Transmission management reporting

Abstract

A wireless device receives a message comprising a no transmission zone (NTZ) reporting parameter indicating whether the wireless device is configured to send a report message when approaching the NTZ, and sends a first report message comprising an indication that the wireless device approaches the NTZ, a location of the wireless device approaching the NTZ, and an estimated time when the wireless device exits the NTZ.

Description

TITLETransmission Management ReportingCROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 675,996, filed July 26,2024, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0002] Examples of several of the various embodiments of the present disclosure are described herein with reference to the drawings.

[0003] FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B illustrate example mobile communication networks in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented.

[0004] FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B respectively illustrate a New Radio (NR) user plane and control plane protocol stack.

[0005] FIG. 3 illustrates an example of services provided between protocol layers of the NR user plane protocol stack of FIG. 2A.

[0006] FIG. 4A illustrates an example downlink data flow through the NR user plane protocol stack of FIG. 2A.

[0007] FIG. 4B illustrates an example format of a MAC subheader in a MAC PDU.

[0008] FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B respectively illustrate a mapping between logical channels, transport channels, and physical channels for the downlink and uplink.

[0009] FIG. 6 is an example diagram showing RRC state transitions of a UE.

[0010] FIG. 7 illustrates an example configuration of an NR frame into which OFDM symbols are grouped.

[0011] FIG. 8 illustrates an example configuration of a slot in the time and frequency domain for an NR carrier.

[0012] FIG. 9 illustrates an example of bandwidth adaptation using three configured BWPs for an NR carrier.

[0013] FIG. 10A illustrates three carrier aggregation configurations with two component carriers.

[0014] FIG. 10B illustrates an example of how aggregated cells may be configured into one or morePUCCH groups.

[0015] FIG. 11A illustrates an example of an SS / PBCH block structure and location.

[0016] FIG. 11 B illustrates an example of CSI-RSs that are mapped in the time and frequency domains.

[0017] FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B respectively illustrate examples of three downlink and uplink beam management procedures.

[0018] FIG. 13A, FIG. 13B, and FIG. 13C respectively illustrate a four-step contention-based random access procedure, a two-step contention-free random access procedure, and another two-step random access procedure.

[0019] FIG. 14A illustrates an example of CORESET configurations for a bandwidth part.

[0020] FIG. 14B illustrates an example of a CCE-to-REG mapping for DCI transmission on a CORESET and PDCCH processing.

[0021] FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a wireless device in communication with a base station.

[0022] FIG. 16A, FIG. 16B, FIG. 16C, and FIG. 16D illustrate example structures for uplink and downlink transmission.

[0023] FIG. 17 illustrates an aspect of an example embodiment according to the present disclosure.

[0024] FIG. 18 illustrates an aspect of an example embodiment according to the present disclosure.

[0025] FIG. 19 illustrates an aspect of an example embodiment according to the present disclosure.

[0026] FIG. 20 illustrates an aspect of an example embodiment according to the present disclosure.

[0027] FIG. 21 illustrates an aspect of an example embodiment according to the present disclosure

[0028] FIG. 22 illustrates an aspect of an example embodiment according to the present disclosure.

[0029] FIG. 23 illustrates an aspect of an example embodiment according to the present disclosure.

[0030] FIG. 24 illustrates an aspect of an example embodiment according to the present disclosure.

[0031] FIG. 25 illustrates an aspect of an example embodiment according to the present disclosure

[0032] FIG. 26 illustrates an aspect of an example embodiment according to the present disclosure.

[0033] FIG. 27 illustrates an aspect of an example embodiment according to the present disclosure.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0034] In the present disclosure, various embodiments are presented as examples of how the disclosed techniques may be implemented and / or how the disclosed techniques may be practiced in environments and scenarios. It will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art that various changes in form and detail can be made therein without departing from the scope. In fact, after reading the description, it will be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art how to implement alternative embodiments. The present embodiments should not be limited by any of the described exemplary embodiments. The embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Limitations, features, and / or elements from the disclosed example embodiments may be combined to create further embodiments within the scope of the disclosure. Any figures which highlight the functionality and advantages, are presented for example purposes only. The disclosed architecture is sufficiently flexible andconfigurable, such that it may be utilized in ways other than that shown. For example, the actions listed in any flowchart may be re-ordered or only optionally used in some embodiments.

[0035] Embodiments may be configured to operate as needed. The disclosed mechanism may be performed when certain criteria are met, for example, in a wireless device, a base station, a radio environment, a network, a combination of the above, and / or the like. Example criteria may be based, at least in part, on for example, wireless device or network node configurations, traffic load, initial system set up, packet sizes, traffic characteristics, a combination of the above, and / or the like. When the one or more criteria are met, various example embodiments may be applied. Therefore, it may be possible to implement example embodiments that selectively implement disclosed protocols.

[0036] A base station may communicate with a mix of wireless devices. Wireless devices and / or base stations may support multiple technologies, and / or multiple releases of the same technology. Wireless devices may have some specific capability(ies) depending on wireless device category and / or capability(ies). When this disclosure refers to a base station communicating with a plurality of wireless devices, this disclosure may refer to a subset of the total wireless devices in a coverage area. This disclosure may refer to, for example, a plurality of wireless devices of a given LTE or 5G release with a given capability and in a given sector of the base station. The plurality of wireless devices in this disclosure may refer to a selected plurality of wireless devices, and / or a subset of total wireless devices in a coverage area which perform according to disclosed methods, and / or the like. There may be a plurality of base stations or a plurality of wireless devices in a coverage area that may not comply with the disclosed methods, for example, those wireless devices or base stations may perform based on older releases of LTE or 5G technology.

[0037] In this disclosure, “a” and “an’’ and similar phrases are to be interpreted as “at least one” and “one or more.” Similarly, any term that ends with the suffix “(s)” is to be interpreted as “at least one” and “one or more.” In this disclosure, the term “may” is to be interpreted as “may, for example.” In other words, the term “may” is indicative that the phrase following the term “may” is an example of one of a multitude of suitable possibilities that may, or may not, be employed by one or more of the various embodiments. The terms “comprises” and “consists of’, as used herein, enumerate one or more components of the element being described. The term “comprises” is interchangeable with “includes” and does not exclude unenumerated components from being included in the element being described. By contrast, “consists of' provides a complete enumeration of the one or more components of the element being described. The term “based on”, as used herein, should be interpreted as “based at least in part on” rather than, for example, “based solely on”. The term “and / or” as used herein represents any possible combination of enumerated elements. For example, “A, B, and / or C” may represent A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; or A, B, and C.

[0038] If A and B are sets and every element of A is an element of B, A is called a subset of B. In this specification, only non-empty sets and subsets are considered. For example, possible subsets of B = {cell 1 , cell2} are: {celH }, {cell2}, and {celH , cell2}. The phrase “based on" (or equally “based at least on") is indicative that the phrase following the term “based on” is an example of one of a multitude of suitable possibilities that may, or may not, be employed to one or more of the various embodiments. The phrase “in response to” (or equally “in response at least to”) is indicative that the phrase following the phrase “in response to” is an example of one of a multitude of suitable possibilities that may, or may not, be employed to one or more of the various embodiments. The phrase “depending on” (or equally “depending at least to”) is indicative that the phrase following the phrase “depending on” is an example of one of a multitude of suitable possibilities that may, or may not, be employed to one or more of the various embodiments. The phrase “employing / using” (or equally “employing / using at least”) is indicative that the phrase following the phrase “employing / using" is an example of one of a multitude of suitable possibilities that may, or may not, be employed to one or more of the various embodiments.

[0039] The term configured may relate to the capacity of a device whether the device is in an operational or non-operational state. Configured may refer to specific settings in a device that affect or implement the operational characteristics of the device whether the device is in an operational or non-operational state. In other words, the hardware, software, firmware, registers, memory values, and / or the like may be “configured” within a device, whether the device is in an operational or nonoperational state, to provide the device with specific characteristics. Terms such as “a control message to cause in a device” may mean that a control message has parameters that may be used to configure specific characteristics or may be used to implement certain actions in the device, whether the device is in an operational or non-operational state.

[0040] In this disclosure, parameters (or equally called, fields, or Information elements: lEs) may comprise one or more information objects, and an information object may comprise one or more other objects. For example, if parameter (IE) N comprises parameter (IE) M, and parameter (IE) M comprises parameter (IE) K, and parameter (IE) K comprises parameter (information element) J. Then, for example, N comprises K, and N comprises J. In an example embodiment, when one or more messages comprise a plurality of parameters, it implies that a parameter in the plurality of parameters is in at least one of the one or more messages, but does not have to be in each of the one or more messages.

[0041] Many features presented are described as being optional through the use of “may” or the use of parentheses. For the sake of brevity and legibility, the present disclosure does not explicitly recite each and every permutation that may be obtained by choosing from the set of optional features. The present disclosure is to be interpreted as explicitly disclosing all such permutations. For example, a system described as having three optional features may be embodied in seven ways, namely with just one of thethree possible features, with any two of the three possible features or with three of the three possible features.

[0042] Many of the elements described in the disclosed embodiments may be implemented as modules. A module is defined here as an element that performs a defined function and has a defined interface to other elements. The modules described in this disclosure may be implemented in hardware, software in combination with hardware, firmware, wetware (e.g. hardware with a biological element) or a combination thereof, which may be behaviorally equivalent. For example, modules may be implemented as a software routine written in a computer language configured to be executed by a hardware machine (such as C, C++, Fortran, Java, Basic, MATLAB or the like) or a modeling / simulation program such as Simulink, Stateflow, GNU Octave, or LabVIEWMathScript. It may be possible to implement modules using physical hardware that incorporates discrete or programmable analog, digital and / or quantum hardware. Examples of programmable hardware comprise: computers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs); field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs); and complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs). Computers, microcontrollers and microprocessors are programmed using languages such as assembly, C, C++ or the like. FPGAs, ASICs and CPLDs are often programmed using hardware description languages (HDL) such as VHSIC hardware description language (VHDL) or Verilog that configure connections between internal hardware modules with lesser functionality on a programmable device. The mentioned technologies are often used in combination to achieve the result of a functional module.

[0043] FIG. 1 A illustrates an example of a mobile communication network 100 in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. The mobile communication network 100 may be, for example, a public land mobile network (PLMN) run by a network operator. As illustrated in FIG. 1A, the mobile communication network 100 includes a core network (CN) 102, a radio access network (RAN) 104, and a wireless device 106.

[0044] The CN 102 may provide the wireless device 106 with an interface to one or more data networks (DNs), such as public DNs (e.g., the Internet), private DNs, and / or intra-operator DNs. As part of the interface functionality, the CN 102 may set up end-to-end connections between the wireless device 106 and the one or more DNs, authenticate the wireless device 106, and provide charging functionality.

[0045] The RAN 104 may connect the CN 102 to the wireless device 106 through radio communications over an air interface. As part of the radio communications, the RAN 104 may provide scheduling, radio resource management, and retransmission protocols. The communication direction from the RAN 104 to the wireless device 106 over the air interface is known as the downlink and the communication direction from the wireless device 106 to the RAN 104 over the air interface is known as the uplink. Downlinktransmissions may be separated from uplink transmissions using frequency division duplexing (FDD), timedivision duplexing (TDD), and / or some combination of the two duplexing techniques.

[0046] The term wireless device may be used throughout this disclosure to refer to and encompass any mobile device or fixed (non-mobile) device for which wireless communication is needed or usable. For example, a wireless device may be a telephone, smart phone, tablet, computer, laptop, sensor, meter, wearable device, Internet of Things (loT) device, vehicle roadside unit (RSU), relay node, automobile, and / or any combination thereof. The term wireless device encompasses other terminology, including user equipment (UE), user terminal (UT), access terminal (AT), mobile station, handset, wireless transmit and receive unit (WTRU), and / or wireless communication device.

[0047] The RAN 104 may include one or more base stations (not shown). The term base station may be used throughout this disclosure to refer to and encompass a Node B (associated with UMTS and / or 3G standards), an Evolved Node B (eNB, associated with E-UTRA and / or 4G standards), a remote radio head (RRH), a baseband processing unit coupled to one or more RRHs, a repeater node or relay node used to extend the coverage area of a donor node, a Next Generation Evolved Node B (ng-eNB), a Generation Node B (gNB, associated with NR and / or 5G standards), an access point (AP, associated with, for example, Wi-Fi or any other suitable wireless communication standard), and / or any combination thereof. A base station may comprise at least one gNB Central Unit (gNB-CU) and at least one a gNB Distributed Unit (gNB-DU).

[0048] A base station included in the RAN 104 may include one or more sets of antennas for communicating with the wireless device 106 over the air interface. For example, one or more of the base stations may include three sets of antennas to respectively control three cells (or sectors). The size of a cell may be determined by a range at which a receiver (e.g., a base station receiver) can successfully receive the transmissions from a transmitter (e.g., a wireless device transmitter) operating in the cell. Together, the cells of the base stations may provide radio coverage to the wireless device 106 over a wide geographic area to support wireless device mobility.

[0049] In addition to three-sector sites, other implementations of base stations are possible. For example, one or more of the base stations in the RAN 104 may be implemented as a sectored site with more or less than three sectors. One or more of the base stations in the RAN 104 may be implemented as an access point, as a baseband processing unit coupled to several remote radio heads (RRHs), and / or as a repeater or relay node used to extend the coverage area of a donor node. A baseband processing unit coupled to RRHs may be part of a centralized or cloud RAN architecture, where the baseband processing unit may be either centralized in a pool of baseband processing units or virtualized. A repeater node may amplify and rebroadcast a radio signal received from a donor node. A relay node may perform the same / similarfunctions as a repeater node but may decode the radio signal received from the donor node to remove noise before amplifying and rebroadcasting the radio signal.

[0050] The RAN 104 may be deployed as a homogenous network of macrocell base stations that have similar antenna patterns and similar high-level transmit powers. The RAN 104 may be deployed as a heterogeneous network. In heterogeneous networks, small cell base stations may be used to provide small coverage areas, for example, coverage areas that overlap with the comparatively larger coverage areas provided by macrocell base stations. The small coverage areas may be provided in areas with high data traffic (or so-called “hotspots”) or in areas with weak macrocell coverage. Examples of small cell base stations include, in order of decreasing coverage area, microcell base stations, picocell base stations, and femtocell base stations or home base stations.

[0051] The Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) was formed in 1998 to provide global standardization of specifications for mobile communication networks similar to the mobile communication network 100 in FIG. 1A. To date, 3GPP has produced specifications for three generations of mobile networks: a third generation (3G) network known as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a fourth generation (4G) network known as Long-Term Evolution (LTE), and a fifth generation (5G) network known as 5G System (5GS). Embodiments of the present disclosure are described with reference to the RAN of a 3GPP 5G network, referred to as next-generation RAN (NG-RAN). Embodiments may be applicable to RANs of other mobile communication networks, such as the RAN 104 in FIG. 1A, the RANs of earlier 3G and 4G networks, and those of future networks yet to be specified (e.g., a 3GPP 6G network). NG-RAN implements 5G radio access technology known as New Radio (NR) and may be provisioned to implement 4G radio access technology or other radio access technologies, including non- 3GPP radio access technologies.

[0052] FIG. 1 B illustrates another example mobile communication network 150 in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. Mobile communication network 150 may be, for example, a PLMN run by a network operator. As illustrated in FIG. 1 B, mobile communication network 150 includes a 5G core network (5G-CN) 152, an NG-RAN 154, and UEs 156A and 156B (collectively UEs 156). These components may be implemented and operate in the same or similar manner as corresponding components described with respect to FIG 1 A.

[0053] The 5G-CN 152 provides the UEs 156 with an interface to one or more DNs, such as public DNs (e.g., the Internet), private DNs, and / or intra-operator DNs. As part of the interface functionality, the 5G-CN 152 may set up end-to-end connections between the UEs 156 and the one or more DNs, authenticate the UEs 156, and provide charging functionality. Compared to the CN of a 3GPP 4G network, the basis of the 5G-CN 152 may be a service-based architecture. This means that the architecture of the nodes making up the 5G-CN 152 may be defined as network functions that offer services via interfaces to other networkfunctions. The network functions of the 5G-CN 152 may be implemented in several ways, including as network elements on dedicated or shared hardware, as software instances running on dedicated or shared hardware, or as virtualized functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud-based platform).

[0054] As illustrated in FIG. 1 B, the 5G-CN 152 includes an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 158A and a User Plane Function (UPF) 158B, which are shown as one component AMF / UPF 158 in FIG. 1 B for ease of illustration. The UPF 158B may serve as a gateway between the NG-RAN 154 and the one or more DNs. The UPF 158B may perform functions such as packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection and user plane policy rule enforcement, traffic usage reporting, uplink classification to support routing of traffic flows to the one or more DNs, quality of service (QoS) handling for the user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, uplink / downlink rate enforcement, and uplink traffic verification), downlink packet buffering, and downlink data notification triggering. The UPF 158B may serve as an anchor point for intra- / inter-Radio Access Technology (RAT) mobility, an external protocol (or packet) data unit (PDU) session point of interconnect to the one or more DNs, and / or a branching point to support a multi-homed PDU session. The UEs 156 may be configured to receive services through a PDU session, which is a logical connection between a UE and a DN

[0055] The AMF 158A may perform functions such as Non-Access Stratum (NAS) signaling termination, NAS signaling security, Access Stratum (AS) security control, inter-CN node signaling for mobility between 3GPP access networks, idle mode UE reachability (e.g., control and execution of paging retransmission), registration area management, intra-system and inter-system mobility support, access authentication, access authorization including checking of roaming rights, mobility management control (subscription and policies), network slicing support, and / or session management function (SMF) selection. NAS may refer to the functionality operating between a CN and a UE, and AS may refer to the functionality operating between the UE and a RAN.

[0056] The 5G-CN 152 may include one or more additional network functions that are not shown in FIG 1 B for the sake of clarity. For example, the 5G-CN 152 may include one or more of a Session Management Function (SMF), an NR Repository Function (NRF), a Policy Control Function (PCF), a Network Exposure Function (NEF), a Unified Data Management (UDM), an Application Function (AF), and / or an Authentication Server Function (AUSF).

[0057] The NG-RAN 154 may connect the 5G-CN 152 to the UEs 156 through radio communications over the air interface. The NG-RAN 154 may include one or more gNBs, illustrated as gNB 160A and gNB 160B (collectively gNBs 160) and / or one or more ng-eNBs, illustrated as ng-eNB 162A and ng-eNB 162B (collectively ng-eNBs 162). The gNBs 160 and ng-eNBs 162 may be more generically referred to as base stations. The gNBs 160 and ng-eNBs 162 may include one or more sets of antennas for communicating with the UEs 156 over an air interface. For example, one or more of the gNBs 160 and / or one or more ofthe ng-eNBs 162 may include three sets of antennas to respectively control three cells (or sectors). Together, the cells of the gNBs 160 and the ng-eNBs 162 may provide radio coverage to the UEs 156 over a wide geographic area to support UE mobility.

[0058] As shown in FIG. 1 B, the gNBs 160 and / or the ng-eNBs 162 may be connected to the 5G-CN 152 by means of an NG interface and to other base stations by an Xn interface. The NG and Xn interfaces may be established using direct physical connections and / or indirect connections over an underlying transport network, such as an internet protocol (IP) transport network. The gNBs 160 and / or the ng-eNBs 162 may be connected to the UEs 156 by means of a Uu interface. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 1 B, gNB 160A may be connected to the UE 156A by means of a Uu interface. The NG, Xn, and Uu interfaces are associated with a protocol stack. The protocol stacks associated with the interfaces may be used by the network elements in FIG. 1 B to exchange data and signaling messages and may include two planes: a user plane and a control plane. The user plane may handle data of interest to a user. The control plane may handle signaling messages of interest to the network elements.

[0059] The gNBs 160 and / or the ng-eNBs 162 may be connected to one or more AMF / UPF functions of the 5G-CN 152, such as the AMF / UPF 158, by means of one or more NG interfaces. For example, the gNB 160A may be connected to the UPF 158B of the AMF / UPF 158 by means of an NG-User plane (NG-U) interface. The NG-U interface may provide delivery (e.g., non-guaranteed delivery) of user plane PDUs between the gNB 160A and the UPF 158B. The gNB 160A may be connected to the AMF 158A by means of an NG-Control plane (NG-C) interface. The NG-C interface may provide, for example, NG interface management, UE context management, UE mobility management, transport of NAS messages, paging, PDU session management, and configuration transfer and / or warning message transmission.

[0060] The gNBs 160 may provide NR user plane and control plane protocol terminations towards the UEs 156 over the Uu interface. For example, the gNB 160A may provide NR user plane and control plane protocol terminations toward the UE 156A over a Uu interface associated with a first protocol stack. The ng- eNBs 162 may provide Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) user plane and control plane protocol terminations towards the UEs 156 over a Uu interface, where E-UTRA refers to the 3GPP 4G radio-access technology. For example, the ng-eNB 162B may provide E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminations towards the UE 156B over a Uu interface associated with a second protocol stack.

[0061] The 5G-CN 152 was described as being configured to handle NR and 4G radio accesses. It will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that it may be possible for NR to connect to a 4G core network in a mode known as “non-standalone operation.” In non-standalone operation, a 4G core network is used to provide (or at least support) control-plane functionality (e.g., initial access, mobility, and paging). Althoughonly one AMF / UPF 158 is shown in FIG. 1 B, one gNB or ng-eNB may be connected to multiple AMF / UPF nodes to provide redundancy and / or to load share across the multiple AMF / UPF nodes.

[0062] As discussed, an interface (e.g., Uu, Xn, and NG interfaces) between the network elements in FIG. 1 B may be associated with a protocol stack that the network elements use to exchange data and signaling messages. A protocol stack may include two planes: a user plane and a control plane. The user plane may handle data of interest to a user, and the control plane may handle signaling messages of interest to the network elements.

[0063] FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B respectively illustrate examples of NR user plane and NR control plane protocol stacks for the Uu interface that lies between a UE 210 and a gNB 220. The protocol stacks illustrated in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B may be the same or similar to those used for the Uu interface between, for example, the UE 156A and the gNB 160A shown in FIG. 1 B.

[0064] FIG. 2A illustrates a NR user plane protocol stack comprising five layers implemented in the UE 210 and the gNB 220. At the bottom of the protocol stack, physical layers (PHYs) 211 and 221 may provide transport services to the higher layers of the protocol stack and may correspond to layer 1 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. The next four protocols above PHYs 211 and 221 comprise media access control layers (MACs) 212 and 222, radio link control layers (RLCs) 213 and 223, packet data convergence protocol layers (PDCPs) 214 and 224, and service data application protocol layers (SDAPs) 215 and 225. Together, these four protocols may make up layer 2, or the data link layer, of the OSI model.

[0065] FIG. 3 illustrates an example of services provided between protocol layers of the NR user plane protocol stack. Starting from the top of FIG. 2A and FIG. 3, the SDAPs 215 and 225 may perform QoS flow handling. The UE 210 may receive services through a PDU session, which may be a logical connection between the UE 210 and a DN. The PDU session may have one or more QoS flows. A UPF of a CN (e.g., the UPF 158B) may map IP packets to the one or more QoS flows of the PDU session based on QoS requirements (e.g., in terms of delay, data rate, and / or error rate). The SDAPs 215 and 225 may perform mapping / de-mapping between the one or more QoS flows and one or more data radio bearers. The mapping / de-mapping between the QoS flows and the data radio bearers may be determined by the SDAP 225 at the gNB 220. The SDAP 215 at the UE 210 may be informed of the mapping between the QoS flows and the data radio bearers through reflective mapping or control signaling received from the gNB 220. For reflective mapping, the SDAP 225 at the gNB 220 may mark the downlink packets with a QoS flow indicator (QFI), which may be observed by the SDAP 215 at the UE 210 to determine the mapping / de-mapping between the QoS flows and the data radio bearers.

[0066] The PDCPs 214 and 224 may perform header compression / decompression to reduce the amount of data that needs to be transmitted over the air interface, ciphering / deciphering to prevent unauthorized decoding of data transmitted over the air interface, and integrity protection (to ensure control messagesoriginate from intended sources The PDCPs 214 and 224 may perform retransmissions of undelivered packets, in-sequence delivery and reordering of packets, and removal of packets received in duplicate due to, for example, an intra-g NB handover. The PDCPs 214 and 224 may perform packet duplication to improve the likelihood of the packet being received and, at the receiver, remove any duplicate packets. Packet duplication may be useful for services that require high reliability.

[0067] Although not shown in FIG. 3, PDCPs 214 and 224 may perform mapping / de-mapping between a split radio bearer and RLC channels in a dual connectivity scenario. Dual connectivity is a technique that allows a UE to connect to two cells or, more generally, two cell groups: a master cell group (MCG) and a secondary cell group (SCG). A split bearer is when a single radio bearer, such as one of the radio bearers provided by the PDCPs 214 and 224 as a service to the SDAPs 215 and 225, is handled by cell groups in dual connectivity. The PDCPs 214 and 224 may map / de-map the split radio bearer between RLC channels belonging to cell groups.

[0068] The RLCs 213 and 223 may perform segmentation, retransmission through Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ), and removal of duplicate data units received from MACs 212 and 222, respectively. The RLCs 213 and 223 may support three transmission modes: transparent mode (TM); unacknowledged mode (UM); and acknowledged mode (AM). Based on the transmission mode an RLC is operating, the RLC may perform one or more of the noted functions. The RLC configuration may be per logical channel with no dependency on numerologies and / or Transmission Time Interval (TTI) durations. As shown in FIG. 3, the RLCs 213 and 223 may provide RLC channels as a service to PDCPs 214 and 224, respectively.

[0069] The MACs 212 and 222 may perform multiplexing / demultiplexing of logical channels and / or mapping between logical channels and transport channels. The multiplexing / demultiplexing may include multiplexing / demultiplexing of data units, belonging to the one or more logical channels, into / from Transport Blocks (TBs) delivered to / from the PHYs 211 and 221 . The MAC 222 may be configured to perform scheduling, scheduling information reporting, and priority handling between UEs by means of dynamic scheduling. Scheduling may be performed in the gNB 220 (at the MAC 222) for downlink and uplink. The MACs 212 and 222 may be configured to perform error correction through Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) (e.g., one HARQ entity per carrier in case of Carrier Aggregation (CA)), priority handling between logical channels of the UE 210 by means of logical channel prioritization, and / or padding. The MACs 212 and 222 may support one or more numerologies and / or transmission timings. In an example, mapping restrictions in a logical channel prioritization may control which numerology and / or transmission timing a logical channel may use. As shown in FIG. 3, the MACs 212 and 222 may provide logical channels as a service to the RLCs 213 and 223.

[0070] The PHYs 211 and 221 may perform mapping of transport channels to physical channels and digital and analog signal processing functions for sending and receiving information over the air interface.These digital and analog signal processing functions may include, for example, coding / decoding and modulation / demodulation. The PHYs 211 and 221 may perform multi-antenna mapping. As shown in FIG. 3, the PHYs 211 and 221 may provide one or more transport channels as a service to the MACs 212 and 222.

[0071] FIG. 4A illustrates an example downlink data flow through the NR user plane protocol stack. FIG. 4A illustrates a downlink data flow of three IP packets (n, n+1, and m) through the NR user plane protocol stack to generate two TBs at the gNB 220. An uplink data flow through the NR user plane protocol stack may be similar to the downlink data flow depicted in FIG. 4A.

[0072] The downlink data flow of FIG. 4A begins when SDAP 225 receives the three IP packets from one or more QoS flows and maps the three packets to radio bearers In FIG. 4A, the SDAP 225 maps IP packets n and n+1 to a first radio bearer 402 and maps IP packet m to a second radio bearer 404. An SDAP header (labeled with an “H” in FIG. 4A) is added to an IP packet. The data unit from / to a higher protocol layer is referred to as a service data unit (SDU) of the lower protocol layer and the data unit to / from a lower protocol layer is referred to as a protocol data unit (PDU) of the higher protocol layer. As shown in FIG 4A, the data unit from the SDAP 225 is an SDU of lower protocol layer PDCP 224 and is a PDU of the SDAP 225.

[0073] The remaining protocol layers in FIG. 4A may perform their associated functionality (e.g., with respect to FIG. 3), add corresponding headers, and forward their respective outputs to the next lower layer. For example, the PDCP 224 may perform IP-header compression and ciphering and forward its output to the RLC 223. The RLC 223 may optionally perform segmentation (e.g., as shown for IP packet m in FIG. 4A) and forward its output to the MAC 222. The MAC 222 may multiplex a number of RLC PDUs and may attach a MAC subheader to an RLC PDU to form a transport block. In NR, the MAC subheaders may be distributed across the MAC PDU, as illustrated in FIG. 4A. In LTE, the MAC subheaders may be entirely located at the beginning of the MAC PDU. The NR MAC PDU structure may reduce processing time and associated latency because the MAC PDU subheaders may be computed before the full MAC PDU is assembled.

[0074] FIG. 4B illustrates an example format of a MAC subheader in a MAC PDU. The MAC subheader includes: an SDU length field for indicating the length (e.g., in bytes) of the MAC SDU to which the MAC subheader corresponds; a logical channel identifier (LCID) field for identifying the logical channel from which the MAC SDU originated to aid in the demultiplexing process; a flag (F) for indicating the size of the SDU length field; and a reserved bit (R) field for future use.

[0075] FIG. 4B further illustrates MAC control elements (CEs) inserted into the MAC PDU by a MAC, such as MAC 223 or MAC 222 For example, FIG. 4B illustrates two MAC CEs inserted into the MAC PDU. MAC CEs may be inserted at the beginning of a MAC PDU for downlink transmissions (as shown in FIG. 4B) andat the end of a MAC PDU for uplink transmissions. MAC CEs may be used for in-band control signaling. Example MAC CEs include: scheduling-related MAC CEs, such as buffer status reports and power headroom reports; activation / deactivation MAC CEs, such as those for activation / deactivation of EDGE duplication detection, channel state information (CSI) reporting, sounding reference signal (SRS) transmission, and prior configured components; discontinuous reception (DRX) related MAC CEs; timing advance MAC CEs; and random access related MAC CEs. A MAC CE may be preceded by a MAC subheader with a similar format as described for MAC SDUs and may be identified with a reserved value in the LCID field that indicates the type of control information included in the MAC CE.

[0076] Before describing the NR control plane protocol stack, logical channels, transport channels, and physical channels are first described as well as a mapping between the channel types. One or more of the channels may be used to carry out functions associated with the NR control plane protocol stack described later below.

