Measurement occasion related information reporting

Abstract

The present disclosure is related to a terminal device, a network node, and methods for measurement occasion related information reporting. A method at a terminal device for reporting information associated with measurement occasions comprises: receiving, from a network node, a first message indicating a configuration for reporting the information associated with measurement occasions; and transmitting one or more second messages that report the information associated with measurement occasions based on at least the configuration.

Description

[0001] MEASUREMENT OCCASION RELATED INFORMATION REPORTING

[0002] Technical Field

[0003] The present disclosure is related to the field of telecommunications, and in particular, to a terminal device, a network node, and methods for measurement occasion related information reporting.

[0004] Background

[0005] With the development of the electronic and telecommunication technologies, mobile devices, such as mobile phones, smart phones, laptops, tablets, vehicle mounted devices, drones, become an important part of our daily lives. To support a numerous number of mobile devices, a highly efficient Radio Access Network (RAN), such as a fifth generation (5G) New Radio (NR) RAN, will be required.

[0006] 5G is the fifth generation of mobile communications, addressing a wide range of use cases from enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) to Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications (URLLC) to massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC). 5G includes the New Radio (NR) access stratum interface and the 5G Core Network (5GC). The NR physical and higher layers are reusing parts of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) specification, and to that add needed components when motivated by new use cases.

[0007] Low-latency high-rate applications such as extended Reality (XR) and cloud gaming are important in 5G era. XR may refer to all real-and-virtual combined environments and humanmachine interactions generated by computer technology and wearables. It is an umbrella term for different types of realities including Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and the areas interpolated among them. The levels of virtuality range from partially sensory inputs to fully immersive VR.

[0008] 5G NR is designed to support applications demanding high rate and low latency in line with the requirements posed by the support of XR and cloud gaming applications in NR networks. The 3rdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 17 contains a study item (SI) on XR evaluations for NR: 3GPP Technical Specification Group (TSG) Radio Access Network (RAN) Meeting #86, Sitges, Spain, December 9-12, 2019, RP-193241, “New SID on XR Evaluations for NR”. The main objectives are to identify the traffic model for each application of interest, the evaluation methodology and the key performance indicators of interest for relevant deployment scenarios, and to carry out performance evaluations accordingly in order to investigate possible standardization enhancements in potential follow-up SI / WI. Further, there is also a work item (WI) for XR in 3GPP Release 19, 3GPP TSG RAN Meeting #103, Maastricht, Netherlands, March 18- 21, 2024, RP-240791, "Revised WID onXR (extended Reality) for NR Phase 3". Both of the SI in Release 17 and the WI in Release 19 are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. Summary

[0009] Typically, a user equipment (UE) will measure signals for one or more cells (e.g., its serving cell(s), neighboring cells), for example, to maintain its connectivity to the network. Such measurements may include intra-frequency, inter-frequency, and inter-Radio Access Technology (inter-RAT) measurements, etc. For some of the measurements, the UE has to use a measurement gap to make sure its transmitter / receiver can be switched to a corresponding frequency band in which the reference signals to be measured is located. Typically, the UE is not expected to transmit or receive, during a measurement gap, any other signal than the reference signal to be measured.

[0010] Similarly, in some of the cases where the UE does not need a measurement gap for its measurement, there still could be a scheduling restriction for the UE. In such cases, during the resources containing the reference signals used for measurements, the UE is not expected to transmit or receive any signal in the serving cell either.

[0011] Please note that the terms “measurement gap”, “MG”, and “scheduling restriction”, may be used interchangeably hereinafter unless otherwise indicated explicitly or from the context.

[0012] Recently, a new feature called “dynamic measurement gap (MG) adaptation” is introduced to avoid unnecessary scheduling restriction and / or MG, for example, scheduling XR traffic over the radio resources that were originally allocated for measurements by skipping one or more MG occasions. However, there is a risk that too aggressive adaptation such as skipping too many MG occasions may lead to inaccurate measurement or handover failure.

[0013] To address or at least partially alleviate one or more of the above issues, some embodiments of the present disclosure are provided.

[0014] According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, a method at a terminal device for reporting information associated with measurement occasions is provided. The method comprises: receiving, from a network node, a first message indicating a configuration for reporting the information associated with measurement occasions; and transmitting one or more second messages that report the information associated with measurement occasions based on at least the configuration. Further, some other embodiments of the first aspect are provided in the Detailed Description.

[0015] According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, a terminal device for reporting information associated with measurement occasions is provided. The terminal device comprises: a processor; a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the terminal device to: receive, from a network node, a first message indicating a configuration for reporting the information associated with measurement occasions; and transmit one or more second messages that report the information associated with measurement occasions based on at least the configuration. In some embodiments, the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the terminal device to further perform any of the methods of the first aspect.

[0016] According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, a method at a network node for managing measurement occasions associated with a terminal device is provided. The method comprises: transmitting, to the terminal device, a first message indicating a configuration for reporting the information associated with measurement occasions. Further, some other embodiments of the third aspect are provided in the Detailed Description.

[0017] According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, a network node for managing measurement occasions associated with a terminal device is provided. The network node comprises: a processor; a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the network node to: transmit, to the terminal device, a first message indicating a configuration for reporting the information associated with measurement occasions. In some embodiments, the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the network node to further perform any of the methods of the third aspect.

[0018] According to a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, a computer program comprising instructions is provided. The instructions, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the method of any of the first aspect and / or the third aspect.

[0019] According to a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, a carrier containing the computer program of the fifth aspect. In some embodiments, the carrier is one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, or computer readable storage medium.

[0020] According to a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, a telecommunication system is provided. The telecommunication system comprises: one or more terminal devices of the second aspect; and a network node of the fourth aspect.

[0021] With some embodiments of the present disclosure, one or more of the following benefits may be provided:

[0022] - Flexible and dynamic adjustment of measurement gaps will reduce latency of XR services with the minimal handover failure;

[0023] - The handover performance will not degrade when the dynamic MG adaptation is configured for low-latency services;

[0024] - Different adjustments of measurement gaps for different serving cells and / or configured measurement gaps are possible.

[0025] The foregoing and other features of the present disclosure will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only several embodiments in accordance with the disclosure and therefore are not to be considered limiting of its scope, the disclosure will be described with additional specificity and detail through use of the accompanying drawings.

[0026] Fig. 1 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary telecommunication network in which UEs and a RAN node may be operated according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0027] Fig. 2 is a diagram illustrating examples of video frame latency measured over a RAN.

[0028] Fig. 3 is a diagram illustrating examples of cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) of the number of transport blocks (TBs) required to deliver a video frame.

[0029] Fig. 4 is a diagram illustrating exemplary traffic characteristics of different types of traffic.

[0030] Fig. 5 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary MG pattern (MGP) to which measurement occasion related information reporting is applicable according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0031] Fig. 6A and Fig. 6B are diagrams illustrating exemplary patterns of measurement occasions according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0032] Fig. 7 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method at a terminal device for reporting information associated with measurement occasions according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0033] Fig. 8 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method at a network node for managing measurement occasions associated with a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0034] Fig. 9 schematically shows an embodiment of an arrangement which may be used in a terminal device and / or a network node according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0035] Fig. 10 shows an exemplary communication system in accordance with some embodiments.

[0036] Fig. 11 shows an exemplary UE in accordance with some embodiments.

[0037] Fig. 12 shows an exemplary network node in accordance with some embodiments.

[0038] Fig. 13 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary virtualization environment in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized.

[0039] Detailed Description

[0040] Hereinafter, the present disclosure is described with reference to embodiments shown in the attached drawings. However, it is to be understood that those descriptions are just provided for illustrative purpose, rather than limiting the present disclosure. Further, in the following, descriptions of known structures and techniques are omitted so as not to unnecessarily obscure the concept of the present disclosure.

[0041] Of course, the present disclosure may be carried out in other specific ways than those set forth herein without departing from the scope and essential characteristics of the disclosure. One or more of the specific processes discussed below may be carried out in any electronic device comprising one or more appropriately configured processing circuits, which may in some embodiments be embodied in one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). In some embodiments, these processing circuits may comprise one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, and / or digital signal processors programmed with appropriate software and / or firmware to carry out one or more of the operations described above, or variants thereof. In some embodiments, these processing circuits may comprise customized hardware to carry out one or more of the functions described above. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.

[0042] Although multiple embodiments of the present disclosure will be illustrated in the accompanying Drawings and described in the following Detailed Description, it should be understood that the disclosure is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but instead is also capable of numerous rearrangements, modifications, and substitutions without departing from the present disclosure that as will be set forth and defined within the claims.

[0043] Further, please note that although the following description of some embodiments of the present disclosure is given in the context of 5thGeneration New Radio (5G NR), the present disclosure is not limited thereto. In fact, as long as measurement occasion related information reporting is involved, the inventive concept of the present disclosure may be applicable to any appropriate communication architecture, for example, to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) / General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), Time Division - Synchronous CDMA (TD-SCDMA), CDMA2000, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), Long Term Evolution (LTE), etc. Therefore, one skilled in the arts could readily understand that the terms used herein may also refer to their equivalents in any other infrastructure. For example, the term “terminal device” used herein may refer to a UE, a mobile device, a mobile terminal, a mobile station, a user device, a user terminal, a wireless device, a wireless terminal, an Internet of Things (loT) device, a vehicle, or any other equivalents. For another example, the term “network node” used herein may refer to a base station, a base transceiver station, an access point, a hot spot, a NodeB (NB), an evolved NodeB (eNB), a gNB, a network element, a network node, a network function, an access network (AN) node, or any other equivalents.

[0044] Further, the terms “measurement occasion”, “measurement gap (MG) occasion”, “measurement sample”, and / or “measurement window” may be used interchangeably in some embodiments of the present disclosure. Fig. 1 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary telecommunication network 10 in which a UE #1 100-1, a UE #2 100-2, and a RAN node (e.g., a gNB) 105 may be operated according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Although the telecommunication network 10 is a network defined in the context of 5G NR, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. As shown in Fig. 1, the network 10 may comprise one or more UEs 100-1 and 100-2 (collectively, UE(s) 100) and a RAN node 105, which could be a base station, a Node B, an evolved NodeB (eNB), a gNB, or an node which provides the UEs 100 with access to the network. Further, the network 10 may comprise its core network portion that is not shown in Fig. 1.

[0045] However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. In some other embodiments, the network 10 may comprise additional nodes, less nodes, or some variants of the existing nodes shown in Fig. 1. For example, in a network with the 4G architecture, the entities (e.g., an eNB) which perform these functions may be different from those (e.g., the gNB 105) shown in Fig. 1. For another example, in a network with a mixed 4G / 5G architecture, some of the entities may be same as those shown in Fig. 1, and others may be different. Further, although two UEs 100 and one RAN node 105 are shown in Fig. 1, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. In some other embodiments, any number of UEs and / or any number of RAN nodes may be comprised in the network 10.

