend circuitry 1018 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 1020 and / or amplifiers 1022. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 1010. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 1010 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 1018. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 1002. In other embodiments, the communication interface may comprise different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0270] In certain alternative embodiments, the network node 1000 does not include separate radio front-end circuitry 1018, instead, the processing circuitry 1002 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna 1010. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 1012 is part of the communication interface 1006. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 1006 includes one or more ports or terminals 1016, the radio front-end circuitry 1018, and the RF transceiver circuitry 1012, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 1006 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 1014, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

[0271] The antenna 1010 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and / or receive wireless signals. The antenna 1010 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry 1018 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and / or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna 1010 is separate from the network node 1000 and connectable to the network node 1000 through an interface or port.

[0272] The antenna 1010, communication interface 1006, and / or the processing circuitry 1002 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and / or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and / or signalsmay be received from a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna 1010, the communication interface 1006, and / or the processing circuitry 1002 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and / or signals may be transmitted to a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment.

[0273] The power source 1008 provides power to the various components of network node 1000 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source 1008 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 1000 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node 1000 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., the power grid, 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 1008. As a further example, the power source 1008 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.

[0274] Embodiments of the network node 1000 may include additional components beyond those shown in FIG. 10 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and / or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, the network node 1000 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 1000 and to allow output of information from the network node 1000. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 1000. In some embodiments providing a core network node, such as core network node 108 of FIG. 8, some components, such as the radio front-end circuitry 1018 and the RF transceiver circuitry 1012 may be omitted.

[0275] FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 1100 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to any device described herein, or components thereof, and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components. Some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtual environments 1100 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computingdevice 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 1100 includes components defined by the O-RAN Alliance, such as an O-Cloud environment orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an 0-2 interface. Virtualization may facilitate distributed implementations of a network node, UE, core network node, or host.

[0276] Applications 1102 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualization environment Q400 to implement some of the features, functions, and / or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.

[0277] Hardware 1104 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and / or instructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and / or other hardware devices as described herein, such as a network interface, input / output interface, and so forth. Software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers 1106 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs 1108a and 1108b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs 1108), and / or perform any of the functions, features and / or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer 1106 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the VMs 1108.

[0278] The VMs 1108 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 1106. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 1102 may be implemented on one or more of VMs 1108, and the implementations may be made in different ways. Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.

[0279] In the context of NFV, a VM 1108 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non-virtualized machine. Each of the VMs 1108, and that part of hardware 1104 that executes that VM, be it hardware dedicated to that VM and / or hardware shared by that VM with others of the VMs, forms separate virtual network elements. Still in the context of NFV, a virtual network function is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more VMs 1108 on top of the hardware 1104 and corresponds to the application 1102.

[0280] Hardware 1104 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware 1104 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 1104 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 1110, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications 1102. In some embodiments, hardware 1104 is coupled to one or more radio units that each include one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that may be coupled to one or more antennas. Radio units may communicate directly with other hardware nodes via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station. In some embodiments, some signaling can be provided with the use of a control system 1112 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.

[0281] Although the computing devices described herein (e.g., UEs, network nodes) may include the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise computing devices with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that these computing devices may comprise any suitable combination of hardware and / or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein. Determining, calculating, obtaining or similar operations described herein may be performed by processing circuitry, which may process information by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and / or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination. Moreover, while components are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multiple boxes, in practice, computing devices may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component, and functionality may be partitioned between separate components. For example, a communication interface may be configured to include any of the components described herein, and / or the functionality of the components may be partitioned between the processing circuitry and the communication interface. In another example, non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.

[0282] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may be provided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may beprovided 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 (640) that a first triggering condition is met based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated; responsive to the first triggering condition being met, transmitting (650) a first LTM lower layer measurement report; determining (660) that a second triggering condition is met; and responsive to the second triggering condition being met, transmitting (670) a second LTM lower layer measurement report.

2. The method of Claim any of Claims 1-2, further comprising: determining (620) the first measurement; and determining (630) the second measurement.

3. The method of any of Claims 1-2, further comprising: receiving (610) an indication of configuration information from a network node, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit the first LTM lower layer report in response to the first triggering condition being met and to transmit the second LTM lower layer report in response to the second triggering condition being met.

4. A method of operating a network node, the method comprising: transmitting (710) an indication of configuration information to a communication device, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit a first layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a first triggering condition and configuring the communication device to transmit a second LTM lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a second triggering condition, the first triggering condition being based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated. receiving (720) the first LTM lower layer measurement report from the communicationdevice; and receiving (730) the second LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device.

5. The method of Claim 4, further comprising: transmitting (740) a command to the communication device.

6. A communication device (900) adapted to perform operations comprising: determining (640) that a first triggering condition is met based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated; responsive to the first triggering condition being met, transmitting (650) a first LTM lower layer measurement report; determining (660) that a second triggering condition is met; and responsive to the second triggering condition being met, transmitting (670) a second LTM lower layer measurement report;7. The communication device of Claim 6, the operations further comprising any of the operations of Claims 2-3.

8. A computer program comprising program code to be executed by processing circuitry (902) of a communication device (900), whereby execution of the program code causes the communication device to perform operations comprising: determining (640) that a first triggering condition is met based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated; responsive to the first triggering condition being met, transmitting (650) a first LTM lower layer measurement report; determining (660) that a second triggering condition is met; and responsive to the second triggering condition being met, transmitting (670) a second LTM lower layer measurement report;9. The computer program of Claim 8, the operations further comprising any of the operations of Claims 2-3.

10. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory storage medium (910) including program code to be executed by processing circuitry (902) of a communication device (900), whereby execution of the program code causes the communication device to perform operations comprising: determining (640) that a first triggering condition is met based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated; responsive to the first triggering condition being met, transmitting (650) a first LTM lower layer measurement report; determining (660) that a second triggering condition is met; and responsive to the second triggering condition being met, transmitting (670) a second LTM lower layer measurement report;11. The computer program product of Claim 10, further comprising any of the operations of Claims 2-3.

12. A network node (1000) adapted to perform operations comprising: transmitting (710) an indication of configuration information to a communication device, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit a first layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a first triggering condition and configuring the communication device to transmit a second LTM lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a second triggering condition, the first triggering condition being based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated. receiving (720) the first LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device; and receiving (730) the second LTM lower layer measurement report from the communicationdevice.

13. The network node of Claim 12, the operations further comprising any of the operations of Claim 5.

14. A computer program comprising program code to be executed by processing circuitry (1002) of a network node (1000), whereby execution of the program code causes the network node to perform operations comprising: transmitting (710) an indication of configuration information to a communication device, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit a first layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a first triggering condition and configuring the communication device to transmit a second LTM lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a second triggering condition, the first triggering condition being based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidate cell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated. receiving (720) the first LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device; and receiving (730) the second LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device.

15. The computer program of Claim 14, further comprising any of the operations of Claim 5.

16. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory storage medium (1004) including program code to be executed by processing circuitry (1002) of a network node (1000), whereby execution of the program code causes the network node to perform operations comprising: transmitting (710) an indication of configuration information to a communication device, the configuration information configuring the communication device to transmit a first layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a first triggering condition and configuring the communication device to transmit a second LTM lower layer report in response to fulfillment of a second triggering condition, the first triggering condition being based on a difference between a first measurement and a second measurement, the first measurement being associated with a layer 1 / layer 2-triggered mobility, LTM, candidatecell and the second measurement being associated with a serving cell for which a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state is activated. receiving (720) the first LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device; and receiving (730) the second LTM lower layer measurement report from the communication device.

17. The computer program product of Claim 16, the operations further comprising any of the operations of Claim 5.

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