[0077] FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B illustrate, for downlink and uplink respectively, a mapping between logical channels, transport channels, and physical channels. Information is passed through channels between the RLC, the MAC, and the RHY of the NR protocol stack. A logical channel may be used between the RLC and the MAC and may be classified as a control channel that carries control and configuration information in the NR control plane or as a traffic channel that carries data in the NR user plane. A logical channel may be classified as a dedicated logical channel that is dedicated to a specific UE or as a common logical channel that may be used by more than one UE. A logical channel may also be defined by the type of information it carries. The set of logical channels defined by NR include, for example:

[0078] - a paging control channel (RCCH) for carrying paging messages used to page a UE whose location is not known to the network on a cell level;

[0079] - a broadcast control channel (BCCH) for carrying system information messages in the form of a master information block (MIB) and several system information blocks (SIBs), wherein the system information messages may be used by the UEs to obtain information about how a cell is configured and how to operate within the cell;

[0080] - a common control channel (CCCH) for carrying control messages together with random access;

[0081] - a dedicated control channel (DCCH) for carrying control messages to / from a specific the UE to configure the UE; and

[0082] - a dedicated traffic channel (DTCH) for carrying user data to / from a specific the UE.

[0083] Transport channels are used between the MAC and RHY layers and may be defined by how the information they carry is transmitted over the air interface. The set of transport channels defined by NR include, for example:

[0084] - a paging channel (RCH) for carrying paging messages that originated from the RCCH;

[0085] -- a broadcast channel (BCH) for carrying the M IB from the BCCH;

[0086] - a downlink shared channel (DL-SCH) for carrying downlink data and signaling messages, including the SIBs from the BCCH;

[0087] - an uplink shared channel (UL-SCH) for carrying uplink data and signaling messages; and

[0088] - a random access channel (RACH) for allowing a UE to contact the network without any prior scheduling.

[0089] The PHY may use physical channels to pass information between processing levels of the PHY. A physical channel may have an associated set of time-frequency resources for carrying the information of one or more transport channels. The PHY may generate control information to support the low-level operation of the PHY and provide the control information to the lower levels of the PHY via physical control channels, known as L1 / L2 control channels. The set of physical channels and physical control channels defined by NR include, for example:

[0090] - a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) for carrying the MIB from the BCH;

[0091] - a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) for carrying downlink data and signaling messages from the DL-SCH, as well as paging messages from the PCH;

[0092] - a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for carrying downlink control information (DCI), which may include downlink scheduling commands, uplink scheduling grants, and uplink power control commands;

[0093] - a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) for carrying uplink data and signaling messages from the UL-SCH and in some instances uplink control information (UCI) as described below;

[0094] -- a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) for carrying UCI, which may include HARQ acknowledgments, channel quality indicators (CQI), pre-coding matrix indicators (PM I), rank indicators (Rl), and scheduling requests (SR); and

[0095] - a physical random access channel (PRACH) for random access.

[0096] Similar to the physical control channels, the physical layer generates physical signals to support the low-level operation of the physical layer. As shown in FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B, the physical layer signals defined by NR include: primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondary synchronization signals (SSS), channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS), demodulation reference signals (DMRS), sounding reference signals (SRS), and phase-tracking reference signals (PT-RS). These physical layer signals will be described in greater detail below.

[0097] FIG. 2B illustrates an example NR control plane protocol stack. As shown in FIG. 2B, the NR control plane protocol stack may use the same / similar first four protocol layers as the example NR user plane protocol stack. These four protocol layers include the PHYs 211 and 221 , the MACs 212 and 222, the RLCs 213 and 223, and the PDCPs 214 and 224. Instead of having the SDAPs 215 and 225 at the top ofthe stack as in the NR user plane protocol stack, the NR control plane stack has radio resource controls (RRCs) 216 and 226 and NAS protocols 217 and 237 at the top of the NR control plane protocol stack.

[0098] The NAS protocols 217 and 237 may provide control plane functionality between the UE 210 and the AMF 230 (e.g., the AMF 158A) or, more generally, between the UE 210 and the CN. The NAS protocols 217 and 237 may provide control plane functionality between the UE 210 and the AMF 230 via signaling messages, referred to as NAS messages. There is no direct path between the UE 210 and the AMF 230 through which the NAS messages can be transported. The NAS messages may be transported using the AS of the Uu and NG interfaces. NAS protocols 217 and 237 may provide control plane functionality such as authentication, security, connection setup, mobility management, and session management.

[0099] The RRCs 216 and 226 may provide control plane functionality between the UE 210 and the gNB 220 or, more generally, between the UE 210 and the RAN. The RRCs 216 and 226 may provide control plane functionality between the UE 210 and the gNB 220 via signaling messages, referred to as RRC messages. RRC messages may be transmitted between the UE 210 and the RAN using signaling radio bearers and the same / similar PDCP, RLC, MAC, and PHY protocol layers. The MAC may multiplex controlplane and user-plane data into the same transport block (TB). The RRCs 216 and 226 may provide control plane functionality such as: broadcast of system information related to AS and NAS; paging initiated by the CN or the RAN; establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC connection between the UE 210 and the RAN; security functions including key management; establishment, configuration, maintenance and release of signaling radio bearers and data radio bearers; mobility functions; QoS management functions; the UE measurement reporting and control of the reporting; detection of and recovery from radio link failure (RLF); and / or NAS message transfer. As part of establishing an RRC connection, RRCs 216 and 226 may establish an RRC context, which may involve configuring parameters for communication between the UE 210 and the RAN.

[0100] FIG. 6 is an example diagram showing RRC state transitions of a UE. The UE may be the same or similar to the wireless device 106 depicted in FIG. 1A, the UE 210 depicted in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, or any other wireless device described in the present disclosure. As illustrated in FIG. 6, a UE may be in at least one of three RRC states: RRC connected 602 (e.g., RRC_CONNECTED), RRC idle 604 (e.g., RRC_I DEE), and RRC inactive 606 (e.g., RRCJNACTIVE).

[0101] In RRC connected 602, the UE has an established RRC context and may have at least one RRC connection with a base station. The base station may be similar to one of the one or more base stations included in the RAN 104 depicted in FIG. 1A, one of the gNBs 160 or ng-eNBs 162 depicted in FIG. 1 B, the gNB 220 depicted in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, or any other base station described in the present disclosure. The base station with which the UE is connected may have the RRC context for the UE. The RRC context, referred to as the UE context, may comprise parameters for communication between the UE and the basestation. These parameters may include, for example: one or more AS contexts; one or more radio link configuration parameters; bearer configuration information (e.g., relating to a data radio bearer, signaling radio bearer, logical channel, QoS flow, and / or PDU session); security information; and / or PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP, and / or SDAP layer configuration information. While in RRC connected 602, mobility of the UE may be managed by the RAN (e.g., the RAN 104 or the NG-RAN 154). The UE may measure the signal levels (e.g., reference signal levels) from a serving cell and neighboring cells and report these measurements to the base station currently serving the UE. The UE's serving base station may request a handover to a cell of one of the neighboring base stations based on the reported measurements. The RRC state may transition from RRC connected 602 to RRC idle 604 through a connection release procedure 608 or to RRC inactive 606 through a connection inactivation procedure 610.

[0102] In RRC idle 604, an RRC context may not be established for the UE. In RRC idle 604, the UE may not have an RRC connection with the base station. While in RRC idle 604, the UE may be in a sleep state for the majority of the time (e.g., to conserve battery power). The UE may wake up periodically (e.g., once in every discontinuous reception cycle) to monitor for paging messages from the RAN. Mobility of the UE may be managed by the UE through a procedure known as cell reselection. The RRC state may transition from RRC idle 604 to RRC connected 602 through a connection establishment procedure 612, which may involve a random access procedure as discussed in greater detail below.

[0103] In RRC inactive 606, the RRC context previously established is maintained in the UE and the base station. This allows for a fast transition to RRC connected 602 with reduced signaling overhead as compared to the transition from RRC idle 604 to RRC connected 602. While in RRC inactive 606, the UE may be in a sleep state and mobility of the UE may be managed by the UE through cell reselection. The RRC state may transition from RRC inactive 606 to RRC connected 602 through a connection resume procedure 614 or to RRC idle 604 though a connection release procedure 616 that may be the same as or similar to connection release procedure 608.

[0104] An RRC state may be associated with a mobility management mechanism. In RRC idle 604 and RRC inactive 606, mobility is managed by the UE through cell reselection. The purpose of mobility management in RRC idle 604 and RRC inactive 606 is to allow the network to be able to notify the UE of an event via a paging message without having to broadcast the paging message over the entire mobile communications network. The mobility management mechanism used in RRC idle 604 and RRC inactive 606 may allow the network to track the UE on a cell-group level so that the paging message may be broadcast over the cells of the cell group that the UE currently resides within instead of the entire mobile communication network. The mobility management mechanisms for RRC idle 604 and RRC inactive 606 track the UE on a cell-group level. They may do so using different granularities of grouping. For example, there may be three levels of cell-grouping granularity: individual cells; cells within a RAN area identified bya RAN area identifier (RAI); and cells within a group of RAN areas, referred to as a tracking area and identified by a tracking area identifier (TAI).

[0105] Tracking areas may be used to track the UE at the CN level. The CN (e.g., the CN 102 or the 5G-CN 152) may provide the UE with a list of TAIs associated with a UE registration area. If the UE moves, through cell reselection, to a cell associated with a TAI not included in the list of TAIs associated with the UE registration area, the UE may perform a registration update with the CN to allow the CN to update the UE's location and provide the UE with a new the UE registration area.

[0106] RAN areas may be used to track the UE at the RAN level. For a UE in RRC inactive 606 state, the UE may be assigned a RAN notification area. A RAN notification area may comprise one or more cell identities, a list of RAIs, or a list of TAIs. In an example, a base station may belong to one or more RAN notification areas. In an example, a cell may belong to one or more RAN notification areas. If the UE moves, through cell reselection, to a cell not included in the RAN notification area assigned to the UE, the UE may perform a notification area update with the RAN to update the UE’s RAN notification area.

[0107] A base station storing an RRC context for a UE or a last serving base station of the UE may be referred to as an anchor base station. An anchor base station may maintain an RRC context for the UE at least during a period of time that the UE stays in a RAN notification area of the anchor base station and / or during a period of time that the UE stays in RRC inactive 606.

[0108] A g N B, such as gNBs 160 in FIG. 1 B, may be split into two parts: a central unit (gNB-CU), and one or more distributed units (gNB-DU). A gNB-CU may be coupled to one or more gNB-DUs using an F1 interface. The gNB-CU may comprise the RRC, the PDCP, and the SDAP. A gNB-DU may comprise the RLC, the MAC, and the PHY.

[0109] In NR, the physical signals and physical channels (discussed with respect to FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B) may be mapped onto orthogonal frequency divisional multiplexing (OFDM) symbols. OFDM is a multicarrier communication scheme that transmits data over F orthogonal subcarriers (or tones). Before transmission, the data may be mapped to a series of complex symbols (e.g., M-quadrature amplitude modulation (M- QAM) or M-phase shift keying (M-PSK) symbols), referred to as source symbols, and divided into F parallel symbol streams. The F parallel symbol streams may be treated as though they are in the frequency domain and used as inputs to an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) block that transforms them into the time domain. The IFFT block may take in F source symbols at a time, one from each of the F parallel symbol streams, and use each source symbol to modulate the amplitude and phase of one of F sinusoidal basis functions that correspond to the F orthogonal subcarriers. The output of the IFFT block may be F timedomain samples that represent the summation of the F orthogonal subcarriers. The F time-domain samples may form a single OFDM symbol. After some processing (e.g., addition of a cyclic prefix) and up- conversion, an OFDM symbol provided by the IFFT block may be transmitted over the air interface on acarrier frequency. The F parallel symbol streams may be mixed using an FFT block before being processed by the IFFT block. This operation produces Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT)-precoded OFDM symbols and may be used by UEs in the uplink to reduce the peak to average power ratio (PAPR). Inverse processing may be performed on the OFDM symbol at a receiver using an FFT block to recover the data mapped to the source symbols.

[0110] FIG. 7 illustrates an example configuration of an NR frame into which OFDM symbols are grouped. An NR frame may be identified by a system frame number (SFN). The SFN may repeat with a period of 1024 frames. As illustrated, one NR frame may be 10 milliseconds (ms) in duration and may include 10 subframes that are 1 ms in duration. A subframe may be divided into slots that include, for example, 14 OFDM symbols per slot.

[0111] The duration of a slot may depend on the numerology used for the OFDM symbols of the slot. In NR, a flexible numerology is supported to accommodate different cell deployments (e.g., cells with carrier frequencies below 1 GHz up to cells with carrier frequencies in the mm-wave range). A numerology may be defined in terms of subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix duration. For a numerology in NR, subcarrier spacings may be scaled up by powers of two from a baseline subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz, and cyclic prefix durations may be scaled down by powers of two from a baseline cyclic prefix duration of 4.7 ps. For example, NR defines numerologies with the following subcarrier spacing / cyclic prefix duration combinations: 15 kHz / 4.7 ps; 30 kHz / 2.3 ps; 60 kHz / 1.2 ps; 120 kHz / 0.59 ps; and 240 kHz / 0.29 ps.

[0112] A slot may have a fixed number of OFDM symbols (e.g., 14 OFDM symbols). A numerology with a higher subcarrier spacing has a shorter slot duration and, correspondingly, more slots per subframe. FIG. 7 illustrates this numerology-dependent slot duration and slots-per-subframe transmission structure (the numerology with a subcarrier spacing of 240 kHz is not shown in FIG. 7 for ease of illustration). A subframe in NR may be used as a numerology-independent time reference, while a slot may be used as the unit upon which uplink and downlink transmissions are scheduled. To support low latency, scheduling in NR may be decoupled from the slot duration and start at any OFDM symbol and last for as many symbols as needed for a transmission. These partial slot transmissions may be referred to as mini-slot or subslot transmissions.

[0113] FIG. 8 illustrates an example configuration of a slot in the time and frequency domain for an NR carrier. The slot includes resource elements (REs) and resource blocks (RBs). An RE is the smallest physical resource in NR. An RE spans one OFDM symbol in the time domain by one subcarrier in the frequency domain as shown in FIG. 8. An RB spans twelve consecutive REs in the frequency domain as shown in FIG. 8. An NR carrier may be limited to a width of 275 RBs or 275x12 = 3300 subcarriers. Such a limitation, if used, may limit the NR carrier to 50, 100, 200, and 400 MHz for subcarrier spacingsof 15, 30, 60, and 120 kHz, respectively, where the 400 MHz bandwidth may be set based on a 400 MHz per carrier bandwidth limit.

[0114] FIG. 8 illustrates a single numerology being used across the entire bandwidth of the NR carrier. In other example configurations, multiple numerologies may be supported on the same carrier.

[0115] NR may support wide carrier bandwidths (e.g., up to 400 MHz for a subcarrier spacing of 120 kHz). Not all UEs may be able to receive the full carrier bandwidth (e.g., due to hardware limitations). Also, receiving the full carrier bandwidth may be prohibitive in terms of UE power consumption. In an example, to reduce power consumption and / or for other purposes, a UE may adapt the size of the UE’s receive bandwidth based on the amount of traffic the UE is scheduled to receive. This is referred to as bandwidth adaptation.

[0116] NR defines bandwidth parts (BWPs) to support UEs not capable of receiving the full carrier bandwidth and to support bandwidth adaptation. In an example, a BWP may be defined by a subset of contiguous RBs on a carrier. A UE may be configured (e.g., via RRC layer) with one or more downlink BWPs and one or more uplink BWPs per serving cell (e.g., up to four downlink BWPs and up to four uplink BWPs per serving cell). At a given time, one or more of the configured BWPs for a serving cell may be active. These one or more BWPs may be referred to as active BWPs of the serving cell. When a serving cell is configured with a secondary uplink carrier, the serving cell may have one or more first active BWPs in the uplink carrier and one or more second active BWPs in the secondary uplink carrier.

[0117] For unpaired spectra, a downlink BWP from a set of configured downlink BWPs may be linked with an uplink BWP from a set of configured uplink BWPs if a downlink BWP index of the downlink BWP and an uplink BWP index of the uplink BWP are the same. For unpaired spectra, a UE may expect that a center frequency for a downlink BWP is the same as a center frequency for an uplink BWP.

[0118] For a downlink BWP in a set of configured downlink BWPs on a primary cell (PCell), a base station may configure a UE with one or more control resource sets (CORESETs) for at least one search space. A search space is a set of locations in the time and frequency domains where the UE may find control information. The search space may be a UE-specific search space or a common search space (potentially usable by a plurality of UEs). For example, a base station may configure a UE with a common search space, on a PCell or on a primary secondary cell (PSCell), in an active downlink BWP.

[0119] For an uplink BWP in a set of configured uplink BWPs, a BS may configure a UE with one or more resource sets for one or more PUCCH transmissions. A UE may receive downlink receptions (e.g., PDCCH or PDSCH) in a downlink BWP according to a configured numerology (e.g., subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix duration) for the downlink BWP. The UE may transmit uplink transmissions (e.g., PUCCH or PUSCH) in an uplink BWP according to a configured numerology (e.g., subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix length for the uplink BWP).

[0120] One or more BWP indicator fields may be provided in Downlink Control Information (DCI). A value of a BWP indicator field may indicate which BWP in a set of configured BWPs is an active downlink BWP for one or more downlink receptions. The value of the one or more BWP indicator fields may indicate an active uplink BWP for one or more uplink transmissions.

[0121] A base station may semi-statically configure a UE with a default downlink BWP within a set of configured downlink BWPs associated with a PCell. If the base station does not provide the default downlink BWP to the UE, the default downlink BWP may be an initial active downlink BWP. The UE may determine which BWP is the initial active downlink BWP based on a CORESET configuration obtained using the PBCH.

[0122] A base station may configure a UE with a BWP inactivity timer value for a PCell. The UE may start or restart a BWP inactivity timer at any appropriate time. For example, the UE may start or restart the BWP inactivity timer (a) when the UE detects a DCI indicating an active downlink BWP other than a default downlink BWP for a paired spectra operation; or (b) when a UE detects a DCI indicating an active downlink BWP or active uplink BWP other than a default downlink BWP or uplink BWP for an unpaired spectra operation. If the UE does not detect DCI during an interval of time (e.g., 1 ms or 0.5 ms), the UE may run the BWP inactivity timer toward expiration (for example, increment from zero to the BWP inactivity timer value, or decrement from the BWP inactivity timer value to zero). When the BWP inactivity timer expires, the UE may switch from the active downlink BWP to the default downlink BWP.

[0123] In an example, a base station may semi-statically configure a UE with one or more BWPs. A UE may switch an active BWP from a first BWP to a second BWP in response to receiving a DCI indicating the second BWP as an active BWP and / or in response to an expiry of the BWP inactivity timer (e.g., if the second BWP is the default BWP).

[0124] Downlink and uplink BWP switching (where BWP switching refers to switching from a currently active BWP to a not currently active BWP) may be performed independently in paired spectra. In unpaired spectra, downlink and uplink BWP switching may be performed simultaneously. Switching between configured BWPs may occur based on RRC signaling, DCI, expiration of a BWP inactivity timer, and / or an initiation of random access.

[0125] FIG. 9 illustrates an example of bandwidth adaptation using three configured BWPs for an NR carrier. A UE configured with the three BWPs may switch from one BWP to another BWP at a switching point. In the example illustrated in FIG. 9, the BWPs include: a BWP 902 with a bandwidth of 40 MHz and a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz; a BWP 904 with a bandwidth of 10 MHz and a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz; and a BWP 906 with a bandwidth of 20 MHz and a subcarrier spacing of 60 kHz. The BWP 902 may be an initial active BWP, and the BWP 904 may be a default BWP. The UE may switch between BWPs at switching points. In the example of FIG. 9, the UE may switch from the BWP 902 to the BWP 904 at aswitching point 908. The switching at the switching point 908 may occur for any suitable reason, for example, in response to an expiry of a BWP inactivity timer (indicating switching to the default BWP) and / or in response to receiving a DCI indicating BWP 904 as the active BWP. The UE may switch at a switching point 910 from active BWP 904 to BWP 906 in response to receiving a DCI indicating BWP 906 as the active BWP. The UE may switch at a switching point 912 from active BWP 906 to BWP 904 in response to an expiry of a BWP inactivity timer and / or in response to receiving a DCI indicating BWP 904 as the active BWP. The UE may switch at a switching point 914 from active BWP 904 to BWP 902 in response to receiving a DCI indicating BWP 902 as the active BWP.

[0126] If a UE is configured for a secondary cell with a default downlink BWP in a set of configured downlink BWPs and a timer value, UE procedures for switching BWPs on a secondary cell may be the same / similar as those on a primary cell. For example, the UE may use the timer value and the default downlink BWP for the secondary cell in the same / similar manner as the UE would use these values for a primary cell.

[0127] To provide for greater data rates, two or more carriers can be aggregated and simultaneously transmitted to / from the same UE using carrier aggregation (CA). The aggregated carriers in CA may be referred to as component carriers (CCs). When CA is used, there are a number of serving cells for the UE, one for a CC. The CCs may have three configurations in the frequency domain.

[0128] FIG. 10A illustrates the three CA configurations with two CCs. In the intraband, contiguous configuration 1002, the two CCs are aggregated in the same frequency band (frequency band A) and are located directly adjacent to each other within the frequency band. In the intraband, non-contiguous configuration 1004, the two CCs are aggregated in the same frequency band (frequency band A) and are separated in the frequency band by a gap. In the interband configuration 1006, the two CCs are located in frequency bands (frequency band A and frequency band B).

[0129] In an example, up to 32 CCs may be aggregated. The aggregated CCs may have the same or different bandwidths, subcarrier spacing, and / or duplexing schemes (TDD or FDD). A serving cell for a UE using CA may have a downlink CC. For FDD, one or more uplink CCs may be optionally configured for a serving cell. The ability to aggregate more downlink carriers than uplink carriers may be useful, for example, when the UE has more data traffic in the downlink than in the uplink.

[0130] When CA is used, one of the aggregated cells for a UE may be referred to as a primary cell (PCell). The PCell may be the serving cell that the UE initially connects to at RRC connection establishment, reestablishment, and / or handover. The PCell may provide the UE with NAS mobility information and the security input. UEs may have different PCells. In the downlink, the carrier corresponding to the PCell may be referred to as the downlink primary CC (DL PCC). In the uplink, the carrier corresponding to the PCell may be referred to as the uplink primary CC (UL PCC). The otheraggregated cells for the UE may be referred to as secondary cells (SCells). In an example, the SCells may be configured after the PCell is configured for the UE. For example, an SCell may be configured through an RRC Connection Reconfiguration procedure. In the downlink, the carrier corresponding to an SCell may be referred to as a downlink secondary CC (DL SCC). In the uplink, the carrier corresponding to the SCell may be referred to as the uplink secondary CC (UL SCC).

[0131] Configured SCells for a UE may be activated and deactivated based on, for example, traffic and channel conditions. Deactivation of an SCell may mean that PDCCH and PDSCH reception on the SCell is stopped and PUSCH, SRS, and CQI transmissions on the SCell are stopped. Configured SCells may be activated and deactivated using a MAC CE with respect to FIG. 4B. For example, a MAC CE may use a bitmap (e.g., one bit per SCell) to indicate which SCells (e.g., in a subset of configured SCells) for the UE are activated or deactivated. Configured SCells may be deactivated in response to an expiration of an SCell deactivation timer (e.g., one SCell deactivation timer per SCell).

[0132] Downlink control information, such as scheduling assignments and scheduling grants, for a cell may be transmitted on the cell corresponding to the assignments and grants, which is known as selfscheduling. The DCI for the cell may be transmitted on another cell, which is known as cross-carrier scheduling. Uplink control information (e.g., HARQ acknowledgments and channel state feedback, such as CQI, PMI, and / or Rl) for aggregated cells may be transmitted on the PUCCH of the PCell. For a larger number of aggregated downlink CCs, the PUCCH of the PCell may become overloaded. Cells may be divided into multiple PUCCH groups.

[0133] FIG. 10B illustrates an example of how aggregated cells may be configured into one or more PUCCH groups. A PUCCH group 1010 and a PUCCH group 1050 may include one or more downlink CCs, respectively. In the example of FIG. 10B, the PUCCH group 1010 includes three downlink CCs: a PCell 1011 , an SCell 1012, and an SCell 1013. The PUCCH group 1050 includes three downlink CCs in the present example: a PCell 1051 , an SCell 1052, and an SCell 1053. One or more uplink CCs may be configured as a PCell 1021 , an SCell 1022, and an SCell 1023. One or more other uplink CCs may be configured as a primary SCell (PSCell) 1061 , an SCell 1062, and an SCell 1063. Uplink control information (UCI) related to the downlink CCs of the PUCCH group 1010, shown as UC1 1031 , UC1 1032, and UCI 1033, may be transmitted in the uplink of the PCell 1021 . Uplink control information (UCI) related to the downlink CCs of the PUCCH group 1050, shown as UCI 1071 , UC1 1072, and UCI 1073, may be transmitted in the uplink of the PSCell 1061 . In an example, if the aggregated cells depicted in FIG. 10B were not divided into the PUCCH group 1010 and the PUCCH group 1050, a single uplink PCell to transmit UCI relating to the downlink CCs, and the PCell may become overloaded. By dividing transmissions of UCI between the PCell 1021 and the PSCell 1061 , overloading may be prevented.

[0134] A cell, comprising a downlink carrier and optionally an uplink carrier, may be assigned with a physical cell ID and a cell index. The physical cell ID or the cell index may identify a downlink carrier and / or an uplink carrier of the cell, for example, depending on the context in which the physical cell ID is used. A physical cell ID may be determined using a synchronization signal transmitted on a downlink component carrier. A cell index may be determined using RRC messages. In the disclosure, a physical cell ID may be referred to as a carrier ID, and a cell index may be referred to as a carrier index. For example, when the disclosure refers to a first physical cell ID for a first downlink carrier, the disclosure may mean the first physical cell ID is for a cell comprising the first downlink carrier. The same / similar concept may apply to, for example, a carrier activation. When the disclosure indicates that a first carrier is activated, the specification may mean that a cell comprising the first carrier is activated

[0135] In CA, a multi-carrier nature of a PHY may be exposed to a MAC. In an example, a HARQ entity may operate on a serving cell. A transport block may be generated per assignment / grant per serving cell. A transport block and potential HARQ retransmissions of the transport block may be mapped to a serving cell.

[0136] In the downlink, a base station may transmit (e.g., unicast, multicast, and / or broadcast) one or more Reference Signals (RSs) to a UE (e.g., PSS, SSS, CSI-RS, DMRS, and / or PT-RS, as shown in FIG. 5A). In the uplink, the UE may transmit one or more RSs to the base station (e.g., DMRS, PT-RS, and / or SRS, as shown in FIG. 5B). The PSS and the SSS may be transmitted by the base station and used by the UE to synchronize the UE to the base station. The PSS and the SSS may be provided in a synchronization signal (SS) / physical broadcast channel (PBCH) block that includes the PSS, the SSS, and the PBCH. The base station may periodically transmit a burst of SS / PBCH blocks.

[0137] FIG. 11A illustrates an example of an SS / PBCH block's structure and location. A burst of SS / PBCH blocks may include one or more SS / PBCH blocks (e.g., 4 SS / PBCH blocks, as shown in FIG. 11A). Bursts may be transmitted periodically (e g., every 2 frames or 20 ms). A burst may be restricted to a half-frame (e.g., a first half-frame having a duration of 5 ms). It will be understood that FIG. 11A is an example, and that these parameters (number of SS / PBCH blocks per burst, periodicity of bursts, position of burst within the frame) may be configured based on, for example: a carrier frequency of a cell in which the SS / PBCH block is transmitted; a numerology or subcarrier spacing of the cell; a configuration by the network (e.g., using RRC signaling); or any other suitable factor. In an example, the UE may assume a subcarrier spacing for the SS / PBCH block based on the carrier frequency being monitored, unless the radio network configured the UE to assume a different subcarrier spacing.

[0138] The SS / PBCH block may span one or more OFDM symbols in the time domain (e.g., 4 OFDM symbols, as shown in the example of FIG. 11 A) and may span one or more subcarriers in the frequency domain (e.g., 240 contiguous subcarriers). The PSS, the SSS, and the PBCH may have a common centerfrequency. The PSS may be transmitted first and may span, for example, 1 OFDM symbol and 127 subcarriers. The SSS may be transmitted after the PSS (e.g., two symbols later) and may span 1 OFDM symbol and 127 subcarriers. The PBCH may be transmitted after the PSS (e.g., across the next 3 OFDM symbols) and may span 240 subcarriers.

[0139] The location of the SS / PBCH block in the time and frequency domains may not be known to the UE (e.g., if the UE is searching for the cell). To find and select the cell, the UE may monitor a carrier for the PSS. For example, the UE may monitor a frequency location within the carrier. If the PSS is not found after a certain duration (e.g., 20 ms), the UE may search for the PSS at a different frequency location within the carrier, as indicated by a synchronization raster. If the PSS is found at a location in the time and frequency domains, the UE may determine, based on a known structure of the SS / PBCH block, the locations of the SSS and the PBCH, respectively. The SS / PBCH block may be a cell-defining SS block (CD-SSB). In an example, a primary cell may be associated with a CD-SSB. The CD-SSB may be located on a synchronization raster. In an example, a cell selection / search and / or reselection may be based on the CD- SSB.

[0140] The SS / PBCH block may be used by the UE to determine one or more parameters of the cell. For example, the UE may determine a physical cell identifier (PCI) of the cell based on the sequences of the PSS and the SSS, respectively. The UE may determine a location of a frame boundary of the cell based on the location of the SS / PBCH block. For example, the SS / PBCH block may indicate that it has been transmitted in accordance with a transmission pattern, wherein a SS / PBCH block in the transmission pattern is a known distance from the frame boundary.

[0141] The PBCH may use a QPSK modulation and may use forward error correction (FEC). The FEC may use polar coding. One or more symbols spanned by the PBCH may carry one or more DMRSs for demodulation of the PBCH. The PBCH may include an indication of a current system frame number (SFN) of the cell and / or a SS / PBCH block timing index. These parameters may facilitate time synchronization of the UE to the base station. The PBCH may include a master information block (MIB) used to provide the UE with one or more parameters. The MIB may be used by the UE to locate remaining minimum system information (RMSI) associated with the cell. The RMSI may include a System Information Block Type 1 (SIB1). The SIB1 may contain information needed by the UE to access the cell. The UE may use one or more parameters of the MIB to monitor PDCCH, which may be used to schedule PDSCH. The PDSCH may include the SIB1 . The SIB1 may be decoded using parameters provided in the MIB. The PBCH may indicate an absence of SIB1 . Based on the PBCH indicating the absence of SIB1 , the UE may be pointed to a frequency. The UE may search for an SS / PBCH block at the frequency to which the UE is pointed.