[0046] As shown in Fig. 1, the UEs 100 may be communicatively connected to the RAN node 105 which in turn may be communicatively connected to a corresponding Core Network (CN) and then the Internet, such that the UEs 100 may finally communicate its user plane data with other devices outside the network 10, for example, via the RAN node 105.

[0047] Low-latency high-rate XR applications

[0048] The low-latency applications like XR and cloud gaming require bounded latency, not necessarily ultra-low latency. The end-to-end latency budget may be in the range of 20 to 80 ms, which needs to be distributed over several components including application processing latency, transport latency, radio link latency, etc. For these applications, short transmission time intervals (TTIs) or mini-slots targeting ultra-low latency may not be effective.

[0049] Fig. 2 shows examples of video frame latency measured over a radio access network (RAN), excluding application and core network latencies. As shown in Fig. 2, frame latencies measured for three UEs 210, 220, and 230 are depicted. It can be seen that there exist video frame latency spikes in RAN. The latency spikes occur due to instantaneous shortage of radio resources or inefficient radio resource allocation in response to varying frame size. The sources for the latency spikes may include queuing delay, time-varying radio environments, time-varying frame sizes, among others. Tools that can help to remove latency spikes are beneficial to enable better 5G support for this type of traffic. In addition to bounded latency requirements, the applications like XR and cloud gaming also require high rate transmission. This can be seen from the large frame sizes originated from this type of traffic. The typical frame sizes may range from tens of kilobytes to hundreds of kilobytes. The frame arrival rates may be 60 or 120 frames per second (FPS). As a concrete example, a frame size of 100 kilobytes and a frame arrival rate of 120 FPS can lead to a rate requirement of 95.8 Mbps.

[0050] A large video frame is usually fragmented into smaller Internet Protocol (IP) packets and transmitted as several transport blocks (TBs) over several TTIs in RAN. Fig. 3 shows examples of the cumulative distribution functions of the number of transport blocks required to deliver a video frame with size ranging from 20 KB to 300 KB. To be specific, Fig. 3 shows examples of CDFs for a RAN having a configuration as follows:

[0051] - a 3 GPP urban macro channel model “UMa”;

[0052] - a frequency band at 4 GHz;

[0053] - a carrier bandwidth of 100 MHz;

[0054] - a Downlink (DL) to Uplink (UL) ratio of 3: 1 ; and

[0055] - a utilization of 50%.

[0056] As shown in Fig. 3, seven CDFs 310 through 370 are depicted for different frame sizes, 20 KB, 40 KB, 60 KB, 80 KB, 100 KB, 200 KB, and 300 KB, respectively. For example, Fig.3 shows at the dotted circle 365 that for delivering the frames with a size of 200 KB each, the median number of needed TBs is 5.

[0057] The characteristics of XR traffic arrival are quite distinct from typical web-browsing and Voice over IP (VoIP) traffic as shown in Fig. 4. It is well expected that the arrival time is quasi- periodic and largely predictable as VoIP. However, its data size is order of magnitude larger than VoIP, as discussed above. In addition, similar to web-browsing, the data size is different at every application Protocol Data Unit (PDU) arrival instance due to dynamics of contents and human motion.

[0058] Measurement gap (MG)

[0059] Measurement Gap Pattern (MGP) is used by the UE for performing measurements on cells of the serving carrier (e.g. intra-frequency carrier) and non-serving carriers (e.g. inter-frequency carrier, inter-RAT carriers etc.). In NR, gaps are used for measurements on cells of the serving carrier in some scenarios e.g. if the measured signals (e.g. Synchronous Signal (SS) and Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) block (SSB)) are outside the bandwidth part (BWP) of the serving cell. The UE is scheduled in the serving cell only within the BWP. During the gap, the UE cannot be scheduled for receiving / transmitting signals in the serving cell. Therefore during the gap the UE does not receive or transmit signals in the serving cell except the reception of signals (e.g. reference signals) for measurements. A measurement gap pattern is characterized or defined by several parameters: measurement gap length (MGL), measurement gap repetition period (MGRP), measurement gap time offset (MGTO) with respect to reference time (e.g. slot offset with respect to serving cell’s system frame number (SFN) such as SFN = 0), and measurement gap timing advance (MGTA), etc.

[0060] An example of MGP is shown in Fig. 5. As an example, MGL can be 1.5 ms, 3 ms, 3.5 ms, 4 ms, 5.5 ms, 6 ms, 10 ms, 20 ms, etc., and MGRP can be 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, 160 ms, 320 ms, 640 ms, 1280 ms, 2560 ms, etc. Longer MGRP such as 320 ms or longer is typically used for multi-SIM operation e.g. for measurements on carrier in idle / inactive state. Such type of MGP is configured by the network node and is also called as network controlled or network configurable MGP. Therefore, the serving base station is fully aware of the timing of each gap within the MGP.

[0061] In NR, there are two major categories of MGPs: per-UE measurement gap patterns and per-FR measurement gap patterns. In NR, the spectrum is divided into multiple frequency ranges (FR), e.g., FR1, FR2-1, FR2-2, etc. FR1 is currently defined from 410 MHz to 7125 MHz. FR2 range is currently defined from 24250 MHz to 52600 MHz. In another example FR2 range can be from 24250 MHz to 71000 MHz, where the frequency range 24250 to 52600 MHz is called FR2- 1 and frequency range 52600 to 71000 MHz is called FR2-2. The FR2 range is also interchangeably called as millimeter wave (mmwave) and corresponding bands in FR2 are called as mmwave bands. In future, more frequency ranges can be specified, e.g. FR3. An example of FR3 is frequency ranging between 7125 MHz and 24250 MHz.

[0062] When configured with per-UE MGP, the UE creates gaps on all the serving cells (e.g. PCell, PSCell, SCells, etc.) regardless of their frequency range. The per-UE MGP can be used by the UE for performing measurements on cells of any carrier frequency belonging to any RAT (e.g., 5G NR, 4G LTE / LTE-advanced, 3G WCDMA / HSPA / CDMA2000, 2G GSM) or frequency range (FR).

[0063] When configured with per-FR MGP (if UE supports this capability), the UE creates gaps only on the serving cells of the indicated FR whose carriers are to be measured. For example, if the UE is configured with per-FRl MGP then the UE creates measurement gaps only on serving cells (e.g. PCell, PSCell, SCells, etc.) of FR1 while no gaps are created on serving cells on carriers of FR2. The per-FRl gaps can be used for measurement on cells of only FR1 carriers. Similarly, per-FR2 gaps when configured are only created on FR2 serving cells and can be used for measurement on cells of only FR2 carriers. Support for per FR gaps is a UE capability, i.e. certain UE may only support per UE gaps according to their capability.

[0064] In NR Rel-17, concurrent measurement gap pattern (C-MGP) or interchangeably called as concurrent gaps or concurrent measurement gaps are also specified. C-MGP comprises multiple measurement gap patterns (e.g. 2 or more MGPs) which can be configured by the network node using the same or different messages (e.g. same or different Radio Resource Control (RRC) messages).

[0065] Configuration procedure and parameters for measurement gap

[0066] During a measurement gap, the Medium Access Control (MAC) entity shall, on the Serving Cell(s) in the corresponding frequency range of the measurement gap configured by measGapConflg as specified in Technical Specification (TS) 38.331, not perform transmission and reception on any data channel. The measGapConflg parameters will include:

[0067] - gapOffset : Value gapOffset is the gap offset of the gap pattern with MGRP indicated in the field mgrp. The value range is from 0 to m.grp- \ .

[0068] - mgl : Value mgl is the measurement gap length in ms of the measurement gap. The measurement gap length is according to in Table 9. 1.2-1 in TS 38. 133. Value msldot5 corresponds to 1.5 ms, ms 3 corresponds to 3 ms and so on.

[0069] - mgrp : Value mgrp is measurement gap repetition period in (ms) of the measurement gap. The measurement gap repetition period is according to Table 9. 1.2-1 in TS 38.133.

[0070] In the configuration procedure of measurement gap as below, the UE shall:

[0071] 1> if gapFRl is set to setup'.

[0072] 2> if an FR1 measurement gap configuration is already setup, release the FR1 measurement gap configuration;

[0073] 2> setup the FR1 measurement gap configuration indicated by the measGapConflg in accordance with the received gapOffset, i.e., the first subframe of each gap occurs at an SFN and subframe meeting the following condition:

[0074] SFN mod 7 = FLOOR(ga G )set / 10); subframe = gapOffset mod 10; with T= MGRP / 10 as defined in TS 38.133

[0014] ;

[0075] 2> apply the specified timing advance mgta to the gap occurrences calculated above (i.e. the UE starts the measurement mgta ms before the gap subframe occurrences); l>else if gapFRl is set to release'.

[0076] 2> release the FR1 measurement gap configuration;

[0077] 1> if gapFR2 is set to setup'. 2> if an FR2 measurement gap configuration is already setup, release the FR2 measurement gap configuration;

[0078] 2> setup the FR2 measurement gap configuration indicated by the measGapConflg in accordance with the received gapOffset, i.e., the first subframe of each gap occurs at an SFN and subframe meeting the following condition:

[0079] SFN mod T = FLOOR(go / ?O / / se / / l ()); subframe = gapOffset mod 10; with T= MGRP / 10 as defined in TS 38.133

[0014] ;

[0080] 2> apply the specified timing advance mgta to the gap occurrences calculated above (i.e. the UE starts the measurement mgta ms before the gap subframe occurrences); l>else if gapFR2 is set to release'.

[0081] 2> release the FR2 measurement gap configuration;

[0082] 1> if gapUE is set to setup'.

[0083] 2>if a per UE measurement gap configuration is already setup, release the per UE measurement gap configuration;

[0084] 2> setup the per UE measurement gap configuration indicated by the measGapConflg in accordance with the received gapOffset, i.e., the first subframe of each gap occurs at an SFN and subframe meeting the following condition:

[0085] SFN mod T = FLOOR(go / ?O / se / / l ()); subframe = gapOffset mod 10; with T= MGRP / 10 as defined in TS 38.133

[0014] ;

[0086] 2> apply the specified timing advance mgta to the gap occurrences calculated above (i.e. the UE starts the measurement mgta ms before the gap subframe occurrences); l>else if gapUE is set to release'.

[0087] 2> release the per UE measurement gap configuration.