[0142] The UE may assume that one or more SS / PBCH blocks transmitted with a same SS / PBCH block index are quasi co-located (QCLed) (e.g., having the same / similar Doppler spread, Doppler shift, averagegain, average delay, and / or spatial Rx parameters). The UE may not assume QCL for SS / PBCH block transmissions having different SS / PBCH block indices.

[0143] SS / PBCH blocks (e.g., those within a half-frame) may be transmitted in spatial directions (e.g., using different beams that span a coverage area of the cell). In an example, a first SS / PBCH block may be transmitted in a first spatial direction using a first beam, and a second SS / PBCH block may be transmitted in a second spatial direction using a second beam.

[0144] In an example, within a frequency span of a carrier, a base station may transmit a plurality of SS / PBCH blocks. In an example, a first PCI of a first SS / PBCH block of the plurality of SS / PBCH blocks may be different from a second PCI of a second SS / PBCH block of the plurality of SS / PBCH blocks. The PCIs of SS / PBCH blocks transmitted in different frequency locations may be different or the same.

[0145] The CSI-RS may be transmitted by the base station and used by the UE to acquire channel state information (CSI). The base station may configure the UE with one or more CSI-RSs for channel estimation or any other suitable purpose. The base station may configure a UE with one or more of the same / similar CSI-RSs. The UE may measure the one or more CSI-RSs. The UE may estimate a downlink channel state and / or generate a CSI report based on the measuring of the one or more downlink CSI-RSs. The UE may provide the CSI report to the base station. The base station may use feedback provided by the UE (e.g., the estimated downlink channel state) to perform link adaptation.

[0146] The base station may semi-statically configure the UE with one or more CSI-RS resource sets. A CSI-RS resource may be associated with a location in the time and frequency domains and a periodicity. The base station may selectively activate and / or deactivate a CSI-RS resource. The base station may indicate to the UE that a CSI-RS resource in the CSI-RS resource set is activated and / or deactivated.

[0147] The base station may configure the UE to report CSI measurements. The base station may configure the UE to provide CSI reports periodically, aperiodically, or semi-persistently. For periodic CSI reporting, the UE may be configured with a timing and / or periodicity of a plurality of CSI reports. For aperiodic CSI reporting, the base station may request a CSI report. For example, the base station may command the UE to measure a configured CSI-RS resource and provide a CSI report relating to the measurements. For semi-persistent CSI reporting, the base station may configure the UE to transmit periodically, and selectively activate or deactivate the periodic reporting. The base station may configure the UE with a CSI-RS resource set and CSI reports using RRC signaling.

[0148] The CSI-RS configuration may comprise one or more parameters indicating, for example, up to 32 antenna ports. The UE may be configured to employ the same OFDM symbols for a downlink CSI-RS and a control resource set (CORESET) when the downlink CSI-RS and CORESET are spatially QCLed and resource elements associated with the downlink CSI-RS are outside of the physical resource blocks (PRBs) configured for the CORESET. The UE may be configured to employ the same OFDM symbols for downlinkCSI-RS and SS / PBCH blocks when the downlink CSI-RS and SS / PBCH blocks are spatially QCLed and resource elements associated with the downlink CSI-RS are outside of PRBs configured for the SS / PBCH blocks.

[0149] Downlink DMRSs may be transmitted by a base station and used by a UE for channel estimation. For example, the downlink DMRS may be used for coherent demodulation of one or more downlink physical channels (e.g., PDSCH). An NR network may support one or more variable and / or configurable DMRS patterns for data demodulation. At least one downlink DMRS configuration may support a front- loaded DMRS pattern. A front-loaded DMRS may be mapped over one or more OFDM symbols (e.g., one or two adjacent OFDM symbols). A base station may semi-statically configure the UE with a number (e.g. a maximum number) of front-loaded DMRS symbols for PDSCH. A DMRS configuration may support one or more DMRS ports. For example, for single user-MIMO, a DMRS configuration may support up to eight orthogonal downlink DMRS ports per UE. For multiuser-MIMO, a DMRS configuration may support up to 4 orthogonal downlink DMRS ports per UE. A radio network may support (e.g., at least for CP-OFDM) a common DMRS structure for downlink and uplink, wherein a DMRS location, a DMRS pattern, and / or a scrambling sequence may be the same or different. The base station may transmit a downlink DMRS and a corresponding PDSCH using the same precoding matrix. The UE may use the one or more downlink DMRSs for coherent demodulation / channel estimation of the PDSCH.

[0150] In an example, a transmitter (e.g., a base station) may use a precoder matrices for a part of a transmission bandwidth. For example, the transmitter may use a first precoder matrix for a first bandwidth and a second precoder matrix for a second bandwidth. The first precoder matrix and the second precoder matrix may be different based on the first bandwidth being different from the second bandwidth. The UE may assume that a same precoding matrix is used across a set of PRBs. The set of PRBs may be denoted as a precoding resource block group (PRG).

[0151] A PDSCH may comprise one or more layers. The UE may assume that at least one symbol with DMRS is present on a layer of the one or more layers of the PDSCH. A higher layer may configure up to 3 DMRSs for the PDSCH.

[0152] Downlink PT-RS may be transmitted by a base station and used by a UE for phase-noise compensation. Whether a downlink PT-RS is present or not may depend on an RRC configuration The presence and / or pattern of the downlink PT-RS may be configured on a UE-specific basis using a combination of RRC signaling and / or an association with one or more parameters employed for other purposes (e.g., modulation and coding scheme (MCS)), which may be indicated by DCI. When configured, a dynamic presence of a downlink PT-RS may be associated with one or more DCI parameters comprising at least MCS. An NR network may support a plurality of PT-RS densities defined in the time and / or frequency domains. When present, a frequency domain density may be associated with at least oneconfiguration of a scheduled bandwidth. The UE may assume a same precoding for a DMRS port and a PT-RS port. A number of PT-RS ports may be fewer than a number of DMRS ports in a scheduled resource. Downlink PT-RS may be confined in the scheduled time / frequency duration for the UE. Downlink PT-RS may be transmitted on symbols to facilitate phase tracking at the receiver.

[0153] The UE may transmit an uplink DMRS to a base station for channel estimation. For example, the base station may use the uplink DMRS for coherent demodulation of one or more uplink physical channels. For example, the UE may transmit an uplink DMRS with a PUSCH and / or a PUCCH. The uplink DM-RS may span a range of frequencies that is similar to a range of frequencies associated with the corresponding physical channel. The base station may configure the UE with one or more uplink DMRS configurations. At least one DMRS configuration may support a front-loaded DMRS pattern. The front-loaded DMRS may be mapped over one or more OFDM symbols (e.g., one or two adjacent OFDM symbols). One or more uplink DMRSs may be configured to transmit at one or more symbols of a PUSCH and / or a PUCCH. The base station may semi-statically configure the UE with a number (e.g. maximum number) of front-loaded DMRS symbols for the PUSCH and / or the PUCCH, which the UE may use to schedule a single-symbol DMRS and / or a double-symbol DMRS. An NR network may support (e.g., for cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM)) a common DMRS structure for downlink and uplink, wherein a DMRS location, a DMRS pattern, and / or a scrambling sequence for the DMRS may be the same or different.

[0154] A PUSCH may comprise one or more layers, and the UE may transmit at least one symbol with DMRS present on a layer of the one or more layers of the PUSCH. In an example, a higher layer may configure up to three DMRSs for the PUSCH.

[0155] Uplink PT-RS (which may be used by a base station for phase tracking and / or phase-noise compensation) may or may not be present depending on an RRC configuration of the UE. The presence and / or pattern of uplink PT-RS may be configured on a UE-specific basis by a combination of RRC signaling and / or one or more parameters employed for other purposes (e.g., Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS)), which may be indicated by DCI. When configured, a dynamic presence of uplink PT-RS may be associated with one or more DCI parameters comprising at least MCS. A radio network may support a plurality of uplink PT-RS densities defined in time / frequency domain. When present, a frequency domain density may be associated with at least one configuration of a scheduled bandwidth The UE may assume a same precoding for a DMRS port and a PT-RS port. A number of PT-RS ports may be fewer than a number of DMRS ports in a scheduled resource. For example, uplink PT-RS may be confined in the scheduled time / frequency duration for the UE.

[0156] SRS may be transmitted by a UE to a base station for channel state estimation to support uplink channel dependent scheduling and / or link adaptation SRS transmitted by the UE may allow a base station to estimate an uplink channel state at one or more frequencies. A scheduler at the base station mayemploy the estimated uplink channel state to assign one or more resource blocks for an uplink PUSCH transmission from the UE. The base station may semi-statically configure the UE with one or more SRS resource sets. For an SRS resource set, the base station may configure the UE with one or more SRS resources. An SRS resource set applicability may be configured by a higher layer (e.g., RRC) parameter. For example, when a higher layer parameter indicates beam management, an SRS resource in an SRS resource set of the one or more SRS resource sets (e.g., with the same / similar time domain behavior, periodic, aperiodic, and / or the like) may be transmitted at a time instant (e.g., simultaneously). The UE may transmit one or more SRS resources in SRS resource sets. An NR network may support aperiodic, periodic and / or semi-persistent SRS transmissions. The UE may transmit SRS resources based on one or more trigger types, wherein the one or more trigger types may comprise higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC) and / or one or more DCI formats. In an example, at least one DCI format may be employed for the UE to select at least one of one or more configured SRS resource sets. An SRS trigger type 0 may refer to an SRS triggered based on a higher layer signaling. An SRS trigger type 1 may refer to an SRS triggered based on one or more DCI formats. In an example, when PUSCH and SRS are transmitted in a same slot, the UE may be configured to transmit SRS after a transmission of a PUSCH and a corresponding uplink DMRS.

[0157] The base station may semi-statically configure the UE with one or more SRS configuration parameters indicating at least one of following: a SRS resource configuration identifier; a number of SRS ports; time domain behavior of an SRS resource configuration (e.g., an indication of periodic, semi- persistent, or aperiodic SRS); slot, mini-slot, and / or subframe level periodicity; offset for a periodic and / or an aperiodic SRS resource; a number of OFDM symbols in an SRS resource; a starting OFDM symbol of an SRS resource; an SRS bandwidth; a frequency hopping bandwidth; a cyclic shift; and / or an SRS sequence ID.

[0158] An antenna port is defined such that the channel over which a symbol on the antenna port is conveyed can be inferred from the channel over which another symbol on the same antenna port is conveyed. If a first symbol and a second symbol are transmitted on the same antenna port, the receiver may infer the channel (e.g., fading gain, multipath delay, and / or the like) for conveying the second symbol on the antenna port, from the channel for conveying the first symbol on the antenna port. A first antenna port and a second antenna port may be referred to as quasi co-located (QCLed) if one or more large-scale properties of the channel over which a first symbol on the first antenna port is conveyed may be inferred from the channel over which a second symbol on a second antenna port is conveyed. The one or more large-scale properties may comprise at least one of: a delay spread; a Doppler spread; a Doppler shift; an average gain; an average delay; and / or spatial Receiving (Rx) parameters.

[0159] Channels that use beamforming require beam management. Beam management may comprise beam measurement, beam selection, and beam indication. A beam may be associated with one or morereference signals. For example, a beam may be identified by one or more beamformed reference signals. The UE may perform downlink beam measurement based on downlink reference signals (e.g., a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS)) and generate a beam measurement report. The UE may perform the downlink beam measurement procedure after an RRC connection is set up with a base station.

[0160] FIG. 11 B illustrates an example of channel state information reference signals (CSI-RSs) that are mapped in the time and frequency domains. A square shown in FIG. 11B may span a resource block (RB) within a bandwidth of a cell. A base station may transmit one or more RRC messages comprising CSI-RS resource configuration parameters indicating one or more CSI-RSs. One or more of the following parameters may be configured by higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC and / or MAC signaling) for a CSI-RS resource configuration: a CSI-RS resource configuration identity, a number of CSI-RS ports, a CSI-RS configuration (e.g., symbol and resource element (RE) locations in a subframe), a CSI-RS subframe configuration (e.g., subframe location, offset, and periodicity in a radio frame), a CSI-RS power parameter, a CSI-RS sequence parameter, a code division multiplexing (CDM) type parameter, a frequency density, a transmission comb, quasi co-location (QCL) parameters (e.g., QCL-scramblingidentity, crs-portscount, mbsfn-subframeconfiglist, csi-rs-configZPid, qcl-csi-rs-configNZPid), and / or other radio resource parameters.

[0161] The three beams illustrated in FIG. 11 B may be configured for a UE in a UE-specific configuration. Three beams are illustrated in FIG. 11 B (beam #1 , beam #2, and beam #3), more or fewer beams may be configured. Beam #1 may be allocated with CSI-RS 1101 that may be transmitted in one or more subcarriers in an RB of a first symbol. Beam #2 may be allocated with CSI-RS 1102 that may be transmitted in one or more subcarriers in an RB of a second symbol. Beam #3 may be allocated with CSI- RS 1103 that may be transmitted in one or more subcarriers in an RB of a third symbol. By using frequency division multiplexing (FDM), a base station may use other subcarriers in a same RB (for example, those that are not used to transmit CSI-RS 1101) to transmit another CSI-RS associated with a beam for another UE. By using time domain multiplexing (TDM), beams used for the UE may be configured such that beams for the UE use symbols from beams of other UEs.

[0162] CSI-RSs such as those illustrated in FIG. 11 B (e.g., CSI-RS 1101 , 1102, 1103) may be transmitted by the base station and used by the UE for one or more measurements. For example, the UE may measure a reference signal received power (RSRP) of configured CSI-RS resources. The base station may configure the UE with a reporting configuration and the UE may report the RSRP measurements to a network (for example, via one or more base stations) based on the reporting configuration. In an example, the base station may determine, based on the reported measurement results, one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states comprising a number of reference signals. In an example, the base station may indicate one or more TCI states to the UE (e.g., via RRC signaling, a MAC CE, and / or a DCI).The UE may receive a downlink transmission with a receive (Rx) beam determined based on the one or more TCI states. In an example, the UE may or may not have a capability of beam correspondence. If the UE has the capability of beam correspondence, the UE may determine a spatial domain filter of a transmit (Tx) beam based on a spatial domain filter of the corresponding Rx beam. If the UE does not have the capability of beam correspondence, the UE may perform an uplink beam selection procedure to determine the spatial domain filter of the Tx beam. The UE may perform the uplink beam selection procedure based on one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources configured to the UE by the base station. The base station may select and indicate uplink beams for the UE based on measurements of the one or more SRS resources transmitted by the UE.

[0163] In a beam management procedure, a UE may assess (e.g., measure) a channel quality of one or more beam pair links, a beam pair link comprising a transmitting beam transmitted by a base station and a receiving beam received by the UE. Based on the assessment, the UE may transmit a beam measurement report indicating one or more beam pair quality parameters comprising, e.g., one or more beam identifications (e.g., a beam index, a reference signal index, or the like), RSRP, a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), a channel quality indicator (CQI), and / or a rank indicator (Rl).

[0164] FIG. 12A illustrates examples of three downlink beam management procedures: P1 , P2, and P3. Procedure P1 may enable a UE measurement on transmit (Tx) beams of a transmission reception point (TRP) (or multiple TRPs), e.g., to support a selection of one or more base station Tx beams and / or UE Rx beams (shown as ovals in the top row and bottom row, respectively, of P1). Beamforming at a TRP may comprise a Tx beam sweep for a set of beams (shown, in the top rows of P1 and P2, as ovals rotated in a counterclockwise direction indicated by the dashed arrow). Beamforming at a UE may comprise an Rx beam sweep for a set of beams (shown, in the bottom rows of P1 and P3, as ovals rotated in a clockwise direction indicated by the dashed arrow). Procedure P2 may be used to enable a UE measurement on Tx beams of a TRP (shown, in the top row of P2, as ovals rotated in a counterclockwise direction indicated by the dashed arrow). The UE and / or the base station may perform procedure P2 using a smaller set of beams than is used in procedure P1 , or using narrower beams than the beams used in procedure P1 . This may be referred to as beam refinement. The UE may perform procedure P3 for Rx beam determination by using the same Tx beam at the base station and sweeping an Rx beam at the UE.

[0165] FIG. 12B illustrates examples of three uplink beam management procedures: U1 , U2, and U3. Procedure U1 may be used to enable a base station to perform a measurement on Tx beams of a UE, e.g., to support a selection of one or more UE Tx beams and / or base station Rx beams (shown as ovals in the top row and bottom row, respectively, of U1). Beamforming at the UE may include, e.g., a Tx beam sweep from a set of beams (shown in the bottom rows of U1 and U3 as ovals rotated in a clockwise direction indicated by the dashed arrow). Beamforming at the base station may include, e.g., an Rx beam sweepfrom a set of beams (shown, in the top rows of U1 and U2, as ovals rotated in a counterclockwise direction indicated by the dashed arrow). Procedure U2 may be used to enable the base station to adjust its Rx beam when the UE uses a fixed Tx beam. The UE and / or the base station may perform procedure U2 using a smaller set of beams than is used in procedure P1 , or using narrower beams than the beams used in procedure P1 . This may be referred to as beam refinement The UE may perform procedure U3 to adjust its Tx beam when the base station uses a fixed Rx beam.

[0166] A UE may initiate a beam failure recovery (BFR) procedure based on detecting a beam failure. The UE may transmit a BFR request (e.g., a preamble, a UCI, an SR, a MAC CE, and / or the like) based on the initiating of the BFR procedure. The UE may detect the beam failure based on a determination that a quality of beam pair link(s) of an associated control channel is unsatisfactory (e.g , having an error rate higher than an error rate threshold, a received signal power lower than a received signal power threshold, an expiration of a timer, and / or the like).

[0167] The UE may measure a quality of a beam pair link using one or more reference signals (RSs) comprising one or more SS / PBCH blocks, one or more CSI-RS resources, and / or one or more demodulation reference signals (DMRSs). A quality of the beam pair link may be based on one or more of a block error rate (BLER), an RSRP value, a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) value, a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) value, and / or a CSI value measured on RS resources. The base station may indicate that an RS resource is quasi co-located (QCLed) with one or more DM-RSs of a channel (e.g., a control channel, a shared data channel, and / or the like). The RS resource and the one or more DMRSs of the channel may be QCLed when the channel characteristics (e.g., Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread, spatial Rx parameter, fading, and / or the like) from a transmission via the RS resource to the UE are similar or the same as the channel characteristics from a transmission via the channel to the UE.

[0168] A network (e g., a gNB and / or an ng-eNB of a network) and / or the UE may initiate a random access procedure. A UE in an RRCJDLE state and / or an RRCJNACTIVE state may initiate the random access procedure to request a connection setup to a network. The UE may initiate the random access procedure from an RRC_CONNECTED state. The UE may initiate the random access procedure to request uplink resources (e.g , for uplink transmission of an SR when there is no PUCCH resource available) and / or acquire uplink timing (e.g., when uplink synchronization status is non-synchronized). The UE may initiate the random access procedure to request one or more system information blocks (SIBs) (e.g., other system information such as SIB2, SIB3, and / or the like). The UE may initiate the random access procedure for a beam failure recovery request. A network may initiate a random access procedure for a handover and / or for establishing time alignment for an SCell addition.

[0169] FIG. 13A illustrates a four-step contention-based random access procedure. Prior to initiation of the procedure, a base station may transmit a configuration message 1310 to the UE. The procedure illustrated in FIG. 13A comprises transmission of four messages: a Msg 1 1311, a Msg 2 1312, a Msg 3 1313, and a Msg 4 1314. The Msg 1 1311 may include and / or be referred to as a preamble (or a random access preamble). The Msg 2 1312 may include and / or be referred to as a random access response (RAR).

[0170] The configuration message 1310 may be transmitted, for example, using one or more RRC messages. The one or more RRC messages may indicate one or more random access channel (RACH) parameters to the UE. The one or more RACH parameters may comprise at least one of following: general parameters for one or more random access procedures (e.g., RACH-configGeneral)', cell-specific parameters (e.g., RACH-ConfigCommon)', and / or dedicated parameters (e.g., RACH-configDedicated) The base station may broadcast or multicast the one or more RRC messages to one or more UEs. The one or more RRC messages may be UE-specific (e.g., dedicated RRC messages transmitted to a UE in an RRC_CONNECTED state and / or in an RRCJNACTIVE state). The UE may determine, based on the one or more RACH parameters, a time-frequency resource and / or an uplink transmit power for transmission of the Msg 1 1311 and / or the Msg 3 1313. Based on the one or more RACH parameters, the UE may determine a reception timing and a downlink channel for receiving the Msg 2 1312 and the Msg 4 1314.

[0171] The one or more RACH parameters provided in the configuration message 1310 may indicate one or more Physical RACH (PRACH) occasions available for transmission of the Msg 1 1311. The one or more PRACH occasions may be predefined. The one or more RACH parameters may indicate one or more available sets of one or more PRACH occasions (e.g., prach-Con fig Index). The one or more RACH parameters may indicate an association between (a) one or more PRACH occasions and (b) one or more reference signals. The one or more RACH parameters may indicate an association between (a) one or more preambles and (b) one or more reference signals. The one or more reference signals may be SS / PBCH blocks and / or CSI-RSs. For example, the one or more RACH parameters may indicate a number of SS / PBCH blocks mapped to a PRACH occasion and / or a number of preambles mapped to a SS / PBCH blocks.

[0172] The one or more RACH parameters provided in the configuration message 1310 may be used to determine an uplink transmit power of Msg 1 1311 and / or Msg 3 1313. For example, the one or more RACH parameters may indicate a reference power for a preamble transmission (e.g., a received target power and / or an initial power of the preamble transmission). There may be one or more power offsets indicated by the one or more RACH parameters. For example, the one or more RACH parameters may indicate: a power ramping step; a power offset between SSB and CSI-RS; a power offset between transmissions of the Msg 1 1311 and the Msg 3 1313; and / or a power offset value between preamble groups. The one or more RACH parameters may indicate one or more thresholds based on which the UEmay determine at least one reference signal (e.g., an SSB and / or CSI-RS) and / or an uplink carrier (e.g., a normal uplink (NUL) carrier and / or a supplemental uplink (SUL) carrier).

[0173] The Msg 1 1311 may include one or more preamble transmissions (e.g., a preamble transmission and one or more preamble retransmissions). An RRC message may be used to configure one or more preamble groups (e.g., group A and / or group B). A preamble group may comprise one or more preambles. The UE may determine the preamble group based on a pathloss measurement and / or a size of the Msg 3 1313. The UE may measure an RSRP of one or more reference signals (e.g., SSBs and / or CSI-RSs) and determine at least one reference signal having an RSRP above an RSRP threshold (e.g., rsrp- ThresholdSSB and / or rsrp-ThresholdCSi-RS). The UE may select at least one preamble associated with the one or more reference signals and / or a selected preamble group, for example, if the association between the one or more preambles and the at least one reference signal is configured by an RRC message.

[0174] The UE may determine the preamble based on the one or more RACH parameters provided in the configuration message 1310. For example, the UE may determine the preamble based on a pathloss measurement, an RSRP measurement, and / or a size of the Msg 3 1313. As another example, the one or more RACH parameters may indicate: a preamble format; a maximum number of preamble transmissions; and / or one or more thresholds for determining one or more preamble groups (e.g., group A and group B). A base station may use the one or more RACH parameters to configure the UE with an association between one or more preambles and one or more reference signals (e.g., SSBs and / or CSI-RSs). If the association is configured, the UE may determine the preamble to include in Msg 1 1311 based on the association. The Msg 1 1311 may be transmitted to the base station via one or more PRACH occasions. The UE may use one or more reference signals (e.g., SSBs and / or CSI-RSs) for selection of the preamble and for determining of the PRACH occasion. One or more RACH parameters (e.g., ra-ssb-OccasionMsklndex and / or ra-OccasionLisf) may indicate an association between the PRACH occasions and the one or more reference signals.

[0175] The UE may perform a preamble retransmission if no response is received following a preamble transmission. The UE may increase an uplink transmit power for the preamble retransmission. The UE may select an initial preamble transmit power based on a pathloss measurement and / or a target received preamble power configured by the network. The UE may determine to retransmit a preamble and may ramp up the uplink transmit power. The UE may receive one or more RACH parameters (e.g., PREAMBLE_POWER_RAMPING_STEP) indicating a ramping step for the preamble retransmission. The ramping step may be an amount of incremental increase in uplink transmit power for a retransmission. The UE may ramp up the uplink transmit power if the UE determines a reference signal (e g., SSB and / or CSI- RS) that is the same as a previous preamble transmission. The UE may count a number of preambletransmissions and / or retransmissions (e.g., PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNTER). The UE may determine that a random access procedure completed unsuccessfully, for example, if the number of preamble transmissions exceeds a threshold configured by the one or more RACH parameters (e.g., preambleTransMax) .

[0176] The Msg 2 1312 received by the UE may include an RAR. In some scenarios, the Msg 2 1312 may include multiple RARs corresponding to multiple UEs. The Msg 2 1312 may be received after or in response to the transmitting of the Msg 1 1311. The Msg 2 1312 may be scheduled on the DL-SCH and indicated on a PDCCH using a random access RNTI (RA-RNTI). The Msg 2 1312 may indicate that the Msg 1 1311 was received by the base station. The Msg 2 1312 may include a time-alignment command that may be used by the UE to adjust the UE’s transmission timing, a scheduling grant for transmission of the Msg 3 1313, and / or a Temporary Cell RNTI (TC-RNTI). After transmitting a preamble, the UE may start a time window (e.g., ra-ResponseWindow) to monitor a PDCCH for the Msg 2 1312. The UE may determine when to start the time window based on a PRACH occasion that the UE uses to transmit the preamble. For example, the UE may start the time window one or more symbols after a last symbol of the preamble (e.g., at a first PDCCH occasion from an end of a preamble transmission). The one or more symbols may be determined based on a numerology. The PDCCH may be in a common search space (e.g., a Typel-PDCCH common search space) configured by an RRC message. The UE may identify the RAR based on a Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI). RNTIs may be used depending on one or more events initiating the random access procedure. The UE may use random access RNTI (RA-RNTI). The RA-RNTI may be associated with PRACH occasions in which the UE transmits a preamble. For example, the UE may determine the RA-RNTI based on: an OFDM symbol index; a slot index; a frequency domain index; and / or a UL carrier indicator of the PRACH occasions. An example of RA-RNTI may be as follows:

[0177] RA-RNTI= 1 + s_id + 14 x t_id + 14 x 80 x fjd + 14 x 80 x 8 x ul_carrier_id , where s_id may be an index of a first OFDM symbol of the PRACH occasion (e.g., 0 s sjd < 14), t_id may be an index of a first slot of the PRACH occasion in a system frame (e.g., 0 £ t_id < 80), f_id may be an index of the PRACH occasion in the frequency domain (e.g., 0 < f_id < 8), and ul_carrier_id may be a UL carrier used for a preamble transmission (e.g., 0 for an NUL carrier, and 1 for an SUL carrier).

[0178] The UE may transmit the Msg 3 1313 in response to a successful reception of the Msg 2 1312 (e.g., using resources identified in the Msg 2 1312). The Msg 3 1313 may be used for contention resolution in, for example, the contention-based random access procedure illustrated in FIG. 13A. In some scenarios, a plurality of UEs may transmit a same preamble to a base station and the base station may provide an RAR that corresponds to a UE. Collisions may occur if the plurality of UEs interpret the RAR as corresponding to themselves. Contention resolution (e.g., using the Msg 3 1313 and the Msg 4 1314) maybe used to increase the likelihood that the UE does not incorrectly use an identity of another the UE. To perform contention resolution, the UE may include a device identifier in the Msg 3 1313 (e.g ., a C-RNTI if assigned, a TC-RNTI included in the Msg 2 1312, and / or any other suitable identifier).

[0179] The Msg 4 1314 may be received after or in response to the transmitting of the Msg 3 1313. If a C-RNTI was included in the Msg 3 1313, the base station will address the UE on the PDCCH using the C-RNTI. If the UE's unique C-RNTI is detected on the PDCCH, the random access procedure is determined to be successfully completed. If a TC-RNTI is included in the Msg 3 1313 (e.g., if the UE is in an RRCJDLE state or not otherwise connected to the base station), Msg 4 1314 will be received using a DL-SCH associated with the TC-RNTI. If a MAC PDU is successfully decoded and a MAC PDU comprises the UE contention resolution identity MAC CE that matches or otherwise corresponds with the CCCH SDU sent (e.g., transmitted) in Msg 3 1313, the UE may determine that the contention resolution is successful and / or the UE may determine that the random access procedure is successfully completed.

[0180] The UE may be configured with a supplementary uplink (SUL) carrier and a normal uplink (NUL) carrier. An initial access (e.g., random access procedure) may be supported in an uplink carrier. For example, a base station may configure the UE with two separate RACH configurations: one for an SUL carrier and the other for an NUL carrier. For random access in a cell configured with an SUL carrier, the network may indicate which carrier to use (NUL or SUL). The UE may determine the SUL carrier, for example, if a measured quality of one or more reference signals is lower than a broadcast threshold. Uplink transmissions of the random access procedure (e.g., the Msg 1 1311 and / or the Msg 3 1313) may remain on the selected carrier. The UE may switch an uplink carrier during the random access procedure (e.g., between the Msg 1 1311 and the Msg 3 1313) in one or more cases. For example, the UE may determine and / or switch an uplink carrier for the Msg 1 1311 and / or the Msg 3 1313 based on a channel clear assessment (e.g., a listen-before-talk).

[0181] FIG. 13B illustrates a two-step contention-free random access procedure. Similar to the four-step contention-based random access procedure illustrated in FIG. 13A, a base station may, prior to initiation of the procedure, transmit a configuration message 1320 to the UE. The configuration message 1320 may be analogous in some respects to the configuration message 1310. The procedure illustrated in FIG. 13B comprises transmission of two messages: a Msg 1 1321 and a Msg 2 1322. The Msg 1 1321 and the Msg 2 1322 may be analogous in some respects to the Msg 1 1311 and a Msg 2 1312 illustrated in FIG. 13A, respectively. As will be understood from FIGS. 13A and 13B, the contention-free random access procedure may not include messages analogous to the Msg 3 1313 and / or the Msg 4 1314.