[0088] Scheduling restriction during measurement without gaps

[0089] As mentioned above, there are scenarios in which the UE can perform measurement without gaps. Examples of such measurements are SSB based intra-frequency or inter-frequency measurements without measurement gaps when the reference signals (e.g. SSB) used for measurements are fully within the bandwidth of the active BWP of the UE. In another example, intra-frequency, inter-frequency, or inter-RAT measurements can be performed without gaps if the UE has an extra or spare receiver chain which in turn can be used for measurements. However, during the resources containing the reference signals (e.g. SSB, Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) etc.) used for measurements there can be scheduling restriction. The scheduling restriction implies that at least during the resources containing the reference signals used for measurements the UE may be not expected to transmit or receive any signal in the serving cell based on some specific conditions. For example, the received data and measured SSB are mixed numerology in FR1 or received data and measured SSB are intra-frequency or interfrequency with common beam management (CBM). In some scenarios, the UE is not even expected to transmit or receive any signal in the serving cell during the resources containing the reference signals used for measurements as well XI number of symbols before and X2 number of symbols after these measurement resources.

[0090] RANI agreements from 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 #117

[0091] In Release 19 XR Work Item (RP -234080), one of objectives is about enhancement of measurement gap to allow its dynamic adaptation to avoid unnecessary scheduling restriction. The objective description is given below. The adaptation includes any methods to change one or multiple time-domain occasions that are configured for measurements. Examples are skipping or shifting one or multiple MGs by indicating specific MGs or changing parameters related to MG configurations.

[0092] An excerpt of related content in RP -234080 is reproduced below:

[0093] • Specify enhancements to enable transmission / reception in gaps / restrictions that are caused by RRM measurements (from inter -frequency RRM measurement gaps, or intra-frequency measurements, or other scheduling restrictions etc). [RANI, RAN2, RAN 4]

[0094] 9 Specify the corresponding measurement gap and scheduling restriction to enable the identified enhancements with RRM performance impact taken into consideration, work being triggered by LS. [RAN 4]

[0095] From RANI #117 meeting, it was agreed to discuss new UE assistance information related to measurement occasions in order to minimize the measurement interruption caused by dynamic adaptation such as instantaneous skipping.

[0096] Various methods are proposed to signal how to adapt measurement gap (MG) in which way to avoid scheduling restriction / interruption during the measurement gap which leads to extra latency. Those methods are based on a network indication applicable to one or multiple cells. However, there is a risk that too aggressive adaptation such as skipping too many MG occasions may lead to inaccurate measurement or handover failure as mentioned earlier.

[0097] To address or at least partially alleviate one or more of the above issues, some embodiments of the present disclosure are provided.

[0098] In general, to avoid inaccurate measurement or handover failure, various information related to measurement suggestions can be reported by a UE so that a network may be aware of the acceptable level of skipped measurement occasions. This information can be dedicated measurement occasions, the number of measurement samples, etc. For this, a network may be able to precisely configure a UE with parameters which are related to time window and / or measurement information for the UE reporting.

[0099] In some embodiments, when dynamic measurement adaptation is configured, UE assistance information report related to measurement occasions may be introduced. In some embodiments, network configurations may be provided to define the UE report and / or triggering conditions.

[0100] In some embodiments, the UE may report assistance information related to measurement occasions that should be dynamically adjusted and a network may configure different parameters to define the report. In some embodiments, the report may be associated with the level of allowed measurement adaptation during a configured time window in a different cell, e.g., the number of needed or skipped measurement samples within a measurement period, dedicated measurement occasions that should not be skipped, etc. In some embodiments, the network configuration may include various parameters to enable the UE report, e.g., parameters related to a time window, measurement type, measurement object, and / or triggering conditions of the report.

[0101] With some embodiments of the present disclosure, one or more of the following benefits may be provided:

[0102] - Flexible and dynamic adjustment of measurement gaps will reduce latency of XR services with the minimal handover failure;

[0103] - The handover performance will not degrade when the dynamic MG adaptation is configured for low-latency services;

[0104] - Different adjustments of measurement gaps for different serving cells and / or configured measurement gaps are possible.

[0105] Terminology

[0106] In some embodiments of the present disclosure, a term “node” may be used, which can be a network node or a user equipment (UE). In some embodiments, examples of network nodes may comprise (but not limited to) at least one of: NodeB, base station (BS), multi-standard radio (MSR) radio node such as MSR BS, eNodeB (or eNB), gNodeB (or gNB), MeNB, SeNB, location measurement unit (LMU), integrated access backhaul (IAB) node, network controller, radio network controller (RNC), base station controller (BSC), relay, donor node controlling relay, base transceiver station (BTS), Central Unit (e.g. in a gNB), Distributed Unit (e.g. in a gNB), Baseband Unit, Centralized Baseband, C-RAN, access point (AP), transmission points, transmission nodes, transmission reception point (TRP), RRU, RRH, nodes in distributed antenna system (DAS), core network node (e.g. MSC, MME etc), O&M, OSS, SON, positioning node (e.g. E-SMLC),etc.

[0107] In some embodiments, the non-limiting term “UE” may refer to any type of wireless device communicating with a network node and / or with another UE in a cellular or mobile communication system. In some embodiments, examples of UE may comprise (but not limited to) at least one of: target device, device to device (D2D) UE, vehicular to vehicular (V2V), machine type UE, MTC UE or UE capable of machine to machine (M2M) communication, PDA, tablet, mobile terminals, smart phone, laptop embedded equipment (LEE), laptop mounted equipment (LME), USB dongles etc.

[0108] In some embodiments, the term “radio access technology” or “RAT” may refer to any RAT e.g. UTRA, E-UTRA, narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, next generation RAT, New Radio (NR), 4G, 5G, etc. In some embodiments, any of the equipment denoted by the term “node”, “network node”, or “radio network node” may be capable of supporting a single or multiple RATs.

[0109] In some embodiments, the term “signal” or “radio signal” used herein can be any physical signal or physical channel. In some embodiments, examples of DL physical signals may comprise (but not limited to) at least one of: reference signal (RS) such as PSS, SSS, CSI-RS, DMRS signals in SS / PBCH block (SSB), discovery reference signal (DRS), CRS, Positioning Reference Signal (PRS), etc. In some embodiments, RS may be periodic e.g. RS occasion carrying one or more RSs may occur with certain periodicity e.g. 20 ms, 40 ms, etc. In some embodiments, the RS may also be aperiodic. In some embodiments, each SSB may carry NR-PSS, NR-SSS, and NR-PBCH in 4 successive symbols. In some embodiments, one or multiple SSBs may be transmitted in one SSB burst which may be repeated with a certain periodicity e.g. 5 ms, 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, and 160 ms. In some embodiments, the UE may be configured with information about SSB on cells of certain carrier frequency by one or more SS / PBCH block measurement timing configuration (SMTC) configurations. In some embodiments, the SMTC configuration may comprise parameters such as SMTC periodicity, SMTC occasion length in time or duration, SMTC time offset with respect to a reference time (e.g. serving cell’s SFN) etc. Therefore, SMTC occasion may also occur with a certain periodicity e.g. 5 ms, 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, and 160 ms. In some embodiments, examples of UL physical signals may be reference signal such as SRS, DMRS etc. In some embodiments, the term “physical channel” may refer to any channel carrying higher layer information e.g. data, control etc. In some embodiments, examples of physical channels may comprise (but not limited to) at least one of PBCH, NPBCH, PDCCH, PDSCH, sPDCCH, sPDSCH, sPUCCH, sPUSCH, MPDCCH, NPDCCH, NPDSCH, E-PDCCH, PUSCH, PUCCH, NPUSCH, etc.

[0110] In some embodiments, the term “radio measurement” may comprise (but not limited to) at least one of: a DL measurement (based on DL radio signals), UL measurement (based on UL radio signals), bidirectional measurement (based on DL and UL radio signals), or sidelink (SL) measurement. In some embodiments, a radio measurement may comprise (but not limited to) at least one of a power-based measurement (e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, RS SI, etc.), a timing measurement (RSTD, RTOA, TOA, etc.), an angular measurement (e.g., AoA, DoA, etc.), a detection or identification measurement. In some embodiments, some examples of radio measurements may comprise (but not limited to) at least one of: cell identification (e.g. PCI acquisition, PSS / SSS detection, cell detection, cell search, etc.), Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), secondary synchronization RSRP (SS-RSRP), SS-RSRQ, SINR, RS-SINR, SS-SINR, CSI-RSRP, CSI-RSRQ, received signal strength indicator (RSSI), acquisition of system information (SI), cell global ID (CGI) acquisition, Radio Link Monitoring (RLM) consisting of Out of Synchronization (out of sync) detection and In Synchronization (insync) detection, beam management measurement such candidate beam detection (CBD) or beam failure detection (BFD) measurements, Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) measurements such as PRS-RSRP, PRS-RSRPP, PRS-RSTD, etc.

[0111] In some embodiments, the term “time resource” used herein may correspond to any type of physical resource or radio resource expressed in terms of length of time. In some embodiments, examples of time resources may comprise (but not limited to) at least one of: symbol, sub-slot, mini-slot, slot or time slot, subframe, radio frame, TTI, interleaving time, SFN cycle, hyper-SFN cycle etc.

[0112] In some embodiments, the term “MG” may be used to denote any type of measurement gaps / scheduling restrictions that apply due to enabling the UE to perform measurements and interrupt the data transmission / reception. In some embodiments, an MG can be a per-UE MG, a per-FR MG, a concurrent MG, etc.

[0113] In some embodiments, the MG may comprise (but not limited to) SMTC window or duration of the SMTC configured for the measurement. In some embodiments, during the MG, the UE cannot receive or transmit any signals (e.g. PDSCH, PUSCH, etc.) in the serving cell(s) except those used for measurements. Therefore, MG may also be called as scheduling restriction occasion or window. Therefore, in some embodiments, the duration of each MG may be equal to MGL (if gaps are configured) or equal to duration over which the scheduling restriction applies (for measurement without gaps).

[0114] Scenario

[0115] In some embodiments, the scenario may comprise a UE that is served by one or more cells of one or more network nodes. In addition to serving cell(s), there can also be neighbor cell(s) of one or more neighboring nodes for the potential handover. The UE may further be configured to perform at least one radio measurement on one or more DL reference signal (RS) (e.g., some examples of radio measurements listed above). The measurement may be done on one or multiple cells from cell 1 to cell N.

[0116] In some embodiments, the UE may typically obtain one or more measurement samples or snapshots during one or more MGs. The multiple samples can be combined, e.g., based on a function, to obtain a measurement result e.g. RSRP, RSRQ, etc. The MGs may occur periodically in time e.g. once every 20 ms, etc. Examples of function may comprise (but not limited to) at least one of: average, sum, selection, ratio, xthpercentile, ceiling, floor, product, or combination of two or more functions.

[0117] In some embodiments, the UE may be configured to transmit and receive signals related to XR service. Examples of signals related to XR service may comprise (but not limited to) at least one of: data, control signals, or channels comprising XR-related configuration or control data, radio signals used for radio measurements for XR purpose, etc. In some embodiments, the UE can be dynamically scheduled (e.g. via downlink control information (DCI)) by the serving cells with resources (e.g. time-frequency resources such as resource elements, resource blocks etc) in the serving cell for transmitting and / or receiving the data.

[0118] In some embodiments, the UE may be configured to dynamically adapt the measurement occasions based on lower layer signaling such as DCI and the adaptation can be skipping certain specific occasions indicated by a network.

[0119] However, the present disclosure is not limited to the scenarios described above. In some other embodiments, the embodiments described below may also be applicable to another scenario.

[0120] UE assistance information related to measurement occasion and network configuration

[0121] In some embodiments, when a UE is configured with dynamic measurement gap adaptation, the network may configure this feature (or reporting of UE assistance information related to measurement occasion) by, for example, configuring the UE to report various measurement occasion related information and / or requesting additional information in the UE Assistance Information (UAI) message. In some embodiments, this information can be used by the network to utilize more efficiently measurement gaps.

[0122] Generally, the reported UAI information by a UE may be related to one or more of its network tasks, e.g., UE measurement (re)configuration, MG (re)configuration, XR-related features (re)configuration, HO (re)configuration, radio signal (re)configuration, antenna or beam (re)configuration, measurement period (re)configuration, (re)configuration of the number of measurements in the UE, signaling the received information to another network node (see, e.g., the embodiments described below in the section “UE report when concurrent measurement gaps are configured’ , deriving a configuration parameter for UE operating XR service, etc.

[0123] In some embodiments, the network request to a UE can further comprise a request for specific one or more parameters described below. In some embodiments, the network node can comprise (but not limited to) at least one of: the UE’s serving cell, e.g., PCell, primary MCG cell or primary SCG cell (see, e.g., the embodiments described below in the section “UE report when concurrent measurement gaps are configured’). In some embodiments, the network node can apply the received information for a given limited time interval, until a timer is expired, until further notice (e.g., update from the UE or a relevant network node), or upon a stopping condition.

[0124] In some embodiments, the network may configure parameters needed for the UE assistance information report related to measurement occasions to precisely define what to be reported. In some embodiments, the configuration parameters may include (but not limited to) one or any combination of:

[0125] - parameters related to a time window, which the values to be reported are defined for or otherwise associated with;

[0126] - parameters related to a measurement type, for which a UE should report; and

[0127] - parameters related to a measurement object (MO) that is related to frequency layer / serving cell, for which a UE should report.

[0128] Parameters related to a time window

[0129] In some embodiments, there can be a window of size X starting with a non-zero offset W (W>0) or directly (W=0) from a reference time Y or a reference event Z. In some embodiments, the window can be a one-time window or a periodic window, e.g., with the periodicity equal to the window length or longer than the window length. For such a window, the UE can report a number N1 indicative of MG occasions not to be skipped due to its XR operation and / or a number N2 indicative of MG occasions which may be skipped due to its XR operation. In some embodiments, one or more of the parameters X, W, Y, and Z can be pre-defined (e.g., by the standard), preconfigured, configured by a network node, or indicated by the UE. In some embodiments, when the UE is configured with two or more MG patterns, the parameters can be associated with the corresponding MG pattern, or even two sets or parameters can be configured for two MG patterns (one set for each MG pattern).

[0130] In some embodiments, the parameter values can depend on or be associated with a specific MG configuration (e.g., MGRP, MGL, MG pattern ID, etc.). In some embodiments, the parameter values can be selected from a pre-defined or configured set of values. For example, UE may select a value based on a pre-defined rule from a set of values configured by the network or defined in the standard.

[0131] Examples of X may comprise (but not limited to) 100 ms or a function of other parameters such as a multiple of some periodicity, e.g.:

[0132] - kl*MGRP (where kl>0);

[0133] - k2*SMTC_periodicity (where k2>0);

[0134] - etc.

[0135] An example of reference time Y may be SFN SI, where SI can be a number (e.g., Sl=0) or a function, e.g.:

[0136] - Sl=m*S, which is a multiple of S (e.g., S=2 or 4), where m is an integer, or

[0137] - Sl=mod(R, n), where n is an integer number (e.g., n=2 or 4), or

[0138] - SI is a function of at least one MG configuration parameter.

[0139] Another example of reference time Y may be (SFN SI) + MG offset (e.g., MGTO).

[0140] In some embodiments, for the window of size X with reference time Y, the UE can report a number N1 of MG occasions not to be skipped due to its XR operation and / or a number N2 of MG occasions which may be skipped due to its XR operation. For example, N1 may be the minimum number or ratio or percentage of MGs or MG occasions not to be skipped due to its XR operation during the specified time window. For another example, N2 may be the maximum number or ratio or percentage of MG occasions need for XR operation.

[0141] In some embodiments, these MG occasions (comprised in N1 or N2) can be consecutive in one example or non-consecutive in another example. By the term “consecutive”, it means there is no other MG occasion between two consecutive MG occasions, but it is still possible that there is a time gap between the two consecutive MG occasions.

[0142] Another example of reference time Y may be the beginning of the last MG period or cycle.

[0143] In some embodiments, the window size and the reference time to start the window may have any format related to timing such as symbol, slot, mini-slot, subframe index, in addition to “ms” and “SFN” mentioned above. In some embodiments, the reference time to start the window can be defined with respect to timing that a measurement period starts. For example, if the measurement period is defined starting from time y’, the reference time to define the X ms window is y’ + Delta where Delta may be configured by a network. In some embodiments, the offset W can be counted in symbols, slots, ms, etc. In some embodiments, a reference event can comprise (but not limited to) at least one of: receiving a message, configuration, or a command, or sensing a message or report.

[0144] In some embodiments, UE may be required to report how many MG samples / occasions are needed (for its non-XR operation) within the X ms time window starting from the reference time Y. In some embodiments, when the network (NW) receives the number of samples, NW may assume that it means the minimum number of MG samples not to be skipped for its non-XR operation (i.e., not to be used for XR) during the X ms.

[0145] In some embodiments, the minimum number of MG occasions may be indicated within a measurement period Z ms (which is specified in current specification, TS 38.133 V18.5.0) when the configured time window X ms is larger than Z ms. In some embodiments, when UE reports the number of MG, NW may assume that UE will periodically repeat the measurements with the number of samples within the time window X ms.

[0146] Fig. 6A shows an example where the configured time window length is longer than the minimum measurement period. As shown in Fig. 6A, NW may configure X ms (i.e. the length of the time window) > Z ms (i.e. the length of the measurement period), and UE may be required to report how many samples (e.g., the samples with the small circles shown in Fig. 6A) needed within the Z ms measurement period. As shown in Fig. 6A, it should be 2. These two measurement occasions will be repeated in N (=X ms / Z ms) times of Z ms within X ms, that is, UE will perform two measurements at the two measurement occasions in each measurement period, and repeat this for each measurement period during the whole time window. For other measurement occasions (i.e., the measurement occasions without the small circles shown in Fig. 6A), NW is allowed to schedule XR traffic or other traffic for UE or these measurement occasions can still be used for measurements.

[0147] In some embodiments, the minimum number of MG may be indicated directly if the configured time window X ms is less than Z ms. In some embodiments, if the configured time X ms is less than the defined measurement period Z ms, when UE reports the minimum number of MGs, it means the real number of MGs UE needed within this X ms window. In some embodiments, after the X ms window, UE may fall back to the normal measurement.

[0148] Fig. 6B shows an example where the configured time window length is less than the minimum measurement period. As shown in Fig. 6B, NW may configure X ms < Z ms, and UE may be required to report how many samples needed within the X ms time window. As shown in Fig. 6B, it should be 2, which means within X ms, UE needs two measurement occasions. In some embodiments, after the X ms window, UE may fall back to the normal measurement. For example, the first measurement occasion after the X ms time window is not reserved by the UE for its measurement, and therefore it is possible for NW to schedule XR traffic or other traffic for the UE.

[0149] In some embodiments, NW can indicate UE to report the dedicated occasions / pattems other than the minimum number of samples within the time window X ms starting from a reference time Y.

[0150] In some embodiments, UE may report the dedicated occasions / pattems based on configured time window X ms. When NW receives the information, NW may assume that UE will perform measurement at least in these occasions / pattems during the time window X ms starting from the reference time Y. For example, instead of reporting the number Nl, UE may report that it needs the 1st, 3rd, and 5thmeasurement occasions during the time window for its measurement.

[0151] Similar to the embodiments described above, in some embodiments, when X ms is larger than Z ms, UE may report the dedicated occasions / pattems based on a minimum measurement period Z ms. For example, when NW receives the information, NW may assume UE will periodically repeat the dedicated occasions / pattems based on a minimum measurement period Z ms within the time window X ms. For another example, when X ms is less than Z ms, UE may report the real occasions / pattems within the configured time window X ms.

[0152] - Parameters related to a measurement type

[0153] In some embodiments, a network can configure the measurement gap for mobility measurement so that a UE may report the value (e.g., Nl and / or N2) only related to the indicated measurement type.

[0154] In some embodiments, a measurement type may be classified or otherwise determined based on one or more factors, for example, comprising (but not limited to) at least one of:

[0155] • measurements for a specific purpose o positioning measurements, o mobility measurements,

[0156] • measurements based on a specific type of radio signals (e.g., examples of radio signals described above), such as o SSB-based measurements, o PRS based measurements,

[0157] • LI or L3 measurements,

[0158] • measurements for a specific frequency or FR,

[0159] • measurements with measurement configuration meeting a condition o e.g., periodicity above or below a threshold, o e.g., bandwidth above or a below a threshold, o etc.

[0160] In some embodiments, the applicable measurement type can be pre-defined, configured by the NW, or indicated by the UE.

[0161] In some embodiments, for different measurement types, different parameter values can be reported.

[0162] In some embodiments, network can indicate UE to report a value associated with LI measurement related MGs or L3 measurement related MGs.

[0163] In some embodiments, network can indicate UE to report different FRs’ MGs.

[0164] - Parameters related to an MO (related to frequency layer / serving cell)

[0165] In some embodiments, NW can configure the specific MOs (frequency layers / serving cell IDs / TRPs / bands) that the UE should report. In some embodiments, this information can allow that a UE reports the MG information related to a sub-set / all serving cells and neighboring cells, configured MOs.