[0182] The contention-free random access procedure illustrated in FIG. 13B may be initiated for a beam failure recovery, other SI request, SCell addition, and / or handover. For example, a base station mayindicate or assign to the UE the preamble to be used for the Msg 1 1321 The UE may receive, from the base station via PDCCH and / or RRC, an indication of a preamble (e.g., ra-Preamblelndex).

[0183] After transmitting a preamble, the UE may start a time window (e.g., ra-ResponseWindow) to monitor a PDCCH for the RAR. In the event of a beam failure recovery request, the base station may configure the UE with a separate time window and / or a separate PDCCH in a search space indicated by an RRC message (e.g., recoverySearchSpaceld). The UE may monitor for a PDCCH transmission addressed to a Cell RNTI (C-RNTI) on the search space. In the con tent! on -free random access procedure illustrated in FIG. 13B, the UE may determine that a random access procedure successfully completes after or in response to transmission of Msg 1 1321 and reception of a corresponding Msg 2 1322. The UE may determine that a random access procedure successfully completes, for example, if a PDCCH transmission is addressed to a C-RNTI. The UE may determine that a random access procedure successfully completes, for example, if the UE receives an RAR comprising a preamble identifier corresponding to a preamble transmitted by the UE and / or the RAR comprises a MAC sub-PDU with the preamble identifier. The UE may determine the response as an indication of an acknowledgement for an SI request.

[0184] FIG. 13C illustrates another two-step random access procedure. Similar to the random access procedures illustrated in FIGS. 13A and 13B, a base station may, prior to initiation of the procedure, transmit a configuration message 1330 to the UE. The configuration message 1330 may be analogous in some respects to the configuration message 1310 and / or the configuration message 1320. The procedure illustrated in FIG. 13C comprises transmission of two messages: a Msg A 1331 and a Msg B 1332

[0185] Msg A 1331 may be transmitted in an uplink transmission by the UE. Msg A 1331 may comprise one or more transmissions of a preamble 1341 and / or one or more transmissions of a transport block 1342. The transport block 1342 may comprise contents that are similar and / or equivalent to the contents of the Msg 3 1313 illustrated in FIG. 13A. The transport block 1342 may comprise UCI (e.g., an SR, a HARQ ACK / NACK, and / or the like). The UE may receive the Msg B 1332 after or in response to transmitting the Msg A 1331 . The Msg B 1332 may comprise contents that are similar and / or equivalent to the contents of the Msg 2 1312 (e.g., an RAR) illustrated in FIGS. 13A and 13B and / or the Msg 4 1314 illustrated in FIG. 13A.

[0186] The UE may initiate the two-step random access procedure in FIG. 13C for licensed spectrum and / or unlicensed spectrum. The UE may determine, based on one or more factors, whether to initiate the two-step random access procedure. The one or more factors may be: a radio access technology in use (e.g., LTE, NR, and / or the like); whether the UE has valid TA or not; a cell size; the UE’s RRC state; a type of spectrum (e.g., licensed vs. unlicensed); and / or any other suitable factors.

[0187] The UE may determine, based on two-step RACH parameters included in the configuration message 1330, a radio resource and / or an uplink transmit power for the preamble 1341 and / or thetransport block 1342 included in the Msg A 1331. The RACH parameters may indicate a modulation and coding schemes (MCS), a time-frequency resource, and / or a power control for the preamble 1341 and / or the transport block 1342. A time-frequency resource for transmission of the preamble 1341 (e.g., a PRACH) and a time-frequency resource for transmission of the transport block 1342 (e.g., a PUSCH) may be multiplexed using FDM, TDM, and / or CDM. The RACH parameters may enable the UE to determine a reception timing and a downlink channel for monitoring for and / or receiving Msg B 1332.

[0188] The transport block 1342 may comprise data (e.g., delay-sensitive data), an identifier of the UE, security information, and / or device information (e.g., an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI)). The base station may transmit the Msg B 1332 as a response to the Msg A 1331 . The Msg B 1332 may comprise at least one of following: a preamble identifier; a timing advance command; a power control command; an uplink grant (e.g., a radio resource assignment and / or an MCS); a UE identifier for contention resolution; and / or an RNTI (e.g., a C-RNTI or a TC-RNTI). The UE may determine that the two-step random access procedure is successfully completed if: a preamble identifier in the Msg B 1332 is matched to a preamble transmitted by the UE; and / or the identifier of the UE in Msg B 1332 is matched to the identifier of the UE in the Msg A 1331 (e.g., the transport block 1342).

[0189] A UE and a base station may exchange control signaling. The control signaling may be referred to as L1 / L2 control signaling and may originate from the PHY layer (e.g., layer 1) and / or the MAC layer (e.g., layer 2). The control signaling may comprise downlink control signaling transmitted from the base station to the UE and / or uplink control signaling transmitted from the UE to the base station.

[0190] The downlink control signaling may comprise: a downlink scheduling assignment; an uplink scheduling grant indicating uplink radio resources and / or a transport format; a slot format information; a preemption indication; a power control command; and / or any other suitable signaling. The UE may receive the downlink control signaling in a payload transmitted by the base station on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). The payload transmitted on the PDCCH may be referred to as downlink control information (DCI). In some scenarios, the PDCCH may be a group common PDCCH (GC-PDCCH) that is common to a group of UEs.

[0191] A base station may attach one or more cyclic redundancy check (CRC) parity bits to a DCI in order to facilitate detection of transmission errors. When the DCI is intended for a UE (or a group of the UEs), the base station may scramble the CRC parity bits with an identifier of the UE (or an identifier of the group of the UEs). Scrambling the CRC parity bits with the identifier may comprise Modulo-2 addition (or an exclusive OR operation) of the identifier value and the CRC parity bits. The identifier may comprise a 16-bit value of a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI).

[0192] DCIs may be used for different purposes. A purpose may be indicated by the type of RNTI used to scramble the CRC parity bits. For example, a DCI having CRC parity bits scrambled with a paging RNTI (P-RNTI) may indicate paging information and / or a system information change notification. The P-RNTI may be predefined as "FFFE” in hexadecimal. A DCI having CRC parity bits scrambled with a system information RNTI (SI-RNTI) may indicate a broadcast transmission of the system information. The SI-RNTI may be predefined as “FFFF” in hexadecimal. A DCI having CRC parity bits scrambled with a random access RNTI (RA-RNTI) may indicate a random access response (RAR). A DCI having CRC parity bits scrambled with a cell RNTI (C-RNTI) may indicate a dynamically scheduled unicast transmission and / or a triggering of PDCCH-ordered random access. A DCI having CRC parity bits scrambled with a temporary cell RNTI (TC-RNTI) may indicate a contention resolution (e.g., a Msg 3 analogous to the Msg 3 1313 illustrated in FIG. 13A). Other RNTIs configured to the UE by a base station may comprise a Configured Scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI), a Transmit Power Control-PUCCH RNTI (TPC-PUCCH-RNTI), a Transmit Power Control-PUSCH RNTI (TPC-PUSCH-RNTI), a Transmit Power Control-SRS RNTI (TPC-SRS-RNTI), an Interruption RNTI (INT-RNTI), a Slot Format Indication RNTI (SFI-RNTI), a Semi-Persistent CSI RNTI (SP-CSI-RNTI), a Modulation and Coding Scheme Cell RNTI (MCS-C-RNTI), and / or the like.

[0193] Depending on the purpose and / or content of a DCI, the base station may transmit the DCIs with one or more DCI formats. For example, DCI format 0_0 may be used for scheduling of PUSCH in a cell. DCI format 0_0 may be a fallback DCI format (e.g., with compact DCI payloads). DCI format 0_1 may be used for scheduling of PUSCH in a cell (e.g., with more DCI payloads than DCI format 0_0). DCI format 1_0 may be used for scheduling of PDSCH in a cell. DCI format 1_0 may be a fallback DCI format (e.g., with compact DCI payloads). DCI format 1_1 may be used for scheduling of PDSCH in a cell (e.g., with more DCI payloads than DCI format 1 _0) . DCI format 2_0 may be used for providing a slot format indication to a group of UEs. DCI format 2_1 may be used for notifying a group of UEs of a physical resource block and / or OFDM symbol where the UE may assume no transmission is intended to the UE. DCI format 2_2 may be used for transmission of a transmit power control (TPC) command for PUCCH or PUSCH. DCI format 2_3 may be used for transmission of a group of TPC commands for SRS transmissions by one or more UEs. DCI format(s) for new functions may be defined in future releases. DCI formats may have different DCI sizes, or may share the same DCI size.

[0194] After scrambling a DCI with a RNTI, the base station may process the DCI with channel coding (e.g , polar coding), rate matching, scrambling and / or QPSK modulation. A base station may map the coded and modulated DCI on resource elements used and / or configured for a PDCCH. Based on a payload size of the DCI and / or a coverage of the base station, the base station may transmit the DCI via a PDCCH occupying a number of contiguous control channel elements (CCEs). The number of the contiguous CCEs (referred to as aggregation level) may be 1 , 2, 4, 8, 16, and / or any other suitable number. A CCE may comprise a number (e.g., 6) of resource-element groups (REGs). A REG may comprise a resource block inan OFDM symbol. The mapping of the coded and modulated DCI on the resource elements may be based on mapping of CCEs and REGs (e.g., CCE-to-REG mapping).

[0195] FIG. 14A illustrates an example of CORESET configurations for a bandwidth part. The base station may transmit a DCI via a PDCCH on one or more control resource sets (CORESETs). A CORESET may comprise a time-frequency resource in which the UE tries to decode a DCI using one or more search spaces. The base station may configure a CORESET in the time-frequency domain. In the example of FIG. 14A, a first CORESET 1401 and a second CORESET 1402 occur at the first symbol in a slot. The first CORESET 1401 overlaps with the second CORESET 1402 in the frequency domain. A third CORESET 1403 occurs at a third symbol in the slot. A fourth CORESET 1404 occurs at the seventh symbol in the slot. CORESETs may have a different number of resource blocks in frequency domain.

[0196] FIG. 14B illustrates an example of a CCE-to-REG mapping for DCI transmission on a CORESET and PDCCH processing. The CCE-to-REG mapping may be an interleaved mapping (e.g., for the purpose of providing frequency diversity) or a non-interleaved mapping (e.g., for the purposes of facilitating interference coordination and / or frequency-selective transmission of control channels). The base station may perform different or same CCE-to-REG mapping on different CORESETs. A CORESET may be associated with a CCE-to-REG mapping by RRC configuration. A CORESET may be configured with an antenna port quasi co-location (QCL) parameter. The antenna port QCL parameter may indicate QCL information of a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) for PDCCH reception in the CORESET.

[0197] The base station may transmit, to the UE, RRC messages comprising configuration parameters of one or more CORESETs and one or more search space sets. The configuration parameters may indicate an association between a search space set and a CORESET. A search space set may comprise a set of PDCCH candidates formed by CCEs at a given aggregation level. The configuration parameters may indicate: a number of PDCCH candidates to be monitored per aggregation level; a PDCCH monitoring periodicity and a PDCCH monitoring pattern; one or more DCI formats to be monitored by the UE; and / or whether a search space set is a common search space set or a UE-specific search space set. A set of CCEs in the common search space set may be predefined and known to the UE. A set of CCEs in the UE- specific search space set may be configured based on the UE’s identity (e.g., C-RNTI).

[0198] As shown in FIG. 14B, the UE may determine a time-frequency resource for a CORESET based on RRC messages. The UE may determine a CCE-to-REG mapping (e.g., interleaved or non-interleaved, and / or mapping parameters) for the CORESET based on configuration parameters of the CORESET. The UE may determine a number (e.g., at most 10) of search space sets configured on the CORESET based on the RRC messages. The UE may monitor a set of PDCCH candidates according to configuration parameters of a search space set. The UE may monitor a set of PDCCH candidates in one or more CORESETs for detecting one or more DCIs. Monitoring may comprise decoding one or more PDCCHcandidates of the set of the PDCCH candidates according to the monitored DCI formats. Monitoring may comprise decoding a DCI content of one or more PDCCH candidates with possible (or configured) PDCCH locations, possible (or configured) PDCCH formats (e.g., number of CCEs, number of PDCCH candidates in common search spaces, and / or number of PDCCH candidates in the UE-specific search spaces) and possible (or configured) DCI formats. The decoding may be referred to as blind decoding. The UE may determine a DCI as valid for the UE, in response to CRC checking (e.g., scrambled bits for CRC parity bits of the DCI matching a RNTI value). The UE may process information contained in the DCI (e.g., a scheduling assignment, an uplink grant, power control, a slot format indication, a downlink preemption, and / or the like).

[0199] The UE may transmit uplink control signaling (e.g., uplink control information (UCI)) to a base station. The uplink control signaling may comprise hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgements for received DL-SCH transport blocks. The UE may transmit the HARQ acknowledgements after receiving a DL-SCH transport block. Uplink control signaling may comprise channel state information (CSI) indicating channel quality of a physical downlink channel. The UE may transmit the CSI to the base station. The base station, based on the received CSI, may determine transmission format parameters (e.g., comprising multi-antenna and beamforming schemes) for a downlink transmission. Uplink control signaling may comprise scheduling requests (SR). The UE may transmit an SR indicating that uplink data is available for transmission to the base station. The UE may transmit a UCI (e.g , HARQ acknowledgements (HARQ-ACK), CSI report, SR, and the like) via a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). The UE may transmit the uplink control signaling via a PUCCH using one of several PUCCH formats.

[0200] There may be five PUCCH formats and the UE may determine a PUCCH format based on a size of the UCI (e.g., a number of uplink symbols of UCI transmission and a number of UCI bits). PUCCH format 0 may have a length of one or two OFDM symbols and may include two or fewer bits. The UE may transmit UCI in a PUCCH resource using PUCCH format 0 if the transmission is over one or two symbols and the number of HARQ-ACK information bits with positive or negative SR (HARQ-ACK / SR bits) is one or two. PUCCH format 1 may occupy a number between four and fourteen OFDM symbols and may include two or fewer bits. The UE may use PUCCH format 1 if the transmission is four or more symbols and the number of HARQ-ACK / SR bits is one or two. PUCCH format 2 may occupy one or two OFDM symbols and may include more than two bits. The UE may use PUCCH format 2 if the transmission is over one or two symbols and the number of UCI bits is two or more. PUCCH format 3 may occupy a number between four and fourteen OFDM symbols and may include more than two bits. The UE may use PUCCH format 3 if the transmission is four or more symbols, the number of UCI bits is two or more and PUCCH resource does not include an orthogonal cover code. PUCCH format 4 may occupy a number between four and fourteenOFDM symbols and may include more than two bits. The UE may use PUCCH format 4 if the transmission is four or more symbols, the number of UCI bits is two or more and the PUCCH resource includes an orthogonal cover code.

[0201] The base station may transmit configuration parameters to the UE for a plurality of PUCCH resource sets using, for example, an RRC message. The plurality of PUCCH resource sets (e.g ., up to four sets) may be configured on an uplink BWP of a cell. A PUCCH resource set may be configured with a PUCCH resource set index, a plurality of PUCCH resources with a PUCCH resource being identified by a PUCCH resource identifier (e.g., pucch-Resourceid), and / or a number (e.g. a maximum number) of UCI information bits the UE may transmit using one of the plurality of PUCCH resources in the PUCCH resource set When configured with a plurality of PUCCH resource sets, the UE may select one of the plurality of PUCCH resource sets based on a total bit length of the UCI information bits (e.g., HARQ-ACK, SR, and / or CSI). If the total bit length of UCI information bits is two or fewer, the UE may select a first PUCCH resource set having a PUCCH resource set index equal to “0’’. If the total bit length of UCI information bits is greater than two and less than or equal to a first configured value, the UE may select a second PUCCH resource set having a PUCCH resource set index equal to "1”. If the total bit length of UCI information bits is greater than the first configured value and less than or equal to a second configured value, the UE may select a third PUCCH resource set having a PUCCH resource set index equal to “2”. If the total bit length of UCI information bits is greater than the second configured value and less than or equal to a third value (e.g., 1406), the UE may select a fourth PUCCH resource set having a PUCCH resource set index equal to "3”.

[0202] After determining a PUCCH resource set from a plurality of PUCCH resource sets, the UE may determine a PUCCH resource from the PUCCH resource set for UCI (HARQ-ACK, CSI, and / or SR) transmission. The UE may determine the PUCCH resource based on a PUCCH resource indicator in a DCI (e.g , with a DCI format 1_0 or DCI for 1_1) received on a PDCCH. A three-bit PUCCH resource indicator in the DCI may indicate one of eight PUCCH resources in the PUCCH resource set. Based on the PUCCH resource indicator, the UE may transmit the UCI (HARQ-ACK, CSI and / or SR) using a PUCCH resource indicated by the PUCCH resource indicator in the DCI.

[0203] FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a wireless device 1502 in communication with a base station 1504 in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. The wireless device 1502 and base station 1504 may be part of a mobile communication network, such as the mobile communication network 100 illustrated in FIG. 1A, the mobile communication network 150 illustrated in FIG. 1 B, or any other communication network. Only one wireless device 1502 and one base station 1504 are illustrated in FIG. 15, but it will be understood that a mobile communication network may include more than one UE and / or more than one base station, with the same or similar configuration as those shown in FIG. 15.

[0204] The base station 1504 may connect the wireless device 1502 to a core network (not shown) through radio communications over the air interface (or radio interface) 1506. The communication direction from the base station 1504 to the wireless device 1502 over the air interface 1506 is known as the downlink, and the communication direction from the wireless device 1502 to the base station 1504 over the air interface is known as the uplink. Downlink transmissions may be separated from uplink transmissions using FDD, TDD, and / or some combination of the two duplexing techniques.

[0205] In the downlink, data to be sent to the wireless device 1502 from the base station 1504 may be provided to the processing system 1508 of the base station 1504. The data may be provided to the processing system 1508 by, for example, a core network. In the uplink, data to be sent to the base station 1504 from the wireless device 1502 may be provided to the processing system 1518 of the wireless device 1502. The processing system 1508 and the processing system 1518 may implement layer 3 and layer 2 OSI functionality to process the data for transmission. Layer 2 may include an SDAP layer, a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, and a MAC layer, for example, with respect to FIG. 2A, FIG. 2B, FIG. 3, and FIG. 4A. Layer 3 may include an RRC layer as with respect to FIG. 2B.

[0206] After being processed by processing system 1508, the data to be sent to the wireless device 1502 may be provided to a transmission processing system 1510 of base station 1504. Similarly, after being processed by the processing system 1518, the data to be sent to base station 1504 may be provided to a transmission processing system 1520 of the wireless device 1502. The transmission processing system 1510 and the transmission processing system 1520 may implement layer 1 OSI functionality. Layer 1 may include a PHY layer with respect to FIG. 2A, FIG. 2B, FIG. 3, and FIG. 4A. For transmit processing, the PHY layer may perform, for example, forward error correction coding of transport channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping of transport channels to physical channels, modulation of physical channel, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) or multi-antenna processing, and / or the like.

[0207] At the base station 1504, a reception processing system 1512 may receive the uplink transmission from the wireless device 1502. At the wireless device 1502, a reception processing system 1522 may receive the downlink transmission from base station 1504. The reception processing system 1512 and the reception processing system 1522 may implement layer 1 OSI functionality. Layer 1 may include a PHY layer with respect to FIG. 2A, FIG. 2B, FIG. 3, and FIG. 4A. For receive processing, the PHY layer may perform, for example, error detection, forward error correction decoding, deinterleaving, demapping of transport channels to physical channels, demodulation of physical channels, MIMO or multi-antenna processing, and / or the like.

[0208] As shown in FIG. 15, a wireless device 1502 and the base station 1504 may include multiple antennas. The multiple antennas may be used to perform one or more MIMO or multi-antenna techniques, such as spatial multiplexing (e.g., single-user MIMO or multi-user MIMO), transmit / receive diversity, and / orbeamforming. In other examples, the wireless device 1502 and / or the base station 1504 may have a single antenna.

[0209] The processing system 1508 and the processing system 1518 maybe associated with a memory 1514 and a memory 1524, respectively. Memory 1514 and memory 1524 (e.g., one or more non-transitory computer readable mediums) may store computer program instructions or code that may be executed by the processing system 1508 and / or the processing system 1518 to carry out one or more of the functionalities discussed in the present application. Although not shown in FIG. 15, the transmission processing system 1510, the transmission processing system 1520, the reception processing system 1512, and / or the reception processing system 1522 may be coupled to a memory (e.g., one or more non- transitory computer readable mediums) storing computer program instructions or code that may be executed to carry out one or more of their respective functionalities.

[0210] The processing system 1508 and / or the processing system 1518 may comprise one or more controllers and / or one or more processors. The one or more controllers and / or one or more processors may comprise, for example, a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) and / or other programmable logic device, discrete gate and / or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, an onboard unit, or any combination thereof. The processing system 1508 and / or the processing system 1518 may perform at least one of signal coding / processing, data processing, power control, input / output processing, and / or any other functionality that may enable the wireless device 1502 and the base station 1504 to operate in a wireless environment.

[0211] The processing system 1508 and / or the processing system 1518 may be connected to one or more peripherals 1516 and one or more peripherals 1526, respectively. The one or more peripherals 1516 and the one or more peripherals 1526 may include software and / or hardware that provide features and / or functionalities, for example, a speaker, a microphone, a keypad, a display, a touchpad, a power source, a satellite transceiver, a universal serial bus (USB) port, a hands-free headset, a frequency modulated (FM) radio unit, a media player, an Internet browser, an electronic control unit (e.g., for a motor vehicle), and / or one or more sensors (e.g., an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a temperature sensor, a radar sensor, a lidar sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, a light sensor, a camera, and / or the like). The processing system 1508 and / or the processing system 1518 may receive user input data from and / or provide user output data to the one or more peripherals 1516 and / or the one or more peripherals 1526. The processing system 1518 in the wireless device 1502 may receive power from a power source and / or may be configured to distribute the power to the other components in the wireless device 1502. The power source may comprise one or more sources of power, for example, a battery, a solar cell, a fuel cell, or any combination thereof. The processing system 1508 and / or the processing system 1518 may be connected to a GPS chipset 1517 anda GPS chipset 1527, respectively. The GPS chipset 1517 and the GPS chipset 1527 may be configured to provide geographic location information of the wireless device 1502 and the base station 1504, respectively.

[0212] FIG. 16A illustrates an example structure for uplink transmission. A baseband signal representing a physical uplink shared channel may perform one or more functions. The one or more functions may comprise at least one of: scrambling; modulation of scrambled bits to generate complex-valued symbols; mapping of the complex-valued modulation symbols onto one or several transmission layers; transform precoding to generate complex-valued symbols; precoding of the complex-valued symbols; mapping of precoded complex-valued symbols to resource elements; generation of complex-valued time-domain Single Carrier-Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) or CP-OFDM signal for an antenna port; and / or the like. In an example, when transform precoding is enabled, a SC-FDMA signal for uplink transmission may be generated. In an example, when transform precoding is not enabled, a CP-OFDM signal for uplink transmission may be generated by FIG. 16A. These functions are illustrated as examples and it is anticipated that other mechanisms may be implemented in various embodiments.

[0213] FIG. 16B illustrates an example structure for modulation and up-conversion of a baseband signal to a carrier frequency. The baseband signal may be a complex-valued SC-FDMA or CP-OFDM baseband signal for an antenna port and / or a complex-valued Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) baseband signal. Filtering may be employed prior to transmission.

[0214] FIG. 16C illustrates an example structure for downlink transmissions A baseband signal representing a physical downlink channel may perform one or more functions. The one or more functions may comprise: scrambling of coded bits in a codeword to be transmitted on a physical channel; modulation of scrambled bits to generate complex-valued modulation symbols; mapping of the complex-valued modulation symbols onto one or several transmission layers; precoding of the complex-valued modulation symbols on a layer for transmission on the antenna ports; mapping of complex-valued modulation symbols for an antenna port to resource elements; generation of complex-valued time-domain OFDM signal for an antenna port; and / or the like. These functions are illustrated as examples and it is anticipated that other mechanisms may be implemented in various embodiments.

[0215] FIG. 16D illustrates another example structure for modulation and up-conversion of a baseband signal to a carrier frequency. The baseband signal may be a complex-valued OFDM baseband signal for an antenna port. Filtering may be employed prior to transmission.

[0216] A wireless device may receive from a base station one or more messages (e.g. RRC messages) comprising configuration parameters of a plurality of cells (e.g. primary cell, secondary cell). The wireless device may communicate with at least one base station (e.g. two or more base stations in dual connectivity) via the plurality of cells. The one or more messages (e.g. as a part of the configuration parameters) maycomprise parameters of physical, MAC, RLC, PCDP, SDAP, RRC layers for configuring the wireless device. For example, the configuration parameters may comprise parameters for configuring physical and MAC layer channels, bearers, etc. For example, the configuration parameters may comprise parameters indicating values of timers for physical, MAC, RLC, PCDP, SDAP, RRC layers, and / or communication channels.

[0217] A timer may begin running once it is started and continue running until it is stopped or until it expires. A timer may be started if it is not running or restarted if it is running. A timer may be associated with a value (e.g. the timer may be started or restarted from a value or may be started from zero and expire once it reaches the value). The duration of a timer may not be updated until the timer is stopped or expires (e.g , due to BWP switching). A timer may be used to measure a time period / window for a process When the specification refers to an implementation and procedure related to one or more timers, it will be understood that there are multiple ways to implement the one or more timers. For example, it will be understood that one or more of the multiple ways to implement a timer may be used to measure a time period / window for the procedure. For example, a random access response window timer may be used for measuring a window of time for receiving a random access response. In an example, instead of starting and expiry (or expiration) of a random access response window timer, the time difference between two time stamps may be used. When a timer is restarted, a process for measurement of time window may be restarted. Other example implementations may be provided to restart a measurement of a time window.

[0218] In the present disclosure, any two or more than two of the following sentences, paragraphs, (subbullets, points, actions, behaviors, terms, alternatives, aspects, examples, or claims described in the following invention(s) may be combined logically, reasonably, and properly to form a specific method.

[0219] In the present disclosure, any sentence, paragraph, (sub)-bullet, point, action, behaviors, terms, alternatives, aspects, examples, or claims described in the following in vention(s) may be implemented independently and separately to form a specific method.

[0220] In the present disclosure, dependency, such as "based on”, “more specifically”, “preferably”, “in one embodiment", “in one alternative”, “in one example”, “in one aspect”, “in one implementation”, etc., in the present disclosure is just one possible example which would not restrict the specific method.

[0221] In the present disclosure, it should be understood that any discussion of operations from the perspective of wireless device may also be applied to a base station. Reciprocal operations may not be stated explicitly for each and every operation, although it is implied and a part of the present disclosure. For example, when the present disclosure describes one or more embodiments in which a transmitter device (e.g., a wireless device or a base station) transmits a signal, a receiver device (e.g., a wireless device or a base station) receives the signal. Reciprocal determinations and / or timer operations may occur to ensure alignment between operations of the transmitter device and receiver device. Furthermore, as an example ofreciprocal operations, a wireless device may determine a time to transmit a signal based on a grant and a base station may determine the time to receive the signal and / or determine the time to schedule the signal for the wireless device to transmit via the grant. Similarly, as another reciprocal operation, if a receiver device (e.g., a wireless device or a base station) monitors for a signal or monitors a channel, a transmitter device (e.g., a wireless device or a base station) transmits the signal or transmits the channel.

[0222] User Equipment (UE) may report its UE radio access capabilities which are static at least when the Base Station (BS) requests. The BS may request what capabilities for the UE to report based on band information. The UE capability may be represented by a capability ID, which may be exchanged in Non- Access Stratum (NAS) signaling over the air and in network signaling instead of the UE capability structure.

[0223] UE may receive a UECapabilityEnquiry message from the BS. In response to the UECapabilityEnquiry message, UE may set the contents of UECapabilitylnformation message based on some conditions and / or UE may transmit the UECapabilitylnformation message to the BS.

[0224] BS may initiate a procedure to a UE in RRC_CONNECTED when it needs (additional) UE capability information. BS may retrieve UE capabilities after AS security activation. Network may not forward UE capabilities that were retrieved before Access Stratum (AS) security activation to the Core Network (CN).

[0225] UE may transmit, to BS, an UE assistance information via an IE UEAssistancelnformation. UE may transmit, to BS, an UE assistance information via an IE UEAssistancelnformation based on a configuration received from the BS. The configuration may be included in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message (e.g., RRC Reconfiguration message).

[0226] Configured grants may be configured without the need for the UE to monitor possible UL retransmissions, thus increasing the number of power saving opportunities for the UE.

[0227] FIG. 17 illustrates an example as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0228] As illustrated in FIG. 17, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, drone, uncrewed aerial vehicle, aerial vehicle, etc.) may move (fly over) different areas at an altitude. The UAV may comprise (be) a UE (e.g., a wireless device), the UAV may be an aerial UE type (e.g., a UE type in which a UE is attached to (integrated into, provide services to) the UAV, a UE type in which a UE operates in the UAV, above certain altitude, and / or the like). The UAV may be controlled remotely by a remote operator (or a remote application), the UAV may be controlled by a human onboard the UAV, the UAV may have an autonomous driving (flying) capability and / or the like. The UAV may be used for remote surveillance, for transportation, for logistics, and / or the like. The UAV may need to communicate with a remote server, for controlling, maneuvering, reporting, streaming, etc. For example, the UAV may transmit one or more uplink packets to the remote server, and / or may receive one or more downlink packets from the remote server. The UAV may use 4G connectivity (e.g., LTE, via E-UTRAN), 5G connectivity (e.g., NR via NG-RAN), 6Gconnectivity (e.g., 6G radio, 6G-RAN), and / or the like, to communicate with the remote server. The remote server may be associated with an application running on the remove server and / or may be interacting with one or more operators connected to the remote server. For the transmission of the one or more uplink packets, the UAV may use one or more uplink resources. The one or more uplink resources may be associated with one or more uplink frequencies and / or one or more time periods (slots, symbols). For the reception of the one or more downlink packets, the UAV may use one or more downlink resources. The one or more downlink resources may be associated with one or downlink frequencies and / or one or more time periods. In an example, a downlink frequency may be the uplink frequency. In another example, the downlink frequency may not be the uplink frequency.