[0166] In some embodiments, NW may indicate specific bands that UE is requested to report. In such a case, UE may report the number of samples / occasions / pattems in the related bands to NW.

[0167] In some embodiments, NW may indicate specific MOs (such as a subset of MOs in the configured MOs) together with the time window X ms to UE. In some embodiments, UE may report the number of samples / occasions / pattems for these MOs to NW. It implies NW will indicate to drop / skip / suspend the MGs related to these specific MOs and keep the legacy measurement for the other MOs.

[0168] In some embodiments, NW may indicate UE to report the information about the MOs related to all serving cells whose measurement needs MGs.

[0169] In some embodiments, NW may indicate the set of intra-frequency MOs and the interfrequency MGs, respectively. In some embodiments, UE may report the number of samples / occasions / pattems for each serving cells’ MOs and the number of samples / occasions / pattems for measurement gap separately.

[0170] In some embodiments, if NW does not indicate the typical MOs, UE may report the information for all the MOs / frequency layers / serving cells to NW.

[0171] UE report when concurrent measurement gaps are configured

[0172] In some embodiments, when the UE is configured with concurrent measurement gaps, the parameter values may be associated with only one (e.g., pre-defined or configured) MG pattern or separate values may be reported for each MG patterns.

[0173] In some embodiments, when the UE is configured with concurrent MGs, MGs can be decided or configured by the primary MCG (Master cell group) cell or primary SCG (secondary cell group) cell, depending on NR configuration, e.g., EN-DC or NE-DC. • According to some embodiments, the UE may report assistance information described in above always to primary MCG cell.

[0174] • According to some other embodiments, the primary MCG cell can further inform the primary SCG cell of the UE about the information described above, which is received from the UE.

[0175] • According to some further embodiments, the UE may report the information described above to the network node deciding and / or configuring MG configuration for the UE, e.g., to the primary SCG cell for FR2 MGs in EN-DC.

[0176] • According to some yet further embodiments, the primary SCG cell can further inform primary MCG of the UE about the information described above, which received from the UE or configured by the primary SCG cell.

[0177] The embodiments in this section can be combined with any embodiments described in other parts of the present disclosure.

[0178] Triggering conditions for the UE report

[0179] In some embodiments, various triggering solutions of the UE report when it is operating under a dynamic measurement gap adaptation for XR may be provided. Examples may comprise (but not limited to) at least one of:

[0180] - The UE may implicitly automatically trigger a report on XR-related measurement assistance (e.g., comprising any one or more of the parameter values described above) when the network configures the UE with dynamic measurement gap adaptation and all or a subset of needed parameters.

[0181] - The UE may implicitly trigger a report on XR-related measurement assistance when the UE is configured with dynamic measurement gap adaptation and network parameters and when the UE assistance information with all other information not related to the measurement assistance is requested.

[0182] - The UE may explicitly trigger a report on XR-related measurement assistance when the network explicitly requests the UE report on the measurement assistance.

[0183] - The UE may be configured to trigger a report on the information related to measurement occasion if n consecutive measurement occasions are cancelled. For example, if UE is configured with n = 1, then the UE may trigger a report for every cancelled measurement occasion. If n = 2, then UE may trigger a report if two consecutive measurement occasions are cancelled.

[0184] - Depending on XR service quality and / or non-XR measurement accuracy, e.g., a report may be triggered when the former and / or the latter falls below a threshold.

[0185] In some embodiments, if UE is configured with information update on the measurement assistance, it is also possible that UE can report the updated measurement requirement so that a network can be more conservative or aggressive in dynamic adaptation. This solution can be useful, for example, when a UE observes the channel condition and it expects more measurement is needed to prepare a handover in near future.

[0186] Fig. 7 is a flow chart of an exemplary method 700 at a terminal device for reporting information associated with measurement occasions according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The method 700 may be performed at aterminal device (e.g., the UE 100 shown in Fig. 1) for measurement occasion related information reporting. The method 700 may comprise steps S710 and S720. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. In some other embodiments, the method 700 may comprise more steps, less steps, different steps, or any combination thereof. Further the steps of the method 700 may be performed in a different order than that described herein. Further, in some embodiments, a step in the method 700 may be split into multiple substeps and performed by different entities, and / or multiple steps in the method 700 may be combined into a single step.

[0187] The method 700 may begin at step S710 where the terminal device may receive, from a network node, a first message indicating a configuration for reporting the information associated with measurement occasions.

[0188] At step S720, the terminal device may transmit one or more second messages that report the information associated with measurement occasions based on at least the configuration.

[0189] In some embodiments, the terminal device may be able to and / or configured with dynamic measurement gap (MG) adaptation. In some embodiments, when the terminal device is configured with two or more MG patterns, the configuration may indicate, for at least one of the two or more MG patterns, a set of one or more parameters associated with the corresponding MG pattern. In some embodiments, when the terminal device is configured with two or more MG patterns, the configuration may indicate, for each of the two or more MG patterns, a set of one or more parameters associated with the corresponding MG pattern.

[0190] In some embodiments, the configuration may indicate at least one of: one or more first parameters associated with one or more time windows; one or more second parameters associated with one or more measurement types; one or more third parameters associated with one or more measurement objects (MOs); and that the terminal device is to report one or more patterns, each of which being comprised of one or more measurement occasions during a corresponding time window. In some embodiments, a reported pattern may be comprised of one or more measurement occasions not to be skipped during a corresponding time window. In some embodiments, a reported pattern may be comprised of one or more measurement occasions to be skipped or allowed to be skipped during a corresponding time window. In some embodiments, the one or more first parameters may indicate at least one of: a size of the time window; an offset of the time window; a reference time associated with the time window; a reference event associated with the time window; and a combination or a function of two or more of the size, the offset, the reference time, and the reference event. In some embodiments, the size of the time window may be indicated by a fixed value or a function of one or more other parameters. In some embodiments, the reference time may be indicated by a System Frame Number (SFN), which is a fixed value or a function of one or more other parameters. In some embodiments, the reference time may be indicated by the beginning of the last MG period or cycle. In some embodiments, the time window may be a one-time time window or a periodic time window.

[0191] In some embodiments, the information associated with measurement occasions may indicate at least one of: a first number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions not to be skipped due to extended reality (XR) operations during the time window; a second number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions that are allowed to be skipped due to XR operations during the time window; and a third number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions needed for non-XR operations during the time window. In some embodiments, when the time window is larger than a measurement period, the information associated with measurement occasions may indicate a number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions and / or a pattern of one or more measurement occasions that are not to be skipped during a measurement period. In some embodiments, the terminal device may perform measurements at least in the number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions and / or the pattern of one or more measurement occasions during each measurement period in the time window. In some embodiments, when the time window is less than a measurement period, the information associated with measurement occasions may indicate a number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions and / or a pattern of one or more measurement occasions that are not to be skipped during the time window. In some embodiments, the terminal device may perform measurements at least in the number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions and / or the pattern of one or more measurement occasions during the time window.

[0192] In some embodiments, a measurement type may be determined based on at least one of: a purpose of a measurement; a type of a radio signal, based on which a measurement is to be performed; a frequency or frequency range (FR), for which a measurement is to be performed; and a measurement configuration, which meets one or more conditions. In some embodiments, when the configuration indicates one or more measurement types, the one or more second messages may indicate, for each of the one or more measurement types, the corresponding information associated with measurement occasions. In some embodiments, an MO may be associated with at least one of: a frequency layer; a serving cell; a neighboring cell; a Transmit / Receive Point (TRP); and a band. In some embodiments, when the configuration indicates one or more MOs, the one or more second messages may indicate, for each of the one or more MOs, the corresponding information associated with measurement occasions. In some embodiments, when the configuration indicates a set of intra-frequency MOs and a set of inter-frequency MGs, the one or more second messages may indicate the information associated with measurement occasions for each of the intra- frequency MOs and for each of the inter-frequency MGs separately.

[0193] In some embodiments, when the terminal device is configured with concurrent MGs, the configuration may indicate one or more parameters associated with only one of the concurrent MGs, or the configuration may indicate, for each of the concurrent MGs, one or more corresponding parameters. In some embodiments, when the terminal device is configured with concurrent MGs, the one or more second messages may indicate information associated with measurement occasions for only one of the concurrent MGs, or the one or more second messages may indicate, for each of the concurrent MGs, the corresponding information associated with measurement occasions. In some embodiments, the one or more second messages may be transmitted to at least one of: a network node that hosts the primary cell in the Master Cell Group (MCG) for the terminal device; a network node that hosts the primary cell in the Secondary Cell Group (SCG) for the terminal device; and a network node that configures an MG configuration for the terminal device.

[0194] In some embodiments, the one or more second messages may be transmitted in response to at least one of: the terminal device is configured with dynamic MG adaptation and one or more parameters needed for reporting the information associated with measurement occasions; the terminal device is requested to report information other than the information associated with measurement occasions; the terminal device is requested to report the information associated with measurement occasions; a specific number of consecutive measurement occasions are cancelled or skipped; an XR service quality falls below a threshold; a non-XR measurement accuracy falls below a threshold; and a specific channel condition is observed at the terminal device.

[0195] In some embodiments, the information associated with measurement occasions may be also associated with at least one of: a measurement configuration or reconfiguration; an MG configuration or reconfiguration; an XR related feature configuration or reconfiguration; a handover (HO) configuration or reconfiguration; a radio signal configuration or reconfiguration; an antenna configuration or reconfiguration; a beam configuration or reconfiguration; a measurement period configuration or reconfiguration; a configuration or reconfiguration of a number of measurements at the terminal device; an indicator indicating that the information associated with measurement occasions is to be signaled to another network node; and an indicator indicating that a configuration parameter for the terminal device operating an XR service is to be derived.

[0196] Fig. 8 is a flow chart of an exemplary method 800 at a network node for managing measurement occasions associated with a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The method 800 may be performed at a network node (e.g., the RAN node 105 shown in Fig. 1) for measurement occasion related information reporting. The method 800 may comprise a step S810. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. In some other embodiments, the method 800 may comprise more steps, different steps, or any combination thereof. Further the steps of the method 800 may be performed in a different order than that described herein. Further, in some embodiments, a step in the method 800 may be split into multiple sub-steps and performed by different entities, and / or multiple steps in the method 800 may be combined into a single step.

[0197] The method 800 may begin at step S810 where the network node may transmit, to the terminal device, a first message indicating a configuration for reporting the information associated with measurement occasions.

[0198] In some embodiments, the method 800 may further comprise: receiving one or more second messages that report the information associated with measurement occasions, which is associated with the terminal device; and triggering the terminal device to skip or not to skip one or more measurement occasions based on at least the information associated with measurement occasions. In some embodiments, the terminal device may be able to and / or configured with dynamic MG adaptation.

[0199] In some embodiments, when the terminal device is configured with two or more MG patterns, the configuration may indicate, for at least one of the two or more MG patterns, a set of one or more parameters associated with the corresponding MG pattern. In some embodiments, when the terminal device is configured with two or more MG patterns, the configuration may indicate, for each of the two or more MG patterns, a set of one or more parameters associated with the corresponding MG pattern. In some embodiments, the configuration may indicate at least one of: one or more first parameters associated with one or more time windows; one or more second parameters associated with one or more measurement types; one or more third parameters associated with one or more MOs; and that the terminal device is to report one or more patterns, each of which being comprised of one or more measurement occasions during a corresponding time window. In some embodiments, a reported pattern may be comprised of one or more measurement occasions not to be skipped during a corresponding time window. In some embodiments, a reported pattern may be comprised of one or more measurement occasions to be skipped or allowed to be skipped during a corresponding time window. In some embodiments, the one or more first parameters may indicate at least one of: a size of the time window; an offset of the time window; a reference time associated with the time window; a reference event associated with the time window; and a combination or a function of two or more of the size, the offset, the reference time, and the reference event. In some embodiments, the size of the time window may be indicated by a fixed value or a function of one or more other parameters. In some embodiments, the reference time may be indicated by an SFN, which is a fixed value or a function of one or more other parameters. In some embodiments, the reference time may be indicated by the beginning of the last MG period or cycle. In some embodiments, the time window may be a one-time time window or a periodic time window.

[0200] In some embodiments, the information associated with measurement occasions may indicate at least one of: a first number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions not to be skipped due to XR operations during the time window; a second number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions that are allowed to be skipped due to XR operations during the time window; and a third number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions needed for non-XR operations during the time window. In some embodiments, when the time window is larger than a measurement period, the information associated with measurement occasions may indicate a number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions and / or a pattern of one or more measurement occasions that are not to be skipped during a measurement period. In some embodiments, the network node may assume that the terminal device will perform measurements at least in the number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions and / or the pattern of one or more measurement occasions during each measurement period in the time window. In some embodiments, when the time window is less than a measurement period, the information associated with measurement occasions may indicate a number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions and / or a pattern of one or more measurement occasions that are not to be skipped during the time window. In some embodiments, the network node may assume that the terminal device will perform measurements at least in the number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions and / or the pattern of one or more measurement occasions during the time window.

[0201] In some embodiments, a measurement type may be determined based on at least one of: a purpose of a measurement; a type of a radio signal, based on which a measurement is to be performed; a frequency or FR, for which a measurement is to be performed; and a measurement configuration, which meets one or more conditions. In some embodiments, when the configuration indicates one or more measurement types, the one or more second messages may indicate, for each of the one or more measurement types, the corresponding information associated with measurement occasions. In some embodiments, an MO may be associated with at least one of: a frequency layer; a serving cell; a neighboring cell; a TRP; and a band. In some embodiments, when the configuration indicates one or more MOs, the one or more second messages may indicate, for each of the one or more MOs, the corresponding information associated with measurement occasions. In some embodiments, when the configuration indicates a set of intra-frequency MOs and a set of inter-frequency MGs, the one or more second messages may indicate the information associated with measurement occasions for each of the intra-frequency MOs and for each of the inter-frequency MGs separately.

[0202] In some embodiments, when the terminal device is configured with concurrent MGs, the configuration may indicate one or more parameters associated with only one of the concurrent MGs, or the configuration may indicate, for each of the concurrent MGs, one or more corresponding parameters. In some embodiments, when the terminal device is configured with concurrent MGs, the one or more second messages may indicate information associated with measurement occasions for only one of the concurrent MGs, or the one or more second messages may indicate, for each of the concurrent MGs, the corresponding information associated with measurement occasions. In some embodiments, the one or more second messages may be received from at least one of: the terminal device; a network node that hosts the primary cell in the MCG for the terminal device; a network node that hosts the primary cell in the SCG for the terminal device; and a network node that configures an MG configuration for the terminal device.

[0203] In some embodiments, the one or more second messages may be received in response to at least one of: the terminal device is configured with dynamic MG adaptation and one or more parameters needed for reporting the information associated with measurement occasions; the terminal device is requested to report information other than the information associated with measurement occasions; the terminal device is requested to report the information associated with measurement occasions; a specific number of consecutive measurement occasions are cancelled or skipped at the terminal device; an XR service quality at the terminal device falls below a threshold; a non-XR measurement accuracy at the terminal device falls below a threshold; and a specific channel condition is observed at the terminal device.

[0204] In some embodiments, the information associated with measurement occasions may be also associated with at least one of: a measurement configuration or reconfiguration; an MG configuration or reconfiguration; an XR related feature configuration or reconfiguration; a handover (HO) configuration or reconfiguration; a radio signal configuration or reconfiguration; an antenna configuration or reconfiguration; a beam configuration or reconfiguration; a measurement period configuration or reconfiguration; a configuration or reconfiguration of a number of measurements at the terminal device; an indicator indicating that the information associated with measurement occasions is to be signaled to another network node; and an indicator indicating that a configuration parameter for the terminal device operating an XR service is to be derived.

[0205] Fig. 9 schematically shows an embodiment of an arrangement which may be used in a terminal device and / or a network node according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Comprised in the arrangement 900 are a processing unit 906, e.g., with a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) or a Central Processing Unit (CPU). The processing unit 906 may be a single unit or a plurality of units to perform different actions of procedures described herein. The arrangement 900 may also comprise an input unit 902 for receiving signals from other entities, and an output unit 904 for providing signal(s) to other entities. The input unit 902 and the output unit 904 may be arranged as an integrated entity or as separate entities.

[0206] Furthermore, the arrangement 900 may comprise at least one computer program product 908 in the form of a non-volatile or volatile memory, e.g., an Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), a flash memory and / or a hard drive. The computer program product 908 comprises a computer program 910, which comprises code / computer readable instructions, which when executed by the processing unit 906 in the arrangement 900 causes the arrangement 900 and / or the terminal device and / or the network node in which it is comprised to perform the actions, e.g., of the procedure described earlier or any other variant.

[0207] The computer program 910 may be configured as a computer program code structured in computer program modules 910A and 910B. Hence, in an exemplifying embodiment when the arrangement 900 is used in a terminal device for reporting information associated with measurement occasions, the code in the computer program of the arrangement 900 includes: a module 910A configured to receive, from a network node, a first message indicating a configuration for reporting the information associated with measurement occasions; and a module 910B configured to transmit one or more second messages that report the information associated with measurement occasions based on at least the configuration.

[0208] Additionally or alternatively, the computer program 910 may be configured as a computer program code structured in a computer program module 910C. Hence, in an exemplifying embodiment when the arrangement 900 is used in a network node for managing measurement occasions associated with a terminal device, the code in the computer program of the arrangement 900 includes: a module 910C configured to transmit, to the terminal device, a first message indicating a configuration for reporting the information associated with measurement occasions.

[0209] The computer program modules could essentially perform the actions of the flow illustrated in Fig. 6A through Fig. 8, to emulate the terminal device and / or the network node. In other words, when the different computer program modules are executed in the processing unit 906, they may correspond to different modules in the terminal device and / or the network node. Although the code means in the embodiments disclosed above in conjunction with Fig. 9 are implemented as computer program modules which when executed in the processing unit causes the arrangement to perform the actions described above in conjunction with the figures mentioned above, at least one of the code means may in alternative embodiments be implemented at least partly as hardware circuits.

[0210] The processor may be a single CPU (Central processing unit), but could also comprise two or more processing units. For example, the processor may include general purpose microprocessors; instruction set processors and / or related chips sets and / or special purpose microprocessors such as Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASICs). The processor may also comprise board memory for caching purposes. The computer program may be carried by a computer program product connected to the processor. The computer program product may comprise a computer readable medium on which the computer program is stored. For example, the computer program product may be a flash memory, a Random-access memory (RAM), a Read- Only Memory (ROM), or an EEPROM, and the computer program modules described above could in alternative embodiments be distributed on different computer program products in the form of memories within the terminal device and / or the network node.

[0211] Fig. 10 shows an example of a communication system QQ100 in accordance with some embodiments.

[0212] In the example, the communication system QQ100 includes a telecommunication network QQ102 that includes an access network QQ104, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network QQ106, which includes one or more core network nodes QQ108. The access network QQ104 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes QQ110A and QQ110B (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes QQ110), or any other similar 3rdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP) access nodes or non-3GPP access points. Moreover, as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, a network node is not necessarily limited to an implementation in which a radio portion and a baseband portion are supplied and integrated by a single vendor. Thus, it will be understood that network nodes include disaggregated implementations or portions thereof. For example, in some embodiments, the telecommunication network QQ102 includes one or more Open-RAN (ORAN) network nodes. An ORAN network node is a node in the telecommunication network QQ102 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 QQ102, including one or more network nodes QQ110 and / or core network nodes QQ108. 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 anon-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 QQ110 facilitate direct or indirect connection of user equipment (UE), such as by connecting UEs QQ112A, QQ112B, QQ112C, and QQ112D (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs QQ112) to the core network QQ106 over one or more wireless connections.

[0213] 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 QQ100 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 QQ100 may include and / or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and / or other similar type of system.

[0214] The UEs QQ112 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 QQ110 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes QQ110 are arranged, capable, configured, and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs QQ112 and / or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network QQ102 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 QQ102.

[0215] In the depicted example, the core network QQ106 connects the network nodes QQ110 to one or more host computing systems, such as host QQ116. 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 QQ106 includes one more core network nodes (e.g., core network node QQ108) 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 QQ108. Example core network nodes include functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Subscription Identifier De-concealing function (SIDF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), Network Exposure Function (NEF), and / or a User Plane Function (UPF).

[0216] The host QQ116 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network QQ104 and / or the telecommunication network QQ102. The host QQ116 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.

[0217] As a whole, the communication system QQ100 of Fig. 10 enables connectivity between the UEs, network nodes, and hosts. In that sense, the communication system may be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures, such as specific standards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE), and / or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g., 6G); wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (WiFi); and / or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, LiFi, and / or any low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) standards such as LoRa and Sigfox.

[0218] In some examples, the telecommunication network QQ102 is a cellular network that implements 3GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunications network QQ102 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network QQ102. For example, the telecommunications network QQ102 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)ZMassive loT services to yet further UEs.