[0229] In an example, one or more areas (e.g., locations, defined by geographical coordinates, and / or the like) may be designated as (indicated by) no transmission zone (NTZ, non-transmission zone, notransmission zone). The NTZ may be associated with one or more wireless devices (e.g., one or more transmitters, one or more communication devices, and / or the like), with one or more UAVs, with one or more UAVs communicating with one or more remote servers, and / or the like. The NTZ may be applicable to some wireless devices (UEs) (e.g., wireless device attached to (integrated with) UAVs) while the NTZ may not be applicable to other wireless devices (UEs) (e.g., wireless device on the ground). The NTZ may be applicable during some time periods (e.g., 10:00-11 :00, Tuesday), while the NTZ may not be applicable during other time periods (e.g., 12:00-13:00, Sunday). The NTZ may be applicable to some locations (e.g., an area near an airport, an area above 1KM above ground level), while the NTZ may not be applicable to other locations (e.g., within a shopping mall). One or more conditions (e.g., time periods, device types, locations, altitudes) where the NTZ is applicable (enforced) may be defined to ensure critical devices (machines, public safety devices, etc.) not to be impacted (interfered) by a certain wireless device operating above ground.

[0230] For example, a first UAV may fly from a first zone (e.g., area, location, cell, tracking area) to a third zone via a second zone. In the second zone, one or more machines may operate, and / or one or more factories may be located. In the first zone and / or in the third zone, there may be no critical equipment (e.g., no machine, no factory). The first UAV may use a first frequency (here, for simplicity reason, a single frequency is mentioned. It may be understood that the first frequency may comprise multiple frequencies, a range of frequencies, and / or the like) for communication toward the remote server. The one or more machines and / or the one or more factories may use the first frequency, for communication among the one or more machines or within the one or more factories. When the first UAV flies over the second zone, if the first UAV transmits and / or receives one or more packets, the transmission performed by the first UAV may generate interference to the one or more machines, because the first UAV uses the same frequency as the one or more machines. Because the first UAV flies over the one or more factories over the second zone,the transmission by the first UAV may cause line-of-sight (LOS) interference. On the other hand, one or more UEs on the ground (e.g., used by ground vehicle, pedestrian) may not cause interference to communication among the one or more machines, because the factory may be distant from nearby roads, or there may be no LOS interference because there are many objects between the one or more UEs on the ground and the one or more machines.

[0231] To prevent unwanted transmission caused by the first UAV from impacting the critical equipment (e.g., wireless device), the NTZ may be defined (enforced). When the first UAV is outside of (or out of, outside, exiting) the NTZ, the first UAV may not be restricted from using one or more frequencies defined (associated, allocated, effective, restricted, etc.) for the NTZ. When the first UAV is inside of (or in, entering) the NTZ, the first UAV may not be allowed to make transmission using the one or more frequencies defined (restricted) for the NTZ. This may help to protect communication of critical equipment (e.g., the one or more machines). However, the NTZ may cause reduced communication opportunity for the UAV, as shown in FIG. 18.

[0232] FIG. 18 illustrates an example as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0233] In an example, a UE (e.g., a UE of the UAV, a UE attached / integrated to the UAV) may receive a first configuration parameter configuring the UE with information of a first NTZ. For example, the UE may receive (or be configured with) the first configuration parameter by a first entity (e.g., a manufacturer of the UE, in a ME (mobile equipment) of the UE). For example, the first configuration parameter may comprise one or more first area parameters indicating one or more first areas (e.g., area 1 , area 2, list of cells, list of TAs, list of networks) of the first NTZ, and / or one or more second frequency parameters indicating one or more restricted frequencies (e.g., frequencies in which no transmission is allowed) in the one or more first areas of the first NTZ. The one or more restricted frequencies may comprise a first frequency (e.g., F1 , a first frequency band, one or more frequencies, a range of frequencies). The one or more first configuration parameter may help the UE to determine which location (and / or whether current location of the UE) belongs to the NTZ, and / or which frequencies are restricted.

[0234] In an example, the UE may support one or more frequency bands (e.g., one or more frequency ranges). That the UE supports a frequency band may mean that the UE is able to send an uplink signal (e.g , UCI, PUCCH, PUSCH, and / or the like) via (by using) the frequency band, an uplink resource associated with (i.e., comprising at least a portion of) the frequency band, a first portion of the frequency band, and / or the like. That the UE supports a frequency band may mean that the UE is able to receive a downlink signal via (e.g., by using) the frequency band, a downlink resource associated with (i.e., comprising at least a portion of) the frequency band, a second portion of the frequency band, and / or the like. For example, the one or more frequency bands may comprise a first frequency band and / or a second frequency band. A frequency band of the one or more frequency bands may be at least one of an operatingband (e.g., operating frequency band), a set of frequencies, one or more frequencies, a block of frequencies and / or the like.

[0235] In an example, the UE may send one or more messages indicating the one or more frequency bands supported by the UE, to a base station and / or to a core network node.

[0236] In an example, the UE may be in a first cell of a first base station. Because the UE is in the first cell managed by the first base station, the first base station may receive from the core network node, one or more context messages indicating the one or more frequency bands supported by the UE.

[0237] In an example, the first base station may operate (e.g., use, configure) one or more configured frequencies (e.g., one or more configured frequency bands). For example, the one or more configured frequencies may comprise one or more first configured frequencies and / or one or more second configured frequencies. One or more first configured frequencies of the one or more configured frequencies may overlap partially (e.g., at least a portion of the one or more frequencies is at least a portion of the one or more configured frequencies) and / or entirely (e.g., all the one or more frequencies belong to the one or more configured frequencies) with the one or more restricted frequencies. One or more second configured frequencies of the one or more configured frequencies may not overlap partially and / or entirely with the one or more restricted frequencies. For example, the one or more first configured frequencies may comprise the first frequency.

[0238] In an example, based on the one or more context messages and / or based on the one or more configured frequencies, the first base station may determine to allocate resources to the UE For example, the first base station may determine to use the resources supported by the UE and configured by the first base station. For example, the resources may comprise a portion of the one or more restricted frequencies.

[0239] In an example, the first base station may send one or more first RRC messages to the UE. The one or more RRC messages may comprise one or more RRC configuration messages. For example, the one or more RRC messages may indicate one or more configured grants for the UE. For example, the one or more configured grants may be associated with at least a portion of the one or more restricted frequencies. In an example, the first base station may send one or more uplink resource allocation messages (e.g., uplink assignment, DCI, PDCCH) allocating one or more uplink resources to the UE. For example, the one or more uplink resources may be associated with at least a portion of the one or more frequencies.

[0240] In an example, the UE may determine whether the UE is in the one or more first areas. Determining whether the UE is in the one or more first areas can include determining whether the UE is near, inside, or approaches the one or more first areas. Based on the current location of the UE, if the UE determines that the UE is not in the one or more first areas, the UE may determine that the UE is allowed totransmit and may send one or more uplink signals via the one or more configured grants and / or via the one or more uplink resources.

[0241] In an example, the UE may move into a second area. The second area may be at least one of a second cell of a second base station, a third cell of the first base station, and / or a second sector of the first cell. For example, the second area may comprise the one or more first areas and / or the one or more first areas may comprise the second area. For example, the second base station may receive the one or more context messages.

[0242] In some technologies, based on the one or more context messages and / or based on the one or more configured frequencies, the second base station may determine to allocate resources (e.g ., the one or more configured grants, the one or more second uplink resources, the one or more uplink resources) to the UE. For example, the second base station may determine to allocate the resources, based on that one or more frequencies associated with the resource is supported by the UE. The second base station may not be aware whether a frequency associated with the resources is restricted due to the NTZ, may allocate the resources comprising the frequency, to the UE. Based on determining that the UE is in the NTZ, the UE may not use the resources and may not transmit an uplink signal using the resources. As a result, the resources allocated by the second base station may be wasted, leading to inefficient use of system resources.

[0243] For example, the UE may receive, while in the second area, one or more second RRC messages (e.g , RRC configuration message). The one or more second RRC messages may indicate the one or more radio resource parameters. The one or more radio resource parameters may indicate the one or more configured grants for the UE. For example, the one or more configured grants may be associated with at least a portion of the one or more restricted frequencies. In another example, the UE may receive, while in the second area, one or more second uplink resource allocation messages (e.g., uplink assignment, DCI, PDCCH) allocating one or more second uplink resources to the UE. For example, the one or more second uplink resources may be associated with at least a portion of the one or more restricted frequencies.

[0244] In an example, the UE may determine whether the UE is in the one or more first areas. Based on the current location of the UE, if the UE determines that the UE is in the one or more first areas, the UE may determine whether the one or more configured grants and / or the one or more second uplink resources comprise at least a portion of the one or more restricted frequencies, and / or whether a portion of the one or more configured grants and / or the one or more second uplink resources is restricted due to the NTZ.

[0245] In an example, if the UE determines that the one or more configured grants and / or the one or more second uplink resources comprise at least a portion of the one or more restricted frequencies, the UE may determine not to send one or more uplink signals via the one or more configured grants, via the one or more second uplink resources, and / or via the one or more uplink resources. Because the one or moreconfigured grants and / or the one or more second uplink resources are not used, this may cause inefficiency of a system.

[0246] Example embodiments of the present disclosure solve the above issues by enhancement in signalling among a UE, one or more base stations, and / or one or more core network nodes. The UE may send a report associated with a NTZ, the UE may notify a network (e.g., a core network node, a base station) of adjustment of capability, the one or more base stations may exchange signalling associated with one or more capabilities of the UE, and / or the like. This may help in avoiding use of one or more frequencies supported by the UE and restricted due to the NTZ. In another example, the UE may be configured with one or more criteria to perform reporting of information associated with the NTZ, and / or may send a report associated with the NTZ if the one or more criteria are met. This may help timely reconfiguration of one or more resources of the one or more base stations, and / or may help in reducing unnecessary reporting for the NTZ. In another example, a UE may send a status report indicating one or more restrictions or unavailability in relation to the NTZ. This may help to trigger the base station to update one or more resource parameters for the UE and / or avoid unnecessarily triggering one or more procedures toward the UE.

[0247] In the specification, the term “network system” may be interpreted as, or may refer to, a communication system, and / or a generation of the communication system. For example, one or more network systems may comprise an EPS, a 5GS, a 6th generation (6G) system, and / or the like. For example, a first network system may be the EPS The EPS may comprise of one or more UEs, one or more eNB, one or more en-gNBs, and / or one or more EPCs. The one or more EPCs may comprise a MME, a SGW, a PGW (e.g., a PGW-C+SMF, a PGW-U+UPF), HSS, PCRF, and / or the like. For example, a second network system may be the 5GS. The 5GS may comprise of one or more UEs, one or more gNB, one or more ng-eNBs, one or more 5G core networks. The one or more 5G core networks may comprise one or more core network nodes. The one or more core network nodes may comprise an AMF, a SMF, a PCF, a UPF, a UDM, a NEF, and / or the like. In some embodiments, a core network node may be a combination of one or more core network nodes of one or more core networks. For example, a SMF+PGW-C (e.g., PGW- C+SMF) may act as both a SMF and a PGW (e.g., PGW-C). For example, a SMF may act as a 5G core network node and a 6G core network node. For example, a third network system may be a 6th generation (6G) system (6GS). The 6GS may comprise of one or more UEs, one or more 6G-RAN (e.g., a radio access network node of 6G system), one or more 6gNBs (e.g., an equivalent of gNB for 6GS), one or more 6G core networks. The one or more 6G core networks may comprise one or more 6G core network nodes (e.g., 6G core network functions). Each of the one or more core network nodes may support (implement) one or more functions (or services) provided by each of the one or more 5G core network nodes. Forexample, a node of the 6GS may perform a function of a radio access network and / or one or more roles performed by one or more 6G core network nodes (or by 5G core network nodes).

[0248] In the specification, the term "5G System" may be interpreted as, or may refer to, a 3GPP system consisting of at least one of 5G access network (or NG-RAN), 5G core network and / or a UE.

[0249] In the specification, the term "EPS” may be interpreted as, or may refer to, a 3GPP system consisting of at least one of EPC, E-UTRAN and / or a UE.

[0250] In the specification, the term "network node” may be interpreted as, or may refer to, at least one of a core network node, an access node, a base station, a UE, the like, and / or a combination thereof. A network may comprise one or more network nodes.

[0251] In the specification, the term "core network node” may be interpreted as, or may refer to, a core network device, which may comprise at least one of an AMP, a SMF, a NSSF, a UPF, a NRF a UDM, a PCF, a SoR-AF, an AF, an DDNMF, an MB-SMF, an MB-UPF, a MME, a SGW, a PGW, a SMF+PGW-C, a SMF+PGW-U, a UDM+HSS and / or the like. The core network node may be a 5G core network node, a 6G core network node, a 4G core network node, the likes, and / or a combination thereof. One or more names may be used by a core network node. A function performed by a first core network node of 5GS may be performed by a second core network node of 6GS.

[0252] In the specification, the term “5G core network” may be interpreted as, or may refer to, a core network connecting to a 5G access network. This may be 5G core (5GC).

[0253] In the specification, the term "RAT type” may be interpreted as, or may refer to, identifying the transmission technology used in the access network for 3GPP accesses and / or for non-3GPP accesses. For example, RAT type for 3GPP access may comprise at least one of NR, NB-IOT, E-UTRA, 6GR (i.e., a radio access technology of 6GS) and / or the like. For example, RAT type for non-3GPP access may comprise at least one of untrusted non-3GPP, trusted non-3GPP, trusted IEEE 802.11 non-3GPP access, Wireline, Wireline-Cable, Wireline-BBF, WiFi, etc.

[0254] In the specification, the term "3GPP RAT” may be interpreted as, or may refer to, a radio access technology based on 3rd generation partnership (3GPP) project. For example, this may comprise at least one of a NR, a E-UTRA, UTRA, GSM, 6GR (6G radio), the like, and / or a combination thereof.

[0255] In the specification, the term "N3GPP RAT” may be interpreted as, or may refer to, a radio access technology not based on 3rd generation partnership project. This may be an access technology not developed by 3GPP. For example, this may comprise a WiFi, trusted WiFi, non-trusted WiFi, fixed access, wireline broadband, the like, and / or a combination thereof.

[0256] In the specification, the term "5G access network" may be interpreted as, or may refer to, an access network comprising at least one of a NG-RAN and / or non-3GPP RAN, and connecting to a 5G core network.

[0257] In the specification, the term "3GPP RAN” may be interpreted as, or may refer to, a radio access network using 3GPP RAT. For example, this may comprise at least one of a g N B, an eNB, a ng-eNB, an en-gNB, the like, and / or a combination thereof. For example, this may be at least one of an E-UTRAN, NG- RAN, 6G-RAN (6th generation RAN), the like, and / or a combination thereof. The 3GPP RAN may be 3GPP access node.

[0258] In the specification, the term "NG-RAN” may be interpreted as, or may refer to, a base station, which may comprise at least one of a g NB, a ng-eNB, a relay node, a base station central unit (e.g., gNB- CU), a base station distributed unit (e.g., gNB-DU), and / or the like. This may be a radio access network that connects to 5GC, supporting at least one of NR, E-UTRA, and / or a combination thereof.

[0259] In the specification, the term "E-UTRAN” may be interpreted as, or may refer to, a base station, which may comprise at least one of an eNB, an en-gNB, and / or the like. This may be a radio access network that connects to evolved packet core (EPC), supporting at least one of NR, E-UTRA, and / or a combination thereof.

[0260] In the specification, the term "mobility management node” may be interpreted as, or may refer to, a function and / or a node performing mobility management for a UE. For example, mobility management may be at least one of management of registration status, management of context, management of authorization, management of registration area, management of paging, and / or the like. For example, the mobility management node may comprise at least one of a MME, AMF, and / or the like.

[0261] In the specification, a term "procedure” may be interpreted as, or may refer to, comprising sending by a first node to a second node a first message, receiving by the second node from the first node the first message, sending by the second node to the first node a second message, and / or receiving by the first node from the second node the second message. The first node may be one or more first network nodes, and the second node may be a one or more second network nodes. The procedure may comprise a registration procedure, a deregistration procedure, a service request procedure, a notification procedure, a PDU session establishment procedure, a PDU session modification procedure, a UE configuration update procedure, a cell selection procedure, a cell reselection procedure, a random access procedure, a capability update procedure, and / or the like.

[0262] In the specification, a term "NAS message” may be interpreted as, or may refer to, a message exchanged between a UE and a core network node. The NAS message may be exchanged via a 3GPP access and / or via a N3GPP access. The NAS message may comprise a MM (mobility management) message, a SM (session management) message, and / or the like. The MM message may comprise a registration request message, a registration accept message, a registration reject message, a UE configuration update message, a UL NAS transport message, a DL NAS transport message, a deregistration message, a service request message, a service accept message, a service reject message,a PDU session establishment request message, a PDU session establishment accept message, a PDU session establishment reject message, a PDU session modification request message, a PDU session modification accept message, a PDU session modification reject message, a PDU session modification command message, a PDU session release request message, a PDU session release command message, and / or the like.

[0263] In an example, a timer may begin running once it is started and continue running until it is stopped or until it expires. A timer may be started if it is not running or restarted if it is running. A timer may be associated with a value (e.g. the timer may be started or restarted from a value or may be started from zero and expire once it reaches the value). The duration of a timer may not be updated until the timer is stopped or expires (e.g , due to change of the value). A timer may be used to measure a time period / window for a process. When the specification refers to an implementation and procedure related to one or more timers, it will be understood that there are multiple ways to implement the one or more timers. For example, it will be understood that one or more of the multiple ways to implement a timer may be used to measure a time period / window for the procedure. For example, a network slice inactivity window timer (e.g., a NS UE monitoring timer, a NS PDU monitoring timer) may be used for measuring a window of time for measuring the network slice inactivity. In an example, instead of starting and expiry of a network slice inactivity window timer, the time difference between two time stamps may be used. When a timer is restarted, a process for measurement of time window may be restarted. Other example implementations may be provided to restart a measurement of a time window.

[0264] In an example, indication (e.g., indicate, indicating) may be achieved in various ways. For example, a first indication may be done by including a first field in a first signalling (e.g., a message). Alternatively and / or additional, a second indication may be done by not including the first field in the first signalling. For example, if a first message comprises the first field (e.g., used / assigned for the first indication, e.g., field A), the first indication (e.g., a timer is used) may be done (e.g., achieved, delivered from a sender to a receiver). For example, if the first field in the first message is set to a value A, a third indication (e.g., timer value is value A) may be done. For example, if the first message does not comprise the first field, the second indication (e.g., timer is not used) may be done. In another example, a fourth indication (e.g., a UE is allowed for action C) may be done by sending a second signalling (e.g., a message whose name comprises ‘C and / or 'accept'). Alternatively and / or additionally, a fifth indication (e.g., a UE is not allowed for action C) may be done by not sending the second signalling (e.g., a message, a field (e.g., allowed bit)). For example, the sender can indicate A, by sending a message A1 comprising an indicator (e.g., an information element) indicating A and / or by sending a message A2. For example, the message A2 may be used only to indicate A and / or the message A2 itself may indicate the A. For example, when a first entity indicates to a second entity about first something, the first entity may send to the second entity, an indicator(e.g an information element) indicating the first something, and / or may send to the second entity, a message comprising the indicator and / or may send a first dedicated message for the first something. In other example, when a first entity does not indicate to a second entity about second something, the first entity may not send to the second entity, a first indicator (e.g., an information element) indicating the second something, may not send to the second entity, a message comprising the first indicator, and / or may send to the second entity, a second indicator indicating that the second something does not apply, and / or may send a message not comprising the first indicator, and / or may send to the second entity, a second dedicated message for indicating the second something. In another example, not sending any message may be interpreted as an indication. In an example, indicate may mean comprise one or more parameter indicating.

[0265] In an example, ‘based on a message (one or more messages)' may be interpreted, or may refer to, as, ‘based on one or more information (one or more parameters) included in the message (the one or more messages)’, 'using (acting) on one or more information (one or more parameters) included in the message (the one or more messages)’, and / or the like.

[0266] In the specification, "protocol entity” may be interpreted, or may refer to, as an entity performing a set of specific functions related to a wireless access (e.g., LTE access, NR access) and / or a wireline access (e.g., Ethernet) and / or communication (e.g., TCP, IP). In an example, an entity (or a layer) may be interpreted as a protocol entity (or a protocol layer). In an example, the protocol entity of LTE and / or NR may be at least one of a SDAP entity, a PDCP entity, a RLC entity, a MAC entity, a RRC entity, a NAS entity, and / or a PHY entity. In an example, a layer (e.g., a SDAP layer, a PDCP layer, a RLC layer, a MAC layer a PHY layer, a RRC layer, a NAS layer) may be interpreted as a protocol entity (e.g., SDAP entity, a PDCP entity, a RLC entity, a MAC entity, a PHY entity, a RRC entity, a NAS entity).

[0267] In the specification, no transmission zone (NTZ) may be no-transmission zone or no-transmission zones. In a first example, the NTZ may be a geographical area where one or more aerial UEs (e.g., drones, UAVs) are not allowed to operate (e.g., transmit a radio signal) in a certain frequency band. ECC Decision (22)07 describes purpose and requirements of NTZ. The ECC Decision 22(07) (e.g., CEPT Decision 22(07) is a decision made by CEPT in November 2022, is about harmonized technical conditions for the usage of aerial UE for communications based on LTE and 5G NR in several bands harmonized for MFCN. The decision assumes multiple technical conditions and requirements to support aerial UEs in mobile systems (both LTE and NR). Two notable ones are no-transmit zone (NTZ) and out-of-band emission (OOBE). In ECC Decision 22(07), the NTZ is defined at national level as a geographical area where aerial UE are not allowed to operate in a certain frequency band. Another measure to achieve coexistence is to define additional COB emission limits specific to aerial UE (to avoid interference to other services in some other bands (e.g. to protect MetSat at 1675-1710 MHz). The requirement may apply to aerial UE according totheir operational frequency band, e.g. aerial UE operating in a specific band or specific channel. In some cases, operation of aerial UE also requires respective cross-border coordination agreements. No-fly zone definition is set out in ECC Report 309. On the other hand, no flying zone (NFZ, no-fly zone), may be an area whether the UAV is not allowed to fly. An area of the NFZ may be a NTZ and / or may not be an NTZ. In a second example, the NTZ may be a geographical area where one or more UEs (e.g., smartphones, machines, terrestrial devices, devices on the ground, devices under certain altitudes, devices which does not have capability to fly, etc.) are not allowed to operate (e.g., transmit a radio signal) in a certain frequency band (ranges). In a third example, the NTZ may be associated with one or more conditions. When the one or more conditions (e.g., geographical areas, certain time slots / periods) are met, one or more UEs (e.g , smartphones, machines, terrestrial devices, devices on the ground, devices under certain altitudes, devices which does not have capability to fly, etc.) are not allowed to operate (e.g., transmit a radio signal) in a certain frequency band (ranges). When the one or more conditions (e.g., geographical areas, certain time slots) are not met, one or more UEs (e.g., smartphones, machines, terrestrial devices, devices on the ground, devices under certain altitudes, devices which does not have capability to fly, etc.) are allowed to operate (e.g., transmit a radio signal) in a certain frequency band (ranges).

[0268] In the specification, being in a NTZ may be being in one or more areas defined (e.g., designated) for a NTZ, and / or having no available frequency (e.g., operating band, one or more uplink carriers) for transmission. In an example, the one or more areas may comprise a first area and / or a second area. One or more restricted frequencies for the NTZ may comprise a first frequency. The first area may comprise one or more first cells configured with at least a portion of the one or more restricted frequencies and / or not configured with another frequencies not belonging to the one or more restricted frequencies. The second area may comprise one or more second cells configured with at least a portion of the one or more restricted frequencies and / or configured with at least one frequency not belonging to the one or more restricted frequencies. In this case, the UE may be in the NTZ, when the UE is in the first area. In this case, if the UE supports the at least one frequency and / or if the UE is allowed to use the at least one frequency, when the UE is in the second area, the UE may determine that the UE is not in the NTZ. In this case, if the UE does not support the at least one frequency and / or if the UE is not allowed to use the at least one frequency, when the UE is in the second area, the UE may determine that the UE is in the NTZ.

[0269] In the specification, an aerial UE may be an uncrewed (unmanned) aerial vehicle (UAV), a drone, a communication device attached to the UAV, a communication device integrated into the UAV, and / or the like.

[0270] In the specification 'restriction' and / or ‘restricted’ may be interpreted, may refer to “not allowed to use, transmit, send, operate, and / or the like”. For example, if a frequency A (e.g., 1 .1 GHz) is restricted, it may be interpreted at least one of that transmission (of a signal, data, etc.) using the frequency A is notallowed, that reception (of a second signal, data, etc.) using the frequency A may and / or may not be allowed, that communication via the frequency A is not allowed, sending feedback (e.g., HARQ ACK / NACK, PUCCH, UCI, etc.) via the frequency A is not allowed while being allowed to receive one or more downlink signal, and / or the like. For example, if the frequency A is restricted, the UE may not send any signal, using the frequency A, if a certain condition (e.g., transmitter of the UE does (and / or does not) support the frequency A, a resource using the frequency A is (and / or is not) allocated, the UE is in the NTZ, the UE is an aerial UE type, and / or the like) is met. For example, if the frequency A is not restricted, the UE may send a signal, using the frequency A, if some conditions (e.g., transmitter of the UE supports the frequency A, a resource using the frequency A is allocated, the UE is not in the NTZ, the UE is not an aerial UE type, and / or the like) are met. In some cases, a first cell may be restricted and / or a second cell may not be restricted. In some cases, a first uplink carrier of one or more uplink carriers may be restricted and / or a second uplink carrier of the one or more uplink carriers may not be restricted. In some cases, a first BWP of one or more BWPs may be restricted and / or a second BWP of the one or more BWPs may not be restricted. In some cases, that a portion of cells (or, BWPs, frequencies, uplink carriers, areas) is restricted may be that a resource of the cells are partially restricted and / or that entire resource of the cells are not restricted and / or at least a (segment, portion of) resource of the cells are allowed. Restriction may be for not allowing to use, for not allowing to access, for preventing access, for preventing use. Restriction may apply partially and / or entirely for an area, a cell, a frequency, a frequency band, an BWP, an RACH resource, and / or the like. Restriction may apply in uplink direction and / or may apply in downlink direction. Restriction may apply in uplink direction and / or may not apply in downlink direction. Restriction may not apply in uplink direction and / or may apply in downlink direction. For example, when a UE is restricted in uplink, the UE may be allowed to receive a downlink signal (e.g., SIBs, MBMS).

[0271] In the specification, ‘one or more frequency’, 'frequency bands’, ‘frequency block’, ‘frequency set’ and / or ‘frequency range” may be interpreted, may refer “a set of frequencies”. For example, a first frequency band (e.g., covering from 10 MHz to 11 MHz) may be (comprise) one or more frequencies (10.1 , 10.11 , 10.3 MHz, .... 10MHz) within (starting, from) a first lower edge frequency (e.g., 10 MHz) and (ending, up to) a first upper edge (boundary) frequency (11 MHz). The one or more frequencies may be expressed by the first lower edge frequency and / or by the first upper edge frequency. The one or more frequencies may be a frequency band, a frequency range, a block of frequencies, a set of frequencies, and / or the like. In some case, ‘a frequency’ may be ‘one or more frequencies’. In some cases, the one or more frequencies may be identified (e.g., indicated) by an identifier (e.g., the operating band). In other case, the one or more frequencies may be identified (e.g., indicated) with lower edge (bound) frequency and / or with upper edge (bound) frequency. For example, if the one or more frequencies is a plurality of the frequency within a range (e.g., from 1920 MHz to 1980 MHz), the one or more frequencies can be indicatedwith an identifier N1 and / or by the lower edge (e.g., 1920 MHz) and / or the upper edge (e.g., 1980 MHz). In one example, the one or more frequencies may be indicated with one or more ARFCNs (e.g., absolute radio-frequency channel number). An ARFCN may be a code that specifies a pair of reference frequencies used for transmission and reception.

[0272] In the specification, ‘operating band’ may be interpreted, may refer to an index (identifier) of a frequency band. For example, one or more operating bands may be N1 , N2, ... , N100, and / or the like. For example, the operating band N1 (e.g., frequency band N1) may indicate a first block of frequency (e.g., uplink frequency within, from 1920MHz to 1980 MHz), the operating band N2 (e.g., frequency band N2) may indicate a second block of frequency (e.g., uplink frequency within, from 1850 MHz to 1910 MHz), and / or the like. In some occasions, the operating band may be called as a frequency band. The use of the operating band may reduce signalling amount, if the information indicated by each operating band is known (stored, specified) in advance in the standard. In the specification, when a UE sends information of the one or more operating bands to a network (e.g., a base station, a core network node), the UE may send information of the one or more operating bands and / or the one or more combinations of the one or more operating bands.

[0273] FIG. 19 illustrates an example as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure. In an example, a UE may determine whether the UE is near (e.g., in, inside) one or more first areas of a NTZ, and / or may determine to send update information on one or more capabilities of the UE. This may help in reducing unnecessary use of radio resources for the UE. For brevity, based on the other part of the present disclosure, redundant details will be omitted.

[0274] In an example, a UE may receive one or more first messages.

[0275] The UE may receive the one or more first messages from at least one of a mobility management node (e.g., an AMF, a MME, a mobility management node of 6GS), an application server (e.g., a server associated operation of the aerial UE, a USS (UAS (unmanned aircraft system) service supplier), a UTM (UAS traffic management), an application server controlling an aerial UE, and / or the like), a manufacture of the UE (and / or, hard-coded information in the hardware of the UE, ME (mobile equipment)), a home network (e.g., via a node of the home network, a SIM card (e.g., UICC), stored in the SIM card (e.g., USIM)), and / or the like.

[0276] The one or more first messages may comprise at least one of:

[0277] - a first information. The first information may indicate the NTZ. The first information may be associated with the NTZ. The first information may be one or more first area parameters. For example, the first information may indicate one or more first areas of the NTZ. The one or more first areas may be one or more first locations, one or more first cells, one or more first tracking areas, and / or the like. Within (e g., when located inside of, near, and / or the like) at least one of the one or more first areas, and / or when theUE is configured with the first information, the UE may not be allowed to transmit (e.g., send) an uplink signal (e.g., reference symbols, PUCCH signal, PUSCH signal, MAC CE, MAC PDU) using at least a portion, a part, and / or entirety of the one or more restricted frequencies. Using the at least the portion, the part, and / or the entirety of the one or more restricted frequencies may be using an uplink resource indicated by the at least the portion, the part, and / or the entirety of the one or more restricted frequencies. When located outside (e.g., out of, not inside, not within) the one or more first areas, and / or when not configured with the first information, the UE may be allowed to transmit using the one or more restricted frequencies. The one or more restricted frequencies may be restricted for the NTZ and / or within the one or more first areas. Within (e.g., when located inside of, near) at least one of the one or more first areas, the UE may be allowed to transmit using other frequencies not indicated by the one or more restricted frequencies. The first information may be a NTZ area information, and / or a NTZ location information.