[0219] In some examples, the UEs QQ112 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 QQ104 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network QQ104. Additionally, a UE may be configured for operating in single- or multi -RAT or multi-standard mode. For example, a UE may operate with any one or combination of Wi-Fi, NR (New Radio) and LTE, i.e. being configured for multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC), such as E-UTRAN (Evolved-UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) New Radio - Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).

[0220] In the example, the hub QQ114 communicates with the access network QQ104 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE QQ112C and / or QQ112D) and network nodes (e.g., network node QQ110B). In some examples, the hub QQ114 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub QQ114 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network QQ106 for the UEs. As another example, the hub QQ114 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 QQ110, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub QQ114. As another example, the hub QQ114 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 QQ114 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a Virtual Reality (VR) device, display, loudspeaker, or other media delivery device, the hub QQ114 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub QQ114 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and / or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub QQ114 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular if one or more of the UEs are low energy loT devices.

[0221] The hub QQ114 may have a constant / persistent or intermittent connection to the network node QQ110B. The hub QQ114 may also allow for a different communication scheme and / or schedule between the hub QQ114 and UEs (e.g., UE QQ112C and / or QQ112D), and between the hub QQ114 and the core network QQ106. In other examples, the hub QQ114 is connected to the core network QQ106 and / or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub QQ114 may be configured to connect to a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) service provider over the access network QQ104 and / or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes QQ110 while still connected via the hub QQ114 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub QQ114 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 QQ110B. In other embodiments, the hub QQ114 may be a non-dedicated hub - that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and network node QQ110B, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and / or end point for certain data channels.

[0222] Fig. 11 shows a UE QQ200 in accordance with some embodiments. The UE QQ200 presents additional details of some embodiments of the UE QQ112 of Fig. 10. As used herein, a UE refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and / or other UEs. Examples of a UE include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, mobile phone, cell phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phone, wireless local loop phone, desktop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), wireless cameras, gaming console or device, music storage / playback device, wearable terminal device, wireless endpoint, mobile station, tablet, laptop, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), an Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR) device, wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE), vehicle, vehicle-mounted or vehicle embedded / integrated wireless device, etc. Other examples include any UE identified by the 3rdGeneration 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.

[0223] A UE may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3GPP standard for sidelink communication, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), or vehicle-to-everything (V2X). In other examples, a UE may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and / or operates the relevant device. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE may represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter).

[0224] The UE QQ200 includes processing circuitry QQ202 that is operatively coupled via a bus QQ204 to an input / output interface QQ206, a power source QQ208, a memory QQ210, a communication interface QQ212, and / or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain UEs may utilize all or a subset of the components shown in Fig. 11. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc. The processing circuitry QQ202 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 QQ210. The processing circuitry QQ202 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 QQ202 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs).

[0225] In the example, the input / output interface QQ206 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 QQ200. 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.

[0226] In some embodiments, the power source QQ208 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 QQ208 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source QQ208 itself, and / or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE QQ200 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source QQ208. Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from the power source QQ208 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the UE QQ200 to which power is supplied.

[0227] The memory QQ210 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 QQ210 includes one or more application programs QQ214, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data QQ216. The memory QQ210 may store, for use by the UE QQ200, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

[0228] The memory QQ210 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as tamper resistant module in the form of a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) including one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs), such as a USIM and / or ISIM, other memory, or any combination thereof. The UICC may for example be an embedded UICC (eUICC), integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as ‘SIM card.’ The memory QQ210 may allow the UE QQ200 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 QQ210, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.

[0229] The processing circuitry QQ202 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network using the communication interface QQ212. The communication interface QQ212 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna QQ222. The communication interface QQ212 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 QQ218 and / or a receiver QQ220 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter QQ218 and receiver QQ220 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., antenna QQ222) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.

[0230] In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communication interface QQ212 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 / intemet protocol (TCP / IP), synchronous optical networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.

[0231] Regardless of the type of sensor, a UE may provide an output of data captured by its sensors, through its communication interface QQ212, via a wireless connection to a network node. Data captured by sensors of a UE can be communicated through a wireless connection to a network node via another UE. The output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reports the sensed temperature), random (e.g., to even out the load from reporting from several sensors), in response to a triggering event (e.g., when moisture is detected an alert is sent), in response to a request (e.g., a user initiated request), or a continuous stream (e.g., a live video feed of a patient).

[0232] 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.

[0233] 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 QQ200 shown in Fig. 11.

[0234] 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.

[0235] In practice, any number of UEs may be used together with respect to a single use case. For example, a first UE might be or be integrated in a drone and provide the drone’s speed information (obtained through a speed sensor) to a second UE that is a remote controller operating the drone. When the user makes changes from the remote controller, the first UE may adjust the throttle on the drone (e.g. by controlling an actuator) to increase or decrease the drone’s speed. The first and / or the second UE can also include more than one of the functionalities described above. For example, a UE might comprise the sensor and the actuator, and handle communication of data for both the speed sensor and the actuators.

[0236] Fig. 12 shows a network node QQ300 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)), O-RAN nodes or components of an O-RAN node (e.g., O-RU, O-DU, O-CU).

[0237] Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and so, depending on the provided amount of coverage, may be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units, distributed units (e.g., in an O-RAN access node) and / or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such 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).

[0238] 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).

[0239] The network node QQ300 includes a processing circuitry QQ302, a memory QQ304, a communication interface QQ306, and a power source QQ308. The network node QQ300 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 QQ300 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeBs. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, the network node QQ300 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory QQ304 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna QQ310 may be shared by different RATs). The network node QQ300 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node QQ300, 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 QQ300.

[0240] The processing circuitry QQ302 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 QQ300 components, such as the memory QQ304, to provide network node QQ300 functionality.

[0241] In some embodiments, the processing circuitry QQ302 includes a system on a chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry QQ302 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry QQ312 and baseband processing circuitry QQ314. In some embodiments, the radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry QQ312 and the baseband processing circuitry QQ314 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 QQ312 and baseband processing circuitry QQ314 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.

[0242] The memory QQ304 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 QQ302. The memory QQ304 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 QQ302 and utilized by the network node QQ300. The memory QQ304 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry QQ302 and / or any data received via the communication interface QQ306. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry QQ302 and memory QQ304 is integrated.

[0243] The communication interface QQ306 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 QQ306 comprises port(s) / terminal(s) QQ316 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. The communication interface QQ306 also includes radio front-end circuitry QQ318 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna QQ310. Radio front-end circuitry QQ318 comprises filters QQ320 and amplifiers QQ322. The radio front-end circuitry QQ318 may be connected to an antenna QQ310 and processing circuitry QQ302. The radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna QQ310 and processing circuitry QQ302. The radio frontend circuitry QQ318 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection. The radio front-end circuitry QQ318 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters QQ320 and / or amplifiers QQ322. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna QQ310. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna QQ310 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry QQ318. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry QQ302. In other embodiments, the communication interface may comprise different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0244] In certain alternative embodiments, the network node QQ300 does not include separate radio front-end circuitry QQ318, instead, the processing circuitry QQ302 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna QQ310. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry QQ312 is part of the communication interface QQ306. In still other embodiments, the communication interface QQ306 includes one or more ports or terminals QQ316, the radio front-end circuitry QQ318, and the RF transceiver circuitry QQ312, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface QQ306 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry QQ314, which is part of a digital unit (not shown). The antenna QQ310 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and / or receive wireless signals. The antenna QQ310 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry QQ318 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and / or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna QQ310 is separate from the network node QQ300 and connectable to the network node QQ300 through an interface or port.

[0245] The antenna QQ310, communication interface QQ306, and / or the processing circuitry QQ302 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and / or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and / or signals may be received from a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna QQ310, the communication interface QQ306, and / or the processing circuitry QQ302 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.

[0246] The power source QQ308 provides power to the various components of network node QQ300 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source QQ308 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node QQ300 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node QQ300 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 QQ308. As a further example, the power source QQ308 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.

[0247] Embodiments of the network node QQ300 may include additional components beyond those shown in Fig. 12 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and / or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, the network node QQ300 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node QQ300 and to allow output of information from the network node QQ300. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node QQ300. In some embodiments providing a core network node, such as core network node 108 of Fig. 10, some components, such as the radio front-end circuitry QQ318 and the RF transceiver circuitry QQ312 may be omitted. Fig. 13 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment QQ400 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 QQ400 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computing device that operates as a network node, UE, core network node, or host. Further, in embodiments in which the virtual node does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node or host), then the node may be entirely virtualized. In some embodiments, the virtualization environment QQ400 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.

[0248] Applications QQ402 (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.

[0249] Hardware QQ404 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 QQ406 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs QQ408a and QQ408b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs QQ408), and / or perform any of the functions, features and / or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer QQ406 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the VMs QQ408.

[0250] The VMs QQ408 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer QQ406. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance QQ402 may be implemented on one or more of VMs QQ408, 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.

[0251] In the context of NFV, a VM QQ408 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 QQ408, and that part of hardware QQ404 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 QQ408 on top of the hardware QQ404 and corresponds to the application QQ402.

[0252] Hardware QQ404 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware QQ404 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware QQ404 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 QQ410, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications QQ402. In some embodiments, hardware QQ404 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 QQ412 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.

[0253] 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.

[0254] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may be provided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry alone or to other components of the computing device, but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole, and / or by end users and a wireless network generally.

[0255] The present disclosure is described above with reference to the embodiments thereof. However, those embodiments are provided just for illustrative purpose, rather than limiting the present disclosure. The scope of the disclosure is defined by the attached claims as well as equivalents thereof. Those skilled in the art can make various alternations and modifications without departing from the scope of the disclosure, which all fall into the scope of the disclosure.

Claims

Claims1. A method (700) at a terminal device (100) for reporting information associated with measurement occasions, the method (700) comprising: receiving (S710), from a network node (105), a first message indicating a configuration for reporting the information associated with measurement occasions; and transmitting (S720) one or more second messages that report the information associated with measurement occasions based on at least the configuration.

2. The method (700) of claim 1, wherein the terminal device (100) is able to and / or configured with dynamic measurement gap (MG) adaptation.

3. The method (700) of claim 1 or 2, wherein when the terminal device (100) is configured with two or more MG patterns, the configuration indicates, for at least one of the two or more MG patterns, a set of one or more parameters associated with the corresponding MG pattern, and / or wherein when the terminal device (100) is configured with two or more MG patterns, the configuration indicates, for each of the two or more MG patterns, a set of one or more parameters associated with the corresponding MG pattern.

4. The method (700) of any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the configuration indicates at least one of:- one or more first parameters associated with one or more time windows;- one or more second parameters associated with one or more measurement types;- one or more third parameters associated with one or more measurement objects (MOs); and- that the terminal device (100) is to report one or more patterns, each of which being comprised of one or more measurement occasions during a corresponding time window.

5. The method (700) of claim 4, wherein the one or more first parameters indicate at least one of:- a size of the time window;- an offset of the time window;- a reference time associated with the time window;- a reference event associated with the time window; and- a combination or a function of two or more of the size, the offset, the reference time, and the reference event.

6. The method (700) of claim 5, wherein the size of the time window is indicated by a fixed value or a function of one or more other parameters, and / or wherein the reference time is indicated by a System Frame Number (SFN), which is a fixed value or a function of one or more other parameters, and / orwherein the reference time is indicated by the beginning of the last MG period or cycle.

7. The method (700) of any of claims 4 to 6, wherein the time window is a one-time time window or a periodic time window.

8. The method (700) of any of claims 4 to 7, wherein the information associated with measurement occasions indicates at least one of:- a first number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions not to be skipped due to extended reality (XR) operations during the time window;- a second number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions that are allowed to be skipped due to XR operations during the time window; and- a third number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions needed for non-XR operations during the time window.

9. The method (700) of any of claims 4 to 8, wherein when the time window is larger than a measurement period, the information associated with measurement occasions indicates a number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions and / or a pattern of one or more measurement occasions that are not to be skipped during a measurement period, wherein the terminal device (100) performs measurements at least in the number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions and / or the pattern of one or more measurement occasions during each measurement period in the time window.

10. The method (700) of any of claims 4 to 9, wherein when the time window is less than a measurement period, the information associated with measurement occasions indicates a number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions and / or a pattern of one or more measurement occasions that are not to be skipped during the time window, wherein the terminal device (100) performs measurements at least in the number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions and / or the pattern of one or more measurement occasions during the time window.

11. The method (700) of any of claims 1 to 10, wherein a measurement type is determined based on at least one of:- a purpose of a measurement;- a type of a radio signal, based on which a measurement is to be performed;- a frequency or frequency range (FR), for which a measurement is to be performed; and- a measurement configuration, which meets one or more conditions.

12. The method (700) of any of claims 1 to 11, wherein when the configuration indicates one or more measurement types, the one or more second messages indicate, for each of the one or more measurement types, the corresponding information associated with measurement occasions.

13. The method (700) of any of claims 1 to 12, wherein an MO is associated with at least one of:- a frequency layer;- a serving cell;- a neighboring cell;- a Transmit / Receive Point (TRP); and- a band.

14. The method (700) of any of claims 1 to 13, wherein when the configuration indicates one or more MOs, the one or more second messages indicate, for each of the one or more MOs, the corresponding information associated with measurement occasions, and / or wherein when the configuration indicates a set of intra-frequency MOs and a set of interfrequency MGs, the one or more second messages indicate the information associated with measurement occasions for each of the intra-frequency MOs and for each of the inter-frequency MGs separately.

15. The method (700) of any of claims 1 to 14, wherein when the terminal device (100) is configured with concurrent MGs, the configuration indicates one or more parameters associated with only one of the concurrent MGs, or the configuration indicates, for each of the concurrent MGs, one or more corresponding parameters, and / or wherein when the terminal device (100) is configured with concurrent MGs, the one or more second messages indicate information associated with measurement occasions for only one of the concurrent MGs, or the one or more second messages indicate, for each of the concurrent MGs, the corresponding information associated with measurement occasions.

16. The method (700) of any of claims 1 to 15, wherein the one or more second messages are transmitted to at least one of:- a network node that hosts the primary cell in the Master Cell Group (MCG) for the terminal device (100);- a network node that hosts the primary cell in the Secondary Cell Group (SCG) for the terminal device (100); and- a network node that configures an MG configuration for the terminal device (100).

17. The method (700) of any of claims 1 to 16, wherein the one or more second messages are transmitted in response to at least one of:- the terminal device (100) is configured with dynamic MG adaptation and one or more parameters needed for reporting the information associated with measurement occasions;- the terminal device (100) is requested to report information other than the information associated with measurement occasions;- the terminal device (100) is requested to report the information associated with measurement occasions;- a specific number of consecutive measurement occasions are cancelled or skipped;- an XR service quality falls below a threshold;- a non-XR measurement accuracy falls below a threshold; and- a specific channel condition is observed at the terminal device (100).

18. The method (700) of any of claims 1 to 17, wherein the information associated with measurement occasions is also associated with at least one of:- a measurement configuration or reconfiguration;- an MG configuration or reconfiguration;- an XR related feature configuration or reconfiguration;- a handover (HO) configuration or reconfiguration;- a radio signal configuration or reconfiguration;- an antenna configuration or reconfiguration;- a beam configuration or reconfiguration;- a measurement period configuration or reconfiguration;- a configuration or reconfiguration of a number of measurements at the terminal device (100);- an indicator indicating that the information associated with measurement occasions is to be signaled to another network node; and- an indicator indicating that a configuration parameter for the terminal device (100) operating an XR service is to be derived.

19. A terminal device (100, 900) for reporting information associated with measurement occasions, the terminal device (100, 900) comprising: a processor (906); a memory (908) storing instructions which, when executed by the processor (906), cause the terminal device (100, 900) to: receive, from a network node (105), a first message indicating a configuration for reporting the information associated with measurement occasions; and transmit one or more second messages that report the information associated with measurement occasions based on at least the configuration.

20. The terminal device (100, 900) of claim 19, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor (906), cause the terminal device (100, 900) to further perform any of the methods (700) of claims 2 to 18.

21. A method (800) at a network node (105) for managing measurement occasions associated with a terminal device (100), the method (800) comprising: transmitting, to the terminal device (100), a first message indicating a configuration for reporting the information associated with measurement occasions.

22. The method (800) of claim 21, further comprising: receiving one or more second messages that report the information associated with measurement occasions, which is associated with the terminal device (100); and triggering the terminal device (100) to skip or not to skip one or more measurement occasions based on at least the information associated with measurement occasions.

23. The method (800) of claim 21 or 22, wherein the terminal device (100) is able to and / or configured with dynamic MG adaptation.

24. The method (800) of any of claims 21 to 23, wherein when the terminal device (100) is configured with two or more MG patterns, the configuration indicates, for at least one of the two or more MG patterns, a set of one or more parameters associated with the corresponding MG pattern, and / or wherein when the terminal device (100) is configured with two or more MG patterns, the configuration indicates, for each of the two or more MG patterns, a set of one or more parameters associated with the corresponding MG pattern.

25. The method (800) of any of claims 21 to 24, wherein the configuration indicates at least one of:- one or more first parameters associated with one or more time windows;- one or more second parameters associated with one or more measurement types;- one or more third parameters associated with one or more MOs; and- that the terminal device (100) is to report one or more patterns, each of which being comprised of one or more measurement occasions during a corresponding time window.

26. The method (800) of claim 25, wherein the one or more first parameters indicate at least one of:- a size of the time window;- an offset of the time window;- a reference time associated with the time window;- a reference event associated with the time window; and- a combination or a function of two or more of the size, the offset, the reference time, and the reference event.

27. The method (800) of claim 26, wherein the size of the time window is indicated by a fixed value or a function of one or more other parameters, and / orwherein the reference time is indicated by an SFN, which is a fixed value or a function of one or more other parameters, and / or wherein the reference time is indicated by the beginning of the last MG period or cycle.

28. The method (800) of any of claims 25 to 27, wherein the time window is a one-time time window or a periodic time window.

29. The method (800) of any of claims 25 to 28, wherein the information associated with measurement occasions indicates at least one of:- a first number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions not to be skipped due to XR operations during the time window;- a second number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions that are allowed to be skipped due to XR operations during the time window; and- a third number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions needed for non-XR operations during the time window.

30. The method (800) of any of claims 25 to 29, wherein when the time window is larger than a measurement period, the information associated with measurement occasions indicates a number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions and / or a pattern of one or more measurement occasions that are not to be skipped during a measurement period, wherein the network node (105) assumes that the terminal device (100) will perform measurements at least in the number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions and / or the pattern of one or more measurement occasions during each measurement period in the time window.

31. The method (800) of any of claims 25 to 30, wherein when the time window is less than a measurement period, the information associated with measurement occasions indicates a number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions and / or a pattern of one or more measurement occasions that are not to be skipped during the time window, wherein the network node (105) assumes that the terminal device (100) will perform measurements at least in the number or ratio or percentage of measurement occasions and / or the pattern of one or more measurement occasions during the time window.

32. The method (800) of any of claims 21 to 31, wherein a measurement type is determined based on at least one of:- a purpose of a measurement;- a type of a radio signal, based on which a measurement is to be performed;- a frequency or FR, for which a measurement is to be performed; and- a measurement configuration, which meets one or more conditions.

33. The method (800) of any of claims 21 to 32, wherein when the configuration indicates one or more measurement types, the one or more second messages indicate, for each of the one or more measurement types, the corresponding information associated with measurement occasions.

34. The method (800) of any of claims 21 to 33, wherein an MO is associated with at least one of:- a frequency layer;- a serving cell;- a neighboring cell;- a TRP; and- a band.

35. The method (800) of any of claims 21 to 34, wherein when the configuration indicates one or more MOs, the one or more second messages indicate, for each of the one or more MOs, the corresponding information associated with measurement occasions, and / or wherein when the configuration indicates a set of intra-frequency MOs and a set of interfrequency MGs, the one or more second messages indicate the information associated with measurement occasions for each of the intra-frequency MOs and for each of the inter-frequency MGs separately.

36. A network node (105, 900) for managing measurement occasions associated with a terminal device (100), the network node (105, 900) comprising: a processor (906); a memory (908) storing instructions which, when executed by the processor (906), cause the network node (105, 900) to: transmit, to the terminal device (100), a first message indicating a configuration for reporting the information associated with measurement occasions.

37. The network node (105, 900) of claim 36, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor (906), cause the network node (105, 900) to further perform any of the methods (800) of claims 22 to 35.

38. A computer program (910) comprising instructions which, when executed by at least one processor (906), cause the at least one processor (906) to carry out the method (700, 800) of any of claims 1 to 18 and 21 to 35.

39. A carrier (908) containing the computer program (910) of claim 38, wherein the carrier (908) is one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, or computer readable storage medium.

40. A telecommunication system (10), comprising: one or more terminal devices (100) of claim 19 or 20; anda network node (105) of claim 36 or 37.

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