[0278] - a second information. The second information may indicate the one or more restricted frequencies, restricted in the one or more first areas indicated by the first information. The one or more restricted frequencies may indicate one or more sets of frequencies, restricted for the NTZ. The one or more sets of frequencies may be one or more frequency ranges, one or more frequency blocks, one or more frequency bands, one or more operating bands, and / or the like. The UE may not be allowed to transmit using a frequency of the one or more restricted frequencies, while the UE is inside the NTZ. The UE may not be allowed to transmit using any frequency of the one or more restricted frequencies, while the UE is inside the NTZ. For example, a set of the one or more sets of frequencies restricted for the NTZ may be expressed (e.g., indicated) by a lower edge frequency (e.g., lower bound frequency, a starting frequency) of the set and / or an upper edge frequency (e.g., upper bound frequency, an ending frequency) of the set. The set may comprise one or more frequencies within the lower edge frequency and the upper edge frequency. For example, a first set of the one or more sets may comprise frequencies in a range from 1100 MHz to 1200 MHz, where the lower edge frequency is 1100 MHz and the upper edge frequency is 1200 MHz. For example, a second set of the one or more sets may comprise frequencies in a range from 2100 MHz to 2200 MHz, in which the lower edge frequency is 2100 MHz and the upper edge frequency is 2200 MHz. In another example, the second information may indicate one or more operating bands (operating frequency bands) indicating the one or more sets of frequencies, and / or the one or more operating bands associated with the one or more sets of frequencies. For example, an operating band of the one or more operating bands may indicate at least one set of the one or more sets. For example, the second information may indicate one or more first list of NR bands. The one or more first list of NR bands may indicate the one or more operating bands. The one or more operating bands restricted for NTZ may be the one or more first operating bands. In an example, a core network (e.g., AMF, PCF, UDM, a mobility management node) may deliver the first information and / or the second information, to a base station.

[0279] The one or more first messages may be at least one of a registration accept message, a UE configuration update message, a policy container, a NAS transport message, an OMA (open mobile alliance) DM (device management) message, a configuration message, a downlink RRC transfer message, a service-level-AA container, a payload container, a UE policy container, NAS transparent container, a SOR transparent container, and / or the like. The one or more first message may be received via a control plane, via a user plane, be locally configured, and / or the like.

[0280] The one or more first messages may be used to configure the UE with information (e.g., one or more parameters, one or more first area parameters, and / or one or more second frequency parameters) of the NTZ. The one or more first messages may provide the UE with the information (e.g., the one or more parameters, the one or more first area parameters, and / or the one or more second frequency parameters) of the NTZ. For example, this may help the UE to identify one or more areas (e.g., the one or more first areas) of the NTZ, and / or the one or more restricted frequencies (e.g., the one or more frequencies not allowed to transmit while inside the NTZ) associated with the NTZ. The one or more first messages may help the UE to prevent unwarranted transmission. A network node (e.g., an AMF, a PDF, a policy control node, an application server) may send the one or more first messages to the UE, if the UE is an aerial UE type, and / or if the UE supports handling of the NTZ related information. For example, if the UE sends to the network, a capability information indicating that the UE can interpret the NTZ information (e.g., the UE can interpret, handle, process, support, and / or the like, the first information and / or the second information), and / or if the UE sends to the network a request requesting information associates with the NTZ information, the network may send the one or more first messages (e.g., the first information and / or the second information) to the UE. For example, if the UE does not send to the network the capability information, and / or if the UE does not send to the network the request, the network may not send the one or more first messages (e.g., the first information and / or the second information) to the UE. This may help in reducing abnormal behavior of a UE, in reducing signalling resource, if the one or more first messages are sent to the UE that may not be able to interpret the first information (and / or the second information).

[0281] In an example, the UE may send one or more second messages to a base station. For example, the UE may be located outside of the one or more first areas and / or may be located outside of the NTZ. For example, the UE may be located in one or more second areas. The one or more second areas may not belong to the one or more first areas. The one or more second areas may not be associated (restricted) by the NTZ. The one or more second messages may be one or more second RRC messages. The one or more second messages may be at least one of a RRC Setup Request message, a UECapabilitylnformation message, a ULInformationResponse, a UEAssistancelnformation message, ULInformationTransfer message, and / or the like.

[0282] The one or more second RRC messages may comprise at least one of second accessStratumRelease, second RF-Parameters, second phy-Parameters, second mac-Parameters, second rlc-Parameters, second pdcp-Parameters, second fdd-Add-UE-NR-Capabilities, second tdd-Add- UE-NR-Capabilities, second featureSets, and / or the like. For example, the one or more second messages may indicate one or more second capabilities supported by the UE. For example, the one or more second messages may comprise the information of the one or more second capabilities supported by the UE. For example, the one or more second capabilities may be associated one or more second frequencies, one or more second frequency bands, one or more second operating bands, and / or the like, supported by the UE. For example, the one or more second capabilities may comprise at least one of the second accessStratumRelease, the second RF-Parameters, the second phy-Parameters, the second mac- Parameters, the second rlc-Parameters, the second pdcp-Parameters, the second fdd-Add-UE-NR- Capabilities, the second tdd-Add-U E-NR-Capabilities, the second featureSets, and / or the like

[0283] The second RF-Parameters may comprise at least one of second supportedBandListNR, second supportedBandCombinationList, and / or the like. The second supportedBandListNR may be a second list of NR (e g., 6G radio, EUTRA, and / or like) bands supported by the UE, and / or each item in the second list of NR bands may comprise bandNR, channelBWs-DL, channelBWs-UL, and / or the like. The second supportedBandCombiniationList may be a second list of NR (e.g., 6G radio, EUTRA, and / or the like) band combinations (e.g., combination of one or more NR bands) that the UE supports.

[0284] For example, the bandNR may be FreqBandlndicatorNR and / or indicate an operating band associated with the each item. For example, the bandNR may indicate at least one of one or more frequencies that are supported by the UE and / or one or more (operating) frequency bands supported by the UE. The channelBWs-DL may indicate one or more channel bandwidths that are supported by the UE for each NR (6G radio, EUTRAN, the bandNR, the frequency band, the operating band, and / or the like) band, for downlink. The channelBWs-UL may indicate one or more channel bandwidths that are supported by the UE for the each NR (6G radio, EUTRAN, the bandNR, the frequency band, the operating band, and / or the like) band, for uplink. In an example, the second RF-Parameters may indicate one or more second frequencies (e.g., one or more second operating band, one or more second frequency bands, one or more ranges of frequencies) that are supported by the UE. The second list of NR bands may be one or more second operating bands. The second list of NR bands may indicate one or more index of the one or more second operating bands.

[0285] For example, the second RF-Parameters may comprise the second list of NR bands (e.g., N100, N102, N103), and / or the second list of NR bands may indicate one or more second frequencies (e.g., frequency bands, operating bands, one or more second frequencies, and / or the like) supported by the UE. For example, the second RF-Parameters may comprise (indicate) information of the one or more secondfrequencies supported by the UE and / or information of second combinations of the one or more second frequencies supported by the UE. For example, based on that the UE is outside of the NTZ and / or based on that the UE is in the one or more second areas, the one or more second list of NR bands and / or the one or more second frequencies may comprise one or more third frequencies (and / or one or more third list of NR bands). For example, the one or more third frequencies (and / or the one or more third list of NR bands) may belong to the one or more first frequencies (and / or the one or more first list of NR bands), partly and / or entirely. For example, the one or more third frequencies (and / or the one or more third list of NR bands) may belong to the one or more second frequencies (and / or the one or more second list of NR bands), partly and / or entirely. The third list of NR bands may be one or more third operating bands. For example, based on the one or more first area parameters (e.g., based on determining that the UE is not in the NTZ), the UE may determine to include, in the one or more second list of NR bands, the one or more third list of NR bands and / or may determine not to exclude the one or more third list of NR bands from the one or more second list of NR bands. For example, based on the one or more first area parameters (e.g., based on determining that the UE is not in the NTZ), the UE may determine to include, in the one or more second frequencies, the one or more third frequencies and / or may determine not to exclude the one or more third frequencies from the one or more second frequencies.

[0286] Alternatively and / or additionally, the UE may send one or more second NAS messages to a core network. For example, the one or more second NAS messages may comprise:

[0287] - a field (e g., UE radio capability identifier IE identifier) indicating whether UE radio capability identifier is included in the one or more second NAS messages. If the field is set, the one or more second NAS messages may further comprise a second value for a second UE radio capability identifier. For example, the second value may indicate at least one of the one or more second capabilities, the one or more second frequencies, and / or the like. For example, the second value may be associated with the one or more second capabilities (e.g., the second list of NR bands, the one or more second frequencies).

[0288] In an example, the base station may receive the one or more second messages. The base station may send one or more N2 messages (e.g., one or more messages exchanged between the base station and / or one or more core network nodes), to the core network (e.g., a mobility management node, a policy control server, an application server, and / or the like), based on receiving the one or more second messages. For example, the one or more N2 messages may comprise at least one of the second accessStratumRelease, the second RF-Parameters, the second phy-Parameters, the second mac- Parameters, the second rlc-Parameters, the second pdcp-Parameters, the second fdd-Add-UE-NR- Capabilities, the second tdd-Add-U E-NR-Capabilities, the second featureSets, and / or the like. This may help for the network (e.g., the core network node) to store the one or more capabilities (e.g., the one or more second capabilities) of the UE and / or may reduce amount of signalling to retrieve the one or morecapabilities of the U E, over air interface, each time the UE transits to a RRC connected state. In other example, the base station may receive a context setup message (e.g., initial UE context setup request message) from a core network node. For example, if the core network node has an available (e.g., previously stored) information of the one or more capabilities of the UE, the core network node may send the context setup message comprising the one or more capabilities (e.g., information of the one or more capabilities), and / or this may reduce use of radio resource to receive from the UE, the one or more capabilities via the air interface.

[0289] In an example, the base station may allocate one or more uplink resources to the UE. For example, based on the one or more capabilities (e.g., the one or more second capabilities, the one or more second frequencies, and / or the like), the base station may allocate the one or more uplink resources. For example, based on the one or more second frequencies supported by the UE and / or based on the one or more second operating (frequency) bands supported by the UE, the base station may determine the one or more uplink resources. For example, the one or more uplink resources may be associated with a subset (and / or entire) of the one or more second frequencies that are supported by the UE and / or the one or more uplink resources may not be associated a frequency that are not supported by the UE. For example, because the UE is out of the one or more first areas, if the one or more second capabilities indicates that the UE supports a first frequency of the one or more first frequencies, the base station may allocate the one or more uplink resources which may comprise the first frequency.

[0290] In an example, the UE may move into (e.g., inside, in, within, near, approaches, enter) the one or more first areas. In response to determining that the UE is inside (e.g., is in, is within, is near, approaches, enters) the one or more first areas, the UE may determine whether a capability of the UE is changed (e.g., whether the capability of the UE is updated, whether the UE needs to notify update of the capability of the UE, and / or the like). For example, determining whether the capability of the UE is changed may be determining whether current capability of the UE is different from last reported capability of the UE. For example, determining whether the capability of the UE is changed may be determining whether at least a third capability of the one or more second capability is restricted (e.g., due to NTZ), determining whether at least a new capability is added to the capability of the UE, determining whether at least a capability is removed (e.g., disabled, restricted, suspended, and / or the like) from the capability of the UE. For example, the last reported capability may be a capability indicated by the one or more second messages (e.g., the one or more second RRC messages, the one or more second NAS message). For example, that the third capability is restricted may be that a third frequency is restricted (e.g., not allowed) due to the NTZ, that a third operating band is restricted (e.g., not allowed, disabled, suspended), and / or the like. For example, the third capability (and / or the third frequency, the third operating band) may be included as supported, by theone or more second messages. For example, the third capability may be restricted, because the UE enters (approaches) the one or more first areas of the NTZ.

[0291] For example, based on the one or more first area parameters, and / or based on the one or more second frequency parameters, the UE may determine one or more third list of NR bands, and / or one or more third frequencies. For example, each of the one or more third list of NR bands may belong to the one or more second list of NR bands (e.g., (previously reported as) supported by the UE). For example, the each of the one or more third list of NR bands may belong to the one or more first list of NR bands (e.g., restricted (not allowed to be used) while in the NTZ). For example, the each of the one or more third frequencies may belong to the one or more second frequencies (e.g., (previously reported as) supported by the UE). For example, each of the one or more third frequencies may belong to the one or more first frequencies (e.g., restricted (not allowed to be used) while in the NTZ). If there is at least one NR band in the one or more third list of NR bands, and / or if there is at least one frequency in the one or more third frequencies, the UE may determine that at least one of the one or more capabilities of the UE are changed, restricted, updated and / or the like. If there is at least one NR band in the one or more third list of NR bands, and / or if there is at least one frequency in the one or more third frequencies, and / or if the UE moves in (or approaches) the one or more first areas, the UE may determine that at least one of the one or more second capabilities of the UE are changed, restricted, updated and / or the like. If the UE determines that at least one of the one or more capabilities (e.g., second capabilities) of the UE are changed, restricted, updated and / or the like, the UE may determine to send one or more update messages. For example, if there is at least one NR band in the one or more third list of NR bands, and / or if there is at least one frequency in the one or more third frequencies, the UE may determine to send one or more update messages. For example, if the UE determines that the UE enters (e.g., approaches) into the NTZ, the UE may determine to send one or more update messages. For example, if the UE determines that one or more supported frequencies (e.g , one or more operating bands) of the UE changes due to entering (e.g., approaching) into the NTZ, the UE may determine to send one or more update messages. In an example, before sending the one or more update message, the UE may release, if any, established N1 connection (and / or one or more connection between the UE and a core network node). In an example, before sending the one or more update message, the UE may release, if any, established RRC connection (and / or one or more connection between the UE and a base station). In an example, before sending the one or more update message, the UE may transit from a RRC connected state to a RRC idle state and / or the UE may transit from 5G MM- Connected state to a 5G MM-ldle state. This may help for the base station and / or the core network node, to distinguish a first connection associated with one or more restricted capabilities from a second connection not associated with the one or more restricted capabilities.

[0292] In an example, the one or more update messages may comprise at least one of:

[0293] - a first field (e.g., NG-RAN radio capability update field) indicating whether radio capability update (RCU) is required. The first field may further comprise a value indicating that UE radio capability update is needed, for the NTZ (e.g., due to NTZ).

[0294] - a second field (e.g., UE radio capability identifier IE identifier) indicating whether a UE radio capability identifier is included in the one or more update messages. If the second field is set, the one or more update messages may further comprise a fourth value for a fourth UE radio capability identifier. For example, the fourth value may indicate the one or more fourth capabilities. For example, the fourth value may be associated with the one or more fourth capabilities (e.g., a fourth list of NR bands, one or more fourth frequencies). A UE radio capability identifier may help in reducing signaling overhead over air (radio) interface. The UE radio capability identifier may represent a set of UE radio capabilities. For example, because some (e.g., third list of NR bands) of UE's capabilities is restricted, the fourth value may be different from the second value.

[0295] - list of restricted UL frequencies (e.g., list of restricted NR bands, list of NTZ restricted UL frequencies, list of affected bands (e.g., frequencies), list of avoided bands (e.g., frequencies)). This list may indicate one or more restricted UL frequencies that are restricted due to the NTZ (e.g., based on the first information and / or the second information), and / or due to that current location of the UE is in (near) the NTZ. For example, this may be a list of third NR bands (e.g., a list of third operating bands) and / or may indicate the one or more third frequencies. The one or more third frequencies may be one or more frequencies within one or more third ranges. For example, a third range of the one or more third ranges may be from a third lower edge frequency to a third upper edge frequency. For example, the third lower edge frequency and / or the third upper edge frequency may indicate the third range. For example, this list may indicate one or more restricted UL frequencies while the UE is inside the NTZ. For example, the list of restricted UL frequencies may indicate that the UE is inside the NTZ and / or that one or more frequencies in the list is restricted due to the NTZ (e.g., due to the second information, and / or because the UE is inside the NTZ). This may further indicate a cause value indicating that restriction is associated with the NTZ. Alternatively and / or additionally, the one or more update messages may comprise the cause value. This may further comprise an indication field indicating that the restriction is caused by the NTZ. This may help the base station to determine the cause of the restriction.

[0296] - list of supported UL frequencies (e.g., list of supported NR bands, list of NTZ supported UL frequencies, e.g., list of preferred bands (e.g., frequencies)). This list may indicate one or more UL frequencies that are not restricted due to the NTZ (e.g., based on the first information and / or the second information), and / or due to that current location of the UE is in (near) the NTZ. For example, this may be a list of fourth NR bands (e.g., a list of fourth operating bands) and / or may indicate the one or more fourth frequencies. The one or more fourth frequencies may be one or more frequencies within one or more fourthranges. For example, a fourth range of the one or more fourth ranges may be from a fourth lower edge frequency to a fourth upper edge frequency, and / or the one or more fourth frequencies may be one or more frequencies between the fourth lower edge frequency and the fourth upper edge frequency. For example, the UE may be allowed to transmit an uplink signal using one or more resources associated at least a portion of the one or more frequencies indicated by the list of supported UL frequencies, while the UE is inside the NTZ. For example, this list may indicate one or more supported UL frequencies while the UE is inside the NTZ. For example, this list may indicate one or more UL frequencies which are allowed for the UE to transmit, while the UE is inside the NTZ. For example, the list of second NR bands may comprise the list of fourth NR bands and / or the list of the third NR bands. For example, the list of third NR bands may be different from the list of fourth NR bands. For example, the list of first NR bands may comprise the list of third NR bands, and / or may not comprise the list of fourth NR bands. For example, the one or more second frequencies may comprise the one or more fourth frequencies and / or the one or more third frequencies. For example, the one or more third frequencies may be different from the one or more fourth frequencies. For example, the one or more first frequencies may comprise the one or more third frequencies, and / or may not comprise the one or more fourth frequencies

[0297] - At least one of a fourth accessStratumRelease, a fourth RF-Parameters, a fourth phy- Parameters, a fourth mac-Parameters, a fourth rlc-Parameters, a fourth pdcp-Parameters, a fourth fdd-Add- UE-NR-Capabilities, a fourth tdd-Add-U E-NR-Capabilities, a fourth featureSets, and / or the like. For example, the one or more fourth capabilities may comprise the fourth accessStratumRelease, the fourth RF-Parameters, the fourth phy-Parameters, the fourth mac-Parameters, the fourth rlc-Parameters, the fourth pdcp-Parameters, the fourth fdd-Add-U E-NR-Capabilities, the fourth tdd-Add-UE-N R-Capabilities, the fourth featureSets, and / or the like. For example, the fourth RF-Parameters may comprise at least one of fourth supportedBandListNR, fourth supportedBandCombinationList, and / or the like. The fourth supportedBandCombinationList may indicate one or more fourth combinations of the one or more fourth operating bands. While the UE is in the NTZ, and / or while the one or more restrictions applies, the UE may support the one or more fourth combinations. For example, the fourth supportedBandCombinationList may help the base station to determine which operating bands can be used for the UE concurrently.

[0298] In an example, the one or more update messages may indicate the one or more fourth capabilities supported by the UE, while the UE is in NTZ, and / or while restrictions are applied to the UE. For example, the one or more update messages may comprise the information of the one or more fourth capabilities supported by the UE, while the UE is in NTZ, and / or while restrictions are applied to the UE. For example, the one or more update messages may comprise the information of the one or more fourth capabilities supported by the UE. For example, the one or more fourth capabilities may be associated the one or more fourth frequencies, the one or more fourth frequency bands (e.g. the list of fourth NR bands), the one ormore fourth operating bands (e.g. the list of fourth operating bands), supported by the UE. The one or more fourth frequencies, the one or more fourth frequency bands, the one or more fourth operating bands may not be restricted by the NTZ (e.g., while the UE is inside (e.g., in, near) the NTZ).

[0299] For example, the one or more fourth frequencies may be at least one of: a remainder of the one or more second frequencies excluding (e.g., except, minus) the one or more third frequencies; the one or more second frequencies excluding (e.g., except, minus) the one or more first frequencies; a portion of the one or more second frequencies not restricted by the second information; and / or the like.

[0300] For example, the one or more fourth frequency bands, the one or more fourth list of NR bands, the one or more fourth operating bands, and / or the like, may be at least one of: a remainder of the one or more second frequency bands excluding (e.g., except, minus) the one or more third frequency bands; the one or more second frequency bands excluding (e.g., except, minus) the one or more first frequency bands; a portion of the one or more second frequency bands not restricted by the second information; and / or the like.

[0301] In an example, the one or more update messages may be at least one of a registration request message, a service request message, an attach request message, a tracking update request message, a deregistration request message, a RRC Setup Request message, a UECapabilitylnformation, a ULInformationResponse, a UEAssistancelnformation message, ULInformationTransfer message, and / or the like.

[0302] For example, a first update messages of the one or more update messages may be the registration request message comprising the first field and / or the second field. For example, a second update messages of the one or more update messages may be the UECapabilitylnformation message comprising at least one of the first field, the second field, the list of restricted UL frequencies, the list of supported UL frequencies, the one or more fourth capabilities, and / or the like.

[0303] In an example, the base station (e g., the first base station, the second base station) may receive the one or more update messages. In an example, in response to receiving the one or more update messages, the base station may send one or more context messages comprising one or more information, to the core network. For example, the one or more information may be one or more information (e.g., field, list, indication, and / or the like) received by the one or more update messages. The one or more context messages may be UE capability info indication message, UE radio capability check response message, and / or the like.

[0304] In an example, based on receiving the one or more update messages, the base station may allocate (e.g., send one or more allocation messages (e.g., PDCCH, UCI, DCI, configured grant, SPS)) one or more supported uplink resources to the UE. For example, the one or more supported uplink resources may use one or more frequencies (and / or one or more operating bands, one or more frequency bands) thatare indicated as supported by the UE and / or by the one or more update messages (e.g., the latest message indicating one or more capabilities of the UE). For example, the one or more supported uplink resources may not use one or more frequencies (and / or one or more operating bands) that are indicated as restricted by the UE and / or by the one or more update messages. For example, the base station may suspend using the one or more third frequencies and / or the one or more third operating bands, while the UE is inside the NTZ, and / or based on the one or more information indicated by the one or more update messages. By receiving updated capabilities information of the UE, the base station may avoid allocating UL resources to the UE, if the UL resources are not indicated as supported by the one or more information indicated by the one or more update messages.

[0305] In an example, the UE may move out of (e.g., outside, near, exit) the one or more first areas of the NTZ. In response to determining that the UE is out of the one or more first areas, the UE may determine whether a capability of the UE is changed. For example, determining whether the capability of the UE is changed may be determining whether current capability of the UE changes compared to a last reported capability, and / or whether the UE moves out of the one or more first areas (e.g., moves out of the NTZ), and / or whether one or more restriction is no more applied, and / or the like. For example, the last reported capability may be the one or more capability information included in latest message that indicated one or more capabilities of the UE. For example, the latest message may be the one or more update messages. For example, the last reported capability may be the one or more third capabilities. For example, determining whether the capability of the UE is changed may be to determine whether a portion of the capability of the UE is changed, from being non-restricted to being restricted, from being restricted to being non-restricted, updated and / or the like. For example, determining whether the capability of the UE is changed may be, in response to determining that the UE is out of the one or more first areas, determining whether at least one of one or more capabilities (e.g., one or more fourth capabilities, one or more second capabilities, one or more third capabilities, one or more first capabilities, and / or the like) is allowed, restricted, changed, and / or the like. Determining whether at least one of one or more capabilities is allowed, restricted, changed, and / or the like, may be determining where one or more frequencies (one or more operating bands, one or more frequency bands, and / or the like) is changed (e.g., one or more is added, one or more is removed, status (e g., restricted, non-restricted, allowed, not allowed) of one or more changes). For example, based on the one or more first area parameters, and / or based on the one or more second frequency parameters, and / or based on the current location of UE being outside of the NTZ, the UE may determine that a NR bands indicated by the one or more third list of NR bands, and / or a frequency indicated by the one or more third frequencies are not restricted (e.g., not restricted from transmitting, are allowed) and / or the UE may determine that the one or more third list of NR bands, and / or one or more third frequencies are allowed (e.g., allowed for uplink transmission). For example, based on the one or more firstarea parameters, and / or based on the one or more second frequency parameters, and / or based on the current location of UE being outside of the NTZ, the UE may determine that the one or more second list of NR bands, and / or one or more second frequencies are not restricted (e.g., not restricted from transmitting) and / or the UE may determine that the one or more second list of NR bands, and / or one or more second frequencies are allowed (e.g., allowed for uplink transmission). For example, based on the one or more first area parameters, and / or based on the one or more second frequency parameters, and / or based on the current location of UE being outside of the NTZ, the UE may determine that the one or more first list of NR bands, and / or one or more first frequencies are not restricted (e.g., not restricted from transmitting) and / or the UE may determine that the one or more first list of NR bands, and / or one or more first frequencies are allowed (e g., allowed for uplink transmission).

[0306] In an example, the UE may determine that one or more first UE capabilities (and / or the one or more second capabilities, the one or more fourth capabilities, the one or more third capabilities, the one or more first capabilities) are allowed (e.g., not restricted) due to the NTZ, and / or due to the UE being out of the NTZ. In an example, the UE may determine that the last reported UE capabilities (e.g., the one or more fourth capabilities, e.g., information sent via the one or more update messages) are different from the current capabilities (e.g., the one or more first capabilities, the one or more second capabilities). Based on determining that the one or more first UE capabilities are allowed, based on determining that one or more third capabilities are not restricted, based on that the last reported UE capabilities are different from the current capabilities, based on that the capability of the UE is changed, and / or based on that the UE moves out of the one or more first areas of the NTZ, the UE may determine to send one or more second update messages. In an example, before sending the one or more second update message, the UE may release, if any, established N1 connection (and / or one or more connection between the UE and a core network node). In an example, before sending the one or more second update message, the UE may release, if any, established RRC connection (and / or one or more connection between the UE and a base station). In an example, before sending the one or more second update message, the UE may transit from a RRC connected state to a RRC idle state and / or the UE may transit from 5G MM-Connected state to a 5G MM- Idle state. This may help for the base station and / or the core network node, to distinguish a first connection associated with one or more restricted capabilities from a second connection not associated with the one or more restricted capabilities.

[0307] In an example, the one or more second update messages may comprise at least one of:

[0308] - the first field (e.g., NG-RAN radio capability update field) indicating whether radio capability update (RCU) is required. The first field (or the one or more second update messages) may further comprise the value indicating that UE radio capability update is needed, for the NTZ (e.g., due to NTZ, due to moving out of the NTZ). The value may indicate that UE radio capability update is needed.

[0309] - the second field (e.g., UE radio capability identifier IE identifier) indicating whether UE radio capability identifier is included in the one or more second update messages. If the second field is set, the one or more second update messages may further comprise a fifth value for a fifth UE radio capability identifier. In an example, the second value may be the fifth value, and / or the second UE radio capability identifier may be the fifth UE radio capability identifier. For example, the fifth value may indicate the one or more fifth capabilities and / or the one or more second capabilities. For example, because some of UE's capabilities is no more restricted, the fifth value may be same as the second value and / or the fifth value may be different from the fourth value.

[0310] - second list of restricted UL frequencies (e.g., second list of restricted NR bands, second list of NTZ restricted UL frequencies, second list of affected bands (e.g., frequencies), second list of avoided bands (e.g., frequencies)). This list may indicate one or more restricted UL frequencies that are restricted due to the NTZ (e.g., based on the first information and / or the second information), and / or due to that current location of the UE is not in (near) the NTZ. For example, because the UE is out of the NTZ, the second list of restricted UL frequency may not have any element, may not indicate any frequencies (and / or any NR bands, any operating bands). The second list of restricted UL frequency may be a list of fifth NR bands (e.g., a list of fifth operating bands) and / or may indicate the one or more fifth frequencies. The one or more fifth frequencies may be one or more frequencies within one or more fifth ranges. For example, a fifth range of the one or more fifth ranges may be from a fifth lower edge frequency to a fifth upper edge frequency. For example, this list may indicate one or more restricted UL frequencies for other reasons (e.g., Bluetooth interference) and / or this list may not indicate one or more restricted UL frequencies (e.g., the first one or more frequencies) due to the NTZ. This may further indicate a cause value indicating that restriction is associated with the NTZ. This may further comprise an indication field indicating that the restriction is caused by the NTZ. This may help the base station to determine the cause of the restriction.

[0311] - list of second supported UL frequencies (e.g., list of second supported NR bands, the second list of NR bands, list of NTZ second supported UL frequencies, e.g., list of second preferred bands (e.g., frequencies)). This list may indicate one or more UL frequencies (e.g., one or more sixths frequencies) that are not restricted due to the NTZ (e.g., based on the first information and / or the second information), and / or due to that current location of the UE is not in (near) the NTZ. This list may indicate one or more UL frequencies (e.g., NR bands (e.g., one or more sixths frequency bands, sixth list of NR bands), one or more UL frequencies indicated by the NR bands) that are supported by the UE when the current location of the UE is not in (near) the NTZ. The list of the second supported UL frequencies may be (e.g., indicate) the one or more sixth frequencies (e.g., one or more second frequencies), and / or one or more bands (e.g., one or more NR bands (e.g., the one or more sixth NR bands (e.g., sixth list of NR bands), one or more sixth bands). The one or more bands may be the one or more frequency bands (e.g., the one or more sixthfrequency bands), one or more operating bands (e.g . , the one or more sixth operating bands). The one or more bands may be associated with the one or more the list of second supported UL frequencies, and / or may be the one or more bands indicated by (e.g., associated with) the one or more second frequencies (e.g., the second list of NR bands). For example, this may be a list of sixth NR bands (e.g., a list of sixth operating bands) and / or may indicate the one or more sixth frequencies. The one or more sixth frequencies may be one or more frequencies within one or more sixth ranges. For example, a sixth range of the one or more sixth ranges may be from a sixth lower edge frequency to a sixth upper edge frequency, and / or one or more frequencies between the sixth lower edge frequency and the sixth upper edge frequency. The one or more sixth frequencies may be the one or more second frequencies. The one or more sixth frequencies may comprise the one or more fourth frequencies, the one or more first frequencies, the one or more fourth frequencies. The second list of supported UL frequencies may indicate (e.g., comprise) the one or more sixth frequencies. The sixth list of NR bands may be the second list of NR bands. He sixth list of NR bands may comprise the third list of NR bands, the first list of NR bands, the fourth list of NR bands, and / or the like. For example, the UE may transmit an uplink signal using one or more resources associated at least a portion of the one or more frequencies indicated by the second list of supported UL frequencies (e.g., the second list of NR bands, the sixth list of NR bands), while the UE is outside the NTZ (e.g., when the UE is not in the NTZ). For example, this list may indicate one or more supported UL frequencies while the UE is outside the NTZ. For example, this list may indicate one or more second frequency bands e.g., one or more second operating bands, list of second NR bands.

[0312] - At least one of a fifth accessStratumRelease, a fifth RF-Parameters, a fifth phy-Parameters, a fifth mac-Parameters, a fifth rlc-Parameters, a fifth pdcp-Parameters, a fifth fdd-Add-UE-NR-Capabilities, a fifth tdd-Add-U E-N R-Capabilities, a fifth featureSets, and / or the like. The fifth accessStratumRelease may be the second accessStratumRelease, the fifth RF-Parameters may be the second RF-Parameters, the fifth phy-Parameters may be the second phy-Parameters, the fifth mac-Parameters may be the second mac- Parameters, the fifth rlc-Parameters may be the second rlc-Parameters, the fifth pdcp-Parameters may be the second pdcp-Parameters, the fifth fdd-Add-UE-NR-Capabilities may be the second fdd-Add-UE-NR- Capabilities, the fifth tdd-Add-U E-N R-Capabilities may be the second tdd-Add-U E-N R-Capabilities, the fifth featureSets may be the second featureSets, and / or the like.

[0313] For example, the one or more second update messages may indicate one or more fifth capabilities supported by the UE. For example, the one or more second update messages may comprise information of one or more fifth capabilities supported by the UE. For example, the one or more fifth capabilities may be associated one or more sixth frequencies, one or more sixth frequency bands, one or more sixth operating bands supported by the UE The one or more sixth frequencies, the one or more sixth frequency bands, the one or more sixth operating bands may not be restricted by the NTZ and / or while the UE is not inside (e.g.,in, near) the NTZ. For example, the one or more fifth capabilities may be the one or more second capabilities. The one or more sixth frequencies may be the one or more second frequencies. The one or more sixth frequency bands may be the one or more second frequency bands. The one or more sixth operating bands may be the one or more second operating bands. For example, the one or more sixth capabilities may be different from the one or more third (and / or fourth) capabilities. The one or more sixth frequencies may be different from the one or more third (and / or fourth) frequencies. The one or more sixth frequency bands may be different from the one or more third (and / or fourth) frequency bands. The one or more sixth operating bands may be different from the one or more third (and / or fourth) operating bands. For example, the one or more sixth capabilities may comprise the one or more third (and / or fourth) capabilities. The one or more sixth frequencies may comprise the one or more third (and / or fourth) frequencies The one or more sixth frequency bands comprise the one or more third (and / or fourth) frequency bands. The one or more sixth operating bands comprise the one or more third (and / or fourth) operating bands.

[0314] In an example, the one or more second update messages may be at least one of a second registration request message, a second service request message, a second attach request message, a second tracking update request message, a second deregistration request message, a second RRC Setup Request message, a second UECapabilitylnformation, a second ULInformationResponse, a second UEAssistancelnformation message, a second ULInformationTransfer message, and / or the like.

[0315] For example, a third update message of the one or more second update messages may be the second registration request message comprising the first field and / or the second field. For example, a fourth update messages of the one or more second update messages may be the second UECapabilitylnformation message comprising at least one of the first field, the second field, the second list of restricted UL frequencies, the second list of supported UL frequencies, the one or more sixth capabilities, and / or the like.

[0316] In an example, the base station (e g., the first base station, the second base station) may receive the one or more second update messages. In an example, in response to receiving the one or more second update messages and / or in response to receiving one or more information of the one or more second update messages, the base station may send one or more second context messages comprising one or more update information, to the core network. For example, the one or more update information may be the one or more information (e.g., field, list, indication, and / or the like) received by the one or more second update messages. The one or more second context messages may be UE capability info indication message, UE radio capability check response message, and / or the like.

[0317] In an example, based on receiving the one or more second update messages and / or the one or more information of the one or more second update messages, the base station may allocate one or more second supported uplink resources to the UE. For example, the one or more second supported uplinkresources may use one or more frequencies (and / or one or more operating bands, and / or one or more frequency bands) that are indicated as supported by the UE and / or by the one or more second update messages (e.g., information delivered by the one or more second update messages). For example, the one or more second supported uplink resources may not use one or more frequencies (and / or one or more operating bands) that are indicated as restricted by the UE and / or by the one or more second update messages. For example, the base station may resume using the one or more third frequencies and / or the one or more third operating bands, based on that the one or more third frequencies and / or the one or more third operating bands are indicated as supported by the one or more update messages and / or based on that the one or more third frequencies and / or the one or more third operating bands are not indicated as restricted by the one or more second update messages which is received after the one or more update messages. By receiving updated capabilities information of the UE, the base station may be able to allocate more resources to the UE, and / or by using one or more frequencies not further restricted, after the UE moves out of the one or more first areas.

[0318] Example embodiments of FIG. 19 may help a base station to avoid allocation of uplink resource using one or more restricted frequencies of the UE, during the UE is inside the NTZ.

[0319] FIG. 20 illustrates an example as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure. In an example, a UE may determine whether the UE is near (e.g., in, inside) one or more first areas of a NTZ, and / or may determine to send update information. This may help in reducing unnecessary use of radio resources for the UE. For brevity, based on the other part of the present disclosure, redundant details will be omitted.

[0320] In an example, the UE may receive the one or more first messages, the first information and / or the second information (as shown in the example of FIG. 19)

[0321] In an example, the UE may receive one or more configuration messages. For example, the UE may receive the one or more configuration messages, from a base station (e.g., NG-RAN, 6G-RAN), and / or a core network node (e.g., an AMF, a PCF, a policy server, a mobility management node, and / or the like), and / or an application server (e.g., a USS server, a UTM server, and / or the like). For example, the one or more configuration messages may be the one or more first messages.

[0322] The one or more configuration messages may be at least one of a registration accept message, a UE configuration update message, a policy container, a NAS transport message, a OMA (open mobile alliance) DM (device management) message, a configuration message, a downlink RRC transfer message, a service-level-AA container, a payload container, a UE policy container, NAS transparent container, a SOR transparent container, a RRC setup message, a RRC reconfiguration message, a RRC resume message, a system information block (SIB), and / or the like. For example, the one or more configuration messages may be the one or more first messages.

[0323] The one or more configuration messages may comprise one or more parameters for NTZ. For example, the one or more parameters for NTZ may comprise at least one of:

[0324] - a first parameter. The first parameter may indicate whether the UE is configured to send a reporting message for NTZ. For example, if the first parameter indicates that the UE is configured to send the reporting message for NTZ, the UE may send a reporting message to a network (e.g., a core network node, a base station). For example, if the first parameter does not indicate that the UE is configured to send the reporting message for NTZ, the UE may not send a reporting message to a network (e.g., a core network node, a base station) (e.g., when the UE enters the NTZ, when the UE exits the NTZ). For example, the UE may send the reporting message, if one or more conditions for NTZ are met. For example, the one or more conditions may be entering one or more locations where the UE needs to send the reporting message, and / or the one or more conditions may indicate the one or more locations, and / or the one or more conditions may be used for the UE to determine whether to send the reporting messages. For example, the reporting message may be at least one of the one or more first reporting messages, the one or more second reporting messages, and / or the like. For example, the first parameter may indicate whether one or more capabilities of the UE is restricted, when (e.g., if) the UE enters the NTZ.

[0325] - a second parameter. The second parameter may indicate whether the base station (and / or the core network node) supports the NTZ. That the base station (and / or the core network) supports the NTZ may be that the base station (and / or the core network) can act (e.g., perform) differently based on whether the UE is inside the NTZ, that the base station (and / or the core network) may suspend a communication (e.g., not page the UE, not send a signalling message to the UE) with the UE when the UE is inside the NTZ, that the base station (and / or the core network) may allow the UE to report status (e.g., the reporting message) of the UE for the NTZ, and / or the like. The status of the UE for the NTZ may indicate at least one of whether the UE is inside / outside of the NTZ, one or more restricted frequencies (e.g., restricted due to the NTZ), one or more allowed (e.g., supported) frequencies (while the UE is in the NTZ, and / or while the UE is not in the NTZ), and / or the like. For example, in the example of FIG. 19, if the second parameter indicates that the base station (and / or the core network) supports the NTZ, the UE may send the one or more update messages and / or the one or more second update messages (e.g., the one or more first reporting messages, and / or the one or more second reporting messages). For example, in the example of FIG. 19, if the second parameter does not indicate that the base station (and / or the core network) supports the NTZ, the UE may not send the one or more update messages and / or the one or more second update messages. Reverting back to FIG. 20, the status of the NTZ may indicate whether the UE is available for communication and / or whether the UE is unavailable due to the NTZ.

[0326] - a third parameter The third parameter may comprise the one or more conditions. For example, when the one or more conditions are met, the UE may report the status of the UE for the NTZ. Forexample, a first condition of the one or more conditions may indicate one or more third areas (e.g., cells, TAs, areas). For example, the one or more third areas may be where the UE needs to send the status of the UE to the network. For example, the one or more third areas may not comprise an area of the one or more first areas. For example, the one or more third areas may be one or more second areas. For example, the one or more third areas may be adjacent to the one or more first areas. For example, the one or more third areas may be one or more guard (e.g., reporting) areas for the NTZ (and / or for the one or more first areas). When the UE is inside (e.g., in) the one or more first areas, the UE may not be able to send any uplink signal (e.g., when all available resources are associated with the one or more first frequencies). In this case, the UE may not be able to report the status of the UE for the NTZ. The UE may need to send the status before entering the one or more first areas. For example, if the one or more third areas do not belong to the one or more first areas, the UE may be able to send the status of the UE, while the UE is in the one or more third areas, and / or before entering the one or more first areas. In this case, when the UE enters the one or more third areas, the UE may send the status. The time that the UE spends within the one or more third areas may be sufficient for the UE to send the status, before entering the one or more first areas. In another example, a second condition of the one or more conditions may indicate one or more time periods. For example, the one or more time periods may be one or more guard time periods. For example, a time period of the one or more time period may indicate a time period before entering the one or more first areas. For example, the time period may be set to a time value (e.g., 5 second). For example, the UE may determine when (after which time) the UE may enter the one or more first areas, based on the current location of the UE, the first information, the flight plan of the UE, and / or the like. For example, the UE may determine a first determined time value (e.g., 7 second, e.g., the UE enters the one or more first areas in 7 seconds later, e.g., the remaining time until entering the NTZ). Based on that the first determined time value is larger than the time value, the UE may determine that the second condition is not met, and / or the UE may determine not to send the status of the UE for the NTZ. For example, the UE may determine a second determined time value (e.g., or the 5 seconds, 3 second, e.g., the UE enters the one or more first areas in 3 seconds later). Based on that the second determined time value is smaller than (and / or equal to) the time value, the UE may determine that the second condition is met, and / or the UE may determine to send the status of the UE for the NTZ.

[0327] - a fourth parameter. The fourth parameter may indicate whether a network (e.g., the core network node, the base station) supports unavailability reporting from the UE. For example, if the network can act based on the UE’s reporting of unavailability (and / or availability) in association to the NTZ (e.g., unavailability due to the UE’s entering the NTZ, availability of the UE due to UE’s exiting the NTZ), the network may indicate that the network supports unavailability reporting from the UE. For example, if the network allows the UE to report unavailability in association with the NTZ, the network may indicate that thenetwork supports unavailability reporting from the U E, for the NTZ For example, if the network experiences a lot of signalling congestion, and / or if the network determines to reduce amount of the reporting received from the UE, the network may not indicate that the network supports unavailability reporting from the UE. For example, if the network indicates that the network supports unavailability reporting from the UE, the UE may send the one or more update messages (and / or one or more second update messages) and / or the one or more first reporting messages (e.g., the one or more second reporting messages). For example, if the network does not indicate that the network supports unavailability reporting from the UE, the UE may not send the one or more update messages (and / or one or more second update messages) and / or the one or more first reporting messages (e.g., the one or more second reporting messages).

[0328] In an example, the UE may determine whether the UE is in (e.g., within, inside) a NTZ (e.g., the one or more first areas of the NTZ). Determining whether the UE is in a NTZ may be determining whether the UE is in the one or more first areas of the NTZ, determining whether the UE approaches to one or more first areas, determining whether the UE is near the one or more first areas, determining whether the UE is in border area of the one or more first area, determining whether the UE is expected to enter into the one or more first areas within a configured time period (e.g., the time period), and / or the like.

[0329] For example, determining whether the UE is in the NTZ may be determining whether a current location of the UE is in the NTZ, based on the first information and / or the current location of the UE. For example, if the current location of the UE is inside of the one or more first areas of the NTZ (e.g., as indicated by the first information), the UE may determine that the UE is in the NTZ. Alternatively and / or additionally, if the current location of the UE is inside of the one or more third areas of the NTZ (e.g., as indicated by the one or more configuration messages), the UE may determine that the UE is in the NTZ, that the UE enters in the NTZ, and / or that the UE is required to send the one or more reporting messges.

[0330] For example, determining whether the UE approaches to the one or more first areas may be determining whether the current location of the UE is near the one or more first areas, and / or whether the UE may enter into the one or more first areas, according to a flight path (e.g., flight plan, flight path). Alternatively and / or additionally, determining whether the UE approaches to the one or more third areas may be determining whether the current location of the UE enters the one or more third areas, and / or whether the UE is in the one or more third areas.

[0331] In an example, based on determining that the UE is in (e.g., within, inside) the NTZ, the UE may determine whether the UE needs (e.g., is configured) to send one or more first reporting messages (e.g., one or more first reporting messages, one or more second reporting messages) to the base station and / or to the core network node. For example, if the first parameter indicates that the UE is configured to send the reporting message, the UE may determine to send the one or more first reporting messages. For example, if the first parameter does not indicate that the UE is configured to send the reporting message, the UE maydetermine not to send the one or more first reporting messages. For example, if the second parameter indicates that the base station (e.g., a network associated with the base station) supports the NTZ (e.g ., handling / supporting operation associated with the NTZ), the UE may determine to send the one or more first reporting messages. This may help for the UE in avoiding sending the one or more first reporting messages, in case the base station does not support.

[0332] In an example, the one or more first reporting message may be at least one of a RRC Setup Request message, a UECapabilitylnformation, a ULInformationResponse, a U EAssistanceinformation message, ULInformationTransfer message, a RRC Resume request message, a registration request message, a service request message, an attach request message, a tracking update request message, a deregistration request message, and / or the like.

[0333] In an example, the one or more first reporting message may comprise one or more information (e.g., as shown in the example of FIG. 19, delivered by e.g., the one or more update message, the one or more second update messages, and / or the like). For example, the one or more first reporting messages may indicate:

[0334] - a first indication. The first indication may indicate one or more cause values. For example, the one or more cause values may be associated with the NTZ. For example, the one or more cause values may indicate at least one of: that the UE enters the NTZ; that the UE enters the one or more first areas of the NTZ; that the UE enters the one or more third areas of the NTZ; that one or more restrictions (e.g., one or more restricted frequencies, one or more restricted frequency bands, and / or the like) associated with the NTZ apply; and / or the like.

[0335] - a second indication. The second indication may indicate the current location (e.g., geographical coordinates, cells, tracking areas, and / or the like) of the UE.

[0336] - a third indication. The third indication may indicate an estimate time of exiting the NTZ (e.g., the time when the UE is expected to leave the one or more first areas, the time when the UE is expected to leave the NTZ; the time when the UE is expected to be out of the one or more first areas; the time when the UE is expected to be connected (e.g., reconnected) to the network; the time when the UE sends a next message to the network; the time when the UE becomes available; and / or the like). Alternatively and / or additionally, the third indication may comprise a time value indicating when the UE is available again, how long (e.g., the time duration) the UE is unavailable, and / or the like, in association with the NTZ. For example, based on the flight plan, and / or flight path, the UE may determine the time value and / or the time period.

[0337] - a fourth indication. The fourth indication may indicate a flight plan of the UE (e.g., a future flight path of the UE; one or more expected time when the UE flies over each waypoint of the flight path).

[0338] - a fifth indication. The fifth indication may indicate that the UE may be unavailable due to the NTZ, unavailability of the UE due to the NTZ, that the UE is not available due to entering the NTZ, and / or the like. This may help the network (e.g., the base station, and / or the core network node) to be aware that the UE is unavailable for communication, that the UE is unavailable because of the NTZ, and / or the like. If the network is aware that the UE is unavailable due to the NTZ, the network may send a downlink data and / or may not assign an uplink resource. If the network is aware that the UE is unavailable due to other reasons than the NTZ, the network may not send a downlink data and / or may not assign an uplink resource. The fifth indication may comprise one or more information elements. For example, a first information element of the one or more information elements may be an identifier (e.g., a hexadecimal number, a decimal number) indicating the fifth indication (e.g., unavailability information, and / or NTZ unavailability information) and / or indicating that the fifth indication exits in the one or more first reporting messages. This may help a receiver to identify what kind of information is delivered. For example, a second information element of the one or more information elements may comprise a cause of the unavailability (e.g., a type of the unavailability). For example, the cause of the unavailability may indicate at least one of a first value, a second value, a third value, and / or the like. For example, the first value may indicate one or more UE internal issues (e g., rebooting, Bluetooth issue, channel interference issues). For example, the second value may indicate discontinuous reception (e.g., for example, a serving area of the UE is covered by a satellite, which periodically passes through the service area, leading to sporadic connection availability). For example, the third value may indicate that the UE is unavailable due to the NTZ, and / or that the UE is unavailable due to reason associated with the NTZ (e.g., entering the NTZ, one or more capabilities restricted due to the NTZ, and / or the like). This cause may help the network in determining one or more parameters for the UE. For example, based on the cause, for support of the NTZ, the network may determine a time value for a periodic registration timer and / or whether to page the UE or not, whether to buffer a downlink data for the UE, and / or whether to de-register the UE and / or the like. For example, based on the cause being associated with the NTZ, the network may determine not to page the UE until the UE is available again.

[0339] - a sixth indication. The sixth indication may indicate whether the UE support a feature of reporting of the unavailability. For example, the feature of reporting of the unavailability may be reporting unavailability (and / or availability) in association with the NTZ (e.g., based on entering the NTZ, based on exiting the NTZ, based on one or more capabilities restricted due to the NTZ, and / or the like). For example, based on the sixth indication indicating the support of the feature of reporting of the unavailability, the network may send one or more configuration information related to a guard time period and / or a guard area, and / or the one or more parameters (e.g., the first parameter, the second parameter, the third parameter, and / or the like).

[0340] In an example, the UE may send the one or more first reporting messages, when the UE enters the one or more second (and / or third) areas, and / or before entering the one or more first areas. For example, in some embodiments, if the UE does not send the one or more first reporting messages while the UE is in the one or more second areas, and / or if the UE enters the one or more first areas, the UE may not be able to send the one or more first reporting messages, due to the restriction. To secure enough time to send the one or more first reporting message, the UE may be configured with the one or more third areas and / or may send the one or more first reporting messages, when the UE enters the one or more third areas.

[0341] In an example, the base station (and / or the core network node) may receive the one or more first reporting messages.

[0342] In an example, if the core network node (e.g., AMF, a mobility management node) receives the one or more first reporting messages, the core network may send to a second core network node (e.g., a policy control node, a PCF), one or more policy notification messages (e.g., Npcf AM policy control update message) indicating unavailability of the UE due to the NTZ. For example, the one or more policy notification message may help the second core network node to derive a new QoS parameter (and / or a new policy) for the UE, because the UE may not be available. For example, the second core network node may send to the core network node, one or more policy response messages to the one or more policy notification messages. For example, the one or more policy response messages may comprise one or more updated policy request triggers and / or one or more updated AM policy for the UE. For example, the one or more updated policy request triggers may request that the core network node sends a notification to the second core network node, when one or more triggers of the one or more updated policy request triggers. For example, a trigger of the one or more triggers may be entering the NTZ, and / or exiting the NTZ. For example, when the trigger is met (e.g., when the UE exits the NTZ, when the UE enters the NTZ), the core network node may send the one or more policy notification messages indicating a triggered event (e.g , when the UE exits the NTZ, when the UE enters the NTZ). This may help the second core network node, timely update policies for the UE. For example, the one or more policy notification message may further comprise the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication, the fifth indication, and / or the like.

[0343] In an example, if the core network node (e.g., AMF, a mobility management node) receives the one or more first reporting messages, the core network may send to a third core network node (e.g., a session management entity, a SME), one or more session notification messages (e.g., Nsmf PDU session update SM context message) indicating unavailability of the UE due to the NTZ, and / or indicating request of release of one or more PDU sessions of the UE, due to the NTZ. For example, the one or more session notification message may help the third core network node to handle status (e.g., suspend, resume, release user plane resources, and / or the like) of a PDU session for the UE. For example, in response to receivingthe one or more session notification message, the third core network node may release (deactivate, suspend) the one or more PDU sessions of the UE. For example, the third core network node may send to the core network node, one or more session response messages to the one or more session notification messages. For example, the one or more session response messages may indicate release of user plane resource of the UE (and / or the PDU session) of the UE. For example, the one or more session notification message may further comprise the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication, the fifth indication, and / or the like.

[0344] In an example, if the core network node (e.g., AMF, a mobility management node) receives the one or more first reporting messages, the core network may send to the base station, one or more UE context update messages (e.g., UE context modification request message, UE context release command message, UE context release request message, UE context suspend response message, a PDU session resource modification (and / or release) messages, and / or the like), indicating unavailability of the UE due to the NTZ, a request requesting release of connection to the UE, a suspension of one or more PDU sessions of the UE, release of one or more PDU sessions, deactivation of the one or more PDU sessions, and / or the like. This may help for the base station to prevent resource allocation to the UE. For example, in response to receiving the one or more context update messages, the base station may release the RRC connection to the UE, the base station may send a RRC release message to the UE, to move the UE to the RRC inactive state, may release the one or more PDU sessions of the UE, may deactivate the one or more PDU sessions of the UE, and / or the like. For example, the one or more UE context update messages may further comprise the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication, the fifth indication, and / or the like.

[0345] In an example, if the base station receives the one or more first reporting messages, the base station may send to the core network node (e.g., AMF, a mobility management node), one or more UE context update reporting messages (e.g., uplink NAS transport, UE context suspend request message, UE context release message, and / or the like), indicating unavailability of the UE due to the NTZ, a request requesting release of connection to the UE, a suspension of one or more PDU sessions of the UE, and / or the like. For example, the one or more UE context update reporting message may comprise the one or more first reporting message. This may help for the core network node to prevent resource allocation to the UE. For example, the core network node may determine to release one or more PDU sessions of the UE. For example, the core network node may determine not to page the UE, when the core network node receive a paging request from a SMF. For example, the one or more UE context update reporting messages may further comprise the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication, the fifth indication, and / or the like. For example, after the core network node receives an indication that the UE is available (e.g., due to moving out of the NTZ), the core network node may send apaging request to the UE (and / or the base station), and / or the core network node may send one or more signalling messages to the UE.

[0346] In an example, based on the one or more information (e.g., the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication, the fifth indication, and / or the like.) delivered by the one or more first reporting messages, the base station may not allocate resource to the UE, while the UE is inside the NTZ (e.g., the one or more first areas, and / or the one or more third areas). In another example, based on the one or more information (e.g., the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication, the fifth indication, and / or the like.) delivered by the one or more first reporting messages, the base station may not allocate resource to the UE, until the UE sends one or more second reporting messages indicating that the UE is out of the NTZ (e.g., the one or more first areas, and / or the one or more third areas).

[0347] In an example, the UE may determine whether the UE exits (e.g., moves out of, be outside of) the NTZ. Determining whether the UE exits the NTZ may be determining whether the UE is out of the one or more first areas of the NTZ, determining whether the UE moves from the one or more first areas to the one or more second areas (and / or the one or more third areas), and / or the like. In an example, if the UE determines that the UE is not in the NTZ, the UE may determine that the UE exits the NTZ.

[0348] For example, determining whether the UE exits (e.g., out of) the NTZ may be determining whether a current location of the UE is out of the NTZ, based on the first information and / or the current location of the UE. For example, if the current location of the UE is outside of the one or more first areas of the NTZ (e.g., as indicated by the first information), the UE may determine that the UE exits (e.g.., is out of) the NTZ. Alternatively and / or additionally, if the current location of the UE is inside of the one or more third areas of the NTZ (e.g., as indicated by the one or more configuration messages), the UE may determine that the UE out of the NTZ. In other example, when the UE crosses over (moves) from the one or more first areas to the one or more second areas (and / or the one or more third areas), the UE may determine that the UE exits the NTZ. That the UE exits the NTZ may be that the UE is out of the NTZ.

[0349] In an example, based on determining that the UE exits (e.g., out of, moves out of) the NTZ, the UE may determine whether the UE needs (e.g., is configured) to send one or more second reporting messages to the base station and / or to the core network node. For example, if the first parameter indicates that the UE is configured to send the reporting message (e.g., based on changing status regarding whether the UE is in the NTZ and / or whether the UE is out of the NTZ), the UE may determine to send the one or more second reporting messages. For example, if the first parameter does not indicate that the UE is configured to send the reporting message, the UE may determine not to send the one or more second reporting messages For example, if the second parameter indicates that the base station (e.g., a network associated with the base station) supports the NTZ (e.g., handling / supporting operation associated with the NTZ), theUE may determine to send the one or more second reporting messages. This may help for the UE in avoiding sending the one or more second reporting messages, in case the base station does not support.

[0350] In an example, the one or more second reporting message may be at least one of a RRC Setup Request message, a UECapabilitylnformation, a ULInformationResponse, a U EAssistanceinformation message, ULInformationTransfer message, a RRC Resume request message, a registration request message, a service request message, an attach request message, a tracking update request message, a deregistration request message, and / or the like.

[0351] In an example, the one or more second reporting message may comprise one or more information (e.g . , as shown in the example of FIG. 19, delivered by e.g., the one or more update message, the one or more second update messages, and / or the like). For example, the one or more second reporting messages may indicate:

[0352] - a first indication. The first indication may indicate one or more cause values. For example, the one or more cause values may be associated with the NTZ. For example, the one or more cause values may indicate at least one of: that the UE exits the NTZ; that the UE exits the one or more first areas of the NTZ; that the UE exits the one or more third areas of the NTZ; that one or more restrictions associated with the NTZ do not apply; that the UE is available; and / or the like.

[0353] - a second indication. The second indication may indicate the current location (e.g., geographical coordinates, cells, tracking areas, and / or the like) of the UE.

[0354] - a third indication. The third indication may indicate an estimate of next time of entering the NTZ (e.g., the time when the UE is expected to enter the one or more first areas; the time when the UE is expected to be in the one or more first areas; the time when the UE is expected to be unavailable for connection to the network; the time when the UE may not be able to send (e.g., communicate) a message to the network; and / or the like)

[0355] - a fourth indication. The fourth indication may indicate a flight plan of the UE (e.g., a future flight path of the UE; one or more expected time when the UE flies over each waypoint of the flight path).

[0356] - a fifth indication. The fifth indication may indicate that the UE is available due to the NTZ (e.g., moving out of the NTZ), end of unavailability of the UE due to the NTZ, that the UE is available due to exiting the NTZ, and / or the like. This may help the network (e.g., the base station, and / or the core network node) to be aware that the UE is available for communication, that the UE is available because of moving out of the NTZ, and / or the like. If the network is aware that the UE is available, the network may send a downlink data and / or may assign an uplink resource.

[0357] In an example, the UE may send the one or more second reporting messages, when the UE exits the one or more first areas, and / or after entering the one or more second (and / or third) areas.

[0358] In an example, the base station (and / or the core network node) may receive the one or more second reporting messages.

[0359] In an example, if the core network node (e.g., AMF, a mobility management node) receives the one or more second reporting messages, the core network may send to a second core network node (e.g., a policy control node, a PCF), one or more policy notification messages (e.g., Npcf AM policy control update message) indicating availability (re-availability) of the UE due to the NTZ (e.g., moving out of the NTZ). For example, the one or more policy notification message may help the second core network node to derive a new QoS parameter (and / or a new policy) for the UE. For example, the second core network node may send to the core network node, one or more policy response messages, in response to the one or more policy notification messages. For example, the one or more policy response messages may comprise one or more updated policy request triggers, and / or one or more updated AM policy for the UE. For example, the one or more policy notification message may further comprise the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication, the fifth indication, and / or the like. In an example, the AM policy may be a UE policy.

[0360] In an example, if the core network node (e.g., AMF, a mobility management node) receives the one or more second reporting messages, the core network may send to a third core network node (e.g., a session management entity, a SMF), one or more session notification messages (e.g., Nsmf PDU session update SM context message) indicating availability of the UE due to the NTZ. For example, the one or more session notification message may help the third core network node to handle status (e.g., suspend, resume, reestablish user plane resources, activate, and / or the like) of a PDU session for the UE. For example, the third core network node may send a paging request message for the UE, may activate a PDU session for the UE, and request transmission of one or more data to the UE, and / or the like. For example, the third core network node may send to the core network node, one or more session response messages in response to the one or more session notification messages For example, the one or more session response messages may indicate activation (and / or establishment) of user plane resource of the UE (and / or the PDU session) of the UE. For example, the one or more session notification message may further comprise the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication, the fifth indication, and / or the like.

[0361] In an example, if the core network node (e.g., AMF, a mobility management node) receives the one or more second reporting messages, the core network may send to the base station, one or more UE context update messages (e.g., UE context modification request message, PDU resource setup request message, UE context setup message, UE context resume message, UE context update (e.g., modification) message, and / or the like), indicating availability of the UE due to the NTZ, a request requesting resumption of connection to the UE, an establishment (e.g., activation) of one or more PDU sessions of the UE, aresumption of a PDU session, and / or the like. This may help for the base station to start resource allocation to the UE. For example, the one or more UE context update messages may further comprise the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication, the fifth indication, and / or the like.

[0362] In an example, if the base station receives the one or more second reporting messages, the base station may send to the core network node (e.g., AMF, a mobility management node), a one or more UE context update reporting messages (e.g., uplink NAS transport, path switch request message, PDU session resource modification message, and / or the like), indicating availability of the UE due to the NTZ (e.g., associated with the NTZ), a request resumption of connection to the UE, a activation (establishment) of one or more PDU sessions of the UE, and / or the like. For example, the one or more UE context update reporting message may comprise the one or more second reporting message. This may help for the core network node to resume exchanges messages with the UE. For example, the one or more UE context update reporting messages may further comprise the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication, the fifth indication, and / or the like.

[0363] In an example, based on the one or more information (e.g., the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication, the fifth indication, and / or the like.) delivered by the one or more second reporting messages, the base station may allocate resource to the UE, while the UE is outside the NTZ (e.g., is in the one or more second areas, and / or the one or more third areas). In another example, based on the one or more information (e.g., the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication, the fifth indication, and / or the like.) delivered by the one or more second reporting messages, the base station may resume allocation of resource to the UE.

[0364] Example embodiments of FIG. 20 may help a base station to be aware status of the UE, regarding the NTZ. This may help efficient use of radio resources.

[0365] FIG. 21 illustrates an example as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure. In an example, a UE may indicate one or more time periods during which the UE may not be available for communication. If the UE becomes available for communication earlier than the one or more time periods, the UE may send one or more reports to a network, to indicate availability of the UE. This may help in reducing service interruption time for the UE. For brevity, based on the other part of the present disclosure, redundant details will be omitted.

[0366] In an example, the UE may receive the one or more first messages, the first information and / or the second information (as shown in the example of FIG. 19). In an example, the UE may send the one or more update messages and / or the one or more second update messages, and / or the like (as shown in the example of FIG. 19). In an example, the UE may receive the one or more configuration messages (asshown in the example of FIG. 20). In an example, the UE may send the one or more first reporting messages.

[0367] In an example, the one or more first reporting messages may comprise the third indication. For example, the third indication may indicate a first time value. The first time value may indicate the time when the UE exits the NTZ (e.g., one or more first areas of the NTZ) and / or the time when the UE moves out of the NTZ, and / or the time when the UE becomes available again, and / or the like.

[0368] In an example, the UE may determine that the UE exits (e.g., moves out of, be outside of) the NTZ. Based on that the UE exits the NTZ, the UE may determine a second time value when the UE exits. In an example, the UE may determine whether the second time value is earlier (e.g., smaller) than the first time value. For example, the UE may determine that the second time value (e.g., PM 2:00) is earlier than the first time (e.g., PM 2:05). In this case, the UE may determine that the UE exits the NTZ ahead of schedule, and / or may determine to send the one or more second reporting message. In other example, the UE may determine that the second time value (e.g., PM 2:00) is not earlier than the first time (e.g., PM 1 :55). In this case, the UE may determine that the UE exits the NTZ, as meeting the schedule, and / or may determine not to send the one or more second reporting message. This may help in reducing amount of uplink signalling.

[0369] In an example, the UE may send the one or more second reporting messages (e.g., as shown in the example of FIG. 20). Alternatively and / or additionally, the one or more second reporting messages may indicate that restrictions (e.g., due to the NTZ) is no longer applies, that the UE is out of the NTZ, that the UE is available, that the restrictions is alleviated; the one or more fifth capabilities, the one or more sixth frequencies, one or more information delivered by the one or more second update messages, and / or the like.

[0370] Example embodiments of FIG. 21 may help in reducing amount of signalling messages sent by the UE.

[0371] FIG. 22 illustrates an example as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure. In an example, to support timely update of status of the UE, the UE may be configured with one or more conditions for reporting procedure. This may help in reducing late triggering of update procedure, when the UE moves into the one or more first areas of the NTZ. For brevity, based on the other part of the present disclosure, redundant details will be omitted.

[0372] In an example, the UE may receive the one or more first messages, the first information and / or the second information (as shown in the example of FIG. 19). In an example, the UE may send the one or more update messages and / or the one or more second update messages, and / or the like (as shown in the example of FIG. 19). In an example, the UE may receive the one or more configuration messages (as shown in the example of FIG. 20). For example, the one or more configuration messages may comprise the third parameter.

[0373] For example, the third parameter may indicate the one or more conditions. For example, when the one or more conditions are met, the UE may report (e.g., send a report message of) the status of the UE for the NTZ. For example, when the one or more conditions are not met, the UE may not report the status of the UE for the NTZ.

[0374] For example, a first condition of the one or more conditions may indicate one or more third areas (e.g., cells, TAs, areas). For example, the one or more third areas may be a guard area (e.g., guard location, reporting areas, and / or the like) for the NTZ. The guard area may be the guard area for the NTZ, and / or may be an area where the UE needs to contact a network before becoming unavailable for communication due to restrictions associated with the NTZ. For example, the one or more third areas may not comprise an area of the one or more first areas For example, the one or more third areas may be a portion of the one or more second areas. For example, the one or more third areas may be adjacent to the one or more first areas. For example, the one or more third areas may be one or more guard (e.g., reporting) areas for the NTZ (and / or for the one or more first areas). When the UE is inside (e.g., in) the one or more first areas, the UE may not be able to send any uplink signal (e.g., when all available resources are associated with the one or more first frequencies). In this case, the UE may not be able to report the status of the UE for the NTZ. The UE may need to send the status before entering the one or more first areas. In this case, when the UE enters the one or more third areas, the UE may send the status (e.g., the one or more first reporting messages, the one or more second reporting messages). The time that the UE spends within the one or more third areas may be sufficient for the UE to send the status, before entering the one or more first areas.

[0375] In an example, the UE may determine whether the UE is inside the one or more third areas indicated by the first condition. For example, the UE may monitor (e.g., measure) the UE’s current position (e.g., a geographical coordinates). If the UE determines that the first conditions is met, the UE may send the one or more first reporting messages (e.g., as shown in the example of the FIG. 20) If the UE determines that the first conditions is not met, the UE may not send the one or more first reporting messages.

[0376] In another example, a second condition of the one or more conditions may indicate one or more time periods For example, the one or more time periods may be one or more guard time periods. For example, a time period of the one or more time period may indicate a time period before entering the one or more first areas. For example, the time period may be set a time value (e.g., 5 second). For example, the UE may determine when (after which time) the UE may enter the one or more first areas, based on the current location of the UE, the first information, the flight plan of the UE, and / or the like. For example, the UE may determine a first determined time value (e.g., 7 second, e g., the UE enters the one or more first areas in 7 seconds later). Based on that the first determined time value is larger than the time value, the UEmay determine that the second condition is not met, and / or the UE may determine not to send the status of the UE for the NTZ. For example, the UE may determine a second determined time value (e.g., 3 second, e.g., the UE enters the one or more first areas in 3 seconds later). Based on that the second determined time value is smaller than (and / or equal to) the time value, the UE may determine that the second condition is met, and / or the UE may determine to send the status of the UE for the NTZ.

[0377] In an example, the UE may trigger reporting procedure (e.g., sending the one or more first reporting messages). If the UE does not finish the reporting procedure, the UE may abort the reporting procedure. Not finishing the reporting procedure may be not receiving acknowledgement for the one or more first reporting messages, from the network (e.g., the base station, the core network node). If the UE does not finish the reporting procedure, and if the UE moves in to the one or more first area, the UE does not send the one or more first reporting message. If the UE does not receive a response message from the network while the UE is in the one or more third areas (e.g., before moving into the one or more first areas), the UE may retransmit the one or more first reporting message.

[0378] In an example, the UE may determine how much time takes for the UE to be (e.g., enter) in the one or more first areas. For example, the UE may use the current location of the UE, the flight path of the UE, the flight plan of the UE, the speed of the UE, the first information, and / or the like. Based on determining how much time takes (e.g., is left) for the UE to be in the one or more first areas of the NTZ, the UE may determine whether the second condition is met or not. If the UE determines that the second conditions (e.g , time (e.g , 3 seconds) to enter the NTZ is less than threshold (e.g., 5 seconds), e.g., 3 seconds remains until the UE enters the NTZ) is met, the UE may send the one or more first reporting messages (e.g., as shown in the example of the FIG. 20). If the UE determines that the second condition is not met (e.g., time (e.g., 7 seconds) to enter the NTZ is above the threshold (e.g., 5 seconds), e.g., 7 seconds remains until the UE enters the NTZ), the UE may not send the one or more first reporting messages.

[0379] In an example, the UE may determine how much time takes for the UE to be (e g., enter) in the one or more first areas. For example, the UE may use the current location of the UE, the flight path of the UE, the flight plan of the UE, the speed of the UE, the first information, and / or the like. Based on determining how much time takes (e.g., is left) for the UE to be in the one or more first areas of the NTZ, the UE may determine whether a ninth condition is met or not. If the UE determines that the ninth conditions (e g., time (e.g., 1 seconds) to enter the NTZ is less than a second threshold (e.g., 2 seconds), e.g., 1 seconds remains until the UE enters the NTZ) is met, the UE may not send the one or more first reporting messages and / or the UE may abort (e.g., stop) the reporting procedure. If the UE determines that the ninth condition is not met (e.g., time (e.g., 5 seconds) to enter the NTZ is above the threshold (e.g., 2 seconds), e.g., 5 seconds remains until the UE enters the NTZ), and / or if the second condition is met, the UE may send theone or more first reporting messages. This may prevent late transmission of the one or more first reporting messages.

[0380] In an example, the UE may send the one or more first reporting messages, if at least one of the one or more conditions are met. In another example, the UE may send the one or more first reporting messages, if a plurality (e.g . , all) of the one or more conditions are met.

[0381] In another example, the UE may be in the one or more first areas of the NTZ. In this case, the UE may determine whether the UE exits and / or moves out of the one or more first areas of the NTZ. For example, in this case, the UE may determine whether at least one of the one or more conditions is met.

[0382] For example, the UE may determine whether a third condition is met. That the third condition is met may be that the UE moves out of the one or more first areas, that the UE exits the one or more first areas, that the UE may be in the one or more third areas, that the UE moves from the one or more first areas to the one or more third areas, and / or the like. For example, if the UE is previously in the one or more first areas and / or if current location of the UE is in the one or more third areas, this may mean that the UE moves out of the one or more first areas. Based on that the third condition is met (e.g., UE moves out of the one or more first areas, moves out of the NTZ), the UE may send the one or more second reporting messages.

[0383] In another example, the UE may determine whether the third condition is met. That the third condition is met may be that the UE moves out of the one or more first (and / or the third) areas, that the UE exits the one or more first (and / or the third) areas, that the UE may be in the one or more second areas, that the UE moves from the one or more first (and / or the third) areas to the one or more second areas, and / or the like. For example, if the UE is previously in the one or more first (and / or the third) areas and / or if current location of the UE is in the one or more second areas, this may mean that the UE moves out of the one or more first (and / or the third) areas. Based on that the third condition is met (e.g., UE moves out of the one or more first areas), the UE may send the one or more second reporting messages. For example, in some cases, the UE may temporarily move from the one or more first areas to the one or more third areas, and / or the UE may move back into the one or more first areas from the one or more third areas. This may cause unnecessarily early reporting and / or may give inaccurate information to the base station. To prevent the UE from sending too early report (e.g., to prevent false alarm), the UE may send the one or more second reporting message, if the UE moves out of both the one or more first areas and the one or more third areas.

[0384] In another example, when the UE moves out of the one or more first areas, the UE may start a time period with a configured time period (e.g., delivered by the one or more configuration messages). The UE may stop the time period if the UE moves back into the one or more first areas and / or the UE may restart the time period when the UE moves out of the first areas. If the time period expires after the configured timeperiod, the UE may send the one or more second reporting message. This may prevent the UE from sending the one or more second reporting message too early (e.g., when the UE moves along the border of the NTZ).

[0385] Alternatively and / or additionally, the UE may start the time period if the UE moves from the one or more first areas to the one or more third areas (and / or the second areas). If the UE moves back into the first areas, the UE may stop the time period. If the time period expires after the configured time period, the UE may send the one or more second reporting message.

[0386] Alternative and / or additionally, the UE may start the time period if the UE moves from the one or more third areas to the one or more second areas. If the UE moves back into the one or more first (and / or third) areas, the UE may stop the time period. If the time period expires after the configured time period, the UE may send the one or more second reporting message.

[0387] Example embodiments of FIG. 22 may help in preventing too early reporting of status of the UE and / or too late reporting of the status of the UE.

[0388] FIG. 23 illustrates an example as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure. In an example, a UE may manage a time period, to determine when to send a reporting message related to a NTZ. This may help in preventing the UE from sending the reporting message too early. For brevity, based on the other part of the present disclosure, redundant details will be omitted.

[0389] In an example, the UE may receive the one or more first messages, the first information and / or the second information (as shown in the example of FIG. 19). In an example, the UE may send the one or more update messages and / or the one or more second update messages, and / or the like (as shown in the example of FIG. 19). In an example, the UE may receive the one or more configuration messages (as shown in the example of FIG. 20). For example, the one or more configuration messages may comprise the third parameter.

[0390] For example, the third parameter may indicate a time value for a time period. For example, the time period may control (e.g., indicate, configure) a time when the UE sends the one or more update messages (e.g., the one or more second update messages, the one or more first reporting messages, the one or more second reporting messages, and / or the like). For example, the time period may be associated with amount of time when the UE needs to wait before sending the one or more second update messages (e.g., the one or more second reporting messages). For example, if the UE sends the one or more second update messages as soon as the UE moves out of the one or more first areas and / or if the UE moves back into the one or more first areas, this may cause the base station to send to the UE, an uplink resource allocation message, when the UE may not be able to use a resource associated with the uplink resource allocation messages

[0391] In an example, when the UE detects (e.g., determines) that the UE moves out of the one or more first areas (e.g., one or more areas where the restriction of the NTZ apply), and / or when the UE determines that the UE is in (e.g., moves to) at least one of the one or more second areas and / or one or more third areas, the UE may start the time period with the time value.

[0392] In an example, when the UE moves back to the one or more first areas and / or when the UE leaves the one or more second areas (and / or the one or more third areas), the UE may stop the time period.

[0393] In an example, when the time period expires, and / or if the UE is in the one or more second areas (and / or the one or more third areas), the UE may send the one or more second reporting messages (and / or the one or more second update messages). For example, the one or more second reporting messages may indicate that the UE moves out of the NTZ, that the restriction associated with the NTZ does not apply, that the UE is available, that the UE is not unavailable, the one or more fifth capability, and / or the like.

[0394] Example embodiments of FIG. 23 may help in prevent too early reporting of status of the UE and / or too late reporting of the status of the UE.

[0395] FIG. 24 illustrates an example as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0396] In an example, a UE may send one or more first messages to a base station and / or to a core network node. For example, the one or more first messages may comprise at least one of a registration request message, a RRC Setup Request message, a UECapabilitylnformation message, a ULInformationResponse, a UEAssistancelnformation message, ULInformationTransfer message, and / or the like. The one or more first messages may comprise one or more first capabilities of the UE. For example, the one or more first capabilities of the UE may indicate one or more capabilities of the UE, when the UE is located outside of the NTZ and / or when the UE is not restricted (e.g., not allowed) by one or more restriction associated with the NTZ. For example, the one or more capabilities of the UE may indicate one or more frequencies supported by the UE and / or one or more operating bands (one or more frequency bands) supported by the UE. In an example, the one of more first messages may comprise a first NAS message (e.g., a registration request message) indicating that radio capabilities of the UE needs updating, and / or a second RRC message (e.g., a UECapabilitylnformation message, a ULInformationResponse, a UEAssistancelnformation message, ULInformationTransfer message) comprising the one or more first capabilities of the UE.

[0397] In an example, the UE may receive from the base station, one or more uplink resource allocation messages (e.g., DCI, PDCCH, etc.,) allocating an uplink resource (e.g., configured grant, dynamic grant). For example, the uplink resource may be associated (e.g., using) at least a portion of one or more restricted frequencies (and / or one or more restricted operating bands) for the NTZ. For example, the one or more restricted frequencies may be restricted (e.g., not allowed to transmit), when the UE is located inside an area of the NTZ.

[0398] In an example, based on that the UE is not inside of the area of the NTZ, the UE may transmit an uplink signal via the uplink resource.

[0399] In an example, the UE may determine whether the UE approaches an area of the NTZ (e.g., whether the UE is in the NTZ, whether the UE enters a guard area of the NTZ). In response to determining that the UE approaches the area of the NTZ, the UE may determine whether at least one of the one or more first capabilities are restricted due to the NTZ (e.g., the at least one of the one or more first capabilities belongs to one or more restricted capabilities (and / or the one or more restricted frequencies)).

[0400] In an example, the UE may determine that the at least one of the one or more first capabilities are restricted due to the NTZ. Based on the determining that the at least one of the one or more first capabilities are restricted due to the NTZ, the UE may perform deregistration procedure. For example, performing the deregistration procedure may be sending a deregistration request comprising a cause value. For example, the cause value may indicate that the UE is in (or enters) the area of the NTZ and / or that one or more capabilities of the UE is restricted (e.g., due to the NTZ).

[0401] In an example, the UE may determine that the at least one of the one or more first capabilities are restricted due to the NTZ. Based on the determining that the at least one of the one or more first capabilities are restricted due to the NTZ, the UE may perform registration procedure. For example, performing the registration procedure may be sending a registration request comprising an indication that radio capability of the UE needs updating due to the NTZ (e.g., by entering the NTZ). For example, a type value of the registration request message may indicate that the UE is in (or enters) the area of the NTZ and / or that one or more capabilities of the UE is restricted (e.g., due to the NTZ).

[0402] In an example, the UE may determine that the at least one of the one or more first capabilities are restricted due to the NTZ. Based on the determining that the at least one of the one or more first capabilities are restricted due to the NTZ, the UE may send a message comprising one or more second capabilities of the UE and / or an indication of restriction, due to the NTZ. The one or more second capabilities of the UE may not comprise one or more capabilities of the UE restricted due to the NTZ. For example, the one or more capabilities of the UE restricted due to the NTZ may be one or more capabilities of the UE not allowed to use (or transmit) inside the NTZ. The one or more capabilities of the UE not allowed inside the NTZ may indicate one or more restricted frequencies (and / or one or more operating bands) not allowed in the NTZ. For example, the one or more second capabilities of the UE may be the one or more first capabilities excluding the one or more capabilities restricted due to the NTZ. Based on the one or more second capabilities of the UE, based on that the UE is inside the NTZ, based on that the one or more capabilities of the UE due to the NTZ, the UE may transmit an uplink signal via the uplink resource. The uplink resource may comprise one or more frequencies supported by the one or more capabilities of the UE, may not comprises the one or more frequencies restricted due to the NTZ. For example, theindication of restriction may indicate at least one of that one or more capabilities (e.g., one or more frequencies, one or more operating bands, one or more combination of the one or more operating bands) are restricted, that one or more capabilities (e.g., one or more frequencies, one or more operating bands, one or more combination of the one or more operating bands) are allowed (e.g., not restricted, preferred), due to the NTZ, and / or due to the UE entering the NTZ.

[0403] In an example, the UE may not determine that the at least one of the one or more first capabilities are restricted due to the NTZ. Based on not determining that the at least one of the one or more first capabilities are restricted due to the NTZ, the UE may transmit an uplink signal via the uplink resource. The uplink resource may comprise one or more frequencies supported by the one or more capabilities of the UE.

[0404] FIG. 25 illustrates an example as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0405] In an example, the UE may receive one or more first messages and / or one or more configuration messages. For example, the one or more first messages may indicate one or more restrictions (e.g., the first information and / or the second information) associated with the NTZ. For example, the one or more configuration messages may indicate one or more parameters (e.g., the first parameter, the second parameter, the third parameter) associated with the NTZ. The one or more parameters may indicate one or more conditions. The one or more conditions may be associated with one or more condition when the UE sends one or more first reporting messages, in association with the NTZ.

[0406] In an example, the UE may determine whether at least one of the one or more conditions are met. For example, the at least one condition of the one or more conditions may be that the UE enters (or is in) an area. For example, the area may be one of the one or more first areas (e.g., area where transmission using one or more restricted frequency is not allowed) and / or one of the one or more third areas (e.g., one or more guard areas of the NTZ).

[0407] In an example, if the UE determines that the one or more conditions are not met, the UE may not send any update (and / or the one or more first reporting messages).

[0408] In an example, if the UE determines that at least one of the one or more conditions is met, the UE may send one or more messages indicating unavailability of the UE, due to entering the area and / or due to restriction caused by the NTZ For example, the one or more messages may comprise a cause of the unavailability. For example, the cause may indicate that the UE enters the area of the NTZ, that the one or more supported frequencies of the UE may be restricted due to the NTZ, that the UE is not available due to the NTZ, and / or the like. For example, the one or more messages may indicate current location of the UE. For example, the one or more messages may indicate until when the UE is not available due to the NTZ, when the UE may be available again, when the UE moves out of the NTZ, and / or the like.

[0409] In an example, the UE may determine whether the UE is inside the NTZ (e.g., the one or more first areas) or not. For example, if the UE determines that the UE is inside the NTZ, the UE may not send a signal. For example, if the UE determines that the UE is inside the NTZ, the UE may not send a signal using at least one of the one or more restricted frequencies. For example, if the UE determines that the UE is inside the NTZ, the UE may send a signal using one or more frequencies different from the one or more restricted frequencies.

[0410] In an example, the UE may determine whether the UE is inside the NTZ (e.g., the one or more first areas) or not. For example, if the UE determines that the UE is not inside the NTZ, the UE may send a signal. For example, if the UE determines that the UE is not inside the NTZ, the UE may send a signal using at least one of the one or more restricted frequencies. For example, if the UE determines that the UE is not inside the NTZ, the UE may determine whether the one or more conditions are met. For example, if one or more third conditions of the one or more conditions are not met (e.g., the UE is out of the one or more first areas, the UE is in the one or more third areas, and / or the UE is out of the one or more third areas, and / or the UE is in the one or more second areas), and / or if one or more fourth conditions (e.g., a configured time period expires (elapsed) since the UE moves out of the one or more first (or third) areas), the UE may send one or more second messages indicating availability of the UE, due to exiting the NTZ and / or due to alleviation (e.g., removal) of restriction caused by the NTZ. For example, the one or more s...

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. A method comprising: sending, by a wireless device to a base station, a first message indicating one or more frequency bands supported by the wireless device; sending, by the wireless device, a capability information indicating support for no transmission zone (NTZ) information, wherein transmission via one or more restricted frequency bands is not allowed in the NTZ; receiving, by the wireless device from an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) application server, an NTZ policy container comprising: a first parameter indicating one or more areas associated with the NTZ; a second parameter indicating one or more first restricted frequency bands in the NTZ; and an NTZ reporting parameter indicating whether the wireless device is configured to send a report message when approaching the NTZ; determining, by the wireless device and based on the NTZ policy container, that the wireless device approaches an area of the one or more areas; and sending, by the wireless device and based on the NTZ policy container, a first report message comprising: an indication that the wireless device approaches the NTZ; a location of the wireless device approaching the NTZ; and an estimated time when the wireless device exits the NTZ.

2. A method comprising: receiving, by a wireless device, a message comprising a no transmission zone (NTZ) reporting parameter indicating whether the wireless device is configured to send a report message when approaching the NTZ; and sending, by the wireless device and based on the message, a first report message comprising: an indication that the wireless device approaches the NTZ; a location of the wireless device approaching the NTZ; and an estimated time when the wireless device exits the NTZ.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising sending, by the wireless device to a base station, a first message indicating one or more frequency bands supported by the wireless device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more frequency bands comprises at least one of one or more restricted frequency bands.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein transmission via the one or more restricted frequency bands is not allowed in the NTZ.

6. The method of one of claims 4 to 5, wherein transmission via one or more non-restricted frequency bands is allowed in the NTZ.

7. The method of one of claims 4 to 6, wherein the message further comprises: a first parameter indicating one or more areas of the NTZ; and a second parameter indicating the one or more restricted frequency bands in the NTZ.

8. The method of one of claims 2 to 7, further comprising sending, by the wireless device to an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) application server, a capability information indicating support for the NTZ information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the capability information further comprises one or more frequency band combinations.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more frequency band combinations excludes one or more restricted frequency band combinations.11 . The method of one of claims 2 to 10, wherein the message comprises a first NTZ information.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first NTZ information comprises an NTZ policy container.

13. The method of one of claims 2 to 12, wherein the wireless device receives the message from an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) application server.

14. The method of one of claims 2 to 13, further comprising determining, by the wireless device and based on the message and on a current location of the wireless device, that the wireless device approaches an area of one or more areas of the NTZ.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein determining that the wireless device approaches the area of the one or more areas comprises at least one of: determining that the wireless is expected to enter the area of the one or more areas; determining that the wireless device enters a border of the one or more areas; or determining that the wireless device is near the one or more areas.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the wireless device sends the first report message based on at least one of: the determining that the wireless device approaches the area; or the message indicating that the wireless device is configured to send the report message.

17. The method of one of claims 2 to 16, wherein the first report message further comprises at least one of: an indication of capability update; an indication of capability update is needed;one or more frequency bands restricted due to the NTZ; one or more second capability parameters allowed to be used while the wireless device is in the NTZ; one or more second capability parameters excluding one or more third capabilities associated with the one or more frequency bands; or a cause value associated with the NTZ.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the indication of capability update indicates that a radio capability of the wireless device needs updating.

19. The method of one of claims 2 to 18, wherein the first report message further comprises one or more time information indicating at least one of: a first time when the wireless device approaches the NTZ; or a second time when the wireless device exits the NTZ.

20. The method of one of claims 2 to 19, wherein the wireless device sends the first report message, based on determining whether the wireless device approaches the NTZ or whether the wireless device exits the NTZ.21 . The method of one of claims 2 to 20, wherein the first report message further comprises one or more location information indicating at least one of: a first location where the wireless device sends the first report message; a second location where the wireless device approaches the NTZ; or a third location where the wireless device exits the NTZ.

22. The method of one of claims 2 to 21 , wherein the wireless device determines, based on guard area information of a guard area, at least one of: that the wireless device is in the NTZ; that the wireless device approaches the NTZ; that the wireless device enters the NTZ; or that the wireless device exits the NTZ.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the wireless device determines that the wireless device approaches the NTZ based on the wireless device moving into the guard area from a non-NTZ area.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein one or more configuration parameters comprises at least one of: information of the guard area; or information of a value for a guard timer.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising sending, by the wireless device, one or more third messages indicating at least one of exiting or entering of the NTZ after expiration of the guard timer.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the wireless device starts the guard timer in response to entering the guard area or in response to exiting the NTZ.

27. The method of one of claims 2 to 26, wherein the first report message comprises: an information element identifier indicating unavailability of the wireless device; and a type information set to a first value indicating that the wireless device is unavailable due to entering the NTZ.

28. The method of one of claims 2 to 27, wherein the wireless device sends the first report message based on that the wireless device is configured to send the first report message based on entering the NTZ or exiting the NTZ.

29. A method comprising: sending, by a wireless device, one or more capability parameters indicating: one or more frequencies supported by the wireless device; and support of no transmission zone (NTZ), wherein transmission by the wireless device is restricted in the NTZ; receiving, by the wireless device, a request message comprising: a configuration parameter indicating one or more areas associated with the NTZ; and an NTZ reporting configuration; determining, by the wireless device, that the wireless device approaches an area of the one or more areas; and sending, by the wireless device and based on the determining, a third message indicating at least one of: the wireless device approaching the NTZ; a location of the wireless device; and an estimated time when the wireless device exits the NTZ.

30. A method comprising: sending, by a wireless device, one or more third messages indicating at least one of: the wireless device approaching no transmission zone (NTZ); a location of the wireless device; and an estimated time when the wireless device exits the NTZ.31 . The method of claim 30, further comprising sending by the wireless device, one or more capability parameters indicating: one or more frequencies supported by the wireless device; and support of no transmission zone (NTZ), wherein transmission by the wireless device is restricted in the NTZ.

32. The method of one of claims 30 to 31 , further comprising receiving by the wireless device, a request message comprising: a configuration parameter indicating one or more areas associated with the NTZ; and an NTZ reporting configuration.

33. The method of one of claims 30 to 32, further comprising determining by the wireless device, that the wireless device approaches an area of one or more areas of the NTZ.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the wireless device sends the one or more third messages based on the determining.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the request message further comprises one or more configuration parameters indicating at least one of: one or more second frequency bands; the one or more areas associated with the NTZ; or a configuration parameter indicating whether the wireless device is configured to send the one or more third messages based on at least one of a current location of the wireless device and the one or more areas associated with the NTZ.

36. The method of one of claims 30 to 35, wherein the one or more third messages further comprise at least one of: an indication of capability update; an indication of capability update is needed; one or more frequency bands restricted due to the NTZ; one or more second capability parameters allowed to be used while the wireless device is in the NTZ; one or more second capability parameters excluding one or more third capabilities associated with the one or more frequency bands; or a cause value associated with the NTZ.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the indication of capability update indicates that a radio capability of the wireless device needs update.

38. The method of one of claims 30 to 37, wherein the one or more third messages further comprise one or more time information indicating, at least one of a first time when the wireless device approaches the NTZ, a second time when the wireless device exits the NTZ.

39. The method of one of claims 30 to 38, wherein the wireless device sends the one or more third messages, based on determining whether the wireless device approaches the NTZ or whether the wireless device exits the NTZ.

40. The method of one of claims 30 to 39, wherein the one or more third messages further comprise one or more location information indicating, at least one of a first location where the wireless device sends the one or more third messages, a second location where the wireless device approaches the NTZ, a third location where the wireless device exits the NTZ.41 . The method of one of claims 30 to 40, wherein the wireless device determines, based on guard area information of a guard area, at least one of that the wireless device is in the NTZ, that the wireless device approaches the NTZ, that the wireless device enters the NTZ, that the wireless device exits the NTZ.

42. The method of claim 41 , wherein the wireless device determines that the wireless device approaches the NTZ, when the wireless device moves into the guard area from a non-NTZ area.

43. The method of claim 41 , wherein one or more configuration parameters comprises at least one of information of the guard area, information of a value for a guard timer.

44. The method of claim 43, further comprising sending by the wireless device one or more third messages indicating at least one of exiting or entering of the NTZ after expiration of the guard timer.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the wireless device starts the guard timer in response to entering the guard area or in response to exiting the NTZ.

46. The method of one of claims 30 to 45, wherein the one or more third messages comprise an information element identifier indicating unavailability of the wireless device, and a type information set to a first value indicating that the wireless device is unavailable due to entering the NTZ.

47. The method of one of claims 30 to 46, wherein the one or more third messages comprise: an information element identifier indicating unavailability of the wireless device; and a type information set to a first value indicating that the wireless device is unavailable due to entering the NTZ.

48. The method of one of claims 30 to 47, wherein the wireless device sends the first report message based on that the wireless device is configured to send the first report message based on entering the NTZ or exiting the NTZ.

49. A wireless device comprising one or more processors and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the wireless device to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 48.

50. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a wireless device, cause the wireless device to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 48.

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